2002 March Harker News by The Harker School

MARCH 2002 (VOL. 8, NO. 11)

M O N T H L Y

N E W S L E T T E R

HARKER

Harker’s Annual Dance Production Thurs., March March 14 14 Sat., March March 16 16 7:30 p.m. in the Saratoga gym $3 students, $5 adults Tickets Tickets limited limited Contact: laurar@harker.org laurar@harker.org

top stories Bucknall Bucknall jumps its heart out and raises $20,000 ............ 2

Saratoga - MS MS presents annual talent show .................................. 8

Saratoga - US US wrestlers win league championship ..................... 7

important dates Wed., Mar. 13, 7-8:30 p.m. US Winter Sports Awards BKN Gym Thurs., Mar. 21, 6-8 p.m. Freshman Parent College Night STG Gym Fri., Mar. 22 - Thurs., Mar. 28 Wash., D.C. Trip - Gr. 8 Fri., Mar. 29 Spring Break begins after school. No late supervision. No school for Gr. 8. Mon., April 8 Gr. K-12 classes resume

■ US physics teacher and club advisor Dr. Randal Harrington reported that the US Robotics Club, led by students Jerry Chi and Alan Malek, entered and won their first robotics competition last month. The competition, called “The Four-Can Challenge,” was sponsored by NASA’s Robotics Education Project and required the students to build and program a robot to move between two stacks of soda cans placed about 1.5 meters apart. “The robot had to move completely on its own and was controlled by a chip called the MC68HC11 mounted on a handyboard,” Dr. Harrington explained. The team, led by student programmer Alex Segal, programmed the chip using Interactive C and then uploaded the program to the board via a serial cable. The program was then stored on a EPROM (erasable programmable memory chip) that is located on the car itself. Touch sensors were mounted on the front and the back of the car so that when the car reached each set of cans, the car would reverse directions and return back to the starting point. The challenge was to build the robotically controlled car that would complete the round trip in the fastest time. NASA is repeating the competition next month and has renamed the event “The Beat Harker Four-Can Challenge” (go to http:// robotics.arc.nasa.gov/students/ challenge.htm). This spring the Robotics Club, which currently has ten members, will be competing in the more competitive National Ball Bot Competition, and we look for ward to their continued success! ■ MS math teacher Vandana Kadam is a recipient of the 20012002 Edyth May Sliffe Award for Excellence in teaching middle school math. This is a national honor from the Mathematics Association of America in recognition of her exemplary work in

F R O M

T H E

H A R K E R

S C H O O L

headlines

Rand Harrington

est. 1893 • K-12 college prep

Alen Malek and Alex Segal of the Robotics Club team. promoting high standards and supporting strong curricular goals, as evidenced by the outstanding results of our students on the AMC8 math contest. K-8 Math Dept. Chair, Cindy Kerr, was a recipient of this prestigious recognition last year. Kudos to both teachers for ensuring that Harker students are receiving an excellent mathematics education. This national recognition is well deserved! ■ The Rotary Club recently selected the following Harker 11th graders to participate in this year’s Enterprise Leadership Conference March 6-8 at Asilomar State Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove: Julia Gitis, Alexandra Stanek,

Alex Iftimie, Poorav Patel, Sheena Reddy, Calvin Yu and Gabby DeMers. Two alternates are Brian Biskeborn and Rick Hayashi. There were more students accepted from Harker than from any other high school in the area—congratulations to our outstanding students!

The mission of the Leadership Conference is to enhance leadership skills of outstanding high school juniors through a working introduction to the oppor tunities, benefits and challenges of establishing a business or providing ser vices in the free enterprise system. Last year’s participants were Alan Liu, Leslie Hernandez, Liang Dong, Shaan Patel and Stephanie Tsai. Congratulations to this year’s representatives and a warm thank you to all the teachers who nominated the students and par ticipated in the application process and to all thirteen students who applied.

Editor’s Note: Harker’s expansion into an upper school prompted a fresh look at the way we communicated. We moved from quarterly magazines to weekly web updates to monthly Parent Pages, by campus, sent home to our families. Each has served a purpose. However, it has become increasingly evident that monthly schoolwide Harker news is of interest to all our families, friends and alumni, and to the media. Beginning with this issue, the HARKER NEWS will be a place where we will celebrate the entire Harker Community, whether it’s a kindergarten scrambled egg party, the middle school talent show or the first-ever league championship by our scrappy US wrestling team. Two campuses. One school. Go Harker! —Pam Dickinson, Director of Communications Remember to check the Parent Home Page for detailed calendars, updates and additional news between editions of the Harker News!

STUDENT

outreach

Students raise $20,000 for American Heart Association …and Mrs. Vail has to kiss a pig! Mr. Pete Anderson, PE teacher and coordinator of the annual “Jump Rope for Heart” event on the Bucknall campus, announced that a whopping $20,000 was raised by the students this year! Last year $16,000 was raised, and they raised the goal this year hoping that the Harker community would rise to the challenge. Students jumped throughout the day on Feb. 5th during their PE classes and earned the funds through pledges they had gotten from friends, parents and relatives. “Thank you to everyone for their hard work and outstanding school spirit!,” Mr. Anderson said. “It truly is wonderful when Harker as a community comes together and takes pride in helping others.” He added that because they

Community Service Requirement The Community Service Hour requirement for US students this year needs to be satisfied by April 26th, 2001. Students are highly encouraged to take advantage of one of two upcoming trips that Harker will be sponsoring. The 2nd Harvest Food Sort will be held Sat., March 2nd from 9 a.m.12 p.m. Students will sort food so that the food can be distributed to families in need in Santa Clara County.

reached their goal, each grade level will receive a pool party, “...and Mrs. Vail will kiss a pig during a later to be determined assembly!” Watch for photos of THAT in a future

issue. And a huge congratulations to all of the Bucknall staff, students and parents who supported this event!

Earth Day, Creek Clean Up at El Palo Alto Park, will be Sat., April 20th from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Students will celebrate Earth Day by cleaning up the creek as well as beautifying the creek by planting new trees. Students interested in participating in either trip should sign up with Ms. Gargano as soon as possible before the trips fill up.

Harker Adopts Leukemia Patient During the month of Feb., the US students joined schools throughout Santa Clara County and participated in the “Pennies for Patients” fund-raiser, a drive to raise money for the Leukemia/Lymphoma foundation. Each school “adopts” an individual in Santa Clara County with leukemia, and the funds raised help defray expenses for that individual’s care, as well as other general foundation needs.

Pam Araki (all Jump for Heart photos)

The Harker Key Club, who organized the event, held a kickoff meeting in late January where students watched an informational video on leukemia and learned about their “adoptee,” who is an area youth. The county-wide program is run as a class competition, where the only thing that “counts” are pennies. Nickels, dimes and quarters count as negative points. So while competing classes are tossing quarters into their “rival’s” jar, the funds are mounting. It’s all in good fun, and for a great cause. The program was still underway at press time, so we’ll run the results in the April newsletter.

spirit

alive

Mesdames et messieurs, préparez-vous pour une fête fantastique—

Showing Your Spirit Through Participation 73% of our goal is committed!

Harker’s Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Sun., April 28th, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saratoga Campus

100 100

Percent of Participation by Grade Level

90 90 80 80 70 70

Harker students, teachers and parent volunteers are gearing up for this três magnifiquê event! March 25-29 is officially designated as Picnic in Paris Week, and there will be lots of activities going on at both campuses to get everyone in the spirit! Room parents or homeroom booth coordinators will be contacting parents to volunteer for 1-hour shifts in homeroom booths or activities on the day of the Picnic. By volunteering to help with these activities, you are supporting your child’s teacher, so please give an hour or two of your time to work on April 28th!

60 60 We are especially grateful to those Harker families that have participated thus far. Their support and commitment to our children are truly appreciated and invaluable. The graph to the right shows how we made it to 73% of our goal thus far.

50 50 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10 00 K

2 3

6 7

9 10 11 12

As for the $25,000 Matching Challenge Grant contributed by a Harker family, we have matched 80% of this grant. The grant matches dollar-fordollar gifts received from returning families who did not participate in the 2000-01 Million for the Millennium Annual Giving Campaign. If you qualify for this grant, help get us to $25,000! It is a magnificent way to double your contribution and, ultimately, double the support of your children. Again, we wish to emphasize the eScrip program, an additional way you can support your children and their educational and extracurricular experiences at Harker. According to San Jose Middle School, their 400 registered families have generated $2,700-$3,000 a month for their school. Think of the financial opportunity for our children's programs! We would like to thank the following individuals for joining eScrip thus far: Dr. & Mrs. Robert Biskeborn Mr. & Mrs. Rick Boyle Mr. Lewis Brentano Ms. Louba Burstein Dr. & Mrs. John Busch Mr. & Mrs. John Doe Mr. & Mrs. Dhrumil Gandhi Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence Guevel Mr. & Mrs. Louis Hagger ty Mr. & Mrs. Julian P. Hammersley Mr. & Mrs. Huddee Jacob Ho Dr. & Mrs. Jackson Hu Mr. Charlie Huang & Mrs. Susan X. Zhang Mr. Rick Hyman & Ms. Cher yl Acheson Mr. & Mrs. George Jones Ms. Vandana Kadam & Mr. Abhay Salukhe Mr. & Mrs. John Keyashian Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Krackeler Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Malone Dr. & Mrs. Jay A. Mandell Mr. & Mrs. Timothy F. Mathews Ms. Mar y R. McCarthy

Mr. & Mrs. Narayan Mohanram Mr. & Mrs. Brian Moss Drs. Linda Nebenzahl & Elliott Nebenzahl Mr. & Mrs. Philip Palmintere Mr. & Mrs. John W. Parker, III Mr. & Mrs. Pierre Pellissier Mr. Charles Perkins & Ms. Diane Reese Mr. & Mrs. Donald Por ter Mr. & Mrs. Timothy Reiley Ms. Mary Rorabaugh & Ms. Karen Coates Mr. Joseph Rosenthal Dr. & Mrs. Raghu Sastr y Mr. & Mrs. Simon Shulman Dr. Gregor y Anderson & Ms. Kathr yn Sikorski Mr. John Stevenson & Mrs. Maura Donohue Mr. Bradley Stoll Mr. & Mrs. Joe Tam Mr. & Mrs. Subhash Tandon Mr. & Mrs. Rober t Tepperman Mr. & Mrs. Stephen R. Troyer Mr. & Mrs. John R. Villadsen

For more information on eScrip and/or the Campaign itself, please contact Amalia Keyashian, Director of Annual Giving, at amaliak@harker.org or logon to www.harker.org and click on ADVANCEMENT & ALUMNI. Thank you for your enthusiasm and spirit! ---Kelly S. Parker, Development Director

news

EVENT

Last year our booth volunteers numbered over 350 on the day of the Picnic, and this year’s Picnic already promises to be an event extraordinaire. We rely on—and appreciate—our dedicated Harker volunteers to make it truly une triumphe grande! See the Volunteer Update in this issue for more ways you can help with this year’s event.

Harker Annual Golf Tourney US parent volunteer Nancy Hartsoch is once again chairing Harker’s 3rd Annual Golf Tournament on Sat., April 13 at Sunol Valley Golf Club. All Harker parents, students, relatives and friends are welcome to participate in this great, annual event. First tee-off is 7 a.m., and the tournament fee is $120 per player, which includes green fees, lunch, refreshments and prizes. Pay before Feb. 28th and receive a 10% discount and pay only $108! Go to the Parent Home Page to register online, or contact Nancy Hartsoch at 209-9250 or n.hartsoch@worldnet.att.net. Fore!

Parent Education Event Plan on attending a special educational event for Harker parents of children in grades 7-12 on Wed., March 6th from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Saratoga Gym. Presented by “Miles to Go,” the program is comprised of two experienced educators and speakers who work together to enlighten parents on the subject of substance abuse. Dynamic and informative, this program will cover everything from emotional repercussions of addiction to the effects of drugs on the body. Plenty of Q & A time, too. Admission is $15 per family and can be charged to your account. RSVP by Mon., March 4th on the Harker Parent Home Page.

NEWS

you need

Merry Mart Opens New East Bay Location Merr y Mart has now opened a store in Newark and is stocking all of the Harker uniform items. We're delighted with this new convenience for our Harker families! New location: 37330 Cedar Blvd., Suite A, Newark, CA 94560 Phone: (510) 790-6019; Fax: (510) 790-7617 For more details and to order online, go to http://www.mmuniforms.com/

Attention US Parents The March SURVEY OF THE MONTH is for you! Go to the Parent Home Page or complete the survey enclosed—thanks!

AROUND ■ Students in Mr. Walsh’s 5th grade math classes have been using Microsoft Excel worksheets to build simple programs to compute simple interest and calculate percent increase/ decrease. They have also been using the Chart Wizard feature to convert data into pie graphs. “There have been some pretty interesting ‘My Dream Day’ graphs,” Mr. Walsh said. “We have some budding social directors in the group!” he added. Below is an example of one of the graphs created by student Anteneh Daniel.

Eat 2 hrs - 8% Bike with Dave Mirra 6 hrs - 25%

Feb. 12th. Mrs. Chung and Ms. Proctor held a special lunch in their Gr. 1 homerooms, which included a variety of foods from a local Chinese restaurant. Organized by parents, the 2nd grade classes of Ms. Lisa Hirata, Mrs. Anitra Sudderth and Ms. Judi Beil combined their celebrations, rotating the children through three different classrooms where

My Ultimate Day

■ The class of kindergarten teacher Nancy Curran has been

Pam Araki

■ Harker’s Odyssey of the Mind teams are anxiously preparing for their big regional tournament on March 9th. 5th grade teacher Kate Shanahan coaches the “Stranded Seven” team, and parents Ping Lee (“45 Falcons”), Lenore Dowling (“DITR”), Liz Melbourne (“Dilip”)

planned included a 4th grade spoon relay race (transporting loads of heart-shaped cereal), a 6th grade “gourmet” buffet and a 2nd grade “Valentine picture frames” project. Kindergartners were treated to a mini-lecture and performance by a harp-playing parent!

A Reading Buddy is the Best Kind!

Pam Araki

Tara McFarland’s Gr. 3 Language Arts students are reading to their Kindergarten buddies in her annual “Reading Buddies” program. Throughout the year these third graders read on a weekly basis and often write letters to their kindergarten reading buddies. “It gives the younger children a chance to have their library books read to them, and it gives the 3rd graders a chance to enjoy many of their favorite stories again,” Ms. McFarland explained. “They love seeing each other around the school. They always wave and are proud to have buddies.”

Parent Jessica Kao explains the meaning of different foods at recent Chinese New Year party. they experienced aspects of Chinese culture. ■ Always brought back by popular demand (for some amazing reason!), the Annual 5th Grade Love Song Lip Sync Contest was held recently featuring solos, group dance numbers and original choreography by the students. Though word has it that the teachers think their number was the best (“L-O-VE” by Nat King Cole), the judges knew better and awarded the following students for their outstanding performances: Daisy

Maria Nguyen

■ Chinese New Year celebrations heralding in the Year of the Horse took place throughout the day on

Shop 4 hrs - 17%

■ In celebration of the 100th day of school, 1st grade teachers Diann Chung and Cindy Proctor combined their math classes and offered a variety of math activities with the “100” theme. One of the activities was for the students to guess how many licks it would take to get to the Tootsie Roll inside a Tootsie Pop: more than 100; less than 100; exactly 100. Then, they sat and licked and counted to see which answer was right. “At the time of my visit, ‘Lollipop Lick’was the biggest draw,” reported Primary Division Head, Sarah Leonard. “I participated in this activity,” she added with a laugh.

Shih-best solo; Becky Yanofsky and Sanaz Oskouy-best group or duo; Callie Medin, Elizabeth Case, Alyssa Donovan and Lizzie Cutler-funniest group or duo; Andy Thomas-best style. Honorable mentions and a big thumbs up from all the 5th grade teachers to these other participants: Lexie Ross, Carolyn Kuo, Gr. 1 Valentine Party Elizabeth Hartoog, Alison Palmintere, Sabrina Paseman, Alyssa Boyle, and Abha Shukla (“The Wandering Prachi Sharma, Patricia Yen, Eagles”) coach the other 4 teams. Roshmi Bhattacharya, Liz Liu, If they are successful at regionals, Debra Yen, Kaavya and Shreya the teams will go to the State Gowda, Taylor Rapson, Sabina Tournament in Sacramento on April Sood, Simi Grover, Jasleen Kahlon, 6—good luck to all! Natasha Jeswani, Sophie Newman, ■ Thanks to all the parents who Leslie Sherman, Kailee Ayyar, Nick turned out to help make the Hyman, Spencer Apple and Bucknall Valentine’s Day parties so Amaresh Shuklah. festive. Activities that parents

Tara McFarland

Watch Super Bowl 3 hrs 13% Play 3 hrs - 13%

raising two chickens, Penny and Polly, since last May. “They are pretty cute—both chickens and children,” laughed Ms. Curran. The chickens have star ted laying eggs, which the children collect, and the class recently had a scrambled egg party!

Ernie Porter

Play with Cousins 6 hrs - 25%

bucknall

Around Bucknall, cont.

FEATURE

Experiencing Egypt

New Addition to Harker’s International Programs Harker 6th graders have been sharing Computer Science curriculum and assignments with the Tamagawa School in Japan since 1993. As of this year, Harker 6th grade students are also now studying with the Neerja Modi School in Jaipur, India. “We started our Neerji Modi school exchange with one sixth grade class this year,” said Beverly Whitaker, Director of International Programs and the instructor of the 6th Grade Computer Science required curriculum. “This gives the Modi School a chance to work through the curriculum for the first time and work with a small group of their students for this first round of exchanges.” Students in Ms. Whitaker’s class are enjoying their e-mail “pen pal” exchanges with both schools, as well as researching and producing PowerPoint presentations on environmental issues and sharing them with their “sister schools.” Next year the entire 6th grade class will be involved in this exchange, and the following year, when the Modi school has an eighth grade class of students, Harker hopes to incorporate the exchange into our 8th Grade Computer Science required curriculum, as well. The PowerPoint projects produced by the students in cooperation with each other will be uploaded soon onto the Harker web site—watch for them!

Editor’s Note: Harker sent US faculty member Robb Cutler to a symposium on gender equity issues, cosponsored by Barnard College and the National Council for Research on Women. Mr. Cutler shares his thoughts on the subject for this month’s feature article. Visualize the following: On a field trip, an eighth grade class goes to visit a scientist who has won many awards for making several important discoveries. In addition to giving the students a complete tour of the laboratory, the scientist answers all of their questions. They are allowed to use some real laboratory equipment, including computers and a very power ful microscope. As the scientist is showing them an experiment, one student accidentally knocks over an entire rack of test tubes. Stop! Now raise your hand (and be honest) if you pictured the scientist described above as male. If you raised your hand, you’re unfortunately not alone. According to a recent study by three Barnard College students, over 90% of middle school students also identified the scientist as male.* Other statistics are just as alarming. According to the National Science Foundation, women make up 46 percent of the U.S. labor force, but only 23 percent of its scientists and engineers. Under 20% of those awarded bachelor’s degrees in computer science, physics and engineering at major universities are women. At the high school level, Educational Testing Services reports that in 1999, 56% of students taking Advanced Placement exams were female—yet girls represented only

Related Notes:

Chris Daren

Tara McFarland

Rohan Pai and Kianna Bisla dressed as Cleopatra and King Tut as part of a recent Egypt writing project in Ms. Tara McFarland's Gr. 3 Language Arts class. This project also included writing a biography about their “mummy” (“Which is actually a teddy bear with toilet paper,” Ms. McFarland noted!). See additional photos on Ms. Farland’s web site.

Panel of guest speakers addressing issues of gender with US students at recent assembly organized by Harker’s Gay Straight Alliance (GSA).

gender equity 22% of students taking the AP Physics C exam and 10% of students taking the AP Computer Science AB exam. The numbers in Upper School math, science and technology at Harker are better than the national averages, but could be improved. Fortunately, Harker is committed to gender equity for its students and faculty. In working to achieve parity, here are some of the things that Harker is doing: •Good role models. There are 17 female math and science teachers at Harker, with 11 at the Upper School. Women definitely have leadership roles in these departments at Harker, with Joanne Mason, Anita Chetty, Cindy Kerr and Jeanne Tyrell all also serving as Dept. Chairs in their areas.

girls and young women, both girls and boys benefit. As parents of Harker students, here are some things you can do to help: • Expose your daughters and sons to strong female role models in the sciences. Research has shown that such positive role models have a strong influence on young students of both genders. • If you're a scientist, an engineer, or someone in another technologyrelated field, be a mentor for a female Harker student interested in the sciences. For more information about Harker's junior-year mentoring program, contact Chris Colletti at chrisc@harker.org.

• Gender Discussion Group. Donna Gilbert advises an after school discussion group for students and faculty on gender issues. See note below.

• Come speak to Harker students about professional opportunities for both women and men in the fields of mathematics, science, computer science and engineering. Drop me a line at robbc@harker.org if you would like more information or would like to be a speaker.

• Gender Equity Committee. Pat White and Stacey Newman cochair a faculty committee set up to identify, raise awareness and work towards solving issues of gender equity at all levels at Harker.

As Silicon Valley’s high school, Harker has an obligation to be a leader in providing the best education for all students, male and female. We think we’re succeeding!

• Professional Development. Harker has frequently included the discussion of gender issues at faculty retreats and training sessions, and provides opportunities for faculty to attend conferences (such as the one I attended) and workshops, and to enroll in courses on the subject.

—Robb Cutler teaches AP Computer Science and Advanced Topics in Computer Science courses in the Upper School. His Gr. 5 daughter, Elizabeth, wants to be a scientist and already knows more about the circulatory system than he does!

• Best Practices in Teaching. By recognizing and encouraging learning styles and interests that evolve from the experiences of

*Eve Axelrod, Miguelina German, and Sarah Parker, _Sexing Dr. X-Ray: A Study of Adolescent Attitudes Toward Science. Barnard College. 2002.

US history teacher Donna Gilbert’s after-school discussion group mentioned above discusses such topics as workplace discrimination, nature vs. nurture, changes over the last decade, parental expectations based on gender and implicit societal attitudes about acceptable behaviors for men and women. “Our goal is to provide students with a free and open forum to discuss issues of gender,” Ms. Gilbert explained. Regular participants include Sophia Wang, Payom Pirahesh, Alex Janofsky, Cathy Kim, Alex Iftime and Liang Dong.

March is Women’s History Month, and the Gender Equity Committee has planned a variety of activities for the month, including a Jeopardy game honoring such women of achievement as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, Dian Fossey, Anne Frank, Indira Gandhi, Mia Hamm, Wilma Mankiller, Mother Teresa, Sally K. Ride and Harriet Tubman (alias Moses). Check out the Women’s History Month link on the Harker Home page!

briefs

SPORTS

will have signups for girls flag football and boys volleyball.

Lower/Middle School It’s hard to believe that the Lower and Middle school basketball teams are more than half way through their seasons! The basketball season concludes on Feb 28th for 4th-6th grades, and on March 3rd for 7th-8th grades. Here are the most recent records of our teams:

Upper School Hard to believe, but the winter sports season is just about over, and what a season it has been. The Eagle basketball, wrestling and soccer teams have all accomplished a great deal this year.

Pam Dickinson

After honoring six senior athletes and their parents in a moving pregame ceremony, the Eagles Boys Basketball team went on to route Valley Dublin 60-30 to earn a bid to the CCS tournament. Every member of the team scored, cheered on by perhaps the biggest crowd in our young history. The players were recognized for their commitment to building a program from a team that won only one game that first year to a shot at CCS glory. Best of luck in the CCS tournament! A1 Girls Placed 3rd at Queen of Apostles Tourney

The Junior Varsity Boys Team concluded a very successful season as well, finishing the year with a 17-7 record, third in the PSAL. Coach Carlnell Wiley had the Eagles playing exciting basketball all over the court. With a strong nucleus from this team and a strong incoming class from our 8th grade, the future looks bright for this team as well.

held in Feb. The A2 girls are 1-4, B1 girls are 4-2, and the B2 girls are 0-4. In a recent game against Valley, the white D girls’ team (0-4) had a great comeback. Trailing 120 at halftime, they kept Valley to 10 points in the second half, while Harker scored 16. Baskets were made by Kristina Bither (6 pts.), Diana Beck (4), Andrea Thomas (5), and Lexie Ross (2). Final score, 30-17. Once again the green D girls’ team had to endure the tough defense of Hillbrook. While they lost 20-8, it was a good game with Diana Beck scoring all 8 of Harker’s points, and tough defense provided by Sanaz Oskouy at guard and Ananya Anand at center.

League, of which the Harker girls will be a charter member. At press time, the Eagles had just come off a thrilling overtime victor y over Kings Academy, when Neha Rahan tied the game in regulation by completing a three point play with only 11 seconds remaining in regulation play.

throughout the season and will have several starters return next season. They finished the season with a 2-0 shutout of St. Lawrence behind the goal and assist of Kaileen Yen.

Upcoming spring sports include baseball, softball, track and field, tennis, volleyball, Rounding out the golf and swimming. winter season was Look out for the Girls Soccer. After Eagle tennis team, having not won a as they are looking league game in the forward to a strong tough PSAL last performance in year, this year’s league and CCS team, led by goalie play this year. Nine Alexandra seniors will anchor Thurston and a strong baseball sophomore team which will be midfielder Jen contending for a Jenq, was only a CCS berth as well. few errant shots Tennis practice has begun! Track and field from finishing in promises to do well the top half of the also, as many sprinters return from league. They did finish the season last year’s squad. The other sports strong winning three league will be fielding young teams for only contests and tying another. Coach the second year but promise to play Tia Barth is excited about the inspiring ball! future of the team, again a young

Chris Daren

Lee Carter

Loaded with young talent and buoyed by a strong 8th grade class that has many of its players attending the Upper School next year, the Eagles Girls Varsity Basketball Team will be looking to compete for the championship next year of the new West Bay Athletic

The Girls Varsity Basketball Team honored Harvard and Stanford bound seniors Alexa Bush and Stephanie Tsai at their final game against Redwood Christian.

Chris Daren

A1 girls are 11-3 placing 5th in the Jan. Harker tournament and 3rd in the Queen of Apostles tournament

The final sports season for 4th-6th gr. starts on Friday, April 19th! We

Hyun-Ki Na, Michael Kwong, Jacob Chang, Sunil Subhedar, Robert Lo, and George Chen and their parents were honored recently in a pre-game ceremony.

—Reported by Teresa Smith & Mary Kay Olks, K-8 Athletics

A1 boys are currently 12-6, placing 2nd in the Jan. Harker Tournament. A2 boys are 4-2 and the A3 team is 0-4. B1 boys are 4-0 and B2 boys are 0-3.

The next sports season starts on Monday, March 4th! We will have signups the first day and will start official practice on March 5th for: 4th-6th gr. girls softball and boys baseball and 7th-8th gr. boys/girls soccer, boys/girls swimming, boys/ girls tennis and boys volleyball.

Senior Basketball Players In Spotlight

The final sports season for 7th-8th gr. starts on Friday, April 26th! We will have signups for girls flag football, girls softball and boys baseball.

team with Freshman sweeper Sara Laymoun. They improved steadily

—Reported by Jack Bither, US Athletic Director

Harker Wrestlers Crowned League Champions

Chris Daren

Coach Karriem Stinson’s grapplers garnered their first ever league championship in only their second year of existence. In a tied match with Los Altos, Adam Vucurevich pinned his opponent in the last match of the night to deliver the match victory and the league title! “The perfect student athlete to put us over the top,” exclaimed the jubilant Coach K. “Adam really represents Harker Athletics; he has done so much for our program during his four years here. It was a total team effort all season,” he adds. Next up is the individual tournament, where Charles Hung goes to defend his title and the other Eagle wrestlers seek to win one as well.

Sameep Lad, grade 12

Have a Harker Summer! Academic classes, sports and recreation

reC

news

Bucknall ■ There was a great parent turnout at the recent presentation by Dr. Alan Kirshner, program founder of “Success Chess,” an after-school class on our Bucknall campus. Harker currently has “Success Chess” instructors teaching the Advanced classes, which will be a paid course, beginning next quarter. Starting next year they will teach semester-long beginning to advanced paid classes which students will register for in August and January. Dr. Kirshner, who is also a professor of political science and history at Ohlone College, has been selected to serve on the newly created Chess Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Dallas and coaches the chess team at Fred Weibel Elementary School, which has won at least one state championship every year since 1990. We’re delighted to have Dr. Kirshner’s chess program as one of the many great offerings in our after-school program!

flowering kale and forget-me-nots, as well as some wildflowers, bulbs, herbs and vegetables, some of which were started from seed at home in small, personal greenhouses the students made. The new Garden Club also made a pathway of stepping stones and gravel, “and amended the soil with

Kerry Enzensperger

briefs

SPORTS

Saratoga ■ Thanks to a new after-school club headed up by rec staff member Kerry Enzensperger, there is now a garden behind Shah Hall. Club members have planted flowers, such as nasturtiums, sweet peas,

organic compost and fertilized it with organic materials,” Ms. Enzensperger explained. The MS gardeners are Mike Lee, Nina Vyedina, Tiffany Dai, Jonathan Charlu, Houstan Hoffman and Mike Lee (8th). The garden is thriving -check it out! ■ Saratoga Recreation Director Chris Yamashita announced that US and MS will have Ping-Pong Tournaments of Champions for their divisions. Matches will be held from 3:45-5 p.m. each Monday, beginning after the President’s Holiday.

programs for boys and girls entering grades K-8 in fall of 2002. Full and

Support emerging poets, writers and artists

partial day programs are available! Now registering for the following sessions:

SESSION I: JUNE 24 - JULY 26 (5 Weeks, K-8)

SESSION II: JULY 29 - AUG. 16 (3 Weeks, K-8)

THE HARKER SCHOOL

To obtain information about our programs and to download an application, visit our website at

Bucknall Campus: 4300 Bucknall Rd San Jose, CA 95130

www.harker.org

Saratoga Campus: 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose, CA 95129 campinfo@harker.org

Fax 408.871.4320

Buy The Helm TODAY! Pre--sales for The HELM (Harker’s Eclectic Literary Magazine) are now underway! This keepsake magazine full of stories, poetry and artwork by the US students (and some surprise staff entries!) is completely produced by the students. Reserve your copy now and pay the pre-sale price of only $5 per copy (reg. price will be $8).

408.871.4600

Pre-sale ends Friday, March 8th. Magazine will be published in early April. E-mail crazyjulia11@hotmail.com to order your copy! 7

AROUND

saratoga

Middle School ■ Over 30 MS teams representing 17 schools throughout the Bay Area, Sacramento and Vacaville met in January for the American Society’s Future City competition held at the University of Santa Clara. Sponsored by several engineering associations throughout the countr y, our Harker teams have been working since October for this event. Contest rules proscribe that teams must design and name a future city using SimCity3000 software, write a 500 word essay and an abstract of the essay explaining their city, prepare a 5 to 7 minute presentation for the judges, answer their questions and prepare a model of their city.

“This was our first try, and the students really worked hard to prepare and bring this off," said Bob Saint, MS Science teacher who advised the teams this year. “Of course, I'm a bit partial, but I thought both of our teams were in the top three,” he added. Congratulations to both teams for your creative work! ■ MS Art Teacher Margaret McGovern is conducting a Harker Eagle Art Contest for a new eagle to hang in the Saratoga gym. MS students can submit an original Harker Eagle drawing, in pencil or colored pencil, to Ms. McGovern by Mar. 25th, and a judging team composed of the art department and selected faculty members will select the winning entry. Drawings will be judged on creativity, originality and overall quality, and all drawings must be original. One entry per student and no “group entries” are allowed. Winner must be able to fulfill his or her obligation to paint an eagle image by the end of the school year, using materials provided by the art department. ■ US Math teacher Bradley Stoll announced the results of the Math Counts competition held recently at

Judges making a tough decision San Jose State. Eight 7th and 8th grade Harker students recently participated, and Harker’s team placed 5th (missing 3rd by 1 point) out of 14 teams. Yi Sun finished the written competition 3rd (out of 110) with a score of 45/46 and placed 4th in the Countdown Round. Justin Chin placed in the top eight for both the countdown round and written competition. Both Yi and Justin have qualified to compete as All-Stars at the Math Counts State Competition to be held at UC Davis on March 16. Congratulations to all Math Counts participants! ■ The MS students recently hosted their annual talent show. “Many of the students are non-performing arts students putting themselves out there and sharing their talents,” commented Mr. Nikoloff, MS Division Head. “The talent show is an example of one of the ways middle school students are taking ownership of their school life.” Performances included skits and

Amit Mukherjee

Megalopolis

Bob Saint (all SimCity pictures)

Sun Yat-Sen, the city designed by Yi Sun, Robert Li and Jonathan Tan, won the “People's Choice Award,” voted as the favorite by the students and teachers at the event. “Megalopolis,” designed by Jonathan Chien, Ankur Gupta and Jackson Davis won the “Association of Civil Engineers Award” for the most innovative city, receiving a trophy and SimCity golf software.

Sun Yat-Sen

Annual MS Talent Show a Wild Success! dances interspersed with student MCs doing hilarious impersonations of some of their teachers. As a surprise entry, a group of MS teachers impersonated some of the students in a classroom scene skit. At the end of the show, the students presented English teacher Mr. John Buckley with a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble as a “thank you” for his help in coordinating this year’s event. Students participating: Hailey Lam, David Woolsey, Michael You, Kunal Gupte, Elyse Trinh, Victoria Phan,

Molly Newman, Mansi Shah, Kathryn Cooper, Kavita Shah, Stacey DosSantos, Faustine Liao, Jocelyn Ko, Nina Vyedina, Jenny Ma, Casey Near, Casey Blair, Amanda Polzin, Michael Hammersley, Kevin Santora, Shivani Bhargava, Abhishek Belani and Ariel Wang. Teachers participating: John Buckley, Mark Gelineau, Julie Pinzás, Bob Saint, Steve Wood, Eric Siemens, Carol Parris, Margaret McGovern, Mary Kay Olks, Jacob Hazard and Vandana Kadam.

Upper School ■ The Harker chapter of National Honor Society (NHS) inducted 36 new members recently. The chapter already has 56 members from last year, which makes a grand total of 92 members in all. Congratulations to our new NHS members for the 01-02 academic year: Lekha Challa, Sridhar Chadalavada, Cathleen Chuang, Alex Combs, Peter Combs, Tiffany Day, Meghan Desale, Anita Gupta, Derek Hwang, Matt Jones, Karthik Kailash, Opal Kamdar, Aaron Kleinsteiber, Kathryn Lee, Vivian Leung, Simon Linder, Karan Lodha, Surbhi Mahendru, Deepa Matthew, Elise Nguyen, Edward Peng, Mythri Poplee, Neha Rahan, Vivek Saraswat, Jennifer Shangkuan, Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Subhedar, Sunil Subhedar, Kalpana

Sundaram, Ilana Traynis, Wendy Tsai, Anjali Vaidya, Humsa Venkatesh, Matt Vucurevich, Wesley Wu, andTiffany Yun. ■ On Feb. 9th, two Harker teams joined 23 other Bay Area teams competing in the annual JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) TEAMS competition sponsored by the Society of Women Engineers at Stanford University. The JETS team competition is the only national competition that focuses on applied science and mathematical engineering. During the test, students work together in teams to complete both a multiple choice section (Part I) and a free response section (Part II). In Part I, students answer a series of objective questions related to ten

engineering situations. In Part II, teams are required to describe and defend their solutions to openended subjective questions related to some of the problems that they solved in Part I. While we won’t find out our State and National Ranking until April, Stanford gives 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place plaques to the three highest ranked Varsity and Junior Varsity Teams competing at the Stanford Competition. Both our Junior Varsity Team and our Varsity Team won 1st place in their respective divisions. Congratulations to the following members of our teams! Varsity: Matt Wong, Tiffany Yun, Jerry Chi, Charles Hung, Felix Lee, Ben Janofsky, Justin Wu and George Chen. Junior Varsity: Sanby Lee, Julia Gitis, Greg Perkins, Alan Malek, Brian Biskeborn and Alex Segal. ■ On January 26th, the Harker Upper School Student Council members attended a Student Leadership Conference. This year’s host school was Cupertino High School. Student leaders from several Bay Area high schools attended the forum. The keynote orator, nationally recognized high school motivational speaker Mark Sharenbroich, discussed how students can develop the skills that are needed to enable an individual to make a difference for him or herself and then begin to implement positive changes throughout the school community.

saratoga Christine Kang, Sec. and Varoon Bhagat, Treas./Class Rep. ■ “My English classes have discovered the rich and meaty possibilities of Gale Net,” noted US English teacher Sharron Mittelstet. This subscription service, provided through the Harker library, offers on-line critical commentary on a vast array of authors and subjects. Mittelstet introduced her students to this “practical and totally accessible resource” by assigning a brief research project on Walt Whitman. If you’re interested in checking out this wonderful resource, parents are welcome to visit the site at http://galenet.gale.com/a/acp/. User name: Harker. Password: Harker. ■ Five members of the Harker Chess Club participated in the Santa Clara County Chess Tournament recently, winning 4th place among 10 schools. Other awards earned were Jeff Shih, 2nd place for Outstanding Freshman Player; Lev Pisarsky, 1st place for Outstanding Freshman; Zlatan Kremonic, 1st place award for Outstanding Junior.

US Winter Olympics theme rally where each class created its own country, flag and anthem (juniors left and seniors top shown singing their anthems). The freshmen were “Froshistan,” the sophomores were “Sophrica,” the juniors, who are currently leading the yearlong class competition and won this particular event, were “The Banana Republic of Bo-land,” and the seniors were “Florida.”

United States visit K-12 classrooms during Feb. and Mar. to speak to students and teachers about the excitement and rewards of careers in engineering. Speakers currently slated to present to our students are Bob Franzin of Lockheed-Martin Aerospace, and Harker parent Dr. Robert Morris, Director IBM Almaden Research Center, Vice President Personal Systems & Storage. ■ Linda Yen and Salman Kothari were recently elected by their peers to fill the freshmen positions on the Judiciar y Committee for next year. Congratulations to these two new members!

Steve Castillo

Harker's outstanding student leaders who attended this year’s event were: ASSOCIATED STUDENT BODY: George Chen, Pres., David Hsu, Vice-Pres., Rick Hayashi, Sec. and Poorav Patel, Treas.

Class Competition Heats Up Olympic Style

Ana Brar & Yasmin Ali

AROUND

■ Harker's first Mock Trial team participated in the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Tournament in The 2001-02 Student Council sweatshirt this year, February. The Harker team SENIOR CLASS: Ed Williams, modeled here by Michael Hammersly and Shivani spent four intensive Pres., Ahksar Kharebov, ViceBarghava, was the leadership project of Anjuli Bedi. This months learning about trial Pres., Liang Dong, Sec. and year’s design was by Amira Valliani. procedure, including how to Isabella Liu, Treas./Class properly question witRep. ■ US faculty member Dr. Hem nesses, how to object to evidence, JUNIOR CLASS: Maheen Kaleem, Navangul is hosting a club that and how to analyze the Constitution Pres., Kelly Gault, Vice-Pres., Shibir discusses, debates and learns and use it to make arguments. The Desai, Sec. and Jason Shangkuan, about world issues that deal with competition was held at the Santa Treas./Class Rep. freedom and/or peace. This new Clara County Superior Court discussion group was prompted by SOPHOMORE CLASS: Kathryn Lee, building in downtown San Jose, and student interest. Pres., Anjali Vaidya, Vice-Pres., students played the roles of Deepa Mathew, Sec. and Elise attorneys and witnesses in front of ■ Harker will once again be Nguyen, Treas./Class Rep. real judges in a criminal case of participating in the annual Discover environmental terrorism and arson. FRESHMAN CLASS: Kimberly Wong, “E" engineering outreach program, Pres., Anshu Das, Vice-Pres.,

where engineers throughout the

Anna Basevich (Prosecution team)

and Payom Pirahesh (Defense team) made pretrial arguments based on the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. VJ Chetty (Prosecution) and Tiffany Day (Defense) gave opening statements for their teams, and Alex Iftimie provided closing arguments for both sides. Lekha Challa and Ilana Eydus assumed the difficult role of examining four separate witnesses each. Janine Carpenter, Atin Agarwal and Shikha Mittal served as witnesses for the prosecution and defense. “As a new team, we did incredibly well, holding our own against several of the toughest teams in the county!” said Jennifer Fields, JD, Upper School Histor y and Debate teacher. ■ Harker Debate also earned 4th Place Sweepstakes overall recently at the Stanford National High School Speech and Debate Tournament. The Harker Upper School was represented by 46 students in both individual events and debate. Also, congratulations to the following students who earned undefeated medals in February at the Coast Forensic League Novice Debate Tournament held on the campus of MenloAtherton High School: Nilay Gandhi/Raj Misra; Simon Linder/ Manu Srivastava; Jason Gutstein/ Ben Shapiro; Ashray Urs--LincolnDouglas debate. For full details on more great successes of our debate team, visit the web site!

PERFORMING Instrumental Music The Harker US Jazz Band made a splash at the Feb 2nd CMEA Jazz Festival at Homestead High School. Harker not only performed well in the competition, but was the first private school to enter in our region. The Jazz Band, which employs an unusual number of flutes and clarinets, really made an impression on the judges. According to Band Director Bob Scannel, one judge said, “After hearing the same basic sounds from every other group, it was a refreshing change.” Adjudicator John Nordgren added, “I was so amazed, really impressed that a brand new group would attempt a difficult 5/4 meter (“Mission Impossible”)... and then to have improvisations successfully staying on top of it was amazing! Most advanced bands would shy away from it.” Mr. Scannel proudly reported that the band “nearly

Chris Daren

Lots of rehearsals (above) led to rave reviews for Harker’s recent “An Evening at the Conservatory.”

arts

scored ‘Superior’ in three of the six categories,” and scored “Excellent” in two other categories. Special kudos were given by the judges to soloists Angela Pullen, Brian Biskeborn, Vivek Bansal and Alex Terse-Doyle. “Even the other bands liked what they heard,” Scannel added. “It was really great and confidence building to see the players from other bands gather around backstage as we warmed up with “Mission Impossible” and “Evil Ways.” We learned a lot this year and are anxious to build upon the success we’re enjoying now.” “An Evening at the Conservatory” in February was a smash success! Members of the Music Division of the Conservatory performed to sold-out crowds both nights in the Dorm Dining Room, which was transformed by students Pia Pal and Elizabeth Yuan into an intimate club with flowers, balloons and candles. Bel Canto and Show Choir

history, including Greek theatre, (listed in their entirety in the Jan. etc. They then break into smaller edition) were featured, per forming groups and improvise scenes or everything from a Latin Kyrie to rehearse scripted material. American spirituals. Senior Isabella Completing one major project each Liu conducted Bel Canto in a musical setting of an Emily Brontë poem, and The Harker School Anthem flutist Jessica Travis added poignancy to Show Written by Len Allen, 2001 Choir's Irish lullaby. Flame of knowledge lights our way, Broadway was well Honest effort and fair play, represented by Kimberley Give us strength for each new day, Wong and Jackie Laine's emotional duet from At the Harker School. “Miss Saigon,” and Rick We can make a difference, you and I, Hayashi, Leslie Ride on wings of eagles to the sky, Hernandez and Brinda Venkatesh's dramatic trio Keep our standard ever floating high, from Elton John’s “Aida.” And our spirit soaring! Maheen Kaleem and May each victory honor you, Gabby DeMers each sang an Italian aria, and Brinda Alma Mater, proud and true, and Isabella each sang May we stand our whole life through, modern, popular solos. For The Harker School! Violinist Anjana Sundaram and pianist Cathy Kim performed a quarter, Mr. Pease noted that he piece by Massenet and later was extremely impressed with the teamed up with Jenny Yao, Tiffany first quarter long-form pantomime Day and Lisa Nakano to perform a scenes and the second quarter selfbeautiful Bach string selection. written monologue presentations. Pianists dazzling us with solos in three distinct musical styles were Directors for the US “Oklahoma!” Cathy Kim (Chopin), Kathryn Lee and MS “Cinderella” productions (Debussy),and Jessica Cu have been busily auditioning for (Ginastera). Also of note was the these events and preparing wonder ful performance of Sophia rehearsal schedules. Information will Wang, Bel Canto's accompanist. start coming home with students Stage Manager Irene Altman kept soon about this, so watch for it! the performances moving in three different places around the room to Choral Music break the traditional mold of Mr. Len Allen’s 2nd and 3rd grade parading per formers by on a stage. Music classes prepared a fifteen Kudos to Director Cathy Snider for minute musical presentation for her wonderful work in bringing out the Multicultural Assembly in the talents of our students, and to Februar y that featured narration, Technical Director Brian Larsen for recreational folk songs and dances his artistry and commitment. Just a from Australia, Mexico, South reminder to parents that Friday Africa and Hawaii. Students also evening's performance was presented recitations in their recorded, and highlights will be family's heritage language. included on the Conservatory’s first The kindergarten classes just “Greatest Hits” CD, to be released completed their video conference at the Family Picnic in April! with the Tamagawa School in Japan. Each class presented a demonstraTheatre Arts tion on Egypt and sang “Ten Little Gr. 6 Drama students have been Indians” in English and Japanese, doing outstanding work this year, “We All Live Together,” and “The according to teacher Mr. Pease. Harker School Anthem.” Each of During the 75 minute block period, the three sessions was wellstudents participate in a noncomattended by parents. The students petitive theater game to foster did an excellent job and had a creativity, concentration and ver y educational and enjoyable teamwork, followed by some time time as well. learning names of stage areas, The MS Choir performed at the technical terms, functions of Semester Award ceremony recently. behind-the-scenes people, theater

parents ask us about the lyrics to our new anthem, we're sharing them with you in this month’s issue. Thanks again to Len Allen for this lasting contribution to Harker!

Chris Daren

Dance

Leena Bhalerao rehearsing for the recent US “Evening at the Conservatory” Spring Concert, and new members are always welcome to join. The new US Male Chorus, informally known as “The Guys Gig,” has officially begun. Director Len Allen encourages any new male singers interested to join in the fun. The group sings two and three part harmony on such songs as classic rock and roll, Beatles, show tunes and other selections suggested by members of the group. Watch for their first public appearance soon! MS Harmonics auditions for students who will be in 7th and 8th grade for the next school year will be held Tues. and Wed., March 19th and 20th. All students should prepare a song they are comfortable singing and bring along the piano sheet music for it. For more details, contact maureend@harker.org.

Dancers in grades 1 through 12 are working hard on the annual dance production! There will be a variety of routines, including jazz, ballet, hip hop, modern and lyrical. Dance Director Laura Rae noted that, “This year we have selected some beautiful music with a world beat such as African, Japanese, Native American, Latin, Middle Eastern and some favorite American songs,” and added that the costumes are starting to come in so the dance students are getting very excited! Please circle your calendars for this year’s production entitled “What In The World?” Public performance dates this year are Thurs., March 14th at 7:30 p.m. and Sat., March 16th at 7:30 p.m. Please note that due to SATs on Sat., there is a Thurs. evening show rather than a Fri. evening show. There will also be shows on Thurs. and Fri. during the day for the student body. Planning for the K-6 Bucknall Dance Concert in May is well under way, and Gail Palmer, dance instructor and show director, is busy creating a show we won't soon forget. To help make it a particularly unique experience for our Bucknall children and families, she is involving faculty, children and parents in the selection of music for her concert, which has the theme of “Music That Moves Us.” Anecdotes, stories and memories about songs chosen will introduce the dance numbers and connect the audience with the music.

Steve Castillo

As you recall, Harker's first-ever school anthem was premiered at this year’s Homecoming event. It was composed by Music teacher Len Allen who has just completed three choral pieces that should be published and released this summer and written two other school anthems for new high schools in Utah. “Each one is different from the next,” he noted. “I feel it an honor to be associated with Harker and love what I do,” Mr. Allen said. Since we’ve had a number of Ms. Rae preparing students for “What in the World?” show

VOLUNTEER

notes

February was a particularly busy volunteer month, and we’re grateful for all the enthusiastic support.

School Wide In March we will be hosting visitors from our Japanese sister-school, Tamagawa Gakuen. Parents Fumiko Kimura and Chidori Okubo have been working with Beverly Whitaker, Director of International Programs, to enlist Japanese-speaking volunteers to offer translation assistance during the Tamagawa visit. Domo arrigato, Fumiko and Chidori! Mesdames et messieurs, préparez-vous pour une fête fantastique: le Pique-nique à Paris! Volunteers needed for special Picnic mailings after morning drop-off, beginning between 7:45-8 a.m. at the Advancement Office on: Mon., Mar. 4; Tues., Mar. 12; Tues., Apr. 9 and Thur., Apr. 18. Come join our jolly group to collate, stuff envelopes and stick on mailing labels—our postage machine seals envelopes, so no licking required! Artistically-inclined volunteers are invited to special Picnic Arts and Crafts Workshops, 8-11 a.m. at the Advancement Office on Thur., Mar. 14 and Thur., Apr. 11 to help create some fun objets d’art. Not only will you help us get ready for a great Harker family event, but you may even pick up some new French vocabulary words as you work alongside friends and fellow parents! March 25-29 is officially designated as Picnic in Paris Week, and there will be many activities going on at both campuses that will draw parents and volunteers into homerooms and assemblies to help and participate in our Picnic folie. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Bucknall Thanks to parent volunteers Jessica Kao, Jane Soward, Frances Shen and all the helpers for the wonderful Chinese New Year celebration they organized for the 2nd grade students. And thanks to all the parents who turned out to help make the Bucknall Valentine’s Day parties so festive.

Pam Araki

They really rose to the challenge of needing to prepare some new numbers in a very short period of time, and director Len Allen (as well as all of us!) is very proud of them. They are currently rehearsing for their

arts

Gr. 2 Chinese New Year party

We’ve had so many volunteers on the Bucknall campus that our supply of “Volunteer” buttons is beginning to dwindle. More have been ordered, but if you have inadvertently worn your button home, please return it Gr. 1 Valentine Party Parent Organizers to Rhonda Mann at the reception desk at Bucknall...no questions asked and no detentions issued! Maria Nguyen

PERFORMING

Saratoga The US Parent Volunteer Leadership Council has prepared a survey to learn what types of activities and support programs are of interest to fellow US parents. This survey is included in this month’s newsletter mailing to US families and is also available online as the March Survey of the Month on the Parent Home Page. US parents, please take a few minutes to complete the survey so the Leadership Council can better assess your needs and interests. The Leadership Council serves as an important liaison between US parents, students and staff. If you would like to be considered for Council membership and have the time to make this sort of leadership commitment, please contact me at 408-871-6608 or by e-mail to nancyr@harker.org. Current 8th grade parents whose students will be entering the US next year are particularly welcome! —Nancy Reiley, Director of Community Relations nancyr@harker.org

STAFF

update

■ Spanish teacher Mrs. Karen Villavicencio recently moved to Dallas, Texas, where her husband has accepted a new job. We wish her the very best and will miss her expertise, energy and spirited approach to teaching and life in general! Mrs. Blaire Kilbey has assumed Mrs. Villavicencio’s teaching responsibilities for the remainder of the school year. Mrs. Kilbey holds a BA from the University of New Mexico where she has a double major in Spanish and Psychology and an MA in Teaching from the School for International Training in Vermont where she holds a double major in Spanish and ESL. She has many years of teaching experience at a variety of grade levels and most recently has been involved in the Spanish program at the primary level at St Andrew’s School. She worked closely with Mrs. Villavicencio prior to her move to ensure a smooth transition for all involved. ■ US British Literature and Shakespeare teacher Marc Hufnagle also has his own dance/ theatre company called The Motion Project and is “in the talking stage” to do a piece with an orginal score by Dana Honn at WORKS/San Jose in downtown San Jose. Hufnagl, new to the US faculty this year, is a twenty year veteran modern dance choreographer. Over the past two decades he has choreographed more than 30 works. A native of Chicago and former Nebraska resident, Hufnagl is the only choreographer in that state to ever receive three artist fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts through the Nebraska Arts Council. Hufnagle will be choreographing a dance in the March dance production. For more information about Hufnagle’s creative career, go to www.artsopolis.com. ■ US English teacher Dr. Gary Lemco recently published an article on Hungarian piano virtuoso Gyorgy Cziffra in Bulletin 13 of the Societe Internationale des Amis Georges Cziffra, entitled “Cannons and Flowers: The Memoirs of Georges Cziffa.” Dr. Lemco’s review of this book originally appeared on the “A Classical Record” website (AClassicRec.com) and was reprinted recently in a Friends of G. Cziffra Society newsletter. Additionally, Dr. Lemco has been invited to attend the Roundtop Music Festival

in Roundtop, Texas, as a guest critic this summer. This annual festival of classical music features musicians and critics conferring on per formance practice, recitals, reper tory and issues in music. His reviews will be published through audaud.com. ■ The October 2001 Journal of College Science Teaching contained a research article cowritten by Harker US Physics teacher Dr. Rand Harrington entitled “Student Understanding of Ionizing Radiation and Radioactivity.” ■ Mr.O’Sullivan and Ms. Rae recently performed at the prestigious Tamalpa Institute, a movement-based expressive arts education organization offering an intensive Training Program, Community Program and a Healing Arts Program. Founded in 1978 by Anna Halprin and Daria Halprin, Tamalpa Institute teaches the Halprin Life/Art Process, an integrative approach to the expressive and therapeutic arts for personal, interpersonal and social change. This performance for the public, a culmination of a 10-week Improv Class, consisted of a variety of improvisational movement exercises relating to life stories developed by the group. Ms. Rae and Mr O'Sullivan were featured in a variety of duets, solos and group per formances. Ms. Rae graduated from this program after 2 1/2 years of study in June of 2001 and has been able to arrange for upper school students to attend workshops at the Mountain Home Studio with guest artists Ken Otter, Soto and Anna Halprin. ■ Bob Saint has announced that he will be leaving Harker at the end of this school year. Bob said, “I've decided to retire…and spend my days watching the lawn grow!,” he laughed. (For a Science teacher, that must be exciting…!) “I will miss all the students, but plan on seeing me occasionally as a substitute. It has been a pleasure working with all of you.” The feeling is mutual, Mr. Saint. We wish you the best!

FROM

the archives

Manzanita Hall Frank Cramer founded what is now The Harker School under the influence of David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University. The school was a feeder school for the new university that opened in 1891. The school was first and briefly called the Palo Alto Preparatory School for Boys. It was both a day and boarding school located in the home of Rev. W.D. Bishop on Waverley Street in Palo Alto. It was renamed Manzanita Hall in 1892. Some years later, Mr. Cramer moved the school out to the town’s Alba Park “fringe area” of the late 1890s. The illustration above shows two buildings on the small campus. The second building was named Madrono Hall. Hopkins Avenue now follows the photo’s fence line. A Mr. J. Leroy Dixon purchased the school from its founder in 1902, sold it, then bought it back it for a brief time. In a Palo Alto newspaper interview dated July 21, 1949, Mr. Dixon’s career is detailed. He was a well known educator and a one-time owner of Manzanita Hall. Mr. Dixon owned Manzanita Hall for seven years. During his time of ownership, Dixon states that “Manzanita Hall had students from all over the country and sent more boys to Stanford than any other school in the state.” (Go Harker!) He recalls the time that one boy actually turned down Stanford, because his father and grandfather had gone to CAL, and he had to go there, too, in order to maintain family harmony. According to the reporter, Rosa Jensen, Manzanita Hall was not a military academy under Dixon’s ownership. Rather, the school “stressed cultural subjects, which he [Dixon] still feels make a good background for any career.” In June 1919 Col. Richard P. Kelly purchased the school. According to the Palo Alto Community Book, “Kelly revised the curriculum, moved the school to Parkinson Avenue, operated a boys’ camp in conjunction with the school and changed its name in 1925 to the Palo Alto Military Academy.” The word “Manzanita” sounds like the name of a mighty Native American chief, but it is actually the word for a native American berry-bearing shrub of the genus Arctostaphylos found in the Western United States. The shrub has “leathery leaves and clusters of white to pink flowers.” The word for apple in Spanish is manzana. Manzanita is a little apple. The fruit is edible. We do not know too much about Manzanita Hall at this time, but we can say that the little apple plant that Frank Cramer planted in 1892 is beautifully flourishing in 2002. Coming Early Next Year: Meet the Harker Women: Catherine & Sarah Enid Davis, Library Director Sources Jensen, Rosa. “Retired Teacher Helped in Making Some of Palo Alto’s Early History.” Unnamed Palo Alto newspaper, July 21, 1949. Palo Alto City Library. “Manzanita Hall.” Photograph. Palo Alto Historical Association. Palo Alto City Library. Miller, Guy, Ed. Palo Alto Community Book. Palo Alto, CA: Arthur H. Cawston, 1952. p. 130. Random House Dictionary of the English Language. 2nd ed. Random House, 1987.

The Saratoga and Bucknall editions of the Parent Pages are published monthly by the Harker Office of Communications. They are also available on the web at: www.harker.org. Click on PARENTS. Editor: Pam Dickinson Design: Blue Heron Design Photo Editor: Chris Daren Printing: Communicart