Maya Narayanan

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Graduating with the highest departmental honors in Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, Maya Narayanan plans to attend medical school.

While at UCLA, Maya researched blood cell development in fruit flies, obtaining valuable information to better understand the genetics of the human body.

Maya is a director for the UCLA Special Olympics, responsible for organizing tournaments, contacting athletes, and coordinating UCLA's events with other Special Olympic programs. She also coaches basketball and gymnastics for the program. As a member of the Special Olympics staff, she proudly calls herself part of the "fun police."

Maya is a co-supervisor of thirty undergraduate tutors in the Math Science Tutorial program, which serves over eighteen hundred students each quarter.

Last summer Maya also volunteered at a Special Education school in Costa Rica. She worked with children that were autistic, had Down syndrome or were deaf. The children desperately needed personal attention, so she read to them, helped them with creative projects that facilitated learning, and learned sign language.

A recent recipient of the Alumni Association's Distinguished Bruin Award, Maya is also a Bharatanatyam Dancer, and an avid runner.

"Her ability to interpret complex material in clear simple terms and to translate concepts into simple easy to understand explanations help students in truly understanding the ideas. She makes it interesting."
Edward Frankel, Director, College Tutorials