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
Smrithi Sambamurthy

Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Sports Editor

Smrithi Sambamurthy (12) is the sports editor of the TALON Yearbook, and this is her fourth year on staff. Smrithi aims to create fascinating graphics and photo content for her pages this year. In her free time, she likes to rewatch her favorite tv shows or nap.

All content by Smrithi Sambamurthy
"Even though high school can be daunting at Harker, don’t be afraid, and go out and do what you want to do. I was scared to try things at first: I didn’t try out for the DECA leadership team, I didn’t play football, and I didn’t hang out with the people that I wanted to hang out with. There’s a lot of things that I didn’t do because I was scared, and it took a pandemic for that to change for me. Don’t make that mistake. If you fall down, you’ll be able to get yourself back up," Rohan Gorti ('23) said.

Humans of Harker: ‘Tuff’ness in a touchdown

by Ananya Sriram, Winged Post Co-Managing Editor
May 30, 2023
“I started playing tennis when I was six years old. It's been a long time. I like being alone on the court with your thoughts and not having a game clock. You can always come back and win in tennis. There's no time limit. That's what got me really into it, and that's why I chose it over other sports,” Anushka Mehrotra (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Learning to ‘ace’ life

by Gabe Sachse, Asst. Sports Editor
March 22, 2023
“It's really challenging to go out on your own on the weekends and just research economics because it gets boring. One of the things that's helped me do that is understanding that it's a vast field, but the more effort I put in to understand what's going on, the better,” Indigo Lee (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Score big

by Janam Chahal, Reporter
March 16, 2023
“In baseball, you can get away with a fluke hit. In football, a quarterback can misread an assignment, but your wide receiver can still make a great play. But in golf, you can't really get away with anything because it's just you. You've got no one else to blame but yourself. A lot of times I don't want to take the blame for certain actions. Golf is a place where you can't not take the blame because nobody else played but you,” Freddy Hoch (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Adapting to the course

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Sports Editor
March 8, 2023
“It's really worth it because of the feeling when you get a big accomplishment. Whether that's in the form of funding, like that $20,000 we won, or whether it's just when you see today, 10 people ordered TuffToy toys, that's the feeling that keeps us motivated and keeps us wanting more. That's what makes it worth it, that feeling of accomplishment — whether it's big or small, it just feels good, because it's yours,” Arin Jain (12) said.

Humans of Harker: A philanthropic pawprint

by Sidak Sanghari, HoH Profiler
February 25, 2023
“I've had a lot of life experiences, good and bad, so I really try to help people as much as I can in situations where you need someone to talk to. I want people to remember how much I tried to help people and be there for others,” Nick Delfino (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Rounding the bases of success

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Sports Editor
February 11, 2023
This is the third installment of “Working Title,” a podcast where staff member Rachel Ning shares her thoughts on select films and the film industry. In this episode, Rachel discusses the hidden gem "The Double," a 2013 film, and its connection with the duality of man. 

Working Title: ‘The Double’ and the duality of man

by Rachel Ning, TALON Organizations Editor
May 2, 2022
This is the second installment of “Working Title,” a podcast where staff member Rachel Ning shares her thoughts on select films and the film industry. In this episode, Rachel speaks about and reacts to the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards yesterday. 

The slap heard around the world: Will Smith and Chris Rock’s altercation at the Academy Awards

by Rachel Ning, TALON Organizations Editor
March 28, 2022
"Toxic positivity is the idea that we have to force ourselves to be happy all the time. We think the best thing about life is being happy so we feel like we have to be happy all the time to live a satisfying life. But that's not the case, we can take life as it comes, both positive and negative, and it’ll be okay," Madeleine Hansen (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Behind the lens

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON People Editor
March 24, 2022
This is the first installment of “Working Title,” a podcast where TALON staff member Rachel Ning shares her thoughts, opinions and impressions of select films. In this episode, Rachel speaks about her top five winter break watches, including “West Side Story,” “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary” and “The Daytrippers.” 

Working Title, Episode 1

by Rachel Ning, TALON Organizations Editor
February 11, 2022
"[Painting] makes you feel like you're the only person in the world. The idea that I could do it for fun for myself has been the reason I like getting into it. [It’s] the idea of independence and doing things that you want to do. If you can't come up with a reason for [your decisions], then you should reevaluate how you've been living your life," Jackie Hu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Reshaping escape

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON People Editor
January 19, 2022
Time management is the act of organizing and allotting your time to different activities in order to optimize the 24 hours that are given in a day. A study from Princeton University found that adopting small habits such as having a routine, having an organized environment, and properly planning out your schedule are important keys to integrating good time management into a daily ritual.

Tick tock: Time management plays important role in student lives

by Rachel Ning and Smrithi Sambamurthy
November 18, 2021
"Take every chance that you get, because in life you can take some chances and they could end up taking you much further than you expected. It's a learning experience; if you can, and you don't have much to lose, just do it," Nikela Hulton (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Swimming to success

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON People & Seniors Editor
November 8, 2021
Sports slideshow: Sept. 17

Sports slideshow: Sept. 17

by Alysa Suleiman, Smrithi Sambamurthy, Lakshmi Mulgund, Carter Chadwick, and Erica Cai
September 17, 2021
Namrata Karra (11), Saumi Mehta (12) and Paulina Gicqueau (11) rehearse lines during the callback auditions on Thursday, Sept. 2. The Fall Play this year, "Much Ado About Nothing," will be performed on Oct. 30 and 31.

Fall Play auditions completed, cast announced

by Smrithi Sambamurthy and Emma Gao
September 7, 2021
Global Headlines (Issue 1)

Global Headlines (Issue 1)

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON People & Seniors Editor
August 26, 2021
Eric Johnson will be teaching Honors Biology this year.

New faculty faces join upper school community

by Michelle Liu and Mark Hu
August 31, 2021
“Everything I do is worth it because it creates an impact. It brings me the greatest joy to see [my family and friends] feel heard, understood and happy,” Sophie Wang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Communication and persuasion

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON People and Seniors Editor
April 26, 2021
“If I have a brightening effect on someone’s day, that's good enough for me … [The] little things add up. I don't think life [should be about the] big events, I think it's the [smaller experiences] that add up over time. So it's the same thing that applies when I want to help someone out. It's piece by piece,” Shaunak Narain (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Learning to love the little things

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Social Media Editor and Asst. Business Manager
February 17, 2021
“We all have feelings and we all think what we think and have the perspectives that we have because of where we came from, because of our upbringing, our experiences. If we live more in the gray of the world, people would realize that there's more to a person than just what [people] disagree on,” Aditi Bharti (12) said. 

Humans of Harker: Looking past the black and white

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Asst. Business Manager
January 27, 2021
My pandemic essentials include my laptop, journal, color pencils, watercolor and coffee. These items keep me busy through quarantine.

Stories from quarantine: Our pandemic essentials

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Varsha Rammohan, and Irina Malyugina
April 20, 2020
“In research, you start out with a plan, and most likely there is something you didn’t account for, so you have to spend time looking through that. You don’t have to think about things in terms of setbacks. If you don’t accomplish what you set out to do, it’s not really a setback,” Emily Liu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Empowerment through exploration

by Tiffany Chang and Smrithi Sambamurthy
February 25, 2020
Washington Monument. In front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the Washington Monument is the tallest structure in the area, built to commemorate George Washington.

Awake at night: D.C. monuments honor nation’s history

by Tiffany Chang, Lakshmi Mulgund, Smrithi Sambamurthy, Pelin Unsal, Anna Vazhaeparambil, and Helen Zhu
November 23, 2019
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