Senior Profile: Praachi Chakraborty ’23

A prefect of Kirby House, the President of Math Club, Quizbowl, and Microfinancing Club, and the Vice President of the Allegro Council: the one and only Praachi Chakraborty ’23 comes to mind. If you haven’t seen or heard of Chakraborty, where have you been? Her experiences at Lawrenceville have taught her many invaluable lessons both in school and in even broader aspects of life.

As Chakraborty reflects on her time at Lawrenceville, the activity most meaningful to her has been being a Kirby prefect. “I felt like my prefect [Lauren Kim ’22] made a huge impact on my life and my Lawrenceville career, and I really just wanted to emulate what they had made of my experience,” she says. “I just wanted to spend another year in Kirby, connect with the next generation, and really help integrate the community that I love.”

Being a prefect, however, is no easy feat. It is the skills that she has learned throughout her time at Lawrenceville that have led her to be the prefect that she is. After leading the Math Club in her III Form year, “[she] found [herself] learning how to speak up more and be confident in [her] own abilities to be confident in what [she] had to bring to the table.” She also learned the value of being able to organize events that are more meaningful for everyone involved through open communication and collaboration. “That kind of sentiment which I had the opportunity to learn early on through The Math Club has really helped me later on as a prefect and as a friend.”

With her four years at Lawrenceville coming to a close, Chakraborty has a lot of advice for incoming II and IV Formers. To II Formers, she urges students to “really spread yourself out, put a foot in every single door, figure out what you want to do at Lawrenceville.” She additionally notes her own experience, as ‘when [she] came in, what [she] thought [she] wanted to do was nothing like what [she’s] doing now.” However, for IV Formers, she recommends something slightly different. “Rather than trying every new thing at this point, do things you really care about,” she says. “Only keep the activities that really matter to you, because you won’t have time to do everything. Senior year is rough, it’s packed and there’s so much going on, so keep doing the things that you care about.” Chakraborty reflects her time on campus by fondly recounting all the people and faculty that have made Lawrenceville so special. “I don’t think I can come across one person on this campus and not list something that they are better at doing than I am. Being able to join all these different clubs and activities while meeting all these people has helped me learn and grow, which I will be forever grateful for. Having this growth mindset and open-mindedness is really a sign of having done Lawrenceville right and if you leave Lawrenceville without having been able to recognize this it’s a bit of a loss. That’s the core of the Lawrenceville experience.” 

 While her presence as both a leader and prefect will be sorely missed here at Lawrenceville, we know she will go on to do amazing things in the next chapter of her life at the University of Pennsylvania.