MARLBOROUGH – From running park cleanups to working with refugees, Poorvi Mohanakrishnan is passionate about volunteerism.
“Whenever I’m not in school doing work, I’m working with people to help others,” she said in a recent interview.
Mohanakrishan, a junior at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, recently won the Marlborough Lions Club Youth Speech Competition for the second year in a row. She will now move on to a zone competition, competing against other students in Central Massachusetts.
Students were instructed to write a speech on the topic “Why Accountability Matters.”
Speaking with the Community Advocate, Mohanakrishnan reflected on her speech, noting that her involvement in community service drove the inspiration behind her writing.
“My main goal with community service is to expose myself to a lot of different people and experiences,” she said.
Mohanakrishnan has been heavily involved with service within her school and her community since she was in seventh grade.
Before transferring to the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science from Marlborough’s Advanced Math and Science Academy, she led the Leaders of Tomorrow club – a student organization dedicated to promoting leadership development among students.
“I specifically recall we had an ‘I Love to Read’ carnival at the neighboring childcare facility,” Mohanakrishnan said. “So I got really involved with that.”
She’s since dedicated much of her time to volunteerism, working to balance her time between school, extracurricular activities and service.
Mohanakrishnan had participated in an extracurricular swimming program.
Though she has had to gradually cut back on her involvement with that, she has still used those experiences to influence her speechwriting.
In her previous Lions Club Speech Competition prior to this year, Mohanakrishnan was tasked with answering the prompt: “Is Winning Everything?”
“I try to take the audience on this journey of swim meet, and aspects of competition through life, and show how it’s the effort that matters,” Mohanakrishnan said of that speech.
As Mohanakrishnan looks to the future, she has shifted her focus for her career.
Ever since she was little, she said, she’s told her parents that she wanted to be a doctor.
“More recently, I know I have to do something to help people,” she continued. “I have been looking into careers in public health.”
RELATED CONTENT
Mohanakrishnan wins Marlborough Lions Youth Speech Competition
Westborough High senior named ‘Best in State’ at Lions speech competition
Hudson teen to compete in national speech competition
