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New York Post
06-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Gee, whizzes! Nine brainiacs from NYC high school reap total of nearly $11M in college scholarship money
They're the brainiacs of The Bronx. Nine newly minted graduates of Cardinal Spellman Catholic high school are now in the 'Millionaire's Club'' — raking in a whopping total nearly $11 million in scholarship money. The teen geniuses were each awarded more than $1 million in merit-based grants — much of it from a plethora of prestigious schools, including Ivy Leagues — for a staggering total of $10,799,476. 3 Cardinal Spellman high-school students (clockwise from top left) Shakira Simo, Robert Hernandez, Gabrielle Henriques, Nina Gonzales, Akua Amponsah, Rehema Ojwang and Kaylynn Little beam after reaping a total of nearly $11 million in college scholarship money this year. Stephen Yang 'Somebody actually called and argued with me that that was impossible,' said Dierdre Gibbons, the director of admissions at Spellman. Rehema Ojwang, one of the amazing nine, said, 'It kind of shows people that are just coming up and are about to find a college and are looking into their futures that this is really doable. 'I'm not a genius, and I was born and raised in The Bronx,' said the super student, who plans to study politics at Princeton University in the fall. 'I'm a first-generation American, my parents are immigrants. 'What you have to do is just stay passionate in the things that you do — you don't have to start a business, and you don't have to start a nonprofit, you don't have to go to these heights. I think you just have to make sure that you are putting effort into the things that you like doing.' Another 'Millionaire's Club' member, Shakira Simo, said she is looking forward to studying public policy at Brown University. 'I think it's really inspiring to accomplish something so big,' she said. 'It's not something I really would have imagined when I was a freshman, sophomore or even junior. I think just having grit and determination, persistence really gets you to that point.' 3 The brainiacs applied to an average of 16 schools each. Stephen Yang Joining Simo and Ojwang in the 'Millionaire's Club' are Alyssa Rill, Gabrielle Henriques, Rehema Ojwang, Robert Hernadez, Akua Amponsah, Nina Gonzalez, Saniya Smith and Kaylyn Little. All of the stellar students filed countless school and scholarship applications in the past few months in addition to wrapping up their senior year and making time to enjoy their final moments as classmates. In addition to scoring plenty of university scholarships, the students won a significant portion of the money from outside groups, too. They spent countless hours writing essays for each individual scholarship, many of which offered amounts as relatively low as $1,000. The kids aren't just book-smart, either. Henriques, for example, sewed her own prom dress, while Hernandez was a major player in the school's theater program. 3 The group is not only academically stellar but stand out in other ways, too. Stephen Yang The kids cast a wide net to reach their incredible eight-figure total, applying to an average of 16 different universities. Hernandez topped his friends, applying to 20 different schools. 'I want to be the greatest actor ever. Anything with the musical theater program, I'm jumping on,' he explained. Some of the impressive schools the students are attending next year include Princeton University and Marist College, as well as SUNY Stonybrook and Lehman College. The teens said the college application process pushed them out of their comfort zones and involved some of them calling universities and asking for additional money on top of their scholarships. Spellman has proudly flaunted its record-breaking total on its social-media channels.
Time of India
31-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
Can you forget a language you grew up with?
I never thought multilinguality—this gift, this badge I wore so casually—could turn into something like guilt. Or grief. Or both. I've always floated between English, Hindi, and Marathi. Like air, water, and soil—each one elemental in its own right. I didn't think about it much. These were just languages I knew. That I spoke. That I lived in. Until one day, I started tripping on words I've always known, like stumbling on a flat street you've walked a hundred times. You don't see it coming. And suddenly, you're not walking—you're falling. It's a strange ache, forgetting familiar things. Searching for the right word and finding only static. My mouth moving slower than my thoughts. My thoughts moving slower than memory. It's frustrating. Disheartening. Upsetting in ways I didn't know language could be. Sometimes I envy the monolinguals. I really do. You only need to be excellent at one language. One way to speak. One set of books. One cultural context. One kind of milk packet. Even your coffee bag comes with instructions tailored to you. No switching. No code-mixing. No fumbling. No forgetting. Sometimes I think: maybe it's better to have a language as a barrier than a language that becomes a stutter. Back at Columbia Business School, it was all English all the time. I didn't have a choice, really. Most of my Indian friends weren't from Maharashtra or North India—they didn't speak Marathi or Hindi. They spoke Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada—beautiful languages that felt like distant cousins. And so I stuck to English. Clung to it, even. Like it was the only thing holding me up. There was this one pharmacy store on 125th Street, run by a Telugu family—stocked with snacks, paracetamol, canned beans, cleaning spray, and nostalgia. My friend's relatives owned it. We went there often. Telugu songs playing in the background like a soundtrack I never asked for but eventually grew to love. I picked up words. Phrases. Rhythms. I tried. I gave myself credit for that. But a few lyrical lines aren't fluency. They're just echoes. And speaking of echoes: yes, Columbia. But not the university. Let's be clear. I was at Columbia Business School—the other Columbia. A 15-minute walk from the famed Morningside Heights campus. Which, in the elite ecosystem of Ivy Leagues, might as well be a lifetime away. We weren't the 'real' Columbia, not in the eyes of the undergrads with their tote bags and blue hoodies. But that's the thing, right? This obsession with being the 'real one.' The original. The authentic. It happens everywhere. Even sweet shops in India slap on 'The Real XYZ' because the copycats moved in next door. It's all so performative. This scramble for verification. And yet, none of it matters. Not really. Life doesn't issue blue ticks after you die. Back to English. My English has always been good—until I got bored of it. Or maybe burnt out by it. Or maybe I just woke up one day and realised I didn't want to be speaking like everyone else. Tom, Dick, and Harry have colonised English anyway. Learning Punjabi and German changed everything. Punjabi, especially. It's not just a language anymore. It's how I argue. How I cook. How I love. At home, it's been over a year now—Punjabi is my primary language. And cooking? Don't even get me started. Everyone thought I hated cooking. I didn't. I just never had the right space. Never had the emotional safety to enjoy it. These days I find myself making midnight salads with Mumbai-style twists. I blend spice the way I blend syllables now: with flair. With feeling. And Hindi? It's my go-to when everything else falters. English? Honestly, I could leave it behind. Dump it like an old winter coat that doesn't fit anymore. I don't need to sound like Shashi Tharoor or Sudha Murthy. I just want to sound like myself. And that self is changing. Morphing. Choosing. Now, as I pursue my PhD at the University of Zürich, German is the language of nuance, of lecture notes, of inside jokes I don't always understand. My classmates laugh on WhatsApp, and I smile along, pretending. But Google Translate isn't a real friend. It's a crutch. And you can't dance with a crutch. So yeah—my Hindi is rusty. My English stumbles. My Marathi hides behind curtains. My Punjabi is vibrant. My German is clumsy. My mouth is always catching up to my brain, and my brain is always adjusting. But here's the thing: I would rather explain what chaunk is in Punjabi than try to impress anyone in English. I would rather read Hermann Hesse in his mother tongue than sit through another email chain about 'synergies.' So yes, I'm choosing. Choosing imperfection. Choosing warmth. Choosing complexity. Choosing regional over universal. Spices over syntax. Depth over fluency. And I think that's the most fluent I've ever felt. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
CBS News
02-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
18-year-old from Long Island creates Cal AI calorie counting app worth millions
An 18-year-old high school senior on Long Island is the founder and CEO of an artificial intelligence-based calorie counting app that's now worth millions. Zachary Yadegari said all he needed to get started was a computer and coding skills. "Cal AI is an app where you track the calories you are eating just by taking a picture of your food," Yadegari said. Cal AI has over five million downloads. He started the building the app at Roslyn High School. "My whole life, I've grown up on all this new technology," Yadegari said. Family handout Teachers say he developed his coding skills as a 7-year-old prodigy. By age 10, he was leading his classmates in coding. At 12, he was winning hackathons against college kids, and published his first app, Speed Soccer. At 14, his website Totally Science launched, and later sold for six figures. HIs latest creation is Cal AI. It takes a team of 17 employees across four continents and several time zones, keeping his siblings and parents awake. "Late at night, he's actually conducting business. I shrug and go back to bed," his mother Debi Yadegari said. Cal AI project yearly revenue at $30 million. Zach Yadegari demonstrates the Cal AI app by taking a snapshot of his lunch. CBS News New York Yadegari demonstrated the app by taking a picture of his sushi lunch, which the app calculated at 400 calories and identified the rice, salmon, avocado and spicy mayo involved. The app has a 90% accuracy rate. Billionaire tech giants like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs were all college dropouts. But Yadegari, already a millionaire, wants to go to college. So why don't colleges want him? "Despite my 4.0 GPA and 34 ACT, I was rejected from all the top schools I applied to. All of the Ivy Leagues, and then Stanford," Yadegari said. Yadegari thinks colleges put applicants in boxes with no way to value entrepreneurial accomplishments. His friends say he remains humble. "I think the most grounding is that I still go to classes and still have to raise my hand to go to the bathroom," he said. "I'm still a normal high schooler. I'm going to prom in a couple of months."
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
University leaders unite to oppose Trump higher education policies
Dozens of university leaders signed a statement opposing the tactics used by President Trump to influence schools, calling for more 'constructive engagement.' 'We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,' reads the statement, signed by dozens of colleges and universities. 'However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding,' it added. The statement was signed by a variety of schools, including Ivy Leagues, state schools, community colleges and technical institutions. It comes after the Trump administration has taken millions in funding from multiple universities over alleged inaction on antisemitism. The biggest fight is now with Harvard University, which rejected the Trump administration's demands to change its policies and lost more than $2 billion in federal funding. Harvard sued over the loss in funding on Monday. 'The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic,' the statement concluded. Senate faculties at the Big Ten universities are looking to pass resolutions that urge schools to work together to stand up to the Trump administration. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
University leaders unite to oppose Trump higher education policies
Dozens of university leaders signed a statement opposing the tactics used by President Trump to influence schools, calling for more 'constructive engagement.' 'We are open to constructive reform and do not oppose legitimate government oversight,' reads the statement, signed by dozens of colleges and universities. 'However, we must oppose undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses. We will always seek effective and fair financial practices, but we must reject the coercive use of public research funding,' it added. The statement was signed by a variety of schools including Ivy Leagues, state schools, community colleges and technical institutions. It comes after the Trump administration has taken millions in funding from multiple universities over alleged inaction on antisemitism. The biggest fight is now with Harvard, which rejected the Trump administration's demands to change its policies and lost more than $2 billion in federal funding. Harvard sue d over the loss in funding on Monday. 'The price of abridging the defining freedoms of American higher education will be paid by our students and our society. On behalf of our current and future students, and all who work at and benefit from our institutions, we call for constructive engagement that improves our institutions and serves our republic,' the statement concluded. Senate faculties at the Big Ten universities are looking to pass resolutions that urges schools to work together to stand up to the Trump administration.
