The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“Working on Roobi has taught me how to bounce back from failures, and that problems need to be addressed one bit at a time because you can't just tackle huge goals. I learned to not be afraid of failure because every failure is a step towards success. I try not to look back and wish I could change something because I can't. It's the past. Instead, I look forward," senior Daniel Dorfman said.
Humans of Harker: Steeped for success
“With volleyball and Medical Club, I love working with people. I get to work with people who aren't necessarily in my classes or aren't my friends specifically, but we get to work hard and work together towards a common goal. That collaboration aspect is really important to me," senior Navya Samuel said.
Humans of Harker: Cooperation through competition
“Human connection is very important to staying grounded and stable. The people around me are one of the reasons that I'm not fully burnt out, so I really prioritize keeping a good schedule for myself. Being able to prioritize the things in life that give me internal satisfaction is important to me because that's what allows me to have the drive to do good with the rest of my time. Talking to people is a way for me to replenish," senior Kashish Priyam said.
Humans of Harker: Pep in every step
“It's very important to make sure the people in your life know they're important to you. Whether that's doing small acts of kindness or just being there whenever they need you, having a really strong support system is what gets you through life, and it's a really valuable life skill to have," Sofie Marino (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Pillar of support
“My karate teachers emphasize that as black belts, we should be living up to the standard of our rank and acting as an example for the students who are lower-ranked.' When I’m helping out and someone messes up, I don't necessarily say, ‘You did this wrong, try to do this.’ I take a more relaxed approach and act out what they did a little comically. It's finding the balance between being strict and being more playful with the students," senior Claire Perng said.
Humans of Harker: Playing with purpose
Humans of Harker: Cooking with creativity
Humans of Harker: Cooking with creativity
“There's a lot of value in every moment and everyone around you. I appreciate people who just appreciate the little things. For me, I feel like everyone you meet can teach you a little bit, and that's something that I've really internalized over the years. I think that's part of why I like being around people and different communities so much. Because in each of these communities, you can learn so many different things from everyone," Olivia Xu ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Purpose towards progress
“I get to choose how much effort and detail I put in, and that’s what you’re going to see in the end. I love that you can see the truth on paper. A lot of my work is in black and white, so I can’t rely on color to cover it up or make it more interesting — I can only rely on my skill and willingness to go into the studio and add to my piece," Katelyn Zhao ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Envisioning the everyday
"I used to think that I have to keep doing dance just because it's what I’m known for. But now I’ve realized there’s beauty behind all the madness that happens. And it’s now a part of me, so not doing dance or not having Legos is like I’m losing a part of my identity," Luke Mehta ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: Building with style
“Why not? So many things are very foreign or unknown to us, but there’s not much to lose by just trying things. I initially wasn’t very comfortable with DECA, especially with impromptu, but the community really helped me grow out of that. And DECA is now one of my top high school memories. Just giving things a try is really worth it, and if it fails, the worst thing that can happen is you just try something else," Claire Luo ('24) said.
Humans of Harker: It’s all in the details
"Being a lifer, I really want to put my knowledge to use. Being a TEDx speaker is a really big honor in and of itself, but to be able to actually address the Harker community was really important to me because I wanted to have an impact on the place that I've been at for 13 years," Arissa Huda ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Prescribing change
"I’ve learned discipline: practicing a lot and then knowing what your strengths are, knowing where to improve. That discipline is definitely going to stay with me. If I’m trying to get a big piece of work done in general when I'm interested in it, I'll stop at nothing to reach my goals," Linette Hoffman ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Artistry in motion
"I have this philosophy with theater. I wholeheartedly believe that my life was made for the stage, and all my make or break moments have happened there. While some people learn best through lectures or visuals, I learn best from having a spotlight on me," Zubin Khera ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Scripts to success
"One of the most important things for me about performing is its transformative power. There was one concert where we were singing this commission about gun violence, followed by a piece about climate change, a piece about the Holocaust. Watching the audience's expressions and how they reacted to the music we were singing was the first time that I was like, ‘Whoa, music has the power to change lives and engender positive change,’” Sawyer Lai ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Symphony of spirit
"It’s been fun getting to know the chefs at La Mar, their team and how different cultural influences blend together. For example, they make ceviche, which is a traditional Peruvian dish, but they infuse it with many different cultures. They have a version of their ceviche which is inspired by African tastes and spices, and they also have a Japanese form of that same ceviche dish. I think it’s interesting to watch how these fusion dishes form," Alex Lan ('23) said.
Humans of Harker: Flavors of knowledge
Prakrit Jain ('22) searches for new animal species to help the environment and wildlife.
Humans of Harker: Scorpion spotter
Arnav Gupta ('22) moves a DNA construction.
Humans of Harker: Coding for a cause
“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.
Humans of Harker: Blast of creativity
"Every single person I've interviewed for Humans of Harker has said one killer quote that has stuck with me even through four years of high school, and I think I really do internalize those messages. There are nuances in every single person's experience that makes it unique to them and also makes it a good lesson for everyone else. It's just amazing to see how much wisdom every single person at Harker has, and it's fascinating to learn about those stories," Erica Cai ('22) said.
Humans of Harker: Harmony in humanity
“Something I took away from baseball is that there's always the opportunity to bounce back when things don't go particularly right. Even the best hitters only go one for three, so being able to push through that is one of the most important parts of the game. Being able to identify what goes wrong and learning from that is important to being able to find success in the future," Mark Hu ('22) said.
Humans of Harker: The perfect pitch
Humans of Harker: Perseverance on par
Humans of Harker: Perseverance on par
It's been obviously rough, turning on the news and seeing another death, seeing another acquittal every single time … but, ‘How much can I do?’ is the question I'm asking myself. ‘How much can I help, and what impact can I have?’” Brian Pinkston ('21) said.
Humans of Harker: For the future and the present
“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.
Humans of Harker: Leading with DECA-cation
Class of 2021: Humans of Harker compilation, part three
Class of 2021: Humans of Harker compilation, part three
“I feel really good about myself when I'm relaxed and enjoying the world. There’s so much to learn about the world and so many ways to do so," Daniel Wang ('21) said.
Humans of Harker: Mapping the unknown
"I'm the person that always has a plan for everything. And then I have backups for the plan, and I have backups for the backups," Nicole Chen ('19) said.
Humans of Harker: Calendars for a cause
"I don’t ever intend on letting the internal love of life that I have leave me. As I grow up and I maintain my love for the random things I do, I know I’ll be happy– and hopefully people around me will be, as well," Mathew Mammen ('19) said.
Humans of Harker: Jack of all trades, master of fun
Humans of Harker: To dance, to feel
Humans of Harker: To dance, to feel
"The more serious side, people will never see. You'll never see who's behind one of these websites that people may be using," Neil Ramaswamy (12) said. "Several freshmen have approached me like, 'hey, you're the really funny guy at school meeting' and I'm like 'hey, yeah, nice to meet you' and at the same time they might be using an application that I've written not knowing that it's me. I kind of get that personal satisfaction knowing that there is a serious side to me, you just don't know about it."
Humans of Harker: Dueling with duality
Humans of Harker: Humanity in art
Humans of Harker: Humanity in art
“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Neymika Jain finds balance in life
“A lot of the time, when I’m out at nail salons, nailers ask me if I‘m Vietnamese. I say yes, but they say that I don’t speak the language and have never been back to Vietnamese, so am I really? I always felt disconnected, like I would be Vietnamese-American but never Vietnamese. When I went to Vietnam for the first time, it brought me closer to my culture. I realized I shouldn’t view myself as a different. I have to see Vietnamese-American and Vietnamese as one and the same," Haley Tran (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Haley Tran values her cultural identity
“One time, I was hiking up this giant off-trail path, and this is going to make me sound like a complete hippy, but what I was thinking at the moment was that every single tree out there must have had some sort of backstory. Even when I was walking to Shah, there was this tree right next to the building, and I was like, ‘Maybe this tree had a lot of other tree friends, but then this building came up and they had to get cut down.’ That made me pretty sad. So, when I was coming up with backstories for trees, it reminded me of my childlike innocence of playing pretend or playing with my stuffed animals because I thought my imagination would never run as wild as it once did. But, this experience made me feel happy because it’s something that I’ve lost, and I feel like I gained some of it back," Aashish Jain (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Aashish Jain finds inspiration in painting through watching Bob Ross videos
“For me, robotics has always been a great way to learn about how to build things and how things work. Honestly, that is the reason why I love robotics. When you see everything working, you look at it and say 'I helped make this happen,' which is really really gratifying," Andrew Tierno (12) said.
Humans of Harker: Andrew Tierno reflects on his passion for robotics
“A lot of being a choreographer is about digging deep, understanding, and finding out which event leads to the next, which is basically what science is. You would take a circuit and break it apart to understand each of the components, and you would do that to a song,” Sneha Bhetanabhotla (‘17) said.
Humans of Harker: Sneha Bhetanabhotla learns to connect robotics and dance
“I can be serious, and I care a lot about a lot of things, but I also just like having fun and people feeling comfortable being their true selves,” Isabella Spradlin (12) said. “You don't have to be one-sided — you can have different sides of your personality, and different moods.”
Humans of Harker: Isabella Spradlin gleans insight from sisterhood
“This is like a melting pot of Cupertino, Lynbrook, Saratoga, some people from De Anza, so you meet all kinds of people,” Rahul Mehta (12) said. “Half the time I’m not even playing with my friends, so I’m playing with random people. You start off in the beginning a bit wary of each other, and then by end you’re playing like they’re your friends. It’s kind of gradual. Like after a really cool play, you’ll high five each other, and that’s how it all begins.”
Humans of Harker: Rahul Mehta befriends others through banter
"People are always debating, you know, ‘should I go up to a higher weight or not?’ And I’ll just yell, ‘do it, you won’t,’" Tiffany Shou (12) said. "And then, you know, it’s like that challenge, and so it always pushes them pick that higher weight, and then they can accomplish it, so it’s even more gratifying."
Humans of Harker Video: Tiffany Shou pushes her limits in the weight room
“First, I start at my house,” Sparsh Chauhan (12) said. “Then, I turn on Saratoga, and it’s always crowded with traffic and stuff. That’s when I’m setting the music, checking the tire pressure, the gas. After downtown, the road gets smooth, which is when I put the windows down. I go all the way down until there’s a dip and then I go back. Even when I have stuff to do, I drive that same route every day. I don’t have to take directions. I know all the traffic times; I know exactly where I’m going.”
Humans of Harker: Sparsh Chauhan takes pride in his work
“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”
Humans of Harker: Angel Cervantes chases his goals
“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.
Humans of Harker: Learning to fall
“You just have to go for it. You think, 'In the future, if I think back and regret it, is that how I want to end up — or would I rather just try something and see what happens?' Usually, it turns out well,” Montek Kalsi (’20) said. 
Humans of Harker: All fun and games
“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.
Humans of Harker: Leadership and love
Humans of Harker: Grit and grind
Humans of Harker: Grit and grind
Humans of Harker: Artistic nonconformity
Humans of Harker: Artistic nonconformity
The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
Srinath Somasundaram

Srinath Somasundaram, Winged Post Managing Editor

Srinath Somasundaram (12) is the managing editor of the Winged Post. This is his fourth year on staff, and he aims to improve his designing abilities and realizing a distinct writing style. Outside of journalism, Srinath enjoys playing video games and watching sports.

All content by Srinath Somasundaram
As we reaffirm our commitment to our mis- sion as a publication, we will bring this improved perspective of inspired action to our reporting — not despairing what might await us, but hoping, and fighting, for what could.

Editor’s Note: Building on this moment of hope

by Arya Maheshwari, Srinath Somasundaram, and Sara Yen
February 10, 2021
My pandemic survival kit consists of a mouse (and its cute mousepad), my laptop, a book of the week and chocolates and a water bottle for sustenance. Together, these items enable me to stay connected to reality and to my friends as the pandemic attempts to separate me from both.

Stories from quarantine: Our pandemic essentials

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Varsha Rammohan, and Irina Malyugina
April 20, 2020
The TV screen in downstairs Shah displays tips on staying healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.

Santa Clara County, local schools take additional precautionary measures as COVID-19 countywide case count reaches 66

by Eric Fang and Srinath Somasundaram
March 12, 2020
“Soccer is a means of expressing myself. I play midfielder, which means that I have to think of creative or interesting ways of working with the team to score around defenders. To me, part of my want to be adventurous and fun to be around is rooted in my role as a midfielder,” Asmit Kumar (12) said. 

Humans of Harker: Meaningful meetings

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinions Editor
March 2, 2020
Santa Clara County officially confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the county, with no additional cases being confirmed. County health officials did not reveal his name or the city in which the case was confirmed because of privacy concerns.

Santa Clara County announces first case of coronavirus – as infected person in isolation

by Eric Fang, Mark Hu, Arushi Saxena, Srinath Somasundaram, Arely Sun, and Nicole Tian
January 31, 2020
“What’s amazing about basketball is that it is just a bunch of strangers that are put together. On the team, there might be people that don’t spend time with each other and everyday we spend 2 hours bettering each other. As the season progresses, we learn to compromise and be a unit despite our lack of prior friendships because, in the end, it’s about finding a way to win,” Jeffrey Liu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Calculated composure

by Srinath Somasundaram, Winged Post Opinions Editor
January 7, 2020
Scott Engelhardt, the new attendance coordinator.

Heart of Harker: An introduction!

by Scott Engelhardt, Guest Writer
November 10, 2019
“The way to get game sense is just by playing the game more. Similarly, as you do more projects in computer science, you start understanding what constructs or methods or strategies you can use to solve the problems you are trying to solve. The optimal solutions are more and more visible the more similar situations you experience,” Henry Wiese (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Calling the shots

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinion Editor
November 7, 2019
IMG_2223

Learning balance as a junior

by David Feng, Guest Writer
May 23, 2019
"In freshman year, I was diagnosed with a heart disease, and I had a heart transplant in sophomore year. That experience has shaped my philosophy on things in terms of contextualizing the everyday problems that I face. I think it really put everything into perspective for me," Shaunak Maruvada (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Maintaining perspective

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinions Editor
April 18, 2019
"Robotics started as my first exposure to the campus. It was a big part of my first few interactions at the school, but I think I almost immediately gravitated towards the teaching and collaboration aspect of it. And I think that's what makes me tick: building things, big or small, with others. I think it's better to be valuable to a group of people or a team than famous in the whole world," Joel Manning (12).

Humans of Harker: Collaboration

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinions Editor
April 16, 2019
“I want to be the person who can impact people, somebody who worked for others and always thought for the benefit of others,” Ayush Vyas (12) said. “I want to be that leader who was never overly vocal but still always cared and was vocal when someone needed to step up and say something. What often gets overlooked is a captain's ability to listen and learn, but to me, that's my most important value.”

Humans of Harker: Duality in leadership

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinions Editor
April 14, 2019
Freshman Elizabeth Fabel throws the ball during the softball team’s game against Mercy Burlingame on Thursday, which ended in an 18-7 loss. Next week, the girls play King’s Academy on Tuesday, March 26, and host Mercy High School on Thursday, March 28.

Weekly roundup: Spring sports approach hurdles

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Reporter
March 26, 2019
IMG_4400 3

Heart of Harker: A positive snowball effect

by Krishay Mukhija, Guest Writer
February 24, 2019
Perspectives: Does the Honduran migrant caravan pose a threat to the US?

Perspectives: Does the Honduran migrant caravan pose a threat to the US?

by Srinath Somasundaram and Eric Fang
December 9, 2018
Magdalena Yesil speaks in the Patil theater for the first Speaker Series event in two years, on Nov. 28. The event was hosted by the Office of Communication in conjunction with the Business and Entrepreneurship department.

Speaker Series relaunches in interview with entrepreneur Magdalena Yesil

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinion Editor
December 3, 2018
Magdalena Yesil speaks in the Patil theater for the first Speaker Series event in two years, on Nov. 28. The event was hosted by the Office of Communication in conjunction with the Business and Entrepreneurship department.

Speaker series relaunched with Silicon Valley venture capitalist

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinion Editor
November 30, 2018
Club officers ask questions to the panel guests today. The event was a joint effort between WiSTEM and Harker Horizon.

WiSTEM and Harker Horizon host speaker panel

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinion Editor
November 14, 2018
Perspectives (Issue 2)

Perspectives (Issue 2)

by Anjay Saklecha and Srinath Somasundaram
October 17, 2018
Congress has been in a partisan gridlock this year more than ever.

The Partisan Trap

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinion Editor
September 20, 2018
Moral dilemmas arise with new self-driving cars and advanced artificial intelligence

Moral dilemmas arise with new self-driving cars and advanced artificial intelligence

by Srinath Somasundaram, Opinions Editor
September 3, 2018
Facebook granted access to users' private information to Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked for the Trump campaign. The company hired Aleksandr Kogan to gather data of more than 87 million American Facebook users.

Cambridge Analytica data breach of Facebook sparks outrage

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
May 7, 2018
Memoir Monday: Water bottle

Memoir Monday: Water bottle

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
April 23, 2018
Deadliest flu season in a decade slows

Deadliest flu season in a decade slows

by Katherine Zhang and Srinath Somasundaram
March 12, 2018
“My sophomore year, I tore a ligament in my leg while playing soccer,” Sharad Chandra (12) said. “I think from then on, I’ve been scared to make tackles. Now, before a game, I tell myself to not be scared, and I think that confidence is the biggest thing to achieve anything in life. Without confidence, there’s no way you can’t be successful. I think on the field, I live by ‘you miss all the shots you don’t take,’ because it’s like if I don’t try and put myself in a position to try to do something new, I can’t succeed.”

Humans of Harker: Sharad Chandra finds strength in unity

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
February 28, 2018
“We went up to San Francisco at 4 a.m. in the morning,” Yannick Bohbot-Dridi (12) said. “We got off a boat that dropped us off under the Golden Gate Bridge with some 300 other people who are cancer survivors and families of people who have faced cancer, and we swam in honor of everyone who had battled cancer. When we got into the water, we could barely breathe because it was so cold. It's like that feeling when your lungs feel like they can't expand. And you can't see anything. You can't even see a couple feet in front of you — I couldn't even see the swimmers in front of me, nothing. Every ten or so strokes, you have to lift yourself out the water and tread water a bit to see where you're at. I knew that doing this, on paper, had very little benefit towards me. I was swimming in the bay in the freezing cold bay on a Sunday morning. At the beginning, I thought, 'Yeah, I'm just going to help people,' but I did not expect to feel so happy after. I just felt grateful.”

Humans of Harker: Yannick Bohbot-Dridi finds purpose in the water

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
December 6, 2017
Memoir Monday: The Pack of Cards

Memoir Monday: The Pack of Cards

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
December 4, 2017
Water cascades from an overflowing creek in Santa Clara, washing up on the surrounding banks during floods in March. The Bay Area experienced a high amount of rainfall and flooding in early March, with water levels reaching a high of 14.4 feet in San Jose.

The growing risk of climate refugees

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
November 16, 2017
The United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019. The referendum occurred on June 23, 2016.

Brexit negotiations continue amid Russia investigation

by Meena Gudapati and Srinath Somasundaram
November 16, 2017
SNHS advisor Abel Olivas holds up a bingo card and bingo clues while explaining the rules of the game. Event attendees also participated in another activity where they attempted to identify the genres of a series of Spanish songs.

Spanish National Honor Society holds annual Spanish Olympiad

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
October 19, 2017
Howard Nichols speaks at the opening of Shah Hall. The school will honor him for his birthday on Oct. 10 by serving fresh baked chocolate-chip cookies.

Upper school commemorates Howard Nichols’ birthday

by Meena Gudapati, Srinath Somasundaram, and Anmol Velagapudi
October 12, 2017
(From left to right) Emily Liu (10), Katherine Tian (11), Cynthia Chen (10), Gwyneth Chen (12), Joanna Lin (12), Grace Huang (10), Allison John (9) and Katherine Zhang (11) pose in front of the Stratton Student Center at MIT after the contest. Math Prize for Girls was held on Sept. 24 at MIT.

Math Club kicks off with early competitions

by Srinath Somasundaram, Reporter
October 8, 2017
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