About Me
Hi! My name is Svabhu
Govindaraj and I am currently a junior at Mass Academy. I live in
North Grafton, MA and my sending school is Saint John’s High School
in Shrewsbury. While I have mostly lived in the United States, I was
born in Tamil Nadu, India where I spent the first six years of my
life. As a result, my background is heavily influenced by Indian
culture and my family often mixes Tamil into our conversations. I
also have a younger sister who is currently in elementary school. My
academic interests include computer science, mathematics, and
robotics, and my hobbies outside of school are mountain biking,
tennis, and playing videogames.
Tennis
I first started playing tennis when I was eight years old at the
Shrewsbury Health and Racquet Club (SHARC). As my skill level
progressed, I began to play USTA tournaments and achieved a rank of
38 across New England for the Boys U12 category. However, I was
forced to take a break due to an injury, and I resumed playing in the
fall of 2019. Although the 2019-2020 high school tennis season was
cancelled due to the pandemic, I used the opportunity to improve and
secured a spot on the varsity team the following year. USTA
Rankings
Biking
I have been an avid biker since I was a young child, however, I only
discovered the world of mountain biking in 2016 when a friend of mine
took me on some trails behind our houses. At the time, I had a BMX
bike that wasn't suitable for off-roading, so I bought a Trek Marlin
5 that remains my bike to this day. Last fall, I had the opportunity
to visit Highland MTB Park in New Hampshire where I practiced jumps
on flowy trails and navigated more challenging technical trails. This
summer, I shared my love for mountain biking with my family and
convinced them to buy bikes for themselves, and we explored some of
the nearby rail trails in West Boylston together. Highland MTB
Volunteering
Lack of access to healthy foods leads to increased risk of many health conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The Community Harvest Project is a non-profit organization focused on growing fresh fruits and vegetables to provide hunger relief, while engaging and educating its volunteers.
In my 30 hours of volunteering at the Grafton Community Harvest farm over the summer prior to my junior year, I participated in a variety of tasks such as vegetable cleaning, sorting, packaging,
harvesting, and weeding. Additionally, I learned how to correctly pick a variety of different vegetables such as eggplants, rainbow chard, and beans. I love being outdoors and my family has our own garden that produces fresh okra and tomatoes every year, so I found volunteering at the farm to be
a productive and relaxing way to spend my summer mornings.
Harvest Project