Mysuru: Neha Saron hogged the limelight at the 97th annual convocation of the University of Mysore (UoM) on Tuesday, by bagging 16 gold medals and four cash prizes in MSc (Chemistry).

Daughter of Indian Navy officer Sadaram, Neha of Rajasthan said that she wants to establish a school for girls in her state as education for girls is still a mirage there. “In Rajasthan, parents discourage education of girls due to various reasons. I will be in the teaching profession for some time. Later, I will return to my home state and open a school there,” she said.

Neha’s elder sister works with Infosys in Hyderabad, while her younger brother is in the National Defence Academy at Pune.

Guru Basavalinga Swami, seer of the Panchagavi Mutt on Ooty Road in Mysuru, secured nine gold medals and two cash prizes in Sanskrit. Born into a farmer’s family in Ukkalagere of T Narasipur taluk, he was anointed as seer in 1995. He also has a masters’ degree in Economics.

He is interested in Computer Science and wants to digitalise the palm leaves scriptures of Ayurveda. Vedavathi, who won seven gold medals and four cash prizes in Economics, is also from a farmer’s family from Manchenahalli, Nagamangala taluk, Mandya district. As her father died when she was four, her mother Nagamma raised Vedavathi and her two siblings and ensured them good education. She wants to be a teacher.

Degrees in various disciplines were presented to a total of 24,398 students during the convocation and 61% (14,844) of them were girls. Even among medal and prize winners, girls had a lion’s share, bagging 312 medals and 180 prizes. Among 202 medal winners, 140 were women.