Soccer
Favorite athlete: Donovan Mitchell
Favorite team: Utah Jazz
Favorite memory competing in sports: Celebrating at Applebee’s with the team after winning the state championship.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Forgetting who coach told me to sub on for during our District final game. Which resulted in me just randomly saying a name-- my bad Liam.
Music on playlist: Mix of all songs, no specific taste.
Future plans: Attend college to study political science or law to become either a civil rights attorney or a government official for the state of Pennsylvania.
Words to live by: “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something,” Franklin D. Roosevelt.
One goal before turning 30: To be in a position to help the people of Pennsylvania. Be it via government official or be it through a nonprofit, I seek to help and advocate for people in need.
One thing people don’t know about me: Never played travel soccer.
By Mary Jane Souder
Jojo Dalwadi.
Remember the name. The North Penn senior aspires to pursue a career in politics and law with his sights set on helping others by becoming a civil rights attorney and/or a government official. Nothing especially unusual about that. Many high school students have altruistic aspirations. Dalwadi, however, is hardly your typical high school student. He doesn’t just talk a good game, he lives it, suggesting he will reach his goals and then some.
There’s a quote by Frank Underwood in the popular Netflix show House of Cards that is one of Dalwadi’s favorites (although he regrets it’s a fictional character that said it): “I’ve always loathed the necessity of sleep because like death it puts even the most powerful men on their backs.”
One look at Dalwadi’s lengthy resume, and it would be fair to ask whether he ever actually does sleep. The president of North Penn’s student government, Dalwadi is vice president of the Model United Nations, a student representative to the school board and one of three executive editors of The Knight Crier along with Connor Niszczak and Hannah Nguyen.
“He hustles and he creates,” Knight Crier advisor Kevin Manero said. “He’s much more a man of action than a resume-building theorist. The breadth of what he does at North Penn High School is pretty remarkable, but through all of that - he’s just a great kid to talk to, and to lean on to motivate and energize those around him.”
Outside of school, he is the member engagement director of High School Democrats of Pennsylvania, he is the deputy state director for March for Our Lives, and he was an intern in the office of State Senator Katie Muth.
Somehow he finds time to play for the Knights’ defending state champion soccer team.
“He’s wise beyond his years,” NP coach Chris DePeppe said. “I love him as a player, but he does so much more in his life than just play soccer.
“I don’t think he has time to spend on the ball these other guys do, but he’s such a hard worker, and he’s so alert. He’s quick. He’s another guy that’s undersized, but as smart as he is off the field, he’s smart on the field. He pays attention, he never switches off, and he creates things out of that sheer work rate. He’s an attacking player, usually a winger, but we’ve actually put him in at center mid sometimes just to be a ball hawk and a bit of a nuisance, and he’s very good at that too because he’s so quick to the ball. I know there are big things in store for him beyond soccer.
If it seems as though time management might be an issue, Dalwadi has taken to heart Underwood’s quote about the necessity of sleep.
“That really speaks volumes of how much a person can do in the day depending on how much sleep they get,” he said. “We obviously get eight, nine, 10 hours of sleep a night, but if you’re someone who’s striving to be involved in their community, you can’t really just sit back and sleep when who knows what might happen throughout the day.
“There have been times I’ve woken at 10 o’clock in the morning on a weekend. I think to myself, ‘Maybe if I woke up at seven and did stuff from 7-10 or 7-11 maybe I would feel more accomplished. So I wake up early, do the important things early and then throughout the day that’s when I go socialize and hang out with friends. I think it’s important to not constantly work, work, work. It’s also the social aspect of still being a teenager that you have to keep a part of your life.”
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Although soccer is just one very small piece of Dalwadi’s life, it is an important one. He began playing in fourth grade but didn’t go the usual route.
“I’ve never been on a travel soccer team contrary to popular belief – none of my friends even know that to this day,” he said. “I’ve always played on recreational teams during the summer and also on school teams. I’ve always had the athletic ability to play the sport, I guess.”
Dalwadi made the jayvee team as a sophomore and has been on the varsity the past two years.
“I think the biggest takeaway from playing a sport itself is obviously getting your mind off the other activities,” he said. “But it’s also the importance of being a member of a team and the role you have to fulfill being on a team. It includes trusting teammates and also it teaches you how to be unselfish.”
Dalwadi says he learned what it really means to be a member of a team his junior season.
“I wasn’t a starter,” he said. “Basically, I’d come off the bench for 10-15 minutes and give the team a spark of energy with fresh legs and also to give one of our more talented players a little bit of a break, so that essentially killed two birds with one stone.
“I never had an issue with that. I knew what it meant to be a member of the team. I knew my role on the team, and I thought the best way to help the team was not to moan and groan about not starting, it was to fulfill that role of being a bench player to the best of my ability.”
Dalwadi has nothing but the fondest memories of his team’s journey to a state title that included capturing the SOL Continental Conference title and the District One 6A crown as well.
“That was amazing,” he said. “Obviously, you have the banter of off-the-field pasta parties, practices and things like that, but it’s the little moments you have on the bus ride when we’re all getting serious and the captains are motivating us.
“Last year’s speaking captain was Carter Houlihan, and before our first playoff game, he started this speech on the bus, and from that playoff game and onward, he continued that very same speech – memorized it. It was those little things where it really got you riled up and really made you feel like you were a part of what’s going on even if you didn’t play all 80 minutes, or even if you didn’t play at all, you still felt like you were part of the team.”
This year, Dalwadi sometimes starts and other times comes off the bench for a Knight squad that captured the division crown. He scored the game-winning goal in the Knights’ 2-1 win over Pennridge earlier this season.
“The experience I had last year really helped facilitate the unselfishness of – ‘Hey, I’m a senior this year, this is my last year playing.’ If I’m not starting, it’s not the biggest deal for me. I just want to fulfill my role to the best of my ability, no matter what it is,” he said. “One of the things we’re extremely thankful for – despite all of the limitations, despite all of the procedures we have to go through, not having fans at our games – at the end of the day, we’re just happy we can go back out there and play on the field for us seniors one last time and also for some of the younger guys who might not have gotten a chance to experience what North Penn soccer is this year.”
Dalwadi had a brief stint with track, competing in middle school and also his freshman year.
“Just for context, I’m 5-3 ½, and I jumped 16 feet and eight inches in eighth grade, which is top four in the school’s history,” he said. “That’s something I’m proud of, but track wasn’t a real soul-burning passion, and it isn’t something you just do. You have to have fun with it. Especially when I see kids run two miles – if I’m not having fun doing it, you couldn’t pay me to do it.”
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There were early signs that Dalwadi was born to lead. In sixth grade, he was a member of his elementary school’s student council, although that didn’t have the happiest of endings.
“It’s kind of ironic that I’m serving as my high school’s president because I was impeached on the last day of school,” he said. “It’s funny how those things happen.”
Dalwadi acknowledges he made a youthful mistake, saying something regrettable to a classmate and then immediately recognizing the error of his ways.
“Two seconds later, she starts bawling crying, and at that point, I screamed ‘Sorry’ before anybody asked what I did,” he said. “I realize now I was like the bank robber who screams, ‘I didn’t do it’ before anyone asked him. At that point, I kind of turned myself in.”
Dalwadi never lost the bug to be involved in school life, but his definition of being involved differed from most.
“All through elementary school – you have to keep in mind I was active until the last day of school, but I realized that ‘Hey, they call us student leaders, but we’re not really leading anything. We’re just making sure already established events happen,’” Dalwadi said. “Throughout middle school, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t do student council. At that point, I was like, ‘I don’t want to sign up to be a figurehead if I’m not going to actually be able to do anything.’”
Dalwadi had a change of heart as the time approached to elect senators for his first year of high school sophomore year and he was elected senator, marking the beginning of a new chapter in his life as a student leader.
In order to have more of a voice, he became treasurer the following year and brought a new event to the school called Wish Week, an idea he got while attending a summer leadership seminar hosted by the PA Association of Student Councils Leadership Camp.
“Wish Week was this raffle event that gave all students of all economic classes an equal opportunity to win prizes like Air Pods and Sixers tickets, “said Dalwadi, who received the Caroline Steliotes Scholarship to attend the camp. “I took that event from summer camp, brought it to the school and that’s when I really got experience of how the chain of command works.”
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Diving into politics felt like a natural progression for Dalwadi. At the beginning of his junior year, he came across a flyer that was an application to become the deputy state director of an organization called March for Our Lives, comprised of teenagers and young adults from both political parties who strive to help combat the issue of gun violence in America which claims nearly 40,000 lives every year.
“I figured why not? The worst that’s going to happen is they’ll say no to me, I’ll just move on, turn the other cheek and then find something else to apply for,” Dalwadi said. “I ended up getting that, which was the stepping stone in getting my other positions in other organizations.”
Dalwadi is the member engagement director for High School Democrats of Pennsylvania.
“I would say the most important experience-based role I’ve had was interning for PA State Senator Katie Muth my junior year,” he said. “That’s when I really realized that being a lawmaker – it’s more important that you have a good staff than anything.
“It’s not like the senator knows every constituent by name, knows the names of every street, so that when the office comes in, so everybody has to work together to help the senator be the best of her ability in that role.”
Recently, Dalwadi was appointed Democratic Committee Person for Hatfield’s precinct, Ward 4-1.
“It’s an early start to a political career,” he said. “The only other person I can think of who was a committee person at 18 was congresswoman Madeline Dean. It’s big shoes to fill, but Rome wasn’t born in a day.”
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With his sights set on a career in politics and law, Dalwadi is leaving his options open.
“In a system of politics and law with political polarizations changing, you have to be a lone tree in an open field, and what I mean by that is you have to be able to sway whichever way the wind is blowing,” Dalwadi said. “I can’t say what I’ll be doing 10 years from now. I hope to be a state senator or state representative because who knows – things might change.
“I might start a non-profit organization. My end goal is to be in a position to help people. Just like my role on the soccer team, I don’t have to be the starter to help the team. I can come off the bench and still help the team. Same ideology in the world of politics. I don’t have to be a lawmaker. I can simply be the founder of a non-profit and help people that way or any other way. So that’s when I kind of tie everything back to soccer, and I’m like ‘Okay, thank God I did soccer.’ I learned how to not be selfish, and that’s when I really learned the architect of something isn’t always the face of it.”
Dalwadi has given serious thought to his college options.
“Last year I had a long conversation with my sister who attends George Washington University, and I told her, ‘Hey, I want to get involved in politics. What’s the best way to do it?’ She said, ‘Come to DC, you’ll get a bunch of internships, you’ll meet a bunch of people,’” he said. “But later on I realized that leads to a trajectory of mediocrity. What I mean by that, it will get you a life a little above average.
“Sure, I might meet somebody who is in a high position, but ultimately, I don’t want to be the guy that knows someone, I want to be the guy that people know. I figured if we look back in history – I think a big takeaway is a lot of successful people have copied what prior successful people have done, and all of those successful people have not followed the crowd. I don’t think it would make sense for me to attend a college like GW where everybody seeks to have a political career is going to go.”
Dalwadi is looking to stay closer to home with Swarthmore and Haverford his top choices. Both would allow him to be involved politically in his community and also in college life.
“I already have some level of ground basis when it comes to a political career in my community,” he said. “Why would I go to another town and throw all of that away when I can simply go to a college like Haverford or Swarthmore and build off of that and also get a degree in the profession I want to specialize in.”
When he runs for political office, Dalwadi already has one vote in his pocket.
“Off the field, you’d think you were talking to a seasoned veteran politician,” DePeppe said. “He’s very sharp. When we were going through the COVID pandemic early on, he put together a presentation for the school board.
“Public speaking for most people – they fear it worse than death. He’s very comfortable, he’s very composed. He’s an impressive kid – he gets my vote today.”
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