![“[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)
Students code for dance studio
Dancers at Oola Dance Fitness move and shake to the beat. Vedaad Shakib (10) and Ashwin Rao (10) created a mobile app for the dance company to keep track of student attendance and finances.
Sophomores Ashwin Rao and Vedaad Shakib created an app called Oola, a dance company, in December of 2013, that is designed to help the instructors of the dance class keep track of student attendance and finances.
The app is named after the company that it is made for, a Los Altos-based dance and fitness center.
Ashwin and Vedaad decided to create this app to help out a local business.
“One of our friend’s [mothers] approached us with this idea that a local growing dance business was still using paper to record all of [its] information and to keep track of everything,” Vedaad said. “So we decided to automate it for her and make her life a bunch easier. Plus, we got to learn all of these cool things.”
While creating the app, the two high schoolers learned how to program in Python and Javascript and how to structure a website by splitting it into two parts: a front end and a server side.
The app’s two main parts are the check-in portion and an administration portion. For the check-in portion, students can enter their names and the names of additional guests, which then goes to a confirmation screen that records their attendance and subtracts balance.
The administrative side allows the instructor to sign in, view all the students and sort them by name and balance, which are amount of classes a student purchases. Balances can be refilled through the purchase of classes, which are sold in quantities of ten.
Vedaad and Ashwin have been programming for four and six years respectively. The entire process of creating the app took place over a span of ten months, the beginning half learning the languages it required. Although it is only in use by Oola right now, they hope to expand the use of their app to other businesses as well.
Ashwin commented on how creating the app has been a learning experience.
“We got to learn new languages that are very helpful, and we will probably use them a lot in the future as programmers.” he said.
Ashwin and Vedaad’s experience in building this app will help them create more apps for other businesses in the future.
This piece was originally published in the pages of the Winged Post on October 17, 2014.
Raveena Kapatkar (12) is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Harker Aquila. She is a senior and this is her fourth year on staff. As a freshman, she was a reporter...
Justin Su (11) is the Aquila sports columnist. He has been a part of the journalism program since his freshman year. He hopes to bring his passion for...