Santa Fe is home to many brilliant students. One of them, Ilakiya Raghavendiran, who has already accomplished many achievements by her senior year: a national merit semifinalist, a founder of The Humaniteen Scholars Foundation, a co-founder of HighQ Medical Technologies and Oklahoma Distributive Education Clubs of America’s (DECA) State Vice President of Finance. Raghavendiran also attends Francis Tuttle, where she works in Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) leadership and research projects. 

“My schedule stays busy,” Raghavendiran said. “But it’s the kind of busy that feels purposeful.” 

Research has been a huge part of Raghavendiran’s high school experience, currently being an assistant at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, where she contributes to neuroscience and aging studies, which have been accepted for publication. Moreover, Raghavendiran has contributed to research at the Stephenson Cancer Center and has been a co-author on a case report about a rare type of Eccrine duct cancer. 

“What I love about research is that it teaches you how to think carefully and stay humble,” Raghavendiran said. “You have to learn how to ask better questions, deal with uncertainty and keep going even when the answer isn’t obvious yet.”

Her most “touching work” has been founding and leading The Humaniteen Scholars Foundation, a student-led nonprofit that provides academic support for students from underserved backgrounds. Every Monday, Raghavendiran leads a group of high school students to tutor reading and math at Charles Haskell Elementary. The foundation also provides standardized-testing resources for their volunteers, including monthly SAT/ACT workshops.

“The confidence students build in learning doesn’t just stay in class; it shapes whether they see school as a door that stays open, and whether they believe they can keep growing academically,” Raghavendiran said. “I am deeply interested in educational equity.” 

Raghavendiran’s main motivation behind her work is translational impact by producing more meaningful and applicable innovations that directly benefit human health, going beyond commercial success. 

“To me, translational impact means knowing that my work can eventually improve someone’s quality of life, even if I never meet the person it helps,” Raghavendiran said. “It’s the idea that effort does not have to be visible to be meaningful.”

After high school, Raghavendiran plans to go to college for pre-med, with the goal of becoming a physician and always focusing her work in the service of others. 

Connection to her South Indian culture

For Raghavendiran, her South Indian identity is not always spoken, but sung. Raghavendiran has sung Carnatic music, the classical musical tradition of South Indian, for the last 13 years. 

“The lyrics of Tamil folk songs bring me back to my mother tongue, and with it, a feeling of home,” Raghavendiran said.

Raghavendiran and her sister, Pavithra Raghavendiran, grew up training in Carnatic vocal music and over the years they incorporated dancing to it; performing in the past three annual cultural shows at Santa Fe.

“Choosing a song with a classical feel was our way of honoring where we started, while bringing in the energy and color of Bollywood,” Raghavendiran said. “To us, this act feels like a little tribute to both our roots and everything we have been learning along the way.”

Personal life

 Outside of her academic commitments, Raghavendiran enjoys reading, from academic papers to historical fiction novels; she loves to get lost in a good story. Some of her favorite books are The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali and Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

Something most people don’t know about Raghavendiran is that she enjoys driving a manual car because it requires full attention and intentional engagement. 

“Every corner feels like a conversation: I listen, anticipate, and act with intention, and the engine responds in real time to the quality of that attention,” Raghavendiran said. “Nothing about it is passive, and this affinity for attention is something I actually apply to most other parts of my life.”

For Raghavendiran, driving a manual feels like a conversation between her and her car. This reflects her interest for mental presence and awareness, qualities that she values and applies in her life.