![“[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)
Class of 2025 elects their representatives for the school year
Freshmen Rajas Apte, Eva Li and Lindsey Tuckey cast their vote during student council elections on Friday. Freshman candidates campaigned to be representatives for their class through video speeches during the school meeting slot on Wednesday and delivered short written prompt responses.
October 3, 2021
Freshmen voted on Friday to elect Rushil Jaiswal, Sam Parupudi, Jason Shim and Eric Zhang for this year’s freshman student council and Daniel Chen, Jia Jia Jiang and Gabe Li for the freshman student activities board (SAB).
Freshman candidates campaigned to be representatives for their class through video speeches during the school meeting slot on Wednesday and delivered short written prompt responses. After watching the video speeches for 15 freshman council candidates and seven student activities board candidates, elections took place in the journalism room during lunch on Friday.
Harrison Chen (9), who is new to Harker, mentions that since he does not know the class too well, he hopes that through student council efforts, the class is more comfortable with each other and demonstrates a stronger sense of togetherness by the end of the year.
“To be on the student council, you would have to be somewhat assertive and confident in your own ideas and confident in yourself, or else you’ll never get out there and be able to accomplish anything, so I’m looking for that,” Harrison said.
For returning freshmen familiar with their former middle school classmates, the voting process involved less research into each candidate’s background.
“I’m glad that I already knew the people who were running,” said Genieve Malinen (9), who helped her friend put up campaigning posters around the school. “I’m glad that I was able to participate.”
This year, voting was conducted in-person in contrast to the previous year’s online voting process. Students voted through a ranking process on computers, which was administered through the polling booths.
“It was fun to do elections remotely because it was very convenient, everyone was able to vote from their laptops,” upper school theater teacher and freshman class dean Jeffrey Draper said. “But I think that having a polling station and having students take the election very seriously adds something to the process.”
The freshman elections used the voting system developed two years ago. Instead of a hierarchical approach with different positions, each grade has four student council representatives and three SAB representatives. One of the candidates, Andrew Liang (9), discusses his thoughts on the system, saying it is a more fair representation for their class by limiting the emphasis on popularity.
“I think with this, we’re going to get four people representing four diverse groups of the school, so I think that this can actually gauge everyone’s opinion,” Andrew said.
Representative Sam Parupudi (9) mentions that they want to bring in new ideas and address as many student concerns as possible.
“My main goals are to get the people to speak more,” Sam said. “Our class in particular isn’t very spirited, and I want to change that, because high school has a lot of opportunities in which it is better than middle school in terms of fun and spirit.”
