The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“I try to really put myself into the shoes of whatever I’m photographing. I imagine sometimes, if I were that bird, what would it feel like to be in this moment and flying, or if I were the person that I’m taking a portrait of, what would it feel like to see through their eyes? Then, I try to express that through how I frame the photo," senior Claire Zhao said.
Humans of Harker: Capturing compassion
Humans of Harker: Singing with spirit
Humans of Harker: Singing with spirit
Humans of Harker: Leading with enthusiasm
Humans of Harker: Leading with enthusiasm
“I've always been really creative and continuing to have that outlet, whether it be dance or art, it keeps that core value strong. All the art forms I do have shaped the way I see the world. I see it through a very artistic lens and I'll find beauty in the tiny things that some people miss," senior Sonia Yu said.
Humans of Harker: Dancing through the details
“I want to do everything I can to make people's lives easier. Whether it's helping people with homework or just doing other little things, that's something that I really value highly within myself. I’ve tried to do my best to carry that out with beekeeping: checking out what in my hive needs tending to and then responding to that," senior Andrew Liang said.
Humans of Harker: Bee my guest
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
“Theater saved my life. I want to write for it, I want to tech it, I want to perform on its stage, I want to direct its actors; I want to do everything for it. It has done so much for me, and I cannot help but use all of my creative power to try and give back to the institution,” Alissa Gao (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Effort and expression

by Anika Mani, TALON Co-Student Life Editor • March 15, 2021

Reaching for the door handle with a welcoming smile one warm morning, Alissa Gao (12) pulls open the door to their backyard, their two dogs trotting close behind. The sun shining brightly on the back patio,...

“I've definitely had problems with that, where you can psych yourself out so much before the race. You’re going to do bad if you have that mindset of I can't mess up, I can mess up. You’ve got to accept that things could go badly. You have to accept what comes with racing, which is unpredictable circumstances … You got to go into that race with a mindset of Plan A, but then there's also Plan B, since not everything's going to go your way,” Rhys Edwards (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Passion and perseverance

by Vishnu Kannan, Co-Sports Editor • March 15, 2021

You would expect the average high school student to be fast asleep at 4:30 a.m., but Rhys Edwards (12) is no such student. By then, Rhys has forced himself out of bed, after overcoming the irresistible...

“It's nice to almost not know what you're going to write about until your pen touches the paper. There's something about writing where, for me personally, I'm able to explore parts of what I'm thinking about that I wouldn't have been able to even know without writing. I'm able to find things that I didn't even know I was worrying about or that I was happy about until I write,” Sara Yen (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Writing for the right reasons

by Emily Tan, Winged Post Features Editor • March 15, 2021

Sitting serenely on a wooden bench in her backyard next to a colorful selection of Moleskine notebooks and mechanical pencils, Sara Yen (12) journals quietly as her pen comes to life with dance and her...

“I want to be remembered for actually doing things I’m interested in. I don't think there’s an activity I’ve done in high school that I haven’t enjoyed, so everything I’ve done has been completely worth it, because I like doing it, and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing,” Nathan Ohana (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Proving a point

by Anika Mani, TALON Co-Student Life Editor • March 5, 2021

The warm sun shines down on the finely cut grass at De Anza Park in Cupertino. Faint noises of children joyfully playing echo in the background as Nathan Ohana (12) rides his bike across a thin path. Breaking...

“I gather different parts of myself from each environment I'm in. Some traits come from my friends, some come from my parents, some come from what I've learned at school or something, or internal conflicts … it's different within each one,” Advika Phadnis (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Melodies and morsels

by Jasleen Hansra, TALON Co-People Editor • March 5, 2021

Advika Phadnis’ (12) face is taken over by a smile as she laughs at a joke her friend makes across the table. The buzz of Philz Coffee continues in the background as she turns back to her computer to...

“Some things are out of your hands, and all you can do is put your best foot forward, and then whatever happens happens. I don't want to necessarily become anyone, I just want to be a better version of myself . . .  I want to be remembered as a really kind person and a good friend,” Sarah Raymond (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Act it out

by Tina Xu, TALON Photo Editor • March 4, 2021

If you’re a Harker student, you’ve definitely seen Sarah Raymond (12) on stage. From acting in the Student Directed Showcase (SDS) to participating in the fall play, the musical and Downbeat, Sarah...

“There are lots of small hurdles, and everybody has their own challenges that they face. Whether it be me making croissants for the first time and having them turn out great, or getting into Fringe and performing in front of a huge audience of real musical critics, I try to celebrate every accomplishment,” Evan Bourke (12) said.

Humans of Harker: From singing to cinnamon rolls

by Esha Gohil, Humans of Harker Co-Managing Editor • March 4, 2021

Clad in a black number 87 Patriots jersey, a tall blonde boy lounges languidly on a chair, his dark blue zip up hoodie hanging off his shoulders as he takes a large swig from a brown bottle. This scene...

“When you're running on your own, there's nothing really stopping you from just walking, other than your own motivation to get better. A major part of cross country is that it's a mental sport because of ... self motivation — learning how to motivate myself to push harder and do better has carried over to other aspects as well,” Aditya Singhvi (12) said.

Humans of Harker: The tracks of community

by Irene Yuan, Multimedia Editor • February 25, 2021

With music blasting through the speakers, some high school students ran their races while others stood by and waited for their own. Aditya Singhvi (12) recalls the details and atmosphere of one particular...

“I want to give back in a meaningful way that not only helps people that don't have the same resources as me, but also is fun in the process. I know a lot of things can be super overwhelming at times, and everyone experiences it, so I want to create an environment that's carefree and a safe space for people to just express themselves and allow them to find that passion that I found through volunteering and research,” Rhea Nanavati (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Find the kindness within

by Ritika Rajamani, TALON Co-Academics Editor • February 18, 2021

Sitting under the shade of a tree at Cuesta Park, Rhea Nanavati (12) stares up at the sight around her—numerous large trees on a carpet of luscious grass, children laughing and playing around her. As...

“The idea of wanting to build a sense of community for everything that I was a part of is something that I strive for in everything that I do. It's not just about becoming a better player or getting towards goals. It's about making something out of each experience and learning something new, even if it's something really small. It's about taking something from each experience and applying it elsewhere,” Hannah Sobczyn (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Creating connections

by Helen Zhu, TALON Managing Editor • February 17, 2021

With a light sprinkle marking the beginning of winter break, Hannah Sobczyn (12) and her brother Leo Sobcyzn (8) walk along the Los Gatos Creek Trail while sharing their reflections of the past few months....

“If I have a brightening effect on someone’s day, that's good enough for me … [The] little things add up. I don't think life [should be about the] big events, I think it's the [smaller experiences] that add up over time. So it's the same thing that applies when I want to help someone out. It's piece by piece,” Shaunak Narain (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Learning to love the little things

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Social Media Editor and Asst. Business Manager • February 17, 2021

Eyes shining with mirth, Shaunak Narain (12) reflects back to a time when he drank too much carrot juice and turned orange. As a smile emerges on his face, he laughs in the reminiscence of his younger...

“I’m really proud to be a part of a generation that cares and that wants to fight for a better future for all of us. Whenever you’re feeling down, you just be part of that community, you just listen, and you’re re-motivated and reinspired to continue the work of activism. There’s going to be resistance, there's going to be a fight, but it's a fight that we need to fight and [something] that I want to be a part of,” Natasha Yen (12) said.

Humans of Harker: The fight is ours

by Erica Cai, Humans of Harker Co-Managing Editor • February 16, 2021

“Fight, fight, fight, fight, a healthy planet is alright!”  This empowered chant, soaring from the throats of youth climate activists, filled the air of San Jose City Hall on September 20, 2019....

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