Beachwood Patch Whiz Kid of the Week Spandana Govindgari

Age: 18

School:

Accomplishment: Moved to Beachwood from India two years ago and joined several organizations, including becoming a class representative.

Key to Awesomeness: Moving to a new school can be tough for a kid. It can be even tougher to move halfway across the world.

That’s exactly what Spandana Govindgari did when her family moved from India to Beachwood two years ago for her junior year. Being the new kid, she knows it probably would have been easiest just to lay low, make a few friends and learn more about the new culture she was immersed in before branching out into other school activities.

That’s not what she did. Instead, Govindgari ran for class representative in student government, joined the Model United Nations Club and competed in Science Olympiad. This year, her final year in high school, she remained in all those activities while also joining the lacrosse team.

“It was the environment of Beachwood High School,” she said. “It’s really friendly, open and I really like the people a lot. They were talking to me as if I wasn’t new to the entire United States. That kind of gave me the encouragement to be quite open and try out different things.”

Her mother had already lived in Cleveland before Govindgari was born, earning a degree from Cleveland State University and then returning to India. She decided to move back for better job opportunities, and Govindgari said she was excited to join her mom this time.

“It’s very, very different than India, obviously,” she said. “There’s more freedom here and people are more open here than in India. It’s all about the people and the culture.”

The first extracurricular she joined was Model U.N. after it was introduced to her by some friends. She found that she enjoyed it, which helped her pursue other interests like Science Olympiad, where teams representing their schools compete against each other in science-related activities like building a bridge or getting a high score on a timed test. The team placed 13^th in a recent state competition, she said.

She knows that it’s tradition for students to take a lighter schedule their senior year, but Govindgari said it was important for her to join these activities to inspire Beachwood High School the way it inspired her.

“I think being a senior tells me I should do something and contribute to my school before I go. I wanted to leave something behind,” she said. “I think part of it is definitely my determination. I’m sure I inspired a lot of people to work harder.”

Govindgari will attend Cornell University in the fall to study chemical engineering. She plans to pursue a career in nanotechnology.