On behalf of the ZAGBA Board and ZAGBA Education Committee, we would like to follow up with an email on the awards for High School Students that were presented at the ZAGBA Gahambar event on October 15th. A special thanks to Zarius Dubash who took us to the digital age by streamlining the forms and making it easy for the applicants to apply online. We also appreciate the effort by Jamshed Kapadia who invests the Education Corpus funds on behalf of ZAGBA so we can allocate the money for the scholarship.
For 2022, we received five applications with excellent academic, community service and extracurricular achievements.
Student Recognition Awards
Jehan Antia – George Washington UniversityJehan’s extracurricular activities included being captain of the tennis varsity team in senior year and participation in Nordic skiing for 4 years. His efforts to dedicate and commit to social justice issues for marginalized communities is commendable and is an inspiration to us all. Additionally, we thank him for volunteering his service to organize for the Zoroastrian youth forum earlier this year.
Xerxis Palsetia- University of Wisconsin Xerxis’ academic achievements, including high honors across eight AP courses, his school extracurricular activities, and community service at the soup kitchen and coding for community were all highlights of his strong application.
Bakhtavar Sidhwa – University of New Hampshire Bakhtavar’s dedication to community service tutoring middle schoolers and helping to settle underprivileged families into their new homes is commendable. We were particularly impressed with her voluntary efforts in lending a hand to clean the Parel Agiary and for volunteering at the Nowroze Baug food drive during her visit to India. Academic Excellence Award Persis Engineer – University of VirginiaAs the valedictorian of her Woburn High School graduating class, Persis has proven her excellence in academic pursuits, not to mention her extensive list of achievements and experiences through academic and extracurricular activities. Persis was a Tanner Tutor for a High School Student in Chemistry. She also helped a 1st Grade student who fell behind during hybrid learning.
Outstanding High School Student Award
Myra Bhathena – Harvard University Myra’s stellar academic achievements and awards including outstanding extracurricular activities as co-captain of the Varsity Track and Field Team where she was the school record holder for 55m hurdles, being co-captain of the Varsity Soccer team, and participation in the Comedy Improv Club truly stand out.
Beyond these achievements, what impressed us the most was all her community service projects. One that deserves special kudos is the creation & execution of the Connect Against COVID Program where she collected, refurbished and delivered over 100 donated mobile devices to hospitals, assisted care facilities, etc. to enable people to connect with loved ones during COVID-19. For this service, Myra was interviewed and featured on TV, local newspapers and in the FEZANA Journal.
Congratulations to all the excellent students. Keep chasing your dreams! We sincerely hope that your perseverance and passion will lead to many successes in life.