“Everybody up for the kick-off!” 

Senior Kashish Priyam energetically shouts the chant, leading her cheer teammates in their performance before the football season opener. Dressed in green and white and beaming with excitement, she gives her performance her all with an infectious enthusiasm.

Despite her current engagement in the Harker community, Kashish began high school feeling closed off from those around her. She felt disconnected from the people around her during quarantine. It was in eighth grade when she entered the speech and debate program, that she first truly found a community of her own.

“I wanted to find a way to connect with people through public speaking,” Kashish said. “I spent a lot of time on speech and debate, and it shaped me as a person because I’m a lot more confident in my opinions and able to share with other people now.”

Kashish went on to join the cheer team in ninth grade, wanting to expand her social circle more. When she joined, the cheer team only had three people on it, but through her eagerness to encourage others to join, she brought on many new members.

“I think that I bring a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to the team,” Kashish said. “I might not be the best dancer and cheerleader even after doing it for four years, but my coach always says that even during practice, I’m always smiling. Looking back, cheer really fits my personality.”

Close friend and senior Mirabelle Feng echoes the sentiment shared by Kashish’s coach. Throughout their friendship, Mirabelle has seen Kashish as a beam of positivity, outgoing and kind.

“She’s very positive, and she’s always smiling,” Mirabelle said. “Whenever I’m around her and I see her smiling, I feel like I can relax a little bit and take things less seriously. Especially if I’m stressed out over something, having someone like that around you who’s always positive is really helpful in slowing down and rationalizing.”

As high school went on, Kashish found more confidence in herself through the cheer and speech teams she participated in. She started taking on a more active role in the cheer team and eventually became a captain in junior year.

“Cheer taught me the importance of being a strong leader and being able to not only stand up for the people that you are meant to support, but also to create good bonds with them,” Kashish said. “Now that I’m the captain, I see people turning to me. I really want to support people as best as possible so that they can have the positive experience that I did in my frosh year.”

Alongside cheer, Kashish grew into a leadership role in speech as well. She now serves as co-captain and inspires underclassmen teammates to improve. Junior Joy Hu worked closely with Kashish these past two years as they both participate in the same event, extemporaneous speech. Joy testifies to Kashish’s leadership qualities, citing her positive aura as a mood maker for the team.

“From the get-go, Kashish was always really energetic and kind,” Joy said. “As I got to know her better, I realized that not only is she a super smart person, but she is also really caring and she’ll do so many things to help you.”

Kashish uses her platform in speech to bring light to issues that she cares about. While extemporaneous speech allows limited preparation time, she aims to add her own twist to her speeches by tying in advocacy for topics important to her. In one speech, she discussed handling grief and connecting as a society after the pandemic, drawing upon her own experiences.

In her Honors Systems Science class, she found an avenue to advocate for sustainability and health. Physics and science research teacher Chris Spenner observed Kashish’s captivating speaking skills in the class discussion sessions.

“Kashish is really good at taking advantage of rich environments, and she’s on this journey of figuring out how to understand complexity in the world,” Spenner said. “Often, our class discussions tie into politics, so they can bring up touchy subjects, but she is really confident, challenging the ideas shared by other people. She does it in a way that is not at all disrespectful of what they were saying, just using evidence based reasoning.”

Kashish’s advocacy extends to the Red Cross. She joined the organization after attending some of their youth conferences in ninth grade. There, she realized that the work that they were doing had a sizable impact and led to millions of people living safer lives. The impact and nature of the organization’s work spoke to Kashish, so she decided to become a more active member.

In her time with the Red Cross, Kashish primarily worked on the measles and rubella partnership . This program focuses on vaccinating children against measles and rubella primarily in Africa and increasing youth awareness about the issue.

“The Red Cross is a bigger organization than myself, but I just hope to have made the world a little bit of a better place,” Kashish said. “Each of us has the choice to make decisions every single day that can just cause a slight benefit to another person. I hope that my net existence has some positive impact on the world and that people will think of me as a positive person to be around.”

In everything that she does, Kashish aims to build positive relationships with the people around her. These connections not only bring positivity to others, but they also keep her in a healthy mental space and supply her with the energy to participate in her various activities.

“Human connection is very important to staying grounded and stable,” Kashish said. “The people around me are one of the reasons that I’m not fully burnt out, so I really prioritize keeping a good schedule for myself. Being able to prioritize the things in life that give me internal satisfaction is important to me because that’s what allows me to have the drive to do good with the rest of my time. Talking to people is a way for me to replenish.”