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Elliana Celis

Among his friends, Varun Das is known by an unusual nickname: the “Big Master of Life.” What might be seen as a playful exaggeration proves to be true when taking a closer look at Das.

Described by his peers as intelligent, social, and deeply involved at East, Das seems to embody the name in every sense.

“In Freshman year, I would always lend pencils to [a classmate],” Das told Spark. “He started calling me the ‘pencil master’ and it just kind of evolved from there.”

Along with his strong connections with his friends at East, Das involves himself in many extracurriculars that are a large part of his life.

Das is the president of East’s chapter of INTERalliance, a non-profit organization that connects high school students with the technology industry. The program’s main event is “TechOlympics.”

“[TechOlympics] is a huge [conference] for aspiring [STEM related career] high schoolers that helps them network while competing in tech-related mini events,” Das said.

The INTERalliance chapter at East meets every other Monday, while members prepare for TechOlympics and broaden their perspectives on the STEM field by participating in different tech related activities.

“I help organize with my officers during leadership meetings, our main goal right now is organizing how we want everyone to contribute to projects in TechOlympics,” Das said.

He is involved in many other diverse extracurricular activities, such as Mu Alpha Theta and Science Olympiad.

Not only does Das excel in extracurricular activities, he maintains the same pace academically.

“My schedule is on the tougher side,” Das said. “AP Physics is known as one of the hardest classes [East] offers.”

Das said he takes up these difficult and rigorous classes because he loves to challenge himself.

In fact, Das is two years ahead in math, though he took an untraditional path to get there.

“I took precalculus over the summer because one of my friends challenged me,” Das said.

Enrolling in precalculus would allow Das to take AP Calculus BC his junior year. Das acknowledges this does make his application stronger when applying to colleges, he cites Parker Kimble as the main reason he did it.

“Parker said he didn’t think I was going to be able to take BC if I did precalculus over the summer,” Das said.

Not wanting to prove Kimble right, Das took precalculus over the summer and AP Calculus BC his junior year. This silly challenge allowed Das to enroll in the highest math class offered at East for his senior year: Calculus 3.

East Math teacher Patrick Kreider describes Varun as an exemplary student who excels in Calculus 3.

“He does what he needs to do to succeed,” Kreider told Spark. “But he also just has that great personality, he has this sense of empathy, where he is able to just feel if somebody is not doing well.”

Kreider said Das can get along well with every student; they all adore him.

“[Varun] has this sense of humor that isn’t over the top and he’s got this charisma about him that just makes him very, very likable,” Kreider said.

With an undeniable passion for science, Das took Honors Chemistry his sophomore year and enrolled in AP Chemistry his junior year.

He describes the academic challenge of chemistry as “kind of fun,” but also as the class where he formed a close friendship.

According to close friend Carter Fasnaugh, he met Das in Honors Chemistry when they were partners. However, Das shares a different story.

“Carter accidentally sprayed fart spray into my mouth freshman year,” Das said. “That’s how we met.”

Something that could be seen as an embarrassing moment, gross, stupid, or absurd, is simply a good story to Varun; the foundation on which he built a friendship.

“I was pretty short freshman year; I have grown since then,” Das said. “So just imagine me at 5’ 2”, and Carter storming at me, 6’ 2”, with fart spray in his hand. It was scary.”

According to his closest friends, Das’s easygoing personality and ability to take life as it comes are what make him such a magnetic person.

Close friend and East senior Eddie Zengh describes what it is like to know Das.

“The more you learn about Varun, the more you find in him you couldn’t find in somebody else,” Zheng told Spark.

Zengh expresses that he is a really good friend, “Every time you ask him for something, he will always do his best to give you everything he’s got.”

His light-hearted, determined look on everything is what makes Varun the “Big Master of Life.”