Harker Magazine Fall/Winter 2022 by The Harker School

Harker Day

MAGAZINE A PUBLICATION OF THE HARKER SCHOOL l FALL/WINTER 2022 VISUAL ARTS FOOD AT HARKER CAMPUS ANNIVERSARIES

Harker is a Bay Area Green Certified Business of Santa Clara County. As part of our many sustainability efforts, Harker Magazine is printed on partially recycled paper.

On the cover: Bowen Xia and Tej Aswani, grade 10, Tyler Beede and Freddy Hoch, grade 12, and Sid Sundar, grade 9, before the Homecoming game.

On this page: Dickinson artist-in-residence Leah Rosenberg’s mural in the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.

On the back: Transitional kindergartners make a poster for Harker Day.

All photos by Jane Snyder.

MAGAZINE HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Office of Communication Director Catherine

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Jane

Photography Editor Jennifer Maragoni Copy Editor Zach Jones Rebecca McCartney Staff Contributors Blue Heron Design Group Design Diamond Quality Printing Printer Have an idea? Contact us: news@harker.org

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408.345.9273 Or write: Harker Magazine 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose, CA 95129

FALL/WINTER 2022, VOLUME 14 NUMBER 1

Harnessing Creativity

Exploring the visual arts department.

A Taste of Excellence

The evolution of Harker’s food service.

Happy Anniversary!

Two campuses celebrate 25-year milestones.

Traditions

Honoring history and community.

Headlines

Head of School Brian Yager takes lessons from the landscape. 2

Passion & Impact

Alumni following their dreams and making a difference in the world. 14, 24, 30, 40

Staff Kudos

Happenings in the professional lives of our faculty and staff. 38

Class Notes

Alumni news and photos. 45 Brian’s

6 16 26 34

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About Harker head lines

From its early beginnings in 1893 – when Stanford University leaders assisted in its establishment – to its reputation today as a leading preparatory school with graduates attending prestigious universities worldwide, Harker’s mission has remained constant: to create an environment that promotes academic excellence, inspires intellectual curiosity, expects personal accountability and forever instills a genuine passion for learning. Whether striving for academic achievement, raising funds for global concerns, performing on stage or scoring a goal, Harker students encourage and support one another and celebrate each other’s efforts and successes, at Harker and beyond. Harker is a dynamic, supportive, fun and nurturing community where kids and their families make friends for life.

HARKER MAGAZINE

Harker Magazine is published biannually, in December and June, to showcase some of the top news, visionary programs and inspiring people of the greater Harker community. This magazine and its predecessor, the Harker Quarterly, have been recognized with CASE silver and bronze awards, and three gold and four platinum MarCom awards.

WORDS BY BRIAN YAGER PHOTOGRAPH BY BY RACHEL ERICKSON

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is the most beautiful place on Earth.”

This is the sentiment with which the author Edward Abbey begins his seminal book, “Desert Solitaire.” Abbey spent many years living in and roaming the western deserts of the United States. The essays and stories compiled in “Desert Solitaire” reflect his love for the wilderness in general, and for the uninhabited portions of the state of Utah in particular.

Copies of Abbey’s book line the shelves of the gift shops of our country’s national parks, including the one at the Grand Canyon, where Harker’s grade 7 students and their chaperones, myself included, spent the first full day of our October trip to Arizona and Utah. Twenty adults led 165 students on the journey on what we refer to as the national parks tour, which included stops at many stunning destinations: Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Monument Valley, Sedona, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, and the aforementioned Grand Canyon.

Later in the day of our visit to the Grand Canyon, our buses stopped at a lookout center on the east rim of the canyon. Below us, the stunning stripes of red, magenta and golden sandstone deposits stood in stark contrast to the deep blue and the stunning whites of the clouds in the sky above. On the floor of the canyon, nestled at the foot of the magnificent sandstone cliffs, the waters of a snaking band of rapids shimmered silver in the sunlight. The river was the Colorado, and from our perch on the east rim, we could follow the meanders – wide, loping turns and abrupt corners alike – 10 miles away and 5,000 feet below our point of repose.

The landscape of Arizona and Utah is starkly different than the terrain around our campuses at Harker. Yet, the vistas and the Colorado River provide a metaphor – several, in fact – for our endeavors in San Jose.

2 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

“This

Part of the reason we take our students into the Southwest … is so that they can appreciate the challenges we face, and also so that they can see firsthand what it is that they have the power to preserve.

At its inception, a river’s course is determined by the landscape around it. The waters are at the mercy of the topography in which it resides, and they flow where the terrain allows. As it matures, and as its canyons deepen, the roles reverse; it is the river that determines the landscape around it, carving and reshaping the very earth that cradles it.

In this issue of Harker Magazine, we celebrate the milestone of the 25th year of Harker’s upper school program, and also the 25th year of our lower school’s presence at the campus on Bucknall Avenue. When the upper school started in 1998, the staff and students were full of energy and purpose, but also had to be nimble to respond to the new terrain within which the nascent operation existed. The school had to find its path within the landscape around it. While that path is still evolving, it is far more defined now than it was 25 years ago, and, like an established river, it now is the school that is defining the educational landscape around us. The Colorado River also provides a stunning visual reference point within the desert through which its waters flow. It wends through the desert, its waters reflecting and refracting the light of the sun, the moon and the stars, and inspiring all who look upon it to contemplate the beauty of nature, and the nature of beauty. These are also the notions which occupy the domain of our artists. In this issue, we explore these concepts as we look into the visual arts program at Harker, highlighting how our arts teachers guide students to make personal discoveries about art and their relationship to it that remain relevant even after they have graduated.

A river is also a provider of life to the flora and fauna in its path.

There are many things that sustain the programs and the people at Harker, but few are as important as the food that fuels our minds and bodies. When asked what is their favorite thing about Harker, students often remark that one of them is “the food.” The food service program at Harker makes sure that we have an incredible array of options to sustain our activity and also to help us enjoy those moments when we break bread together. This issue of Harker Magazine explores the evolution of this program too.

There is one other relevant storyline linked to the Colorado River: the story of the current state of the river itself. While the river continues to inspire those who view it and to nurture the civilization through which it flows, it is not a healthy system at the moment. The river’s flow continues to be lower than usual, as snowfall and rain in basins that feed it have remained below average for decades; simultaneously, demands on the river’s waters continue to rise as more people occupy the deserts of the southwest, and as agricultural, industrial and residential demand continue to increase. Reservoirs along the river – most notably Lake Mead and Lake Powell (which the grade 7 students visited) – sit well below capacity.

Part of the reason we take our students into the Southwest and other parts of the country is so that they can appreciate the challenges we face, and also so that they can see firsthand what it is that they have the power to preserve – both in the lands they visit, and the lands they call home. We hope that all of our students will find their own landscape to call “the most beautiful place on Earth,” and that their experience at Harker will help them appreciate and protect it.

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HARNESSING

feature 6 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Pause and look closely.

The image is dark, but for the face of a girl, lit by the cell phone she holds closely as she lays in bed.

Clothes are scattered, the bedspread is rumpled. Touches of color are seen in the tones of her face, the blue of her nightshirt and the brown grains of a desk.

Radha Mehta, a senior, produced the photo. The piece is untitled, leaving the viewer to decipher meaning on their own.

Distance to the subject conveys loneliness. In a demanding world, the girl draws into a shell, her phone a sanctuary amid the disorganization.

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Among the doors and hallways and classes and meetings and rushing and hurrying, there is an image on the wall that speaks to the chaos.

In other hallways and corridors, art is displayed and tells stories in different ways. Such is the value of the visual arts at Harker, where alums like Nidhi Gandhi ’11 learned that “what I have to say is interesting and valid. What I bring to this space matters. What I have to say is going to be valued by someone other than myself.”

Gandhi, now curatorial and programs associate at the San Jose Museum of Art, remembers the affirmations she received for her artwork, and how much she enjoyed the summer studio art classes with upper school teacher Pilar Agüero-Esparza, while “absorbing myself in drawings for hours and hours,” she said.

“I really needed that in my life,” Gandhi said. “I was a child who really wanted to be creative, but didn’t know how to harness it.”

Many at Harker helped in that process. Classes are offered in architecture, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, and in special topics such as filmmaking, printmaking and glass –many at the AP and honors levels.

Thinking outside the box

“I want them to think like an artist,” middle school teacher Sofie Siegmann said, “to feel their ideas come alive. Creativity is not just copying or following steps. It’s about them entering the art room and thinking, ‘Wow! I didn’t know this was possible.’”

Siegmann, who wanted to be a farmer, hairdresser and sailor while growing up in Switzerland, is instead a painter, sculptor, public artist and teacher. Speaking to her is to smile and consider the possibilities that art can create.

“I want my class to be like a respite, like a break in the day where they can just get lost in it,” Siegmann said. “I want them to come and create, to use their hands … it’s so wonderful to touch clay with their hands.”

Hands. They are Siegmann’s fascination. Among her own sculptures are works of hands interlaced and intertwined. In one class, students drew hands. That’s it.

“Hands are so expressive,” she said. “They’re extensions of our brain. They make everything come alive. Just think what our hands have created.”

At the new middle school campus, Siegmann created an “art garden,” where students and teacher share murals and sculptures among flowers, trees and vegetables. The space is whimsical and free. But it begins with structure. It’s more than just drawing, it’s shading. It’s strokes of a pencil.

“Creativity can be taught,” Siegmann said. “But you have to practice it, and work on it.”

Few schools are doing what Harker is with visual arts, a program that continues to grow in curriculum and interest. In the past, the program might not have felt as important as the science, technology, engineering and math track. But that notion is changing, with classes at the AP and honors levels, and with

feature HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 8

HARNESSING CREATIVITY

Photos provided by Nidhi Gandhi ‘11

the growing understanding that art is vital.

“As we’ve learned, creativity is a very big part of the tech industry as a whole,” AgüeroEsparza said. “One of the things that sets apart an engineer is their ability to be much more creative, much more thinking outside the box.”

Beyond Silicon Valley, “art explains a culture, it explains us and who we are,” Siegmann said. “It’s not something separate from us. It’s

Collaboration is key

Inside Joshua Martinez’s upper school AP 2D Studio Art and Honors Directed Portfolio class, senior Smrithi Sambamurthy sat on a small couch alongside Aniket Singh, with classmates in comfortable chairs on either side. On a stool, Martinez faced them.

Another student drew quietly on a sketch pad on one side of the expansive room. Others worked on sat on the concrete floor under a long desk against the opposite wall and worked on their own. A white screen was rolled up at the front of the room, while layers of green, black and white backdrops were in the back.

“Can you walk us through the narrative of your idea?” Martinez asked.

Sambamurthy was working on a portfolio of drawings describing a personal narrative. She decided on animation but found some scenes to be choppy and lengthy. In a group discussion, Sambamurthy worked through the problems.

Martinez never directed her, but rather brought up points that she might consider.

“It’s a big topic,” Martinez said. “If you’re condensing down to 500-600 words, you have to pick and choose those moments, even if you cut big moments.”

Sambamurthy had trouble figuring where those cuts would come from.

“I want to make something that I’m proud of and I don’t want to cut the story short,” Sambamurthy said.

They talked about leaving the conclusion unsolved, using a colorful object against a drab background to signify importance, and the impact of silent dialog rather than an audible one.

By the end of class, Sambamurthy had a clearer idea of where she wanted to take it, and her teacher and classmates offered their encouragement.

“Your sketchbook is beautiful,” Martinez said.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 9

“I want them to think like an artist, to feel their ideas come alive. It’s about them entering the art room and thinking, ‘Wow! I didn’t know this was possible.’”

– Sofie Siegmann, middle school art teacher

part of us.”

“You are really crushing it,” Singh said.

“The focus of our program is around the idea that successful art enables a way of seeing something familiar differently,” said Martinez, the department chair for grades 6-12. “It doesn’t have to do with the purity of the craft. The goal is not mastery of material, but the ability to create a connection to an idea, and a connection with yourself.”

That was true for Alexander Wang MS ’98. When Wang was in middle school at Harker, longtime aide Alice Schwartz, a talented seamstress, helped him make his first jacket. Wang, known for his urban-inspired designs and use of black, was in his 20s when he started his own brand and rose quickly in the fashion world. In 2015, he was named one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People.”

“He figured it out and it was fantastic,” AgüeroEsparza said. “Years later, to connect their work here at Harker to what they’re doing now … that’s so cool!”

Singh, a senior, loves the vibe that comes from collaboration.

“There’s so much flexibility within the department,” he said. “The teachers are able to adapt the experiences of each student to that student’s needs and goals.”

This freedom allowed Singh to “tap into these major questions I have in my own life,” he said. “For example, in my AP portfolio class, that was a time when I was questioning how my personal interpretation of masculinity fits into these traditional depictions in modern society.

“Exploring that in a new medium was a creative and liberating process for me.”

In the middle of the night, Singh will wake up and write ideas on a notepad. He seeks others’ work for fresh ideas before conceptualizing his own, such as his portfolio project – a series of 15 photos of himself overlaid with an oil bar drawn on canvas. Each image symbolized an area meaningful to him, whether the objectification and oversexualization of young men in the queer community, or the relationship between father and son.

After the portfolio is presented, students and teacher reflect, and then discuss the work in even greater depth. Eventually, the work will be presented to the school in an exhibition.

“Even with students where art is not their thing, I get moments,” said lower school department chair Gerry-louise Robinson. “I get magic moments, where they’re like, ‘I didn’t know I could do that.’

It was true also for Vlad Sepetov ’11, a visual artist and designer of some of the most avantgarde album covers in music. After receiving a call in the middle of the night from the manager of rapper Kendrick Lamar, Sepetov created the design for “To Pimp a Butterfly.” The black and white cover of shirtless smiling Black men and children flashing money and booze in front of a faded White House received critical acclaim.

It “explains all the complex themes of race politics, fame, identity, self-esteem, and use and misuse of power in one wholesome beautiful image,” wrote Medium.com.

Sepetov is remembered by Agüero-Esparza for experimenting with silkscreen and wanting to incorporate a likeness of his face into repeated

“It’s a safe space. Students come in here and try things they never tried before. It doesn’t have to look picture perfect. It doesn’t have to look like the image in your head. I just want you to be brave and take that step to the next level.”

Telling stories through art

The evolution of Harker visual arts began with sculptor and now retired department chair Jaap Bongers, who provided this advice to young artists: “Don’t join the rat race. Create what you are passionate about. Don’t emulate the work of other artists.”

Bongers was the only art teacher when the upper school opened in 1998 and encouraged a longtime friend, Agüero-Esparza, then part time at the lower school, to join him. Agüero-Esparza has been a fixture ever since, helping put the

feature HARNESSING CREATIVITY

10 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

department’s evolution in motion.

Agüero-Esparza, a painter, is active in social justice issues and public art, and her work was featured in a 2017 Los Angeles exhibition, “The U.S.-Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility.” She encouraged Harker’s Art Club to apply to contribute to a Palo Alto street mural, spelling “Black Lives Matter” on Hamilton Avenue, after George Floyd’s death in 2020. Harker’s was the only student-group chosen.

Gandhi found comfort in Agüero-Esparza’s recognition of the impact of people of color in the art world. And it was in Agüero-Esparza’s class that Gandhi first was exposed to art museums and history, inspiring a career.

“It made me look beyond my own life, to the world around me,” Gandhi said. “One reason I majored in neuroscience at Pomona College was at the insistence of my parents. But they also said, ‘If at the end of your four years, if you want to go in a different direction, we will support you.’

“Watching how much working in museums makes me happy and how passionate I am about it has made them understand me in a way they never had before. Now, they love learning from me, which is the greatest gift I could ask for.”

This is the second year of an artist-in-residence program funded through the Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment. Leah Rosenberg worked with students within the theme “If Time Were a Color.” Focusing on a different color in each session, they painted 12 massive stripes for a mural on a wall inside the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.

German painter Britta Clausnitzer was the first Dickinson resident, and created performance art. Under the theme “Tiger on the Loose,” 60 middle schoolers roamed the campus in their own colorful bodysuit costumes, with hand-

painted masks, and sometimes beaks and headdresses.

During lunch on the final day of the semester, the “creatures” wafted silently to the rhythm of live music. There were rules: They had to have a purpose in their movement and must be seen. No hiding.

“You sit and eat your lunch, and all of a sudden these creatures appear,” Siegmann said. “How do you react?”

Playing right along, students engaged the performers. “Who are you?” the students asked, and then tried to guess.

“The students always seem to step up to the challenge,” upper school art teacher

Brian Caponi said. “They always surpass their expectations.”

Sometimes the beauty of art is obvious. And, sometimes, we must pause amid the chaos and look even closer.

It’s worth it.

David Kiefer is a freelance writer and executive editorial producer for Stanford University Athletics.

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“The focus of our program is around the idea that successful art enables a way of seeing something familiar differently. The goal is not mastery of material, but the ability to create a connection to an idea, and a connection with yourself.”

– Joshua Martinez, 6-12 department chair

athletics

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gallery

Photo by Keith Tharp

Homecoming was the big event for the fall 2022 athletic season, drawing a huge crowd of Eagles fans to watch and cheer as they cruised to a 48-20 victory over the Delta Charter Dragons. Football went on to have a successful season, finishing 6-2. It was also a big day for Harker alumni, three of whom – Alex Abarca ’09, Daniza Rodriguez ’13 and Amanda (Polzin) Sullivan ’06 – were inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame, along with the legendary 2007-08 girls volleyball team (see this issue’s Class Notes on page 48 for more details). Several more Harker teams and athletes also had impressive seasons. Girls tennis reached the Central Coast Section semifinals after another strong season in which they won their third consecutive league title and went 10-2 overall. Girls golf also played well throughout the fall, qualifying for the CCS playoffs after an undefeated season. In water polo, the girls squad narrowly lost their CCS championship match against Stevenson after a stellar 22-8 season. Cross country saw strong performances from Kara Kister, grade 12, Veyd Patil (who qualified for the state championships) and Andrew Smith, grade 11, and Robinson Xiang, grade 9. Be sure to follow @harkerathletics on Instagram for frequent Eagles updates!

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 13

Photos by Keith Tharp BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK

Making things impact

HAPPEN

impacting the burgeoning cryptocurrency space

Alexis Gauba ’17 is a woman of action. Whenever she sees an opportunity, she runs toward it with energy and enthusiasm.

From creating the art wall on the upper school campus to being instrumental in the success of DECA at Harker, Gauba brings ideas to life.

“You know that person you call on because they ‘make it happen’ time and time again?” asked Juston Glass, business and entrepreneurship teacher. “Whenever they agree to assist, you feel both relieved and excited, because quality is essentially guaranteed. That is who Ms. Alexis Gauba was and is.”

Glass speaks from experience. He said Gauba played a key role within the business and entrepreneurship department’s founding and prominence. Her work with DECA was transformative as she gave countless hours to serve the Harker, Silicon Valley, California and national DECA communities. DECA is a nonprofit that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management in high schools and colleges around the globe.

She continues to give back by supporting DECA as an alum and inspiring the next generation, including her younger sister, Ariana, a sophomore at Harker.

“Alexis inspired me to follow her footsteps and join DECA, and I’m really glad I did. I learned so much from her, and because

WORDS PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY ALEXIS GAUBA ’17 AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES

“Alexis is my role model. She always has such an amazing attitude and treats every day as a new adventure.”

– Ariana Gauba, grade 10

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Alum

of that, I was able to win an award and even become an officer for Harker DECA this year,” said Ariana. “Alexis is my role model. She always has such an amazing attitude and treats every day as a new adventure. She takes challenges head on and always works extremely hard no matter what.”

The elder Gauba’s hard work is now focused on cryptocurrencies. She was introduced to Bitcoin and crypto her senior year at Harker and a spark was ignited.

She headed to the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the student-run organization Blockchain at Berkeley, started participating in hack-a-thons and found herself surrounded by an entire community devoted to this burgeoning new space. After attending Berkeley for three semesters, she had an opportunity to start Opyn with two classmates. She, Zubin Koticha and Aparna Krishnan launched Opyn in 2019. Opyn raised a $2.16 million seed round in June 2020 followed by $6.7 million in a Series A funding round in February 2021.

“I have no regrets about leaving Berkeley, although it was a tough decision at the time,” said Gauba, who is making an impact by creating fair, inclusive and open financial systems. “But I believe it was

a risk worth taking because I can always go back to school, but I may not always have the opportunity to build something meaningful and impactful.”

Opyn is creating a system that allows users to buy, sell and create options in a decentralized finance system.

But Opyn isn’t the only place that Gauba is making an impact. She, Sara Reynolds and Medha Kothari founded she256, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and breaking down barriers to entry in the blockchain space. They were attending a blockchain event at Berkeley and noticed shockingly few women, which wasn’t new, but this prompted them to take action. Originally they were going to start small but in typical Gauba style, they decided to go big and now offer mentorships, education and career development. She256’s website states, “Blockchain is disruptive technology. So, let’s disrupt the industry with more diversity.”

Gauba’s impact is just beginning to be felt, as a leader on the forefront of a disruptive technology who is also working to open that space to more women. But if her time at Harker is any indication, her impact will continue to have ripple effects far and wide.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

16 feature HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

THE EVOLUTION OF HARKER’S FOOD SERVICE

Photo by Deborah Lord

First of all, the food at The Harker School is really good. It’s fresh, it’s local, it’s made from whole ingredients, it’s seasonal. It’s varied, with options for different palates and cultures. And it all started with the dreams of the late Howard and Diana Nichols, former leaders of the school.

Steve Martin, executive director of food service (known as Chef Steve or simply Chef), said that he was working at the San Jose Convention Center in 1991 when he saw an ad for The Harker School. The school was expanding and the Nicholses wanted to grow the food service program along with it, he recalled.

“They said, ’If you are patient and you want to come in and help us build the program, we’re ready for you,’” he said. “They gave me free reign and we worked together on it. They were very supportive and very excited. Their vision was my vision.” That combined vision is now what the entire community enjoys every day. But how did we get from then to now?

Culinary Internship Program

One of the first things Martin did to elevate Harker’s food service was establish an internship program. He recruits from culinary programs, including his alma mater, Johnson and Wales University, and the Culinary Institute of America.

Interns are rotated through the food service system, working in cold kitchens, where they prepare salads and appetizers, and hot kitchens, where they grill, fry and roast. They also help with catering school events. Hiring interns also gives Martin an opportunity to observe potential employees in action. “We look for an understanding of what our program is about and how we want to present the food,” he said. “If they don’t fit the bill, we move on.” Two of his current managers started out as interns. David Hendricks interned at Harker in 2004 when he was attending the California Culinary Academy. He now runs the Food Court program, which offers optional meals for staff to purchase at a discount and take home. “We supply vegetarian and non-vegetarian meals packed for two or four people,” he said.

Raelynn Baldwin, the upper school kitchen manager, was not quite 20 years old and a student at Johnson and Wales when she interned at Harker. Baldwin had graduated and was working at a San Jose restaurant when she got a surprise call from Harker, offering her a job. True to form, Martin rotated Baldwin through the various kitchens for the next several years.

She started in the upper school’s cold kitchen, was moved to the lower school and then to the middle school. A kitchen manager for eight years, she’s been in her current position at the upper school for a year now. With her extensive experience, she can fill in at the last minute for any of her colleagues at any of the campuses.

“Chef really likes to move us a lot,” Baldwin said. “He thinks that keeps us on our toes and it keeps us well-rounded. Each kitchen and each campus is so different. And the food program in each one is different. And the clientele, the kids, are all very different. So what we do on each campus has to be different.”

PHOTOGRAPHS

UNLESS NOTED 17 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

WORDS BY SASHA NYARY

BY JANE SNYDER

Photo by Deborah Lord

A Collaborative Food Community

Martin loves feeding kids, which was a large draw for him in coming to Harker. “They’re honest,” said Martin, whose son, Jason, graduated from Harker in 2007. “They’re going to tell you if they don’t like it – and they’ll tell you if they do. “Some of them are just typical kids with certain favorites. That’s what they want to eat, and they will eat it every day. But their palates are definitely stretched here at Harker. They try different things, especially when they’re in high school. They really enjoy diving into some new menus.”

To promote healthy eating and get students accustomed to new foods, the selections broaden as students go through the grades. Dishes are presented in small servings, partly to make first tastes easier, Martin explained. And from the beginning, he would go to the source to get firsthand feedback.

“I wanted to get a feel for the children and see how much they could handle,” Martin said. “We set up a food committee. I’d meet with a couple of kids from each grade level, and they’d share their thoughts on what the children were enjoying, what they liked, what they wanted to see.”

Sophomore Abigail Samuel is happy to offer her opinion: She likes the many options available. “I look forward to lunch and not just because it’s not class. There are so many different foods, it’s exciting!”

A lot of the menu suggestions come from the students, Martin said. “The cool part is that a lot of the kids send me emails. They say, ‘Hey, Chef Steve, can we try this?’ or, ‘We like the Mexican food, but we would like it if you could do a little bit more chicken.’ Their idea means something to us, and when we put it on the menu the students get pretty excited about that.“

“Having such a wide variety of options of food, and also bringing the cultures of the students into the food, is really comforting,” said sophomore Avayna Glass. “And it’s nice for me because I get to try so many different kinds of food. The kitchen staff really cares a lot about the community and I appreciate that.” Indeed, schoolwide the entire kitchen staff is a part of the community: they learn names, know allergies and preferences, and make sure there’s something everyone can eat. Feedback and suggestions are invited – and the kids express their enthusiasm often. Great faculty and staff are a hallmark of Harker, and staffing the nine kitchens across the four campuses with quality personnel has been part of Harker’s secret sauce.

Many, like Gustavo Parra, have worked their way up in the Harker kitchens. Parra grew up in Mexico and got a job as a dishwasher 20 years ago with the help of his brother, who was working for Martin at the time. Parra is now director of catering and has two children at Harker.

“The whole Harker community is amazing,” he said. “I do events on every single campus. I do events for Harker parents. It’s amazing how people like me can have an opportunity to be here and make things happen for my young kids.”

Quantity, Quality and Innovation

Harker’s food service program serves 3,000 meals a day, five days a week. Overall, the kitchens produce roughly 60,000 meals per month which includes student and staff daily meals, and all the various school catered events. The focus on fresh, seasonal, local and whole ingredients means that food preparation is thoughtful, taking into consideration those with allergies and other health concerns, and varied, with options for different palates and cultures. Harker kitchen staff make stocks and sauces from scratch, roast their own turkeys and, using fresh ingredients, create unique menus based on what’s

feature 18 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 A TASTE OF EXCELLENCE

available, using batch cooking rather than preparing food ahead and freezing it.

Each kitchen manager is given what Hendricks called “a significant amount of creative freedom.” They write their own menus and produce orders, with final approval from Martin, who keeps in close contact with his vendors. “A good deal on salmon, cauliflower or kiwi can happen suddenly and everyone must be ready to pivot,” he added. Martin buys seasonally as much as he can, so berry season gives way to stone fruit and a listeria outbreak means no romaine lettuce for a time.

Martin keeps an eye on other issues, such as the weather. His vision of serving grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken and organic produce is harder to pull off with California’s ongoing drought. “It puts a strain on certain things,” he said. “The price gets out of control. And then COVID-19 – nobody was ready for that. You couldn’t get products, and there was no transportation. We had to get really creative.” In fact, during shelter-in-place, the school asked the kitchen team to star in a mini cooking show and share cooking demos as a way to stay in touch with our students and families. And since we couldn’t celebrate Howard’s Cookie Day in person, the school shared the recipe with our families who then sent in photos of themselves making the cookies.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 19

“ The better question to ask is, what is not my favorite window?”

– Kevin Lum Lung, college counselor

Photo by Kevin Reduta

Developing Palates, One Campus at a

Time

The food on each campus depends on the facilities and the age of the students. “Our main vision is to balance what the kids like to eat and what we and their parents want them to eat,” said Hendricks, who has managed the lower school kitchen. “We always want the kids to enjoy the lunches, but you can’t please everyone every day. I had a couple days a month that were ’stretch your palate’ days. I’d try to introduce them to some things they might not have tried before, usually with more success than not.”

The lower school food offerings are a step up in sophistication from the transitional kindergarten, and middle school is a step up from lower school, Baldwin said. “The older you are, the more options you get. You start in TK, where it’s very structured about what to eat. Lower school has a few more options. Middle school has way more options. It’s closer to high school. We’re saying, ’You all are basically adults, you can pick what you want today. If you’re feeling like the shrimp, eat the shrimp.’”

The upper school is the most wide-ranging, with multiple options served every day. The dining facilities have eight windows: the main window, the cold kitchen window with salads, a deli window, the bistro window with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options, and windows dedicated to burgers, pasta, pizza and wings. There’s also a carving station. Outside is the Chowda House (a nod to Martin’s Boston roots) kiosk, which serves seafood, and there’s a Mexican kitchen in the auxiliary gym.

Fan Favorites

Having a food service program this good means there are lots of fan favorites. The middle and upper schools go through 1,600 pieces of sushi every week. At the

lower school, burgers and veggie burgers, curries, tacos, burritos and teriyaki are popular items, said Hendricks. “And orange chicken day is eagerly awaited on every campus,” he said.

On the upper school campus, Baldwin agreed. “The teachers will eat so much orange chicken,” said Baldwin. “There are way fewer teachers than children, but they will eat almost the same amount of orange chicken as the kids. I try to throw it on the menu every couple of months because it is consistently a fan favorite – on every single campus, across the board.”

Not surprisingly, grilled cheese is also a big hit. “Everyone loves grilled cheese,” Baldwin said. “We’ll give the kids grilled cheese and I’ve never seen so many adults line up,” she laughed. “It’s on my menu coming up, grilled cheese and tomato bisque. It’ll be comforting.”

As for desserts, pastry chef Adam Albers has an almost cult status at the upper school. He makes about 1,400 desserts a day, including vegan, vegetarian and glutenfree options. Harker is peanut-free so Albers makes a soy butter cookie, complete with fork lines across the top as his homage to a peanut butter cookie. He also fills the three public cookie jars on campus. “Adam is a jack of all trades,” said Baldwin. “When pumpkin was the vegetable of the month this fall, he got many compliments on his pumpkin mousse,” she said. “His cookies are always a hit, he makes beautiful cakes and everyone really likes his Oreo pudding, white chocolate blondies and magic bars. Everyone’s like, I love dessert. Can we have dessert first?”

Bottom line? The shared vision of the Nicholses and Martin of a top-notch food service program at Harker is flourishing for the entire community to enjoy.

“We joke about how it’s sad to go into summer because we have to cook for ourselves and cut our own fruit,” said Kevin Lum Lung, an upper school college counselor. “It’s just amazing what we are offered here in terms of food choices. I don’t have to spend any mental energy on thinking about what to bring for lunch, where to go, how much it’s going to cost. I know I’ve got some great healthy options right here.”

When asked what his favorite window is, Lum Lung laughed, “I think the better question to ask is, what is not my favorite window? I have been known to frequent all of them – and all of them at the same time. So, I probably like five or six different windows. I don’t have a favorite. I just love checking them all out.”

Sasha Nyary is a writer and editor living in Maine whose work can be found at sashanyary.com.

feature A TASTE OF EXCELLENCE

20 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Photo by Kevin Reduta

Drop into the math lab at the lower school and you’ll find Eileen Schick, teacher and mom to two Harker Lifers: twins Bobby and Lizzy ’18. Schick is happiest when she and her husband of 32 years, Bob, are filling their home with family. Her dream day would be dinner with them after a Starbucks latte, a walk with her labradoodle, Ace, a tennis match or hike, a massage and a shopping spree! Family and food are deep connections for her: She loves to cook and bake large meals for people, and she feels like a kid again when she eats Polish sausage, which were a staple (always two varieties) at family gatherings when she was growing up in Chicago.

What are you obsessed with?

Strawberries from PK Farms, ’80s music and love songs from any era, frosted sugar cookies, NCIS and similar TV series, and romance movies, books and shows. I always cry at the sappy endings.

What is an experience you’ve had that you don’t believe anyone else has had?

I was coaching middle school basketball at my previous school and subbed in during the 5-on-5 when one girl had to leave early. One of the players did a great head fake and broke my nose. I thanked her in the end because the swanky Beverly Hills plastic surgeon fixed a nagging deviated septum, completely covered by the school!

What is the best compliment someone can give you?

They can tell me my twins are kind.

What is your most treasured object, and why?

The Tiffany heart necklace I wear. My daughter gave it to me on the last Mother’s Day that she thought she would be able to spend with me in-person before she relocated to the East Coast for her new career.

What one piece of advice would you offer anyone who asks?

Work hard. Stay humble. Be kind. Always.

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

The ability to teleport. I would be able to see my family, especially my children, at any given moment.

Eileen Schick

face time HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 21

gallery

Astraea Browei Grade 4 “Indian Mahbubani Sun”

visual arts Dominic Cheru Transitional Kindergarten “Owl” Grace Liu Kindergarten “My Eclipse inspired by Alma Thomas” 22 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 Rebeca Costin Grade 5 “Whimsical Landscape inspired by Ale Ab”

Art students hit the ground running this year, creating inspiring and inventive works. They also enjoyed the school’s second annual artist-in-residence, sponsored by the Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment. Color specialist Leah Rosenberg, pictured below, worked with students and created stunning and colorful works on the middle and upper school campuses, and spoke at a reception in November when her residency ended.

Kaiden

Grade

“Fish and

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 23

Noonan

Water”

Grade 11 “Untitled ”

Kate Russell Cassy

Seem Grade 6 “Cornelia”

Joyce Yang Grade 6 Julia Ni Grade 6 Victoria Ma Grade 9

“Apple”

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED

Make the your

W RLD

PLAYGROUND

Nikhil Panu ’13 cannot remember a time when he wasn’t playing sports. Whether he was trying football for the first time, playing tennis with his family or shooting hoops, he has had a lifelong passion for sports.

Panu joined Harker in fifth grade and played varsity tennis and basketball throughout high school. His enthusiasm for sports was equally matched by his intellectual curiosity.

“Nikhil was a model student. He was as smart as the person next to him, but he never said a thing about grades or his intellect to other students,” said retired upper school head Butch Keller, who coached him for two years, fondly remembering the King’s Academy game when Panu hit a series of 3-pointers to bring them from behind to victory. “The first elements in being a player at the college level are character and a solid work-ethic. Nikhil is the epitome of character and integrity.”

Panu knew he wanted to play basketball in college but also sought an excellent education. He found the perfect program at Johns Hopkins University, where he could earn his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in just four years while also playing NCAA

“I was excited about playing basketball at the college level, which had always been a dream,” said Panu. “I took advantage of every opportunity that college offered, from playing with amazing teammates to learning from top professors.”

Panu also looked for a group of people to play recreational sports with, and at Johns Hopkins, an idea started forming. He started compiling ideas as a side project before building an app in one class and developing a business plan in another, ultimately becoming part of the university’s Social Innovation Lab’s 201617 Cohort. The end result was Squadz,

passion

Alum combines passion for sports and technology to make the playing field more accessible

’13

24 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WIN TER 2022

BY NIKHIL PANU

AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES

a platform that allows users to discover or host sports activities and book recreation facilities nearby.

When he graduated, Panu focused on Squadz and has been building the platform and the company’s team ever since. One of his first hires was Matt Bergland, who is now the director of community at Squadz. “I wanted my role to be focused on advancing and growing the company through the community lens,” said Bergland. “[Nikhil] completely agreed, and told me that he would give me the support and resources to accomplish that mission.”

Bergland remembers sharing information with Panu about the San Francisco Shared Schoolyard Project, which was an initiative the San Francisco Unified School District created to open up schoolyards for community use on the weekends.

“Without hesitation, Nikhil gave me full support to build a years-long partnership that centered on community building. We’ve had similar relationships with the Tel Hi Neighborhood Center, the Cameron House and YMCAs,” said Bergland, who is grateful for Panu’s guidance, trust and leadership. “I see his passion every single day without fail, from waking up early for morning pitches to staying up late for midnight calls with overseas engineering teams.”

Panu’s passion fuels his hard work, perseverance and belief that Squadz can win the game. He’s known for his willingness to do anything that’s needed for the company, from traveling hours across the Bay Area to learn what partners need to attending multiple activities and then playing in games to connect with users.

“Being an entrepreneur has tons of peaks and valleys, but because I am so passionate about it, the grind is much more fun and worth it,” said Panu. “Running Squadz has been an awesome journey so far, but we’re only scratching the surface and I am even more excited about what’s to come!”

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

Being an entrepreneur has tons of peaks and valleys, but because I am so passionate about it, the grind is much more fun and worth it.”

– Nikhil Panu ’13 25

“

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES

The commemoration of Harker’s 125-year anniversary in 2018 was a huge milestone in the school’s history, and an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come since planting roots in Palo Alto in 1893.

This year we are honoring two more recent milestones: the 25-year anniversary of the opening of our upper school and the addition of our lower school campus on Bucknall Road.

In 1998, Harker opened its upper school after a multiyear process led by Howard and Diana Nichols. That same year, the Bucknall campus opened for K-3, while grades 4-5 remained at the Saratoga campus. The 2022-23 school year marks the 25th anniversary of those two occasions,, sparking a new era of growth for the school and cementing the Nicholses’ legacy as visionaries and innovators.

During the upper school’s first year, the Saratoga Avenue campus housed grades 4-9. Major features such as Nichols Hall, Shah Hall and the Singh Aquatic Center were yet to be built. In subsequent years, the remaining lower and middle school students moved to their new campuses as the upper school expanded, adding one grade each year.

feature 26 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

CELEBRATE

TWO CAMPUSES

25-YEAR MILESTONES

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 27

New Lower School Campus

The Bucknall Road campus required extensive renovations before opening. Lower division head Sarah Leonard recalled “a horrid shade of blue” covering the premises when it was acquired. Then-president Howard Nichols cautioned the incoming staff and faculty to not “judge a book by its cover.” Though it took less than a year to prepare the campus for operation, the work was exhausting and the permits to open were received last-minute.

To better serve the lower school community, a gym facility was added to the lower campus in 1999. In addition to a spacious gym for sports, performances and assemblies, it also includes additional classrooms on its upper level. It has become the campus’ hub and central feature.

Upper School Campus

Once the transition to adding an upper school began, the first new building to be constructed was Shah Hall in 2000. It is now the home of the upper school’s history and social studies department, as well as the John Near Research Center, where the work of Near Endowment Scholars is displayed. The Shah lobby has been a popular student gathering area since the building opened.

The Class of 2002, the first to graduate from Harker’s new upper school, totaled 89 seniors and garnered a front-page story in the Mercury News. Every upper school graduation ceremony has been held at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, with the exception of the 2008 ceremony, which took place on Davis Field while The Mountain Winery underwent renovations.

The upper school saw major changes in 2007 and 2008. Davis Field opened during the fall 2007 semester, offering teams a state-of-the-art rubber turf field for games and enough bleacher space for more than 400 screaming Eagles fans. The opening of the Singh Aquatic Center followed in the spring semester.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

feature 28 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

In August 2008, the upper school celebrated the opening of Nichols Hall, a 52,000-square-foot science and technology facility, which contains well-equipped lab rooms for each area of study, a robotics lab and an Anatomage table. In, 2009 Nichols Hall became the first school building in Santa Clara County to receive a Gold LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Two more major additions to the upper school campus were completed in 2017 and 2018. The athletic center, opened just before the start of the 2017-18 school year, features a 12,000-square-foot gym floor, seating for 900 spectators, new locker rooms and a training room with access to an underwater treadmill, a first for any U.S. high school at the time. One year later, the state-of-the-art Rothschild Performing Arts Center opened, featuring the 450-seat Patil Theater, classrooms designed acoustically for singers and instrumentalists, practice rooms and a workshop for set design and building.

Congratulations and thanks to the amazing faculty, staff and students who brought us 25 great years at our lower and upper school campuses, and we look forward to celebrating the 25th anniversary of our new middle school campus in 2046!

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 29

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS BY KATE FROLOVA AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES

Solving real problems

Shubha Guha ’09 was in middle school in Seattle when her family decided to relocate to the Bay Area. A teacher in Seattle recommended Harker, and she joined the community in eighth grade.

Guha was very academically driven and had been introduced to computer science, but she wasn’t ready to pursue it at that point. She explored a variety of creative outlets and by her junior year, her many extracurriculars included theater and the Cantilena choir.

“Shubha was a creative force and her excitement about music was contagious,” said Susan Nace, upper school vocal music teacher. “Shubha loves the music of Rabindranath Tagore and brought me a few pieces. She asked if we could sing them, so we created an arrangement of [one of his compositions] for Cantilena to sing.”

impact HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

UNLESS

NOTED

Alum’s work strives to make AI more fair and reliable

Guha has fond memories of Cantilena and appreciates how it fed her creativity. She always thought she would attend a small liberal arts college on the East Coast but surprised herself when she chose the University of California, Berkeley, realizing she wanted to be part of a big university and learn more about the world. She studied cognitive science and linguistics.

“I read about cognitive science in a brochure and was drawn to its interdisciplinary nature,” said Guha. “It offered a taste of so many fields I was interested in, from psychology and computer science to neuroscience and hard science, but it also tickled the word side of my brain.”

She knew she was good at computer science but didn’t feel accepted or respected as a woman in that field during her undergraduate years. The culture, not the content, pushed her away from computer science.

After she graduated, she worked as a full-time SAT tutor and applied to graduate school at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. But then she was offered an internship as a software engineer at startup Captricity in Oakland. Although she doubted her qualifications, she decided to take a chance, which paid off when she was offered a full-time position after three months.

“I learned everything I needed to know about how to be a software engineer and got great realworld experience at that startup,” Guha said. “I had deferred my acceptance to graduate school, but after a few years, I realized I had accomplished all I could and was ready to go back to school to study artificial intelligence.”

She moved to Scotland, studied hard and earned her master’s degree. She got a job at a small technology company in Amsterdam but left during the pandemic to explore other options. She landed at the University of Amsterdam, where she works in two research labs and consults for the new Data Science Center.

“Automated decision-making systems that learn from user data with machine learning are ubiquitous in critical decision-making processes such as loan approvals, hiring and prioritizing access to medical interventions. Unfortunately, recent experience shows that such systems often reproduce or amplify existing discrimination,” explained Sebastian Schelter, assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam and manager of the AI for Retail Lab, one of the labs Guha works in. “Shubha is working on understanding the impact that erroneous and missing data has on such systems with the goal to make these systems more fair and reliable.”

Guha enjoys her work at the university and believes she can make a big impact through her work in artificial intelligence. She is inspired to connect worlds that are not already connected and use data science tools in fields that don’t already utilize them.

“We are very happy that Shubha chose to work with us at the university on problems that matter,” said Schelter. “She could easily get a highly paid engineering job at a big corporation instead.”

But Guha wants to make an impact on the world and knows that AI will provide a path for her to do just that.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 31

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

“We are very happy that Shubha chose to work with us at the university on problems that matter. She could easily get a highly paid engineering job at a big corporation instead.”

– Sebastian Schelter, manager of AI for Retail Lab

Photo by Michelle Lo ‘12

gallery performing arts

34 HARKER MAGAZINE l SPRING/SUMMER 202 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Photo by Keith Tharp

Performing arts had a wonderful fall semester! Audiences flocked to the midday performances at this year’s Harker Day, which featured dance and vocal groups from all divisons, and enjoyed the jazz band performance outside Nichols Hall. In late October, the Conservatory’s production of Kaufman and Hart’s “You Can’t Take It With You” had audiences roaring with its comedic portrayal of two wildly different families. The middle school fall plays were both inspired by the Harry Potter universe. The direct spinoff “Puffs,” the grades 7-8 play, told the story of a young orphan boy and his exploits at a school for young wizards, while the grade 6 production of “Sally Cotter and the Censored Stone” placed the audience in the mind of a young girl who dreams about attending a school for sorcerers. Meanwhile, the upper school fall choral concert, “Music from the Eastern Hemisphere,” treated the Patil Theater audience to pieces from Africa, the Middle East and Oceania, and was also the debut performance of vocal groups Dolce Voce, Rhapsody and the Festival Chorus.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2020 35 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 33

Photos above and below left by Deborah Lord Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES

Traditions:

Honoring history and community

As with any institution that has lasted for more than a century and a quarter, Harker’s history is rich with wonderful traditions, old and new. For instance, when the Palo Alto Military Academy was still in operation, Maj. Donald Nichols maintained the custom of having a large dog – always an English mastiff or St. Bernard – as its mascot, and the school held military bicycle drills at its yearly picnic, with student-decorated bikes. The Harker Day School’s annual spring celebrations included a maypole dance, which remained until the school merged with PAMA in 1972 to become Harker Academy. Throughout the 1970s, the Mothers and Fathers Club organized spaghetti dinners, dances, bake sales and other events to raise funds for the school, which helped pay for the construction of a swimming pool and recreation facilities.

While Harker has undergone many changes since its beginnings as Manzanita Hall in 1893, we like to think that the spirit of traditions past are infused in some of the very special traditions that remain today.

“Traditions help us frame the experiences of both our students and staff,” said Brian Yager, head of school. “They provide consistent and repeated temporal and emotional touchpoints, and they add to our collective sense of what constitutes the Harker community.”

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34 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

“[Traditions] provide consistent and repeated temporal and emotional touchpoints, and they add to our collective sense of what constitutes the Harker community.”

– Brian Yager, head of school

Picnic and Homecoming

One of Harker’s most treasured surviving traditions, the Family & Alumni Picnic, began in 1951 as a yearly gathering for families attending the Palo Alto Military Academy. Over the ensuing decades, the picnic added carnival games, a dunking booth, food trucks and climbing walls to the long list of activities available. Patrons played games for tickets that could be used to redeem a wide variety of prizes and took part in a silent auction to raise funds for the school.

Primary division head Sarah Leonard, who began working at Harker in 1978, said the picnic has always carried a “strong sense of family. That’s the piece that’s remained intact, having an opportunity for all members of the family to come in a joyous atmosphere, whether it’s playing games or sitting at a table and connecting with people that you haven’t seen for a while.”

Last year, the Family & Alumni Picnic was moved to the upper school campus and combined with another long-standing Harker tradition, Homecoming, to become the daytime portion of Harker Day. Many key features of the picnic – such as a selection of games, food options and lunchtime shows by Harker performing

arts students – have been preserved and continue to attract Harker community members of all ages. Alumni continue to be a staple at every picnic, gathering at the special alumni area to reconnect or even returning with children of their own. “It brings everyone together as a community,” said Loren Due MS ’85 (parent of Kai, grade 12), “and it allows [younger students] to see what they’re working toward at the upper school.”

Homecoming, the event that caps off Harker Day, has existed since 2001, and has since become one of the school’s most popular gatherings, bringing together the entire Harker community. It also has a considerable set of its own traditions, including the painting of each upper school class’s eagle statue, which Kerry Enzensperger, the student activities coordinator, estimated have roughly 15 years’ worth of paint on them. Every Homecoming’s Spirit Week has included a wide variety of fun activities and themes. Students are encouraged to wear clothing exemplifying each day’s theme, which have included superheroes, sports teams and vintage fashions. Each class also participates in a yearly dodgeball

tournament for spirit points.

Before the 2007 opening of Davis Field, Homecoming was held on the field at Foothill College in Los Altos and included a special parade with large floats driven by rented vehicles. “The kids decorated these trucks, and we had to drive them down the freeway,” said Enzensperger, who joined Harker in 1998. “Hopefully everything stayed on the float, but I don’t think it did.”

The parade has since evolved into the annual march to Davis Field that precedes the start of each year’s tug-ofwar tournament. Students, wearing their class colors, are led to the field by their advisory leaders, cheering loudly for their classmates as the upper school’s Lab Band provides upbeat musical accompaniment.

The schoolwide nature of Homecoming is demonstrated in longstanding traditions such as the pre-game grade 2 Eaglets flyby and a performance by the junior cheerleaders, who are in grades 2-5. Singers from the lower, middle and upper school also gather every year to perform “The Harker School Song” and “The StarSpangled Banner” before kickoff.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 35

Celebrating Legacies and Dedication

Howard and Diana Nichols remain revered at Harker for their breadth of vision and dedication to instilling values that have become core to the school’s mission. To honor their memories, they are celebrated each year on their respective birthdays.

Following Howard’s death in 2008, Harker began celebrating his legacy by enjoying chocolate chip cookies on Oct. 10, his birthday. This custom is an extension of Nichols’ tradition of keeping a jar of cookies on his desk, welcoming passersby to stop in for a treat and a chat. In a similar fashion, since 2018 students and faculty have snacked on Diana Nichols’ favorite dessert, cannoli, on her birthday of March 25 to commemorate her many contributions, which included playing a key role in the founding of the upper school.

At the end of every school year, Harker also honors the dedication of longtime employees – including teachers, support staff and maintenance staff – by awarding them gold service pins in the shape of the school logo after five years of service; starting at 10 years and for every five years

following, a diamond is added to the pin. This tradition began in 2005, with Howard Nichols being the first to receive a 40-year service pin.

A growing tradition among alumni is the annual basketball game, first held in 2013. It has gone on to become an anticipated fall event for Harker alumni, who return to their alma mater over Thanksgiving break for some friendly competition. The first game pitted alumni against Harker’s varsity teams, and every contest since has featured teams made up entirely of Harker alums, each led by Harker coaches.

The Alumni Easter Egg Hunt, which began in 2010, has brought back Harker graduates with their own children to scour one of Harker’s campuses for Easter eggs. The event has become a favorite for alumni to reunite and reconnect, in addition to being great fun for their children, who also get to meet the Easter Bunny.

For more than two decades, alumni have also returned with their children on a Saturday in December for an Alumni Winter Wonderland that

includes snacks, activity stations and a special meet and greet with Santa Claus himself.

Staging Memories

The Ogre Awards show, founded in 1996 by former library director Enid Davis, has become one of Harker’s most unique markers as a school and a proud tradition for lower school students and faculty. Designed to foster a love of reading among young students, the production is the culmination of a months-long study of stories originating from cultures across the world. In addition to being a fun and unique performance opportunity for second graders, the Ogre Awards also feature guest appearances by Harker staff and faculty, often in elaborate costumes.

The show’s format is a hybrid between a stage play and an awards show, in which a story plays out involving the characters the students have studied, followed by an awards ceremony in which various characters (portrayed by the students) are handed awards based on votes cast by the students prior to the show. Each

36 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 TRADITIONS feature

year, one Harker staff member also receives their own Ogre Award for their service to the community.

There are other treasured traditions with a performance twist. For decades, students have begun their performing arts careers at Harker by participating in the yearly kindergarten show, which has been the first stage appearance for many students who have gone on to graduate with certificates from the upper school’s Harker Conservatory. One holiday tradition that all staff and students look forward to is the aptly named Big Assembly Day, when performers from each division tour the campuses before winter break and present a show designed to send everyone off on holiday with some joy and cheer.

“I love the traditions that connect the younger ones with the older ones,” Laura Lang-Ree, K-12 performing arts chair, said. “We think of our community as a family full of traditions, from the time you’re 5 until the time you’re 18.”

The kindergarten hat parade, a lower school tradition that precedes the division’s 1998 move to the Bucknall Road campus, celebrates the onset of spring each year as a procession of kindergartners march

through campus wearing fanciful hats, many of which were made by the students (albeit often with their parents’ help). Over the years it has become a treasured event among the lower school community, attended by both parents and older lower school students who themselves once participated in the parade. And the annual lower school Halloween parade – founded during the first year of operation at the Bucknall campus – draws out students from all lower school grade levels as well as faculty and staff to dazzle onlookers with all manner of costumes.

A History of Service

Harker has a long history of teaching the value of service from an early age, as evidenced by the 1928-29 Miss Harker’s School catalog, which stated that “… by entering into the welfare of other lives with sympathy and helpfulness, [students] will become a power for good.” The sentiment was reinforced by the school’s motto, “Non ministrari, sed ministrari,” – “not to serve unto, but to serve.” Today’s kindergartners every fall semester pick pomegranates from the bushes around the lower school campus, an annual activity that started

in 2009. This ensures that the bushes will continue to produce fruit the following year. Toward the end of the school year, kindergartners plant new trees on their campus, leaving a living memory of their first years at Harker as well as beautifying the campus. This tradition began in 1996, when the lower school was located at the Saratoga Avenue campus, and has continued every year since, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 due to campus closures; those kindergarten classes were invited to plant their trees near the end of the 2021-22 school year.

Since 2009, grade 1 students have organized a spring donation drive for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, raising money and collecting supplies for the local chapter of the national animal welfare organization. And for more than 15 years, grade 2 students have been painting and delivering pumpkins in the fall to the lower school’s nearby neighbors as an annual gesture of kindness that teaches students “to respect and take care of our neighbors,” Leonard said. The lower school annual food drive for St. Justin’s Community Ministry Pantry has been going strong for over 30 years.

In the spring, the middle school campus hosts the annual Cancer Walk, one of the

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 37

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER

UNLESS NOTED

largest events of the school year, founded in 2007 by former middle school computer science teacher Michael Schmidt. Community members from every campus arrive and place flags containing the names of loved ones who have died from or are living with cancer on the middle school field. Attendees then walk in a circle around the flags as symbolic gesture of support to cancer victims and cancer-afflicted people. Money raised from the event is donated to Camp Okizu, an organization that organizes outdoor activities for families living with cancer. The upper school girls soccer team also has been hosting Kicks for Cancer since 2010 with funds going to Camp Okizu.

One of the lower school’s larger service projects is the annual Pajama Program drive, which collects hundreds of books and pajamas each year for children living in shelters and temporary housing. The effort was started in 2007 by Rishi Narain ’16, a third grader at the time, who first learned about the Pajama Program when it was promoted by Oprah Winfrey. Each drive culminates with a special assembly in which students dress in sleepwear and bring one of their favorite books to share.

These and other ongoing traditions have given Harker a unique sense of identity, as will the new traditions being established every year. “Traditions provide a sense of belonging, even a sense of comfort. They have the power to create memories that will last a lifetime and can then be passed on to future generations,” Leonard said. “They are a celebration of who we are and why, impacting our lives in positive ways.”

staff kudos

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

In October, middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni was named the Excellence Through Classics Volunteer of the Month. In addition to teaching, Masoni is a member of ETC’s curriculum committee and sponsors Harker’s Junior Classical League.

Over the summer, K-5 visual arts chair Gerry-louise Robinson and middle school art teacher Sofie Siegmann traveled to Thailand to learn more about the country’s art, culture and history, and how they can be integrated into Harker’s visual arts programs. The trip was part of the Raju and Bala Vegesna Teacher Excellence Program, which supports teachers seeking exciting professional development opportunities.

Business and entrepreneurship teacher Patrick Kelly was recognized by YouTube in September for crossing the 100,000-subscriber milestone on his channel, “Corporis”! Kelly’s channel specializes in informative and engaging videos on anatomy and physiology, as well as medical history. Head on over to https://www.youtube.com/c/Corporis to subscribe!

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 38

feature

TRADITIONS

Listen to students singing the school song with a photo slide show

Meet Ramsay Westgate, middle school teacher and Harker dad to two daughters – part of the “three remarkable women who keep me grounded and humble” at home. Appropriately, this U.S. history teacher was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Boston; he remains a devout Celtics fan. In his spare time, he likes to catch up with family — including cousins in London, Alaska and places in between– and considers the Monterey Peninsula and The Berkshires his happy places.

Why do you do what you do?

Because it both honors the many educators in my family and gives me a sense of direction and purpose. Incredible educators in my youth helped a largely rudderless kid get his bearings and set a course for success.

What is a unique experience you’ve had?

Arriving for my first day of work in a foreign country straight from the airport (American School of Paris, August 1999).

What do you dislike that everyone else loves?

Buttered popcorn and social media.

What is something you would happily fail at?

I never fail happily at anything but appreciate the chance to challenge myself to improve.

What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up?

Oftentimes I have been at my best when forced to react to something unplanned.

What does your inner child want?

Mountain vistas and solo sunrises.

What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

Marrying up.

Ramsay Westgate

37 face time HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 39

Alum’s passion brings him back to Harker as head football coach

F U LL CIR CLE

Sidhart “Sid” Krishnamurthi ’15 started at Harker in kindergarten, played football throughout middle and high school, and has returned as the head coach of Harker’s football team.

“Sid is the epitome of grit, whether as a student, leader, athlete or coach,” said Juston Glass, business and entrepreneurship teacher and a member of the football coaching staff. “I’ve watched his passion for football evolve now that he’s a coach, because he completely understands the impact this sport has made in his life.”

Krishnamurthi’s passion for football is palpable. He knew he wanted to play in college, which he did as a wide receiver at Stanford University. Off the field, he studied economics, which Glass introduced him to at Harker.

“I loved economics with Mr. Glass, especially the behavioral side,” said Krishnamurthi. “Coach Glass had a big impact on me as a student athlete but also as a fellow coach. Sometimes I’ll get frustrated with the players when they aren’t focused and that’s when Coach Glass reminds me how much I used to goof off too.”

Glass laughs, adding it’s been a “cool life experience for me, going from teacher and mentor to now working for him.”

Krishnamurthi graduated from Stanford in 2019 and joined Recogni, a startup that provides AI-based visual inference for autonomous vehicles. He enjoys his work but missed being on the field, so he reached out to Loren Powers, Harker’s head football coach. He was offered and eagerly accepted a position on the coaching staff as an offensive coordinator. When Powers left Harker and the head coaching position opened, Krishnamurthi went for it. He juggles both his career

passion HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 40

F U LL CIRCLE

CIRCLE FULL FULL CIRCLE

passionate about

interested

teaching life lessons

the

–Sid

’15

“I’m

football but also

field.”

Krishnamurthi

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER AND THE HARKER ARCHIVES UNLESS NOTED

at Recogni and his coaching work at Harker.

“He’s been an inspiration for everybody on our team and I can genuinely see that he loves the sport,” said senior Zeke Weng, a wide receiver on the varsity football team. “He’s very committed and really cares about this place.”

Krishnamurthi has a passion for the game but also reminds students to expand their horizons.

“Don’t have blinders on and be sure to explore many things,” he said. “You can’t be one dimensional or put all your eggs in one basket.”

It’s something Krishnamurthi learned while at Harker. Although he spent a lot of time on the field, he also was involved in extracurriculars, including theater and the burgeoning business and entrepreneurship department.

He worked closely with Glass when that department started BEcon, which brings aspiring student entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley together with multiple

While at Harker, Krishnamurthi received the United States Presidential Service Award for his work in the community. He was an integral part of bringing Khaled Hosseini, author of “The Kite Runner,” to the Harker Speaker Series, which helped raise money for the Khaled Hosseini Foundation. (Hosseini’s children would become Harker students shortly thereafter.) The foundation provides humanitarian relief and shelter to families, economic opportunity for women, and health care and education for children in Afghanistan.

Krishnamurthi learned so many valuable lessons during his time as a student at Harker and Stanford and wants to take that knowledge and help make a difference in the lives of his players.

“I’m still young so I can relate to the students in a different way,” he said, “I’m passionate about football but also interested in teaching life lessons on the field.”

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

gallery harker day

42 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 34 HARKER MAGAZINE l SPRING/SUMMER 202 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Photo by Keith Tharp

More than 3,500 people – including families, staff and alumni – enjoyed the second

annual Harker Day in October. Kids played Skee-Ball, air hockey and foosball, painted pumpkins, and played with puppies, kittens and guinea pigs brought from animal rescue groups. Harker’s volleyball, water polo and football teams played for enthusiastic fans, and the newest members of Harker’s Athletic Hall of Fame were inducted (see page 48 for more).

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 43 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2020 35 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 43

Photo by Keith Tharp

face time

It’s clear when chatting with Diana Moss that advocating for the future of our planet is a major part of her life. This upper school Spanish teacher advises the student Green Team and is on the faculty Sustainability Committee, and also volunteers for Citizen’s Climate Lobby and Mothers Out Front. Her husband, Brian, and two kids, Kendra ’10 and Kevin ’14, went along when Moss did a Fulbright teaching exchange in Chile in 2005-06, which she says was an amazing family experience. Her love of life and nature came through in her conversation with Harker Magazine.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

I think I always feel like a kid! Being at the beach with a Frisbee, a dog and in the water, or dancing when my favorite song comes on.

What one piece of advice you would offer anyone who asks?

Choosing to do something is better than doing nothing. If you mess up, have a good laugh, make amends if you need to, and then try and learn something from the experience.

Brag about something.

I throw a great party! I love to cook and serve good food, and we have a beautiful garden where we love to entertain our friends and family.

What are you obsessed with?

Trying to best communicate how climate change will affect everyone and everything in the not-too-distant future and to get people thinking about how we can all make a positive difference for the planet.

Why do you do what you do?

It fascinates me what motivates and inspires curiosity in my students. I also love the Spanish language; it flows like music in my ears. Hispanic culture is so varied and rich and people I’ve met in Spanish-speaking countries are so warm and welcoming. I love sharing these things with my students.

Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest and why?

Chilean author Isabel Allende. She is classy, sassy and a wonderful storyteller.

Diana Moss

HARKER MAGAZINE l SPRING/SUMMER 2022 37

44 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

class notes

Keep up to date on the lives of your classmates.

Alumni from all classes through 1997 are listed under the years they would have completed grade 8 at The Harker School, Harker Academy, Harker Day School or Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA). For all classes after the Class of 1997, alumni are listed under the class years they would have graduated from high school, regardless of whether they completed high school studies at Harker. For unlisted classes, we invite you to email alumni@harker.org if you are interested in becoming a class agent or would like to nominate a classmate. All photos submitted by the subject unless noted. For a list of Harker Academy class agents for the Classes of 1972-97, please contact alumni@harker.org.

1991

Raina Kumra currently runs a pre-seed fund in Los Angeles called The Fund LA, is an advisor to Google X and has founded a functional foods company during the COVID-19 pandemic called Spicewell. Previously she founded a solar training nonprofit and served at the Department of State. She resides in Santa Monica with her husband, son and daughter.

1996

children, Nora and Graham. “We met in Harker summer camp in 1990, and we’re still best friends!” Nott said.

2002

CLASS AGENTS:

Akhsar Kharebov axarharebate@gmail.com; Yasmin Ali yasminfali@gmail.com; Isabella Liu isabella.a.liu@gmail.com

The Class of 2002 will be celebrating its 20-year reunion this year. The gathering will take place on campus on Saturday, Dec. 17. Please reach out to your class agents to RSVP.

2003

CLASS AGENTS: Julia N. Gitis juliag@gmail.com; Maheen Kaleem maheenkaleem@gmail.com

2004

CLASS AGENT: Jessica C. Liu jess.c.liu@gmail.com

2005

CLASS AGENT: Erika N. Gudmundson erika.gudmundson@gmail.com

2006

Casey L. Near caseylane@gmail.com; Meghana Dhar meghanadhar@gmail.com; Jeffrey Le Jeff87@gmail.com

Amanda (Polzin) Sullivan was inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame at Harker Day! See page 48 for details.

2007

C LASS AGENTS: Cassandra Kerkhoff cass.kerkhoff@gmail.com; Audrey L. Kwong Audmusic@gmail.com

Since being featured in the archaeological journal “Antiquity” earlier this year, Jacob Bongers has “served as a postdoctoral researcher in the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East Anglia,” he reported. “I am now a Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Scholar in the Archaeology Program at Boston University. I am continuing to carry out archaeological research in Peru. My current project explores how communities in highland and coastal Peru manage risks of climatic hazards and conflict in everyday life.”

On Aug. 31, Chanelle Kasik married John Paul Dimalanta at a villa overlooking the hills of Tuscany. The newlyweds traveled with 80 friends and family for a two-week

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2021 35 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 45 class notes

Andrea (Nott) Miles and Lisa Hall recently met up with their children in tow! Pictured with them are Nott’s two children, Soren and Sivan, and Hall’s two

class notes

Italian adventure, exploring six different cities: Florence, Arezzo, Lake Como, Rome, Venice and Milan.

2008

CLASS AGENTS:

Senan Ebrahim sebrahim@fas.harvard.edu; Stephanie J. Syu ssyu363@yahoo.com

The Class of 2008 will be celebrating its 15-year reunion this coming year. Please reach out to your class agents to inquire about reunion gatherings.

2010

CLASS AGENTS:

Adrienne Wong adriee@gmail.com; Kevin J. Fu kf800@yahoo.com

2011

CLASS AGENTS: Hassaan Ebrahim hassaan.e@gmail.com; Moneesha R. Mukherjee rani.mukherjee18@gmail.com

2012

C LASS AGENTS:

Will Chang thewillchang@gmail.com; David Fang david.fang75@gmail.com

Daniza Rodriguez was inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame at Harker Day! See page 48 for details.

2014

CLASS AGENTS:

Adith Rengaramchandran adithram@gmail.com; Nithya Vemireddy nithya.vemireddy@gmail.com; Connie Li connieli32@gmail.com

2015

CLASS AGENTS:

Katy Sanchez ktlynnsanchez@gmail.com; Nikhil Reddy reddnikhil@gmail.com; David Lin david.lin210@gmail.com; Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari jetongutierrez@gmail.com

See our profile on Sid Krishnamurthi on page 40!

2016

CLASS AGENTS:

Stephanie Huang stephaniehuang17@gmail.com; Grace Guan guanzgrace@gmail.com; Michael Zhao michael.zhao@gmail.com; Mary Najibi mary.najibi@gmail.com; Edward Sheu edwardsheu.ca@gmail.com; Kurt Schwartz kurticus100@gmail.com

This past August, Tanya Schmidt got together with longtime friend Jessica Liu ’04, college counselor Kevin Lum Lung and Harker Office of Communication director Pam Dickinson to celebrate the completion of her Ph.D.! The party was hosted by Tanya’s sister, Sylvia Schmidt ‘06. Additionally, Tanya’s essays on Jane Austen and William Shakespeare were recently published in “Persuasions,” the print journal of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Congratulations on both counts!

2009

CLASS AGENTS:

Stephanie J. Guo stephanie.j.guo@gmail.com; David Kastelman davidksworld@gmail.com

Alex Abarca was inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame at Harker Day! See page 48 for details.

See our profile on Shubha Guha on page 30!

Bridget Nixon, who currently teaches English at the upper school, is engaged! She and her husband-to-be, Tomek, met by chance on a train ride in 2015, and the two have been together ever since. They plan to wed in his native Poland next summer.

2017

CLASS AGENTS:

Emre Ezer emre.ezer10@gmail.com; Alex Youn ahsyoun@gmail.com; David Zhu david.zhu@gmail.com; Maile Chung mailchung.pb@gmail.com; Haley Tran haleyktran@gmail.com

2013

CLASS AGENTS:

Kathir Sundarraj kathir.sraj95@gmail.com; Nick Chuang njchuang@usc.edu; Nikhil Panu guruhounddawg@gmail.com

The Class of 2013 will be celebrating its 10-year reunion this coming year. Please reach out to your class agents to inquire about reunion gatherings.

See our profile on Nikhil Panu on page 24!

Alexa Gross, who just graduated from Wellesley College with a double major in studio art and neuroscience, was awarded the senior prize in studio art with a series of multimedia pieces that “explore themes of intergenerational memory, relation-

46 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022

Photo provided by Wellesley College art department

ships, and identity through a scientific lens,” her statement on the exhibition reads.

See our profile on Alexis Gauba on page 14!

2018

CLASS AGENTS:

Amitej Mehta djamitej@gmail.com; Melissa Kwon mwjkwan@gmail.com; Gloria Guo gloria.jx.guo@gmail.com; Dolan Dworak ddworak@umich.ed

The Class of 2018 will be celebrating its 5-year reunion this coming year. Please reach out to your class agents to inquire about reunion gatherings.

ALUMNI GATHERINGS:

Teacher Victor Adler and his daughter Sydney, a senior, made a stop at Duke to have dinner with a few Eagles (from left to right): Arely Sun ‘22, Jason Hoang ’19, Alex Zhang ’22, Akhilesh Chegu ‘22, Erin Liu ’19, Michelle Si ’21 and Andrew Sun ’21

Nate Kelly is a realtor who works with buyers, sellers and investors interested in the Bay Area’s most desirable cities, with a particular focus in the Los Gatos, Saratoga and Willow Glen neighborhoods. Before entering the real estate field, Nate attended Chapman University where he studied business management and communication. In addition to serving as a Bay Area real estate professional, Nate is currently giving back and serving as the offensive coordinator on the Harker football coaching staff, where he once played quarterback and helped Harker to its greatest record in school history. Nate currently resides in Los Gatos with his high school sweetheart, Haley Keller, and their goldendoodle, Roxy.

201 9

CLASS AGENTS:

Matthew Hajjar matthew.hajjar@gmail.com; Olivia Esparza oesparza@poets.whittier.edu; Mahi Gurram mgurram@colgate.edu; Riya Gupta gupta2001riya@gmail.com; Kelsey Wu kelseywu@college.harvard.edu

20 20

CLASS AGENTS:

Lauren Beede 20blauren@gmail.com; Chloe Chen chloe.chen@bc.edu; Grace Hajjar gracehajjar@g.ucla.edu; Bennett Liu bennett.c.liu@gmail.com; Anika Tiwari anika.tiwari@gmail.com

Simar Bajaj, who was previously published in Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine, continued his pursuits in scientific journalism over the summer, publishing a slew of articles in a wide range of respected publications. For Smithsonian magazine, he covered the history of racial bias in the coverage of poxviruses. He also penned a story for The Washington Post on racism in the design of pulse oximeters, which do not

function correctly with all skin colors, and wrote about pig-to-human heart transplants for The Guardian.

2021

CLASS AGENTS:

Kristin Tong kristintong@gmail.com; Olivia Guo olivia.guo@pepperdine.edu; Helen Zhu helen.c.zhu@gmail.com

2022

CLASS AGENTS

Alexa Lowe alexa.lowe@gmail.com

Gigi Chan gc449@cornell.edu Irene Yuan irene.d.yuan@gmail.com

At the International Linguistics Olympiad in the Isle of Man in July, Rishab Parthasarathy received a silver medal and helped Team USA Red place first in individual competition and take the bronze with a tie for fourth in the team competition. More on this accomplishment can be found in this issue’s Top Stories on page 5.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 47

Three athletes and one legendary team become Harker Athletic Hall of Famers

During this year’s Harker Day, three outstanding alumni – Alex Abarca ’09, Daniza Rodriguez ’13 and Amanda (Polzin) Sullivan ’06 – were inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame, along with the entire roster of the 2007-08 girls varsity volleyball team.

A highly prolific scorer, Abarca was a four-time boys varsity basketball MVP for the Eagles and posted more than 1,700 points. In his junior year, he was named the Private School Athletic League MVP. As a senior he was named to the WBAL First Team, a San Jose Mercury News Athlete of the Week, declared Harker Athlete of the Year and received the Eagle Award, which is given to athletes who demonstrate extraordinary dedication and enthusiasm, expressed in their willingness to help their teammates, act as role models and offer their maximum effort to every task.

In addition to being named co-MVP of the girls varsity basketball team in her senior year, Sullivan, who joined the ceremony via Zoom, received an honorable mention for the AllWest Bay Athletic League Team. While performing as a key member of the team, Sullivan –who was born with amniotic band syndrome – also dedicated her time to serving student athletes with disabilities. She began volunteering with the Special Olympics, which eventually led to her winning the top prize in the San Jose Sports Authority’s REACH (Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard Work) Youth Scholarship Program, an annual award given to Bay Area high school student athletes who have met significant challenges in order to achieve in both athletics and academics. She went on to study human development in college and found a fulfilling career in social work.

Rodriguez set a number of records in her time as a member of the girls varsity basketball team. She at one point held the record for most career points (1,214), most points in a season (511) and the best start to a season for any Harker athletics team (11-1). She received many accolades over the course of her upper school career, receiving Harker’s Female Athlete of the Year award in her sophomore and junior years, winning the Eagle Award in her junior and senior years and being named the WBAL Skyline League MVP and to the Skyline League First Team All League.

The 2007 girls volleyball team remains one of the most successful teams in Harker’s athletic history. The team’s historic 38-5 run included a 12-0 league record, a win at the Maui Classic tournament and the first appearance Central Coast Section ranking ever achieved by a Harker athletics team. The season culminated in an appearance at the state finals against Santa Fe Valley Christian, in which the Eagles fell short but nevertheless left a permanent impression with their phenomenal talent, work ethic and record-setting performances. Featuring no fewer than three Harker athletics hall of famers — Candace Silva-Martin ‘09, Tanya Schmidt ’08 and Kristina Bither ’09— and coached by decorated Harker veteran Theresa “Smitty” Smith, this team stands as one of the deepest in Harker athletic history to ever take any field or court.

For the complete story, visit https://news.harker.org/athletic-hall-of-fame-inducts-three-new-athleteslegendary-volleyball-team/ .

In Memoriam

Brian Richardson

Harker parent, Board of Fellows member and inventor

Former Harker parent and Board of Fellows member Brian Richardson passed away in September at the age of 67. Richardson joined the Harker community in 2003 with his wife, Lee, and their two children, Ian ’14 and Shannon ’16.

In 2004 they joined the Parent Development Council, where they served for 13 years as very active members of the community. In 2021, he and Lee became members of The Harker Board of Fellows.

A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and Santa Clara University, Richardson was a prolific inventor with more than 60 patents to his name. He competed as a member of the United States bobsled team at the 1992 Winter Olympic Games, piloting the bobsled he designed and built. In addition to competing, Brian was also a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors from 1988-1992, during which time he also served on the Sports Equipment Committee and Athletes Advisory Committee.

In his professional life, Richardson founded Imagine Designs, a lighting and display design company that was later acquired by Rambus Inc. He continued to work at Rambus as technical director until 2014. One of the most famous examples of the technology he pioneered can be seen in the LED lighting display atop the spire of One World Trade Center, which was completed in 2013.

At Imagine TF, his most recent company, Richardson invented and developed microfluidics technology that has applications for water filtration, deionization, biotechnology and many more purposes.

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 48 class notes

Lee and Brian Richardson at the 2010 Harker Fashion Show.

SERIES CONCERT 2022-23

HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2022 49

Photo by Nate Ryan Photo provided by Donny McCaslin Photo provided by San José Chamber Orchestra

Preschool I Summer Programs www.harker.orgThe Harker School 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose , CA 95129

PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID

O of C: 11/22 (BHDG) 7,886

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SAN JOSE, CA PERMIT 2296

final frame

Harker Magazine Fall/Winter 2022

Harker Day

CONTENTS

A Taste of Excellence

Happy Anniversary!

Passion & Impact

Staff Kudos

Class Notes

About Harker head lines

HARKER MAGAZINE

LESSONS FROM THE

FIND, FRIEND & FOLLOW US!

is the most beautiful place on Earth.”

top stories Top Stories

Students place high at Math Prize for Girls

singers

Kudos: Grade 6 golfer enjoys successful summer

Panchanatham receives Princeton economics prize

Student-run business TuffToy wins National Pitch Competition

HARNESSING

Pause and look closely.

Thinking outside the box

Collaboration is key

Telling stories through art

athletics

Making things impact

HAPPEN

impacting the burgeoning cryptocurrency space

Culinary Internship Program

A Collaborative Food Community

Quantity, Quality and Innovation

Developing Palates, One Campus at a

Time

Fan Favorites

Eileen Schick

gallery

Make the your

W RLD

PLAYGROUND

New Lower School Campus

Upper School Campus

Solving real problems

gallery performing arts

Traditions:

Honoring history and community

Picnic and Homecoming

Celebrating Legacies and Dedication

Staging Memories

A History of Service

staff kudos

staff kudos

Why do you do what you do?

What does your inner child want?

Ramsay Westgate

Alum’s passion brings him back to Harker as head football coach

F U LL CIR CLE

gallery harker day

face time

What makes you feel like a kid again?

What one piece of advice you would offer anyone who asks?

Brag about something.

What are you obsessed with?

Diana Moss

class notes

1991

1996

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

class notes

2008

2010

2011

2012

2014

2015

2016