The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“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
“Sometimes when you're too carried away with the thing that you're so passionate about, it's hard to take a step back and realize that you need to be sharing this information with others. Through all the errors, although it's really demoralizing at times, it provides a lot more insight as to how the entire thing functions and then from there you can know what to do next," senior Tiffany Gu said.
Humans of Harker: Exploring the finer edges
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
Lily Peng

Lily Peng, Reporter

Lily Peng (10) is a reporter for Harker Aquila, and this is her second year on staff. This year, she looks forward to improving her photography skills, writing more concise and insightful articles and making friends in journalism. Outside of journalism, she likes to take 0.5 photos, read books and doodle over random things.

All content by Lily Peng
Violinist Nancy Zhou and pianist Serena Wang play a duet on their respective instruments. “Nancy tells a story on the violin like no one else, and Serena is just brilliant,” their manager Earl Blackburn said.

Nancy Zhou tells stories through music in Concert Series performance

by Lily Peng, Cynthia Xie, and Chelsea Xie
November 14, 2024
Sophomore Nicole Dean, a member of the ASB Community Service committee, returns money to a student. Members of the committee gave out tickets to students to then buy products from clubs.

Project Peace Wheel supports Afghanistan refugees in farmers market-style fundraiser

by Lily Peng, Assistant News Editor
November 9, 2024
Nov. 5 marks Election Day, and Harker Aquila is following along with national news with their own live coverage, including polls and community responses. Check this page for more information about the presidential, Senate and House of Representatives races, as well as California's propositions.

Live Coverage: 2024 Presidential Election

by Emma Milner, Alison Yang, Lily Shi, Eva Cheng, Disha Gupta, Suhani Gupta, Mendy Mao, Ashley Mo, Jonathan Szeto, Tiffany Zhu, Leah Krupnik, Lindsay Li, Vivek Moorjani, Lily Peng, Samuel Tong, Chelsea Xie, Cynthia Xie, Nathan Yee, and Elizabeth Zhang
November 5, 2024
Sophomore Megha Unny smiles at Head of Upper School Paul Barsky's reaction to her answer to his question. She told him that her current favorite book was "Fake Dates and Moon Cakes" by Sher Lee.

Serving sweetness, spreading smiles

by Lily Peng and Nathan Yee
November 1, 2024
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.

HSLT and SAB select pumpkins in spirit-filled excursion at Spina Farms

by Lily Peng, Reporter
October 23, 2024
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
October 17, 2024
The Allen Elizabethan Theatre set features a Victorian-style balcony with a pink lighting. Students watched "Much Ado About Nothing" as the final play in the trip.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival ignites community among Shakespeare devotees

by Lily Peng, Reporter
October 14, 2024
Connecting with friends and being present are just some of the many benefits. According to a study from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, advantages of digital detox also include improved sleep, less stress and better productivity. 

Digital detox lifestyle allows for reflection

by Ella Guo and Leah Krupnik
October 9, 2024
Downbeat surrounds senior Saanvi Bhargava during her solo. Other singing acts included the middle school Concert Choir and the lower school Harmonics.

Halloween-themed Harker Day show unites TK-12 students

by Suhani Gupta, Lily Peng, and Cynthia Xie
October 8, 2024
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.

Community celebrates fourth annual Harker Day

by Mihir Kotbagi, Ashley Mo, Jonathan Szeto, Samuel Tong, Risa Chokhawala, Lily Peng, and Charlie Wang
October 8, 2024
Live coverage: Harker challenges Anzar High School for Homecoming football game

Live coverage: Harker challenges Anzar High School for Homecoming football game

by Emma Milner, Alison Yang, Eva Cheng, Tiffany Zhu, Sidak Sanghari, Gabe Sachse, Hima Thota, Aishani Singh, Kairui Sun, Ashley Mo, Jonathan Szeto, Charlie Wang, Suhani Gupta, Claire Yu, Janam Chahal, Mihir Kotbagi, Mendy Mao, Ella Guo, Samuel Tong, Caden Ruan, Sam Li, Lily Peng, Claire Xu, Chelsea Xie, and Katerina Matta
October 5, 2024
Varsity girls waterpolo players Zoe Cammer (10), Tvisha Ganesh (10), Keren Eisenberg (12), Summer Adler (12), and Anoushka Madan (10) show off their matching waterpolo gear. They were one of the biggest groups that wore coordinated outfits for Twin Day.

Homecoming Week Day 3: Twin Day and Newlyfriend Game highlight friendships and spirit

by Claire Zhao and Ashley Mo
October 2, 2024
Opposite Aarya Vaidya (9) jumps for a hit during the second set. The Eagles dominated the entire match, scoring points off kills and aces from the starting whistle.

Junior varsity girls volleyball decimates Crystal Springs Uplands 25-6, 25-12

by Lily Peng and Claire Tian
October 2, 2024
Breaking down basics of spirit

Breaking down basics of spirit

by Lily Peng, Chelsea Xie, and Elizabeth Zhang
October 1, 2024
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.

Homecoming Week Day 1: Students wear animation studio outfits, make memories with photo frame

by Suhani Gupta, Samuel Tong, and Lily Peng
September 30, 2024
Summer Adler (12) prepares to throw take a shot at the goal. Summer scored two out of Harker's eight total goals during the game.

Varsity girls water polo clutches win against Los Altos 8-2

by Lily Peng, Reporter
September 30, 2024
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.

Spirit Night unites classes in final eagle painting push

by Lily Peng, Leah Krupnik, and Janam Chahal
September 30, 2024
David Yeager highlights the importance of patience among adults during the adolescent period. He backed up his points with personal parenting stories.

Common Ground hosts speaker event on adolescent attitudes

by Emma Li and Lily Peng
September 27, 2024
Green Team officer Kristiyan Kurtev (11) talks on the phone with an environmentalist. Throughout the whole event, he convinced five of them to start voting more consistently.

Green Team advocates for sustainable voting through phone banking

by Lily Peng, Reporter
September 25, 2024
Librarians Connie Poulsen-Hollin and Meredith Cranston invite students to celebrate International Dot Day next Thursday during lunch. Popular picture book "The Dot" influenced the themes of creativity and exploration that are key to this holiday.

School Meeting 9/18: Honor Week, Equilibrium submissions and International Dot Day

by Lily Peng and Cynthia Xie
September 22, 2024
Delightfully naughty and nice: “Short n’ Sweet” portrays Sabrina Carpenter in her purest form

Delightfully naughty and nice: “Short n’ Sweet” portrays Sabrina Carpenter in her purest form

by Lily Peng, Reporter
September 17, 2024
Humans of Harker: Dynamics of dance

Humans of Harker: Dynamics of dance

by Lily Peng and Katelyn Zhao
May 14, 2024
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