Meet Salutatorian Sabhyta Sabharwal

It might have been easy for Sabhyta Sabharwal, as the youngest of three children, to stay in the shadows of her older siblings. Her brother Samir and sister Simran graduated from Chatham High School in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and she says teachers still stop her in the hallways to ask after them.

Sabhtya, though, has accomplished one thing which her siblings have not. In May, Principal Darren Groh told her that she was the salutatorian for the class of 2011.

"When I got called down [to the office], I was actually in math," she said, "and thought it was a parking issue."

Because of the parking shortage at Chatham High, Sabhyta said, students often parked in the wrong spot or anywhere they can find a space. The administration monitors the parking as best they can, and have a practice of calling students to have them move their cars.

"I was pretty sure I'd parked in the right spot, but that's what I thought it was, a parking issue," Sabhyta said. "And then I got to the front office and they said, 'Wait a minute, Mr. Groh wants to see you.'

"I thought, What?! Am I going to get expelled for parking in the wrong spot?"

Then Groh told her she was the class salutatorian. "I wasn't expecting it at all," she said.

Decision Time

Sabhyta will attend Middlebury College in Vermont in the fall. Unlike , she did not apply early decision.

"The thing with me," she said, "I would have been fine wherever. I strongly believe [that] it's not the school that makes you, it's what you make of the school. It probably held me back in that ... I never committed to a school early decision, and I feel like if I had I would have had a better chance of it."

Sabhyta applied to several top schools, including Dartmouth, where her brother goes, Johns Hopkins, George Washington and Brown. She's happy to attend Middlebury, and says she strongly feels it is the right place for her. "The more I saw of it, the more I loved it. It's just a perfect fit for me."

Sabhyta's sister, with whom she shared a bedroom until last year, will be a sophomore at Middlebury. Sabhyta went to help her sister move out of her freshman dorm.

"At Middlebury there's so much, not  just cultural diversity, [but] people from different countries, from different sides of the coountry. ... people with their own amazing stories. I can't wait to get to know people who are different."

Goodbye, High School

Several of Sabharwal's classmates, including Hurt, will also attend colleges in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Nathaniel Bard, a mutual friend of the two, will attend Colby, and the three friends have a plan to support each other as they transition to college.

"We all said we're going to exchange gear and have a little switch, so I have to get him a pair of Middlebury socks, and he gave me some Colby socks, and we have to get Katie in on it and get some T-shirts," she said.

Sabhyta will also be close to her brother Samir, who is a history major at Dartmouth University. The affinity for the subject, though, is not shared among all the siblings.

"I'm not really a big history person," Sabharwal said. "I just don't really like the idea of people being represented by numbers."

Though history can be dry when it is not taught well, Sabharwal says that has not been the case with her. "You can’t blame the teachers in Chatham, they’ve been amazing," she said. "I've had amazing, amazing teachers."

Which Classes Should I Take?

When asked if she had any material from Middlebury to share, Sabharwal immediately brought out a catalogue of freshmen seminars that the school sent to her.

"They all seem so interesting already," she said.

One in particular stands out to her. "There's this history of italian cuisine [course] that I can take as a first year seminar," she said. "[It's] very writing intensive, but the reading material for that is, like, recipes. It's definitely high on my list."

Some of her interest in cooking from when Sabharwal had to take a Foods and Nutrition course this year to graduate from high school. "Can you imagine not graduating because of a Foods course?" she said with a laugh.

The lessons she learned in Foods may come in useful at Middlebury, where Sabharwal says there is a big emphasis on eating local. "Because it's in Vermont, they really put an emphasis on homegrown food [grown] locally," she said. "A lot of the food they have there is homegrown, and they have lots of cooking clubs and things like that."

Another seminar course is "Everything A Cappella," a cultural study of a cappella singing groups. Like most colleges, Middlebury has several a cappella groups to choose from. "They have one, my sister said, that's just for people who can't sing. That's probably the one I'll be joining," Sabharwal said.

Language!

At a school famous for its language programs, Sabharwal, who studied both Spanish and German at Chatham High, says she looks forward to improving in both. "I also speak a little Hindi, because of my parents," she said, "and I want to get better at all of them."

Though she is entering with an undeclared major, Sabharwal said she also plans to take some premed courses. "I just want to explore everything, and [premed] is something that I just want to ... see if it's for me."

Family Life

Sabhita's father Sanjeev is a doctor, and her mother Ranjit said that when her children were young, Sanjeev worked as an intern with 72-hour on call shifts. "He would come home after 72 hours, and honestly he could barely open the lock," she said.

Sabhyta said she is extremely close to her siblings, but stops short of saying that following in their footsteps was what pushed her to work so hard in school. "I can't say what I would have been if it wasn't for my siblings, because I don't want to imagine that," she said. "I think all three of us have different personalities, ... but hopefully I'm a good balance of both of them."

Ranjit echoed the sentiment of most parents on seeing her child graduate from high school. "I'm very proud," she said. "She honestly has a really natural thirst for knowledge. I really don't think it matters to her whether she's salutatorian or not."

Though the two sisters will be on the same campus, Ranjit said she doesn't think they will need to rely on each other. "I tell my girls all the time, because my mom used to tell me, ... I want my girls to be independent."

For now, Sabhyta's main plan for college is to try as many new things as possible and stick with the one she enjoys. "You can’t put yourself through something if you don’t love it," she said. "It’s not worth pursuing something if you don’t enjoy it."