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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

“I did a lot of acting in elementary school," Millie Lin (12) said. "I had a lot of energy. Instead of standing in line, I’d be tapping my toes. I don’t know if I have as much energy now, but I do really like having philosophical discussions with people, or just talking with people in general. I think that’s where I use my energy.”

Humans of Harker: Millie Lin devotes her energy to discussions

by Vivian Jin & Melissa Kwan January 18, 2018

On one school meeting last October, Sumati Wadhwa (12) and Joel Morel (10) announced the achievements of the choir program. Photos and photos of Regional Honor Choir students appeared in quick succession,...

Members of Amnesty International Lauren Napier (12) and Isabella Spradlin (12) share details about the organization's club week next week. The club will be selling donuts and bagels before school on Jan. 23 and Jan. 25 as well as baked goods all week during lunch.

School meeting recap 1/17

by Anvi Banga, Aquila Asst. News Editor January 17, 2018

The next Shah Salon will take place on Jan. 24 in various history teachers’ rooms from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Professor Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University spoke about the economics of biomedical innovation...

"People look at my artwork, and then they look at me, and they're like, 'Oh, she's not taking anything seriously,'" Kaitlyn Nguyen (12) said. "But I feel like that's not the case. The meaning behind my art is more like, I don't take anything seriously, and that's the meaning."

Humans of Harker Video: Kaitlyn Nguyen injects her personality into her art

January 17, 2018

This is the first 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.

“If you see a problem around you, it's important to question and inquire into how you can address this issue if you're interested in it,” Amy Jin (12) said. “I did a small home research project where I was looking around my backyard and I noticed some weird spots on my tangerine tree in my backyard, and so I did some research, and I realized that plant diseases and blights are really impacting the agricultural sector and the economy and that professionals still rely on naked-eye observation, so it can be pretty inaccurate. I kind of turned to computer science — as I often do in my research projects — and tried to think of a way to apply what I knew to address this problem, so I developed a machine learning algorithm that automatically classifies and detects plant diseases. So that was just like a fun thing that I did one break.”

Humans of Harker: Amy Jin explores intersecting fields

by Rose Guan, Wingspan senior staff writer and designer January 16, 2018

Sixth graders are not a common sight at the upper school’s annual Research Symposium; you’re more likely to see high school students presenting posters about their research at the event. But when Amy...

Is a massive earthquake coming to California?

Is a massive earthquake coming to California?

by Varsha Rammohan, Reporter January 16, 2018

The familiar yet alarming sense of the ground shaking instills in me a sense of panic and fright. I immediately search my surroundings and find cover underneath my desk, hiding there until the shaking...

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri walks the line between traditional film genres against the backdrop of social issues relevant in today's society. The implications of the portrayal of social issues in film should be considered in the context of a movie's themes and narrative.

Media Matters: Comedic tragedies should avoid the token inclusion of social issues

by Adrian Chu, Columnist January 15, 2018

Martin McDonagh’s black comedy, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” is about revenge, but in its 1 hour and 55 minutes runtime, the movie also covers no less than rape, racism in the criminal...

Humans of Harker: Emily Chen distinguishes between art and reality

by Tiffany Wong, Aquila News Editor January 13, 2018

The jigsaw puzzle of life consists of an infinite number of pieces packaged in a box with no image to guide whoever attempts to complete it. But Emily Chen (12) intends to solve it anyways. Through the...

Megan Cardosi (12) and Neha Premkumar (11) buy from Harker Horizon members outside Manzanita during lunch on Friday. The research journal held its club week this week, fundraising for their costs of print publication and inDesign licenses.

Harker Horizon holds club week

by Sahana Srinivasan, Winged Post Editor-in-Chief January 12, 2018

Harker Horizon, the upper school’s student-run research journal, sold baked goods during lunch and after school for their club week to fundraise for publishing costs and inDesign licenses. Set up...

Upper school instrumental music teacher Chris Florio conducts the upper school orchestra during today's Winter Concert. The group performed “Scherzo à La Russe,” by Igor Stravinsky, “Má Vlast” and “Vltava” by Bedřich Smetana, “Night on Bald Mountain” by Modest Mussorgsky, “Russian Easter Festival Overture” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Arturo Márquez’s “Danzón No. 2.”

Upper and middle school groups perform in annual Winter Concert

by Arushi Saxena, Reporter January 12, 2018

The upper school orchestra, lab band and jazz band as well as the middle school orchestra and jazz band performed in the annual Winter Concert held at the De Anza Performing Arts Center on Friday night....

Silicon Valley has become a symbol both of the fruitful employ of science and the fruitless pursuit of pseudoscience. The symbolism of silicon itself exemplifies this duality: the semiconductors that lent the Valley its name, and the quartz crystals that some impute mystical powers to.

Silicon Valley’s pseudoscientific guilty pleasures

by Derek Yen, Winged Post Opinion Editor January 12, 2018

A piece recently published by the New York Times describes a new trend of “raw water,” or water that has not been filtered, sterilized, or at all treated since being sourced from springs. Proponents...

“I use the word 'fun' a lot to describe debate, and what that means is kind of a mystery even to me," Jacob Ohana (12) said. "Debate's definitely not a universally agreed upon fun thing. You just get four teenagers in a room to talk really fast at each other for a while, and then somebody wins. For me, most of the fun of debate isn't the the actual debating, it's doing the research about it. Last year's topic was engagement with China... I learned a surprisingly large amount about nuclear arms control agreements.”

Humans of Harker: Jacob Ohana backs up his arguments

by Anvi Banga & Melissa Kwan January 12, 2018

According to Mona Lee (12), senior Jacob Ohana “dresses like an economist.” That is to say, he wears nondescript khaki pants with a convenient T-shirt — often free swag from an economics competition....

Youtuber Logan Paul posted a video of himself apologizing after filming a man's suicide in the Aokigahara forest in Japan.

Logan Paul faces backlash for Aokigahara forest clip

by Prameela Kottapalli, Winged Post Features Editor January 11, 2018

The Paul brothers took the internet world by storm last year as a pair of Vine-app born celebrities who simultaneously surrounded themselves with simmering controversy as well as a plethora of dedicated...

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