Whatever happened to Deep Shah?

Metro Atlanta

Whatever happened to Deep Shah?

In a household with a formula for raising valedictorians, Deep Shah honed the skills necessary to become an academic heavyweight. And Deep Shah, too, is realizing his potential. At the University of Georgia, he has been named a Rhodes Scholar.

Dr. Meenah Shah, M.D. (left) and her husband Dr. J.J. Shah, M.D. (right) are thrilled their son Deep Shah (cq), center, has decided to pursue a career as a physician instead of his original plan to study law.

Sacrificing freedom for the sake of education was second nature to Deep Shah. He learned that lesson as a kid. Dating was outlawed. So were sleepovers and hanging out at the mall for kicks.This is a photo of Deep when he was in kindergarden.

Deep Shah comes from a household of valedictorians, but he blazed a new trail of his own. He was the first teenager at Greater Atlanta Christian to achieve a perfect PSAT score.

The Shah family (from left to right) Asha, Dr. JJ, Deep, Dr. Meena and Shveta, are dedicated to the medical profession. The parents left India with nothing but their medical degrees and $80. Now, they own Gwinnett Clinc, a medical enterprise witn s 16 offices across metro Atlanta, including this one in Lawrenceville where the family posed in 2002. The 17th office will open in Braselton next month.

For the Shah kids, achieving academic excellence was expected. The parents, Drs. J.J. and Meena Shah, graduated at the top of their classes at Baroda Medical College. His oldest sister Shveta, 27, landed a residency in internal medicine with her husband Dinesh Raju, at Harvard University's Massachusetts General Hospital. Asha, 25, the middle child, graduates from an Ivy league medical school in Pennsylvania this spring.

"I'm fortunate to always be surrounded by people both at home and at school who are equally if not more gifted than me in every way," said Deep Shah, now 22. In this photo of him as boy, he poses in front of the Taj Mahal in India.

The Shah family at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. "It is always a pleasure to see your children do well, for any parent," J.J. Shah, 57, said. "We are very blessed."

Deep Shah shows his mother how to use the family camera on prom night in 2004, at their home in Duluth. Deep has lived up to his full potential since high school. At the University of Georgia in Athens, he has achieved his loftiest goal ever. Deep has been named as a Rhodes Scholar.

Deep at home in 2004. His mother, Dr. Meena Shah, 57, raised her children on carefully measured doses of Hindu wisdom, strict academic discipline and the middle class, bootstraps-virtues taught by television's "The Cosby Show." The situation comedy the family watched religiously taught the Shahs what it meant to achieve the American dream - having successful careers and children.

Deep gives a speech at Greater Atlanta Christian. He has had great success since high school. The biology and international affairs major at UGA has performed research with senior faculty. He studied public policy in Washington D.C., bioterrorism preparedness in Japan and cared for poverty-stricken children crowding a struggling clinic in Costa Rica.

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Dr. Meenah Shah, M.D. (left) and her husband Dr. J.J. Shah, M.D. (right) are thrilled their son Deep Shah (cq), center, has decided to pursue a career as a physician instead of his original plan to study law.

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