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
“Not everyone can relate to everyone even within the same community. I know that my experiences as an Indian American are different from my friends. There are definitely things that we have in common, but each person's perspective is different and important. With every book I've read, I get a bigger and better visual of that," Sriya Batchu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Search, grow and identify

by Tina Xu, TALON Co-Sports Editor • March 9, 2022

Immersing herself in the aisles of Barnes & Nobles, Sriya Batchu (12) searches around for her next read. Inheriting her mother's affinity toward books, Sriya perused the Magic Tree House and Geronimo...

“My mom tells me, ‘Always remember those who have served you.' Whenever I'm upset or frustrated with menial things throughout the day, I remember how good my life is. It's always good to put things into perspective and remember all the people who have done so much for you," Kailash Ranganathan (12) said.

Humans of Harker: The calm beneath the chaos

by Olivia Xu, Reporter • March 8, 2022

“Hello from the outside…” Adele’s voice reverberates throughout the quad, where dozens of students and teachers gather, their eyes fixated on Kailash Ranganathan (12) as he catches a bright...

“Sports are very symbolic of real life: you have a team and people who need to work together in order to complete a goal. That translates into life in a lot of ways. You need to have trust with the people you’re working with and be able to take leadership. With soccer, that’s something that’s helped me," Sarah Leafstrand (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Adventures just for kicks

by Rachel Ning, TALON Organizations Editor • March 7, 2022

As she walks toward the uphill slope, senior Sarah Leafstrand squints her eyes to look up at the sun just beginning to beat down on the muddy grass of the serene Saratoga Gap. Tucking her hair behind her...

“If I commit to something, I want to see it through. Once I become invested in something, I really want to see something wonderful come out of it. I feel like I owe it to not only myself, but the people around me. I want to leave a lasting impact,” Shounak Ghosh (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Ready, set, role

by Angelina Hu, Reporter • March 5, 2022

Propping his bike on its rear wheel in a move called a manual, then balancing on the front wheel as he executes a nose manual, Shounak Ghosh (12) deftly handles his bike, performing tricks and jumps effortlessly...

“I'm fine with not knowing what's going on next; I'm fine with going with the flow, [and that’s my strength]. Focus on what you can control. You can't [change] anything about [the future] unless you have a time machine, so why worry about it?” Simren Kocchar (12) said.

Humans of Harker: 1,000,000,006 times better

by Claire Su, Reporter • March 3, 2022

Concentric circles of ripples expand as Simren Kochhar (12) takes her first steps into the clear, cylindrical sanctuary, as shown in a video from her trip to Australia before sophomore year. Waist-deep...

“I live by smiles per gallon. If you think about life in terms of miles per gallon, you’re thinking about how you can maximize being efficient. You’ll be on cruise control the whole time. But by looking at the smiles per gallon, you’ll have so much fun on the road trip there. You’ll enjoy the journey to the fullest," Dhruv Saoji (12) said.

Humans of Harker: This moment

by Muthu Panchanatham, Opinions Editor • March 2, 2022

With light filtering through the car windows, Dhruv Saoji (12) expertly maneuvers through traffic, not taking his eyes off the road as he continues his energetic conversation with a close friend. Brilliant...

“I can remember every show and every dance I’ve been in — maybe not remember the steps to it, but I can definitely remember all the feelings that go into them. [Whenever] I finished a dance, no matter how stressed out I was before or how much my body had hurt before I always came off the stage feeling very happy," Brooklyn Cicero (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Push to perform

by Jessica Tang, Co-Photo Editor • March 1, 2022

Brooklyn Cicero (12) recounts her most memorable dance performance at the Santana Row Tree Lighting Ceremony in eighth grade with a smile. Gift bags in hand, festive Christmas shoppers wandered from store...

“[Life is] about finding your true passion, sharing it and following it in a way that makes you happy. You don’t have to be like everyone else. If you be who you want to be, you will be successful, and there will always be a community willing to embrace you," Harshil Garg (12) said.

Humans of Harker: For the record

by Arjun Barrett, Asst. STEM Editor • February 28, 2022

Standing at the front of the class, Harshil Garg (12) gives a detailed crash course on the pre-Columbian Americas to a room of attentive juniors. Having researched the material in great depth, he answers...

“What I want to show people around me is what I learned from the upperclassmen above me: we're all making mistakes, and we’re all learning from those mistakes. Especially at Harker, I want to show people that it's okay to not be the best at anything. Do what you want. Give it your best shot, and learn from your mistakes," Teresa Cai (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Follow your heart

by Ella Yee, Assistant Multimedia Editor • February 25, 2022

Whenever Teresa Cai (12) travels to a new location, she makes sure to buy a bird book. Then, she quickly learns about the diets and habitats of the birds that live in the area. At home, Teresa spends her...

“The experience of building bridges between people you’d never otherwise interact with, and that these bridges are ultimately made out of nothing but hope for the future, regardless of your upbringings, has been really meaningful for me. Taking a step into the more unsettling, uncomfortable world is something that means a lot to me," Caden Lin (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Beyond borders and boundaries

by Kinnera Mulam, Copy Editor • February 24, 2022

Caden Lin (12) remembers walking through the Seechaitong street market in Thailand on his way to the International School of Bangkok located in the city Nonthaburi. He passed by familiar faces such as...

“I want to be remembered as someone who hopefully helped other people be better. I want to be a good influence on [people]. I want to be a friend who makes you a better person," Alexa Lowe (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Team player

by Isha Moorjani, News Editor • February 23, 2022

Shoes squeaking on the gym floor, Alexa Lowe (12) charges forward as she swiftly dribbles the ball. Her eyes focused on the white net ahead, she stops smoothly, carefully calculating her throw. Power courses...

“When you’re trying to solve a coding problem or trying to accomplish a task, there are many different ways to go about it. You can use different programming tools, languages, or different algorithms. You have quite a bit of freedom, and being able to look at situations through different lenses is important to finding the most efficient solution," Anirudh Kotamraju (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Enterprising engineer

by Ananya Sriram, Assistant News Editor • February 22, 2022

Anirudh Kotamraju (12) recalls his memories as a seventh grader, rising from a couch in fascination and abandoning the show on his television, instead fixated on a simple game of Pong running on his uncle’s...

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