Wayzata Student Teams with U of M Researcher on Cancer Study
When you’re in high school, you don’t always have a clear vision of the path ahead.
But students like Aaratrika Mondal have a head start.
She and the other students in Wayzata High School’s Honors Mentor Connection program are paired with an industry expert to help them on a year-long research project.
Mondal’s focus is in biology.
“I’m paired with a professor at the University of Minnesota, her name is Dr. Huang, and she is my mentor,” said Mondal. “And she is helping me to have my own project where I get to research these cells called fibroblasts in cancer, and we’re hoping to find a treatment that will help people in the future.”
It’s a heavy topic for someone who’s only a junior in high school, but it’s no surprise to the teachers who know her well.
“Aaratrika is incredibly driven, and you can see that in all of her endeavors,” said Amanda Laden, a teacher at Wayzata High School. “She was seeking out an opportunity with a mentor prior to even joining Honors Mentor Connection.”
In addition to her cancer research, Mondal is on Wayzata’s speech team, and she’s part of the science bowl team that just won the regional championship.
It’s no surprise that she has a 4.0 GPA.
“I was raised in a family that really valued education and it was something that was very important to me and important to my parents,” Mondal said. “That’s a value that I’ve inherited where I’ve really valued all of the education and learning that I received, no matter where it comes from.”
Wayzata High School Team 1 left to right: Aaratrika Mondal, Richard Lin, Warren Wang, Luyao Yang, Kevin Qiu. The team won the Minnesota statewide High School Science Bowl on January 25, competing against 27 other teams from 15 high schools.
Life outside the classroom
But academics isn’t the only area where she excels, she’s also spent the last 10 years doing Indian classical dance.
“It’s called Kathak, and it’s from north India,” said Mondal. “And so I’m part of a professional troupe in the Twin Cities that tours the Midwest every so often. We have a show coming up in April that I’m excited for.”
Mondal is about as well-rounded a student as they come, and her teacher sees her going far.
“Whether she pursues research, goes into medicine, anything along those lines, I think that she is a leader and she’s gonna be pretty successful,” Laden said. “I can’t wait to see what she does.”
Meanwhile, Mondal will join her science bowl team this April at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C.
So far, she’s undecided on a college, but she plans to focus on biology research.
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