Saubhagya Vardhan

Unlike his friends who are preparing for their class XI exams, Lucknow-based Saubhagya Vardhan, a student of Noida’s National Institute of Open Schooling, expects to be attending classes at Stanford University, USA, this autumn. By virtue of his excellent grades” the highest grade in four of five subjects” in the AP (Advanced Placement) exam written in May 2013, Saubhagya walked away a winner with a œdirect ticket into the bachelor of applied sciences programme of the globally top-ranked university.

Early last year Saubhagya, a student of Lucknow’s top-rated City Montessori School (CMS), Gomti Nagar, cleared the class X CISCE (Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations) exam with flying colours, averaging 96 percent.

The only child of Sabharaj Singh, superintendent of police, and his lawyer wife Rashmi, this science genius attributes his near perfect scores in physics, chemistry and maths in the AP exam to the extraordinary encouragement he received from his parents and science and maths teachers Tripti Saxena and Brijeh at CMS. My parents never denied me any reading and study materials and my science teachers at CMS gave me full liberty to access the science labs for experimentation, says Saubhagya, who was a finalist in the online Google science fair 2012 competition. My online project guide and mentor Prof. O Reise of the University of Regensberg, Germany, recommended me to the physics department of Stanford University, he discloses.

True to form, this clear-headed youngster has already mapped out his future. After completing my bachelors in applied sciences, I intend getting a Masters in general physics and mechanical engineering and press on for a doctorate. I need to be highly knowledgeable to invent things and find solutions for making this world a better place, he says.

Wind beneath your wings!

Apoorv Srivastava (Lucknow)