Harker Quarterly Fall 2015

Harker Pride Marks Start of School Year

Festival Fringe Challenges and Thrills ‘Into the Woods’ Cast All Ages Enjoy Harker’s Varied Summer Camps Annual Harvest Festival Great for the Whole Family Harker Trainers Prep Athletes Over Summer FA L L 2 015

VOLU M E 7 · N U M B E R 1

Cover Photo

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eniors! Matriculation is the first official ceremony for incoming freshmen and the beginning of the final year for the seniors.

Each year, Butch Keller, upper school head,

encourages each class to show their school spirit during his speech, and this year the crowd got a taste of the enthusiasm the Class of 2016 is bringing to their last year at Harker. Senior Edward Sheu stood for the class when seniors were called out, providing Mark Kocina, Harker’s staff photographer, with this shot. “This is one of those moments that happened so fast I only got off one frame before it was over!” he said. “I moved around to at least a dozen different locations during the ceremony and luckily I was in the right spot when Edward went above and beyond to show his passion for the Class of 2016!”

FA L L 2 015 / V O L U M E 7 · N U M B E R 1 Pam Dickinson Director William Cracraft Editor Catherine Snider Jenn Maragoni Copy Editors Mark Kocina Photo Editor Blue Heron Design Rebecca McCartney Triple J Design Design

Greg Achten Jenny Alme Stefan Armijo Kyle Cavallaro Debbie Cohen Jacqueline De Guzman Nicole DeVelbiss Melinda Gonzales Stephanie Huang, grade 12 Karen Jimenez Zach Jones Linda Luna Contributors

Diamond Quality Printing Printing

About Harker 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.

Our New Website

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fter more than a year of researching, planning and creating, Harker rolled out

Harker News (HN) was launched in April 2009 and reports timely news on the activities, programs and accomplishments of The Harker School and its students, faculty and alumni. You can subscribe to HN via RSS feeds or a daily digest email alert. Visit http://news.harker.org/.

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Join us for tweets, videos, announcements, photo sharing and more! http://www.facebook.com/harkerschool http://www.youtube.com/harkerschool http://twitter.com/harkerschool http://www.flickr.com/groups/harkerschool http://instagram.com/harkerschool/

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a newly designed website. The goal was to make learning about Harker

The Harker School is an independent, coed, college-prep school serving preschool through grade 12.

as easy as possible for prospective families, and we consulted with

Preschool: 4525 Union Ave., San Jose, CA 95124

parents, administrators and national

K-Grade 5: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose, CA 95130

Web experts to arrive at the best so-

Grades 6-8: 3800 Blackford Ave., San Jose, CA 95117

lutions. The Office of Communication team worked together to build the new site, keeping statements simple and letting photos and videos tell more of the Harker story. We cut down the number of pages by two-thirds, nearly doubled the number of photos and have 10 times as many videos as we had previously. Pertinent news feeds and statistics are now placed with relevant content throughout the site, and in the next few months you’ll see teacher and student profiles, and newly designed Harker News and summer sites to complement the new look. Hats off especially

Grades 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 Published four times a year, Harker Quarterly showcases some of the top news, leading programs, inspiring people and visionary plans of the greater Harker community.

Produced by the Harker Office of Communication 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 communications@harker.org · 408.345.9273

to the O of C Web team, Joe Banks and Nick Gassmann, for their outstanding contributions to the new site. Watch for continued enhancements in the coming year.

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NEXT EDITION: DECEMBER 2015

inside

10 FALL 2015

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features

Festival Fringe Challenges and Thrills ‘Into the Woods’ Cast

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All Ages Enjoy Harker’s Varied Summer Camps 10 Photo Collage Captures First School Days of Fall

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Annual Harvest Festival Great for the Whole Family 22

Eagle Report Special: Harker Trainers Prep Athletes Over Summer 36

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departments Headlines 4 Summer Travel

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Global Education

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Greater Good

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Performing Arts

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Advancement 29 Debate 32

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Business and Entrepreneurship 34 Eagle Report

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Milestones 39 Alumni News

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Headlines

By Christopher Nikoloff Head of School

First-Day Butterflies Can Be Good for Educators and Students

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y first boss in education, a middle school principal in the Hayward public school system, used to flit around campus on the first day of school saying that when he stopped getting first-day butterflies, he would leave education. I think this “tummy check” is good for educators.

The beginning of the school year after a long summer is a time of possibility, a time of excitement. Friends, teachers, students, parents all reunite, coming together toward the common purpose of bringing out the best in the children.

Schools are a unique mix of “now” and “forever.” We want students and teachers to have as rich an experience as possible, to focus on the process, the journey, the “now”; yet we are all preparing for the future, to help students take their deep learning and make a meaningful impact on the world to, in the words of Henry Adams, “affect eternity.”

At the beginning and end of summers, I often wonder what happened to the year-round school trend.

Summer is still here, even though, as Time pointed out in its recent article “Who Killed Summer Vacation?” summer feels shorter to all of us. Some schools across the country have adopted a year-round schedule

“Schools are a unique mix of ‘now’ and ‘forever.’ We want students and teachers to have as rich an experience as possible, to focus on the process, the journey, the ‘now’; yet we are all preparing for the future ...”

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with intermittent breaks, but the trend hasn’t seemed to sweep the educational system as anticipated. There are plenty of schools with a traditional calendar that includes vacations.

There may be many reasons why this is the case – an entrenched summer programs industry, family vacations, school budgets – but regardless of the reasons for summer’s persistence, there remain, I believe, cognitive benefits from the break summer provides. We now understand that much

Headlines

learning is consolidated during sleep; that time away from the grind can bring fresh insight; that top athletes cycle their training in peaks and valleys to allow the body to heal from exertion.

There are two types of learning, and we hope our children experience both: cumulative and transformational. Cumulative learning is the most familiar: we learn the events that led up to the Civil War, the grammatical components of a foreign language, the steps in a geometry proof, the solubility table. Transformational learning is when the learner doesn’t just accumulate knowledge but becomes a different learner altogether.

In transformational learning, perhaps the student falls in love with a subject; has an insight into an historical event or a scientific phenomenon; learns how to learn; takes ownership of his or her studies; sees the connections between two disciplines; discovers what he or she wants to study in college. Both cumulative and transformational learning are necessary, but cumulative learning is a step on the student’s journey while transformational learning is a leap.

So the opening of the new school year – after a long or short summer – is a magical time, an exhilarating time, a time of possible transformation. No one can predict when a child will hit a growth spurt, either physically or cognitively or otherwise, but we can nurture, like a garden, the conditions for growth. We want for our

educators, the butterflies that this time of year brings.

Photo by Mark Kocina

children the best in learning and growth, and we hope for them, as we do our

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Into the Fringe: Conservatory Takes ‘Into the Woods’ to Edinburgh

By Zach Jones

I

All photos provided by Laura Lang-Ree

t’s opening night of the spring musical, and director Laura Lang-Ree already has her cast dreaming of Scotland, four months away. “You can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like,” she imparts to the students, who are probably trying anyway as they stand shoulderto-shoulder, humming in unison. She circles the cast, filling their heads with visions of the weeks leading up to the premiere, of traveling up and down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, of the spectacle of Festival Fringe, the humming growing in volume.

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“1! 2! 3!” The room erupts, and the members of the cast take their places.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the oldest festival of its kind, a city-wide event with thousands of shows taking place in hundreds of venues. It began in 1947 when eight alternative theater companies arrived at the Edinburgh International Festival to perform for the large crowds that had assembled in the city. Several decades later, it is now the world’s largest arts festival, spanning weeks and offering space for nearly every kind of performer. “It’s just mindblowing, the innovation and the quality of work that happens at the Fringe,” said LangRee. Harker’s participation in Fringe dates back to 2007, when the now-defunct American Musical Theatre of San Jose saw the Harker Conservatory production of “Urinetown” and nominated it for

consideration by the American High School Theater Festival. After a lengthy adjudication process and a memorable first year at Fringe, Lang-Ree decided to try to attend every four years, provided Harker was one of the selected schools.

The Conservatory took “Pippin” to the festival in 2011.

Attending the Fringe is like no other experience for our students, Lang-Ree said. There’s “a big part of being an artist that people underestimate: observation.

One of the main ways that we grow [as artists] is by observing and learning and

then trying it for ourselves.”

Putting on a show at Fringe can be tricky. To make room for the thousands of performances at the festival, each group has a total of two hours to set up, do the show and tear down to make room for the next performer. In anticipation, veteran set designer Paul Vallerga worked tirelessly to prepare sets and props that were ready for travel and easy to put in place, while also selling the atmosphere of the production.

“It’s all going to be in such a whirlwind,” Caroline Howells ’15, who played

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Cinderella, predicted when rehearsals began. “I imagine that we’ll get on stage and before we know it, it will be over.”

“Into the Woods” inspired extraordinary excitement in this cast and crew. Stephen Sondheim’s famously rich and challenging score and thematic complexity has achieved legendary status in the nearly 30 years since the musical premiered. “Musically, it’s very sophisticated,” said music director Catherine Snider. “So there’s always a little bit of extra-special care that needs to go into preparing a musical when the music is simply so difficult to learn.”

Sondheim devised subtle musical motifs for each of the story’s rich assortment of fairy tale characters, all searching for their own happily-ever-afters.

Sondheim’s music is couched in a story that puts fairy tale characters into situations that contort their (and the audience’s) preconceptions about

supposedly happy endings, daring to ask what happens when people get what they think they want. Act 1 concludes with what most would deem a happy ending, but things change in Act 2.

just mindblowing, the “It’s innovation and the quality of work that happens at the Fringe.”

—Laura Lang-Ree, director

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It’s a lot for actors to learn and digest, but it makes for a musical that is rewarding to perform, as well as witness.

“Usually in a musical, maybe the music will be harder or the dance might be harder, one element might be more difficult than the others, but for ‘Into the Woods’ it was the combination of the acting and the singing that was at a really, really high level,” said Lang-Ree. “So that’s what made it unique.”

More about Harker’s appearance at Fringe – including the street performances, the lightning-quick setup and teardown, the exciting adventures in Scotland – can be found in the full mediarich feature story, now online at news.harker.org; search on “Into the Fringe.”

Photos provided by Laura Lang-Ree

“‘Into the Woods’ explores what happens after the happily-ever-after, when our wishes aren’t quite what we thought and what we wanted kind of falls apart,” Snider said.

New Online Features Bring Stories to Life Over the summer, the Office of Communication launched the new Harker website, built to better serve the Harker community and share our mission with prospective Harker families. To these ends, we have published our first mediarich online feature stories. These are in-depth, onlineonly stories that delve into the parts of the Harker experience that we feel make Harker such a special place to learn and thrive. Each media-rich feature includes a long-form story interspersed with photos and videos that highlight key portions. The inaugural feature details the making of the 2015 spring musical and its cast and crew’s trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, for this year’s Festival Fringe. We sincerely hope you find these features engrossing, enlightening and fun to peruse.

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Photo by Linda Luna

AT HARKER

By Debbie Cohen

Photo by Linda Luna

A Look Back at Camps and Programs Schoolwide

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For the second year in a row, Harker Preschool offered a fun and interactive summer program.

Also for the second year, foreign students attending Harker’s internationally renowned English Language Institute had the option of going on a weeklong summer road tour.

Photo by Linda Luna

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Enjoy this look back at summer 2015 at Harker.

Photo by Linda Luna

Meanwhile, Harker’s Camp+ and Summer Institute programs

continued to grow, as did a large and varied summer sports camp and swim school.

Photo by Karen Jimenez

here was something for everyone during Harker’s incredible summer program. After the regular school year ended, students from the surrounding area and from around the globe came to Harker to participate in a wide range of summer offerings.

AT HARKER

Photo by Linda Luna

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo by Karen Jimenez

Fun Specialty Classes Highlight Summer at Harker Preschool

“We were thrilled to highlight our specialty programs during the summer sessions!” reported Kelly Espinosa, director of summer and preschool programs.

In addition to the specialty classes, preschool summer program happenings included a “wheels day,” where the youngsters brought in their own bikes and scooters to ride, and a fun “red, white and blue party” to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Harker Preschool began offering a summer camp program in summer 2014, filling its beautiful 8-acre Union Avenue campus with children after the regular school year ended.

Campers enjoy the school’s large sunny

Harker community’s long-running tradition of making summer offerings open to the public. Harker Preschool’s inaugural summer program featured interactive beach and wilderness motifs.

Photos by Mark Kocina

This year, summer campers at Harker Preschool enjoyed three specialty programs: art, music and movement, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

Each student had the opportunity to visit the specialty classrooms and join in on fun activities there.

cottages, spacious play yards and specialty classrooms.

The preschool’s summer camp is held in two sessions, each designed to engage and excite young children through familiar summer themes. This year the program was staffed by year-round Harker teachers, assistant teachers and aides. Students were grouped by age, with families choosing one or both sessions to match their schedules.

Session one ran for four weeks from June 22July 17; session two began on July 20 and ended three weeks later on Aug. 7. Full-day and half-day options were available, with extended care offered in the early morning and late afternoon.

Last year, when it launched its summer program, the preschool joined the larger H A R K E R Q U A R T E R LY

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Lower School Campers Set Sail for New Adventures During Harker’s ‘Camp on the 7 Seas!’

Camp+ students in grades 1-5 have several morning program options, including the traditional academic offerings Core Focus and Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL).

Campers in grades 2-5 also had the option of art or music. An artists’ studio was led

by Harker lower school art instructor Gerrylouise Robinson, while orchestra, rock band and songwriting workshops were led by Louis Hoffman, lower school music teacher.

New this year were extended teaching blocks during the academic portion

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Among those participating in the afternoon program was first-time Camp+ participant Kaleb Goldin. The grade 3 Harker student stood on the lower school field, waiting in line for his turn to participate in the rock wall climbing activity.

“I’m looking forward to it!” he said, as a camp counselor helped him prepare for his climb. After he had finished, he gave the thumbs up sign, declaring “That was great!”

The afternoon sessions included a variety of activities for campers of all ages, who were grouped according to their grades: kindergartners attended kindercamp, first graders were called “owls,” second and third graders were ”condors,” while fourth and fifth graders were “eagles.” Afternoon activities also

Photo by Karen Jimenez

For students who attended this year’s Summer Camp+, the summer was filled with engaging morning lessons and fun afternoon seafaring adventures.

Themed “Camp on the 7 Seas,” the program provided educational and activity-packed sessions for students in K-5. The very popular program, held on the lower school campus, attracts nearly 800 campers each summer.

Following the morning session, many campers stayed on for a partial- or full-day activity program, which included a wide range of group and individual activities such as arts and crafts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and field sports.

Photo by Karen Jimenez

Photo by Mark Kocina

of the day, explained Patricia Lai Burrows, who served as a Camp+ principal alongside Diann Chung. “This year’s schedule allowed for deeper and more meaningful learning,” recalled Burrows.

were divided by themes, such as Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, Arctic, Bon Voyage, Pacific, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic.

The groups enjoyed many fun outings.

For example, the kindercampers enjoyed parfaits at a neighborhood park; the owls went on a field trip to the Children’s Discovery Museum; the condors went bowling and to the Oakland Zoo; and the eagles spent an afternoon at Laser Quest and had a sleepover in the gym. Campers of all ages had a blast celebrating camp mascot Ray’s Deep Sea Birthday Party and a saltwater pool carnival!

The Summer Camp+ program traditionally kicks off and ends with Color Clash, a fun event held in the lower school’s gymnasium. Groups of campers on yellow, red, green and blue teams participate in an array of silly games cheered on by captains (aka camp counselors) wearing color-coordinated outfits that run the gamut from superheroes to hula skirts and fun hats.

At the end of each session, there was an informative showcase for parents. The Super Summer Showcase allowed parents to spend some time exploring their child’s classroom and learn more about the exciting activities in the afternoon program.

As part of the showcase, artwork from students enrolled in the artists’ studio was on display.

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Unique New Offerings and Fun Afternoon Activities Highlight Harker’s Summer Institute

Held on the upper school campus from June 15-Aug. 7, SI was open to both Harker students and those from area schools in grades 6-12. SI allowed participants to get a jump start on the coming school year, as well as enrich their learning on topics of interest.

SI has two tracks: one designed for middle schoolers and another for high schoolers.

Many students combined a morning academic program with afternoon activities.

Falling under the academic umbrella was a new course called Summer Science Research Society. Taught by middle school science teacher Kathy Peng ’05, the offering gave participants in grades 6-8 the opportunity to explore and research real world topics of individual interest.

Meanwhile, a chocolate chip cookie baking project and sale, sponsored by a new SI math class, raised $283.53 for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley (http://news.harker. org/summer-institute-math-class-raisesmoney-for-humane-society). “Lots of math was used to calculate how many cookies we could bake within our limited class time and

a visit to Golfland,” recalled K-8 history department chair Keith Hirota, who was in charge of SI academics and activity programming for the middle school students.

Photo by Jacqui Villarreal ‘15

This year’s Summer Institute (SI) was marked by numerous exciting, first-time happenings.

Highlights of the increasingly popular program included an inaugural summer science research class, a visit from a coding expert during a new computer course and a bake sale that raised money for the Humane Society.

oven constraints. In addition, the students had to determine the shopping list and recalculate a recipe based on that,” reported Eileen Schick, who taught the three-week summer school course called The Eagle Project: Math!

Another new offering for grades 6-8 was Beginning Python, taught by Mike Schmidt, Harker’s middle school computer science department chair. Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Abhinav Mathur MS ’05 designed the instructional software Schmidt used in the class. Mathur, a former student of Schmidt’s, came to campus in June to speak to the 17 students enrolled in the course. (To read the full story about Mathur’s visit, see page 40 in the alumni section.)

Although they were not eligible for the afternoon activity program, students in grades 10-12 were welcome to stay on campus to swim, study, shoot hoops and socialize. While the majority of the older students were primarily concerned with earning credits, many took time out for some summertime fun.

“The Summer Institute continues to grow and this year we had more than 1,300 students signed up for classes on the Saratoga campus!” reported Kelly Espinosa, director of summer and preschool programs.

Photo by Mark Kocina

After the morning academic sessions, many middle school SI students stayed on for the afternoon activity program, which included an array of specialty classes and recreational activities. Some students in grade 9 also signed up for the afternoon activities.

“We had a wide variety of weekly fun classes that the students signed up for, which this year included a field trip to the Oakland Zoo, an ice age carnival, a red, white and blue bash, and

Photo by Mark Kocina

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Foreign Students Bring International Flair to Harker Through Summer ELI Program

Photo by Mark Kocina

Eight-year-old Ivy Zhao, from China, said she previously had attended Harker’s Camp+, but this was her first time participating in the ELI program. “I liked making new friends as well as seeing old ones that I had made before at Camp+,” she recalled.

Many of the ELI participants signed up for the program in preparation for admission to American boarding schools and English-speaking schools worldwide. Small classes, a nurturing environment and experienced teachers helped foreign students develop speaking, reading and writing skills to ensure their readiness. This year ELI included a new offering for students who intend to stay in the United States for school; this added support included standardized testing, multilevel diagnostic assessments and academic consultations.

A unique aspect of ELI is that students had opportunities to interact with Harker’s regular summer program participants. This allowed them to make

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“We had a very motivated and excited group of young learners,” enthused longtime ELI lower school instructor Karen Glovka, who this summer taught students in grades 3-5. (During the regular school year, Glovka teaches Spanish to Harker students in grades 4-5.)

“They worked hard to use English as much as possible, and they loved the many activities offered to them. Our teachers were also motivated and excited, working with academic levels from kindergarten through fourth grade. The T.A.s were equally incredible, providing classroom academic support and working alongside camp staff during enrichment activities. I think we could call ELI ‘extreme, limitless, instruction,’” she reported.

New to the program last year was a weeklong “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour. This option, available to all ELI students, proved so successful that it was offered

During the VIP trip, students followed a specialized course of study to continue developing reading, writing and speaking competency while visiting university campuses, Silicon Valley businesses, places of interest and treasured landmarks. The tour was capped off with an overnight trip to the scenic California coast.

ELI initially began as a year-round boarding school program and evolved into the current summer program, which launched in 2004. For the past few summers, ELI has steadily grown in attendance, especially in the primary division.

International students come to Harker accompanied by a parent or local guardian and stay in nearby apartments or with area family and friends. Each ELI session kicks off with a welcome orientation and ends with a touching closing ceremony.

“We keep growing and enjoying each summer!” said Glovka.

Photo by Jacqui Villarreal ‘15

Once again Harker’s English Language Institute (ELI) attracted an increasing number of students from all over the world seeking top-level English instruction. Held during the summer on both the lower and upper school campuses, the program was open to international students in the elementary division (ages 6-11) and secondary division (ages 12-16).

Lucas Jia, a 9-year-old first-time ELI participant, also from China, said he enjoyed Harker so much that he wished he could attend the school year-round. “Here is very fun!” he said, noting that hanging out with his friends at the lower school pool was one of his favorite activities. He also enjoyed recess time on the playground, making friendship bracelets and playing games in the gym.

again this year at the conclusion of ELI’s regular five-week academic session. According to ELI director Anthony Wood, the VIP tour was born from widespread interest from ELI participants in having more excursions to enhance their American social and cultural experiences.

Photo by Mark Kocina

new friends and practice their English with native speakers.

AT HARKER

Sports Programs Prepare Athletes for Fall Season Wrestling

Held in the middle school gym, Harker’s wrestling camp was staffed by experienced and dedicated coaches who taught camp attendees new moves and proper technique.

A notable returning mentor was Anthony Robles, the 2011 NCAA national champion, who was awarded an ESPY for Best Male Athlete with a Disability. He was a source of inspiration for many students at the camp. “Working with [Robles] one-on-one was an honor,” said Arianna Pinella, a junior at Andrew Hill High School. “He told me the little mistakes that could get better.”

The camp also gave Pinella an opportunity to learn new moves to expand her repertoire as a competitive wrestler. “I really like meeting the new coaches, learning the new moves, putting my name out there and just wanting to get better,” she said.

Camp directors Karriem Stinson – who is also Harker’s wrestling coach – and Shaun Henebry designed the wrestling camp to appeal to lovers of the sport. This year, each camp day was broken into three sessions.

The morning session focused on technical aspects of the sport, “so we’ll show them a couple of moves, we’ll run through, do a lot of technical stuff,” Stinson explained. In the second session, the coaches reviewed principles and techniques, and then taught additional techniques. The afternoon portion of the camp consisted primarily of live wrestling and practice.

Veronica Capellino, a junior at Prospect High School, had previously attended another Harker off-season camp and enjoyed the coaching so much that she returned this summer. “They just made me feel more confident about everything I was doing,” she said. “Just in these last couple of days, I feel like I’ve gotten so much better.”

TRX

Student athletes seeking to improve their overall fitness headed to the summer TRX suspension training camp, where they learned new fitness techniques to help them prepare for the upcoming sports season.

The TRX system was developed by Navy SEALs to be highly customizable and portable, using the trainer’s body weight to build strength and endurance.

“TRX camp was different this year because we had a cardio room and a lot of new workout equipment,” said Karriem Stinson, camp director and certified TRX training coach.

“The students used battle ropes and speed harnesses to improve their overall speed.”

Each day of the camp consisted of a 15-minute warmup session, after which campers split into two groups – one working on cardio and the other starting on the TRX equipment. “We would rotate each group so that both got to work in both rooms,” Stinson said. “We also used a vertex machine to test their vertical [strength] and used the climbing rope to help their overall upper body strength.”

Stinson has received a positive reaction from the camp, and said he will be working with the Harker physical education department to bring TRX to more students. “I felt many got stronger this summer,” he said, “and I have already received emails asking if we will be doing TRX during the school year.”

Camp attendees benefited from the instruction of John “Sarge” Siers, a veteran teacher and coach of more than 30 years. A longtime friend of Butch Keller, upper school head and also a successful basketball coach, Siers’ experience includes coaching at two NCAA Final Fours, coaching 32 players to Division I scholarships and working with many NBA players. His coaching philosophy is to encourage his students to have fun so that they will be more open to learning. Improving fundamental skills, he believes, helps the young athletes get more enjoyment out of playing.

Volleyball

Volleyball enthusiasts of varying skill levels in grades 4-9 attended the summer volleyball camp to improve their game and learn new skills. Top-level instruction helped students gain the edge they need in the fall sports season. Camp director Vonda Reid, a club director for the Stingray Volleyball Club and a coach at Harker for more than 15 years, lent her years of expertise to help the attendees get the most out of their week at the camp.

Basketball

Harker’s basketball camp, held in late June in the middle school gym, emphasized the fundamentals of the one of the world’s most popular sports. This year, the camp was held in two daily sessions: a morning session for boys and a coed afternoon session. Students learned and practiced essential skills such as dribbling, passing, ball handling and shooting.

Photos by Stefan Armijo

By Zach Jones

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Swim School

Casual swimmers and enthusiasts both attended Harker’s summer swim school, held from mid-June to early August at the upper school’s Singh Aquatic Center. Staffed with qualified and attentive instructors, the swim school offered lessons to swimmers of virtually every skill level, both individually and in groups. Alex Stoeb, a student at Millbrook Elementary School, found the swim school beneficial in refreshing his knowledge of key swimming skills. “I kind of forgot everything,” he said, “so I wanted to come back and re-learn it again.” He also enjoyed receiving training in freestyle swimming and backstroke.

Water Polo

One of Harker’s most popular summer offerings, the soccer camp covered two campuses and provided players of many skill levels with a wide variety of exercises and activities. Players ages 6-9 attended camp at the middle school campus, while players ages 1016 attended camp at the upper school.

Photo by Mark Kocina

Camp director Shaun Tsakiris, a longtime Harker soccer coach who has spent years building the camp,

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Warm summer weather provided the perfect environment for this year’s water polo camp, which emphasized key fundamental skills of this longrunning Olympic sport, such as eggbeater kicking, passing and shooting.

Because many of the camp’s attendees were new to the sport, teaching the fundamentals was crucial. The camp was run by two water polo veterans: Harker water polo coach Allie Lamb has more than 15 years of experience with the sport, playing with top volleyball coaches such as Rich Corso and Ricardo Azevedo. Co-director Ted Ujifusa started playing water polo in the 1960s and was a member of the first University of California, Berkeley team to win an NCAA championship.

Aside from learning rudimentary skills, the campers had

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Photo by Mark Kocina

Soccer

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fun playing informal pickup games and spending time in the water as a respite from the summer heat.

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo by Stefan Armijo

As always, fun was worked to create a fun and a top priority, with challenging experience for all students grouped by age and skill participants. Coaches from levels. Students began every day the De Anza Force soccer with a dynamic warmup period that club were on hand to work included stretches and ball control individually with players as Photo by Stefan Armijo drills. Afterward, they rotated to they honed their skills and stations set up to train individual skills developed new ones. such as passing, setting, hitting and A typical day at the soccer camp started serving. Students also worked on team with a warmup that included agility formations and spent much of their and psychomotor training, before time playing live games, a favorite moving on to individual skill stations, activity among campers. such passing, dribbling and the various elements of shooting. The soccer ball is incorporated into exercises whenever possible. Other activities included futsal (indoor soccer), practicing one-on-one situations and game play.

Teacher Institute Attracts Educators Eager to Learn New Skills

By Zach Jones

Photos by Mark Kocina

who attended the Google Apps workshop, said she plans to use Doctopus to share documents with her students. She was also inspired by Harker math teacher Eileen Schick’s workshop on the Singapore model drawing, a visual method for solving complex word problems. “I even bought several books on Singapore math word problems after her presentation,” Richardson said. “I am already working on implementation in my junior high class.”

About 100 teachers attended the annual Harker Teacher Institute on June 6. The event offered workshops for educators looking to gain new pedagogical skills to bring to their classrooms and curricula.

Teachers learned how to use Google Apps to increase classroom efficiency, methods to challenge students while reducing stress, how to use games to teach mathematics and more.

Natalie Richardson, a teacher from Sacramento

This year’s HTI featured a number of firsttime presenters, “including several who were low-tech or no-tech, which was a welcome addition,” said Diane Main, upper school director of learning, innovation and design.

“I overheard many attendees comment that they wanted to attend all the sessions,” Main added. “There were so many great speakers and topics to choose from.”

LID Grants Help Teachers Discover New Classroom Techniques By Zach Jones Each year, faculty members participate in Harker’s learning, innovation and design (LID) department’s grants program, in which they spend their summers acquiring new skills to enhance their teaching methods.

Formerly known as tech grants, many of these projects involve integrating technology into curricula.

Middle school English teacher Henry Cuningham had wanted to integrate an electronic polling system known as Clickers, but found it prohibitively expensive.

Although a similar functionality could be found on student laptops, “I didn’t want to create another situation where I am forced to police student usage of laptops,” Cuningham said. “I do that enough already.”

Cuningham then discovered Plickers, a system that performs a function similar to Clickers, but without the need for students to use their own devices. Students simply hold up cards indicating their answers and the teacher records them using a smartphone or tablet camera. Cards are designed to ensure

that each student can answer honestly without other students knowing each other’s answers. Moreover, it’s free. “It will be useful in breaking up a class with a short poll to see whether students understand taught material,” Cuningham said. “Plickers should also help to prime discussion.”

Students in Catherine Hsieh’s grade 5 science class have been greatly enjoying their Chromebooks, and Hsieh wanted to leverage this enthusiasm to improve their classroom experiences. “For my project, I explored different Web-based applications (Google Forms, Flubaroo, Pear Deck, EDpuzzle, Plickers) that can be used to create formative assessments,” she said.

“The applications work as student response systems so that every student is engaged and can participate in the lesson.” They also provide instant feedback to the students and the teacher, allowing both to gauge how well they comprehend the material.

These advantages also will help Hsieh pace the class more appropriately so that the

“The applications work as student response systems so that every student is engaged and can participate in the lesson.”

—Henry Cuningham, English teacher

maximum number of students can benefit.

“This would allow me to get a better sense of what works best for each group since I will be able to get feedback from all of the kids, not just the more vocal ones,” she said. It also helps students become more self-sufficient by enabling them to assess their own grasp of the material, and any topics they need to review can be easily revisited.

In keeping with the technology-based theme of the LID grants program, each participating teacher created short YouTube videos summarizing their projects and the benefits for students. These videos were shown at the faculty welcome meeting in mid-August.

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S U M M E R T R AV E L

Student Researchers Head to the Top of the World for Arctic Expedition

By Zach Jones

Photo by Stephanie Huang, grade 12

Photo by Stephanie Huang, grade 12

In July, with on the day’s activities. surrounding the island made it impossible to temperatures rising in They later landed on land, and the students were disappointed to California, 12 Harker the shores of Isfjorden learn that the entire Greenland portion of the students traveled to and took in the lay of expedition would have to be canceled. the Arctic for a special the land, wandering The group finally reached the “top of the two-week research its hills and grabbing world” the next day at the island of Grimsey, Photo by Stephanie Huang, grade 12 expedition focused on many photos of the located off the coast of Iceland, where they environmental issues including the impact local flora and fauna. Following lunch, they posed for pictures next to a signpost that of global warming. After 28 hours of travel, journeyed to Poolepynten to see the many pointed to various major cities and took in the crew landed in Oslo, Norway, where walruses that live there. the breathtaking view from the island’s they visited Frogner Park and the Fram Later on the trip, the students Museum, where Norway’s first ship built for visited the Andoyane Islands, polar research is kept. “We ran around the where they received a sobering ship looking at every secret room, staircase reminder of one of many or tool,” wrote Sharanya Balaji, grade 12, in her blog of the expedition. “We even enacted ongoing environmental issues.

As they walked on to the beach, scenes from ‘Titanic’ and pretended to bail “we noticed loads and loads of buckets of water out of the ship. It was an plastic on the ground, which amazing end to our day.” really disturbed us,” said Balaji.

The next day was also filled with travel as They promptly began picking the students made their way to the town of up the trash on the beach, Longyearbyen, where they enjoyed lunch filling nine bags weighing a before boarding their cruise ship, “Le Boreal.” total of 125 pounds. Afterward After a good night’s sleep, the students they visited Monacobreen, a awoke to a great breakfast and were briefed large glacier that has retreated in recent years due to climate change. “Every so often, you Photo by Jack Rothschild, grade 12 would hear a thunderous booming sound which signified the carving of cliffs. They spent the next day sightseeing the glacier,” Balaji said. “Watching that was in Iceland, getting close to a large waterfall, nothing but surreal.” buying souvenirs and visiting the Devil’s Kitchen, a park with geysers spewing More travel was in store for the next sulfuric acid. couple of days, as the group made its way toward Greenland. Unfortunately, thick ice For the final excursion, the students went 18

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Photos by Stephanie Huang, grade 12

to Flatey Island, which is inhabited by only six people. Here, the students presented the results of the research they had conducted over the course of the expedition. After they finished, the students were treated to a 17-minute slide show recapping their travels and made the most of their remaining time in Iceland by viewing its famous lava trails and visiting a shark museum.

The trip was marked by beautiful weather and a great mix of first-time and returning hikers, some sleeping in a tent for the very first time and others taking on real leadership roles.

All of the students took turns setting up camp and cooking dinner. They also learned how to catch fish in the lake and purify all their water.

Once again, California was the classroom for students on the annual summer middle school backpacking trip. Soon after school let out, 16 students, accompanied by several teachers, headed off for a five-day trek through the Jackass Lakes region, just south of Yosemite National Park.

“Students carried all their own food, cooked all their own food, and learned to become independent in a new environment through teamwork, problem-solving, and math skills,” recalled middle school science teacher Daniel Sommer.

Sommer, along with fellow science teacher Ben Morgensen and middle school math teacher Margaret Huntley, accompanied the students on their wilderness adventure.

Alex Rule, grade 9, has gone on the trip for the past few years. “The backpacking trip was a mixture of exhilaration, challenge and friendship. We were faced with some very difficult hikes, but we pushed each other along and achieved some of the greatest accomplishments of our lives. The views were breathtaking … but just as enjoyable as appreciating the magnificent nature was creating relationships with the other backpackers. I found myself really loving their personalities, and I could not have made it as far as I did without them,” he said.

By Debbie Cohen

Photos by Daniel Sommer

Students Gain Life Skills During Middle School Backpacking Trip

The middle school backpacking trip was a casual, optional outdoor travel opportunity for students. This fall, many middle school students will participate in exciting, weeklong class trips, also providing hands-on learning outside the classroom. Last year, grade 6 students visited the Santa Cruz Mountains; grade 7 toured national parks around the Southwest; and grade 8 journeyed to Washington, D.C. “Overall, my three years doing the [backpacking] trip have created some of the best weeks of my life, and I genuinely feel like other people interested in the trip will feel the same way if they decide to come along!” said Rule.

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GlobalEducation

Photos provided by Diana Moss

Middle School Students Discover Costa Rica on Spanish Immersion Trip By Zach Jones

The group traveled to the town of Sarchí on Wednesday, known for the Pan-American Highway that connects Central and South America. “Sarchí is also renowned for its colorfully painted oxcart wheels and beautifully handcarved wood furniture and crafts,” said Pinzás.

The students spent the day painting their own wheels, learning the basics under the tutelage of a local artist.

In July, 20 middle school Spanish language students embarked on their biennial two-week immersion trip to Costa Rica, absorbing the country’s rich culture and natural beauty while bolstering their Spanish language skills.

On their trip to La Carpio, a neighborhood made up primarily of Nicaraguan immigrants, the students assisted the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation with painting a house.

Other students played with the local children. “It was touching to see how naturally our group used their Spanish to communicate with the children and how sad all of them were to say goodbye,” said middle school Spanish teacher Julie Pinzás, who accompanied the students on the trip.

On another day, the group spent the day learning some staple Latin dance moves. “Our instructor, Jason, taught us how to do the Bachata, Merengue and some fun ways to turn your partner,” Pinzás wrote. “He was impressed on how enthusiastic our students were and their level of understanding.” The next day, they returned to La Carpio, where one 20

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For the complete version of this piece and more summer global education stories, head over to Harker News’ Global Education section at http://news.harker.org/tag/global-education.

group of students helped set up a pop-up library and another visited a preschool, where they helped the children prepare for entry into Costa Rican schools.

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Among the most recent stories there are: Students Reunite with Overseas Friends During Swiss Excursion Video Monologue Project Collaboration Stretches Across Continents

First Days Welcome to the Start of a New School Year!

Photos by Mark Kocina

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GET IN THE SPIRIT

Photo by Nicole DeVelbiss

Harvest Festival Promises Fun for All Ages

By Melinda Gonzales

Photos b

O

y Kyle C

avallaro

nce again the Harker community will come together in celebration of the fall season and the opening of school at the 65th annual Family & Alumni Picnic, the Harker Harvest Festival. We’re bringing back old favorites and introducing some thrilling new ones. From top-notch student performances in the Harvest Hoedown to exciting games and fabulous food, the picnic offers a day of delights for all ages!

Come Celebrate Fall-o-Ween!

In recent years we’ve added laser tag and Witch’s Flight, the 300-foot zip line. This year challenge your friends to a Hamster Dash (yes, you guessed right: try to run in a hamster ball!).

Tickets may be purchased online.

Everyone loves a pumpkin patch, the place to pick out a perfect Halloween decoration for your house. Ours will again be located right next to the dedicated preschool area, which will have ageappropriate games and activities for our youngest picnic-goers.

You also won’t want to miss our super silent auction. Along with the fantastic teacher packages, vacations and more, we will have 22

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Costumes Welcome With our “Fall-o-Ween” theme, this year’s event wouldn’t be complete without cute and creepy costumes. Wear your favorite and take part in our spooktacular costume parade, right after the student performances. Prizes will be awarded at the end of the picnic.

Feast” Your Eyes (and Taste Buds) In addition to favorites such as grilled items, pizza, Brown Chicken Brown Cow and Arka Indian cuisine, this year you can enjoy food from an authentic taqueria. Food trucks will offer ice cream, gourmet hot dogs and other American classics. Save room to sample all the goodies!

Photo by Nicole DeVelbiss

On this day, faculty and staff come together to put on a fantastic day of fun for Harker families. Take part in some old-fashioned fun with field games like sack races, spoon races and more.

Or challenge your favorite teachers to Ping-Pong, foosball or basketball in the Teachers’ Clubhouse (located in the gym).

Guests of all ages will enjoy a variety of fun carnival games.

sign-ups for the lower school sleepover (a popular tradition). This year all bidding will be online, and we’ll be opening the auction three weeks before the picnic to give you plenty of time to place your best bids!

le Cavallaro

Photo by Ky Pho to b y Ky

Everything Online this Year

ll ava le C

Photo by N

icole DeVel

biss

aro

Don’t “Leaf” Anyone at Home!

Admission for adults and children 3 and older is $10 each if purchased online by Oct. 2. Children younger than 3 and grownups over 75 are free. Admission is $15 at the entrance on picnic day. Admission includes the Harvest Hoedown, field games and activities in the Teachers’ Clubhouse.

New this year are the pre-sale family packages; we offer a variety of packages to choose from to ensure a fun-filled day for the whole family.

These packages, along with individual admission passes, carnival tickets, T-shirts and laser tag tickets are available for purchase online at www.harker. org/picnic until Oct. 2. These items (except T-shirts) will also be available for purchase the day of the event.

Our exciting silent auction also will be online this year; we will open the bidding three weeks before the picnic. This means that you’ll be able to set your maximum bid on items and will be notified on your mobile phone if you are outbid. And if you can’t be at the picnic when the auction closes, you can still participate in the final bidding using your phone. Check the picnic website for information about registering for the auction.

Thanks to Our

HARVEST HASHTAG

Harvest helpers

Photo by Nicole De

Velbiss

Calling all Twitter and Instagram users! Hashtag your Harker Harvest Festival Facebook and Instagram posts #harkerharvest and everyone will have access to a great collection of photos and comments from this fun event!

Our alumni barbecue luncheon has become a tradition all its own, drawing record numbers each year. This gathering takes place from noon to 1 p.m. in the shady alumni grove following the Harvest Hoedown and welcomes Harker alumni young and old. More information on admission and activities for alumni is available on the picnic website: www.harker.org/picnic.

Photo by Nicole DeVelbiss

Our awesome alumni in autumn

We want to recognize our devoted picnic committee members, teachers and staff who have helped to create an event that appeals to our entire community. We are grateful for their hard work, amazing creativity, dedication and team spirit!

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GreaterGood Upper School Student Creates Support System for Youth Whose Loved Ones Have Cancer

T

Chona’s world changed suddenly when her mother was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer a year and a half ago. That’s when she felt like she was leading two separate lives: one at home, the other at school. At home in Saratoga, she dealt with her mother’s diagnosis, surgery and recovery. At school, she pretended everything was fine.

“Life during the months of trying to accept my new reality was awful,” she said. “But I couldn’t complain as I wasn’t the one with breast cancer.

I didn’t realize that when a person is diagnosed with cancer, everyone close to them is diagnosed as well.”

Feeling isolated and alone, she turned to her brother (Aneesh Chona ’13) for support. Several weeks after their mother’s diagnosis, he encouraged and helped her to follow up on an idea she had to support others in her situation by launching a nonprofit organization called Association of Teens Against Cancer (ATAC).

ATAC now offers an online community for children and teens whose loved ones have been diagnosed with cancer.

An interactive educational program on the website (www.atacnow.com) helps users understand the various adult cancers and their treatments. The site also contains a directory of hotlines that teenagers can use during a crisis.

Chona stressed that her brother’s help was and is still vital to ATAC’s success.

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Photo provided by Eesha Chona, grade 12

here was a time when Eesha Chona, a senior and founder of an online community for children and teens whose loved ones are battling cancer, felt like she was leading a double life.

“When a person is diagnosed with cancer, everyone close to them is diagnosed as well.”

– Eesha Chona, grade 12

“I turned to him with my initial idea and together [we] advanced it. He mentored and guided me in marketing an organization and launching it. He also oversees the financials of the company, does the accounting to keep track of donations and important financial metrics, and analyzes the overall efficiency of the organization,” she explained, adding that her brother also runs the ATAC Philadelphia office and networks with local nonprofits interested in partnering with them.

In addition to her work on ATAC, Chona participated in AVON’s 39-mile walk for breast cancer awareness; she was later selected to join its national youth crew to help out with the walk. She also has worked extensively with Bay Area Cancer Connections (BCC), a Palo Alto-based nonprofit organization that provides support for cancer patients and their spouses.

At the request of BCC, she authored an online monthly journal, titled “A Teen’s Journey With Her Mother” (http://www. bcconnections.org/author/eesha/), to help incorporate support for children of cancer patients into their program. Over the summer, she also started her own therapy class at BCC: “Photo Stories: A Hands-On Family Collage Class.”

“My mother and I always bonded through crafting collages together. After she was diagnosed with cancer, the collages I made on my own supported her through her treatment. I felt that since BCC lacked a class involving children, the best class would be one

GlobalEducation GreaterGood “Over the past two years, I’ve raised money through ATAC and have decided to ‘atac’ 11 specific, untapped villages near my parents’ home city. I’ve raised enough money to sponsor two villages to receive breast screening and prostate exams as well as mammograms … basic health care that these women and men would otherwise never obtain,” she said. When BCC found out about Chona’s work in India, the organization offered to further support her cause by donating prosthetics, wigs, scarves and specialized clothing to any individuals who are found to have cancer and need ongoing invasive treatment.

Photos provided by Eesha Chona, grade 12

Chona also has partnered with Roko Cancer, a nonprofit based in London for which she recently became an international grand ambassador. Come spring, her role with Roko Cancer will take her to India for an intensive, hands-on experience working in the villages ATAC sponsors. She will assist with patient exams/screenings, as well as meet with the children of patients.

that brings families together,” she said, noting that she hopes to spread the class to other nonprofits in the Bay Area.

“Not only are we sponsoring villages for cancer screenings, but we will also start providing a channel to support ongoing care with supplies for those individuals who are positively diagnosed, which is something they would not have been able to afford due to their vulnerable circumstances,” she said.

Recently, Chona also started working with Shanti, a nonprofit organization that provides financial and emotional support to San Francisco’s most vulnerable women living with life-threatening illnesses. Chona’s involvement with Shanti helped her realize that not everyone diagnosed with cancer has access the proper treatment or care. That realization prompted her to return to her roots in India, home to some of the poorest populations in the world, where breast cancer has become the leading cancer in the country.

Last summer Chona became a local leader with the American Cancer Society (ACS). As the youth rally and engagement lead for ACS’s Silicon Valley chapter, she was responsible for reaching out to Bay Area high schools and providing them with information about ACS and the benefits of teen involvement. In addition, as the Pink Ambassador for all Bay Area high schools, she visited many schools to educate teens about cancer, screening and prevention, as well as ways in which they could reach out and support cancer patients. She

was offered this position again for the upcoming year and is looking forward to continuing to educate and empower more teenagers across the Bay Area.

Recognizing Chona’s overall outreach efforts, the nonprofit organization ZERO Breast Cancer nominated her for its “Honor Thy Healer” award. By using her circumstances as a tool to reach out and help others, Chona said she has increased her knowledge, not just about cancer, but also about starting a nonprofit, marketing it, coding a website and updating features.

In addition to its website, ATAC is also on Facebook and Twitter, and soon will be at Apple’s app store with an iPhone app she created called Send a Ribbon. The app enables children to support their loved ones who have cancer by drawing a personalized cancer ribbon and sending it via email with a caring message.

“Hopefully ATAC will broaden its horizons from five nonprofits and hundreds of users to thousands all across the globe, teaching children to not be scared of reality and helping them understand that they have their own community a few computer keys away, consisting of friends who share and care,” said Chona.

To read more Greater Good stories, please see our outreach link at http://news.harker.org/tag/outreach/.

Among the most recent stories there are: Upper School Student Uses Dance Skills to Help Local Inner City School Summer Institute Math Class Raises Money for Humane Society Middle and Upper Schools Earn Reward Points for Capri Sun Recycling Program GEO and DECA Raise Money for Charities

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PerformingArts Directors for 2015 Student Directed Showcase Announced

By Zach Jones Each year, the directorial talents of Harker Conservatory seniors are put on display at the Student Directed Showcase. Directors for this semester-long, college-level course are chosen by the course’s teacher, Laura Lang-Ree, after a thorough review process. They are tasked with handling every aspect of the production, including casting, rehearsals and promotion. This year’s student directors are Janet Lee, Mary Najibi, Rachel Renteria and M.C. Smitherman.

Lee, who is directing “Cheating Death,” has been involved with the performing arts since grade 7, participating in plays, dance shows, musicals and choirs. A member of the upper school show choir Downbeat, Lee said she is excited “to bond with a cast and create a new reality onstage together!”

Also a member of Downbeat, Najibi “started Harker performing arts in kindergarten with dance, and was in a school choir every year since fourth grade.”

Najibi, set to direct “The Internet is Distract – OH LOOK A KITTEN!” is currently in the musical theater certificate program at the Harker Con-

Photos by Mark Kocina

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servatory. “I am really looking forward to the unique opportunity of casting and making my visions come to life.”

A performer since grade 2, “Selfie” director Renteria has performed in more than 24 shows, including past Student Directed Showcases. She is a former member of Bel Canto and current member of Cantilena, and also appeared in the upper school fall play and spring musical. She believes that SDS is “a perfect fit. I’m excited to work with a cast of talented peers and to be able to share my first directing experience with my friends.”

Smitherman has been involved with theater since he was a young child, and is excited to get to work on directing “Final Dress Rehearsal.”

“I can’t wait until the process starts and to get down to business!” he exclaimed. “It’s going to be an awesome year.” His past experience in theater includes upper school fall plays “Anon(ymous)” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” as well as appearing as Billy Idol in the 2014 spring musical “The Wedding Singer.” A singer, he is currently a member of the upper school vocal group Acoustics.

PerformingArts Music Teacher Travels to Oxford for Summer Conducting Institute

Photos provided by Susan Nace

Photo by Mark Kocina

By Zach Jones Upper school music teacher Susan Nace attended the Choral Conducting Institute at St. Stephen’s College of Oxford University over the summer, through Harker’s inaugural Vegesna Grant Program for teachers’ professional development. Under the tutelage of James Jordan and the Westminster Williamson Voices, and St. Stephen’s fellow James Whitbourn, Nace attended master classes, lectures and private tutoring sessions. Participants conducted a concert at the end of the institute.

Highlights for Nace included lectures by conductors Edward Higginbottom and Stephen Darlington, singing at Sunday Mass at Christ Church Cathedral and viewing centuries-old manuscripts at the Bodleian Library.

“As music teachers, we often do not get the opportunity for intensive study with deep internal reflection on and engagement with the music we conduct,” Nace said. “Working closely with professional singers on choral masterworks is a different experience from the classroom, yet afforded us an opportunity to focus solely on our conducting technique to become better communicators with those we do conduct.”

Nace added that “to receive affirmation from scholars, mentors and peers is a rejuvenating and heartening experience that teachers need but often do not receive. This experience has not only given me new perspectives on conducting but also encouragement that I am a very capable conductor and teacher as well as a mentor to other musicians.”

Dancers Shine at Camp

Photo provided by Karl Kuehn

By William Cracraft Members of the JV and varsity dance troupes had a very successful run at United Spirit Association’s summer dance training camp at University of California, Santa Cruz, this summer.

The group earned the highest ranking, a superior, for its choreography and performance skills, and was awarded the Hardest Working Team plaque by camp instructors. Hazal Gurcan, grade 11, and Liana Wang, grade 10, were named All-Americans and were invited to perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade, and Ankita Sharma, grade 12, earned an invitation to perform at Disney World’s Spirit Spectacular in recognition of her leadership and teamwork skills.

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PerformingArts Piano Duet Performs at International Music Festival in Germany

By Debbie Cohen In mid-August, Nathan Liu, grade 4, and Tiffany Zhao, grade 9, traveled to Germany to play piano at the Sulzbach-Rosenberg International Music Festival.

During a student concert held in the town hall and open to the public, Liu and Zhao played a duet (a Brahms waltz) together, in addition to doing solo performances.

Liu had the distinction of being the youngest musician invited to the festival.

“I learned how to cooperate with other musicians, as well as train my ear to listen to other people and play accordingly.

It was also a great experience to mentor a younger musician,” Zhao said.

Liu concurred: “I learned a lot from the more experienced musicians. Overall, it was an unforgettable two weeks!”

To view their duet: https://youtu.be/ HUXzL16Fg9M.

While in Germany both Liu and Zhao were able to learn skills from many top international musicians, as well as spend time at a historic music school which was remodeled from a medieval castle.

Student Pianist Attends Camp in Beijing

By Zach Jones In August, pianist Andrew Semenza, grade 10, spent two weeks at the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy (BIMFA), where he took part in a master class, received private lessons, played with a chamber music group and performed in numerous concerts.

Semenza was asked to apply for the camp by his private piano teacher, who recently joined the BIMFA faculty. “The festival was not only an opportunity to learn intensively in two weeks, but also a successful cultural exchange where I was able to visit many historical sights and explore the city,” said Semenza. “Overall, it was a very enriching and enjoyable experience musically and culturally.”

Harker Cellist Tours Europe with San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra By Zach Jones Junior Edward Oh, a cellist with The Harker School Orchestra, spent late June and early July touring Europe with the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, performing in amazing venues in six cities including Milan, Berlin and Amsterdam. “We were extremely privileged to play in the Berlin Philharmonie and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw,” exclaimed Oh. Oh, who has been playing the cello for more than a decade, looked back on the trip fondly and expressed gratitude at having such a unique opportunity. “The tour itself was a 28

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tremendous opportunity for me to not only perform in grand venues, but to also gain an invaluable amount of experience in orchestral playing,” he said.

When they weren’t rehearsing or performing, members of the youth orchestra enjoyed sightseeing.

“A trip to Europe is something some people can only hope to dream of and I am eternally grateful to my parents and mentors for assisting me,” Oh added.

By Jacqueline De Guzman

Advancement

Groundbreaking for Athletics and Performing Arts Complex on Track for Spring 2016 Last spring, a new two-building design for the athletic and performing arts complex on the Saratoga campus was announced during Harker’s Night on the Town gala, following the strong response from the community in meeting the Rothschild Challenge. In addition, a second inspirational match was offered by a generous Harker family who wishes to remain anonymous.

With these two historic gifts, plans have been confirmed to break ground in spring 2016. Construction on the complex will begin while the school is in the midst of raising the final $7 million to meet the capital campaign’s goal. The exact completion date will be influenced by the ability to reach that goal. Should the objective be met, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will be planned for fall 2017.

New Two-Building Design The two-building design will include outstanding facilities for learning and allow for plenty of green open space, enabling the buildings to integrate seamlessly with the rest of the campus. In addition, a central quad has been added where students can gather during the day, adding to the already collegiate feel of the school.

This new feature will help preserve the current amount of parking spaces

and allow Harker to push the parking toward the back wall facing Interstate 280, helping to increase the safety of students walking through campus as well as minimizing noise pollution.

room, fitness room, hydrotherapy room, team and locker rooms, and a regulation-size gymnasium. An added benefit to the redesign is the close proximity of the athletics building to Davis Field and the Singh Aquatic Center. Students will no longer have to walk across the parking lot from the locker room to other athletic facilities. The new gym will also cultivate school pride as students can go and watch sporting events happening right on campus.

The planned two-floor athletics building has features including a training room, fitness room, hydrotherapy room, team and locker rooms, and a regulationsize gymnasium.

Currently, upper school athletes and performing arts students need to be shuttled to the middle school’s Blackford Avenue campus – and even off-site to larger theater venues – for games and performances. The new design is a necessary step toward planning for the eventual transition out of the Blackford Avenue campus lease, so that upper school students have facilities on their own campus.

Athletics Building The planned two-floor athletics building has features including a training

Performing Arts Building The new performing arts center incorporates much-needed features such as a fly loft and larger professional stage, which will allow students to produce higher quality performances worthy of their skill and ability. The center also includes an orchestra pit, a large rehearsal space, medium and large vocal rooms and a scene shop. A unique element of the performing arts center will be a gallery space to showcase students’ visual arts pieces.

Art provided by advancement office

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Advancement Together, ‘Let’s Make It Happen!’ The new performing arts and sports complex is a much-needed addition to the upper school campus. Not only will it serve performing art and student athletics, but also other schoolwide and public events, including the research symposium, Harker Speaker Series, and business and entrepreneurship programs.

Last fall, a historic $10 million challenge from the Rothschild family was announced. This gift matched any contributions made to the capital campaign for the new performing arts and sports complex.

Recently a Harker family, who had already given $3 million to help Harker meet the Rothschild Challenge, was inspired by the response of the school community to the challenge. In addition to their first gift, the family decided to make an inspirational matching pledge of $7 million. They wanted to go a step above and inspire other families to join them, and now they want to provide additional families with the same opportunity to double the impact of their capital gifts.

Families who did not have the opportunity to increase their support during the limited six month period that the Rothschild Challenge was in effect will now be able to do so. This might include families who are new to the school or who have decided to make an additional gift to the capital campaign now that the complex is set for construction and the benefits are in sight.

Art provided by advancement office

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Advancement The new performing arts and sports complex will host other schoolwide and public events including the Harker Research Symposium, Harker Speaker Series, and business and entrepreneurship programs.

“As they sat down to complete the paperwork for their contribution, the father could not contain his excitement and exclaimed, ‘Let’s make it happen!’ – so we are calling this last appeal for this campaign the ‘Let’s Make It Happen’ phase,” explained Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement.

How Does the Campaign Work?

For any family who participates in the annual campaign, and also makes a gift to the capital campaign, the donor will match the amount of the capital campaign donation, dollar for dollar up to $7 million. Contributions will have a positive impact now and for the future of The Harker School, further solidifying its place among the finest independent schools in the nation.

For updates and information about giving to the capital campaign, please visit www.harker.org/giving/capital-giving.

Art provided by advancement office

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Debate

By Jenny Alme and Greg Achten

Upper and Middle School Debate Teams Accrue National Honors Students Excel at National Tournaments It’s been a fabulous past few months for Harker’s speech and debate teams! Many students qualified for and were very successful at endof-year national championship tournaments in May and June, and then spent the summer honing their skills.

Top School Honors In May, the upper school team was recognized by the Tournament of Champions (TOC), sponsored by the National Speech & Debate Association, as a School of Excellence for having the most success in all TOC events.

The TOC is one of the most challenging tournaments upper school students compete in, so this was one of the Photos provided by Jenny Alme

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biggest accomplishments of the entire season. Harker reached this remarkable achievement by advancing to elimination rounds in all four debate events: Lincoln-Douglas, policy, public forum debate and congressional. Most schools are thrilled to have students advance in a single event; Harker was the only school to have students advance in more than two.

Similarly, in June, the middle school team set a record by winning the Overall School of Excellence Award for the fourth time! The award, from the National Speech & Debate Association, is presented to the top three teams in the country. It is the highest honor a middle school program can achieve.

Individual Achievements and Service Many students also experienced great success in individual events. At the National Speech & Debate Association

The upper school team was recognized by the Tournament of Champions (TOC), sponsored by the National Speech & Debate Association, as a School of Excellence for having the most success in all TOC events.

National Tournament in Dallas in June, Madhu Nori ’15 reached the quarterfinals in original oratory, finishing among the top 28 orators in the nation. At the same

Debate Ongoing Study

tournament, Nikhil Kishore ’15 and David Lin ’15 finished in the top 30 teams in the nation in public forum debate.

Photos provided by Jenny Alme

At the middle school Speech & Debate Association National Tournament, also in Dallas, many Harker students earned top honors and awards. Harker middle school director Karina Momary and speech coach Marjorie Hazeltine worked tirelessly to prepare the students for competition, supervise the students and assistant coaches, and coordinate this highly successful trip.

Many of our middle and upper school students spent the summer preparing for the coming season at speech and debate camps across the nation. Students attended camps, ranging from one to seven weeks, at Georgetown University, Stanford University, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley, to name just a few. Also, many Harker students attended the summer speech and debate camp hosted by Harker.

During summer debate camps, students studied the theory and practice of debate, learning from instructors from prestigious college and high school debate programs around the nation. In addition to valuable speech and debate experience, students also experienced college firsthand, often living in dormitories, studying in college classrooms and getting a taste of what college life is like.

The middle school team won the National Speech & Debate Association’s Overall School of Excellence Award for the fourth time — the highest honor a middle school program can achieve.

“Debate camp is one of the most intellectually enriching experiences a student can undertake,” said Harker coach Jenny Alme. “I have seen thousands of students grow as debaters, researchers, independent thinkers and responsible global citizens. Because the nature of debate camp allows for students to immerse themselves in the study and practice of competition, there really is no substitute for attending camp.”

See the full details of spring and summer debate activity in Harker News (news.harker.org).

Search on “Debate Fall 2015.”

Photos by Mark Kocina

Department Moves At the end of the 2014-15 school year, Carol Green stepped down as communication studies department chair to take a position teaching history at Harker. Jenny Alme was named department chair and Sandra Berkowitz (far left) was brought in to coach the public forum and congressional debate teams. Berkowitz has extensive experience coaching debate at the high school level and also has taught at the collegiate level at the University of Maine and, most recently, at Minnesota State Community and Technical College.

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Business & Entrepreneurship Students SOAR in Summer Wharton School Program

By Zach Jones

Photos by Juston Glass

Harker’s business and entrepreneurship students stayed busy over the summer, participating in the SOAR (Strategy, Operations, Action, Research) program at Harker, held in partnership with the Wharton School of Business, from late July to early August. The program featured an intensive series of workshops and field trips designed to teach students about key business principles.

One exercise had teams of students simulate the process of starting a box-selling business and keeping it running for five months (condensed to a single day) while they considered factors such as demand, marketing

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and financial management. Students started by purchasing the materials to make the boxes, such as paper, glue and scissors, while coming up with a wage to pay the people building the boxes, which they would then sell to a buyer. With the money earned, the students are able to upgrade the technology they use to build the boxes by purchasing stencils. However, the stencils come at a high cost, so students must decide whether to keep production costs low or aim for higher quality. Later, the box makers are notified that their customer has hit a rough patch and is only able to purchase a certain number of boxes.

This challenges the teams to come up with ways to keep earning profits when demand for their products is in a downturn. Finally, the teams must compete against one another when the buyer announces that only a certain total number of boxes will be purchased. Students must devise a way to entice the buyer by coming up with new pricing structures and advertising.

In another simulation, teams of students are charged with managing a car manufacturer that must close one of its divisions. Over a period of four months (each shortened to about an hour), the teams focus on improving performance based on a series of

metrics. Each team member performs a highly specialized task. For the first “month,” teams focus on production and sell cars at various prices to a buyer, who purchases the cars based on appearance and performance. The students then decide on how to approach production and whether to emphasize quality, volume or cost. In the final stage of the exercise, the students are no longer restricted from performing different tasks on the production line, allowing for new production strategies to increase profit.

The first of three field trips during the SOAR program was to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which accounts for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. economy. Students first visited the vault, where they watched reserve staff count, sort and shred currency. According to the tour guides, the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank shreds $56-75 million each day. At the Fed Center, the students learned about the various functions of the Fed via guided tours and displays.

Visitors can even purchase a bag of shredded U.S. currency as a souvenir.

During the next trip, the students headed to Wharton’s San Francisco campus.

The students received a tour of campus facilities, including its breathtaking view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay

Business & Entrepreneurship Photos by Juston Glass

Teacher Invited to White House

By Zach Jones

Bridge. As a bonus, the students also attended a presentation on venture capital in Silicon Valley, conducted by adjunct professor of management Doug Collom.

On their visit to the KeyPoint Credit Union, one of the largest credit unions in the country, the students played a game in which they used magnets to come up with product ideas, and heard from KeyPoint’s chief operating officer on how marketers are constantly competing for the attention of students with buying power. They also learned about the operations of human resources departments, how financial institutions leverage technology and received a crash course in finance.

Back at Harker, the students participated in an accounting course held

by Color Accounting, which teaches fundamental accounting principles using unique methods. This particular

exercise had students grouping different types of financial statements by color and process transactions for a fictional business.

In the Entrepreneur in the Classroom course, students broke off into teams and drew up a full business plan.

Wharton professor Keith Weigelt guided the teams and taught skills in a variety of areas, including sales, marketing, budgeting and presentation skills.

Various activities and simulations were also used to teach the principles used by the students in the development of their plans. Completed business plans were presented by the students at the end of the SOAR program session.

In late June, at the White House, the U.S. Department of Education and the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) awarded business and entrepreneurship teacher Juston Glass with the National CTE Innovator Award.

He was joined by Neil Movva ‘15, sophomore Rajiv Movva and Butch Keller, upper school head.

At the CTE Innovation Fair, Glass shared the accomplishments of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program and discussed the advantages it gives students in the present and future.

“Having Neil and Rajiv there allowed attendees to see firsthand how the students are benefitting from the resources the school is able to provide them in their technology and research endeavors,” Glass said.

He noted that being surrounded by other teachers and students was a source of inspiration: “Connecting with and hearing from students from all over the country no matter their organization showed that we can come together as one within CTE as a whole to improve education and ensure a stronger future for our country.”

The event highlighted programs developed by educators and students in the CTE field, which prepares students for success by integrating technical and career-based learning into academic programs. Read the full story at news.harker.org; search on “White House.”

Photo by Juston Glass

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EagleReport

Summertime Training Prepares Athletes for Fall Season

By William Cracraft

The football team and the boys and girls basketball teams trained particularly hard over the summer to get into peak shape before school started, said Jaron Olson, head athletic trainer. “Girls volleyball team members were also in the gym, working on moves and staying fit for the season start.”

“I never really had a routine until postseason last year,” noted Satchi Thockchom, grade 10. “Before that the only time I was exercising was in the gym during practice. Last year I could only do arm exercises with 15s-17.5 lb weights, but now I’m ranging from the 20-27.5 lb weights. I think I’m much stronger mentally as well.”

“Every offseason’s an opportunity.

It’s also a great team-building environment for us to push each other and meet the incoming freshmen.”

Thockchom noted additional benefits to summer training. “Every offseason’s an opportunity. It’s also a great teambuilding environment for us to push each other and meet the incoming freshmen,” she said. “We had an open gym a few weeks ago, and I could see a huge difference from last year. I think a lot of that comes from staying active in the weight room.”

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“Physical preparation in the weeks and months prior to the start of a sports season is critical to an athlete’s success regardless of skill level,” noted Olson. “In

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addition to the performance advantages, our goal with preseason strength training is to help reduce or prevent injuries.

“Student athletes who neglect to adequately prepare for the rigors of a sports season put tremendous strain on their bodies once practices commence. Essentially, trying to go from zero to 60 very quickly doesn’t always work out so well, making otherwise preventable injuries more likely. Hard work and conditioning during the summer also helps athletes acclimate to the heat before practices begin in August, which is often the hottest part of the year,” he noted.

Football had a robust summer program, training on the field as well as in the weight room in preparation for a new season with new coach Mike Tirabassi (see page 38 for more on Tirabassi and the team). About 25 football players trained almost daily over the summer. They were joined by more than a dozen basketball players and another dozen or so volleyball players, so there were about 50 students training several days per week, Olson said.

EagleReport

– Jaron Olson, head athletic trainer The athletic department hired two new people to help manage the athletes’ health. Garret Jones joined Harker this summer as strength and conditioning coach. He jumped right in, advising and directing athletes as they trained.

Photo by Mark Kocina

Jones, who has trained youth athletes to senior citizens, holds various personal and group training certifications. “My personal motto is movement quality before quantity!” he said. “Gaining strength and speed greatly reduces the risk of injury with all the acceleration and deceleration athletes must do. It is imperative to have strong muscles, joints and ligaments. Above the physical adaptions, training improves mental focus and confidence. We are

teaching life skills in the weight room and every student would benefit from better quality physical activity.”

Jones is joined by Jon Marques, a certified athletic trainer, who was hired as an assistant athletic trainer. Meanwhile, Jenna Allen returns for her second year as an athletic trainer. All three work under Olson.

Having the athletic trainers will allow the department to provide better coverage for teams, particularly on the middle school campus. They will continue to address students’ needs across the spectrum from therapeutic and corrective exercises to strength training and performance enhancement, all critical elements to maintaining general health and building winning teams.

In addition, a kinesiology and sports medicine course, introduced last year and taught by Olson, will allow students who complete the course to work as athletic training student aides. They can practice taping and injury care skills on our athletes under the supervision of faculty athletic trainers.

The athletic department also added two sections of a strength and conditioning course during the school day.

“I have really enjoyed working with all the student athletes this summer,” Jones said.

“The encouragement and camaraderie developed in the gym will carry over to the court or field. These athletes are going to be tough both physically and mentally, and I am really looking forward to watching them compete.”

Photo by Mark Kocina

Sophomore Golfer Earns Top Spot at AJGA Tourney

By William Cracraft Katherine Zhu, grade 10, won the Gary Gilchrist Golf Academy/Shanshan Feng Junior Championship in August! This is her first American Junior Golf Association win. The AJGA website noted: “With a final-round 2-under-par 70, Katherine Zhu of San Jose, California, earned her first AJGA win at 5-under-par 211. The victory was Zhu’s first AJGA win after having two previous top-three finishes in 2014.”

Naturally, the win meant lot to her. “I was excited because it is my first win and I was relieved because I was worried I’d never win anything,” she said. Zhu noted that “keeping calm and patient” was key to winning. On competing for Harker this year, she noted, “I’m really excited to see how far we’ll go this year!”

Congratulations to Zhu on this accomplishment, a great way to end the summer!

“I’m really excited to see how far we’ll go this year!”

– Katherine Zhu, grade 10

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Photo provided by Katherine Zhu

“Trying to go from zero to 60 very quickly doesn’t always work out so well, making otherwise preventable injuries more likely. Hard work and conditioning during the summer also helps athletes acclimate to the heat before practices begin.”

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EagleReport Photo by Mark Kocina

Everyone … is doing everything they can to make the Harker community proud.”

New Football Coach Has Solid Plan for Success

By Zach Jones In April, Mike Tirabassi joined Harker as head football coach, but he’s a known quantity on Davis Field as he was Harker defensive coordinator in 2012 and offensive coordinator in 2013. Previously, he was head coach at Pinewood High School and JV offensive coordinator at Santa Margarita High School.

“My coaching philosophy is very simple,” Tirabassi said. “Use football as a medium for developing life skills.” He believes learning these skills can result in people who improve both themselves and their communities. “As long as we stay true to that vision, competitive success will take care of itself,” he added.

Tirabassi also will continue developing an environment where players feel both safe and comfortable with their skills. “I believe in removing any chance of players being put into a situation in which they aren’t ready,” he said. One system he’s implementing will separate new players from experienced ones to ensure new players can learn the fundamentals of football at a suitable pace.

“Practices are going great. Our players are working very hard toward a common goal, which is a powerful thing.

The coach noted that he is inspired by his players and how they want the team to be a source of pride to their fellow students. “We have talked a lot about our responsibility to represent Harker on and off the football field,” he said. “The team feels that they can bring the community together every Friday night and be a source of pride for the students, faculty and parents. It is pretty awesome how hard they are working to fulfill this obligation to their school.

“Success for us is going to come when we look up in the stands and see people from all four campuses rallying together, going crazy to support our school. We are doing everything we can do to build a team that properly represents our Harker community.

“If we have a group of players who are committed to the vision, every member of our team has the potential to have a life-changing experience and we have the potential to be a source of pride for the entire Harker community,” Tirabassi said. “This is what matters to me.”

Tirabassi also is excited to be more involved with the Harker community.

“There is no place that I have ever seen that is like Harker,” he beamed. “The unadulterated care that the faculty and staff have for the students is amazing.”

filiations, along with his own collegiate playing experience. ‘’I’m really looking forward to coaching the girls upper school basketball team at Harker and developing the program,” said Thompson. “There is an incredible amount of potential and I believe the team can be among the best.’’

A K-8 P.E. teacher at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos, Thompson previously spent nearly 12 years teaching K-5 P.E. at Harker, while also serving as assistant coach for the upper school’s boys varsity basketball team. Thompson also has coached the grade 6 San Jose Cagers, an elite AAU girls basketball club, as well as at Los Altos High and Valley Christian (where in 2002 he was an assistant coach for the boys team that won the NorCal title).

Thompson is a graduate of the University of San Francisco, with a B.A. in exercise sports science. He played Division 1 basketball for the USF Dons, setting a record for the most 3-pointers in a game without a miss. A 1988 graduate of Soquel High, Thompson was also a standout on the Knights’ boys basketball team, where he held a record-breaking 1,948 career points and averaged 23 points per game during his senior season. He subsequently received the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Thompson Returns to Harker as Basketball Coach

By Debbie Cohen Tomas Thompson has taken over as head coach of the school’s varsity girls basketball team. Thompson brings to Harker a wealth of coaching expertise, including both high school and club afPhotos by Mark Kocina

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By Zach Jones

Milestones

Middle school library assistant Renee Ting was recently awarded a Spectrum Scholarship from the American Library Association; she plans to continue her graduate studies in library and information studies at San Jose State University. This scholarship was awarded to 60 library and information studies students nationwide. According to an ALA press release, the majority of this year’s applicants – more than three times the number of available scholarships – were considered “highly fundable.” Congratulations!

Karriem “Coach K” Stinson, Harker’s longtime wrestling coach, was profiled in The California Wrestler in July. The story recaps his history as a competitor at San Jose High Academy and his coaching method, as well as his extensive efforts to promote the sport of wrestling. In addition to coaching during the school year, Stinson also runs the summer wrestling camp and TRX training camp.

Photo by Mark Kocina

In July, upper school French teacher Nicholas Manjoine (now teaching English) visited the AP Annual Conference (APAC) in Austin, Texas, where he gave two talks. The first covered how the AP French Language and Culture

recipient of the award, Artiss is now eligible to attend a special honors luncheon at the 2015 NABT Professional Development Conference, to be held in November in Providence, R.I. Special events director Danae McLaughlin took part in the Garlic Showdown at this year’s Gilroy Garlic Festival. Having been a judge for another festival event, the Garlic Bowl, since its inception, McLaughlin entered this year’s Garlic Showdown

Photo by Mark Kocina

course and exam can promote student research and how the wide variety of media resources available to students enhances their learning and exposure to Francophone culture. His other talk focused on how to enhance the use of reading and listening materials when teaching French.

Also at APAC, Derek Kameda, Harker’s director of standardized testing and scheduling, hosted a workshop titled “Organizing Your AP Exam Administration.” More than 30 AP coordinators attended, including several from Europe, the Middle East and China.

“It was an all-day workshop during which we shared best practices and traded ideas on how to successfully run an efficient and organized AP program,” Kameda said. “It was the sixth time I’ve been asked to present at the AP Annual Conference.”

Congratulations to middle school science teacher Thomas Artiss, who was named the 2015 Outstanding Biology Teacher for California by the National Association of Biology Teachers.

Each year, the Outstanding Biology Teacher awards recognize excellent biology teachers in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, Puerto Rico and other overseas territories. As a

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

when one more team was needed to fill a spot. She and her partner were given one hour to create two entrées from a batch of specially selected ingredients. “Our first dish was pork tenderloin roulade stuffed with spam, spinach and squash blossoms, lentils with rosemary and garlic, and a summer herb salad with nectarines and white balsamic and garlic dressing. Our second entrée was smoked chicken (yes, we smoked it during our time) with a fruit compote, mashed sweet potatoes, and sautéed fennel and shaved cucumbers.” Though McLaughlin’s team did not win the competition, “We had people from the audience come up to us afterward and say they thought we [should have] won,” McLaughlin recalled.

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Photos

AlumniNews

by Mark Kocina

By Debbie Cohen

Alumnus Returns to Teach Coding to Middle School Students More than a decade has passed since Abhinav Mathur MS ’05 was a middle school student taking computer science with instructor Mike Schmidt.

Over the summer, Mathur returned to Harker as a guest lecturer for a new course, called Beginning Python, that Schmidt was teaching for the Summer Institute (SI).

Being back in Schmidt’s classroom, filled with 17 middle school students, Mathur experienced an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Now a sought after coding expert, Mathur said he was excited to teach a class at Harker and give back to the school that provided him with so much.

Schmidt, Harker’s longtime middle school computer science teacher and current department chair, explained that Mathur had designed the instructional software program he was using in the SI coding class.

Python is a widely used generalpurpose, high-level programming

language. Mathur created an online learning environment, called Pythonroom.com, focused on Python.

He and another young entrepreneur, Keshav Saharia, founded a company called HulaLoop, which provides Web-based educational platforms for various programming systems, of which Pythonroom is currently their main focus.

“I had been using their product for my newly created Python programming course to teach middle schoolers the world of text-based programming.

The kids were crazy about it and absorbed all the lessons like sponges!” recalled Schmidt.

Pythonroom provides a solid foundation for Python programming by allowing students to move forward at their own pace, Schmidt added.

“I think Pythonroom is great for beginners and it is really fun,” agreed Angela Cai, a grade 7 Harker student who attended the class.

“Abhi was a great [guest] teacher, and he gave great advice on finding easier ways to do certain problems,” added Stephen Yang, a grade 8 student at Miller Middle School.

Held on the upper school campus from June 15-Aug. 7, SI was open to both Harker students and grade 6-12 students from area schools. (See page 13 for full coverage of the SI program.) SI enabled participants, like those enrolled in the Python class, to get a jump start on the coming school year, as well as enrich their learning on topics of interest.

“We [at HulaLoop] are passionate about spreading coding knowledge to all students, and progressive schools like Harker make this goal achievable.”

– Abhinav Mathur MS ’05

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AlumniNews New Alumni Connect Initiative Will Involve Alumni in Meaningful Ways The alumni office is launching a program called the Alumni Connect Initiative. The initiative is aimed at connecting alumni both to each other and to the school in ways that are meaningful to them.

Karri Sakai Baker ’84, Harker’s director of alumni relations, reported that the first step is on the way. Class agents are forming committees to help collect updated information on as many alumni as possible. In addition to contact information, they will update the regions of the country in which alumni live, the industries in which they work and the programs at Harker they may be interested in getting involved in or keeping updated about (e.g., performing arts, athletics, science, business and entrepreneurship, etc.).

“The idea behind the Alumni Connect Initiative is to enable Harker alumni to benefit from making strategic and meaningful connections and taking full advantage of the ‘Harker network.’”

– Karri Sakai Baker ‘84, director of alumni relations Having updated information will allow the alumni office to segment communications to alumni and keep everyone up to date on activities and opportunities that are of interest and value to each individual alumnus.

Teré Aceves, director of middle and upper school volunteer programs, has expanded her role to include supporting alumni volunteers. Such engagement might take the form of returning to Harker to be a guest speaker in a class or at an event, or to serve as a judge for a debate tournament.

Another part of this reconnect is the “virtual mentor” program, allowing current upper school students to video conference and engage with alumni from all over the world. The goal is to help alumni find ways to volunteer and reconnect with the school, beyond attending social events.

“The idea behind the Alumni Connect Initiative is to enable Harker alumni to benefit from making strategic and meaningful connections and taking full advantage of the ‘Harker network,’” Baker added.

ALUMNI SAVE THE DATES

OCT. 3

Calling all Harker alumni: Please join us on Saturday, Oct. 3 for a family-friendly Homecoming tailgate party at the upper school campus, hosted by the alumni office.

OCT. 11

Celebrate the changing of the seasons with us at the harvest-themed 65th annual Harker Family & Alumni Picnic, held on the middle school campus on Sunday, Oct. 11. The alumni relations office is providing free admission to alumni and their immediate families, and hosting an alumni luncheon from 12-1 p.m.

Come for some old-fashioned fun and new surprises!

DEC. 5

Santa’s Winter Wonderland, slated for Saturday, Dec. 5, promises to once again bring together alumni and their families. The special annual holiday celebration is held on the lower school campus for Harker alumni, faculty, staff and their families. Children will have the opportunity to take turns sitting on Santa’s lap and having pictures taken with him, as well as have fun playing games and doing arts and crafts.

Stay tuned for more information from your class agents!

Stay Connected Connect with alumni through Facebook and LinkedIn as your new social and professional lives ramp up.

We’d love to hear from you! http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Harker-Alumni166447 (or go to LinkedIn and search for Harker alumni) https://www.facebook.com/HarkerAlumniAssociation (or – you guessed it! – search for Harker Alumni Association while logged in to your Facebook account) We have partnered with EverTrue, an app that puts Harker’s alumni network right at your fingertips!

Discover what your classmates are up to, find jobs and reconnect with old friends. Download the app, available for iPhone and Android, at http://web. evertrue.com/network/harker.

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ClassNotes

Submitted by Class Agents

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.

1972

Class Agent: Stephen Worsley (saworsley@hotmail.com)

1973

Class Agent: Alan Stevens (alanclassreunion@earthlink.net)

1982 Class Agents: Tina (Johnson) Murray (tinammurray@earthlink.net); Pauline (de Vos) Aasen (thedutchfox@gmail.com); Keil Albert (kaalbert@geo-consultants.com)

1984

1976

Class Agents: Joy Aliason Younes (joycyounes@yahoo.com); Cindy Cottrell DeAngelo (cldeangelo@yahoo.com)

1977

Class Agent: Mike Pons (michael.pons@gmail.com)

1978

Class Agents: Karri Baker (karribaker@me.com); Jeff Rogers (jeff@viviansdad.com) Kristin Quintin (kristinq1030@yahoo.com) Former Harker boarding school student Danielle Glosser wrote in that she has lived in Washington, D.C., for half of her life.

Photo provided by Danielle Glosser ‘84

Class Agent: Silvia Malaccorto (smalaccorto@contoural.com)

1979

Class Agent: Chip Zecher (chipzecher@hotmail.com)

1980

Class Agents: Greg Argendeli (slackmaster@gmail.com) Lisa Sharon Morel (lisa.morel@gmail.com)

1981

Class Agent: Kristin (Scarpace) Giammona (kristing@harker.org)

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While attending graduate school at The George Washington University, Danielle worked for the National Conference for Community and Justice in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood, fighting all

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forms of discrimination.

Later, she pursued her interest of becoming a diversity trainer by working with a firm that conducted organizational development programs for Fortune 500 companies. Danielle had the opportunity to continue her work with adults on such issues with the Clinton administration’s Initiative on Race program. Danielle primarily worked with religious leaders on plans to engage more people in a national conversation. Most recently she started a firm, Client Raiser, that helps artists increase the visibility of their art and attract clients. She established Client Raiser (www. clientraiser.com) to help artists achieve their business goals through customized plans of action. Ironically, Danielle’s company has brought her back to familiar territory as one of her clients has commissioned a number of works for The White House Historical Association.

Danielle describes her experience at Harker as a defining period in her life.

“Harker exposed me to a diverse student body that taught me the importance and richness of working with people of other races, religions and cultures,” she shared.

1987 Class Agent: Michelle Nguyen (Kernsting@yahoo.com)

1988 Class Agents: Eric Xanthopoulos (eric.xanthopoulos@gmail.com); Aileen Eveleth (a_eveleth@yahoo.com)

1989 Class Agent: Katie Wilson (mkate_wilson@yahoo.com)

1990 Class Agents: Jennifer Cady Logan (skinbyjennifer@gmail.com) Chris Yamashita (iamtheyamo@yahoo.com)

1991 Class Agent: Ashley Anderson (anderbruin@gmail.com)

1992 Class Agent: Amanda Mathias Bonomi (amandambonomi@gmail.com) Nikki Noonan got married.

Please see the Celebrations section for details.

ClassNotes 1993

1996

Class Agents: Joy Paterson (joypaterson@gmail.com); Tala Banato (tala.banato@gmail.com); Kelle Sloan Saunders kellessanders@gmail.com

Class Agents: Andrea Miles (andreamil3s@gmail.com); Ann Chu (annwchu@gmail.com)

1994 Class Agent: Leyna Cotran (leynacotran@gmail.com)

1995 Class Agent: Lisa (Bowman) Gassmann (lisagassmann@gmail.com) Upper school Latin instructor John Hawley shared that he teamed up with Tom Garvey to play the World Series of Certamen (classical quiz bowl) at the National Junior Classical League Convention at Trinity University. Tom teaches Latin at The Meadows School in Las Vegas.

1997 Class Agent: Lindsey Hochrine (lynn.laka@fireskyresort.com)

2002 Class Agents: Akhsar Kharebov (axarharebate@gmail.com); Yasmin Ali (yasminfali@gmail.com); Isabella Liu (isabella.a.liu@gmail.com) In the summer issue of Harker Quarterly, we noted that Alexander Wang MS ’98 had been named as one of top 100 influential people by Time magazine.

Madonna seems to agree, as she recently featured him in a video!

Erika Gudmundson will take over as the new spokeswoman for the Clinton Foundation after the Clinton Global Initiative next month! To read more about it: http://nyti.ms/1hEKSVy.

2006 Class Agents: Meghana Dhar (meghanadhar@gmail.com); Jeffrey Le (Jeff87@gmail.com); Casey Near (caseylane@gmail.com) Tara Chandra (stage name Tara Priya) made Time Out London’s list of five rising musical acts to follow! Of Tara the publication says, “San Franciscan Tara Priya

makes a mix of jazz, soul, and '90s hip-hop. Her chilled vocals are made for sunny weekends and lazy evenings. Watching her charm London crowds with a beautiful voice is bliss."

Bernie Lee dropped by the alumni relations office for lunch and a campus visit over the summer. He is working for DuPont Industrial Biosciences in Palo Alto. Bernie stepped up to serve as an alumni mentor to current seniors interested in working in his field.

He still enjoys playing basketball, and spending time with old Harker friends, including former classmate Wilson Haung.

2003 Class Agents: Julia N. Gitis (juliag@gmail.com); Maheen Kaleem (maheenkaleem@ gmail. com)

2004 Class Agents: Jacinda A. Mein (mjacinda@gmail.com); Jessica C. Liu (jess.c.liu@gmail.com)

2005 Photo provided by John Hawley

Class Agent: Erika N. Gudmundson (erika.gudmundson@ gmail.com)

Photo provided by Time Out London via Tara Chandra ‘06

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ClassNotes Mina Lee is having an incredible time working as chief of staff for Xiaomi in Southeast Asia. Check out this great article about her work: http://bit.ly/1LONiLU

2007

Lauren Harries had a busy spring and summer in collaborations with The Philadelphia Theatre Company Tribe of Fools.

In the early spring, she traveled to Georgia with Tribe of Fools to compete on TruTV's second season of "Fake Off" (they made it to the finals), and for the summer Lauren was cast in their original Fringe Festival show "Zombies ... with Guns.” In the middle of all this, she also got married on June 13 to Jeff Moorhead (they met at stage combat camp), and Casey Blair was her Best Ninja (aka Maid of Honor).

Emily Isaacs graduated from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Emily is going to be practicing as a vet in Vallejo.

Congratulations, Emily!

Class Agents: Cassie Kerkhoff (ckerkhoff@ucsd.edu); Audrey Kwong (audmusic@gmail.com)

Photos provided by Subway

Photo provided by Emily Isaacs ‘07

2008

Photo provided by Lauren Harries ‘06

2009

Abhishek Belani got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.

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Class Agents: Rachel Wang (rachel.serendipity@gmail.com); Stephanie Guo (stephanie.j.guo@gmail.com)

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Harker Conservatory graduate DJ Blickenstaff shows off his acting chops in this Subway commercial, which just started airing nationally. Check it out at http://bit.ly/1KMPwws Upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl had the opportunity to meet up with Ben Pibulsonggram in Bangkok. “I had a pretty amazing experience having brunch with Ben there. He

Photo provided by Gabriele Stahl

Class Agents: Stephanie Syu (ssyu363@ yahoo.com); Senan Ebrahim (sebrahim@ fas.harvard. edu)

was my student for several years. He works now in Bangkok and goes to N.Y. for his master’s next month,” said Ms. Stahl.

ClassNotes 2015

Sean Mandell told the alumni office that he has been living in San Francisco for two years and working in economic consulting. “I recently joined a nighttime soccer league where I'm teaming up with fellow '09ers Jeff Mandell, David Kastelman, Kevin Laymoun and Barrett Glasauer,” he shared.

Class Agents: Katy Sanchez (ktlynnsanchez@gmail.com) Nikhil Reddy (reddnikhil@gmail.com) David Lin (david.lin210@gmail.com) Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari (jetongutierrez@gmail.com) Matthew Ho recently paid a visit to an upper school Study of Visual Arts class. He currently attends the Rhode Island School of Design.

2010

Photo provided by Dan Molin

Class Agents: Kevin Fu (kf800@yahoo.com); Adrienne Wong (adriee@gmail.com)

2011 Class Agents: Rani Mukherjee (rani.mukherjee18@gmail.com); Hassaan Ebrahim (hassaan.e@gmail.com)

2012 Class Agents: Will Chang (thewillchang@gmail.com); David Fang (david.fang75@gmail.com)

2013 Class Agents: Kathir Sundarraj (13KathirS@alumni.harker.org); Nikhil Panu (13NikhilP@alumni.harker.org); Nicholas Chuang (13NicholasC@alumni. harker.org) Maverick McNealy has added yet another notch to his driver grip! He was named to the 2015 United States Walker Cup Team in early August. He is one of 10 team members who

will compete in the 45th match against Great Britain and Ireland in one of the game's most prestigious and watched golf matches.

Mav was selected to the United States Palmer Cup team and received several other accolades for his golf this summer. Mav was also recently featured on the cover of Golfweek magazine’s college preview issue! Shrish Dwivedi (’15 and a Duke-bound golfer) went to Illinois to watch Maverick play at the Palmer Cup over the summer.

Michael Amick is on the “soccer Heisman” award watch list! The MAC Hermann Trophy is the most prestigious individual award in college soccer presented

annually to one male and one female athlete. Read more about it: http://bit. ly/1gKvoj4

Over the summer class agents Katy Sanchez and Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari stopped by the alumni office to roll up their sleeves and help out with some volunteer work.

Maya Nandakumar, current National Junior Classical League first vice president, presented awards for a promotional video contest at the 2015 National Junior Classical Convention at Trinity University in San

Aneesh Chona helped his sister Eesha, a Harker senior, launch a nonprofit organization called Association of Teens Against Cancer (ATAC). To read more about their work, see page 24 and http://bayareane. ws/1IN91yZ.

2014 Class Agents: Nithya Vemireddy (nithya.vemireddy@gmail.com) Adith Rengaramchandran (adithram@gmail.com) Connie Li (connieli32@gmail.com) Photo provided by Maya Nandakumar ‘15

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ClassNotes Photo by Andrew Purcell, copyright CERN openlab

Antonio. She was awarded the organization’s Jessie Chambers Scholarship, established upon the retirement of Chambers, who served for many years as Federations Chairman of the Committee on the National Junior Classical League.

Eric Holt is currently pursuing a degree in chemistry at Oberlin College.

He was a four-year varsity basketball player at Harker,

where he amassed 962 points and 657 rebounds over a 90-game career, among other honors. He also played four years of varsity water polo and gained first-team honors his senior season.

Leeza Kuo and Hannah Bollar so enjoyed their time and experiences together at Harker that they embarked on a unique video project. Each day of their senior year, they had

a photo taken of themselves holding up the date with their fingers. The video is on their YouTube channel, Kuo Bo. Fourteen members of the Class of 2015 received National Merit Scholarship Awards! Read all about it: http://bit.ly/1XlKU5H Over the summer CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) hosted 11 young students who won

Alumni Celebrations Please join us in congratulating the following alumni: Sasha Nikki Noonan ’92 had a beautiful wedding in gorgeous Sayulita, Mexico, back in May. Here she is pictured with Harker friends Liz Williams (matron of honor), Stacey Noonan (maid of honor and twin sister) and Amanda Bonomi (bridesmaid).

Photo provided by Amanda Bonomi ‘92

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Abhishek Belani MS ’02 married Sara Kendall this summer in San Francisco in a festive, two daylong celebration.

Here he is shown with fellow Harker friends Naushad Godrej ’06 and Casey Near ’06 (maid of honor).

the CERN Special Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. These winners were selected from the 1,700 high school students who participated in the competition. Among them was Nitya Mani. “Seeing the accelerators was really cool. It was great to have the chance to get so close,” she is quoted as saying in this article: http://bit. ly/1JBXwMt

Photo provided by Casey Near ‘06

LookingAhead Get your tickets today!

2015

Pledge Week Oct. 4-10, 2015

65th Annual Family & Alumni Picnic

THE HARKER SCHOOL GALA

SUN., OCT.11 | 10 A.M.-3:30 P.M. Save the Date!

OPEN HOUSE EVENTS GRADE

DATE

LOCATION

9-12 Ages 3-5 6-8 K-5 Ages 3-5

Sun., Nov. 1 Sat., Nov. 7 Sun., Nov. 8 Sun., Nov. 15 Sat., Dec. 12

Upper School Preschool Middle School Lower School Preschool

K-5 9-12 6-8

Fri. Oct. 16 Tues., Dec. 1 Fri., Jan. 15

Lower School Upper School Middle School

Fri., Feb. 26, 2016

HOMECOMING Davis Field | Sat., Oct. 3

presents

January 12, 21, 26 January 14, 22, 28

Info/RSVP: www.harker.org/admission

The Laramie Project Thurs.-Sat., Oct. 29-31, 2015

Harker Quarterly (USPS 023-761) is published four times per year (September, December, March and June) by The Harker School, Office of Communication, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Jose, CA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Harker Quarterly, 500 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129.

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Circa 1970

Harker Academy

Photo courtesy of the Harker Archives

H

arker has a long tradition of dance and cheer. This photo from the early 1970s may have been taken in 1972, the first year the school was at our Saratoga Avenue campus, so these students saw the change from Harker Day School to Harker Academy. Present day cheer and dance teams include the lower school’s Harker Eaglets, middle school cheerleaders, varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders, and upper school varsity and JV dance troupes. This summer, the dance troupes had a great run at the United Spirit Association’s dance training camp at University of California, Santa Cruz, earning the highest ranking for its choreography and performance skills. See page 27 for details!

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