![“[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)
Students reflect on honesty, respect, accountability in annual Honor Week
Eileen Ma (12) writes on Honor Council representative Gwen Yang’s (12) box on Sept. 27. The council organized activities and goals for each day last week to remind students of the four tenets of the upper school.
October 6, 2022
Honor week started last Tuesday, with members of the upper school Honor Council hosting a variety of events throughout the week that encapsulate the community’s core values: honesty, respect and accountability.
Activities included viewing ideas about honor on a bulletin board in Manzanita Hall and lunch-time interactions where students could write down answers to a variety of prompts. For Tuesday’s tenet of honesty, students answered questions like “How do you help someone be honest?” and “What’s the hardest truth you faced in the last year?” Through this activity, the Honor Council sparked discussion about honesty’s role at school.
On Wednesday, upper school English teacher Jennifer Siraganian, previously named Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, recited a poem that she wrote about honor during the school meeting.
“Honor’s echo resonates faintly in the chest, in the chest, as if to call out: Hear me out,” Siraganian said during the school meeting. “Hear me out. You don’t believe me? Look at your hands. Instead of fingers, instead of nails, you have honor honed into the sharpness of an Eagle’s talon.”
For respect and accountability, the respective tenets for Thursday and Friday, Honor Council had members of the community interact with each other and the campus. On Thursday, students found similarities with people from other grades. They could then submit selfies of themselves to a Google form for the chance of winning a gift card. On Friday, advisories signed their Honor Code placards and discussed the significance of the Honor Code. Students also walked through the campus, appreciating the environment and observing how they can be more accountable for our surroundings.
“Honor goes beyond just not cheating on a test,” Honor Council representative Naiya Daswani (10) said. “It really refers back to our three tenets that we have here at Harker, and being able to recognize when you are crossing a boundary and how to pull yourself back into an environment where you are respecting those tenets is really the essence of honor.”
Honor Week aims to teach students and faculty about what it means to be honorable, as well as break down the subject so others can digest it in their own way. Honor allows for a community where students not only respect their peers and other teachers, but also themselves and the environment.
“I hope that students understand that their success, that honor is part of our mission,” faculty chair of Honor Council and upper school math teacher Anthony Silk said. “So when we tell the students and we tell the world that we are trying to educate students to take their part in society, that we’re going to do so under this auspice, under this umbrella of honor, so that when we go out into the world, we are all doing the best that we can do.”
