Krithika Ramanathan Named Fulbright Scholar

Computer Science senior Krithika Ramanathan has been awarded the 2020-21 Fulbright Scholarship. She will serve as an English Teaching Assistant in Sri Lanka. 

“My interest in education began slightly before joining UMD”, said Ramanathan. “I volunteered at a school in India in developing curriculum and leading classroom activities to help with underserved communities”.

A National Merit and AP Scholar from Thomas S. Wootton High School, Ramaanthan’s interests  have always been at the intersection of Computing and Education. 

Ramanathan began her passion for teaching as a summer outreach ambassador for Maryland Center for Women In computing (MCWIC). She gradually transitioned into a role which was curriculum oriented, creating engaging material for students with a goal to increase retention rates of minority and female students.

 “MCWIC shaped my desire in many ways and allowed me to visualize the impact of the outreach initiatives” said Ramanathan. “Observing MCWIC’s leadership utilizing education as a tool to bring equity in the field of computing  and provide resources where they were needed made me realize that this was something that I wanted to do in future”, she explained 

 As an organizer Ramanathan critically contributed towards securing funding for Technica 2019,  the all-women and non-binary hackathon held at University of Maryland.

A member of the College Park Scholars Science, Technology, and Society program, Ramanathan is currently serving as a Teaching Assistant for CMSC122 an introductory course for Non Computer Science students. 

During her fulbright year as a Teaching Assistant  in Sri Lanka Ramanathan plans to work on the school curriculum in order to make it more engaging for the students and intends to work with organizations such as SchoolNet and IntelTeach  to expand resources for students.

“This is still quite tentative given that Fulbright has been pushed back”’ said Ramanathan. “I hope to go into education and build a computational curriculum on a larger scale and be able to emphasize the importance of inclusion and diversity through my work”.

After her return to the U.S., Ramanathan plans to complete her master’s in education, focusing on computer science.