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

Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor

Ruhi Sayana (10) is a copy editor for the Winged Post. This is her second year on staff since she was a reporter last year. Her favorite part is deadline nights and spending time with the rest of the staff. Outside of journalism, Ruhi enjoys sleeping and spending time with friends.

All content by Ruhi Sayana
Five places in the Bay Area to visit this summer

Five places in the Bay Area to visit this summer

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
May 31, 2017
DIY Burger: The Counter

DIY Burger: The Counter

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
April 18, 2017
Pitcher Varun Haltore (12) prepares to throw a pitch. Varsity boys baseball lost 0-4 against Mills High School

Varsity baseball loses game 0-4 to Mills High School

by Ruhi Sayana and Nicole Chen
April 11, 2017
Science of Sleep: Brain activity levels during sleep and the importance of rest

Science of Sleep: Brain activity levels during sleep and the importance of rest

by Ruhi Sayana and Tiffany Wong
March 28, 2017
So you wanna be a violinist?

So you wanna be a violinist?

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
March 28, 2017
“Star Trek has this one episode with a doomsday device. They hypothesize it's from an undiscovered galaxy or part of the universe, and considering how destructive it is, it's also likely that those who created it no longer exist. There's the obvious commentary on potential nuclear holocausts, but it kind of also makes you think about consequences of your actions. Also, there's something that people just think is haunting and beautiful about an advanced civilization being lost like that," Lauren Liu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Lauren Liu enjoys reading web comics

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
February 7, 2017
“Foreign languages increase your scope of communication. It’s the ability to communicate with other people that are from different parts of the world that is interesting for me. I think when you want to learn about someone else’s culture, and if you’re able to do so in their language, rather than conversing in English, that makes it a lot more powerful,” Aditi Maheshwari (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Aditi Maheshwari explores different languages

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
February 1, 2017
Global Reset: Holocene Extinction threatens biodiversity

Global Reset: Holocene Extinction threatens biodiversity

by Nicole Chen and Ruhi Sayana
January 29, 2017
Pieology: DIY Pizza

Pieology: DIY Pizza

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
January 24, 2017
Trump selects key cabinet members

Trump selects key cabinet members

by Ruhi Sayana and Anika Rajamani
January 24, 2017
People at a bank line up to exchange or deposit their 500 and 1,000 rupee notes. People are limited to withdrawing 2,000 rupees in cash each week.

Indian government demonetizes 500- and 1,000- rupee notes

by Nicole Chen and Ruhi Sayana
January 24, 2017
“My New Year’s Resolution is to be more organized.” - Eric Kallbrier

Talk Around Campus: What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
January 15, 2017
“See 100 new mammal species that I haven’t observed this year.” - Venkat Sankar (12)

“I’m not going to procrastinate in second semester, or so I tell myself.” - Divija Bhimaraju (11)

“To try to study for tests for once.” - Jay Bahri (9)

“A general resolution for me for 2017 is to be more hardworking and procrastinate less.” - Christie Chen (10)

Creepy clown reports have surfaced across the U.S. in at least 39 different states since August, including California. Although some incidents were discovered to be hoaxes, others were found to be real threats and have led to arrests and, in some cases, the closure of school districts.

Creepy clown sightings surface through the nation

by Ruhi Sayana, Angele Yang
November 18, 2016

Green Politics: Clinton’s and Trump’s stances on scientific topics

by Ruhi Sayana and Tiffany Wong
November 18, 2016
Brando Pakel (11) dribbles the ball down the court.

Boys basketball kicks off season with scrimmage against Evergreen Valley High School

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
November 15, 2016
The 2016 leadership team of TEDxHarkerSchool poses for a photo. The event took place on Saturday, Oct. 15

TEDx features Silicon Valley professionals

by Ruhi Sayana and Angele Yang
October 16, 2016
A meme created by Prameela Kotapalli (10). The tagging and creation of memes has spread to many Harker students through social media sites.

Upswing in meme tagging sweeps social media

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
October 11, 2016
Kate Chow (11) performs a backflip into the depths of the swimming pool. The team placed first at the Union Americana de Natación (UANA) Pan American Synchronized Swimming Championship in Puerto Rico from Sept. 1 to 4.

Kate Chow ranks first with USA Synchro Team at synchronized swimming championships

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
October 9, 2016
Thurber presents an analogy regarding the “yolk” of an egg while emphasizing the importance of mindset. The main focus of yesterday’s assembly was mental health.

Psychologist discusses mental health at school assemblies

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
September 13, 2016
Head of School Christopher Nikoloff speaks to the students at the matriculation ceremony. The matriculation ceremony took place on Aug. 19.

Freshman class welcomed during matriculation ceremony

by Ruhi Sayana, Winged Post Copy Editor
August 29, 2016
Students donate old AP books in the nHS book drive box from a few years ago. NHS began hosting a book drive this week.

National Honor Society Hosts Book Drive During AP Weeks

by Ruhi Sayana, Reporter
May 7, 2016
The boys huddle during a timeout in the game. They played a non-conference match against Pacific Collegiate on April 13.

Boys volleyball sweeps league with a 9-0 record

by Ruhi Sayana and Ria Gupta
May 4, 2016
Club coordinator Eric Kallbrier speaks to club officers in a leadership meeting. Under the new pilot bell schedule, a new period was introduced for club meetings on Thursdays.

Bell schedule leads to club changes

by Ruhi Sayana, Reporter
January 27, 2016
Members of varsity dance perform during the Santana Row Tree Lighting Ceremony. The girls danced to an upbeat big band version of “Jingle Bells.”

Performing arts light up Santana Row

by Aneesha Kumar and Ruhi Sayana
November 28, 2015
Liana Wang (10) leaps during a varsity dance routine at the Santana Row tree lighting ceremony. The ceremony took place last Tuesday.

Performing arts light up Santana Row

by Aneesha Kumar and Ruhi Sayana
November 21, 2015
Head of School Nikoloff addresses students during the first seminar in the “Who Are You?” series, held in the Main conference room at long lunch on Wednesday. The students explored the topics of connections between the body and mind and what consists of “self.”

Nikoloff presents first talk in the “Who Are You” series

by Ruhi Sayana, Reporter
November 5, 2015
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