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Parvathy Menon

OMSI: Where were you born? Where did you grow up?

PM: I was born in a town in Southern India and then moved to the States when I was three. For the last 12 years of my life, I've been in the Beaverton/Portland area and was schooled K-12 in the Beaverton School District.

OMSI: What three words best describe you?

PM: Friendly, enthusiastic, interested

OMSI: Please tell us about a mentor or teacher who helped to inspire your interest in science.

PM: During the summer of 2002, Dr. House was awesome enough to take me - a sophomore in high school with little formal scientific or lab background - as an intern. In her Semiconductor Research and Fabrication Lab, I was able to work on and develop my project on glucose sensors that led me to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, ISEF, and many other fantastic opportunities.

Dr. House went far above and beyond the level of an exceptional mentor. As a research mentor, she gave her students unparalleled freedom to explore and research. For example, at the beginning of my summer internship, she gave me a general objective, handed me a few research papers, and let me do the rest. By purposefully giving me abstractly defined tasks and letting me deal with uncertainty, she helped me learn and grow in ways that would simply not be possible in a traditional mentor-student relationship. While most mentors would shudder and cringe at giving students such responsibilities, Dr. House trusted her students and gave us exceptional flexibility, allowing us to explore, to freely experiment with processes and equipment, to make mistakes, and to learn. When we approached her with research complaints or roadblocks, she would give some suggestions and advice but a common Dr. House response would be a mischievous, eye-twinkling "I don't know? you should design an experiment and find out!"

It was through the opportunities Dr. House provided and her firm belief in exploring and discovery that I learned and understood the scientific process and research life at a deeper level.

Due to Dr. House's extraordinary level of support and guidance, I have had an invaluable research and science experience, been awarded priceless opportunities, and gained a fun-loving and encouraging friend.

OMSI: What's the worst trouble you ever got into in school? Have you ever blown anything up?

PM: No, I haven't actually blown anything up yet; however, I have no doubt that during my next four years at Caltech, I will get plenty of exposure and opportunities to do that.

In terms of getting in trouble at school ? I've pretty consistently gotten in trouble for talking too much. Starting in 2nd grade through middle school and sadly even occasionally in high school, talking during class has been my downfall. I'm a bit exceedingly social and have a short attention span; the combination of these two qualities is dangerous and makes me a victim, predisposed to the disorder. I should be pitied, not punished :-)

OMSI: Describe a difficult situation that you were in and how you handled it.

PM: As a junior in high school, I tried to start a tutoring organization - the Peer Tutoring Organization of Excellent Youth - at my high school. Not wishing to waste time and energy pursuing that further, I attempted to make PTOOEY an off-campus tutoring club, to help disadvantaged students at feeder schools. However, this move was opposed not only by the school but by the highest levels of district administration.

Students transporting themselves in an unsupervised manner to another school sponsored activity: the risks were too great, claimed our administrators. I certainly empathized with their liability concerns however, the district sponsored several programs in which students were allowed to do precisely this. As a member of the school lacrosse team, I frequently transported myself to other schools for games. The district approved of this yet they considered an off-campus tutoring club too risky? Clearly, risk the district's stance was hypocritical. Unfortunately, no district official seemed willing to acknowledge this.

Eight months of lobbying district administrators, hounding official after official, receiving rejection after rejection -- it was a frustrating process. Finally, in May of 2003, I publicly addressed the school board about the lack of progress and requested that they re-evaluate the priorities of the district. One week later, I received a letter from the District Superintendent; I had been granted approval for the tutoring program. PTOOEY was born.

I suppose that the reason this situation/incident holds particular value to me is because it helped me define my character and what I believe in. Rather than attempting to protest a single teacher's actions and vaingloriously trying to right a "wrong" that is, in the big-picture, trivial, I lobbied the district administrators and school board, thereby striking at the bigger policy problem at its source. Altogether, the ordeal tested my determination, values, and focus. In retrospect, I am glad and grateful that I was able to react logically rather than emotionally and channel my outrage and passion into the more constructive outlet. Furthermore, today, PTOOEY is an excellent club that has several members tutoring and helping classes at a local elementary school and generally, making a difference - finally, accomplishing what we had set out to do so long ago; now we've got success!

OMSI: What is your dream? What do you most hope to accomplish in your career?

PM: Thirty years from now, I might be a professor/researcher, I might be a doctor, I might be an engineer - or any combination thereof. The fields of teaching, medicine, and engineering all would allow me to apply scientific concepts to solving real-world problems; at this point, I don't feel that I have the experience or instinct to choose between them. Although I am undecided between these professions, I think this may be an advantage for me; this way, I can remain open-minded and ready to try new courses of study. I know that after I have discovered my passion (soon, I hope, in the next 15 years), I will follow it with dedication and become the best that I can be. As cliché and idealistic as it may sound, this is my aim: not to be another noble-minded idealist whose dreams remain unfulfilled, not to remain "potential" - rather, to help in a real and tangible way whether it is educating the future generation or removing a brain tumor or designing a device that cures diabetes.

OMSI: How do you feel about the current state of science education in the U.S.?

PM: I could really write an entire editorial essay on this question alone but I'll spare you my list. First of all, let me say that during my 12 years of school, I have had some fantastic science teachers.

Having progressed through 12 years in a public school district, my comments are mostly directed at that system? Rarely do we have any lab-oriented classes and our research classes are barely funded and the teachers have hardly any resources. I have found this shift in priorities to be true especially in recent years when test scores and meeting meaningless benchmarks take precedence over real learning and discovery in the classroom. Teachers are as much victims of this as the students. In the midst of handling 40+ students, 7-class schedules, and the pressure to focus on state benchmarks, our public-school teachers admirably manage to balance the chaos and do some teaching. We all lose in this setup - the students don't get to learn all that they should and the teachers don't get teach all that they should. I think one clear way to resolve this issue is by ending the relationship between funding and benchmark testing results, thereby ending the pressure to cater to another counterproductive state exam whose basic effectiveness and performance assessment of student is questionable.

Generally as voters and as a state, we need to place a higher priority on education and furthermore, demonstrate how much we value learning and invest in the future by increasing funding to our public schools. Or, perhaps funding is sufficient but rather, needs to be more effectively distributed and spent. Either way, this would ideally translate into smaller class sizes, a more challenging curriculum, and put the focus back on learning and discovery.

OMSI: What is your favorite class this year?

PM: AP Literature and AP Calculus.

OMSI: What do you like to do in your free time?

PM: I enjoy sleeping, eating, and breathing - in that order.

Besides that, I also play for the Westview Lacrosse team, serve on the State Secretariat of Oregon Model United Nations, train at the Westside Shorin-Ryu Karate Do, sing in the Portland Symphonic Girlchoir, tutor awesome kids at McKinley elementary and a fun ESL class at Westview, and participate in various other activities that bring me joy. Also, I am obsessed with Subway Veggie Delite sandwiches and consequently, live at Subway on weekends.

OMSI: What do you consider your very best skill?

PM: I guess my best skill is communication. I like to make other people excited about the same things I get excited about.

OMSI: Please tell us about your science fair project. How did you come up with the idea for your project? How did you go about researching and building your project? What was it like to participate in the science fair, and what do you remember most from the fair?

PM: Research Report Summary: Affecting over 150 million people worldwide, diabetes is one of the world's foremost health concerns. All patients must monitor their glucose levels, some as many as 15 times/day. Implantable glucose sensors will one day replace the currently used needle-and-blood-strip method. My particular sensor works due to an enzyme-activated reaction; electrical resistance varies inversely with the glucose level. Fabrication was done using photolithography and a metal evaporator. It was discovered that chrome can replace the gold contact pads of the sensor and, due to its stronger physical properties and the resources available in my lab, is an improvement to the current fabrication procedure.

The science fair was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced in my life. What do I remember most from the fair? I remember the fantastic projects and some unique approaches to problems I had never thought of but most of all, I will always remember the other students there. Before that point in my life, I had never been with other kids who shared my interest in science research and engineering who also shared my passion for music, sports, and life in general. I've always had several different groups of friends - I had the friends from my choir and music groups, my lacrosse buddies, my friends from karate, my friends from all my AP classes, etc. Until that point, I only rarely met anyone whose interests crossed all the boundaries and also was deeply interested in the sciences and research. And yet, when I came to the science fair, I met kids as nerdy as myself in the context of science research but who were also well-rounded - these were the kids who shared my ambition and drive in the sciences and research but still managed to be fascinated by and appreciate other joys like the arts and sports. The science fairs/symposiums like JSHS and ISEF was where I first discovered these extraordinary individuals.

OMSI: If you were to build your science fair project again, would you do anything differently?

PM: I think the only thing I did "wrong" when I first started out my project was thinking that I was going to accomplish a huge amount (I had a large number of long-term goals that I somehow thought could be accomplished in a summer) without having practical expectations. However, it was good that I had such lofty ideas and was able to understand the nature and pace of research life. Going forward, in order to maximize progress, I would make sure that I have carefully selected a small goal in my project and pursue that with focus.

OMSI: Please tell us about your educational plans and goals.

PM: In college, I intend to major in some sort of engineering (computer, electrical, biomedical, etc.) and definitely do research in the biomedical engineering area. In particular, I plan to be working on MEMS research and development with a focus on biomedical devices. I am really excited to go to Caltech because in addition to their extraordinary academics, its main strength is research. This summer, I will be starting research at Caltech through their Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program and I am thrilled to be working in a MEMS lab at JPL. Despite my interest and passion for engineering, I think that long-term, I would find the most satisfaction in the medical field so I intend to go to medical school after I graduate from college. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure what I'll do. Perhaps after practicing for a few years, I may do some more research and hopefully the combination of my engineering and medical background will give me a unique perspective and help me be a productive biomedical researcher. I also love teaching and so I may want to become a professor.

OMSI: Have you had any on the job training or science related work experience?

PM: For my first internship with Dr. House at OGI, all my training and background was on-the-job. Coming into the project, I knew nothing about the project - I hadn't even taken a physics class before! In addition to Dr. House, I had fantastic mentors like Dr. Hall and Craig Robin (both of Pacific University) working there who helped me understand and analyze the project, publications, and my own data. After that summer, I had an arsenal of skills and techniques in semiconductor fabrication as well as a unique perspective on science and research that I never would have had if it weren't for that summer with Dr. House.

The following summer, I worked at Intel in the Network Architecture Labs. In terms of background at that point, I had taken a C Programming course at a community college and I had also completed the first year of Cisco Networking Academy course. So, I had basic background that helped me understand the project I was working on. However, I gained most of the knowledge and skills I needed that summer after reading papers and most importantly, talking with co-workers and mentors who had been working on that project for a while. It was awesome to be working with so many top engineers and software developers who not only had enormous background in that specific area but also, who had worked on other projects around Intel and could relate those experiences as well.