Sahiba Tandon
Student Advisor
Sahiba Tandon is a senior at Gwynedd Mercy Academy High School in suburban Philadelphia. Prior to Gwynedd, she attended a public school for seven years. She has a 10-year-old brother who is currently attending a private school but also experienced public schooling for some time. Sahiba deems her public school years to have shaped the person she is today. Growing up among hundreds of kids in a grade, she quickly learned how to befriend students of all backgrounds. However, during her middle school years, she experienced a great deal of racism and prejudice. Much to her dismay, her parents thought a smaller, more focused private school environment would not only be safer but also motivate her to chase after her dreams, which is why they chose Gwynedd, an environment of all girls that centers around their motto, “She is the future.”
At Gwynedd Mercy, Sahiba has been the president of her class for the last three years and was recently elected the Student Body President for the year 2020-2021. She is also co-president of Speech and Debate, Varsity Mathletes, Chorale, Academic Bowl, and a leader of Diversity Club. She is also involved in the L.E.A.D. Initiative, Latin Club, Liturgical music, Glee Club, and the Mercy Melismatics, as well as being a member of the National Honor Society.
Her biggest accomplishment so far was achieved at this year’s National Speech and Debate Association Tournament, which was to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the online tournament, she won her event side-by-side with her teammate. Coming from a small school that has never placed at the tournament, she was truly honored to represent her coach, team, and school at this year’s nationals.
Sahiba has always been an advocate for equal human rights for all. With recent events, especially the murder of George Floyd, she was inspired to use her leadership positions in school to collaborate with the Diversity board and administration to honor every life lost due to racism. She organized a prayer service and silent kneel that was held in the school parking lot while practicing social distancing and ensuring that other events at Gwynedd would not be jeopardized. She has attended a few protests as well and is actively educating herself and promoting activism within her community.
Sahiba hopes to major in English in college and purse either journalism or law. A fun fact about her is that she figure skated for seven years. She feels very honored to be a part of CommonBondz and hopes to be a good asset to this group and bring some of its aspects into her daily school life and vice versa.