2026 Scholarship Winner Announced

A Chaska student receives the Twin Cities Illini Club's annual scholarship. The award recognizes outstanding Minnesota students who are entering their first year at the University of Illinois.

The Twin Cities Illini Club has named Mahi Madhan Kumar as the 2026 recipient of its annual Jack Carlson Memorial Twin Cities Illini Club Scholarship. A graduate of Chaska High School, Mahi will study computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering this fall.
 

As Team Captain, Build Captain, and Software Lead of his FIRST Robotics team, Mahi led the team's design, construction, and software strategy while founding and coaching a neighborhood Lego League team. The team earned a Design Award in its rookie season and advanced to the state championship. In 2025, Mahi received the FIRST Robotics Dean's List Award at the Houston World Championship — FIRST's highest individual honor, having been selected from a global pool of over 93,000 competitors. He also received an inaugural Minnesota Senate Recognition Award for Robotics Excellence and Student Leadership.
 

Mahi also served as an appointed District 6 representative to the Minnesota Youth Council, advising Governor Tim Walz and the state legislature on priority bills related to STEM, education, and civic engagement and helping author a bipartisan $3 million robotics funding bill to expand access for underserved teams statewide. A four-year captain of his school's Lincoln-Douglas debate team, he led practices and mentorship for younger debaters while competing at the state and national level.
 

The Twin Cities Illini Club student scholarship recognizes excellence in academics and extracurricular participation and is awarded annually to a Minnesota student accepted into the University of Illinois. Established in 2008, the award is named after a founder of the alumni group and is a central activity of the club. Profiles of previous honorees appear on the club’s Past Recipients page.