The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
(Chelsea Xie)
Humans of Harker: Strings of success
Humans of Harker: Voices unplugged
Humans of Harker: Voices unplugged
Humans of Harker: Engaging and evolving
Humans of Harker: Engaging and evolving
“Art is the rawest, deepest form of introspection, but it's also a way to invoke reflection in other people. Through art, I can see how people interact with each other, the world and these abstract systems. Similarly, economics looks at very foundational issues, questions on how human networks interact with each other and shape individual lives. Both of these subjects form so many frameworks on how to view the world," senior Sophia Liu said.
Humans of Harker: Illustration, interaction and introspection
Humans of Harker: Saves and sincerity
Humans of Harker: Saves and sincerity
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
“[Music] really helps unite people. There's just something really wonderful about how you can preserve that sense of humanity and connection. Even if the person who wrote or performed the music that you're listening to … is disjointed with you on your world views, you can still form this extremely personal connection with them,” Abbie Blenko (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Music, the universal language

by Anika Mantripragada and Julie Shi • January 26, 2021

Sitting on the piano bench in the trailer next to Dobbins Hall, Abbie Blenko (12) rests her fingers on the faded, white piano keys, unsure of which song to play. She asks a friend who walks in to name...

“Even if I’m not really good at [playing a song], I don’t just quit on it. There's this song called ‘Tom Sawyer’ by Rush, and for about nine or ten years I was trying to play that ... I remember the day I got that song down perfectly, and I was so happy. It just reinforced the idea in my brain that I can do things with hard work,” Nick Bereznak (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Business beats

by Carter Chadwick, TALON Co-Sports Editor • January 25, 2021

As Nick Bereznak (12) begins to warm up on the drums, he slowly ramps from light rhythms to full beats and songs. The longer he begins to play, the more his emotions and feelings from the day are portrayed...

“When I do things, I’m not really thinking about credit in general. Sure, it’s cool to be recognized, but I’m not the type of person who wants to be a celebrity with their name everywhere. I like anonymity. I personally know that I’m important in some way and that’s enough for me,” Angela Cai (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Behind the scenes

by Sally Zhu, Humans of Harker Profiler • January 13, 2021

Scene changes don’t happen on their own. Neither do the lighting choreography or audio setup or the development of onstage props. Most shows cannot happen successfully without the diligent students dressed...

“With music, a lot of it is interpretation and making the music that you make into [a] style distinct to yourself. In research, your objective is to solve a problem or find an answer; the creativity plays in the sense of how you approach that, [which is] similar [to] music [in] how you interpret things or how you decide to make the mood of that piece,” Elizabeth Szeto (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Learning from others

by Shreya Srinivasan, TALON Co-Editor-in-Chief • January 13, 2021

A slight breeze fills the air as senior Elizabeth Szeto slowly flips through the yellow book sitting on her lap. The lines of notes filling the countless pages become a blur, and when she nears the back...

“I'm trying to do the things that others haven't been able to do and take advantage of these opportunities. I [hope to] prove that … deviations from the norm aren't incorrect and they shouldn't be immediately rejected just because they're different. One thing you have to know about me is that I've had so many people who've said I couldn't do it, and here I am … I did the impossible,” Ellis Goldman (12) said.

Humans of Harker: A force to be reckoned with

by Sally Zhu, Humans of Harker Profiler • January 12, 2021

“Try to be better today than you were yesterday.” “The only wrong question is the question that's not asked.” “I stopped waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel and lit it up myself.”...

“What I like most about [soccer] is just seeing my team improve along with me throughout the four years of high school because in freshman year, most of us were [junior varsity] … and just seeing us all progress to the varsity team and become varsity players, [is] what I enjoy most about it,” Tuhin Chatterjee (12) said. 

Humans of Harker: Friendly competition

by Isha Moorjani, Asst. News Editor • January 8, 2021

Quiet fills the air on the field as the ball nears the opposing team’s goal, the players passing it between each other with speed and precision. Clad in his green Harker athletics uniform, Tuhin Chatterjee...

“[People] want to start a discourse and talk about things with people with other interests and different viewpoints. As I’ve realized the openings and the gaps and ... the opportunities I have been afforded, I’ve done all that I could to provide these platforms to other people and open new doors that wouldn’t have been opened otherwise,” Arushi Saxena (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Creating platforms

by Nicole Tian, Opinion Editor • January 7, 2021

Pulling out a glossy red guitar from a soft black case, Arushi Saxena (12) checks for pedestrians before sitting down cross-legged in the middle of a bridge spanning across the far end of Vasona Park....

“We’re surrounded by such a talented and hardworking community. I think that’s definitely pushed me to work harder and be a better person than I would be if I didn’t go here,” Ian Williamson (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Hiking for headspace

by Shinjan Ghosh, TALON Co-Student Life Editor • January 6, 2021

As he takes one step after another, Ian Williamson (12) feels the trail beneath his feet begin to level out. Sunlight shines down on him as he wipes a small bead of sweat from his face. Hands falling to...

“I really [believe in] having a moral code that rubs off on other people and makes other people better in your presence. Generally, people reflect the energy you give them, so you can expect whatever you're giving out,” Jason Hoang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Live, laugh, learn

by Katie Wang, TALON Asst. Photo Editor • January 5, 2021

At 1:30 a.m. on most days of the week, Jason Hoang (12) fills the kitchen with the sizzling of French toast on the stove or the bubbling of boiling water for ramen. Whether it be pancakes, eggs or cereal,...

“I just love traveling to new places because the highlights are a different culture and an entirely different experience. I never feel comfortable staying home for a while because I feel bored with my current situation, as if it's just the same repeated day over and over again,” Fonda Hu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Beyond the basics

by Tina Xu, TALON Photo Editor • January 5, 2021

“I often associate myself with Dora the Explorer just because for the majority of my life, I had a haircut that was between a bowl cut and a normal haircut, and it resembled Dora the Explorer’s,”...

“Understanding people's perspectives is something that I try to do. No matter what situation I'm in, I never immediately judge someone. [With] people who have different beliefs than me [and] different opinions, before I try and fight against them, I try and understand where they're coming from and why they believe what they believe,” Calais Poirson (12) said.

Humans of Harker: The light in every room

by Arely Sun, Winged Post Lifestyle Editor and Social Media Editor • January 4, 2021

Calais Poirson (12) is no stranger to the Harker community. From singing onstage with Downbeat in a glittery gold dress to greeting students at the door of the winter ball to decking out in cheerful white...

“I got to a certain place where … you start to really feel empathy with [tabla], and you just enjoy playing and enjoy the speed. I felt like [the instrument] was trapped in this box of classical Indian music … But listening to the songs I listen to every day, I would start drumming in my lap, and at that point, I thought, ‘This isn’t out of place,’” Nicky Kriplani (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Rhythmic confidence

by Nicholas Wei, Humans of Harker Profiler • January 4, 2021

Sitting cross-legged before the tabla, a classical Indian pair of drums, Aniket “Nicky” Kriplani (12) gazes intently as he rests his hands on the twin set of instruments. A pulse echoes in his mind...

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