![“[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)
Honor Week celebrates honor for Harker’s 125th anniversary
During the campus clean-up on Friday, Clarice Wang (9) put a piece of trash in a garbage bag held open by Abel Olivas, Spanish teacher and department head of Modern and Classical languages.
March 3, 2019
Microphone in hand, physics and science research teacher Chris Spenner spoke on Wednesday, Feb. 20 during the school meeting about acceptance within the Harker community. He highlighted three speeches given earlier in the school year by Haris Hosseini (12), Raphael Sanche (12) and chemistry teacher Robbie Korin.
Haris gave his speech “The Man Problem,” which focused on toxic masculinity, Raphael talked about his experience coming out as transgender and Korin related his experience as a gay individual.
“You don’t have to tell your story to a gym full of a thousand people to be heard or feel accepted,” Spenner said in his speech. “Tell your story to your friends, to whoever you trust, to people who you know care about you.”
On the week of Feb. 19 to Feb. 22, students celebrated honor at the upper school with Honor Week, where each day of the four-day school week was dedicated to one of the four Harker pillars: respect, acceptance, honesty and environment.
On Tuesday, students and faculty submitted Respect in Action shoutouts for instances of respect they saw around school.
“At Harker, since people try their best to respect others, we can learn more,” Alyssa Tomberg (9) said.
To many students, Harker is a diverse and open community.
“We’re especially strong in the acceptance pillar. There’s a lot of times where we’ve been an accepting community, and I see it everyday around campus,” sophomore Honor Council representative Betsy Tian said.
On Wednesday, in addition to Spenner’s speech, Honor Council also hosted a “bingo bonding” community event during lunch. With a total of around 30 students, participants were given small square bingo sheets with a different activity in each box. Activities included “have a dad joke competition,” “share a fun fact about yourself, “create a handshake with someone” and “give a compliment to someone.” Students who completed all the tasks received bags of candy as prizes.
On Thursday, chalk was available on the cement outside the RPAC and Athletic Center, where students could write messages regarding honesty on the ground.
A campus clean-up took place on Friday, the day dedicated to environment. Advisories walked around campus picking up trash and cleaning up classrooms.
“You can see honor anywhere,” junior Honor Council representative Simar Bajaj said. “It’s not just stopping cheaters, honor’s much broader than that. That’s something that a lot of people forget – that there a lot of small ways to be honorable.”
