Sarah de Vegvar (12) gained a plethora of skills when helping to build a robot from scratch, ranging from power tool protocol to team communication.

“[Robotics] was one of those things where there were so many different parts that I never really realized were there to it,” Sarah said. “It’s like going into somebody else’s whole world.”

Despite her new technological experiences, Sarah’s most important takeaway from robotics is teamwork.

“It’s helped me think more about organization and communication,” Sarah said. “If one person isn’t there one day, and they’re the one with the software that we need on their laptop, we can’t have that. So we need ways to share all of the information and make sure that there’s more than one person on the team who knows how to do something.”

The idea of working as a team first featured prominently in Sarah’s life when she and her family would do group activities, such as hiking or going on bike rides together.

“Even though it’s hard to talk to each other when you’re biking, I think that’s where I got the mentality that something unenjoyable like biking for exercise can become fun and enjoyable and you can all help each other,” Sarah said. “It’s just that we all have our shortcomings, but we all also have something that we exceed at, no matter if we think so or not, so we can always help each other overcome difficulties that we have.”

Since then, Sarah has brought this sense of teamwork to other areas of her daily life, such as the pool, where she is co-captain of the girls’ water polo team.

“For me, [water polo] is like watching the sport, playing it and having the team there with that sense of community,” Sarah said. “And outside of sports, there’s definitely the idea that when I’m working on a group project, I’m not just doing this for me. There are other people, and it’s okay if I fail myself, but I can’t fail other people.”

In addition to emphasizing the importance of teamwork and of supporting others, water polo has helped Sarah pursue the things she wants outside of sports.

“Water polo is an aggressive, physical contact sport, and I feel like it’s helped me go after what I do because there’s always going to be someone chasing you down and trying to score the ball on your goal,” Sarah said. “So it’s being aggressive, going after what you want, and thinking in the moment. That’s a big thing for me because it’s something that I’m bad at and that water polo has helped me with.”

Fellow team member Meghana Karinthi (11) believes that Sarah’s attitude during water polo games has helped guide other members of the team.

“For the team, she’s definitely an inspiration,” she said. “I think she teaches people that you need to have a certain level of aggression in water polo, and she’s really confident.”

Throughout high school, Sarah has attempted to try activities that are outside of her comfort zone, from water polo and robotics to learning to cook and taking photography classes.

“One of the simplest mottos that I have is to try new things, because I feel like I need to leave my comfort zone and try something in order to know it better,” Sarah said. “I think it’s important to have an understanding of why people do things because if it’s an activity, then people are obviously doing it and enjoying for a reason, and I want to know why.”