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The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

Tiffany Zhu

Life without them: Students navigate change after older siblings graduate

by Lily Shi and William Jiang October 11, 2025

Siblings can be both companions and rivals, but every younger sibling at Harker must eventually face the same moment: watching an older sibling leave for college. No matter the relationship, nothing truly...

Director of Learning, Innovation and Design Diane Main fills her bird feeder. This specific feeder contains sunflower and Nyjer seeds.

Observing the campus birds

by Vivek Moorjani and Charlene Li October 10, 2025

In the early hours of dawn before students and faculty arrive to start their day, birds gather across the school, from Patil to Shah to the Graduate’s Grove.  While many people overlook the nature...

Social media trends have turned AI frustration into insults, with videos and memes spreading the slur across platforms.

“Clanker” stems from growing fatigue with AI technology

by Suhani Gupta and Claire Tian October 10, 2025

Influencer Stanzi Potenza posted a YouTube Short on Aug. 20 captioned “POV: You’re a clanker in 2050.” In this video, she portrays a waitress belittling a “clanker” which arrives at her restaurant,...

Biology teacher Mike Pistacchi showcases the king salmon he caught on his boat in the Monterey Bay. Pistacchi’s fascination with the natural environment stemmed from childhood fishing trips with his father. (Provided by Mike Pistacchi)

Meet your staff: Bringing nature’s complexity to the classroom

by Heather Wang and Victoria Li October 10, 2025

In San Ignacio Lagoon in the Baja California region of Mexico, gray whales swim up to canoes full of tourists, rubbing their heads against the boats as if to ask the people to pet them. While others are...

Economics teacher Samuel Lepler dances to traditional Jewish music at the Jewish Affinity Group celebration of Rosh Hashanah.  Attendees also ate Jewish food and played trivia.

Good and sweet: Jewish community welcomes new year

by Leah Krupnik and Shaina Cohen October 10, 2025

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur mark the beginning of the Jewish year in the month of Tishrei, which typically falls in September or October. Jewish communities celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, known...

Harker rolled out an upgraded Wi-Fi system this year that required students them to a digital certificate, raising concerns over tracking and security. “It would be beneficial if students could request to see a log of whatever is tracked from Harker, so then they can see exactly what Harker tracks,” junior Ian Lee said.

Modernization meets mistrust

by Lily Shi and Eva Cheng October 10, 2025

Students across all 4 Harker campuses returned to find a new Wi-Fi system in place this fall: a single unified network, Harker-Approved. To connect, students were required to install a digital certificate,...

Upper school English teacher Charles Shuttleworth poses with his recently published book titled "The Buddhist Years," a collection of American poet Jack Kerouac's writings. His book was featured in a BBC radio interview and an article in The Guardian this past year.

Meditation in motion in “The Buddhist Years”

by Aileen Jang October 3, 2025

English teacher Charles Shuttleworth’s recent book “The Buddhist Years” (2025) marks the third installment in his ongoing efforts to bring Jack Kerouac’s unseen writings to the public. For almost...

Dodgeball Club co-founders Sanjith Senthil (11), Haofang Zhu (11) and Kevin He (11) hold up dodgeballs on Davis Field. They founded the club to give students an opportunity to be physically active while having fun.

Your guide to 10 new clubs at this year’s Club Fair

by Leah Krupnik and Heather Wang September 15, 2025

With nearly 100 student organizations, this year’s Club Fair provides students the opportunity to explore diverse topics and interests from music to arts to puzzles and games. Amidst the tried and true...

11 new teachers joined the upper school community this year, ranging in subjects from organic chemistry to Japanese.

New faces, fresh perspectives

by Sam Li and Eva Cheng September 7, 2025

The upper school welcomed 11 teachers this year across departments like science, history, English, languages, mathematics, music and journalism. With a diverse set of backgrounds, the new faculty bring...

Summer break provides students the opportunity to travel out of the Bay Area, catching a glimpse of different cultures and lifestyles. According to a survey sent on Schoology with 186 responses, students visited a total of 54 different countries spanning every continent except Antarctica.

Travel tales

by Eva Cheng and Tiffany Zhu September 2, 2025

Behind the bylines

by Eva Cheng and Lily Shi September 1, 2025

Harker Journalism leadership kicked off the year with Editors' Week 2025, collaborating on articles and Winged Post pages while hosting workshops and team bonding activities. Follow along with the staff...

About 10% of students at the Upper School recieve financial aid, but the school's policy prohibits students and families from discussing the amount or terms of their awards. While administrators emphasize privacy and fairness, some argue the policy silences conversations about socioeconomic diversity. (Illustration by Elizabeth Zhang)

Navigating conversations about wealth, financial aid and socioeconomic diversity at Harker

by Mendy Mao and Leah Krupnik August 30, 2025

This year's upper school tuition for Harker students is $64,800. Behind this number lies an often overlooked reality: around 10% of all students K-12 receive some form of financial aid. With strict rules...

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