Vani Senthil

High School Graduation Year: 2019
Year First Awarded the Carson Scholarship: 2018
Sponsored by: Costco Wholesale Corporation

Vani is a freshman studying Cell and Molecular Biology at Augusta University. Vani is a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal which taught her how to take risks, develop passions, and utilize her potential. Vani completed over 400 hours of voluntary service by launching her own volunteer tutoring class, volunteering at the hospital, and assisting with the Summer Reading Program. A few years ago, Vani joined the Lilburn Tamil School, a group dedicated to teaching Tamil, an Indian language, to young Indians who have grown up in America. Vani saw the opportunity to cultivate this next generation of American-born Indians by instilling in them her genuine passions for education. Her class began with five students but quickly grew to over twenty just through recommendations. It was an incredible learning experience for everyone involved, making it what Vani considers her most meaningful accomplishment.

The summer after her junior year in high school, Vani had the invaluable opportunity to complete a summer research internship at Georgia State University. Her lab was researching the extremely aggressive triple-negative breast cancer, which currently has no targeted therapies. Vani’s biggest takeaway from this experience is that she now has an active role in curing cancer, and in the future, will be able to expand on that role.