BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A Bentonville High School senior has been accepted to multiple prestigious universities. Now the question is, where will Chandra Suda spend the next four years?
While that is still up in the air, he is crediting the educators along the way who helped him get there.
“He was very intelligent and one of the hardest working students I had and always wanted to be better and go above and beyond,” said Suda’s former eighth grade teacher Cindy Carwell.
"Determined, of course, he had so much grit, studious, but also I feel like helpful in the classroom,” said Suda’s Ignite teacher, John Mark Russell.
The seventeen-year-old has spent over a year working to develop in hopes of helping people learn if they have tuberculosis.
“Now, the goal is to be very simple. So as of now, it'd be like they press a button, and then they can record their cough audio. It'd be like a one-second segment, and then give it a diagnostic output,” said Suda.
Impressive right? Universities around the country think so, too.
“The main ones are Harvard and Stanford right now but [I've] also been accepted to Princeton, Cornell, U Penn, John Hopkins, Berkley and Columbia,” said Suda.
And while he doesn't know where exactly he will spend the next four years, he does know that the next step for his app is getting it published.
“One thing I'm looking to add on to is dark integration with the healthcare provider. So they're also notified and kind of like a platform to monitor all of this to reduce the spread,” said Suda.
It’s no secret the Bentonville High senior already has the resume of a lifetime, but he credits his achievements to those who have helped him along the way.
“There's so many teachers, I think they really have pushed me to do well in their classes,” said Suda.
One of those teachers is Mrs. Cindy Cardwell who introduced him to scientific research in the eighth grade.
Mrs. Cardwell said Suda emailed her saying, “'I just wanted to reach out and tell you, thank you [and] that you really had an influence in my science and engineering journey,' So, that was really special.”
Suda also reached out to John Mark Russell, the teacher who oversaw his app development project, to thank him for his support.
“Throughout our career he always recognizes and thanks you for any support that you give him,” said Russell.
His former teachers said its these acts that show Suda's humility and that they believe this will make him even more successful.
While his future is bright, his mentors remind him to never lose his light, asking him to “Just to kind of be true to himself and do what makes him happy." Cardwell advises him to also "continue his desire to help other people through his work.”
“Don't lose track of who you are and your kind Arkansas roots,” said Russell.
Suda plans to decide on where he is going to college soon, and while he could change his mind, at the moment, he is between Harvard and Stanford.
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