As many as 10 Indian American high school seniors are in 2005 list of Presidential Scholars announced by the United States Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Wednesday.
The ten students, who are among the 141 outstanding seniors selected from schools across the nation, will be honoured for their accomplishments in academics or the arts, as well as for their leadership, character and civic contributions during the programme's national recognition events in Washington DC during June 25-28.
"The President and I are proud of these special young men and women and we want to ensure that all high schools students have the opportunity to succeed as these scholars have," Spellings said.
The 141 winners include one young man and woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and from US families living abroad as well as 15 chosen at large and 20 presidential scholars in the arts.
The Indian American students include Aman I Kumar, California; Suguna P Narayan, Colorado; Arvind R Nagarajan, Michigan; Anish Mitra, Nebraska; Veena Venkatachalam, New Jersey; Dhruv Maheswari, New Jersey; Vivek
Viswanathan, New York; Anuraag A Chigurupati, Ohio; Kanya Balakrishna, Tennessee and Shaily Pandey, Virginia.
New Jersey, which has one of the highest concentrations of Indian Americans, had the distinction of having Indian Americans in the list in both the boys' and the girls' categories.
Since the founding of the programme 41 years ago, 5,000 students have been honoured. The students were selected on the basis of broad academic achievement, essays, school evaluations and transcripts as well as evidence of leadership, community service and demonstrated commitment to high ideals.
This year the 28-member Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by President George W. Bush, made the final selection from a pool of over 500 semi-finalists.
"President Bush has challenged this country to extend the No Child Left Behind Act's reforms into our high schools, transforming them into centres of excellence. As we work to make this vision a reality, the examples set by the 2005 scholars can encourage and inspire us," Spellings said.
Read about India Abroad Person of the Year 2004