![LALC Vice President of External Affairs Raeanne Li (11) explains the International Phonetic Alphabet to attendees. "We decided to have more fun topics this year instead of just talking about the same things every year so our older members can also [enjoy],” Raeanne said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_4627-1200x795.jpg)
![“[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)
Alibaba has largest IPO
Alibaba raised the highest IPO in history last friday when the stock market opened. The company is expected to continue to have high earnings in the next fiscal year.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, a Chinese e-commerce company, raised the largest initial public offering (IPO) of $25.8 billion in history last Friday.
Officials originally planned on raising a $21.8 billion IPO, but later increased the number . The share price was set at $68 each when the company first went public. Due to the high demand, it closed at $93.89.
“I think it’s incredible that something that was pretty small in China totally exploded,” Oisin Coveney (11) said.
Alibaba.com, the main branch of Alibaba group, is used by businesses to sell their manufactured goods. Other branches such as taobao.com and tmall.com are also used for retail.
Some students compared Alibaba to Amazon and eBay.
“I mean if it’s the same as Amazon and eBay I don’t really see any problems with it,” Mishi Vachev (12) said. “It should be a pretty effective way of selling goods.”
While Amazon sells directly to customers, Alibaba connects different buyers with outside sellers. Last quarter, it had a revenue of $2.54 billion.
“I’ve actually never really been on the site, here in the U.S. I use Amazon, but because Alibaba was so successful in its IPO, I definitely would like to check it out.” Alexis Gauba (10) said.
AliPay, the company’s payment system, is comparable to PayPal, a popular e-commerce business in the U.S. Both platforms allow buyers to securely send payments to third-party sellers online, but AliPay does not release the payment until the customer collects the item.
Jack Ma developed the company in 1999. Before becoming an entrepreneur, he received a bachelor’s degree in English from Hangzhou Normal University, and went on to teach English at Hangzhou Dianzi University.
“Jack Ma went from being an english teacher to being the CEO of a company that had the biggest U.S. IPO yet, so with entrepreneurship you can make it really big, it doesn’t necessarily matter if you have an M.B.A. or have gone to business school so I think thats very cool.” Alexis said.
Jane Keller was also impressed by Ma. She shared her opinion on what type of online business she would create.
“I would do something with helping teenagers,” she said. “It would have to do some kind of problem solving about social issues.”
Alibaba earned $3.7 billion in the last fiscal year, more than Amazon and eBay combined.
Meena Gudapati (12) is the Editor-in-Chief of Harker Aquila. Her favorite part of journalism is making her humorous podcast "Get Skool'd" and writing interesting...