![“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)
Juniors, sophomores and frosh voted for their student council (StuCo), Student Activities Board (SAB), Student Diversity Coalition (SDC) and Honor Council representatives for the 2026-27 school year on Tuesday.
With a 88.11% voter turnout, juniors voted Samaara Patil, Ameera Ramzan, Andrew Shin and Chelsea Xie for their StuCo and juniors Ava Alvarez, Ryan Pham and Megha Unny for SAB. Juniors Léa Kandl-Zhang and Dhanya Ramanan will continue serving as officers for SDC and juniors Christine Deng, Cam Krause and Anirudh Subramanian will remain representatives for Honor Council.
Ameera plans to make community vlogs featuring their class and film entertaining trends in the upcoming school year. They also expressed their excitement at working with the newly elected council.
“They’re all really committed people,” Ameera said. “They’re also really enthusiastic about making senior year great. I love working with them. We have a good dynamic, so I’m glad we can continue with that next year.”
Sophomores had the highest voter turnout of 95.52%, electing sophomores Phoebe Chen, Michael Chinkov, Ameya Choudhary and Dyuthi Vallamsetty as StuCo members, and sophomores Julia Lu, Christian Mehta and Eva Petrova as SAB representatives. Sophomores Ishaan Dhillon-Patel and Shreyas Karnam were chosen for SDC, and sophomores Medha Choudry, Jacob Chung and Jonny Tang were selected for Honor Council.
Having served on SAB this year, Eva hopes to improve on what she has already accomplished and increase transparency by publishing meeting notes and ensuring fairness in spirit games. She commented on her experience campaigning and presenting her ideas to her peers.
“I did all of the regular campaigning, like putting up posters, posting videos on Instagram, but one of my most important ways of campaigning is coming up and talking to people,” Eva said. “I tried to walk around during lunch and talk to people about my goals on SAB. For my videos and my posters, my goal wasn’t to just get my name out there. It was also to help people understand what I want to achieve, what I have achieved so far.”
94.26% of the frosh class voted in the election. They elected frosh Ushnish Chatterjee, Srikrishna Kataru, Arush Savla and Shivaani Kumara Venkatesh for StuCo and Arun Banerjee, Emy Keyhan and Toma Georgiev for SAB. Their SDC officers will be frosh Maggie Hu and Bartu Milci, and their Honor Council members will be frosh Ethan Yu and Mahika Vinnakota.
Shivaani commented on her initiative plans for the upcoming year, drawing inspiration from issues her peers have pointed out.
“A large grievance that people in my grade have is class meeting,” Shivaani said. “No one really enjoys it, so I was thinking of making it more fun and engaging, like playing more interesting games and hosting more social events that would help our grade bond. I’m looking forward to working with the other members of the student council and SAB both in my grade and in the other grades.”
The candidates campaigned for weeks leading up to the election, with StuCo and SAB from each grade participating in their respective town hall meetings on April 24. SDC candidates displayed prepared videos about their experiences with diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging during class meetings, while Honor Council candidates presented brief speeches about a time when they acted honorably.
Students voted through an online voting form on OpaVote, which was sent out during advisory on Tuesday and closed at the end of the school day at 3:30 pm.
