Sophomore Avik Banik authored and published “Navigating High School—A Student’s Guide to Achieving Straight-As, Creating an Exciting Social Life, and Making the Varsity Team” on Feb. 24, 2023. He began writing this book during his time at Davidson High School because he saw that there was a lack of self-help books that aim to support students through all aspects of high school. Another issue that he found was that the books that were available were written by adults beyond their high school years.

Discussing the Book

In his interview with “The Vanguard,” Banik addressed some concerns about the self-help book not applying to all types of students.

“Every child is different,” Banik said. “Sometimes the responses do contradict, like, one student says they work best by highlighting while reading, and another student will say they learn best by just reading the book without getting their focus broken by highlighting.”

For this reason, Banik made sure to include a disclaimer in the academic portion of his book, explaining that some advice will not apply simply because everybody learns differently.

In the second section of his book, Banik discussed ways to be successful socially.

“Most of the kids I worked with were kids known to be popular at their school, meaning they were liked by everyone no matter where they went,” Banik said. “I’ve also worked with people who don’t have a good social life, and these were kids who didn’t have many friends or were always in negative drama.”

Banik found the third and final section, “Athletics,” to be the simplest to approach, so he chose to begin his interviews within the world of sports. In his interviews with numerous varsity coaches, he took notes on what they were looking for in their student-athletes. With the athletes, Banik was able to identify ways in which they earned varsity positions, remained passionate about their sport, and maintained passing grades.

Application to Real Life

With any self-help book, there can be a level of uncertainty regarding whether or not the book actually helps. For Banik, he has seen improvements in his own life since conducting those dozens of interviews.

“I’ve been applying almost all of the lessons to my college life, and let’s just say that my college life is definitely better,” Banik said. “I barely had any friends in high school, but if you look at my Instagram now, you’ll see that I’m hanging out with a bunch of new friends that I’m making in college, and my grades are a lot better than they were in high school.”

According to Banik, many middle schools and high schools in the Mobile County Public School System have added his book to their libraries. In late 2023, his book was also added to the Marx Library’s shelves. Banik shared his hope that once students are finished reading his book, they will be able to pass it along to their siblings, cousins, or other friends who are entering high school so that they are able to receive help, too.

The Self-Publishing Process

For anybody interested in writing and publishing a book, Banik offered three pieces of advice.

“If you want to create something, sell and make an impact, make sure it’s high quality,” Banik said. He told “The Vanguard” that he had to delete eight chapters from his book because he felt they weren’t necessary to include.

Banik’s next piece of advice: “Do something you’re passionate and serious about. Make it worthy, go deep and add value. Ask yourself, ‘Why is [my book] different?’”

The final piece of advice seemed to be the simplest, yet likely the most challenging.

“Just get started—you’ll figure out the rest,” Banik said.

Next for Banik

This month, Banik will be celebrating the one-year mark of his book being published. In the meantime, he has enjoyed working on numerous news appearances with local stations and papers, including WKRG, FOX10, “Lagniappe”, and, most recently, WNSP Sports Radio.

When he isn’t participating in interviews or tuning in to class lectures, Banik typically spends his time studying with friends on campus, conducting research, or looking for internship opportunities.

Many have asked Banik if he would be interested in writing a second book for college students, but he’s shared with “The Vanguard” that it “won’t be any time soon.”