![“[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)
Honor Council releases results for second survey
Quarterly publishing statistical data of Honor Code violations will help the community
Honor Council released the complete results for its second survey today, which examined the causes and characteristics of cheating in the Upper School.
The survey was sent out on March 10, and 450 participants responded to it.
82 percent of participants answered that they had shared information about tests or quizzes, and 64 percent had inappropriately shared work on an individual assignment. In addition, 57 percent said they rarely catch cheating or plagiarism, while 25 percent claim to often see it. Honor Council Chair Nicholas Manjoine elaborated on his reaction to the results.
“I think that a lot of the responses matched up with some of my intuitions about challenges that the student community faces, but I was certainly very happy [with] the robustness of the responses,” he said. “I thought that there were really good, thoughtful suggestions, so I was really happy to see that.”
Over 25 percent of students who participated in the survey submitted written responses sharing their ideas of what actions could be taken to decrease lapses in academic honesty.
“Many of the responses were personal things that people [had experienced],” Honor Council representative Rahul Bhethanabotla (9) said. “Some of them had advice that we could take, but some of those things were still person-specific.”
The Honor Council aims to have an increased involvement between all members of the Harker community so teachers are able to better understand the pressures that affect students.
“We wanted the students to reflect on the challenges they faced in terms of this particular issue and then hopefully use that as a way to be more responsive,” Manjoine said. “The Honor Council can use the data as a springboard for next year to do more outreach in [the] areas that the survey has highlighted.”
Though feedback from the survey may help students, teachers and parents in the future, the honor council has not made any changes to the Honor Code after seeing the results.
“If there’s a major consensus […] then we’ll start discussing changes to the Honor Code,” Rahul said. “But before that happens, I don’t foresee any changes to the Honor Code.”
The Honor Council plans on releasing biannual surveys, and the next one will be about honorable acts around campus.
This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on April 22, 2015.
Kaitlin Hsu (11) is the Editor-in-Chief of Wingspan Magazine. In her freshmen year, she was a reporter, and in her sophomore year, she was the Features...
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...
Shay Lari-Hosain (12) is the Editor-in-Chief and co-founder of Wingspan Magazine. Shay has interviewed 2013 Nobel Laureates, authors like Khaled Hosseini...