2022 Kaymin Hester

Kaymin Hester of Charlottesville High School received the $50,000 Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship in 2022. Hester, who plans to become a neurosurgeon and author, is deciding between several top colleges. She hopes her prolific writing and passion for volunteerism will continue to inspire her community with a sense of curiosity and adventure about fields ranging from music to medical technology.

2021 Aditi Prakash

Aditi says her best attributes are grit, empathy and optimism! She started an anti-racist club at her high school and also a program for older students to mentor elementary school students during the pandemic summer. She herself mentored two Spanish speaking children. Aditi also created a program that distributed 200 free STEM kits to disadvantaged students with a goal of fostering love for and confidence in science. In the 9th grade she attended UVA’s Bio-Medical Camp for Girls and was so inspired she decided to pay it forward and agreed to intern there last summer. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease just last spring and invited her GI doctor to be a guest speaker at the camp. Aditi is attending Stanford and plans to become an educational policy maker.