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Neha Valluri will attend West Point after boot camp in July. Valluri said she likes the structure of life at the military academy

(Wendy Owen/Beaverton Leader)

Neha Valluri knows she won’t be one of a kind at college next August, but she will definitely be few of a kind.

Valluri, who will graduate from Sunset High in June, was accepted at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where she will be one of few women and even fewer women of Indian heritage.

About 16 percent of the 4,600 students at West Point are women, but an Academy spokeswoman said the institution doesn’t have accurate numbers on their ethnicities.

“As an institution with a long history, record keeping has been altered over the years and not all (nationality) designations are categorized as a tracked element,” said Theresa Brinkerhoff.

Being a minority among minorities is more of an afterthought to Valluri than a concern. She knows she won’t see many other women like herself, but she also knows from her experience in a mini-boot camp at West Point last year that adversity bonds people.

“Although there may be challenges throughout the course of the four years, I feel like I’d be able to overcome them with the support of faculty and cadets at West Point,” she said.

Neha Valluri plans to major in computer science and electrical engineering which she hopes will lead to a job in military intelligence

Valluri was selected as one of 500 students – 50 females - to attend the week-long West Point Summer Leadership Experience boot camp. “I was the only Indian girl,” she said. But the program sold her on West Point.

“Going to this program was the pivotal point for me,” she said. “I really liked the structure.”

She got used to being awakened at 5 a.m. with loud banging and shouts from Army sergeants.

“Oh my gosh. The first morning I was so scared. I thought there was an emergency,” she said.

She ran two to three miles a day, learned how to march, how to salute and who to salute, who to call “sir” and who gets merely a handshake. She also fired an M-16 (with blanks) ran obstacle courses and completed other team challenges.

“Once you get out of it, you realize how much you’ve accomplished,” Valluri said.

West Point is one of the most selective colleges in the United States. In addition to top academics and proof of leadership roles, students must pass a physical fitness test, be medically sound and be nominated by a member of Congress.

Oregon senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden nominated Valluri.

She will pay no tuition and will receive a small salary to pay for uniforms, textbooks, a computer and other necessities, but she is also obligated to five years of active duty in the U.S. Army and three years in the reserves after she graduates. She will, however, graduate as an officer, likely a second lieutenant.

There’s a patriot in this 18-year-old whose parents moved from India to the United States before she was born. She has lived in both countries over the years and has seen the freedoms people lack in India that are common in the United States.

“I have seen poverty and corruption (in India),” she said. Yet “some of us take advantage of all the opportunities in the U.S.”

Valluri has no desire to fight on the front lines after she graduates. She prefers to work in the background and wants to major in computer science and electrical engineering with an eye on military intelligence.

She is finishing Sunset's International Baccalaureate classes to complete her IB diploma, but felt she was short on computer science and coding classes so she took those at Portland Community College in her free time. In between, she competed in Mock Trial, science bowls and Olympiads, Model United Nations and kept the speech and debate club alive after the coach was cut.

Valluri has already passed the fitness test to be accepted to West Point. Now she has to stay in shape to prepare for real boot camp, which starts July 2. College classes begin in August.

She's a little nervous, she admitted. But her 12-year-old brother, Amit, is excited for her and her parents are proud though, like all parents, they worry.

“We do worry as to whether she will assimilate well in a not so diverse institution,” said her mother Raj Valluri.

But her mom noted her daughter’s mental and emotional strength. “She is very well-equipped and will do fine,” she said. “We worry only because we are her parents and she is our little girl.”

-- Wendy Owen