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Riya Shah

3,135

Bold Points

1x

Finalist

Bio

I'm a motivated, community driven, and creative leader in Metro Detroit, who aspires to innovate in the field of dentistry.

Education

International Academy

High School
2020 - 2024

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Doctoral degree program (PhD, MD, JD, etc.)

  • Majors of interest:

    • Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other
    • Dentistry
  • Planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Hospital & Health Care

    • Dream career goals:

      Dentist

    • Cashier

      CVS
      2023 – Present1 year

    Sports

    Swimming

    Junior Varsity
    2012 – 20186 years

    Research

    • Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

      HOSA — Competitor at regionals 2021
      2020 – 2021
    • Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences, Other

      American Diabetes Association — Intern
      2021 – 2021

    Arts

    • IASA

      Dance
      2020 – Present
    • Multiple Organizations

      Graphic Art
      Instagram Posts
      2020 – Present
    • Private

      Music
      Recital
      2015 – Present

    Public services

    • Advocacy

      LINKS Program — Top-impact LINK (all three years)
      2017 – 2020
    • Volunteering

      Edunitiative — On-demand tutor
      2020 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Key Club — Member
      2021 – Present
    • Advocacy

      HungerMitao Youth MI — Michigan lead: started the Michigan chapter (first youth-led)
      2020 – Present
    • Volunteering

      UFT - Us For Them — High School Volunteer
      2020 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Friends of the Public Library — Lead: taught incoming volunteers how to organize and assigned jobs to everyone.
      2021 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Innerview — National Honor Service Awardee
      2020 – Present

    Future Interests

    Advocacy

    Politics

    Volunteering

    Philanthropy

    Entrepreneurship

    Maida Brkanovic Memorial Scholarship
    Since a young age, my parents made it very clear what a privilege being born and brought up in America is. The "land of opportunity" they called it, coming from India. Here, I was able to do whatever I set my heart to, and I had the resources and support to do just that. In India, you had to fit a certain mold, formed by society and had no freedom to follow your dreams. Taking advantage of my freedom, I try to give back to my community. My entire view of life has been shaped by being a first-generation high school student because I've viewed life here through a lens of being grateful. Because of that, one of my favorite pastimes is giving back to the community. I love doing community service whenever I find time, and over the pandemic, I learned about virtual volunteering which has become one of my hobbies when I get free time. Virtual volunteering includes making cards at home, cleaning trash from local parks, helping aide machine learning in identification, and a variety of things. I volunteer at our local food bank, public library, and temple library weekly, now that things are starting to open up. I've even started the first youth chapter of a movement called HungerMitao, which has the goal to unite the Indian-American community against food insecurity. This involved communication, critical thinking skills, and advocacy. I started this with my friend because we were wanting to give back to this country that has provided so much for us. In addition to volunteering and community service, I want to become a doctor when I grow up. This is because I want to be able to help people without access to medical care who need it. My ultimate goal is to study here, and go back to India to help people in need of free medical care. So far I've been really interested in diabetes research, and participated in an internship put on by the American Diabetes Association. I hope to someday go into the study of diabetes and help find a treatment. I am also thankful for the quality of life here. When I go back to India, I see people sleeping in streets, living off of profits from their small shops, barely any road rules, bad pollution and littering, and more. In comparison, everything is organized within systems in America which keeps us safe and civil. Although I am considering myself very lucky to live in the United States, I love the culture, people, and overall atmosphere of India, and I wouldn't want to be from anywhere else. I'm very proud of who I am and where I come from, but I also see room for opportunity. Obviously, change takes time, and I have high hopes for India, but I'm also very glad to be able to live here in the United States.
    Bold Science Matters Scholarship
    Imagine having a universal shoe size. Convenient, right? Shoes are something everybody owns and brings with them everywhere they go! You could go into anyone's house and ask to borrow a pair without even worrying about your shoe size! Unfortunately the body doesn't really allow us to have that ability, so you're stuck with bringing your own pair for now. Bummer, I know. Now imagine that situation again, but with phone chargers in place of shoe size. Thanks to USB-C, it's now possible to have a universal phone charger. We're used to having a different charger per device- Apple, Android, Windows, etc. Which becomes a major inconvenience when it comes to transporting your devices. I've grown up always having an Android and every time I went to a friend's house, I would bring an extra charger to keep at my their house so I didn't have to worry about it in the future. Last year, I got a phone which uses USB-C, and as they gained popularity, my problems seemed to vanish. All of a sudden, my phone, iPad, and laptop had the same charger! Now I no longer had to bring my charger with me everywhere, because people started to have the same one as I did, regardless of their device! USB stands for Universal Serial Bus (but this is as close to universal as it can be so far), and C is just the type. It's not only is able to transmit both power and data over a single cable, but also works on both sides! It even has the ability to transfer video and sound! Newer devices have a built-in port, and the USB side of it is still compatible with older devices. If you don't have one already, you should really look into investing in one!