Talented Srujana sweeps the board

A 16-YEAR-OLD high achiever scored a perfect 600 points in her Leaving Certificate - but may still miss out on her dream to study medicine in college.

Srujanavenkate Vedicherla ranks as one of the youngest and highest achievers in this year's Leaving Cert.

Originally from Singapore, Srujana achieved six A1s as well as two A2s, although she had to work harder than most to get where she is today.

Srujana came to Ireland with her family only four years ago and enrolled in Mount Carmel Secondary School in Dublin's north inner city.

Halfway through her final year, her parents and brother moved back to Singapore. But Srujana chose to 'finish what she started in Ireland' and moved in with an older cousin in order to finish her Leaving Cert.

The talented teenager said she found it difficult at times to study, but added: 'If you have passion and heart you will achieve your dreams.'

She added that the support of the school was 'really invaluable'.

The young student had to study Applied Maths and Physics outside of school hours and on Saturdays. But despite her perfect results, she may be denied the chance to study medicine if her results in the HPAT admissions test are not good enough. But if she misses out on medicine, she said she would be happy to do science.

Her yearbook comment sums up her future plans: 'the sky's the limit; the journey to the Nobel Prize has just begun. . . watch out Sweden.'

- Fiona Ellis and Patricia McDonagh

Irish Independent