![“[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)
The damaged fiber optics connection in Nichols has recently been replaced. The issue was likely caused by mice chewing the cables.
The problem affected some teachers’ phones, but for the most part these issues did not affect students, as the school’s Internet traffic is wireless and does not go through the fiber optics cables.
“When they sent out the email, I went ‘Huh? The phones were broken?'” said Upper School science teacher Eric Nelson.
Two weeks ago, the school phones in Nichols Hall, which use the underground fiber optics cables to connect to the rest of the school and the outside world, started having intermittent issues. According to Director of Instructional Technology Dan Hudkins, after lengthy diagnostics, the school determined that one of the six pairs of fiber optics cables that go to Nichols had stopped working. As a temporary fix, the school changed the phones to use the other five pairs.
Within a few days, the phones started to have issues again, and it appeared as though another pair of cables had failed. According to Hudkins, the chances of two pairs of fiber optics cables, which usually have remarkable longevity, failing within days of each other is “astonishingly unlikely.”
The school called in an outside contractor for an evaluation. Since there was not any heavy construction that could have damaged or jostled the cables, the contractor concluded that the likely issue was mice that had found their way into the conduits and were chewing on the fiber optics.
Twelve armored pairs of cables have replaced the six pairs of fiber optics cables that run in underground conduits between Main Hall and Nichols. The conduits were sealed shut with foam, and rodenticide placed inside. As of the time of publication, the problem appears to be resolved.
“In the future, as we open other vaults for whatever maintenance reason, we’ll fill in the ends of the conduits, and we’ll put rodenticide in the vaults. We only did this [procedure] on the path we know would have the problem,” Hudkins said.
The school is not actively taking measures with the other conduits, but Hudkins has stated that if the administration encounters the same issue, they will most probably solve the problem in the same way, by sealing those cables with foam and applying rodenticide.
![Winged Post Editor-in-Chief Katerina Matta and Managing Editor Young Min were selected as first place winners from a pool of around 2,000 students. “This page [shows] how much we paid attention to detail and how much we pushed ourselves to ensure the best quality that we could,” Young said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_4254-900x1200.jpeg)
