![“[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)
Voting for freshman student council to take place tomorrow at lunch
Arya Tandon
Candidate for freshman class president Jason Lin (9) smiles as he delivers his speech during today’s freshman class meeting. A total of five freshmen are running for the position of Class of 2021 student council president this year.
September 27, 2017
*note: the following story has been updated following the announcement of the freshman student council election results on Thursday, Sept. 28.
Congratulations to this year’s Class of 2021 student council of president Jason Lin, vice president Akshay Manglik, secretary Helen Li, treasurer Aditya Singhvi and spirit coordinator Arjun Virmani!
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After two days of speeches from 17 candidates, the Class of 2021 will elect the members of their first high school student council tomorrow in the journalism room.
Emma Andrews, Julia Biswas, Jason Lin, Andrew Lu and Arusha Patil are the candidates for class president; Akshay Manglik, Arushi Saxena and Aditi Vinod are the candidates for vice president; Helen Li, Suman Mohanty, Shreya Srinivasan, Vivek Sunkam and Elizabeth Szeto are the candidates for secretary; Aditya Singhvi and Sidra Xu are the candidates for treasurer; and Alex Baeckler and Arjun Virmani are the candidates for spirit coordinator.
“Some people don’t know me and that’s totally fine,” Andrew said. “I just put my message out there, and I hope people listen.”
Many candidates chose to list their qualifications for their respective positions in their speeches, which were each about two minutes long, while others opted to appeal to students through comedy.
“I’m definitely looking for humor,” freshman Fiona Wiesner said. “I think if you have the ability to take a situation and find something good out of it, that’s definitely a big plus.”
The elected students will run future class meetings, organize events with the other class councils and ASB and work towards implementing the ideas mentioned in the speeches.
“The role of student council is to lead the class and to help them organize themselves and bond and feel good about being members of that particular group,” freshman class dean Jeffrey Draper said. “They’re going to be part of the Class of 2021 for the rest of their lives, and I would love it if they [could] look back on their high school experience and smile, especially decades from now.”
Freshmen will have the opportunity to vote for as many candidates as they find qualified in an approval voting system tomorrow during lunch in the journalism room, and the results will be announced by Monday.
