Arnav Tandon (12) displays his physical prowess in the pool while playing water polo, but also shows off his mental savoir faire while leading discussions in Philosophy Club and participating in Latin-related activities as a member of Harker’s Junior Classical League (JCL).

He has been part of the varsity water polo team for four years, playing varsity since his freshman year.

“You could say I got dropped straight into the deep end as I started high school,” he said, smiling at the memory. “I was way out of my comfort zone in freshman year, playing against the bunch of bigger, scarier and taller kids that made up other varsity teams.”

After four years of playing the sport, Arnav now sees water polo as a source of relief from anything he may be facing.

“Every time I jump into a pool, I just seem to lose all of my stress and worries,” he said. “Nothing bothers me, and I’m able to focus all of my energy on water polo.”

Arnav captained the varsity teams in both his junior and senior years. In his final season, he led the varsity team to a league championship and a CCS qualification, following the team’s recent first-place finish in the SCVAL league tournament.

Arnav’s varsity co-captain in this year, Misha Ivkov (12), described his perceptions of Arnav’s leadership and confidence.

“I think Arnav is a natural leader,” Misha said. “Whether in organizing the philosophy conference or conducting water polo drills, he exudes an air of confidence which makes those around him want to listen to what he has to say.”

Although invested in water polo, Arnav is equally devoted to his academic interests. While Latin and philosophy studies may not have many obvious connections, Arnav sees a complementarity between them.

“Over the past four years, I’ve discovered a strange parallel between water polo and my interest in Latin and philosophy,” he said. “Playing water polo allows me to lose myself in a physical way, while reading Latin and learning about philosophical ideas and theories encourages me to lose myself in thought.”

Arnav founded the Philosophy Club at the end of his freshman year of high school. This past March, Philosophy Club hosted its first Harker Philosophy Conference, an event he hopes the club will continue annually.

“I was really proud of the club when we hosted PhilCon last year, and I think the club has really grown and exceeded what I originally saw it becoming,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in philosophy, but I’ve rarely had the chance to take any classes about it, so I started the club in order to have a place to connect and discuss philosophy with people with similar interests.”

Arnav also fosters a deep interest in Latin and the classics and wishes that more people shared his sentiments. As the president of the Junior Classical League club at Harker, he aims to promote student interest in classical Greek and Roman literature and culture.

“I really wish more people were exposed to topics like philosophy and Latin and other ancient classical topics,” he said. “I get really excited and I perk up whenever I even hear the mention of the word ‘Latin’ or the name of someone connected with these topics, like Cicero, during a conversation.”

Arnav even attended a summer camp to immerse himself in the classics and to visit ancient sites.

“This past summer, I went to a Latin camp in Rome for two and a half weeks. We lived in a convent next to an old palace, which now serves as the French embassy, and we would read and discuss different Latin works in the mornings and visit ancient Roman sites in the afternoons,” he said. “It was super immersive and exposed us to how the texts that we read actually connected with ancient Roman life and culture.”

He joked about his friends’ impressions of his camp.

“If you asked any of my friends where I was while I was at camp, they would’ve told you that I was at ‘nerd camp,’ and they weren’t entirely wrong,” he said, chuckling to himself.

Arnav hopes that studying philosophy will further his intellectual development.

“Cicero once said, ‘The eloquent man for whom we are searching cannot be shaped without philosophy,’” he said. “I think a love and passion for philosophy is something I’ll always be able to cherish, and that’ll help me become the eloquent man that Cicero describes.”