Transcript: Will Pich on Architecture, Family, Cultural Roots, and Finding Balance

Good morning, and welcome back to the show. We are here with speech co-captain, varsity soccer player, and senior, Will Pitch. How are you, Will? I'm good, I'm good.

It's great to have you on the show. I think to start out, we wanted to know what your journey to U.S. was like, and kind of to this point in general. Yeah, sure. So, I didn't go to U.S. all my life.

I came here in 7th grade. Before that, I was at public school in Strongsville, and then before that, I lived in Cambodia for a couple of years. And then, 7th grade, obviously, I came to U.S., and I've been here since. Wow.

Yeah, that's great. And just recently, you announced that you'll be attending Princeton University. I will. For college next fall to study architecture and engineering, which, congrats, by the way, it's a huge accomplishment.

Yeah. What was your decision in picking those majors? So, I've always loved kind of drawing. Everywhere I go, I kind of carry a sketchbook with me, and that's kind of just to keep track of all the buildings that I loved.

And that kind of sparked my interest in architecture. And figuring out how things work has also been kind of a passion of mine. Legos have always been cool, and growing up with Transformers toys, it's been awesome. So, yeah.

I know you're also, I think, the head of the architecture club. What has that been like? It's been pretty good. It's been pretty good.

We have had a slow couple of years, but we're going to finally finish Pavilion soon and kind of get more projects going up. You know, I also know, just from knowing you, that you actually have two older brothers who also attended. One attended Yale, and one attended Harvard. What was it like trying to follow in those footsteps and kind of navigate school with them?

That's a great question. My dad always told me that pressure kind of forms diamonds. And so, instead of taking that pressure in a negative way, I've kind of learned to enjoy it. I think it's great having two older brothers who have been so successful, because going through the college process, they know a lot about it.

Especially, you know, what to do at those kind of schools and how to apply to those kind of schools. They've definitely helped me a lot in terms of, you know, what I should write about, what my E.C. should be, test scores. GPA, all that. So, I think it's definitely helped me more than it's harmed me.

How did you turn that pressure into a positive? Because that's easier said than done, I think. I really don't know. I think when you have two brothers like that, it's either, you know, if you don't turn into a positive, you're going to end up, you know, in a really dark place.

That's definitely a lot of pressure, and I think you just have to navigate that yourself. You know, did you ever consider... Did you ever consider anything other than really that Ivy League school route, and what makes that route so intriguing to you as a person? Yeah, so I...

My favorite school used to be Duke. I was, like, fascinated with the school. Kyrie Irving went there for basketball, and I was like, man, I got to go there. I got to play basketball there.

Keep in mind, I was in, like, fifth or sixth grade. I was playing rec league ball. I'm like, oh, I'm going to play some basketball at Duke. And I always kind of wanted to go there.

I thought the school was beautiful. People there were amazing. And then during my brother's... Oldest brother, Peter's senior year, he kind of started applying to colleges and all that.

And that's when I kind of was introduced with the whole Ivy League thing. I've always been, like, a pretty solid student, and I thought, you know, might as well give it a try. What are some of the things that you think made you stand out? Because a lot of people apply to the Ivy Leagues, a lot of smart people do.

Right. What do you think made you stand out? For me, it's definitely living in... I thought that, you know, I was kind of a mix between an American student and a Cambodian student.

Living in Cambodia for four years, I went to school there. I learned a language. Met a lot of different people. A lot of Khmer people, a lot of Korean people, surprisingly.

And, you know, you get, obviously, some Americans here and there. It was a pretty cool experience of being in Cambodia. And I thought my ability to kind of write about that in my essays helped me stand out, as opposed to just being, you know, a super smart kid. Now, when you were on those kind of trips while you saw your brother go to Harvard, go to Yale, what stood out to you about Princeton?

So, there's this holy trinity called Harvard-Yale-Princeton. My brother, oldest brother, Peter, his first choice was initially Princeton. He got in restricted early action, and then he ended up going to Harvard, which is, you know, kind of disappointing for Princeton. And my other brother, he also got in...

He got into Princeton, ended up going to Yale. So, that's kind of how Princeton stood out to me. I'm like, okay, you know, nobody's going there, so I might as well go there. But it's also just a really great place to be.

I love how close it is to New York. You know, I don't want it to be in the heart of New York, just because I think it's just too busy. So, New Jersey, I settled for, like, a, you know, pretty quaint place. It's got, you know, pretty solid athletics.

It's Xavier Lee and Princeton basketball. Yeah. So, that's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.

And, yeah, they have amazing, amazing programs, like the abroad program, the Novogratz program. It's awesome. And I really want to go into living... You living in Cambodia, what drove that?

Like, why did you live in Cambodia? So, I moved there when I was in first grade. And I don't... I never really asked my parents why, but we kind of just lived there.

I've had family there for a while. So, we... I guess we just moved. And I think those were probably the best four years of my life.

Why is that? What did you learn? It was kind of just reconnecting with my roots. That may sound a little cliche, but, like, it was just being back in my homeland, like, where my parents grew up.

You know, they would always tell us stories about when they were kids and the war that went on and, you know, a bunch of other experiences. And I always loved hearing about them. And I always wanted to visit. So, living...

Living there has allowed me to kind of understand everything. The food there is amazing. You know, obviously, you have some problems there, government corruption and all that. But, you know, the country itself, it's an amazing place with, like, even cooler people.

The language is beautiful. And going to school there, I went to a school called Logos, which was an international missionary school. So, it was where a bunch of, like... Like, missionaries went and taught.

So, it was, like, you got a lot of Khmer people, but you were also exposed to some of the other worlds that were close to Cambodia, like Korea, Japan, and, yeah, that's... You know, going back kind of to your time at U.S., once you came back, what were those clubs or activities? I know we already talked about you playing basketball and we talked about architecture club. But what was mainly your clubs and activities that pushed through the rest of Milan High School?

So, for me... For me, it's kind of... I transitioned from basketball to soccer around, like, seventh grade. You know, both my brothers were playing it, so I hopped on that trade.

And I've fallen in love with it since. It's definitely been a pretty tough journey making it to varsity and playing there, but a very enjoyable one. So, varsity soccer, or soccer in general, has been something that I've stuck to my entire time at U.S. Architecture club, you know, my oldest brother, he ran it.

And then I kind of took over it with Bryce later on. And that was pretty fun. So, I've kind of been a part of that since freshman year. And a couple other ones I've, like, Lopresi board, they're pretty cool.

And East Asian platform, those are definitely the big main ones. There are a couple side ones, but those are the main ones. Did you ever consider playing soccer in college, or did you always know it was kind of just a hobby for high school? That's a great question.

I'm kind of going through that. Right now, I think the more I learn about, you know, being an athlete in college, the more I want to be one. It's kind of just that feeling of being a part of a team. And I think that, you know, the recruiting process is already, it's already pretty late.

But if I had a chance to, you know, maybe walk on or even play club there, I would love to. You know, I know you're also part of the, you're one of the speech co-captains of the speech debate team. What's been that experience being on the speech team? And really kind of just learning how to, like, present yourself well and speak well.

Yeah. First of all, if you're thinking about joining speech, please join it. It's definitely, it helps you in public speaking a lot. It definitely helped me during my Sherman speech.

It was amazing. I think my experience in speech started off as, like, something that I should just put on my college. As a freshman, I joined, and I thought, okay, you know, everybody does it. I think it'll look great on my college resume.

But the more I did it, the more I fell in love with it. And I think that's mainly because of this kid named Caden Jones. He was a senior a couple years ago. And he kind of helped push me and co-captain Aaron Velez along.

Kind of seeing him succeed so much and doing so well, but also how powerful his speech was, it influenced me to maybe become a captain and help, you know, share that feeling to others. So, yeah. Do you have any clubs, activities? Or kind of just initiatives at the school that you wish we had or wish you brought to this place?

Well, there's this initiative that my brothers and I started called KLA. And it's been pretty slow so far. And I don't think we've done a great job integrating it within our school. But it's definitely something that I'm passionate about and I hope to bring on in the, you know, next couple years with my cousin being here.

The initiative is basically... We collect used sports equipment from, like, you know, after season ends. And then we pack them up in boxes and then we ship them off to Cambodia and distribute them among, like, local schools. Like, more underfunded ones.

But those are... That's the initiative itself. And I think, you know, when it just started out, we did a pretty good job of, you know, introducing it to the school. But I think as the years have passed, it's kind of gone down a little bit.

So I think that's definitely something I want to bring. How do you manage to manage all these different activities and priorities? What do you think your trick is to being able to do all that? I honestly have no idea.

I think that it's all about how you, you know... It starts with homework. Like, if you can get that out of the way, homework and then studying for tests, definitely, you know, prioritize that. And then everything else comes after.

I would say just a lack of sleep. But not, like, a crazy amount. Don't relate to that. Yeah.

Just a lack of sleep. That'll get you through. And coffee. Now, kind of going back to when you came back from Cambodia, when you kind of went through the middle school, what was it like going from kind of public school to then that missionary school to that private school?

Did you notice a significant difference? Or how has that changed? Yeah, there's definitely a huge significant difference. First of all, university school.

It wasn't all boys' school. So there aren't, like, girls or anything. And, you know, I think while some may be opposed to that, I actually kind of thought that it was pretty good just focusing on learning as opposed to, you know, all that. That's definitely one of the standout pieces of it.

Another difference would be... So back in missionary school... In Cambodia, there was, you know, Bible study all the time. And we started the mornings with prayers and songs.

Definitely different here. And public school, you know, there's a huge difference in the food. So, yeah, that's... I think that's all I can list off the top of my head.

Who are some of the mentors, and this can be U.S. or not U.S., that have helped you through your journey? So I think one of the biggest mentors I have is my oldest brother, Peter. He's a great older brother. I think I wouldn't be here where I am right now without him.

He's kind of helped guide me through the college process, as I said before. And kind of just, you know, figuring things out or helping me manage stress or just being someone I can talk to. He's definitely led the way for a lot of the things I do. And I think I can owe it all to him.

You know, we've talked a lot about family and your family more specifically. Throughout the podcast, what does kind of this family and this bond that you guys have really mean to you? I think it honestly means the world. I would say I'm very, very close to my family.

You know, every Saturday or Sunday we come together and we watch, you know, a couple movies and we talk a lot. We live like 45 minutes to an hour to school. So on those long car rides, we're always talking about, you know, school, how our day was. And even things like that.

Things beyond like small talk. We would learn, you know, about my dad's childhood or funny stories about my brothers. And I think that relationship that we've kind of created over the years helped us a lot in becoming, you know, super close. And eventually, you know, turning into like a little mentorship where I'm comfortable talking about certain things with them.

Especially school-wise. And they're always helping me. So I think that relationship has definitely helped. Do you have...

Do you have a favorite story that your dad's shared with you guys about his childhood? There are a lot. Let's see. He would always tell us about this one time he got straight A's on a report card.

He used to go to U.S. He got straight A's on his report card and he always rode the bus home. It took about like an hour and 30 for him to get home. He would always ride the bus home and he had the report card in his hand.

And so I think in a... In an attempt to impress a girl, he would tell us about... Or he would tell us how he told her that, you know, he got these straight A's, he was going to go to Princeton. And we'd hear that pretty often.

No matter what kind of student you are, what you're a part of, there's many times throughout high school that really kind of test your endurance and your motivation. And Jack and I constantly think about that push that many people find to get them over these rough patches. Will, what is your why? Right.

What pushes you through those moments? I think understanding, you know, kind of what my family's been through. So my dad originally came to the U.S. as an immigrant. He fled the Khmer Rouge, which was a genocide that came from some dictator named Popot.

He, you know, he was... So my dad came as an immigrant and he didn't have a lot of money. And so I think all his life he's, you know, tried to work hard to kind of bridge that wealth gap between, you know, let's say us and other kids. And kind of growing up without, you know, some of those nice experiences has helped me, you know, try to do well in school and try to, you know, build a better future.

I can say the same thing about, you know, my mom and all that. So. Yeah. That's a great one.

We love asking that question because everyone has a different answer. And lastly, if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self or just a younger student who just has started their freshman year of high school, what advice would you give them? I would say don't do things for the sake of college. Like, don't try to join all these clubs in order to impress a college or don't, you know, kill yourself trying to get these insane grades or test scores.

I think... I think it all kind of works out. And do what you really want to do. It may sound cliche, but I think following what you want to do makes everything so much easier because it just helps in the future.

So. Well, it's been great having you on the show today. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to just share a bunch of different stories with us. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in.

And we hope you'll join us next Wednesday for another episode of Late Start Show. Thank you, Will. Thank you. Thank you.