Peters Township High School junior aces ACT, SAT
The double eagle may or may not be the golf equivalent, but Shruthi Shivkumar definitely doubled down on her tests for college admissions.
The Peters Township High School junior achieved perfect scores on her ACT and SAT exams. And as an added bonus, each came on her first try.
“To ace both, it’s a rare thing, and it’s certainly exceptional,” her principal, Lori Pavlik, said. “I think it’s evident that she’s on a straight path to success. I don’t think there’s anything that will get in her way.”
The 16-year-old daughter of Shivkumar Anumalachetty and Narmada Sriraman received the good news around the time she was notified of another stellar accomplishment: She tied for second place in the international Creative Minds Essay Contest by Imagine magazine, published by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
Her essay’s topic is suitably cerebral for someone with perfect ACT and SAT scores: epigenetics, which she learned about last year in advanced placement biology as it pertains to deoxyribonucleic acid, the stuff that carries our genetic codes.
“Our DNA is stagnant throughout our lives, and the actual material can’t really change,” Shruthi explained to a sufficiently befuddled journalist. “Epigenetics is basically the study of how environmental effects and daily life effects can change the expression of your genes, because there are some mechanisms that can make certain parts of your DNA be expressed more or expressed less.”
Her putting such a subject to prose earned high praise from the contest’s judge, cartoonist, essayist and book author Tim Kreider.
“‘Epigenetics’ is an essay after my own heart, the kind I like to write myself,” he wrote. “I admire its ambition; its intellectual rigor; its somber, reflective tone; and the glimpse it afforded me into the angst and grievances of a new generation.”
Rather than bask in her accomplishments, Shruthi is working on her next writing project: meeting the Jan. 6 deadline for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers. She earned regional medals in the competition this year.
“Ever since I was in first or second grade, I’ve just loved writing stories,” she said. “I used to write little books made out of construction paper and notebook paper.”
These days, she volunteers to help impart her love for the craft as a tutor to fellow students in the high school’s writing lab.
“She’s very academically driven, but she’s also just a really kindhearted young lady,” Pavlik said. “Shruthi is one of those students who represents somebody who’s taken good advantage of all the different opportunities that she’s had. She has a good work ethic, and she’s had a lot of great classes. That’s helped her along the way.”
Speaking of classes, Shruthi has five advanced-placement offerings in her schedule: Calculus AB, statistics, language, chemistry, and government and politics.
“Usually, I have a favorite. But for some reason, there’s something this year about every class that I like,” she said, diplomatically, before adding: “I definitely like language a lot, because I get to write all the time.”
As for her seemingly limitless future, Shruthi plans as an undergraduate to study an interdisciplinary science, such as biomedical engineering or neuroscience. And – no surprise! – she wants to minor in creative writing.
“I like it so much,” she said, “I don’t think I’d be able to just major in a core science and not write.”
The readers of the world should be grateful.