A bright yellow banner, the words “JCL Amici” printed across it in scrawling purple letters. A selfie taken through the reflective surface of Chicago’s Cloud Gate. A screenshot of a successfully-translated Hindi sentence on Duolingo. To a stranger’s eye, pictures of these events and objects may appear to have no particular significance. But to Trisha Iyer (12), these snapshots from her phone are priceless. They are cherished photographic records of her senior year, part of her ongoing project to capture a special moment from each day of her last year as a high schooler.

Putting together a senior year photo album is just one of the many ways through which Trisha celebrates the little joys she experiences. From going on daily walks around her neighborhood to vowing to learn a little bit of Hindi each day as part of her New Years’ resolution, Trisha actively seeks out avenues to thoroughly savor every minute of every day.   

“I like integrating things that are important to me into the everyday,” Trisha said. “I think that what’s important is enjoying every day and enjoying life to the fullest. Because all of this anticipation and waiting for something big in the end isn’t as valuable to me as going out and trying to see the current moment for the best it is.”

As part of her pledge to notice the small wonders of the world, Trisha enjoys searching for classical influences in daily life, like Latin-derived words used in conversation or Corinthian columns in a nearby building. Her love for the classics traces back to middle school, when she first began taking Latin as a foreign language course.

Trisha pursued her interest in the classics throughout high school inside and outside the classroom. She joined the Harker chapter of the Junior Classical League (JCL), a national student organization that seeks to preserve ancient Greek and Roman traditions, in middle school and is currently Historian of the National JCL. By utilizing her knowledge of classical civilizations, Trisha enjoys discerning connections between past and present.

“If you compare modern society with ancient societies side-by-side, you can draw these throughlines,” Trisha said. “And you know that this is what’s important. This is what we have to address, this is what people care about. And if you know that, it becomes very easy to find solutions, and it becomes very easy to really speak to people’s hearts and minds.”

Upper school Latin and history and social science teacher Clifford Hull, who teaches Trisha’s Honors Advanced Latin Literature (HALL) class and advised her on her Mitra project, observed how Trisha’s insightful nature enhanced her efforts as a Latin student over the years. Whether it’s accurately deciphering the deeper meanings behind ancient texts or offering a new perspective while teaching concepts to her fellow HALL students, Hull notes Trisha’s devotion and enthusiasm for the subject.        

“Trisha is very intelligent, but she’s also extremely interested in Latin and in history and in the Romans, and her excitement and enthusiasm in the Latin class is almost palpable,” Hull said. “If she sees something that she hadn’t known before, she always gives those aha moments, the big smile on the face, and you can see, okay, she’s learned something. Which to me as a teacher is a great reward.”

Trisha’s love for classical history trickled into other aspects of her life. It shaped the way she undertook learning the intricacies of Tamil, the South Indian language her family speaks at home, by creating declension charts similar to those she studied in Latin class. It is even embedded in her Mitra project, which delves into the similarities between ancient Roman and Mussolini-era fascist propaganda. 

“So I’ve been researching propaganda,” Trisha said. “And it’s really fascinating to me because as a writer, as a bookworm, and as someone who studies languages, I’m really conscious of the small choices people make and how that impacts the message, the effect, the emotions evoked.”

Trisha’s study of rhetoric from the writings of Roman authors like Cicero in Latin class helped her examine propaganda from these two disparate periods in history and predict how her findings may have current and future applications in politics. But the realization that little decisions can have widespread effects guided her actions in other fields beyond classics as well. 

When attending the United Nations Commission on the Status on Women (CSW) in 2022, Trisha collaborated on suggesting modifications to policy documents with a group of other activists. In particular, Trisha recalls that her group decided to add the phrase “and girls” to each mention of women in the documents to recognize the value of protecting and educating the world’s younger generation.

“It all starts with the small steps,” Trisha said. “Going on a 30-minute walk every day is not so different from making one small language change to a policy document. It all has the same multiplied impact, it has that kind of butterfly effect ripple outward.”

Close friend Claire Bauschlicher (12) admires Trisha’s insightfulness, especially in her acute comments and questions in the AP United States Government class they have together. However, to Claire, Trisha’s ability to serve as an empathetic listener and advisor to her friends is her most outstanding quality. 

“She’s a very good listener,” Claire said. “She really puts in the effort to make sure you know she cares. She’ll just listen, and she won’t even question what I’m saying and if I want her to give me advice she will give me the greatest advice I’ve ever heard, but if I don’t, she’ll just listen.”

Trisha’s ability to offer advice to her friends in times of need is a quality close friend Tanisha Singh (12) also appreciates about her. Tanisha notes that despite Trisha’s many and diverse passions, her caring attitude towards her friends remains a constant.   

“I love how Trisha is able to prioritize the multitude of goals she has in her life,” Tanisha said. “She loves studying. She’s passionate about Latin and fashion, but she still always makes sure to make time for us. And she has this perspective on life that while it’s important to progress towards your goals, it’s still important to cherish the people around you and I can really sense that from her.”

Trisha’s goal to learn more about the world around her manifests in various forms. She might be researching the figure skating moves she recently saw in a TV show, going down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about the British royal family, trying to spot classically-inspired objects in her surroundings, or bolstering her knowledge of Hindi. But whatever she’s doing, she’ll treasure what she learns from it.        

“I just like improving on myself in these little ways that don’t have this direct relation to who I am as a person or my worth in terms of what I can bring to a resume or to a workplace, but just that make me a little bit cooler,” Trisha said.