Skip to Main Content
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

Lilly Anderson (12) performs a flip during a halftime cheer performance during the homecoming game. Cheer held their senior night yesterday at 6:45 before the home football game against Oakland Military Institute.

Cheer: Behind the scenes

by Sara Yen, Asst. Features Editor October 14, 2018

“High kicks!” a captain shouts to the three rows of cheerleaders facing her, leading stretches in the mirrored brightly-lit practice room. Following the captain, the cheerleaders rapidly swing their...

"Part of the reason I wanted to come to the U.S. by myself initially was me just wanting to get away from the family. I wanted to be a man and do everything on my own," Nemo Yang (12) said. "Later I learned that it was so hard. But I learned so much in the process of doing so. I learned a lot from moving from host family to host family and eventually living on my own.”

Humans of Harker: Home away from home

by Andrew Chang, TALON Sports Editor October 12, 2018

The words that Lizhi “Nemo” Yang (12) remembers hearing from his dad when Nemo moved to America alone four years ago have stuck with him: “The harder you work, the luckier you will get.” Nemo’s...

Raphael Sanche (12), GSA president, gives a speech about his experience coming out as transgender in honor of National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11.

School meeting recap 10/9/18

by Eric Fang and Ryan Guan October 11, 2018

Juniors from the girls water polo team presented a video advertising their joint senior night with the boys water polo team on Thursday. The boys will be playing Cupertino High School at 4 p.m., with senior...

“Some people call it perseverance, some people call it stubbornness. It’s the same reason that I didn’t drop out of Harker when I came and started suffocating under the new workload,” Hannah Eckert (12) said. “I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and here I am, in senior year. It does you justice to stick things out.”

Humans of Harker: Creating character

by Delaney Logue, TALON Photo Editor October 11, 2018

A bright red head amongst a crowd of black, brown and blonde-haired people, Hannah Eckert stands out in stark contrast from her surroundings, her dark clothes creating a striking juxtaposition. Spending...

The iPhone XS Max, pictured here in its gold color, arrived in stores on Sept. 21. Some new features include a 6.5-inch screen, which is the biggest yet on an iPhone, depth control in Portrait mode, and an A12 Bionic chip.

Apple releases new iPhones and announces upgrades to other products

by Nina Gee, Staff Illustrator October 11, 2018

It's that time again. The time that every tech enthusiast looks forward to at the beginning of the school year (or scowls at, if you're an android fan). It's come consistently every year since 2007, and...

Members of the class of 2022 clear invasive plant species from the side of a trail at the Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve. The freshmen received five hours of service for their work on the annual community service trip.

Freshmen travel to Coyote Valley for annual service trip

by Ryan Guan, Executive News Editor October 10, 2018

Freshmen visited the Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve for their annual community service trip, while juniors and sophomores took the PSAT exam today from 8 a.m. to around 11 a.m. and seniors enjoyed a...

Redefining masculinity: What this means to all of us

Redefining masculinity: What this means to all of us

by Gloria Zhang, Features Editor October 10, 2018

Haris Hosseini (12) is clear that we've got a 'man problem' to deal with. Pacing across the grey carpeted section of the Howard Nichols Court, he performed an original oratory, “The Man Problem”. His...

Raymond Banke’s exhibition "14^3" features an aquarium with many aquascaping elements outside of the water, as well as photographs of PVC pipes alongside air plants. "14^3", pronounced "fourteen cubed", inaugurated the Shah student showcase gallery, which Art Club sold sweatshirts to fundraise for last year.

Aquascape exhibit inaugurates Shah showcase gallery

by Ryan Guan, Executive News Editor October 10, 2018

Raymond Banke (12)'s exhibit "14^3" inaugurated the new student showcase gallery in Shah under the stairwell. Raymond's exhibit features a 14-inch glass aquarium with an original aquascape design as well...

“Each piece that I play, when I'm playing it, it's more than the music. Every piece has its own historical meaning, especially for classical music. Sometimes the composers were trying to express different sorts of meanings that were relative to the historical context during the time, so I think it's really interesting to study that. Studying music and playing music in relation to history, and especially when I'm on orchestra tours, and being able to play a piece that was composed in that specific country, is extremely cool. For my Mitra topic, I'm doing [research] related to the French Revolution and opera. I've always been interested in the intertwined  nature of history and music,” Constance Horng (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Beyond the labels

by Sara Yen, Asst. Features Editor October 10, 2018

Poised and graceful, Constance Horng (12) nods over her bow, signaling the other players in the quartet to start, as she smoothly glides her bow across the strings of her violin, releasing a clear, precise...

Brothers Shray Alag (10) and Ayush Alag (12) dance side by side during Kinetic Crew’s performance. Their dance came after the middle school concert choir.

Harker’s 125th: The picnic in photos

by Anna Vazhaeparambil and Michael Eng October 10, 2018

The 68th annual Family and Alumni Picnic, which was held at the middle school on Oct. 7, featured performances by students from all campuses as well as games and arcade booths for entertainment. While...

Upper school students enjoy chocolate chip cookies outside the athletics center today after school meeting. The kitchen staff prepared cookies to honor former head of school Howard Nichols' birthday.

Upper school honors Howard Nichols on his birthday

by Kathy Fang, Managing Editor October 9, 2018

The upper school community enjoyed chocolate chip cookies after the school meeting today in honor of former head of school Howard Nichols’s birthday on Oct. 10. Nichols, who died in 2008, was known...

"Since I was little, I would follow in my sister’s footsteps — it was just something that I was used to," Stephanie Xiao (12) said. "It was more obvious at the beginning of high school, but now my parents can see that we're two different people and we're taking two different paths. I feel like recently, even though I followed the original steps that she took, I've been able to find my own voice, take the leaderships skills I learned from cheer and apply it to honor council to become a more extroverted person."

Humans of Harker: The frontier of kindness

by Emily Chen, TALON Co-Academics Editor October 9, 2018

Whether it’s her bright and bubbly personality shining through at Interact Club meetings, her enthusiastic smile radiating across the field when cheering or her selflessness in caring for others, Stephanie...

Load More Stories