The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“Working on Roobi has taught me how to bounce back from failures, and that problems need to be addressed one bit at a time because you can't just tackle huge goals. I learned to not be afraid of failure because every failure is a step towards success. I try not to look back and wish I could change something because I can't. It's the past. Instead, I look forward," senior Daniel Dorfman said.
Humans of Harker: Steeped for success
“With volleyball and Medical Club, I love working with people. I get to work with people who aren't necessarily in my classes or aren't my friends specifically, but we get to work hard and work together towards a common goal. That collaboration aspect is really important to me," senior Navya Samuel said.
Humans of Harker: Cooperation through competition
“Human connection is very important to staying grounded and stable. The people around me are one of the reasons that I'm not fully burnt out, so I really prioritize keeping a good schedule for myself. Being able to prioritize the things in life that give me internal satisfaction is important to me because that's what allows me to have the drive to do good with the rest of my time. Talking to people is a way for me to replenish," senior Kashish Priyam said.
Humans of Harker: Pep in every step
“It's very important to make sure the people in your life know they're important to you. Whether that's doing small acts of kindness or just being there whenever they need you, having a really strong support system is what gets you through life, and it's a really valuable life skill to have," Sofie Marino (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Pillar of support
“My karate teachers emphasize that as black belts, we should be living up to the standard of our rank and acting as an example for the students who are lower-ranked.' When I’m helping out and someone messes up, I don't necessarily say, ‘You did this wrong, try to do this.’ I take a more relaxed approach and act out what they did a little comically. It's finding the balance between being strict and being more playful with the students," senior Claire Perng said.
Humans of Harker: Playing with purpose
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
Campus Weekly News
School Meeting
HarkerDev member Demi Zheng (10) and Green Team officer Elaine Zou (10) perform a skit to introduce Swap&Share, a free textbook trading app for students. They invited students to test and give feedback for the app with a possible $25 gift card reward.
School Meeting 12/5: Tri-M, Hoscars auditions and Swap&Share
by Samuel Tong and Caden Ruan

Head of Upper School Paul Barsky began the school meeting on Thursday by encouraging students to visit artist-in-residence Connie Zheng’s exhibit,...

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ASB Outreach Committee member Avi Gupta (9) speaks about the sock drive. He thanked the community for donating donating over 2,000 pairs of socks, with the class of 2027 donating 1,369 pairs.
School Meeting 11/22: Winter Wishes, De-stress Week and sock drive
by Claire Xu and Wenjie Zou
Kallie Wang (11), Neel Kumar (10) and Pascal Qin (10) announce the upcoming Harker Physics Invitational. Winners can receive up to $1000 in cash.
School Meeting 11/12: Honor Council, Bookopoly and Capriccio
by Sam Li and Cynthia Xie
Community Events Secretaries Kairui Sun (11) and Robinson Xiang (11) remind students and faculty to enter photos to the Halloween costume contest. The categories of the contest were best duo, best group, scariest, funniest and most creative.
School Meeting 10/31: DECA, Shakespeare and LIFE Board badminton tournament
by Heather Wang
ASB Treasurer Ananya Pradhan (11) explains the school's fundraising policies. She noted that the school does not provide direct reimbursements to students hosting fundraisers.
School Meeting 10/24: HELM, Afghan Refugee Fundraiser and lockdown protocol
by Emma Li and Claire Tian
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Tune into Conversations
Club Corner
JCL Co-President Ainslie Chen (12) explains the mythological inaccuracies in the movie "Clash of the Titans." Ainslie highlighted how movies often distort classical myths to appeal to modern audiences.
Club Corner: Junior Classical League discusses mythological inaccuracies in cinema
by Lily Peng and William Jiang • December 8, 2024

Junior Classical League (JCL) hosted its first lecture of the year on the fallacies of classical mythology depictions in the movies “Hercules,”...

LALC officer Raeanne Li (10) listens to Dr. Allen Romano's talk about language models. Raeanne organized the speaker event and moderated the audience questions and discussion.
Club Corner: Language and Linguistics Club hosts speaker event on language models
by Claire Tian and Lily Peng
Sophomores Saahithi Koneru and Joyce He write letters to individuals currently in jail. Amnesty International planned to mail the letters to the victims as a sign of support and to advocate for their release.
Club Corner: Amnesty Club counteracts censorship by writing letters of support
by Lily Peng, Reporter
Aarush Vailaya presented his research on chromatic symmetric functions during lunch on Oct. 3. He introduced the concept of “coloring” in algebraic graph theory.
Club Corner: Math Club delves into math research
by Caden Ruan and Wenjie Zou
Founder of Wushu Central Martial Arts Academy David Chang shares his entrepreneurial story with students in the Innovation Center on Monday. The event kicked off CareerConnect C-Sweets series, where students learn from various successful entrepreneurs while snacking on sweets.
Club Corner: CareerConnect hosts martial arts entrepreneur
by Lily Shi, Co-News Editor
Global
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine rallies global leaders for support in his country’s grueling war against Russia at the 2024 U.N. General Assembly on Sep. 25. Besides his official address, Zelensky wanted to sell what he calls his “victory plan”, a strategy to secure Ukraine’s victory on their terms, to Western leaders and especially President Biden.
Zelensky urges western support in ongoing war with Russia
by Charlize Wang and Lily Shi • October 10, 2024

As the Russia-Ukraine war rages on after more than two years, Western involvement in the war has become critical to its outcome. Despite the...

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Finland's Foreign Affairs Minister Pekka Haavisto, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Sweden's Foreign Affairs Minister Ann Linde speak during a press conference following the two countries' signing of accession protocols to NATO. While NATO admitted Finland in nine months, Sweden was beset by obstacles that delayed its accession by another year.
Global Headlines (March 2024)
by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
The Panama Canal Authority cut traffic through the canal indefinitely by 36% on Jan. 17, leading to global shipping delays. An ongoing El Niño exacerbated the drought in Panama. (Provided by statemag.state.gov)
Severe drought in Panama slashes traffic in canal by a third
by Jonathan Szeto, Assistant News Editor
French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a speech to Congress about the relations between France and the United States in 2018. Macron chose Gabriel Attal as France's new Prime Minister on Jan. 9. (Provided by house.gov)
Global Headlines (January 2024)
by Aryana Bharali and Ella Guo
The Japan Self-Defense Forces scout around a damaged road, looking for an evacuation route, in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa on Jan. 6. "Some people who don't live in the area would like to help, but they don't welcome trucks or food because the roads are destroyed," Japanese teacher Noriyo Ikeda said. (Provided by the Japanese Ministry of Defense)
7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Japan on New Year’s Day
by Jessica Hu, Assistant Copy Editor
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Annie Yu (9) leans over a pumpkin, examining it carefully. The frosh's pumpkin carving ended up in third place.
Assistant to Upper School Division Head Michelle Martinez holds up a book at Book Blog's table outside Nichols Hall. Martinez manages logistics for Cake Friday each month.
Aquila Weekly Wrap-Up: Oct. 19-25
Panelist Rowena Tomaneng shares her unique perspective on reproductive rights in the context of higher education. She emphasized the importance of educating people about these rights in higher education institutions.
What's on my ballot?
Sophomores Megha Unny and Sophia Zhu laugh while chatting in the quad. Students relaxed outside to take a break from dancing and play cornhole or foosbal.
Sophomores Grace Fu and Adrian Roufas laugh as they shuffle through pumpkins. Both of them bought pumpkins for themselves, with Grace choosing a small orange one and Adrian selecting a mushroom-shaped one.
Joiner, a fashion content creator with a following of over 850,000 across YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, identified authenticity as a key trait to achieving his platform. He was one of three speakers, joined by Mike Wallz and Savya Agarwal.
Aquila Weekly Wrap-Up: Oct. 12-18
Sophomore Dhanya Ramanan speaks about her coming out story. She recounted how accepted she felt and encouraged the Harker community to treat people coming out in the same way.
Sophomore Samaara Patil takes a picture of the San Francisco Giants 2012 World Series Ring. The Giants have won three World Series titles: in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
Aquila Weekly Wrap-Up: Oct. 5-11
Senior Rishi Lalwani enters his ballot in the mock election. AP U.S. Government students took shifts manning the polling booths during their class period.
Two Harker Day attendees play with slime at a booth in Nichols Hall. Nichols featured a variety of different booths to engage with students and parents.
A table of alumni chats during the class of 2004's reunion on Saturday. This year's Harker Day marked the class of 2004's 20-year reunion.
Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice Policy and Legal Services Manager J Vasquez argues for voting in favor of Proposition 6. The ballot measure would prohibit involuntary labor as a punishment in California prisons.
CIRCLE OF 2025: Senior Sam Parupudi hoists a stuffed animal in a "Lion King" recreation. For Homecoming week, each class was themed around an animation studio: Disney for the seniors, Universal Studios for the juniors, Nickelodeon for the sophmores and PBS Kids for the frosh.
Mathematics department chair Anthony Silk holds up his whiteboard when asked how many hours he prepares for classes. Silk and math teacher Anu Aiyer competed against history teachers James Tate and Jonathan Rim in the Newlyfriend game.
Sophmores Ryan Miao, Yash Belani and Brandon Labio attempt to stop sliding forwards during their match against the seniors. In a pre-match huddle, they practiced their pulling tempo.
Kairui Sun (11) takes a photo of math teacher Caren Furtado and a group of her students. HSLT co-community event secretaries walked around campus during lunch with a mock film frame, inviting students to pose for pictures.
Aquila Weekly Wrap-Up: Sept. 21-27
Seniors Aaron Bao, Robert Fields, Rumi Gupta and Kashish Priyam sing at the karaoke booth. Spirit Night also allowed the classes to finish painting their eagles.
Anya Mukherjee (10) hands the microphone of to Chief Evangelist of Pegasus Tech Ventures Bill Reichert. The Startup World Cup planning team also invited the founder and CEO of Poshmark Manish Chandra, who spoke as a keynote speaker.
Senior Navya Samuel plays with her Eagle Buddy group on Davis Field. Students had the option to interact with their Buddies on the field, as well as tour the upper school campus.
Humans of Harker staff presented at JEA NorCal Media Day on Saturday. They discussed the process of creating Humans of Harker and how such projects could be started in other schools.
Journalism Editors-in-Chief line up after the end of their presentation. They discussed leadership strategies and challenges during their session.
Harker journalism staff members, Director of Journalism Whitney Huang and Talon Yearbook Adviser Kevin Oliver pose in front of the Palo Alto Media Arts Center after sessions conclude for the day. Workshop topics ranged from local election coverage and student media law to understanding design.
TALON photo editor Ram Batchu (11) discusses framing techniques while analyzing a photo taken by an attendee. Participants took 15 minutes to capture scenes from the convention, after which journalism photo editors critiqued their photos.
Section editors Suhani Gupta (11), Jessica Hu (11) and Mendy Mao (11) oversee the creation of shoutouts during the session. Attendees wrote messages on colorful paper that they could then address to a person of their choosing.
CareerConnect co-presidents Jia Jia Jiang (12) and Emily Mitnick (12) announce upcoming field-trip events. Some of the locations included the Giants Stadium and Fortinet.
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