This year’s outstanding student from Region 2 was Meena Kuriakose, currently an AITE scholar at Polytechnic University. Ms. Kuriakose was born and raised in India. Her interest in science and math in high school led her to study civil engineering at the Government Engineering College in Trichur, India. After coming to the United States in 1989, Ms. Kuriakose received a diploma in computer programming from New York University. She started working at New York State Department of Transportation in 1990 and continued her studies in structural engineering at CCNY.