The Class of 2020 is like no other graduating Class. Many schools across the country have canceled classes which means many students are missing out on senior year traditions.

More than 35 students applied for the 2020 Hino Motors Novi Educational Foundation scholarship. This is the second year of a 10-year, $25,000 program and comes at an unprecedented time.

The winner, Vinaayak Puliyadi, was chosen based on his submission essay on what leadership means to him as well as extracurricular activities and being admitted to a college or university in the fall.

Vinaayak plans to attend Penn State University to study Mechanical Engineering and had this to share, “Thank you to everyone at Hino for creating this opportunity. My dreams always lied in learning as much about the world as possible and begin research as a freshman. Because of this new opportunity, I can finally relieve some of the stress on doing work-study and instead focus more on achieving this goal. My future goals beyond college will be to change the world we live in with further progressing technology in our vehicles."