![“[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)
Dean of Students Kevin Williamson opened school meeting on Tuesday by reminding students to not eat inside academic buildings. He urged students to not leave trays and silverware around academic buildings to support the staff and to keep the campus tidy.
Art Club officer Sophia Liu (12) shared details about Harker Artist-in-Residence Connie Zheng’s “Make a Seed” workshop, where students will create mud sculptures on Nov. 20 in the quad. This event is part of a series of special workshops this year dedicated to welcoming Zheng and incorporating her ideas.
Senior members of the Honor Council Marcus Blenneman, Naiya Daswani and Jonny Xue introduced a new Academic Integrity Form for reporting instances of academic dishonesty. This initiative allows students to address integrity concerns confidentially, with reports going only to Head of Upper School Paul Barsky, Williamson and Assistant to Dean of Students Kelley Mccoy.
ASB Campus Life committee members Rushil Jaiswal (12), Ananya Pradhan (11), Nikhil Sharma (11), Samaara Patil (10) and Dyuthi Vallamsetty (9) announced a new initiative to provide more food after class meetings. The committee also communicated with the kitchen staff to supply more vegetarian, high-protein lunch options, as well as poké and sushi bowls twice a month.
The ASB outreach committee, consisting of Alicia Ran (12), Jason Shim (12), Kallie Wang (11), Sophia Zhu (10) and Avi Gupta (9), announced the winners of recent newsletter games. They also encouraged participation in seasonal donation drives, including a gift card drive for mental health support, donations for local firefighters and a sock drive aiming to collect 1,000 pairs of new socks for West Valley community services. ASB will offer a hot cocoa bar to all students if the sock drive goal is met.
Kallie Wang (11), Neel Kumar (10) and Pascal Qin (10) promoted the Harker Physics Invitational, a virtual physics competition held on Zoom for students of all grades on Nov. 16. To prepare before the event, students can attend meetings held with former U.S. Physics Team members. Winners will receive cash awards of up to $1,000.
Anoushka Chakravarty (11), Leah Krupnik (10) and Lily Peng (10) from the Book Blog introduced “Bookopoly,” a reading competition starting next week and running through spring break. Students can participate individually or in teams of up to five to earn raffle entries and win monthly book-related prizes by logging the books that they read.
Conservatory representatives Shruti Srinivasan (12), Arthur Wu (12), Yinan Zhou (12) and Jessica Skylar Chen (10) celebrated the recent California Coastal Honor Choir showcase, where 14 Harker students performed. Capriccio then sang snippets of two songs that they performed at the Fall Choral Concert on Nov. 14, conducted by vocal music teacher Susan Nace.
Assistant Head of School Jennifer Gargano delivered remarks about Harker’s core values, including integrity, respect and personal accountability. She described the three awards: the Love of Learning award, Mission of the School award and the Leadership award, adding that the school will invite students who receive more than two awards to a special banquet at the end of the year.
ASB President Sam Parapudi (12) revealed that there will be a sandwich-making station in Manzanita Hall every day after school from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m except for Monday. Sam then concluded the meeting by announcing that hot food would be available for frosh in Manzanita.
