![“I wasn't discouraged by some of the obstacles we faced. I learned a lot from the leadership. I found that different people need different ways of receiving feedback — you can't [just] tell them to do something and expect the best. [Some] people needed more incentive. A large part of my role was to figure out what worked for everyone and to figure out how to lead all these separate individuals as a team,” Suhana Bhandare (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SuhanaBhandare_JasmineHansra-1-1200x798.jpg)
![“This is actually from Randy Pausch Randy P. Brick: ‘Walls are there for a reason. You have to show how much you want to overcome them.’ You have to show how much you want something. That's what I've always been able to do with tennis, Link Crew and getting that internship [with Kushy Baby]. It’s important pushing through that — getting around that brick wall, climbing over it or clawing through it,” Yash Sachdeva (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/YashSachdeva_RamBatchu-copy-1200x1002.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)
Synopsys Science Fair
Nastya Grebin (9) explains her research project at the research symposium. She conducted her research with her partner, Anooshree Sengupta (9).
The 2015 Synopsys Championship of Santa Clara County California, which took place on March 11 at the San Jose Convention Center highlighted high-level research of 27 Harker students making Harker one of the best schools at the science fair.
Middle school and Upper school Harker students displayed their work . This year, 52 Upper School students participated.
“There were so many unique and interesting projects this year” says Anita Chetty, Upper School Science Department Chair.” “Each year, the research questions become more complex and I have noticed that students sometimes have trouble completing projects by the Synopsys deadline. This is not a bad thing. It reminds us that research is a slow, continuous process.”
Harker students were also awarded the highest honor at the science fair. Grand prizes and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) qualification were awarded to Jonathan Ma (11), Sadhika Malladi (11) and Nitya Mani (12) and 9 other participants from different schools at the fair.
“Research builds a unique skill set,” says Chetty. “There are the usual lab science process skills but there students also develop skills in literature review, effective writing and oral communication skills. Research also enables character development. Besides testing your ability to think creatively and to troubleshoot effectively, research challenges you to go become resilient, learn from your mistakes, modify, tinker, and persist.”
Nastya Grebin (9) and Anooshree Sengupta (9) recieved an Honorable Mention in the bioinformatics category for their project titled “The Classification of SNPs in the SMAD4 Gene on the Development of Pancreatic Cancer in a Human Using a Machine Algorithm.” Their project is the crossroad between their respective interests. In Nastya’s case, that is genetics and in Anooshree’s, It is machine learning.
“[In research] there isn’t really a failure. You just need to try harder or learn from your mistakes, or learn from the results you were not expecting” Said Nastya, “That has kind of taught me to view everything with both skepticism and deciding ‘hey, my hypothesis worked, but what could have gone wrong?’”
Sadhika and Jonathan spoke about their project as well.
“ Our project tries to find genomic differences between male and female cancer patients and then translates those differences into how affected the treatment would be” Sadhika said.
Throughout their experience, they continued to develop their research.
“Initially, we were not sure how far we would be able to take it. We knew there would be good results, but we weren’t sure if they could be verified and if our framework would be valid enough. Now we’re moving on to doing live tissue experiments and we are thinking about extending our framework to other demographics”.
The duo also plans on conducting further research for ISEF. “ We’re investigating a few more drugs that we didn’t have time to investigate prior, but now since we made it to ISEF we’re looking more into those” said Jonathan. “ We’re also looking into additional methods for statistical validation.”
Both Sadhika and Jonathan also have future projects on other topics. “ We’re thinking about working on this project, but also doing individual projects in the upcoming summer” Sadhika said.
Overall, the Synopsys Science Fair awarded students for their hard work and dedication to in the field of scientific research. The ISEF competition at which our school will be represented takes place on May 10-15 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on April 22, 2015.
Sanjana Avula (9) is a reporter for The Winged Post. In her free time she enjoys biking, watching movies, and spending time with her family. Sanjana also...
Maya Kumar (11) is the Features Editor for the Winged Post. This is her third year in Journalism and her favorite part is collaborating with fellow journalism...