Maidiki Patel doesn’t drink, but even if she did, she couldn’t have toasted her graduation from Baylor University back in 2003; she was only 19 at the time. But things will be different when she receives her MBA next month. Now that she’s 21, she can legally walk into a bar with her fellow graduates and raise a glass of non-alcoholic cheer.

At an age when most students are just completing their undergraduate courses, Maidiki is planning on returning home to Waco, Texas, and launching a career in the business side of the pharmaceutical industry, using her combined knowledge of supply chain management and pharmaceutical management. Being ahead of the curve is nothing new for Maidiki; she took her SATs in 9th grade, and started taking college courses at a community college in Waco when she was only 13 and still attending high school. Her parents had to drop her off and pick her up, which was a bit inconvenient, so when she was 15 she got a special driver’s license and drove herself to classes at the college and her high school. Despite taking both college and high school courses simultaneously, she was active in the Student Council and Key Club at her high school, and traveled throughout Texas to compete against other high school academic teams, as a member of the school’s University Interscholastic League.

The community college courses not only allowed Maidiki to graduate from high school at the age of 16, but also gave her 36 hours of college credits, so she completed her baccalaureate in three years. Throughout her college years, she also worked part-time as a certified pharmacy technician, successfully juggling the demands of academics and employment.

She had never lived away from home, or in a cold climate, but that didn’t stop Maidiki from choosing the Rutgers Business School for her MBA, based on the reputations of its supply chain management and pharmaceutical management programs.

The cold and the snow, the fast pace of the East Coast and the expensive car insurance rates were “quite a culture shock,” Maidiki admits, but, “I felt at home here because everyone in my religious organization (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Sanstha – BAPS) treated me like family.” She was active in the Edison, N.J., temple’s activities and was active in the Dallas temple while at home. She also continued to work during summer breaks.

Her younger brother, Dikesh, appears to be following in Maidiki’s footsteps; he just turned 17 and is graduating from high school only a week after his sister’s May 20 commencement.

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