June 2009 (vol. 15, no. 2)
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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
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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
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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.
register Register now on the Harker Alumni Web site!
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.
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Harker Online Groups Look for the Harker groups on Linked In and Facebook! These online career and social networking sites are a great way to connect with fellow Harker grads, wherever you are!
SAVE THE DATE! Sunday Oct. 11, 2009
Linked In puts you in touch with fellow Harker alumni so that you can expand your professional network and develop business relationships. It’s easy to join. Just go to http://www.linkedin.com/ and request to join the Harker group. Be sure to include Harker in your education area to make it easier to find fellow Harker alums.
The 59th Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Blackford Campus 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
There are two Harker alumni groups on Facebook. Harker Academy Alumni puts you in touch with alumni of The Harker Middle School. Harker Upper School Alumni is for alumni from 2002 (1998MS) to the present year 2009 (2004MS). You can also follow Harker on these other social sites!
Sign on and join us!
Visit Harker News Online (HNO) for ongoing community news and updates between editions. http://news.harker.org/
in the news alumni features NEXT UP: Business and Athletics
n Vogue.com – June 2009 The Alexander Wang Gap collaboration collection was written up in this Resort Report column by Mark Holgate.
We like to showcase selected interests in each edition. This issue we’re reporting on alumni in the science and tech industries (see cover story).
n sjspartans.com – April 28, 2009 Once more, Jason Martin ’07 graces In The News with his exploits on the diamond for the San Jose State Spartans. Repeatedly lauded for his ability to get on base by being hit by pitches, the article noted he was also second in homers on the team, with four.
Our next issue will feature alumni in business and those involved in athletics at college or beyond (thanks to those of you who already responded to the call for athletics - we’ll hold onto those for the next edition)!
Is that you? Please let us know what you’re doing! E-mail Terry Walsh at terryw@harker.org. Thanks! 2
n Zimbio.com – Sept. 2008 Alexander Wang MS ’88 appeared on the Zimbio.com site, an interactive magazine that covers designers and other celebrities. Wang was also mentioned by actress Taylor Momsen in an interview for Page Six Magazine, a www.nypost.com site, in a posting dated Jan. 15, as one of her favorite designers.
n Scripps – Spring 2009 Alumna Rachel Warecki ’04 was featured in a great article on her work as a teacher in the Watts district of Los Angeles and the difficulties of teaching easily-discouraged students, as well as the tremendous reward of having a successful student. Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
Annual All Alumni Day Honors, Connects and Establishes New Traditions The Saratoga gym was filled with school memorabilia, class year binders, yearbooks and many historical items from the archives, and the entire campus was open for tours at the fourth annual All Alumni Day & Awards on May 30. Alumni were greeted by Cindy Ellis, MS division head, Clare Elchert, US nurse and Danielle Wood-Hammond, director of alumni mentoring, and directed to the gym to view the many displays, enjoy refreshments and visit with alumni, current faculty and staff and former faculty and staff. Cindy Cottrell DeAngelo ’76, Joy Patterson ’93 and Yasmin Ali ’02 helped out at the Alumni Association table where alums could learn about volun-
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The common thread I find with all the connections is that Harker made a difference in your lives …. The alumni program is all about keeping those connections alive.
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teer opportunities, pick up Harker publications or watch a slide show that spanned the years from the 1950s to the early 1990s. The current Harker robotics team had their robot on display in the gym and young children who attended were given rides by the team members. The robot rides were more in demand than time in the bounce house! Tours were led by longtime Harker employees Kelly Espinosa and Pat Walsh, who both noted that the new Nichols Hall was the highlight for many of the alumni. The changes to the campus had many alumni turned around, especially those from the Class of 1976. The first swimming pool was dedicated shortly before this group graduated and they now found a field where the swimming pool used to be. Alumni and other guests gathered in the quad for the awards presentation which started with a welcome from Terry Walsh, alumni director. Walsh noted that all in attendance were connected in some way with Harker – as alumni, a current or former faculty or staff or through a family member or a friend. “The common thread I find with all the connections is that Harker made a difference in your lives – Harker took an interest in you. The alumni program is all about keeping those connections alive,” she added. Walsh also acknowledged the difficult year the Harker community had, losing both Howard Nichols and Phyllis Carley, and that she especially felt their loss as they were her connection to Harker’s past. “I am so glad that the alumni
program was established while they were still with us – and that this annual event is in place. I can’t help but feel their presence here today – and I know they will always be here in future years in so many of our hearts,” said Walsh. Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, gave a brief explanation of the alumni giving received this year, noting that many of the gifts were designated to go to either the Nichols Hall Solar Fund or the Phyllis Carley Student Scholarship Fund, both special funds set up to honor the two loved ones Harker lost this year in areas that were dear to their hearts. Alumni class agent Cindy Cottrell DeAngelo ’76 presented the oversized alumni giving check in the amount of $13,189 to Chris Nikoloff, head of school. Next, Walsh gave a brief explanation of the nomination and selection process of the three alumni awards to be presented at the event and announced the three recipients (see page 5 for details). She continued on with the presentation of the first award, the Phyllis Carley Service Award, presented to longtime teacher Howard Saltzman. The Phyllis Carley Service Award recognizes alumni or other friends who have unselfishly devoted their time and energies and made significant contributions towards advancing the programs of The Harker School. This award is named after our beloved Mrs. Phyllis Carley, who dedicated her life to making small differences in the lives of thousands of children. Walsh noted that Saltzman had many similarities with Mrs. Carley, mentioning his active listening, his nonjudgmental way of giving his opinion or advice and the ways he recognized and acknowledged the little things students do. “I have seen Mr. Saltzman make so many kids feel important over the years – over something most of us would not have thought to notice,” said Walsh. Nikoloff then awarded Joy Aliason Younes ’76 the Alumni Community Service Award. Harker has always put an emphasis on the importance of community service both at school and in one’s personal life, and the Harker Alumni Community Service Award recognizes the outstanding contributions and accomplishments of alumni who have devoted their time and talent in service to their communities. Younes’ commitment to community service began when her son George was diagnosed with autism in 1996. Over several years working as a parent in different programs, she recognized that children with autism require as much social as academic education and that the schools were not equipped to fill this need. Younes, along with her husband, developed an after-school program for children with autism and behavioral issues, the Intervention Day Program for ASD Children. She serves as the president and administrative officer and has been directing the program for over four years. In addition, she is the event coordinator for an annual music festival with performances by children and young adults with autism held by Autism Spectrum Research Alliance, a nonprofit organization in Saratoga. continued on pg. 4
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continued from pg. 3 The Distinguished Alumni Award was presented posthumously to Howard Nichols, and his wife Diana Nichols was there to accept the award on his behalf (see article pg. 5). Alumnus Mark Muller ’75, also a former Harker teacher, presented the award. Nichols has been the obvious choice for this award since its inception in 2006, but had declined to accept it due to his health issues. Howard Nichols’ devotion and commitment to all students who attended one of the schools in Harker’s histor y and his continual vision in developing all aspects of the current school were the obvious reasons for his selection. Muller gave a ver y personal presentation of the Howard Nichols he knew, as his relationship with Nichols was like no others in the Harker community. The two first met when Muller was a Gr. 3 cadet at Palo Alto Militar y Academy, where Captain Nichols was the assistant commandant. They both made the move to San Jose, where Muller continued on as a boarding student at Harker Academy, then worked in the Harker dorms and summer camp while a high school student at Bellarmine. After college and his years in the Peace Corps he returned to Harker to work for Nichols as a teacher from 1988 to 1997. Diana Nichols was joined at the podium by Howard’s daughters Elizabeth Nichols de Oliveira ’80 and Stephanie Nichols Norton ’86 and grandchildren Isabel and Ian de Oliveira and Ben and Lucy Norton. To end the program, Nikoloff was pleased to announce that the Harker administration approved the renaming of the Distinguished Alumni Award to the Howard Nichols Distinguished Alumni Award as a way of continually honoring Nichols at all future alumni award ceremonies. The awards ceremony was followed by another campus tour and a chance for alumni to visit and view the displays in the gym.
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Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
2009 Harker Alumni Awards go to Nichols, Younes and Saltzman Distinguished Alumni Award
Harker Archives
Howard Nichols graduated from the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA) in 1956 and from the moment he returned to PAMA as a full-time staff member in 1965, he was a man of vision. Nichols worked as assistant commandant, P.E. teacher, athletic director and coach until he assumed headmaster responsibilities when his father retired in 1973. At the age of 33, Nichols had overall responsibility for the school, from the facilities and grounds to the enrollment and staff. His vision and his devotion to excellence and fairness leave a lasting legacy upon the institution he loved and to which he devoted his life. Over the years, Nichols made a series of visionary changes to the school, including dropping the military program in 1979, launching Harker’s upper school in 1998, and expanding the school onto two additional campuses – the lower school campus in 1998, and the middle school campus in 2005. By the time Howard and his wife, Diana, retired in 2005, The Harker School had become the largest K-12 independent school in California, and an internationally-recognized, award-winning model for excellence in education. The following are personal remarks made by Mark Muller ’75 at the awards presentation. (For the complete speech see next page.) “Howard Nichols was a great man and he was a good man. He was a great man for all that he created, including this school and this community and the impact this school has had and will continue to have on generations. He was great in the way he influenced us, and motivated us, and made us think about right and wrong, and encouraged us to be our best and not to be content with where we are, but to grow as individuals. “He was a good man, a decent man judged in the manner by which all of us are judged – by our character and by our integrity. He taught us a lot about character by his life, his words and by his actions, but also by his concern for each of us. “Howard had an ability to adjust to changing times while maintaining the school’s commitment to timeless values such as academic rigor, strong character, broad offerings and global citizenship, and he is most deserving of the Distinguished Alumni Award.” Nichols’ visions will continue to be carried out for years to come in different areas of the world through the work of the many people he influenced, advised, taught or loved in his lifetime. This point was noted in similar ways by both Muller and by Diana Nichols upon accepting the award. It was also noted in a remark sent to the alumni office by Alan Stevens ’73: “I have the same habit of picking up trash no matter where I am. I could go on forever but I will never forget Howard for as long as I live. Howard is a part of who I am today.”
Alumni Community Service Award Joy Aliason Younes ’76 attended Harker Academy when the total enrollment for the school was about 400 students; there were 38 students in her graduating class and Diana Nichols was both her homeroom and science teacher. Younes’ commitment to community service began when her son George was diagnosed with autism in 1996. As a parent, she first worked closely with her son’s teachers and gained experience through her involvement and participation in all of his activities. Early on, she recognized that the most noticeable symptom of autism, the social disconnect, was not being addressed by the schools. Younes concluded that Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
children with autism require as much social as academic education and that the schools were not equipped to fill this need. This is what started Younes and her husband on a four-and-a-half year journey to develop a state-approved, after-school program for children with autism and behavioral issues. Their program, called IDPAC (Intervention Day Program for ASD Children) addresses both the academic and social needs of these children, with emphasis in the area of social skills. Younes serves as the president and administrative officer at IDPAC, has been directing the program for over four years and has worked with over 45 children with autism all over the spectrum, from very low functioning and huge behavioral issues, to high functioning and savants. In addition, she serves as the event coordinator at Autism Spectrum Research Alliance, a nonprofit organization that provides a service to develop and expose the musical and performing arts talents of children and young adults with autism. The organization has held three successful annual musical festivals and they are currently putting in many hours of rehearsals for their fourth festival, to be held in August at Saratoga High School. Younes’ brother, Paul Aliason ’80, wrote that their parents devoted their lives to caring for all populations – the elderly, mentally ill, developmentally disabled – and that they taught their children to respect and be kind to all segments of the population. Younes’ involvement in community service started as a parent who just wanted the best for her son, but through starting IDPAC and her involvement with the music festivals, she has given other children with special needs opportunities to lead healthy and active lives. There isn’t much more that needs to be said about this extraordinary woman – she is truly giving back to society and is deserving of recognition from Harker.
Phyllis Carley Service Award Howard Saltzman started teaching at Harker in 1978 and had a positive influence on thousands of Gr. 3-4 students during his 31 years at Harker. Saltzman received the Carley Award for his continual love and devotion for everything Harker and for being a lot like Mrs. Carley. Being good listeners, recognizing and acknowledging the good in people, and extreme helpfulness were a few of the things they shared. Alumni director Terry Walsh presented the award, and in her remarks said, “Mr. Saltzman is known for doing the small things for students and staff at Harker – and he does them every day, all the time, for anyone. He is one of those people; just standing next to him you can feel his love and devotion for everything Harker.” When remembered by alumni in notes of congratulations sent to the alumni office, Saltzman is noted for being much more than a teacher – he was a favorite coach, a stor y teller, a gentle giant, a mentor, he made the best barbecued hamburgers and hot dogs, he always had a gleeful smile on his face and so much more. Lance Nakamitsu ’86 summed up the feelings of many alumni with this note: “You were always ver y positive and energetic. In fact, I can still hear your voice cheering from the sideline. Along with a few other teachers, you really made my Harker experience unforgettable.”
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Former Harker Student and Teacher Remembers Howard Nichols Editor’s note: This is the full text of the speech Mark Muller ’75 gave at alumni day. See pg. 3 for more. Howard Nichols was a great man and he was a good man. He was a great man for all that he created, including this school and this community and the impact this school has had and will continue to have on generations. He was great in the way he influenced us and motivated us, and made us think about right and wrong, and encouraged us to be our best and not to be content with where we are, but to grow as individuals.
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ily atmosphere, on which we all look back favorably. We learned to do the right thing as a matter of course. He taught us responsibility and accountability. My story is not unique; we all had a relationship with Howard in which he cared for us and motivated us. We never wanted to let him down, because he so much believed in all of us. He also had many activities for us — sports, activities, we had a club (NCO and Officers) that would meet at his house monthly, he would yearly take us to a baseball game on a school day, and the senior students
He never deviated from his duty to educate us. He expected a lot of us and he got a lot out of us.
He was a good man, a decent man judged in the manner by which all of us are judged – by our character and by our integrity. He taught us a lot about character by his life, his words and by his actions, but also by his concern for each of us. I could go on all day about what Howard meant to me and all of us he worked with and how he helped us grow as people; I won’t, but I will share a few thoughts. I knew Howard in many different roles. I knew him by many names. First he was Captain Nichols, then Mr. Nichols, then Howard when I worked for him. I originally met Captain Nichols in 1968 when I went to Palo Alto Military Academy as a third grade boarding student. He had been a PAMA graduate in 1956, and returned in 1965 as assistant commandant, as athletic director for a while, and as a coach. He marched us around every afternoon. Captain Nichols, as we knew him then, was the head of the Military Academy, while his dad, the Major, ran The Harker School. Howard was strict, he was demanding, and he expected and got a lot out of us. He taught us all many lessons. One of the first of many lessons was responsibility, doing our homework, cleaning our rooms, being on time. We were held responsible not only for our own behavior, but he wanted us to be leaders and inspire others to do a good job. He created a fam-
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yearly went to his house in small groups for dinner. We truly were in a family situation. He grew a lot as a person, but his moral compass was always set correctly. He taught responsibility, accountability and honesty. In fact, at PAMA we had a merit badge similar to the citizenship award which Harker has given out for years. He or his dad or whoever was running the assembly would announce the names of those winning the award, and then they would announce those who didn’t win the award. There was definitely transparency in those days. Failure was to be confronted, learned from, and we were to move forward. Even though you make a mistake you stand up to it, show class, dignity, and move on. He changed and he grew with the times, but he never deviated from teaching us about responsibility and character, and he never deviated from his duty to educate us. He expected a lot of us and he got a lot out of us. After the two schools combined and moved to San Jose in 1972, Mr. Nichols was the head of school and headmaster for the combined school. He continued to teach us about life, about discipline, about respect. He was relentless in his desire for us to become good people. I graduated from the Harker Academy in 1975. I remember at
graduation in ’75, he said that some had criticized the school for being too demanding, for being too strict, for expecting too much in these times; continuing with his speech he said, “But look at these students and how wonderful they are; we know we are doing the right thing, we are very proud of them.” He was right, we all developed strong values from him. After graduating from Harker, I went to work at the school during my high school years, mostly working in the dorm. I learned first-hand about his attention to detail. It was the weekend before school started, and a few of us were helping get the school ready. He went through every class and checked every desk to make sure it was clean and ready for school. He was always detail oriented and took care of all problems big and small. After graduating high school, I left Harker, graduated college and decided to become a teacher. He and Diana hired me to work here. I loved working for them both. Working for Howard was wonderful, because he always had time for everyone, and it was a homecoming for me to get a chance to work with the wonderful students of Harker, but also to get to know Howard better was special. As a staff member, we could come to him with any idea and he would consider it. He was a great listener. He listened to kindergartners, staff and parents all the same, and genuinely considered their suggestions. After teaching for ten years at Harker, I moved to the Central Coast and became a school administrator. For seven years I served as a principal for a junior high school. I ran my school always with Harker as a model of how good a school can be. I’m now a director for our school district, basically in charge of 13,000 kids, their behavior, and providing services for them. I’m able to have considerable influence on how we educate kids, and I always use Harker as an example of how good a school can be. The importance of building community I learned from Howard — the importance of never being satisfied. The Harker School community is never satisfied that the school cannot become better. I learned that from him. The importance of being concerned about details I learned from Howard. He is influencing the students of Santa
Maria through what I learned from him, and these influences are in all of us who went to school here. We take from and contribute to Harker, and then we go forth and do our part as alumni to make the world a little better. I believe a school leader should be visible and a presence and in that regard, Howard was larger than life. Howard strove to grow as an individual and grow and improve the school community. He made a number of changes here. He dropped the military program, he started the upper school in 1998 and expanded the school onto two campuses, and then added the middle school campus in 2005. When he retired in 2005, Harker had certainly become one of the premier independent schools anywhere. There are some alumni memories about Howard that were sent to me, and they are all thoughtful. Here’s one that I wish to share. “Howard was like a second father to me when I was in school. Howard and I had a close bond that developed over the six years I was at school. I could always talk to him like a father and he would be there. One year my family was gone in Europe. I spent one Christmas holiday with Howard at his house. We went on his morning runs and each day we played some sort of sports. Knowing Howard and having him in my life was great. I have the same habit of picking up trash no matter where I am. I could go on forever but I will never forget Howard for as long as I live. Howard is a part of who I am today.” Alan Stevens ’73 The essence is that Howard is a part of so many of us today. Diana Nichols, his wife, my former teacher and outstanding educator in her own right, and a very special person, is here to accept this award for Howard, along with his wonderful daughters, Stephanie and Elizabeth, whom he loved dearly. Howard was a great man and a great alumnus. We have had many successful alumni here at Harker and we will continue to have successful alumni in the future, but for all that he has done, for all that he has created, and for all the influence that he has had on others, Howard Nichols will always be our most outstanding alumnus. It’s an honor to present the Distinguished Alumni Award posthumously to Howard Nichols.
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
Alumni Gather in New Nichols Hall for Home for the Holidays Event After winter break, our college alumni were invited back to campus for the sixth annual Home for the Holidays college reception. This event tries to take advantage of the time that many alumni are home from college on break and is held on a day that’s mutually convenient for current students, faculty and staff. A special lunch was served in the Nichols Hall atrium during both lunch periods to allow for all to gather and visit with the Harker community. The energy level was high as over
80 alumni greeted each other with big hugs and shouts of joy, and all were genuinely delighted to have the event in Nichols Hall – the first time for most alums to see the new building.
Alumni Share Experience with Seniors in Annual College Life Panel The annual College Life Panel usually held at the end of May was instead held in conjunction with the Home for the Holidays college reception (story above) in early January. Casey Near ’06 gave a repeat performance as chair of this event but came up with a new format. “We moved it earlier in the year because we wanted to focus just as much on the decision of where to go as on the experience of college in general,” said Near. “We also opted for older panelists because the more distance you have from the whole college decision process, the clearer it can become, and the easier it is to see what’s truly right for you. Especially for Harker seniors, it really helps to hear advice from college upperclassmen and to see that what makes a college the best fit for you is sometimes the stuff you never even thought about.” The Nichols Hall auditorium was the perfect venue for the question and answer session and seniors enjoyed having a chance to visit more with the alums at the lunch following the event. Along with Near, who represented Scripps College, were Emily Isaacs ’07 for Cornell, Rupon Bose ’07 and Shilpa Rajgopal ’08 for USC and Meghana Dhar ’06 for UC Berkeley. Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
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Alumni Share Research at Symposium Dorm Project Inspires Jarvis Wine Harker’s fourth annual science symposium, held in Nichols Hall on March 21, featured alumni presenters Alfred Pokmeng See and Nikhil Deshmukh, both Class of 2004. Through videoconferences, both speakers discussed their current research, providing a unique opportunity to introduce current students to alumni who are successfully translating a love of science into research for real world applications. Graduating in 2007 with a B.S. in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins University, See is currently conducting research through the School of Medicine, department of oncology. He will earn his M.D. from there in 2011. See’s presentation, “STAT3 Immunomodulation in the Malignancy of Glioblastoma,” focused on a malignant type of brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), which kills some 13,000 Americans annually. His research centers on understanding how GBM alters the immune system, and suggesting potential therapies. “As a medical student, I enjoy applying the engineering mindset to rigorously and systematically approach health problems,” See said. Deshmukh graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S.E. in bioengineering. His research is being conducted in Princeton University’s departments of molecular biology and physics, concurrent with his graduate studies in neuroscience and molecular biology. In his current study, “Using Virtual Reality to Examine Neural Dynamics in the Spatial Navigation of the Mouse,” Deshmukh modified a video game to observe the neural activity in mice that encodes space and time, and may aid better understanding of neural information processing. In his free time, Deshmukh enjoys cooking foods “that let the natural flavors of the foods shine through,” and playing bass guitar in rock cover bands. Anita Chetty, US science department chair, described the symposium as “extremely historic,” as it synthesized the science talents of many students, alumni and faculty, creating a powerful sense of community within the new Nichols Hall.
Alumna Molly Newman ’07 recently returned to Harker to teach a few of Ramsay Westgate’s AP U.S. history classes as part of a project assigned by her professor at Tufts University. Newman gave lessons on the American Indian movement of the 1960s and ’70s.
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One Harker alumnus has leveraged his MS science project to create a delicious wine. Will Jarvis MS ’97, while boarding at Harker, received special dispensation to conduct a winemaking experiment for his science class. This spring, Jar vis Winer y (a family business), will release a wine based on the experiment. Jar vis, now attending Stanford’s business school, wasn’t able to sample the wine until he came of age nearly 10 years later. After ageing, the experimental wine was bottled and stored at the winer y. When he and his family did open the bottles, they were excited enough about the flavor to call in their resident wine expert, who pronounced the wine exceptional. “I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” said Jar vis, when he stopped by to help celebrate the opening of the Ringold Research Laborator y in Nichols Hall in Februar y. “It was mostly conceived as a science experiment, so it wasn’t until later, when we actually tasted the wine, that we actually started to get excited about the quality.” That led to Jar vis’ second attempt to make wine. “Because it was inspired by the science project we decided to name it the Will Jar vis Science Project,” he said. Jar vis has been involved in winemaking since college. “I have cycled through different positions at the winer y,” he noted. “I did a summer working in the fields, a summer in shipping, I’ve done accounting and led tours for a summer, so made my rounds through the winer y, but this is my only personal attempt at winemaking since Harker.” Jar vis recalled the fuss around his original batch, which was in a 7- or 8-gallon cask, compared to the usual 60-galllon barrel. “There was a lot of excitement surrounding the experiment, given it was a fairly unusual project in that I was a 13- or 14-year-old middle school student making wine in my dorm room. Things were pretty compact so there wasn’t anywhere for me to put the barrel except the foot of my bed. That’s what I remember the most: having to live around the barrel, sort of negotiating my living space. Surprisingly enough, as far as I know, no one dipped into the keg – there weren’t any unauthorized wine tastings.” Now, the new half-barrel (30-gallon) vintage, approved by the winer y’s expert, is ready for sale. “We happened upon the quality of the smaller barrel serendipitously, through the science experiment,” said Jar vis, “but it makes a lot of sense because during winemaking there is a well known trade-off during ageing between absorbing a lot of the desirable oaky flavors from the barrel, and losing some of the natural fruity flavor of the wine, which is also desirable. That (trade-off) just seems to be a function of time. “The idea with the smaller-size barrel, which has a higher sur face-tovolume ratio, is that you absorb the oak at an accelerated rate so you don’t need to age the wine as long in order to absorb the same amount of oak flavor. The end result is that you are ageing the wine for a shorter amount of time in the barrel before you bottle it, (and) when you bottle it you are essentially capturing (the flavor at that moment). People have used smaller barrels for experimental purposes before, but we are almost certainly the first winer y to tr y on that a production scale.” Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
Fulbright Fellow Returns as Guest Speaker at Foreign Language Event Alumna Sophia Wang ’03, currently in her first year of medical school at UCSF, was the guest speaker at the Foreign Language National Honor Societies ceremony this spring. She was introduced by her former Japanese teacher, Keiko Irino. “Sophia did a very nice job of inspiring our students to continue studying language and culture after high school,” said Abel Olivas, foreign language department chair. “She began her talk by mentioning that as an undergraduate at Harvard, she chose to take a Mandarin class although she had studied Japanese in high school. It was her favorite class that year because it was smaller than her other classes. The professors knew her name, it was interactive and fun, and she made some good friends. “She made her way back to Japanese after graduation when she traveled to Japan on a Fulbright scholarship to carry out a yearlong project, in which she surveyed college students on their attitudes toward food and dieting, paying special attention to the Westernization of Japanese food and eating habits. “The photos she projected onto the screen gave students a clear image of what Sophia saw and did while in Japan, reinforcing her message to the students that continuing to study language beyond high school and going abroad if possible is a wor thwhile and ver y enjoyable endeavor,” Olivas finished.
Three Alumnae Helping Out on Campus Alumna Lauren Ammatuna ’08 recently volunteered in the alumni office. Ammatuna was required to complete a three-unit community ser vice activity for the University of Redlands and elected to help out the Harker alumni program. Terry Walsh, alumni director, was grateful for her help with alumni related projects, tasks and planning. The office of communication has the good for tune to have Jessica Liu ’04 and Laena Keyashian ’04 helping out in between college and grad/med school. Those on campus will see them taking photographs, helping with inter views, etc. Please extend a warm Harker welcome to these three young women if you see them – it’s truly a “K through Life” experience to have some of our alumnae back in the fold for a while! Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
Alumni Parent, Student from IBM Visit Gr. 5 math classes played host to two engineers from IBM, Dianne Reese, a program manager and mother of two alumni, Greg Perkins ’05 and Philip Perkins ’07; and a former student of teacher Pat Walsh’s, Eric Butler ’81, now a software engineer at IBM. The visitors spoke to all of Walsh’s math classes in early March to help celebrate national engineers week. Walsh wants to promote engineering as a career option and to get students thinking about taking math and science classes. The visitors gave an over view of engineering as a discipline and discussed career options. They “did a demo on what the Internet actually is and how information travels through the Web to end up on their computer screens,” said Walsh. “They had the kids pretend they were doing a search on Google to retrieve information and used that activity to illustrate what is happening ‘behind the scenes’ in an online search.” The engineers also talked about the “One Laptop Per Child” program and let the kids handle one of the computers being distributed around the world in that program. They also did a communication demo, said Walsh. “They used a remote-controlled truck with a camera attached to it as a mock Mars rover to demonstrate the challenges of navigating at ver y long distances. The visitors had students tr y to navigate the rover to a specific location in the classroom while dealing with computer-simulated time delays in signal processing. Student Emma Doherty noted, “It was a lot of fun tr ying to control the Mars rover without getting immediate feedback. I thought Mr. Butler and Ms. Reese were enter taining and smar t!”
Alumna in Ecuador Skypes Class Former Spanish student Kat Hudkins ’06 connected with the US Spanish Honors 3 class via Skype this spring. Hudkins is studying anthropology in Quito, Ecuador, through a program at Smith College in Massachusetts. In addition, she has been assisting in midwifer y at a clinic for impoverished young mothers in Quito. “My students prepared questions based on an inter view which appeared in the Harker Spanish Honor Society newsletter, ‘El Pór tico’,” said Diana Moss, Spanish teacher, “and Kat answered their questions in a live conference via computer. Kat spoke to the students about adjusting to Ecuadorian life, learning the language and culture, her studies in Quito and her travels in Peru, Chile and Argentina. The students were fascinated!” said Moss.
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news Since October of 2007 Harish Venkatesan ‘06 has been working at Techcrunch, a leading blog and news source covering developments in the tech world. “It’s been a great way to really delve into the world of star tups and stay abreast of what’s going on,” he said. Over the past summer Venkatesan worked in San Francisco at First Round Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm investing primarily in Web-based businesses. “I found this work fascinating because it really put me at the cutting edge of technology,” he noted. “It’s exciting to obser ve trends and tr y to predict the future based on how people are using stillevolving technology.” He’s recently been working on his own star tup, TickrTalk, which is “a new, social way for people to experience live
Alumni In Science and Technology, continued from pg. 1 computer science in hopes of one day working at Pixar making animated films. “I got a great general education in [computer science], in various areas like artificial intelligence, databases, systems programming and various others,” Ilgen said. Ilgen took an AP computer science class during her sophomore year. The initial plan was to earn an electrical engineering degree, but after seeing the epic fantasy film “The Lord of the Rings,” she had found her calling. “I watched the behind the scenes footage on how they used computer animation to create the fiery monster in the first movie,” Ilgen recalled, “and I knew that I wanted to be an animator.” With her goal in mind, she added a major in art.
“
I loved Harker because it was whatever you wanted it to be and always demanded that you be all that you can be.
Harker’s computer science curriculum gave Ilgen a well-rounded education heading into college. “I took all the advanced courses, and they really helped me decide whether or not I wanted to continue with this path in college, so that I already knew what I wanted to major in when I started Yale,” she said.
”
Just up the coast at Columbia University, Shilpa Vadodaria ’06 is studying biomedical engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS). She sought a program that would help her utilize theoretical, practical and analytical thinking, which brought engineering to mind. “More specifically, biomedical engineering is unique in that it enables me to learn about and be involved with artificial tissue and organ construction, medical imaging, stem cell research and health policy,” Vadodaria said.
events (par ticularly spor ts) using their computers and mobile phones. I hope to launch in the next couple months and I’ll keep you updated on any news!” “I’ve also recently started work on a project that really excites me,” he added. “I’m attempting to develop a power ful, low-cost technology solution for residents of rural areas in developing countries, using a for-profit business model that will allow the project to scale and spread quickly to many areas. It’s still in the early stages, but again, I’m excited by the vast potential of this to improve lives and really spread the impact of technology to places that need it the most.”
Vadodaria said Harker offered the necessar y foundation on which to base her engineering studies. “The emphasis on advanced math and science classes developed my initial interest in engineering fields during my high school years,” she said. Her teachers were also valuable in shaping her decision to enter her chosen field, particularly Ms. (Anita) Chetty and Ms. (Judith) James. “Both of them always offered personal anecdotes during class, showcasing the diversity available for careers in math and science, and were constantly available for advice and feedback on research opportunities and activities outside of the classroom,” she said.
Alexandra Selbo-Bruns ’04 has been involved in psychological research, both in her undergrad career and now in graduate school. “Currently I’m working on a study called the Depression and Anxiety in Youth Study (DAYS),” she reported. “We go out to local public schools to collect data on temperament, symptomology and self-consciousness. I am proposing my masters thesis using the data from this project in April. My thesis topic is on the tripartite model of anxiety (Clark & Watson, 1991), which is used to clarify some of the complexities inherent in the differential diagnosis of anxiety and depression through their relationships with var ying dimensions of temperament.”
Following graduation next year, Vadodaria plans on finding a position in the biomedical engineering field, and working for a few years before entering medical school.
In April, Duong attended the Women of Vision Awards Banquet, hosted by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, along with fellow alumna Jessica Liu ’04 and current juniors Andrea Lincoln and Anjali Menon. At the event, she had the chance to mingle with such technological movers and shakers as Brendan Eich, the creator of the Javascript programming language, and the founders of the Mozilla Foundation, which started the Mozilla Corporation in 2005, best known for the popular Web browser Mozilla Firefox. The industr y’s focus on ability and innovation also fascinates her. “At the Google I/O conference I attended with work at the end of May, Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google, was walking around in jeans and a t-shirt, bags under his eyes, hair all a mess,” Duong recalled. “I love it! Looks don’t matter in the CS world, another great thing about the industr y. Success comes from talent and inspirational ideas, not who you know or where you’ve been.”
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Pam Dickinson
Vickie Duong ’04 recently graduated from the computer science program at Stanford University, a path she decided to take after her experience in a CS class that was required for her original major, product design. She now works for SwayLaw LLC, a startup in Los Altos that creates software for law firms.
Last year Selbo-Bruns was involved in the preeminent lab on hoarding, and a paper she coauthored about excessive acquisition and compulsive hoarding was just accepted into the peer review journal Behavior Research and Therapy. Another paper she worked on there will be ready for submission in the coming year. Through her research at Smith she’s had two poster presentations at the national ABCT conference: one on the relationship of BI (behavioral inhibition) to per fectionism in a college population, and the other on per fectionism, indecisiveness and compulsive hoarding as represented in a college population. This coming fall she’ll be presenting a poster on her thesis material. In what little spare time Selbo-Bruns has, she works on the Knowledge Attitudes and Practice Study (KAPS) which “looks into ground level psychological ser vice providers’ attitudes towards, and use of, evidence based practice,” she explained. “We are still in the data collection phase here as well, but we hope to be crunching some numbers shor tly. We are interested in the implications of the findings on the dissemination of evidence-based practice to ser vice providers in Hawaii and the nation.” Selbo-Bruns wrapped up her update by saying, “I’m glad to hear that Harker continues to excel in all its endeavors!” Other alumni pursuing the fields of technology and science in this month’s Class Notes are Ryan Benech ’92; Georgia Manry ’02; Kathy Peng ’05; Gail Nakano, Tommy Holford and Apik Zorian ’06; Allison Wong ’07; Ben Englert, Tiffany Liou and Pauline Nguyen ’08. Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
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John Rodgers is the emergency planning coordinator for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission under the Department of Homeland Security in San Francisco. “I was in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, leaving after the sixth grade, I think,” said Rodgers. “I remember Howard [Nichols] as an upperclassman as well as his father, Major Nichols; also Capt. Torcellini and Lt. Dunton, USMC. I remember many other faces whose names I forget, students and faculty. The most prominent was Dana Morgan, the band leader and my music teacher. I had the opportunity a few years ago to go by the academy and found it to be a community of houses. A neighbor there said a palm tree was all that was left of the PAMA school campus. What piqued my interest is a senior manager at SF Public Utilities where I work, Tommy Moala ’76, had said he went to Harker. I was aware of the PAMA/ Harker merger a while ago and we talked a little about the two schools.”
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Steve Tolen and Bill Thompson have been best friends since 1962. “We met at PAMA the week of the Cuban Missile Crisis and have remained close friends for over 46 years,” said Thompson. Steve has been a paramedic and health care professional since 1971. I am presently on the air at 94.7 The WAVE, a Smooth Jazz radio station in L.A. We’re both still very vibrant personalities, with a rich mutual heritage. We both have had very interesting lives and I consider my life very enriched for having known him,” added Thompson.
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L. Bruce Jones is CEO of Poseidon Undersea Resorts LLC and two related companies and is deeply engrossed in a unique venture developing the world’s first sea floor resorts and residences. See what he is doing at http://poseidonresorts.com. “I, of course, remember Major Nichols, Capt. Torcellini and Lt./Capt. Nichols quite well and Dan Gelineau, too. Likewise, many of the names on your list were familiar although it is strange to think the familiarity is buried in the past of over 40 years ago. I’m happy to receive inquiries from any former classmates.”
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Elizabeth (Liz) Amini Holmes attended Harker Day School until Gr. 5 when the school moved to San Jose. She is an illustrator and has worked for
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numerous magazines, newspapers, book publishers and the children’s publishing market. Amini Holmes has also has created artwork for a variety of industries such as multimedia, corporate, educational and game companies. Her paintings have been exhibited at MTV corporate offices in New York and various cafes, bookstores and galleries in the SF Bay Area. She has been a featured artist in Digital Imaging Magazine and featured artist on PictureBook and SCWBI on-line. Amini Holmes is married to artist/ writer Mark Holmes and they have two children. For more information go to www.lunavilla.com.
NYC for five years at Citibank. I then went to graduate school at Wharton and University of Pennsylvania where I received an M.B.A. and a master’s in international studies focused on Latin America. I worked in Mexico and Argentina, where I met my husband, Adrian Morel, before returning to the States. I now live in Southern California (Irvine) and am the mother of Joel (6 years) and Jessica (2 years). I look forward to getting up to date on alumni and teachers.”
Maggie Wynne attended Harker Day School in Palo Alto for grades K-4 and Harker Academy for grades 5 – 8. Wynne lives in Arlington, VA and said, “it was a trip down memory lane just to read the list of people who were in my class.”
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Rodney Plett rings in from Modesto: “I attended Harker for six years. I have a door company in Modesto and have been in contact with my buddy Greg Hobbs on a regular basis. I would like to get in touch of some of my classmates.
Silvia Malaccorto is VP of business development for Contoural, Inc. in Mountain View. “Hearing the speakers at the ser vice raised my awareness that the school was really in its infancy back then – especially compared to 30 years later! My deepest sympathies to ever yone in loving and respectful memor y of Captain Nichols.” Malaccorto notes she has a Facebook account, but is not ver y active.
n Emily Alexander [aka Adaelaine Hollenbach] reconnected with Harker via the Harker Academy Alumni Facebook group and has updated her contact information in the alumni data base.
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Tina Harris-Pampouneau reconnected via email with the alumni office. “I can still remember Colonel Tuttle & Mrs. Harris, who somehow got the math into my head and recalls classmates Doug Stallings (who I ran into in New York), Rajiv Das, Buddy Mobell, Cathy Donatelli, Ginger Good and Stephen Botte. Harris-Pampouneau lives in Paris and enjoys reconnecting with people on Facebook.
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n Vic Cabrera attended the Howard Nichols Memorial and noted how the campus had changed. He plans to stop by and look through old PAMA photos sometime soon. Lisa Sharon Morel recon-
with Harker after ’80 nected her mom attended the
Howard Nichols Memorial. She updated the alumni office with the following information. “I went to college at Brandeis University (two years) and Boston University (B.A., economics, Spanish). I worked in
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
n Anthony (Tony) Clift recently checked in with the alumni office and registered on the Alumni Web site.
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HARKER LEGEND PA Palo Alto Military Academy 1919-1972 HD Harker Day School 1959-1972 HA Harker Academy 1973-1992 HS The Harker School 1993-Present MS Middle School (Students who did not attend the US are listed under what would have been their US graduation year.)
participating on the board of the local educational foundation, and co-leads Hannah’s Brownie troop of 18 girls with two other moms. Johnson Murray is also ser ving as an alumni class agent for the Class of ’82. n Paul Hondorp is the Director of Choral Activities at Western Kentucky University and stays connected with Harker via the Class of ’82 email group. He recently sent photos of his second child, Finley
Tina Johnson Murray keeps the Class of ’82 connected via annual email messages. She repor ted to her classmates that this year her children, Hannah (age 7) and Max (4 ½) have kept her busy. She continues to subcontract to GoEngineer, a value-added reseller of Agile Software while ser ving as the secretar y for the PTA, chairing Free2Me Fundraisers, developing a program to suppor t families in financial need at Hannah’s school,
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Lynn Hondorp, and family, “I’m enjoying the craziness…and feeling my age!” he said. n Kees Schmitz found Harker on Google. He now lives in the Netherlands and is an airline pilot, flying for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines as a captain on the B737. Schmitz also runs his own flight training program to train pilots. For more information check out his Web site at www.aircrewcenter.nl. He is married and has four children. n Cara Masuda Lowe is the managing partner, specializing in corporate and business law at Stein & Lubin LLP in San Francisco. Continued on pg. 12
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Continued from pg. 11 Elisha Prohl checked in with the alumni office after finding Harker Academy on Facebook. She attended through Gr. 7, and then her family moved to Texas, where she continues to live.
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n Mandana Massiha confirmed her contact information via Facebook. She currently lives in New York City. Katina King now lives in Reno and reconnected with Joe Rosenthal via the Harker Alumni Linked In group. Rosenthal forwarded some update
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information to the alumni office that included this note from King. “I moved here in the summer of 2000. It is hard to believe I have
been here for nine years. I met my husband in October 2003, we finally got married last August, 8-8-8, so we are still newlyweds. He is a supervisor in the reservations department at US Airways, and I am a licensed marketing specialist at Colliers International, specializing in retail leasing and sales. We married on the beach on 17-Mile Drive in Monterey. It was beautiful! n Gary King’s film, “New York Lately,” premiered at the 2009 Sedona Film Festival in late February. King wrote and directed the film and there were some impressive reviews. Learn more about King’s film at www.nylatelymovie.com and www.imdb.com/title/tt1204936 and see his blog at www.grking. com for personal glimpses of the exciting times! n Eugene Ree sent his deepest sympathy to Harker friends and community and in corresponding with alumni director, Terry Walsh, provided a requested update: “After one year at Woodside Priory in Portola Valley, I made the decision to return to Taiwan and finish my high school at Taipei American School. Upon graduation, I attended University of Pennsylvania and obtained my B.A. in fine arts in 1995. Then I immediately enrolled in Parsons School of Design to study fashion in New York. It is there that I found my true calling in menswear and got my second bachelor’s degree, this time in fashion design. The industry has kept me happily living and pursuing
my career in Manhattan. I started out my career working for Brooks Brothers and Ralph Lauren. Recently I have been designing casual menswear for Gap and DKNY Jeans for the international markets. This week I am actually starting a new position with Banana Republic as senior designer of men’s tailoring, dress shirts and ties. Although I will continue to be based in New York I do visit the Bay Area quite often. I would love to stop by the school for a visit sometime. I am sure I will be blown away!” Kristine Gerber checked in with the alumni office from Chicago. She is eager to be added to the alumni mailing list.
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Darin Momrow and Aviv
Ryan Benech has worked
former houseparent, Joe Rosenthal, and take a tour of the campus to see all the changes since their days as boarding students. The two were amazed to see the football field and new swimming pool and were pleased to see the new science and tech building was named for Mr. and Mrs. Nichols. Momrow is happily married and the proud father of a new baby boy. He is still
Instruments as an IT administrator for the past 10 years. “I’m also volunteering with a new grassroots organization called E3 Council, trying to get solar panels installed on schools using the small donation model similar to the one the Obama campaign pioneered. I’m in regular contact with a couple alums - John Wiley and Rishie Garg ’90.” Benech is a graduate of Santa Clara University and recently returned there for his wedding. n Heather Taher is a doctor of emergency medicine at Regional Medical Center in San Jose. Taher’s aunt, Marilyn Tietgens sent notice that Taher graduated from Tulane University in 2005, and finished her ER residency in Chicago earlier this year. “Now she’s back in the area and we are all so proud of her,” said Tietgens.
living in the Bay Area and works for Homeland Security. Friedlander is married with children and is the owner of Freeland Foods, a cer tified organic all-live food company using no sugar, wheat/flour or oil. Check out his company at www. goraw. com. “It was good seeing Joe and getting a tour of the new palace…er…campus,” said Momrow!
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Amy Langfuss Sidensol didn’t actually graduate from Harker Academy but did attend for six years, K-Gr. 5. She reconnected via the Facebook Group and was assured that anyone who attended Harker or any of the schools in our history for any length of time is happily considered alumni. “I was there in the mid to late ’80s. I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with my old friends from Harker!” she said.
made arrangea small company in ’92 atSanta ’90 Friedlander ments to visit with their Clara called Roos
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Class of ’92 alumnae at the wedding of classmate Liz Williams Itterly, pictures are (L to R): Stacey Noonan, Liz Williams Itterly, unidentified guest, Amanda Mathias Bonomi, Nikki Noonan and Tania Bassoni.
n Doug Chiu recently listed his business on the Harker Online Business Directory. He owns Chiu Chiropractic in Mountain View. You can get more information at www. chiuchiropractic.com.
n Mark Gelineau is per forming as Bottom in the Shakespeare on the Square Festival version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The show runs from June 11 to 27 and Gelineau would love to have some familiar faces in the audience. For more information go to www. arclightrep.org.
n Ravi Kapur is a television newscaster on Channel 8, the NBC affiliate in Monterey, Salinas and Santa Cruz and is also working for Channel 42 in San Jose. Yong Yeh attended UC Berkeley and received a degree in molecular and cell biology. “I then attended law school and ended up here in New York at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP as an associate in the tax department,” he said. Hope all is well at Harker. I drove by the school recently and it looks completely different (much better).”
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n Joy Patterson is back in school after working as a marketing manager in a software company in San Francisco for many years. “I am back in school pursuing
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
my multiple-subject teaching credential at SJSU to become an elementary school teacher,” she said. “My wonderful teachers at Harker were surely an inspiration, particularly Mr. [Howard] Saltzman, Ms. [Sylvia] Harp and Ms. [Laura] Rae. Patterson has signed on as an alumni agent for the Class of ’93 and has volunteered some time helping out at an alumni event. She is very interested in reconnecting with former classmates and Harker teachers. n Christopher Jou received his B.S. in Management Information Systems from Oregon Institute of Technology and currently lives in Los Banos. Jason Luker recently recon-
with teacher Pat ’94 nected Walsh who shared some of Luker’s email message. “Say hi to all, especially retiring Howard Saltzman. I am looking forward to catching up with everyone when I return to the area. I’ve been down in San Diego for about six years now but [my wife and I] are planning on
moving back to S.F. in the next six months or so,” he said. “I’m working for a real estate investment firm and they want to open an office up there. It will be great to get back near the family. Strangely enough, I just had a little reunion with Missy Decarvalho and am trying to get in touch with Jason Reid and Jon Carta. I heard they are both still in the Bay Area.” n Nathan Lim is a recruiter for Volt Accounting & Finance in San Jose. “It would be great to reconnect with previous classmates,” he said. “I went to Harker when it was still Harker Academy for fifth and sixth grade circa 1991. I had Mr. [Pat] Walsh for fifth grade and was in the same class as Josh Covey, Nathan Nishiguchi, Abby Eugenio, Claudia Banuelos, etc. CJ Cali was our P.E. coach and so was Coach Cosby. Mr. [Doug] Shreve was our science teacher.” Seung Joo (James) Lee was poking around on the Internet and found the Harker alum info. “I’m very glad to
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passages Seth Gimlan MS ’95 passed away on March 18, 2009. Gimlan was diagnosed with a brain tumor in June 2005 and had been in the hospital many times over the past three years. He attended Harker’s MS and went on to Menlo. The Class of ’95 is a very connected class and he remained close friends with Gurtej (Tej) Singh, Krishna Sampath, Kiu Li, Andrew Iannaccone and Jessica Gaffney Clark. There is a group on Facebook called In Memory of Seth Gimlan that provides information about Gimlan and makes reference to his time at Harker. “Seth was an artist and an inspired storyteller,” said Singh, “and he had a way of forging powerful and persistent friendships with a great number of people. He was a caring friend and was always there when any friend needed him. To him, friends and family always came first, and the hardest part of his illness was the stress it put on those closest to him.” Following his time at Menlo, Gimlan attended UCSB where he majored in mathematics and film studies. He went on to pursue his dream of filmmaking, and continued to do so while dealing with his cancer. To him, it was just another roadblock he would have to overcome. His passion was such that he postponed brain surgery in 2006 to be on set for his first feature, missing only the last two days of filming. “Throughout all of this, he maintained a positive attitude,” Singh said. “Just the week before his passing, he was discussing plans for when he was better.” Gimlan’s sister, Jaclyn Gimlan ’03, attended for Gr. 7-12 and went to Lehigh University. Those interested in sending a card can e-mail Gideon and Joni Gimlan (gimlan@earthlink.net) or Jaclyn Gimlan (jdg8@lehigh. edu), or send via snail mail to 100 Lasuen Ct., Los Gatos, 95032.
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
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Amanda Mathias Bonomi hosted a gathering at her home for some of her classmates, several of whom have recently had children. Pictured are Meredith Harrington Hiltgen with her daughter Natalie; Genia Shaw Curren with her daughter Olivia; Julie Amerian Johnson; Liz Williams Itterly; Nikki Noonan; Amanda Mathias Bonomi; Tania Bassoni; and Maren Shough Clouse with her son Theo.
be back in touch,” he said. Lee is in the IR department at SK Energy in the SK Group in Korea. He plans to return to the U.S. in the future and will stop by the Harker campus to see the changes.
with some people from Harker, and Tara Ramachandra and I were thinking of organizing another Harker reunion at a restaurant or bar in the next couple of months, so I’ll keep you posted.”
n Ambar Bhattacharyya is currently a student at Harvard Business School out in Boston. “I would love to hear how my former Harker classmates are doing!”
Eiko Furukawa checked in from Tokyo with an update. “It’s going to be my fourth year this coming April at an Internet service company called Rakuten, which has the biggest online shopping mall in Japan. I’m doing the sales for online marketing research. I am not married and no kids, but my family, including my 93-year-old grandmother, is doing fine!
n Tiffany Murphey noted that although she only attended Harker for Gr. 2-3, she reunited with a lot of old classmates at St. Francis High School. Murphey found the Harker Alumni Group on Facebook and was happy to reconnect with more of her former classmates. “Small world!” she said. n Katie Chou Hollier and husband, Brian Hollier, just brought forth Louis Samuel Ming Shi Hollier the fifth. The lad, called Sam, was born at 10 p.m. EDT, at eight-and-a-half pounds and 20 inches, and at the same moment Chou Hollier’s mom, Carol Zink, a history teacher at the upper school, became a grandmother. Yasemin Denari moved back to Saratoga recently after having lived and worked in Istanbul, Turkey, for the last three-and-a-half years. “I had a great experience in Turkey!” she said. “During my time there, I also spent about a year traveling to Romania a few times each month. I already miss Istanbul, but I’m also really happy to be back home! I’m planning to visit campus sometime in the near future. I’m still in touch
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Emily Crofton went to college in Quebec, Canada, where she earned an English literature degree with a minor in communication. She came back to California where she worked for a year as a reporter for the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers. She is now serving in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, West Africa, working on a girl empowerment program.
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Carmen Antoun is living in Los Angeles and working in marketing for Warner Bros. Digital Distribution division, “and loving it!” she said. “We distribute Warner Bros. movies and TV shows to online platforms such as iTunes, Xbox Live, Amazon Video On Demand as well as Cable Operators (i.e. Comcast, Time Warner, etc.) that have Video On Demand ser-
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notes Honor Societies Ceremony. See full stor y on pg. 9.
’04
n Peter Noonan became a father last fall, and he is pictured here
The Class of 2004 gathered for their five year reunion at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos on Fri., May 29. The group took over a picnic area and ser ved appetizers, salads and fruit along with plenty of beverages. There was some catching up to do, some giving of updates on what other classmates are doing and for some, just another social gathering as they see each other often through work and other gatherings. Ever yone enjoyed looking through the yearbooks from their K to 12 years at Harker along with the alumni office’s Class of 2004 binder – filled with photos and memorabilia. In attendance at the event were Sameer Dean, Victoria Duong, Munazza Javid, Courtney Johnson, Laena Keyashian, Nick Klute, Andrew Koh, Kathryn Lee, Sanby Lee, Jennifer Lin, Jessica Liu, Ann Lucena, Vikram Malhi, Nayan Mehta, Jacinda Mein, Ravi Mishra, Misbah Palla, Andrew Rogan, Prithi Trivedi and Anjali Vaidya. Teacher Pat Walsh and Alumni Director Terry Walsh stopped by at the beginning of the event for a quick hello, before heading off to the Bucknall Dance Show.
with his son Kaiden Noonan and girlfriend Trisha Lee Hardy. Maya Hey updated her
information and ’04 contact included this note. “Life is wonderful and I am having a blast. Hope all is well in your world too — would love to hear from you and all the amazing things you are up to!” n Surbhi Mahendru checked in with the alumni office when she stopped by campus for a visit last fall. She
Some other Harker folks met up with the group later when they continued on to Pizza My Heart in downtown Los Gatos and a little bar-hopping. The organizers said they were a little disappointed that some who had said they would attend didn’t show up, but added they understand it’s a busy time of year. “It was fun, and people had a great time looking through all the old yearbooks and the Class of ’04 binder. All in all I’d say it was relatively successful,” said Jessica Liu. “Looking forward to our 10 year!,” she added.
Continued from pg. 13 vices. It’s a new but rapidly growing business and a very exciting industry to be in. I hope to have a chance to stop by the campus soon!”
an avocation into a well-paid and personally satisfying career job. Isn’t it interesting the twists that life takes?” Check out www.animevice. com for more information. If you go
n Gabrielle DeMers sang the role of Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” with the Mar yland Opera Studio in April. The opera, per formed in Russian with English supertitles, is based on the classic Pushkin novel and features some of Tchaikovsky’s most glorious music. Per formances were in the KAY Theater at the Clarice Smith Per forming Arts Center at the University of Mar yland, College Park.
n Shally Garg is now a first-year medical student at the University of Nevada, Reno. She earned a B.S. in biomedical engineering from USC (class of 2006) and was working at Medtronic Inc. in Northridge, Calif., before starting medical school. n Georgia Manry is ‘Gia,’ the Web editor of a full-blown Web site launched in December ’08 totally dedicated to Anime and Manga. Manry’s mom (Linda Manry) sent an email update that noted, “This is like the dream job for a girl who started out at 9 or 10 years-old being a Sailor Moon fan, and used to save her own money to go to the conventions and activities that she now covers for her employer and enjoys press status! Of course, her journalism degree (Pacific University ’06) was the key to turning
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message to Joe Rosenthal to let him know what he was up to. Wu said, “It gets really competitive in the industrial design program, but nonethless, I try my best.”
to videos, you will be able to see Manry interviewing various notables in the community her Web site serves.
’03
MS Jack Wu is in his second year at Purdue. Wu recently sent an e-mail
n Brian Chow stopped by the alumni office on his spring break from law school. Chow graduated from UC Davis with a degree in political science and is currently attending McGeorge, a part of the University of the Pacific. n Sophia Wang returned to her roots in April, as guest speaker at the Foreign Language National
graduated from UCLA and is currently working for Triage Consulting Group in San Francisco. n Diana Shtil graduated from George Washington University magna cum laude in December 2007 with a B.B.A. in business (concentration in marketing) and a minor in psychology. “While at GW, I spent one summer abroad in London studying international economics and British literature of the world wars; absolutely amazing experience,” she said. “Outside of school, I spent my time working at various internships (brokerage firms, marketing firms, etc.). After graduation, I stayed in the Washington, D.C., area. I am in the trainee program for Travelers in management liability and am really excited to take on my own book of business. I am planning to pursue an M.B.A. within
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
competing. In 2007, we placed third in the competition. There are over 100 students involved in Santa Clara’s team and I am the leader for the electrical team.” azorian@scu.edu
the next one or two years, and not quite sure if that will lead me back to California or keep me here on the East Coast! I hope all is well at Harker; please pass on my regards to ever yone, especially Mr. [John] Near as he was not only a great faculty member who was extremely supportive and kind, but also helped me make the decision to go to GW. I have always appreciated his input and advice, and thanks to him I had an amazing college experience!” Kathy Peng is involved in science research at Yale. She has been doing neurobiology coursework to complete her Neurobiology major and she is also involved in neuroscience research at the Yale Medical School. “I’m looking for ward to working as a research assistant in a neuroscience laborator y before applying to graduate school in neuroscience,“ said Peng.
’05
Gail Nakano, a Vassar chemistr y major, has been invited to join the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers. Simon Carrington is director of the Yale Schola Cantorum and professor of choral conducting at Yale University and before that directed the Kings Singers at Cambridge University, England. The group plans a tour to the Midwest in May and annual international tours. Despite being a chem major, Nakano says she feels “like I spend the majority of my time singing!
’06
n Kat Hudkins connected with Diana Moss’ Spanish 3 honors class via Skype. See page 9 for the full stor y.
I’m still in two choirs, Vassar College Choir and Madrigal Singers. This past semester in my voice lessons I worked on a bunch of the ‘Charlotte’ arias from Massenet’s ‘Werther.’ So much fun!” she added. n Apik Zorian noted, “I am currently a leader on Santa Clara University’s Solar Decathlon team. For three weeks in October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy will host the Solar Decathlon, a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build and operate the most attractive, effective and energyefficient solar-powered house. The Solar Decathlon is also an event to which the public is invited to obser ve the power ful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency and the best in home design. The competition is international, with universities from all over the world
Ebrahim Advances in ISLP Senan Ebrahim ’08, now at Harvard, earned a slot in the second phase of the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP) competition on Feb. 25, 2009. This is the first time the competition has been held in the U.S.
n Casey Near has received a Mellon Grant in American Histor y and will be studying at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Only 10 students are chosen nationwide, and it is a three-week research program. It not only covers all of her expenses, it covers an all-expense paid trip for the faculty member who recommended her to join her the last week with her research in Philadelphia. n Tommy Holford has a programming internship at Northrop Grumman in San Diego, and is enjoying both the job and the nearby beach. n Naushad Godrej joined the mens soccer team at Santa Clara University as a goalkeeper this year. At Harker, Godrej was MVP of
the soccer team in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and first team All-PSAL in those same years. During his varsity career at Harker, Godrej posted 24 shutouts and star ted 62 consecutive matches. At Santa Clara, Godrej saw action in two contests this past year, finishing the season with a 1-0-1 record with eight saves. His first collegiate appearance and star t against Por tland was on Nov. 2, when he registered two saves and his first career win. His second appearance was against Saint Mar y’s on Nov. 7 with six saves. Jason Martin, son of Steve Martin, Harker’s executive chef, is tearing up the diamond at San Jose State
’07
University. In mid-March, Martin started the first of two games against Chicago State with a firstinning three-run homer, his third of the season. He now leads the team in HRs. In game two, he was hit by a pitch, took second on a wild pitch and scored on a pop out to center. Fast! Last season the walk-on phenom hit .307 (51-for166) for the season and scored 34 runs. The Western Athletic Conference announced their all-league teams in late May and Martin was named to the All Conference Second Team. n Allison Wong will be working in L.A. this summer with an Amgen Scholarship to study organometallic chemistr y with Dr. Paula Diaconescu. “Here is the link to the Amgen Scholars Web site: http:// www.amgenscholars.com/. n Julia Havard was inducted into the prestigious Signet Society of Har vard University. Founded in 1870, the society had as its first president Charles Joseph Bonaparte. Members are chosen
for their merit and accomplishment. Among the Signet Society’s notable members are President Franklin D. Roosevelt, author Samuel Eliot Morison, actor Tommy Lee Jones, poet T.S. Eliot, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Havard, a sophomore, was recognized for her leadership as president of Har vard’s Cultural Agents Continued on pg. 16
The Harker News is published nine times a year by The Harker School, Office of Communications, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. Periodical Postage Rate is paid at San Jose, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Harker News, 500 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose CA 95129. The Harker News provides timely information, news and features about the Harker community to current and alumni Harker families.
Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement
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notes
Continued from pg. 15 Undergraduate Initiative, her work and per formances in theater and dance, and her contributions to various organizations involved with health issues. n Siobhan Stevenson is attending the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU where she recently appeared in the play “Move Over, Mrs. Markham.” Set in 1960s modLondon, the show, a British farce, was entirely student-directed and produced with cast and crew from five different NYU schools and played in the Skirball Center for
the Performing Arts on the NYU campus. She also appeared in hotINK, the school’s annual new play staged-reading series, and sings with the campus’ all-female a cappella group, the Cleftomaniacs. She has just finished her second year at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, where this fall she will study in their musical theater practicum in the fall. Pauline Nguyen is a coxswain on the Open Women’s Crew team at Princeton. “I’ll keep you updated on how the freshman boat does!” she said.
’08
n Ben Englert joined Kalexo (www. kalexo.com) as a summer intern at the end of May 2008, and enjoyed it so much, “I decided to continue
working for them remotely after moving to Boston for college in September,” he said. “As of October I am also a shareholder in the company. Officially, I am responsible for developing the Macintosh and iPhone versions of Kalexo’s Teamwork software, but since it’s a small startup (seven employees) I end up getting to work on all sorts of different things. Teamwork is a communication and collaboration platform for projects involving multiple groups or companies. Looking for ward to reading the June issue!”
alumni
Joint Venture Is Fun Annual Event for Current and Alumni Parents US parents gathered with parents of alumni in mid-March to talk about what it is like to send a student off to college. The informal evening event, held in the Nichols Hall Rotunda, gave parents a chance to talk about the overall college experience and specifically about the colleges their student(s) are attending. About 80 parents attended. “We do these events twice a year and will be repeating them in the 2009-10 school year,” said Terry Walsh, alumni director. “They’ve proven to be very well-received and well-attended. We always tend to have parents lingering around at the end of the evening drinking a glass of wine and catching up with each other.”
n Colin Daw was accepted on to the Formula UBC Team, an engineering team that works on an entr y vehicle for the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Collegiate Design Competition. The international competition lets student engineers from more than 100 universities and engineering schools worldwide showcase their ability to design, construct and test an open-wheeled racing car. “This hands-on opportunity was one of the reasons he chose UBC for his engineering studies,” said mom Brenda Davis. “He’s thrilled to be spending his Saturdays working on this project!” n Tiffany Liou is working with a startup company created by students from Santa Clara University. “In short, we create college networking sites and I’m in marketing and public relations,” said Liou. “The company is called CampusKiwi. We recently launched the network at SCU: www. sculife.com. Our goal is to create a network for students to connect them with their current or future school, whether it is professionally, academically or socially. If you take a look at the Web site, you will see that there are a lot of options for current students, such as professor ratings, athletic updates, events calendar and textbook swaps. There is also a section for prospective students where they can contact current students to get opinions, etc. We basically want to create a strong network for students and their community.”
Alum Class Agents Meet in March
The alumni office is building a program that will ultimately have alumni agents to represent each class year. These agents are the link between alumni and the school. A meeting was held in mid-March for alumni who have agreed to be class agents so they could meet and bond with each other, and learn about their duties. Attendees included (L to R) Ravi Kapur ’92, Yasmin Ali ’02, Jennifer Lin ’04, Mr. Walsh (sitting), Kristin Scarpace Giammona ’81, Christina Yan ’93 (sitting), Kathryn Lee ’04, Joy Patterson ’93 (sitting), Ashley Sukovez Franke ’96, Eric Xanthopoulos ’88, Jessica Liu ’04, Cindy Cottrell DeAngelo ’76 (sitting), Katie Wilson ’89, Augie Ruberto ’76 (sitting), Chip Zecher ’79, Terry Walsh, Joy Aliason Younes ’76 (sitting).
The Harker School is a K-12 independent, co-ed, college-prepschool. Grades K-5: 4600 Bucknall Rd., San Jose CA 95130; Grades 6-8: 3800 Blackford Ave., San Jose CA 95117; Grades 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose CA 95129 Harker believes that all persons are entitled to equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate against its employees or applicants because of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), national origin, ancestry, age (over 40), marital status, political affiliations, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sexual orientation, or any other basis protected by state or federal laws, local law or ordinance.
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news
The Harker News, produced by the Office of Communication, provides timely information, news and features about the Harker community to current and alumni Harker families. Director: Pam Dickinson; Editor: William Cracraft; Contributors: Zach Jones, Terry Walsh; Copy Editors: Catherine Snider, Stephanie Woolsey, Laurie Vaughan; Production: Blue Heron Design Group; Photos: Mark Tantrum or Terry Walsh, unless noted; Printing: Carol Sosnowski; Mailing Coordinator: Desiree Mitchell. Harker News — June 2009, Alumni Supplement