As Sweet As Vennela
Four-year senior Vennela Vellanki has left her mark on the Academy. As a Student Council (StuCo) dorm rep, Student Listener and proctor in Hoyt Hall, she’s shown herself to be a giving and altruistic person. As a co-head of both Hindu Society and Subcontinent Society, she continues to represent and connect with her culture to expand the clubs’ influences on campus. She leads an ESSO club, sings and participates in two dance groups—all activities that share her spirit and exemplify her versatility.Back in Louisiana during her elementary years, Vellanki learned Bollywood dance. All of her Indian friends were doing it, and so she was encouraged to join the group; at first, she didn’t enjoy it because she didn’t consider herself that great of a dancer, but with time Vellanki started to fall in love with dancing at the Academy.During her prep year, Vellanki helped start In Motion, a co-ed hip-hop dance group. She also became co-head of Shakti, the Academy’s only Bollywood dance group. “Shakti keeps me in touch with my culture because I’ve done Bollywood dance since I was little,” she said. “To have that here at Exeter was a really big deal for me. I wanted to make it the best it could be.”Vellanki furthers her bonds with her culture as a co-head of Hindu Society, a religious club that she has participated in since her prep year. This year, Vellanki has been actively trying to differentiate the club from past years—she said that past co-heads didn’t publicize it quite enough.With Vellanki spearheading efforts with fellow co-head and senior Raghav Bhat, Hindu Society has renovated the Puja room in the basement of Phillips Church and held a ceremony for its inauguration. The room now holds new statues and a mandir, a space designed to bring human beings and gods together. In addition to the renovation, Hindu Society has hosted temple trips and a few internal club dinners, and will work to plan the annual spring event Holi.“Vennela is an awesome leader of Hindu Society; she’s always enthusiastic and there with a plan,” Bhat said. “She’s super committed to improving the organizations she works with. She’s worked with me on several events—Diwali dinner, movie nights, Puja room dedication and every time she’s done all she can to make them a success.”The scope broadens with Vellanki’s role as co-head of Subcontinent Society, a cultural club on campus. She has found it as another way to share her culture because the club hosts a large number of events; for instance, Subcontinent Dinner took place on Nov. 6 which included catered Indian food and the viewing of the Bollywood film, “Dil Dhadakne Do.”“It’s nice to see when people want to be part of the club and the culture and want to participate even though they may not know anything or very little,” Vellanki said. “Honestly, some of us don’t know very much either, and we’re all just kind of learning together about our culture.”When she was little, Vellanki used to be embarrassed by “anything Indian” and felt like she had to hide that part of herself from the public—now, through experiences at Exeter, she’s more proud than ever to be Indian. “I want everyone else who has a culture to be proud of it too, because it’s something very special and invaluable and needs to be cherished and preserved,” she said.Aside from ethnic groups, Vellanki has been involved with singing since her youth, and continues to take voice lessons at the Academy. She joined Women’s Chorus during her prep year, and more recently, the Fermatas.In addition to the two vocal groups, Vellanki takes part in ESSO Big Sib Little Sib, a club she loves because it allows her to connect with people outside of the Academy community. Additionally, her “little sib,” a 12-year-old girl named Keya Merrick had been partnered with Vellanki’s older sister Shay Vellanki ’12; thus, the bond between Vennela and Keya is an extremely special one.Before Vellanki arrived at Exeter, her older sister Shay— being in McConnell—didn’t paint Hoyt Hall in the best light, and Vellanki thought she was soon to be stuck “with the weird people.” But within the first two weeks on campus, she fell in love with the dorm’s friendly and welcoming atmosphere.Vellanki decided to become a student listener when she realized a close friend in the dorm was suffering from depression. “Before, I never recognized the signs and didn’t know how to help her,” Vellanki said. “I like to be there for people in anyway I can, and the fact that I was so blind to her disorder at the time made me disappointed in myself and also motivated me to do something more for those around me.”Fellow Student Listener and senior Thomas Chou said, “Vennela has always been a really caring, hardworking and understanding friend. I count on her as someone I always know I can talk to, and that’s why I think she makes such a good student listener. When she listens, instead of being critical or passing judgment, she genuinely wants to see her friends do well or get better.”The same mindset Vellanki had when she ran for student listener prompted Vellanki to run for and eventually assume the roles as dorm representative at StuCo and proctor. Since last spring, proctorship has motivated her to interact even more with the lowerclassmen and recreate her positive experiences she had as a prep.Senior and dormmate Annie Ning described Vellanki as an “absolutely hilarious” person, and as someone who “makes everyone around her feel really comfortable.” Ning recalled a large number of moments when the two stayed up late and laughed at jokes; she said that Vellanki is one of the most confident people on campus.“Some of the best nights in the dorm are when she’s doing her psychology readings late at night; she’ll get too scared reading about all these serial killers and case studies, or she’ll see a spider in her room and sleep on my floor for the night,” Ning said. “But those are always the best nights, the ones where we stay up late talking and laughing at each other and at Vennela’s ridiculous fear of the smallest things. Her hilarious escapades are what make late nights in Hoyt as memorable as they are.”With similar sentiments, lower Sydney Lamb said that in most dorms, there’s a go-to room where people socialize, do work or take a break—in Hoyt, that room is Vellanki’s. “Vennela is a really hard worker,” Lamb added. “She’s the type of person who, if really stressed out, will use that to motivate herself to get her work done instead of procrastinating; that kind of attitude spreads around—at least for me it does.”Upper Meghana Chalasani, though not in Hoyt, had a lot to say about Vellanki. Their parents knew each other in college, but Chalasani was never very close to Vellanki until she arrived at the Academy. Now, the two share various clubs and interests; they both are part of Shakti, Subcontinent Society and Hindu Society. They even share the same “little sib,” Keya.“Vennela is always super passionate about her clubs and aims only the for the best; she’s so relatable and real. The best part of being Vennela’s friend is knowing I’ll always have someone to turn to,” Chalasani said.“She is the most caring, genuine person I know,” Chalasani continued. “No matter how many assignments she has for the next day, she will always make time to listen and make me feel better. I don’t think there’s anything I couldn’t trust her with, and she has never let me down.”