![“[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)
Challenge posed to redesign course planner
Hovering over a course title in the Naviance course planner causes a description of the course to appear. The Naviance course planner is the current method for creating a four-year course plan at the upper school.
May 28, 2016
Upper school Academic Dean Evan Barth announced a programming challenge to create an alternative to the four-year course planner tool, Naviance, through daily announcements and at school meeting on Monday.
Design submissions, which are due next Tuesday, are expected to combine the contents and functionalities of the Naviance Course Planner and the upper school Course of Study document. Additional concerns for submitters include privacy, ease of use and possible future obsolescence.
“The challenge is fun because we’ve got amazing coders here at this school, so I think it’s fun for them to do a project that’s not theoretical. It’s real; it’s a product that they can use, and the students will benefit from it,” Barth said. “It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for years, and I had thought about trying to do something myself, but we have all these amazing students, so why not use them? And I think people love this kind of stuff, so we’ll see what we get.”
Barth, as well as potentially students and members of the computer science department, will decide the winner of the design challenge, who must then assemble a team to build the described program over the summer and launch it in September.
“Right now, with the labs that the programming students work in the courses that the school provides, [students] never get a chance to actually design anything. The design is always provided to them,” computer science teacher Anu Datar said. “I think this will help the students understand how important design is, and it will also give them the flexibility to choose a completely different structure.”
Many students interested in programming plan to submit designs to the challenge.
“I like programming, and I think [the challenge] would be a good way to showcase my programming skills,” said Shaya Zarkesh (10), who hopes to participate. “I think a lot of the reason Naviance isn’t very popular currently is because it’s pretty ugly, so if we make it look better, then students will be more inclined to use it, and not just as a requirement but actually something they use to help themselves.”
The complete details for the challenge can be found in this document, provided in the morning announcements.
