![“I wasn't discouraged by some of the obstacles we faced. I learned a lot from the leadership. I found that different people need different ways of receiving feedback — you can't [just] tell them to do something and expect the best. [Some] people needed more incentive. A large part of my role was to figure out what worked for everyone and to figure out how to lead all these separate individuals as a team,” Suhana Bhandare (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SuhanaBhandare_JasmineHansra-1-1200x798.jpg)
![“This is actually from Randy Pausch Randy P. Brick: ‘Walls are there for a reason. You have to show how much you want to overcome them.’ You have to show how much you want something. That's what I've always been able to do with tennis, Link Crew and getting that internship [with Kushy Baby]. It’s important pushing through that — getting around that brick wall, climbing over it or clawing through it,” Yash Sachdeva (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/YashSachdeva_RamBatchu-copy-1200x1002.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)
Girls Programming League inspires female students to compete in annual programming competition
Panelists Dr. Pei Cao, Jenny Lin, Lynn Root and Pavitra Rengarajan (’12) speak at the Girls Programming League Challenge on Saturday. The event invited female and nonbinary identifying students to participate and followed a theme of computer science and entertainment.
September 23, 2021
Garnering 76 teams across 45 schools and a total of 120 participants, the Girls Programming League (GPL) and the Harker Programming Club (HPC) co-hosted the fourth annual GPL challenge through Zoom on Saturday to promote interest in computer science among female and nonbinary students.
The event, following the theme of computer science and entertainment, consisted of a programming competition between teams of up to three middle or high school students and speaker sessions. Students could choose to participate in both activities or to only attend the latter.
“[The GPL challenge] is a programming competition geared towards girls in middle school and high school,” HPC co-president, Alexa Lowe (12), said. “It not only encourages them to try out competitive programming but also to hear about professionals who have chosen a career in computer science.”
The challenge began at 8:00 a.m. with a two-hour long competition. Students of all programming skill levels could attend, and the competition was split into two divisions: novice and advanced. Each team of students had 90 minutes to solve a set of ten programming problems, with novice and advanced teams working on different problem sets.
After the morning competition concluded, Shobana Radhakrishnan, Director of Engineering at Google’s Android TV, delivered a keynote speech. In her address, Radhakrishnan discussed her journey in computer science, challenges she faced along her career path and the skills she gained through these experiences.
“I liked how the keynote speaker was really honest about her journey in CS,” novice division participant Juliana Li (9) said. “She said that she made a lot of mistakes, but it was all part of the learning process.”
In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to engage in an interactive panel session with Dr. Pei Cao, Lynn Root, Jenny Lin and Pavitra Rengarajan (‘12), leaders at Youtube Search, Spotify, Netflix and Instagram respectively. During the session, panelists spoke on technical topics, such as ranking and recommendation systems, and their personal experiences as women in the computer science industry.
“This year, if [participants] listened to the panels and the keynote session, they were able to get a good idea of why the panelists chose their professions,” Alexa said. “I think that’s good information to help you figure out what you’d like to do in the future.”
The event concluded with an awards ceremony to recognize the winners of each division, who received monetary gift cards.
Officers of GPL and HPC invested time and effort into organizing the event behind the scenes, beginning in the summer and continuing into the days before the challenge. While the front end team focused on publicizing the event and organizing registration, the back end team wrote contest questions and tested the grading system.
Even with the preparation, unexpected factors out of the officers’ controlled to a server crash with the contest’s grading system, but the officers were quick to brainstorm solutions to the problem and adapt to the circumstances.
“It was amazing how fast the officers were brainstorming how to deal with [the server crash],” said Susan King, upper school computer science teacher and HPC adviser. “We have remarkable people who have given a lot of energy to this effort for mostly people they don’t know.”
