![“[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)
School meeting recap 9/29/21: Homecoming week, Student Directed Showcase and CareerConnect
The sophomore class sits on the gym floor while members of the junior class, senior class and faculty sit on the bleachers during school meeting yesterday. The freshmen were absent from the school meeting due to freshman student council speeches taking place at the same time.
September 30, 2021
Associated Student Body (ASB) President Dawson Chen (12) began the meeting. The freshman class was not present in order to listen to freshman class council election speeches held in the Patil Theater. Voting for the freshman class council election will be held in the journalism room tomorrow during long lunch.
A video from this year’s Student Directed Showcase (SDS) senior directors Richard Amarillas, Ysabel Chen, Saumi Mehta and Josh Field played, introducing this year’s shows. Auditions will take place during the week of Oct. 11, and audition materials will be available on Schoology next week. There will also be staged readings of the four plays tomorrow during long lunch and next Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Honor Council representatives Margaret Cartee (10) and Gwen Yang (11) revealed class standings after tallying up spirit points from Honor Week. The class of 2025 came in first, with the seniors, juniors and sophomores taking second, third and fourth place, respectively.
HSLT representatives, Community Events Secretary Kris Estrada (11), Competitive Events committee member Shreeya Merchia (10) and Competitive Events Secretary Paulina Gicqueau (11), presented a calendar of Homecoming week. On Monday, students can participate in various mind games such as sudoku, word searches and riddles. The eagle paintings will also be judged. Dodgeball and tug-of-war preliminary rounds occur on Tuesday, and groups of 2-5 individuals may participate in trivia on Wednesday. Four spirit events will be hosted on Thursday: lip sync, dodgeball, musical dots and relay races. A scavenger hunt will take place on Friday, where students can group into teams of 2-5 and win individual prizes. Spirit Night is tomorrow from 3:30 to 6 p.m., Harker Day is on Oct. 9 and the homecoming dance will take place the following Friday.
Elvis Han (12), BB Ajlouny (11) and Zain Vakath (11) delivered the Eagle Update.
An interest meeting for boys and girls soccer was held yesterday at 1 p.m. Students interested boys basketball may attend an interest meeting tomorrow at 1 p.m in the visiting team room.
Girls tennis fell to Canyon Crest in San Diego last weekend in the finals of the Point Loma Invitational but won 6-1 against Notre Dame on Tuesday. They played Castilleja today.
Girls water polo pulled off a narrow victory of 10-9 against Palo Alto High last Thursday and continued their streak by defeating Homestead 18-3 on Tuesday and winning over Cupertino last Saturday to improve to 8-6 overall. They played Mountain View today and will play Leigh on Friday.
Junior varsity boys water polo won 15-5 and varsity boys water polo won 13-2 against Homestead. Junior varsity boys water polo also won 11-9 against St. Francis last Friday to improve to 8-2 overall. The boys stand at 8-5 overall and 4-1 in the league as they won 14-13 against Palo Alto and went 2-1 at the Santa Teresa tournament over the weekend. They traveled to Mountain View today.
The cross country teams raced at Westmoor High School, where Eric Zhang (9) finished in the top 50 of 204 runners for the junior varsity boys with a time of 17 minutes and 49 seconds, Kara Kister (11) finished in the top 50 with a time of 19 minutes and Veyd Patil (10) finished with a time of 15 minutes and 33 seconds in the competitive varsity boys race. Harris Miller (9) was named Eagle of the Meet. Cross country will travel to Half Moon Bay High on Saturday to compete in the Artichoke Invitational.
In the first eight-man game ever hosted at Harker, football improved to 2-2 after winning against Crystal Springs 54-46 last Thursday. They will play another eight-man game at Priory tomorrow.
Girls volleyball lost to Notre Dame-Belmont and Menlo last week, and to Mercy High School on Tuesday. They hosted Notre Dame-San Jose today. Girls golf will face Mercy High School, Sacred Heart High School and Menlo this week.
Research Club officers Kavita Murthy (12) and Alice Feng (12) announced the club’s first event of the year, a workshop after school in Nichols Auditorium tomorrow to help students prepare for the Synopsys Science Fair. Research Club’s mentoring program and important research dates and deadlines will also be announced at the workshop.
DECA officers Cynthia Wang (10), Kaitlyn Wang (10) and Anika Muddu (11) introduced the California Business Pitch Challenge with registration opening on Oct. 11 and the Virtual Business Challenge with registration opening on Oct. 5. Students need not be in DECA to participate, and students can email questions to [email protected].
Harker Dance Club played a video of a dance routine performance, and club co-presidents Nupur Gutpa (11) and Kai Due (12) announced a choreography workshop taking place tomorrow from 12:45 p.m. to 1:25 p.m. in the dance room. Students who wish to be added to the mailing list should visit tiny.cc/danceclub.
Sara Wan (11) and Melody Luo (12) from CareerConnect introduced Constellation’s Connected Enterprise Conference, which will be held at the Half Moon Bay Ritz-Carlton on Oct. 27 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. There are only 10 spots available, so tickets will be given out on a first come, first serve basis.
Dawson closed the meeting and wished everyone a “whiz-bang” Wednesday.
