STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Menchville High School 10th Grader Sahasra Vishwanathan
Wants to make medical care accessible
Posted: November 20, 2025
Sahasra Vishwanathan continues to study all types of science as she explores its complexities and her options for a future career.
The Menchville tenth grader is fully immersed in the academic offerings and extracurricular activities Newport New Public Schools provides. In February, she was selected as the first place winner for high school students in the 2025 Distinguished Trailblazers in the Sciences Competition. Her winning entry detailed the work of two researchers who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for helping to develop the COVID-19 vaccine.
"I got interested in STEM because when I was younger, I would always see the news and I would always see new creations, new medicines," Vishwanathan said. "And my sister was also the main purpose of me getting into the STEM field. Because my sister would always tell me about her classes and at a younger age I'd be more interested.
"Because for me personally, biology was one of my favorites because I would be like oh, look at all of this nature. And it's crazy how nature can do so much by itself without anybody's help. And it just sparked my interest."
She credits her significant growth in confidence since middle school with participating in activities that include serving on the NNPS Student Advisory Group on Education and with Youth Volunteer Corps, playing cello in the Peninsula Youth Orchestra, doing community service, and competing with Menchville's debate and Model UN teams, as well as working on science fair exhibits and crew management for the school's theater productions.
"I'm dedicated to expressing my voice more because all of middle school I was a very quiet kid," Vishwanathan said. "I would hardly talk ever in school. So when I came into high school, I was like I need to actually start talking because it's a very useful skill to have."
She no longer hesitates to talk with anybody, and is a big supporter of the varied extracurriculars available to fit students' interests. Vishwanathan is interested mostly in medicine and biology, and is also avidly studying chemistry.
"I'm still looking at them, but me personally I would like to be a doctor in the military," Vishwanathan said. "So I would like to help other people and go international and help people get medicine; access for those who don't really have it."
She really likes the diversity among students in NNPS, and has learned a lot from friends with various experiences who have overcome adversity. Another asset is that people are very cooperative and work together a lot, she added.
"This educational system actually really helped me because it helped me understand how the world is," Vishwanathan said.
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