![“[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)
Rising sophomore candidates give speeches for student council elections
Freshman class speeches for student council elections were held in the gym today.
Seventeen students ran for five positions. Aliesa Bahri, Amy Jin, Derek Kuo and Akshaya Vemuri ran for secretary; Jerry Chen, Megan Huynh, Sameep Mangat and Justin Su ran for treasurer; Divija Bhimaraju, Makenzie Tomihiro and Maxwell Woehrmann ran for spirit coordinator, Krishna Bheda, Darren Gu and Justin Xie ran for vice president; Akhil Arun, Jimmy Lin and Shikhar Solanki ran for president.
Eric Tran (9) commented on the large number of candidates.
“I think it’s going to be more competition, but I think that’s good in a way because now we have more candidates to choose from so [we] have a better student council,” he said.
Class of 2018 Dean Dr. Victor Adler introduced each candidate. He also spoke about how the voting would be done with the Alternative Vote (AV) system, which was also utilized in other student council and Associated Student Body (ASB) elections.
Most students running for treasurer suggested the idea of having more fundraisers to raise money for the class.
“I’m sure you all remember the Tpumps fundraiser last month. I think it was a great idea, but throughout this entire school year, that has been the only fundraiser outside of the Homecoming food sales,” Jerry said in his speech. “As such, I believe it would be beneficial to increase their frequency to at least once a month.”
Five of the candidates, including Derek, Justin, Maxwell, Darren and Jimmy, are currently a part of student council.
“[The speeches were] a really good opportunity to get to know a lot of the candidates,” current President Jimmy said. “I’m sure that a lot of previous student council members were already known by the majority of the class, but it was great to see a bunch of new faces that people may not have previously known come out and demonstrate why they want to be on the council.”
Spirit coordinator candidates brainstormed ideas to improve engagement of students in spirit activities.
“The biggest change that I plan to incorporate to solve the communication barrier is an official proposal system,” Divija said. “If I’m elected, I’ll set up a Proposal Box in Manzanita. Any of you can deposit a slip in it any time—feedback, ideas, suggestions, anything.”
Mishu Nitulescu (9) voiced his opinion on ideas pitched by candidates.
“It was great that we had a lot of people running; that showed a lot of leadership and that’s what we need nowadays,” he said. “I think a lot of good things were mentioned but i feel like there has to be support from the teachers as well.”
Voting will be held on Thursday during both lunches in the journalism room and results will be announced on Monday.
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...