| Athena of the Month: Rashika Kaushik By: Gesina A. Phillips The life of a high school senior can be very busy, especially when one throws college applications into the mix. But sixteen-year-old Rashika Kaushik keeps her schedule full, balancing the challenges of a college- bound student and having fun along the way. Rashika is a senior at Padua Academy in Wilmington, Delaware. Although she attends high school in Delaware, she lives in New Jersey, which means she is no stranger to a long commute. Among other things, Rashika likes the color blue and catchy music, is obsessed with Saturday Night Live (which she considers to be “not just a show, but a way of life”) and was born in India. She actually visited India over the summer to attend her cousin’s wedding and enthusiastically describes the trip as “super awesome.” Rashika keeps herself busy outside of academics with several other activities. She is the chief interviewer at her school paper, the Padua Antonian. Rashika is also a member of the Padua Model UN team, with which she is “kind of obsessed.” As a member of the team, she represents different nations in mock Model United Nations conferences that occur every few weeks; she even recently won an award a recent competition. To top it all off, this girl is a force to be reckoned with, as she has earned a second degree black belt in karate. Although she has recently completed her college search (“thankfully!”), Rashika is still working on the remainder of her college plans. She started out earlier this year like most teenagers faced with the prospect of applying to college: completely lost. “It felt like everyone already knew what they wanted to do, so obviously I was overwhelmed,” she says. Until recently, Rashika had no idea where she wanted to go to school, or even what she might like to study. She originally planned to pursue a degree in engineering, but says, “I soon realized that I would rather eat my foot than sit at a desk the whole day staring at a computer screen.” This self- described people person needed to find a different area of study. Over the summer, Rashika volunteered at Taylor Hospital, and found a new and unexpected direction of study. She started out volunteering to push the candy cart and help in the GI and Physical Therapy wards of the hospital but also ended up shadowing doctors and nurses around the hospital. During the course of her observations of medical professionals, Rashika took a particular interest in anesthesia and surgery. After this volunteering experience, she decided that she would like to go to school for nursing, and eventually become qualified as a Nurse Anesthetist. This motivated young woman is ready to go out and make a difference and next fall she will enter college with a plan of action. Until then, she’s waiting to hear back from colleges and hopefully continue to win awards for Model UN! |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |