Academic All-Star – Darsh Khandelwal, Mill Creek Middle
Published March 5, 2019
Teachers say Mill Creek Middle School eighth grader Darsh Khandelwal is a student who exemplifies grit, a high level of maturity and a relentless pursuit of excellence.
Those are the sort of qualities that led administrators to name him as the school’s Academic All-Star for the 2018-19 school year.
“Darsh comes to class with a positive attitude, completed homework, and a strong desire to learn new material,” said Spanish teacher Hannah Griffin. “He is actively engaged in every lesson, asks questions frequently and strives to know as much as possible about the daily objective. When completing class activities, Darsh helps other students by answering their questions or providing a different approach to reaching the answer.”
After moving a lot as a child, Darsh began attending MCMS in sixth grade after he and his family moved to Williamson County from Mt. Juliet.
“This is one of the best schools I’ve ever been to,” said Darsh. “The teachers are very interactive. They always have fun activities to do, and they like to get the students engaged in the lesson.”
Darsh says his two favorite classes are social studies and math.
“I had Mr. Stange for social studies last year and he’s one of the best teachers in the district,” said Darsh. “I like math because it has always been easy for me.”
Teachers say they’re impressed by the way Darsh seeks out learning opportunities.
“While Darsh values high academic performance and scoring well on his exams, he takes more pride in his ability to embrace new challenges,” said Griffin. “There is no task he cannot tackle in my classroom, and he works diligently to achieve the goals he sets for himself. Once he reaches the goal, he asks questions about how he can reach the next level.”
Darsh is involved in numerous activities both in and out of school. In addition to being a MCMS student ambassador, Darsh is also a member of the National Junior Honor Society, the Math Olympiad, the Science Olympiad and he’s a black belt in karate.
As for the future, Darsh says he wants to be one of three things when he gets older.
“Either I want to become an anesthesiologist, work in robotics or be an entrepreneur,” said Darsh. “I’d like to be an anesthesiologist because I read that it’s the number one money-making job in the world. I also happen to enjoy robotics which I tinker with at home, and I think it would be cool to make something that would help the world.”
Regardless what he chooses for a career, it’s safe to assume Darsh’s search for knowledge will continue well into the future.
“If it’s something I’m interested in, then I will always want to learn more,” said Darsh. “I will never stop. I want to be the best one in the room who knows about the subject because there’s always more to learn.”