Tanvi Kulkarni, Features Editor
Pronouns: she/her
I am a senior, and this is my second year on staff. The Pathfinder has helped me become more involved with the school community and push myself as a writer and student. My favorite quality about myself is that I’m curious and an attentive listener, which helps me to learn different facets of the story I’m writing. Outside of the Pathfinder, I take music and art classes and am involved in several clubs at school. This year, I hope to finalize my plans for college and maybe pick up a new hobby.
![Playing against Webster Groves, sophomore Cameron Hickert expertly releases a pitch. He pitched a total of five innings during the game before playing the outfield, and his baseball team won the game by one point. “I was putting a lot of force into the pitch so it would go to the spot I was aiming,” Hickert said. “I was excited [when we found out we won] because we lost last year by a lot, and this time, we beat them. It was a good feeling.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DSC_0219-e1650562314263-900x774.jpg)
![The improv team and other members of the International Thespian Society poses at the Missouri State Thespian conference. It was the first day of the event, and the students had gathered at the Stifel Theatre to watch another high school theatre department’s rendition of “We Live by the Sea.” “[My favorite part of the conference] was probably the shows we saw. There were schools that attended that put on whole entire shows. [Some of them were] absolutely humongous. It was awesome,” senior Luke Mathiesen said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/image0-900x675.jpeg)
![The Blue Brains team members juniors Katherine Hanses, Joseph Britt, Isaac Porter and Anushka Dharmasanam and seniors David Meisinger and Rick Biswas pose in front of their robot and awards at the Speedway signature event in Indianapolis. The awards include their trophies from smaller competitions and World 2021, as well as a small trophy gifted to the team for their performance by robotics sponsor Chris Donaldson. “The trophy was for just being a good team, because this was our first big signature event outside of the virtual ones we did last year,” Hanses said. “[At this competition], we had six matches on the first day, and we won five. We got knocked out in the quarterfinals.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/5430A_SpeedwayPit-900x675.jpg)
![After waking up at 4 a.m. and summiting the first mountain of the day, junior Lexi Lutz (third from the left) pauses to take a victory picture with her team at the peak. To get to this point, Lutz traveled through miles of technical terrain along a steep slope with eroded and loose rocks. “We summited three peaks that day and rested in between the peaks, because it shielded us from bad weather,” Lutz said. “The first peak was great, and it was a beautiful view; I was hardly tired. [Throughout the day], we traveled across so much land and my legs felt stiff and tired. The walking felt endless but I felt really accomplished and connected to nature when I got back down.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/20210624_-900x675.jpg)
![Abruptly pulled out of Honors English I for a surprise fire drill, freshman Samir Shaik kills time on the football field by having a thumb war with freshman Mya Jenkins. Shaik’s class was working on a research project before they were interrupted by the fire drill and took the moment to just relax and have fun. “Mya and I were goofing off, not really doing anything in particular. I was just having a lot of fun, and I’m glad [this moment] was captured,” Shaik said.](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/IMG_8706-900x675.jpg)
![Ahmad and Joudi take a quick photo with their mother and older sister, Leena, during the hot air balloon ride. Leena lives in Dubai where she works as an Instagram influencer, and this was their first time seeing her in almost three years. “I was shocked to see her because I hadn’t seen her in so long. When we saw each other, we both kind of ran towards one another,” Joudi said. “She was in Cappadocia for the [music] festival because [a brand] reached out and invited her so that she can post about it.”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/6FC860B0-AA37-49A7-893C-8B166EC93A3F.jpeg)
![Sitting behind the A-team’s robot, junior and robotics team president Rick Biswas converses about the bot with Donaldson, who is behind the camera. Since joining the robotics team, Biswas decided to pursue a related career such as mechanical engineering or computer science. “. After I joined [the robotics team at West], I knew for sure that this was what I wanted to do,” Biswas said. “In general, everyone’s really supportive, especially Mr. Donaldson and the teams. Before I joined the robotics team, I was new here and I didn’t talk to many people. At robotics, I met new people, made new friends. They supported me to be [who] I am right now. ”](https://pwestpathfinder.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/5430A_Closeup-4-900x675.jpg)
