![“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)
Upper School to host annual Baccalaureate ceremony
Efrey Noten ’14 was last year’s Baccalaureate speaker. This year Ethan Ma (12) will speak.
Baccalaureate, a ceremony which honors juniors and seniors, will take place on May 21 in the Quad.
Ethan Ma (12) and Upper School Mathematics Teacher Mary Mortlock will address the the junior and senior classes and the seniors’ families.
“I’ll try to speak about my impressions on the last four years, what it means to be moving on to different stages in life and reflecting on what that means to me,” Ethan said.
Ethan Ma (12) is this year’s Baccalaureate speaker. Baccalaureate will occur on May 21.
Baccalaureate symbolically represents the seniors passing the mantle of being leaders of the school down to the juniors. In previous years, the salutatorian, the student with the second highest GPA acted as the speaker for the ceremony, but since 2013, the senior class has voted on one of the members of the seniors class as its own speaker, along with deciding who the faculty speaker will be.
“I’m very honored and I think the fact that the students voted for me is a really nice thing for them to do,” Mortlock said. “I teach a lot of seniors, so that’s why.”
This will be Mortlock’s final year at Harker before her retirement. On the morning after the ceremony, she will travel to Grass Valley, California to attend her daughter’s wedding.
Junior Aarti Kheskani commented on what she is looking forward to most about the ceremony.
“I am excited for baccalaureate because I feel like the [speakers] will have some really good insight, and the senior speaker will probably have some very good advice for my senior year so that I don’t make egregious mistakes,” Aarti said.
Head of School Christopher Nikoloff will also be giving a brief speech to the students.
Ethan voiced his thoughts on last year’s ceremony.
“When I went, it was just nice to be around my peers,” he said. “I think it was a nice time to have the parents and juniors and seniors together before graduation.”
Senior Class Dean Diana Moss reflected on her opinion of the ceremony.
“For me, I think it is the calm before the crazy — it is a very intimate ceremony compared to graduation, which is really all about the family, and this is really just about the students, and usually the speeches are directed to the students — talking about them and to them,” she said.
Traditionally, baccalaureate used to be a religious ceremony, which was performed in church. Recently, however, high schools have adapted it to be a general ceremony to honor the senior class.
Families of juniors and seniors are welcome to join the event, which will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the quad.
This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on May 13, 2015.
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...
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