2004 February Harker News by The Harker School

FEBRUARY 2004 (VOL. 10, NO. 4)

inside Mid-year report from Diana Nichols, head of school .... 4-5 Math competitions update 8-9 Gearing up for summer 2004! ............................... 11 & 14 Bucknall ................... 10 & 11

“An Evening at the Conservatory”

Saratoga ..................... 12-14

4TH ANNUAL CONCERT Thurs., Feb. 12 7:30 p.m. Saratoga Gym This annual show highlights the entire music department, including performances by Bel Canto, Cantilena, Downbeat, Guys’ Gig, String Orchestra, Harker Winds, Jazz Ensemble, Chamber Music and certificate candidates in

N E W S L E T T E R

F R O M

T H E

H A R K E R

FABULOUS FIRST-EVER Fashion Show Not to Be Missed! Harker really knows how to put the FUN in FUNdraiser. Treat yourself to a great night of fashion, dancing and fun with your friends, other Harker families, Harker faculty and administrators, community leaders and more! Over 250 Harker students are participating in the show. So c’mon, all you Harker parents, grandparents, friends and alumni, show your school spirit! Support the per formers, the students and the school by planning to attend! Proceeds from the event directly benefit the children of Harker. We even have parents from Bellarmine, Notre Dame, Presentation and Hillbrook attending, so show your Harker spirit and help us SELL OUT BOTH SHOWS! Friends and family can request seating together, even if you don’t need an entire table – simply indicate your seating preference when you make your reservation. Alumni parents can become Table Sponsors, Table Hosts or Table coordinators for either event.

Howard and Diana Nichols invite the entire Harker community of students, families, alumni and friends to join in on the fun and suppor t Harker's first-ever fashion show on Feb. 6 at the Fairmont Hotel.

4th Annual Tamagawa Teacher Visit The arrival of Tamagawa math exchange teacher Ryotaro Kishi in early January marked the 4th year of the exchange program with the Tamagawa Gakuen School in Japan. During his 10day visit, Kishi obser ved over 14

Reserve quickly and easily online – just select the Fashion Show link at the Harker home page or go directly to http://tech.harker.org/ fashionshow/. —2004 Fashion Show Committee

solos or duets.

$5 General Seating $10 Reserved Seating Tickets are available through the Harker Bookstore or by e-mailing tickets@harker.org

S C H O O L

Chris Daren

M O N T H L Y

Deadline for reservations:

Wed., Jan. 28!

Lee Trotter

est. 1893 • K-12 college prep

See pages 6 and 7 for more details!

classes, including MS Algebra, US AP Calculus, MS English and an US Sculpture class, met with administrators and shared

ideas with Harker faculty. He ended the school week by teaching Cindy Kerr’s Algebra 1 Honors 1st, 3rd and 6th period classes. When MS math teacher Cindy Kerr visited Tamagawa in November, she learned as much as she could about Kishi to help Harker prepare for his visit and found that Kishi has a passion for basketball. He enjoys playing the spor t, is an accredited referee and is ver y interested in wheelchair basketball, so Harker made arrangements for Kishi to attend a Harker US basketball game, a Golden State Warrior game, a team practice for the San Jose Spartan wheelchair continued on pg. 12

IMPORTANT

reminders

editor’s note Information about this year’s Harker Summer Programs has hit the streets, and I can’t help but wish that I were a Harker student! Some of the offerings are highlighted in this edition (pages 11 and 14), and all the programs are listed in detail on the Web site. The summer office tells me that Harker families have first priority before opening up reservations to all Bay Area families. So as soon as you’re finished reading this month’s edition, get online and reser ve your spots – and wish you, too, were a Harker student! —Pam Dickinson, Director Office of Communications pamd@harker.org

important dates Refer each month to the monthly printed calendar sent home, or go to Web calendars for detailed division calendars and full listings. Web calendars are updated throughout the month and reflect the most current information. ■ Fri., Feb. 6 - 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. First annual Harker Fashion Show (see pages 6 & 7) ■ Fri., Feb. 13 - K-12, 11:45 a.m. early dismissal for Presidents’ Week / Teacher’s Retreat ■ Mon. - Fri. Feb. 16-20 - No Classes: President’s Week

action alert New Phone Number? Address? E-mail? Remember to alert Harker of any change in your contact information immediately to ensure we can reach you. Updating is a simple click away with our online update form on the Parent Home Page!

Passion for Baked Goods! Mad Cow - Preventive Measures In Place In a recent e-mail and letter to all parents, Howard Nichols, president, reported that due to the national incidents of mad cow disease, Harker’s beef inventory was replaced with premiere grassfed beef until further notice, and the daily quantities of vegetarian options were increased. Executive Chef, Steve Martin, who is responsible for all Harker food service and continually evaluates the quality, variety and safety of Harker’s food service, had responded immediately to the first outbreak with a thorough investigation of Harker’s beef sources. While he and Nichols agreed that their existing source was safe, they decided to switch to grass-fed beef. “The health and safety of our students, staff and faculty have always been a top priority and Chef Steve and I agreed this was an appropriate additional measure of prevention,” Nichols stated.

The 1st grade parents are coordinating a baked goods drive for the Fashion Show. If you have baked goods (home-made or store-made) to donate, you can leave them with the Gr. 1 volunteers during morning drop-off on Thurs., Feb. 5. These tasty treats will be snacks for the volunteers and models on the day of the show. Thanks to the 1st grade parents for coordinating this effor t, and thanks to everyone for your donations!

VOLUNTEER NEEDS • Feb. 6 - Harker Fashion Show, Lights Camera Passion, Lunch and Dinner Gala, San Jose Fairmont Hotel. There are lots of ways you can help - see the Web site for a complete list! • Feb. 13 - Valentine’s Day homeroom parties. • Ongoing, Harker Bookstore - Parent volunteers are needed Mon.-Fri. in the bookstore on the Saratoga campus to work a couple hours a day organizing shelves, assisting customers and helping with displays. Please contact Bob Benge in the bookstore, bobb@harker.org.

Bucknall Off-site Shuttle Canceled Joe Gill, asst. head of school/non-academic affairs, announced that the morning van shuttle operation from the Prince of Peace Church to the Bucknall campus has been canceled after its six-week trial due to low interest and ridership. “Although we are disappointed with the failure of this initiative, we’ll continue to look for ways to decrease the congestion around the Lower School,” Gil said.

Harker AP Exams Students will soon be receiving information regarding this year’s AP exam schedule from the Office of the Registrar. We are including the details in this issue for your planning purposes. All Harker students who take AP classes must take the corresponding AP exam. Any conflicts or possible conflicts should be brought to the attention of Heather Blair, US registrar, immediately since the College Board will only allow late testing under certain defined circumstances. The late testing dates of May 19 -21 conflict with graduation activities, so seniors who have AP classes should take special note now of these dates and identify and rectify any conflicts early. Blair can be reached at heatherb@harker.org or 408.345.9653. May 3:

English Language (a.m.); French Language (p.m.)

May 4:

Computer Science A, Computer Science AB, Spanish Language (a.m.); Statistics (p.m.)

May 5:

Calculus AB, Calculus BC (a.m.); Music Theory (p.m.)

May 6:

English Literature (a.m.); French Literature (p.m.)

May 7:

U.S. Histor y (a.m.); European History (p.m.)

May 10: Biology (a.m.); Physics B, Physics C (p.m.) May 11: Chemistr y (a.m.); Psychology (p.m.) May 12: U.S. Government & Politics (a.m.); Art History (p.m.) May 13: No exams

Lax Latin Correction Thanks to a few alert faculty members, as well as alumni Robbie Morse (MS ’00), an incorrect verb ending in the Latin motto reported in last month’s From the Archives now stands corrected as “Non-Ministrari, Sed Ministrare.” The incorrect “i” ending of “Sed Ministri” in last month’s edition changed the slogan’s meaning to “Not to be ser ved but to be served,” hardly the meaning intended of this motto dating back to Miss Harker’s School! Our archivist has assured us that our records – including the original publication of this motto – are correct. Many thanks to those who brought this lax Latin to our attention!

May 14: Spanish Literature (a.m.); Latin Literature, Latin Vergil (p.m.)

Harker News — February 04

• Sat., Mar. 13 – Sorting educational supplies at RAFT: Resource Area for Teachers • Sun., Mar. 28 – Crafts and games with children at Sunday Friends

Amnesty Club Donates $500 to Smile Train

submitted to Jaja Hsuan by this date. Visit http://faculty.harker.org/ JajaH for more information.

Upcoming Service Trips • Sun., Feb. 8 – Social and crafts session with seniors at Lytton Gardens

STAFF

update

■ Harker teachers will be among the selected presenters at the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Southern Regional Conference at Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, CA, on March 15, 2004. The conference provides an opportunity for CAIS teachers to present workshops that showcase successful programs and curricula in their schools, and to network with other CAIS teachers. Harker’s modern & classical languages teacher Nicholas Manjoine will demonstrate how students can use laptops and a school intranet to access resources that were once exclusively provided in language labs. Science teacher Jeff Sutton will be presenting a hands-on workshop on using threaded discussions on digital bulletin boards to extend information out of the classroom and between schools. ■ John Near, an AP U.S. History teacher in the US, received a letter of recognition from Stanford University in their Teacher Tribute Initiative program. Harker alumni Tiffany Yun’s (’03) nomination was outlined in the letter, and she stated: “While Mr. Near has been a reserved and quiet figure in my life, he has always supported me and my aspirations. He has been my teacher, my coach and my advisor. Harker News — February 04

The US Amnesty Club, whose objective is to promote human rights awareness as well as promoting humanitarian effor ts, raised $500 recently for Smile Train, an organization that helps children in developing countries who are born with cleft lip and palate. “The group felt this was a good cause because the surgery is something that would affect a

child’s life – for the rest of their life in a good way. It was a happier cause,” said Alfred See, treasurer of the 15 or so member club that meets weekly. He explained that Smile Train will deliver free cleft surgery all over the world to more than 35,000 children this year, and that 100% of all donations go toward Smile Train programs and not overhead. For the Harker fundraiser Amnesty Club members sold about 170 candy grams and singing grams in Dec., with members filling the orders and delivering them, and Cantilena helping out with the singing grams. Congratulations to the following club officers, and all club members, for the great

EVENT

fundraiser: Maggie Chen ’04, president; Jo Tsai ’04, vicepresident; Michelle Lauris ’04, secretary; Alfred See ’04, treasurer. For more information about Smile Train visit the Web site at www.smiletrain.org. PHOTO NOTES: Students make holiday deliveries to adopted families; Bucknall students earn service points helping teachers.

update

In each of these arenas, he has taught me something different and guided me to succeed. I thank him for all the different ways he has helped me throughout the past five years.” ■ J. Gaston, US computer science teacher, recently received an Award of Excellence bestowed on him by the Outstanding Teacher Recognition Program of UC San Diego. Marc Leglise (’03) nominated Gaston for this award. The award states, “In recognition of your exceptional ability to inspire young people to achieve academic and personal excellence.” ■ Performing arts teacher Susan Nace spent Martin Luther King weekend in New York working with Alice Parker, composer and arranger for the Robert Shaw Chorale, doing score analysis and workshops in compositions and arrangements. ■ For the 3rd year US drama teacher Jeffrey Draper performed in Center Repertory Company’s production of “A Christmas Carol,” this year playing Fred Hastings, Scrooge’s nephew. Draper also works with Center REP as an education director. “I was pleased to have many of my students from Harker attend the show,” said Draper.

Terry Walsh

The community service deadline for students in grade 9-11 is April 30. Students must complete 10 hours of service and have all paperwork

service

Jaja Hsuan: holiday photos; Keith Hirota: Bucknall photo

COMMUNITY

Auction Scavenger Hunt Hilarious Success! Gr. 5 teachers Pat Walsh and Kate Shanahan donated “The Shannys vs. The Walshys Scavenger Hunt” in this year’s picnic silent auction and recently held the hunt for winning bidders Molly Mandell and Margaux Nielsen. Winners gathered three friends each to assist them in the competitive scavenger hunt led by Walsh and Shanahan. The teams arrived at the Walsh home wearing their team t-shir ts designed by parents Sharon Mandell and Leslie Nielsen, and each team was given a list of the same items to get in a three-hour time slot. Parents Melody Moyer and Kathy Polzin were recruited to create a scavenger hunt list that included fun and embarrassing items like getting a shower cap from the Fairmont Hotel, singing one verse of “I’m a Little Teapot” to a Macy’s employee and taking a photo of the group in a Hummer! While both teams got ever y item on the list, Team Walshy eked out a 30-minute lead over Team Shanny to finish first. Team Shanny: Mandell, John Ammatuna, Araby Martin and Allika Walvekar Team Walshy: Nielsen, Carmen DasGrande, Tiffany Chen and Tara Kola.

UPDATE

head of school

Mid-Year Report of Student Achievements, Gr. 1-12 I’m pleased to share this annual mid-year report of the wonder ful achievements and successes of our students. With over half of our graduating class named in the National Merit Program, an increase in early college acceptances and ERB scores that are sky high, we couldn’t be more proud. We heartily commend our students and teachers for all of these outstanding accomplishments. We also extend our thanks and congratulations to our parents who chose a Harker education for their children, and who help them achieve greatness with their daily love and support.

Diana Nichols, Head of School

In addition to the outstanding test results on the facing page, the early college acceptances and the many Harker students who were honored on the national level, here are just a few of the other outstanding achievements made by our students so far this year: ■ Harker’s US Quiz Bowl team spent 6 hours at Stanford competing in an NAQT Quiz Bowl competition. Harker’s team, led by their captain Yi Sun, along with Peter Combs, Vivek Bansal and Lev Pisarsky, finished second with a 7-2 record. Yi Sun was ranked the number two individual in the competition. Harker’s performance at this tournament will earn them a place in the national competition. ■ We are also happy to announce that 82% of our 8th grade students have been identified as Johns Hopkins Scholars. These students earned 97, 98 or 99 percentile or above on their ERBs. ■ We are consistently complimented by organizations that conduct our educational field trips regarding Harker students and their exceptional behavior and intelligent questions, including a recent letter commending our Gr. 8 students on their Grand Canyon trip. ■ The Harker School had more National Scholars as a school (133) than the total combined number in 17 entire states. ■ Only one 10th grade student in the world achieved National Merit recognition. It was Alan Malek of The Harker School. ■ Six Harker US students involved in the Digital Clubhouse Network (DCN) were recognized in November for their work on the Stories of Service Project by an impressive assembly of county, city and congressional figures, including U.S. Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda. The Stories of Service Project brings together tech savvy teens, adult volunteers and veterans to produce multimedia minidocumentaries in honor of WWII veterans. These “digital stories” will be preserved by the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of American History. To view some of the mini-documentaries, visit www.stories-of-service.com.

Seniors Receive Numerous Honors Over Half of Graduating Class Named Nationally Out of a graduating class of 133 students, an amazing fifty-eight percent were named National Merit Semifinalists or National Merit Commended students. Finalists will be announced in the spring. Congratulations to these fine students:

National Merit Semifinalists (35) Vivek Bansal, Eric Berglund, Neil Bhalerao, Sridhar Chadalavada, Margaret Chen, Stephanie Chun, Peter Combs, Ozan Demirlioglu, Nikhil Deshmukh, Leann Duong, Victoria Duong, Whitney Graves, Matthew Jones, Karthik Kailash, Aaron Kleinsteiber, Allison Kwong, Jacqueline Laine, Kathryn Lee, Sanby Lee, Angela Lin, Karan Lodha, Nayan Mehta, Ravi Mishra, Sarada Pyda, Utsab Saha, Vivek Saraswat, Alfred See, Akash Shah, Michael Tang, Khanh Tran, Anjali Vaidya, Matthew Vucurevich, Albert Wu, Wesley Wu, Joshua Zloof

National Merit Commendations (42) Ruchit Agrawal, Pranab Barman, Shethal Bearelly, Aruna Bharathi, Ananda Bose, Andrew Chen, Jonathan Chung, Farhad Darbandi, Sameer Deen, Meghan Desale, Benjamin Douglas, Sean Dyal, Anita Gupta, Derek Hwang, Adi Jain, Munazzah Javid, Opal Kamdar, Daphne Karpel, Ethan Karpel, Laena Keyashian, Michelle Lauris, Vivian Leung, Simon Linder, Sergey Lossev, David Ly, Surbhi Mahendru, Ana Maheshwari, Deepa Mathew, Saahil Mehra, Rachel Meltzer, Elise Nguyen, Edward Peng, Payom Pirahesh, Thomas Polzin, Alex Reid, Rashmi Sanbhadti, Alexandra SelboBruns, Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Subhedar, Takeo Toyoshima, Rachael Warecki, Sean Weinstock

College Acceptance News Begins! Harker had 31 early college acceptances from the universities noted below. There is a broader range of top schools represented in this year’s early decision results, and more students received early admissions this year than last. This is quite an accomplishment given that the number of students applying early decision/action continues to rise nationwide. As you may know, the bulk of college admissions will be reported to us between March and May, so watch for more news then. 1 to Cal Tech 2 to Case Western Reserve 1 to Columbia 1 to Cornell 3 to Georgetown 1 to Harvard 2 to Johns Hopkins 1 to Northwestern 8 to the University of Pennsylvania 1 to Princeton 2 to Saint Andrews 5 to Stanford

1 to Washington University (St. Louis)

1 to Trinity

1 to Wellesley Harker News — February 04

UPDATE

head of school

Outstanding Test Results Recorded at All Grade Levels ERB Scores Continue to Impress ERB scores at all levels in grades K-8 continue to be extremely impressive. Listed below are the numbers indicating where our median student (50th percentile) has scored on National Norms and also on Suburban Norms. Another way to read this data is to say that in Grade 8 Reading Comprehension, our 50th percentile student scored better than 97% of the students in the nation and better than 88% of the students who will go on to a four-year college. The 50th percentile student at Harker is in the middle of the class. In many instances, our 10th percentile student scored very well. For example, in Grade 3 Writing Mechanics our 10th percentile student scored at the 90% nationally. Another example is in Grade 7 Mathematics, where our 10th percentile student scored better than 91% of the students nationally and better than 70% of those going on to four-year colleges. Clearly, our students should feel very proud of these outstanding academic accomplishments!

Grade 1 Reading Comprehension Word Analysis Mathematics

National Norms

Suburban Norms

Not made

97 96 97

available this year by

Grade 2 Reading Comprehension Word Analysis Writing Mechanics Mathematics

ERB for Grades 1 and 2

84 82 87 90

Grade 3 Verbal Reasoning Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics

97 97 98 96 99 99

81 87 93 77 85 90

Grade 4 Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics

93 96 92 96 96 98 97

73 84 74 89 79 83 87

96 97 89 98 96 99 99

85 86 74 93 83 88 88

Grade 8 Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Mathematics Algebra I

99 98 97 99 96 99 NA

79 94 88 89 87 91 85

SAT Update Our senior class has done an outstanding job on their examinations. Our mean SAT I scores in Math this year were 706 and in Verbal were 689, the highest performance we have seen to date.

PSAT Scores This year’s sophomores and juniors can also feel extraordinarily proud. They have once again achieved amazing scores on the PSAT test. The mean PSAT results: 2003 Verbal

Math

Writing

Sophomores Juniors

64.5 68.4

64.3 67.4

60.0 66.1

AP Exam Notes

Grade 5 Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics

97 95 92 99 95 99 97

80 77 70 90 74 90 86

Grade 6 Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics

97 97 95 98 97 97 95

78 84 79 83 76 87 87

Harker News — February 04

Grade 7 Verbal Reasoning Vocabulary Reading Comprehension Writing Mechanics Writing Concepts Quantitative Reasoning Mathematics

■ Harker’s AP exam per formance continues to be exemplary. With 279 students taking a total of 695 AP exams last year, Harker students earned an impressive 92 AP Scholar awards. Seven seniors, one sophomore, and one graduate were named National AP Scholars. These students accumulated grades of 4 or higher (on a scale of 1-5) on eight or more yearlong AP exams. ■ A total of 53 students (including the nine National Scholars) were named AP Scholars with Distinction. These students earned average grades of 3.5 on five or more AP exams for yearlong courses. ■ For ty-two students were named AP Scholars with Honor, having earned grades of 3 or higher on four or more AP exams. ■ For ty-four students were named AP Scholars, having earned grades of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams.

FASHION Fri., Feb. 6, 2004 Fairmont Hotel, San Jose

11:00 a.m. Luncheon Fashion Show $75 per person

5:30 p.m. Dinner Gala Fashion Show Live Auction and Dancing to The Fundamentals $150 per person

show 2004 Lights, Camera…PASSION! Hurry! Last chance to reserve seats— Join your friends for a fabulously fun time! Famed Fairmont Hospitality Great cuisine and a fantastic $99 room rate!

Electrifying Entertainment Featuring student hosts, hostesses and Harker’s premier performing arts groups!

Fabulous Fashions Modeled by Harker students, parents and faculty. Be there to cheer them on!

Lively Live Auction A short but entertaining live auction of fabulous Passion Packages! Led by auctioneer-extraordinaire Frank Bizarro, and assisted by the always-entertaining Pam Dickinson and Jack Bither, with additional assistance and witty color commentary from our own Kelly Espinosa and Bill Bost, the entertainment value of the auction alone will be worth the price of admission!

Dancing to The Fundamentals The Bay Area’s “Best of the Bay” dance band!

Sneak Preview — Fashion Show Feature in San Jose Magazine! Proceeds benefit our children through the Harker Scholarship Fund, Teachers’ Fund and new Math, Science and Technology Center. 6

Our official media sponsor, San Jose Magazine, generously donated a 6-page spread in their February issue, devoted to Harker’s first fashion show fundraiser, with event information, sponsor thanks and photos of the models, hosts and hostesses. Many thanks to publisher Gilbert Sangari and his talented staff for this wonderful coverage and for their support since the event’s inception. Many thanks also to Lori Rose of Signature Images for the stunning photographs of our students, committee, faculty and chairs used in both the San Jose Magazine spread and in the Fashion Show program.

Pre-show Entertainment Be sure to arrive at Lights, Camera…PASSION! a little early so you’ll have time to sip a beverage, view the Passion Showcases and enjoy the song stylings of Harmonics and several solos and duets by US students along with the soothing strains of our chamber music ensembles. SOLO OR DUET PERFORMANCES: Neil Bhalerao, Kevin Busch, Tara Chandra, Meghan Desale, Jason Gutstein, Lauren Gutstein, Emma Hawley, Jackie Laine, Amulya Mandava, Lisa Schwebke, Mickey Selbo-Bruns, Jessica Wu, Justin Wu. CHAMBER MUSIC ENSEMBLES: Albert Chen, Whitney Huang, Sharon Tan, Thomas Wang, Joseph Chen, Tracy Chou, Jason Han, Glen Lee, Connie Tung, Joseph Chen, Tracy Chou, Glen Lee, Justin Wu

Harker News — February 04

Lights, Camera…PRIZES! ■ Win

FREE Tuition or $15,000 CASH!

The Grand Prize winner will receive a free year’s Harker tuition (valued at up to $22,000) or $15,000 cash! Just $100 each for a chance to win, and all proceeds directly benefit the children of Harker!

Think about the pleasure you’ll get when you DON’T have to write that tuition check in July! Even if you don’t have a student at Harker, you can probably think of something special to do with $15,000. You need not be present to win and only 500 tickets will be sold, so the odds are in your favor - go online to purchase your grand prize tickets before they sell out! Visit the Fashion Show Home Page on the Web site and select Tickets and Reservations.

■ Win

a Passion Showcase

Passion Showcase donation drawing tickets are now on sale online! It’s just $20 for ten donation drawing tickets, and you could win a Passion Showcase worth over $5,000! Each Showcase includes many more wonderful items than we have room to list, but here’s a sampling…

Showcase design by Santana Row: A stay at the hip Hotel Valencia, plus restaurant and store gift certificates and lots of fun items from the ultimate shopping destination.

• Passion for Adventure Showcase design by Cynthia D’Agosta: Sports, sailing and personal training, plus other adventures guaranteed to raise your pulse.

Showcase design by Melody Mains: Spa treatments, plush robes, massages, pampering and more luxurious fun.

• Passion for Good, Clean Fun Showcase design by Marie Peterson of Chelsea Court Designs: Software, board games, projects and tickets for fun family outings and other wonderful items for the kid in all of us.

■ Order

• Passion for Travel Showcase design by Karyn DeBoer of Tollgate Interiors: Hula in Hawaii, full set of beautiful luggage, and more trips and travel accoutrement.

• Passion for Entertainment Showcase design by Debbie Atwood of Atwood Interiors: Fine dining, tickets to the theatre, opera and dance performances, and more!

Centerpiece & Spa Gift For Your Valentine

Wonderful Valentine’s Day gifts will be masquerading as fashion show centerpieces! Psssst! Here’s your chance to help your child’s school and score points with your sweetie. The exquisite centerpieces that will adorn the tables at the Fashion Show are available for purchase! Each centerpiece features a lovely orchid nestled within a bed of moss and black river rock, set in a gorgeous glass cachepot. But that’s not all - each centerpiece also comes with a $95 gift certificate for a free spa treatment at Burke Williams, a serene escape from hectic Silicon Valley life. The orchid, cachepot and gift certificate can be yours for only $50. What are you waiting for? Contact Heather Wardenburg at hwardenburg@hotmail.com to reserve your Valentine gift now! Harker News — February 04

■ We’d like to thank our newest advertisers, sponsors and page sponsors: Action Day Nurseries, Inc., Age Defying Dermatology, Air Systems, Inc., the Banerjee Family, the Blair Family, Burke Williams, Capers, Creekside Landscaping, R.J. Dailey Construction, the Davis Family, Design Focus, the Drummer Family, Duke of Edinburgh, Fashion House, Fitness Group of Los Gatos, the Gaknoki Family, the Gudmundson and Brooks Family, the Harris Family, the Hsi Family, Keller Williams Realty, Louie Leu Architect Inc, Munemitsu Inc, Dr. Brian Nettleman, Next Step, Notre Dame High School, Out of the Envelope, Le Papillon, Preston Wynne, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, Robin Ruth Photography, Skin Care Professionals, the Stapleton Family, Success Chess School, Williams Rental and XL Construction

■ And our thanks once again to our heritage advertisers and sponsors:

• Passion for Santana Row

• Passion for the Good Life

A PASSIONATE Thanks to our Advertisers and Sponsors!

AcuAce Healthcare, Alex Alonzo Accountancy Corporation, Audasis Systems, Bains Development, the Banerjee/Chopra Family, Bay Area Parent Magazine, Robert Bothman Construction, California Karate Academy, Campbell Music Center, Dr. Diane Casey, CH Jewelers, Chelsea Court Design, Citation Press, Classic Kids Photo, Comerica, Communicart Graphics and Printing, the Connell Family, Conrado Company, Dr. David Constant, Courtesy Chevrolet, Dr. Mark W Dalporto, Dancing Yogi, the Davis Family Foundation, Deanza Cupertino Aquatics, Diamond Quality Printing, Dr. Aaron Ditlow, Joe Escobar Diamonds, Dr. Alan Everett, DDS, Fast Frame, Fujii Florist, German Motor Specialists, GMS Global Inc., Golden Dragon West, the Good Guys, the Harris Family, Heritage Bank of Commerce, HighTech Passport Ltd, Image Beauty Salon, Intero Real Estate Services, KnowledgeQuest Learning Center, Lexus of Stevens Creek, Linear Technology, Loera’s Upholstery and Design, Loral Wigs and Boutique, Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, LLP, Mc Pharlin Sprinkles and Thomas,LLP, David Mendoza - Merrill Lynch, Mona’s Place, Mr. Neil Najibi, Newpath Ventures, Odwalla, Orrick Compensation and Benefits Group, Alain Pinel Realtors of Saratoga, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, PW Markets, Dr. Brian Quo, the Riedel Family, San Jose Magazine, Santana Row, the Santora Family, the Sathaye Family Foundation, Silverleaf Antiques, Smith Barney: The Hall Walsworth Group, Alan and Theresa Ronald, Douglas L. Kennedy, Stevens Creek Audi, Tel-Star Mortgage, TMFC, US Bank, Valley U.S. Inc., Ventura Barnett Properties, Venz Fine Photography and Yvette’s Institut De Beaute’.

MATH

update

New Harker Mu Alpha Theta Charter On Dec. 17 the application from Harker’s Mathematics Competitions Group for a school charter of the Mu Alpha Theta, an international mathematics honors society for high school and college mathematics clubs, was approved by its national office and governing council. “Your community has every reason to be proud of your fine mathematics department and of the students who receive national recognition for their superior accomplishments with the granting of their charter member-

Justin Wu, Gr. 11, and Thomas Wang, Gr. 7. Anyone who is interested in learning more about this competition can visit www.mandelbrot.org.

■ ARML Power Contest To expose Harker students to more math proving-types of competitions, students were invited to take Round 1 of the American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) Power Contest in November. Now in its 9th year, this contest provides gifted students a group problem-solving situation similar to that found at the prestigious National ARML Competition held annually in Pennsylvania, Iowa and California. Harker’s team, composed of Ozan Demirlioglu, Gr. 12; Yi Sun, Gr. 10; Jerry Hong, Gr. 11; Thomas Wang, Gr. 7; Justin Wu, Gr. 11; and Mason Liang, Gr. 11, garnered a top ten ranking with the high score of 33.5 points out of a 40 possible points. ARML director Thomas Kilkelly said there are only eight points separating the top 14 teams, and Harker was one of only two schools in the entire Bay Area who were part of this elite group.

Lee Trotter

■ Yi Sun Grand Prize Winner at 2003 Santa Clara University High School Math Contest

ships,” stated Paul R. Goodey, secretary-treasurer of the organization in the acceptance letter. The following Harker students were accepted as charter members for the 2003-04 school year: Seniors - Ozan Demirlioglu, Karthik Kailash and Manu Srivastava; Juniors - Jerry Hong, Daniel Hung, Mason Liang, Kevin Park, Gregory Perkins, Lev Pisarsky, Alex TearseDoyle, Joel Wright and Justin Wu; Sophomores - Theodore Lee, Jasper Shau and Yi Sun; Freshmen - Justin Chin, Tatsunori Hashimoto, Jessie Li and Tiffany June Lin.

Math Competitions Harker has been participating in various math competitions since the start of the 2003-04 school year. Here are some of the results:

■ Harker No. 1 Again Through Round 2 at CML The first round of the California Math League (CML) was held in Oct. and Harker tied for first place, receiving a per fect score of 30 points. The following students contributed to the school’s performance and were commended on the Math League Web site: Jerry Hong, Gr. 11; Teddy Lee, Gr. 10; Mason Liang, Gr. 11; Yi Sun, Gr. 10; Joel Wright, Gr. 11; and Justin Wu, Gr. 11. In Dec., the second round of the CML was held and this time Harker received first place with a per fect score of 60 points. The following students received a perfect score of 6 in round 2: Ozan Demirlioglu, Gr. 12; Yi Sun, Gr. 10; Lev Pisarsky, Gr. 11; Alex TearseDoyle, Gr. 11; Ananda Bose, Gr. 12; and Mason Liang, Gr. 11. CML is a 6round mathematics competition for high school students with six problemsolving questions in each round. There are approximately 200 schools around California that participate in this annual competition, including 17 schools from Santa Clara County. Last school year Harker School won first place after the last round of the contest. Visit my Web page for links to more information on these results and the CML site and watch the next edition for results of the final round.

■ Mandelbrot National Math Competition The first two rounds of the Mandelbrot Math Contest, sponsored by the Greater Testing Concepts of Cambridge, MA, were held in October and in December. The tilt has two divisions, regional and national, and Harker participates in the national level. Any school with a team score of 80 and above belongs to the first tier of the contest, and the Harker team, having received a score of 89 points, is part of this elite group. The following are the top performing students from Harker after the second round: Tier 1: Yi Sun, Gr. 10; Tier 2: Lev Pisarsky, Gr. 11, and Jerry Hong, Gr. 11; Tier 3:

On Sat., Nov. 8, 19 students from Harker participated in the Santa Clara University High School Math Contest that focuses on general mathematical potential and ingenuity. Sophomore Yi Sun was awarded the grand prize for best performance by any single entrant, an award he also received last year as a freshman. The following Harker students also received Honorable Mention Awards: Ozan Demirlioglu, Gr. 12; Jerry Hong, Gr. 11; and Justin Wu, Gr. 11. Lev Pisarsky, Gr. 11, and Tatsunori Hashimoto, Gr. 9, also received very high scores in the competition.

■ UCSB Prize Competition in Mathematics The College of Creative Studies of UC Santa Barbara annually sponsors the Qualifying Exam, usually held in October, and the Advanced Level Exam in November. This year 16 Harker students took the Qualifying Exam and scored very high, qualifying for the Advanced Level. They are: Seniors Karthik Kailash, Manu Srivastava, Ozan Demirlioglu; Juniors - Jerry Hong, Alex Tearse-Doyle, Gregory Perkins, Kevin Park, Gregory Finkelstein, Joel Wright, Mason Liang, Lev Pisarsky and Justin Wu; Sophomores - Teddy Lee and Yi Sun; Freshman - Justin Chin; MS - Thomas Wang. Aside from qualifying in the Advanced Level, Yi Sun was also awarded 2nd place and a cash award. In the Advanced Level Yi Sun received a score of 48 points out of 50 possible points and was once again awarded 2nd place with cash, and senior Ozan Demirlioglu was given an honorable mention award.

■ Harker Strong Contender at National Assessment Contests This year Harker began participating in a series of competitions sponsored by the National Assessment and Testing based in Seattle, WA. There are a total of five competitions during the school year and the first three, the Fall Startup Event, the Team Scramble and the Ciphering Time Trials, were held respectively in September, October and December, and the Harker team received awards in each competition. In the Fall Startup Event Harker received a plaque for placing 9th in the competition and earned the following individual plaque awards: Yi Sun, Gr. 10 – first in sophomore category; Thomas Wang, Gr. 7, and Justin Chin, Gr. 9 – 6th and 9th respectively in freshmen categor y. Certificate awards were also given to Lev Pisarsky, Gr. 11 – 13th place in the junior category and Jessie Li, Gr. 9 – 13th place in the freshman category. In the Team Scramble Competition, a 100-problem, 30-minute test where the entire team collaborates to complete a single answer sheet, the Harker team was among the top 25 (12th place award) with the following team members: Juniors - Joel Wright, Daniel Hung, Kevin Park, Justin Wu, Alex TearseDolye and Jerry Hong; Sophomore - Yi Sun; Freshmen - Justin Chin, Sinead Toolis-Byrd, Tatsunori Hashimoto; MS - Thomas Wang As of press time there were no official school rankings from the Ciphering Time Trials Test, a contest consisting of ten 3-minute rounds of three openanswer problems. So far, Harker has received official confirmation that the following three students will be receiving individual awards in this competition: Justin Chin, Gr. 9, Thomas Wang, Gr. 7, and Yi Sun, Gr. 10. Harker News — February 04

■ Pythagorean and Calculus Contests Harker also participates in two contests sponsored by the Continental Mathematics League, based in St. James, New York: the Pythagorean Mathematics Contest for students through 9th grade, and the Calculus Contest, for students who have taken or are currently enrolled in AP Calculus AB or AP Calculus BC. This contest serves as a good review prior to the actual AP exam in May. The following students are the top per formers in round 1 of the Pythagorean Competition: Freshmen - Justin Chin, Arkajit Dey, Tatsunori Hashimoto; Gr. 8 - Jesicca Hsueh, Jessie Li, Tonia Sun and Diane Wang. In round 2, Justin Chin, Gr. 9; Siddarth Chandrasekhar, Gr.9; and Thomas Wang, Gr. 7, were the top per formers. In the Calculus Round 1 Contest, juniors Jerry Hong, Nina Joshi, Lev Pisarsky and Mason Liang topped the contest.

■ Harker earns trophies at SCVMA Mathematics Olympiad On Dec. 13 two seniors, Ozan Demirlioglu and Karthik Kailash, participated for the first time in the 23rd annual Mathematics Olympiad for high school seniors sponsored by the Santa Clara Valley Mathematics Association (SCVMA) and held at Mission College in Santa Clara. Each contestant was given 30 open-ended questions to be answered in 90 minutes, and both Harker competitors brought home one of the ten trophies awarded: Ozan Demirlioglu placed 2nd and Karthik Kailash received 3rd.

MS AMC-8 Math Contest Results Cindy Kerr, MS math dept. chair, recently announced the results of the AMC-8 math contest held in November. Sponsored by the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the AMC-8 is a contest for students in Gr. 8 or below. Kerr explained that the AMC-8 rates student scores among students in our school only. It does not compare the overall scores among U.S. middle schools. At Harker, only interested students in Gr. 7 and 8 and all Gr. 6 honors math students participate. Of the 12,400 students in grades 5-8 who took the AMC-8 in California, 13 earned a perfect score (about 0.1%). Harker student Alex Fandrianto, Gr. 8, is one of them, and he will be awarded a plaque at the semester awards. The following Harker students received top scores of 18 or more out of 25: Gr. 8 - Victor Chen, Joseph Pei, Rachel Fong, Spencer Liang, Alice Liang, Jay Shah, Nicholas Sutardja, Anik Debnath, Raymond Paseman and Joshua Wang; Gr. 7 - Andrew Chin, Joseph Swernofsky, Jonathan Liu, Aaron Lin, Brian Chao, Thomas Wang and Chetan Vakkalagadda; Gr. 6 - Kevin Zhang, Daisy Lin, Nikhil Bhargava and Samir Datta. We commend these students for such a strong showing on this difficult exam! They will all receive award cer tificates at the quarter awards.

—Reported by Misael Fisico, US Math teacher

giving

Annual Giving Campaign News! ■ The race to increase parent participation continues as Grades K, 3 and 6 top the class participation chart at 70%. Help move your grade level participation to 100% today! ■ Unknown stock gift received! On Dec. 26, 2003, we received 30 shares of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. stock and have not been able to acknowledge the appropriate donor! If you are the generous donor, please contact Amalia Keyashian, director of annual giving, at 408.345.0107.

THANKS! Your gift to the 2003-04 Annual Giving Campaign directly and immediately benefits Harker students and faculty by providing the “margin of excellence” in so many of our programs in this issue, such as: • US Conservatory concert, front page • Bucknall art programs, page 11 • MS Enlightn’ing publication, page 12

Lee Trotter

■ Note to Donors: For your convenience in preparing taxes, you will receive a yearend tax contribution summary letter for the 2003 calendar year confirming your total gifts made to The Harker School.

Fashion Show Key to Annual Harker Fund As you know, this year we have consolidated three major activities generating charitable dollars to support Harker’s annual operations. The Fashion Show 2004 is a critical component of the Harker Fund, which directly provides funds to the margin of excellence for our students. We hope you will show your support and attend this spectacular event – see pages 6 and 7 for details! —Bran-Dee Torres, Donor Relations Manager, brandeet@harker.org Harker News — February 04

Gifts to the annual giving campaign help Harker provide students and families with the exceptional college counseling services provided by counseling staff Sandy Padgett, Shena Bachman, Nicole Burrell and Debbie Horiuchi. Thank you to the Banerjee/ Chopra family for sponsoring the recent Sophomore Parent College Counseling event. Watch for news about our college counseling department and college acceptances this year in future issues.

THANKS

ANNUAL

■ To build some enthusiasm after the winter break, math teacher Pat Walsh held his annual belated New Year’s Eve celebration for his classes. For the past several years, Walsh said that his students have returned from vacation to see his desk filled with the traditional New Year’s Eve party item - party poppers. Students who correctly answer a math question are presented with a party popper to release to a chorus of “Happy New Year!” from their fellow students. “A little partying and practice goes a long way,” Walsh laughed.

Lee Trotter

■ In another fun Walsh activity, Gr. 5 students were tops with tops! In

early December, in preparation for the 3rd annual Great Holiday SpinOff, Walsh passed out holiday spinning tops and told the students to practice spinning in their spare time. Two weeks later elimination heats were held in the math classes and the Elite Eight competed at lunch to 120 cheering supporters. Prizes were presented to the top three spinners: 1st - Albert Wu; 2nd - Partha Mahajani; 3rd Vivian Lu.

various books, encyclopedias and on the Internet. Once they have enough information gathered and cited regarding their famous person’s childhood, achievements and legacy, students will begin to write their essays in English class. Students will also be creating PowerPoint presentations in their study skills classes. The teachers note that this research collaboration is a great opportunity for students to work together and begin to understand the similarities and connections subjects share. Both the English and social studies teachers will grade the final papers. Then in March students will share their research with their classmates through presentations where they dress up like the individual whom they studied. “In year’s past, students have performed in front of the class dressed as Jackie Robinson, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mae Jemison and Harriet Tubman,” said Shanahan. “The teachers truly look forward to working with the students on this exciting project.”

grade social studies,” said Giammona. Students portrayed patriots Benjamin Franklin, Sam Adams and Mercy Otis Warren and the loyalists Lord Hutchinson, Jonathan Boucher and Lord Dunmore who all staunchly defended King George III. ■ The S-club (Spirit Club) sold 1,224 Snowman-grams to students and staff in Dec. and raised $622 for the club. The Snowman-grams

Students dressed up as historical figures and fired questions to opponents. “This activity is always a highlight of the year in fifth

Gr. 3. Each received a Snowmangram and their work was posted on the S-club bulletin board. ■ The students in Diann Chung and Cindy Proctor’s Gr. 1 language arts classes recently enjoyed a visit from former art teacher Margaret Peterson who showed the class how to spin wool and weave with a loom. “We read a stor y in our Language Arts class about how a Navajo rug is woven using the wool from a goat and it was wonderful to have a live weaving demonstration” said Proctor. ■ Students in Kristen Janiak’s Gr. 6 math classes spent the final weeks of December on a project called “Live from Harker, It’s the

included a note and a bag of treats “and were even delivered to staff on the Saratoga campus,” said Jason Oncay, club advisor. Some of the proceeds from this project will be spent on visors and

■ Students in the Gr. 5 social studies classes of Kristen Giammona and Rob Regan took a walk into the past when they recently conducted a panel debate between Loyalists and Patriots.

Kristen Giammona

■ In honor of Black History Month in February, language arts teacher Kate Shanahan reported that Gr. 5 students are gearing up for a major research paper on a famous African American for their English and social studies classes. Students will select a famous African American, then visit the library with their study skills classes and do research in

bucknall

t-shirts for this spirited club. In an effor t to involve the primary school students, members of the S-club also held a coloring event for the Gr. 1-3 students where coloring pages were distributed to the students and they had the option of submitting them to be nominated for “Best in Show.” Congratulations to these winners who were selected by S-club members from over 70 entries: Maya Chatterjee, Gr.1; Anika Ayyar, Gr. 2; and Nina Sabharwal,

Jason Oncay: all Spirit Club photos

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News.” The students constructed and analyzed statistics and played the role of newscasters, presenting segments on economy, weather and travel, consumer reports, sports and education. “The students were very creative, presenting answers in the script and using visual aids to help,” said Janiak. ■ Preparations are underway for the 10th annual Gr. 5 Lip Sync Show, an event that has become a Valentine’s Day tradition on the Bucknall campus. Students form groups and develop interesting, and often hilarious, routines of both old-fashioned and trendy love songs. Often even the teachers build up enough bravado to join the students. Watch the March issue for a recap of this fun event! Harker News — February 04

Harker Summer

Lee Trotter

■ Students in Gr. 1 – 3 participated in an assembly about good sportsmanship as part of the ongoing character development

program on the Bucknall Campus. The focus was on showing school spirit and having fun while practicing teamwork and cooperation. Students were divided into four teams and played a variety of group and individual games led by Vanessa Bullman of the rec. staff.

Before and after each game Miss Kelly talked about elements of good sportsmanship, such as the importance of working together, taking turns and cheering for teammates, and the gym was filled with excited cheers and enthusiastic support of the team members as they all enjoyed the games and practiced their good sport skills. ■ The 6th grade drama students recently finished their third major project of the year. The first two quarters covered selfwritten monologues and in-class per formances of the monologue, and the third quarter consisted of scenes directed by students. “From acting to scriptwriting to directing, the 6th graders have been doing excellent work in class this year,” said drama teacher Michael Pease.

NOW REGISTERING! Harker families have priority registration until Feb. 13, so sign up now for best selection! NEW! • 2-week sessions! • Olympic theme to celebrate the 2004 Athens Olympics! • New summer brochure format! The new informational piece has gone out, and application packets are available on the Web site or through the summer office! 2004 Calendar 5-Week Session - June 21 - July 23 3-Week Session - July 26 – August 13 NEW! 2-Week Sessions - June 21 - July 2 & July 12 – July 23 Mornings, partial day or full day - it's up to you, with three different schedule options!

artists of the month

Eric Hoffman

Jackie Ho, Gr. 6, is a multitalented artist who excels with every project and every type of media she tries. In this piece Jackie rolled clay into ropes or coils by hand, and then these ropes were attached to a clay base and stacked on top of each other to form a coil pot. Jackie took the project a step further by incorporating the ropes into the design of her project. Later, she meticulously painted her project with underglaze, dipped it into clear glaze to give it a glossy finish and fired it in the kiln. —Eric Hoffman, Bucknall Ar t Teacher

Harker News — February 04

Unparalleled Staff Eric Hoffman

Olivia Zhu, Gr. 5, is one of those students whose natural talent and appreciation for art have brought her success with every art project this year. Her painting “Tiger Jungle,” based on the French artist Henri Rousseau, captures not only the spirit of the artist’s style and sense of exotic locations, but her own love for painting. No challenge seems too great for Olivia who recently modeled a ceramic Chinese warrior figure based upon the first emperor of China’s terra cotta army of over 7,500 ceramic warrior figures, chariots and horses he made to protect him in the afterlife.

Whether it’s staff, programs or facilities, Harker continues to provide a top-quality, caring camp experience rarely found at other camps, and our reputation for having the best summer camp staff in the Bay Area is well-deserved. Quality staff – many who are current faculty, subs and Rec staff – are extensively trained to provide a safe, fun, familiar and fabulous environment for all campers! Plus the academic component helps to continue stimulating young minds over the summer. And for campers in Gr. 4-6 it’s a great way to introduce them to the Saratoga campus!

Harker families - sign up now for best selections!

campinfo@harker.org

408.871.4600

Vist our Web site for details:

www.harker.org 11

Middle School Tamagawa continued from pg. 1

Lee Trotter

basketball team and a visit to the Easter Seals Community Center, a local group that works with

physically disabled. Bill Bost, director of international programs, rounded out his visit with other fun activities with Harker faculty and staff, including a Shark’s game, Disco Bowling and a traditional tour of San Francisco which included Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square and Chinatown. “The hockey game was the highlight, there was so much excitement at the game,” said Kishi. When asked if there was anything he wanted to comment on, Kishi replied, “The amount served at dinner here is shocking!” Kishi said he enjoyed the many classes he visited very much, and he was very impressed with the students and the level of math work they were doing. He enthusiastically participated in all aspects of Harker school life and after-school life. “His friendly nature and willingness to speak as much English as

saratoga possible made it easy for Harker teachers and students to quickly become friends,” said Kerr. Thanks to the many staff who joined in on some of the activities, including Kumi Matsui, Marc Micek, Henry Cuningham, Jacob Hazard, Musako Onakado and Chris Yamashita. And a special thanks to parents Fumiko Kimura, Chidori Okubo, Yuki Konishi and Yuko Tiernan who served as translators. Many thanks to Kishi for sharing his warm smile, knowledge and enthusiasm with us! ■ MS Literary Magazine Earns

National Recognition Harker was recently notified that the MS publication enlight’ning was chosen as a finalist in The Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) Crown Award winners, one of only five middle/ junior high school publications nationally to be chosen. CSPA is an international student press association uniting student

journalists and faculty advisers at schools and colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges and award programs. Publications are judged on writing/ editing, design, content, concept, photography, art and graphics. Crown Award Finalists will receive either a Gold or Silver Crown Award at the March 2004 Scholastic Spring Convention, so watch the spring editions for the results. Congratulations to advisor Stacie Newman and all the MS students who wrote or provided artwork for this impressive publication!

Cindy Kerr

■ The MS Mentor Program, now in its 3rd year, meets weekly to address a variety of issues important to MS students and to prepare for meetings with students in Gr. 6 three times during the

school year. Through games and discussions mentors learn the skills necessary to become confident, well-informed speakers. “They are taught about effective teaching skills and have discussions regarding what it is that 6th graders would be curious about and how to respond to their questions,” said Jennifer Gargano, MS division head, who leads the lunchtime meetings along with Deanna

Lee Trotter

AROUND

Barnett, MS counselor. This year’s mentors are Stephanie Benedict, Jonathan Chan, Kevin Chen, Kevin Dawkins, Ayushi Gummadi, Stephanie Herh, Gar Yun Ho, Whitney Huang, Kritika Kailash, Michael Kang, Todd Lavine, Aarathi Minisandram, Ankur Patel, Daniella Shulman and Kenric Tam. ■ Some of Cyrus Merrill’s Gr. 8 history students recently attended Stanford’s Aurora Forum to see Jefferson scholar Clay Jenkinson portray Thomas Jefferson. Merrill said students Lerna Kazazic, Tanya Schmidt, Kit Halvorsen, Ian Cohen and Stephanie Indrajo seemed to enjoy Jenkinson’s first person interpretive portrayal of Mr. Jefferson. “Students were excited to hear that, just as they were taught in class, Jefferson was an optimist who thought farmers should read Homer in the original Greek, a man who was fascinated with the West, and a person who truly disliked Col. (Alexander) Hamilton’s plan to centralize power,” said Merrill. For his per formances, Jenkinson dresses in authentic eighteenth-centur y costume and pretends to have

been resurrected in contemporary America. He gives Jefferson’s opinions on a wide range of current topics.

■ New Gr. 8 Exchange – to Shanghai! Since the signing of the sister school agreement in December with the Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School (SWFLMS) in Shanghai, China, Harker has officially established an 8th grade student visit exchange between the two schools. In Nov. 2004, Harker will send 12 students (six boys and six girls) to Shanghai for their first two-week visit, which will include a few days in Beijing to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace. The trip will occur during the week the 8th graders are at Catalina Island and the week that follows so participating students will only miss one week of classes. In Feb. 2005 during the SWFLMS’s Lunar New Year break, they will send 12 students to Harker for a two-week visit. Both groups will stay with host families as part of their exchange. They will also attend classes, participate in field trips and special activities, and explore sightseeing destinations. “The SWFLMS is a magnet school in Shanghai that uses English and technology as their drawing points,” explained Bill Bost, international programs director. “Their English skills are quite good, and will not only be very helpful when our Harker group visits them in the fall but will allow them to participate in many of our regular classes during their visit to Harker. Since language is so important at SWFLMS, the exchange will provide them with a great opportunity to practice their English with native speakers.” An information and sign-up meeting for 7th grade students interested in the trip will be held in March, so watch for more details in the next newsletter. For more information, contact billb@harker.org. Harker News — February 04

Lorna Claerbout

■ MS science teacher Lorna Claerbout reported that students in Gr. 8 biology recently completed a challenging genetic transformation experiment. She said they successfully transferred the green fluorescent protein gene, which was

originally isolated from a bioluminescent jellyfish and modified by a Bay Area biotechnology company, to bacteria that glowed a brilliant green under ultraviolet light. “This was quite an exciting and challenging genetic engineering experiment for eighth graders to perform,” she said, adding that recently scientists transferred this same gene into a monkey named ANDi (inserted DNA), the first primate to be born with a foreign gene. ■ Cyrus Merrill reported that while finishing up the unit on the Civil War, Bob Dowling, US teacher and licensed battlefield tour guide at Gettysburg, gave a presentation to his Gr. 8 students about the Battle of Gettysburg. ■ MS performing arts will hold auditions for the next academic year at the end of January. The MS Performing Arts groups are Guys and Dolls and Harmonics. Auditions for students in Gr. 6 will

be held on Tues., Jan. 27 from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. and for students in Gr. 7 on Jan., 29 from 4 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. Callbacks will be posted on Fri., Jan. 30, and all students who are called back should be ready to audition at Saratoga at 4 p.m. that afternoon. Questions should be addressed to Sarah Lougheed on the Bucknall campus and Monica MacKinnon or Susan Nace on the Saratoga campus. Harker News — February 04

saratoga Upper School ■ Great Computer Science News Harker’s computer science team achieved a perfect score of 50 in the first exam of the 23rd annual American Computer Science League (ACSL). “Although only the top five student scores comprise the Harker team score,” explained US computer science teacher and coach Robb Cutler, “In typical Harker fashion a total of seven Harker students had perfect exams!” Congratulations to the following for this achievement: Eric Hsieh, Gr. 10; Ozan Demirlioglu, Gr. 12; Joel Wright, Gr. 11; Ethan Karpel, Gr. 12; Akash Shah, Gr. 12; Lev Pisarsky, Gr. 11; and Yi Sun, Gr. 10. Other student scores worthy of note include Robert Li, Gr. 10; Matt Jones, Gr. 12; and Peter Combs, Gr. 12, who scored 9 out of a possible 10 points and Jerry Hong, Gr. 11; Ananda Bose, Gr. 12; and Alex Tearse-Doyle, Gr. 11, who scored 8 out of 10 points. A total of 63 Harker students took the exam, which is an annual national competition for high school students from about 225 U.S. and Canadian schools to test both their theoretical knowledge of computer science and practical programming skills. This exam was the first of four contests that will take place this academic year, and if Harker continues to score well in the remaining contests, a team of students will be invited to the AllStar competition this May in Chicago, Illinois. Stay tuned! Harker’s computer science team will also be traveling to St. Bonaventure University in New York at the end of Februar y to participate in St. Bonaventure’s Programming Competition. Seniors Ozan Demilioglu, Matt Jones, Akash Shah and Peter Combs, accompanied by Cutler, will represent Harker at this invitationonly tournament. ■ Students represent Harker well at recent open house “There is no better way to showcase Harker to prospective families than to allow our students to speak for themselves,” explained Nan Nielsen, admissions director, who said that once again our students demonstrated “what a marvelous school we have” at the US Open House held in January. Students greeted arrivals, shared their personal experiences with the

audience or talked about the program in the classroom. “Our students consistently impress people and help attract new students,” added Nielsen. Many thanks to the following students who volunteered to assist or present: Albert Chen, Tommy Holford, Jennifer Ong, Wilson Haung, Eric Hsieh, Sinead Toolis-

Byrd, Roshni Mehra, Apik Zorian, Jonnie Jenq, Aalok Patel, Jeff Le, Tao Lei, Will Waggoner, Matt Jones, Anjali Vaidya, Anjali Vaidya, Joel Wright, Alfred See, Payom Pirahesh, Maya Hey, Lisa Schwebke, Eric Gavarre, Kathryn Lee, Sherwin Jiang, Jerry Hong, Rand Ahlgren, Claire Rothstein and Lekha Challa.

Debaters Win Grand Sweepstakes

Harker Archives

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Harker debate coach Matt Brandstetter reported that Harker US debaters earned first place standing as the Grand Sweepstakes Champions for the third year in a row at the USC Trojan Championships held recently on the USC campus where 56 schools representing nine states participated in this three-day competition. In addition to its “three-peat” accomplishment, Brandstetter said the team merited the impressive results listed below. VARSITY POLICY DEBATE Juniors Varoon Bhagat and Jerry Hong (seeded 30th after 6 preliminary rounds) upset the 3rd seed team from Damien. Subsequently, Bhagat and Hong defeated New Trier and earned their first leg to the Tournament of Champions in May. Juniors Sherwin Jiang and Linda Yen also had a winning record at the end of the preliminary round set but weren’t able to advance on speaker points. JUNIOR VARSITY LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE Alisha Tolani, Gr. 10, went all the way and earned FIRST PLACE honors; Jaya Pareek, Gr. 10, advanced to the quarterfinal round; Sid Satish, Gr. 10, advanced to the octo-final round; and Chris Xiao, Gr. 9, advanced to the double octo-final round. Tolani also earned 6th speaker award, Satish earned 11th speaker award and Pareek came in 14th. VARSITY LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE Seniors Edward Peng and Wesley Wu both advanced to the octofinal round of the tournament. Peng earned 20th speaker award. JUNIOR VARSITY POLICY DEBATE The teams of Daniel Paik/Michael Kim and Meghana Dhar/Tiffany Chang advanced to the quarterfinal round. Kim also earned 10th place speaker award. The teams of Sean Turner/Alexandra GarrSchultz and Tatsu Hashimoto/Nicholas Tan advanced to octo-final and double octo-final round respectively. In another recent competition at the University of Redlands, the team of Payom Pirahesh/Derek Hwang advanced to the field of 25 teams from an initial field of 99 teams.

AROUND ■ FEBRUARY VOLUNTEER OF

THE MONTH Surely there’s a prize for longsustained volunteer enthusiasm! We are pleased to single out Cherrie Blair, mother of sophomore Casey and MS graduate Brennan, (’01), as a volunteer who is always unassuming and never demanding of recognition. A Harker parent since 1992, Cherrie has been a dedicated volunteer in many capacities including room parent and grade level coordinator. She was one of the original members of the Parent Volunteer Leadership Council and today serves on the

saratoga Have a Very Special Harker Summer! ■ 2004 Summer Institute

Special Reminder: PreAP Chemistry (for students entering Gr.10) and PreAP Biology (for students entering Gr. 11) have a special application procedure. Applications will be accepted from January 27 to February 20, and those apps completed by Feb. 20 will be reviewed and students will be notified of their placement on Feb. 26. Applications received after Feb. 20 will be reviewed on a case by case basis. These classes usually fill up, so students who are interested should not wait to submit their applications!

Paris Bar celona Provence

Lee Trotter

New Courses!

Harker’s US Summer Institute course offerings run between June 7 – July 28 in both elective courses for enrichment and academic courses for credit. Course offerings include 3-week and 6-week program options, and costs range from $500-$1,150. Brochures and applications will be available Januar y 26.

US Council and is a fun-loving USmoms participant. Cherrie has been one of our right-hand people each year on the Picnic Committee and generously supports performing arts, including the annual Saratoga dance production, musical productions and US Conservatory performances. Thanks to Cherrie, there have been roses for sale at many Harker productions so that actors and actresses could be gifted appreciative bouquets as the curtains closed. She even allowed us to turn her into a vampire at the Dracula Dinner and Theater event last year!

Nice Monaco Venice

• Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence • Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Computer Graphics • Computing Across the Curriculum • Team Robotics • Intensive Spanish I review

Back again, better than ever! • Performing Arts Summer Conser vatory program • Policy Debate Camp (now offered in the afternoon!) • …and much more!

■ NEW! US European Tour June 29 – July 14, 2004 Only 20 spots are available for this exciting new summer trip for Harker US students entering grades 9 – 12 this fall! Join chaperones Chris Daren, Nicholas Manjoine, Brigid Flanagan and Marc Hufnagl for a fabulous 16 days of touring. The trip cost of $3,799.00 per person includes RT airfare, accommodations, daily breakfast & dinner, site-seeing guide in major cities, transportation, ground transfers, walking tours, museum admissions, medical and cancellation protection and 24-hour emergency hotline. Contact chrisda@harker.org or visit the Parent Home Page for details!

■ 2004 Galapagos Trip This summer, how would you like to swim with penguins and turtles? Sleep in a tree house in a cloud forest? Get up close and personal with an iguana?

Recently, Cherrie has worked tirelessly as the Invitations/ Reservations Chair of Harker’s first Fashion Show. Since she and her stalwart committee mailed the invitation in December, they have been working feverishly to process incoming reservations and work out table seating. (If you forgot to make your Fashion Show reservation, this is the parent volunteer who will process your order!)

Join the 2004 US Galapagos trip and do all of this and more, including working with Galapagos students collecting data for the Charles Darwin Research Station! Galapagos Islands, Ecuador June 7-20, 2004 • Cost: $5,775 Enrollment deadline: Feb. 3, 2004 The trip of a lifetime!

We thank Cherrie for her many years of incredible service!

There are a few more spots left. Contact US biology teacher Anita Chetty at anitac@harker.org if interested!

—Nancy Reiley, Community Relations Director Jeff Sutton

Harker News — February 04

SPORTS

briefs weeks of the season. The Spurs, Nuggets, 76ers, Cavaliers, Magic and Rockets learned the value of sportsmanship, as well as the rules and the fundamentals of basketball. In the end, the Nuggets team came away with the Championship Award, with the Rockets team coming in as the runner-up. —Theresa “Smitty” Smith, Gr. 4-8 Athletic Director

The B1 girls’ basketball team got off to a great start this season. They are currently 4-1. Kristina Bither and Megan Leung lead the team.

5th and 6th girls intramural soccer enjoyed a successful season. The 5th graders ended their intramural season on a high note by coming from behind to beat a strong boys’ team by a score of 3-2. Strong defensive play by Miranda Gorman and Katie Forsberg helped turn back the offensive assault by the boys. Jasmine Nee, Shireen Moshekelani, Laura Holmes, Monisha Appalaraju and Niva Bigler led the team offensively. The 6th graders enjoyed a funfilled season as well. The girls practiced their skills each day and scrimmaged on a daily basis. There was dramatic improvement over the course of the season. The girls also had an opportunity to play with the boys during intramural games. Kendra Moss and Katherine Harris led the team.

B2 girls have been giving 100% in games and practices, recently playing some exceptional defense against Hillbrook. Minaz Laiwella and Jasleen Kahlon worked really hard defending girls twice their size! Amena Ahmed, Ida Gorshteyn and Prachi Sharma also helped by scoring some baskets late in the game. Many spectators have commented on how much effort the girls show and how much fun they seem to have.

The 4th girls’ intramural basketball team had an exciting season, creating their own team names and competing in an intramural tournament. Each girl contributed to the success of their team, and it was especially exciting to see the girls set picks and fast break down the court. The team was led by Alyssa Lin with her great rebounds, Veronica Bither with her excellent shooting and Sandy Fung, who was a blur going down the court!

5th and 6th boys’ intramural soccer had a turnout of nearly 70 boys who were spirited and enthusiastic from the start of the season. The boys worked on skill development before participating in

The 4th boys’ intramural basketball team had 49 enthusiastic boys come out for basketball this season. They eagerly participated in an intramural league over the last two

A1 girls’ basketball recently enjoyed a convincing victory over Carden and is looking forward to tournament play in the next couple weeks. Alissa Kawahara and Tanya Schmidt lead the team. The A2 girls have had numerous close games, and though they haven’t won yet, they’ve made a lot of progress and have shown a lot of heart. Melissa Chen, Karishma Kothari and Sinthuja Nagalingam turned in excellent performances in the Apostles game. In the Carden game, Rachel Lo, Tonia Sun and Sabena Suri played strong defense.

Anthony Wood

The B1 boys’ basketball team is currently 2-2. The team is led by

Royal Burrell and Anteneh Daniel.

Harker News — February 04

Upper School Because of the winter holiday vacation and finals, there has been limited action on the upper school courts and fields. Girls’ soccer, girls’ and boys’ basketball, and wrestling have all begun their league seasons. Wrestling is off to a good start, having five wrestlers medal in two recent tournaments. At 171 pounds Matt Vucurevich, Gr. 12, finished second place in the James Lick tournament in late December. In January at the Del Mar tournament Solomon Awe, Gr. 11; David Woolsey, Gr. 10; and Andrew Chang, Gr. 12, all earned medals in their weight classes. Andrew also medaled in the James Lick Tournament while fighting through injuries to his knee. Girls’ soccer is currently sporting a 4-4-1 record. If they can earn a .500 record, which means they win half of their games, they may well qualify for their first-ever CCS tournament. Sara Laymoun, Gr. 11, scored two goals in a rain soaked 3-2 loss to Woodside Priory last week. Down 2-0 at the half, the Eagles fought back through the rain and mud, only to fall a goal short. Boys’ basketball most recently defeated Pinewood to earn their first league victory in the young season. Of the

top seven players, four are sophomores, so they will only get better. Senior guard A.J. Reid set a school record for points in a single game when he scored an amazing 39 points in a recent tournament game. That is believed to be more points than our own Mr. Gill scored in his entire career! The JV boys’ basketball team took third place in the Santa Clara HS tournament by winning two out of three games. The third place game was a thriller with the Eagles pulling out a two point victory in the game’s last seconds. They currently stand 2-2 in league play with victories over Pinewood and Woodside Priory. Speaking of close games, the varsity girls’ basketball team lost a heartbreaker in their league opener to Woodside Priory, losing a 27-26 battle with Priory scoring the winning hoop with only seconds to play. They bounced back, however, with a convincing 52-28 rout of league foe ICA. The talented JV girls are currently 21 in league and 4-2 overall as they had an exciting 28-26 win over Castilleja last week. Natasha Sarin and Sharon Huang, Gr. 9, along with Amanda Polzin, Gr. 10, are leading the way for the squad. On a final note, congratulations are in order to football, boys’ cross country and girls’ volleyball for winning CCS Scholastic GPA championships. Earning the highest grade point average of any team in the 116 school section, football has won three years running, while Harker teams have won a combined 19 Scholastic Championships in two plus seasons, far and away the best in the entire section. Congratulations go to our student athletes! —Jack Bither, US Athletic Director

Lee Trotter

The A1 boys’ basketball team is currently 5-0 after victories over J.L.S., Bret Harte, St. Chris, Buchser and Valley Christian! Led by Evan Sanders and Usua Amanam, this year’s team has proven to be very athletic and highly competitive.

Anthony Wood

scrimmages. During the games, all the boys played with great determination and hustle. Special recognition in Gr. 6 goes to Kevin Liu, Chauncy O’Brien and Ryan Cali and in Gr. 5 to Rex Chen, James Seifert and Kevin Kai. A special thanks also goes out to all the guys from Coach C.J. and Coach Sully.

Grades 4-8

A Flurry of Great Ski Trip Memories

’98

PAMA Annual Snow Trips Starting in the mid 1950s, each winter the cadets of the Palo Alto Military Academy set out on their annual adventure to Dodge Ridge in the 50s and Squaw Valley in the 60s and 70s for three days of skiing, sledding and snowball fights. The boys were chosen based on their academic performance, and if selected, they missed three days of school! Even the 175-pound mascot Hokie made the trip. The boys left by chartered bus on Monday morning, and enthusiastic skiers covered the slopes by afternoon. Traditions included an evening broom hockey game at the ice skating rink, or going to the lodge or into the village for a movie. Tuesday always meant a full day of

’99

skiing for the cadets, who returned to their rooms at the lodge or the Olympic Village Hotel in the evening with no one needing to tell them when to go to bed!

The “seniors,” who were in ninth grade, challenged the rest of the cadets to the traditional snowball fight, before heading back to Palo Alto on Wednesday afternoon. As many as 70 cadets made the ski trip each year and were joined by the Harker Day School boys after Major Nichols purchased The Miss Harker School in 1959. The Harker School Revives Ski Trip Tradition After a hiatus of 17 years, the tradition of an annual ski trip was launched again when Pam Dickinson took over as manager of the Weekend Boarding Program in 1989, and over 300 boarders attended these fun trips over the 12 years they were organized. All boarders (5-day and 7-day) had the option of joining this annual winter trip, which started with a weekend at Joe Rosenthal’s family home in Vail, followed by several trips to Dodge Ridge before settling for many years at Bear Valley Ski Resort until the dorm closed in 2002. “The folks at Bear Valley loved us – the international students were so well-behaved, and how many student groups arrive and then have several of their kids sit down at the piano in the lodge lobby in front of a roaring fire and

The Harker News is published nine times per year by the Harker Office of Communications. Current and archived issues are also available on the Parent Home Page on the Harker Web site at www.harker.org. Editor: Pam Dickinson Asst. Editor: Terry Walsh Photographer: Mark Tantrum Additional photos: Chris Daren & Talon Staff; Lee Trotter

Design: Blue Heron Design Printing & Mailing: Communicart Mailing Coordinator: Bran-Dee Torres Contributors: Crystal Boyd, Laura Vandendries, Jaja Hsuan

play Chopin?” laughed Dickinson. Current Harker P.E. teacher Mel Robinson and Harker volunteer Lee Trotter were among the many staff over the years who helped chaperone the trips.

’89

The US continues the tradition of an annual ski trip now in its 4th year and organized by Chris Daren, US activity director. Each year about 30 students and eight staff head for Tahoe after finals. They have enjoyed trips to Squaw Valley, Heavenly and Sierra ski resorts. The annual dinner at the Hard Rock Café is one of the highlights after long days of skiing. “The ski trip provides a fabulous opportunity for

students and faculty to relax and have fun together immediately following their rigorous exam schedule. And the best is the camaraderie we share on the bus ride up and our meals out together,“ said Diana Moss, US Spanish teacher who has attended all of the US ski trips! —Reported by Sue Smith, Harker archvist

’04

month

■ Photos and wrap-up of Harker’s Fashion Show ■ Recap of Harker's annual Multicultural Week activities ■ Recap of Jan. Student Directed Showcases and Feb. Conservatory Concert

The Harker School is a K-12 independent, co-ed, college-prep school.

Pam Dickinson: all archived ski photos

the archives

Lauren Gutstein, US Newspaper Staff

FROM

Grades K-6: 4600 Bucknall Rd., San Jose CA 95130 Phone 408.871.4600 • Fax 408.871.4320 Grades 7-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose CA 95129 Phone 408.249.2510 • Fax 408.984.2325

The Harker School does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics or other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or nonjob-related handicap.

Harker News — February 04