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
“This competition, we spent a lot of time working on the autonomous functions. We designed a routine that would steal from the other teams, which no other teams really had in the competition. And we managed to execute that pretty consistently against some of the better teams. Continuing to learn more and more useful information over time is really important for growth," Chirag Kaushik (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Innovation and automation

by Arjun Barrett, Asst. STEM Editor • April 27, 2022

Sitting in the Harker Robotics lab, Chirag Kaushik (12) carefully tweaks the code behind Harker Robotics’ Team 1072’s latest competition robot. As he leads the other students in Harker Robotics’...

“In general, the world can benefit from people caring more about what others value and prioritizing that as well. Sometimes when you adjust your own habits or with the activities you do to match someone else's needs or what someone else finds meaningful, the experience of making someone else feel valued becomes meaningful to you as well," Shrey Khater (12) said.

Humans of Harker: A trip around the world

by Desiree Luo, Reporter • April 27, 2022

Most people take decades to finish traveling around the world. Many high school students identify only one place as their home. But Shrey Khater (12) has spent his entire life traveling, having lived in...

“I want to know what I'm here for and what the world is and what my place in the world is. And I feel like physics and philosophy are twin paths for that goal. Being able to get more diversity in [science], drawing connections to different experiences like entanglement and intersectionality, I think that's really powerful to unite understanding across fields," Angela Jia (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Detur pons mundo

by Nicole Tian, Co-Editor-in-Chief • April 26, 2022

The fluorescent lighting in computer science department chair and science teacher Dr. Eric Nelson’s room illuminates the presentation on the screen as Angela Jia (12) announces the start of the Robotics...

“You have to think on your feet and come up with arguments quickly in [Lincoln-Douglas]. I am not hesitant to speak. When I do, I can create ideas pretty clearly and communicate to others and, even if I don’t transform their minds, I try to help them see something," Akhilesh Chegu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Lifting the spirit

by Tiffany Chang, TALON Academics Editor • April 26, 2022

A mass of around 80 seniors gather on Davis Field during an office hour period, chatting in anticipation of the Class of 2022 Olympics about to take place. Advisories convened in huddles to strategize,...

“When you take a character, you have an archetype to mold and shape, so you can do whatever you want with the nuances and intricacies of it. It becomes your own and it becomes your vision, and it’s all about what you want to articulate with that character. You get to choose what you’re communicating, and a lot of that is also about what you love and what you want to communicate. You get to choose how you fit into the shows," Josh Field (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Balancing act

by Catherine Wong, Reporter • April 25, 2022

Josh Field (12) remembers the final performance of "The Complete History of America (abridged)" with a wide smile, reliving the sensation of pure pride that permeated the show’s final moments.  “Everything...

“Sometimes it can be overwhelming when you hear about the injustices and it can be easy to sit there and feel bad about what's going on. But when you think about an injustice that's happening and you see it [in terms of] taking action on it rather than sitting there in your negative emotions, it can also help you process what's going on and can make you feel more in control of the situation," Elizabeth Fabel (12) said.

Humans of Harker: From the heart

by Emma Gao, Co-Copy Editor • April 25, 2022

How does our world change for the better? How do we fight injustice? How do we make an impact? For Elizabeth Fabel (12), the answer lies in the motto that she lives by: “Be the change you wish to...

Humans of Harker: Lending an ear

by Trisha Iyer, Reporter • April 22, 2022

In senior Nicole Arena’s happiest memory, she’s splashing her friends in the Garden of Eden swimming hole along the San Lorenzo River down in Santa Cruz. She describes the trek down to the water as...

“I want people to be more open about programming and computer science. I know a lot of people say that programming is boring, and in a lot of ways, yes, coding can be, if you let it be boring. I thought programming was boring until I found an application for it that I found interesting. If there’s a subject or topic one doesn’t initially like as much, they should try and be more open and willing to give it a chance," Rohit Tallapragada (12) said.

Humans of Harker: One click away

by Claire Bauschlicher, Reporter • April 22, 2022

Sitting down with his laptop in front of him, Rohit Tallapragada (12) quickly scans the hundreds of lines of code within his program, carefully debugging his code for any errors. Although in the past,...

“I definitely feel that stretch and pull between the two parts of me, and that's a difficult part of being biracial — being able to connect with the part of you that's probably less prominent in the world that you live in. Sometimes it feels like you never belong. But it also feels like you can make your own identity because you can be so many different things at once," Justin Fung (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Recipe for reflection

by Michelle Wei, Reporter • April 21, 2022

Justin Fung (12) fondly describes memories of watching his grandparents cook traditional Chinese dishes such as lo bak go, a type of turnip cake. Justin would eagerly observe them shred and boil daikon...

“I thought to myself that I had to suppress that fear or face that fear and realize that if I focus on the task at hand, focus on doing what I've set out to do, that's far better than just focusing on any fear and insecurity of what I can and cannot do," John Zeng (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Teamwork and tackling

by Medha Yarlagadda, Reporter • April 21, 2022

Recalling one of his favorite memories with football, John Zeng (12), the offensive and defensive lineman and captain of the football team, recalls the Harker seven on seven tournament. The competitive...

“I wish people would care about others a little bit more. [In] martial arts, I try to teach our students the strength of character and how to become a good person in addition to developing their physical skills; I want to help them grow into better people because that’s what my coaches did for me when I was younger," Andrew Vodinh-Ho (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Strength in mind and body

by Katie Reed, Reporter • April 20, 2022

Firmly gripping a polished naginata with both hands, Andrew Vodinh-Ho (12) lunges forward, face grim and unrelenting as he stares forward in concentration. His black belt, cinched around his waist, flutters...

“I don't really have grand aspirations to change the world. I just want to make something that will impact other people and make them reflect and think about their lives the way that media has made me reflect thinking about my life, whether it's a painting or it's a game," Gloria Zhu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Blurring the lines

by Lucy Ge, Aquila Co-Managing Editor • April 20, 2022

Carefully etching into a linoleum block with a sharp metal tool, Gloria Zhu (12) works deftly to make a sketch come to life in a matter of minutes using her latest artistic medium of choice — printmaking....

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