![“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)
Students attended a clothing swap event in collaboration with Los Gatos High School, giving formal attire a second life in the Zhang Gymnasium on Saturday. Participants used the SwapCircles app to organize the exchange of clothes, allowing students to browse and place themselves on the waitlist for items throughout the event.
ASB Treasurer and Campus Life Committee Oversight Nicole Dean: I guess we all have experienced firsthand that for every new school dance, everybody goes and buys a new dress. But we’ve noticed that that’s kind of wasteful because they only wear the dress once, and then people don’t want to wear it to the next event. They’re expensive and also bad for the environment because usually they come from fast fashion brands. So we figured the best way to prevent this is to do a formal attire swap. That way, people can get a new dress that’s also trendy, but without having to spend more money or contribute to landfill.
Founder of SwapCircles Rashmi Prabhu: I started SwapCircles mainly to reduce waste and pollution that comes from fast fashion, and just recirculating stuff within the community means that we are buying less, which means we’re producing less and just better for the environment. I actually have been in the tech industry for about 17 years in the Bay Area, and in 2023, I quit my job to start working towards the environment because I think there’s a lot of things that we can do here, a lot of impact that we can make. I wanted to work on something with social impact. So that’s when I started. But it took me about a year to figure out what it is that I wanted to do. And, I landed on this idea, and I wanted to try it out because the solutions that are there out there aren’t great for school communities and private communities. So I wanted to build something for them to make it more impactful and fun.
Attendee Abigail Sachse (11): I think the nice thing about this is “a” that I got to see ahead of time and plan, “Okay, what do I want to try on?” Which you can do in some stores, obviously by looking at, what they have on the website, but it’s not always the same. It’s also a lot less stressful because I knew what time it was going on, and I knew that there wouldn’t be a limited number of stalls and I’d have to wait a long time, which is kind of frustrating for stores when there’s a long wait time at malls. It was really well organized and there was a lot of options, so if this happened like before homecoming or prom in the future, I definitely would be attending.
Nicole: We started in October planning this. It definitely got modified a lot. My committee has been so amazing — administration has been so amazing. We’ve had countless meetings with Mr. Barsky, Ms. Mccoy and Mr. Williamson to just hash out all the details, because I think this is the first collaboration we’ve done with another school. Obviously, there’s a lot of, logistical questions that come with that. Mr. Barsky said, because this is our first time running this event, we should partner with one other school, and my friend Sophia, I’ve known her since probably like when I was six years old. We’re pretty close, and she goes to Los Gatos High School. So I just reached out to her and then just started going from there.
Prabhu: Coming in, I wasn’t sure what to expect because it’s the first high school I’m working with, but I really love the energy here. There are a lot of clothes that came in, which is great. A lot of spectacular dresses. It’s really nice to see so many people coming out here. And I know high schools are busy, but taking out 3 or 4 hours of your time on the weekend. I think that’s very encouraging. And it’s great feedback as well to keep going and try this out in more such communities and do more events with more high schools.
Nicole: I’m just so happy by the turnout today. I think we were a little bit worried the week going into it, and we had so much great crowd today. I think we had like over 50 dresses for sure being donated. So this is something that we hope to keep doing each year even after I graduate. Hopefully, every year this will become an annual event.
