![“[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)
Girls Programming League held virtually for the first time
Provided by Saloni Shah
Girls Programming League (GPL) team officers and participants meet in a Zoom room for the awards ceremony. This year, the GPL event was held virtually due to concerns about COVID-19.
September 25, 2020
Zoom breakout room “Byte the Dust” is filled with three middle school girls. They excitedly discuss the potential algorithms that can solve one of the problems, before one of them begins sharing her screen. The other two watch eagerly as she opens IntelliJ, an integrated development environment (IDE), and begins coding in Java, finishing the program within minutes.
The third annual Girls Programming League, hosted by the Girls Programming League (GPL) and the Harker Programming Club (HPC), was held virtually this year due to COVID-19 related restrictions. All-female teams of up to three middle school or high school students were invited to the contest, which included two divisions: Novice and Advanced. Teams were tasked with solving programming problems that challenged students to algorithmically write programs to compute solutions.
“I thought it was really creative how they were able to modify GPL from literally meeting with each other to [a virtual format],” Ella Lan (9), who competed in the Advanced division, said. “They were able to adapt it really well. It was really fair and a really fun experience.”
After the competition in the morning, participants listened to a keynote speech given by Dr. Meredith Lee, Executive Director of West Big Data Innovation Hub at University of California, Berkeley, who talked about the importance of data science and its potential impacts on global healthcare and social good.
After lunch, Dr. Caroline Buckee, Nita Madhav, Sandra Butler and Priyanka Surio, prominent women in STEM and medical fields, discussed the various ways in which scientists were studying and helping those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. They later went on to talk about their experiences as females in a predominantly male industry, giving advice to the participants.
“One thing that they said was ‘we need you, we need more people in this field, we need more women in STEM,’ and I thought that was really powerful,” Ella said. “Even though I had heard it many times from my parents, my friends, and my teachers, hearing a complete stranger say that also had a really big impact, not just on me, but to everyone listening to the speakers.”
However, moving the event to a virtual format came with many challenges, and the officers of HPC had to navigate several obstacles to adapt to the new environment.
“We had to shift everything online, and figuring out how to use the Zoom platform and how to separate the girls into breakout rooms was a big challenge,” Saloni Shah (12), co-president of HPC and co-founder and president of GPL, said.
HPC officers organized all parts of the event, including writing and peer-reviewing problems, inviting speakers, asking for funds and advertising throughout the summer. They met frequently online to discuss plans and to collaborate.
“A thing that was challenging for me personally was to completely and utterly trust that the officers had it taken care of it because it was out of my comfort zone. And they did,” upper school computer science teacher Susan King, the adviser of HPC, said.
Although there were many challenges, hosting the event in a virtual setting meant being able to reach more young girls.
“In moving it online, we were able to expand GPL in a way that we were never able to before,” Saloni said. “We used to only be able to reach out to students in the Bay Area, but we could expand it to 200 girls from 20 states and 5 countries, so that was something we were able to turn from negative to positive.”
Students like Joey Dong, a sophomore at the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, could attend the event because it was virtual.
“GPL went pretty smoothly. It definitely would have been more fun if we did in person, but this was a pretty good alternative as well,” Joey said.
GPL’s mission is to inspire and to encourage young girls to pursue careers in computer science, and Saloni believes that the 2020 Challenge embodied this goal.
“We were able to provide a unique opportunity to middle and high school girls,” Saloni said. “I hope they were able to explore their curiosities and become part of a community of young women just like them.”
