Agartala, Nov. 30: Twenty-one-year-old Karuna Reang, sitting at her Loyola University hostel room in Boston, recalls the days she spent in her native village of Daluma in Gomati district.

Karuna was selected for higher studies in the US after she cleared her ICSE exam securing first division from Holy Cross School in 2010.

Holy Cross School principal Bobby John said indigenous students, like Karuna, are sent to the US on scholarship provided by the school.

Born in 1995 in the Reang community, Karuna is the eldest of three siblings in her family. She was considered "lucky" as she could attend an Assam Rifles-run school near Daluma.

"She progressed well in her studies by securing good marks in all exams till class VIII and then the pastor of a local church took interest in her and arranged for her free schooling at Holy Cross," said her father, Dinesh Reang, a shifting cultivator.

Karuna, who speaks to her parents over phone once a week, has completed her higher secondary and graduation in sociology and will join her masters in March 2017.

"She is a brave girl who consoled her weeping mother, Shimrung, before leaving for the US. We had arranged for her passport and visa in 2010," said former Holy Cross principal K. Jayraj.

"She was keen to make a trip back home to her village. But her teachers persuaded her to complete her masters and PhD. She secured an "A" grade in GRE and was informed by the director and associate professor of pastoral studies at Loyola University, Bryan Smekis, that she has been selected for masters and PhD in sociology with special emphasis on social justice and health care administration in the context of international relations," said John.

After completing her studies, she is determined to return home to work for her community and the state.