The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
"Every time I go up there for a school meeting, my heart rate genuinely reaches. It doesn't get any easier. It's just a matter of how you deal with that anxiety. It's kind of like spice. Everybody feels spice the same because it's technically pain, but some people get more used to it, so they like pain. For me, that happened through a series of announcements that I was pushed into making," senior Samhita Parupudi said.
Humans of Harker: Announcements spark action
Humans of Harker: Curiosity in choice
Humans of Harker: Curiosity in choice
Humans of Harker: Training teamwork
Humans of Harker: Training teamwork
Humans of Harker: Keys to creativity
Humans of Harker: Keys to creativity
Humans of Harker: Pirouettes meet practicality 
Humans of Harker: Pirouettes meet practicality 
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
Mala Raghavan appreciates the chemistry behind traditional recipes, blending the two together to achieve her cooking goals. "Students often bring in complicated formulas to determine limiting reagents, but the limiting reactant is simply the ingredient that runs out first and limits how much product you can make — just like in a recipe," Dr. Raghavan said.

Meet your staff: Finding chemistry in traditional recipes

by Sam Li and William Jiang • March 26, 2025

When chemistry teacher Mala Raghavan sprinkles powdered cumin seeds into hot oil, she’s applying scientific principles that extend far beyond the kitchen. The crushed seeds create surfaces from which...

Members of the national collective Raging Grannies sang songs outside a Palo Alto Tesla showroom. They denounced Elon Musks’s proposed cuts to social security.

“Honk if you hate Musk”: Palo Alto protesters rally outside Tesla showroom

by Lily Shi, Nathan Yee, and Disha Gupta • March 26, 2025

Dozens gathered outside a Tesla showroom to denounce sweeping federal cuts to social programs like Social Security and Medicare proposed by presidential advisor Elon Musk and the Department of Government...

Trump's administration aims to decrease funding to the Department of Education. “If funding for county offices is cut, it's our students who are the most vulnerable," Santa Clara County Board of Education member Tara Sreekrishnan said.

Pulse of the People: Debate and doubt over the Department of Education

by Elizabeth Zhang, Assistant Features Editor • March 21, 2025

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education on Thursday. Although Trump can’t lawfully dismantle a federal agency without first going through Congress, he...

Senior Navya Samuel strikes the ending pose in the seniors’ dance to “Badtameez Dil.” Bollywood night performances included dance, singing and instrumental covers.

Bollywood night unites community for performances and festivity

by Chelsea Xie, Assistant News Editor • March 21, 2025

Whether through theater, technical production, teaching or cooking, Larsen remains committed to storytelling and actively engaging curious minds. "By staying very connected to and focused on the kids that are coming through the program, it continues to be exciting because different people bring different skill sets," Larsen said.

Meet your staff: Bringing stories to life

by Tiffany Zhu and Minal Jalil • March 4, 2025

Above the bustling Elizabethan-costumed crowd, an over six-foot-tall high schooler takes in the bright sights and sounds. Students’ laughter and live orchestral music echo through the air. On this trip...

Point guard Jillian Chen (9) drives to the basket to set up a shot. The Eagles' strong offensive start allowed them to jump to an early lead.

Varsity girls basketball suffers 51-54 loss against Menlo in CCS final, earns second place

by Emma Milner, Eva Cheng, Ashley Mo, and Suhani Gupta • March 4, 2025

Varsity girls basketball narrowly lost to Menlo 51-54 in the CCS Division IV final on Mar. 1 at Mission College.

Guard Isabella Lo (12) receives posters, flowers and plushies during varsity girls basketball senior night. After the game against Eastside concluded, the seniors took photos with their friends to celebrate their last home game of their high school careers.

Varsity girls basketball demolishes Eastside College Prep 57-15 on senior night

by Jessica Wang and Kairui Sun • February 23, 2025

Varsity girls basketball beat Eastside College Prep 57-15 in the Zhang Gymnasium on Feb. 18 in their last home league game of the season.  Before tipoff, head coach Daniza Rodriguez honored seniors...

Varsity girls soccer draws Notre Dame San Jose 0-0 on senior night

Varsity girls soccer draws Notre Dame San Jose 0-0 on senior night

by Eva Cheng and Tiffany Zhu • February 18, 2025

Varsity girls soccer battled to a 0-0 stalemate against Notre Dame San Jose on Friday during their senior night game on Davis Field.  Seniors Claire Anderson, Kylie Anderson, Gia Emelie and Sara Glusman...

Seniors Ian Gerstner, Steven Jiang and Nikhil Pesati boast posters during the ceremony. Although Senior Daniel Chen was unable to attend, Ian and Steven carried his posters for him.

Varsity boys soccer conquers Pinewood 2-1 on senior night

by Eva Cheng and Tiffany Zhu • February 15, 2025

A street vendor sells Lunar New Year mementos at a stall. San Francisco hosts a parade and festival annually.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year

by Heather Wang, Charlie Wang, and Cynthia Xie • February 12, 2025

Many students and teachers are concerned about job security, career prospects and overall stability of the computer science industry. “We're still at the infancy of AI, but it does seem like a pivotal time,” computer science teacher Marina Peregrino said.

Decoding computer science’s future

by Claire Tian, Ashley Mo, and Jonathan Xue • February 10, 2025

Claire Cheng (12), one of this year's student choreographers, dances to "Fever" by Peggy Lee. Harker’s annual show highlighted over 130 students and nine student choreographers on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in the Patil Theater.

Love takes center stage at Harker’s annual dance production

by Young Min and Cynthia Xie • February 7, 2025

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