After Herricks High School alumnus Shyam Venkateswaran completed his undergraduate degree University of Rochester a year early he decided to take some time off – to teach English in India.
“I’ve always been interested in languages because language empowers people,” Venkateswaran said. “Right now the linguistic currency of exchange is English. I thought it would be a really good experience.”
Venkateswaran, who is enrolled University of Rochester Early Medical Scholars program in pursuit of a medical degree, finished the undergraduate part of the program in three years and decided to apply for Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship
Working with a Fulbright faculty advisor at Rochester, he completed an application with essays and three references that earned him a university committee’s recommendation that he receive a six-month Fulbright scholarship.
“I was so happy when I found out,” Venkateswaran said.
As an Indian-American who once spent six months with his family in Mumbai, Venkateswaran said he welcomed the idea of being immersed in Indian culture.
Venkateswaran said he can converse in Tamil, Hindi, Bengali, and French and has a basic knowledge of Sanskrit – but he particularly enjoys English.
“I’ve always been interested in English as such,” he said.
Venkateswaran will depart on June 28 for Mumbai to instruct secondary school students either as a co-teacher or teaching students on a one-on-one basis.
As a language consultant and teaching assistant in linguistics at Rochester, he helped students in a senior seminar reconstruct the grammar of Tamil.
Venkateswaran earned his bachelors degree in biology, but took minor concentrations in media, culture & communications and natural language
A graduate of the Herricks class of 2011, he credits his academic experience at Herricks High School for preparing him well for his college work.
“It had an extremely formative impact on me,” Venkateswaran said.
An accomplished violinist, he has also performed with the Herricks Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall.
And as a senior at Herricks, he was co-editor-in-chief of Opus, the high school’s literary magazine.
Venkateswaran said that at Herricks he had already set his sights on medicine, and enrolled in the high school’s science research program under the tutelage of science research mentor Renee Barcia.
In the summer before his senior year in high school, Venkateswaran worked at the SUNY Stonybrook laboratory in breast cancer research with Professor Benjamin Chu.
The result was the creation of a platform to be used in post-breast cancer breast reconstruction.
“We were able to mimic the different characteristics of breast tissue,” he said.
Submitting his research to various competitions, he earned a second grand prize award in the Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2011. As a result, he had a minor planet named after him by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
During the summer preceding his sophomore year at Rochester, he returned to Stonybrook and conducted research for college credit to develop a cost-effective water purification for use in congested cities.
In his sophomore year in college, Venkateswaran did a research internship in the department of vascular surgery at Rochester.
“I was interested in clinical research. It was focused on optimizing surgical procedures for vascular procedures,” he said.
He said he’s most interested in radiology, but isn’t yet sure what medical specialty he wants to practice.
Venkateswaran became a member of the Golden Key International Honor Society in 2013.
He was also among 12 of 1,500 students in his freshman class at Rochester selected to receive the Iota Book Award by Phi Betta Kappa Honor Society to outstanding freshmen for scholarship achievement, humanism and leadership.
As a leader of the Hindu Students Association at Rochester, he helped raise more than $1,600 for the non-profit World Vision organization in a world hunger fundraiser with nine other faith groups on campus.
In 2014, he was also alternate Critical Language Scholar to Bangladesh in a competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of State for study of critical-need languages.
A member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, he plays khol and karatal, Indian drum and cymbals, and sings classical Indian music. He also plays piano and harmonium.
“I really like the music, to sing and play the different instruments. I like to sing for God,” Venkateswaran said.
He said he does mantra meditation daily and enjoys reading different scriptures, including Bhagavad-Gita and other ancient texts.
Venkateswaran has also worked as a volunteer in social work at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester and competed internationally and nationally on the Rochester Bangra Indian Dance Team.
“The goal of life is not a material motive,” he said “It’s actually realizing who you are and having an internal relationship with God.”
