Private Schools: Hawken School's Samia Menon Is A Triple Threat

Menon has a hard time narrowing down which of her interests and extracurricular activities she likes best. “My attitude is that anything can be fun if you think of it as fun,” says the 17-year-old, who plays doubles tennis, edits a school publication and went to the semifinals for congressional debate in both the 2017 and 2018 National Speech and Debate tournaments. Oh, and she’s the only girl in Hawken’s chess club. “I always try to do something that’s new and novel,” says Menon, who also dabbles in computer programming, robotics, video games and cooking.

Meaningful Words: For Menon, who grew up with a speech impediment, being on Hawken’s speech and debate team was the key to overcoming a longtime fear of public speaking. “I cannot put into words — which is sort of ironic — how much debate has impacted my life,” she says.

Triple Threat: As a child, Menon watched Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film Porco Rosso. “In the movie, this woman sings in French in front of a jazz band, and the movie was animated,” she says. Inspired, she committed to learning to speak French, to animate and to play an instrument, too. These days, Menon plays trumpet in Hawken’s jazz band and shares her many colorful animation projects on her website. She studied in Paris last year with her French class.

Holding Court: Menon has been on Hawken’s tennis team since eighth grade and loves the fast pace and strategy of playing doubles with her partner, Sammi. “I’m not the best member of the team,” she says, “but I love the feeling of contributing to the team.”

Check Mate: Her brother Adil, who’s seven years older, taught Menon to play chess. But he got some of the rules wrong. “I walked into my kindergarten chess club, and I set up the board like it was a checkerboard,” she laughs.

Time Traveler: If time travel were an option, Menon would visit Paris in the 1920s to try to rub elbows with the great authors and painters of the era. “Picasso, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald — everybody was there,” she muses. “Why not meet them at one of their parties?” Her favorite book has long been Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.

Showing Gratitude: “I owe a lot to my school and my parents and everyone around me for giving me the opportunity to pursue everything I love,” Menon says.