![LALC Vice President of External Affairs Raeanne Li (11) explains the International Phonetic Alphabet to attendees. "We decided to have more fun topics this year instead of just talking about the same things every year so our older members can also [enjoy],” Raeanne said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_4627-1200x795.jpg)
![“[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)
Green High Schools Challenge encourages environmental awareness
Green Team members Karen Krause (11), Satchi Thockchom (12) and Anvi Banga (10) announce the results of this year’s Bay Area High Schools Challenge.
May 5, 2018
Upper school students recently participated in the Green High Schools Challenge against Pinewood School and The Nueva Upper School for Green Team’s Club Week.
The challenge, implemented through JouleBug’s app, Shine, started at 8:00 a.m. on Apr. 16 and lasted until 12:00 p.m. on Ap. 23. Students who joined the challenge had one week to make a free account, log their environment-conserving activities and earn points for their school.
According to the official joulebug website, lots of apps do well; JouleBug does good. The app developers started JouleBug to make sustainable living social, simple, and actually fun.
Shine provided a comprehensive list of eco-friendly actions such as “Reusable Water Bottle,” “Turn Off the Lights” and “Compost,” among many others. Students contributed to the school point totals by clicking the “Log Action” button and taking an optional picture of the action.
According to JouleBug, many of the most popular activities provided benefits on multiple levels, saving energy, water and money. The app showed users the impact of their actions with estimated statistics.
“Some of the [actions I performed] were composting, recycling, walking somewhere and carpooling,” Pramiti said. “I already did most of these things. This app just made me aware that i was helping earth. It incentivized me to, right now, when the challenge is over, continue to do that. It was a really good way to get more people green at Harker.”
Harker students reduced around 13,000 pounds of carbon dioxide out of a total 39,000 between all three schools, diverted 931 pounds of waste out of 2,900 total and saved 15,000 gallons of water out of 47,000 total.
Pinewood won the Green High Schools Challenge with 4201 points, Harker came in second with 4185 and Nueva finished with 382. Within Harker, the senior class had the most points, freshmen second, juniors third and sophomores fourth.
For individuals, Jessica Wang (12) was the highest-scoring individual and biology teacher Jeff Sutton was the highest-scoring faculty member. Kristin LeBlanc (12), Ashley Jia (11), Gloria Zhang (10) and Pramiti Sankar (9) were the highest individuals for their respective grades.
