The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“We're in a world where we're very focused on ourselves and our own successes. It’s important to be able to stop and consider yourself in different ways. That's performing: considering yourself in different situations and being able to take that pause and breathe. You're helping yourself and you're serving others," senior Bhavya Srinivasan said.
Humans of Harker: Building the script for community
Humans of Harker: Crafting with care
Humans of Harker: Crafting with care
Humans of Harker: Scoring with strategy
Humans of Harker: Scoring with strategy
Humans of Harker: Nets and networks
Humans of Harker: Nets and networks
Humans of Harker: Painting with purpose
Humans of Harker: Painting with purpose
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
Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group based in Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021 after the Afghan government collapsed as then-president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. To understand the complexity of the current situation means to trace the ridges of Afghanistan, means to be aware of the country where we stand and to see what America has done to the history of a nation across the world from ours.

‘It almost felt like a funeral for my country’

by Sarah Mohammed, Lucy Ge, Olivia Xu, and Isha Moorjani • March 7, 2022

As Bay Area students, news about Afghanistan and other nations can seem distant from our lives. Through writing this piece, we explore the human crisis resulting from the Afghanistan war. We brought...

Medha Yarlagadda (10) and Brandon Zau (10) listen to Associated Press (AP) Photo Editor Jon Elswick speak about his background in photojournalism and his role in covering the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol during period three journalism class. “Being a journalist is one of the highest callings that you can have,” Elswick said. “I am always keenly aware that I am sitting in that front row seat to history, and it's my job to tell the story, whether I'm doing it from behind a camera, or from in front of a computer editing somebody else's work that I'm showing, and it's my job to let other people see what is going on.”

AP Photo Editor discusses Jan. 6 coverage with Harker Journalism classes

by Emma Gao and Isha Moorjani • February 23, 2022

Warning: The following story contains information and photos about the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol and may be upsetting to some readers. The photos are seared into our collective memories of a day...

An illustration of various memes and internet sensations. Social media platforms have guided the evolution of Generation Z’s sense of humor by creating widespread access to topics people find humorous.

‘One big inside joke’: Generation Z uses humor to bond over shared adversity

by Arely Sun, Aquila Co-Managing Editor • February 23, 2022

harkeraquila · Aquila Audible of "'One big inside joke’: Generation Z uses humor to bond over shared adversity" If you’ve spent time browsing the Internet, you’ve likely encountered...

One of the journalism editor's cats sits on the table. A day in the life of cats showcases the various cats at the upper school and what they do when their owners are not at home.

A day in the life of cats

by Irene Yuan and Erica Cai • February 9, 2022

Have two minutes? Take a listen to cat stories from three journalism editors and watch clips submitted by the upper school community. Erica: So, Taro is my almost two-year-old shorthair black cat....

Pacific Catch's Japanese Wasabi Original Ahi Poke ($16 for small, $19 for regular), which includes a wakame seaweed salad, sushi rice and Ahi poke, sits on a table. The restaurant's Cupertino Main Street location operates from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

A fusion of Pacific flavors and fares

by Olivia Xu, Reporter • January 28, 2022

Are you craving the soft tortilla and juicy fillings of a taco? Or do you hunger for some simple yet appetizing rolls of sushi? Or both?  At the heart of Cupertino’s Main Street Plaza resides Pacific...

This is Illiterate Lexicology, a podcast where Aquila staff members delve into the history and evolution of words.

Illiterate Lexicology Episode 1: ‘Commencement’

by Erica Cai and Irene Yuan • January 15, 2022

This is the first installment of Illiterate Lexicology, a podcast where Aquila staff members delve into the history and evolution of words. In this episode, Erica and Irene explore the word “commencement.”  harkeraquila...

Rupert Chen (11) reaches to hand a book to Nicholas Wei (11) as their fellow Book Party attendees share their thoughts on the books featured at the gathering.

Flipping and scrolling through the pages

by Sydney Ling and Emily Tan • January 6, 2022

“We’re happy, free, confused and lonely in the best way…”  Taylor Swift’s “22 (Taylor’s Version)” plays in the background as students mill about in the library classroom, picking up...

Upper school Latin and world history teacher Clifford Hull examines excavated fossils that he has collected and stores in his room, Main 1. Hull is passionate about archaeology, collecting and the past, as evinced by objects atop his cabinet such as the bust of Caesar pencil holder and the American flag he was given when he first came to the country.

Meet your teacher: Excavating upper school history teacher’s world

by Sarah Mohammed and Tiffany Chang • December 10, 2021

Bright green, pink and yellow orange squeezers; teapots from Finland from the 50s and 60s and mid 19th century Victorian Age relics of urinals are a combination of objects you’ll most likely never find...

Diya Mukherjee (10) reads a note from her Eagle Buddy during lunch at the upper school on Nov. 12. The cards, written by third graders in response to notes sophomores had sent two weeks prior, were delivered to sophomores that morning after a LIFE session.

Across campus and age differences: Eagle Buddy program unites Harker community

by Trisha Iyer, Asst. Features Editor • December 8, 2021

Heated discussions vying for possession of colored pencils and markers crowded the air of many classrooms during a special Oct. 20 hour-long advisory period. During this time, the sophomore class took...

An illustration of a photo album, reminiscent of those of families that were forced to give up personal belongings such as family photos due to being forced to enter concentration camps.

Pulse of the People: ‘Never forget, never again’

by Alysa Suleiman and Emily Tan • December 3, 2021

Harker Aquila spoke with upper school faculty and students, local Jewish synagogue members and Holocaust research experts on the lasting impacts of the Holocaust and the value and necessity of integrating...

Hygrangea macrophylla (hygrangea) flowers bloom as groundskeepers Urdelin Justo and Jose Hernandez prune shrubs in the quad on Sept. 16.

Our garden, our home

by Emily Tan, Julie Shi, and Edward Huang • December 3, 2021

For the grounds team, the workday starts early — pre-sunrise, 6:00 a.m. early, when the sun's fingers just start creeping over the horizon and the campus lies still, fast asleep. That is when Director...

Vivian Bi (11) teaches Makayla Aguilar (11) how to fold a paper crane. The LIFE Board organized a project to fold 1000 paper cranes for upper school math teacherJane Keller, who was recently diagnosed with cancer.

Students fold 1000 paper cranes for upper school math teacher recovery

by Alena Suleiman, Reporter • December 2, 2021

Laughter emanated from Manzanita Hall and the orchard during the morning office hours block of Oct. 14 as LIFE Board members handed out slips of origami paper, inviting students of all grades to help them...

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