Flathead Valley Community College President Jane Karas introduced one of the college’s brightest and most gracious students as the audience cheered at a recent dinner to thank donors to the FVCC Foundation.

Anmol Grace Manchala, an international student born in India, was bewildered as the crowd nudged her forward. Her anatomy and physiology instructor Sue Justis had taken her to the scholars room that afternoon for a private talk.

“I thought I was in trouble,” she said with a laugh. “I thought maybe I did a really bad job on my lab report.”

INSTEAD OF A scolding, Anmol walked into a surprise party celebrating her selection as the first student from the community college to earn a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship. Awarded to just 60 students across the country, the scholarship provides $30,000 a year for two to three years to finish her degree in premedicine at the institution of her choice.

Because she had applied last November and hadn’t heard, Anmol said she assumed that she wasn’t selected.

“I could hardly believe it,” she said. “Even my parents didn’t know — that’s why they started crying, too,”

Her parents, Raju and Grace Manchala, work with Youth with a Mission which brought the family, including son Finney, 10, and Anmol, 21, to Montana. Raju spoke at the surprise party, struggling to control his emotions as he explained they had no idea how they would afford to send their daughter to college when they came to the United States.

Although Raju holds a degree in accounting and Grace has a master’s degree in sociology, the couple devoted their lives to serving God through teaching in schools around India and other countries. He told the group that working for a nonprofit, they raise their own support, leaving no extra money for college.

OTHERS DOUBTED that Anmol could go to college.

“God worked out every small and big detail,” Raju said. “My daughter had one of the best experiences of her life here.”

Anmol couldn’t agree more. She said her parents put her future “in God’s hands” from the day of her birth in Bombay, now known as Mumbai.

“I kind of grew up all over India,” she said. “For the first few years of my life, I studied in a school that Youth with a Mission has for kids so that’s where I learned English.”

As they moved to different states in India, Anmol attended Indian schools. At about 14, her parents moved to Kanpur in the heart of India where they pioneered a school and she attended upper grades.

In the 10th grade, Anmol found herself drawn to science as a career.

“I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to be until a few years ago,” she said. “I took biology as my major but I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life. Then I came here.”

HER FAMILY first came to the U.S. in 2006 when her parents started a Youth with a Mission school in Las Vegas. They then traveled to 42 other states, including Montana.

The Manchalas thought very highly of the Youth With Mission discipleship training program here while Anmol immediately fell in love with the beauty of the Flathead Valley.

“That’s why I came back to Montana the following year (2007) to do my training here,” she said.

After finishing her discipleship training, which included a mission to Ukraine, she enrolled in a School of Biblical Studies for nine months of intensive biblical studies.

During that time, she said she began to think of the children in Third World nations. She grew up watching children living on the streets of India, collecting garbage to resell for a few rupees (a few cents).

Anmol imagined her little brother on the streets without loving parents, without food or shelter and foraging to live.

“You know, it broke my heart,” she said. “So during SBS I decided that I wanted to go to college and use my degree to help start schools, orphanages and hospitals.”

ANMOL STARTED FVCC in 2009 mainly because she was living here. Although she said she wasn’t a great student growing up, she found her dream of helping children changed things.

“I was more motivated,” she said. “Over here, I knew this is what I want to do with my life. So I really went for it.”

Anmol started her studies in education, thinking she would teach. But then she joined the Scholars honors program at the college where students pursue seminar-type independent research.

As part of one of her Scholars classes, she prepared a 30-minute presentation on bio-ethical issues.

“During that time, I discovered DNA and I did a lot of research on it and I fell in love with it,” she said. “I decided I should probably go into the medical field because I absolutely love studying biology.”

ANMOL SAID credentials as a physician would open doors for her when she returns to India to work with families with no access to health care.

“The poorest people here are rich compared to people (in the streets) over there,” she said.

Her switch to medicine brought new challenging courses such as anatomy and physiology. Anmol called it one of her toughest but one of her favorite courses even though it involved working on cadavers.

“It’s just amazing studying how the body works,” she said. “Just thinking how the body is created is mind-blowing — how everything works with amazing precision. Everything is perfect.”

Each new discovery about the human body’s inner works increased her sense of awe. She said unlocking the secrets of life through science did not change her views of creation.

“It really made me thank God even more for how he made us,” she said.

She named the Scholars program Director Ivan Lorentzen and Justis as her heroes, along with Colleen Unterreiner, executive director of the college foundation. They believed in her and pushed her ahead, she noted.

AT GRADUATION, Anmol received two associate degrees and was honored for receiving the Jack Kent Cooke scholarship.

“Without help from the Scholars program and the college, I wouldn’t have been able to get this far,” she said. “You walk on a road and you don’t see what’s ahead of you, but you just trust and you keep going.”

Along the way, she refined her dream career to pinpoint pediatrics in line with her love of children. Anmol begins studies at Montana State College in Bozeman this fall with the goal of attending medical school at the University of Washington.

She said she would advise others to not give into fear or settle for less than their dreams. Anmol said she was afraid when she first decided to come to the community college but she knew God was with her and would help her through every obstacle.

“He’s really done that — miracle after miracle happened to me here,” she said.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.