![“[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)
PALO ALTO, Calif. – Harker Journalism Editors-in-Chief Victor Gong (12), Katerina Matta (12), Chayce Milheim (12), Emma Milner (12) and Alison Yang (12) hosted a leadership roundtable during the JEANC Norcal Media Day at Palo Alto High School on Saturday. They addressed topics of successes and challenges within Harker’s own student publications and then opened the floor for attendees to share their own experiences.
Attendees asked the Editor-in-Chiefs various questions about maintaining effective leadership and drawing student interest. Palo Alto High School Broadcast Editor-in-Chief Vincent Wong appreciated the advice and ideas shared during the discussion.
“I wanted to hear what the other publications are going through and share ideas with what they’re doing,” Vincent said. “Harker’s tip about posting every day on social media to garner a lot of public media attention was really cool. It’s definitely something we would look forward to doing in the future.”
The leadership team opened with an icebreaker and introduced themselves. They touched upon personal goals and setbacks in their respective publications, while also offering ways to motivate and empower publication staff. Other journalists and student leaders in the room were given the opportunity to voice their own perspectives. Victor spoke of new methods that the Winged Post strategic team plans on implementing.
“We have a pretty fine process of how we go about it,” Victor said. “We start sketching our new pages to lay them out, and then we also have production nights where we talk with our editors on design and editing the pages, and finally set the press around. This year, we’re going to refine a lot of these not only just in our newspaper, but across our other publications.”
Emma spoke about aiding staff members in meeting deadlines and encouraged frequent and meaningful communication between editors and writers.
“When things go astray, it’s really important to talk to the people involved and have that be an in-person communication,” Emma said. “There’s always going to be things that you don’t know that are happening in the background. This can be cleared up with in-front communication about why something is late or why it’s delayed.”
Editor-in-Chief Charlotte Lacy from Redwood Bark of the Redwood High School appreciated learning about the structures and processes behind Harker’s four publications, taking away insights for her school.
“My biggest takeaway is how there are so many different ways in which publications work, and how they all work great in different ways,” Charlotte said. “I really like how your publication has an Editor-in-Chief of the website, Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper and of the yearbook, and I think that’s really cool. It just spreads the love.”
