She dreamt big, achieved it 

Khammam: Vemula Sravya of the district headquarters town has got an opportunity to visit NASA space centre in the US by standing second in the National Astronomy Olympiad this year.

It is a great achievement for the 11-year-old girl as about 5 lakh students from all over the country attended the Olympiad, which is held in two stages every year. The top two will be sent to NASA space centre. She will interact with NASA scientists at the space centre and dine with American President Barack Obama during her 10-day visit to the US.

Daughter of Vemula Shyam, a fancy shop owner, she is studying seventh class in a private school. Sravya who is keenly interested in astronomy, not only dreamt big but also worked hard to achieve it by getting inspiration from Missile Man of India APJ Abdul Kalam.

Speaking to The Hans India, she expressed her happiness for getting an opportunity to visit NASA space centre and attributed her achievement to the support of her parents and school teachers. ``My aim is to become an astronaut like Kalpana Chawla, who is my role model. I want to focus on defence research to uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India,’’ she said.

Her parents Shyam and Kalyani and elder sister Satwika were elated over the achievement of Sravya. ``It is really a great moment in our family. We hope that Sravya will become a top astrophysicist one day. The visit to NASA space centre and interaction with top scientists will certainly help our daughter reach meteoric heights in career,’’ they said.

By A Nagender