Meet NHA Alumni Jaya and Pragya Choudhary

My time at Canton Charter Academy was very special. I’ll always remember the lessons, but I think it was the in-between, the education that mattered the most to me.

I’m her younger sister, so I was coming here with my mom when she would pick her up and volunteer and chaperone field trips since I was three. So I’ve come to really feel like this place was my home.

At CCA, there was that sense that everywhere you go, everyone kind of knows each other. And a lot of my friends had also been there from kindergarten, first grade, second grade, who had years together to build that community.

Our mom ran the Science Olympiad here, and the Science Olympiad wouldn’t have been what it was without all of the parent coaches. It made it feel like a family. It made it feel like everybody was working together to help educate us. The education was very personal to me, which I really valued.

And then as we got older, I really loved having the chance to explore things extracurricularly. The environment that we were in gave us a confidence that there is really no problem that’s too big. And I think that kind of confidence, that you can take action that is actually meaningful, is something that I carry with me to this day.

Having instilled in me that education is in my hands, that helped me be a better student going forward.

My time at Canton, there were opportunities for you to have more advanced learning. And I think that made me value my education, which is something that I carry with me through Princeton. I’m currently pursuing a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

In five years I want to be working in some area that has to do with space and space exploration. I think that is something where Moral Focus is very relevant. Space is the next frontier, and the way we approach that and the way we work together as humanity, as a community, is something that has to really come from a place of respect, integrity, compassion. So all of these things are on the forefront of my mind when I think about the things that I want to build and the things I want to see built.

I am an actor, but first and foremost I’m a premedical student. Both fields share the common quality of empathy. And I think Canton Charter Academy prepared me to see skills as interconnected, that science isn’t just for science, the arts aren’t just for arts. Everything informs everything. That’s been something from kindergarten, I was doing social emotional learning through Moral Focus. All of these things that make us not only good students but good citizens, good people.

I want to be a pediatric psychiatrist. While I was here, I actually got to work with the speech therapists here. That’s actually where I got my love for pediatric psychiatry. That’s why I want to do what I want to do.

Hi, my name is Pragya Choudhary and I am a proud NHA alum.

Hi, my name is Jaya Choudhary and I am a proud NHA alum.