Carefully etching into a linoleum block with a sharp metal tool, Gloria Zhu (12) works deftly to make a sketch come to life in a matter of minutes using her latest artistic medium of choice — printmaking. From glassmaking to pen and ink, Gloria’s artistic expertise takes form across various materials.

“What I’ve tried to push myself most in is trying on different artistic mediums or different crafts,” Gloria said. “When I work with my hands and do crafts, I feel like a kid again, which is the goal. I love that freeing feeling of not caring about the end result, and just focusing on the tangible feeling of folding paper or cutting cardboard or something like that.”

No matter the medium, Gloria’s dedication to her artistic craft makes itself known. She extends this dedication to the countless hours she pours into student organizations on campus, from leading Harker Robotics as Operational President, spearheading school-wide initiatives as an Art Club officer to leading HarkerDev as a co-administrator.

Longtime friend and fellow Art Club officer Michelle Liu (12) has worked closely with Gloria to ramp up Art Club’s activities this year.

“Gloria is very unlike a lot of people in that if she says that she’s going to do something, she will do it,” Michelle said. “She’s really trustworthy in that aspect, because even if it requires staying out until really late, she’ll do whatever work is assigned.”

Whether it’s creating art, working on building a robot or coding for a HarkerDev project, Gloria greatly enjoys doing hands-on work in pursuit of a final product. She recounts how, while making a human torso sculpture made of plastic and metal, she went into the robotics lab to cut out the plastic pieces with a laser cutter and cut out the metal pieces with a bandsaw.

“A lot of the times, the lines between the three [fields] can get blurred … I find myself using engineering or CS stuff in my art,” Gloria said. “All of it relates to being creative. I really enjoy letting my interest[s] inform each other.”

Upper school computer science department chair and Robotics lead mentor Dr. Eric Nelson notes the creativity that Gloria has brought to the robotics program. Since her freshman year, Gloria has been contributing to the graphics and promotional side of robotics using her artistic flair in addition to working on the engineering of the robots. Now as operations president, she leads a team in charge of everything from building graphics for robotics and making robotics merchandise designs to organizing promotional videos for the program.

“She seems to have an excellent rapport with the other creative elements in her team,” Dr. Nelson said. “The fact that she’s also got that same creative edge means that she can speak the same language, and so they’re willing to listen to her because she knows what she’s talking about.”

Gloria’s creative thought process is influenced by her eagerness to explore different fields, such as through encountering intersection of art and storytelling when taking Graphic Narrative during first semester senior year.

“[The class] showed me a new way that art can be used to tell stories that I had never thought about before,” Gloria said. “People have this opinion that comics are a juvenile medium meant for kids, but some of the literature we read in that class, like ‘Maus,’ showed me that, like games, it’s a really great way to tell stories.”

As a frequent player of independent video games, she values the combination of art and storytelling displayed in her favorite games. She aspires to make her own indie game and be in charge of all aspects of its creation, including coding, art, narrative-building and music composition, for it to be the “creative culmination” of all the skills she’s gained.

“I don’t really have grand aspirations to change the world,” Gloria said. “I just want to make something that will impact other people and make them reflect and think about their lives the way that media has made me reflect thinking about my life, whether it’s a painting or it’s a game.”

When not working on her latest art piece or coding for a schoolwide platform, Gloria can often be found in Nichols after school hours, leading a team in preparing for robotics competitions. Friend and fellow Robotics student leader Angela Jia (12) bonded with Gloria over volunteering for Harker VEX, an outreach program that upper school robotics runs at the middle school, together. Angela notes Gloria’s growth as a leader on robotics.

“She will say what needs to be said a lot of the time, so I can see her shouting like, ‘Guys, we need to do this,’” Angela said. “I’m really proud of her for being so much more outspoken and vocal about what she deems is right for the club.”

Having been in the robotics program for four years, Gloria has come full circle and stepped into a mentorship role, a role that she greatly cherishes.

“I received a lot of my mentorship from older students through robotics, and it’s really empowering to be in this position of seniority and be able to give advice to the freshmen now, like tell them what courses to take, or what courses to not take, advice for things that I wish I had done,” Gloria said.

During competition seasons, Gloria recounts spending nearly every single day with the 30 to 40 other members on the team, including full days on Saturday working on the robot at school. She applies this same love for collaboration to her other interests as well, from sharing ideas in art critiques in her Honors Directed Portfolio class or working with other Art Club officers to bring to light their newest initiative.

As she puts the finishing touches on her sketch, a scribble of etched lines come to life on the linoleum block. At first glance, the sketch seems to resemble separate intended artworks. A closer look reveals the intricacies of the artwork, which flows from one idea to the next, one subject to another, deepening the ridges of new intersections.