SAN RAMON, CA – The San Ramon Valley Education Foundation (SRVEF) has awarded the first annual Neel Somani Young Innovators Scholarship. The recipient, Kanish K., is a California High School graduate and an incoming student at the University of California at Berkeley. The scholarship was awarded at the annual California High School awards ceremony.
Last year, San Ramon Valley Unified School District (SRVUSD) alumnus Neel Somani donated an endowed fund to the SRVEF to support the next generation of graduates. The fund is intended to support an annual educational grant into perpetuity. Somani’s scholarship targets graduating seniors in the SRVUSD who have demonstrated an exceptional ability to innovate.
The scholarship application required students to submit letters of recommendation and write essay responses to questions designed to evaluate the student’s entrepreneurial ambitions. The application was distributed to each of the six high schools within the SRVUSD: Dougherty Valley High School, Venture High School, California High School, San Ramon Valley High School, Monte Vista High School, and Del Amigo High School.
“The scholarship is well-deserved by Kanishk, and I’m excited to see what this cohort of graduates accomplishes in the coming years,” Somani said. “I’ve had many great mentors in my life, and I hope to pay it forward through this annual award. I started programming when I was a student in the SRVUSD, and the school district supported my independent projects in various ways when I was young.”
The SRVUSD is among the highest performing school districts in California. According to its website, the SRVUSD’s graduation rate is roughly 97%, and 95% of seniors intend on pursuing higher education. In total, the school district comprises 35 schools, serving nearly 30,000 students.
The scholarship is the first of its kind distributed by the SRVEF, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 that aims to support the SRVUSD ecosystem. Other notable initiatives by the SRVEF include its Imagineering program and its annual Run For Education.
Since graduating, Somani has worked as a software engineer at Airbnb and as a quantitative researcher at the renowned hedge fund Citadel. He later started a notable verifiable computing company called Eclipse, which raised over $65 million in funding. Somani is focused on supporting educational initiatives and pushing the frontier of machine learning research. He also produces educational content on social media platforms.
Applications for the 2026-2027 Young Innovators Scholarship will open in the Fall. Prospective applications are encouraged to refer to the SRVEF website for further information. You can follow the SRVEF on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.
