Harker Aquila

NBA season to resume on July 30

Capital One arena bustles with energy before a game between the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 23, 2019. The NBA is set to resume with a matchup between the New Orleans Pelicans and the Utah Jazz tomorrow.

July 29, 2020

It’s back. After being on hiatus for five seemingly endless months, the NBA is set to return on Thursday at the Walt Disney World Complex in Orlando, Florida, after the 2019 - 2020 season was suspended on March 11 due to the coronavirus. The 22 teams participating will play eight games each to complet...

Tags: basketball, bubble, COVID-19, NBA, Sports

Start of high school sports delayed until at least December

High school sports for the upcoming school will be divided into two seasons and will only start in December 2020 or January 2021. Students who normally play multiple sports will now have to make a decision if their sports have been moved to the same season.

by Vishnu Kannan and Muthu Panchanatham

July 26, 2020

High school sports for the upcoming school year will only start in December 2020 or January 2021, according to the California Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) announcement on Monday. The three usual high school sports seasons – fall, winter and spring – will be condensed into just two sea...

Tags: ccs, cif, coronavirus, COVID-19, delay, new calendar

Heart of Harker: Wellness during shelter-in-place

by Counseling Team, Guest Writer

May 28, 2020

We hope you are all doing well and wanted to remind you that we are still here and available to help support you however we can both through email and Zoom. We all recognize what a difficult and challenging situation we are in. We have been sharing some tips with you each week and hope to highligh...

Tags: counseling, COVID-19, heart of harker, self-care, shelter-in-place

Stories from quarantine: “The outfit I never wore”

A collection of flat lays taken to share the outfits student journalists would have worn these last three months if not in quarantine.

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Varsha Rammohan, and Aditya Singhvi

May 25, 2020

Over the last week, members of Harker Journalism dug through their closets to pull out outfits and accessories they haven't touched since quarantine started—a glimmer of normalcy in a time of uncertainty and change. These images showcase the styles, fashions and trends of our yearbook and newspaper...

Tags: clothing, coronavirus, COVID-19, outfits, pandemic, stories from quarantine

COVID-19 testing and treatments explained: Cases ramp up as researchers race to find sustainable cures

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a test kit in February, during the early stages of the outbreak, but it proved to be faulty. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in March that it would begin to issue Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) to clinical laboratories and commercial manufacturers that have produced tests that are screened by the FDA before their distribution and use.

by Mark Hu, Katie Wang, and Nicholas Wei

May 20, 2020

As COVID-19 infections continue to spread across the nation, hospitals across Santa Clara Valley are taking measures to increase the number of resources available for patients, including ventilators and hospital beds, as researchers search for a vaccine, a long term solution to the virus. Commercial and academic laboratories throughout the Bay Area are faci...

Tags: cdc, coronavirus, COVID-19, FDA, pandemic, remdesivir, treatments, vaccines

Meal with Love: Giving back to our medical workers

Medical staff from Highland Hospital in Oakland hold up

by Nicholas Wei, Reporter

May 12, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, some medical workers are facing an unexpected problem: the lack of time to cook. To address this issue, a group of Bay Area women have started a fundraising effort to pay for and deliver meals to hospitals where medical staff have been struggling to find time to eat....

Tags: COVID-19, food donations, meal with love, medical

Creativity during COVID-19: Writers reflect on quarantine

A collection of the winning submissions for the Creativity during COVID-19 writing contest.

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Aquila Co-Sports Editor

May 10, 2020

Hopeful reflections. Brooding thoughts. Nostalgic memories. The upper school writing contest, Creativity during COVID-19, gave students the chance to record these feelings about living during a worldwide pandemic and responding to this new reality. Hosted by English teacher Jennifer Siraganian, the contes...

Tags: COVID-19, poem, writing competition

New Jersey doctor speaks to Harker community about working on front lines of COVID-19 pandemic

Dr. Akanksha Kumar used slides as a part of her talk about her experiences working on a COVID-19 team. She is a family medicine physician at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey.

by Lucy Ge, Winged Post Asst. News Editor

May 10, 2020

Family medicine physician Dr. Akanksha Kumar spoke to 63 Harker students and faculty via Zoom during long lunch on Friday about her experience working on a COVID-19 team at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey. With this speaker event, organized by Riyaa Randhawa (10), Dr. K...

Tags: Akanksha Kumar, COVID-19, doctor, guest speaker, hospital

Print to protect

Parts of 15 orange and black masks that Will Yashar (10) 3D-printed lie on a table. “It was nice to see everyone helping for the common good, that was inspiring,” Will said. “Everyone’s helping in their own way, [this] was just the way I could help.”

by Sally Zhu, Reporter

May 1, 2020

The soft whir of the Prusa I3 Mk3 3D printing machine hums in Will Yashar’s (10) garage-turned-workspace as he pulls up the plastic mask prototype on his laptop. Surrounding the printers are large rolls of white PLA plastic filaments, some finished masks to be delivered and broken printer pieces and ...

Tags: 3d printing, community service, coronavirus, COVID-19, facemasks, personal protective equipment, will yashar

Stories from quarantine: A game night to remember

Even though I spent every day at home with them, the only time my family congregated, if ever, was for short dinners. These game nights made me appreciate my family more and realize that a 15 minute dinner is not a sufficient amount of time with them.

by Lavanya Subramanian

April 28, 2020

Faded primary colors fill the different pictures and numbers on the six cards in my hand. In front of me, more cards lay stacked on top of each other, each with a different word written in a black graffiti font. I unknowingly toy with the fraying edge of one of my cards as I watch my dad contemplate h...

Tags: card games, COVID-19, game night, lavanya subramaniam, pandemic, stories from quarantine

Senior spring online: making the most out of virtual college visits

Boston University is one of several colleges offering extensive online resources for prospective and admitted students. These involve interactive video chats through Zoom or other platforms that involve Q&A sessions.

by Gloria Zhang, Winged Post Editor-in-Chief

April 19, 2020

Congratulations! *Cue the confetti* After months of waiting for “an update to your application status”, seniors, we finally reached the moment to embark on our college adventure. Yet, instead of spending our spring break with air travel or road trips on the way to admit weekends, we have inst...

Tags: campus, college, college admissions, coronavirus, COVID-19, virtual tour

Upper school athletic department helps athletes stay in shape with spring sports season cancelled

The tennis courts at Westmont High in Los Gatos remain locked up. “It’s sort of hard to transition from playing tennis every single day to just not doing anything and sitting around,” varsity tennis co-captain Ramanand Vegesna (12) said. “Sometimes when you’re doing your own workouts it’s hard to stick to something and you kind of get lost in what you want to work on, so I think [Volt is] a really good tool, and people who don’t have a lot of experience working out can use it and figure out what exercise they want to do.”

by Saurav Tewari, Reporter

April 18, 2020

Eight upper school sports have had their seasons canceled after the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the statewide regulatory body for high school sports, released a statement on April 3 announcing the statewide cancellation of the spring sports season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ...

Tags: cancellation, cif, COVID-19, season, spring sports