Introducing Robbinsville High School’s 2019 Exceptional Seniors

The end of the school year is here.

The Robbinsville High School Class of 2019 is set to graduate 6 p.m. on Friday, June 21 at the school’s athletic field. Among those graduates are this year’s Exceptional Seniors, a group of 10 students chosen by the school administration. These students represent the best of the Class of 2019, and are en route to top-flight institutions like George Washington, University of Virginia and the University of Michigan.

The 10 students—Amanda Allen, Priyanka Bhatnagar, Anushka Biswas, Toni-Josephine Escuadro, Bhargavi Lanka, Sanjana Madhu, Harsh Padhye, Likhitha Patlolla, Manu Sankaran and Morgan Serra—have made their mark at RHS in a wide range of clubs, sports and community service activities. They hope to go on to careers in the law, engineering, medicine, computer science and actuarial fields.

The seniors took a moment out of their busy schedules to answer a few questions about their time in Robbinsville schools, who has inpsired them and what they envision for their futures.

The students appear below in alphabetical order.

Amanda Allen

College: Colgate University
Intended career: Physical therapist
Intercollegiate sports: Field hockey
Sports: Field hockey, lacrosse
Clubs: National Honor Society, Thea’s Star of Hope Club, Future Medical Leaders of America, and Project Unify
Prior schooling: Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School
Teacher who inspired me: Ms. Colicchia has been the most influential teacher for me as she also coached me in field hockey and lacrosse all four years of high school. She was a great mentor and helped me grow into a better player and person.
Favorite memory: The senior trip to Disney. Traveling and going around the parks with all of my friends gave me some of the best memories of my high school career.

Priyanka Bhatnagar

College: George Washington University
Intended career: Medicine (7-year BA/MD program)
Sports: Tennis
Clubs: Science Olympiad (secretary), FMLA (treasurer), National Honor Society, World Language Honor Society (vice president)
Prior schooling: Menlo Park Elementary, Woodrow Wilson Middle (Edison)
Teacher who inspired me: Mr. Gibson, who gave me my nickname “Yanks.”
Favorite memory: Senior trip to Disney. Small moments like playing Heads Up with strangers while waiting in line and sprinting with friends to save our dinner reservation forged memories I’m truly grateful for.

Anushka Biswas

College: Northeastern University
Intended career: Cellular and molecular biology
Clubs: Raven Regiment Marching Band, Science Olympiad team
Prior schooling: Sharon Elementary, Excelsior international school (India) from 4th-6th grade, Pond Road Middle School
Teacher who inspired me: After 4 classes with Ms. Sbarro, I can say I’ve enjoyed every second and I’m so glad I’ve had a teacher like her to believe in me and be so supportive. I’ll be sure to take both her bio lessons and life lessons with me as I head off to college.
Favorite memory: I thought I could somehow cast, screenwrite, and direct, as well as star in, my very own production of “A Twister on a Farm” for Sharon Idol and luckily had all my closest friends by my side to laugh off the final “play.”

Toni-Josephine Escuadro

College: Case Western Reserve University
Intended career: Biomedical engineer
Sports: Cross country (captain), winter track, spring track
Clubs: Model UN, Science Olympiad, National Honor Society, and Play Unified (e-board)
Prior schooling: Sharon Elementary, Pond Road Middle
Teacher who inspired me: Mr. Williams (middle school and sophomore year choir teacher) inspired me to perceive singing as an opportunity to build character, connect with others, act as a leader, and demand more from myself. While I no longer am part of the music department, I apply these skills in my academics, extracurriculars, and personal life.
Favorite memory: My friends and I walking into our connected hotel rooms at Disney.

Bhargavi Lanka

College: Georgia Institute of Technology
Intended career: Law
Clubs: FIRST Robotics, debate, Girls Who Code, Math League, UNICEF, National Honor Society
Prior schooling: Sharon Elementary, Pond Road Middle
Teacher who inspired me: Ms. Dolina and Mrs. Bonifazi because they taught me how to think, rather than what to think. They taught me to own my intellectual exploration, providing me with the tools to evaluate and perceive the world independently.
Favorite memory: Finishing the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge during junior year.

Sanjana Madhu

College: Stevens Institute of Technology
Intended career: Software/machine learning engineer
Intercollegiate sports: Swimming
Sports: Swimming (captain)
Clubs: National Honor Society (vice president), World Language Honor Society (french ambassador), March of Dimes (president)
Prior schooling: Parsons Elementary School (North Brunswick), Pond Road Middle School
Teacher who inspired me: Ms. Sawin. While being a supportive calculus teacher, Ms. Sawin has also been an encouraging and motivational swim coach.
Favorite memory: My favorite memory is moving to Robbinsville in 5th grade. Immediately I was welcomed with compassionate and accepting peers who went out of their way to make me feel more accustomed to my new environment. I remember feeling so lucky to be a part of such a tight-knit community, and I still am!

Harsh Padhye

College: University of Virginia (Echols Scholars Program)
Intended career: Robotics automation engineering
Sports: Soccer
Clubs: FIRST Robotics, Model United Nations, National Honor Society
Prior schooling: Littleton Elementary (Parsippany), Pond Road Middle
Teacher who inspired me: Ms. Rich has been the most influential teacher because she fostered my interest in technology while making class fun. She’s always been a teacher I can sit down and have a conversation with about anything, at anytime.
Favorite memory: Watching Virginia beat Texas Tech in the NCAA finals. Wahoowa!

Likhitha Patlolla

College: Rutgers University Honors College
Intended career: Medicine
Intercollegiate sports: Tennis
Sports: Tennis (captain)
Clubs: Future Medical Leaders of America (vice president), Science Olympiad (vice president), FIRST Robotics (director of marketing), World Language Honor Society (president), National Honor Society
Prior schooling: John Marshall Elementary School (Edison), Sharon Elementary School, Pond Road Middle School
Teacher who inspired me: Ms. Dolina and Ms. Rimerman. Both of them are always looking out for me and always there to give me advice or help me laugh. They help me keep things in perspective when life starts to get tough.
Favorite memory: Working hard with the girls’ tennis team and becoming division
champions for the first time in our team’s history my senior year. Also becoming three-time Entrepreneurship Award winners with my robotics team my senior year.

Manu Sankaran

College: Rutgers University Honors College
Intended career: Actuary
Sports: Tennis
Clubs: Math League (treasurer), FIRST Robotics
Prior schooling: Elementary school and 6th grade in South Brunswick, Pond Road Middle School
Teacher who inspired me: My 5th grade teacher Mrs. Calandruccio has been the most influential academic mentor for me. She showed me how interesting learning could be and helped me develop my curiosity for discovering new things.
Favorite memory: Going on the Disney senior trip. To be able make so many memories with my friends in such an amazing place is something that I will never forget.

Morgan Serra

College: University of Michigan
Intended career: Mechanical/aerospace engineering
Clubs: Raven Regiment Color Guard (Captain), Pet Rescue Club (President/Co-Founder), Play Unified (Event Coordinator), FIRST Robotics, National Honor Society, World Language Honor Society, Friends of Rachel
Prior schooling: Sharon Elementary, Pond Road Middle
Person who inspires me: Mrs. Bonifazi has been my most influential teacher because, if it wasn’t for her, I would not have been able to successfully organize and run the RHS Pet Rescue Club. Her dedicated efforts helped the club to raise over 600 pounds of pet supplies for the Pet Rescue of Mercer.
Favorite memory: Eighth-grade-me sitting in the University of Tennessee’s Basketball Arena with five of my closest friends hearing the announcer say “from ‘Robbinsonville’, New Jersey, The Hexatonixx” letting us know that we won the Destination Imagination Global Finals.