From IB Exams to the Purdue Space Program

In 2024, ASB alumnae Vanessa Shivprasad and Elena Martín Ortega walked across our graduation stage. Last month, they walked back through our doors, including back into the auditorium itself, which brought back a full rush of memories: the stress of IB exams, the joy of graduation day. Two years felt like nothing and everything at the same time.

Vanessa is now studying Aerospace Engineering at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and she has hit the ground running. She's a member of the Purdue Space Program, where she works on hybrid propulsion systems, and is holding her own in a field where women are still very much in the minority. She's also joined the Purdue Outing Club, backpacking and camping her way across new terrain nearly every weekend.

Elena's relationship with ASB goes all the way back to PK3. She was here through G3, left for the European School of Brussels and the International Montessori School, and then returned in G9, staying through to graduation in 2024. After two years at Sciences Po Paris, strengthening her French fluency and deepening her humanitarian engagement by working with Amnesty International France, Elena is genuinely excited to move to Montréal for McGill, where she'll need to get to grips with a new French-Canadian accent. She's studying Politics, Government & International Relations, and the world had better be ready.

One of the most touching moments of the visit came when both girls went looking for recently retired Assistant HS Principal Mr. Volchok. He wasn't on campus, but they weren't going to leave without acknowledging him. They stopped by his tree and left him a personal message.

Having sisters Emma Shivprasad '27 and Clara Martín Marqués '15 still connected to ASB makes these visits feel even more like a family affair.

We're so proud of both of you. Once a Lynx, always a Lynx.