The student news site of The Harker School.

Harker Aquila
“In every activity I do, there's always an element of making sure that my work can impact people. In what I've done, there are times when people question what I do or if what I'm doing is correct. For me, what is most important is that what I'm doing can have a tangible impact on someone else. As long as I believe that an impact can occur, then I want to do that regardless of what other people think," senior Valerie Li said.
Humans of Harker: Calling for change
“My favorite part is not even the content, just how all my family presented. I made a jeopardy one time about myself to see who knew me the best, and that was funny because I realized that they do pay attention more than I give them credit for. I appreciate my family more for that," senior Rithika Yamasani said.
Humans of Harker: Finding strength in connection
Humans of Harker: Data and dynamics
Humans of Harker: Data and dynamics
“Once people start lifting, they'll never be happy with how they look or how big their muscles are. It definitely makes them more self-conscious about how they look because a lot of people train for muscle size. Since I'm not trying to pursue lifting in college and it’s just for fun, I train for both. It's not exclusively one or the other," senior Jason Yi said.
Humans of Harker: Power through
“Food brings people together. Cooking is one of the very few things in our world that can do that. No matter where you go, you will always see families sitting around a table eating food. It's very powerful and I'm glad that my cooking club could be a part of that," senior Ian Gerstner said.
Humans of Harker: Crafting cuisine and catching critters
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
"If there is something I don’t understand, I will spend as long as it takes for me to get enough of an understanding about a topic because I can’t stand knowing that I don’t know something that I could know," Kaushik Shivakumar (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Beyond surface level

by Vishnu Kannan, Reporter • March 21, 2019

Many people would take the workings of a table tennis ball for granted, but not Kaushik Shivakumar (12). As he leans against the Dobbins stairwell, Kaushik begins to describe the effect that aerodynamics...

“Not anything is given to you. You know, you got to take it and you have to earn it. Hard work pays off."

Humans of Harker: Touchdowns and life lessons

by Shreya Srinivasan, TALON Organizations and Co-Sports Editor • March 21, 2019

The lights shine bright, focusing on the figures centered on the field. Anthony Meissner (12) tightly grips the brown football in his hands, attentively watching for who to throw it to. Seeing an open...

“The biggest value that we have as a Turkish community is family. We have huge, huge, huge families, and even people that you’re close friends with, they’re part of your family too... we’re just all family," Dilara Ezer (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Where friends meet family

by Hunter Tucker and Kathy Fang • March 20, 2019

In the background, a church choir sings hymns softly. Further downstage, Dilara Ezer (12) stands on top of a table, bathed in pale light in the shape of a window frame. With her hair pulled back and her...

“Performing is one of the most terrifying things, like having to audition for teacher or perform in front of people not knowing if they’re going to like it,” Abigail Wisdom (12) said. “But just having fun with your friends in the rehearsal process, feeling confident during the performance and doing your best regardless of what other people think makes this experience worth it and makes myself proud of my work.”

Humans of Harker: Swimming, singing and smiling

by Emily Chen, TALON Co-Academics Editor • March 20, 2019

When asking Abigail Wisdom’s (12) friends about her most memorable quality, a common response emerges: her smile. No matter if she’s in the water or on the stage, her smile and laugh are contagious...

“Academically, the classes that I take, I no longer am stuck in the ‘this a grade’ mindset on my report card, but every class is an opportunity to learn something new and to take risks. You're not going to enjoy every class. Ultimately, from every class, you'll learn if you like the subject or not," Ashwin Rammohan (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Clearing setbacks

by Mark Hu, Reporter • March 19, 2019

Focused on a white, dimpled ball lying on a tee in a sea of green grass, Ashwin Rammohan (12) prepares for his swing, a thin golf club grasped between his hands. He leans the club back, and in a smooth...

“Initially you still have all these thoughts floating through your head, so you kind of distance yourself from them and draw your sphere of awareness to you and forget about the cars going outside or the ticking of the clock. That gives me a different perspective on how much things matter," Akshay Ravoor (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Finding awareness

by Nicole Tian, Reporter • March 19, 2019

Dressed in a puffy, bright orange jacket, Akshay Ravoor (12) exudes an ebullient personality lighthearted enough to match the tones of his clothing. He speaks in a slightly lilting voice and expresses...

“At this point, it's kind of hard to define what my comfort zone is because I don't spend much time in it. I'm known for just going for things,” Cedric Nowatzyk (12) said. “I don't hesitate, and I feel like the idea of a comfort zone hasn't really been applied to me for a while, since I can hold true to statement that I've never had an idea that I wouldn't just chase immediately.”

Humans of Harker: Passion beyond expectation

by Anna Vazhaeparambil, Reporter • March 18, 2019

To different people, the name “Cedric Nowatzyk” means very different things. A writer to some, a therapist to others, he has impacted the people around him in countless ways. But as he sits on the...

“Change isn’t just an event that you can snap your fingers to make happen, but it's also a process, and a part of the process is about starting that chain and creating a legacy. I know that sometimes what I’m working on right now might not be realized right now, it might not be realized in the future, but I'm confident that I’ve kind of established it as a legacy that people will then follow through on," Enya Lu (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Broadening horizons

by Nilisha Baid, Asst. Business Manager and Social Media Editor • March 18, 2019

The air filled with chatter and silverware tapping against plates, Enya Lu (12) describes how she rushes around a restaurant as a busser. Beginning at 5 p.m. folding napkins, drying dishes, and arranging...

“I don’t know a specific moment when I made the decision that I want to make change, but with everything going on right now, I just realized that I want to be the person that helps get people the opportunities they deserve. I want to give a voice to those who don’t have the ability to speak for themselves. Everyone deserves an equal chance to build themselves a life and build themselves a future," Meghna Phalke (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Cultivating communities

by Esha Gohil, Reporter • March 17, 2019

Her highlighted hair glows in the sun, matching the bright smile that spreads across her face as she tells her friends a playful story that makes them all burst into laughter. It’s almost impossible...

“For me at least, I get this feeling when I know I helped out someone else where I’m like ‘dang, I made a difference.’ That’s important to me. Because I think I realize how much people have helped me get to where I am today. Teachers, parents, mentors. I think I want to give that back," Jason Huang (12) said.

Humans of Harker: Blazing a path forward

by Jessie Wang, Reporter • March 16, 2019

Jason Huang (12) grew serious as he told a story of visiting a run-down little village in the depths of rural China. He was seven or eight years old, and the village didn’t really have running electricity,...

“The cars...give you a sense of satisfaction when you complete a job and get in the car like 'Oh! That thing doesn't squeak anymore. Or, oh, my oil isn't bursting out of the hood. That's awesome.' It's good to have a sense of accomplishment and working on cars really does that because it's a tangible difference with every single thing you fix,” Oliver Doig (12) said. “With the vast majority of things, it's a lot of just really simple, basic quality of life stuff that you are actually capable of improving for yourself, and that's awesome.”

Humans of Harker: Driving towards satisfaction

by Saloni Shah, Asst. Humans of Harker Editor • March 16, 2019

Clad in a checkered blue shirt, looking relaxed and carefree, Oliver Doig (12) exudes charm and a laughter that fills the auditorium. His eyes twinkle with kindness, honesty, and loyalty as he leans back...

“One thing I’ve always believed in is the power of communication and just being honest and truthful in all respects. Communication, to me, is more than language in a traditional sense: it also includes communication in a nontraditional sense like body movement or painting or programming. The power of communication is inexplicable. I want to bring that love and apply it to a greater world purpose,” said Devanshi Mehta (12).

Humans of Harker: Steps and strokes

by Varsha Rammohan, Copy Editor • March 15, 2019

“Marketing executive. New York City. Manhattan, proper Manhattan or Brooklyn Heights. Corner office with floor-to-ceiling windows.” Devanshi Mehta’s (12) dream career towers above her petite 5-foot-2-inch...

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