![“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)
Eagle updates hosts Charlotte Ludlow (12) and Pedro Castro III (11) kicked off the school meeting by awarding Athlete of the Week to varsity boys baseball player Ryan Pham (11) and varsity girls softball player Joy Hu (12). Ryan currently has a 0.700 batting average, two doubles and five runs batted in. Joy holds a batting average of 0.714, one triple and two stolen bases.
Conservatory representatives Mindy Truong (12), Jessica Chen (11), Lea Kandl-Zang (11), Anya Lu (10) and Aarya Vaidya (10) beatboxed and performed a rap encouraging students to join tech crew and announced that the Spring Musical is in need of one deck crew member and one follow spot operator. They reminded all Conservatory members to attend Senior Showcase on May 16.
They also congratulated Harker Dance Company and Kinetic Crew for winning six first place trophies, one second place trophy and two third place trophies collectively at Lincoln High School’s Celebration of the Stars and Cupertino High School’s Festival of Champions dance competitions. They recognized dance certificate student Selina Wang (12) as Performing Arts Student of the Month for her work as a first-time student choreographer in this year’s dance production “Once Upon a Time”.
Senior Honor Council members Linda Zeng, Suhana Bhandare and Yash Greene disclosed that Honor Council will now assume responsibility over ASB election organization, including designing the format of the process, organizing candidate statements and moderating panels. The dean’s office will continue managing ballot processes like voting forms and tallying results.
Seniors Aman Chandra, Celina Xu, Ethan Lei, Ishan Mysore invited students to participate in the United States Association for Young Physicists Tournament (USAYPT). USAYPT involves conducting research on four open-ended physics problems to participate in an annual international debate-style competition.
Junior Classical League (JCL) member Demi Zeng (11) presented JCL’s upcoming series of collaborations with clubs like Law Club and Data Science Club, which aims to highlight interdisciplinary opportunities between classics and other fields of study. Future meetings include a presentation about Roman oration and debate in partnership with Law Club’s Mock Trial Team.
Math Club President Jonathan Li (11) and Cooking Club President Christy Ma (12) revealed they will be working together to host a Pi Day celebration outside Manzanita on Thursday. The event will include various activities such as a pie eating contest, estimation contest and Buffon’s needle problem demonstration. Winners of the four contests will get to pie math teachers Anthony Silk, Anu Aiyer, Victor Adler and an additional teacher soon to be revealed.
Harker Dev President Demi and ASB President Luke Wu (12) announced the official launch of Harker’s ASB website and reviewed the process of drafting suggestions on the website.
ASB Community Service Committee Member Chelsea Xie (11) joined Luke to thank students for their outstanding participation in the Literary Fundraiser and the event organizers for their hard work. In total, Harker raised $2,476, the most money raised across fundraisers in the past four years. They reminded students to look out for their upcoming Martha’s Kitchen Food Fight fundraiser.
FEM Club officers Sophia Shah (12), Jillian Chen (11) and Janvi Trivedi (10) discussed gender disparities in sports to address this year’s Women’s History Month theme “Leading a Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” They hosted a game called “Guess the Athlete”, which compared audience knowledge about female and male athletes like Paige Bueckers and Lional Messi. They emphasized that despite increasing participation in areas like high school sports and the Olympics, women still face inequalities in pay, funding and coaching positions.
They also announced that FEM Club will be hosting a discussion about fairness and inclusion policy in sports, a girl’s flag football tournament with Women in Sports, a workshop in collaboration with Women in STEM about ways athletes can practice sustainability and a women’s March Madness bracket during Women’s History Month.
Luke concluded the meeting with QR codes and giving hot food priority to the sophomores.
