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
“My mom says when life gives you lemons, you make lemon meringue pie. One of my strengths is definitely seeing the better side of situations. I make the best out of situations when things don't go well. It's about giving myself that room to breathe,” Gwen Yang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Practical optimism

by Vika Gautham, Asst. Features Editor • March 19, 2023

Gwen Yang (12) recalls her intense focus as she carefully picked up spores of sordaria, a species of microscopic fungi. Pieces of the fungi lay strewn across trays, broken or popped from previous failed...

“What I’ve found more gratifying and more of an accomplishment than acting would be just being nice — being someone to lean on and being good to my friends, at least when I can be. I really make a point of trying to be easygoing because I think it has a positive impact on people I know,” Harper Brada (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Passion in compassion

by Jonathan Szeto, Reporter • March 19, 2023

It was freshman year when Harper Brada (12) took a leap of faith and auditioned for the upper school’s fall play. Although he had a few years of prior experience with theater, he knew that acting at...

“If life is meaningless, why not just try something crazy? It’s this positive nihilism perspective: if the world means nothing, then you could do something out of it. What am I missing? It's all out there, so maybe, I'll try something just to gain a little more perspective in that area,” Richard Zhang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Positive nihilism

by Audrey Cheng, Reporter • March 19, 2023

Colorful, lively fish dart around in a jungle of vibrant coral and rocks, their vivid hues accentuated by the sunbeams shining through the water. Among the endless sea of exhibits the aquarium has to offer,...

“Take advantage of opportunities. Harker has so many opportunities for you to explore what you love — as long as you're here and you're given these opportunities, definitely take advantage of them," Mike Sullivan (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Dribbling towards new paths

by Lily Shi, Reporter • March 18, 2023

Shouts ring through the Zhang gymnasium as Mike Sullivan (12), spotting a chance to shoot, receives the basketball and dribbles it forward. A defender from the opposing team jumps in front, attempting...

“Being able to help people who are extremely vulnerable and make a massive difference in their lives is something that you can't really forget, and something that I still cherish to this day. Continuing that into a career in medicine and building on the principles and values of ‘seva’ is something that has been pretty definitive of my life, especially when you combine it with the science studies that I'm really passionate about,” Sunjum Sanghari (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Giving and growing

by Shareen Chahal, Asst. News Editor • March 18, 2023

From Arctic science expeditions to reviving 24,000-year-old frozen animals, the field of science is progressing faster than ever before. Sunjum Sanghari (12) knows the ins and outs of these recent advances...

“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. Life is really about going out and opening your mind and ears to new things and the rest of the world,” Ryan Chang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Fishing for peace

by Emma Li, Reporter • March 17, 2023

Standing still at the edge of the bank, Ryan Chang (12) patiently watches the water’s glassy surface — and has been for well over an hour. Suddenly, a pair of tiny, round eyes appear and begin to rise...

“It's really challenging to go out on your own on the weekends and just research economics because it gets boring. One of the things that's helped me do that is understanding that it's a vast field, but the more effort I put in to understand what's going on, the better,” Indigo Lee (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Score big

by Janam Chahal, Reporter • March 16, 2023

One app. Endless possibilities. Indigo Lee (12) recalls the moment his father recommended that he download Robinhood, an investment app. He was given 100 dollars to experiment with on the app. After losing...

“The thing I enjoy most about basketball is meeting new people from different schools in the Bay Area because a lot of different people from different schools come to the park. People I otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to meet play basketball,” Mir Bahri (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Making change and making friends

by Isabella Lo, Asst. Opinions Editor • March 16, 2023

Politics, programming and basketball are just a few of Mir Bahri’s (12) many and varied interests. He finds himself drawn to politics for its potential to make a positive social impact, while programming...

“Something I really value about people is their character, not their accomplishments or what they do. I try my best to be kind to others, especially teachers and those that are younger than me, because I don’t want to be remembered as someone who isn’t kind,” Emily Novikov (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Serving up success

by Heidi Lu, TALON People and Seniors Editor • March 16, 2023

A tiny green tennis ball flies across the net, spinning faster than the eye can track. On the other side, the opponent lunges for the ball, but it hits the ground before she reaches it, eliciting a chorus...

“With debate, it's impossible to work by yourself. You have a partner, so you're forced to work with them. The only way for you to enjoy and get the most out of the activity is to work on your own skills, work on your team skills and understand that when things get rough, it's okay to be vulnerable, trust your team and fall back on them,” Carol Wininger (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Canter and convince

by Shareen Chahal, Asst. News Editor • March 15, 2023

Alongside her fellow debaters, Carol Wininger (12) gathers around a computer in the middle of a conference room. As announcers on the other side of the screen read out names, the team waits in anticipation...

“I want to create something that hasn’t been created before. Math is the way I find best to do it, partly because it’s enjoyable to do, but also partly because that distillation of pure logic is one that’s very powerful and very fundamental,” Jack Hsieh (12) said.

Humans of Harker: On the verge of discovery

by Jonathan Xue, HoH Profiler • March 15, 2023

Three. Two. One. Happy New Year! While others celebrate the occasion around him, Jack Hsieh (12) types away, enveloped in his mathematics research. After two years of tireless effort, he stands on the...

“In baseball, you can get away with a fluke hit. In football, a quarterback can misread an assignment, but your wide receiver can still make a great play. But in golf, you can't really get away with anything because it's just you. You've got no one else to blame but yourself. A lot of times I don't want to take the blame for certain actions. Golf is a place where you can't not take the blame because nobody else played but you,” Freddy Hoch (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Adapting to the course

by Smrithi Sambamurthy, TALON Sports Editor • March 8, 2023

Surrounded by the lush greenery of the Kula Forest and the majestic West Maui Mountains, Freddy Hoch (12) steps onto the green fairway of the King Kamehameha Golf Course. As he lines up his shot, the crashing...

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