Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges alum
Alisha Chulani has been selected as one of four finalists for the 2026 ITA Sally Ride STEM Award.
ITA Release
Now in the award’s fifth year, the ITA Sally Ride STEM Award honors one of the biggest icons in American history, Dr. Sally Ride, who was the first woman to soar into space. Combining two of Dr. Ride’s greatest passions in tennis and science, this award has been awarded to some of the most distinguished student-athletes in college athletics.
Chulani is vying to become the second SCIAC student-athlete to receive the scholarship after Caltech's Anna Tifrea won the inaugural award in 2022.
Being awarded to a female student-athlete who demonstrates zeal, dedication, and perseverance towards her tennis training and competition, STEM studies, and long-term goals, the ITA Sally Ride STEM Award serves as a symbol of the ability of women to shatter barriers both on and off the court.
“Each year, the finalists for the ITA Sally Ride STEM Award are extraordinary,” stated Tam O’Shaughnessy, who endowed the award. “There are so many talented women who are passionate about athletics and STEM! It is time they are held up high and honored.”
Alisha Chulani | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps | NCAA Division III
As a winner both athletically and academically, Alisha Chulani knew that Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) was the perfect place for her to continue to develop both of her passions of tennis and engineering. Playing the sport from a young age, Chulani never recognized how many lessons would translate from tennis to engineering until reflecting on her time as a student-athlete at CMS. Named an 8-Time ITA All-American throughout her career, Chulani has won two NCAA Team Championships as well as the 2024 ITA National Team Indoor Championship across her career. Behind her grit and determination, Chulani has been named a team captain and employs many team building tactics that benefit her as an engineer as well. Off the court, Chulani is pursuing a degree in Engineering with a concentration in Economics. Currently, Chulani is gaining real-world experience with NVIDIA, the largest engineering company in the world, where she works in hardware infrastructure. Upon graduation, Chulani plans to enroll at Stanford University where she will pursue a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering. Here she hopes to develop low-cost sensor networks and computationally efficient machine learning models that give environmental researchers access to full data pipelines — from field collection to analysis — without requiring expensive hardware or cloud infrastructure.
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