NATCHEZ — Laveria Green’s digital media technology class at Fallin Career and Technology Center is helping a Natchez transfer student realize his dream and bright future in a digital world.

Vinay Panchal, a sophomore at Natchez High School, said he and his brother, Deepkumar, transferred from eastern India two years ago seeking better education and career opportunities.

“We came here to get a better education,” he said. “When you finish school in India, there are not many open jobs like there are here.”

Deepkumar graduated from Natchez High School last year as the valedictorian, and Green said Vinay Panchal’s future looks just as promising.

“(Panchal) has gone above and beyond what our curriculum calls for,” Green said.

Panchal said he likes to do more in Green’s class because, for him, it’s fun.

“I like to draw, I like to use technology and editing,” Panchal said. “I make my projects, and I like to make things for myself.”

For one of his assignments, Panchal used Adobe Photoshop software to manipulate a self-portrait  and placed himself in parts of the world he has never seen, but would like to see, including the Great Wall of China, Paris and British Columbia.

“I just thought, ‘This place would be nice to go to,’” Panchal said.

He carefully resized and dropped his image into the backgrounds and shaded and blended until it appeared as though he had actually been standing in the real place and had his picture made.

“Now we’re working on our own logo for a business,” he said.

Panchal drew his initials into a video game company logo with a purple, pink and blue explosion of color in the background.

Panchal said he enjoys his math and science classes, too. He said he hopes to study computer software engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi and, perhaps, get a job working as a software tester for Google.

Panchal said he has always been fascinated with technology and used his personal computer at home to explore binary codes in software to find out what each character does.

“I like to work with technology because it’s accurate and more helpful than most other fields,” Panchal said. “Doctors use technology to do surgeries and technology is used in factories to make things like rowboats.”

Panchal is the son of Amishkumar and Diptiben Panchal of Natchez.