![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“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 it's played such a major role in who I've 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 I'm [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)
![“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)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't 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)
![“[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)
![“I'm 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 there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's 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)
“Show me the money!” That was the phrase Mark Pettinger, Intel spokesman, asked the audience to shout before he announced the names of our school’s seven Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists, setting a new record for the number of semifinalists for a Californian school. Also, according to the Intel representatives that presented the awards, a study of the number of semifinalists revealed that our school has the most semifinalists out of any Californian school, with 24 students over the past six years.
Roshni Bhatnagar (12), Josephine Chen (12), Rohan Mahajan (12), Benjamin Chen (12), Nikhil Parthasarathy (12), Jason Young (12), and Susan Tu (12) were each given a $1,000 award from the Intel Foundation, and the school was awarded $1,000 for each semifinalist for a total of $7,000.
“These people put in a lot of work. This is not an easy project; they have to not only do research that is pretty complex, but they also have to do a lot of technically writing, and it’s pretty challenging,” Julie Dunkle, Regional Program Manager at Intel said.
Although some of the students were informed of their prize beforehand, the feeling of winning was still elating.
“[Even though] they told me [that I won] on Monday, it was still so crazy,” Roshni (12) said. “I never thought that I would be one of the winners. “
All of the outside-school and teacher mentors complimented the diligence the students had demonstrated throughout the research process.
“With a student like Jason, I [had] little work to do,” Dr. Matthew Harley, Jason’s teacher mentor and biology teacher, said.
“I just really want to emphasize the hard work Susan put in after she had completed her research […] she really deserves [this] credit for the hard work she put in,” Dr. Mark Brada, physics teacher and one of Susan’s (12) mentors, said.
![Winged Post Editor-in-Chief Katerina Matta and Managing Editor Young Min were selected as first place winners from a pool of around 2,000 students. “This page [shows] how much we paid attention to detail and how much we pushed ourselves to ensure the best quality that we could,” Young said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_4254-900x1200.jpeg)
