Pursuing studies at one of the world’s most selective universities was out of Rishika Suntharam’s reach for years. This has now changed as the student from Nilai, Negri Sembilan, had recently become the only Malaysian to be accepted into an undergraduate programme at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in the United States for the class of 2030.
Set to graduate from her A-Level studies at Kolej Yayasan UEM in Selangor this month, the 19-year-old will commence studies in the US in September this year. Rishika, a Shell Malaysia scholar, had described the milestone as a turning point in her life, stating that it reshaped her perspective on the power of trying.
In applying to universities, she had not only procured a spot at Caltech, with an acceptance rate of 3% to 4%, but also received offers from other prestigious establishments in the US, including the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Colorado School of Mines.
“I feel humbled more than anything. I never thought someone like me – from a minority background in Malaysia – could study in the US until I got a scholarship,”
At Caltech, Rishika is keen on majoring in information and data science with a focus on applied and computational mathematics.
“As a child, I was obsessed with how perfect the spirals in the Milky Way looked,” she said.
Her passion and curiosity for the field began early, and it evolved into a deeper interest in mathematical patterns and geometry, eventually leading her into machine learning research.
She represented Malaysia along with her research mentor, Zad Chin, as a presenter at the 5th International Conference on Mathematical and Scientific Machine Learning in Naples, Italy, just last year. Apart from her academic achievements, Rishika also co-founded Girls in Numbers, a non-profit initiative intended to empower Malaysian girls in mathematics through free webinars and outreach programmes in girls’ schools, reaching over 1,200 girls across Malaysia since its establishment in 2024. Her achievements extend further on account of her participation in international mathematics competitions and hackathons. Placed in the top three at the Stanford iGEM Global BioHacks competition in 2024, she also developed a scam detection software at the Harvard-Duke AI Global Ivy Hackathon in 2025.
Rishika states that Malaysian scholars are just as capable as their global peers but often lack exposure to the requirements imposed by top universities. “In Malaysia, the system tends to place a very heavy emphasis on academic performance, especially Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exam results. However, universities in the US look beyond grades. They want to know your story, your extracurriculars and what you have done beyond the classroom,” she said.
Speaking on her future aspirations, Rishika states that she plans on fulfilling her bond with Shell Malaysia after graduating, while continuously working on her mission to build more inclusive spaces for women in mathematics. “I hope to expand Girls in Numbers beyond Malaysia through regional conferences, leveraging Caltech’s global alumni network. We have so much to offer the world, and so much potential that’s still waiting to be seen,” she said.
Source: The Star
