Edison Academy graduate Prathm Juneja named Rhodes Scholar

Edison Academy graduate Prathm Juneja named Rhodes Scholar

A 2015 graduate of the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies in Edison has been named one of 32 Rhodes Scholars for 2020.

Prathm Juneja of Edison, who is expected to graduate from Notre Dame University next month with two bachelor’s degrees, will receive a scholarship to attend Oxford University in England.

A political science and computer science dual major at Notre Dame, Juneja plans to work towards a master’s degree in social data science and public policy at Oxford.

He previously was named a 2019 Truman Scholar, one of 62 in the nation to receive a $30,000 grant towards graduate study leading to public service leadership.

Juneja is an intern with Pete for America, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign and has been a researcher and software developer in the South Bend Mayor’s Office and Office of Innovation, where he developed an autonomous 311 chatbot to help answer questions about city government.

While at the Edison Academy, he was active in student government, the Model United Nations, the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam and the academic Quiz Bowl team, and was in the National Honor Society.

The Edison Academy, a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence, has been singled out as one of the nation’s best high schools by U.S. News & World Report, receiving Gold Medal honors in the magazine’s rankings. New Jersey Monthly magazine ranked the Edison Academy fourth in New Jersey in its first survey of the state’s vocational high schools and it was ranked first among Middlesex County public high schools by Inside Jersey magazine, a publication of the Star-Ledger.