Neev Tamboli is a well-known overachiever who can never be caught frowning, constantly doing whatever it takes to maintain this status
Staff Writer
“The hardest worker I know,” “a dual-threat on the soccer pitch,” and “a kid who’s smile can’t be broken, even by a punch to the face.” However extraordinary Nikhil Kumar’s (11) descriptions of Neev Tamboli (11) may seem, Kumar, like others, fails to see past the shiny-white smile of a straight-“A” student seemingly excelling with ease; he does not see the countless nights spent in and coffee-induced all-nighters endured to maintain his status as a stellar student and athlete. So this begs the question, who is Neev Tamboli?
From his earliest days as a Forest Park Elementary Wolverine, Tamboli was commonly known as an exceptional student who went above and beyond to learn. “I remember in sixth grade, we both had Mr. Gallagher. Whenever we had a project or group activity I would always ask him to be partners because I knew that it would guarantee me a good grade on the assignment, and I would also get the chance to learn a lot from him,” said Yash Sinha (11) who has been close friends with Tamboli for over a decade.
Another long-time friend of Tamboli, Aarush Patil (11), chimed in during Sinha’s interview to talk more about Tamboli’s academic achievements. Patil said, “Forest Park has a tight-knit parent community so when one student does well on something, word gets around. One time I heard my mom say that Neev won a Warwick Read Across America Trophy in kindergarten. I didn’t even know what that was at the time but even if I did, I would be proud to have read a fraction of the books Neev read. But his outstanding academic efforts did not end in elementary school. From our many classes together in high school I have seen Neev excel in the classroom time and time again, seemingly effortlessly, with a smile on his face.”
Towards the end of the interview, Patil remembered another achievement his mom told him about Tamboli. “Just last week I heard that Neev had qualified for [the International Science and Engineering Fair] that he gets to travel to Columbus, Ohio this May for. I’m honestly not surprised that his academic achievements have continued to the national level, judging by the fact that we go to an incredibly competitive high school and Neev is arguably the hardest worker here. In elementary school I was somewhat jealous of Neev’s achievements but now I’m just impressed and proud that I can call Neev my friend.”
While almost every interviewee has attested to Tamboli’s hardwork in the classroom, that is only one of the many realms in which Tamboli has left his mark. “In the mornings of weekends and breaks when I’m rotting on my phone or laying in bed, I check Neev’s location and see him at Karl Nordvik Park, perfecting his craft in the image of Virgil van Djik and other iconic soccer defenders,” said Kumar. “After being Neev’s teammate for the past three years I have learned his never-ending dedication and hard work is not just a trait which he exhibits in the classroom but a mentality which he has in any challenge or trial he is faced with; [He’s] putting his best effort into every task with a bright, wide smile on his face.”
“I never really knew Neev well until my sophomore year but I had heard stories of his smartness over the years as we had been attending the same schools since elementary school. The one thing I knew about him though was that he is always smiling, it could be a Monday morning right before finals but I would still see his pearly whites contrasted with the backdrop of gloominess and worry from most other students,” said Tanish Parasnis (11). In fact, almost every individual I interviewed mentioned Tamboli’s smile and warm, radiating energy even in the toughest of times.
Tamboli laughed when I told him that almost every individual I interviewed commented on his contagious smile. He said, “I feel like I see life differently than most people. I don’t have the same dreadful attitude towards school as many of my peers do but I see it as something I have to get done in order to learn. While I do care about my grade, I see value in my classes as what I get out of it by the end of the year. I don’t worry and stress over whether I got a ninety-seven or ninety-eight percent on a test but rather if I can use what I learned in the future.”
“Many students see teachers as omniscient beings with a great effect on their life but I see them as an expert on a certain topic, hence their reason for teaching the class, so my goal is to learn as much as I can from them in the nine-to-ten-month school year so that by the end of the year I know more than I did before,” Tamboli said. “That is why I smile. I don’t find myself worrying about whether I got an 89 or 90 percent on a test but rather if I succeeded in my efforts to learn more and I believe if you go to school with that mentality you will never find a reason to be sad.”
When I asked Tamboli how he tries to learn from his classes throughout the year, that question seemed to bother him slightly. He thought about it for a while and replied, “It’s funny you ask me that question because I have a test next period and I was hoping to use the rest of lunch to study for it as I’m not entirely prepared.” Surprised that the revered Neev Tamboli failed to prepare for a test, I inquired, but Tamboli struggled to answer.
I gave him some time to think, then asked why he did not study at home the night before. “No matter how hard you work, how skillful your time management is, or how smart you are, at a certain point some things just aren’t possible. I knew that last February when I decided to take 5 APs my junior year that it would be one of the hardest challenges I had to face, but I never expected it to be this much. One night it’s working on my annotations for AP [English Language and Composition], another it’s studying for a test in AP Chemistry, or reviewing my notes for AP Physics [1] before a lab, sometimes even all three in the same night, but all this hard work adds up. I can’t even begin to count the sleepless nights and scrutinizing exams that I had to endure,” explained Tamboli.
“I hear many of my friends say I’m lucky that I get a good score on a test or that I was ‘born’ smart but they don’t see the innumerable hours I spend behind the scenes doing my best on each and every assignment. Some people think I am some kind of machine with no social life just because I study a lot or get good grades but I also want to go out to football games or movies with my friends, but I choose to prioritize school cause I know it will benefit me in the future.”
But in the closing moments of the interview, Tamboli chose to take his own advice and smile even in the toughest of times, shifting the entire tone of the interview to something more bright and hopeful, by saying, “But if there’s anything I learned from such a hard year it is that I get nothing from frowning, so even if you have to force yourself to put on that smile, let the world see your pearly whites because it might just change your mood for the better.”
Tamboli posed for a picture with members of the soccer team. Pictured L-R: Shreyas Prasad (11), Tamboli, Nikhil Kumar (11), and Saaketh Sriram (12) after a 2-0 win against Irvington HS on senior night (Photo Credit: Zyanya Ortiz (11)).
Eagle Era 
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