O c t o b e r 2 0 0 1 (VOL. 8, NO. 1)
A
M O N T H L Y
Harker Responds to Tragedy
SARATOGA CAMPUS
N E W S L E T T E R
In The
F R O M
T H E
H A R K E R
world office and some of the school administrators, has turned it into a Harker-wide project. The tentative date is Nov. 2nd. Details will follow in next month's newsletter.
The tragedy of
■ The Speech and Debate Club members are selling pins of the American flag at school events to raise funds and will also be donating 10% of their proceeds from the Harker Debate Tournament to relief efforts in New York City.
September 11 brought the entire Harker community together to try to understand the events that occurred and respond to those in need.
S C H O O L
■ Several groups in the Middle and Upper School initiated projects to help the relief efforts on the East Coast.
Middle School Assembly September 11 ■ Howard and Diana Nichols held special assemblies at the Bucknall and Saratoga campuses with all of the students immediately after the events to provide age appropriate guidance and reassurances, and to provide opportunities for discussion. Our counseling staff provided further support to Harker students. ■ Our front desk and support staffs on both campuses handled hundreds of parent phone calls on the day of the events and kept our parents informed and reassured of their children’s safety. Our webmaster posted emergency information on the web within hours of the event, and it was updated daily during the first week to further keep parents constantly informed. ■ Members of the Harker US Show Choir participated in a candlelight vigil in Chavez Park in San Jose on Sunday, Sept. 23, to honor the victims and survivors of the bombings. Over 5,000 people attended the event, including San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. The Harker Show Choir, wearing red, white and blue and holding candles, performed “God Bless
America” and led a sing-a-long of “America the Beautiful.”
■ The US Theatre Arts program is working on a unique project about the tragedy (see IN THE CLASSROOM for more details).
■ Shalini Lal (Gr. 12) is spearheading an effort to organize a blood drive with the Stanford Blood Center and, with the help of the nurse's
■ The administration is currently working on centralizing Harker's relief efforts, and will have more to report in the next newsletter.
harker
headlines
Sixteen National Merit Semifinalists Named Harker is delighted to announce that 16 out of the 89 seniors in our first graduating class this year have been named National Merit Semifinalists, giving Harker one of the highest percentages in the countr y. These National Merit semifinalists are within the top 16,000 students in the United States based on PSAT scores achieved in the junior year: Jerry Chi, Alex A. Combs, Arjun Dave, Liang Dong, Shally Garg, Benjamin Y. Hu, Alexander S. Janofsky, Benjamin H. Janofsky, Kimberly N. Kanada, Anjali Khurana, Shalini H. Lal, Alan V. Liu, Nadia N. Raza, Stephanie C. Tsai,
Matthew G. Wong and Jennifer Sun Yao. Congratulations to each and every one of them!
Harker Middle School Students Exceptional Each year Johns Hopkins University conducts a search for exceptional children, and once identified these children receive recognition at an awards ceremony and become eligible for advanced summer programs. To qualify, students must be in the 97th percentile or above on Math or English segments of the ERB, and this year Harker is proud to announce that 219 Harker middle school students qualified. Congratulations to all of our fine middle school students! continued on pg. 3