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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

Rani looks through a book of designs for inspiration. She is well-known for her unique clothing designs.

Harker sophomore builds clothing designs in free time

by Mahika Halepete, Winged Post Asst. Features Editor May 25, 2018

Memoir Monday: A red leather notebook

Memoir Monday: A red leather notebook

by Sara Yen, Reporter May 25, 2018

Sara Yen I pull out the top layer of the drawer next to my bed, the sliding of the plastic making a loud and squeaky noise. I reach in and grab my red leather Moleskine notebook. Running my finger...

“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...

“Playing tuba in orchestra is not always the most rewarding experience. Most of the time I sit in the back and do my homework or sleep because I have that much rest," Meghana Karinthi (12) said. "You’re definitely not the most featured person in the group. At the same time, when I see the group do well and I know that I took a part in that, it gives me a lot more satisfaction than me having a whole bunch of solos.”

Humans of Harker: Meghana Karinthi makes the difference behind the scenes

by Nina Gee, Reporter May 20, 2018

Meghana Karinthi (12) is a 5-foot girl playing a 4-foot tuba. She also happens to play one of the most aggressive positions in water polo, a fact that surprises people to no end and frustrates Meghana...

"Sick started as just like a common saying, like 'oh, that's sick,'" Matthew Kennedy (12) said. "You know, common teen slang. Then I wrote it on my knuckles 'cause I thought it was edgy and thought it looked good. Fast forward, someone was telling a story which I didn't care about, and I said, 'sick, dude,' and gave him a fist pound. He thought it was funny, so I started doing it more often. Now it's a part of my life."

Humans of Harker: Matthew Kennedy builds character

by Jin Tuan, Reporter May 19, 2018

Walking down school hallways with a purposeful stride and a hand in his green sports hoodie pocket, Matthew “Matt” Kennedy (12) is simultaneously extroverted and introspective. “I’m in my head...

“[My mom would] take me to different places; she’d take me to a lot of the big cities to where a lot of the fashion designer brands came from," Alan Jiang (12) said. "She would spend hours and hours there — I used to be really mad, because she doesn’t know how to speak English, and we’d stay in the store for four-five hours just to pick one item that she really liked and I had to translate for her, so that’s why I was exposed to a lot of the stuff. Back then, I really hated it — I was really mad at my mom. But afterwards, I was kind of inspired by it.”

Humans of Harker Video: Alan Jiang weaves together family and fashion

May 18, 2018

This is the fourth 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. Videography:...

“There's one quote that I remember from when I was four years old that my dad told me, probably after I threw macaroni on the carpet or something: ‘because you're so young, you're still looking for the boundaries, and that's okay,’” Dolan Dworak (12) said. “You can always look for them. I guess my forte has always been going to the edge of the cliff but never really jumping off. It's very relieving to wake up and do exactly what you say you're going to do and be the exact person that you envision yourself to be.”

Humans of Harker: Dolan Dworak subverts expectations

by Zachary Hoffman, Reporter May 14, 2018

“It's actually kind of troubling how a lot of the most important things have been just impulsive and horribly unplanned,” Dolan Dworak (12) said of his high school career. He sat in the middle of...

The arpeggios of the snowflakes

The arpeggios of the snowflakes

by Tiffany Wong, News Editor May 14, 2018

Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” poses a formidable challenge to the first-year orchestral harpist. From the intricate passages of inversions to the agonizing six-movement wait before the ever-famous...

Aditi Khanna (10) waves a white scarf and shakes a rainstick to represent calling in the Spirit of the East, which represents air. Each student brought in visual representations of the element they were assigned to.

World Religions class recreates Native American ceremony

by Mahika Halepete, Winged Post Lifestyle Editor May 14, 2018

Six students gather outside Shah Hall and listen to the beat of an Indian drum, each calling out invocations to the four nature directions. "Go, take yourself wherever your spirit leads," world history...

“Even if I don’t have advice to give them, I listen to them,” Richa Bhattacharya (12) said. “My friend went through a really dark point of her life in the past, and she decided to trust me and talk to me, and I respect that and I honor that, and I still check up on her everyday, whether or not anything was wrong. I’ll just check up on her if something good or bad happened. I enjoy being a safe space for the people that I’m comfortable with.”

Humans of Harker: Richa Bhattacharya strengthens friendships through listening

by Vijay Bharadwaj, Winged Post News Editor May 11, 2018

“She was the first person outside my advisory to talk to me at Harker,” Kunal Bhandarkar (12) said. “I didn't show it, but I was kind of nervous about that day, and we were doing a ropes course,...

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