Published August 2, 2024

Rishi Ganti needed his next math challenge and wasn’t sure where to turn. He’d taken his first high school-level math course as an eighth grader at Holmes Junior High. By his junior year at Wheeling High School, he was acing calculus, the highest-level math course WHS offered in the late ‘80s.

So, what next? His older brother had taken summer courses at Harvard the year before, so Rishi followed suit. He landed on the Ivy League campus, joining high schoolers from across the country to absorb a year’s worth of advanced math in eight weeks. Ganti so much appreciated the opportunity that now, some 30 years later, he’s providing annual financial assistance to open that same path for one Wheeling student each summer.

Working with WHS and the District 214 Education Foundation, Ganti - who now runs his own private investment firm, Orthogon - picks up any costs that are not already covered by the Harvard Summer School program’s financial aid package. 

This summer, that means a new opportunity for rising Wheeling senior Tim Kabakov. Since arriving in the States from Ukraine two years ago, Tim has made the most of the school’s offerings, including math team, choir and volleyball. He also has helped launch a coding club. Looking forward to this summer, Tim said: “It is a great opportunity for me to explore life in a different state and independent living in a new country. I’m interested in challenging myself by taking fast-paced classes in a prestigious university. The ones that I’m looking forward to are Linear Algebra and Discrete Math.”

Wheeling graduate Christina Luna, now a University of Chicago student, expressed how her Harvard summer experience helped her hone her self-advocacy skills. Christina said she felt a touch of “imposter syndrome,” competing in psychology and biomedical ethics classes with high schoolers who had completed more advanced classes than she. On the other hand, she said, “It really pushed me to try my best and learn to advocate for myself and take advantage of the on-campus resources.”

While noting that the Harvard Summer Experience is offered through Harvard’s Extension School and Continuing Education Program rather than Harvard College itself, Ganti says that the academic rigor of the courses is real – and genuinely impressive on any college application. He notes that while high school seniors won’t know their AP exam grades until after they submit college applications, they already can note that they’ve successfully completed college-level courses, for credit, through Harvard Summer School.

Perhaps equally important is the value Wheeling students derive from living and studying on an Ivy League campus. 

“It was very meaningful for me to be on campus, one of the best parts of the experience,” recalls Ganti, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Emory University but went on to earn three Harvard degrees. “They (Harvard) know that you’re just 17 years old, so they watch out for you. There are lots of social activities. It’s very comprehensive; you’re studying; you’re meeting people from all around the U.S., and you’re involved in co-curriculars. Harvard College students have disappeared for the summer, and so you actually stay in the Harvard Yard dormitories. That’s pretty cool.”