Anna Deng
Student
Anna Deng is currently a junior at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley. A thinker, learner, and leader, Anna is interested in mathematics, computer science, and anything to make the world a better place. Constantly disillusioned by tiresome school math and complaints from friends about mathematics, Anna pursues math as a high schooler in a variety of ways. She enjoys solving math problems, writing problems, participating in math contests, giving math talks and workshops as President of the BISV Math Circle, creating and leading the BISV Mathematical Modeling Club, reading higher math books, and collaborating with others who are passionate about math. Besides being a math enthusiast, Anna is a competitive figure skater and constantly finds ways to give back to her community through volunteering, organizing events, and acting for change.
Charan Sridhar
Student
Charan Sridhar is a sophomore attending BASIS Independent Silicon Valley who is passionate about computer science. Charan’s life goal is to use computer science to ensure improved quality of life and equality for everyone, especially marginalized communities. He is an intern at AImpower, where he is working on equity in technology with a current focus on fair speech-to-text systems. His entrepreneurial spirit drove him to found a Data Science and Machine Learning Club at his school, create hackathon-winning projects aimed at helping those in need, and work on AI research projects that focus on increasing healthcare accessibility, improving medical condition diagnosis accuracy, and evaluating the steganographic capabilities of ML models. In his free time, Charan enjoys playing classical guitar and working on model kits.
Joshua Guo
Student
Joshua Guo is a current 8th-grade student at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley. He finds passion in learning and exploring almost everything, but his favorite subjects are science, business, and economics. Throughout middle school, Joshua stayed active with his enrollment in extra-curriculars and participated in several competitions which included the National Economics Challenge and Science Olympiad, where he won numerous medals. In his free time, Joshua enjoys playing all types of sports, primarily baseball and volleyball. Additionally, he loves volunteering to help out his community.
Krishna Bhatt
Student
Krishna Bhatt is a freshman in high school at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley with a strong passion for the crossover of neuroscience and technology. For the past few years, he has been independently conducting research in this field, and has gained insight into its current limitations. He specifically enjoys science fairs and research competitions where he has won several times as well. Outside of academics, Krishna enjoys hiking, kart racing, and reading in his free time. In addition, he loves travelling and spending time with family, and he hopes to give back to the community through his work.
Kushi Hosahalli
Student
Kushi Hosahalli is an internationally awarded public speaker and debater who spends her time giving speeches regarding advocacy topics she's passionate about. She's highly engaged in volunteer work through her cultural community Kannada Koota of Northern California and Girl Scouts where she represents her council as a youth council delegate to advocate for more diversity and inclusion in the program. Kushi is also a member of the Santa Clara Youth Court where she advocates for legal justice for juveniles throughout the court system.
Maya Sriram
Student
Maya Sriram is a freshman majoring in engineering at UC Berkeley, previously a high school senior at BASIS Independent Silicon Valley. An aspiring businessperson, Maya’s ultimate goal is to found a nonprofit in the edtech sector, working to ensure that everyone has access to a high-quality education. Maya has been volunteering since elementary school, and she especially loves helping out with events that combine having fun with raising awareness. She’s also passionate about science and technology, frequently messing around with logic puzzles and exploring obscure scientific concepts.
Samantha Pyle
Student
Samantha Pyle is a senior at Sacred Heart Preparatory, Atherton. She is active in women's history initiatives and intends to study chemistry in college. In her free time, she loves to read, swim, and play board games.
Sophie McDade
Student
Sophie McDade is currently a senior at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, CA. Although she is planning on majoring in Business in college, she has had a life-long interest in writing. Her TEDx talk "An Ancient Solution to Modern Problems" is a fitting example of how she tries to incorporate her passions into living her daily life. Sophie hopes to refine her interests into a future TEDx talk in 2025 about mental health and the adolescent brain.