Several Harker students participated in a fundraising mixer for the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE). Jackie Jin and Jennie Xu, both grade 11, and Emily Chu, Isha Kawatra, Kevin Lin, Indu Seeni, Sarina Vij and Joseph Wang, all grade 10, are members of the PACE Youth Leadership Committee (YLC) that put on the event, which raised more than $8,000.

“The whole process of collaborating with other people who really care about autism and see so many of my friends from school come to the mixer was what made my experience at PACE thus far so rewarding,” said Wang, who was a project manager and co-chair for the mixer. Wang, whose cousin is autistic, first got involved with PACE last August and was a big reason for the event’s success. His responsibilities included booking the venue, hiring a DJ and promoting the event.

“He was definitely responsible for a large part of the success we had this year,” said Jin, who acted as marketing chair. “We had a fantastic first year with the mixer last year, but I guess the word got around and we had a huge rise in interest this year.”

Jin continued: “PACE is a really fantastic organization and it’s just an added bonus that raising awareness and funds for it as part of the YLC is so much fun.”