Published: May 23, 2009 07:09 pm         

TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Brilliant future for best and brightest

Indiana has major stake in keeping them here

TERRE HAUTE — Raj Bhuptani and Sachin Shinde are vastly important to this community and the state.

They prove Terre Haute possesses brilliant young minds, capable of shaping an exciting future for Indiana.

Incredibly, these two Terre Haute South Vigo High School students swept the awards for the state’s top mathematics and science scholars last week. Shinde was named Indiana’s “Mr. Math” during a school assembly Monday at South. In the same gathering, Bhuptani received Indiana’s “Mr. Science” award for 2009.

For both Mr. Math and Mr. Science to come from the same school is “truly remarkable,” said Karen Goeller, deputy superintendent of Vigo County schools.

To put that achievement in a Hoosier context, imagine the Mr. Basketball and Miss Basketball awards going to students at the same high school in the same year. That analogy has relevance, thanks to the candor of Gov. Mitch Daniels. In a surprise appearance at South to hand out the awards, Daniels said, “Our best math and science students are vastly more important to Indiana’s future than our best athletes.”

The recession has forced Hoosiers to assess their priorities. Such a test unfolded this year in the Statehouse. When the agency managing Indiana’s pro sports stadiums ran up a $47-million deficit, the Indiana legislature considered a bailout. The idea of raising taxes — in this case, on alcoholic beverage sales statewide — to cover losses by the home arenas for professional sports teams drew outcries from Hoosiers.

If that pragmatism is real, and not just a fleeting moment of political angst, the state will also evaluate its commitment to bolstering math and science instruction in schools, and to keeping more of its talented college graduates here in Indiana. “Brain drain” saps the state’s potential. Forty-five percent of Hoosier kids who go to college in their home state leave after graduating, according to the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute. Of those, an alarming 90 percent never come back.

Methods used to keep pro sports franchises from leaving Indiana generate lots of debate. Keeping our best and brightest students is “vastly more important.”

The intellectual abilities of Bhuptani and Schinde should inspire cheers. Schinde (“Mr. Math”) scored a perfect 800 on the mathematics portion of the SAT. Just a junior, he’s already studying calculus at Rose-Hulman. When he’s an official collegian, Schinde plans to major in bio-medical engineering and medicine. Someday, he wants to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Bhuptani (“Mr. Science”) hit 800 on the SAT II physics, chemistry and molecular biology testing. A South senior, Bhuptani also is taking Rose-Hulman courses in differential equations and physics. He tutors kids, and plans to attend Harvard.

In accepting their awards, both young men thanked their families and teachers. Bhuptani said, “I’m very humbled and honored to get this award. It means a lot to me.”

It means a lot to this community, too. We’re proud of both of you.