Olathe North junior will spend summer doing neuroscience research — at MIT

An Olathe North High School junior will spend her summer working on research that furthers her goal of curing and treating neurological disorders.

Beginning June 21, 16-year-old Disha Dasgupta will spend six weeks at the Research Science Institute, an all-expense-paid summer research program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

Each year, nearly 5,000 high school juniors apply for the program and only 50 are chosen from the United States. It’s an accomplishment that Dasgupta still can’t believe she has achieved.

“I am thrilled,” said Dasgupta. “I understand that MIT has a huge wow factor to it and I am really excited about it. It’s still really surreal to me that I am going.”

To add to the prestige, Dasgupta was also selected to participate in another internship program this summer at the National Institutes of Health. It’s a select program with only a 5 percent acceptance rate.

Dasgupta ultimately chose the Research Science Institute, where she will stay in a campus dorm, attend classes and do research under the supervision of professors from MIT or Harvard. She will focus on her favorite area of study, which is computational neuroscience or using mathematical models to study brain function and the properties that make up the nervous system. She is specifically interested in using the science for the cure and treatment of neurological disorders.

Students are chosen for the Research Science Institute program based on academics, standardized tests and extracurricular activities. Dasgupta has quite an impressive resume when it comes to all three.

As a junior, she received a perfect score of 36 on her ACT and currently has a 4.0 unweighted grade-point average. On the extracurricular front, Dasgupta is part of her school’s award-winning Science Olympiad team and she is an accomplished pianist, having played piano for 12 years.

And when she isn’t studying or participating in extracurricular activities, she likes to give back to her community.

“I do a lot of volunteer service because it is food for the soul,” said Dasgupta.

She is only one of 15 to be selected to serve on the Olathe Teen Council organized through the city. As part of the group, she helped complete multiple service projects that have benefited the city. As president of the Olathe Teen Council, Dasgupta helped implement an anti-drug and alcohol campaign called “It Matters.” She was also instrumental in having the Olathe Teen Council partner with the Olathe Police Department to hold a forum to help target teen crime in the city.

Some her drive comes from her desire to honor her parents, who came to the United States from India in the early 1990s and who have been incredibly supportive of her.

Dasgupta remains undecided as to where she will attend college after she graduatesnext year. But she is sure that she would like to eventually use her studies in computational neuroscience to bring healing to those who suffer from serious neurological disorders.

“My ultimate goal is not to make money,” said Dasgupta. “I really want to help people.”

This story was originally published June 2, 2015 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Olathe North junior will spend summer doing neuroscience research — at MIT."