College Matters. Alma Matters.
by Venkat Raman
Podcast for High Schoolers about College. We chronicle personal experiences on College Life, College Preparation with College Alumni, Faculty, Admissions and Counselors. The goal of these stories is to Inform & Inspire students all over the world to pursue their college dreams.
Episodes
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Dean Neville Vakharia of Drexel University Pennoni Honors College: A Hidden Jewel.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Dean Vakharia has an interdisciplinary background. An Engineering undergraduate, master’s in arts administration and Phd in Information Science. He has experience working in the corporate sector as well with non-profits. When the opportunity to be...
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Dr. Josh Cannon of Frederick Honors College: Helping Students Find Resources for Undergraduate Research.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter After finishing High School, Dr. Cannon joined the Marine Corps as an Arabic Cryptologic Linguist. Dr. Cannon loved the process of learning a language. So, after the Marine Corps, Dr Cannon attended the University of Pittsburgh where he discovered...
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If it’s February, This must be College Visits, in College News Fit to Digest. February 19, 2025.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take. Topics discussed in this episode: College Visits and Why you should do them [] Our Guest: Shveta Bagade, College Counselor based in Silicon Valley California....
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Dr. Josh Cannon & Freshmen from Frederick Honors College at Pitt: Using the“Getting Started with UG Research” Workbook.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In the Fall semester of 2024, Dr. Cannon used the Getting Started with UG Research Workbook as a resource in a class he taught the Honors College freshmen In this special episode, we talk to Dr Cannon and 3 students - John, Preeti and Jacob about...
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Dean Graeme Harper of Oakland University: Promoting AI Literacy.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This episode is part of a series of conversations related to AI and Education. In this Episode, Dean Harper shares a Historical Perspective on AI, An approach to Gen AI, AI related Courses, Digital Infrastructure, Policies, Faculty use, Impact on...
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Dean Wink of UW Whitewater: Geography with Geology, Volcanic Rocks Research, and Carnegie Hall.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter I first spoke with Dean when he was a Sophomore at Whitewater. Since then, his research experience has grown and he has found his own research to pursue in the form of analyzing volcanic rocks from Iceland. This has not only equipped him with a…
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Paula Dennis’ Takeaways from Podcast Story: Emily Woodland of Drexel University.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In this series of episodes, College Counselors share their takeaways from College Alumni and Student stories featured in this Podcast. In this episode, Paula shares her takeaways from the Podcast episode with Emily Woodland, Drexel University.…
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Kalen Sieja of CU Boulder: Political Science & Evolutionary Biology, Studio Lab, and TEDxCU.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In High School Kalen took internationally focused courses. He loved Public Speaking and Debate and participated in a number of competitions and won the state championship in his senior year. At 16, even though he couldn’t vote, he actively…
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AI’s Role in College Applications 2024, in College News Fit to Digest. December 10, 2024.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: How Students, Colleges and Counselors are using AI in College Applications…
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Thomas Athey of Davidson College: Founding MESA, The Pitch Competition, and Being An Entrepreneur.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter I last spoke to Thomas when he was a sophomore at Davidson and was pursuing an entrepreneurial venture called Portfolio Kings. Thomas stayed entrepreneurial in the second half of his college years and co-founded MESA, a startup to provide…
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Rebecca Youngers of UT Austin: Journalism, Study Abroad in Ireland, and Social Media Internships.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter When I last spoke with Rebecca, she had just graduated from High School and was headed to the University of Texas Austin. Rebecca is a junior at UT Austin. In this episode, Rebecca shares her undergraduate experiences at UT Austin, Her Internships,...
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Tom Stepkoski’s Takeaways from Podcast Stories: Lorena of Davidson College, Aidan of UCLA, and Avinash of Princeton.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In this series of episodes, College Counselors share their takeaways from College Alumni and Student stories featured in this Podcast. Tom Stepkoski picked the 3 episodes from “College Vignettes Tell Tales”, my handbook for sophomores and juniors.…
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Tracy Baynes of STEP: Guiding Hard Working, Low Income Students to College.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Tracy got her PhD from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. For years after that, she taught college students in programs called “Semesters at Sea”. During that time she was also an instructor for the Outward Bound with the...
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Squaring Lower Acceptance Rates with Enrollment Decline in College News Fit to Digest. November 4, 2024.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: Lower Acceptance Rates at the Top US Colleges [] Enrollment Decline [] Our…
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Eva Mahajan and Emily Seo of Jenks High School: The Digital SAT Experience.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Digital SAT is here. Today we feature 2 high school seniors, Eva and Emily from Jenks High School to share their experiences with the Digital SAT. They talk about the structure of the test, how they prepared for it, The differences between the Paper...
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Beto Patino-Luna of UW Whitewater: Geography with Geology, UG Research, and The Welding Experience.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Beto liked Math and Science classes in High School. He loved to play soccer. In his senior year of high school, he started gravitating towards trade school and a career in welding. So, during the summer after high school, he started working as a...
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Heidi Clark-Smitley of Catholic Central on College Counseling: Planting A Seed And Having Options.
Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter As a junior In High School, Heidi was intrigued about College. Although her College Counselor wasn’t very motivating. And her parents were not College graduates. Her parents paid for a College Counseling program at a local community college. Heidi…
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Intentionally Delaying FAFSA in College News Fit to Digest. October 14, 2024.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: FAFSA [] Our Guest: Shveta Bagade, College Counselor based in Silicon Valley...
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Teddy Hsieh of UT Austin: Electrical Engineering & Chemistry, Goldwater Scholar, and Goldwater Community Network.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Teddy grew up loving the Sciences, especially Chemistry. He felt that Chemistry with the help of Math helped explain natural phenomena. In addition, he enjoyed History, Orchestra and Quiz Bowl. He started to appreciate taking an interdisciplinary...
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How to Deal with College Rankings in College News Fit to Digest. October 8, 2024.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: College Rankings [] Our Guest: Shveta Bagade, College Counselor based in Silicon...
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AI in High School: Bill Hancock of Cranbrook Kingswood High School, Michigan.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This episode is part of a series of conversations related to using AI in Education. How AI is changing High Schools, Colleges, learning and College Applications.What High Schools and Colleges are instituting in terms of policies and guidelines about...
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Dr. Rama Bala of Chance to Change Lives (CCL): Bringing Undergraduate Research to Smaller Colleges.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Dr. Bala read “Comet” by Dr. Carl Sagan when she was probably in middle school. The book captured her imagination and she was fascinated by astronomy. Over time her curiosity led her to physics and ultimately becoming a Professor of Physics at…
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AI in High School: Jodi Foxx Director of College Counseling at Charlotte Christian School.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This is the First in a series of conversations related to using AI in Education. How AI is changing High Schools, Colleges, learning and College Applications.What High Schools and Colleges are instituting in terms of policies and guidelines about…
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10X International Student Research Stories: Digital Safety, Detecting Credit Card Fraud With AI, and AI Transformers.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter 10X International School uniquely offers Experiential Programs to High Schoolers, To do research, build products, and in the process get a really good idea of what college program or career they want to pursue. On this Episode we feature 3 Grade 12...
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ACT Goes Digital and More in College News Fit to Digest. August 26, 2024.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Making sense of the College News of the week, curated by Alma Matters. Shveta Bagade, College Counselor gives us her take on the news. Topics discussed in this episode: ACT is Offering Digital Version of the Test [] State of Test Optional [] Our...
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Iswari Natarajan, President St. Mary’s Academy Colorado: Where Girls Find Their Voice & Use It.
Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Even as an engineer, Iswari found herself explaining concepts to her peers. Teaching gave her a purpose. She became a certified Montessori educator and later Director of a Montessori school. Iswari believes it was that all-girls school she went to…
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Jai Singh of Brown University: Philosophy & Biology, Acute Lung Injury and Sepsis Research, and UTRA.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter For High School, Jai went to United World Colleges ISAK in Japan. He got to meet students from different parts of the world, live and study with them. He was very interested in Philosophy. He started a Philosophy club and wanted to grow up to be...
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Sydney Wilhelmy of Frederick Honors College University of Pittsburgh: Political Science, Voyager Scholarship, and Languages.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Sydney grew up surrounded by different cultures, languages which shaped his interests. He worked summers in the High School and used that money to travel. Sydney joins our podcast to share his University of Pittsburgh Honors journey, the Honors...
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Mary Angbanzan of Frederick Honors College University of Pittsburgh: Health Services Management, Social Innovation, and David C. Frederick Scholarship.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In school Mary played rugby and took part in speech and debate. She was always interested in healthcare, and participated in Youth Partnership for health. Overall, she was committed to doing service and justice, and was very much grounded in Jesuit...
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About College and Beyond: Mary Sarah Mounsey of St. Mary’s Academy, Colorado.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Acting and Public Speaking were Mary Sarah’s passions while growing up. She loved to sing, dance and act. Theater honed her acting skills, so when she started to think about college, she was interested in pursuing Acting Programs. In this Podcast,...
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Anton McFadden of Cheyney University: Biology, Community College, and 7 Years of Research.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In middle school Anton fell in love with Stem Cells. He knew he wanted to go to college and pursue this more. Unfortunately, he did not have the means to pay for college. On this podcast Anton shares his undergraduate journey from High School, to...
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About College and Beyond: Mark Leschinsky, 2024 Coke Scholar, Bergen County Academies High School, New Jersey.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar. In this Podcast, Mark talks about his passion for filmmaking and student-run film festival SWIFF…
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About College and Beyond: Suraj Reddy, 2024 Coke Scholar, Charter School of Wilmington, Delaware.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar. In this Podcast, Suraj talks about his passion for STEM and Innovation, ISMER Research, Winning the...
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About College and Beyond: Chase Hartman, 2024 Coke Scholar, Sickles High School, Florida.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar. In this Podcast, Chase talks about his initiatives on Educational Inequities Eco Brothers, Winning the...
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Phil Gentry of St. Mary’s Academy on College Counseling: Embracing the Unpredictability.
Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Phil started coaching kids at Colorado Academy sometime after college. He deferred his admission to Law School to do this. But Phil found himself enjoying coaching. He enjoyed working with kids. Today, 3 decades later, Phil is the Director of College...
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Emily Woodland of Pennoni Honors College, Drexel University: Biomedical Engineering, Infant Heart Research, and Co-Op Experience.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In High School, Emily was a theater kid. She was into music. She was in a number of clubs ranging from National Honor Society to Science Olympiad. Her favorite subjects were STEM courses, but she was really confused about what major to pursue in...
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About College and Beyond: Shilpi Bardhan Of Jenks High School, Oklahoma.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Shilpi has a varied set of interests. In High School, Shilpi pushed herself academically taking a heavy load of AP courses, did credit card research as part of AP Capstone. She started a cricket club in her Freshman year which grew to 50 people. In...
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Looking Back with College Counselors: The 2023-24 College Application Season.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter The 2023-24 College Application Season is almost in the books. It is a good time to step back and reflect for the benefit of the next set of high school seniors and parents. And who better to help us than the College Counselors who guided the…
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Rishika Kartik of Brown University: Custom Major Design, Disability & Design, and Community.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter It is not often that I get to go back and have a follow up conversation with a guest. When I last spoke with Rishika, she had just won the Coke Scholarship, just graduated from High School and was headed to Brown University. Rishika has just…
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Brian Rogers of CSU Long Beach: Electrical Engineering, Honors Program, and Southern California Edison Internship.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Brian was a long distance runner in High School. He was the co-president of the Outdoor Adventure Club. In the classroom, he enjoyed STEM courses. He decided to attend CSU Long Beach which offered him the Presidential Scholarship and it was close to...
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Nia Sequeira Of Creighton University: Biochemistry, Undergraduate Research, and Being an International Student.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In the 9th Grade while in High School in India, Nia decided that she wanted to pursue college abroad. She was interested in Biology, Math. She was part of Model UN. When it was time to apply for college, Nia approached Education USA for guidance.…
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Taylor Miller-Ensminger of Loyola University Chicago: Bioinformatics, Goldwater Scholar, and Love For Research.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Taylor has always loved Science. Particularly Biology & Math. In High School, she discovered Photography, which provided her with a creative outlet. Taylor discovered research through a summer program in high school, something that has shaped her...
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Prof. John Weldon of Towson University: Undergraduate Research Helps Bridge Academics to the Real World.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Prof. Weldon got his start in research early. As a sophomore in High School, he worked at the National Institutes of Health. He pursued Biology in college leading up to his doctorate. During his post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer...
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Tarana Pahlajani of SCAD: Architecture, Universal Studios Internship, and Backstage Theme Park Tours.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Tarana’s family love to travel and explore. Touring Sainte Chapelle in Paris, for example, made a lasting impression on young Tarana. In her High School in India, Tarana found herself drawn to the theater and arts. She especially enjoyed the…
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NCUR 2024 Undergraduate Research Stories Part 3: College Athlete Brand, Japan Study, Web Comics, and Music for the Hard of Hearing.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the last in a series of 3 episodes based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 4 Student...
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NCUR 2024 Undergraduate Research Stories Part 2: Hospitals, Medicaid, Biological Tools, and School Boards.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the Second in a series of 3 episodes based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 4 Student...
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NCUR 2024 Undergraduate Research Stories Part 1: Education, Voting, and Changing Neighborhoods.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the First in a series of 3 episodes based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 3 Student...
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Maura Jarvis of Drexel University: Custom Design Major, Co-Op Experiences, and Environmental Sustainability.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In High School. Maura was known for 2 things: Environment Sustainability and an obsession with Japan. She was the president of the Ecology club. She was creative. Good at Science. Math, not so much. So, she felt she wouldn’t be successful as a...
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Christina McBride of Haverford College: Chemistry, Goldwater Scholar, and Natural Product Biosynthesis.
Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Christina was involved in a lot of activities in High School. She was at Science Fairs. She was on the Tennis team, quiz bowl. She did choir, theater, acapella, and leadership roles. But Science was her main thing. Christina joins our podcast to…
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Aparna Chandrasekharan of 10X International School: Financial Aid For College Study in the US.
Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter US Colleges cost quite a bit, to put it mildly. For International Students, cost is quite often the primary factor. Given Aparna’s experience guiding Int’l students, we turned to her for a Primer and tips on Financial Aid for International students.…
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About this show
Podcast for High Schoolers about College. We chronicle personal experiences on College Life, College Preparation with College Alumni, Faculty, Admissions and Counselors. The goal of these stories is to Inform & Inspire students all over the world to pursue their college dreams.
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Venkat Raman
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