Sidhartha Basu
My Personal Website
© Sidhartha Basu 2024
Table of Contents
- My Published Research
- My Published Books
- My Nonprofit
- High School Leadership
- Recognitions
- My Other Side
- About Me
- Journeys of Belonging
High School Leadership
Superintendent’s Advisory Committee
As one of the two members selected from my entire school, my primary duty is to contribute my knowledge, expertise, and insights to help improve the educational experiences and outcomes of students in Henrico County Public Schools. The committee’s primary purpose is to provide input and feedback to the Superintendent and other school administrators on issues related to education in the district.
For the past three consecutive years, I have been nominated for this leadership position. In these sessions, I have championed the cause of better cultural integration of students with very diverse backgrounds like refugees and immigrants, advocated for mental health awareness, and raising a voice against faith-based discrimination and hate such as antisemitism and islamophobia that has seen a rise in the last few months.
I am currently in the process of creating a program through Henrico County Public Schools to address the issues I mentioned earlier. I am collaborating with our county’s superintendent, Dr. Amy Cashwell, and Director of Highschool Education, Mr. Thomas Ferrell, to expand this program.
Founder of Anthropology Club
Anthropology is a subject that is not taught at my school. Through my volunteer work with refugees, I became interested in learning about different cultures and a teacher at my school introduced me to Anthropology. I did some self-study and found the subject extremely fascinating and relevant to understanding and solving social tensions in the modern world.
In the summer of my sophomore year, I qualified through the VCU Advanced Scholars and Honors program to take a college-level course in Anthropology. This class piqued my interest in the subject even further and I decided to share this knowledge in my school community. At the beginning of my junior year, I founded our school’s first ever Anthropology club with Ms. Voutsinas as a sponsor (the same teacher who introduced me to this subject). We would meet monthly and discuss about different aspects of Anthropology and how they are relevant in understanding modern day norms and challenges. I also worked with the American Anthropology Association to celebrate World Anthropology Day at my school and fundraised money for Tusome Pamoja. Through the Anthropology Club, I also founded a Buddy Program at my school that aimed at providing new immigrants to our school with a cultural readjustment program that would help them acclimatize to their surroundings. Currently, our club has over 2o members and I expect this number to grow next year.
Refugee Awareness Sessions
I felt compelled to share the knowledge and experiences that I gained through my work with refugees in my local community. I worked with school administrators to coordinate and orchestrate such sessions and make them publicly available for every student at my school. While working with refugees, I have learned a lot about privilege and inequality across the world. These experiences have taught me how fortunate we are to live in a safe, free, and democratic society. In the future, I plan to expand these sessions to more schools in the county.
Computer Club Leadership Positions
1. Head of Artificial Intelligence Divisions
2. Webmaster of Computer Club
2. Webmaster of Computer Club
As Head of the Artificial Intelligence Division at the Computer Club, I planned interactive learning sessions for more than 25 students, invited knowledgeable guest speakers from various sectors of industry, and frequently engaged in data science and AI competitions. I presented some of the projects I did as part of the AI division to my teachers, school administrators, and computer club students.
As Webmaster of Computer Club, I designed our club’s website, surveyed club members on how to improve the computer club experience, and partnered with other clubs to hold computer literacy workshops and broaden the club’s outreach to serve more members.
Special Projects Assigned by Principal (School Quality Meetings)
I was one of the three people nominated within the school to perform a detailed analysis of how academic achievement was correlated to certain demographics and socioeconomic data of students. The objective of our analysis was to find trends and patterns and make recommendations for improvements to the school leadership.
Given my prior experience in using statistical software like SPSS, I identified clusters based on demographics and used information I obtained about those clusters to find significant correlations between demographics and academic achievement. These findings were used by the school board to then improve students’ academic success.
Literary Club
Due to time constraints I did not hold a leadership position in the literary club but I was a member and did actively participate in activities of the club. At these meetings, I often discussed the different books I wrote and distributed them to teachers and students who wanted to read them. I plan to hold a leadership position in this club next year.
