Neti Vyas
What I've been studying, and with whom
Stanford · Topics in Neuroscience
Pre-Collegiate Studies, 2025
Teen body-image survey
My own research, teens from around the world
Stanford Medicine · Summer of Neurosciences
With VA Palo Alto, summer 2026
UC Merced · LInC Lab
Research assistant, language & cognition
Watch: Meet Your Brain, Your One and Only Superhero
Neuroscience animation I wrote and edited, fact-checked by a UCSF neuroscientist
Social Psychology
Las Positas College, grade 10
Berry Brave
The Berry Brave logo
Two Bs, a few smiling berries
A mental health startup for teens
Started with a survey, grew into a startup and an iOS app concept
Audio Essay
Written, hosted and edited by me
Teens surveyed
The research behind everything we make
Short-form content
I direct the team that spreads awareness about body image
Explaining things until they click
Mentor at Lydiksen Elementary School
Supporting students through social and emotional challenges
Foothill High School Tutor
10th and 11th graders, rebuilding confidence
To 6th graders
With hands-on experiments with playdough, flour and water
Link Crew — Freshman leader
I guided incoming freshmen through their first weeks at Foothill.
Hard hats on
Link Crew leaders
How tall can paper cards go?
Team-building with Link Crew
Matching shirts, matching shades
Link Crew
Admiring the tower
Team-building with Link Crew
Building in the round
Team-building with Link Crew
Testing the design
Team-building with Link Crew
Showing up for my community
Sports Stack — Co-President
A free sports equipment box for community parks. Anyone can borrow, play and return, so more kids and families get outside and try new sports.
The impact: families play longer and more often, visitors donate their own gear, and the idea is now approved by LARPD in Livermore and the City of Pleasanton, with Livermore expanding it to another park.
The head of LARPD
After the team's pitch to the district. They had been skeptical at first.
Jan Palajac
LARPD Board Director, from the district's press release
In the news: the LARPD announcement
The Livermore Area Recreation and Park District's press release on the Sports Stack pilot at Jack Williams Park
Watch: Sports Stack at the park
Visitors talk about the box
A parent at the park
A teen park visitor
A teen park visitor
The Sports Stack box
Jack Williams Park, Livermore
Gear for anyone to borrow
Rackets, balls, frisbees and more
Kids picking their sport
Free to borrow, play and return
Borrow, play, return
The sign at the box, with the park district's logo
A game of soccer
With a ball from the Sports Stack
Hearing from park visitors
Teens, kids and parents share what they think
Why I started it
Kids were glued to screens, and when I moved to Pleasanton I had to give up tennis because I had no one with a racket to share. I wanted any child to be able to try any sport, whatever their resources.
The first reactions
Two boys donated all their own sports equipment on the spot and asked us to bring the box back soon. We saw toddlers playing with small balls, and families staying longer.
City of Pleasanton
Approved the project for its own parks
Destination Imagination — 7 years
A global STEAM competition for students in grades 3 to 12. Teams solve open-ended challenges together, with a mission to "inspire and equip youth to imagine and innovate through the creative process."
My team's work: engineering, research, scripts and hand-built props, for seven years.
International Globals
Destination Imagination's global finals
State level
Podium finishes in different years
Multiple regional awards
Including a first-place finish
Globals 2023, Kansas City
Neti (third from left) with her DI team at the international competition
Neti at Globals
A dress of folded colored paper, rebuilt in one day in Kansas City because it couldn't be shipped
The 2026 team
With our hand-built set
In costume, 2025
Handmade costumes and characters
Neti as Paper, with Bubblegum
Destination Imagination
Neti as the butterfly
Destination Imagination
Wings out
Destination Imagination
First-place finish
Team celebration
After the win
Destination Imagination
The team
Seven years together
Awards ceremony
State level
On the podium
Destination Imagination
Celebrating together
Destination Imagination
Dream Dress — California State Lead
Led the California chapter of Dream Dresses, which sends gently used Indian clothing that no longer fits to children in India. Donated more than 150 pounds of clothes on 4 international trips, handing them to children in need in person.
Of clothes donated
Gently used clothing, given a second life
International drop-offs
Delivered in person, not just shipped
Donated to those who need it most
Handed directly to children in need
Our first shipment from California
Packing the dresses · on Instagram
dreamdresses.org
The nonprofit's home page. Tap to visit.
Janyaa — Volunteer
Janyaa means "life." This nonprofit brings hands-on science and math experiment kits, made from simple everyday materials, to government schools in rural India so kids learn by doing.
At our succulent sale
Succulent sale, holiday party, movie night
Fundraisers for underprivileged schools in India
Experiment kits
Our chapter's funds helped create and send kits that teach by doing
Pleasanton chapter's social media
I created it to share our cause and upcoming fundraisers
TUPE — Tobacco Use Prevention Education
A Foothill High School club that raises awareness about tobacco, alcohol and drugs among teens. I also attended the Teens Tackle Tobacco conference to bring ideas back to the club.
Awareness booths
Trivia, art and demonstrations at school
Yearly freshman presentations
About the harm of drugs and alcohol
The other half of how I think
Kathak — seven years
Trained to a bachelor-equivalent level under my Kathak guru, Ms. Vaishnaviji. Performed at a Ram Katha in Boston led by Morari Bapu, my guide in life, held through Harvard's Ramayana programme.
Watch: Kathak at Harvard
Highlights from the Ram Katha performance, Boston · full video
Mid-performance
Harvard Ram Katha
On stage
Harvard Ram Katha
With my guru and mentor for life, Morari Bapu
Boston
With my Kathak guru Ms. Vaishnaviji
Also the director of Vasantsena and Anarkali
Performing Kathak
Little Rock, Arkansas
Foothill Fizaa — Bollywood dance team
3rd place and Best Choreography at Baazi, an inter-school Bay Area competition against more than a dozen high schools. Then performed at Bollywood Berkeley at UC Berkeley, the only Bay Area high school team to perform there after the competition among 12 teams.
Watch: Baazi 2026
Foothill Fizaa on stage · full video
Watch: Bollywood Berkeley 2026
Foothill Fizaa's performance at UC Berkeley
3rd place & Best Choreography
The Fizaa team
Best Choreography with my captain
Bollywood Fusion category, Baazi
3rd place at Baazi
Bay Area inter-school competition
Musicals: Anarkali, Vasantsena & Ramayana
Three full-length musical productions. Professional adult shows where I played the younger lead and several other characters.
Receiving my degree from my guru
With Ms. Vaishnaviji
As young Anarkali
With the ensemble
Before the show
Vasantsena
On stage as young Anarkali
A scene from the show
Vasantsena
The dancers
Vasantsena crew
Backstage with my mom
Vasantsena
With Vasantsena and my mom
In costume, before the show
Bollywood Musical Camp — Director, Writer & Producer
My own summer camp, now in its second year. I wrote the script, choreographed the dances and taught 9 kids dance, drama and prop-building.
Camp highlights, with the original songs
Neti's welcome, a scene from the play, the dances with their own music, and the finale
Finale, 2026
A little grander every year
Finale, 2025
The first camp
Camp parent
From the camp website
Directing the finale
First camp, 2025
Rehearsal
Bollywood Musical Camp
Snack break
Second camp, 2026
Also true
Skiing
Intermediate, 5–6 years in, and still my favorite day off
Ready for the slopes
Skis on my shoulder
At the helm
Driving the boat on June Lake, CA
Bay Area Honor Choir
Honor Choir program, San Jose State University
Hindi at Chinmaya Mission
Student for 8 years, then a teaching assistant for 2 of them
Big-cousin babysitter
Kids ages 1 to 11: sports, homework help and a lot of games