Though senior Peter Wu has pursued various interests in high school, ranging from water polo to philosophy to classics, he has always held a passion for physics and computer science. He hopes to utilize his interest in both fields to “make some breakthrough in quantum computer.”

“I have big dreams, but for starters, there’s two things that I’m very interested in: one is CS and the other is physics, and my goal in life is to make a breakthrough in physics. In college, I want to pursue CS because CS is also used in all technology, resources these days, and that’s the direction I want to go,” Peter said. “I want to create some piece of technology that is extremely innovative, and in the future, I want to pursue something that relates to physics as well. That’s my end goal.”

Instead of hindering his passion for computer science and physics, Peter’s extracurriculars in high school, especially water polo, have worked in tandem with his plans for college and the far future.

“Before water polo, I didn’t really do a completely team-oriented sport, and water polo is all about teams. The exposure to that shaped me as a person, it definitely helped me look at the world in a much different way,” Peter said. “And it’s something that I definitely would take with me when I pursue – who knows what my career is.”

Another field Peter explored in high school was philosophy, which helped shape his attitude toward life in general.

“Philosophy is a field that is interesting for me because it’s a field where you get to look at world views and perspectives from every direction, and you get to tackle a lot of concepts from a very broad viewpoint,” Peter said.

He also cites the overall Harker community in exposing him to a diverse group of not only people but also ideas.

“Just because your interests are different from [theirs], when you actually get to talk to them, you find that they’re extremely interesting and they’re doing their own thing that [makes] you very interested as well,” Peter said. “Everybody at this school is passionate about something, even if it’s not something you’re interested in. It’s like ‘Woah, you do that.’”

Reflecting on the end of his high school career, Peter feels that his biggest impact hasn’t been in the physics or computer science fields, but in the connections he’s formed these past four years instead.

“I think from the Harker experience as a whole – just meeting a lot of people at the school, talking to teachers, and just getting to know them creating relationships with them is [my] mark [on the school],”  Peter said.