Hometown:

Schererville, IN

Biography

A National Merit Scholar and an AP Scholar with Distinction, Jay graduated summa cum laude from Lake Central High School in St. John, Indiana. He was elected president of Business Professionals of America District 1, a statewide office; won the BPA National Championship in Advanced Word Processing his junior year; and placed second in state his senior year. He served as co-president of the Lake Central’s Science Olympiad team, which qualified for state competition three years in a row and placed fourth his senior year. Jay placed fourth in Game On, a computer programming event, and fifth in Protein Modeling. He served as treasurer of the National Honor Society and was a member of the debate team; Future Medical Professionals; the service organization N-Teens; and HUM, an Indian youth group that provides community service and organizes cultural events. Jay especially enjoys performing Indian dance and sharing Indian culture with others. He plans to major in intelligent systems engineering and to major or minor in biochemistry with a view to a career in medicine.

He has chosen to live by advice from author Viktor E. Frankl, a neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Jay credits Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning with changing his outlook on life and is drawn to the author’s message that changing how you think can make almost anything possible.

He will hold the John W. Anderson Foundation and the J. Bruce and Helen Merritt scholarships in the Wells Scholars Program.