2021 Scholarship Winners
The Vegetarian Resource Group Awarded $20,000 in 2021 College Scholarships
Arpi Keshishian–California
Knowing that millions of animals are suffering and being killed in factory farms each year, just to be served as school lunches that would usually be left uneaten, completely broke my heart. I knew that something had to change. I decided to create a plant–based survey and send it out to students across my school district. In this survey, I questioned if the student would want to have more plant–based options, what plant–based meals they are interested in, and what their reasoning was behind their answer. I then used ArcGIS (an online mapping application) to create a dashboard displaying the survey results. I included bar graphs, pie charts, and maps to demonstrate the percentage of students who wanted veg options, and I displayed where the data was gathered from with the use of a pie chart and a map. I then set up a Zoom meeting with my school's nutritional services director where I pitched my idea and used my survey and dashboard results as evidence that our school district had a clear demand for more plant–based options.
According to one of Arpi's references, she got the whole district food services administration to join Zoom and led the meeting, presenting fact–based data to support incorporating vegan options on a regular basis for school meals. The district food services director was so impressed with the work she had done researching affordable vegan options for the school menu that she thanked Arpi for doing the survey, saying that data does make a difference, and asked her to send her the data collected from her survey. Through her efforts, the food service director committed to including falafel, soymilk, fruit parfaits, and other vegan items to the menu. To further encourage vegetarianism in her community, Arpi partnered with the Factory Farming Awareness Coalition to represent them at her high school's AP environmental science courses.
As a guest speaker, she lectured two classes regarding the ethical and environmental issues linked with factory farming. She also created a quick–and–easy vegan recipe tutorial on her school's TV show, Quarter Past Clark. For her senior thesis, Arpi did a paper on food subsidies. She plans to focus her career on advocating for and creating new food–based policies in the U.S.
"Major topics that I am interested in are transitioning governmental food subsidies away from animal agriculture towards fruit and vegetable farms. I believe that to further spread the vegan and vegetarian movements, it is essential to stay compassionate in all aspects of life, by treating everyone with kindness, both humans and nonhuman animals alike," she said. Arpi will attend UC San Diego as a political science and public policy major, with a minor in climate change studies.
Jasmine El Mrabti–Florida
Jasmine said, "After I began to work, on the bus ride to my client's home, I read the fact that promoted my conversion to veganism: Animal Agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire transportation sector. I made the connection between human lives and animal lives clear to my family and forged my own path to cruelty–free, noble living. Following my ninth–grade conversion to veganism, I was compelled to tell the stories of those lives because they had become an extension of my own."
In high school, Jasmine was one of seven Americans selected for an international scholarship to study microbiology, robotics, and Arabic in Cairo, Egypt, for four weeks. She chose to do a plant–based project, posing diet change as a viable method for reducing suffering.
At the same time, she interacted with Egyptian families and registered 23 members to a vegan coaching program, as well as distributed vegan pamphlets. Back in Miami, Jasmine set up tables on the Florida International University campus and discussed plant–based diets with students and faculty.
She also worked long distance with a British vegan group to help them apply for grants, and supervised eight adults in this process. In addition, she worked to bring the group's school lunch information to her campus. Her high school science teacher stated, "Jasmine effectively communicates the intersectionality of sustainable consumption. Her discussion consists of science, but also of ethics, poverty, racism, and fiscal policy; this makes her outreach intellectually stimulating for all participants, myself included. I, along with a majority of faculty and the student body, have started to transition to plant–forward diets as a result of her advocacy. It is due to her passion that I have been vegan since March of last year.
"Jasmine will pursue a college degree in Biological Physics with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies or Environmental Studies. She hopes to create a nonprofit that will provide environmental, STEM–geared, plant–forward education to inner–city youth.
"I want to help people find their kindness," Jasmine said, summing up her message.
Naina Misra–Arizona
In my ninth grade year, I noticed that students at my school were unable to engage in science due to the minimal educational opportunities present in my rural town in northwestern Arizona. Also, many students had not yet established a connection with the intricacies of the natural world outsides of hunting and fishing. I knew that I needed to find a way to interest students in the ecological sciences and then develop an appreciation of the beauty and peace of nature outside of these destructive practices, Naina said.I first applied for and won a $500 grant from the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, which I used to buy plants, supplies, and tools. I assembled a team of high school students and began breaking ground in a deserted area at the edge of my school's campus. At first, the rocky terrain, insecure water connection, and oven–like climate threatened to stall the garden's progress. However, I planned a winding canal system to store and supply water for the trees, bushes, and crops growing in the garden, and installed a greenhouse and raised beds for various varieties of plants.
We have grown peaches, plums, apples, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, tomatoes, cilantro, spinach, broccoli, onions, corn, and okra to name a few. Any students who have worked in the garden and helped during our planting season can take home and give away the produce they have grown.
When I go to college at the end of this year, I plan to entrust the garden to my school for its upkeep. I have established a garden club which, under the supervision of my science teacher, will look after it.
In eleventh grade, I also pioneered a salad bar in my school district cafeteria.
I conducted a survey of all students and faculty at my high school to determine the impact a new salad bar would have on our school cafeteria.
I sent a memo to the school district administration to introduce my plan. I then assembled a salad bar needs assessment committee that included my culinary teacher, faculty members, and student representatives. We brainstormed ideas for the salad bar's offerings, determined the new lunch line procedures, and set the school days the salad bar would be in operation. I scheduled a meeting with my district's principal and superintendent where I presented the survey results, and addressed my plan to move forward with the salad bar. I also proposed the equipment necessary to store and serve the salads.
After hearing my ideas, the administration quickly approved the project and allocated funds to purchase a two–door, self–serve salad station for the cafeteria.
Monday, March 16 was the Salad Bar's Grand Opening Day. Flyers were sent to students across the school district, and a school newspaper article detailing the unveiling of this new cafeteria addition was already in circulation. Then, the Covid–19 pandemic ground all school operations to a halt. Classroom learning migrated to the Cloud, and months passed without a single student stepping foot on campus. My vision to implement a salad bar at my school had been paused.
(Then) I was elated to hear that I could begin the salad bar in a new school year, but knew that I would have to recalculate its setup. Once the school year began, I met with the salad bar needs assessment committee and decided to send an online order form every morning to faculty and students, enabling them to select the options they would like on the salad bar, and then coordinate with the culinary department to pre–assemble the individualized salads. As I worked with other culinary students in the morning, reading orders and portioning salads while wearing gloves, masks, and keeping a safe distance, I gained hope in the fact I could make my goals a reality.
My school was a tough place to implement a salad bar project as most of the students and staff come from ranching and farming backgrounds, and meat is always a part of their diet. The salad bar was open to students from September to December last year. Then the salad bar was only for faculty due to the Covid–19 restrictions. After its success, it was implemented for everyone.
This week I began the salad bar in person and participants can now order and pick up their salads in my school's cafeteria. Earlier approximately 200–300 students ordered from the salad bar, and the most popular toppings were the roasted nuts and cranberries, and crunchy spiced lentils. Previously, all of the salads were distributed in pickup boxes to prevent Covid–19 contamination. Now, my school district has allowed the salad bar to operate in–person. I am working with other students at my school to take orders and create the salads in–person in my school cafeteria.
Naina told The Vegetarian Resource Group that she hopes to become a neurosurgeon and recommend vegetarian diets to her patients.
Do you know an amazing vegan or vegetarian high school student?
Please tell them about our annual scholarship contest!
The deadline for the next VRG scholarship contest for high school seniors graduating in 2022 is
To see scholarship rules and past winners, visit vrg.org/student/scholar.htm To send support for additional scholarships and internships, donate at vrg.org/donate, call (410) 366–8343, or send a donation to VRG, P.O. Box 1463, Baltimore, MD 21203.
