![LALC Vice President of External Affairs Raeanne Li (11) explains the International Phonetic Alphabet to attendees. "We decided to have more fun topics this year instead of just talking about the same things every year so our older members can also [enjoy],” Raeanne said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/DSC_4627-1200x795.jpg)
![“[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)
Over 200 middle and high school students competed in the “CS and Economics” themed Harker Programming Invitational hosted by Harker Programming Club (HPC) in Nichols Hall on Saturday.
Forty-eight novice teams and 26 advanced teams competed in the two sections. Both contests ran for two hours, with the novice set including 10 problems and the advanced set including 12 more difficult problems.
“There was a time limit on everything, so we couldn’t solve them all,” advanced competitor Rachel Li (9) said. “But the problems are really well made. I had to use my brain, and they tested my coding knowledge.”
Participants then heard from Santa Clara University professor Dr. Sanjiv Das, entrepreneur and Story with AI founder Dr. Fangfang Tan, Scale AI software engineer Tiffany Zhao (‘19) and PayPal Director of Machine Learning Vincent Hao. The panelists discussed their work, described the state of the economics industry and answered audience questions.
“You can treat your career path as a venn diagram with a sweet spot of three things: what you are passionate about, what you’re good at and what the market likes,” Dr. Tan said. “The changing technological landscape also requires a continuous learning mindset, so I would encourage you to be curious about broader topics and master the tools that facilitate you to become even more productive.”
Prior to the event, HPC problem writers wrote and reviewed all contest questions while event coordinators managed logistics. HPC vice president Veer Sahasi (12) commented on the teamwork among the club officers in the months leading up to the invitational.
“My favorite part of the event was just seeing how all the effort of our entire officer team culminated into one of the biggest events that we’ve had in 10 years with over 200 participants,” Veer said. “Seeing the students really motivated to solve the problems was a great reflection of the effort that we put into the event, and I’m really glad that it all worked out.”
