As the sun rises over the Stanford Dish, Anoushka Buch (12) shares a laugh with her fellow volunteers. Together, they water a field of plants and set up Tubex to protect the trees before driving back down the vibrant green hills.

Although she initially joined Magic, a Stanford-based environmental organization, to fulfill community service requirements, Anoushka eventually began to form deeper connections with her fellow volunteers.

“Because I was shy before that with new people, I got comfortable enough in my position in the group that I was able to talk to new people and connect with the regular volunteers around me,” she said. “Having that experience and knowing what we were doing made me more able to give guidance if I saw someone was struggling.”

Close friend Chloe Affaki (12) emphasized Anoushka’s thoughtful and caring nature, recalling the memorable gifts Anoushka has given her.

“She is an amazing gift giver. [There are] small tidbits here and there that she keeps in her brain and then surprises you with a few years later … which I find really, really thoughtful,” Chloe said. “Overall, she’s the best friend I could have asked for.”

As Anoushka spent time with the Magic community through both volunteering and weekly dinners, she noticed the diversity within the organization.

“It’s a very intellectual, environmental community,” she said. “I was always very connected to people my age and people with the same mindset and outlook as me, but in this group, everybody was [of] completely different ages, races, religions, professions. I found that it was a very wholesome experience to be connected to all parts of that community.”

Through conversing with unique individuals, Anoushka began incorporating the different viewpoints she encountered into her own outlook.

“I was not very connected to a specific religion or my culture, but at Magic, I think that my nothingness had value as a blank slate for all these ideas. It was a very easy, comfortable spot of discourse,” she said. “Having a clean outlook allowed me to look at all these ideas and let them mix and meld into my own identity, so a fusion of different ideas and outlooks is the way that I see the world now. That helped me realize having no identity is an identity in itself.”

Upper school coach Loren Powers, who has worked with Anoushka in strength and conditioning classes since her junior year, mentioned how she aims to create a welcoming environment and accept others in the weight room.

“I want our weight room to feel like anyone is welcome and open. She is someone that brings that type of energy to the weight room. [She] is positive, reinforcing to friends [and] can have fun while working hard,” Powers said. “She did a great job at adding to that value of the weight room and being a good classmate to all her friends too.”

Looking at new perspectives has taught Anoushka the importance of not speaking over others’ experiences, which she aims to convey through her artwork. In AP Studio Art, she focused on raising awareness about climate change based on her work with Magic, and she was especially drawn to photography to highlight the importance of the issue.

“Photography specifically expresses what I’m trying to go for because photography is so completely real. Photography, at its core form, is what’s in front of you,” she said. “That’s helped me with this investigation in that I’m pointing out what’s actually there. If you photograph actual events, it says things in a way that reaches a deeper core with people.”

Shreya Srinivasan (12), Anoushka’s close friend and co-editor-in-chief for TALON Yearbook, noted how she’s seen Anoushka’s photography skills develop over time.

“Over the past few years, she’s definitely grown a lot as a photographer. When she wants something and she wants to get better at it, she definitely puts in a lot of time to grow,” Shreya said. “Whenever we’re taking photos, she always waits until she can get the perfect photo.”

After meeting Anoushka in a graphic arts class two years ago, Mahika Halepete (‘20) emphasized the growth she’s noticed in Anoushka.

“I’ve only been close friends with her for about a year, but in that time from junior to senior year, I’ve seen her really blossom in her creative talents and step into her leadership,” Mahika said. “She inspires me with her work ethic, creativity and ambition.”

Anoushka has incorporated photography into her personal life as well through capturing the world around her to create a memorable high school experience.

“I’ve always had this high school cliché in my mind, and I realized everybody’s always said that high school is always very defining for people. It bothered me when I realized that I might look back on this experience and not remember a single thing from it,” she said. “That really compelled me to want to make the most of what I have right now, because high school is something that you can’t really ever replicate.”

Overall, she aims to include minute details into her photography in order to encapsulate an entire experience.

“Small and big events both, I’m always taking photos,” Anoushka said. “The candid moments [are] really what makes it more important for me. If I see little random things happening, small details that really round out a moment, that’s what I photograph, and that makes it a whole experience.”