They have bags packed for dream colleges

BENGALURU: Aniruddha Voruganti of National Public School (NPS), Koramangala, who has secured 97.2% (486) in CBSE class XII exams, not only knows what he wants to do next, but has also already prepared the roadmap. The highest scorer in the science stream in his school has cleared four stages of interview to pursue medicine at Oxford University from October. He is one among six international students selected for the course in Oxford.
But before that, he is happy that he would be able to commit six months to his dream project: Towards A Green Education (TAGE), an organisation that aims to provide free notebooks and stationery to underprivileged rural children and help spread the message of `save paper and reduce its wastage'.

"I am glad I would be able to spend time on TAGE. We collect recyclable papers from schools and communities and use the funds generated from its recycling to buy stationery for needy children. We remove blank sheets from our old note books and students of my school bind them into new sets of notebooks for these children," said Aniruddha who is also a guitarist and a table tennis player. He added: "During the past two years, TAGE collected over 6,000 kg of used paper, about 150,000 sheets of blank paper, and made 800 handmade notebooks. TAGE has adopted six government schools in collaboration with Akshara Foundation, and has distributed over 450 stationery sets."

Similarly, Gaurang Sriraman of NPS Indiranagar, who has secured 97.4%, is all set to join the Indian Institute of Science as he prefers pure science to engineering. Gaurang, the highest scorer in his school, said, "Our teachers were extremely helpful and would often clear our doubts even through WhatsApp. I qualified for Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana in Class XI with a rank of 222. I have already received the admission letter from IISc. I am into coding and our team won the HP code wars this year."

Another student who has scored 97.4% like him is Mehak Arora of NPS Rajajinagar. Mehak says she wants to do computer science engineering from NIT.

Meanwhile, Vishnu N Kaushik, of Delhi Public School (DPS), East, who secured 96.6% is now spending his last days in Bengaluru with friends and family as he has secured a seat for aerospace engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He will leave for the US in August. "I am glad that I will study my favourite subject in Georgia and will carry my basketball and violin. I used to play the violin to stay calm during exams," he said.

Aishwariya MR, commerce topper from DPS North with 95.2%, Ridhi Joshi, Humanities topper from the same school with 94.6%, and Mayank Jain, Commerce topper from DPS-East, are all set to pursue law. While Aishwariya will soon begin her law classes in MS Ramaiah Institute of Law, Ridhi and Mayank are waiting for the law entrance exam results.

While Sanjana B Acharya, the highest humanities scorer from DPS-East with 94.6%, is preparing to study developmental science and work for the society, Prerna Hiriyiur of Sri Kumarans Children's Home, who secured 98.6% in commerce, wants to higher studies in economics.