Shriaditi Kancherla knows what it’s like to spend time in the hospital. The Edison High School senior has been in and out of Saint Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick over the past two years due to chronic health challenges.

So as president of Edison High’s Rotary Club, Kancherla organized a deeply meaningful service project during the holiday season: Club members made and delivered 250 decorative gifts for patients in Saint Peter’s pediatric wing – gingerbread houses, snowmen figurines and paper snowflakes.

“It was a way to give back to the same hospital that helped me,” she said. “Being that kid in the hospital, if I got something like that it would have made my day.”

The gifts were among many acts of service by Kancherla, who will attend Rutgers University in the fall and study pharmacy. Over the past four years she organized food drives, tutored middle-school students, and volunteered as a helper at a local elementary school. Right now she’s in the final stages of developing an app that will help students manage medications.

All of the above is why Kancherla is a recipient of a 2026 Marisa Tufaro Memorial Community Service Scholarship.

The Marisa Tufaro Foundation presents the $1,000 scholarship in honor and loving memory of its namesake to high school students who support the nonprofit’s mission of assisting pediatric patients and children in need throughout the greater Middlesex County area.

Born with a severe cardiac defect, Marisa survived six open-heart surgeries and a heart transplant before succumbing to a rare form of cancer in 2017 following a valiant battle. She was just 13 years old. Despite being hospitalized for more than two years and maintaining hundreds of doctors’ appointments, Marisa was an Edison Township Public Schools honor roll student involved in myriad extracurricular activities who lived a vibrant life that inspired.

Since its inception in 2017, The Marisa Tufaro Foundation has donated nearly $450,000, including $42,000 in scholarships, plus thousands of toys, nonperishable food items, winter jackets, baby supplies, children’s books and school supplies.

“This honor means a lot to me,” Kancherla said. “I hope that in some way my future service carries on Marisa’s legacy.”

She’s already made quite an impact. As a math tutor, she’s working with 10 middle-school students this year.

“I enjoy seeing their confidence grow over time,” she said. “The grades matter, but it’s also about seeing them develop, and that’s really rewarding.”

At Lincoln Elementary School in Edison, she’s a regular when an extra set of hands are needed for a big event, like band concerts and the school’s annual fall festival.

Within the Rotary Club, she’s presided over an incredibly productive period among its 50 or so active members. That includes annual food drives that collected and delivered over 1,500 items for local pantries – especially Hands of Hope Food Pantry in Edison. They also made 400 sandwiches for Elijah’s Promise Soup Kitchen in New Brunswick. The crafting of gifts for the children’s wing at Saint Peter’s was especially galvanizing for the club.

“It shows the value of community service,” Kancherla said. “Not just being able to give back, but being able to form connections through the act of service.”

Rotary Club adviser Howard Manson, who is a social studies teacher at Edison High School, described Kancherla’s stewardship of the club as transformative.

“What truly distinguishes her is the way she leads – with empathy, intention, and heart,” Manson wrote in a letter of recommendation. “Her ability to combine strong leadership with genuine empathy is rare, and it is what allows her to create a lasting impact in every space she enters.”

Her nascent app, called MediTrack, ties all of that together.

“It’s a simple way to help track your medications,” she explained. “The app focuses on making that process accessible, not just for kids but also for their parents. There’s a feature for caregiver access – parents can log on, and both parents and kids get notifications. The kid gets some sense of independence, but the parent is able to help out.”

The app is borne of Kancherla’s own experiences with health challenges and medications.

“Sometimes if you miss one (dose) you feel horrible the next day,” she said. “I struggled with that. So this provides some support and makes dealing with it a little easier. It can make a little impact.”

That’s something Shriaditi Kancherla has done many times over.