Raisa

When asked by her college counselor for a quotation that has greatly influenced her, Raisa quoted the Buddha: "Do not dwell on the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." She has acted decisively on that guidance. Her transcript is outstanding. Her 500 hours of community service are only the beginning of her extracurricular accomplishments, which include presidencies of three school clubs. Her internship record is stellar. And she makes time to operate a small business on Etsy, “Juicy Unicorn Art”, donating her profits to disaster relief efforts.

Raisa’s strong practical bent has greatly helped her family. During Covid she helped her younger brother with his remote classwork, and has long been responsible for financial matters in her Bengali-speaking home.

“All of this maturing,” her counselor wrote, “has certainly prepared her to take on many other endeavors which are extraordinarily impressive.” Raisa, he wrote, is “one of the most impressive students I have come across in all my years of counseling students. She has a work ethic that is as efficient as anyone that I have seen.”

Outside of school, Raisa has worked in a City Council campaign, shadowed surgeons in a program called Braininterns and participated in a group sponsored by NYU Law School in which she debated against peers from a Columbia Law program. She is also vice president of her Girls Who Code group and a fencer.

Raisa will decide among three paths in college: biology, political science, and business. Whatever her decision, she will follow it with determination. “I view just wanting something as pointless,” she wrote in her application. “Rather, if you put in the effort towards finding and working towards your objective, that's where you make actual progress.”

The teacher/mentor that has made the greatest difference in my life is Mr. Munno, who has rekindled my endearment for science and medicine through his interactive classes and projects. Moreover, he became my teacher advisor for my Health Occupations Students of America Club. Here we were able to raise awareness to certain diseases, while enriching students about different career paths. Mr. Munno allowed me to grow confident in pursuing my dream career of being a physician that weighs ethics heavily.