Madelene Hu

“I’ve learned to just be much more supportive. I’m never really trying to put anyone down. Even if I know they’re struggling, I try to point out whenever they do something good and be constructive when they do something bad,” senior Vouk Praun-Petrovic said.

For senior Vouk Praun-Petrovic, balance is everything — between the soccer field and machine learning research, between laughter and productivity — a balance that defines his high-school years. 

That balance is first rooted on the soccer field. Vouk first embarked on his soccer journey at Challenger Elementary School, where he played on the field during recess and joined his current club team in third grade. Now, he dedicates time on the field for roughly eight hours of practice per week, with two-hour practices four times a week for Harker’s varsity team and club matches on weekends. 

What began as a recess game evolved into a long-term commitment that now influences how he approaches other interests and his relationships with friends, teachers and classmates.

“Soccer has taught me to deal with different types of social situations where there could be a different power dynamic, even though you’re playing with people of your same age,” Vouk said, “It’s taught me to be constructive in my criticism of other players, and also how to respond to a captain’s attempts to lead a group or how to be helpful in a group setting.”

Over the years, soccer has grown into more than a sport for Vouk. The sport’s influence on his communication and teamwork skills shines through in how he explains drills, encourages players after errors, and guides younger teammates — even without a formal title. A friend and teammate since freshman year, senior Vinayak Sinha sees that support on and off the field.

“He’s always contributing, and he may not take on the leadership role all the time, but he’s always helping younger students,” Vinayak said. “In soccer, if somebody has a problem or they need help with something, they can always go to him.”

Vouk admitted that earlier in his soccer journey, he often grew frustrated when teammates erred or the game fell below his expectations. Over time, though, he realized that true progress stems from raising others up through encouragement rather than berating them for mistakes. 

“I’ve learned to just be much more supportive,” Vouk said. “I’m never really trying to put anyone down. Even if I know they’re struggling, I try to point out whenever they do something good and be constructive when they do something bad.”

The lessons he gained from soccer extend to the classroom as well. Upper School math department chair Anthony Silk, who taught Vouk in AP Calculus BC, commends his ability to immediately raise the morale of an entire classroom as well as his active contribution and involvement in group work while maintaining harmony among partners. 

“That sportsman attitude certainly came through in class,” Silk said. “He was very much a team player, and you could just see that he liked listening to people, talking to people. There would always be these back-and-forth conversations. He is special in a way that he’s just going to be there, and he’s going to bring the level of energy up in the classroom. He’s just going to make everybody feel happy because he’s happy to be there. ”

Vouk carried those same teamwork and communication skills during his summer internship at Rotate 8, where he worked on-site three days a week and collaborated closely with industry professionals and the company’s CEO. Close friend senior Paras Painuly, who participated in the internship with Vouk, highlights the ease with which Vouk shifts from his usual lighthearted and energetic self to a diligent and mature worker, adjusting his communication style drastically.

“He’s the life of the party,” Paras Painuly. “But he also knows how to be serious when he needs to get work done. During the internship, I learned more about his serious side, especially because we were working with esteemed professionals. I was impressed by how he’s able to switch between his two sides.”

Vouk later applied these skills in a mentoring program on convolutional neural networks for image compression, where he recognized that the graduate mentor’s proposed plan did not align with the data or resources available. Rather than follow an unworkable direction, Vouk raised his concerns with his group and guided them toward a more realistic project.

“I let him know that the dataset was not really conducive to such a topic,” Vouk said. “Then I managed to get us to pivot the project idea to something more approachable, given the resources we had.”

Looking ahead, Vouk hopes to continue applying those skills in research beyond high school.

“Research is one of the biggest things for me when I go to college,” Vouk said. “I’m excited to find my way into labs with talented professors and work in a team again on some longer-term project.”

Whether he is collaborating with his group on neural network models, supporting his team on the field or lifting the mood in a classroom, Vouk brings a loud, infectious energy that leaves a lasting impact on his community.

“All that six feet tall is filled with just joy,” Silk said. “And it’s just remarkable.”