According to Merriam Webster, an idealist is “one guided by ideals, especially one that places ideals before practical considerations.” According to Clarice Wang (12) during the first Language and Linguistics Club (LALC) meeting of the school year, an “idea-list” is an “ordered group of notions.”

Chatter fills upper school Mandarin teacher Dr. Shaun Jahshan’s room as over a dozen students eagerly work on puzzles exploring the concept of breaking down a word’s meaning into chunks of letters. Clarice, president of the club, walks around the room and answers questions.

From seeing Clarice on campus, you might know her as a leader in DECA or the student who occasionally plays acoustic guitar with her friends after school. You might not know that she values language as a medium for human connection, resulting in her drive to learn new languages in her free time. So far, she’s learned or is in the process of learning Spanish, Korean, Greek, Santiago Laxopa Zapotec (SLZ) and Japanese, in addition to speaking Mandarin at home.

Clarice’s love for linguistics began when her father recommended the book “An Introduction to Language” to her at 14 years old. Enthralled by the book’s contents, she would run downstairs to share new information gleaned from the book with her family.

“That [had] never happened to me before — reading a book and being so enthusiastic that I would voluntarily run up and down stairs to share information about it — so that really got me into linguistics,” Clarice said.

She also contributes her inclination towards linguistics to taking the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), a competition for high school students involving linguistics puzzles. Clarice enjoys the test because of the pattern-finding, logic and creativity the problems required.

She applies the same kind of problem-solving skills to her work as DECA co-CEO. During this year’s DECA Launch, attended by around 200 people, the food delivery for dinner was delayed. Clarice and her co-CEO Gianna “Gigi” Chan (12) pivoted from the original schedule and stayed calm under pressure, minimizing the disruption to the event by quickly adjusting the day’s agenda.

As DECA co-CEO, Clarice leads through service, planning out elaborate events for the enjoyment of others. She and Gigi planned the officer retreat, setting up activities including an escape room, a Golfland outing and a cooking class competition.

“Clarice is not just someone who cares about her people, but she goes that extra mile to make sure that everybody’s taken care of, that they have the information that they need and that they have her as a resource in case they are unable to do something,” upper school business and entrepreneurship teacher Juston Glass said.

Seeing Clarice’s confident demeanor on stage during DECA events, one might not know that she initially had stage fright, and that she developed her confidence on stage over time.

“I wouldn’t, maybe four years ago, have thought that I would be speaking in an auditorium in front of 200 students and parents at DECA Launch for 20 minutes straight — I still don’t even believe I did it,” Clarice said. “I think, over practice, I give off another vibe when I’m on stage now; I feel confident in what I’m saying and I know how to talk in front of people, so that has surprised me constantly over the past years.”

Clarice’s strong sense of self stems from her background, as she moved around frequently in her childhood. Her family moved from Irvington, New York to Beijing, China when she was 4 years old, where she attended kindergarten through third grade. She spent half of fourth grade in a school in Foster City, California before moving to Palo Alto to complete fourth grade and fifth grade at a different school and enrolling in Harker in sixth grade.

“Having to always adapt to a new environment quickly and frequently allowed me to carry myself in a way that I know who I am, and I will always be the same person no matter what environment I am in,” Clarice said. “That also made me want to be with people, wherever I was. I wanted to have friends and know people, know teachers, talk with others about experiences or just have fun.”

As someone who understands how it feels to be a new student, Clarice makes an effort to create a welcoming atmosphere for others new to the upper school community, and she wants to be remembered for her approachability. She recalls that, around a week into her freshman year, a group of new-to-Harker classmates approached her and said that while discussing who their first friend was at Harker, they mentioned her name.

“That was the moment that I did feel pretty good about myself, that they weren’t afraid to be friends with me as they were new to a pretty well-developed community — being K-12, Harker people already know each other really well,” Clarice said.

In addition to approachability, Clarice’s thoughtfulness shines through in her actions, whether it be taking the time to make a club member feel welcomed or checking up with her friends during the isolation of quarantine.

Friend Emily Zhou (12), who has known Clarice for nearly seven years, recalls that, over quarantine, Clarice sent regular check-ins over text with some of her friends, where she asked them how they were feeling and sparked moments of virtual connection.

“I was really grateful that she took that initiative and remembered to do something like that, because I definitely think that everyone needed it, and receiving that text made me really happy,” Emily said.

Friend Teresa Cai (12) also notes Clarice’s compassion towards those around her. As a teammate, she encourages others when they make a mistake. As a friend, she supports her others through acts of kindness, both big and small.

“If she saw that you were feeling a little bit down, she’d immediately wrap you up in a hug,” Teresa said. “And during class, she’d tap you on the hand to check up on you.”

As the LALC meeting in Dr. Jahshan’s room draws to a close, students bid their goodbyes, reinvigorated by their introduction into a community united by an appreciation for linguistics. Throughout the school, one can discover similar communities influenced by Clarice’s warmth: to find her on campus, one needs only to follow the sounds of lively discussion and laughter.