The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
Humans of Harker: Balance and drive
Humans of Harker: Balance and drive
“I like having to face challenges and then being able to overcome the challenges. I like it when there's a technical difficulty or there is a task that seems impossible, such as getting the robots to do monkey bars, but then as you work with a group of people and you think about it, you find a solution that seems feasible," Akul Goyal ('25) said.
Humans of Harker: The light in the circuit
“Being part of water polo has made me more disciplined. Part of it is for personal gain, but I also get more joy from helping others than helping myself. Water polo has a major team component that drives me to work harder to both benefit myself and also the team members I’ve known for so long," Oskar Baumgarte ('25) said.
Humans of Harker: Making waves
Humans of Harker: From theorems to tools
Humans of Harker: From theorems to tools
Humans of Harker: Singing with sincerity
Humans of Harker: Singing with sincerity
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
Upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine assists Arturo Vilalta (10) with the paper chromatography lab. Students determined which M&M flavors contained yellow #5 using chromatography.

Honors Chemistry students sweeten science with M&M chromatography

by Ashley Mo, Assistant STEM Editor • March 8, 2024

Honors Chemistry students conducted a paper chromatography lab using colored dye from M&Ms to determine which flavors contained the synthetic food dye Tartrazine, also known as “Yellow #5,” over...

William Chen '03 lectures to Green Team about sustainable farming on Stanford's O’Donohue Educational Farm. Besides talking about his own experiences, Chen also discussed the harmful effects of pesticides and herbicides, the benefits of eating organic foods, and ways to support sustainable farming.

Green Team speaker highlights methods and mission behind sustainable farming

by Victor Gong and Ashley Mo • March 6, 2024

Green Team invited Harker alum William Chen ‘03 to present on sustainable farming on Monday. Chen is the facility and production coordinator at Stanford’s O’Donohue Educational Farm and has previously...

WiSTEM members prepare to start the AI workshop on Feb. 23. Volunteers discussed logistics like screen sharing and changes in the Google Slides before the workshop.

WiSTEM shares STEM knowledge in TechGirlz AI workshop

by Ashley Mo and Mendy Mao • March 6, 2024

Women in STEM Club hosted a virtual TechGirlz AI workshop about AI algorithms and applications on Feb. 2 from 4-6 p.m. and on Feb. 23 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. WiSTEM members led the event, and 26 girls...

Studies conducted by white scientists on unknowning minority communities imprinted long-lasting distrust for medical instituions. Such studies include those conducted on the Havasupai Indians and Black men in the Tuskegee experiment.

Culture of negligence: Flaws in minorities’ healthcare persist

by Hima Thota, Co-Features Editor • February 29, 2024

Medicine in the United States stands as an exemplar for medical breakthroughs throughout the global medical community. But underneath the history of the United States’ success in medicine lies the systematic...

Light pollution mutes the sky over Los Angeles. “When you have city artificial lighting in the area, it brightens the night sky, just like the sun brightens the sky and turns it into day,” astronomy teacher Dr. Eric Nelson said.

Global Reset: Where have all the stars gone?

by Jonathan Xue and Ashley Mo • February 23, 2024

Far above the Earth we inhabit lies an infinite abyss, scattered with universes undiscovered and galaxies unexplored. Through our night sky, we capture a fleeting glimpse of this world sublime, a window...

Illustration by Emily Tan and Claire Zhao. Design by Victor Gong.

STEM Scene: Feb. 22

by Mihir Kotbagi and Claire Zhao • February 22, 2024

Brendon Hayes (11) holds a warm mug. With extreme cold climates in recent times, warm drinks have become more and more popular ways to warm up.

Stirring the science behind hot beverages

by Victor Gong and Kevin Zhang • February 21, 2024

Raindrops roll down the pane of windows, pitter-pattering along the streets and sidewalks. Heavy winds rush through the darkened skies, howling at every turn. Trees lie barren. Animals scurry away to shelter....

The Apple Vision Pro carries hyper-immersive experiences to the world of virtual reality. The headset released to all Apple stores on Feb. 2.

Apple of your eye: Vision Pro surges into the metaverse

by Victor Gong and Mihir Kotbagi • February 20, 2024

Apple’s newest virtual reality headset, the Vision Pro, released in all Apple stores on Feb. 2. Priced at $3,499, the headset projects a stylistic digital screen right in front of users, allowing them...

COVID-19 continues to mutate into new variants like the most recent JN.1 strain and remains especially active during the respiratory virus season from fall to winter. Updated vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax that came out in fall 2023 are effective against newer variants, and CDC safety precautions have largely stayed the same since last year.

Keeping up with COVID-19

by Mendy Mao and Jeremy Peng • February 9, 2024

As we slog through another respiratory virus season, COVID-19 is no longer the main topic of discussion. Instead, the nation seems to have collectively moved on, despite the dangers the virus still poses....

Synthetic opioids, notably fentanyl, pose nearly double the risk of death compared to prescription opioids such as morphine, codeine and thebaine. The low cost and high potency of fentanyl make it an appealing substance for mixing with heroin and other illegal drugs easily.

Scientists anticipate a fourth wave of opioid crisis

by Disha Gupta, Asst. Opinions Editor • February 9, 2024

Imagine pulling out a dull pencil, trekking over to the sharpener and watching the machine distill the lead into a sharp tip. Now, picture delicate crystal specks one-fourth the size of this minuscule...

From Chatbots that answer questions and write papers, to programs that mimic the voices of popular celebrities, original works face the risk of replacement as AI begins to fill every facet of our everyday lives.

Deep dive into AI

by Charlize Wang, Jonathan Xue, Ella Yee, and Claire Yu • February 7, 2024

Psych club officer Varun Thvar (11) leads a virtual speaker session featuring Dr. Matcheri Keshavan, a neuroscientist who works at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston. Dr. Keshavan educated Psych Club members on the different parts of the brain.

STEM Spotlight: Psychology Club

by Ashley Mo, Reporter • February 3, 2024

Psychology Club, led by president Daphne Avkarogullari (12), covers topics such as cognitive, social and clinical psychology. The club aims to introduce Harker students to the world of psychology through...

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