![“I wasn't discouraged by some of the obstacles we faced. I learned a lot from the leadership. I found that different people need different ways of receiving feedback — you can't [just] tell them to do something and expect the best. [Some] people needed more incentive. A large part of my role was to figure out what worked for everyone and to figure out how to lead all these separate individuals as a team,” Suhana Bhandare (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SuhanaBhandare_JasmineHansra-1-1200x798.jpg)
![“This is actually from Randy Pausch Randy P. Brick: ‘Walls are there for a reason. You have to show how much you want to overcome them.’ You have to show how much you want something. That's what I've always been able to do with tennis, Link Crew and getting that internship [with Kushy Baby]. It’s important pushing through that — getting around that brick wall, climbing over it or clawing through it,” Yash Sachdeva (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/YashSachdeva_RamBatchu-copy-1200x1002.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)
Programming Club hosted a preparation meeting on Thursday for the national programming contest United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO). The meeting came ahead of this year’s first contest, held Jan. 9 to 12, following the announcement of a major rule overhaul.
“We anticipate that our contest structure will likely end up being more like the other major scientific Olympiads where accolades are independently earned on a yearly basis rather than the way things are currently set up, where a single promotion to platinum guarantees platinum standing forever,” contest administrators said on usaco.org.
The meeting addressed this season’s changes. USACO will hold three online contests instead of four, as the former fourth exam will be replaced by a proctored invitational championship for qualifying top scorers. Most students in platinum, the highest contest division, have been returned to the gold division to re-earn their platinum standings, except for International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) finalists.
“It definitely changes how things operate in the Olympiad,” Programming Club Co-Head Problem Writer Yash Belani (11) said. “People who got into platinum in one lucky contest would get weeded out […] but it hinders those who are in middle school or freshman year in gold with the goal of being in platinum this year. They have to now compete with platinum students in gold.”
Club officers split members into groups based on their current division and walked them through practice problems and contest strategy. Attendee Siri Gudladona (9) came to the meeting with prior experience in Python and in interest in learning more about USACO.
“I learned a lot about time constraints and how problems have a set memory limit [and] a time limit you have to follow,” Siri said. “That bends your thinking a little bit, so you have to find new ways to solve problems.”
USACO is the premier programming competition for U.S. grade school students, testing participants on their ability to problem-solve with algorithms. Competitors tackle programming questions that increase in difficulty over the four contest divisions: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
“A lot of our officers are pretty experienced with the contest, so we want to give some tips to improve our attendees’ programming skills,” Programming Club Co-President Brenna Ren (12) said. “USACO is a really fun way to test your programming capabilities because it’s different from what we do in school. It tests a lot more about logic, algorithms and data structures. They’re almost like logic puzzles.”
Cappucher • Jan 15, 2026 at 7:28 pm
Yash Belani is so cool that he would never get weeded out
Mokuroh • Jan 15, 2026 at 10:50 am
Let’s go Yash Belani!!!