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NORTH AmERIcAN Newsline AUGUST 06, 2021 | The Indian Eye 24

newsmakers of tHe week

natasHa perI JaIney BavIsHI

11-year-old girl among world’s Biden names climate expert for

brightest students a key role at NOaa

resident Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate
Jainey Bavishi a leading Indian American expert on climate
Pchange, to a top leadership position at the National Ocean-
atasha Peri, an 11-year-old Indian American student at a ic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). If confirmed by the
New Jersey school has made the cut for Johns Hopkins Senate, she will serve as Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmo-
NCenter for Talented Youth (CTY) “High Honors Awards.” sphere in the Department of Commerce under NOAA Adminis-
A student of Thelma L Sandmeier Elementary School in New Jer- trator Rick Spinrad, an ocean scientist.
sey, she won the honors for her exceptional performance on the Bavishi’s appointment at an agency responsible for environ-
SAT, ACT, or similar assessment taken as part of the Johns Hop- mental prediction and monitoring and protecting the nation’s
kins Search, according to a CTY statement. coasts, oceans and fisheries is in tune with the Biden-Harris ad-
“This motivates me to do more,” Peri said, adding that doodling ministration emphasis on confronting climate change as one of its
and reading J.R.R Tolkien’s novels may have worked for her. She top priorities. “Bavishi currently serves as the Director of the New
was one of nearly 19,000 students from 84 countries who joined CTY York City Mayor’s Office of Climate Resiliency,” the White House
in the 2020-21 Talent Search year. US colleges require students to said announcing her nomination with two others on July 28.
take either the standardized Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) or “In this role, she leads a cross-disciplinary team that prepares
the American College Testing (ACT) and submit their scores to their the city for the impacts of climate change through science-based
prospective universities. In some cases, companies and non-profits analysis, policy, program, and project development, and capacity
also use these scores to award merit-based scholarships. building,” it noted. “The Biden administration has picked a tre-
Peri took the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2021, when mendous climate champion to serve the American people,” New
she was in Grade 5. Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections York Mayor Bill de Blasio said in statement.
leveled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance. “Jainey’s leadership and vision has transformed New York City’s
Besides Peri, another Indian origin student, Priyamvada coastline and has helped to protect New Yorkers from destructive
Deshmukh, 12, a student of GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai, was flooding and deadly heat waves.”
honored for her exceptional performance on the SCAT assessment During the Obama Administration, Bavishi served as the Associ-
taken as part of the CTY Talent Search. ate Director for Climate Preparedness at the White House Council on
Deshmukh took the Search test in Spring 2020, when she was Environmental Quality and Director of External Affairs and Senior
still in Grade 6. Her results in the verbal sections leveled with the Policy Advisor at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-
advanced Grade 10 performance. Due to the Covid19 induced de- tration (NOAA). Bavishi also served as the Executive Director of
lay in global logistics support, she finally received her much awaited R3ADY Asia-Pacific, focused on enhancing disaster risk reduction
“High Honors” pin this week, which she lovingly kept in front of her and resilience in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Honolulu, Hawaii.
grandparents’ photograph as tribute to her roots. Previously, she was the Founding Director of the Equity and
The delay in officially getting the certificates did not stop her from Inclusion Campaign, a coalition of community-based leaders in
attending the summer program at John Hopkins University’s CTY the Gulf Coast region that focused on recovery from Hurricanes
in English literature where she studied the confluence of Art and Sci- Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, at the Louisiana Disaster Recovery
ence in literary writing and completed the course scoring ‘A’ Grade. Foundation.
She followed up with top scoring the second level of Asset Tal- Bavishi has a Master’s degree in city planning from the Massa-
ent Examination which also qualified her for summer program at chusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in public
NorthWestern University this year, where she is learning about policy and cultural anthropology from Duke University.
world building in fiction writing this year. Continued on next page... >>

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