The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
Humans of Harker: Leading with every lesson
Humans of Harker: Leading with every lesson
“For me, discipline can only happen when I try the things that I really like. Since I like basketball and I like guitar, I'm willing to contribute to the discipline. It's not really discipline at that point — it's passion," senior Advay Monga said.
Humans of Harker: Dribble and drive
“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
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
Club Events
Public Health Club Vice Presidents of Internal Affairs Terry Xie (11) and Ritisha Chakravarty (10) explain and guide members through the video game Plague Inc. The game introduced club members to the origins behind deadly illnesses and how scientists create vaccines to mitigate them.
STEM Spotlight: Public Health Club
by Lily Peng and Vivek Moorjani • February 3, 2025

Public Health Club members played the video game Plague Inc. to learn about the effects and properties of infectious diseases on Jan. 23.  In...

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Sophomore Chetana Pramanik and frosh Dyuthi Vallamsetty learn about the different competitive events at HOSA conferences. Categories include Health Informatics and Medical Law and Ethics.
STEM Spotlight: HOSA
by Jonathan Szeto and Charlie Wang
Talagala discusses how AI tools can hold biases as a result of skewed training data. She also answered questions about AI in cybersecurity and the workplace.
Civic Tech Club hosts machine learning expert to discuss Artificial Intelligence
by Jonathan Szeto and Charlie Wang
Former Olympian and psychologist Tere Zacher presents about how to foster and maintain a resilient mindset. “Whatever you set your mind into, you can achieve, regardless of where you come from, regardless of your age,” Zacher said.
Tere Zacher dives into injury rehabilitation at Sports Medicine Club speaker event
by Kairui Sun and Heather Wang
Astronomy club president Eric Dong (11) demonstrates the use of a equatorial mount for astrophotography. Equatorial mounts compensate for the Earth's rotational axis when taking long exposure photos of stars, preventing motion blur.
STEM Spotlight: Astronomy Club
by Charlie Wang, Multimedia Editor
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Climate Activism
As global temperatures and sea levels rise, climate change intensifies weather patterns. California has seen stronger and more frequent wildfires, drier and hotter droughts and stronger winds and waves during storms.
Global Reset: Stronger storms, fiercer fires
by Jeremy Peng and Jonathan Szeto

From rising sea level to retreating glaciers, global warming has caused radical changes in our world’s oceans, forests and ecosystems. But...

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Nichols Hall features several energy-saving innovations like solar panels and climate control systems designed to reduce energy use. Classroom lights also automatically turn off when not in use.
Global Reset: Education meets environment
by Lily Shi and Jonathan Szeto
As more people turn to ChatGPT and other AI tools like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, increased usage poses the increased threat of droughts. Global AI demand is projected to rise exponentially to over $1.5 trillion by 2030.
Global Reset: AI revolution or climate devastation?
by Ashley Mo and Jonathan Szeto
To avoid the construction of a new swimming stadium, organizers decided to hold two Olympics swimming events in the Seine River, which has historically been unsafe for swimming due to high bacteria levels. Despite France’s €1.6 billion plan to clean the waters leading up to the Olympics, the Seine continued to fail bacteria tests.
Global Reset: “Green” policies create controversy at Olympics
by Lily Shi and Charlie Wang
Green Team co-president Kinnera Mulam draws raffle winners. Prizes included vegan baked goods from Bradley Stoll, vegan chapsticks and succulents.
Global Reset: A peek at Earth Week
by Victor Gong, Emma Li, Alison Yang, and Claire Zhao
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Alumni Features
As co-director of HackDuke, a student-run organization that organizes hackathons, Wang began noticing common problems that arose within clubs, like lack of cohesion between club members and plans. He decided to create Pingr to reimagine club communication.
Blooming from the STEM: Scaling meaningful conversations
by Ashley Mo and Emma Milner • January 10, 2025

Planning a club event often turns into a chaotic process, from organizing promotional outreach to managing participant lists. At the same...

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Rohan Chandra ('13) showcases Bonterra, a company dedicated to developing technology solutions that support social good organizations. As part of his role, Chandra advised the team that created an app enabling project leads to communicate more effectively with donors and funders.
Blooming from the STEM: Programming social change
by Samuel Tong, Assistant News Editor
Dawson Chen (‘22) displays his virtual butler startup Martin. Funded by startup accelerator YCombinator, he coded the first version of Martin in the summer of 2023 alongside former classmates Harsh Deep (‘22) and Arjun Dixit (‘22).
Blooming from the STEM: Dawson Chen’s Martin pioneers AI-assisted productivity
by Kairui Sun and Nathan Yee
Ankola works with companies around the world to provide a wide selection of cosmetic offerings. By testing products himself before offering them on the Spyra app, he ensures that the products supplied to his customers stay true to their advertising.
Blooming from the STEM: Connecting through cosmetics
by Jonathan Szeto and Vivek Moorjani
Marc Leglise (’03) snaps a selfie from the air using a camera-helmet system. His passion for skydiving connects him to his work at Columbia Sportswear, where as a senior manager of e-commerce technology, he helps people secure the gear he uses in the air.
Blooming from the STEM: Diving into e-commerce
by Katerina Matta, Co-Sports Editor
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Research Revelations
Research Revelations Episode 9: Grading vocal performance recordings with Saanvi Bhargava
Research Revelations Episode 9: Grading vocal performance recordings with Saanvi Bhargava
by Ashley Mo and Jonathan Szeto
Research Revelations Episode 8: Modeling airway networks for lung cancer detection with Juliana Li
Research Revelations Episode 8: Modeling airway networks for lung cancer detection with Juliana Li
by Elizabeth Zhang and Chelsea Xie
Research Revelations Episode 7: Macaque monkey neuroscience with Cyrus Ghane
Research Revelations Episode 7: Macaque monkey neuroscience with Cyrus Ghane
by Jonathan Szeto and Nathan Yee
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Jason Li (12) uses a scalpel to cut open the acromiotrapezius to examine the scapula. Students wore lab coats, masks, and gloves during the dissection to keep clean.Frosh Rachel Li, Debby Zhu and Regina Zhang write code on their laptopsduring the contest. Their team competed in the advanced division.Insomnia disrupts brain waves, hinders deep sleepKennedy’s layoffs included over 1000 probationary employees from the FDA, drawing criticism for its possible long term consequences. With fewer staff overseeing safety and research, public confidence in public health agencies may decline.Junior Mendy Mao reads over Abby Eu (8) and Danya Arun's (8) abstract. SRP students worked on developing their abstracts while Research Club speakers assisted them.
A little-known but widely-consumed carcinogen is alcohol. The substance is used by approximately 60% of Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Vaping impacts lung health via exposure to toxic chemicals. Many vaping products contain high levels of nicotine, which can lead to brain damage.
Honors Bioinformatics student Thomas Campisi (11) pours lysogeny broth, a nutrient-rich medium containing the bacteria ampicillin, into a test tube. The class introduces students with varying interests to understanding the vast amounts of data from DNA sequencing.
Physics teacher Mark Brada speaks to Astronomy Club president Eric Dong (11) about his experiences as academic and career journey in engineering. Astronomy Club hosted the event as part of the A Space for Space speaker series.
Chess engines play at a level higher than any human being alive by sifting through millions of possible moves with efficient algorithms and massive processing power. Players nowadays use engines to analyze complex positions, develop new openings, and improve their own skill.
Three seniors Andrew Liang, Aarush Vailaya and Varun Thvar were named Regeneron STS Scholars on Jan. 8. They were chosen among the top 300 students in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
Sophomore Tanisha Vaish converses with open lab facilitator Zane Moore. Dr. Moore offers suggestions and helps students in the open lab with their research projects.
Collaborative app spreads sustainability through textbook sharing
Foodborne illnesses threaten public health in California
Computer science teacher Anu Datar emphasizes the importance of self-compassion when navigating one's personal and professional lives. "I have learned that I am my worst and harshest critic," Datar said. "I don't think anybody else has the same expectations from me that I set on myself.”
Researchers are discouraged to publish negative results because these findings are often considered less impactful and undervalued by journals. Over 85% of published papers arrive at hypothesis-affirming conclusions.
Caffeine consumption fuels fatigue, compromises student health
Assistant maintenance manager Thomas Downard prepares to check the electric current powering the Nichols boiler. The boiler, located on the roof, uses hot water to heat the entire building.
Tanisha Vaish (10) teaches students at the KIPP Heritage Academy in San Jose. She covered concepts like acid-base chemistry and surface tension.
Research Revelations Episode 6: Breaking down bee learning and memory with Abby Wang
Participants attempt to solve 25 physics problems during the 90 minute competition. Open to middle and high school students, the contest awarded $800 in prizes, with first place winner Owen Zhou receiving $250.
Sophomore Kevin He smiles as he chats with fellow competitors at the Berkeley Math Tournament. A record high of 45 students attended this year, competing against 1,000 students from across the nation.
Harker Robotics members Mikhil Kiran (11), Arturo Vilalta (11) and Ayden Grover (10) plan their strategy before sending their robot on the field. The team reached the finals at this year’s Capital City Classic alongside alliance partners Eagle Force, Duncan Dynamics and Robodores.
Former Harker English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine explains the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, or SB 707, a Califiornia bill which requires apparel and textile producers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products. “[SB 707] is forcing people to consider the end game of clothing at the beginning,” Hazeltine said.
Gearing up for competition season with Robotics
AP Biology students Savitha Satish (11) and Sophia Bagley (11) conduct the Catalase Lab. Students grouped together in pairs, with one person dropping the yeast spheres into the solution and the other person timing the reaction.
Awareness over the dopamine-hooking features of social media platforms like Instagram to retain user engagement has also grown in recent years.Teen Accounts contains a feature that turns off notifications from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., provide reminders for a screen time break and a set a time limit that can only be modified by parents. 
Waymo originated as a branch of Google, which pioneered the self-driving car in 2009 and advertised the project as “the world’s first fully driverless ride.” Co-founders Sebastian Thrun and Anthony Levandowski split their company off from Google in 2016, renaming it Waymo.
A completed breadboard showcases the final product of a student’s work in Computer Architecture class. By the end of the semester, each student will have built their own functioning 4-bit computer.
Friday Five: Underrated STEM subjects
Students chat and eat together during lunch. Every day, the kitchen staff serves over a thousand lunches within an hour.
Research Revelations Episode 5: Shellfish safety and prediction systems with Victoria Ma
Neuroscience Club President Danielle Steinbach (11) speaks about the anatomy of the brain during the lecture. The presentation is part of a series aimed to help club members prepare for the Bay Area Brain Bee competition.
3D Printing and Design Club president Evan Zhang (11) smiles as he explains the functionality of the 3D printer to members. To prepare the printer, users needed to preheat the print bed and load the model’s computer-aided design (CAD) file.
As part of a school-wide Wi-Fi upgrade, the IT team replaced old wireless access points with new Ruckus devices in every classroom. Members of the community should expect reliable internet connection anywhere on campus with improved speeds and security.
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