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![“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)
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![“[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)
Author Harper Lee dies at age 89
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Harper Lee is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George Bush in 2007. Lee passed away last Friday at the age of 89.
February 24, 2016
Renowned author Harper Lee died last Friday in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama at the age of 89.
Lee passed away in her sleep early morning on Friday. According to Lee’s family, she was healthy until her passing.
A fan of her writing, Shivani Awasthi (11) was saddened to hear about by Lee’s death.
“It is very sad to hear that Harper Lee has passed away because she was such an influential writer,” Shivani said. “‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was one of my favorite books and I wish we could have seen more from her.”
Lee was most known for her book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which was published in 1960 and revolved around the lives of the protagonist, Scout, and her family, who dealt with racism during the 1930s in a small town in Maycomb County, Alabama. Students at Harker read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in the eighth grade for English.
Upper school American Literature teacher John Docherty states his opinion regarding Lee’s role in shaping the English curriculum and her significance.
“[‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is] only one book, and I tend to view influence as being a bit broader than that,” Docherty said. “I want to see a spectrum of different novels from the same author before I say they had a profound influence.”
Lee only published two of her books during her life: “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Go Set a Watchman,” which was published in 2015.
Students can check out both of Lee’s books from the upper school library.
