The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila

John Near and Mitra Family Scholars stand in front of Chen Lin Mentors for a photo after the Scholar Grant Reception on April 25. During the event, five Near and four Mitra scholars shared their research experiences over the past year, with topics ranging from racial injustice in Manilatown to Peru’s “gastronomic revolution.”

Near Mitra reception celebrates nine scholars, gathers schoolwide support

by Shareen Chahal and Alena Suleiman May 8, 2023

John Near and Mitra Family Scholars and Chen Lin Mentors celebrated their projects at the Scholar Grant Reception in Nichols Hall on April 25 from 4:15 to 6 p.m.  Current seniors in the program recently...

“I will spend many hours just writing one line of a poem, and that line might not even go anywhere; it might not even become a poem. I learned to not treat time as wasted, but to treat it as care and energy that Im sharing with the page. This translated into my life with not feeling guilty about spending extra time on something: these are moments where I was present fully, and I was immersed in my experience enough for it to last and extend beyond what I thought it would be. Im learning to see that as a beautiful thing,” Sarah Mohammed (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Leading with grace

by Isha Moorjani, Co-Editor-in-Chief February 27, 2023

As words come to you, you start to fill up a journal page, planting the seed of a poem. The words weave themselves together, and you spend hours, days, weeks and even months sitting with the poem and nurturing...

Rachel Mennies is a poet and the author of The Naomi Letters
 (BOA Editions, 2021) and 
The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards (Texas Tech University Press), finds poetry to be a site of tenderness. Her most recent collection explores this tenderness through the epistolary form, as she writes lush letters to an imaginary woman.

The Poet’s Project: How poetry teaches us to be tender together

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor April 30, 2022

Rachel Mennies is a poet and the author of “The Naomi Letters” (BOA Editions, 2021) and “The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards” (Texas Tech University Press), which was named a finalist for the...

Mr. Irvine prepares to throw the ball at a recent Kayak Polo tournament.

From kayak polo to archery, students and faculty get involved in niche sports

by Ariana Goetting, Reporter December 6, 2021

When upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine played kayak polo for the first time 11 years ago, as per his wife’s landlord’s recommendation, he wasn’t expecting to find a passion that would...

Sofia Mohammed, Sarah Mohammeds little sister, chooses a bright assortment of emojis to send in a text to her mother. This weeks Friday Five presents Sarahs top five emojis.

Friday Five: Emojis

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor November 13, 2021

Emojis pepper my texts. Whether I’m chatting with a friend, talking to my parents, or communicating with classmates for a group project, I find myself returning to these bite-sized morsels of love, laughter...

I wrote about my family through very narrative poems, but I grew the most when I met spoken word artists and highly experimental writers doing something Ive never seen before. That was very impactful as a writer myself: to come into contact with new ways of thinking, poet Cathy Linh Che said.

The Poet’s Project: “To see history being made”

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor September 19, 2021

Cathy Linh Che is the author of “Split” (Alice James Books), a poetry book that chronicles her experiences with family, identity and childhood. Cathy is the Executive Director of Kundiman, a national...

My role as a poet, as a person in the literary community is to advocate for literature, my own and others’. I think thats an incredible responsibility, and one that I take on and welcome, poet Ruben Quesada said.

The Poet’s Project: “Taking the world apart at its smallest level”

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor August 21, 2021

Ruben Quesada is a Latinx poet, critic and community organizer raised in Los Angeles and currently living in Chicago. He is the author of two poetry collections, “Revelations” (Sibling Rivalry Press...

Junior Sarah Mohammed (11) was named National Student Poet in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Her poetry told stories related to her own culture and background.

Junior Sarah Mohammed named National Student Poet in Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

by Aastha Mangla, Asst. A&E and Lifestyle Editor August 16, 2021

In late June, Sarah Mohammed (11) received the news that she was titled one of the five national student poets in the country after submitting to the 2021 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards poetry category.  Sarah’s...

Be the person you are and write the poems and the stories that are in you and that youre surrounded by because thats whats going to make fantastic poetry, Siraganian said.

The Poet’s Project: “There’s this musicality in us that comes out”

by Sarah Mohammed, Features Editor May 8, 2021

Upper School English Teacher Jen Siraganian is the Los Gatos Poet Laureate and the author of “Fracture” a poetry chapbook published by Deconstructed Artichoke Press.  She has discovered strength...

My biggest tip [for young writers], the thing I would have told myself, is just to be as weird as you are in your writing. Let your images be strange. Pretend youre talking to yourself: give yourself that permission to talk. Be as weird as you are, Benaim said.

The Poet’s Project: “Poetry can show us what is possible”

by Sabrina Benaim, Guest Writer April 12, 2021

Sabrina Benaim is a poet from Canada who believes in the power of words as a source of togetherness, love and solidarity in the face of hardship. From teaching at workshops to posting snippets of small...

What I hope for in poetry is a sense of the historical and desire. I hope that we dont get too enamored with the present or too overwhelmed by the present that we cant enjoy and use the perspective of the past, poet Yanyi said.

The Poet’s Project: “You can feel the poem in your body”

by Sarah Mohammed, Winged Post Asst. Features Editor March 5, 2021

Yanyi is the author of “Dream of the Divided Field” (One World Random House, forthcoming 2022) and “The Year of Blue Water” (Yale University Press 2019), which won the 2018 Yale Series of Younger...

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