Sanjukta Singh, a tribal student of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) here, has been selected to study in the Weiss High School in Pflugerville, Texas for the next academic session.
She was offered a seat after qualifying for the Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Programme hosted by the AFS Intercultural Programs.
She was selected for higher study in Weiss High School after passing rigorous qualifying process consisting of written tests and interviews.
Sanjukta cleared the HSC examinations this year securing 80% of marks. She belongs to a poor Bhumija tribal family in Nuapadhi village of Remuna block of Baleswar district. She lost her father; and her mother manages the family working as a daily labour.
Sanjukta will get higher education with full scholarship from the US Government.
Expressing his satisfaction over the success of Sanjukta, KIIT & KISS founder Dr Achyuta Samanta said the KISS strives to empower talented but poor tribal kids to achieve their full potentials.
The institute has helped many of its students, most of them orphaned tribal kids, to travel to the US and pursue their education there. Sanjukta’s success proves that with proper support even poor and underprivileged students can travel across the world and pursue their dreams, he said.