![“[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)
School Meeting Recap 4/18
Spirit club member Shannon Richardson (12) holds a sign. Today marked the start of Spirit week.
April 18, 2016
The new Associated Student Body, which consists of rising seniors Sandip Nirmel, Eddie Shiang, Alexander Lam, and Ray Song, ran today’s school meeting.
The Green Challenge will continue through Wednesday. As of the meeting, the freshmen are in first place, followed by the sophomores in second place, the seniors in third place and the juniors in fourth place. The sophomores have the greatest percentage of their class involved in the challenge, with 82 members of the class participating.
Spirit will host a “hashtag” challenge, which will involve students posting photos of people’s dress-up for each day, with “#HarkerSpirit[class]” in the caption. During the meeting, Spirit hosted a challenge for the president of each class, in which each raced against the others to knock a bucket off of the stage. Sandip Nirmel, the junior class president won the challenge, followed by Jimmy Lin, the sophomore class president in second place, Edward Sheu, the senior class president in third place, and Kelsey Wu, the freshman class president in fourth place.
The track team competed in a meet last Saturday, with many team members setting top times and class records. The team competes in the Top 8 Classic this Friday and the St. Francis Invitational on Saturday.
Boys tennis went 4-0 last week to improve to 12-4 overall. The team travels to Crystal Springs Uplands School and Sacred Heart Preparatory this week.
The boys volleyball team is 4-0 in league after defeating King’s Academy last Friday. They travel to Adrian C. Wilcox High School on Wednesday and host Fremont High School at Blackford on Thursday.
Girls lacrosse lost to Carlmont High School last Tuesday. They play Woodside High School at home tomorrow.
Softball plays Castilleja School at home tomorrow, while baseball plays Jefferson High School at home tomorrow.
Over the past weekend, 14 students in the journalism program travelled to Los Angeles to attend a national press conference. Harker Aquila, the online news site of the Harker School, became an online pacemaker winner for the first time. The Winged Post, the school newspaper won third place for Best in Show.
The journalism staff will be taking senior shoutouts to be published in the final issue of the newspaper. Forms for shoutouts will be available outside of the journalism room. The first 30 will be accepted to be published. Forms are due by this Wednesday.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which will be held from Sept. 24 through Sept. 26 of the next school year, will be available for upper school students to attend. The festival will feature acting workshops and performances of three of Shakespeare’s plays and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.
Security reinforced the policy of students being required to be in groups of two or more students when leaving campus. Officer Harden of the San Jose Police Department presented warnings about homeless people around campus and across the street. He advised students to stay together in groups and provided (408)-277-8911 as a direct line to the San Jose Police Department for students to use.
Construction of the new performing arts center will begin on Monday, May 9, which will cause a portion of the parking on campus to be unavailable. There will be no student parking available until the 2017-2018 school year. There will be a shuttle service between the upper and middle school campuses, which will try to be faster for students than parking in the streets around campus. There will also be a special bus schedule during the weeks of AP testing that is specially tailored for students taking AP tests.
The upper school will follow a special schedule on Thursday and Friday to accommodate the regatta and the spirit rally.
