̽»¨¾«Ñ¡

This piece is part of our Senior Stories series, in which we highlight GU students throughout the year.

Name: Suyash Kushwaha
Major: Computer Science
Hometown: Kanpur, India

If you know Suyash Kushwaha (’25), you might be surprised to learn that, on top of his computer science course load, he’s also dabbled in dance. The numbers-minded recipient of this year’s William A. Garrigan, S.J. award for the highest GPA over four years, Kushwaha much prefers coding to choreography.

But if you know him really well, this semester-long endeavor in the performing arts might not surprise you at all.

“I really like to experience new things,” he says. “When you take a course in an area you’re not familiar with, you come to understand the value of it.”

It’s a big part of why he’s been so successful during his four years at ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, Kushwaha genuinely likes to learn. While maintaining an impressive GPA has earned him University recognition, he says checking his grades was pretty much a rarity, “I just tried to learn as much as I could from the courses I took.”

Kushwaha is from Kanpur, a city in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state of northern India. With millions of people competing for entrance into the country’s public university system, the pressure on young students is unimaginable.

“The stress level to be accepted is insane, and it starts when you enter high school,” he says. “That was one of my reasons for getting out of the system and coming to school here.”

But choosing to come to ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, in the western United States, more than 7,000 miles and a 24-hour flight from home? Well, that was a matter of the heart. After graduating high school, Kushwaha met his girlfriend through an online forum. She just happened to live in Spokane. Flash-forward four years and they’re planning for their future as he graduates and she works on her master’s degree, also at ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡.

He’s the very definition of blooming where you’re planted – getting comfortable in his life here very quickly. One of the things he says has helped with that is having people around him who care just as much about teaching as he does about learning.

It's something that’s helped him maintain his love of learning, even when taking a subject he didn’t particularly enjoy, like history. “You just have to memorize a lot of things,” he laughs and says, “But this course I had to take my freshman year, the professor was so good. She made me love history because she taught it as a science rather than something you have to memorize.” He says this has been his experience with most of his classes at ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡, professors bringing students into their enthusiasm.

When asked if he has a favorite memory from the last four years outside of the classroom, Kushwaha has one of the best answers you can hope for: “There’s a bunch,” he says. “I can’t pick just one.” But with a little prying he eventually admits the Hackathon, an all-day event put on by the computer science department where students compete to create an innovative piece of technology, was a consistent favorite. Especially in his second year when he won the whole thing, “That was one of my proudest moments.”

But in general, which now should come as no surprise, he says he’ll miss constantly learning new things. After graduation, Kushwaha will start full-time with the company he’s been interning for, a tech start-up called Navattic. And while, yes, he’s likely taken his final bow when it comes to dancing, that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty left to learn.