Sumaita is a Fulbright Scholar, one of the world’s most widely recognized and prestigious scholarships. As part of the Fulbright-Nehru program, Sumaita is an English Teaching Assistant in Puducherry, India. As part of this program, Sumaita was one of the competitively selected American citizens to receive a scholarship to study abroad, conduct research, teach, and exercise her writing talents. Sumaita’s scholarship is fully funded through the U.S. Department of State and the United States Congress via annual appropriation bills. We want to add that to date, 62 Fulbright alumni have won Nobel Prizes; and 88 have won Pulitzer Prizes.
Sumaita graduated from the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College in 2021. Sumaita was the Valedictorian, the #1 student in her graduating class. While an undergraduate student, Sumaita was editor-in-chief and editorial assistant at CUNYverse – CUNY Office of Communications & Marketing. Sumaita also became certified in the Fundamentals of TESOL by the TESOL International Association. Sumaita made Hunter College Dean’s List every semester throughout college.
Sumaita graduated from Townsend Harris High School in Queens. While a student, she wrote for the school’s nationally recognized newspaper, the Classic. Sumaita was an award-winning journalist in high school. She also received the National Student Press Law Center Courage in Journalism Award and a Proclamation from District 24 Councilman Rory I. Lancman of New York City for Excellence in Journalism in 2017. At THHS, Sumaita took AP World History, AP US History, AP English Literature and AP Environmental Science, and college courses in literature and sociology as part of Townsend Harris’ bridge program. This resulted in her starting college with 27 credits.
After graduation from her beloved high school, Sumaita founded the Classic Scholarship (with her best friend and fellow longtime Kweller Prep tutor Mehrose Ahmad) at Townsend Harris High School. This scholarship awards students $1,000 and provides ongoing mentorship to first-generation American journalism students to support writing development at the Classic, Townsend Harris High School’s student-run newspaper.
Sumaita is a longtime platinum-level tutor at Kweller Prep. She began her journey at Kweller Prep as an editor and tutor for 6th graders, preparing them for the essay portion of the Hunter High School Entrance exam. She then continued helping high school students at Kweller Prep with their college application essays for the next six years. Sumaita has laser-sharp college essay-editing skills. She has regularly helped high school students develop their college essays to the point where they gained acceptance to the best colleges in the United States.
Sumaita is a child of immigrants. Her parents relocated from Bangladesh to New York in their thirties. She is proudly the first member of her family to be awarded a full college and post-college scholarship.
Sumaita impressively continues to tutor students and lead webinars on her journey from high school to gaining acceptance to the Macaulay Honors College and Fulbright. We are very fortunate to have her help from India! She is a regular cohost for Kweller Prep’s webinars on the Macaulay College Scholarship application. She is a mentor, tutor, and a respected friend.