![“[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)
Fall Spirit Week concluded with the annual advisory parade and rally in the Zhang gymnasium, where the juniors claimed first place today.
Harker Spirit Leadership Team announced the Fall Spirit Week standings: Juniors won first place with 1075 points, sophomores earned second with 1025 points, seniors placed third with 800 points and frosh placed last with 353 points.
“A lot of different people worked very hard to achieve one goal,” junior Ameera Ramzan said. “For Lip Sync, it was almost every single morning office hours, practicing wherever we could make our dance moves, acting and blocking perfectly. Our eagle painters were there till the late hours of spirit night finishing up our eagle. We saw our relay captains and representatives giving it their all.”
Elected advisory representatives marched from the Quad to the Athletic Center before the rally, sporting their class colors and accessories from pom-poms to inflatable costumes. Students cheered for their classmates before joining the parade and following the representatives.
The parade was moved to Thursday after forecasts predicted rainy weather on Tuesday, its original scheduled day.
Students from all grades showcased their lip sync routines during the rally, which each class choreographed based on their themes; underwater, outer space, zombies and magic. Frosh centered their choreography around Finding Nemo, featuring aerials and tilts in their routine. Sophomores leveraged props like a giant rocketship and flame costumes.
“Everyone was cheering and the vibe was so great,” frosh Faye Gu said. “Even though we didn’t do amazing in the final standoff, the experience was so fun, especially being a choreographer. It was fun to bond with our class and have these new experiences that we didn’t do in middle school.”
Setting their lip sync at a “zombie” homecoming dance, juniors dressed in white button-ups and danced to songs like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The seniors’ magic-themed lip sync featured math teacher Victor Adler as Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter and economics teacher Dean Lizardo as Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony.
“I helped choreograph the My Little Pony part of our routine,” Senior Albert Yao said. “That was the cutest part of the dance, and it was great getting all the guys involved with little party hats and Mr. Lizardo with the Twilight Sparkle costume.”
The ranking for the lip sync included the juniors in first place, the sophomores in second, the seniors in third and frosh in last place.
Receptionist Ted Ujifusa, one of the five faculty judges for the lip sync routines, reflected on his impressions of the class’ performances.
“It’s difficult because everybody’s so involved and they’re very enthusiastic,” Ujifusa said. “But there are certain dance elements, and you can tell the older the class, the more coordinated they were. The freshmen, this is kind of all new to them, so some of this stuff is not quite as polished, and you can tell the older they got, the better they were.”
Two elected student representatives from each class also competed in three relay games: identifying teachers from close-ups of their facial features, pulling ketchup bottles with toilet paper and collecting balls corresponding to their class color in Picky Picky Hippos. The juniors came first in the relay, with the sophomores, seniors and frosh following.
“The class all seemed in unison with their chanting, and I like how the teacher face game was crowd active,” relay participant and SAB member Brady Tse (12) said. “So I didn’t really feel pressure on my shoulders, like expectations to do well or not. I know that I’m just gonna go out there and try my best, and that’s all that my class wants.”
In the scream-off competition, the seniors won with 124.4 decibels, followed closely by the juniors with 124.2 decibels, the sophomores with 120.8 decibels and the frosh with 118.6 decibels.
This year, HSLT introduced a new Taskmaster-style game for class deans. In a pre-recorded video, deans attempted to guess corporate receptionist Ted Ujifusa’s secret word with yes-or-no questions. Sophomore dean Carol Green correctly guessed the word “sorry” first, earning donut holes for her class.
“Even though the whole rally went by without me even having time to process it, it was just really hyped in general,” HDC captain and HSLT director of media Hannah Jiang (11) said. “There were a lot of ups and downs and emotions, but it ended well. It was like a fever dream for me. The most exciting part was seeing our class be so happy about it and proud of their own hard work.”