Natya Chandrashekar ’25 has a very unique talent: balancing the serious with the fun. She loves artwork, civic engagement, debates and tennis, always exploring who she is without the fear of doing something incorrectly.
Chandrashekar has served on the Palo Alto Youth Council since sixth grade, eventually taking up a leadership position as President this past year. “It’s one of the best experiences that I’ve engaged with,” Chandrashekar said. “This year was just incredible because I got to meet a lot of new people outside of Casti. [I often] feel like we’re in a little bit of a bubble, so meeting students from around Palo Alto gave me a better perspective on the community that I’m living in.”
Additionally, she’s had the opportunity to work on multiple Congressional campaigns, where she engaged with different perspectives through conversations with people with whom she disagreed politically. “When I went door-to-door canvassing, I met women who were anti-abortion, and I learned how to have a conversation with them, which is something that was new for me,” she said.
This idea that conversation spurs education is something Chandrashekar lives by. One of her favorite classes she’s ever taken at Casti was U.S government with Mr. Mitchell during her sophomore year. “We had debates in that class around issues like abortion, gun control and the death penalty. I always picked the side that I knew I disagreed with to debate because I thought it would teach me something — and it totally did,” she said. For her, the ability to argue and research for opposing sides taught her to understand and value different viewpoints, while also further solidifying her own perspectives and beliefs.
On the flip side, Chandrashekar is a lover of all things artistic, declaring that “having passions [is] important no matter what you do in life. I think being interested in different things is always a strength.” She has been connected to many different types of art throughout her life, but visual art and music are her biggest passions. “My mom was a Bharatanatyam teacher, so that’s where I got my foundations for Carnatic music. It’s something that I’m going to take with me no matter where I go,” she said.
Additionally, Chandrashekar’s passion for embroidery started during the pandemic as a small hobby and eventually became something she could showcase at art galleries. “I’ll go into the showcase, and I’m the only teenager in the gallery,” she said. “It’s a bunch of old white women and men. And I’m just like, ‘This is not the demographic that I’m usually a part of.’”
Beyond just getting outside of her comfort zone, embroidery has taught her the importance of hobbies and getting off her phone: “I find that when I go home and I want to scroll on my phone, I won’t because I’ll have a project that I’m trying to finish. It’s just an alternative to being on technology, which is really nice. That’s what a hobby is for me — focusing on something that can just be repetitive and relaxing.”
Chandreshakar’s passions haven’t always been constant, though, which is something she embraces. When she was a kid, she focused mostly on what she “wanted to do” and the career paths she thought she should follow. “I realized that not everything I do has to be mounting up to some larger goal or some larger purpose,” Chandrashekar said. “I think we do have that culture here where everything has to sum up to something, [and] I was forcing myself into [only] thinking about the future. Now [my focus is on] friends that I can always lean on — no matter what I’m doing in life.”
Beyond her interests, Chandrashekar has a profound love for Castilleja, our community and what she’s learned over her years here. “[A core memory] would be running across the circle in our senior year. I know it’s kind of cheesy, but we didn’t get to do it in eighth grade because of the pandemic. We’ve faced [some] obstacles, but I feel like we always come through it together. I think the tie ceremony encapsulated [this bonding],” she said.
If she could give her younger self just one piece of advice, she would say to just try new things and not label yourself. “Coming into freshman year, I told myself that I was 100 percent not a STEM kid,” she said. “I didn’t enjoy a lot of the sciences, and I was never the best at math. [For me], that meant I couldn’t do anything in STEM, which is so not true.”
Additionally, Chandrashekar struggled picking which extracurriculars to participate in, as she was afraid she would regret her decision. “I spent a lot of time thinking, ‘What’s going to give me the [best] experience? What am I going to like not regret doing?’” she said. “It stopped me from trying a lot of other things because I was scared of regretting something that I might do.” Her message here was clear: Go for what feels right in the moment, and trust your gut.
After Castilleja, Chandrashekar will be attending Dartmouth, learning to sew and being okay with making mistakes. “I’m going into college with the utmost amount of uncertainty, which is scary. [I’m] learning to embrace that I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. ”That gives me the special opportunity to try different things. Having an uncertain future isn’t a negative thing — it’s just like an opportunity for exploration. So I’m happy with my mindset going in.”
