![Setter Emma Lee (9) sets the ball to the middle during the match against Pinewood on Sept. 12. “[I’m looking forward to] getting more skilled, learning more about my position and also becoming better friends with all of my teammates, Emma said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DSC_4917-2-1200x795.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasnt been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but Ive had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. Theres so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesnt exist, you can build it yourself, Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“Animation just clicked in a way. I had been interested in art, but that felt different. [Animation] felt like it had something behind it, whereas previous things felt surface level. I wasnt making that crazy of things, but just the process of doing it was much more enjoyable, Carter Chadwick (22) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-16-at-9.44.08-AM-900x598.png)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and its played such a major role in who Ive become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something Im [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala (21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“Im not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that theres a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyones so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you arent going to get those championships if you arent fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
Students participate in 36-hour math competition
Juniors Shaya Zarkesh, Michael Kwan, Kat Tian and Rajiv Movva participate in HSMCiM as a team. The math contest took place for 36 hours on the Saratoga campus.
December 1, 2016
Two teams from the Upper School competed in the annual High School Math Contest in Modeling (HSMCiM) at the Saratoga campus from 8 a.m. on Nov. 19 to 8 p.m. Nov. 20 for 36 hours over Thanksgiving break.
The competition asked students to write a 30-page technical paper that modeled a real-world problem using math in 36 hours.
Michael Kwan (11), Rajiv Movva (11), Katherine “Kat” Tian (10), Shaya Zarkesh (11), Ayush Pancholy (10), Ashwin Rammohan (10), Nishant Ravi (10) and Akshay Ravoor (10) took part in this year’s competition. They prepared for the contest by going through problems and papers from previous years.
Kat, who participated in the contest with teammates Michael Kwan (11), Rajiv Movva (11) and Shaya Zarkesh (11), found the type of problem and length of the submission to be the most challenging aspect of the competition process.
“It’s not like the common math competition that takes usually minutes, or max a few hours. It’s not solving a set of specific problems or proofs or an Olympiad,” Kat explained. “It’s more like a hackathon, because of the structure.”
Over the 36-hour period, the two teams brainstormed ideas, wrote the paper, ran code and constructed graphs. They had meals and took turns taking naps before immediately resuming work.
Members of the school math department, including Department Chair Anthony Silk, and Lauri Vaughan proctored the competition.
“[HSMCiM] gives you this opportunity to try something you have not tried which is ‘how fast can I pull together a paper on a challenging topic that does not have an answer. It’s an open ended question,” Silk said. “Now that’s something that happens in real life, so it’s just sort of preparation for the way things actually work in the real world.”
The results of the competition will be announced in January.
