Vivek Ananthan

Hometown: Allentown, Pa.
High School: Parkland High School
Major: Biology, religion
Possible Career: Medicine

Vivek was born in India and moved to the U.S. at age six. In high school he was captain of the debate team and co-founder of the Parkland Math Honors Society. He and a friend launched "Trojan Tutoring", a successful business that provided math and science tutoring to students in grades 1-8. He founded the Red Cross Club to connect his high school peers to training and volunteer opportunities with the Red Cross, and helped raise $1800 for the local chapter.

At Swarthmore, Vivek is treasurer of Deshi, an organization of students from southern Asia. He plans to volunteers with TOPSoccer, a program for physically and mentally challenged youth founded at Swarthmore in 2003 by two Evans alumni. Vivek is a pre-med biology major and hopes to become a doctor.

The summer after his freshman year he took a physics course to alleviate some of his pre-med course requirements. This past summer he participated in an internship program at Hershey Medical School, where he studied the influence of Retinal Pigmented Epitheleal Cell transplants on the accumbens of cocaine-addicted rats. This research has the potential for a clinical application to help drug addicted patients resist relapse.