June 2009 (vol. 15, no. 2)
A l u m n i
R e p o r t
f r o m
t h e
Har k e r
S c h o o l
Harker Alumni Share Pursuit of Science and Technology
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Editor’s Note: In the last edition (and on our facebook site) we asked alumni involved in science and technology to let us know. Here’s a sampling of those who replied!
Three Earn Alumni Awards.... 5 Alumni Day Draws Crowd...... 3 Alumni Share Work at Symposium.......................... 8 Class Notes....................... 11 Inserts in this issue: n Nichols Memorial Supplement
dates
Save the Date! Fri., Feb. 19, 2010 Harker Fashion Show San Jose Convention Center
Many Harker alumni have spent their college careers exploring exciting technological fields. One of them, Kit Schimandle ’07, is in Cal Poly SLO’s aerospace engineering program, working on fulfilling her dream of working in the aerospace field. “I’ve always loved ever ything to do with space and the Space Program,” she said. “I think manned spaceflight is the only reason technology advanced so much as it has since the ’50s and ’60s.” Her love for space has familial roots: her grandfather worked at NASA’s jet propulsion laborator y and helped design a robotic arm that saw action on the moon.
“I loved Harker because it was whatever you wanted it to be and always demanded that you be all that you can be,” she said.
tan is most famous for designing the Voyager aircraft, the first to fly around the world non-stop with no refueling.
She said her Harker education was valuable not only for the academics but also for the sense of freedom it offered to students.
After graduation, Schimandle hopes to work for noted aerospace engineer Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif. Ru-
Yagmur Ilgen ’05, recently graduated from Yale, where she studied
Provided by Kit Schimandle
S p e c i a l
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Acclaimed Alum Designer Hosts NYC Wang Studio Tour During the Harker Orchestra’s April trip to New York City, alumni director Terry Walsh and longtime teacher Pat Walsh visited the offices of fashion designer Alexander Wang ’98, (second from left) whose designs under the “Alexander Wang” label are now available in more than 200 stores worldwide. His brother, Dennis Wang ’80, is principal of the company.
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contact The alumni office truly enjoys hearing about all alumni connections and memories. Contact us when you have things to share! terryw@harker.org (408) 345-9205
Dennis Wang
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est. 1893 • K-12 college prep
“I felt like I was on the set of a movie!” Terry Walsh exclaimed. “We arrived at a nondescript building, but when the elevator doors opened to the space the Wang business occupies, you could almost hear the group gasp as we entered directly into the vast area.” The room, with its black floors and white walls, was decorated with blossoms, antique stage lights, a Chesterfield sofa and racks and shelves filled with merchandise designed by Wang. Dennis Wang offered the group a tour and explained what goes on inside each area of the studio. The tour concluded at the office, where
Alexander Wang displayed his Distinguished Alumni Award on the shelf behind his desk, and was shown a 1997 yearbook, which contained a photo of one of his first designs: a T-shirt commemorating the 1997 Harker/Tamagawa Gakuen exchange. The group also visited MS alumnus Ross Boberg MS ’01, a financial engineering student at Columbia University, who graduated earlier this month. Boberg gave the group a brief overview of the Columbia campus before taking the students to St. John the Divine Cathedral, the largest gothic cathedral in the United States. Lastly, the group enjoyed a dinner reception and was joined by alum Jason Han ’06, Candace Chang ’06, Anusha Reddy ’07, Kelly Rose O’Reilly ’08, Shrestha Singh ’08 and Isabella Liu ’02.