![“[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 speech team wins awards at Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational
Divya Rajasekharan (11), Nikhil Dharmaraj (9) and Lisa Liu (12) pose with their trophies outside Dobbins. All of them competed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational last weekend.
January 22, 2016
Nine members of the upper school speech team traveled to Union City to compete at the Martin Luther King Jr. Invitational, a speech and debate competition, last weekend.
The tournament, hosted annually by James Logan High School, invited high school speakers and debaters from the Bay Area to compete in 12 speech events and five styles of debate.
Seniors Lisa Liu and Arjun Narayan; juniors Sana Aladin, Divya Rajasekharan, Sarah de Vegvar and Karthik Sundaram and freshmen Nikhil Dharmaraj, Enya Lu and Surya Gudapati competed at the tournament.
Nikhil competed in Impromptu and Original Oratory. Advancing to the final round of Original Oratory, he was later crowned tournament champion in a field of 97 speakers.
“I had just made some edits one day before and quickly memorized them, but they were small enough that I didn’t flub anything in-round,” Nikhil said. “My results at the tournament earned me a bid to the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions, so that is really exciting for me too!”
Sana and Divya competed in Duo Interpretation, advancing to the final round and placing fifth overall out of 73 duo teams.
“I was never even really sure that we would make it to the top 28, so being in the top seven was really cool, especially at a tournament like James Logan, where the competition in Duo can get pretty tough,” Sana said. “We didn’t break at all at the Glenbrooks tournament but I think that motivated us, because we practiced quite a bit leading up to Logan.”
Lisa competed in Humorous Interpretation and Impromptu, advancing to the final round in Impromptu and placing third out of 101 speakers. Arjun competed in international and domestic extemporaneous speaking, advancing to the semifinal round in both events.
Upper school speech coach Greg Achten was pleased with the turnout of the competition.
“Having four students in finals at one of the most difficult tournaments of the year was an amazing achievement and speaks to the growth and success of the team as a whole,” Achten said. “This is a very difficult tournament that draws the best competitors from across the nation.”
The upper school speech team will travel to Milpitas High School to compete at the CFL Varsity Individual Events Tournament this weekend.
