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iCAN Youth Achiever

Akshaj Mehta

  • One of the Youngest Indian American Author.
    Donates all the proceeds of his books to Children Charity.
  • Akshaj is a recipient of Natomas Unified School District Award for exemplifying NUSD Vision.
  • At age of 10, Akshaj was appointed as Sci Tech Kids Editor of children's Magazine "Amazing- Kids". He is the youngest Indian on the Editorial board.
  • Akshaj has been involved in various Community Service activities like book drives for libraries , Jacket Drive for St. Johns Shelter and Homeless Food Drive for Sacramento Food Bank and family services.
  • Written 5 books of which 3 are published, as well other literary pieces.
  • Learn more about Aksaj:
    http://fox40.com/2016/09/21/local-11-year-old-first-book-featured-at-childrens-book-festival/
    http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/05/02/interview-akshaj-mehta/
    http://kfbk.iheart.com/features/kfbks-hometown-heroes-1939/

KELVYN DARSHAN THOMAS

  • Has been actively playing basketball  since he was 5 years old
  • Darshan enjoys playing basketball and has had a passion for the sport
  • Will be playing for the Spring AAU Travel league this Spring for DEA NATION ORG
Savni Nagarkar & Saloni Nagarkar
  • Founders of a non-profit organization called Kids Who Code.
  • Both have received the National Center for Women and Technology: Aspirations In Computing award
  • Have held over 10 workshops in the Chicago land area and one workshop in India as well.
  • Both are mentors at Northern Illinois University - Enhancing Engineering Pathways Program.
  • Have mentored middle school girls and helped them learn about the field of engineerin
  • Have been participants in the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program. Only 1,000 girls were chosen nationwide for this program in the summer of 2015.  
Learn more about our venture at www.tinyurl.com/sskidswhocode

Nipun Dubey

  • Presidential Volunteer Service Award
  • United States Congressional Award for Achievement
  • DuPont Challenge Science Innovation
  • Essay Competition Winner (about 40 out of 10,000 selected)
  • Nipun graduated at the top of his class with the highest GPA (4.7/4.0) out of over 650 students in his class.
  • During his high school career, he took 17 College-Board Advanced Placement Exams and set a high school record.
  • In addition to taking and excelling in rigorous Advanced Placement (AP) courses, Nipun played tennis at the high level, Varsity, all four years.
  • Further, he was President of the Special Olympics Club, Spanish Club and Honors Society, and co-founder and President of UNICEF Club.
  • Nipun represented his school and the State of Illinois in various competitions such as Science Olympiad, Biology Olympiad, National History Bowl, U.S. History and Geography Olympiads in Washington D.C., Business Professionals of America (BPA), Brain Bee, and more, at the State and National levels.
  • He was accepted to multiple Ivy League schools and other top schools such as Duke, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins.

Ashley Singh


  • -Was Top 14 on Zee SaReGaMaPA Li’l Champs North America in 2015
    -Was Top 8 on Zee SaReGaMaPa Bangla Li’l Champs North America in 2016
    -Performed solo at Madison Square Garden in New York City, for finale of Zee SaReGaMaPa Bangla Li’l Champs North America in 2016
    -Her performance at Zee SaReGaMaPA Li’l Champs North America is can be seen at:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzB3IbZlQmk   
    -She also runs a youtube channel where she posts cover on indian and american songs. This can also be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQI4Wa71tuvSAFzNRw9-yfg 
    -Placed 1st in Regionals for Business Professionals of America in the category of Digital Media Production
    -Takes all honors and AP encore classes
    -Has been placed in Varsity Chamber choir at Waubonsie Valley High school
    -Mains a 4.3 GPA while participating in 5 extracurricular groups (including Science Olympiad, Business Professionals of America, Tri-M, Una Voce, and Mosaic)
    -Has done over 100 performances-

Kajol Topiwala 


  • I have performed in front of many well-known celebrities such as Kajol and Ajay Devgn.
  • I have successfully completely my bharatnatyam arangetram and now teach dance at Junoon Dance Company.
  • I balance long grueling hours of dance practices while keeping up with my academics, as well as volunteer with various different organizations within the community
You can check me out at : http://www.yehcheez.org/kajol-topiwala/

Neal Modi

  • High school valedictorian, Wharton Graduate
  • Sr. VP of Revenue and Finance
  • Joined a startup company with 2m in revenue and 12 employees to currently more than 200+ employees and 100m + in sales.
  • " Neal manages the revenue strategy and operations at Kargo as a Sr. VP of Revenues and Finance
  • He focuses on scaling the company’s operations across teams and managing the growth and margins of its multiple revenue streams.
  • Neal started his career CB Insights, a data services startup, where his analysis on VC funding trends was featured on CNET, ReadWriteWeb, Xconomy and other news sources.
  • He also worked as an Investment Banker for RBS.   
  • Graduated  from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded the Wharton Entrepreneurial Intern Fellowship for his dedication to the entrepreneurial field.
Click to see https://www.themuse.com/companies/kargo/people/neal.

Priyankka Krishnan

  • Business Partner and Chief Designer in  Web Comic Company.
  • Multi-talented and award recipient in Arts, writing, Science, and Sports
  • Top student at top two high school in USA- Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
  • Click the link to read about me https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyankka-krishnan-857a2a126/,  https://goo.gl/SvjxQF

Sachin Govind

  • Accepted to and attending Johns Hopkins University, currently holds 4.0 GPA and is ranked top in class
  • Holds 2nd Degree Black Belt, Instructor in Tae Kwon Do
  • Represented the United States at the International Student Science Fair for work done in cardiology research
  • "Aside from excelling in academics, sports, and other extra-curricular activities, Sachin is also very engaged in volunteering.
  • He currently volunteers in the Pediatric and Adult Emergency Departments at Johns Hopkins Hospital. There, he has recently been promoted to the Research and Special Projects Coordinator in the Pediatric Emergency Department.
  • Link to supplementary pictures/videos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6zesu_RREX3R0d3cmpTQmtPMUE?usp=sharing 

    Link to research abstracts: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6zesu_RREX3eDlPeWhFNmtyVDQ/view?usp=sharing 

    Link to original nomination video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6zesu_RREX3eWt4RFFiRWNvN28/view?usp=sharing 
Roni Akurati
  • Roni 14 year Old, Young Hollywood actor. He debuted in award winning  Hollywood movie “Growing Up Smith” in lead/title role which was released in US on Feb 3rd 2017. It has received very good feedback, for his lead role as Smith “http://growingupsmithmovie.com/“. This movie was picked up as TIME magazine as movie of the week in its opening week
  • Roni’s acting has been appraised by several media including Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Daily herald, Sun times etc..  (front page coverage) http://teenplicity.com/growing-up-roni-akurati/
  • He has been acting in Hollywood for the past 5 years with an impressive resume at this young age. "http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4803098/
  • He is been interviewed by more than 20 TV/News outlets across US and India. https://www.youtube.com/Roniakurati in the past few months
  • In the recent past he acted on several TV series, on NBC, Fox Network, Nickelodeon, Amazon and Yahoo original series
  • He acted along with Ben Stillar in Comedy Central TV
  • A standup comedian and performed at Hollywood Improv theater where Jerry Seinfeld started his career at. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiWr7-YH7qo
  • Won several community awards for his acting
  • Roni started acting at young age of 7 and became popular with his role as Tiny Tim in Christmas Carole at Goodman Theater Chicago. He was interviewed by all top TV news channels
  • Roni also played as Mowgli in Disney play “The Jungle Book” at Chicago and Boston theaters
You can find more about Roni at his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/roniakurati/ or on Instagram/twitter @roniakurati