Neetu Watumull Scholarship Program Managed by Rupa Shah

As a Ph.D. student in Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University, my educational journey has been deeply shaped by my Indian heritage, perseverance, and my family’s emphasis on education despite financial limitations. I was born and raised in India and completed both my B.Tech. in Mining Engineering and M.Tech. in Petroleum Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Growing up in India taught me the importance of discipline, resilience, and community. My family always viewed education as the most meaningful path toward creating opportunities and stability, and that belief continues to motivate me every day. My Indian background has strongly influenced both my academic goals and personal values. Coming from a culture that values hard work and collective responsibility, I learned early on that success is not achieved individually but through the sacrifices and support of family. During my time in India, I also participated in community-oriented activities such as organizing blood donation camps in rural West Bengal, which strengthened my sense of responsibility toward helping others through meaningful work. These experiences shaped my desire to pursue research that can contribute to solving real-world energy and sustainability challenges. Currently, my Ph.D. research focuses on transient wellbore and reservoir modeling for applications such as CO₂ injection, hydrogen systems, and flow assurance. I have maintained a strong academic record, including a 3.8 GPA at Texas A&M, and have been fortunate to receive merit-based scholarships in the past. However, pursuing graduate education in the United States has also brought significant financial challenges. I am currently managing educational loans and living expenses while pursuing my Ph.D. Although I actively seek internships, research support, and assistantship opportunities, financial uncertainty remains a major concern, especially during periods without guaranteed funding. In addition to supporting myself academically, I also try to contribute to my family’s financial responsibilities whenever possible. The cost of tuition, housing, health insurance, and daily expenses as an international graduate student creates constant financial pressure. Receiving the Neetu Watumull Scholarship would provide meaningful support toward reducing this burden and allowing me to focus more fully on my research and academic goals. More importantly, this scholarship represents encouragement for students of Indian origin who are striving to build a better future through education despite financial barriers. I would be sincerely grateful for the opportunity to be considered.

I hail from the "chili" state of Andhra Pradesh. Both my maternal and paternal families have lived in Visakhapatnam for generations, and it is where I was born and raised. Growing up, I always saw the men in the house as the sole breadwinners, carrying a certain command in their tone and an expectation of unquestioned authority. The women wielded power too, but it rarely extended beyond the walls of the kitchen. It has always felt paradoxical to me because of how deeply Mother Goddesses are revered and worshipped in India. In my family, being the breadwinner became an excuse for violence. I have witnessed my mother being physically abused for as long as I can remember. Even today, my hands sometimes shiver before answering her FaceTime calls because I fear seeing bruises on her face. As I grew older, that abuse slowly extended to me as well. Somewhere along the way, I made a promise to myself: I would never allow myself to remain trapped in that cycle. I wanted to become financially independent and high-achieving, not out of retribution, but so I could build a better future for my mother and myself. That promise is what brought me to Michigan, where I am pursuing Bioengineering at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. I currently work as a research assistant in neurodegeneration and surface chemistry. Research has always been my safe space, an escape from reality when life outside the lab felt overwhelming. Since then, one opportunity has led to another. I have presented my work at the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting and the Cerebral Vascular Biology Conference. By the end of this year, I hope to have co-authored two publications and contributed to a patent for a microfluidic platform that could advance neurodegenerative disease research. Every milestone has reaffirmed why I chose this path: to use engineering to improve human health. Pursuing that path has required sacrifices my family could scarcely afford. My father vehemently refused to support my education because he believed that a woman pursuing an undergraduate degree in the United States was shameful. My mother, a teacher with modest means, became my greatest source of strength. Together, we relied on educational loans to make my education possible, leaving me with more than $60,000 in debt. She continues to pay as much of the loan interest as she can while I work, conduct research, and apply for scholarships to remain in school. This scholarship would do far more than ease a financial burden. It would allow me to continue honoring the promise I made to myself years ago, to build a life defined not by fear, but by opportunity. I hope to become the kind of engineer and leader who shows other young girls and women that hardship does not have to define the limits of their aspirations. Women are 'Shakti' and 'Prakriti', strength and creation intertwined. I hope to honor that legacy by becoming the kind of woman I once needed to believe was possible.