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Introduce yourself! Please tell me your name, age, WHS graduation year, and pronouns (if you would like).
My name is Aish. I'm 21 years old and graduated from Waltham High School in 2023.
What are your favorite things to do outside of school/work?
I love to read. I've been really into reading new books and writing book reviews, so now I think of myself as a book reviewer, which is nice. I recently opened a Letterboxd account for movies and have been trying to get into movies. I also play tennis; it's the one sport I'm not terrible at, so I stick with it. Also, I'm really passionate about technology and resources within tech.
What have you been up to since you graduated from Waltham High School?
I am heading into my senior year at Brandeis University. I am an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and teach CPR classes multiple times a month. I’m also highly involved with the Samuels Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT), the department here on campus that's focused on community engagement.
Tell me more about your time in college and what you have been studying.
I’m double-majoring in Neuroscience and Biology and minoring in Creative Writing. I also recently completed the Community Engaged Scholars Program at COMPACT, which will be noted on my transcript when I graduate. It's been great to focus on the science parts of studying as well, but I think what I've valued more is what I've been doing with community engagement. It's really shaped how I view what I'm learning in class and how I can apply that to the real world.
Tell me about the Newman Civic Fellowship and being a Newman Civic Fellow.
The Newman Civic Fellowship is essentially a leadership-esque program, focusing on problem-solvers and student leaders. This fellowship helps students to explore our passions and gives us the resources to help us follow these passions in our communities. It's been great to work on my project and do something that I've been really passionate about. I’ve had the idea for a while, but now I have the funding to actually make it happen.
Through your Newman Fellowship, you recently came back to WPY to lead a CPR/First Aid certification class for high schoolers. Can you tell me more about that?
From my own experience, most students aren't CPR certified in high school, and it's still not a requirement for many schools. I never actually became certified until college, when I came to Brandeis freshman year and took a CPR class. So I wanted to bring that opportunity to Waltham High School, not only to teach students how to save lives and to act in an emergency, but also to help them see what they can do with that certification.
This year, one of my EMT colleagues and I taught a Red Cross First Aid and CPR course to 12 WPY high school students. Through the Newman Fellowship, I secured a $1,500 mini-grant and the majority of the funds went towards paying for the students' certifications so they could be free of cost. We followed the class with a panel about STEM careers and college life in general. The WPY students asked some really insightful questions that I loved answering. I hope that we were able to be role models for the students in a way that encouraged them.
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