Vinod's Story
"The Cypress can take its own form or be
shaped by its caretaker. Eventually, though,
the tree finds its own shape -
the unique result of both ways."
"Your son"
-Vinod Nagubadi
2001 Father's Day
-1976-2005
The legacy of Vinod Nagubadi
Vinod, a beloved son, is survived by his parents, Dr. Subbarao and Mrs. Subbayamma Nagubadi. Also, a cherished baby brother, he is survived by his big sisters (akkas), Nitha and Hashi.
Vinod was born on August 14, 1976 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Vinod had a zest for life and was a very stellar and accomplished student. He attended Thomas Jefferson Elementary and Benjamin Franklin Middle School. Vinod was fondly referred to by his friends as “Vinnie.” In the 6th grade, Vinod spent a summer at Northwestern University to study in the Center for Talent Development program. He attended Valparaiso High School and graduated from The Indiana Academy for Sciences, Mathematics and Humanities, located at Ball State University in 1994. He loved attending the Indiana Academy; as Vinod said “I will always cherish the camaraderie”…while at (The Indiana Academy for Sciences). Some highlights of his Academy experience include winning first prize in the cell biology event at the state finals of Science Olympiad. In his early high school days, Vinod enjoyed playing on the high school tennis team. Vinod was also a championship debater who won the state debating championship in 1993. During high school, Vinod attended a summer session at Stanford University. Vinod attended Washington University in St. Louis and graduated with Honors from Indiana University in 2001, with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and minors in biology, psychology and political science. Vinod worked diligently through these years to optimize his performance and experiences as a student. While at Washington University, Vinod was elected the Vice President of residential government at Shepley Hall. While at Indiana University, Vinod was a senior part time teaching assistant and tutor in psychology, and anatomy and physiology in the supplemental instruction department. He collaborated with professors to improve student learning, course grades, and overall college study skills. He lectured in groups of up to 30 students and studied in group roundtables of up to six students for about 20 hours a week.
Vinod had a innate love of technology. He naturally picked up the knowledge without ever having any formal instruction. In 1999, Vinod was the founder and webmaster of Giedi Prime, website at gamestats.com, which is a commercial website for PC game Dune 2000 news and information. This same year, Vinod was also the founder and webmaster of IPOStation.com, which is a site for fans of the then super-hot IPO market.
In 2003, Vinod decided he was ready to move. Being the perfectionist that he is, he spent hours on the computer researching the perfect city with the ideal year round temperature. He decided that the city he would call home would be San Diego. He loved San Diego, and welcomed everyone to his new home. In late 2004, he moved back to Chicago to be closer to his family. A common theme throughout Vinod’s career had been process improvement and project management. He thrived on being tech-savvy, and searched for processes for which to use his expertise on maximizing system efficiencies. He led teams to complete diverse, complex projects, and also inherently understood organizations in such a way that gave him an almost innate insight into how to make things work better. He learned new systems and applications with remarkable speed, which allowed him to quickly develop and implement solutions to address imperfect processes. In one position, he created an entire IT department from the ground-up. Vinod won the first and only “Hero Award” in August 2004 as the Desktop Publishing Specialist at the Retirement Capital Group. Most recently, Vinod accepted a managerial contract with the software consultancy, Sofbang. He coordinated the firm’s response to the City of Chicago’s Request for Qualifications 1348. Vinod was a true intellectual, always continually trying to further his education.
Over the past few months, Vinod was methodically researching and applying to various graduate programs all across the country. He created the most intricate spreadsheet to track his application progress and admittance status, which he was so proud of. Over the past few weeks, Vinod received many acceptance letters, including Georgetown MBA, Indiana University Kelley MBA, and Northwestern Masters in Biotechnology Program. Vinod recently completed an instructor’s training program to teach ACT classes at Princeton Review and GRE classes at Kaplan Educational. Vinod’s many loves included building and maintaining repairing and tuning personal computers, designing websites, reading business and high-tech periodicals, watching movies, playing video games, enjoying digital interactive and immersive media entertainment, playing tennis and spending time with family and friends. Vinod touched the lives of the many people who were fortunate to have him in their lives. He was compassionate, sensitive, and selflessly cared for others first. He had plans to help people through a career as a physician. His strength and perseverance are inspirational to those who knew him. He united people wherever he went.
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No matter how high he soared, Vinod was on a constant quest for self improvement and improving the lives of those around him.