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

Downbeat member Shayla He (12) sings Jupiter: Every Day I Listen To My Heart, a Japanese song by Ayaka Hirahara. The upper school acapella group also performed Cells, Planets and Levitating.

United Voices resonates inspiration and connection

by Eva Cheng March 11, 2024

Backstage, a twelfth grade performer adjusts the crooked collar of his seventh grade companion. A fourth grade student weaves her way through Rothschild Performing Arts Center, waving at the older students...

Directors’ Roundtable: Revisiting Stories from Student-Directed Showcase

by Alison Yang and Suhani Gupta March 8, 2024

A month ago, the Conservatory premiered the annual Student Directed Showcase. The directors, seniors Isabella Ribeiro, Mariana Rai, Selina Xu and Sonya Apsey, each selected and produced four one-act plays...

Characters in Pressure crowd around Hannah Streepers Sam after she fainted. All four SDS plays centered around the high school experience and adolescences stresses.

Annual SDS showcase spotlights student directors

by Young Min, Emma Li, and Alison Yang February 15, 2024

A girl strides up to the mirror and finds her younger self staring back. A classroom strains under the stress of a sudden lockdown. A quartet of teenagers face the social, familial and academic pressures...

Aminis death paved the way for a renewed movement of defiance, protest and anger against Iran’s oppressive regime. Thousands of people have taken to the streets, dancing, singing, burning hijabs and defying authorities.

Pulse of the People: Iran’s resistance, one year after Mahsa Amini

by Hima Thota September 16, 2023

Today marks one year since the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who was stopped by the morality police for not wearing her headscarf properly. Three days after her apprehension,...

Civilians stand in the wreckage of crumpled buildings in the village of Besnia near the town of Harim, in Syrias rebel-held northwestern Idlib province on the border with Türkiye. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit areas of southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6, resulting in at least 50,000 deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

Kahramanmaras earthquake strikes Turkey, Syria

by Sally Zhu, Co-Editor in Chief March 13, 2023

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit areas of southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6, resulting in at least 50,000 deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.  According to the March 2 U.S....

Cards with encouraging messages were displayed around campus during Wellness Week. “We all wrote down some kind of encouraging phrases on notecards to put around school,” Sonya Apsey (11) said. “It was really nice to see our advisory bonding over something [we] normally wouldn’t get an opportunity to talk about, and I think Wellness Week gave [us] that opportunity.”

Wellness Week: LIFE lessons with LIFE Board

by Shareen Chahal and Isha Moorjani December 14, 2022

The Living With Intent, Focus and Enthusiasm (LIFE) Board hosted their annual Wellness Week from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 with activities dedicated to reframing, nutrition, exercise, sleep, relaxation and more...

Talk around campus: Favorite study spots

by Selina Xu, Medha Yarlagadda, and Sally Zhu December 8, 2022

From the library to the orchard to all the different academic buildings, the upper school campus offers a variety of places for students to work and study during the day. Whether you're looking for a quieter...

Head of upper school Paul Barsky claps after reading excerpts from English teacher Charles Shuttleworths recently published book “Desolation Peak: Collected Writings. Barsky read from number 11 of 12 choruses and thanked Shuttleworth for his scholarship.

School meeting recap 11/28/22: Winterfest, “Desolation Peak” and Middle Eastern Student Association

by Felix Chen, Assistant News Editor December 6, 2022

Associated Student Body (ASB) President Kris Estrada (12) opened the school meeting on Nov. 28 after students entered Zhang Gymnasium to the tune of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”...

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced in a press release on Oct. 28 an additional $275 million of aid for Ukraine to help in the country’s resistance against Russia. “[I think that the U.S. should be] increasing aid, providing more refugee opportunities,” Stefan Maxim (10), who has observed the evolution of the war over its duration, said.

United States sends $275 million more in aid to Ukraine

by Felix Chen, Assistant News Editor November 25, 2022

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced in a press release on Oct. 28 an additional $275 million of aid for Ukraine to help in the country’s resistance against Russia. This additional military...

New weeds emerge from seeds in the orchard today, two weeks after the initial reseeding of the area on Oct. 13. The orchard was sprayed with a mixture of different weeds, fertilizer and paper pulp in a process called hydroseeding.

New possibilities take root in reseeding of orchard

by Isabella Lo and Claire Zhao October 31, 2022

The grounds staff have roped off the orchard, which was planted with cherries, plums and apricots in 2018, in order to promote the growth of vegetation for two to four weeks. In a Schoology post from...

Three students and two teachers discuss their thoughts on the mask mandate lift at the upper school. The lift began on Monday, and students and faculty are no longer required to wear masks indoors.

Talk around campus: Mask mandate lift

by Selina Xu and Sally Zhu April 25, 2022

Additional reporting by Edward Huang. With the upper school's mask mandate lifting last Monday, April 18, students and faculty are no longer required to wear masks indoors, a decision following Gov....

Anoushka Khatri (12) and Samvita Gautham (11) rehearse on Feb. 4 in the Patil Theater for the Spring Musical. This years Spring Musical will be The Drowsy Chaperone, performed yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Upcoming upper school performances

by Kinnera Mulam, Alena Suleiman, and Sally Zhu March 25, 2022

Spring Musical: “The Drowsy Chaperone”  March 24-26 This year’s Spring Musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” will take place today and tomorrow at 7 p.m. and a 2 p.m. show tomorrow in the Patil...

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