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Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

Winged Post
Newsletter

Students travel to England for science conference

British+students+and+six+Upper+School+students+pose+for+a+picture+at+the+conference+stage.+The+conference+lasted+two+days+and+hosted+students+from+Harker%2C+London%2C+and+Cambridge.
British students and six Upper School students pose for a picture at the conference stage. The conference lasted two days and hosted students from Harker, London, and Cambridge.

On February 10, six members of The Triple Helix club boarded their flight for England, where they stayed for a week to attend a science conference.

Science teachers Anita Chetty and Dr. Eric Nelson accompanied the members, sophomores Vivek Sriram, Kacey Fang, Sindhu Ravuri, and Vasudha Rengarajan and juniors Brandon Yang and Krishan Kumar to England.

Chetty, who is the advisor for the Upper School Triple Helix chapter, organized the trip, creating a day-by-day itinerary for the students. The first and last days were spent traveling, two days were designated for the conference, and the rest were centered around tourism and sightseeing.

Although she felt that the conference was the highlight of the trip, Chetty particularly enjoyed watching the musical Wicked in London.

“There’s nothing more magical than being in a theater in the west end of London and watching a spectacular play,” she said. “I just also truly enjoyed taking the students to a place like Cambridge, where historically there’s such a huge concentration of great minds.”

While Chetty and the students relished new experiences and activities such as boating on the river Cam, exploring the Natural History Museum, and visiting the Wren Library, all agreed that the conference was the best part of the trip.

“I’d have to say I really enjoyed the poster I created. It was really fun communicating what I had worked really hard on,” Vivek said.

Krishan agreed with Vivek, but he identified his favorite part of the conference as the connections he made with other students.

“Initially when I had signed up for this trip, I was expecting the conference to be an almost scary event in which there would be intellectuals criticizing me and my work, but actually it was a lot more friendly experience,” he said. “It was really interesting because we got to collaborate and work with British teenagers and Cambridge graduate students, which was very exciting.”

Each day of the conference consisted of a series of quick-fire questions that American and British students worked together to answer. Following this event, a series of speakers delivered brief lectures on given topics pertaining to science, medicine, or career opportunity. As the last event of each day, students worked together in small teams with debates or role-play activities to simulate the real-world application of the sciences.

On Sunday, February 17, the group flew back to the states where they reunited with their families.

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About the Contributor
Vasudha Rengarajan, Harker Aquila Editor-in-Chief
Vasudha Rengarajan is the Editor-in-Chief of Harker Aquila. As former Features editor and Sports editor for Aquila and a reporter for The Winged Post, Vasudha has enjoyed a versatile career in student journalism. She combines her love of journalism with her interest in science, holding a position as an associate editor for The Triple Helix at Harker. When not pursuing a lead or tracking down sources for quotes, Vasudha enjoys singing, dancing, and spending time with family.