The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“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
“I have the ability to convey my opinions and ideas through art, which in my opinion, is the most powerful tool I have because not everyone has it. It requires me to, first of all, have an opinion or thought, and second of all, be able to convey it with this medium. Together, that is the strongest calling for an artist," senior Eva Li said.
Humans of Harker: Artistry in abstraction
"I like challenging myself to really, really high expectations and then surprisingly, somehow it works, and I think I have the most fun doing that. Rather than making a beginner thing, I wanna be the best .I wanna do the craziest thing first," senior Gabe Li said.
Humans of Harker: B-roll to your beat
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
Andrew Liang

Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor

Andrew Liang (11) is the co-news editor for Harker Aquila and the Winged Post, and this is his third year on staff. This year, Andrew wishes to consistently output timely news stories and make them more interesting for everyone to read. Outside of Journalism, he likes to code, play chess, and listen to classical music.

All content by Andrew Liang
Humans of Harker: Coding with care

Humans of Harker: Coding with care

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
May 23, 2024
“I've always been interested in science, but chemistry in particular appeals to me because it's one of the more intuitive subjects. In chemistry, you can design experiments and then witness stuff that you actually hope to see," Gautam Bhooma (12) said.

Humans of Harker: From ligands to languages

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
May 13, 2024
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
March 26, 2024
Riya Samuel (9) claps for the frosh class as they participate in a family feud competition. The senior class came out on top, followed by the sophomores, juniors and the frosh.

School Meeting 11/14: campus cat ‘Tony,’ Honor week and Family Feud

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
November 24, 2023
Model United Nations (MUN) officers and new club members gather in Shah Hall to go over MUN procedures before beginning mock conferences on Sept. 22. “I liked seeing the unique ideas and interpretations of the prompts,” Director-General Marketing: Social Media Sophia Ou (10) said. “The discussions were nice to witness, and the atmosphere was lively.”

Harker Model United Nations club ushers in new school year with kickoff event

by Andrew Liang and Katie Tcheng
October 20, 2023
Upper school speech and debate chair Jenny Achten speaks to the frosh class about time management in the Auxiliary Gym on Sept. 22. “Think about yourself a little bit scientifically,” Achten said during the assembly. “Think, ‘What stresses me out and what helps me.’ Be really cognizant of those things.”

Be on-time and addiction-free: frosh and juniors attend first LIFE assemblies of school year

by Felix Chen and Andrew Liang
October 1, 2023
STEM Scene is Harker Aquila's STEM repeater focusing on current developments within the STEM world. This installation features five briefs.

STEM Scene: Sept. 12

by Victor Gong, Andrew Liang, and Claire Zhao
September 12, 2023
Audience members listen attentively to upper school science department head Anita Chetty during the non-RRI portion of the upper school's annual Synopsys information meeting. Chetty went over Harker's project selection guidelines as well as key dates.

Upper school hosts Synopsys meeting on science fair guidelines

by Andrew Liang and Tiffany Zhu
September 10, 2023
A Nigerien woman holds up a sign reading "we don't want a coup anymore". A military junta overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, making Niger the latest in a series of coups. (Provided by editorials.voa.gov)

Global Headlines (Issue 1)

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
August 23, 2023
"I was running through some of my lessons with my teachers, and I asked them, 'When does somebody stop taking lessons? When will somebody stop trying to explore music?' They responded, 'When it stops being fun,'" Vishal Rohra ('23) said.

Humans of Harker: Composed of compassion

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
May 29, 2023
"I expect the rocket to break on the first try. But with projects like these, the final test is just something at the end you do to see if it works. The main takeaway is the experience of building it. If it lands, that’s wonderful, but if it doesn’t, everything I’ve learned from the project is still there," Grant Sims (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Engineering dreams

by Andrew Liang, Co-News Editor
May 13, 2023
Sheena Vaswani ('04) discovered her interest in dentistry as early as high school. “I realized that dentistry was a marriage between my interests, and I didn't necessarily have to give up the artistic side of things,” Vaswani said.

Blooming from the STEM: Artistry in dentistry

by Andrew Liang and Sidak Sanghari
March 13, 2023
An illustration representing the process of nuclear fusion. In December, researchers completed the first nuclear fusion experiment yielding an energy surplus.

Nuclear fusion: Powering a brighter future

by Victor Gong and Andrew Liang
March 2, 2023

Photo Slideshow Jan. 24

by Tiffany Chang, Steven Jiang, Andrew Liang, Heidi Lu, Desiree Luo, Kinnera Mulam, Lavanya Subramanian, Jessica Tang, Katie Wang, Selina Xu, Alison Yang, Grant Yang, Medha Yarlagadda, Kevin Zhang, and Sally Zhu
February 9, 2023
President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shake hands at the North American Leaders’ Summit. Biden and Trudeau joined Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the summing from Jan. 9 to Jan. 10 in Mexico City.

Global Headlines (Issue 4)

by Andrew Liang and Isabella Lo
February 2, 2023
Cassie May (12) prepares to receive the ball from a Harker teammate. With less than 14 minutes left in the first half, Cassie managed to dribble past the Tigers’ defense and landed a powerful shot into the upper left corner of the opposing net for Harker’s first goal.

Varsity girls soccer team loses to Notre Dame-Belmont 1-3 in hard-fought match

by Victor Gong and Andrew Liang
January 21, 2023
Caden Ruan (9) dribbles the ball while on the offensive against University Prep. The Eagles defeated University Prep 63-22 on Tuesday.

Junior varsity boys basketball team crushes University Preparatory 63-22

by Alison Yang, Jessica Wang, and Andrew Liang
December 14, 2022
Aarav Borthakur (10) and Tanay Sharma (12) review the Solitaire lab from the AP Computer Science with Data Structures classes. The students completed the lab to better understand the implementation of the stack data structure.

Computer science students code Solitaire card game for in-class lab

by Andrew Liang, Assistant STEM Editor
November 25, 2022
Writer's Advocate club officers Sarah Mohammed (12), Felix Chen (10) and Sydney Ling (11) announce their Scholastic Writing workshop, which took place after school on Friday. Using a Google form, students sent in work they hoped to submit to the contest.

School meeting recap 11/9/22: Writer’s Advocate, lunch etiquette and Music from the Eastern Hemisphere

by Andrew Liang, Asst. STEM Editor
November 13, 2022
Silicon chip sale to China has been restricted with the CHIPS and Science Act passed by the Biden administration. “[The Biden administration] is doing this to buy time for the U.S. to get a large enough advance [so] that they can accomplish their strategic objectives, get whatever security threshold they want and maybe get some concessions [from China],” upper school history and social science teacher Matt McCorkle said.

US bars selling of certain chips to China amid rising tensions

by Andrew Liang, Assistant STEM Editor
November 13, 2022
Jason Shim (10) observes a beaker while participating in the AP Chemistry lab. Students in the classes created aspirin during a lab from Oct. 6 to Oct. 10.

Chemistry classes create aspirin for lab

by Andrew Liang and Kinnera Mulam
October 19, 2022
Emily Mitnick (10) tips a ball over the net in the varsity girls volleyball team's game on Thursday. The team defeated Eastside in three sets.

Varsity girls volleyball team triumphs over Eastside in three sets

by Felix Chen, Vika Gautham, Andrew Liang, and Aishani Singh
September 27, 2022
“What I want to do is something that helps make people, countries and organizations make the best choices for themselves, something where I’m able to provide a platform for people all around the world to thrive upon and succeed,” Laszlo Bollyky (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Keeper of the world

by Andrew Liang, Reporter
April 1, 2022
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