“It’s tennis.” Without hesitation, Pamela “Pam” Duke (12) proudly acknowledges that tennis defines her. Dressed in blue tennis gear and hair pulled back from her face with a blue headband, Pam clutched her tennis racket tightly and sat cross-legged, exuding a contagious cheerful energy.

It is hard to imagine that this nationally ranked tennis player was kicked off the tennis court when she was four years old. Later, at the age of seven, she was inspired as she watched her mom play tennis for the club and asked if she too could start taking lessons at the club.

Regardless of her rough start at a meager four years old, through perseverance and determination, Pam exceeded all expectations. Pam’s spectacular performance at a showcase in front of college coaches last year in Claremont with many highly ranked players proved her capabilities without doubt, as she won all of her matches and placed in the top flight. Further, her doubles ranking reached third in NorCal last year.

“Tennis is worth it for me because I’ve been doing it for so long,” Pam said. “To have a sport that I’m really competitive in and to be able to travel and play against people in the nation…and also to have a sense of another community outside of Harker.”

On the court during matches, Pam is able to ignore all distractions and stay focused.

“It’s really important to me just to focus on the ball and the match,” said Pam. “It matters a lot more than the outside what’s happening around me. It’s not that hard to be focused inside.”

Pam found herself at a crossroads during her freshman year when she faced injuries and lost many games. She believes that in addition to talent, mental conditioning is very important to be a successful tennis player.

“I got kind of down in tennis because I lost to players that were younger or people that I had beaten before and I got kind of upset with that…Mentally I wasn’t as strong enough as I should have been,” Pam said. “So I took some time off [to] strengthen myself and become more confident, and then it got better again.”

Being a student athlete in a STEM focused school like Harker is hard and Pam learned early to balance her workload between academics and extracurricular activities.

“I’m just more efficient with my time. When I do my tennis practices, I try to be more intense and just focused. And similarly, with my schoolwork, I get it done quicker.”

Pam’s Spanish teacher for three years, Abel Olivas, describes Pam as a brilliant student with an amazing work ethic.

“She’s really good with languages. Her command of Spanish spoken and written is impeccable as is phenomenal. She’s very impressive linguistically, has a remarkable linguistic talent, absorbs material quickly and doesn’t forget it,” Olivas said. “She speaks really well. She writes really well with a lot of precision and very advanced and complex.”

Not only in tennis and language, Pam also excels in her other activities including dance, gymnastics, photography.

“I think it’s important to be able to stay in good shape and stay healthy instead of just totally just studying and being totally academic,” Pam said. “I like having a balance to be able to do a bunch of different things.”

Pam believes her cross training in dance has kept her out of injuries.

“Dance actually helps tennis like improves flexibility and balance. A lot of my other friends when they play tennis they get a lot more injuries,” Pam said. “They have to take breaks and couple months off. I get injured a lot less than them, so it definitely helps.”

Her gymnastics training also enables her to do cool tricks like flips for spirit rallies and dance shows. She firmly believes in following one’s passion and continuing with it, regardless of others’ opinions.

“I think it’s important to keep going on in what you’re passionate about because a lot of people have told me that I’m doing too many activities, and I should quit some of them and just focus on one. And I’m glad that I didn’t do that and I was able to stick with all of them,” Pam said.

Pam is known among her friends for her thoughtfulness.

Nastya Sushkova (12), one of Pam’s closest friends, emphasized her thoughtfulness and ability to apply logic to difficult situations.

“She’s really thoughtful, and she really takes the time to really listen,” Nastya said. “She especially really takes the time to think about things, and I feel that people should realize that she is definitely one of the most thoughtful people…on campus.”

Enya Lu (12), another close friend of Pam’s describes their friendship not only as supportive and fascinating but also very active.

“She’s someone that’s really passionate about what she does. She’s really willing to go out there and adventure and discover new things, so whenever I want to try stuff out she is always the person I ask,” said Enya.

In spite of her tennis commitments, Pam consciously makes the time to be a great friend.

“I want to be remembered as someone who my friends are upset someone like comforts them and helps them and listens to everything they have to say and also like being positive and funny and when people are sad or down just really make them happier again and laugh with them,” said Pam.