Aditta

“Every once in a while,” the college counselor wrote, “in all the chaos of having to help over 300 students navigate college admissions I am fortunate enough to meet amazing young people. Aditta is one of those students.”

Aditta arrived at his large New York City high school in the middle of his junior year. He had come from Bangladesh, and school policy limited the difficulty of classes that he could take.  The next year he was taking the school’s most challenging courses. Now in the top 5 percent of his class, he has a GPA of 98.86.

Aditta’s teachers have been impressed by more than his academic ability. “He gives of himself,” one of them wrote, “whether it is to a bedridden neighbor or to a student trying to solve a math problem.” In Bangladesh he and a fellow student founded Care Club, whose student members work with terminally ill patients from 4 to 16 years old to help them become mentally strong and self-reliant.

Aditta is president of his school’s South Asian Association, and active in the key club, the tennis team and many other groups. In the summer he worked at an adult learning center where, among other duties, he served as a translator for speakers of Bengali, Hindi and Urdu.

His goal is to become an engineer, helping design medical equipment. He brings both determination and flexibility to this quest. "If something seems difficult,” he says, “I'll assume I am not doing it right, and approach it from a different angle.”

Calling Aditta “brilliant,” his college counselor said that this was only part of the story, describing him as, “A young man whose academic potential is only the tip of the iceberg of the future man I expect him to become.”

I would like to thank Michael Caban, my Math teacher. Mr. Caban has always been there when I needed help and I have received much academic excellence advice from him. I have another teacher who had a huge influence on my life, back in my home country, whom I would address as “Munna Sir”. The life lessons that I have learned from him have always impacted my perspective towards my life and the world.