Incoming freshmen have a choice of courses to fill their Extra Period Option. Some choose dance; others choose Bel Canto; others choose a free period. Ananya Krishnan (12) chose Principles of Business and Entrepreneurship.

“It kind of startled me how much business is involved in everyone’s life,” she said. “Especially living in the Silicon Valley, business is everywhere.”

As a freshman, Ananya began to examine society with a completely different eye–the eye of an informed, alert member ready to make an impact. She marveled at the role business played in the events taking place around her. She now believes that the outside world is not just the hazy mirage obscured by a societal bubble, but a real place that can benefit from small actions from everyone.

“I think it’s really easy to become fixated on what’s going on in your life and forget about what is going on around you,” she said. “I wish that schools would emphasize current events more in order to teach us about the world we are living in and going to be living in. I bet if you go up to any Harker kid, they’ll be much more knowledgeable about World War II or the Great Depression than the events that are taking place all around them in real time.”

Ananya takes the Modern International Affairs course to learn more about the happenings of the world. Her curiosity about the world pairs well with her interest in business, which quickly grew from a class requirement to represent a more altruistic purpose.

Starting last year, she went even further in her efforts to make a difference by starting a nonprofit called the Official Pantry Project, serving as the founder and president of the organization. The organization donates excess food from restaurants and delivers that food to the needy through food banks and homeless shelters. On average, the Official Pantry Project has been donating 100 lbs of food per week.

“I was kind of brainstorming, and I came up with this one idea where I was essentially thinking, ‘If we collected excess food from restaurants, that they were anyway going to throw away, and we donate it to the homeless, would that be useful to them?’” she said. “We’ve been calling the homeless kitchen regularly and they’ve been really appreciative of our help. The food’s not going to waste, and the homeless are getting help, so our goal is fulfilled.”

Her altruistic missions in business hide a more playful side—few would expect her to be a K-Pop “fan girl.” Her favorite groups include BTS, Seventeen, Vixx and SF9.

“At first, she doesn’t seem like someone who would be really into that, especially to the degree that she is,” her friend and fellow K-Pop enthusiast Grace Koonmen (12) said with a laugh. “She’s so committed to it, and so passionate about it. If you try to diss them, she’ll be like, ‘No, I’m not having it.’”

Ananya’s close friend Katherine Zhu knows her for her willingness to stay true to herself.

“She’s not afraid to be herself, even when sometimes people are like ‘Why do you like K-Pop?” or something like that,” Katherine said. “She has sudden outbursts of inspiration and creativity… [there’s] a tint of craziness that colors her. And she’s very open about blunders, when she makes mistakes.”

This openness about blunders translates to chess, an activity Ananya has pursued since elementary school. She has learned that by vocalizing her mistakes, she can take away their power to demoralize her.

“When I was little, I was kind of used to getting beaten and making mistakes like over and over. I would kind of internalize it and try to figure out what was wrong on my own, and that was kind of a mistake,” Ananya said. “But I had this one chess coach, after every tournament, he would analyze my games with me, he would make me say out loud what I did wrong, why I did it wrong, and I guess that kind of like changed my mindset. It’s just like owning up to your mistakes, but also a way for you to fix those mistakes.”

Ananya’s self-awareness doesn’t only apply to chess. Through business, through K-Pop, through her interest in modern affairs—she stays tuned in to the larger world, even if it does not directly affect her.

“We’re at Harker, and you know we get flooded with work,” she said. “You kind of get into your own bubble, and you don’t really get out of it. I think by focusing on current events you become more worldly, you’re knowledgeable about what’s going on, and that way when you grow up, you can figure out ways to solve those problems.”