The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“With volleyball and Medical Club, I love working with people. I get to work with people who aren't necessarily in my classes or aren't my friends specifically, but we get to work hard and work together towards a common goal. That collaboration aspect is really important to me," senior Navya Samuel said.
Humans of Harker: Cooperation through competition
“Human connection is very important to staying grounded and stable. The people around me are one of the reasons that I'm not fully burnt out, so I really prioritize keeping a good schedule for myself. Being able to prioritize the things in life that give me internal satisfaction is important to me because that's what allows me to have the drive to do good with the rest of my time. Talking to people is a way for me to replenish," senior Kashish Priyam said.
Humans of Harker: Pep in every step
“It's very important to make sure the people in your life know they're important to you. Whether that's doing small acts of kindness or just being there whenever they need you, having a really strong support system is what gets you through life, and it's a really valuable life skill to have," Sofie Marino (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Pillar of support
“My karate teachers emphasize that as black belts, we should be living up to the standard of our rank and acting as an example for the students who are lower-ranked.' When I’m helping out and someone messes up, I don't necessarily say, ‘You did this wrong, try to do this.’ I take a more relaxed approach and act out what they did a little comically. It's finding the balance between being strict and being more playful with the students," senior Claire Perng said.
Humans of Harker: Playing with purpose
“I have the ability to convey my opinions and ideas through art, which in my opinion, is the most powerful tool I have because not everyone has it. It requires me to, first of all, have an opinion or thought, and second of all, be able to convey it with this medium. Together, that is the strongest calling for an artist," senior Eva Li said.
Humans of Harker: Artistry in abstraction
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
"Instead of buying clothes at a store, I want to transition to all my clothes being bought secondhand, which I’m slowly working on, and I would just want to adopt daily practices, because sometimes I still use those disposable cups because I leave my water bottle at random places," Maya Kumar (12) said. "I’m definitely that person at the grocery store who might have a bunch of things in my hand but will refuse to get a bag, and it’s slightly embarrassing because I’m about to drop everything, but I’m trying to stay true to my values to the extent that it’s reasonable at this point in my life."

Humans of Harker: Maya Kumar prioritizes helping the environment––and anyone else she can

by Sahana Srinivasan, Winged Post Editor-in-Chief • June 5, 2018

Senior Maya Kumar’s interest in helping the environment––and studying environmental engineering––began, in some ways, with John Oliver. “One episode [of Last Week Tonight] that really struck...

“I like to be a very relaxed guy, and I don't let stress get to the better of me,” Rohit Shah (12) said. “Soccer is just there for me to kind of relieve tension and make me happy again. Soccer feels like somewhere where I can just be who I am and not worry about what other people think of me.”

Humans of Harker: Rohit Shah finds his place on the soccer field

by Karina Chen, Reporter • June 3, 2018

Rohit Shah (12) vigorously dribbles the soccer ball through the sea of players, racing to his opponent’s goal. He takes a final kick, and the soccer ball shoots through the goalie and swiftly into the...

"For the longest time, a really big fear that I had is that there would just be something in our general education curriculum that was wrong that we've always been taught that way and I will just never know it was wrong for as long as I live and for my entire life I would just never know that what we learned was wrong," Serena Lu (12) said. "And this has happened for a lot of the things I've learned. I guess I hope that if at least one of my long winded rants in some class has ever changed someone's mind, I guess that'd be enough."

Humans of Harker: Serena Lu strives to uncover truth

by Kathy Fang, Photo Editor • June 2, 2018

Thanksgiving—what images and memories does that holiday bring to mind? Pilgrims, perhaps, or turkey stickers and red paper leaves. Maybe even snippets of a history lecture on British relations with Native...

“I like making my art because it's a method of expressing yourself," Eric Andrus (12) said. "Being that I was quiet kid for the first 15 years of my life, art was a way I could speak. It was almost like a language to me. Because I am taking AP Studio Art, we have to do a concentration on our works, which is when there is a theme behind all the pieces. My theme is rhythmic motion, which represents a passage of time, so like growth and decay. Through time, relationships are formed and they grow and then they decay. Through all the challenges in life that I have been faced with, I’ve formed relationships and others have been broken, but I think the overall theme that is there is always something there and there is always something to be happy about."

Humans of Harker: Eric Andrus chronicles relationships through art

by Krishna Bheda and Reporter • May 30, 2018

Every Sunday, Eric Andrus (12) can be found working at Lutticken’s, a sandwich shop located in Menlo Park. There, he spends his time making Tuna and Chicken Salad sandwiches, making drinks, cleaning,...

"My motivation to do research has always been more of 'here's a field that I'm interested in, let's tackle that and take it to its greatest extent,' rather than 'here's a problem I want to solve for the millions of people whose lives we'll save,'" Rajiv Movva (12) said. "I think the impacts of your research are more of a positive byproduct than the main motivation for me. For me, it was always just trying to find an answer."

Humans of Harker Video: Rajiv Movva strives for answers

by Nerine Uyanik, Humans of Harker Videographer • May 29, 2018

This is the seventh installment of the Humans of Harker 2018 video series. Through this project, the Harker journalism program aims to tell the story of the senior class, one profile at a time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N32ad2wEK84

"I started doing my eyebrows at the tail end of my sophomore year and that was where I started figuring out that what people think doesn’t really matter all that much," Mona Lee (12) said. "Because everyone has a different idea of what your eyebrows should look like, who you should be, what you should be like, what you should look like. I kind of realized that at the end of the day I realized it doesn’t matter; the only opinion that matters is your own."

Humans of Harker: Mona Lee applies makeup and embraces confident self-expression

by Sahana Srinivasan, Winged Post Editor-in-Chief • May 29, 2018

Mona Lee (12) owns 50 lipsticks. But she only puts any of them on after lunch. She fills in her eyebrows by 9:30 a.m., in passing period, in class or in the car, for five minutes. Winged eyeliner occasionally...

"Every time I step on stage, I get this feeling where I just never want to stop dancing, so I think that just reminds me of how badly I want to become a professional," Anastasia "Ana" Cheplyansky (12) said.

Humans of Harker Video: Anastasia Cheplyansky balances athletics and artistry

by Heidi Zhang & Melissa Kwan • May 28, 2018

This is the sixth installment of the Humans of Harker 2018 video series. Through this project, the Harker journalism program aims to tell the story of the senior class, one profile at a time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuOq5W0yOck

“One time, I just went over to [my friend]'s house,” Rishi Iyer (12) said. “I asked him, 'What do you want to do?' and he was like, 'Let's just get in the car and drive around and explore.’ We went into downtown Saratoga, and we took a turn on some random road that looked pretty steep, and we went along it for thirty minutes, and it became this really narrow one lane road going up the mountain, and we eventually just made our way up the mountain, just exploring all these little side roads until we eventually found this little clearing with this amazing view of the entire Bay Area. It was so surreal, just going from being in the house, saying, 'Let's just find something' and just discovering this, just by messing around."

Humans of Harker: Rishi Iyer positions himself in the space between categories

by Melissa Kwan, Humans of Harker Managing Editor • May 28, 2018

Rishi Iyer (12) handles obstacles in stride, choosing to see them as humorous “L’s” in the win-loss record of life. "Say some major setback happens in life, or you fail a test, or you get in a...

"Part of the reason I play music is to have some sort of human connection — to have an audience and be able to say something through the music," Andrew Semenza (12) said. "That's of foremost importance to me — the ability to be able to affect an emotional change in someone through music. And you know, if someone walks in to the concert hall and doesn't leave a different person, I think that's a failure of a performer."

Humans of Harker Video: Andrew Semenza charts his travels through the musical landscape

by Nerine Uyanik & Melissa Kwan • May 27, 2018

This is the fifth installment of the Humans of Harker 2018 video series. Through this project, the Harker journalism program aims to tell the story of the senior class, one profile at a time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNjkCnQzsFI

“I really identify with Santa Claus from the movie the Rise of the Guardians," Joanna Lin (12) said. "His center, which is what they are trying to preserve in children and what caused them to become a guardian, is wonder. That's kind of how I feel about the world. This summer I had a daily drive to Santa Cruz, and I was just so captivated by the fog in the redwood trees. It was so beautiful, and I'm so in awe of all the things it can do. And, because children are naturally this way before they grow up, I want to work with them to preserve a part of me and help them stay that way for a little longer.”

Humans of Harker: Joanna Lin plays the role of “mom friend”

by Kaitlin Hsu, Winged Post Editor-in-Chief • May 23, 2018

Joanna Lin (12) is the quintessential “mom friend”. She frequently drives people home in her light blue minivan, worries that they’ll catch colds if they go to sleep with wet hair and gently chastises...

"Why wouldn't you like climbing trees? Super dangerous? C'mon. Sure it's dangerous, but unless you’re going to break your arm or leg you’re not going to die. There's a possibility that it can happen, but that's just the fun of it. You're not going to be able to climb trees your entire life, so you might as well do it now," Shikhar Solanki (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Shikhar Solanki rises to the competition

by Vijay Bharadwaj, Winged Post News Editor • May 22, 2018

“I literally imagine myself as a Greek wrestler all the way back in Ancient Greece, and I think to myself I’m wrestling for rations of food and that I haven’t eaten in a long time, so I need to win...

"I knew that something was wrong with my shoulder because it was bothering me, but eventually it never went away, so I went the whole season through it. I was battling this pain," Nate Kelly (12) said. "At the same time, we were winning a bunch of games and had this kind of historic season, and that’s something I didn’t really want to miss out on. That was my incentive to keep going; that kept my adrenaline pumping, the fact that we were winning a lot in all these games. Quite honestly, I thought it would affect me, but I guess I overcame it. It hurt, but I battled through it, and I dealt with the pain afterwards.”

Humans of Harker: Nate Kelly perseveres on and off the field

by Nilisha Baid, Reporter • May 21, 2018

Nate Kelly’s (12) enthusiasm for athletics originates from his “big sports family.” “It doesn’t really matter what kind of sport it is, as long as it is a sport, there’s something that my...

Load More Stories