Luke Jain, a senior at San Marino High School, has been named student of the month by the local Rotary Club — its first such honoree in the 2020-21 academic year.
Among his many activities, Jain — the club’s winner for August — is on SMHS’ science team, serves on the Student Wellness Council, is a member of the service club Girl Up San Marino, competes on the speech and debate team and is part of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance.
Currently, Jain is preparing for the National Chemistry Olympiad and is also coordinating a virtual event with the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking, Los Angeles.
Last school year, Jain addressed an SMHS student assembly to advocate for better student wellness policies.
He is also a four-year member of the Titan track team, for which he served as captain during the pandemic-shortened season.
“Hopefully we will get a season,” quipped Jain.
He has been busy with college applications with designs on attending Oxford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Johns Hopkins University. At Oxford and other schools in the United Kingdom, Jain is applying for a six-year combined preclinical and clinical medicine course. Other potential fields of study include chemical-biological engineering, biomolecular engineering and biochemistry.
“My end goal is to be a psychiatrist, but I want to have a strong engineering background to truly be able to make a difference in the field,” Jain said.
In his free time, Jain enjoys playing video games with his friends, “bingeing” Netflix and preparing for the track season.
“Running is a big passion of mine not just during track season, so when California is not completely on fire I work out,” Jain said.
He also developed a survey early in the pandemic that studies the psychological impacts of COVID-19. He and his mentor are currently in the third iteration of the project, which they hope to have published.
In his free time, Jain volunteers at Good Samaritan Hospital and recently interned at Pacific Oak Compounding Pharmacy in Arcadia, where he got an opportunity to shadow technicians. He also participates in a virtual tutoring program that started during the pandemic, working with elementary school students on math and English.
The son of Dr. Allison Hill and Dr. Johnny Jain, Luke has a sister, Kat, who is a junior at SMHS.
“I care a lot about connections,” he said. “I have been very fortunate and given a lot of opportunities to follow my interests, and I feel the need to give back. I hope I am using my privilege to the best of my ability to help others.”
A glance at Jain’s recruiting profile on a track and field-related website possibly best explains his attitude.
“I want to become an even better person than I was yesterday, not just in my times,” Jain said. “This means that I always push myself. On the track, in the classroom and out in the world, I strive to improve in every way that I can.”
