Day one of high school. A new frosh steps foot on campus. A figurative map of infinite possibilities unfolds in front of her, shouting for attention, pressuring her to try new things. What to choose? She pauses. She’s wide-eyed, awestruck, but her jaw is set. There’s a drive to prove herself. A sense of purpose — she’s looking for growth. With that in mind, senior Sanaa Bhorkar steps into the Innovation Center, Harker’s bustling hub of business and entrepreneurship. 

Three years later, Sanaa now heads Harker DECA, the largest student-run organization in the school and a chapter of the nation’s flagship entrepreneurial program for high schoolers.

For frosh, the general consensus is to join many clubs to awaken interests and experience new opportunities. For Sanaa, her perspective was to engage only in interests she was drawn to rather than throwing herself into a wide range of extracurriculars.

“I try to be very careful with how I spend my time,” Sanaa said. “I make sure I have enough fun, sometimes a little too much — and that can affect me. It’s important to make sure I spend time on the things that I value, which is why the main three things I ended up doing throughout high school are dance, CS and DECA. I haven’t really explored out of that, because those three things make me happy, and that’s a great way for me to use my time.”

Immediately, Sanaa enthusiastically jumped into business, a journey that has taken her to the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) multiple times. Her eagerness earned her leadership roles in DECA and the Harker business convention BEcon, landing as CEO of DECA this year. 

“Business and entrepreneurship — especially with DECA — is not very academic and more like building up practical life skills,” Sanaa said. “In the past, I’ve started a business and then wrote about that for DECA. I didn’t need to sit through a course to learn all the key terms, but I was able to learn while writing the paper or when actually working on the product. The entrepreneurship and leadership aspect builds a lot of soft skills and allows me to lead a group of my peers.”

Over time, Sanaa noticed that as she started focusing more on the organizational and management aspects of DECA, she spent less time on her personal projects and competitive submissions. As a result, she did not qualify for ICDC for her first time during  junior year. While she was initially disappointed about her competitive loss, Sanaa realized that becoming a leader meant sacrificing her own goals to help the overall Harker DECA community thrive.

“I try to really connect with the freshmen and make sure they know that if they’re nervous with their competitive events, it’s completely okay,” Sanaa said. “I once was like that as well, so I make sure they know what to do and where to go from there. I was able to start leading a student-led organization — all of the events that we do and all the workshops that we host are completely run by us. DECA has become my second community and second family, especially when we’re doing all the travel for conferences or working late nights on getting the final logistics for an event prepped.”

As Sanaa climbed the ranks of business leadership, her experience now as CEO of DECA and Executive Director of BEcon has given her new insights towards leading a team and instilling her experience onto others. 

“Recently I’ve been thinking about my own leadership style,” Sanaa said. “When it’s crunch time, I definitely get very focused,  more authoritative. We need to stay focused and on top of it and make sure that energy stays high throughout the entire event. That’s one thing that I’ve been trying to show as a good role model to them. We just have to make sure that we get everything done and reduce the amount of inconsistencies because that requires more stress for us to deal with.”

Close friend and fellow member of DECA leadership senior Maya Affaki describes Sanaa as a hardworking, driven person who can balance between efficiency and lighthearted humor. She recalls both the professional and lighthearted moments in DECA and their friendship and appreciates Sanaa’s appropriate shift from one attitude to another based on the situation

“She taught me how to have a really good balance between the professional, the staying focused, the grind mentality, and then also the lighter side of high school,” Maya said. “But when I first met her, she was on the shyer side and wouldn’t really reach out for help when she needed it. She had her own bubble, and she trusted the people in there. Now, she’s super outgoing, and she’s become a lot more confident in herself.”

Director of Business and Entrepreneurial Programs Juston Glass affirms Sanaa’s reliability and work ethic in DECA. Ever since he taught her Business class in freshman year, Glass recognized Sanaa’s sense of responsibility, and as Sanaa has gained experience throughout the years, her competence has allowed herself and her team to strengthen. 

 “If anything, she’s gotten even more refined,” Glass said. “She’s been able to translate these personal goals — these personal passions — to helping people and making her own work and her team’s work better and to a leadership role. Now, while she may not have a direct impact on an individual project or an individual competition, her influence is as a leader to create a system and a team.”

As a leader with an entrepreneurial mindset at heart, Sanaa noticed the small tap community at Harker and envisioned a chance for growth. Sanaa founded Tap Club in junior year to lead a new group of enthusiastic tappers and spread the love for the lesser-known dance.

“The main thing that I realized about tap was how objective it was and how much it was about getting the right sounds at the right time and sticking with the beat,” Sanaa said. “While some of the other styles, like jazz or ballet or lyrical, required more expression in your face, or more exact placement of your arms, tap is the one place where I found a way to express myself in the best way I could.”

Tap Club advisor Jill Yager echoed Glass’ sentiments, emphasizing Sanaa’s competence in managing the club to the degree where on Yager’s end, the whole club process ran smoothly.

“She’s created this wonderful space where it’s a learning environment, but it’s super supportive,” Yager said. “There’s no judgment. People come in here because they want to tap and to collaborate and to learn. Getting to be on this side of it and watching this wonderful environment that she’s created has been a privilege.”

Sanaa hopes to become an inspiration for underclassmen, whether guiding them through competitive events in DECA or introducing new steps such as the Shim Sham in Tap Club.  Through her leadership, Sanaa has learned to elevate her work further in positions of power, fostering connections with her peers. As she mentors excited freshmen and members in the groups she leads, her life has gone full circle.  

“When I was a VP, I had this urge to think, ‘I was a director last year. I know exactly what to do. I’m gonna do it myself, and then the directors can watch and take it on for the next year,’” Sanaa said. “But then I had to realize that, it’s important to delegate and let them go through the hardship that it took me the year before, and even if they don’t understand it, it’s also important for them to go through that experience so that they can get to the point where I’m now.”