2004 March Harker News by The Harker School

MARCH 2004 (VOL. 10, NO. 4)

M O N T H L Y

inside Bucknall students write letters to soldiers .................. page 4 MS students get taste of parenting ................. page 15 Performing arts students have busy month with fashion show, concerts and more! .. page 12 Fashion show recap and lots of great photos! ........ pages 8-11 US Human Anatomy class visits Stanford autopsy lab ......... 18

Let’s Show ’Em

N E W S L E T T E R

F R O M

T H E

H A R K E R

S C H O O L

A Passionate “THANK YOU!” Whether you were a volunteer, contributor, par ticipant or attendee (or all of the above!), you each contributed to the tremendous success of this brand new event. A special round of applause to our founding co-chairs, Christine Davis, Ellen Harris and Marcia Riedel, who enthusiastically led us all through it!

create a spectacular evening...and lots of wonderful memories!

The benefits of this event go far beyond the significant amount of money the committee raised. Lights, Camera...Passion! was more than just a fashion show—it was a great experience for the entire Harker community, bringing K-12 students together with faculty, parents and alumni to

Thank you all from the bottom of our hear ts for your passionate part in the success of this wondeful new event!

We’ve heard great comments from outside community members who were extremely impressed with our students. Word has it that “Harker has raised the bar again!” And they’re right!

21st Annual Dance Production Fri., Mar. 5 & Sat., Mar. 6

Artwork by Jo Tsai, student

Both shows 7:30 p.m. Saratoga Gym Enjoy this exciting showcase of jazz, hip-hop, ballet, lyrical, modern and salsa dance featuring over 200 dancers in grades 2-12. Tickets at Saratoga bookstore or tickets@harker.org

Howard and Diana Nichols Retiring Spring of 2005 Howard and Diana Nichols have announced to faculty, students and parents that they will be retiring in June of 2005. “We are both extremely grateful for the extraordinar y oppor tunity we have had to work with the students, families, Board of Trustees and staff of The Harker School. The Harker community is a unique collection of talented individuals all working towards one goal—that of helping each student achieve his or her highest potential,” they stated in a letter to parents dated Jan. 21, 2004. Now that the upper school is well-established and a strong management team is in place, Howard and Diana felt the time was right to pass the management of the school to a new generation of leaders. “We feel especially confident in this decision because we have Christopher Nikoloff, assistant head for the last two years, to take over as head of school. We have worked closely with Chris for the past five years. He is a man of extraordinary continued on pg. 2

Fashion Show Photos: Chris Daren; students Lauren Gutstein & Matt Wong

est. 1893 • K-12 college prep

IMPORTANT

announcements the completion of the much needed facilities and master plan. You must all know that we care deeply about the Harker community, and that will not change even though our roles may be different,” they said. “The transition will be seamless to your students since the new leadership is already familiar with and appreciative of the Harker culture. The bulk of the current management team will remain in place. The addition of the Blackford campus is a great oppor tunity for the school to improve in many areas and expand programs. We are grateful for the oppor tunity we have had to lead this extraordinary school and to work with such outstanding people. Harker has been our life and our passion. It has been a wonder ful career.”

continued from pg. 1

See pg. 9.

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., Mar. 28. Campuses close at 5:30 p.m. for Spring Break ■ Mon., Apr. 5. Classes resume

volunteer needs ■ Grandparents’ Day Assist with invitation preparation and mailing, gift preparation, decorations, nametag preparation, as guides, greeters and registration table assistance on day of event. Contact the chairs Becky Cox and Sangeeta Mehrotra at becsiobhan@yahoo.com or smehrotra@aol.com if interested. ■ Saratoga Campus Book

Store Workers Please contact Bob Benge in the bookstore via email to bobb@harker.org.

integrity and intellect. He cares deeply about children and shares the Harker vision for education. We are very fortunate to have a man of such character, ability and good judgment to lead our school in the twenty-first century.” They also announced the appointment of Jennifer Gargano to the position of assistant head for academics. “Having worked closely with Jennifer for five years, we know her to be bright, dedicated, hard working and sensitive to the needs of students, staff and parents,” they explained. In addition, Cindy Kerr, “who has done an outstanding job as K-8 math department chair for seven years,” will become the new MS division head. Robb Cutler, currently US computer science department chair, will become the assistant head for operations, a new position on the administrative team. He has had several years of business experience, including owning, managing and selling his own company before entering education. “He offers an important blend of a strong business background combined with firsthand knowledge of the educational process,” they explained. Heather Blair, “who has

Chris Daren

editor’s note

done an excellent job as dean of studies for the past three years,” will fill another new position as academic dean. Howard and Diana will remain on the Board of Trustees in the future, will make themselves available on a consulting basis for the new head of school and will help with the transition to the new Blackford campus. “The Board of Trustees is working closely with us to ensure a smooth transition and the future success of the school, including

The announcement was met with tears, hugs and handshakes by faculty, parents, students and community members, and a classic Harker community show of support for their decisions and the new management team appointments. Watch for further updates and features in coming issues as we honor – and have some fun with! – these two and all that they have done to make Harker what it is today. And definitely plan to see them on the runway again next year!

Gr. 4 and 5 parents were invited to a special meeting recently to discuss their move to the new Blackford campus in the fall of 2005.

gotta truck? Have a used pickup or commercial type truck you’d like to donate?

Lee Trotter

The Harker Maintenance Department is looking for a vehicle in good condition - your donation will be tax-deductible! Please contact Mike Bassoni, director of facilities: 408.871.1854 or mikeb@harker.org

Harker News — March 04

IMPORTANT

reminders

Bucknall Families: Mar. 15 Deadline for Grandparents’ Day Invitees K-6 students will be welcoming grandparents or special adult friends to visit Harker for a memorable afternoon in their honor on May 7, 2004, at the Bucknall campus. Guests will enjoy performances, tea and refreshments, a tour of the campus and our annual Book Fair. Each year parents provide the names and most current mailing addresses of their child’s grandparents or guests whom they’d like us to invite so that volunteers can address and send invitations. We only invite those individuals you designate, so it’s crucial we receive this information NO LATER THAN MONDAY, MARCH 15. We cannot guarantee that guests submitted after that date will have sufficient time to receive and respond to the invitations. Please note that this is NOT an event to which parents are invited in place of grandparents. If your child’s grandparent is no longer alive or lives in a distant place, consider inviting a neighbor, an aunt or uncle, or some other adult who is dear to your child’s heart. Visit the Parent Home Page today and register your special guests! —Nancy Reiley, Community Relations Director, nancyr@harker.org

Special Academic Software Rates for Harker Families In a new agreement with our primary supplier of academic software, Creation Engine of Mountain View, Harker families and staff can now buy software for 5% less than the already low academic price at their special Harker page at http://www.creationengine.com/harker. Harker orders will be processed like any other web transaction. You can pay with your credit card, and all software ordered will be automatically discounted 5% and shipped for free to The Harker School bookstore on the Saratoga campus. By restricting shipments to The Harker School bookstore, we are assuring that this opportunity will be limited to the Harker community. Some examples of discounts are listed below:

New Summer ESL Offering Planned Harker has created a new summer offering to complement the existing summer English as a Second Language (ESL) program. Boarding School Prep Program This new program for international students offers classes for intermediate to advanced level English proficient students. Students will take regular English classes to prepare for admission to leading U.S. boarding schools. They also earn credit toward The Harker School English Language Proficiency Cer tificate, which will enhance their high school applications. We will continue to offer our ESL program for students ages 9 to 15 who have beginning to intermediate level English proficiency. Participating international students and their families or guardians have the option of residing in furnished two-bedroom apartments at the Oakwood Apartment Community within walking distance to our campus. Students will attend classes during the day and go home to their family or guardians in the evenings and on weekends. Many of our Harker families have family members, friends and associates abroad, so we encourage you to pass this exciting news on to them. Details and forms are available on the Harker Web site in the Summer Programs section under Summer Programs for International Students. At press time Joe Rosenthal, who will oversee the program, was holding alumni family receptions and admission receptions in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. For questions about this new program, e-mail joer@harker.org.

Adobe Creative Suite Premium Suggested Retail Price: $1,229 plus shipping Regular Academic Price: $379 plus shipping Harker Student Price: $360 and free shipping MacroMedia Studio MX 2004 Suggested Retail Price: $899 plus shipping Regular Academic Price: $189 plus shipping Harker Student Price: $180 and free shipping We’d like to thank the folks at Creation Engine for making this possible. There will be additional discounts on curricular software available from time to time. We’ll keep you posted.

Harker Summer Programs offer a unique blend of academic enrichment and sports and recreation activities to create a fun and learning-filled experience for our campers. Join us!

—Dan Hudkins, Director of Instructional Technology

Lee Trotter

Parent Technology Advisory Committee The Parent Technology Advisory Committee, consisting of a distinguished group of Harker parents, recently met with our administrators, computer science teachers and network and Web site managers to share their vision of the future of technology and the implications and opportunities in education. Members of this year’s newly established PTAC are Ting Herh, Srini Madala, Amit Parikh, Navin Jain, Debajyoti Pal, Boris Gruzman, Daniel Lewis, Sean Doherty, Meiying Forney-Shatas, Steven Shatas, Archana Sathaye, Sharon Mandell, Ajay Chopra, Wei-Jin Dai, Ajay Shah, T.C. Wu, Prashant Kanhere, Prakash Bhalerao, C.N. Reddy, Bill Larson, Gianluca Rattazzi, Weili Dai, Angela Cheng, Vani Kola and Christine Liang. Harker News — March 04

Now registering for the following sessions of Harker Summer Programs: 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

THE HARKER SCHOOL Bucknall Campus: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose 408.871.4600 Saratoga Campus: campinfo@harker.org 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose Visit our Web site & register now for best selection!

www.harker.org 3

AROUND

bucknall ■ Marcie Gilbert reported that her Gr. 4 homeroom adopted the 401st United States Military Police in Iraq, choosing names from the list of

Students Committed to Character

a class you might have in high school;” “Hope all is well in California;” “Thank you so much for thinking of me and writing a letter to me. Your letter is so interesting.”

Linda Alexander: both photos

■ Linda Alexander reported that students in her G-level math class have been learning about money. Once the students had learned to recognize and count coins, she brought in lots of

things from her kitchen cupboards and made a store in the classroom, where “ever yone had lots of fun

shopping at Mrs. Alexander’s Store” and used toy coins to add up and total all their purchases. “This activity required some challenging mathematical thinking, but the children didn’t realize this because they were having too much fun!” said Alexander.

Lee Trotter

To show their dedication to being kind and creating a kind community at Harker, students recently created a giant kindness chain. After students wrote something kind on a piece of the chain, the chain pieces were hooked together in the classroom. Then students gathered at assembly time to attach their class chain to the giant school chain, which was then hung on display across the campus. Kelly Espinosa, dean (nonacademic K-6) and organizer of the activity, checked the Guinness Book of Records for paper chains. “Though our chain was very long, we won’t be competing for the world record,” she laughed. “We DO believe our chain is very special— even if it isn’t the longest—and it’s an important reminder of our individual and group commitment to a kinder school community, “ she said.

soldiers and writing personal letters. “I’ve been working with the students to rekindle what is taught at the primary division the concentric circles in which each of us lives within the world, with the self at the center, and the next circles being our family and closest friends, our community, school, city, state, country, world,” explained Gilbert. “Sometimes it’s difficult for students to feel a sense of connection with the bigger circles. I thought writing letters to those representing our country abroad would be a way for the students to forge a direct and personal connection with country and world. We also discussed the concept of honoring the men and women who work for us and our country, and how important it is to thank them regardless of our political beliefs.” Gilbert said the students have been writing about their interests and favorite subjects in school and asking questions of the soldiers. The first set of letters was sent all together in one large envelope in Nov. to the 401st unit, and responses started to come back in Jan. “The responses are usually directed to the student questions, which makes them very personal for each child,” explained Gilbert. The warm and sometimes anecdotal responses have included the following: “We got to eat some turkey in the chow hall for Christmas, but we missed home;” “You know, math was hard for me, too. But I loved accounting! That is

Lee Trotter

Lee Trotter: both photos

Once they hear from their adopted soldiers, the students have been writing back, and many commented on what they are

learning from the experience. “I’m learning how it feels to be in the army,” commented Daanish

SAVE THE DATE! Annual Gr. 6 Production Wed., Mar. 17, 7 p.m. Thurs., Mar. 18, 7 p.m.

FrYoeue andTo BeMe LS music teacher Michael Pease explains this year’s show: “The play is a collection of scenes and songs that remind us how fun it is to be a kid. A group of boys and girls discover who they are, learn how to express their feelings and learn to respect each other’s individuality. It also reminds us that boys and girls have limitless possibilities and can be anything they choose. I think it is important that the show has a good ‘Character Counts’ type message.”

Harker News — March 04

AROUND Jamal. Jeffrey Kwong said, “At first I thought that soldiers were ver y serious, but we learned that they’re just normal people.” Sarah Howells agreed. “They’re [soldiers] not just robots — they’re friendly, real people.” We commend all of our students on the Bucknall campus for their continuing commitment to be kind, caring and responsible citizens.

Lee Trotter

■ US freshman VyVy Trinh was a guest speaker at the LS informal awards recently. Trinh shared her obser vations about how hurtful gossip and name-calling can be

Harker News — March 04

Lee Trotter

■ The annual extra credit California Mission project for students in Gr. 4 took on a new twist this year with some new rules to encourage creativity while keeping the projects to a manageable size. Students were limited to a maximum square foot base. Kits and

prefabricated missions weren’t allowed, and students had to make the missions without any parental help. “This optional project is a wonder ful oppor tunity for students to get to know a par ticular mission in depth. Many of our families make it a fun outing and drive to the missions,” said Kristin Giammona. She added that there was a great variety of media used by over 40 four th graders from Keith Hirota and Giammona’s social studies classes who chose to build missions. Special thanks to Sylvia Beals and Janie Fung who creatively put together the attractive Februar y display of missions in the gym lobby. ■ The 8th Annual Ogre Awards Next Month! Mark your calendars for a show not to be missed! Anitra Sudderth and Lisa Hirata’s classes will per form on Wed., Mar. 24 at 2:05 p.m. and James Hamilton and Judi Beil’s classes will per form on Thurs., Mar. 25 at 2:05 p.m. The show, which is written and directed by Enid Davis, librar y director, and produced by the Librar y Depar tment staff, is a mock awards ceremony (ala Oscars) per formed by our children playing their favorite stor ybook characters. This year, Christy Vail, elementar y division head, will open the show with a jazzy parody of “All That Jazz!” called “All These Tales!” In addition to the entire second grade per forming in one of these two shows, Richard Hartzell, upper school division head, Sarah Leonard, primar y division head, and Brian Larsen, technical theatre instructor, will be making guest appearances!

Black History Month Celebrated Black History Month was honored and celebrated in various ways at Harker during Februar y. After the students in Anitra Sudderth’s Gr. 2 class talked about civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, they agreed King had done something very important to change his community, his country and the world. “Thinking about this, the students decided they might be able to do something like King,” said Sudderth. She submitted the following thoughts from some of her students on things they thought they might do to impact many people and make the world a better place, just as Martin Luther King did. “For my community, I will adopt a road, which means to take care of it by picking up its litter. I will also recycle my trash instead of adding it to the dump in my community. For my country, I will help the poor by giving them supplies and fun…Maybe I will be on T.V.

“For my country, I will make all unfair laws fair by making speeches about these laws in Washington D.C.”

—Vikram Sundar

and tell everyone in my country to use words, not violence. For the world, I will help endangered species by donating money to them. Also, I will try to stop pollution by making an oil commercial. I hope my ideas will work.” —Maia Adar “For my country, I will make all unfair laws fair by making speeches about these laws in Washington D.C. I will also plant trees where there aren’t any. For the world, I will make speeches in the capital of other countries to do everything with peace. I must make a tasty cure for SARS so that no one gets it anymore.”—Vikram Sundar “To make my community a better place, I will pick up trash from the ground by creating a Cleaning Up Club. To try to make my country a better place, I will make sure people carpool by making more diamond lanes. For the world, I will try to make sure that people recycle by making more recycling bins instead of just garbage cans. I hope people will obey my suggestions to help the world.” —Rahul Sridhar

Nick Gassman

and shared her personal goal of tr ying not to contribute negativity to our community. She challenged the students to share her dedication to this goal. “It was great for the students to hear that even our bigger kids are working hard to make the Harker community as wonder ful as possible,” said Christy Vail, elementar y division head. “Teachers and administrators talk about these issues all the time. Hearing it from someone closer to their own age makes it all the more meaningful.”

bucknall

Grade level coordinators and room parents helped students celebrate Valentine’s Day with holiday parties that squeezed lots of fun into the busy morning before early vacation dismissal sent everyone on their way for the Presidents’ Week break. Many thanks!

AROUND

bucknall class to share the traditions of the Year of the Monkey. The students enjoyed a story about Chinese New Year and opened their fortune cookies. Each received one of the special red holiday envelopes with a

surprise inside. Stone asked students who celebrate the holiday at home to share their favorite thing about the holiday. Eric Yu said his favorite thing is the red envelope, Alexandra Wong likes the moon cakes, Angeline Pan favors the firecrackers and Allison Kiang is partial to rice cakes. “It makes the sharing of traditions so personal when one of our own family members is able to show us and tell us what that the holiday really means,” said Stone. “We all gain from our expanded international knowledge.”

experience for the children, filling the classrooms with sights, smells and information of China. Each of the classrooms had a different activity, including making rice balls and Chinese lanterns, learning about the abacus and how to do Chinese Calligraphy and watching a slide presentation showing modern and ancient China. “The effor ts of our parents cer tainly enhance our social studies curriculum, and we really appreciate all their suppor t,” said James Hamilton, teacher and Gr. 2 dept. chair. Many thanks to all of our parents for making this annual holiday such an educational – and tasty! – experience for our students!

Parents of students in Gr. 2, under the organization of Maggie Zheng (Brian Tuan), worked together to create a wonderful cultural

Lee Trotter

In Cindy Proctor’s Gr. 1 class, parents explained Chinese New Year, brought food, and a student and her mother read Chinese poems. The students also made lanterns, crafted

Parents Kate Lee-Yu (Eric Yu), Christine Camara (Barbara Camara), Megumi Kozu (Hiro Kozu) and Sheila Pan (Angeline Pan) visited Rita Stone’s Gr. 1

Nancy Curran

Students in Nancy Curran’s Kindergarten class each learned to spell out a word in Chinese calligraphy taught by parent Paul Hsiao (Virginia Hsiao) who has studied this art since he was a child. “Many chose their name, but dinosaur was also a popular word,” laughed Curran. The students also were read to about the holiday, did craft activities and were introduced to various Chinese foods special to Chinese New Year.

for tune cookies from cupcake wrappers and wrote their own for tunes, practiced using chopsticks and did Chinese paper cutting. “It was a huge success,” said Proctor, who thanks the following parents who coordinated the event: Tamra Amick (Alyssa Amick), Melinda Gonzales (Corey Gonzales), Meiying Forney (Sophia Shatas), Dominic Wong (Victoria Wong) and Katherine Kwan (Eric Cheung).

Nancy Curran

Lee Trotter

Primary Classes Hold Parties to Celebrate Chinese New Year

Gr. 4 families converged on a Friday night in January in Manzanita Hall at Saratoga for a pizza and movie night of Disney’s “Love Bug” that entertained today’s kids as much as it brought back childhood memories for their parents, grandparents and friends.

Lee Trotter: both photos

Bucknall Family Movie Night and Monthly Parent Coffees Provide Fun Social Time

Some Gr. 6 parents enjoyed gathering after dropoff recently for another morning coffee get-together at Le Boulanger in El Paseo Shopping Center. Harker News — March 04

CAMPUS

wide

Lee Trotter

Kristen Janiak incorporated MC week into her math classes, with an assignment to make a multicultural poster, worksheet, recipe or map, using math. Projects included explanations of math and the number system, descriptions of mathematicians, crossword puzzles and worksheet questions about math and some fun recipes, all from a variety of different cultures. “The end products were amazing,” said Janiak. “As students presented their project to the class it was apparent that they all put a lot of time and energy into their project and we were all able to learn the number systems and role of math in many different cultures.” Harker News — March 04

MS students maintain a multicultural board during the entire school year, decorating it for different holidays, so Kevin Chen, Gr. 8 brought items from Taiwan and decorated the board for the Chinese New Year for MC week. The MS multicultural activities, organized by teacher Vandana Kadam with the assistance of some MC and spirit committee members, Kevin Chen, Alix Briggs, Aarathi Minisandram, Karishma Kothari, Nitasha Ranganath and Minaz Laiwalla, enjoyed a busy week of events. Harker’s now traditional greetings in different languages at the Monday morning meeting, along with answering multicultural questions, kicked off the week. The students looked awesome in their colorful ethnic attire and they enjoyed spirit events and food tastings from various cultures, including English biscuits, German brown bread, American cookies, Italian Biscottis, Mexican cookies, Chinese egg rolls, Japanese rice cakesmochi, shrimp chips, Indian snacks of pakod and dhokla, Russian honey cake and Indian Gulab Jamoons and pedhas. Many parents got involved in MC week by bringing in food, assisting at the food tasting, etc. Many thanks to the following for their help: Fumiko Kimura, Leslie Beck, Tarini Kumar, Radhika Venkatraman, Galina Belogolovsky, Latha Ravishankar, Radha Katta, Wing Auyeung, Ruth Chen, Abha

Terry Walsh

Kristen Janiak

At Bucknall, Dance Kaiso, The Spirit of Carnival, joined the students with an upbeat music and dance performance that included student participation and high-energy fun. The students also participated in multi-cultural games and activities during the week at lunch and afterschool. Gr. 6 math teacher,

Shukla, Bhavani Mamidanna, Joan Liou, Dana Briggs, Devyani Patel, Uma Rangarajan, Lillian Schmidt, Lorna Claerbout, Vina Patel, Ruehanee Killer and MS teachers Annette Fisher, Isabel Garcia, Kumi Matsui, Carol Parris, Julie Pinzas and Raji Swaminathan. The spirit events included students picking up marbles with chopsticks and a multicultural scavenger hunt. The week ended with an assembly with displays of personal items from the many countries that represent Harker and with per formances by two groups of Indian dancers, a Chinese harp player, a pianist playing Hungarian music and a tabla player. The per formers at the assembly were Gr. 8: Gar Yun Ho and Kenric Tam, Gr. 7: Kaavy Gowda, Shreya Gowda, Mitali Parmar, Avanika Krishnaswamy, Anu Ramachandran and Kartik Venkatraman. “The multicultural week was a huge success and the students actively participated in all the activities. This would be next to impossible without the help of the extremely cooperative parents, supportive staff and enthusiastic students,” said Kadam.

The US International Club hosted games each day at lunch, including Cooty Catcher, Chinese checkers and musical chairs, with each game having their own multi-cultural flair. The Multicultural Assembly and Fair at the end of the week had 27 countries represented with dances, food, art, games and more, and

Terry Walsh

The entire Harker community celebrated Multi-Cultural Week (MC) in February with some traditional, creative and fun activities.

Linda Brearley

Multicultural Week Celebrates Harker’s Global Community

performances included Tara Chandra and Amulya Mandava singing the French song, “Belle Nuit;” flamenco dancing by Maya Hey and Joycelin Tsai; an Irish dance by Thomas Holford and Caroline Bitter; a ballet dance by Maya Hey and a belly dance by Paloma Solorio and Joycelin Tsai. Several teachers also performed a salsa dance. A special thanks to Susana Hartzell and MaiLien Nguyen for organizing the US festivities. And congratulations to all the students, faculty and parents for creating another wonderful week of multicultural activities!

FASHION

show 2004

A Special Thank You to Our Heroes: Fashion Show Committee Chairs and Parent Volunteers We would like to express our deepest appreciation to each and every one of you for all that you have done to make this first-ever Harker Fashion Show so special. You have given your support in many ways – countless volunteer hours, unique talents, shared wisdom and cheerful spirits. Your passion and hard work have made this a wonder ful new community tradition for all of us to enjoy, and for this we send many heartfelt THANKS. We look forward to working side-by-side with you in preparation for another successful fashion show in 2005!

A Special Message from the Co-Chairs

Our Generous Sponsors Made This Possible

We’d like to take this final opportunity to thank the sponsors, advertisers, performers, models, hosts and hostesses, parents and families, teachers and staff members, and all the others who made this event such a great success. We also extend our heartfelt thanks to the committee chairs and all the committee members, as well as the other volunteers who gave so generously of their time. We truly could not have done it without you!

The first annual Harker fashion show fundraising event was a success due to the generous support of our sponsors – take a bow!

Passionate Sponsor Partners:

—Christine Davis, Ellen Harris, Marcia Riedel

Matt Wong, student

THANKS

—The Advancement Office: Joe, Joey, Nancy, Amalia, Maria, Jerusha, Terry, Lynette, Bran-Dee

Fashion show co-chairs Christine Davis, Ellen Harris and Marcia Riedel briefly relax in director chairs presented to them at the luncheon event by Howard and Diana Nichols that were personalized with each of their names. A permanent Hollywood-type star will be installed on the Saratoga campus to honor them as the founding co-chairs of this inaugural event.

Volunteer of the Month This month it would be impossible to identify any single volunteer…because we literally had an army of volunteers marching in synchronized cadence to the beat of Lights! Camera! Passion! Without a doubt, it was the ingenuity, the vision, the determination, the sheer will, the diverse and substantial talents, the artful eyes, the grace and the warmth of so many wonder ful parents, staff members, alumni, grandparents and friends of The Harker School who so generously stepped up to the plate that made our first-ever Fashion Show an overwhelming triumph. To each and every individual who played a valuable role in this community effor t, we say a resounding “thank you” and even more thunderous kudos for your achievement over the course of the past nine months! YOU DID IT FOR OUR CHILDREN, and for this we salute you with much appreciation. —-Nancy Reiley, Community Relations Director

Other Generous Sponsors: Alain Pinel Realtors of Saratoga Banerjee/Chopra Family Connell Family Conrado Company Courtesy Chevrolet Communicart Graphics and Printing David Mendoza – Merrill Lynch Davis Family Foundation Diamond Quality Printing GMS Global Inc. Harris Family Heritage Bank Linear Technology Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, LLP Newpath Ventures Orrick Compensation and Benefits PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Riedel Family Santora Family Sathaye Family Foundation Smith Barney: The Hall Walsworth Group, Alan and Theresa Ronald, Douglas L. Kennedy Stevens Creek Audi TMFC Inc. US Bank Harker News — March 04

WINNERS! Passionate Auction Highest Bidders

Grand Prize of One Year Tuition or $15,000 cash

PASSION FOR THE LINKS: Joseph Sabeh (Alumni parent, Trustee) PASSION FOR BALLET: Niyati Thapliyal (Tanuj, Gr. 10; Natasha, Gr. 5)

The Najibi Family: Lee Trotter

Neil (not pictured) and Tina and their children, Mary (K) and Alex (Gr. 4)

PASSION FOR DR. PHIL: Sheila Swanson (Grandparent of Annika Jackson, Gr.2) PASSION FOR SPORTS: K.B. Chandrasekhar (Siddharth, Gr. 9) PASSION FOR THE 49ER HALL OF FAME: Gordon Ringold (Greggory, Gr. 9; Alexander, Gr. 6)

Showcase Winners The showcases were spectacular, and the student sales crew of hosts and hostesses did a great job. Two teams tied for top sales: Jennifer Lin/Sam Levinson and Casey Near/ Amanda Polzin. Congratulations!

PASSION FOR A BIG FAT GREEK PARTY: Gordon Ringold (Greggory, Gr. 9; Alexander, Gr. 6) PASSION FOR STAR TREK: Sally Anderson (Alumni parent, Trustee)

PASSION FOR SANTANA ROW: Michelle Blake

PASSION FOR DIAMONDS (DERCO): Christine Davis (Cole, Gr. 6)

PASSION FOR ADVENTURE: Barbara Drummer

PASSION FOR DIAMONDS (JOE ESCOBAR): David Heslop (Regan, Gr. K)

PASSION FOR THE GOOD LIFE: Vanessa Bass PASSION FOR GOOD, CLEAN FUN: Kim Hall PASSION FOR TRAVEL: Duchess Nixon

PASSION FOR DIAMONDS (EDWARDS FINE JEWELERS): Gregory Genetti

PASSION FOR ENTERTAINMEN: Lillian Gong-Guy

PASSION FOR DIAMONDS (TIFFANYS): Robert Blake PASSION FOR THE MOUSE: Sharon Mandell (Molly, Gr. 5) PASSION FOR CABO: Sarah and Ian Pennell (Jennifer, Gr. 6; Amanda, Gr. 4)

Talon & Winged Post staff

Lauren Gutstein, student

PASSION FOR PARIS AND BEYOND: Jose Costa (Jose, Gr. 6; Sondra, Gr. 3)

Great Photo Moments

Chris Daren

Chris Daren, US activities director and yearbook & newspaper advisor (and photography chair on this year’s fashion show committee), and his team of “Press” photographers, which included student photographers Lauren Gutstein, Matt Wong and Shilpka Lahri, captured some wonderful images of the two events, both onstage and off. Over 800 photos are posted to view or purchase in 20 separate digital albums on the Parent Home Page - check them out! Harker News — March 04

editor’s note In true Harker fashion, Lights, Camera…PASSION! was truly a class act. From the theme to the details Harker’s first annual fashion show fundraiser, held Feb. 6, 2004 at the San Jose Fairmont was, in true Harker fashion, a first class success. Over 250 students, faculty, parents and alumni modeled, performed or volunteered at the two events attended by over 1,400 guests. The three cochairs, along with 29 committee chairs and 70+ committee members, worked side-by-side for nine months to bring this inaugural event to passionate life. And what an event it was! Showcasing the extraordinarily talent of our students and the passion of our faculty, parents and alumni, Lights, Camera…PASSION! was a fabulous family affair that brought our K-12 community closer and created a real buzz in the greater community. The secret is out: Harker is not only one of the finest college-prep schools in the nation. Harker rocks! At press time, the chairs and committees were still wrapping up details (and catching up on much-needed sleep!), so watch the next issue for a financial wrap-up. But it’s already clear that Harker’s first-ever fashion show fundraising event was a smashing, passionate, firstclass success. —Pam Dickinson, Director Office of Communications pamd@harker.org

Inaugural Event Draws Media Attention Leigh Weimer's "On the Town" feature in the Mercury News included a recap of the event in the Mon., Feb. 9 edition. Watch for the April San Jose Magazine for their sponsor wrap-up!

show 2004

Photos: Chris Daren; students Lauren Gutstein & Matt Wong

FASHION

Harker News â&#x20AC;&#x201D; March 04

arts

Chris Daren: all photos

PERFORMinG

Student Directors and Casts Shine in Annual Student Directed Showcase In Harker’s annual Student Directed Showcase (SDS), this year’s four student directors learned firsthand about the ar t of directing and the teamwork, compromise, resourcefulness, dedication and follow-through involved in directing a show. Over 50 students made up the cast and crew for this year’s productions, held at the Sunnyvale Community Theatre to sold-out audiences on Sat., Jan. 24 and Sun., Jan. 25. Created three years ago by Per forming Ar ts Dept. Chair Laura Lang-Ree as par t of the US Conser vatory program, the SDS is open to students only by instructor consent, based on each student’s per formance – theatrical and technical suppor t – during his or her years at Harker. After acting in several theatrical productions each, the students shared a newfound respect for directing. “I have gained so much insight into the world of theater and have so much more respect for my directors,” noted one of the student directors, Emma

Hawley. “I can now truly empathize with their situation.” Hawley, a senior, plans to major in theater in college and feels this was an impor tant process to prepare for her future. “Directing has been such a positive experience – it’s so satisfying to see a play come to life and develop into an amazing final product.” Congratulations to all of our student directors, per formers and crews for four fabulous shows this year!

■ “An Ideal Husband” by Oscar Wilde. Director: Daphne Karpel; Cast: Nina Vyedina, Debanshi Bheda, Ivo Salemink, Kevin Busch, Kimberly Wong, Alex Tearse-Doyle, Erin Schwartz, Sean Weinstock, Asavari Gupte, Whitney Graves and Aseem Shukla. ■ “The Ugly Duckling” by A. A. Milne. Director: Emma Hawley; Cast: Boris Fedorov, Prithi Trivedi, Saahil Mehra, Humsa Venkatesh, Natasha Sarin, Sinead Toolis Byrd, Juliana Daniil, Meghana Dhar, Alex Dodd and Neil Bhalerao.

■ “Arsenic & Old Lace by Joseph Kesselring. Director: Lisa Schwebke; Cast: Kamilla Khaydarov, Ankur Gupta, John Tepperman, Laena Keyashian, Nich Ratazzi, Kat Hudkins, Siobhan Stevenson, Genna Erlikhman, Vijay Umapathy, Andy Nasser, Michael Hammersley, Matt Emery and Elyse Trinh. ■ “Beyond Therapy” by Christopher Durang. Director: Jackie Laine; Cast: Tommy Polzin, Rachel Newman, Peter Obara, Jo Tsai, Ravi Mishra and Steve Boyle.

2004-05 Harmonics Members Announced Monica MacKinnon and Susan Nace, MS music teachers and Harmonics directors, recently held auditions for next year’s Harmonics, Harker’s MS musical ensemble that focuses on developing music theatre skills and is featured in the May MS Spring Musical each year. Nace said over sixty students in Gr. 6 and 7 auditioned for the coveted spots, and competition was fierce. “We spent over five hours deciding,” she added. Both agreed that there were many talented singers, dancers and actors, which made the job of selecting particularly difficult. McKinnon said, “We saw several students who had auditioned last year and didn’t get in. But they spent the year developing their skills and made the cut this year. We were impressed to see the commitment they showed for the performing arts.” They are pleased to announce that the following 24 students were selected for the 2004-2005 ensemble: Nikita Agrawal, Christy Emery, Madeline Lucas, Elena Madan, Sophi Newman, Sarah Newton, Kristen Santora, Ananya Anand, Namrata Anand, Brea Borlas, Neha Sabharwal, Christine Trinh, DJ Blickenstaff, Ian Davis, Joe Hospodor, Kunal Modi, Scott Mohanram, Vikram Nathan, Matt Park, Sachin Rangarajan, Vivek Reddy, Amaresh Shukla, Chetan Vakkalagadda and Kartik Venkatraman. Congratulations to these young performers, and kudos for the fine effort to all who auditioned! Harker News — March 04

PERFORMinG

arts

Acclaimed Jazz Musician Shares Groove

Lee Trotter

Instrumental Music teacher Richard Frazier reported that Harker students recently “had an extraordinar y opportunity to meet internationally recognized jazz saxophonist Hayes Greenfield.” Greenfield, who is a musician, composer, producer, saxophonist and educator, has produced and recorded four award-winning jazz albums, has played throughout Europe and Canada, and has developed an interactive jazz program for young people called Jazz-A-MaTazz, where he guides students through call and response, scat singing, dancing and interpretive movement. Frazier, who arranged for this special visit, said that during Greenfield’s three-day visit he worked with the jazz ensemble “on a very intense basis giving the students a fresh look at learning to improvise.” He also gave an interactive demonstration on improvisation for students in the Harker Winds and presented a workshop on understanding jazz that was open to all students. “Students gained a new insight into the life of a New York

jazz artist,” said Frazier. During his visit Green also joined Frazier, professional musician Davheed Behroozi and Siddarth Satish, Gr. 10 in a live performance of mainstream jazz styles during lunch in the Edge and was interviewed on campus for Boombox Classroom, an independently produced syndicated series of children's educational programs.

More Instrumental Music News ■ Frazier reported that the Harker Jazz Ensemble received an enthusiastic reception from the audience at the CMEA South Bay Jazz Festival held in January. “This was the first time Harker entered this event, and the judges were overwhelmingly impressed,” said Frazier. Dr. Brian Wilson commented, “It’s easy to see that you are certainly doing the right repertoire. For the first year of a program that was a beautiful job—you’re definitely on your way. We enjoyed your performance this morning, and I look forward to hearing you guys again.” ■ Gr. 8 students Erica Chang and Robert Oh, members of The Harker Winds flute section, were selected to play in the 2004 All-State Junior High School Honor Band and will perform at the California Band Directors’ Association (CBDA) State Conference Feb. 19-22 in Fresno. The two competed on a statewide basis by the process of a tape audition. David Yao, Gr. 10, a member of The Harker String Orchestra double bass section, has been selected to participate in the All-State Orchestra and will perform at the California Music Educators’ Association (MEA) State Convention March 18-20 in Sacramento. Yao also auditioned by tape. “These are very competitive honors with hundreds of students applying from all over California,” said Frazier. Congratulations to these fine Harker musicians! ■ See Around BKN (pg. 4) for news on Gr. 6 show.

Chris Daren & Jacinda Mein, student

This fabulous event was Harker’s largest musical event of the year and featured performances by all of Harker’s US musical ensembles: Bel Canto, Guys Gig, Cantilena, Downbeat, Chamber Ensembles, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble and The Harker Winds. There were also some senior certificate candidates and soloists: Shannon Tan, piano; Mickey SelboBruns, Baroque song, accompanied by Kathryn Lee; Kathryn Lee and Jason Gutstein, piano duet; Jessica Wu and Justin Wu, violin/piano duet; Lisa Schwebke, Mozart aria; Neil Bhalerao, Broadway song and Jackie Laine, Broadway song. The student performances were outstanding. We applaud you all for an evening of wonderful music. A huge thank you to the directors of these groups, Catherine Snider, Laura Lang-Ree, Susan Nace and Richard Frazier, and to the parent volunteers who provided the concessions for the evening.

Harker News — March 04

briefs

Grades 4-8

Gladys Liu, parent

The Gr. 4 boys and girls are finishing up their soccer season by concentrating on their ball control drills, working on teamwork and preparing for their intramural soccer league. The D1 and D2 boys’ basketball teams have made dramatic progress over the last few games and recently won their very first game. Coach Nick and Coach Merrill are proud of all the boys. The D1 and D2 girls’ basketball teams have played hard for Coach McKenna and Coach “Sully” all season and have participated in some very tough games against good competition with positive sportsmanship. The C2 boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have shown a lot of hustle, tenacity and enthusiasm throughout the season. The boys had an exciting 17-15 loss to Apostles that went down to the wire, and the girls recently took 6th place at the Hillbrook Tournament. The C1 boys and girls basketball teams just finished playing in the Harker Tournament in which both teams took 3rd place. Both Coach Cali and Coach Rebecca are proud of their teams’ efforts. The C1 boys spent much of the season undefeated, and the C1 girls had some great victories in some very close games. The B2 boys’ and girls’ basketball teams are continuing to practice and improve. The B2 girls have played much better in their most recent games, and the B2 boys were bringing their skills to the court at press time against Hillbrook. The B1 boys and girls are playing solid basketball right now. The B1 girls are 7-2, the boys are 4-2, and they are both looking forward to playing in the Hillbrook Tournament at the end of the month. The A2 boys and girls are finishing up their season, and Coach Ashley is proud of her girls for their continued participation in scrimmages and intra-team play. She was also proud of them for their hard work in their league games. The boys’ team has worked hard all season and the participation level has been great at practices. The A1 boys maintained a solid 11-3 record two months into the season, and they took 3rd in the Harker Tournament and 3rd in

the Queen of Apostles Tournament. The A1 girls have also had a solid season. They placed 4th in the Queen of Apostles Tournament, and along with the A1 boys are looking

forward to the Hillbrook Tournament at the end of the month. Upcoming sports news: Basketball and soccer awards are Feb 25. The spring sports season starts March 2 and includes Gr. 4-6 baseball and softball, Gr. 7-8 tennis, swimming, soccer and boys’ volleyball. —Theresa “Smitty” Smith, Gr. 4-8 Athletic Director

Upper School

Chris Daren

As the winter season ends, all of the senior boys’ and girls’ basketball players and their parents were honored in a recent pre-game ceremony to honor those seniors playing their last games donning the Eagle colors. During this home game event, parents received flowers from their young student athlete and were paid tribute to by their coaches and the many fans in attendance. The nearly filled gym erupted with cheers of appreciation for twelve seniors. Cheerleaders Jacinda Mein and Diana Shtil were thanked for their many years of support. Their parents joined the two co-captains of the squad as we said thank you for all their hard work and dedication. The girls’

team said goodbye to five of their players. Wendy Tsai, Anita Gupta, Surbhi Mahendru, Jessica Liu and Vickie Duong were all saluted for their many contributions over the years. Having been varsity players for all four years, Surbhi, Jessica, and Vickie shared a few tears with their adoring fans. Jessica leaves as the school’s single gamescoring leader, having dropped in 29 points in a game earlier this year. In addition to her hoops accomplishments, Vickie also was a varsity volleyball player for three years and has run track and field as well. The versatile athlete will leave a huge void in the Eagle athletic program and will be sorely missed. Heck, she even had time to be homecoming queen! At press time, the team was entering the WBAL tournament by hosting a first round game vs. Mercy Burlingame, a team they defeated twice this season. The squad finished fourth in the seven-team league this season and will bring back several young players next season. The boys’ team wished fond farewells to Karan Lodha, Shethel Bearelly, Sandeep Subhedar, Farhad Darbandi and A.J. Reid. Multi-sport star A.J. leaves Harker as the single game scoring record holder, scoring 39 points in a single game this season, while having another with 32. The team then proceeded to dismantle an overmatched Pinewood squad 4824, with a 21-5 first quarter barrage, punctuated by a steal and crowd pleasing dunk by junior Adhir Ravipati. The season’s biggest crowd enjoyed themselves immensely as the Eagles moved one step closer to their fourth consecutive CCS playoff bid. They need only one more win to qualify for the post-season tournament. Coach Tomas Thompson and head coach Jeremiah Brewer have done an outstanding job

Athletics Booster Meeting Wed., Mar. 3, 5:30 pm, Sledge, Saratoga Campus. Bring your ideas, energy, etc., and we will work to determine the role and purpose of the Harker Booster club!

with the team this season, winning seven out of their last nine contests in their playoff bid. Wrestlers said goodbye to several grapplers as well. Khanh Tran and Michael Tang were among those honored alongside four year wresters Nick Klute, Andrew

Gladys Liu, parent

SPORTS

Chang and Matt Vucurevich. Both Matt and Andrew have an excellent shot at returning to CCS championships this year along with junior Solomon Awe. The JV squad saw much success this year as well, led by David Woolsey and Brian Thurgate. David reached the championship match in a recent tournament, and Brian is currently sporting a 13-0 match record entering the league finals. Girls’ soccer bid adieu to several of its players. Multi-sport senior Rachael Warecki led the way as the team also honored volleyball soccer player Claire Rothstein, Geetanjali Vajapay, Elise Nguyen and three-sport star Jennifer Jenq. The team finished with strong per formances against the best teams in the league, and with sophomore Lauren Gutstein and freshman Julia Price-Madison, Coach Evan Barth is confident of a strong future for the team. Spring sports will be up and running as you read this, so come check out a baseball game, or softball, or golf, or tennis, or volleyball, or track and field, or even a swim meet! Go Eagles! —Jack Bither, US Athletic Director Harker News — March 04

AROUND

saratoga

Parenting Lesson Results in Cookies and Sleepless Nights

Lee Trotter

This annual week-long Flour Sack Baby project always brings out plenty of creativity as the student “parents” find new ways to wrap or carry their babies. Baskets and bags seemed to be the most popular, and Cayden Berkmoyer used a leather and fur Russian cap to wrap around his baby. “The leather protected the baby from the rain,” Berkmoyer said. Students appeared to feel the pain of carrying a baby by about the fourth day, and by the end of the week there were a lot of students complaining of sore arms. “I

thought it would be OK, but it keeps getting worse. The baby seems to get heavier,” said Rachael Yuan, and Philip Chu added that “it’s Harker News — March 04

hard to open doors.” Brian McEuen’s observation that “you have to carry it everywhere and you can forget it easily,” seemed to reflect the overall realization by the students that it will be awhile before they’re ready to take on the responsibility of a baby. Simon Keilty, US science teacher and dept. chair, laughed that the students are encouraged each year “to recycle their baby into cookies, breads and cakes to share with classmates!” This year, along with the annual flour sack baby project about 10 students in Gr. 8 are being assigned a full weekend to take care of a RealCare Baby, a lifelike baby that can be programmed according to actual care schedules of live infants. The baby recognizes the lack of head support, whether it’s placed on its belly or side, and whether it has been shaken or handled roughly. The two RealCare Babies, programmed by Gr. 8 teachers Lorna Claerbout and Simon Keilty, each have unique schedules of care and rarely sleep for more than a few hours at a time, similar to a real infant. Each caretaking event requires the student parent to touch their wrist ID to the baby’s back before providing the care, and the diaper and bottles also have sensors on them. Through these devices the baby records all of its parental care, or lack thereof, which is downloaded by the teachers at the end of the weekend. The families of the selected students must agree to this real life experience, as it impacts the whole family for the weekend their child is a “parent.”

experiences to their classes,” said Keilty. “Though very tired, they survived,” he laughed. Erica Chang and Stephanie Herh also completed weekends with their babies and their schedules were fairly typical of the project: ERICA CHANG, student parent SIMULATION TIME: 2 days, 13 hours, 19 minutes CARETAKING EVENTS: 28 feedings, 7 babysitter caretaking, 23 burpings, 14 diaper changes, 4 rocking events, 4 fussy periods, 8 happy periods. MINUTES OF CRYING: 63 STEPHANIE HERH, student parent SIMULATION TIME: 2 days, 14 hours, 20 minutes CARETAKING EVENTS: 26 feedings, 9 babysitter caretaking, 18

Lee Trotter

Photo provided by family

As part of the annual science unit on sex education, students in Gr. 8 practiced parenthood by providing care for their own flour sack “baby” in February. And some got an even more realistic taste of parenting in Harker’s new RealCare Baby weekend care project.

“Students Jacque Titus and Hayley Steele survived their weekend with their demanding little babies and despite their lack of sleep were able to report their

burpings, 20 diaper changes, 5 rockings, 8 fussy periods and 13 happy periods MINUTES OF CRYING: 287 “Taking care of William was a full time task,” said Herh. “I thought I had everything under control and thought this was going to be an easy task, but I was wrong. The baby was very active, especially at 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. After I went to Chinese school, I went back home and saw my mother taking care of William. She said he was hard to take care of, like me when I was an infant! I had to take care of the baby at night. I connected more with my mother today because she brought up old memories when I was young. My father even joined in taking care of William.” At press time Ayushi Gummadi and Kritika Kailash had been assigned the RealCare Baby for a weekend, and about six more students will be assigned over the next month.

MS Student Council Update on Leadership Projects Annually each MS student council member is responsible for a leadership project. Over the years they have chosen a wide variety of activities that involve an impressive amount of work for these dedicated student leaders. This year is no exception, and MS Division Head Jennifer Gargano repor ted the following update on this year’s projects: • Three council members are liaising between the MS and Chef Steve Martin to relay food requests and suggestions from the students. • Members of the leadership committee recently ser ved as liaisons between the homerooms and the Sobrato Living Center to compile lists and deliver gifts in this year’s homeroom adopt-a-family holiday program. • Student council members designed this year’s student council sweatshirt for grades 5 – 8, coming up with the ideas while the committee worked with the company to order the sweatshirts. • Students sold $1 candy grams for Valentine’s Day and were responsible for gathering the notes from students, putting the candy grams together and delivering them. • A committee of students is planning the annual MS Talent Show. • A group of about 10 students share the responsibility of raising and lowering the flag each day. • Two students compile sports updates and report them at School Meeting each week. • Students get the prizes and do the drawing of 2-3 students each week for the Above and Beyond program, where teachers write up slips when students do good things during the day. • Students are in charge of decorating and maintaining the Student Council Bulletin board, posting monthly birthdays and minutes, and taking suggestions from the suggestion box to the meetings each week.

■ Rec Activity of the Month: Indian Folk Dancing

Lee Trotter

Each Thursday US and MS students now have the opportunity to learn Indian folk dancing after school.

Saratoga Rec Director Chris Yamashita said that while focusing on folk dances, dancers are learning elements of a variety of dances, including Bhangra, Garba, Dandia, Rajasthani, Maharashtrian and Classical (Bharatanatyam). The instructor, Sheetal Sahni Singhal, has been teaching the younger students at Bucknall for several years and said that through dance, the students learn about the Indian culture. “We are delighted to be offering this popular Bucknall class to our older students,” said Yamashita.

Upper School ■ Club Celebrates End of Finals with Nature Day After a week of grueling tests, 35 students were ready to spend a day with nature on the biology field trip to Natural Bridges State Park and Long Marine Laboratory. On Jan. 18, an unusual homework-free weekend, US Biology Club members joined biology teacher Jeff Sutton on an outing to view the butterfly resting habitat at Natural Bridges. The site of hundreds of butterflies resting in the trees above them was awe inspiring; they couldn’t believe that such a large number of butterflies lived in this way. To learn more about this, the group moved to the visitor’s center where they also learned about the coastal habitat of the area and the creatures living within it. The visitor’s shop also proved to be an entertaining area with items such as finger puppets, bird calls and granola bars available for pur-

chase. Due to a high surf advisor y, the club was unable to visit the local tide pools but instead went to the Long Marine Laboratory, a research and education facility of the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Laboratory has a spectacular view of the bay and houses touch pools and aquariums containing octopi, starfish and other sea creatures. It was an excellent facility where many of the students learned about the local marine wildlife and a few new things as well. It was a fun outing, with good memories for all.

Sundaresh, Erika Gudmundson and Nicholas Rattazzi. The mission of the ELC is to enhance leadership skills of outstanding high school juniors through a working introduction to the opportunities, benefits, and challenges of establishing a business or providing services in the free enterprise system. A report of the conference will appear in the April edition. Rachel Meltzer

Middle & Upper School

saratoga

■ Biology Field Trips – From Cells to Skulls Teacher Gary Blickenstaff reported that 15 members of the Gr. 11 AP Biology course recently attended a lecture on “Mitosis in Mammals” at the National Conference of the American Society of Cell Biology in

—Paloma Solorio, Gr. 11 ■ Robb Cutler, US computer science teacher and junior class dean, reported that Harker’s computer science team achieved another perfect score of 50 in the second exam of the American Computer Science League (ACSL). Weighing in with perfect scores on the exam were Ozan Demirlioglu, Akash Shah, Peter Combs, Karthik Kailash and Yi Sun. Ozan, Akash, and Yi are three of only a handful of students who have not missed a problem on either of the first two exams. Other student scores worthy of note include those of Hailey Lam, Alex Tearse-Doyle and Manu Srivastava who scored nine out of a possible 10 points and Mat Jones and Lev Pisarsky who scored eight out of 10 points. A total of 66 Harker students took the exam. The ACSL is a national competition for high school students testing both theoretical knowledge of computer science and practical programming skills. About 225 schools in the United States and Canada participate in this 23rd Annual ACSL Competition. ■ Congratulations to the following juniors who have been selected to represent Harker at the Rotary Club’s Enterprise Leadership Conference (ELC) in early March: Alan Malek, Shivani Tomar, Linda Mohammadian, Najm Haque, Alex Segal, Gregory Perkins, Audrey Leung and Joel Wright, and alternates: Tiffany Lau, Suman

Jeff Sutton

AROUND

San Francisco. He said the lecture supplemented some of their current course material, plus they were able to tour some of the sessions and interact with the presenting scientists. The group also visited the exhibit hall where display booths of companies offering products and services in support of research in the cell biology field were located. “In addition to the requisite bag full of goodies— thanks to the many vendors on hand—the group came away with a much better understanding of the many new and varied areas of current research in cell biology,” he said. Students taking the US Evolution class recently visited the California Academy of Sciences Natural Histor y Museum in San Francisco.

Blickenstaff said the primary objective of the trip was to see the museum’s exhibit on evolution: Life through Time. “Students viewed displays and vignettes that depicted many of the concepts that had been covered during the course, and their museum docent allowed the students to handle several of the fossil specimens, some of them several millions of years old,” said Blickenstaff. The group also visited the adjacent aquarium to see examples of current vertebrate, invertebrate and plant life, and toured the “Skulls” exhibit where they saw approximately 2,000 various skulls on display and learned how flesheating beetles are used to prepare the skulls for display. The visit ended with a tour of the “Far Side” Gallery that contains numerous cartoons related to science. “Quite entertaining in all,” said Blickenstaff. ■ Some of the students in Ruth Meyers Gr. 9 history class recently presented family history projects, and Meyers found some of them so fascinating that the papers will be collated and kept in the library for parents and future students to view. “I had no idea that Anjani Bhagava’s grandfather had written a book called “Road to Happiness.” He was a type of faith healer in India,” said Meyers. She added that each student had some interesting piece of information in his or her family history, such as Sinead Toolis Byrd who is a descendent of the pirate Grace O’Mally. Aline Zorian has an uncle who is a famous artist, and Matt Wong brought a photo of his family’s white elephant, a gift that has some trinket added to it each time it is passed on to another family member. “I feel passionately that these stories should be somehow recorded and preserved,” said Meyer. Harker News — March 04

AROUND

saratoga

■ In January, 24 US volunteers prepared food boxes for families and individuals in need. Within three hours the Harker team assembled nearly 600 boxes to help feed the hungry! Freshman Akhila Bhoopalam stated, “It was especially fun because we were there with our friends, and time went by really fast when we worked together.” Students were able to get a firsthand look at how donated food is sorted, boxed, stacked and stored for reserve. Freshman Gavin Dutrow was thankful for the experience. “I found that doing this food sorting gave me a sense of accomplishment. I felt that I was helping many underprivileged families have another meal…thanks for the trip.”

US students in Dave Takamoto’s architecture class recently completed a dream house project. First students were assigned to create through bubble diagrams and scaled drawings the concept of

Lee Trotter: both photos

Students Complete Dream Houses

■ Have you or a loved one been touched by cancer? Help us fund the cure for cancer. Between March 1 - March 12 the Red Cross Club will be holding a Pennies For Patients drive to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The top fundraising school will receive a special visit from local sponsors, the SJ Earthquakes, with one-on-one soccer workshops. Barrels for donations will be located in the Dobbins Office. All proceeds will be donated to the Society for cancer research and patient services.

artists of the month

Diana Moss

■ Freshman Adnan Haque and class dean Diana Moss recently delivered toiletries to the Sobrato Family Living Center, a transitional housing facility for homeless families. During Freshmen Service Day this year, students learned that families often arrive at the shelter empty handed, so the freshman class decided to sponsor a monthly collection of items such as toothbrushes, toilet paper, hotel soap and shampoo. Donations are welcome from all, and collection boxes are located outside the Dobbins office and in the classrooms of Cathy Snider, Evan Barth, John Heyes and Diana Moss.

their dream house. They were to use an existing site that gave the shape, size and slope of the land on which to build and a program that gave the number and type of rooms, plus square footage limitations of those rooms. Next, they were assigned to build a scale model of their solution. The finished dream house models, displayed in the hallway outside the library, were given creative and sometimes humorous names, such as: Michael Tang, Check E. Cheese; Thomas McMahon, Green Acres; Alex Lee, Stream in a Cache; Vincent Yen, Water Drop; Lisa Radice (US teacher who audited the course), Quad House; Nick Klute, Vista Point; Laurie Alexander, A Walk in the Woods and Arjun Naskar, Mizu.

Christine Vu Gr. 10, painted this acrylic painting in the Beginning Painting class. This painting evolved from our study of Impressionism and the “broken color” technique that was widely used by Monet and his followers. Christine quickly absorbed this concept and applied the technique in this highly successful painting. Her work in painting has been impressive, and I am certain we will see more of this talent in the future.

Lee Trotter: both photos

JaJa Hsuan

US Community Service News

Visit http://faculty.harker.org/JajaH/ for upcoming US service trips. —Reported by Jaja Hsuan, US Community Service Director

Lee Trotter

Gordon Booth, a licensed race car driver and chief instructor for Drivetrain USA, spoke at two consecutive US weekly meetings, focusing specifically on the teenage driver. Booth covered issues of safety, as well as techniques for improved driving skills. Drivetrain’s specialized driver training programs include group training for younger drivers and those who wish to improve their defensive skill levels. Harker News — March 04

Tiffany Dell’Aquila, Gr. 12, has been one of Harker’s most talented painting students. The work shown here, based on the work of James Rosenquist, a current American artist, is one of Tiffany’s most recent works produced in Advanced Painting. The oil painting is six feet in length and is painted on three canvases. Like Rosenquist, Tiffany has developed her painting from a variety of images found in popular culture. By taking these images out of context and organizing them into a new compositional arrangement, she has created a new aesthetic meaning for these commonplace images. —Reported by Don Maxwell, US Art Teacher

saratoga

VARISTY POLICY DEBATE: Derek Hwang and Payom Pirahesh advanced to the elimination round of 16 remaining teams, seeded 10th out of 134 initial teams after six preliminary rounds of competition. The teams of Linda Yen/ Sherwin Jiang and Jerry Hong/ Varoon Bhagat also had winning 42 records, seeded 27th and 26th respectively. JUNIOR VARSITY POLICY DEBATE: The teams of Mina Lee/Arkajit Dey and Swapanthi Nagulpally/Jessica Lee advanced to the round of eight remaining teams, seeded 2nd and 11th out of 79 initial teams following six preliminar y rounds of competition. The teams of Tiffany Lin/Christina Luu, Elizabeth Burstein/Arya Srinivasan, and Daniel Paik/Annelise Han also had winning 4-2 records, seeded 25th, 27th and 28th respectively. Swapanthi also earned the honor of being ranked 3rd speaker overall out of 158 junior varsity debaters; JUNIOR VARSITY LINCOLNDOUGLAS DEBATE: Nina Joshi earned 1st place overall speaker award out of 130 junior varsity LD’ers; Amira Valliani earned 4th place speaker award, and Shilpa Vadodaria earned 8th place speaker award. Priya Takiar earned 3rd place JV Lincoln-Douglas debater overall; Shilpa Vadodaria advanced to quarterfinals, Jaya Pareek and Alisha Tolani advanced to octofinals, and Sid Satish and Amira Valliani advanced to the first elimination round of 32 teams. VARSITY LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE: Alex Hsu advanced to the first elimination round of 32 out of 182 initial varsity LincolnDouglas competitors with a stellar 5-1 record. ■ In early February Harker’s A team of Yi Sun, Mason Liang and Vivek Bansal came away with two firsts and a second at the Bay Area Academic League competition: “This annual event is simply a fun competition with few prizes for the

Juniors met recently to continue their review of the college application process in one of the regular sessions held by the college counseling staff.

students, but it’s a good practice for the other competitions which all require a great deal of knowledge of everything,” said Bradly Stoll, advisor. There are 32 teams participating in this competition, and the Harker A team is currently in 2nd place. At press time the Harker B team of Peter Combs, Samantha Fang and Lev Pisarsky was awaiting their next competition. ■ Once again, Harker’s Quiz Bowl team recently soundly defeated their opponent. The team, this time made up of Yi Sun, Mason Liang and Vivek Bansal, defeated Lowell by a score of 360 - 180. “It was 40 - 40 after the collaboration round,

but Harker’s quickness was just too much for Lowell,” said a proud Bradley Stoll, US teacher and team advisor. He and the team extend many thanks to all of the Harker fans who were able to come out and support the team, and invite all to cheer them on in the next competion, which will be on Sun., Feb. 29 at 12:15 vs Sacred Heart. “If we win, we’ll go onto the Elite 8,” said Stoll, who added that the Harker team has already qualifyied for the National NAQT, though conflicts will keep the team from attending. Also, on Sun., March 7, Harker will be hosting its first Quiz Bowl

tournament from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Saratoga campus. Stoll said there will be approximately 12 teams from 7 or 8 schools participating. Watch the April edition for a recap!

Lee Trotter

■ Debate coach Matt Brandstetter reported that Harker debaters joined over 1,200 national high school debaters representing 15 states in weekend-long events on the Stanford and Palo Alto High School campuses in February. Congratulations to the following students for their individual and team successes:

Lee Trotter

AROUND

Student council sold hundreds of roses on the Saratoga campus the week before President's Week break to celebrate Valentine's Day and contribute to a festive campus spirit. Nice work!

Students Visit Stanford Autopsy Lab on Recent Field Trip “The tapping of feet and anxious chattering filled the fluorescent green hallways. This would be, for most of us, our very first time seeing first hand what we had timidly glanced over in our human anatomy textbook,” wrote senior Wesley Wu in a recap of a recent Human Anatomy field trip to the Stanford Medical School’s autopsy lab. Wu explained that students toured the facility and then Dr. Mathers, M.D., Ph.D. and director of the anatomy program at the Stanford Medical School, took them to the laboratory classrooms of Dr. Chase, a world-renowned hand surgeon. “I can only imagine what the other students felt as Dr. Mathers uncovered a dissected arm and hand,” wrote Wu. “The clinical professor demonstrated the anatomical causes of carpal tunnel syndrome…After a few minutes, we became accustomed to the feelings of morbidity. No one flinched (at least noticeably) when Dr. Mathers revealed the face of one of the corpses.” US Biology teacher Anita Chetty who arranges this annual trip for the students said last year Mathers

uncovered one cadaver and instructed the students while they observed. However, this year he moved the students to a special area of about 10 cadavers, gave them some gloves and instruments and allowed them to explore various structures. “I asked him later why he had changed the planned format,” said Chetty. “He said that once he observed how knowledgeable and motivated the students were, he decided to allow them to do something that no high school student ever gets to do, and that is to actually handle the cadavers.” In Wu’s repor t he said, “As we branched off, armed with pairs of latex gloves, tweezers, and probes, we let our curiosity overcome our apprehension. In groups of three or four, we examined each of the cadavers. After feeling spongy lungs, lifting up brains, and identifying organs in hollowed thoraxes, we personally felt the import of what we each had learned from the class.” “We were indeed very fortunate to not only have this opportunity, but to be in the company of worldrenowned clinicians such as

Mathers and Chase,” said Chetty, who added that if someone were simply listening in to the conversations between the students in the lab, they would never know they were examining dead bodies. “They were like children in a candy store!” Chetty said that their enthusiasm and deep interest impressed Mathers, as well. “He said he looks forward to some of the students from my class being in his anatomy class some day as first year medical students.” In an e-mail to Chetty after the trip, senior Ana Maheshwari wrote, “I just wanted to tell you how much I really enjoyed the field trip today to Stanford. It was such a different, and memorable experience! I just wish we could have spent more time there! I felt really lucky to be able to experience something like this through a high school anatomy class, since not many people get the chance until a much later stage. Thank you!” Our deepest thanks go to Mathers and Chase for sharing their time and expertise with our group, and to Chetty for arranging this annual experience for her students. Harker News — March 04

BEHIND

the scenes

Busy Shipping and Receiving Staff Enjoy Harker Atmosphere

to light the true heroes of today: the spectacular staff of Shipping and Receiving! Carol Sosnowski has worked at Harker for over 20 years and is purchasing manager at the Bucknall campus. Her department is responsible for ordering all school supplies and maintaining inventory. Along with assistant Todd Whitaker (MS class of ’91), this prized duo serves teachers, students and non-academic staff. Daily work entails submitting purchase orders and delivering items to the recipient, all the while updating the finance software and inventory programs. Not only do these shipping and receiving gurus work with different vendors and Harker faculty, they also serve as the student services center, selling tickets for Harker functions and even some P.E. supplies to Bucknall students and parents. And no, that’s not all! Sosnowski and Whitaker are also Harker News — March 04

the copy department for the entire school. Each day teachers and staff send copy jobs for future use—the department does an average of 50,000 copies per day! And to top it off—all outgoing mail goes through this office. Sosnowski says, “Twenty three years have seen a lot of change, and I continue to be amazed at just what a wonderful academic environment Mr. and Mrs. Nichols have created. The most exciting part of working at Harker has been to watch students as they grow and mature. I have maintained relationships with many students, and a few of them have returned to teach here! I am also a credentialed teacher, but enjoy the ‘background’ part of education much more than being in a classroom.” Sosnowski’s counterpart is Bob Benge, purchasing manager at the Saratoga campus. Along with assistant Raul Rios, he handles shipping and receiving of mail, technology items, and all shipments to the bookstore, as well as ordering textbooks and school supplies. Benge exemplifies the fantastic attitude of his depar tment. “We’ve got a lot of good people around here. It’s a high-pressure situation, but definitely the best thing is the people!” Benge and Rios have their hands full as they take care of students needing

textbooks, while also handling purchase orders, newspaper delivery, copying, ticket sales, and incoming and outgoing mail. Benge enjoys the “mellow atmosphere” of his job, and Rios loves the “great group of people” he works with.

fave? “The new hats with the Harker logo.” And Rios? He prefers “the antenna balls sporting cool shades.” Stop by the bookstore to check out these hot new items, and say “hello” to the wonderful shipping and receiving staff at both campuses. We thank them for all their hard work and dedication to keeping our school running smoothly. We sure have come a long way since carrier pigeons! —Julia Gitis, ’03 (current freshman, UC Berekely) Photos: Mark Tantrum & Lee Trotter

In the days of yore, the transmitting of information and delivery of goods were not reliable. Mail and purchased goods could easily get lost or intercepted, and how much faith can one really put into a carrier pigeon? At Harker, the era of the winged emissary has long passed, and it is high time to bring

The Saratoga bookstore also features great new merchandise. Benge’s personal

STAFF

update

■ Harker’s orchestra director, Richard Frazier, has been invited for the 2nd year to conduct the San Francisco All-City Orchestra on Sat., Feb. 21 at San Francisco State University. ■ Harker librarian Linda Goossens’ book and craft kit for students ages 9-12, “Micro Minis: Create Teeny Tiny Rooms With Your Own Style and Flair,” is being published by the American Girl Library. In addition, her song “Fish Moves” has been included in the NOODLEBUG Video/ DVD recent release of “Let’s Pretend,” a recording of songs for children ages 6 months to three years. Congratulations, Linda! ■ For the second year in a row, John Buckley, Gr. 8 expository writing, has served on the selection committee for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, the nation’s leading organization for the support of Hispanic higher education. Buckley helped read through 4,138 application portfolios to assist in determining the distribution of roughly $20,000,000 in scholarships for Latino high school, community college, four-year university and transfer students. ■ Song lyrics written by Enid Davis, Harker library director, were recently included in a staged reading in San Francisco of a new play, “Jeans,” which recounts the invention of blue jeans by pioneers Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss. Davis, who was enlisted last summer by local playwrights and friends Caryn Yacowitz and Diane Claerbout to write lyrics to classic public domain songs for the play, wrote clever new lyrics to old standards such as “Clementine,” “O Susannah” and “On Top of Old Smokey.” “I had a wonder ful time writing these songs—I simply could not get them out of my head, and I didn’t sleep much last summer,” she laughed. Davis explained that the reading, sans costumes and sets, was the first step to getting the musical published and performed in bigger venues. They hope to get the show reviewed and ultimately want to add choreography to make the 90-minute show a “full-blown extravaganza that appeals to audiences of all ages.”

FROM

the archives

As we celebrate the success of Harker’s recent, first-ever fashion show fundraising event reported in this issue, we also celebrate the many other parent fundraisers in Harker’s long history of parent fundraising! Through the 1970s, along with the annual Family Picnic, the Harker Father’s and Mother’s Clubs sponsored spaghetti dinners, holiday dances, boutiques and candy and bake sales to support the costs of building the Sports and Recreation Center. The spaghetti dinners were completely prepared and served by parents, organized by Marty and Dorothy Scarpace, parents of Marty (’76) and Kristen Giammona (’81), and Earl and Margarita Parsons, parents of Jon (’76). The evening included a raffle with prizes such as a 10-speed bike, Sony battery operated TV and signed footballs and basketballs. Live entertainment was provided by then dean of students Dan Gelineau on accordion and former boarding director Jeff Haugaard on banjo. Through the combined effor ts of our wonderful parents, these fundraising projects helped provide our students with a first-class facility. The Harker Academy’s Gala Spring Auction began in April 1984 with elaborate, fun items and adventures that were put up for bid by an auctioneer. How much would you offer to ride “shotgun” with the county sheriff for a day? How about a 1949 Dodge Coronet Coupe or a private plane ride to The Nut Tree in Vacaville for lunch? Or perhaps you’d prefer to bid on a 1986 49’ers football signed by Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. These were only some of the wonderfully creative items offered at the 1980s Harker Academy Auctions. With themes like New York, New York (1986) and Juke Box Saturday Night (1987), the staff who worked the events usually dressed for the theme of the evening, and these first-class events brought the entire Harker community together for a great cause. Current picnic coordinator and board member Lynette Stapleton was a parent at Harker when the first Gala Spring Auction was held in 1984. Tony and Becky Morici, parents of David

The annual auctions have continued to the present as part of a long tradition of having fun and raising money for the school. Proceeds go to a specific project each year. They’ve included the Scholarship fund in 1984, the Fine Arts Program in 1986 and the Computer Science facility in 1987 and 1988. The auctions were sometimes held as a stand-alone event or coupled with a wine tasting, as in 1985, and they eventually became an important part of the annual Family Picnic celebrations in 1989. This year we once again made history with another “first” for Harker, as we enjoyed our first fashion show featuring our very special Passion Showcases and live auction – sure to become another Harker tradition!

month

■ More fashion show wrapup information, including financials and the announcement of next year’s date! ■ Photos from this year’s annual dance production, “Let's Show 'Em!” ■ Report on several special US leadership experiences including Congress 2004 and the Enterprise Leadership Conference

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 Photography: Lee Trotter, Chris Daren, Talon & Winged Post staff, Nick Gassman

Hare (’82), Tony (’89) and Alexia (’90), made Italian food, and the Harker staff were waiters in the gym. Stapleton laughed, “I remember the Morici kitchen lined with over a dozen pans of pasta.” The Parent Guild assembled hundreds of items, and each classroom made homeroom packages that were themed for both a silent and live auction. “Each year the gala became grander until it finally moved off campus in 1986,” said Kelly Espinosa, current K-6 dean of non-academic affairs and then recreation director at Harker.

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

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

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 — March 04

All photos from Harker archives

Affairs to Remember - Harker Auctions & Fundraising Events