The Team
Krish maniar
Krish Maniar is currently a senior at The Harker School and serves as a curator for TEDxHarkerSchool. Aside from developing marketing strategies for TEDx, he is interested in STEM, Model UN, and Debate. In his free time outside of school, you can find him playing competitive soccer and traveling with his family around the world.
MEDHA YARLAGADDA
Medha Yarlagadda is a junior at The Harker School and serves as a curator for TEDxHarkerSchool. Outside of TEDx, she is an avid member of multiple clubs, such as Journalism where she is the Mulimedia editor. In her freetime, she enjoys eating, binging a new netflix show, baking, reading, and travelling with her family.
Alena Suleiman
Alena is currently a junior at The Harker School in San Jose and serves as the Marketing Director for TEDxHarkerSchool. Beyond TEDx, Alena enjoys illustrating graphics and writing feature articles for Harker Journalism, where she is the A&E / Lifestyle Editor. In her free time, Alena can be found in the studio creating mixed media pieces or at a coffee shop brainstorming ideas for her next sculpture.
Daniel Lin
Aside from TedX, Daniel is an officer for the Class of 2024, an athlete on the Varsity football team, and a member of the debate team. In his free time, Daniel enjoys biking, reading, and watching basketball games.
Vardaan Ghai
Vardaan Ghai is currently a Junior at The Harker School in San Jose and serves as a Public Relations Associate for TEDxHarkerSchool. Aside from TEDx, Vardaan is heavily involved with Child Advocates of Silicon Valley, a nonprofit that ensures every child in the Santa Clara County foster care system has a stable adult in their life. He also serves as a Youth Commissioner for the city of Monte Sereno. For fun, Vardaan enjoys playing basketball and learning new tunes on the guitar.
Naiya Daswani
Naiya Daswani is a current sophomore at The Harker School and serves as a public relations associate for TEDxHarkerSchool. In addition to TEDx, Naiya is on the Harker Honor Council. In her free time, Naiya enjoys writing blog articles, leading community activism, playing the piano and tabla, and volunteering with children at her temple.
Sara Glusman
Sara is currently a sophomore at The Harker School and serves as a Marketing Associate for TEDxHarkerSchool. Outside of TEDx, she helped create Harker Amplified, a Jewish Affinity group, and is on the Harker Girl's Soccer Team. Outside of school, she enjoys hanging out with her friends, being a treasurer for her BBYO chapter, and playing with her dog!
Anwen Hao
Anwen is currently a sophomore at The Harker School and serves as a Public Relations Associate for TEDxHarker School. Outside of TEDx, he is a staff reporter for Harker Journalism. In his free time, he dances ballet and does fencing competitively; he enjoys reading works of philosophy and researching history.
Vedant Balachandran
Vedant is currently a sophomore at The Harker School in San Jose and serves as a Marketing Associate for TEDxHarkerSchool. Beyond TEDx, Vedant enjoys playing squash and helping plan DECA events as the Director of Membership. In his free time, Vedant loves cooking, building a new LEGO, and playing with his dog.
MICHAEL ACHEATEL
Mr. Acheatel is a business and entrepreneurship teacher at The Harker School where he teaches business courses and advises extracurricular programs including TEDx Harker School, Harker DECA, Harker Incubator, CareerConnect, Harker Podcast Network, and BEcon. Prior to joining Harker, he worked as the President of The Startup Garage where he helped over 150 startups launch and/or raise capital in a wide range of industries with a focus on web/mobile tech and consumer products. He earned an international MBA from Tel Aviv University, Israel’s top business school, and a B.A. in Global Economics & Latin American Students from UC Santa Cruz.
Juston Glass
Hard-working, positive, and caring, Mr. Glass is the Director of the Business and Entrepreneurship Department at Harker. Aside from TEDx, he is also the advisor for DECA, CareerConnect, Investment Club, Podcast Series, BEcon, and Harker Incubator.