Featured Student: Sriprada Rayavarapu

Sriprada Rayavarapu is a sophomore at Lambert High school and is this week’s featured student.

Like hundreds of new students at Lambert last year, Sriprada described her freshman year as intimidating. The big hallways, competitive environment, new friends, and the piles of homework were all overwhelming. But as she eased into her new environment, she got accustomed and enjoyed her new school.

Sriprada participated from 7th to 9th grade in Science Olympiad. She won two state medals for Science Olympiad- a 4th place medal in 7th grade and a 2nd place medal in 9th grade. 

“There are three different events that I participate in in each competition: Battery Buggy, Herpetology, and Experimental Design,” Rayavarapu stated. “I win medals for each regional competition because that’s the easiest competition,” she continued. Regionals is an annual event with teams from multiple counties competing against one another. 

Just last year, she and her group reached 3rd place in the state competition and were only one place away from entering nationals. 

Sriprada claimed that that was the most glorious moment of her life. However, the instant was soon brought to an end when an anonymous kid sat on her group’s project, a tower, and ruined it.

“We didn’t have a replacement, and so we got the lowest score for that,” Sriprada chuckled. “So yeah, that’s why I didn’t go to nationals …  some kid sat down on our project.” 

Sriprada now focuses solely on HOSA, an organization designed to guide future healthcare professionals. She aspires to become a doctor, though she is debating in which field. She is considering anesthesiology or family medicine. Her dream colleges are Georgia Tech and UGA, as they both have a good medical program. 

In addition to her interests in science and healthcare, art has also appealed to Rayavarapu. She is taking AP 2D from Mrs. Puckett at Lambert and has won awards for her art pieces. One of her pieces is “Radha Krishna,” which is inspired by her religion and was finished in her 8th-grade year. “Radha Krishna” placed second in the Forsyth County Festival of Arts Competition. Rayavarapu won two hundred dollars.

Rayavarapu is involved in a public speaking club called ToastMasters. After earning 1st place in a ToastMasters competition, she was eligible to enter into a district competition and won 3rd place.

“I would really recommend that you join ToastMasters because it’s great for learning public speaking- if you have any difficulty or issues or anxiety or just any general fear about public speaking, this will solve all of that,” Sriprada encourages.

Besides being an overachieving student, Sriprada takes dancing and singing classes outside of school as part of her hobby.

Ms. Rayavarapu’s life is just one of many in the Lambert student body. We thank her for giving us the time to interview her, and hope to interview more students in the future!