The Harbinger

06/08/2026

One of the most important realizations I have had throughout high school is that I will keep learning until the day I die. In hindsight, it should have been an obvious thought but it still took me years to truly digest it. I had always assumed that there would be a time when I would know everything that I needed to know about myself and everything around me. I don’t anymore.

My perspective on learning changed midway through high school due to the burnout caused by one of my greatest passions, photography. Photography played such a huge role in so many aspects of my life that I found myself deeply exhausted by it. If I initially started taking photos because it brought me joy, what was the point in continuing when it no longer did so?

During this period of burnout, I turned my eyes to other photographers at Algonquin. They had the drive to create art that I had lost over my months of burnout. As I looked at their photos and listened to them talk, I gained some of that drive back. It was like I was transported back to my freshman year when I first began to seriously study photography, desperate to prove my skills to others.

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One of the most important realizations I have had throughout high school is that I will keep learning until the day I die. In hindsight, it should have been an obvious thought but it still took me years to truly digest it. I had always assumed that there would be a time when I would...

06/08/2026

Skill, determination and teamwork brought the boys rugby team to the Division II semifinals, where they had a tough 42-14 loss to Brookline. Despite the loss, the team looks back on the season with pride and hopes to make it all the way next season.

The team ended the regular season with a 4-1-1 record and entered the postseason as the number one seed with a three game win streak, but it took effort to get there. They began the season with a 1-0-1 record. In their next matchup, the team had a 23-21 loss to Milton, a Division I team. Coach Dominic McNeil believes that despite the loss, this game was actually their turning point.

“We proved to ourselves that we can play with Division I opposition, and good Division I opposition,” McNeil said. “So it just gave this team a lot of belief.”

Undeterred by the loss, the team took what they learned from the game and used it in practice, with a large focus on teamwork and communication, which they maintained for the rest of the season.

“We can’t let each other down; we have to keep each other’s heads up,” senior captain Gavin Murphy said.

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Skill, determination and teamwork brought the boys rugby team to the Division II semifinals, where they had a tough 42-14 loss to Brookline. Despite the loss, the team looks back on the season with pride and hopes to make it all the way next season. The team ended the regular season with a 4-1-1 rec...

06/07/2026

When I think about my high school journey, I do not think about any specific time or experience, but rather the relationships I built. Many people have asked me what I enjoyed most over the past four years, and the truth may come as a surprise.

Entering my freshman year at Algonquin, I was a new student and had one friend and a couple of acquaintances. I know a lot of people worry about meeting new people, and the typical advice would be to try new things and join clubs or extracurricular activities. So I tried soccer, DECA, Speech and Debate, Pickleball Club, and many more. As cliché as it sounds, trying new things allowed me to meet so many people that I call friends today.

I met some of my closest friends from my soccer team in the fall of freshman year, even though I am a completely different person today. There is something to be said about the difficulties of enduring a long season in the rain, blinding heat, sprints, victories and defeats.

Read more: https://arhsharbinger.com/46926/opinion/senior-reflection-the-people-make-the-place/

06/07/2026

Despite spending half of Winter Ball doing karaoke, singing as loud as possible with friends with the sunroof open after Pinkout and being a generally loud person, I’ve surprisingly never lost my voice. Obviously, I’ve woken up countless times with a stuffy nose and sore throat, realizing I should have been grateful the night before for my ability to breathe.

But, I believe that if I gaslight myself into thinking I’m not sick, I won’t be. It’s like telling yourself a grade doesn’t matter – like, is that 10/20 in Lang really going to do anything?

While maybe that’s terrible medical and scholarly advice, almost anything you learn can be applied to everyday life (although I’m not fully sure what I’ll use matrices for in Hollywood). By that logic, my pseudo-sickness is really saying, if you don’t believe in yourself, who says others will?

Like I said, I’ve never gotten laryngitis, but I’ve also never lost my metaphorical voice: I’ve never backed down from an opinion, hid part of my identity or reinvented myself so others like me more.

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Despite spending half of Winter Ball doing karaoke, singing as loud as possible with friends with the sunroof open after Pinkout and being a generally loud person, I’ve surprisingly never lost my voice. Obviously, I’ve woken up countless times with a stuffy nose and sore throat, realizing I shou...

06/05/2026

Online Editor Altea Mehillaj reflects:
I have re-written and re-thought about all the ways I can write this Senior Reflection, and here I am writing it the night before it’s due. I have been waiting for this moment ever since freshman year, when I was freshly 15, sitting in my journalism class with a bunch of seniors, and listening about what they’ll be writing about. Now, I’m here. I knew this day would eventually come, but I didn’t think I would feel like this. In a time where I thought everything would be figured out, I have never felt more unstable. Although I have a rough sketch of what my future will look like, there is so much uncertainty of what’s to come. And that’s ok.

I have always been a planner and had my agenda set. I knew exactly what my days consisted of weeks in advance: Harbinger meeting on Monday, Steering on Tuesday, DECA on Wednesday, Create for Kids on Friday and on top of that honor society meetings ranging from business to English every other week. The genuine satisfaction when I cross things off my to-do list is a feeling that is unreplicable. I know what you’re thinking. I can practically hear you say, “She’s got it all figured out,” and while I think organization is a great skill to have, don’t be like me. For most of high school, I thought being successful meant filling every empty space in my schedule. But, here’s my two cents: you don’t have to jam pack your schedule with every possible extracurricular you can think of, you don’t take every AP offered (unless you truly enjoy the class) and you don’t BS your way to a leadership position just to have that on your resume.

Do something you’re truly passionate about. Join one club that you are genuinely interested in. Write that email to that one business owner. Do some actual research (without asking ChatGPT) about different service opportunities or internships. Put yourself out there in the real world with your head held high. You will learn so much more from these experiences than you will ever learn from your math class (sorry math department).

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I have re-written and re-thought about all the ways I can write this Senior Reflection, and here I am writing it the night before it’s due. I have been waiting for this moment ever since freshman year, when I was freshly 15, sitting in my journalism class with a bunch of seniors, and listening abo...

06/05/2026

Graduating Editor-in-Chief Arushi Kohli reflects back:
I’m sorry, what? Are you telling me that in a matter of days, hours in fact, that I will be officially a high school graduate? Me, no way. Absolutely not. It seems almost too good to be true, like there was a fluke in the system and now all of a sudden I’m actually going to be leaving the place where I spent over 5,000 hours of my life cramming information into my already overflowing mind and spitting it out onto a piece of paper.

If I had to do it all over again (and trust me I do not), I would definitely take a different spin to this shindig to spice things up a little. High school is known and notorious for sucking the lives out of students who are just trying to figure themselves out, but, and hear me out, there are some pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. So, here’s my two cents for my past self and all the curious 14 year-olds who soon will be walking through the infamous halls: wear comfortable shoes.

Speaking from personal experience, days can be long and tiresome, especially for those who participate in a bucketload of extracurriculars as I did. From waking up to a pit of darkness outside (I know you know the struggles of daylight savings) to staying after until the sun sets, this journey is not for the weak. On top of that, you will come to learn that lockers are more of a design element than a practical one, so expect to carry a twenty-pound backpack filled to the brim with notebooks, binders, folders and miscellaneous papers. Thus, comfortable shoes are the way to go because you are in for a long trek.

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I’m sorry, what? Are you telling me that in a matter of days, hours in fact, that I will be officially a high school graduate? Me, no way. Absolutely not. It seems almost too good to be true, like there was a fluke in the system and now all of a sudden I’m actually going...

06/02/2026

https://arhsharbinger.com/46780/ae/slideshow-students-work-is-admired-at-art-show/ #

A donation of $40 or more includes a subscription to the 2024-25 print issues of The Harbinger. We will mail a copy of our fall, winter, spring and graduation issues to the recipient of your choice. Your donation supports the student journalists of Algonquin Regional High School and allows our extra...

06/01/2026

Walking through ARHS today, students rely much more on technology in and out of the classroom than they did decades ago, fundamentally changing how they learn and stay engaged in school.

While school culture and teen trends may not look drastically different from the 1990s, the role of technology in education has shifted dramatically. Smartphones, online assignments and digital classrooms now play a significant role in daily learning, according to teachers who have witnessed the shift firsthand.

“I think the biggest overall difference is the difference in technology,” said math teacher Sean McGrath, who began teaching at ARHS in 1998. “When I first started teaching, there were no smartphones.”

At that point in time, cell phones were limited to basic calling and texting, and even early devices like BlackBerrys were not major classroom distractions. English teacher Sara Stein, who began teaching at ARHS in 2009, said students in the past were more focused because they were less dependent on technology.

“When I first started teaching, they did not have phones, kids still handwrote a lot in 2009,” Stein said. “People used phones mainly to communicate with parents. It wasn’t like they were gaming on them. They were just less distracted.”

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Walking through ARHS today, students rely much more on technology in and out of the classroom than they did decades ago, fundamentally changing how they learn and stay engaged in school. While school culture and teen trends may not look drastically different from the 1990s, the role of technology in...

05/29/2026

Senior Sunkamal Singh harnessed creativity and problem solving skills to create a solution to students’ studying challenges with his Serene Study Space digital dashboard.

Singh has been interested in math and engineering since childhood, but as time passed, his interest moved toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) and entrepreneurship. These interests converged when he took the Entrepreneurship elective taught by Applied Arts and Technology teacher Jonathan Cahill in his junior year. Singh wanted to help students study more effectively using AI, but he knew convincing a high school to allow students to use AI while studying would be an uphill battle.

“I wanted to build something that was a helpful tool,” Singh said. “I wanted to build something that helped people study.”

After experimenting with different iterations of an AI-powered studying tool in Entrepreneurship, Singh came up with a solution. He realized that rather than a school-focused generative AI tool, students would benefit more from a personalized, smart dashboard that housed other apps and tools, such as Quizlet, exam creators and indicators that help track GPA and study time. The dashboard is personalizable to best fit each student’s unique studying methods and needs.

“I’ve noticed that many students want a space that helps them study, like a room of their own,” Singh said. “You know how you study in your own room and it’s set up your way, so I created a dashboard and I call it Serene Study Space.”

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Senior Sunkamal Singh harnessed creativity and problem solving skills to create a solution to students’ studying challenges with his Serene Study Space digital dashboard. Singh has been interested in math and engineering since childhood, but as time passed, his interest moved toward Artificial Int...

05/28/2026

https://arhsharbinger.com/46684/showcase/slideshow-students-enjoy-day-of-fun-in-the-sun-at-carnival/ #

A donation of $40 or more includes a subscription to the 2024-25 print issues of The Harbinger. We will mail a copy of our fall, winter, spring and graduation issues to the recipient of your choice. Your donation supports the student journalists of Algonquin Regional High School and allows our extra...