M-W's 2005 valedictorian: Vedant Misra

CENTRAL VALLEY-Vedant Misra plans to attend Columbia University as a Rabi Scholar, which is a student who demonstrates exceptional promise in the sciences. Vedant has worked at Columbia University's particle physics laboratory conducting research on neutrino detection. He was recently selected as an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist, and he won second place at the state-level Junior Science and Humanities Symposium for his work in physics. Vedant is a Coca Cola scholar. He has won several national awards for Indian Classical vocals, and was selected as the regional Good Citizen by the DAR. He attained third place in New York State in the selection of delegates for the United States Senate Youth Program. He is a member of the state-wide executive board of the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership alumni committee, and he has perfect SAT I scores. He was also recently selected as a member of one of USA Today's 2005 High School All-Star Academic Teams. Vedant is Student Council Vice President and has been Vice President of his class for the past two years. He is also co-founder of the Astronomy Club, Co-Captain of the Math Team, Vice President and MVP of the Academic Team, a member of EXPAND, and he competed in Odyssey of the Mind in high school for three years. Vedant is the student tri-chair of the Building Leadership Committee and plays on the Varsity Tennis Team. Vedant has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. He composes original music, and runs his own computer programming business.