Saratoga Patch Whiz Kid of the Week—Nishad Singh

Nishad Singh, Age 17

School: Crystal Springs Uplands School , Hillsborough

Accomplishments:

• World record holder for the fastest 100-mile endurance run for someone under-17 (23 hours 33 minutes)
• Second person in the U.S. to complete a 100-mile race at the age of 15
• Co-founder, president and teacher in CSUS's Futures Club
• Head delegate and lead delegate for his Model United Nations League
• Secretary general of the Model United Nations conference
• Senior class president
• Raised thousands of dollars for Asha for Education and asthma research
• Founder of the Fun Run in The Nueva School, his middle school to raise funds for the Sports Department 
• Founder of Stride2Fitness.org, an organization dedicated to helping children live healthier and gain confidence via non-competitive running and walking
• Lead drummer at CSUS
• Top academic student 

Key to Awesomeness:

Nishad is an intelligent and motivated young man with diverse interests that span the range from glass blowing to drumming to running ultra marathons to solving current and future problems as part of Model United Nations and his school's Futures Club, said proud father Gururaj Singh.

In November 2012, Nishad was featured on TedX Mt. Diablo. He was the only youth speaker there and spoke on the topic "How to Make Ideas Happen," said his dad in an email interview.

"He is an inspiration to all his peers. He can often be seen running in Saratoga with a few other children in tow, children who have been inspired by his enthusiasm to get healthier by eating right and exercising on a regular basis. Nishad has also inspired his cross country team mates to venture into the world of long distance running," said dad.

Nishad's drive to give to the community has led him to raise thousands of dollars for scholarships for children in the Bay are and slum Children in India. To raise awareness of asthma and support research he raised funds by running his second 100 mile race for The Asthma and Allergy Foundation. His journey is detailed at Nishadgivingback.blogspot.com

Nishad hopes to unite his interests in biology, ecominics and entrepreneurship in college starting this fall, his father said. He has already spent the past two summers interning in a venture capitalist firm and a software start up, he added.