Guwahati: Anurag Tiwari from Uttar Pradesh's remote village of Sarasan, the son of a marginal farmer, has scored 98.2% in the CBSE Class 12th exams. The fact that he has also secured a 100% scholarship in New York's Cornell University, one of the Ivy League universities in the US, is the icing on the cake.
Tiwari is now is waiting for his online classes at Cornell to start from September 1st (as most universities are holding virtual classes amid COVID-19 pandemic). Remarkably, up until 4 years ago, Anurag's village did not even have access to electricity. A humanities student, Anurag scored an ideal 100 in economics and historical past, 99 in political science and 97 in English. He scored lowest in arithmetic (95). Anurag will now study economics and arithmetic at Cornell.
"My determination to study humanities was questioned by many who felt it was not appropriate for boys," a jubilant Anurag stated after his results came in. Anurag attended primary school in his village Sarasan until class 5. His village Sarasan is 60kms from Lakhimpur Town. It waats in class 6 that he made the cut by qualifying the entrance test for admission in Vidya Gyan located in Sitapur.
It is to be mentioned that Vidya Gyan is a rural leadership academy which handpicks economically underprivileged meritorious students from rural U.P.
"The call letter in 2013 changed my life. Motivation to dream big came from my hard-working parents. Support came from my three elder sisters who wanted me to get world-class education which they couldn't", he added, recalling past episodes from his life.
Anurag also started preparing for SAT when he was in Class 11 and he scored 1370 marks out of 1600. He applied to Cornell as an 'Early Decision Applicant' and got the call in December last year.