Neha Kulkarni of Plainsboro received a Pay It Forward $1,000 scholarship award from Cure Auto Insurance at a recent dinner at Salt Creek Grille. The award recognizes young adults who possess an unwavering drive to make a positive impact on society. Unlike most scholarships, it is not based upon academic achievement, but on moral fiber and leadership qualities.
Kulkarni developed Solar Cooking for Ghana, a three-year project in which she traveled to Ghana, trained 20 volunteers to teach the villagers the solar cooking building process, and led solar cooker workshops in five different regions of West Africa. She also founded Reading for Life, a non-profit organization which raises money for The Hunger Project.
Kulkarni, 17, is a senior at High School North, where she has been on the school’s debate league for the past four years. A volunteer for March of Dimes, she has been a Girl Scout for more than 10 years and recently earned her Gold award in conjunction with the solar cooking project.
Born in Mumbai, India, Kulkarni lives in Plainsboro. Her parents, Anant and Nutan Kulkarni, work in the pharmaceutical industry. Her brother, Nikhil, 24, graduated from High School North in 2007, earned a degree in mechanical engineering from UCLA, and works at BMW.
Kulkarni began combating poverty abroad as a middle school student. In eighth grade she addressed key issues of illiteracy abroad with her Girl Scout Silver award project that provided more than 1,800 books to lesser developed countries like Botswana, Cambodia, Swaziland, and Uganada. “I wanted to address poverty internationally, because fundamentally it’s more severe than almost any other issue,” Kulkarni said in a July 20, 2012, story in the WW-P News.
“According to international studies, millions of women abroad walk miles to find fuel to heat their food. In fact, in some regions of Africa, women spend up to five hours a day collecting fuel and up to four hours preparing it with the traditional cooking fire,” says Kulkarni. “I’m looking to put an end to that through the alternative of solar cooking — a clean and free method of cooking that can replace the traditional cooking fire and its noxious effects.”
