The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“You only live once, right? My family has always taught me to do as much as you can for the community, because what you're gonna leave behind is your community. Helping them in the best way you can will also be in your best interest. I don't really have an external motivator, but it just makes me happy," senior Sriteja Kataru said.
Humans of Harker: Building more than a brand
Humans of Harker: Kicking off conversations
Humans of Harker: Kicking off conversations
Humans of Harker: Leading with every lesson
Humans of Harker: Leading with every lesson
“For me, discipline can only happen when I try the things that I really like. Since I like basketball and I like guitar, I'm willing to contribute to the discipline. It's not really discipline at that point — it's passion," senior Advay Monga said.
Humans of Harker: Dribble and drive
“Working on Roobi has taught me how to bounce back from failures, and that problems need to be addressed one bit at a time because you can't just tackle huge goals. I learned to not be afraid of failure because every failure is a step towards success. I try not to look back and wish I could change something because I can't. It's the past. Instead, I look forward," senior Daniel Dorfman said.
Humans of Harker: Steeped for success
Humans of Harker: Cooking with creativity
Humans of Harker: Cooking with creativity
“There's a lot of value in every moment and everyone around you. I appreciate people who just appreciate the little things. For me, I feel like everyone you meet can teach you a little bit, and that's something that I've really internalized over the years. I think that's part of why I like being around people and different communities so much. Because in each of these communities, you can learn so many different things from everyone," Olivia Xu ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Purpose towards progress
“I get to choose how much effort and detail I put in, and that’s what you’re going to see in the end. I love that you can see the truth on paper. A lot of my work is in black and white, so I can’t rely on color to cover it up or make it more interesting — I can only rely on my skill and willingness to go into the studio and add to my piece," Katelyn Zhao ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Envisioning the everyday
"I used to think that I have to keep doing dance just because it's what I’m known for. But now I’ve realized there’s beauty behind all the madness that happens. And it’s now a part of me, so not doing dance or not having Legos is like I’m losing a part of my identity," Luke Mehta ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Building with style
“Why not? So many things are very foreign or unknown to us, but there’s not much to lose by just trying things. I initially wasn’t very comfortable with DECA, especially with impromptu, but the community really helped me grow out of that. And DECA is now one of my top high school memories. Just giving things a try is really worth it, and if it fails, the worst thing that can happen is you just try something else," Claire Luo ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: It’s all in the details
"Being a lifer, I really want to put my knowledge to use. Being a TEDx speaker is a really big honor in and of itself, but to be able to actually address the Harker community was really important to me because I wanted to have an impact on the place that I've been at for 13 years," Arissa Huda ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Prescribing change
"I’ve learned discipline: practicing a lot and then knowing what your strengths are, knowing where to improve. That discipline is definitely going to stay with me. If I’m trying to get a big piece of work done in general when I'm interested in it, I'll stop at nothing to reach my goals," Linette Hoffman ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Artistry in motion
"I have this philosophy with theater. I wholeheartedly believe that my life was made for the stage, and all my make or break moments have happened there. While some people learn best through lectures or visuals, I learn best from having a spotlight on me," Zubin Khera ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Scripts to success
"One of the most important things for me about performing is its transformative power. There was one concert where we were singing this commission about gun violence, followed by a piece about climate change, a piece about the Holocaust. Watching the audience's expressions and how they reacted to the music we were singing was the first time that I was like, ‘Whoa, music has the power to change lives and engender positive change,’” Sawyer Lai ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Symphony of spirit
"It’s been fun getting to know the chefs at La Mar, their team and how different cultural influences blend together. For example, they make ceviche, which is a traditional Peruvian dish, but they infuse it with many different cultures. They have a version of their ceviche which is inspired by African tastes and spices, and they also have a Japanese form of that same ceviche dish. I think it’s interesting to watch how these fusion dishes form," Alex Lan ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Flavors of knowledge
Prakrit Jain ('22) searches for new animal species to help the environment and wildlife.
Humans of Harker: Scorpion spotter
Arnav Gupta ('22) moves a DNA construction.
Humans of Harker: Coding for a cause
“[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.
Humans of Harker: Blast of creativity
"Every single person I've interviewed for Humans of Harker has said one killer quote that has stuck with me even through four years of high school, and I think I really do internalize those messages. There are nuances in every single person's experience that makes it unique to them and also makes it a good lesson for everyone else. It's just amazing to see how much wisdom every single person at Harker has, and it's fascinating to learn about those stories," Erica Cai ('22) said.
Humans of Harker: Harmony in humanity
“Something I took away from baseball is that there's always the opportunity to bounce back when things don't go particularly right. Even the best hitters only go one for three, so being able to push through that is one of the most important parts of the game. Being able to identify what goes wrong and learning from that is important to being able to find success in the future," Mark Hu ('22) said.
Humans of Harker: The perfect pitch
Humans of Harker: Perseverance on par
Humans of Harker: Perseverance on par
It's been obviously rough, turning on the news and seeing another death, seeing another acquittal every single time … but, ‘How much can I do?’ is the question I'm asking myself. ‘How much can I help, and what impact can I have?’” Brian Pinkston ('21) said.
Humans of Harker: For the future and the present
“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.
Humans of Harker: Leading with DECA-cation
Class of 2021: Humans of Harker compilation, part three
Class of 2021: Humans of Harker compilation, part three
“I feel really good about myself when I'm relaxed and enjoying the world. There’s so much to learn about the world and so many ways to do so," Daniel Wang ('21) said.
Humans of Harker: Mapping the unknown
"I'm the person that always has a plan for everything. And then I have backups for the plan, and I have backups for the backups," Nicole Chen ('19) said.
Humans of Harker: Calendars for a cause
"I don’t ever intend on letting the internal love of life that I have leave me. As I grow up and I maintain my love for the random things I do, I know I’ll be happy– and hopefully people around me will be, as well," Mathew Mammen ('19) said.
Humans of Harker: Jack of all trades, master of fun
Humans of Harker: To dance, to feel
Humans of Harker: To dance, to feel
"The more serious side, people will never see. You'll never see who's behind one of these websites that people may be using," Neil Ramaswamy (12) said. "Several freshmen have approached me like, 'hey, you're the really funny guy at school meeting' and I'm like 'hey, yeah, nice to meet you' and at the same time they might be using an application that I've written not knowing that it's me. I kind of get that personal satisfaction knowing that there is a serious side to me, you just don't know about it."
Humans of Harker: Dueling with duality
Humans of Harker: Humanity in art
Humans of Harker: Humanity in art
“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.
Humans of Harker: Neymika Jain finds balance in life
“A lot of the time, when I’m out at nail salons, nailers ask me if I‘m Vietnamese. I say yes, but they say that I don’t speak the language and have never been back to Vietnamese, so am I really? I always felt disconnected, like I would be Vietnamese-American but never Vietnamese. When I went to Vietnam for the first time, it brought me closer to my culture. I realized I shouldn’t view myself as a different. I have to see Vietnamese-American and Vietnamese as one and the same," Haley Tran (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Haley Tran values her cultural identity
“One time, I was hiking up this giant off-trail path, and this is going to make me sound like a complete hippy, but what I was thinking at the moment was that every single tree out there must have had some sort of backstory. Even when I was walking to Shah, there was this tree right next to the building, and I was like, ‘Maybe this tree had a lot of other tree friends, but then this building came up and they had to get cut down.’ That made me pretty sad. So, when I was coming up with backstories for trees, it reminded me of my childlike innocence of playing pretend or playing with my stuffed animals because I thought my imagination would never run as wild as it once did. But, this experience made me feel happy because it’s something that I’ve lost, and I feel like I gained some of it back," Aashish Jain (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Aashish Jain finds inspiration in painting through watching Bob Ross videos
“For me, robotics has always been a great way to learn about how to build things and how things work. Honestly, that is the reason why I love robotics. When you see everything working, you look at it and say 'I helped make this happen,' which is really really gratifying," Andrew Tierno (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Andrew Tierno reflects on his passion for robotics
“A lot of being a choreographer is about digging deep, understanding, and finding out which event leads to the next, which is basically what science is. You would take a circuit and break it apart to understand each of the components, and you would do that to a song,” Sneha Bhetanabhotla (‘17) said.
Humans of Harker: Sneha Bhetanabhotla learns to connect robotics and dance
“I can be serious, and I care a lot about a lot of things, but I also just like having fun and people feeling comfortable being their true selves,” Isabella Spradlin (12) said. “You don't have to be one-sided — you can have different sides of your personality, and different moods.”
Humans of Harker: Isabella Spradlin gleans insight from sisterhood
“This is like a melting pot of Cupertino, Lynbrook, Saratoga, some people from De Anza, so you meet all kinds of people,” Rahul Mehta (12) said. “Half the time I’m not even playing with my friends, so I’m playing with random people. You start off in the beginning a bit wary of each other, and then by end you’re playing like they’re your friends. It’s kind of gradual. Like after a really cool play, you’ll high five each other, and that’s how it all begins.”
Humans of Harker: Rahul Mehta befriends others through banter
"People are always debating, you know, ‘should I go up to a higher weight or not?’ And I’ll just yell, ‘do it, you won’t,’" Tiffany Shou (12) said. "And then, you know, it’s like that challenge, and so it always pushes them pick that higher weight, and then they can accomplish it, so it’s even more gratifying."
Humans of Harker Video: Tiffany Shou pushes her limits in the weight room
“First, I start at my house,” Sparsh Chauhan (12) said. “Then, I turn on Saratoga, and it’s always crowded with traffic and stuff. That’s when I’m setting the music, checking the tire pressure, the gas. After downtown, the road gets smooth, which is when I put the windows down. I go all the way down until there’s a dip and then I go back. Even when I have stuff to do, I drive that same route every day. I don’t have to take directions. I know all the traffic times; I know exactly where I’m going.”
Humans of Harker: Sparsh Chauhan takes pride in his work
“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.”
Humans of Harker: Angel Cervantes chases his goals
“[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.
Humans of Harker: Learning to fall
“You just have to go for it. You think, 'In the future, if I think back and regret it, is that how I want to end up — or would I rather just try something and see what happens?' Usually, it turns out well,” Montek Kalsi (’20) said. 
Humans of Harker: All fun and games
“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.
Humans of Harker: Leadership and love
Humans of Harker: Grit and grind
Humans of Harker: Grit and grind
Humans of Harker: Artistic nonconformity
Humans of Harker: Artistic nonconformity
The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
Richard Zhang (11) plays with the orchestra during the Big Assembly Day opening number, "Sleigh Ride." Big Assembly Day occurred on Friday, Dec. 9.

K-12 performing arts students shine at in-person Big Assembly Day

by Alysa Suleiman and Sally Zhu • January 9, 2022

Crack!  Heads turn, and the audience erupts into peals of laughter.  The infamous slapstick, two wooden boards that upper school orchestra percussionist Yejin Song (12) clapped together to imitate...

Immediately after its release on Sept. 17, the show encountered overwhelming success. In fact, “Squid Game” is the only Korean series to reach first place on Netflix’s top 10 most-viewed global chart, surpassing the combined views on any other streaming network according to content analytics research firm Diesel Labs.

‘Squid Game’ rolls dice on life

by Alena Suleiman, Reporter • December 15, 2021

“Hello, sir.” A man in a suit holding a briefcase settles down in the empty spot next to you. “Would you like to play a game with me?” You give the man a once-over, questioning his profession....

Downbeat members Kris Estrada (11), Samvita Gautham (11) and Shayla He (10) smile as they introduce the performances at Santana Row on Tuesday. Upper school performing arts groups Downbeat, Kinetic Krew and Harker Dance Company traveled to Santana Row on Tuesday evening to perform festive routines filled with holiday cheer.

Harker performing arts groups dazzle at ‘Spirit of The Row’ show

by Sally Zhu and Alena Suleiman • December 11, 2021

Three high school students, two jazzed up in glittery gold dresses and the other adorned in a navy-blue collared shirt with a gold tie and scarf, chatter animatedly on a stage in front of a 40-foot-tall...

Kathy Xu (11) holds out her phone, which displays the final page of her 2021 Spotify Wrapped statistics. Spotify Wrapped released this year on Dec. 1 and showed user statistics from the past year in a multi-page story format.

2021 Spotify Wrapped summarizes users’ listening experiences over past year

by Emma Gao, Reporter • December 10, 2021

Spotify released its 2021 Spotify Wrapped feature, which allows users to explore their unique listening patterns and statistics over the past year, on Dec. 1. According to Spotify’s website, the personalized...

Senior Spencer Cha performs his composition "Rhythmic Etude No. 5" on the piano during Music Creation Club's showcase on Friday, Dec. 3. The showcase featured performances or recordings from five students.

Music Creation Club hosts student musical showcase event

by Sally Zhu and Ella Yee • December 7, 2021

Music Creation Club hosted an open showcase event on Friday during long lunch to present the musical compositions and works of five different students.  During Friday’s school meeting, Richard Zhang...

The androgynous children seem to belong to their own world, mirroring Nara’s own experiences of reconciling with himself. Nara’s paintings project a strong sense of solitary introspection, as if they hail from an entirely different mind—one alive with the childlike ability to lose oneself completely in a state of flow.

Off The Walls: Yoshitomo Nara builds sweet and sinister world

by Michelle Liu, Winged Post Co-Editor-in-Chief • December 2, 2021

Why does Yoshitomo Nara’s work hold such an enchanting power to stick in the mind? Although at first glance the faces of his bulbous-faced, doe-eyed children may seem sweet and innocent, there’s something...

Seniors Aimee Wang, Emily Zhou and Tina Zhong sit on Davis Field during a 10-minute break in upper school history teacher Donna Gilbert's third period AP Art History class on Oct. 26. Upper school students have been receiving varied amounts of break times in different classes since the beginning of the school year.

Do in-class breaks matter?

by Sarah Mohammed, Anika Maji • December 1, 2021

Every day her Introduction to Journalism classes meet, upper school journalism teacher Whitney Huang gives all her students a five-minute break, sectioning off the 85 minutes into two blocks with a small...

Nageena Singh (12) and other students from the AP art classes listen to artist Shawn Hibmacronan explain his work. The students learned about Hibmacronan’s creative process as a professional artist on a trip on Nov. 15.

AP Art classes visit artist studio in San Francisco

by Michelle Liu, Winged Post Co-Editor-in-Chief • November 30, 2021

Students from the AP Studio Art and Honors Directed Portfolio classes visited the former Naval Air Station in Alameda to explore artist Shawn Hibmacronan’s studio, taking in the sight of hundreds of...

New York-stationed journalist Isabelia Herrera smiles, tucking her hair behind her ears. Herrera writes about music and Latinx culture as an Arts Critic Fellow at The New York Times.

So you wanna be a music and arts critic?

by Sally Zhu and Sarah Mohammed • November 27, 2021

2021-22 New York Times Arts Critic Fellow and 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 Media honoree Isabelia Herrera never thought she would be a critic. She always loved music, especially music that reminded her of home,...

"We will not be writing just for no reason, but hopefully we don't necessarily always know why we’re writing, we know only that there is a kind of insistence in language. Poems really do begin with playing," poet Philip Metres said.

The Poet’s Project: ‘I wrote those lines because they were true’

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor • November 19, 2021

Philip Metres is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an award grant for exceptional creative thinkers to have time and space for their craft, and the author of 10 books, including his most recent collection...

Time management is the act of organizing and allotting your time to different activities in order to optimize the 24 hours that are given in a day. A study from Princeton University found that adopting small habits such as having a routine, having an organized environment, and properly planning out your schedule are important keys to integrating good time management into a daily ritual.

Tick tock: Time management plays important role in student lives

by Rachel Ning and Smrithi Sambamurthy • November 18, 2021

When Tanya Karpinchyk (10) started in-person school this year, an overload of homework suddenly hit her, leading to procrastination and unprecedented levels of stress. Although the need to quickly adapt...

The Jared Schonig Quintet rehearses during the master class before the concert last Friday. The quintet performed later that night in the Patil Theater from 7-9 p.m.

Jared Schonig Quintet performs for Harker Concert Series

by Olivia Xu, Reporter • November 12, 2021

The Jared Schonig Quintet performed for the first act of the 2021-22 season of the Harker Concert Series in the Patil Theater at 7 p.m. last Friday after conducting an open master class at 3 p.m. the same...

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