Soma, Abandoned as a Kid, Named Gates Millennium Scholar

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Soma Sharan, who played Queen Mandodari in Mount Madonna School’s 33rd annual production of the "Ramayana," has a richly compelling story of her own to tell.

Three days after she was born, the infant was abandoned - left outside a Hindu temple in Haridwar, wrapped in a blanket with a little bit of money and some milk.

A temple priest found her and took her to the local police station. The police suggested taking the baby to the nearby Sri Ram Ashram, founded by yoga master Baba Hari Dass.

Sharan spent the next 10 years there, growing up with about 20 orphaned children whom she calls her sisters and brothers. She excelled at an English medium school in town, and in 2004, was chosen to live and study at the Mount Madonna Center and School in Watsonville, Calif., founded by Dass.

This May, while visiting India with classmates from the Mount Madonna School, Sharan, now 18, received word that she had been chosen as a Gates Millennium scholar.

The scholarship program – founded in 1999 with a $1 billion grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – chooses 1,000 financially needy students per year and funds their entire college expenses, from undergraduate studies to a Ph.D. More than 23,000 students applied in February to receive a scholarship which could have a value of over $300,000.

“I was stunned,” Sharan told India-West, recalling the moment when her school counselor called her in India to tell her that she had won the coveted scholarship. “I had been so worried about how I could afford to go to college. I handed the phone to my friend and just started to cry.”

“I still can’t believe I’m a Gates scholar,” she said.

With the scholarship, Sharan will attend UCLA this fall, majoring in international development. She plans to go on and earn her Ph.D., and then hopes to spend her career focusing on initiatives that benefit destitute children and eradicate poverty.

Sharan envisions starting a residential school, after she graduates, where needy and neglected children can live and learn and “find their voices,” she said, adding that the school could be anywhere in the world.

“There’s a special place in my heart to help young girls,” said Sharan, noting that in India, girl babies are often unwanted. She also has plans to develop a Kiva-like microfinance institution, to help young women become economically independent via small start-up loans.

Arrival in the U.S. six years ago was perplexing for Sharan and her sister Prabha. Their English skills, which served them well in India, were barely passable in the U.S. And Sharan said she missed her family: her 20 brothers and sisters and her caretakers, especially Rashmil, who served as mother to the large brood, and Baba Hari Dass, whom Sharan calls her father.

“The Sri Ram Ashram is the only home I had ever known. All the children there were my brothers and sisters. It was very hard to leave them behind,” she said.

“I’m so proud of Soma. She’s worked so hard to get to this point,” Jeevani Vince, Sharan’s school advisor, told India-West. Vince has known both Soma and Prabha since they arrived in the U.S.

Prabha, Soma’s sister, is now studying nursing at San Francisco State University, said Vince, adding that the two were the only children ever chosen by Dass to study in the U.S.

Sharan will return to the Sri Ram Ashram this summer before beginning UCLA in the fall. “It is so important for me to see my family,” she said in a backstage interview during the June 11 "Ramayana" performance, adding that she loved helping out with the young babies.

P.K. Hattis, who played Hanuman this year, travelled to the Sri Ram Ashram in May with Sharan and other classmates. “It was an incredible experience. The ashram is the most beautiful place I have ever seen,” he said.

“It’s so amazing to see the happiness and joy of the kids. It made me very happy to be there,” said Hattis.