Monmouth College senior Rahm Pandey attended every single class - about 1,500 of them
Monmouth, Ill. (05/16/2024) — When it comes to his academic record at Monmouth College, Rahm Pandey is batting 1.000.
And it's not because of a small sample size. Over the course of his four years at Monmouth, the classics and accounting major has attended roughly 1,500 class sessions - without missing a single one.
"It's something I really wanted to do," said Pandey, who also had four years of perfect attendance at Global Citizenship Experience Lab School in Chicago.
For Pandey, the rationale behind those eight straight years of perfection is simple.
"Number one, I love school," he said. "But also, class is between 50 and 75 minutes. I'd rather spend it with the professor instead of trying to catch up. Just go to class. I feel like some people get a little too extreme with their quote-unquote 'excuses.'"
Ancient figures
"Rahm is the epitome of spirit, drive and humility," said classics professor Bob Simmons, who had Pandey for "a mere 23 courses" at Monmouth, many of them of the partial-credit variety. "There are things that he absolutely loves - classics prominent among them - and he is indistractable in his commitment to them."
Simmons might teach about ancient Greek and Rome, but he's not above applying some mathematics, too.
"If my math is right, I think Rahm attended 270 quarter- and half-credit individual classes and 165 individual full-credit classes, so 435 total times when he was present and on time for classes with me," he said. "He was also a student worker for each of the past two years and never missed any of his shifts," which were for two hours each week.
Being a member of the Class of 2024, Pandey was a senior in high school when the COVID pandemic began, so even though he never missed a class at Monmouth, he wasn't always present in a classroom. He said at least five weeks of his college education were presented remotely, "so about a third of a semester combined."
Those were the days of omnipresent masks, which is also how Pandey navigated the rare times when he wasn't feeling his best.
"I just wore a mask and toughed it out," he said of the alternative to taking a sick day.
"Rahm is also an extraordinary event planner," said Simmons, citing Pandey's role as the active hours chair for the College's Association for Student Activity Programming. "In addition to event after event that he planned for ASAP, he has been critical to three major classics events, which his focused efforts helped to turn into multi-award-winners."
Those include a pair of Classics Day events and Monmouth's hosting of the national meeting of Eta Sigma Phi, the classics honor society.
Numerical figures
Classics is certainly a passion for Pandey, but accounting is the field in which he plans to make a living after he pursues a master's of business and science degree at the University of Iowa.
Of the 50 or so courses Pandey has taken at Monmouth, he called his current capstone course in accounting the hardest he's had. Along with two classmates, he presented a poster from the class at last month's Scholars Day, titled "Reflecting on New ESG Regulations' Impact on Business Financial Reporting." The poster about environmental, social and governance regulations stemmed from a 6,000-word paper he co-wrote for the class.
Whatever employer lands Pandey after he completes his MBS in accounting can be certain they're getting a reliable worker who will punch the time clock every day.
And Pandey can be certain his attendance record at Monmouth won't be broken.
"I don't think anybody can top that," he said.
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Pandey is pictured with a poster that he presented at last fall's Classics Day VI.