he board of the Cheshire Education Foundation has a new student ambassador from the Cheshire public schools. Ananya Gulati, a junior at Cheshire High School, has started attending the CEF monthly board meetings to help connect the charitable foundation with the student population.

“I like being involved,” said Ananya. “I like learning about how much goes on behind the scenes in the work that the education foundation does with scholarships and other programs.”

Ananya is the daughter of Dr. Vinay and Dr. Ashima Gulati. Her father is a cardiologist at Hartford Healthcare, and her mother is a nephrologist at Yale School of Medicine. Ananya was born in New Delhi, India and came to Connecticut when she was in fourth grade. She says she loves the “small town feel” of Cheshire compared to the vast size of New Delhi. “Here the community comes together and everyone feels connected,” she said.

The chair of the Cheshire Education Foundation board, Jane Leukart, welcomed Ananya. “We are excited to have Ananya as our student ambassador,” she said. “Having her meet with us regularly and provide the perspective of students helps us serve the community better.”

Ananya Gulati says her lifelong ambition has been to be a medical doctor like her mother and father. She interns two to three times per week at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Research at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. She is also captain of the Cheshire High fencing team.

Last year’s student ambassador to the CEF board was Shivani Padhi who is now a freshman at the University of Connecticut.