Global Medicine On The Horizon For Multi-Talented Manalapan Senior

MANALAPAN, NJ — For Adwaith Hariharan, summer brings no gap in learning or hard work.

The rising senior at Biotechnology High School in Freehold is engaged in a multitude of interests that, while distinct from each other, seem to be converging to prepare him for a challenging future in global medicine.

He lives with his parents Annapurna Raju and Arun Hariharan in Manalapan.

First, Hariharan won state recognition for his volunteer work with children who have Autism spectrum disorders and other communication difficulties. For that he was named a New Jersey Governor's Jefferson Award honoree in the Founders/Innovators category.

Then this summer, as part of the 2022 Global Health Leaders Conference at Johns Hopkins University, he was invited to be a speaker in its Student Speaker Series and presented his research on the public health concern of "The intersecting pandemics of COVID-19 & Tuberculosis."

Add to that his commitment to science literacy to improve health in underserved communities.

And also in the mix is his facility with learning foreign languages.

It all equates to a remarkable high school student's global view of world health issues.

Hariharan first explains the program for autistic children he developed:

His initiative, called "Building Connections," encouraged language and social communication skills through the medium of STEAM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, he said.

Working with the Friendship Circle of Central New Jersey he was matched up with students of various ages, but mainly in late elementary and early middle school years.

He said it involved conducting both in-person and virtual socio-educational classes and camps. In person, there was a local synagogue that provided facilities.

"These camps and classes included the gamut - using Lego blocks to foster social communication while building cars, boats, animals and engineering motors with them," Hariharan said in an email.

He said he conducted classes in basic science concepts, introductory coding classes and used the "Minecraft" video game to teach topics in engineering and physics. Minecraft can teach teamwork and problem solving, too, he said.

But what he is most proud of, he said, is that the students he worked with then brought their skills to the community at large - what he called "inclusive volunteerism."

"What started out as a socio-communication STEAM inclusivity project evolved into an impactful social experiment shattering the myth that individuals with disabilities can only receive service and cannot give back to others," he said.

For example, the students he worked with developed a program to donate 500 lunch bags to a local food bank "during the pandemic when food insecurity was at its peak."

"Empowered by the success of the lunch bag donation, participants of this program went further by assembling and donating over 300 bags containing hygiene products to local homeless shelters during the pandemic, thus impacting close to 800 individuals and families in their community through inclusive volunteerism," Hariharan said.

He received the state recognition for this work. The New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards has honored hundreds of groups and individuals throughout the state of New Jersey for their "exemplary volunteer efforts," the website for the awards says.

"It encourages others to volunteer by shining a light on the volunteerism of others."

The New Jersey statewide program started in 2007, and the New Jersey State Governor’s Council on Volunteerism adopted the award as the official Governor’s award in 2010. More than 300 medals have been awarded in New Jersey between 2007 and 2021 and hundreds more honored with certificates, as was Hariharan.

The National Jefferson Awards are administered by Multiplying Good and were founded in 1972 by Senator Robert Taft Jr., Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Sam Beard, the website says.

Hariharan said the experience taught him a lot.

"Through my work in the autistic community, I have been able to get one clear message across - autism is not a disability, it's a different ability. The individuals that were a part of this community led from their strengths rather than their weaknesses, which people perceive when they hear the term ‘special needs.’"

"Their purpose-driven enthusiasm and spirit of giving have taught me the true meaning of empathy and the fact that even the smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intentions," Hariharan said.

But this young man's interests appear to have almost no boundaries.

"In school, my favorite subject is biology, as my experiences in this class have cemented my passion to pursue a career in medicine," he said.

"In college, I plan to pursue my love for medicine by majoring in biology as an undergraduate while exploring bioinformatics (collection and analysis of biologic data) and global health in college," he said.

Then there is his interest in science literacy.

He said the recent pandemic has "underscored this urgent need for equity through science education."

As part of this passion, he has worked as an editor with Curious Science Writers, an online blog by Americans for Medical Progress that has the goal of making complex scientific issues more understandable to the general reader.

Working with mentors, he said he has also written articles on global health and AI predictions of COVID mortality risk factors that have appeared in school magazines and online.

"I want to continue to promote and make accessible the art of effective science communication as a tool to improve healthcare inequities, especially in the Latinx and Black communities," he said.

He also embraces learning new languages.

He won a State Department's National Security Language Initiative for Youth scholarship to study Arabic. Language, too, will meet the demands of his interest in global health issues, he said.

He reached intermediate speaking proficiency in Arabic and has competency in Spanish.

"I am conversant in three of the five commonly spoken languages in most parts of the world that are in humanitarian and health crises," Hariharan said.

Were it not for COVID, he would have studied Arabic for six weeks in Morocco rather than virtually, he said.

He appreciated the virtual lessons, he said, but a journey to Morocco would have been the sort of adventure Adwaith Hariharan seems destined for.