Valedictorian plans to become a doctor

Shilipi Kumar takes pride in being part of the first graduating class of Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, and actually misses the pioneering days when the school was still being built and the students were housed in trailers.
An honor student and the class valedictorian, Kumar plans to become a dermatologist, following in the footsteps of her parents who are both pediatricians.
“Dermatologists deal with the least emergencies - no one’s life is depending on me,” says Kumar. “It’s fashionable.”
Kumar’s parents, physicians in Uttar Pradeshj, India moved to the U.S. to complete their residencies. Growing up watching her parents, Kumar knows how demanding a doctor’s schedule can be and how much hard work it takes to become one.
“Just being around two people who studied so much influenced me to do the same,” Kumar said.
Her outstanding academic record shows that all that studying paid off. She placed first at her high school’s Science Fair in both 2004 and 2005, is fluent in Spanish and Hindu, and is the Valedictorian for her graduating class.
Kumar does not pretend that her academic record came easily. She admits to suffering from stress and credits this with helping her to learn the valuable lesson of living a balanced life.
“I can deal with stress better now than I could in ninth grade.” Kumar says.
Also, it is this same lesson that has resulted in her senior year being relatively stress free. Kumar has already taken the bulk of her classes needed for graduation and therefore is able to enjoy her last year at school.
Surprisingly, with such a stellar academic record, it is not any of her many awards that stand out as Kumar’s fondest memory. Rather, it is a school-wide snowball fight that included teachers and students, when the school housed a mere 100 students and boasted only six teachers.
She misses the “trailer” days. The family-like atmosphere punctuated with gusts of wind that interrupted studies every time the door was opened. And Kumar misses the students having to haul their coats and book bags around with them all day.
Her saddest memory is that four of the original six teachers that taught at Queens Science in Kumar’s first year are no longer there.
“It would have been great to have the entire staff at my graduation,” she says.