Biography I was born in New York in the city of Queens on September 8, 1987. As a toddler I was fluent in my parent's native language, Bengali. Around the age of three I began speaking very little English. In kindergarten, I would mix my sentences with both languages. Consequently, my parents began to converse with me in more English, thus enabling more activity in school socially and academically. Since the beginning, my parents have supported me in everything that I wanted to excel in. For instance, one of my biggest hobbies is to dance. I have been doing classical Indian dancing, called Bharat Natyam, for ten years now. At first, I did not want to do it because I thought it would be too difficult and I did not think I was the dancing type, but after seven years, I became one of the top best Bharat Natyam dancers in America. One week every Summer, at a selected state, there is a organization called the North American Bengali Conference that unites Bengalis, and others that want to come, from all over the world to join in fun-filled programs and performances. About 10,000 people go to these events every year. Last winter, my dance group and I were asked to perform for the opening of the ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Six months later we performed our dance in front of thousands of people there. This is one of my most memorable, blissful, and honored achievements. I mean, who does not want to be admired on one of the famous stages in the world?? This was the ultimate experience in my life thus far. Besides, dance, I other hobbies I enjoy, originally, is shopping, talking on the phone, going on the computer, and spending time with friends and family. This year, my family built a new temple. Every weekend I go to help organize and decorate for the many religious ceremonies we have there. Most of my favorite movies in Hindi, but American ones are Wedding Crashers, Titanic, King Kong, and some more. I also love to travel, for example, take cruises to warm countries and fly to India. Also, I played the violin for eight years. Academically, I always enjoyed doing math. As unlikely as that may sound, I like facing challenging math problems. I feel like they exercise my brain. They are actually fun for me to figure out. Through my strong math and physics background, my parents, who are both engineers, thought I would be a very good mechanical engineer. My mother said Stony Brook University is one of the best places to pursue that goal. So here I am today, learning more about engineering in the Women in Science and Engineering program at Stony. Sriya Adhya February 2006