JUNE 2009 (VOL. 15, NO. 9)
A
M O N T H L Y
inside
N E W S L E T T E R
est. 1893 • K-12 college prep
F R O M
T H E
H A R K E R
S C H O O L
Hilbrich and Gowda Win National Debate Tournament
Dean For a Day and More Picnic News.........................5 Performing Arts Groups Wrap Up Year...........................9-11 Creative Writing Group Includes US, MS................14 Math Competitors Tally Up Big Wins............................18 Opera San Jose Visits LS....28 Student Gets Silver in Cal State Science Fair..............30 Medical Emergency Puts Student to Work.................35
Inserts in this issue: n Picnic Save the Date n Alumni Supplement
events
Congratulations to Public Forum debaters Kelsey Hilbrich, Gr. 11 and Kaavya Gowda, Gr. 12, for their win at the National Tournament of Champions (TOC) held in May at the University of Kentucky. The TOC is considered to be one of the most prestigious tournaments in the nation. Students compete on the national circuit all year against some of the best teams in the country to earn qualifying legs to the TOC. For most students, just qualifying to the TOC is a high school dream. Once at the TOC, debaters are pitted against the best, since every team in the tournament had to make it to late eliminations at other elite national tournaments. This means that every preliminary round (there are seven) is essentially a semifinal or final round at a regular season tournament. continued on pg. 34
Two Speakers Inspire Students to Help Solve Water Crisis It all started with author/photographer Rick Smolan’s visit as part of the Harker Speaker Series. That visit spurred the founding of the MS Blue Planet Group and culminated with the visit of Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water.
Save the Date! Sun., Oct. 11, 2009
Gr. 8 science teacher Lorna Claerbout and many of her students went to hear Smolan speak. “Smolan’s talk opened my eyes to the need for clean water worldwide,” said group member Emily Wang, Gr. 8. continued on pg. 33
The 59th Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Blackford Campus 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. See news and more details inside!
Harker Has Third Presidential Scholar in Four Years Senior Daniel J. Kim has been named a 2009 Presidential Scholar, making him the third Harker Presidential Scholar since 2006. This marks the first year Harker has had two semifinalists in the Presidential Scholar selection process; Vikram Nathan, Gr. 12 was also a semifinalist. continued on pg. 18
important dates
summer
n Mon., Aug. 24 – US 117th Academic Year Begins (matriculation and orientation) n Tues., Aug. 2 – MS/US, 117th Academic Year Begins n Thurs., Aug. 27 – K-Gr. 4, 117th Academic Year Begins
June 8 – July 30
n Mon., Sept. 7 – Labor Day, No Classes K-Gr. 12
editor’s note Over the summer, be sure to check out the following:
annual giving Heartfelt Thanks! The annual giving logo appearing at the end of some of our stories indicates those activities or programs funded by Annual Giving.
pastries & pals
n HARKER NEWS ONLINE (HNO) Launched this past spring, this new online news source is for both the public and for the Harker community. It includes most of what is published in the monthly Harker News, as well as photo slide shows, video clips and more. We post news items in HNO throughout the month, and we’ll also be posting news items throughout the summer. You can subscribe to e-mail notifications when stories are posted by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Register Today!
n www.harker.org Harker’s Web site is our global front door and provides general information about Harker, its programs and its history to prospective families, news media, our local communities and many supporters. We’ll be continuing to fine tune and streamline our public site over the summer.
n HARKER PARENT PORTAL (HPP) We launched the portal last fall, and we’ve recently streamlined from four parent portals (schoolwide, lower school, middle school and upper school) to reduce confusion and consolidate information into one info-packed page for parents. You can customize the page and move info boxes around to suit your needs, so let us know what you think at web@harker.org.
n SOCIAL MEDIA The Harker School maintains accounts in such social media as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Visit HNO for links and join in! We’ve also posted photos and basic information in Yelp, so if you’re interested in posting a review about Harker there, feel free!
n PHOTO GALLERIES
Harker News, Swim 09 online 1.75”x6.5” Find Harker on the following social sites:
DRAFT 2 ®
Summer is a good time to catch up on those photos you’ve not had time to grab of your children in shows, on trips and more. We chronicle Harker life each day for use in our school publications, on our Web site, for publicity and for archives. We post these photos for parents to view and download in password-protected galleries that you access through our intranet, the Harker Parent Portal (see above). Downloads are free and prints can be ordered for a nominal fee. We welcome assistance in covering the many happenings at Harker, so if you’d like to help or have questions or suggestions about our galleries, contact photos@harker.org. Questions or suggestions? You can always feel free to e-mail us at communications@harker.org. Have a great summer! –Pam Dickinson, director Office of Communications pamd@harker.org
2
Pam Dickinson - all photos
Ages 3-Adult All Swim Levels Private & Group Lessons
The Pastries & Pals event in early May, organized by Danielle Holquin, MS admission director, was very well-attended. Invitees included current, future and prospective parents of primarily middle schoolers. Shu Jin, whose son, Andrew, will begin Gr. 7 in the fall, said, “My wife and I really enjoyed meeting so many Harker parents. We felt great to be in the Harker family.”
talon photos Student photos from the 2008-09 Talon yearbook are available for purchase online via the Harker Parent Portal – Schoolwide. Once in the portal, click on Harker Photo Galleries, then on Yearbook Collection to view and buy these lively and memorable photos.
Harker News — June 09
HEAD
lines
Words of Wisdom to Grads from Favorite Children’s Literary Character Good morning to all our esteemed guests: members of the board of trustees, administration, faculty and staff, alumni, families, friends, and to the actual guests of honor, the graduating class of 2009. I currently hold the privilege of making a few remarks of farewell at graduation. I like to think of my address as the last Harker lecture you will ever hear. Knowing that only my talk stands between you and your diploma, I will continue the tradition of confining my remarks to one page of single-spaced, size twelve font. I also continue this tradition because since I began it I have received a total of zero requests to lengthen my address.
intentions, always yields positive results. For instance, if George did not accidentally let out all of the puppies at the shelter, the personnel at the shelter would not find the one puppy that had gone missing in the first place. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “A man’s character is his guardian divinity.” George’s good intentions, I believe, ultimately guard him from serious calamity.
In this address, I typically try to give one final piece of advice, such as “dare to be wrong” or “you can’t always get what you want.” Now that I have a 1- and a 3-year old at home, I seem to be finding all of my advice and wisdom within children’s books and using these insights in speeches and articles. So, at the risk of being repetitive, I am continuing along this path today with the message, “Be like Curious George.” I was seriously debating whether or not to incorporate insights from children’s literature in an address once again, when, while driving, I saw advertised on a passing bus that today, May 23, marks the opening of the Curious George exhibit at the Children’s Discovery Museum. Coincidence? I think not.
Finally, George is a great innovator, constantly engaged in what Joseph Schumpeter called “creative destruction.” Schumpeter spoke of creative destruction in economics, the destruction and creation of economic structures. But George is an innovator of process more than anything else. When he scurries uphill at a dinosaur dig, he accidentally invokes a landslide that uncovers the bones of a full dinosaur. When he plays with the levers of a dump truck in a park, he creates a new island in a pond for the ducks. It can even be argued that Curious George invented snowboarding. This clever little monkey does all of this innovating when he leaves the not-so-careful gaze of his best friend, “the man with the yellow hat,” suggesting that to innovate, we have to break rules, think for ourselves, and, to use “Star Trek” parlance, “go where no one has gone before.”
When I say “Be like Curious George,” what do I mean? Well, after making a deep acquaintance with this wonderful little monkey, three attributes, all of which we can emulate, stand out for me. First, despite all the trouble he gets into, George always has good intentions. Second, Curious George is, well, curious. And third, he is an innovator of the highest order. Let’s begin with George’s good intentions. How do we know that he always has good intentions? Well, on the first page of every book in the series, as you may recall, the authors, Margret and H.A. Rey, begin with, “This is George. He was a good little monkey and always very curious.” George was a “good little monkey.” The big trouble he always finds himself in – and I mean big trouble, like accidentally letting out a cage full of puppies at an animal shelter – is mitigated somewhat by his big heart and good intentions. Or more subtly, George’s curiosity, because it is guided by good
Then we have George’s famous curiosity. There is very little George doesn’t find completely fascinating. Whether it is making chocolates, or a duck’s walk, or the view from a lifeguard’s chair, or dinosaur bones, or a railroad station timetable, or fire trucks – George loves it all, finding endless wonder in the everyday scenes all around us. The great mythologist Joseph Campbell said, “I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.” George experiences life more fully, I believe, because of his curiosity. We watch him and chuckle to ourselves because his curiosity seems a little naïve, perhaps appropriate for children, but not sophisticated adults. But in the end where we see the mundane, he sees pure wonder. Who has the better vision?
So yes, I stand here today and advise you to “Be like Curious George.” His good intentions guide his voracious curiosity which ultimately fuels his innovation, his “creative destruction.” To close with another quote from Joseph Campbell, “Where you stumble, there you find your treasure.” Time and time again, George stumbles upon his own curiosity, but he ultimately uncovers many treasures, creating new paths that are truly his own. I truly wish all of you a good heart, a healthy curiosity and a unique path, guided by good intentions and the wonder the world deserves. Thank you.
–Christopher Nikoloff, Head of School
Circle Celebration a Special Thank You to Donors About 200 people attended the Head of School’s Circle Celebration on May 1, held in Nichols Hall for the first time. The event is held to thank donors who gave to Annual Giving this school year at the Head of School’s Circle level or above, as well as benefactors to the capital campaign. Members of the Parent Development Council are also honored, including co-chairs Tamra Amick (Robert, Gr. 8), Brian Richardson (Shannon, Gr. 5) and Huali Chai Stanek (Andrew, Gr. 12). The entertainment was fantastic: performers included Harker String Quartet, Bel Canto, Showstoppers, High Voltage, Downbeat and a cello trio from the US Orchestra. Downbeat seniors shared how long they had been at Harker, where they are going to college and what they planned to study. Guests also heard Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts department chair, and Jaap Bongers, fine arts department chair Gr. 6-12, speak of how the support of parents and the school have helped their programs to grow. Head of School Chris Nikoloff gave a brief summary of what is happening now at the school (new library, dance room and college counseling office on the Saratoga campus) and a look to the future (performing arts building and theater, gym and student union). Harker News — June 09
3
HARKER
picnic
The Overnight Party at
“The MS All-Night Party was a huge success this year,” beamed summer programs director Kelly Espinosa. On April 12, 30 lucky MS students boarded the Harker bus driven by sleepover veteran Heather Perrotta, and headed out to Kennolyn Camp for a night of fun, friends and lots of junk food. The group made it to the camp at about 7 p.m. “Kennolyn Camp is a beautiful place and this night was no exception,” Espinosa said. “The trees, the fresh air, the authentic Old West Village, all very cool!” After unloading supplies, the entire group headed to the campfire. “[Eighth grader] Amy Wardenburg and friends did a great job keeping the fun going at the campfire. There were stories and songs, games and some hard-toexplain mini versions of popular shows as well as a condensed version of the MS production,” Espinosa said. “Yes, it was silly, but so fun!” Later, marshmallows were roasted (with fire and roasting sticks provided by social studies teacher Keith Hirota and computer science teacher Joe Chung) and everyone enjoyed the sticky, gooey, yummy mess! Back at the lodge the campers decorated wooden boxes, played cards, ate candy, read magazines and ate more candy. There was a rousing game of Apples to Apples at one table and everyone was busy and happy and enjoying themselves. “We finally got out our sleeping stuff and settled in to a nice movie before falling off to sleep really late!” Espinosa recalled. The morning came far too early. The group had breakfast (some people had cold pizza) and cleaned up. BEST staffers Angel Pendleton and Mike Pankrast accompanied the kids and the Kennolyn guide on a tour of the camp. “It’s an amazing place and because some of our students have attended the camp, the kids had a great time seeing the camp and telling stories about their summer experiences,” Espinosa said. Following the tour, the group arrived back at Blackford right on time. Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Gr. 6, ended the fun by treating the group to a donut-eating demonstration, which Espinosa said was “funny and gross at the same time.” Everyone then waved goodbye as each car arrived and departed the campus. “This really is a great trip, and as a grown-up who gets to go every year, I’m amazed at how much fun I have,” said Espinosa, who quickly added, “Except for the no sleeping part, I really enjoy spending time with the kids, watching them be nice to each other, and laughing at their ability to let loose and really have a good time!”
We’re Fishin’ for Volunteers! Loyal picnic volunteers gathered in May to brainstorm for our upcoming Picnic in the Pines on Sun., Oct. 11. The group gathered to discuss decorations, games, raffle prizes, T-shirt sales, specialty booths, entertainment, sponsors and more. Kelly Espinosa led the group in raucous memory games to get the thinking started and make a plan for the “great outdoors!” We’re all looking forward to the Auction Under the Stars, a Forest of Fun, a prize-filled Critter Creek and an entertaining Campfire Clearing, just to name a few. Mostly, we’re looking forward to working and playing together. And we’re ready to “reel you in” too, so be on the lookout for volunteer opportunities. This is going to be the best picnic ever!
4
Four Gr. 5 girls had a very special lunch with Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. Lunch with Giammona was an auction item at the family picnic and the girls had a great time at Round Table Pizza with her. The lucky lunchers were Ankita Sharma, Natasha Mayor, Aarti Kheskani and Stephanie Huang.
Outings Say Thanks to Those Who Sold Tons of Tickets Rewards a-plenty were the order of the day when nigh on to 50 Gr. 3-5 students headed off to Golfland in late May. The trip was in return for family picnic ticket sales, and ever y minute of fun was wellearned. At Golfland the children had the facilities to themselves for the majority of the afternoon. They enjoyed a little golf, splashed down the water slides and mastered their arcade skills in the penny arcade area. Robbie Underwood, Gr. 5, even walked away with a new iPod as a prize!
Carol Underwood
The trees, the fresh air, the authentic Old West Village, all very cool!
Provided by Kristin Giammona
Kennolyn Camp! “
“
Lucky Four Have Lunch with the Head
The week before, the K-Gr. 2 students who sold 100+ tickets were treated to Pump It Up where the children had lots of fun jumping! They enjoyed racing (and beating) Kim Coulter, BEST director, through the obstacle courses, zooming down the slide and running from Abbey Lile-Taylor, BEST assistant director, while they bounced their hearts away.
SAVE THE DATE! Sunday Oct. 11, 2009 The 59th Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Blackford Campus 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Harker News — June 09
Dean For A Day
Fore! Day of Golf a Huge Success! One of the most popular picnic packages is the Dean for a Day offering. Ayush Pancholy, Gr. 2, took over the reins at the LS in early May. Dressed in a suit and tie, Pancholy made the rounds of both the Blackford and Saratoga campuses, even sitting in the chair of Chris Nikoloff, head of school, while at Saratoga. Back at Bucknall, he was able, among other duties, to declare a free dress day for teachers on teacher appreciation day and otherwise ruled with a firm yet moderate hand!
I’ll Be Your Waiter Today… Would you like to have lunch at school served to you by Harker royalty? Lunch is served…by Chris Nikoloff, head of school; Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs; and Cindy Ellis, MS division head, to six Gr. 6 girls on a delightful spring day on the Blackford campus! Under the cool shade of a gazebo, the girls had a memorable dining experience. Madi Bourquin’s parents bought her the teacher auction package offered by English teacher Kate Murphy. While their classmates waited in line for lunch, the girls relaxed at the table in the open-air gazebo at a table adorned by soft linens, silver candelabra and beautiful flowers. They sipped apple juice and ice water from cobalt blue goblets as their wait staff served them a multicourse lunch. The auction package will again be offered at the next family picnic!
The 2009 Harker golf outing was held at the beautiful Silver Creek Country Club on April 29. Initial sign-ups had taken place at the family picnic last fall, and the group grew from there. The day began with practice shots at the driving range and putting green, along with a catered lunch. After a spirited putting contest, the groups paired up into golf carts and began play, with a friendly competition for the longest drive and closest to the pin. Congratulations go to Kim Hall (Kyle, Gr. 12), Dorothy Scarpace and Ingrid Wu (Liana and Lucas Wang, Gr. 3-4), for coming in first in the scramble format. Second place winners were Raj Ahuja (Rahul, Gr. 12), Tom Tobada, Darrin Cassidy (Bucknall kitchen manager) and Joe Rosenthal (executive director of advancement). Harker golf team member Aaron Lin, Gr. 12, won the putting contest with his putt coming just a few inches closer than teammate Kyle Hall. Hall had just taken over first place from his mom, who was the leader all the way until the last two players putted, each taking over first place after their putts. Chef Cassidy won the longest drive for the men and Scarpace won the longest drive for the women. Rosenthal won the closest to the pin with his shot landing just twelve feet from the pin!
Early Start to Summer A pool party is a great way to end the school year and about 30 sixth graders took advantage of the offer by teachers Keith Hirota, Julie Pinzás and Michael Schmidt to join them for this family picnic package. The party – all fun, sun and fabulous friends – took place at the new Singh Aquatics Center on the Saratoga campus. The day was punctuated by races, games, fantastic prizes, frosty beverages, finger foods and a poolside DJ! Everyone had plenty of time to relax, work on their tans, hang out with friends and celebrate the end of the school year! Harker News — June 09
Other varietals were poured by Delectus Winery of Napa Valley, as well. “It was a fun day on the course and a wonderful evening tasting fine wines,” remarked Gary Gauba. “We are already making plans for next year’s outing. If you play golf and would like to participate in this fun outing next year, please be sure to let Joe Rosenthal know and he will be happy to include you!”
Lynette Stapleton
Kate Murphy
We would like to extend special thanks to Gary and Pooja Gauba (Ashley, K; Alesis, Gr. 4) and Sandeep and Priya Vij (Sameer, Gr. 7, Sarina, Gr. 8) for generously sponsoring the outing this year. Following golf, the Gaubas hosted a lovely wine tasting at their spectacular Silver Creek home overlooking the valley. The tasting featured the famous Jarvis wines, with Harker alum William Jarvis ’97 on hand to pour and explain about the wines.
HARKER
passages
“
...enjoy life and consider your friends. Academics are important, but so are our attitudes. Your attitude will stay with you throughout your life.
“
– Phyllis Carley
Harker Says Goodbye to Lifetime Employee, Trustee Phyllis Gwynn Carley, much beloved member of the Harker community for over 50 years, passed away in her sleep April 25. She was 88 years old. At a school that values its deep ties to the community, Mrs. Carley, as she was known to so many, was an institution and an irreplaceable tie to our past. Nichols Hall hosted a gathering celebrating her life May 7 in Nichols Hall. The packed auditorium was the finest testimony the Harker community could make to the contribution Mrs. Carley made as the school grew from a boarding school in Palo Alto to the three-campus institution it has become today. The memorial included a welcome from Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and words from Diana Nichols, former head of school, on what Mrs. Carley meant to the school over the years. Alumna Lauren Ammatuna ’08 sang “Take Me Home, Countr y Roads,” a paean to the deep love Mrs. Carley had for wide open spaces gained on horseback in her girlhood in Modesto. Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, spoke on Mrs. Carley’s legacy of caring and dedication; her stepson, Ken Blase, told stories of her from his childhood; and the memorial wrapped up with members of the audience sharing poignant, moving and joyous memories of how this outstanding, kind woman had touched their lives. Born December 29, 1920, Mrs. Carley came of age prior to World War II in the Salinas Valley where in 1937, in one of her cherished moments, she was named Hostess of the California Rodeo in Salinas and awarded a pair of silver spurs she always treasured. She was a life-long aficionado of rodeos – always pronounced “ro day’ o” – and returned to Salinas to attend the California Rodeo every year, as well as attending other rodeos in central and northern California as often as possible. The Harker School was graced with Mrs. Carley’s presence in a number of valuable roles, culminating with her services as secretary to the Board of Trustees and as a private clipping service for Harker’s Office of Communication. She opened her Harker career in 1952 in Palo Alto as a driver, shuttling local students to and from school. She progressed by virtue of her wonderful disposition and hard work to become secretary first to Donald Nichols, then to Howard Nichols and remained in that role for many years,
though her contribution to campus life went far beyond her desk in the administration building. As a student in the Central Valley, Mrs. Carley played polo, basketball and softball and noted once that being involved with Harker allowed her to relive her childhood, and for the duration of her life, she was one of Harker athletics’ biggest fans. “I love watching students of all ages coming together and having fun,” she said in a Winged Post (Harker’s student newspaper) article. After retiring from Harker, Mrs. Carley continued to provide critical services to the school as secretary of the Board of Trustees. She was also a familiar face to current students and, as an avid sports fan, could be spotted at many home games. It didn’t matter what sport, she just enjoyed seeing kids active. Of no less value were her eight years of service to Harker’s Office of Communication where she scoured local newspapers for any mention of Harker. She dropped off the marked newspapers and her typed summary of news about Harker each week, and her visits were a welcome moment as she passed from office to office in the hallway – and also across the campus – dropping off clippings, sports scores and stories. In 2006, Mrs. Carley received the Harker Alumni Association (HAA) Service Award, which was immediately renamed the HAA Phyllis Carley Service Award in her honor. Nikoloff noted, “Whether cheering our students at games or serving as secretary to the Board of Trustees, Phyllis Carley’s long career at The Harker School embodied the true spirit of service. Everyone at Harker enjoyed seeing Phyllis around campus, and her attitude of service and love has helped make Harker the special place it is today.” Mrs. Carley lived the advice she once gave high school students, to “enjoy life and consider your friends. Academics are important, but so are our attitudes. Your attitude will stay with you throughout your life.” Mrs. Carley’s attitude, her dedication to her family and friends and to Harker will always inspire those who knew her. She is preceded in death by her husband Rue Carley and survived by her grandson Dale Johnson (Harker Academy Class of 1980), stepsons Edwin and Ken Blase, as well as many other nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Harker News — June 09
STAFF
updates
n Alumna Lauren Ammatuna ’08 has been volunteering in the alumni
n The Office of Communication has the good fortune 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 two 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!
n Bucknall kitchen staffer Lupe Gonzalez delivered Daniela Gonzalez at 6 pounds, 4 ounces, 18 ½ inches long in the early afternoon of May 5. Congratulations!
n Soraya Alcantar will be stepping in as administrative assistant to Cindy Ellis, MS school division head, and Lana Morrison, MS dean of students, while Kelly Schlernitzauer, the current assistant, goes through some special training. “Soraya is ver y excited to join Harker and I know ever yone will welcome her warmly,” said Ellis.
n Teacher Ruth Meyer is contributing a chapter, titled “Chronos vs. Kairos: A Plea for Restoration of Empathy and Imagination in Histor y Teaching,” to “Reimagining Education: Essays on Reviving the Soul of Learning,” edited by Dennis Patrick Slatter y and Jennifer Leigh Selig. Meyer, a US histor y teacher, noted the chapter will be a re-work of the education section of her Ph.D. dissertation and that the book is the publishing imprint of “Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture,” the oldest Jungian psychology journal in the world.
n Mark Gelineau, MS English teacher, will be per forming in the Shakespeare on the Square Festival in Arclight Repertor y Theatre’s production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” this June. He plays the role of Bottom, one of the great Shakespearean comic roles. The show runs June 11-27 at the Theater on San Pedro Square; see www.arclightrep. org for details. In addition, Gelineau is volunteering as the educational outreach coordinator for Arclight and brought on Harker alumna Emily Stapleton MS ’93 as one of the teaching artists running the classes and assisting with the program. “Arclight is a theater organization dedicated to bringing theater to audiences who might not traditionally be exposed to it,” said Gelineau. “They specialize in Shakespeare, but also focus on literar y adaptations and supporting new and upcoming playwrights. They do work with schools, at-risk youth groups, community centers, etc. They started the Shakespeare on the Square Festival a few years ago, and it is the only Shakespeare festival in the city of San Jose. They are an amazing organization.”
n Congratulations to Katie
Provided by Carol Zink
Chou Hollier ’95 and husband Brian Hollier, on the birth of Louis Samuel Ming Shi Hollier the Fifth. The lad, called Sam, was born at 10 p.m. EDT, at 8 ½ pounds and 20 inches, and at the same moment Carol Zink, US histor y teacher, became a grandmother.
n Welcome Maya Esther Biton, who could not wait until after finals! Little Maya arrived on Friday, May 22 at 4:19 p.m. Congratulations to parents Lisa Biton-Rozakis, Latin teacher, and husband Yehiel Biton, on this new addition to their family! Harker News — June 09
Staff Pins Awarded to Dedicated Employees Harker celebrated those who have contributed to the development of Harker students for five years or more at the end of the school year, and the list is long! Each person with five years at the school received a gold “H” pin to commemorate their effort and those with 10, 15, 20, 25 and yes, 30 years received a diamond inset to their pin for their additional five years. Terry Walsh, alumni director, received her fifth diamond, having reached the 30-year point; Tracey Clifford, Melanie Robinson and John Zetterquist have put in 25 years; 20-year employees are Linda Brearley, C.J. Cali, Debra Nott, Shelley Orr, Lynette Stapleton; Heidi Rosa was the sole 15-year employee; Triona Coyne; Misael Fisico, Isabel Garcia, Jennifer Gargano, Mark Gelineau, John Heyes, Keith Hirota, Debbi Horiuchi, Urdelin Justo, James McGovern, Leah Moll, Ben Morgensen, Stacie Newman, Maria Nguyen, Chris Nikoloff, Rick Samble, Kelly Schlernitzauer, Michael Schmidt, Elise Schwartz, Stephanie Woolsey and Lisa Radice all earned their first diamond for 10 years of service; and gold pins were awarded to five-year veterans Nicole Brink, Patricia Lai Burrows, Kristin Carlson, Tim Culbertson, Anne Marie Douglas, Rowan Dow, Karen Glovka, Scott Graham, Roxann Hagemeyer, Virginia Heath, Colleen Lindsay, Emily Manigo, Norma Mora, Richard Page, Mitchell Post, Gabriele Stahl, Geni Torrez, Ramsay Westgate, Rebecca Williams and Carol Zink. Thanks to these stalwarts for their immeasurable contribution to student growth and Harker life in general!
Rosenthal Recognized by Peers Late Breaking News: Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, has been named the Outstanding Professional Fundraiser for 2009 by the
“
Congratulations to Joe for all of his dedication to and hard work on behalf of the school and the children. This is a tremendous honor to him and the school community.
“
office for several weeks. She is 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 Sweeney Walsh, alumni director, will be involving Ammatuna in alumni-related projects, tasks and planning.
Silicon Valley chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. “Congratulations to Joe for all of his dedication to and hard work on behalf of the school and the children. This is a tremendous honor to him and the school community,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school. Rosenthal will receive his award in November at the chapter’s annual award ceremony. “The National Philanthropy Day (NPD) selection panel was very impressed by Joe,” said Sharon Svensson, president of Essex and Drake Fund Raising Council, which recommended Rosenthal for the award. “They specifically said, ‘(We) were very impressed by the quality of the nomination and the length and breadth of Joe’s accomplishments,’” Svensson added.
ANNUAL
giving
AGCC Volunteer Thanks
Participation is at 69%
Help us reach
en
100%
io
n
ar
P
About 48 volunteers attended a rousing breakfast at the end of May celebrating their contributions across the spectrum. They came from all three campuses, and had volunteered in Grandparents’ Day, debate, sports, performing arts, room parent and Grade Level Coordinator programs. The highlight of the morning was the Frisbee toss. “We had some Frisbees to give as gifts so as each winner’s name was pulled from the box Denise Hayashi (LS and MS director of volunteer programs) threw it to the recipient,” said Sue Prutton, US volunteer programs director. “Everyone managed to catch their Frisbee with one exception and that was due to a bad throw. (Executive Director of Advancement) Joe Rosenthal’s table was particularly lucky with everyone winning a Frisbee, whereas no one at (MS Division Head) Cindy Ellis’ table received one – we think it was rigged (just kidding)!” Many thanks to the LS art program for lovely centerpieces, wonderful clay vases and bowls overflowing with flowers.
t Pa r t icipat
More Milestones: Brick-Laying and Ground-Breaking Graduating seniors gathered in late May for the annual Senior Brick Ceremony, where several seniors and their parents gathered to place bricks bearing their names and graduation years into the sidewalk leading into Graduates’ Grove. Seniors Alyssa Donovan, Ananya Anand, Christine Emery, Nirupama Gadagottu, Chetan Vakkalagadda, Kartik Venkatraman, Amanda Wong and Hanh Dang were present at the ceremony to place their bricks in the grove. Following the ceremony, the students, parents and teachers present turned their attention to the future site of the new US library, where library director Enid Davis said a few words about the bumpy road that led to this momentous occasion. “When the seniors here today were only two years old,” she said, “Mr. (Howard) Nichols asked me on my first day of work to design a new library on this very site.” Factors such as the opening of a high school, the dot-com bubble and the recent economic hardship delayed the building of the new facility. Following the reading of her amusingly titled poem “Ode to the Wrecking Ball,” Davis, with the help of the senior class officers, planted a golden shovel into the ground to officially kick off the construction of the new library, which is scheduled for completion in January 2010. Davis and the entire 2009 senior class then posed for a photograph at the newly broken ground. As a keepsake, Davis was bestowed the golden shovel to commemorate the occasion.
Harker News — June 09
PERFORMING
arts
Vocal Groups Wind Up Year with Fantastic Performances Nichols Hall was alive to the sounds of music on April 30 and May 1, when all the US vocal ensembles presented their final performances of the year. “Seniors and Friends” was the theme on the first night for the groups directed by Susan Nace. Camerata completed its inaugural year in fine fashion, presenting an 18th-century American piece, a Hebrew song with guest instrumentalists Cindy Tay, Gr. 9, Diana Lai, Gr. 12, and Sammi Werthen, Gr. 11, and a very difficult portion of a mass by Renaissance composer Josquin des Pres. Seniors Elena Madan, Emma Blickenstaff, Kartik Venkatraman (with a cameo by teacher Anthony Silk) and Sammi Lowe performed musical theater and popular songs, and Lowe was joined by her buddies Shubha Guha and Natasha Jeswani, also seniors, for a beautiful trio version of Johnny Mercer’s “Dream” that brought to mind the Lennon Sisters. The boisterous boys of Guys’ Gig, a club for aficionados of a cappella doo-wop music, stormed the stage and performed four songs, two of which were also arranged by the senior Guy who took the lead solo: Amaresh Shukla’s “Earth Angel,” and Venkatraman’s “Aïcha.” Shukla also performed a classical solo, and Ida Gorshteyn reprised her Senior Showcase performance of the “Habañera” from “Carmen.”
Canto, directed by Catherine Snider, opened the concert by processing into the auditorium from the back, playing percussion instruments and singing an a cappella Macedonian folk song. After that exciting start they moved through several genres, with the Duke Ellington favorite “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got that Swing,” a sacred Latin piece, a rousing spiritual and a Spanish folk-style song. This group, mostly freshmen, was impressive in its sound and sonority. Downbeat, directed by Snider and Laura Lang-Ree, took the second half of the concert, also showing off their wide range of styles. A scat-filled “Jada Jazz” started them off, followed by a doo-wop version of the Beatles’ “In My Life.” A spiritual and a song from the hit musical “Spring Awakening,” both with choreography, were included, as was a beautiful Irish lullaby, accompanied by Snider on piano and Jacqueline Son, Gr. 11, on flute. The group also reprised their Freeze Frame Fashion Show hit ’60s medley, sans runway, on the small stage of the auditorium.
Cantilena has focused on pieces by French composers this year, and gave the audience a wonderful variety, including a traditional French-Canadian folk song, and pieces by Debussy, Bizet and Duruflé. They closed the concert with a piece by the same American composer who wrote Camerata’s opening piece. They also performed their theme song with which they close every concert, the beautiful “How Can I Keep from Singing,” which featured soloists Jeswani, Guha and Lexi Ross, Gr. 12.
The evening’s program was sprinkled with soloists from both groups. Bel Canto’s Noel Witcosky, Lauren Pinzás, Ashima Agrawal, all Gr. 9 and Clara Blickenstaff, Gr. 10, sang pieces from the Great American Songbook and musicals. Downbeat was represented in solos by Christina Li, Gr. 10 and Neha Sabharwal, Gr. 12, who each sang a torch song, Michelle Holt and Daniel Cho, both Gr. 10, who were adorable doing the duet “You’re Just in Love,” and D.J. Blickenstaff, Gr. 12 and John Ammatuna, Gr. 10, who closed the show with a dramatic, tour de force performance of “Lily’s Eyes” from “The Secret Garden.” Getting laughs and some nostalgic grins were real-life sisters Ananya and Namrata Anand (Gr. 12 and Gr. 11), who sang “Sisters” from “White Christmas” – their last chance to perform together at Harker.
Nace honored her seniors, she and her girls welcomed next year’s Cantilenans with sweatshirts, and goodbyes and hugs were shared all around.
Downbeat also acknowledged its seniors and the newbies joining them next year.
The next evening was Bel Canto’s and Downbeat’s turn to wow their friends and families in their annual closer, “Songs into Summer.” Bel
The US Conservatory is justifiably proud of all its vocal groups, and the two evenings made for an exciting, moving and musical transition into the summer.
Audiences Taken ‘Into the Woods’ by Performers Crowds packed the Blackford Theater in May to catch two performances of the MS spring musical. This year, the troupe put on a rousing performance of the Broadway mainstay “Into the Woods,” Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece, which intertwines the stories surrounding several popular fairy tale characters, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Cinderella. In the process, the story also reveals the consequences of the characters’ actions and how they affect the lives of those around them. Because of the small cast size, the show was double-cast, meaning one group of performers did the show one night, and a second complete cast performed the next show. MS performing arts teacher Kikau Alvaro directed and choreographed the casts, who sang and danced admirably throughout the elaborate production. Music teacher Roxann Hagemeyer was the musical director, while Paul Vallerga designed the beautiful scenery and props. The production was also helped along by student crew members Nicolas Semenza and Jeton Gutierrez, both Gr. 6, Wilbur Yang, Gr. 8 and Brian Tuan, Gr. 7.
Harker News — June 09
PERFORMING
arts Fullerton College, and the students attended an awards ceremony in Disneyland with stellar results. “The choir received a Superior rating from the adjudicators,” said Cowgill. “This is a huge accomplishment for these kids since this is the first time that I know of that a middle school choir from Harker has attended one of these festivals. I think that their confidence is much higher now! Because of this rating, we now have the opportunity to perform in one of Heritage’s gold level invitational competitions in either New York or Chicago next year.”
The group performed “Sound the Trumpet” by Henry Purcell, a Spanish piece called “La Manana in Segovia” by Amy F. Bernon, and a medley of spirituals that included “This Train,” “Get on Board, Little Children” and “River Train.” The festival was held in the performing arts building at
Julie Pinzás
Vivace, the MS classical vocal ensemble, traveled to Anaheim in mid-May to sing at the Heritage Festival, an annual celebration of middle school choirs. Each choir sang three pieces of contrasting style for a panel of three judges and then received a clinic from one of the judges. “There are choirs from all around the country at this festival, so the students will have the opportunity to listen to other groups,” said the group’s director, Jennifer Cowgill, before they left.
Paul Woodruff - all photos
Vivace Travels to Anaheim, Garners ‘Superior’ Rating
Bel Canto, the US ensemble directed by Catherine Snider, enjoyed their annual spring tour on May 16. They visited three local senior residences, bringing roses to the women as a belated Mother’s Day gift.
Bucknall Orchestra and Choir Feature the Classics at Concert The Bucknall Orchestra & Choir Concert in May was a special occasion for all involved. Talented musicians from K-Gr. 5 performed in the program, which featured works by Beethoven, Mozart and Handel. One of the evening’s most memorable moments came when LS history teacher Howard Saltzman, who retires this year after 30 years of service, acted as guest conductor for The Harker School’s theme song, which was performed by the entire roster of Bucknall instrumentalists and singers.
The show concluded with the Bucknall Orchestra and Bucknall Choir (directed by LS music teacher Jennifer Cowgill) collaborating on the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” by George Frederic Handel.
Jessica Liu - faculty conductor photos
Neal Waters - student orchestra photos
Later on, LS instrumental studies director Louis Hoffman led the Bucknall Orchestra in their rendition of the theme from “Star Wars,” which he conducted using a plastic replica of a light saber while wearing a Darth Vader helmet.
10
Harker News — June 09
Road Trip Celebrates Presley and Hula Some Seniors Graduate Early – from Conservatory The Senior Showcase in late April was the final hurdle for the seniors in the Harker Conservatory’s Certificate Program – a time to perform their favorite portfolio pieces before graduating from the program. The show was a culmination of the years of hard work and dedication these talented students put forward, and Excitement was in the air in the Bucknall gym in late May, as the Gr. 1-5 dancers took the stage at the LS dance show. The show, titled “Road Trip,” featured a wide array of styles and themes based on exploring different parts of the United States. One rollicking number was set to the Elvis Presley classic “Viva Las Vegas,” while another displayed the Hawaiian art of hula dancing. Many faculty and staff members were in the spotlight as well, including Gr. 4 English teacher Katie Molin, who did the splits during one routine to a highly impressed audience.
Singers Sing for Spring Spring Sing was a festival of harmony! The entire sixth grade performed songs that they learned throughout the year in music teacher Roxann Hagemeyer’s class. The Gr. 6 choir, a
specialty vocal group, also entertained the audience with a variety of songs and narration. Special thanks to Heather Stokes for filling in for Hagemeyer, who is out on temporary leave.
Harker News — June 09
they proudly received their certificates from their advisors at the conclusion of their performances. Congratulations to these performing arts graduates! Dance (advisor Laura Rae): Stephanie Chong, Deniz Ilgen, Karlene McCallaCreary, Sarah Payne, Andrea Thomas; Musical Theater (advisor Laura Lang-Ree): Ananya Anand, D.J. Blickenstaff, Emma Blickenstaff, Cailin Mackenzie, Neha Sabharwal; Instrumental Music (advisor Chris Florio): Daniel Hsu, Diana Lai; Technical Theater (advisor Brian Larsen): Emily Carr; Theater (advisor Jeff Draper): Joe Hospodor, Sophie Newman, Lexi Ross; Vocal Music (advisors Susan Nace and Catherine Snider): Ida Gorshteyn, Ana Henderson-Arjona, Elena Madan, Amaresh Shukla, Kartik Venkatraman.
11
FINE
arts
Art Exhibit Displays Year’s Best
Visit Harker News Online at www.news.harker.org to see photos of art shows in full NEWS [ online ] color! AP Artwork Shows Ingenuity and Variety Senior artwork was on display during the AP Studio Art reception, held in the Nichols Hall atrium on April 8. Students, faculty and staff arrived to view an impressive variety of two- and three-dimensional pieces, each communicating its own themes and ideas.
The LS art show gathers pieces together from various art classes throughout the year and the display fascinates visitors in the waning weeks of the school year.
The work of Julian Stahl explored the concept of tension with a unique variety of thought-provoking sculptures, including a tower made of drinking straws that seemed to be stretching ever upward, and an open hand attached to a closed fist, with each end pulling against one another.
Show Features Chair You Can’t Sit In The MS art show this year had some really interesting pieces, including a chair with more than enough wheels. Art teacher Elizabeth Saltos noted, “It is made from circular wood wheels which hold radial tessellations colored in a variety of ways. It is a Gr. 6 project from last semester. It rolls and each wheel moves the others, but you cannot sit down!” The show also featured, along with many impressive and unique clay pieces, some fabulous glass pieces cast from clay forms. See the Harker home page or Harker News Online (http://news. harker.org) for a link to a slide show of many pieces from the MS art show.
Atrium Functions Well for US Art
One of Matthew Gehm’s pieces featured an array of white miniature figures that vaguely resembled people. Nestled into the bunch was a lone black figure, bringing to mind “the idea of conformity and hidden prejudices in society,” Gehm said. Stephanie Guo used the art of photography to take a detailed look at various aspects of her Chinese heritage. Works on display included extreme close-ups of Chinese food packaging and rice grains resting between a pair of chopsticks. The distinct curvatures and balletic twisting of Omar Haque’s foam and Plexiglas sculptures were inspired by the movement of storms. “I really wanted to convey a sense of motion with my concentration,” he said. Silvia Cernea’s photographic pieces were created using an ordinary digital camera, with which she captured various scenes at concerts she attended. Cernea combined some of pictures with her graphic design skills to create dazzling promotional posters for the events she photographed.
The US Ar t Show was on display in Nichols Hall for several weeks prior to the end of the school year. Pieces included clay and bronze sculptures and graphic ar t in myriad forms. Check out the slide show on Harker News Online!
12
The imaginative illustrations of Melody Lee told an “Alice in Wonderland”style story solely through images. In the uniquely conceived narrative, a small girl must jump, climb and even change shape in order to complete her journey. The pieces displayed were all part of the portfolios the students submitted for their Advanced Placement “exam.” See our online story of the AP Studio Art show on http://news.harker.org. Harker News — June 09
SCHOOL
wide
Problem Solvers Garner Top Awards at State, Take Prizes at Nationals For action plan presentations, Harker won at all three levels. Senior presenters were Christopher Berglund, Dominique Dabija, Ananya Anand and Nikhil Raghuram, Gr. 12, and Tim Chou, Gr. 10. Harker’s middle division action plan team was joined by Brian Tuan, Gr. 7, while Allen Huang and Sahana Rangarajan, both Gr. 7,
Harker’s Future Problem Solvers had another great year, garnering honors at both the state and international levels in April and May. At the Future Problem Solving (FPS) California state finals, held on the Saratoga campus in April, Harker emerged as the state champion in a remarkable nine of 12 categories, and won the junior division for the very first time. The junior (Madhu Nori, Juhi Muthal, Simran Singh and Tiara Bhatacharya, all Gr. 6), middle (Daniela Lapidous, Akshay Tangutur, Chaitanya Malladi and Laura Yau, all Gr. 9) and senior (Namrata Anand, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Monisha Dilip, all Gr. 11) teams advanced to the international finals in Michigan. In a stroke of luck, the second place team of eighth graders Ria Desai, Emily Wang, Pooja Shah and Sonia Gupta was invited to the international finals when one team dropped out due to the swine flu scare. Two other Harker teams earned high rankings. Ninth graders Jennie Xu, Daanish Jamal, Ananth Subramaniam and Jackie Jin took third, while eighth graders Karan Das Grande, Shelby Rorabaugh, Jacqueline Wang and Connie Cheng earned fourth.
joined the junior team to present their action plan. Additionally, Cyrus Merrill, MS history teacher, was re-elected to be the state president of the nonprofit organization that runs FPS in the state of California. At the international finals in Michigan, all four Harker teams finished in the top half of their categories. The junior team fell just short of entering the final round, finishing third. First place wins went to individual competitor Alex Han and to the team of action plan presenters in the senior division: juniors Monisha Dilip, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Alex Han, and sophomores Isaac Madan and Olivia Zhu. Namrata Anand fell ill and was absent from the finals, but managed to contribute via speakerphone while the team was preparing. Shelby Rorabaugh, meanwhile, took third place in scenario writing, while Ananth Subramaniam took third in the middle division alternates category.
Jin Zhou - all photos
Harker also had the top middle and senior scenario writers, Rorabaugh and Olivia Zhu, Gr. 10, respectively. Alex Han, Gr. 11, was the top senior individual contestant, and qualified for the international finals.
Harker News — June 09
13
SCHOOL
wide
New Research Club at Blackford
A Celebration of Creative Writing
A new club on the MS campus, the Research Club, provides a conduit for budding researchers to refine their technique to prepare for large and small venue presentations, but the club wouldn’t be much help without the mentors that make it go.
Writing can be a lonely pastime. Often those scattered students who have an ink-stained bedroom corner don’t know about each other and don’t have an audience for their most imaginative words. But get a group of writers together and something different happens: collaboration, excitement, synergy. This connection of like minds can been seen at the meetings of the Harker Creative Writing Club, and it was alive in full force at the Celebration of Creative Writing that took place in the Blackford MPR in mid-May.
Harker has encouraged an advancing atmosphere of research since Anita Chetty, US science department chair, was brought to Harker by Diana Nichols in 2001. Chetty started the Harker Research Symposium (HRS) in 2005, but her encouragement of young researchers goes way back: one of the 2009 HRS keynote speakers was Nimet Maherali, whose research career began in her Canadian high school when Chetty, then the AP Biology instructor at her school, “saw something in me that I didn’t see,” said Maherali.
“
The Synopsys Science Fair was lots of fun and the California State Science Fair was a great experience. Being able to participate in the science fairs made the hours spent in the lab nights and weekends all worthwhile.
“
Maherali’s path led to the University of Calgary and Harvard University, where she is a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Cancer. In her speech, “Cellular Alchemy and the Making of a Research Scientist,” Maherali said that research begins with a question and hers was, “Can any cell become any other cell?” Her results, featured in Time magazine and Discovery Channel’s “Top 10 Science Moments of 2007,” may eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells in research and someday lead to therapies for diseases such as Parkinson’s or Lou Gehrig’s (ALS). Now, via the MS Research Club, the process of developing good research habits has already paid off. Club member Jackie Wang, Gr. 8, earned a silver medal at the California State Science Fair (see full article, pg. 30). “Ms. Claerbout and Mr. Contini were really encouraging in helping me learn deadlines for applying to science fairs, brainstorm ideas for my experiment, know what steps I needed to prepare my application, and understand how to present the project,” said Wang. “The Synopsys Science Fair was lots of fun and the California State Science Fair was a great experience. Being able to participate in the science fairs made the hours spent in the lab nights and weekends all worthwhile. Having the chance to present my research in the beautiful new science building at the Harker Research Symposium was such a thrill. I would definitely encourage others interested in science research to join the club,” she said.
I would definitely encourage others interested in science research to join the club.
“
“
Chetty was generous with her praise of Harker for supporting the symposium as the pinnacle of the internal Harker research effort. She thanked everyone from workers who set up the rooms to administrators who saw her vision for the symposium as a real presentation venue. “The 2009 symposium was dedicated to Howard Nichols,” said Chetty, “and I want to acknowledge his work, and Diana Nichols’, in making the science center a reality. In addition, and in particular, I want to recognize all students out there who have asked a science question.”
14
Standing at the microphone with a backdrop of paintings and sculptures from the recent student art exhibit, students Hannah Gorelik and Alice Tsui, both Gr. 8, read an excerpt of the novel the girls are writing in alternating chapters, a murder mystery set on a cruise ship. Also from the MS, Simon Orr, Gr. 8, with his made-for-radio voice, shared his quirky short story, “Under the Plum Tree.” This story, which was one of the two works selected to represent Harker in the California Young Writers competition, is a fable concerning a summer almost-romance between the narrator and a lovely young genius at CSI, aka “geek camp.” On an even more exotic note, Preston Yeung, Gr. 8, read a story he had completed in a mad rush at 11:37 the night before, where a space traveler is warned by tentacled, squid-like creatures about earth’s coming environmental collapse. Poets Oishi Banerjee, Gr. 7 and David Grossman, Gr. 8, rounded out the MS offerings. Banerjee read lyric poems about a garden and with a feminist theme. Grossman shared two poems recounting historic battles and a third one with a more subtle kind of conflict, where a mother has an unwanted glimpse of her son’s potential for cruelty. Returning from the US to their old Blackford haunts were writers Bridget Nixon, Kaitlin Halloran, Nandita Krishna and Antonia Ipser, all Gr. 9 and Melanie Herscher, Gr. 11. Herscher, who is working on a screenplay, genially coerced some audience members into playing the parts in her royal romance. Nixon, displaying a facility for accents, read a dialog between two train travelers which becomes heated over the topic of women’s rights. Halloran and Krishna both read short, comic pieces. Halloran’s was full of fast-paced, witty digressions, and Krishna’s was more in her famously dry, deadpan mode, with the writer’s large, innocent-looking brown eyes suggesting no responsibility for her own sardonic words. Young dynamo Ipser founded the US’s Writing Club, which is advised by English teacher Erin Redfern, after graduating out of the similar club at the MS. Ipser, whose
“
... who wish to build castles with words… to create a place where imagination can wander.
“
Club advisors Lorna Claerbout, Ilona Davies and Scott Kley Contini worked hard all through the year to help students ramp up to a new level of research and presentation. The science research club in the MS is Claerbout’s “brain child,” noted Raji Swaminathan, science teacher. “She conceived the idea last year and put it all together and the rest of the department worked with her on that. The amount of time and energy she has devoted to organizing this club on a weekly basis, organizing the Synopsys competitors, and getting the kids ready for the symposium is really huge.”
return to the MS provoked excited cries from several members of the audience, was unusually reticent in her turn at the mike. At the end of her too-brief offering, about a man who begins to have trouble distinguishing dreams from reality, an audience member yelled out, “More!” The writers and several members of the audience agreed that more is needed, and not just from Ipser. All who participated hope to make these readings an annual or even semiannual event. As anyone who attended could tell, Harker has some startlingly accomplished young writers. The writing club, however, is for raw work and students do not need to have any special experience with writing to join. Club members share their latest creations at meetings to gain comments from each other, and also respond to writing prompts designed to take their thoughts in new directions. If a writer has a fresh story or poem and wants to hear what others think right away, he or she can post it on the club’s Athena page for responses. In the past, some members who could not attend the meeting times have participated solely through Athena. The Creative Writing Club needs new voices. The club is, to quote author Anne Dillard, for the lucky ones “who wish to build castles with words… to create a place where imagination can wander.” Does that sound like you? Harker News — June 09
School Archivist Visits MS Classes
Library Wrap-Up The librarians and clerks had a lot of fun this year working with the students, teachers and parents to provide our students with their research and pleasure reading needs. Here are some updates from each campus library: The LS library staff • increased the amount of periods dedicated to research in Gr. 3-5 over 31 percent from 156 periods to 205 • circulated over 20,156 items to our community • taught Gr. 4 how to use a digital citation database • produced our 13th successful Gr. 2 Ogre Awards show • ordered a new stack of bookshelves so we can continue to purchase new books • checked out 6,538 fictional titles • completely revised the Gr. 1-8 summer reading lists
Harker’s past came to life last month in Cyrus Merrill’s Gr. 8 social studies classes and Ruth Meyer’s senior seminar about the 1960s titled Coming Apart. Both classes were visited by Sue Smith, US librarian and archivist, who enchanted students with artifacts such as uniforms, newspapers and yearbooks. Smith showed eighth graders items from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s to complement their study of decades in American history. “The uniforms were a big deal,” said Smith who added that 1980s yearbooks sporting youthful photos of their teachers were also popular. For seniors, the visit was an opportunity to juxtapose information students found in their textbook, which naturally highlights the 1960s burgeoning counter-culture movement, and life for Harker students – at the time, the Palo Alto Military Academy. Students had a chance to grapple with “the whole notion that it was a military school and what was it like to go to a military school in the ’60s,” said Smith. Smith enjoyed “seeing the kids learn about the school’s rich history.” She added that it was gratifying to witness students “learn about our own school traditions” and to realize that much present-day Harker culture stems from the past. The Harker tradition of pins in the LS and MS is a vestige of our military history, she explained. Students also remarked upon a local 1974 newspaper featuring an article about Harker students’ participation in community service. Much like forty years ago, “we still expect a lot of our students.” (See related story, pg. 32).
Harker News — June 09
The MS Library Staff • planned research lessons with 29 MS teachers, often more than once, in order to integrate information literacy skills into the curricula • circulated over 5,718 items to our students and teachers • taught searching and evaluation skills to hundreds of students, using our subscription databases • ordered a new look as our forty-one table chairs will be reupholstered (at no cost) in a bright blue over the summer • checked out 3,007 fictional titles • enjoyed a library packed every day with enthusiastic students. The US Library Staff • worked with over 25 US teachers, often more than once, on complicated and long-term research projects • circulated over 3,866 items to the students and teachers • ordered a proxy server which is on order so that our excellent databases can be easily accessed both on and off campus – coming in August 2009 • checked out 1,369 fiction titles • developed a new and exciting summer reading program • subscribed to a fantastic database called “Questia,” which includes thousands of e-books and other research sources • planned a new library to be opened in January 2010! (See story on the library groundbreaking, pg. 8) –Enid Davis, Library Director
15
SCHOOL
wide
Beloved Teacher Feted at Retirement Roast Parent and former Harker employee Mary Jo Townzen sent this accolade: “I am fortunate to be able to say that Howard has taught all three of my children, Ryan MS ’02, Troy MS ’04 and Samantha, Gr. 3. Samantha has had the opportunity to have Mr. Saltzman as a homeroom teacher in this, his last year of teaching. Howard’s timing is impeccable. I choose to believe he waited until now to retire in order to make sure he personally shuttled all of the Townzen children through. Howard will always hold a place in my heart for all he’s done over the years for me and for my family and Samantha wants Howard to know, ‘He’s the best teacher ever!’”
The faculty gathered one Saturday evening in early May to bid adieu to Howard Saltzman, who is retiring after 31 years of training young minds, adding levity to e-mail chains, his classes, faculty meetings, tough moments and bright moments alike. To say he will be missed is an understatement.
“Howard himself was incredibly touched by the whole evening,” said fellow teacher Elise Schwartz, who helped organize the event. “He was just thrilled from the beginning to have everyone there together in one room. Then, he was overwhelmed by the speeches and the gifts. There were tears in his eyes at many points during the evening. His wife, Susan, was also enormously touched,” Schwartz said. An amazing slideshow was created by colleague Lisa Diffenderfer. “She collected quite an array of pictures of Howard from over the years and had a running slideshow going along with music that he picked out,” Schwartz added. “There were hilarious pictures of Howard from the beginning of his career up to today. It was a beautiful slideshow and they even showed it again at the next faculty meeting.” No party is complete without food and, as usual, executive chef Steve Martin outdid himself. “Chef Steve, as always, put on an amazing spread,” said Schwartz. “Howard has nothing but high praise for him and is always amazed by Chef Steve and his crew. “Great love for Howard was felt everywhere in the room. He was thankful to the school for hosting this event and for allowing not only his colleagues but also all of his family and close friends to attend as well. Howard’s roast was so funny and the presentation of the memorial urinal left everyone in hysterics!”’ Saltzman ended the evening with a gracious speech. His gratitude was apparent and he was overwhelmed by the love in the room.
16
Pam Dickinson - all photos
Attended by about 160 well-wishers, the party extraordinaire was moved to the Saratoga gym to accommodate the crowd. Friend Pat Walsh, LS teacher, ran the show and Brian Larsen of the performing arts department emceed the evening. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, spoke briefly to open the festivities and the parade of well-wishers and gifts, both gag and other, began.
in the news 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.
n stanfordalumni.org – Class Notes for May/June noted the passing of Howard Nichols, longtime Harker leader and visionary, who graduated from Stanford in 1963 with a degree in economics.
n San Jose Mercury news and mercurynews.com – May 5, 2009 noted that Harker’s Sierra Lincoln, Gr. 8, won three awards at the VEX Robotics Championship of the Americas in Omaha, Neb.
n Cincinnati Enquirer, April 26, 2009 – A photograph of Julian Wise, Gr. 10, participating in MindGames, an annual event where participants evaluate games for manufacturers, was included in an article in the online Cincinnati Enquirer.
n Netscape Celebrity – May 6, 2009 The Harker JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) team was mentioned as the competition winners. See story on pg. 36 for details.
Harker News — June 09
NUTRITION
update
Smart Kids, Smart Habits
Student Knows Value of Nutrition
When you have school-age kids, June is filled with a buzzing energy in the air. There are lots of things on your minds with students finishing up projects, performing in recitals, participating in graduation events and attending end-of-the-year parties.
Sonia Gupta, Gr. 8, was interviewed by San Jose Magazine for its student feature on nutrition. Since the magazine ceased publication, the story never ran (photo shoot below), but Gupta’s responses were so in tune with our nutrition column (see left) this month, we couldn’t resist sharing!
Harker students have accomplished so much this year. This is partly due to the fact that they are bright kids. It is also due to the community of stellar teachers, staff and parents. In other words, you have arranged for the success of your children and they have a great support team. They know how to organize, plan and manage their time. They know that feeling of accomplishing specific goals. These are similar concepts used in planning healthy behaviors and maintaining them over the long-term. Joshua C Klapow, Ph.D., and Sheri D Pruitt, Ph.D., refer to these as SMART goals in their book “Living SMART: Five Essential Skills To Change Your Health Habits Forever.”
Ross Mehan
Throughout the past school year you have read about examining food labels, washing hands for at least 20 seconds, and eating a variety of fruits and veggies. So why don’t we all “Just Do It,” to quote shoe maker Nike. Nike only has it partially right though. Klapow and Pruitt advise starting with a specific and simple goal and emphasize that it is important to incorporate all parts of the SMART goals.
n Set a specific goal: These may be specific to you or your family. If you want to start eating more fruit and less processed snacks this summer, that is a good start but very broad. Stating that you’ll serve fresh fruit salad on Monday and Tuesday nights for dinner is a better and more specific start.
n Monitor: Just like teaching kids to keep lists and cross off projects as they complete them, this is a great tool. Again, you could have a fruit chart up on your frig to keep track of your goal to eat two servings of fruit a day. Maybe it is a family hike every Saturday for 45 minutes. It might be fun to have your son or daughter chart the miles. However, there is something to be said about writing down your plans. In fact, food journaling has been shown to be a very successful tool for individuals who lose weight and successfully keep it off for more than a year.
n Arrange for success: This also involves planning. If you want to eat at least two servings of fruit a day, you need to shop ahead of time. The kids can also help. Let them decide what fruit and veggie side dishes they want to make this summer. Kids are more interested in food when they make it. Allow time in your summer day to write up the shopping list so that you’ll be reminded to buy melons, grapes, etc.
n Recruit a support team: Your family can be a support team for each other. Or if you just want more time on your own to exercise, perhaps your spouse can take the kids out to a park while you run laps around the track for 20 minutes.
n Treat yourself: This is something that will reinforce the specific goal. Just like kids who get a kick out of earning stars for their successes, this can be beneficial to anyone adopting a new behavior. It can feel good to know you exercised four days this week. Of course, buying a new CD after skipping pastries in the morning can be a reward too. Certainly, if family goals are being accomplished, going bowling or watching a DVD together can be the reward. You may need a lot of “stars” at first, before you completely adopt a new behavior. In closing, be a SMART family this summer and choose at least one healthy habit to adopt over the break. If you are already an active person, choose another activity you’ve always wanted to try. Sure, it’s great for the kids to learn tennis but what about you? If you are off to college next fall, you may want to think about ways to be active and healthy in your new setting. Even setting up a plan to stretch and get away from the computer will be good for your body and mind. Similarly, you’ll be presented with many food choices in the college cafeteria. Go in with a SMART plan and you’ll be successful and healthy at whatever you do! –Anne Kolker, MS, RD Harker News — June 09
Q: Why do you think it’s important to eat right? Gupta: In my opinion, it’s most important to eat right in order to stay fit and to have enough energy so that I stay attentive throughout the day. In particular, teens need proper nutrition to not only stay physically healthy, but also socially and mentally. Nutrition at this age is critical to both physical and mental development. Q: What kinds of fruit and veggies do you like? Gupta: I love all kinds of fruits. My favorites are mangoes, blackberries, nectarines and watermelon. I’m often a bit more particular when it comes to vegetables. I mainly enjoy homemade Indian dishes, which are made from okra, spinach, eggplant and cauliflower. Q: Many kids don’t eat enough fruits and veggies each day. What can parents do to encourage their kids to eat more of them? Gupta: Parents should always make sure that fresh fruit is always accessible and available for their kids. Similarly, parents also need to involve their children when buying fruit: take them to the farmer’s market instead of an overcrowded and uncomfortable grocery store. It can be a fun experience to pick out some flowers, sample fresh, local produce and simply relax with the family. Q: What is your favorite physical activity? Why? Gupta: My favorite way to get active is by playing team sports. I get to hang out with my friends and learn important skills about teamwork at the same time. Q: What is your favorite after-school snack? Gupta: My favorite after-school snack is a banana. They keep me from cramping up when I go to sports practice. Sometimes I bring one from home or get one from the school snack bar. Harker always has free fruit available for us after school. Q: Do you like to help your parents with the grocery shopping and in preparing meals? Gupta: Actually, I enjoy going to the farmers market every Saturday morning with my parents. I love sampling the fruits and enjoy their natural taste. I’ve always hated how they polish apples with wax at grocery stores. Since my family and I mainly eat homemade Indian food, which is generally quite complicated to make, I’m mainly a spectator when meals are being prepared. However, I do enjoy helping out whenever I can. Sometimes I will come up with my own recipes though, such as honey banana yogurt shake. I like making and eating these – it is almost like playing with my food.
17
SCHOOL
wide
Host of Elite Math Competitions, Awards Mathematically, The Harker School had a successful year. The Harker Math Club was victorious in various math competitions while the Harker Math Circle, a training session for interested math contestants, had a promising inaugural year. The Harker Math Club, moderated by advisor Misael Fisico and officers Andy Fang, Jeanette Chin and Kevin Zhang, all Gr. 11, selected the interscholastic math competitions its members participated in at least twice a month up to March. The Harker team aced the California Math League championships with a perfect score of 30 points in each of the six rounds and received the Grand Champion Award for 2008-09. Special commendation was given to Patrick Yang, Gr. 9, who had a perfect test in all rounds. The team took third place in the Mandelbrot Western Region, another challenging contest. Big contributors were: Yang, Michelle Deng, Lucy Cheng, Katie Siegel, Ramya Rangan, Revanth Kosaraju, Pavitra Rengarajan, all Gr. 9 and Richard Chiou, Gr. 10. In the national category, freshman Albert Wu and seniors Anand Natarajan and Kevin Xu and Jeanette Chin were also commended for high performances. Next to the USA Mathematical Olympiad, the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad (BAMO) is the only contest in the Bay Area comparable to the prestigious International Mathematical Olympiads, and Harker took second place. In the individual category, Ashvin Swaminathan, Gr. 8, placed third among middle school entrants while Vikram Sundar, Gr. 7, received an honorable mention award. Both Ramya Rangan and Jeanette Chin received honorable mention awards in the freshman/sophomore category and junior/senior category, respectively. In Team Participation, the US team received the second place award. Its members were Kevin Xu, freshman Gene Wong, Ramya Rangan, Lucy Cheng, Albert Wu, Pavitra Rengarajan, Richard Chiou and junior Andrea Lincoln. To be a member of the team, a student must have solved at least one problem correctly. For the Middle School Team
18
Participation, our MS team also received the second place award, with members Rahul Sridhar, Alex Pei, Travis Chen, Pranav Sharma, Nathan Wong and Sierra Lincoln. Harker’s MS team of Ashvin Swaminathan and seventh graders Vikram Sundar, Travis Chen and Rahul Sridhar also placed second in Middle School Team score. Harker has also won various awards in four National Assessment Contests. Harker placed 12th in the Fall Start Up Event in September. In November, Harker placed eighth overall in the Team Scramble test and fourth in the Ciphering Time Trials in December. In the Four-by-Four Competition in February, Harker‘s team earned 11th place. The Santa Clara University High School Mathematics Contest is a one-day event that took place in November. Despite having many events occurring in the US, Chin and junior Da-Yoon Chung were able to attend this and both received honorable mention awards. In December, three senior students represented Harker at the Santa Clara Valley Math Association’s High School Senior Math Olympiad held at Mission College. Natarajan emerged as the first place winner while Xu and Nathan had a strong performance in the contest.
students represented Harker in the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad.
based on their per formance in the USAMO. Congratulations!
n USAMO Performance
n The Harker Math Circle
Natarajan, Deng, Rangan, Yang and Wu all qualified for the USAMO, the pinnacle of all math Olympiads in the US. “Anyone who is interested in math contests aims to reach this level of contests,” Fisico said. “For two days, all five of them spent four-and-a-half hours each day solving only six problems.”
Harker inaugurated a Math Circle, a form of education enrichment and outreach that brings mathematicians and mathematical scientists into direct contact with pre-college students in an informal setting. In January and February, Harker held circles every Wednesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The six successful training sessions had a special speaker on Feb. 19, Steven Blasberg of West Valley College, the current chair of the AIME contest committee. “During the Presidents’ Week vacation, we gathered together and solved previous AMC problems for four hours,” Fisico said. “It was very exciting!”
Rangan will represent the U.S. in the All Girls China Math Olympiad (CGMO) to be held tentatively Aug. 8-15 in Xiamen, China. Fisico will be joining her for the trip. CGMO was born in 2002 and is organized by different Chinese mathematicians who were very interested in encouraging more girls to join Olympiadstyle contests. Harker began participating in CGMO three years ago. Participants are selected by the organizers of the AMC,
Because of its success, more Math Circles are planned for next year, with hopes that more Harker students will attend the different lectures.
Presidential Scholar, continued from pg. 1 Kim has been invited to Washington, D.C., where he and other scholars from around the country and abroad will be presented with a Presidential Scholar medallion during National Recognition Week in June.
Because of its affiliation with Stanford University, the Stanford Math Tournament is always special to high school students in the Bay Area. For this year, Kosaraju placed second in the general test and Xu per fected the geometr y contest. The culminating activity of most math clubs in the U.S. is the American Math Competitions (AMC). Not only did Harker perform well, but many students either perfected or near-perfected this tilt. Deng received a perfect score in the AMC10, while Rangan, Swaminathan, Wu, Yang and Cheng missed just one problem and received scores of 144 points. Because of the extraordinary performances of many Harker students, 37 students qualified for the next level, which is the American Invitational Math Examinations (AIME), and five
Harker’s previous two Presidential Scholars were Senan Ebrahim ’08 and Samantha Fang ’06, who was named a Scholar of the Arts. Each year the U.S. Department of Education names one male and one female Scholar, from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In addition, two students are selected from families living abroad, 15 students are chosen at large and 20 are chosen who specialize in visual and performing arts. Daniel J. Kim, 2009 Presidential Scholar
About 3,000 academic candidates are eligible based on evaluation of their College Board SAT or ACT Assessment scores. Students interested in joining the arts portion of the Presidential Scholar program must register for youngARTS, a program by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, which then nominates students as Presidential Scholars.
Harker News — June 09
College Admission Office Hosts Tamagawa Counselors Two college counselors from Harker’s sister school in Tamagawa, Japan, Tomizo Kakimoto and Noboyuki Yokomizo, recently visited Harker to learn more about our college counseling process and college admission in the U.S. They spent the morning talking with college counselors Kevin Lum Lung and Martin Walsh, asking questions on the topic and even discussing personal experiences on the college side. Lum Lung explained, “The conversation touched on everything from our college counseling timeline to visiting colleges to what a college is looking for in a student to the colleges’ familiarity with high schools.” After meeting with Lum Lung and Walsh, the Tamagawa counselors spent some time with global education director Jennifer Abraham to discuss the differences between the U.S. and Japan in terms of college entrances. “They explained how Japanese students go through a very different process to get into college,” Abraham said. “All students study for one standardized entrance exam. Many students then take a second exam set by the college into which they hope to be accepted. As future employment is closely linked to what university a student went to, there is considerable competition to get into the better universities.”
Web Site Allows Talks with Shanghai Just one of the many functions Harker’s Global Education Department provides is a Web site (global.harker.org) where students can discuss issues with overseas correspondents in a safe environment. Currently, Gr. 8 students are conducting discussions with their counterparts in Shanghai on transportation and population issues in classes taught by MS computer science teachers Tim Culbertson and Angela Neff. “This is a required one-semester class for all 8th graders and is what the exchange with the Shanghai WFLMS (World Foreign Language Middle School) is based on,” said global education director Jennifer Abraham. In the class, which covers the study and application of HTML programming and Web design, students create a Web site focusing on the impact of population growth on our lives and planet. Throughout the semester, either Culbertson, Neff or their Shanghai counterpart posts a question for both sets of students to discuss. One question, noting the difficulty of commuting from rural areas to work in cities in China, drew responses that gave insight to an issue those in the U.S. see differently. Shanghai WFLMS student Leying Hu suggested that car companies be allowed to build factories in rural areas, “and raise the employees’ salaries in order to let them purchase a car.” Hu also suggested extending public transit to rural areas so that employees can travel to work without the added burden of purchasing and maintaining a vehicle. Another Shanghai student, Yuxuan Zhang, pointed out differences between the US and Chinese economies, specifically China’s dependence on agriculture, and how development is being limited to certain areas.
Schatz Reports On Aussie Exchange
Their visit to Harker was brief but productive. Their visit to the U.S. also included visits to college counseling offices in Hawaii and Florida.
Naomi Schatz, US psychology teacher, was on exchange in Australia in May. She shared some of her experiences in time to publish one of her missives here. Watch Harker News Online this summer for further adventures!
Visit From Down Under
May 31: Greetings from Down Under....
In May Harker received a visit from Sue Muir, upper school advanced level math teacher from St. Stephen’s College in Australia. A teacher for 33 years, Muir was on a sixmonth sabbatical from teaching, which all teachers at St. Stephen’s college get to do after seven years of service. She spent her first week observing all of Harker’s US math classes, and also did a lot of team teaching with US math teacher Gabriele Stahl.
“It has been a great weekend here in Aussie land! On Friday, I was a special guest-judge at a “Dilemmas” competition where students had to speak off of the top of their heads about current political issues. Pretty fun, relatively speaking. After the event, the whole student body sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and presented me with a special Saint Stephen’s College rugby shirt... and I love it!
Added Stahl: “Sue adjusted very easily to Harker and I believe she had a lot of fun, too.”
“Friday night I went out with Jaime Dorrington, head of school at SSC, and a few other colleagues I met last summer on the leadership retreat, to a nice dinner and blues festival down on the coast at Broadbeach. Saturday, we went for a picnic and a lovely hike with Jaime and his family up into the mountains in an area called Spring Brook and visited an awesome waterfall, called Purling Brook Falls. Sunday I went for a walk with Eden [former exchange student], who has very fond memories of his time at Harker!
Muir spent a day visiting Rob Regan’s Gr. 5 world geography class, where she talked to the kids about Australian culture. She also spent a day on the MS campus to observe teachers in class, and met with Vandana Kadam, math teacher, to discuss the possibility of St. Stephen’s joining the Harker Math Invitational as well as collaborating on a math exchange. “Sue was highly impressed with the advanced level of math our students do,” said Jennifer Abraham, global education director.
“This week, I’m planning to present to students on stress/anxiety and testing as they have exams in the upper school. Also hoping to do some sport psychology lessons with their athletes, which should be fun! Jaime is keen on me presenting on some team-building and leadership issues as well, so working on that. I’m very excited! Well, that’s it for now!”
“Sue and I had very fruitful conversations about the material,” Stahl said. “Whenever we started a new method we got together before and talked it through. We found out that our teaching styles were very similar. Sue came up with a few worksheets for the students.”
Harker News — June 09
19
Harker
sports
LS and MS Sports Wrap Up the Year with Solid Play Baseball Coach Jim McGovern reports, “The Gr. 4 baseball team has been steadily adding to their experience and knowledge. Fielding, hitting and running the bases have all improved due to the dedication and determination of this group of players.” Game situations, stealing bases and pitching were the focus over the final few weeks of the season. Standout performances have included the power hitting of Alex Youn, Edward Tischler, Alex Mo and Brandon Stoll as well as the stellar fielding and catching of Alexander Lam, Brandon Chow, Aashish Jain and Varun Baldwa. McGovern added, “They have relished the chance to put their skills to the test and play games with and against the fifth graders.” The enthusiasm and overall excitement of the fourth graders this year can be summed up by the cheer written by Nikhil Manglik and Alexander Lam: “Our pitcher, he is great with a ball, when he throws, he never hits the wall. Our batters are the very best, they put the defense to the test! Our base runners go with lightning speed, you’ll never know when they’ll take a lead! Harker, Harker, yes we rule! The other teams – they simply drool.”
The Gr. 5 baseball team has showed great determination in staying focused throughout the season. The Eagles only had one game this year, but have been preparing with intrasquad exhibition games as well as challenging our fourth graders to some games. The team is led by Trevor Lee, who has shown a tremendous amount of talent at any position. Coach Walid Fahmy was looking forward to the big bat of Kevin Wang and the speed of Jonathan Yiu and Suraj Jagadeesh helping the boys to be competitive.
20
Fahmy was extremely happy with the outlook of the team and was looking forward to finishing up with a strong season. JV A baseball started the season with a close game (2-3) against Priory, and faced a tough schedule this season. They had an 0-3 record at press time, and were continuing to develop their skills.
serves! Simran Singh has improved tremendously over the course of the season.” The varsity B2 girls have won two games, which pleased Coach Talagtag because they have had
The varsity A baseball team, coached by Joe Mentillo and Manny Martinez, is out to gain the respect of the league and is playing some fundamentally sound and competitive baseball. The squad is led by eighth graders Kevin Cali (shortstop/pitcher), Drew Goldstein (catcher/shortstop), J.P. Doherty (center field) and Oliver Chen (pitcher). Matt Harris (catcher) is off to a sizzling start leading the team in hits and playing solidly at catcher.
The varsity B boys team was undefeated at 4-0 for the season. Great job, boys! The varsity A boys volleyball team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished the season with a 9-5 record. The team was led by eighth graders Michael Chen, David Lindars, Bobby Kahlon and Josh Tien.
Volleyball The Gr. 4 volleyball girls have been learning the fundamentals, including the bump, set and spike. They have also practiced footwork and timing of hitting the ball. Coach Tomas Thompson reports, “They have shown enthusiasm, positive sportsmanship and are eager to learn more about the game. The team has demonstrated consistent improvement and team play this season.” Outstanding effort and attitudes have been shown by Chetana Kalidindi, LeAnn Nguyen, Lindsey Trinh and Ankita Uppugunduri. The Gr. 5 JV B5 volleyball team was 4-0, despite playing against only Gr. 6 teams. Coach Michelle Hopkins commented, “The girls are all doing an excellent job. Lauren Speckman has an awesome serve and is a positive influence on the rest of the team. All the other girls are playing great. I think volleyball is the sport at Harker!” The JV B6 volleyball girls improved tremendously over the course of the season and their game scores are getting closer and closer. Coach Loreen Talagtag states, “Leeza Kuo and Helen Wu are key players on the team as they have fantastic
The varsity A girls volleyball team is having another phenomenal season. Under the direction of coach Michael Leonard ’04 and assistant coach Christine Emery, Gr. 12, the girls had lost only one game this season at press time, with a 3-1 record. The team is undefeated in league play and is in pursuit of the league championship. The coaches have been getting outstanding contributions from everyone, most notably Amie Chien, Gr. 8, Mercedes Chien, Gr. 7 and Paulomi Bhattacharya, Gr. 8. Leonard states, “The team bonding activities we take part in throughout the season have really helped this team come together. The team is united in pursuit of our goal, which is the league title. I could not be more proud of what these girls have accomplished as a team!”
some really tough teams in their division. All the games have been really close but the girls lost by a couple of points. Talagtag reports, “Christina Wong and Manini Desai are key players to look out for. Also Callie Ding has improved so much in the small period of time that we’ve had. These girls are so talented and I’m very proud of how far they’ve come.” The junior varsity A girls team had a 2-1 record at press time; varsity B girls were 4-2.
Tennis The MS tennis team, comprising 18 players in Gr. 6-8 with USTA ranking, finished the season 17-2 overall. The team was led by eighth graders Jenny Chen and Niki Bedekar and sixth graders Vikram Chari and Deepa Dhore, who are all top-ranked in their respective age groups. Coach Ganesh Vaidya’s hope for continued success was achieved as the girls defeated Bret Harte 7-2 to win the MTP championship!
Please see the following stories in our new ! (www.news.harker.org) n Harker Excels at WBAL Track Meet n A Tale of Two Championships: MS Tennis n Senior Nights Celebrated at End of Season n Sports Awards Night Closes out the Year n Faculty Wins Again in Softball Challenge n Athletes Take Note: Iron Eagle Training to Begin Harker News — June 09
US Girls Swim To League Championship; Baseball Team Finishes Strong Softball In a late season win against Mercy San Francisco (10-1) seniors Andy Thomas and Shelby Drabman hit back-to-back home runs! Our softball girls finished their season with a victory on senior day defeating ICA 150. Drabman had 12 strikeouts and we had hits from Thomas and fellow seniors Candace Silva-Martin, Sammi Lowe and Sarah Christiano. The girls ended up 9-13 overall and 7-9 in league. For the third year in a row, Drabman made first team All League, finishing with the best batting average in the league of .540. With five home runs, she tied for first in the league; she also pitched eight wins this year. Thomas, who according to coach Raul Rios, “developed into one of the best, if not the best, shortstops in our league,” made second team All League. Christiano and Silva-Martin received honorable mentions.
Golf The boys golf team completed its league season with a 7-3 record. The team finished in third place in league finals, narrowly losing to Menlo School by eight points (out of over 400 scored by each team). Juniors James Feng and Yash Khandwala qualified for the CCS tournament in Carmel, where they gained some valuable experience and represented Harker admirably. Congratulations on a great season, boys!
Lacrosse The girls lacrosse team was 3-15 this year, winning their third game with a 16-9 victory over Woodside High School. The team set a goal for winning at least two games this season and surpassed that goal with previous wins over Notre Dame and an earlier win against Woodside. Coach Dawn Clark was pleased with the tremendous progress the team has made in the past few years. Leading scorers for the season were Clara Lyashevsky, Gr. 12, with 33 goals and Monisha Appalaraju, Gr. 10, with 18 goals. Michelle Lin, Gr. 12, had 15 goals, Elaine Song, Gr. 11, had 11, and Alyssa Boyle, Gr. 12 and Julia Shim, Gr. 11, each had nine goals. Additional scorers were Priya Thumma, Gr. 12, with three goals; Shreya Nathan, Gr. 10 and juniors Harker News — June 09
free. New CCS qualifications were achieved by T. Wong (200 IM and 100 backstroke) and Lucy Cheng, Gr. 9 (200 IM). Earlier in the season, in a 109-54 defeat of Mills, Khojasteh set a new school record in the 100 backstroke of 1:02.37.
Manasa Reddy, Connie Lu and Tamara Kawadri with one goal each. In goal, Pratusha Erraballi, Gr. 12, had 94 goalie saves and Ruhi Kumbhani, Gr. 10, had 95. Leading defenders at mid-field were Kelly Chen, Gr. 11 and Lu; at low defense were Prachi Sharma, Gr. 12, Carissa Jansen, Gr. 11 and Reddy.
At CCS the girls had their best finish ever, placing tenth with 75 points. Harker was led by Khojasteh, who placed sixth in both the 50 and 100 freestyle, earning All-American honors. Also earning All-American honors was the 200 medley relay team of Siegel, Ma, V. Wong and Khojasteh, which placed eighth. Other points were scored by Siegel placing 11th in the 100 fly (just missing All-American), Wong placing 11th in the 100 breaststroke, Sabrina Paseman, Gr. 12, placing 10th in the 1-meter diving, and the 200 freestyle relay that placed 13th.
Boys Swimming The boys were 3-1 in league and came in second in the league
Girls Swimming The girls ended the season 8-0 in league, and won the league championship meet held at Harker, therefore becoming league champions outright. Dan Molin, athletic director reported, “Despite an early relay team disqualification in Wednesday’s trials, our girls swim team was able to overcome and win their first league championship. The title was in question until the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.” The girls not only won the event, but smashed the league record by three seconds with a time of 3:46.68. Harker event winners were: 50 & 100 free – Jessica Khojasteh, Gr. 10; 100 breaststroke – Vivian Wong, Gr. 11; 200 free relay – Katie Siegel, Gr. 9, Tiffany Wong, Gr. 9, V. Wong and Khojasteh; and 400 free relay – Khojasteh, Siegel, V. Wong and Tina Ma, Gr. 11. All were won in league record time except the 100
championship meet. In that meet, event winners were: 50 & 100 free – Cole Davis, Gr. 11; 100 butterfly – Andrew Chin, Gr. 12; 200 IM – Kevin Khojasteh, Gr. 9; 200 free relay – Khojasteh, Chin, Daryl Neubieser, Gr. 9 and Davis. CCS qualifiers were Chin, Davis, Michael Clifford, Gr. 11, Stefan Schwartz, Gr. 11, Darren Syu, Gr. 11, Hassaan Ebrahim, Gr. 10, Khojasteh and Neubieser. On senior day for Chin, he finished his high school dual meet career
winning both of his individual events and both of his relays. At the CCS match, despite being disqualified in the opening relay of the meet, which was by far their strongest relay, the boys swim team also had its best finish in the history of the team, placing sixth with 104 points. The team was led by Chin, Davis and Khojasteh, all of whom had two top-eight performances and two All-American selections. Chin placed seventh in the 200 IM and, despite an extremely fast field this year, placed fourth in the 100 fly. Davis placed third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free. Khojasteh took eighth in the 200 IM, and in the last individual event of the meet, led from the start but got touched out by twotenths of a second in the 100 breaststroke, finishing second. The Harker 200 free relay team of Khojasteh, Chin, Neubieser and Davis also earned All-American honors, placing ninth.
Track and Field Coach Terrell Davis reported that the track and field team has been making strong improvements in every event this season. For the boys we have had standout performances by Vladimir Sepetov, Gr. 10, Kevin Fu, Gr. 11, Proteek Biswas, Gr. 9, Charles Levine, Gr. 9, Thomas Enzminger, Gr. 11, Kevin Xu, Gr. 12, and the 4 x 400 meter relay team of Biswas, Levine, Bogdan Botcharov, Gr. 11 and Sepetov. On the girls’ side, Kristie Sanchez, Gr. 10, Tara Hansen, Gr. 11, Sonya Chalaka, Gr. 9, Priyanka Mody, Gr. 9 and the crew of lady throwers have laid the foundations for success for many years to come. In an early season meet at Leland High, several of our runners set personal records in their events. Sepetov set a personal record of 2:05.77 in the 800 meters, Chalaka ran a record 14.02 in the 100 meters, Tanya Rai, Gr. 10, ran the 100 in a personal best 14.62, and Fu ran the 100 in 11.72. Although they didn’t qualify for CCS, the young Harker track team showed impressive results at the track and field league championship on May 14. Results were high-
continued on pg. 26 21
continued from pg. 25 lighted with new personal records for Sanchez (2:33.10) and Sepetov (2:04.46) both in the 800 meter; Biswas (55.18) in the 400 meter, and the 4 x 400 meter relay team (3:44.06). Qualifiers for the league championships included the girls 4 x 100 meter relay team of Neha Kumar, Gr. 9, Hansen, Rai and Chalaka; Hansen also qualified for the 100 meter high hurdles, as did Sarah Teplitsky, Gr. 11. The 4 x 400 girls team of Rai, Sanchez, Jennifer Dai, Gr. 10 and Chalaka, as well as the boys 4 x 400 team and boys 4 x 100 team of Fu, Botcharov, Angad Randhawa, Gr. 9 and Sean Morgan, Gr. 11, also qualified. In addition, Sanchez qualified in the 800 meter for the girls, and Sepetov in the same event for the boys; Levine and Biswas qualified in the 400 meter; discus qualifiers included Carolyn Kuo, Gr. 12, Enzminger, Patrick Campbell, Gr. 11 and Mark Roh, Gr. 11. Enzminger also participated in the shot put. Longer distance runners Xu and Anne West, Gr. 10, competed in the boys and girls 3,200 meter, respectively, while Xu also ran the 1,600 meter. In addition to her relay teams, Chalaka also jumped in both the long jump and triple jump. Fu also ran the 100 meter for the boys.
sports thedral. Earlier in the season, they took first place in the silver division at the Aptos Tournament and lost an intense, close match to Leigh in the finals of the Harker Tournament. The team was led by seniors Matt Gehm and Daniel Tien; juniors Chad Gordon, Eugene Huang, Kevin Liu, Jeffrey Tan and sophomore Jacob Chappell. The JV squad made the gold bracket in a tournament for the first time ever at Los Gatos in April. After the boys volleyball team won their CCS quarterfinal match in front of more than 300 fans at Blackford in three short games of 25-12, 25-12 and 25-21, they moved on to the semifinals against Willow Glen. Unfortunately, they lost that match in four games, 25-17, 22-25, 2325, 25-27. Coach and US athletic director Dan Molin stated, “The team would like to thank everyone for their support during the playoffs and the entire season.” He added proudly, “The boys represented our school admirably.”
This track and field team has a very bright future!
Boys Volleyball The boys varsity volleyball team finished the season 26-8 overall and 10-2 in league play. In their last regular-season game, the team defeated fourth-ranked Homestead 16-25, 28-26, 25-22, 25-23 in front of a large, supportive senior night crowd. The win earned Harker a second place league finish, a #3 CCS seed, and the right to host a CCS quarterfinal game on May 14 at Blackford vs. Sacred Heart Ca-
22
lost their first round CCS match to Monta Vista 4-3. Congratulations on a great season. The team was led this year by captain Aadithya Prakash, Gr. 12 (ranked first in doubles and singles), along with sophomores Karthik Dhore (first in singles), Adarsh Ranganathan (second and third in singles), and senior Harry Schwartz (number one in doubles and singles). Since the team is only losing two seniors this year, look for them to continue as one of the top CCS teams in the future. Players who par ticipated in the WBAL tournament at Menlo School were Schwar tz, Dhore, Nikhil Parthasarathy, Gr. 10 and Ranganathan, and freshmen Sam Gurevich and Nikhil Narayen.
Baseball The varsity baseball team had big wins against Willow Glen, Evergreen, Cupertino and Washington. The team has been led by the strong play of seniors Barrett Glasauer and Taylor Martin, who lead the team in most of the offensive categories, and have contributed six pitching victories between them. Junior Greg Plauck has five wins pitching, and a .340 hitting average; junior Stefan Eckhardt has an average over .400 with 19 RBI, plus outstanding defense at shortstop. Both juniors have been key players this year. Senior Evan Maynard and junior Alex Ringold have been excellent role players in helping Harker to its best season.
Scholastic Honors In addition to the success on the field, three spring teams earned the CCS scholastic championship: baseball, with a 3.64 cumulative team GPA; boys tennis, 3.796 cumulative team GPA; and boys volleyball, with a cumulative team GPA of 3.634.
ever co-league championship! The win also gave Harker the automatic league ber th to the CCS tournament where they lost their first-round game against a tough Soquel High School team on May 20. All-League recipients were Glasauer, league MVP; Mar tin, Plauck and Eckhardt, first team; Jeff Mandell, Sean Mandell, both Gr. 12, Maynard, and Ringold, second team. Congratulations on a great season!
The team defeated Cr ystal Springs 10-3 to secure their first
Berkeley-Bound Shah to JO’s
Boys Tennis The tennis team finished their regular season with a loss to league champion Menlo School. Since the team graduated seven seniors from last year’s squad, it was a rebuilding year for the program. Despite the loss of last year’s leadership, the boys finished with a 12-6 record, third place in the WBAL, and made a record sixth straight CCS tournament appearance! They
Ankita Shah, Gr. 12, recently participated in the Junior Olympics (JOs) National Gymnastics competition in Seattle. According to her father, Nilesh Shah, Shah was one of seven to qualify based on her all-around score of 37.2.
Nilesh Shah
Harker
She represented region one, which includes the states of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Region one and five are among the most competitive in the nation. At the event, Shah earned 9.325 on the vault, 8.8 on bars, 8.9 on beam and 9.475 on the floor. Competing in the JOs was, according to Mr. Shah, “one of her dreams.” Congratulations, and good luck at Cal! Harker News — June 09
LOWER
school
Gold Rush Town Fires Imaginations
Class Produces Videos to Study
Gr. 4 students got an up-close look at California histor y on the annual trip to Coloma in April. The area is most famous for being the starting point of the California Gold Rush. When they arrived, students were divided into different groups called “towns.”
In April, students in Joe Chung’s Gr. 5 social studies class made a series of videos about the countries they were learning about in class. “Students were studying different countries, and using the information learned from social studies class along with additional research in computer class, they used this info to work on the video project,” Chung said.
The trip started with a visit to the Coloma Outdoor Discover y School. “We pretended to be gold miners living along the American River,” said Kristin Giammona, elementar y division head. As would-be miners, they fashioned their own shelters, made cornbread and gave themselves nicknames. The group ate dinner, and then enjoyed a hoedown to the sounds
Kristin Giammona
After gathering enough information, students came up with a fun, creative way to present their findings in their films. Some themes included news reports, game shows and stories involving a tourist visiting the countr y. Students used digital video cameras to take the footage, and then edited the video using Apple’s iMovie software. The average length of the final projects was three to three-and-a-half minutes.
Kiddie Carnival Ends Year with a Bang of the musical group Slim Pickin’s. The day ended with a campfire by the river, complete with sing-a-longs and skits. Day two began with a hike along the Monroe Ridge, “which culminated with a spectacular view of the Coloma Valley,” Giammona said. “Along the way we learned about the Native Americans who once lived in the area, the uses of various plants along the trail and the mining histor y of the area. We played games along the way to break up the hike.” The group gathered around the campfire again that night, where they were joined by Kimberly Shining Star, a Native American woman who told stories and shared a number of songs. On their final day at Coloma, each town devised ways to save energy and reduce waste. The groups then reconvened during the final meeting of the trip to share their ideas. To cap off the trip, all members of the group dipped their leather pouches (received at the beginning of the trip) into the American River, thus becoming “sourdoughs,” the nickname for prospectors during the California Gold Rush. Students greatly savored the trip. “I liked the free time before and after breakfast and dinner because my best friends weren’t in my town,” said student Nicolas Bean. “I was able to play with them during free time, and it was like being on vacation with them.” Others, such as Sanju Navar, enjoyed playing prospector: “I liked gold panning because it was fun and interesting. I didn’t find any gold, but it was still interesting.”
Students Glimpse State’s History Howard Saltzman’s Gr. 3 histor y class visited Mission San Juan Bautista in April to get a peek into California’s rich histor y. “Students have a chance not only to explore the mission itself, but also the surrounding buildings which represent the different periods of histor y when the Native Americans, Spanish, Mexican and American settlers lived near Mission San Juan Bautista,” Saltzman said. The class embarked on a tour of the mission, led by Ranger Larr y Kellogg, who made a presentation on California histor y using cut-outs of various important figures. The class also visited the TOPS A Rock Shop, a store specializing in jewelr y made from exotic stones, and made a refreshing trip to a local ice cream parlor. Harker News — June 09
The Harker Beach Boardwalk, otherwise known as the annual Kiddie Carnival, was held on the last day of school at the Bucknall campus. Contests abounded, including the Giant Dipper Limbo, Tiki Toss, Coconut Knockdown and Crab Fling. For those more play-oriented, there was the Splash Zone and Fun House, with some beach volleyball thrown in for good measure. It was a great way to end the year! Thanks to the BEST staff and all the faculty that made it all go!
kid talk Gr. 4 students recently discussed the meaning and importance of excellence. Amrita Misha said, “Excellence means to do your best. It’s important to be excellent in everything, but I try to be excellent in school and fencing. I feel awesome when I am excellent!” Alayna Richmond added, “I try to be excellent in everything. I’m not always successful. My parents tell me to try my best, so they aren’t upset if I’m not excellent.” Amrita Singh had an explanation of how she improves. She stated, “Excellence means I should try my best and don’t try to be perfect. Just do your best and work hard at whatever you do best. I try to be excellent at art. I try to work really hard and I really want my drawings to go into the art show. I think Mr. Hoffman, my art teacher, has helped me the most, because he tells me what’s wrong and he helps me fix my problems.” Emaad Hussain felt that a person can be excellent at more than one thing. He said, “I get excellence at school by studying very hard. I also train for sports like football and basketball. I am really excellent in the subject math, because I studied really hard when I was in second grade.” Venkat Sankar summarized nicely the reason he wants to do well. He said, “Excellence is important, because it helps you do well in things, get into a good college and get a good job when you grow up.”
23
LOWER
school
Grandparents, Grandfriends Feted
Narnia Comes to Life for Students
Grandparents’ Day on May 8 was once again a wonder ful occasion for Harker families. They arrived in the morning with their grandchildren to attend a special assembly, where they were met with a ver y nice surprise: a slideshow featuring pictures of the grandparents, many of them photographed with their grandchildren.
In early May, Gr. 3 students headed to the Flint Center at De Anza College to catch a stage version of the popular C.S. Lewis novel “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” The G++ students had read the book in their Language Arts class as part of the list of required novels, and G+ level students read the book for a book report. At just an hour in length, the play could not capture the entirety of the book, to the disappointment of some of the students in attendance. “Some of the students could easily go with the changes but others were disappointed that it didn’t follow the book exactly,” said Elise Schwartz, Gr. 3 English teacher. “However, I explained that we didn’t have an entire day to per form the whole entire book; the actors just had one hour! That assuaged most of them.”
Following a light lunch in the gym, the grandparents and other special grandfriends were then led on a tour of the Bucknall campus, and met the school’s teachers as well as some of their grandchildren’s classmates. The students and grandparents then headed back to the gym to catch a special per formance by Dance Fusion, the Gr. 5 dance group. This year, Harker introduced an option that allowed grandparents to “adopt” another family’s grandchild, in case their grandparents were unable to attend, giving ever y LS student the oppor tunity to enjoy this Harker tradition.
Some musical numbers were incorporated into the play to make things interesting, and the evil Queen of Narnia was one of the play’s highlights. “She was good at being wicked!” Schwartz said. The lion Aslan was also popular with the students. The limited number of actors available presented some challenges, which were dealt with quite creatively. “One interesting thing was that each actor played at least two major roles so they had to work the play in such a way that the two characters that an actor was portraying were not on stage at the same time,” Schwartz said. “However, in the end, the good guys won, the bad guys lost, and the four children became kings and queens of Narnia!”
Stargazers See Saturn, Space Station LS science teacher Tamara Kley Contini’s Gr. 3 class met at the Bucknall campus’ Rincon Field for their annual stargazing night in May. The beautiful weather and clear skies suited the occasion perfectly, and many of the students’ parents brought telescopes with which to take a closer look into the heavens, including an eyepopping gander at Saturn’s rings.
Assemblies Teach Respect for Opera
LS teachers were treated to a bountiful breakfast during the morning of Teacher Appreciation Day in early May. The much-deserved meal was also complemented later in the day with afternoon snacks, all of which were provided by the administration. Later that month, K-Gr. 5 employees received parent-organized teacher and staff appreciation luncheons. The luncheons were held on the LS front lawn and provided a great way to congratulate everyone for another successful year!
24
kudos n Nikhil Manglik, Gr. 4, made it all the way to the California State Geography Bee finals in Sacramento on April 3. He was one of only two fourth graders to appear at that stage of the competition, and was in the top 100 of the 100,000 California students who participated this year.
Sudari Josyula
Thank You, Teachers!
The guest speaker for the evening was Joe Jordan, who spent more than 20 years at NASA and worked on the design of the Hubble space telescope. “He pointed out the international space station as it flew overhead,” Kley Contini said. He also helped students find constellations using planispheres (star wheels) they made in class.
Tamara Kley Contini
In late April, the LS received a special visit from a few members of Opera San Jose, who performed for the entire Bucknall student body at a pair of special assemblies. The singers gave the students a quick lesson in the rich history and time-honored artisanship of opera by performing a skit in which a character who dismisses the art as “lame” receives a crash course in it after learning that some of her favorite melodies are derived from opera pieces. The story ended happily, of course, with the naysayer gaining a newfound respect and appreciation for opera, and with the assembly audiences being treated to some fantastic singing in the process.
Harker News — June 09
Cinco de Mayo Honors Mexico
Students Elect New Officers
Cinco de Mayo was a festive occasion at the LS campus. At lunch time, Gr. 4 and Gr. 5 students made paper flowers to commemorate the much-celebrated Mexican milestone, which marks the day Mexican army defeated the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The two classes also staged a treasure hunt. Gr. 1-3 spent their time in homeroom coloring piñatas. During lunch, the students were treated to a special per formance of traditional Mexican dance.
After weeks of campaigning, the votes have been tallied and the Bucknall student council officers for the 2009-10 school year have been selected. The following Gr. 4 students will take on their new responsibilities as fifth graders next year.
K Show Adapts Mister Rogers
Next, the annual awards were doled out. Allison Wang won for Academic Excellence, and the award for General Excellence went to Jonathan Ma and Ankita Sharma. Michael Moncton and Doreene Kang were recognized for Outstanding Academic Improvement. The Athletics and Sportsmanship awards were given to Nathaniel Stearns and Shannon Richardson. Kaushik Sankar and Gillian Chu received awards for Courtesy, while Madison Tomihiro and Jonathan Yiu were awarded for Personal Presentation. The Leadership awards went to Sadhika Malladi and Janet Lee, and the Spirit of Cooperation Award was given to Natalie Simonian and Vineet Kosaraju. Kurt Schwartz, Kristen Ko, Kristen Park, Alexander Guest, Nikhil Bopardikar, Shivali Minocha and Helena Dworak all received awards for Effort.
Audiences gathered at Bucknall in late April to catch the kindergarten classes’ per formances of the musical play “Welcome to Our Neighborhood.” Ever y kindergarten class per formed its own rendition of the show, giving all LS families the chance to see their children shine. Based on characters and songs from the popular children’s show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” the play took audiences on a tour of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and featured such classic Rogers-created characters as King Friday, Queen Sara Saturday and Daniel Striped Tiger.
The officers are president Alexander Lam, vice president Lauren Trihy, recording secretar y Manan Shah and spirit/ser vice coordinator Chetana Kalidindi.
Grade Five Promotion Opens Vistas The Bucknall gym teemed with activity on June 3 as students and parents filed in for Fifth Grade Awards and Promotion Ceremony. Student Kristen Park led ever yone in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before head of school Chris Nikoloff greeted the afternoon audience. The Gr. 5 dance group Dance Fusion then per formed for the crowd.
Awards for individual subjects were given to Allison Wang and Janet Lee for both English and Science, Janet Lee for Mathematics, Shalini Arimilli for Social Studies and Lauren Speckman and Johnathon Keller for Physical Education. After the awards were handed out, the 120 students were called up one by one to receive their promotion certificates. After much applause, LS music teacher Jennifer Cowgill directed the Gr. 5 class’ vocal per formance of “Children are the Future of the World” by Russell Robinson and, fittingly, “The Harker School Anthem.” Elementar y division head Kristin Giammona delivered the closing speech to officially bring another successful year to a close. Congratulations to all the Harker fifth graders taking the next step!
Read more Harker News stories at ! (www.news.harker.org) Harker News — June 09
25
school Annual Trip S’More Fun for Campers!
Jacqueline Wang, Gr. 8, won second place, the silver medal, in the Biochemistry/Molecular Biology category at the California State Science Fair in Los Angeles in early May. Wang’s project was a top junior high award winner at the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship, held March 18 in San Jose, and that qualified her for the state event. The original story (Harker News, May, page 1) omitted to include that Wang was awarded an Isabelle Stone Award for Best Biological Science Projects which included a plaque, medal and a $100 cash prize. At the Synopsys event, Wang also earned a first place award for Individual Project in the Medicine/Health/Gerontology category, a certificate from the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a Board of Directors Award in the middle school category from the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association.
Dickens Brought to Life for Readers In early May, MS English chair Stacie Newman invited Gr. 8 students and their parents to a stage adaptation of the famous Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations,” produced by the West Valley College Theatre Arts Department. According to Newman, the students enjoyed seeing the novel they were studying in class interpreted through a different medium. “The students told me repeatedly that they liked it, and I know it brought the novel we’re reading right now to life for them,” Newman said. Although the play could not cover the entire breadth of the novel, Newman still found the play to be a satisfying experience: “From my point of view, it was a 90-mph romp through a Dickens novel, amazingly able to cover all but some side plots that were not vital to Pip’s story of unexpectedly coming into money and becoming a gentleman.”
26
The Harker Class of 2014 has a tradition of camping by the ocean at the KOA campgrounds near Santa Cruz. Under Ruth Mohanram’s (Scott, Gr. 11; Kevin, Gr. 7) able guidance, the weeks of planning by a group of parents resulted in a convoy of cars descending on the campgrounds on a Fri-
day evening in late April. The steady flow of Gr. 7 families checking into the KOA campground brought about a strong sense of bonhomie characteristic of Harker gatherings. Once the families had settled down they gathered around a crackling bonfire hosted by the Huchley family (Benjamin, Gr. 7; Emmy, Gr. 2). Children and adults enjoyed roasting the marshmallows and making s’mores under a starlit sky.
Photo supplied by Jackie Wang
Paulomi Bhattacharya, Gr. 8, who won a first place award at Synopsys for her individual project, “The Effect of Biotite Content and Ventilation on Radioactive Emissions from Granite,” also attended the California State Science Fair in Los Angeles where she received an award from the Health Physics Society for “best demonstrating the application of ionizing or non-ionizing radiation.” Bhattacharya also attended a banquet in May in her honor given by The San Francisco Chapter of the Association of Woman Geoscientists for her “Excellence in Geosciences Award” at the Synopsys event. Additionally, Bhattacharya discussed her research project at a recent meeting of the Middle School Science Research Club to help other young scientists learn from her experience.
Editor’s Note: Parent Narendra Nayak (Avinash, Gr. 7) did more than participate in this fun event; he wrote down his thoughts and observations for us, and we’re pleased to pass them along to you.
Narendra Nayak
California State Science Fair
Traditionally, the Saturday has been a day at the beach. Parents gathered for breakfast and were greeted with a stream of delectable “dosas” (a rice and lentil crepe) prepared by the skilled hands of Ram Duraiswamy (Kevin, Gr. 7; Ashley, Gr. 1). After the hearty breakfast the campers packed sandwiches for lunch and headed to Manresa Beach, a 5-minute drive from the campground. The morning fog soon burned away as the gorgeous weather dictated the activities. While some of the children swam in the ocean and built sandcastles, the rest helped their parents work on their tans by engaging in an active game of volleyball. When everyone finally returned to the campground in the afternoon it was time to saunter into the pool, slurp on an ice cream cone or ride the banana bikes. The campers readied themselves for the potluck dinner by sipping on a glass of their favorite beverage while talking about life at or outside school. The potluck itself had a wide collection of dishes from different parts of the world – an indication of Harker’s cultural diversity. The campfire that followed dinner helped the campers ready themselves for an active session of dancing to the lilting tunes of fast-paced music. Sunday morning the families gathered to chat over breakfast before bidding each other goodbye. This camping custom has continued to bring the families closer to each other in a relaxing atmosphere and the campers – first-timers and old-timers – parted with their minds already set on next year’s trip. Harker News — June 09
Kristin Giammona
middle
Annual Cancer Walk Raises Record
Promotion Brings Classmates Together
Virtually the entire population of the Blackford campus arrived at the field on April 24 for the third annual Harker Cancer Walk. Students, parents, faculty and staff all showed up with their walking shoes on to raise money for Camp Okizu, a camp that provides recreational activities and peer support to families with cancer-stricken children. Money was raised by selling T-shirts, wrist bands and bake sale items, as well as through donations, which were still being collected after the event concluded. The current total is $9,677, most of which was raised on the day of the Cancer Walk. “I continue to be humbled by the level of giving from this community as this year we raised even more than we have in the past,” said Michael Schmidt, MS computer science teacher, who began coordinating the Cancer Walk in 2007 after his mother passed away after battling the disease the previous year. “In fact, we achieved an unprecedented feat – we sold out of everything! I think the teachers would have sold the tables and chairs if possible.” The event had visitors from the LS and US campuses as well, making it a collaborative schoolwide effort. As a highlight, Schmidt performed a special victory dance, and was soon joined by dozens of others to bring the event to a fittingly celebratory close. “It is truly a blessing to find myself amongst such a wonderful group of people,” Schmidt said. “The outpouring of support for the Cancer Walk is why it’s such a wonderful time.”
n Rahul Desirazu, Gr. 8, was named one of two Gr. 7-8 varsity chess champions at the 34th annual CalChess State Scholastic Championships held in San Jose in May. He tied for first, unbeaten, with a score of 5.5 and brought home an impressive trophy. Earlier this year, at the Western Chess Congress in March, Desirazu was declared U1900 section champion with a perfect score of 5-0, earning him the handsome sum of $1,400 in prize money. As of press time, Desirazu was ranked 63rd in the Age 13 group by the United States Chess Federation, and he will be playing at the World Open Chess tournament in Philadelphia June 29 – July 5.
Sharmila Podury
n Erik Andersen, Gr. 8, and his mother, Alice Palmer, are riding in the Tour de Cure Silicon Valley fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association on June 14. The pair will ride a 30-mile route as members of the Lockheed Martin team.
Harker News — June 09
n In early March Archana Podury, Gr. 6, won second place in the 9-12 age group in the India Community Center (ICC) Art contest. In April, she participated in ICC’s Online Story Contest and won the first place. Congrats!
Shyam Desirazu
kudos
The Blackford gym was abuzz with activity as the Gr. 8 class prepared to take the next step in their educational lives at the Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony on June 3. After the students took their seats, head of school Chris Nikoloff welcomed the afternoon crowd of students, parents and faculty, and introduced MS division head Cindy Ellis, before the crowd rose to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. After a singing per formance that included “The Harker School Anthem” and the handing out of the annual awards, the students rose one at a time to receive their cer tificates. As they left the stage, the students were also given leis made of candy as a congratulator y treat. MS English teacher Patricia Lai Burrows then gave a hear t-warming closing speech, congratulating the eighth graders on their hard-earned success and wishing them well in their high school careers.
Read more Harker News stories at ! (www.news.harker.org)
Honors Escorts Serve at Graduation Special thanks to the 16 Gr. 7 students who served as Honor Escorts during the US graduation on May 23. They are: Angela Ma, Kimberly Ma, Manini Desai, Rebecca Chen, Anika Gupta, Saachi Jain, Emily Lin, Michelle Pagnon, Arjun Goyal, Darian Edvalson, Kevin Duraiswamy, Nicolas Semenza, Ian Richardson, Samir Baz, Clark Wu and Pranav Batra.
27
middle
school Chemists Become Investigators
The entire MS student body performed very well in the California Math League (CAML) contest in February. The contest consists of 40 problems, with a score of 15 or higher considered “commendable” and a score of 30 points or higher considered “exceptional.”
Raji Swaminathan’s Gr. 7 science students conducted a chemical reactions lab in late April as part of their studies. Students were provided with seven different solutions of compounds and performed 21 different combinations of chemical reactions with them, making observations of what happened during each reaction. They then wrote the chemical formula for each reactant and predicted the product and a balanced chemical equation for each reaction.
Harker sixth graders ranked third at the state level (among 175 participating schools) and first in the Santa Clara region with Angela Gu and Andrew Zhang each taking first place individually in the Santa Clara region. Gu and Zhang both scored 39 points, one short of the perfect 40. There were two perfect scores and five students with 39 across the state. In a pool of 126 schools, Harker’s Gr. 7 contestants ranked first in state and in the Santa Clara region. Vikram Sundar and Albert Zhou placed first individually in the state and in Santa Clara region. The two students were two of only seven students across the state with perfect scores. Travis Chen and Kristine Lin missed first place by just one point, each earning a score of 39.
Raji Swaminathan
CAML Test a Success
At the Gr. 8 level, Harker ranked second in the state, competing with 122 other schools. Harker also came in second in the Santa Clara region, with Ashvin Swaminathan placing first in both the state and Santa Clara regions as one of only seven eighth graders across the state with perfect scores.
Students Research the Old Days Immersion is a great way to learn and Cyrus Merrill, history teacher, has his students work up detailed presentations on different decades to help bring the feel of the times to their projects. For four days, students take over the class and give presentations on music, fashion, art, dance and television decade by decade.
Learn a Language, Try the Food! A group of 58 advanced Spanish students headed to the La Habana Cuba restaurant in April to sample some Cuban cuisine. “To understand a culture you need to experience it first-hand,” said their Spanish teacher, Julie Pinzás. “We are fortunate in the Bay Area to have so many ethnic groups that provide us with a sampling of the world at our doorstep.”
Houses Compete in Last Spirit Event The final MS spirit event of the year brought the year’s spirit activities to a rousing finish. The houses arrived at the Blackford campus blacktop court for the Tour de Blackford relay race. Because the spirit point totals for each house were very close this year, the race would decide who took the House Championship. Each house received a scooter board and a plunger. Using the plunger to propel the scooter board, advisory representatives raced from one side of the court to the other, where another advisory representative was waiting to race back to the opposite end. The remaining members of each house cheered on the competitors. The conclusion to the race saw Scientia emerge as the winners of both the race and the 2008-09 house competition. Well done!
28
Julie Pinzás
“I have already been asked to get up and swing dance and hand jive today,” said Merrill, “as well as been informed of the significance of Elvis and the TV dinner.” Faculty and students from other classes were invited to attend and were treated to interesting interpretations of old TV shows and films. Starting with the 1950s (“I Love Lucy” and McDonalds), each day brought a new decade, finishing up with the ’90s (Grunge and reality TV). Merrill gets in to the act, so to speak, on ’70s day, “which is always a hoot with me in my famous powder-blue tuxedo,” he said. Students checked facts with teachers who lived through their assigned decades and Merrill sent out a sincere thank you to all of the staff who have given feedback or answered questions from students in the last couple of weeks before the presentations. See related story, p. 15.
Finally, the students were given an unknown solution which they were asked to identify. They conducted chemical reactions with the unknown solution and the known seven solutions. After studying each of these reactions and comparing them with the previous 21 reactions, students predicted what the solution would be. “This is a lab that takes about two to three lab periods,” Swaminathan said. “But it covers so much hands-on chemistry, such as observing physical properties of compounds, writing chemical formulas, conducting chemical reactions, predicting the products, balancing the chemical equations, identifying the type of chemical reaction and finally identifying the unknown solution.”
Students enjoyed such dishes as lechón (roasted pork), pollo al ajillo (garlic chicken), tamal vegetariano, black beans and rice, fried plantains, fried yucca and a cake made from three different types of milk. “Black beans and rice were a favorite of non-vegetarians and vegetarians alike,” Pinzás said.
Yummy ‘Thank You’ For Teachers MS teachers got a treat on Teacher Appreciation Day on May 4. As usual, MS parents supplied a vast array of dishes for the teachers to choose from and enjoy. The special lunch took place in the Blackford multipurpose room, where tables encircled the entire area with appetizers and entrees from Gr. 6 and Gr. 7 families. The families of Gr. 8 students provided the much-appreciated desserts. MS division head Cindy Ellis said the massive feast “was a delectable treat for the eyes, nose, ears and tummy!” Harker News — June 09
Blue Planet, continued from pg. 1
Students Learn About Online Life
Varun Gudapti, Gr. 8, added “he gave me the knowledge to make others aware of the impact of water.” Classmate Sondra Costa suggested the group could raise money to support one of Smolan’s “water heroes,” Scott Harrison, whose charity, charity: water (charitywater.org), uses 100 percent of donations to build wells to get potable water to people in need.
In April, the Gr. 7 advisories had a special meeting for a video presentation and discussion about online identities and lifestyles. The video shown was a segment from a PBS program called “Growing Up Online,” which dealt with the increasing prevalence of online activity in children’s lives, and the identities they create.
Thus was born the Blue Planet Group. “About 45 people showed up to our first meeting,” said Lori Berenberg, Gr. 8. “Since then, we have focused on getting organized into committees that have their own focus in educating and fundraising to achieve our goal of funding a well,” she said.
Following the viewing, students were asked during their advisor y periods about their online activity. Students filled out forms which contained questions about the kinds of people they are online and offline and how they use social media such as MySpace and Facebook. Many students said they were the same person online as they were offline, while others admitted to acting differently.
Just before the assembly began, Harrison twittered, “about to talk to kids in San Jose about water. I used to hate first period!” After the assemblies he twittered about “awesome kids at Harker.” In fact, he was so impressed with the original educational posters created by the Blue Planet Group that he took a photo of one and put it on his Twitter site, noted Claerbout.
Raji Swaminathan
Harrison’s impact was felt immediately and Berenberg posted comments to the club’s forum right after the visit: ”Well, the big day has come and gone. Scott Harrison gave his speech, and personally, I think it was a great success. I know a lot of my friends who weren’t really into it before are now so excited to help and realize that the clean water crisis is a real issue. That is really what we were trying to achieve here and we got it! I’m so proud of everyone because if it weren’t for each and every one of us, he wouldn’t have come and we would be nowhere near where we are today.” Students have used a variety of efforts to educate and raise funds, including a school meeting presentation, a bake sale, a photo booth and a water-themed school dance. “We decided it would be great if we could make it water-themed so people … understand what they are donating to if they gave money to the Blue Planet Group,” said Berenberg. “The middle school students have been passionately working on the issue since Smolan’s presentation, so it was a fantastic way for the students to not only wrap up their current fundraising project, but help them continue their momentum when they start at our upper school next year. A partnership between middle and high school students has been proposed and is in the works for next year,” said Claerbout. In addition to the student club, water is the focus of a number of class projects. Angela Neff, assistant director of instructional technology at the MS and computer science teacher, noted her population studies classes have been “focusing their research on the international water crisis all year as a part of our Global 20/20 program sponsored by NAIS,” she said, further noting, “Tim (Culbertson’s) (computer science) classes are doing infectious diseases which are deeply exacerbated by water: too much, too little or too dirty.” Finally, Spanish teacher Susan Moling said her Unit 5 in Spanish class is all about conservation. “My students just made some amazing mini-posters about conservation including water, culminating in video public service announcements created in Spanish. I think the cross-curricular application is wonderful and gives the kids a real sense of pride knowing that everyone is working on such a critical issue,” she said. For next year, Jennifer Abraham, global education director, is working with interested Gr. 8 teachers on a water project in collaboration with the Bayn Garden School in Saudi Arabia. Locally the focus will be to learn more about our own watershed and water issues here in California. See related story, p. 37. Harker News — June 09
“A teacher spoke to a student who wrote on the form that he had one (online identity), but when she spoke to him, he said he had at least 12,” said Angela Neff, MS assistant director of technology. Neff estimated the most popular forms of online activity are social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as chat utilities such as Gmail Chat. “This is not something we can stop,” Neff said. “It is the way kids communicate. It's their neighborhood, and so the key is to stay in verbal communication with your child." Traumatic events, she added, happen online just as they happen in real life, but differ in that children are now interacting with more than just their neighborhood friends. "If your kid came in from outside (following a traumatic event), you'd know they were playing with Jimmy and Susie and you'd say, ‘What's wrong?’” Neff said. “Now you may feel something's wrong with your child, but you'd have no idea how many people they were interacting with." Instead of tr ying to keep kids from going online, Neff says to make sure they know what they are getting into, teach them how to use the Internet responsibly and to be a source of support when things go wrong. “What’s more important is that we know how to be there for these kids,” Neff said.
Students Practice Japanese In April, Kumi Matsui’s Gr. 8 Japanese students took a trip to the Tanto Japanese restaurant in Sunnyvale to put their newly-acquired language skills to the test. Students were required to speak Japanese to the restaurant staff when ordering food, as the staff would not respond to requests in English. “I am happy to say that all students complied with the requirements,” Matsui said. “In fact, one or two were quite advanced in their conversation abilities by using new grammar recently studied.” The students feasted on such Japanese culinary delights as mochi ice cream and fried bananas. One student ordered an unagi bowl, which consisted of broiled eel served over rice and topped with a sweet sauce. In addition to breaking the language barrier, students also learned how to eat using chopsticks, some with more difficulty than others. “Two students had to revert back to forks and knives, having failed to master chopsticks on the spot,” Matsui said, adding that the restaurant was very accommodating to different tastes and served vegetarian dishes to those who requested them. “This allowed for everyone to have a fantastic meal, bond with their fellow students, as well as practice their Japanese in an authentic situation,” she said.
29
Kumi Matsui
Harrison heard about the effort and offered to stop at Harker while on a visit at the end of May to speak at Apple, Google and Twitter. Harrison came first to the MS campus, then to the US campus to address student assemblies.
upper
school National Forensics, continued from pg. 1
kudos n Amiti Uttarwar, Gr. 11, attended the GFC (Girls For A Change) Change Your World Breakfast May 13 at the Cr ystal Springs Golf Club in Burlingame. Uttar war is active in the organization year-round and is par t of the Girl’s Steering Committee in Silicon Valley. n In April, the US dance team of Cailin Mackenzie and Sarah Payne, both Gr. 12, and Daisy Mohrman and Olivia Zhu, both Gr. 10, took third place after two days of competition at the Olympiad of the Ar ts sponsored by Mission College and West Valley Colleges. n Supraja Swamy, Gr. 10, was awarded the Violet Richardson Award in April for her commitment to community ser vice. The award is named for the president of the first Soroptomist club, which aims to better the lives of women and girls in local communities worldwide. n Karlene McCallaCreary, Gr. 12, appears in a trailer for the Nintendo Wii game “Active Life Outdoor Challenge.” The trailer can be viewed by going to http://www.playactivelife.com and clicking the “Trailer” link. n Christina Li, Gr. 10, won first place in the San Jose Teen Talent Competition, hosted by the San Jose Public Librar y System. The competition was derived from San Jose Idol and was expanded this year to include talents other than singing. Li placed second in her local librar y branch’s competition and then sang her song in the finals on May 11, where she won the first place prize of $250. n Josephine Chen, Gr. 10, won a Gold Key award for her poem, “Why?” in the Scholastics Ar ts & Writing competition sponsored by the Alliance for Young Ar tists & Writers. The awards recognize student achievement in the visual ar ts and creative writing, and this year reviewed 140,000 submissions of ar t and writing by teenagers from across the countr y. Each work is reviewed by a panel of ar ts professionals for originality, technical skill and emergence of personal vision or voice.
30
When the dust clears after seven preliminar y rounds, the top 16 teams at the tournament are left to battle in the elimination rounds. Much like a sports tournament, the winning team in each debate advances except there is no best of three or five, it is a single elimination. Hilbrich and Gowda defeated a number of top-tier teams, round after round for three days straight. In their semifinal round, they defeated the National Debate Coaches Association champions, and in finals they went head to head with a team who had been in a number of national final rounds including the largest national high school invitation in the fall (the Glenbrooks). The entire year for debate culminates in the three national championship title competitions, so this win was a per fect end to the school year. Carol Green, debate teacher and coach, was thrilled with the girls’ per formance and stressed the difficulty of this achievement. Green explained, “It is rare that a national championship in debate is brought to a high school considering the thousands of schools that compete for the opportunity each year. As a coach I can honestly say this may be one of the highlights of my career!” Hilbrich and Gowda were presented with their trophies in late May, and they presented the school with a framed award to be displayed perpetually on campus. The girls were also featured on the front page of the National Forensics League Web site. Congratulations to both the coach and our national champions! In other forensics news, the Harker policy team comprising juniors Arjun Mody and Adam Perelman had a good showing at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Albany, N.Y. The boys went 3-2 in prelims and made it to double-octofinals (top 32) in Policy Debate. This is the first time a Harker policy team has made it to elimination rounds at Grand Nationals. Nice work! Meanwhile, David Kastelman, Gr. 12, made it to the fourth level of competition in the Lions Club Speakers Contest, an annual speech competition for high school students. The topic for this year’s contest was “Water: Will California Be Left High and Dr y?” Kastelman was defeated at the fourth level after defeating Jyoti Narayanswami, Gr. 11, at the third level, and Kevin Kim, Gr. 12, at the second level. Kim had previously defeated Akshay Aggarwal, Gr. 10, at the first level. “This is the first time multiple Harker students have competed against each other at the various levels and we look for ward to continuing this success in future years,” said Green. Harker News — June 09
Student Helps Stranger in Medical Emergency
Editor’s note: US drama teacher Jeff Draper received this e-mail in early May from Diane Kitamura, a guest at a hotel where Anthony Chen, Gr. 12, was also staying. “I am compelled to write this e-mail concerning one of your students, Anthony Chen, who I had the opportunity to meet this past weekend in Los Angeles. When I say opportunity, it truly was by chance that we met under a circumstance where we had to deal with a medical emergency together in the hotel in which we were both staying. “At approximately 2 a.m., I was walking … back to my room on the ninth floor when a woman in her nightgown came running out of her room screaming for help and to call 911. She was speaking in English and Korean and saying
“The woman had tried to call the front desk but there was no answer. I went downstairs to get help and found a security/hotel staff person to get to the room because there was a medical emergency and we could not get into the room to see what was wrong with the man. “Security finally arrived at the scene to open the door. The man was lying on the bed and appeared to be unresponsive and possibly not breathing. Security was on my intern’s cell phone talking to 911 which asked in anyone knew CPR. “Anthony was staying in the room next door and heard all of the commotion and was watching the situation. When security asked if someone knew CPR, Anthony volunteered since he had just completed the CPR course a month prior. Anthony immediately got on the phone to 911 when he saw the man’s chest and realized he might
have had heart surger y because of a large surgical scar down the middle of his chest. “He reported this to the 911 operator and was told to move the man to the floor and check for breathing. Anthony determined the man was breathing although it was barely detectable. “I took the woman and had her begin packing items and changing
“
The couple were very grateful for Anthony’s help. He was calm, cool and collected during the situation and represented The Harker School well.
“
there was something wrong with her husband. She was quite hysterical. I had (an) intern with me who is bilingual in both English and Korean whom I told to assist the woman while I went down stairs to get help, because the door had shut behind the woman so we could not get back into the room to help her husband.
clothes as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. The gentleman woke up and was incoherent and ver y angr y about a situation that occurred earlier in the evening. Anthony, along with my intern who translated for 911, continued to stay with the man until paramedics
arrived. “Paramedics arrived and transported the man to the hospital where he stayed overnight. I met with the man and woman yesterday and they reported that the man had had a mild heart attack and is unable to fly for another two weeks. “The couple were ver y grateful for Anthony’s help in this emergency situation. He was calm, cool and collected during the situation and represented The Harker School well. As a former assistant superintendent, I would be ver y proud of Anthony and I know you must all be proud as well of the tremendous courage and leadership Anthony demonstrated during this situation.” It turns out Chen took CPR at Harker earlier this year. “The incident has made me appreciate life so much more,” he said. “The pure feeling of having a man’s life literally in your hands is enough to make anyone appreciate ever ything that this life has given us. I really encourage ever yone to take CPR certification classes because at any moment and any time you may be the only person in the entire place that knows CPR and can save a person’s life.” Harker honored Chen at a small ceremony in late May.
Read more Harker News stories at ! (www.news.harker.org)
Student Selected for Concord Review Alyssa Donovan, Gr. 12 has had her research paper, “Whaling in the International Whaling Commission: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Organization’s Failures,” selected for publication in The Concord Review. Donovan wrote the paper for Ramsey Westgate’s International Issues and Public Policy class, and it was presented earlier this spring at the Harker Research Symposium. The paper deals with Donovan’s perception of the need to transform the IWC’s “bureaucratic and power structure to allow for enforcement of laws, re-evaluate its policy-making strategies to fairly and accurately portray both current scientific data as well as the nation-states affected, and … extend the reach of both its enforcement and political policy to nonstate as well as state actors.” The Concord Review founder Will Fitzhugh Harker News — June 09
thanked Donovan for what he called a ver y good paper. Donovan worked with several faculty members on the piece, including librarians Lauri Vaughan and Sue Smith. Smith noted the acceptance is a historic moment in Harker histor y and Anita Chetty, science department chair and organizer of the Harker Research Symposium, said, “This is an incredible achievement,” and suggested the paper be made available for teaching purposes. Founded in 1987, The Concord Review is a quarterly academic journal which publishes 10 or 11 papers per issue from around the world. It only publishes about seven percent of submissions and over 10 percent of published authors attend Har vard, with many others attending Princeton, Stanford and Oxford.
31
upper
school
Senior Selected as Member of U.S. Physics (Olympiad) Team
JETS Varsity Sweeps, Win Trip Harker’s Varsity C team was named “Best Overall” in the country by the Junior Engineering Technical Society’s (JETS) annual Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition. The team, made up of seniors Daniel Kim, Hanh Dang, Jeffrey Mandell, Tsung-Ju Lu, Nikita Sinha, Kartik Venkatraman, Kevin Wang and Kevin Xu, will receive a $5,000 cash prize and a trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. (not Disneyland, as reported in May).
Zach Jones
JETS is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to developing young people’s interest in engineering and technology. Each year, the organization holds its two-part TEAMS competition, in which students answer a series of questions dealing with different engineering scenarios. Every year, the competition has a different theme. This year’s theme explored the engineering principles used in theme parks.
Anand Natarajan, Gr. 12, has been chosen as a member of the team that will represent the United States at the International Physics Olympiad in Mexico this summer. In April, Natarajan and classmate Vikram Nathan, Gr. 12, as well as Andrew Zhou, Gr. 11, were chosen as semifinalists to become a part of the team. Harker’s total of three semifinalists was higher than any other school in the nation. Scheduling conflicts prevented Natarajan and Nathan from being able to attend both their Harker graduation and the Physics Olympiad training camp. Nathan, the 2009 valedictorian, stayed behind in California to speak to his fellow graduates. Natarajan made the difficult decision to attend the required training camp in Mar yland in lieu of his graduation ceremony, and his hard work deser vedly paid off. “The AAPT (American Association of Physics Teachers) would not let him miss a single day of the physics camp in Mar yland, so he made a choice between two once-in-alifetime experiences,” said US physics teacher Eric Nelson. At a special ceremony in late May, Butch Keller, US division head, presented Natarajan with his high school diploma, with family present.
32
Other Harker teams also performed well in the competition. At the national overall level, Harker’s Varsity D team (juniors Andy Fang, Jackie Ho, Vishesh Jain, Curran Kaushik, Arjun Mody, Haran Sivukumar, Kevin Zhang and Andrew Zhou) was ranked fourth, and the Varsity B team of juniors Namrata Anand, Brandon Araki, Jeanette Chin, James Feng, Alex Han, Andrea Lincoln, Rachel Luo and Adam Perelman placed eighth. In the Division 2 category (which includes private schools containing more than 150 seniors), Varsity D took first place, with Varsity C earning second. Division 2 category rankings are based only on the second part of the competition. “D did better in part II, but C did better in part I, giving them the best ‘overall’ score,” said US math teacher and JETS advisor Anthony Silk. Also in Division 2, the Varsity A team took third. Tying for the 10th place spot was the Varsity B team. At the state level, the Harker’s four varsity teams took all of the top four Division 2 spots, with Varsity C placing first, Varsity B coming in second, Varsity D at third and Varsity A at fourth. In Junior Varsity Division 2 competition, Harker’s Junior Varsity B team of freshmen Lucy Cheng, Alexander Hsu, Revanth Kosaraju, Jeffrey Kwong, Ramya Rangan, Pavitra Rengarajan, Katie Siegel and Albert Wu earned the top spot to become the only JV team in Division 2 to qualify for ßthe national competition, where they placed 27th overall. Harker’s Junior Varsity A team – sophomores Tracey Chan, Josephine Chen, Isaac Madan, Jerry Sun, Ben Tien, Susan Tu, Karen Wong and Kevin Tran – earned fourth. Although they were not directly sponsored by the school, Gr. 9 students Michelle Deng, Patrick Yang, Eric Kong, Vishesh Gupta, Frederic Enea and Daryl Neubieser nonetheless participated, taking second place in Junior Varsity Division 2.
Women of Vision Juniors Andrea Lincoln and Anjali Menon attended the Women of Vision Awards Banquet on April 30, hosted by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. The event offered insight into the many exciting contributions made by women in various technological fields. Also in attendance were alumnae Jessica Liu ’04 and Vickie Duong ’04, as well as Pam Dickinson, director of Harker’s office of communications. All were at the event courtesy of parent Brian Pawlowski (Nikolai ’02), a member of the Anita Borg Institute’s board of trustees. Lincoln and Menon also got to network with women involved in their fields of interest. “The networking session allowed me to talk to women going into fields I am interested in, who attend colleges ranging from Stanford to UC Davis,” Lincoln said. “The suggestions the professionals at my table had for college also will be useful in the upcoming college application process.” Harker News — June 09
Global Empowerment and Outreach The Global Empowerment and Outreach Club (GEO) had the exciting opportunity to have Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water, speak to the US and MS student bodies May 29. An innovative and captivating young man who became disillusioned by his selfish life, Harrison started charity: water in 2006 when he asked his friends and family for small money donations instead of birthday gifts. He used the $15,000 he made to build a well in Uganda. In 2007, he expanded this campaign to ask for $32 for his thirty-second birthday, from which he raised $59,000 to build a well for a hospital in Kenya. Harrison continued to expand his idea with the Born in September Campaign
that garnered 92 September-born participants who gave up their birthday presents and raised $150,000 for charity: water. “With the perfect combination of statistics, pictures and Scott’s own personal stories, the assembly truly inspired me to make my own Web business to educate and raise funds for this cause as well as to encourage others to take initiative. If in just a few years charity: water has been able to solve 0.1% of the drinking problem it will take less than a thousand similar individuals, or organizations, or initiatives to solve it completely,” observed GEO member Vishesh Jain, Gr. 11. “What I finally understood from his speech and gallery was not only the reality and extent of the problem but our individual and collective ability to fix it.” See related story, p. 1.
Physics Students First in Region
Rising Classes Elect New Leaders
Harker finished first in our region in the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Physics Bowl 2009 contest. All AP Physics B and AP Physics C students participated in the Physics Bowl this year. Harker received 132 points when all was said and done, the fifth highest score in the country among Division 2 schools. The school will receive a $100 gift certificate from Frey Scientific, a $50 gift certificate from Vernier Software & Technology and a $25 gift certificate from the AAPT store.
The students have spoken, and the results of the May student council elections are in.
Scientist Warns of Danger to Coral Reefs at Speaker Series Stanford researcher Dr. Jack Silverman, who just returned from Lizard Island off the coast of Australia, spoke in Nichols Hall in late May as part of the Harker Science Speakers series. Silverman has been studying the effects of rising carbon dioxide levels on coral reef ecology and
For the class of 2011, Santosh Swaminathan and Tyler Koteskey will serve as president and vice president, respectively. Karthik Dhore will be the class secretary, and Nilesh Murali its treasurer. Olivia Zhu, Christine Chien and Josephine Chen will be next year’s juniors on the Honor Council. Finally, the class of 2012 has selected Revanth Kosaraju as its president, with David Fang filling the role of vice president. Serving as secretary will be Derek Huang, and Sankalp Raju will step into the job of treasurer.
Work on Superinfections In April, Aaron Lin, Gr. 12, became a regional finalist in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition, and earned both a scholarship and a trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national event. Lin was selected for his research paper on viral superinfections. For the paper, he used a computer simulation to show how superinfections work, specifically regarding a strain of Hepatitis G, which could slow the progression from HIV to AIDS under certain conditions. “After testing several conditions, it was found that only a low-virulence Hepatitis G strain that was almost equally competitive with HIV caused a substantial decrease in both HIV virulence and viral load,” Lin said. potential fixes. His slide presentation has spectacular underwater photography from his research sites and his warning on danger to the world’s coral reef system was a wake up call to many.
Harker News — June 09
Representing the class of 2010 will be president Kevin Fu, vice president Won Hee Lee, secretary Jackie Son and treasurer Amiti Uttarwar. Curran Kaushik will represent the class of 2010 on the Honor Council.
Lin discovered his interest in epidemiology through his primary field of study, virology. “Ultimately, a lot of epidemics do come from viruses, making both fields very important,” he said. He plans to continue working on the model he used to create his paper “by adding more and more factors that occur in the real world, such as retroviral restriction factors and viruscell interactions.” Although he’s prepared to delve into epidemiology again in the future, Lin has been concentrating more on his interest in virology. “Though studying epidemics is also quite interesting, right now I’m focused on viruses at the micro level,” he said. “A career in public health, though, maybe later down the road is definitely still an option at this point.”
33
upper
school
Upper School JCL Recognizes Achievement at End of Year Awards
The award for overall top Latin student, awarded at the school’s final awards ceremony the next day, went to Brandon Araki, Gr. 11. Students who contributed to the overall spirit and activities of JCL during the year received attractive medals. Spirit of JCL Medals went to Han, Anjali Menon, Gr. 11, Justin Iso, Gr. 12, Monisha Dilip, Gr. 11, Sohini Khan, Gr. 11 and Christophe Pellissier, Gr. 9.
Special plaques were awarded to Kim Pellissier, Christophe’s mother, for her service to the JCL effort in putting on the CJCL State Convention and to Menon, who guided Harker’s efforts in putting on the convention. National Latin Exam medals and certificates for Latin 1 were awarded to Henshall, silver medal; Magna Cum Laude certificates were awarded to Ariel Fishman, Gr. 11 and Matthew Carpenter, Gr. 9; Saagar Sarin, Gr. 9, earned a Cum Laude certificate. For Latin 2, Gupta received a Magna Cum Laude certificate; in Latin 3 Robert Maxton, Gr. 9, earned a gold medal, Kaitlin Halloran, Gr. 9, won a silver medal, Pellissier received a Magna Cum Laude certificate, and freshmen Daanish Jamal and Paul West earned Cum Laude certificates. In Latin 3 Prose, gold medals went to
Rangan, Ananth Subramaniam, Gr. 9 (perfect paper), Justine Liu and April Luo, both Gr. 10 and Prag Batra, Alexander Hsu and Daryl Neubieser, all Gr. 9. Silver medals were awarded to Rachel Fang, Gr. 10, Jessica Lin, Gr. 9, Phillip Oung, Gr. 9, Anita Satish, Gr. 11, Jason Kuan, Gr. 9, Andy Fang, Gr. 11 and Margaux Nielsen, Gr. 10. Max Lan, Gr. 10, won a Magna Cum Laude certificate and Shannon O’Reilly, Gr. 10, received a Cum Laude certificate.
Reddy, Pavitra Rengarajan, Maddy Rao, Ishan Taneja and Lucy Xu. Inductees to the Japanese National Honor Society include juniors Kelly Chen, Tiffany Kyi, sophomores Tiffany Chien, Michelle Holt, Jessica Khojasteh, Katie Liang, Naomi So, Jerry Sun and freshmen Margaret Krackeler, Rachelle Koch, Alisha Mayor, Akshay Ramachandran, Jennie Xu and Laura Yau. Inductees to the Latin National Honor Society include junior Ariel Fishman, sophomore Amritha Minisandram and freshmen Prag Batra, Eric Henshall, Alexander Hsu, Jessica Lin, Robert Maxton, Phillip Oung, Ramya Rangan and Ananth Subramaniam. Inductees to the Mandarin National Honor Society include sophomores
For Latin 4 Poetry, gold medals were earned by Khan (perfect paper), Menon and Han; silver medals went to Iso and Dilip, and Valerie Hwa and Govind Raghunath, both Gr. 11, received Magna Cum Laude certificates. A gold medal for Latin 4 Prose went to Christine Hsu, Gr. 11; Woods and Araki earned gold medals for Latin 5.
Seniors Iso, Kastelman, Mike Hong and Priya Thumma received special gifts.
Daisy Mohrman, Chris Ng, Howard Lio, Kristi Lui and Christina Li. Inductees to the Spanish National Honor Society include juniors Stefan Eckhardt, Nathaniel Edwards, Tamara Kawadri, Yash Khandwala, Nicole Lindars, Mark Roh and sophomores Tracey Chan, Meghna Chatterjee, Richard Chiou, Daniel Cho, Timothy Chou, Karthik Dhore, Hassaan Ebrahim, Peter Gao, Vrinda Goel, Lorraine Kim, Alice Loofbourrow, Isaac Madan, Shireen Moshkelani, Moneesha Mukherjee, Shreya Nathan, Nikhil Parthasarathy, Ruchika Podury, Benjamin Tien, Kevin Tran, Diane Villadsen and Olivia Zhu. The new members join the current membership of 107 Harker students.
Future Business Leaders Are Winners The FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) State Leadership Conference took place from April 23-26 at the Santa Clara Hyatt Regency and members of Harker’s chapter competed. Testing their business knowledge, the teams earned the first place awards for team in Global Business and first and second for individuals in Economics. The team of Mark Roh, Tamara Kawadri and Arjun Bhargava, all Gr. 11, took first place in Global Business while Brandon Araki, Gr. 11, earned first place
34
in Economics followed closely by Sachin Mitra, Gr. 11, second and Roh, fourth. Other winners were Vrinda Goel, Gr. 10, fifth in Introduction to Business Communication; Jeffrey Tan, Gr. 11, sixth place in Business Procedures; James Feng, Gr. 11, sixth place in Sports Management and Ganesh Sivakumar, Gr. 10, ninth place in Business Procedures. Other members who participated are Stefan Eckhardt, Michael Gendotti, Aadithya Prakash, Stefan Schwartz and Haran Sivakumar, all Gr. 11.
Subramaniam and Khan received special certificates for their perfect papers on the exam and Araki and Khan received copies of the Oxford Classical Dictionary for having earned four gold medals in a row. Continuing members of the National Latin Honor Society received certificates recognizing their continued participation: Araki, Stephanie Chong, Gr. 12, Dilip, Andy Fang, Rachel Fang, Sophia Gilman, Gr. 12, Han, Veronica Hsieh, Gr. 11, Christine Hsu, Valerie Hwa, Gr. 11, Iso, Kastelman, Khan, Liu, Luo, Menon, Sachin Rangarajan, Gr. 12, Satish and Woods.
Foreign Languages Induct Honorees Abel Olivas, foreign language department chair, announced the induction of 75 new members of French, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin and Spanish National Honor Societies last month. “Each society has its own specific criteria set by the national office of the organization, but in general, all induct a very select group of students with high averages in their language courses,” said Olivas. Inductees to the French National Honor Society include juniors Kendra Moss, Navin Sabharwal, Sammi Werthen, sophomores Josephine Chen, Pierre Gerard, Nilesh Murali, Susan Tu, Julian Wise and freshmen Shivani Bigler, Michelle Deng, Frederic Enea, Nandita Krishna, Daniela Lapidous, Chaitanya Malladi, Jay
David Kastelman, Gr. 12, earned a silver medal for Latin 5.
College Admissions Secrets The Harker College Symposium in late April gave US junior parents an oppor tunity to get a peek into the workings of the college admissions process. Admissions directors from Georgetown University and Har vard University appeared at the event, offering their insights into how applications to their colleges are examined and weighted. Parents also got to par ticipate in a case study exercise using real-life student files.
After receiving the Global Business award, the team was congratulated by other participants for their creative business solution to the problem presented to them. Just as in the regional Bay Section Leadership Conference, all members who competed in Economics placed in the top five. The top three winners of each competition move on to the National Leadership Conference at Anaheim, in June.
Kevin Lum Lung
At an assembly on May 20, the following US Junior Classical League (JCL) students were awarded plaques recognizing their status as top student at each level: Eric Henshall, Gr. 9, Latin 1; Saloni Gupta, Gr. 10, Latin 2; Ila Dwivedi, Gr. 9, Latin 3; Ramya Rangan, Gr. 9, Latin 3 Honors; Alex Han, Gr. 11, Latin 4; Maggie Woods, Gr. 11, Advanced Latin.
Harker News — June 09
A Fun Spirit Week and the Spirit Champions Crowned The year in spirit came to a rousing finish during the final week in April, which featured a number of exciting activities and themed dress days. On Monday, students, faculty and staff crawled out of bed and headed straight to Saratoga for Pajama Day, which two years ago was dedicated to Dr. Cheryl Cavanaugh, who loved this event before she passed away from cancer last year. Students took part in a mattress racing event, in which one student rested on an air mattress, which was then carried by other students across Rosenthal Field. The theme for Tuesday was, “Would you be my friend if I wore this every day?” and as such, outlandishly colored garb was en vogue all over the Saratoga campus. In keeping with the unusual-looking atmosphere, the day’s special event was a threelegged race. Wednesday was “Sports Day,” which students and staff celebrated by wearing attire related to their favorite sports teams. Everyone gathered on the bleachers at Davis Field to watch the all-female Powder Puff flag football game, which the team of seniors and freshmen narrowly won by a single touchdown, 14-7. The US saw double on Thursday’s Twin Day, which featured pairs of people in identical clothing. Students raced boats made of duct
tape and cardboard at the Singh Aquatic Center, earning points not only for finishing the race but also for having the most stylish vessel. Students wore their class colors during the final day of Spirit Week, which concluded in grandiose fashion with the final spirit rally of the year on Friday. Performances by the Harker cheerleading squad, Varsity Dance Troupe and the Harker Jazz Band kept the crowds entertained. The funniest treats, however, were the dance performances put on by each class, which featured not only students but also teachers strutting their stuff on the Davis Field turf. Classes competed in a cheer-off as well as a series of entertaining (and sometimes chaotic) relay races. Once the activities were over with, the scores for the year were tallied, and the juniors came away the spirit winners with 47,280 points. The seniors were a close second, with 46,580 points.
Please see the following stories in our new ! (www.news.harker.org) n Club, Teachers Make Our Garden Grow n Are You Right- or Left-Brained? n GEO Club Continues Humanitarian Efforts n Japanese Rakugo Performer Entrances US Harker News — June 09
35
HARKER
36 Harker News — June 09
graduation
Harker News — June 09
1
Class of 2009 College Enrollment In another first for the US, Jonathan Liu, Gr. 12, will be studying politics, philosophy and economics at Queens College, Oxford. “All his teachers are thrilled for him. It is really hard to get in,” said Ruth Meyer, English teacher, who ought to know, as she received her first degree from Oxford!
“None of us get anywhere without someone else.” Traditional Ceremony Launches Graduation Weekend Baccalaureate, a ceremony with roots in 15th century Oxford, formally began the graduation festivities on the Thursday before the big day. In a warm and sunny quad on the US campus, music was played and speeches were spoken. Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace, and a string ensemble, directed by Chris Florio, provided beautiful and thoughtful musical selections to set the tone. In her opening remarks, Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, told the junior class it was time to say goodbye to the seniors and prepare to accept their new leadership role. She reminded the audience of juniors, seniors, senior parents and faculty that this was a time when we are “celebrating each and every one of you… as individuals and as a class.”
Math teacher Anthony Silk, selected by the graduates to represent the faculty, delivered a talk he based on a popular NPR radio program, “This American Life.” His theme: The Road Not Taken. His time in the Navy encouraged him to learn how to find small things that can give one a quick lift or encouragement in hard times. His venture into the rat race of software engineering taught him that, “Our lives don’t have one correct route to the cheese…don’t make your life a race.” And he urged the seniors to think about the people who helped them. “None of us get anywhere without someone else,” he remarked, adding that history teacher John Near, a frequent and accomplished Baccalaureate speaker, has been an inspiration to him. Graduating senior Daniel Kim had the honor of addressing his class as salutatorian, a word he says he looked up in the dictionary and found to mean the speaker who “salutes” the incoming senior class. He thus directed his remarks to the juniors, telling them that appearances don’t matter, it’s the attitude that counts; to follow one’s passion, saying “what you love is what you are”; and be thankful to those who have paved your way. As seniors departed for more class activities and juniors left with the understanding of their new role, parents and faculty mingled and talked about the students they were sending off to the next phase of their lives.
Harker News — June 09
Amherst College (2) Bentley University (2) Boston College (1) Boston University (3) Brown University (4) Bryn Mawr College (1) University of California at Berkeley (19) University of California at Davis (1) University of California at Irvine (2) University of California at Los Angeles (1) University of California at San Diego (7) University of California at Santa Barbara (3) University of California at Santa Cruz (6) California Institute of Technology (3) California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (3) California State University, Monterey Bay (1) Carnegie Mellon University (1) Case Western Reserve University (1) University of Chicago (1) Columbia University (1) Cornell University (5) Dartmouth College (2) De Anza College (1) Duke University (2) Eckerd College (1) Elon University (1) Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University – Fla. (1) The George Washington University (2) Georgetown University (2) Harvard University (3) Harvey Mudd College (1) Johns Hopkins University (2) Loyola Marymount University (1) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2) Northwestern University (1) Occidental College (1) University of Pennsylvania (4) Pepperdine University (1) Pitzer College (1) Pomona College (1) Princeton University (3) Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (3) Rice University (1) Saint Louis University (2) Saint Mary’s College of California (1) San Francisco State University (1) University of San Francisco (1) San Jose State University (1) Santa Clara University (4) School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1) Scripps College (2) Sewanee: The University of the South (1) Smith College (1) University of Southern California (25) Stanford University (9) Tufts University (1) University of Oxford (1) University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts (1) Villanova University (1) Washington University in St. Louis (6) Yale University (3)
37
HARKER
graduation Senior Moms Graduate Also This year’s senior moms tribute luncheon was held on a beautiful spring day in mid-May under the trees in the Saratoga Quad. This annual event pays tribute to the proud Gr. 12 moms whose sons and daughters are graduating. The Gr. 9, 10 and 11 moms host the potluck luncheon for the honored guests. “This is a really lovely tradition that is ver y much appreciated by the senior moms,” said Sue Prutton, director of US volunteers program, “and as a tenth grade mom myself (Michael, Gr. 10; Hannah, Gr. 8), I love to hear their stories and tributes as they address us all at the event – it’s well worth being a part of.”
Cum Laude Society Holds Induction Ceremony
Awards Ceremony Honors Best of the Best In the midst of baccalaureate and graduation comes a more intimate affair – the awards ceremony, honoring the best and brightest among our already exceptional student body. Each department stood on stage and recognized the most promising students in their disciplines. Book Awards from 13 colleges and corporations were given to deserving juniors, and the student government officers and honor council were also honored and thanked for their service. This is also the time when excellent character is recognized along with excellent academic achievement, and the Donald Nichols Excellence in Leadership and The Board of Trustees’ General Excellence awards were given to a member of each class. The ceremony was further enhanced with performances from a string quartet, Camerata, Downbeat and Bel Canto.
• 17 seniors • 17 juniors
This year’s inductions to the Cum Laude society are especially significant as the group is moving from a passive role to an active one in the 2009-10 school year. At the ceremony in April, 17 members of the senior class were inducted (14 were inducted last year), and 17 juniors were inducted. This group will be taking on some new tasks, including arranging for speakers in the Harker Cum Laude Speaker Series (replacing the Nichols Hall Speaker Series) and publishing a compilation of the very best graded work from classrooms around the campus. Donna Gilbert, history and social science department chair, will be the faculty liaison for the speaker series and John Near, AP History and government teacher, will be faculty liaison for the as-yet unnamed publication.
Harker News (USPS 023-761) is published Monthly except July, Aug., and Sept., by the The Harker School, Office of Communications, 500 Saratoga Ave, San Jose, CA 95129. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Jose, CA and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Harker News, 500 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129.
38
Harker News — June 09
At Harker for a Lifetime!
’09
Senior Trip - Friends and Farewells
The senior class took advantage of their Laguna Beach trip together to renew friendships, reminisce about their years at Harker and start unwinding for summer!
Graduation Day Finally Arrives for Eager Seniors Beautiful weather and a spectacular setting awaited family and friends of the Class of 2009 as they arrived at the newly remodeled Mountain Winery in Saratoga for the US’s eighth commencement exercises. Graduation was held on campus last year because of the extensive renovation to the famous music venue, and seniors were eager to be the first class to utilize the beautiful new space.
Harker lifers – those who have spent their scholastic career at Harker – were feted with a delicious dinner and honored for their long commitment to Harker. Six students started in junior kindergarten and have been at Harker for 14 years: Shirley Galbiati, Deniz Ilgen, Jasper Liao, Harrison Schwartz, Steven Tran, Nicole Woods; and 21 since kindergarten: Angeli Agrawal, Kristina Bither, Emily Carr, Anteneh Daniel, Khwaab Dave, Courtney Dellar, Alyssa Donovan, Matthew Gehm, George Gonzalez, Arman Gupta, Nicholas Hyman, Andrea Kim, Samuel Levine, Elena Madan, Taylor Martin, Kunal Modi, Sabrina Paseman, Taylor Rapson, Lexis Ross, Steven Silver and Andrew Stanek.
Music provided by Chris Florio’s chamber orchestra wafted over the amphitheater as guests arrived; then the ensemble played the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” as the graduating seniors, faculty, administration and Board of Trustees slowly paraded from the Winery’s main building, through the audience and down to their seats, their path lined by Gr. 7 students holding floral garlands. After the 2009 Graduation Chorus sang the “Star-Spangled Banner,” arranged and conducted by Susan Nace, Butch Keller, US head, welcomed the assembly. Vikram Nathan spent his last few moments as a Harker student delivering the valedictory address, and the chorus, this time including seniors who were members of vocal ensembles, returned to sing a poignant version of “You Raise Me Up,” conducted by Catherine Snider. The keynote address was delivered by attorney Larry W. Sonsini, chairman of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Sonsini gave an overview of the turbulent and boom times of Silicon Valley, and urged the students not to stay fixed in habits; to keep interested in their priorities; and to try to remain optimistic by using unpredictability to their advantage. Graduate Mohit Bansal, the outgoing president of the National Honor Society, passed the lamp of knowledge to Anjali Menon, Gr. 11 and incoming president, who promised to continue the academic and ethical integrity the seniors had modeled for them. Then it was Head of School Chris Nikoloff’s turn to give his parting words of advice to the seniors. Nikoloff drew on his experiences as the father of 1- and 3-year-old sons, and based his humorous address on the adventures of a popular children’s literary character. “Be like Curious George,” he said: always have good intentions, keep your curiosity, and let those intensions and curiosity fuel your innovation. “Where we see mundane, George sees wonder. Who has the better vision?” he asked. (See p. 3 for the entire address.) Then it was time for the seniors to process up onto the stage one by one, as their beloved class dean Jeff Draper read their names and Nikoloff handed them their diplomas. Several Harker faculty and staff and two trustees had children graduating this year: trustees Linda Emery (Christine) and Huali Chai Stanek (Andrew), executive chef Steve Martin (Taylor), US librarian Sue Smith (Kevin Laymoun), US biology teacher Gary Blickenstaff (son D.J. and niece Emma), US math teacher Gabrielle Stahl (Julian), LS math and science teacher Nina Anand (Ananya), LS P.E. teacher Paula Bither (Kristina), assistant business manager Sharon Paik (Paul) and MS English teacher Stacie Newman (Sophie). Nikoloff and Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, released doves to symbolize the graduates’ new journey onwards, and the faculty recessed, lining the Winery road and applauding the new graduates as they passed before their teachers for the last time. Congratulations and best of luck to the Class of 2009! Harker News — June 09
BEST OF LUCK TO THE CLASS OF
2 0 0 9!
39
school
J8 Teams Place in Top Ten
Heart Decathalon
Two Harker teams placed among the top ten finishers in the 2009 national J8 competition. All together, 32 Harker students in eight teams of four students each submitted applications to this year’s J8 contest – the winners of which are invited to attend the annual G8 Summit with world leaders, to be held in Italy this year.
The Harker Environmental and Recycling Team (HEART) presented activities and actions to help promote a greener school at the Santa Clara University Sustainability Decathlon on May 9, 2009. Senior Raghav Aggarwal, the club’s outgoing president, Akshay Aggarwal (incoming president), Gr. 10 and Christina Ma (incoming vice-president), Gr. 11, attended and won the award for technological innovation for their presentation.
Applications included nine separate essays, three of which address global issues discussed at the G8 Summit. Over 50 applications were submitted from 14 states. Harker earned the distinction of having the greatest number of applications and of being the only school to advance more than one team to the final round, including one group that was named second runner up to the winning Nor th Miami Beach High School team.
In 2007, a team of eight Harker students won the event and attended the G8 Summit in Wismar, Germany, as U.S. representatives. Significant portions of all eight applications have been posted on the GEO Club’s Web site and are available for your reading pleasure at http://web.harker.org/geo/j8/j8.html.
Highlights of their presentation included how HEART is involved with helping students be more environmentally friendly and aware with their daily actions. They also mentioned how checking and maintaining adequate tire pressure could reduce carbon emissions by two tons, and illustrated how HEART recycles paper for the school on a weekly basis. In addition, the team encourages the reuse of plastic water bottles, as plastic takes a long time to decompose, and promotes the use of recycled paper in classrooms and for printing. Other efforts were the “Un-Plug That Appliance” Initiative, which encourages teachers to unplug classroom electronics when not in use. HEART also began work on a Wall of Fame in honor of students that have contributed to their efforts.
Tenth HELM Published
National Merit Winners
The tenth annual issue of HELM, Harker’s Eclectic Literar y Magazine, was published last month. The serial features 18 essays, stories and poems interspersed with an equal number of full color drawings and photographs by 23 members of the Harker community. HELM staf f includes Anne Douglas, advisor and English depar tment member and Lexi Ross, Gr. 12, editor-in-chief. Additional staf fers include Emma Blickenstaff, Shubha Guha, Sammi Lowe and Denzil Sikka, Gr. 12, Sarah Newton, Gr. 11, Anne West, Gr. 10 and Ashley Kling, Alex Mabanta and Katie Siegel, Gr. 9.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has made its first three of four announcements of scholarship winners. The first announcement presents the winners of corporate sponsorships, the second, National Meritsponsored awards, and the third, college-sponsored gifts. Watch our fall edition for more college-sponsored winners, which are announced in mid-July.
Team Paritas et Pax was awarded third place and included juniors Connie Lu, Brandon Araki, Vishesh Jain and Andrew Zhou. Making the top ten was Team 2.2 Billion, composed of juniors Shefali Netke, Elaine Song, Curran Kaushik and Carissa Jansen. Other par ticipants included freshmen Rohan Bopardikar, Jaya Chandra, Frederic Enea and Katie Marcus Reker; sophomores Appu Bhaskar, Jacob Chappell, Tyler Koteskey, Justine Liu, Kristi Liu, Isaac Madan, Shreya Nathan and Olivia Zhu; and juniors Ankur Ahuja, Namrata Anand, Nathaniel Edwards, Kelsey Hilbrich, Andrea Lincoln, Arjun Mody, Kendra Moss and Haran Sivakumar. Carol Zink, histor y teacher, and Lauri Vaughan, librarian, acted as co-facilitators for the students.
JSA Sweeps NorCal Elections Harker’s Junior State of America (JSA) wound up the year with a second place finish for NORCAL State Chapter designation and elections of next year’s slate of state and regional officers. Erica Woolsey, Gr. 10, was elected Speaker of the Assembly, one of three statewide offices -- the second time in three years a Harker student has held the post. Harker students will also hold all four regional offices in their region. Officers are mayor Kapil Kolhatkar, Gr. 11, vice mayor Saagar Sarin, Gr. 9, and senators Vladimir Sepetov, Gr. 10, and Govinda Dasu, Gr. 9. JSA anticipates a very busy 2009-2010 year!
These scholars, all Gr. 12, were chosen from the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition, based on their PSAT scores from last year. According to NMSC, “Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.” Congratulations to Harker’s corporate scholarship winners: Roshmi Bhattacharya – National Merit Rockwell Collins Scholarship; Sarah A. Christiano – National Merit National Distillers Distributors Foundation Scholarship; Shirley M. Galbiati – National Merit Synopsys, Inc. Scholarship. And to our National Merit Scholarship $2,500 winners: Daniel Kim, David Kastelman, Vikram Nathan, Anu Ramachandran, Lexi Ross, Kartik Venkatraman, Susan Wang, Jeffrey Mandell, Sophia Gilman and Anand Natarajan. A National Merit Washington University in St. Louis scholarship was awarded to Michelle Lin, and a National Merit University of Southern California scholarship was awarded to Diana Lai.
The Harker School is a K-12 independent, co-ed, college-prep school. K-Grade 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.
40
The Harker News provides timely information, news and features about the Harker community to current and alumni Harker families. Editor: Pam Dickinson; Asst. Editor: William Cracraft; Copy Editors: Catherine Snider, Stephanie Woolsey, Lauri Vaughan; Writer: Zach Jones; Production: Blue Heron Design Group, Triple J Design; Photos: Mark Tantrum or Jessica Liu, unless noted; Contributor: Stephanie Woolsey; Printing: Carol Sosnowski; Mailing Coordinator: Desiree Mitchell. Harker News — June 09
Supplied by Jeff Sutton - both photos
upper