Sophomore Meghana Bharadwaj has her eyes set on working hard in school. Over the past few years, she has achieved many accomplishments education-wise.

It all began in kindergarten, when Bharadwaj skipped the entire grade, opting to go into 1^st grade a year younger than all of her classmates.

In the 5^th grade, she was attending Ellisville Elementary school. She transferred directly to 7th grade, skipping her entire 6^th grade year.

After the move from Ellisville after 5^th grade, she started going to Thomas Jefferson School, in the Lindbergh district.

Bharadwaj said, “It’s a college preparatory school, meaning it was really hard. All of the classes were a much higher level; you barely had any class time, tons of homework and a grading system that would round your grade down, meaning there was no intermediate scores. All students 7-12 have quarterly exams, each two or more hours long. The entire school is only around 90 students. My class as a 7^th grader had 8 kids, and as an 8^th grader, 16 kids.”

The school was certainly a lot different than what she had previously experienced.

“My first quarter at Jefferson was a really hard adjustment from easier material to more difficult subjects. I found a new passion for school. Unfortunately, I wasn’t performing at the level I believed I could. I used that as a driving force to get straight A’s once I came to Lafayette.”

Coming to Lafayette was a big transition, going from a school with less than 100 kids, to one of the largest schools in Missouri with an enrollment exceeding 2,000.

“I came to Lafayette because I wanted to be around more people and was frustrated with the grades I received at Thomas Jefferson. There’s people here who see me as my equal and people who belittle me, but that comes with the territory of being young.”

Along with maintaining straight A’s, Bharadwaj is a part of Latin club, model UN and Guitar Ensemble.

The youngest sophomore at Lafayette, at age 14, Bharadwaj continues to expand her knowledge through education. In the future, she plans on obtaining a degree in business and psychology. She isn’t sure where she plans on going to college, but she hopes one day she’ll be as happy there as she is here at Lafayette.