Harker Magazine - Fall/Winter 2021

A PUBLICATION OF THE HARKER SCHOOL l FALL/WINTER 2021

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M A G A Z I N E

Fulfilled:

New Middle School Campus Opens!

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L I B R A R I A N S

H A R K E R

D A Y

M A G A Z I N E

FAL L/W I NTER 2021, V O LU ME 13, N U MB E R 1

Pam Dickinson Office of Communication Director Catherine Snider Managing Editor Jane Snyder Photographer Jennifer Maragoni Copy Editor Zach Jones Rebecca McCartney Staff Contributors Blue Heron Design Group Design Diamond Quality Printing Printer Have an idea?

Contact us: news@harker.org 408.345.9273 Or write: Harker Magazine 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose, CA 95129 Harker is a Bay Area Green Certified Business of Santa Clara County. As part of our many sustainability efforts, Harker Magazine is printed on partially recycled paper.

On the cover: Middle school students enjoy their new campus on Union Avenue.

On this page: Flowers bloom at the lower school.

On the back: A student shows off the foam finger she decorated in anticipation of Harker Day. Photos by Jane Snyder

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CONT E NTS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Harker What it means, where it’s headed.

The Gold Standard Librarians are teachers and their subject is information literacy.

A Dream Fulfilled Middle school opens on the Union Ave. campus.

Harker Day Inaugural event brings together beloved traditions.

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Headlines 2

Head of School Brian Yager finds lessons in Shakespeare.

Top Stories 4

Highlights of significant stories from Harker News.

Face Time Up close and personal with teachers and staff.

21, 37, 42

Gallery Photo highlights from the past semester of sports, visual arts and performing arts.

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Passion & Impact Alumni following their dreams and making a difference in the world.

14, 24, 30, 40

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

Class Notes 44

Alumni news and photos.

Brian’s

Photo note: Some photos in this issue were taken before the pandemic. Photos taken during the pandemic observed all protocols required at the time of the shot.

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

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

headlines

About Harker

WORDS BY BRIAN YAGER PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY A HARYANTO

A Lesson from Shakespeare:

Reframing Expectations

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t the end of October, the upper school performing arts community presented Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Following closely on the heels of Harker Day, the performance continued our return to indoor productions after a long hiatus. While

the performers and audience members were still required to wear masks, it was wonderful to have actors and spectators in the beautiful Patil Theater within the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.

In the play, one of central plot lines involves the cast’s attempt to unite two of the main characters: Beatrice and Benedick. While they are presented to

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the audience as rivals, the witty repartee between these two suggests that

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premise that they had been formerly involved romantically. However, as the play

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begins, a union of the two does not appear to be a likely outcome.

they might have more in common than they think, and there is an underlying

It is under these conditions, with a wink to the audience, that the other cast members conspire to bring Beatrice and Benedick together by insisting to each that the other secretly harbors

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sentiments of admiration and desire. In the end, the two happily unite.

The message – and perhaps moral – in this subplot to the greater story is a simple one: Our expectations

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

K-Grade 5: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose, CA 95130 Grades 6-8: 4525 Union Ave., San Jose, CA 95124 Grades 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129

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change our experience. Had Beatrice and Benedick not been primed for the expectation of the other’s affection, love would never have flourished.

As simple as it is, this lesson is one of value for our time. We are continuously exposed to stimuli that modify our expectations, which in return modify our experiences.

Parents and educators know that our expectations for our children and students impact their experiences as well as our own. Having high expectations is a

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HAR K E R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

We are continuously exposed to stimuli that modify our expectations, which in return modify our experiences. hallmark of the Harker classroom,

excitement are, essentially, the

and teachers and students grow

same emotion, with the same

strong in the fields watered

physiological indicators. But

with expectations of profound

they are two different states of

learning.

mind. When facing an audience

Of course, we have the ability to

or entering a competition, most

recognize and react to the way

people are nervous. Typically, we

our expectations can be altered.

attempt – or are directed – to seek

And perhaps of even greater

calm in response to anxiety. It turns

importance in our experiences

out that framing that nervousness

is the manner in which we set

as excitement leads to a much more

expectations for ourselves.

positive performance than trying

During the past year, reports of increased anxiety among people of all ages have surfaced in every circle. No doubt, there are events in our lives that create anxiety, and the fears associated with COVID-19 dominated our collective consciousness this past year. Unfortunately, we also appear to be more anxious

to repress the attendant anxiety.

What sort of mental gymnastics are required for each of us to reframe any experience? It turns out it is as easy as saying “I am excited for…” (out loud, ideally, but internally works too). Merely making this statement modifies our expectations, and in turn modifies our experience.

than usual today, even about things that actually are going

Of course, this technique does not seem fitting or viable in

well. For example, recent headlines reflect Americans’ growing

all conditions that could create nervousness. For example, as

sentiment that their economic well-being is deteriorating,

COVID-19 entered our lives in 2019, few if any people were

even when by all objective measures, we are collectively and

likely to state, “I am excited to see what life is like in public

individually at an apex of economic prosperity. One way to

during a pandemic.” However, there are many situations in our

control the way our expectations are modified by outside

lives in which we can replace “anxious” with “excited,” both in

influences is to avoid them – to turn off the media streams and

our conversations with others, and in our conversations with

other stimuli that create negative expectation loops. This can

ourselves. Doing so consciously appears to be one way that we

be a challenging thing to do, though, and excluding the bad

can reset and benefit from the challenges we face.

also means excluding the good.

Whether in matters of the heart or matters of the head, at

Another mechanism for controlling expectations and the impacts they have on us is much more manageable

Harker we can embrace the things that make us nervous as exciting opportunities for growth, rather than anxiety-

and, apparently, effective: Simply restate the negative

producing challenges through which we must remain calm. It

as a positive. A 2013 study by Allison Wood Brooks,

is our collective ability to look towards the potential positive

published by the American Psychology Association,

outcomes of any challenge that has and will continue to set the

provided some interesting data. Anxiety and

stage for the amazing – and exciting – things to come.

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top stories

Top Stories Recent stories reprinted from Harker News online.

Harker News publishes stories online about our students and faculty, highlighting accomplishments and celebrating successes. Top Stories highlights a few of the most significant stories posted on Harker News since the last issue of Harker Magazine (spring/summer 2021) went to press. Visit news.harker. org to see full stories and hundreds more articles noting the truly remarkable efforts of our Harker students and faculty.

June 21, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b4h Harker baseball won its firstever CCS title on June 19 after a thrilling late-game comeback.

The Eagles, trailing top-seeded Stevenson 14-5 in the final inning with one out remaining, made an incredible 11-run comeback that was “mainly walks and singles,” coach Mike Delfino told the Mercury News. A two-run double from Andrew Chavez ’21 gave Harker the lead. Pitcher Ian Williamson ’21 earned the winning strikeout after Stevenson rallied to within one run of Harker with the bases loaded.

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Natasha Sarin ’07, now working in the Biden administration, featured in NYT

June 22, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b4n Natasha Sarin ‘07 was featured in a June 2021 piece by The New York Times, which focused on

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her work in President Joe Biden’s administration to track down and claim the revenue owed by tax cheats (also known as the tax gap).

The story covered the significance of Sarin’s appointment, which indicated the importance of tax code compliance in the administration. Sarin graduated from Harvard and was formerly a professor of law and finance at the University of Pennsylvania. She was hired in March by Janet Yellen, U.S. secretary of the treasury. See our profile of Sarin on page 30.

Photo by The Harvard Crimson

Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

Baseball wins first CCS title in a late-game thriller

program was started in 2012

by Michelle Obama and the Presidential Arts Committee and is open to students in grades 10 and 11 who have received a gold or silver medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

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Sarah Mohammed named National Student Poet

July 28, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b7Y Over the summer, junior Sarah Fathima Mohammed was named one of five National Student Poets of 2021. The National Student Poets Program, which is run by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, selects five young poets each year from different regions of the country as National Student Poets. The

Student and alumni-led organization wins STEM grant

July 29, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b86 In July, the alumni-founded organization Opportunity X received a $25,000 STEM Action Grant from the Society for Science, which organizes prestigious competitions such as

the Regeneron Science Talent Search and Broadcom MASTERS. Opportunity X provides free enrichment programs, summer camps and science fairs “to underrepresented and low-resource middle school students across the country,” said senior Opportunity X co-president Alice Feng, grade 12. The funds will be used to help further these efforts.

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Photo by Harry A Haryanto

Ding, Alice Feng, Adheet Ganesh, Yvan Grinspan, Arnav Gupta, Elvis Han, Victoria Han, Catherine He, Mark Hu, Angelina Yuzifovich, Sinaya Joshi, Vishnu Kannan, Saahas Kohli , Anirudh Kotamraju, Aidan Lincke, Alex Liou, Michelle Liu, Aaron Lo, Kavita Murthy, Kate Olsen, Sujith Pakala, Muthu Panchanatham, Vienna Parnell, Rishab Parthasarathy, Anishka Raina, Sasvath Ramachandran, Bodhi Saha, Dhruv Saoji, Yejin Song, Cindy Su, Aditya Tagore, Emily Tan, Keshiv Tandon, Zeel Thakkar, Rohan Thakur, Nicole Tian, Michael Tran, Pranav Varmaraja, Austin Wang, Daniel Wu, Esther Wu, Alina Yuan, Irene Yuan, April Zhang, William Zhao, Emily Zhou and Gloria Zhu.

............................................................... and in “The Lancet,” he and the coauthors covered the continued racism and misogyny faced by Black women in medicine.

Upper school students return to campus at matriculation

Aug. 24, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b94 The classes of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 gathered at Davis Field on Aug. 20 for the 2021 matriculation ceremony, which was held in-person after the COVID-19 pandemic forced last year’s matriculation to be held online. The event featured welcoming speeches

by Brian Yager, head of school; Butch Keller, upper school division head; and ASB president Dawson Chen, grade 12, as well as performances by Cantilena and the Harker String Quartet. Per tradition, the ceremony ended with “Freshman 101,” a hilarious series of skits that introduced the incoming grade 9 students to upper school life.

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52 students, more than 25% of senior class, named National Merit semifinalists

Sept. 15, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b9N On Sept. 15, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 52 Harker seniors, more than 25 percent of the Class of 2022, were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

They are: Malar Bala, Laszlo Bollyky, Erica Cai, Teresa Cai, Cady Chen, Charles

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Land acknowledgments extend to lower and middle school campuses

Oct. 18, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-bbf On Oct. 15, lower and middle school students viewed special presentations about the importance of acknowledging Indigenous land and the history of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, the direct ancestors of the Thámien Ohlonespeaking people, the original stewards of the land on which Harker’s campuses now rest. Also shown were videos of the ceremonies unveiling the land acknowledgment monuments that have been placed on each campus.

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Bajaj ’20 co-authors two pieces published in medical journals

Oct. 21, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-bbx In mid-October, Simar Bajaj ’20 coauthored two manuscripts that were published in medical journals “Nature Medicine” and “The Lancet.” Each piece covered issues related to systemic racism in the medical profession. The “Nature Medicine” piece discussed the importance of health care professionals advocating to protect voting rights,

Surbhi Sarna ’03 becomes first health and biotech partner at Y Combinator

Nov. 4, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-bbT In late October, Surbhi Sarna ’03 was named startup accelerator Y Combinator’s first ever health and biotech partner and was the subject of a story published on Forbes.com.

Sarna is the founder and former CEO of nVision Medical, which sought to create medical devices that could expedite the detection and therefore the treatment of ovarian cancer. The Silicon Valley-based Y Combinator, a highly successful tech startup accelerator, has helped launch companies such as Airbnb, DoorDash, Dropbox and Twitch.

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feature

Words byWORDS Zach Jones and Pam Dickinson

BY ZACH JONES Photographs by Jane Snyder PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, unless noted BEN GREEN

at Harker: What it means, where it’s headed

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he impact of the pandemic and the political and social upheavals of the past two years have prompted reflection and action by individuals and institutions alike. Harker is no exception, and the entire community has been involved in various ways in Harker’s self-reflection, assessment, and commitment to continue being the best school it can be for the students and the world.

An important component of this reflection was partnering with the National Association of Independent Schools in spring 2021 to conduct an “Assessment of Inclusivity and Multiculturalism (AIM)” to gauge and improve the inclusiveness of our school community for all members.

Greg Lawson, then

“Being an inclusive and safe space for students and staff alike will always continue to be a top priority for the school.”

– Brian Yager, head of school

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DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

assistant head of school for student affairs, spearheaded the survey with the help of a faculty and staff committee of seven.

The survey was offered in English, Spanish and Chinese to students, parents, faculty, staff and alumni. “It was important to get feedback from all our constituents to have the best data possible,” Lawson noted.

“We were very pleased with the level of participation and extremely grateful for the valuable feedback our community took the time to share with us.” The results were analyzed by the administration and shared with the community. According to Brian Yager, head of school, the survey results indicated two key areas of suggested growth: 1. for multiculturalism to be integrated more intentionally into the curriculum; 2. for faculty and administrators to continue enhancing our capacity to bring out the best in our students in working with, understanding and embracing their roles as citizens of a diverse school and world. “While Harker has considered each of these areas a priority for many years, we are exploring further avenues to achieve success in these areas,” he said.

The survey feedback revealed high marks for the school’s respect for diversity shown by students, administrators, faculty and staff, and confidence in the school’s commitment to fostering an environment “where all members … feel included and affirmed.” Yager found this heartening but asserted that this work is never done.

“Being an inclusive and safe space for students and staff alike will always continue to be a top priority for the school.”

Inclusive Curriculum and Programs While Harker evaluates the curriculum routinely to ensure it meets the needs of students in an ever-changing landscape, the events of the past 18 months led the school to a deeper analysis. This included reviewing how we teach the history and works of marginalized people, particularly in the English and history curriculum. “The works we have taught to students have evolved over time,” explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “Teachers in our English departments have also taken time to review the titles and works we teach; while we are making some title changes, we

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are also looking at how we are teaching all of the works. Teachers are discussing as a department how to best leverage the opportunities we do have in each work to further our DEI mission and understandings.”

At the lower school, diversity cocoordinators Kathy Clark, campus librarian,

and Andi Bo, grade 3 English teacher, have provided resources to teachers on a variety of topics, which are then integrated into classroom instruction.

“I was an adult before I saw myself reflected in a book,” said Clark, who is Chinese-American. “Knowing that and understanding that dynamic, we need

Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

opening series that has led to a deeper understanding of life experiences different from our own,” Burrows added.

“Our teachers are consciously ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion are finding a place in the classrooms.”

– Mark Janda, DEI Committee coordinator to reflect who our kids are, so finding materials that are of their culture, characters that reflect who they are and give other people insight into who they are – that’s always been very important to me.”

Clark and Bo also have worked with the administration to expand perspectives in areas such as the English curriculum.

“We’re trying to freshen up the curriculum and make sure there is enhanced diversity within that,” said Clark.

Other departments, such as history, have made similar inroads. “Our teachers are consciously ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion are finding a place in the classrooms,” said history chair Mark Janda, who also serves on the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.

“It’s not just happening by accident. There is a conscious effort to make sure that

the curriculum reflects all our students.”

American history classes, as an example, have increased their survey of the women’s liberation and LGBTQ+ rights movements.

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s and its links to the Black Lives Matter movement has also become a staple in required U.S. history courses. Classes on the Holocaust, social justice and social psychology also have been added to the curriculum.

The middle school began holding a series of assemblies called “Windows and Mirrors” last year. “We wanted to provide students a window through which to see cultures other than their own, and a mirror for those who belong to those cultures,” explained Patricia Lai Burrows, assistant middle school division head. The first of these assemblies was held in September 2020, during which Andy Lulka spoke via Zoom on the experiences of living in Jewish communities in Mexico and Canada. Other assemblies welcomed poet Jonathan Rodriguez, Hawaiian cultural camp director Kawika Shook, Kwanzaa storyteller Diane Ferlatte, and director/activist Gabrielle Gorman. “It’s been a meaningful and eye-

Additionally, in an effort coordinated by our newly formed Student Diversity Committee, representatives from the Muwekma Ohlone tribe visited the upper school campus in May for the unveiling of a monument that signified Harker’s formal recognition of the land it rests on as the ancestral home of the Thámien Ohlone-speaking people, the Muwekma Ohlone’s direct ancestors. Additional land acknowledgement assemblies were held on Harker’s middle and lower school campuses in October. Gargano noted, “Our history department chairs are creating a scope and sequence of how and when we teach about the Muwekma Ohlone tribe, as well, to ensure a well-articulated progression of topics and discussions as it relates to this community.”

Diversity on Campus

The AIM survey recommendation to diversify faculty and administrators at Harker is one the school will continue to take to heart. “We search nationwide for the best teaching candidates for each position at Harker,” said Gargano. “We also work to ensure that each new teacher enhances and enriches our community, and we recognize that having a diverse teaching body contributes to that.”

Providing the Harker experience to as broad a group of students as possible has been a priority for the school for years, according to Danielle Holquin, K-12 admission director. “In addition to various outreach efforts over the years, the new Alumni Scholarship Endowment funded

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by Andy Fang ’10 bolsters need-based financial aid to students who qualify for admission,” she said. “Our goal is always to bring the best group of learners to our school given our mission and our program,” added Yager. “We believe there are diverse students out there who would benefit from our program – and bring benefit to it – and our goal continues to be to find them.”

Diversity Training and Awareness

Harker has had a long history of diversity education, particularly in faculty training.

The annual faculty retreat, organized by Gargano, has had diversity education as a key component as far back as 2012, when Jayasri Ghosh spoke on the ways culture affects interactions between teachers and students. Other initiatives include the addition of DEI-related works into the faculty summer reading lists, started in 2014; and since 2017 Harker has hosted a yearly event featuring Rodney Glasgow, Ed.D., a noted speaker and facilitator on DEI issues and head of school at Sandy Spring Friends School in Sandy Spring, Md. “We understand the import of discussing these topics,” said Gargano. “Each day as a faculty we have a great impact on the types of adults and future citizens our students become. We do not take this responsibility lightly.”

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee The school’s DEI Committee was formed in 2013 with just under a dozen members.

It has now grown to 70 faculty and staff who represent all divisions and support the DEI coordinators, who are Janda, Rebecca Williams, Tyeshia Brown and Karriem Stinson, and the division

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leadership teams of Bo and Clark (lower school); Bernie Morrissey and Abigail Joseph (middle school); and Susanne Salhab and Eric Johnson (upper school).

DEI Committee members have regularly attended the National Association of Independent Schools’ People of Color Conference (PoCC) to gather and share ideas about DEI work and ways that schools can implement them. Joseph, the middle school learning, innovation and design director, remembered being the only faculty member to attend PoCC in 2011, her first year at Harker. The following year, she was joined by Burrows, Janda and middle school English department chair Arabelle Chow, who all traveled to Washington, D.C., for the conference. “That outing to D.C. sparked interest in finding ways to help the school embrace and grapple with the challenging work of bringing DEI into the forefront of the work that we do,” said Joseph. Now, six students and between six and 10 faculty and staff attend the conference each year. Stinson, the lower and middle school’s assistant athletic director and a DEI coordinator, has attended PoCC since 2014.

“It’s so powerful to see people that look like you and that are in the same situation as you,” he said.

Brown, assistant to the assistant head of school for student affairs and one of the DEI coordinators, has also attended.

“My life is diversity work, being a Black person myself,” she said. “My kids attend Harker and helping the school understand the importance of cultural competence, cultural humility is important to me.”

Student Organizations

Following the mass unrest and protests that erupted after the murder of George Floyd, an upper school Student Diversity Coalition (SDC) was founded in fall 2020.

Co-founders Uma Iyer, grade 12, and Natasha Yen ’21 were inspired to form the coalition after Harker hosted a group

of students to attend the 2019 Student Diversity Leadership Conference, an annual nationwide conference in which students from independent schools learn how to discuss social justice topics with their peers and educators and find ways to ensure their schools are welcoming and safe for marginalized groups.

The founding of the SDC also led to the founding of affinity groups, which the DEI Committee had been building up to for years. Recently founded affinity groups such as the Black Student Union (BSU) and Latinx Student Union provide spaces for people belonging to those groups to meet and discuss topics related to their everyday experiences or just be their authentic selves. “[The BSU] has been a good space for us to just say what we’re feeling and get advice on anything if we need help,” said SDC officer Dina Ande, grade 10. The events of 2020, she said, were a major factor in her decision to be more active in combating racism in her communities. “I finally realized that it’s important that we discuss it, and I had these emotions built up that I didn’t really want to let out … but having the opportunity to let it out felt really nice.”

Last year, the BSU and SDC co-organized an online event with University of Georgia professor Bettina Love, who holds a doctorate in educational policy studies and spoke on Black history and building a new society free of oppression.

One initiative of the DEI Committee has been Challenge Day, an optional all-day program where participants are led through activities designed to encourage peer support. The Challenge Day staff led the first one at Harker in February 2020 just before the pandemic, and the SDC has now taken the lead on this annual offering, holding the most recent one in September. This year the students, staff and faculty participating became peers in this social-emotional learning program, which included icebreaking activities that involved singing,

“Helping the school understand the importance of cultural competence, cultural humility is important to me.”

– Tyeshia Brown, DEI Committee coordinator

proud of the direction the community’s going in, and I think we’ve made lots of improvement.”

Focusing on the Future

Photo provided by Patricia Lai Burrows

dancing, locking arms and – in a show of collective affection that had become rare during the COVID-19 pandemic – hugging.

“Challenge Day inherently furthers diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives because the program is designed to create an inclusive space for high school students and faculty,” said Iyer. “The program addressed deep topics such as racism, homophobia, ableism, hate and mental health, which not only bring awareness to these topics, but also starts conversations.”

Harker’s Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) is one of the school’s most enduring advocacy groups, founded more than 20 years ago. It has been a driving force behind many efforts to benefit the school’s LGBTQ+ community, including the introduction of gender-neutral restrooms and the practice of stating one’s pronouns. In 2019, middle school students founded their own GSA, and one of its founding members, junior Aastha Mangla, is now co-president of the upper school GSA, along with junior Aniket Singh.

The GSA continues to be a key resource for LGBTQ+ students, particularly those new to Harker. “When I came here, it was a nice way to learn all the LGBTQ+ tips and tricks at Harker,” said one member of the LGBTQ+ student community, who preferred not to be named. “Like where all the best gender-neutral restrooms are, how to talk with teachers about pronouns

and that kind of thing.”

They also continue to regularly reach out to the greater community on topics relevant to LGBTQ+ students, including a popular panel of upper school students who speak at other campuses. “We found that [middle school students] learn a lot through that, and that has been a really meaningful experience,” said Singh.

Both Singh and Mangla agreed that one significant area of improvement has been the practice of making sure teachers use students’ proper pronouns, instituted recently at the behest of Harker administrators. “When I was a freshman, I didn’t see a lot of teachers give that survey asking for pronouns and names and whether you wanted your pronouns to be used in front of parents, teachers, faculty, etc.,” said Mangla. “But this year all my teachers asked for pronouns, which I find really heartening. I’m honestly really

According to Yager, the hiring of a diversity director is in the works, along with the continuation of the existing diversity leadership and committees at each campus. “We are grateful for the dedication of our DEI leadership and the many hands that have gotten us this far,” said Yager. “l look forward to having a director in place to coordinate our efforts and help us deepen our impact.” Harker’s DEI Committee has been compiling suggestions on this the new position, which will hopefully be filled by the start of the 2022-23 school year.

“We’ve done a lot of research and pulled from other director descriptions from other schools in our area and from across the country,” said Brown.

Though Harker’s DEI work may never truly be complete, those directly involved with the work have expressed happiness with the progress made so far. Williams, a middle school English teacher and DEI coordinator, is encouraged by the buy-in for DEI initiatives demonstrated by faculty and administration. “There have been some major steps over the last couple of years that really indicate Harker standing behind this vision of creating a school that is equitable and inclusive and diverse,” she said. Another indication is the growth of Harker’s DEI Committee. “There are two leaders on each campus now,” said Stinson.

“There are things now that we didn’t have two years ago. That happened really fast.

It’s really cool to see that.”

For more information about Harker’s DEI efforts, or to offer support, contact diversity@harker.org.

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sports

HAR K E R MAGA Z I NE l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

T

he fall semester was another historic one for Harker athletics, as both the boys and girls varsity water polo teams recorded their first-ever CCS playoff wins. Girls golf won its fourth consecutive WBAL title, and girls tennis once again went far in the CCS playoffs. In November, senior Tara Ozdemir signed a letter of intent to play Division I beach volleyball for Stetson University following her graduation. Cross country also saw great success at its meets.

During Harker Day, the community gathered for the return of the annual Homecoming game, where varsity football played Marina High School. And athletics staff had wins of their own: See page 39 for information on recent honors received by coaches Ie-Chen Cheng and Theresa “Smitty” Smith.

Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

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impact

Words by Vikki Bowes-Mok Photographs by Marisa Silva unless noted

Alumna’s journey leads her to Pfizer’s COVID-19 team

hen Asavari Gupte ’06 started Harker in fifth grade, she was a shy but curious student. Her mother worked in the medical device field and was a role model for her, but Harker nurtured her love of learning and helped her come out of her shell.

“Asavari was very shy, but she always smiled and worked incredibly hard,” said Pat Walsh, her grade 5 teacher, now retired. “It was easy to make a connection with her because she sent positive energy with her constant smile.”

Gupte credits Walsh with helping her blossom, both academically and personally. When Gupte came to Harker, she realized how fun learning could be; she couldn’t wait to go to school. She was also inspired by her parents; her father was an engineer and her mother worked in biotech for a company that worked on early detection for breast cancer.

She grew up participating in American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, which raises money for cancer research. She also 32 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2020 14 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

participated in the performing arts, with major roles in “Hamlet” and “A Comedy of Errors.”

“Harker primed me to take risks, say ‘yes’ to new things and be willing to take the unknown trail,” said Gupte.

“These lessons impacted every decision I’ve made, including joining the COVID-19 vaccine team at Pfizer.”

Gupte is now the U.S. health care professional lead for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Commercial Team, the type of impactful role she has been working toward since she graduated from Harker in 2006.

She knew she wanted a university program that married technological innovation and commercial success. She found that in the Vagelos Life Sciences & Management Program, a dual-degree undergraduate program administered jointly between University of Pennsylvania’s College of Arts & Sciences and the Wharton School. It was a new program when she joined in 2006, and

she was one of just 25 students chosen to participate. The program “aims to foster creativity, entrepreneurialism, insight and principled decision-making,” according to its website. She left the program with a bachelor of arts in biology from Penn and a bachelor of science in economics from Wharton.

When Gupte graduated, she wanted to understand the kinds of problems that biotechnology companies faced and how that impacted the health of patients globally. So she joined ClearView Healthcare Partners, where she was their first intern and their 15th employee.

“From the beginning, Asavari’s ability to be a leader within our organization was apparent, which motivated us to extend her an offer to join us after her internship,” said Steve Chao, partner at

ClearView Healthcare Partners. “Asavari’s analytic capabilities are extremely strong and coupled with her strong leadership skills, I feel that these analytic capabilities make Asavari the complete package, and believe she will succeed in whatever she chooses to pursue.”

by Asavari

Gupte ‘06

Photo provided by Pfizer

Photo provi ded

For Gupte, this was one more step toward making a global impact. After four years at ClearView, she decided to pursue her MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She knew this was important in her development toward bridging new technologies and business.

It was as if every step on her journey was getting her prepared for her role on the COVID-19 team.

Photo provi ded

by Harker A rchives

When she graduated from Kellogg, she was recruited by Pfizer. She started in U.S. marketing to large health care institutions, health care professionals and patients with a focus on cardiovascular medicine, oncology and rare disease. She rotated through many different teams until she got a call last April to join the COVID-19 vaccine team.

“It turns out that I’ve been training for this opportunity my entire life.”

by Asavari Photo provi ded

Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

Gupte ‘06

– Asavari Gupte ‘06 “It’s amazing to be part of a team that works so hard and with such passion to help patients, our country and the entire world,” said Gupte. “It turns out that I’ve been training for this opportunity my entire life – not intentionally, of course. I feel so lucky to work on a vaccine that is having a global impact and saving lives around the world.”

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Librarians are teachers and their subject is information literacy

16 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

WORDS BY SASHA NYARY PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER

strong school library program results in higher student achievement, including test scores and subject mastery.

That’s what 30 years of research has shown – and these correlations aren’t explained away by student-teacher ratios, teacher qualifications, or demographics. These benefits are why The Harker School has such a deep commitment to its library. The Harker library program is the school’s pedagogical backbone, an integral and essential part of the entire TK-12 academic program.

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THE GOLD STANDARD

“the ability to effectively find, evaluate and use information across all media and disciplines.”

“Information literacy is the difference between absorbing what a teacher is telling you versus finding something out for yourself and translating that into your own lesson,” said senior Ann Ryan, who plans to study chemical engineering in college. “You need to be able to understand what different sources are telling you, even if you’re not going into academics after graduation.”

Harker librarians are teachers and their subject is information literacy. Using the library’s extensive resources, librarians collaborate with teachers in every grade and in every subject, whether reading stories to first graders, showing middle schoolers how to search a database or teaching upper school students proper citation formats. They meet with individual classes and are available for drop-in meetings with individual students.

Librarians also serve as a resource for teachers. They guest lecture, they teamteach classes, and they serve as teacher consultants.

Harker librarians promote literacy: Besides author visits and book clubs, programming includes the award-winning Re-create Reading Day, the student-run Book Blog and the teacher-founded Tournament of Books. Students of all ages say they love to pick librarians’ brains, browse the stacks and curl up in one of the many comfy reading spots the three libraries provide.

“There’s no more important time to have a library,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “Our students are bombarded with a wealth of information and they need to know how to make sense of it. The strength of the library is really with the personnel and what they bring to our program. Our librarians are true experts in information literacy.”

“Our curriculum is about enabling

students to become information literate, to be critical thinkers, to form habits of mind,” said Lauri Vaughan, Harker’s award-winning published library director since 2018.

With the advent of the internet and Harker’s upper school expansion, an outstanding library program was the central goal of Sue Smith and Enid Davis, Harker’s visionary former library directors.

“The women who preceded me created this quietly awesome program that ranks nationally,” said Vaughan, who has worked at Harker for 15 years. “If there was an Olympics for school libraries, I think we’d get the gold.”

What is information literacy?

Harker’s library program focuses on four areas: information literacy, pleasure reading, robust resources and curricular collaboration. The keystone is information literacy, defined on the library website as

Information literacy takes skilled, trained professionals to teach it – “information evangelists,” Vaughan calls them. At a time when many schools are laying off librarians and turning their facilities into media centers, Harker’s program has a staff of 12, including six librarians with master’s degrees in library science. Many have education degrees and general classroom experience as well.

The library curriculum at Harker extends from transitional kindergarten through grade 12, said Meredith Cranston, campus librarian for the upper school.

“We scaffold these skills in ways that are developmentally appropriate, given the age level of the students, to introduce, reinforce and master these various skills of information literacy.”

Using college-level frameworks, she said, the goal is that by the time students graduate, they are research-ready, which means they are ready to pursue independent learning in universities and colleges. “We’re always thinking, what do we want our students to know, and understand and be able to

“The library is like a map and you travel around the world in stories.”

– James Cranston, grade 1 18 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

Photo by Mark Kocina

well, she said. “You have to give credit where you found your information. In first grade, it’s just simply, what’s the title of the book you got some of your information from? Because you didn’t just make it up.” do by the time they graduate? What kind of mindset do they need for informationliterate thinking?”

It starts in the lower school, where students are introduced to the importance of finding and evaluating sources, paraphrasing what the sources say and citing where they got their information. Cranston’s 6-year-old son James, grade 1, looks forward to going to the library every Friday, he said. He likes the train books.

“My favorite thing in the library is just the whole library class,” he said. “I like that I get to hear stories and then go get a book. It’s just like a map and you travel around the world in stories.”

When Cranston and the other first graders were learning about animal homes – nests, burrows, caves – Kathy Clark, campus librarian for the lower school, showed them how to find information in databases and books.

“What we want them to do is understand how to take notes, how to pull the information out of these sources,” Clark said. “We don’t say, this is a database. We say, here’s another source of information for you. And it’s always a source that we trust. We’re not sending little ones out onto the open web to try and navigate.”

The rudiments of citation begin early as

These skills become increasingly sophisticated through the lower school.

They are built on in middle school so that by the time a student gets to the ninth grade, they are fine-tuning their citations and taking quizzes in paraphrasing. As they progress through the upper school, students have learned that librarians are resources who can help them do deep research and produce original work.

What does it mean to be a teacher librarian?

All this wouldn’t be possible without collaboration between librarians and subject teachers.

“Our classroom teachers talk the talk when it comes to information literacy, and they walk the walk in terms of collaborating with us on inquiry-based learning projects,” said Cranston. “It’s across the curriculum.

Generally it originates with a teacher saying there’s some aspect of their course that students aren’t getting. They want students to dig deeper and learn more.”

That was biology teacher Kristen Morgensen ‘93’s experience when she was getting ready to teach her eighth graders about cystic fibrosis. As a microbiologist she was excited about teaching the topic and she wanted to get her students excited

too. That’s where Bernie Morrissey, campus librarian for the middle school, came in.

Morgensen had started with the idea that her students would make posters. Morrissey suggested turning the poster topic into a question: “Which topic that we’ve studied so far this year is most useful for understanding cystic fibrosis? Why?” The assignment went from a general report to making an argument for one of three possible answers: diffusion and osmosis, genetics and heredity or DNA structure and mutations.

“That’s huge, because that’s science, right?” said Morgensen. “Claim, evidence, reasoning.

I got some great, great projects, because they had to argue it. I had the idea and Bernie revamped it and made it what it is.”

The students learned the same information about the disease, Morrissey noted. “But this was at a much deeper level, and I think in a more interesting way. They’re more engaged with the material. It also helps emphasize the cumulative nature of studying science, the way scientific knowledge builds on other knowledge.

These kids are super lucky to have two teachers essentially planning this experience for them. That’s pretty rare.”

Librarians also serve as co-teachers with subject teachers. Amy Pelman, upper school librarian, plays a prominent role in English teacher Brigid Miller’s popular Graphic Narrative class. Her contributions include a lecture on the history of the form and an introduction to the class research project.

“I couldn’t teach this class without her,” Miller

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feature said. “Amy is ridiculously well-read in general, and when it comes to graphic novels, she’s read everything. Plus she’s really happy when she gets to talk about this form and that passion spreads to the students.”

What are electronic resources and digital archives?

Whether finding a book to read or doing research, Harker students have 24/7 access to college-level online resources, including e-books, audiobooks and some 90 subscription databases – a searchable online collection providing access to scholarly journals, newspapers, images, movies and more. By the 10th grade, Harker students are proficient in navigating these resources, as well as NoodleTools, which they’ve been using since the fourth grade. NoodleTools is an online research management platform with three different levels that helps students build citations, take notes and organize their sources.

The electronic collection is maintained by Qi Huang, electronic resources librarian, who is also deeply involved with the Harker Digital Archives. Harker’s physical archives, an unusual collection for a school, go back 125 years. The school began digitizing it about five years ago. Nearly 16,000 pages have been scanned so far and they include yearbooks, newsletters, brochures and flyers. The earliest item in the digital archive so far is a 1924 student newspaper called The Jolly Cadet.

Recently launched, the site can be viewed online by the Harker community. Vaughan is already getting queries from teachers

THE GOLD STANDARD

who want to use the archives for their classes, such as reviewing the newspapers over the years to see how students felt about different topics.

“We’re excited to make available anything that can bring to life a sense of what it was like to be a member of the Harker community during any particular time period,” she said, noting that the archives, both digital and physical, figured prominently during Harker’s 125th anniversary celebration in 2018-19. “We have a long and rich history with interesting and fascinating people.” The school also manages a separate photo archive with historic photos dating back to 1893, to which the community also has access.

Three-way collaboration: Teachers, librarians and students These electronic resources are endowed in part by the Near/Mitra research program, which is a key way that Harker librarians work with upper school students. Every spring, eight to 10 juniors are selected from 40 to 50 applicants – about a quarter of the following year’s senior class – to pursue a non-credit, year-long research project. Near scholars explore United States history while Mitra scholars research humanities topics.

Each student is matched with at least two mentors: a subject area specialist and an information specialist.

A visit from librarians to her junior year English class inspired Ellen Guo ’20 to write a Near scholar paper she titled “Bi Means of Queer: A Bisexual View of Sedgwick’s ‘Closet.’”

The librarians had taught the class about critical theory. The assignment was to select one and use it to analyze “The Scarlet Letter.” Guo chose the lens of queer theory.

“I got super interested in queer theory and I started looking at the literature,” she said. “My research project evolved into a theoretical angle about HIV/

AIDS and its impact on our understanding of bisexuality and homophobia.”

During the process, she met several times a month with her mentors, Cranston and upper school history teacher Donna Gilbert, who in 2009 stewarded the original Near scholars program with Sue Smith. “Ms. Gilbert helped me out with parsing through the historical context of the stuff I was researching,” Guo said. “And if there were sources that I needed that weren’t easily accessible, Ms. Cranston was great about providing them.”

Now a sophomore at Columbia University, Guo is on an engineering track but she’s still drawn to theory. “Perhaps more important than the actual content of the theory were the skills, specifically from Near/Mitra, that I developed,” she said. “As somebody who’s always considered herself a STEM person, being able to think in a way that’s very different from how I usually think is one of the greatest things that I took from Near/Mitra.”

Working with these students is incredibly rewarding, Cranston said. “Every year I think this is just such a wonderful and rich and unique experience, and nothing could ever top this. And then the next year again, it is special and rich and unique.”

As is the entire library program. Every 17-year-old today is a creator of information, said Vaughan. That means they have tremendous power – and tremendous responsibility.

“It’s about being part of the information community on every level, whether we’re talking about journalism, sharing a good book that you’ve read, writing an academic paper, publishing a book or being interviewed on television. How do you professionally, ethically, intelligently and creatively participate in the exchange of ideas and information? That’s how we want to empower our students.”

Sasha Nyary is a writer and editor living in Maine.

“If there was an Olympics for school libraries, I think we’d get the gold.”

– Lauri Vaughan, library director 20 HAR KE R MAGA Z I NE l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

What is something most people don’t know about you?

My actual first name is Nelly. I was named after both of my grandmothers. My mother is also Nelly, so my parents used my middle name.

What is an experience you’ve had that you don’t believe many others have had?

I’ve flown over the Nazca Lines in Peru.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Be kind to everyone because it just might make their day.

face time

A

sk middle school Spanish teacher Julie Pinzás about herself and two things quickly become clear: She is very proud of her family and has an impressive list of eclectic pursuits. Her parents and husband were raised in Peru, and her paternal grandfather was born in Guangzhou, China; she’s also mom to two Harker Lifers (Joshua ’08 and Lauren ’12). She serves on the middle school’s Academic Council, LID team and Diversity & Multicultural Committee, and she volunteers at the Costa Rican Humanitarian Foundation in La Carpio, Costa Rica, where she takes students in the summer for Spanish immersion. As for those pursuits, she’s working on her second-degree blackbelt in taekwondo, is learning Russian, loves crafting and used to figure skate!

What is the best compliment someone can give you?

“You believed I could, and I did!”

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained a quality and/or ability, what would it be?

The ability to find the cure for cancer. The quality to know how to make anyone feel good about themselves.

What is your most treasured object and why?

A silver pendant in the shape of a sun with a Tumi set in turquoise in the center, because it represents my Peruvian culture.

What do you wish people could understand about you?

Being organized is my happy place.

Julie Pinzás

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visual arts Rebecca Ding Grade 5 “Cityscape”

Elizabeth Philip Kindergarten “Funny Pumpkin”

Yuhan Wang Grade 3 “Mexican Marigolds in a Vase”

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Topaz Lee Emma Lee

Grade 8 “Plaster Relief Cactus”

Grade 7 “Cupcake”

Gloria Zhu Grade 12 “The Orchard, 11AM”

Karina Chen Grade 11

(“Peephole”)

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passion

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY STEVE BOYLE ’06 AND HARKER ARCHIVES

immersed in creativit

Alumnus dreams in epic proportions

In 2005 Steve Boyle ’06 was living in London while working on an internship in advertising and marketing. It was the summer before his senior year at Harker.

Boyle knew he wanted to work in a creative field and believed advertising and marketing was a practical choice.

y

But then something unimaginable happened – four terrorists detonated bombs in the London Underground where Boyle was aboard the Aldgate train. Boyle wasn’t hurt, but more than 700 people were injured and 52 people died.

“The overarching lesson from surviving the bombing is that life is short and fragile and this experience is absolutely how I decided to go into the arts,” remembered Boyle, adding that not a day goes by that he doesn’t think of those who didn’t make it out alive. “It’s what gave me the courage to be ambitious, impractical and to try to live a life of fearlessness.”

And that he does.

Boyle’s journey at Harker began in grade 6. His passion had long been storytelling and live experiences; he appreciated theater in the round, sword fights and the interactive pre-shows that are part of Harker’s core. After these rich, live experiences, he would often be underwhelmed by local live theater.

“Steve was my youngest Hamlet back in the fall of 2003. He was sharing the role with three powerhouse actors who were a couple of years older, yet he fit right in,” remembered Jeff Draper, upper school acting teacher and director of the fall play. “He was hungry, brave, confident, and willing to work as hard as he needed to in order to get where he wanted to go with the role.”

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Not only did Boyle know where he wanted to go with the Hamlet role, he also knew where he wanted to go after Harker: New York City. He enrolled at New York University, in the center of the theater scene of one of the world’s largest and most dynamic cities, and studied history, artistic entrepreneurship, directing, producing and international arts. While a student at NYU, he attended lectures and seminars at the Visthar Center for Peace and Social Justice in India; researched traditional dance and mask-making while studying Hinduism and Balinese mythology at the Bali Purnati Center for the Arts in Indonesia; and researched Thai swordplay, dance and drumming, and Japanese butoh while studying Buddhism and politics at the Patravadi Theatre in Thailand.

His passion, worldly experiences and his big dreams started to come together in 2014 when he met Michael Sturtz, who spearheaded a new artistic genre of live performance as director of Stanford’s ReDesigning Theater Project. After pestering Sturtz for weeks, Boyle was invited to meet with him.

But when he showed up for the meeting, he found himself in a room with a group of venture capitalists who wanted a “theater experience in the woods.”

In the woods? Boyle had heard about immersive theater but wasn’t convinced it was “real” theater. Immersive theater is different than traditional theater because it removes the stage, allowing the actors and audience to immerse themselves together in the performance while interacting with their surroundings. Still, he wondered if something like that could be a sort of “gateway drug” to real theater. And, since the tech world wasn’t overly supportive of the arts, perhaps this could be an opportunity to bridge that gap and be part of the solution.

So he and Sturtz created a military field hospital experience in the forest with prompts to inspire teamwork, heroic acts and innovative thinking.

“Surviving the bombing … gave me the courage to be ambitious, impractical and to try to live a life of fearlessness.”

– Steve Boyle ’06

“In between all the special effects, we had an actor in the tent who was dying and each person had to go in and comfort her by sharing a challenging time in their lives; it was amazing to see how immensely vulnerable participants were,” said Boyle. “This was when I realized this was not a gateway drug, this was ‘it’ and people wanted to fully dive in.”

A few months later, he shared this story at a local city hall meeting after San Jose Repertory’s Emerging Artists Lab dissolved. After the meeting, he was approached by Alida Bray, president and CEO of History San Jose. She was intrigued and told him about History San Jose, which could be a perfect “stage” for Boyle’s vision of immersive theater.

So Boyle created “Matthew Briar and the Age of Resurrection,” an epic production that followed more than 100 performers who attended the 1907 World’s Fair, danced through the Roaring ’20s and then survived the Great Depression.

Although he didn’t know it at the time, this was the beginning of his company, Epic Immersive, which creates story-driven immersive experiences with explorable, 360-degree worlds, which he founded in 2014. As an example, his show “Wonderland” promised: “Alice had her turn. Now it’s yours. Through Alice’s fireplace is the entrance to a secret world of magic, wonder and danger – full of new friends and strange enemies. Three guests at a time plunge down the rabbit hole for the trip of a lifetime.”

“Steve is one of the most passionate and hard-working people I have ever met. He loves creating inclusive, multidisciplinary experiences and is committed to making the best experiences for the audience,” said Kimberly Flynn, associate artistic director for Epic Immersive. “One of the things Epic has always prided itself on has been that, in addition to making immersive work we’ve served as a connector, uniter and promoter for the industry as a whole, bringing together a global community and sparking new ideas, collaborations and futures.”

And what a future Boyle has immersed himself in – an epic chapter of theater, art and the next wave of interactive storytelling.

Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

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FU D LFILLE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER, JACQUELINE RAMSEYER ORRELL AND BEN GREEN UNLESS NOTED

26 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

Photo by Austin Ginn

TORIC HIS

Harker’s new middle school was bustling with excited students and eager educators on Aug. 24, 2021 for the first day back to school after more than a year of distance learning, and the grand opening of the new middle school campus.

“This new campus has allowed us to be intentional and design spaces that create more community and allows students, teachers and administrators to feel more connected,” said Evan Barth, middle school head. “This accomplishment reflects the passion, dedication and hard work of countless community members and supporters.”

Brian Yager, head of school, also noted that the new campus marks a milestone in Harker’s history as it now owns all of the school’s campuses, which has been part of the school’s strategic plan. “Harker’s dream has been fulfilled and now the focus is on the students and teachers, who will bring this new campus to life.”

Photo by Eric Marten

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By the Numbers ____________________________________________

7.7 11 Annual performances ____________________________________________ 25 Student clubs ____________________________________________ 55 Athletic teams ____________________________________________ 260 Seats in theater ____________________________________________ 537 Students ____________________________________________ 2012 Year Harker acquired property ____________________________________________

2021 First year of operation as middle school ____________________________________________ 6,500 Square feet of the new gymnasium ____________________________________________ 10,000 Number of volumes in library ____________________________________________ 39,000 Square feet of new classroom building ____________________________________________ 1 million Pounds of steel used in building ____________________________________________ 100% Harker pride ____________________________________________ Acres ____________________________________________

28 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

A DREAM FULFILLED

Campus Features n Flexible learning space n 37 new classrooms with state-of-the-art equipment n Dedicated theater and performing arts classrooms n Library, both physical and virtual n LIFE Center n Gymnasium n Gold LEED-certified

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impact WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY THE WHARTON SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA UNLESS NOTED

hen Natasha Sarin ’07 was in high school, history teacher John Near gave her advice that has stayed with her throughout her distinguished career.

It was after a basketball game, and she went to Yumi Yogurt with Near, his wife, Pam Dickinson, and their daughter, Casey Near ’06. While they were enjoying frozen yogurt, Near shared a famous quote: “Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans.” This really struck Sarin, a highly driven student who had been busy planning her entire future. Looking back, she can see clearly that this sentiment has been true in her own life, from Harker all the way to Washington, D.C., where she now serves as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the U.S. Treasury Department.

Sarin started at Harker in fifth grade and appreciated the academic rigor and the extracurriculars, including Junior State of America, which aims to prepare students to be active participants and effective, ethical leaders in our democracy.

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“Natasha was always passionate, committed and ambitious. She was willing to put in the work and the time to get where she wanted to go,” said Dan Hudkins, who led the group at Harker for years and is now CIO at Taipei American School. “It was no surprise about how far she has gone; the only surprise has been how fast.”

Sarin always thought she would attend Stanford University, but that changed on a college tour her junior year.

She was interested in public service and was seeking a school where she could get involved in government.

“When I was on the Yale campus the first time, I could tell it was a very special place and I knew that was where I wanted to go,” said Sarin. “It changed my trajectory on everything and reminded me about what Mr. Near had told me after the basketball game.”

Sarin wrote her college essay on Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution. This article states that the president must be a natural-born U.S. citizen. Sarin’s parents were both U.S. citizens living in the United States, but her mom flew back to India to give birth to Sarin; because she wasn’t born in America, she can never become U.S. president. This was disappointing to Sarin, but she remains driven to have an impact.

After penning this essay, she was so nervous about applying that she asked Kevin Lum Lung, her Harker college counselor, to meet her at school on a Saturday so he could be with her when she submitted it.

“I remember messing with her right after she pressed the submit button and I yelled ‘WAIT!!!’ and after seeing her whole body tense up, I said, ‘Just kidding,’” said Lum Lung. “I remember laughing a lot around Natasha. Everyone appreciated her sense of humor and sensitivity as much as we admired her academic and personal accomplishments.”

Sarin’s drive served her well at Yale. Her junior year, she casually decided to apply for an internship at the White House and was assigned to the National Economic Council, which was run by economist Larry Summers.

“Larry taught me so many invaluable lessons, from teaching me a sense of self-worth, showing me the value of training and explaining that being an economist was about policy and changing people’s everyday lives,” said Sarin with admiration. “When I left that stint in government, I realized that’s what I

– Natasha Sarin ‘07 wanted to do.”

When she looks back on this foundational experience, she realized that it was a precursor to all that would follow – including receiving her law degree followed by a Ph.D. in

Photo provided by Natasha Sarin ‘07

Photo provided by Harker Archives

“I dreamed of being an academic doing policy work, but now I’m learning the realities of the political process.

I’m actually living it and seeing what it takes to legislate.”

economics from Harvard University.

Sarin loves academics and being surrounded by intellectuals, so becoming a professor was a logical next move. She is an assistant professor of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and assistant professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Sarin researched and wrote extensively about tax code compliance, which reportedly leaves $7 trillion uncollected. She was an academic who sat at the intersection of law and finance until an opportunity at the White House arose after President Biden was elected. She was recruited to the U.S. Treasury, where she is part of a “compliance brain trust” and now has the opportunity to transform her research into policy. The impact of this work could have a rippling effect across our country, from closing tax loopholes to funding government initiatives.

“I dreamed of being an academic doing policy work, but now I’m learning the realities of the political process,” said Sarin, who is on a two-year leave of absence from the University of Pennsylvania. “I’m actually living it and seeing what it takes to legislate.

I’m learning a lot and know this will also shape my academic work in such a meaningful way.”

Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

Photo provided by Harker Archives

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wo Harker performing arts mainstays, the middle and upper school fall plays, made their return to in-person performances this past fall. The upper school production of “Much Ado About Nothing” was a unique interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, while the middle school plays explored the lives of caped heroes in “The Wong Kids in The Secret of the Space Chupacabra, Go!” and “Superheroes: With Great Power Comes Ordinary Responsibility.”

Performing arts groups from the lower, middle and upper schools – including the grade 4 class and Showstoppers – also performed at the Patil Theater during the inaugural Harker Day. At press time, middle school orchestras, jazz bands and choirs were preparing concert pieces, and several ensembles were preparing for the annual performances at Santana Row and the school’s holiday assembly. Photos from these events will be available through the Harker Parent Portal.

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WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER UNLESS NOTED

Inaugural Harker Day Brings Together Beloved Traditions

l a r u g u a y n a I D r r e e h k t Har s Toge g n i r B d e v o Bel tions i d a r T

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY JANE SNYDER

“It’s a good carryover from Howard Nichols’ original idea of bringing a community together.”

– Loren Due MS ’85

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n estimated 2,500 people visited the upper school campus on Oct. 9 for the inaugural Harker Day, which combined two Harker traditions – the Family & Alumni Picnic and Homecoming – into a full day of games, food, sports and more.

With the relocation of the middle school to its new Union Avenue location and the impending closure of the former middle school campus, all festivities were moved to the upper school campus. According to Loni Keller, Harker’s director of special events, placing the picnic and Homecoming activities on the same day was intended to bring together communities that in previous years might have attended just one of the two separate events. The focus of the event also was shifted from fundraising to community building, doing away with the selling of carnival and food tickets.

Attendees traversed the campus, playing a variety of games, including Dance Dance Revolution, air hockey and Skee-Ball. Mrs. Carley’s Café, Yoshi and ABVE the Basics served many different kinds of food throughout the day and people packed the Patil Theater to watch the student performances, a picnic tradition.

Mini Cat Town, a San Jose-based cat rescue organization, had one of the more popular attractions at the event, as guests flocked there to play with adorable kittens.

At lunchtime, lower, middle and upper school performing arts groups, including the upper school’s Downbeat and Bel Canto, the middle school’s Kinetic Krew and the grade 4-6 dance group Dance Fusion, entertained audiences at the Patil Theater. Between acts, lower school students performed amusing skits for attendees, who were glad to be attending student performances inperson once again.

Students were glad to see the community reunite in person after so many months away. “I think the community bonding here is a really nice thing,” said Harshini Chaturvedula, grade 10. “Everyone from all the campuses getting together, it’s a really fun experience.”

The legacy of former president Howard Nichols, who would have turned 81 the following day, on Oct. 10, was evident among the many alumni who were in attendance, often seen lounging at the special alumni meetup area set up outside Manzanita Hall, which contained dormitories before the closing of Harker’s boarding program in 2002.

Loren Due MS ’85 enjoyed returning to Harker to see “all the teachers and students and staff. It’s great seeing all the activities here.” Due noted that he had watched the original Family & Alumni Picnic evolve over the years and looked forward to seeing what was in store for Harker Day. “It’s a good carryover from Howard Nichols’ original idea of bringing the community together,” he said.

Some visiting alumni, including Harker Academy graduate Nick Stojanovic MS ’85, enjoyed seeing how the campus had changed since they were students.

“I love coming here and meeting up with old friends, old teachers, really getting a chance to see how the campus has changed,” he said. “It’s just great to see that they preserved some of the old buildings so it brings back a nostalgic feeling, but then you really see a lot of the new stuff that’s come up. It’s incredible what they managed to do.”

In the afternoon, the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony took place, honoring Cole Davis ’10, Drew Goldstein ’13 and Jessica Khojasteh ’11 for their athletic achievements as well as the example they set in becoming global citizens. Friends, family and former coaches gathered at the athletic center to see the new inductees speak about their time at Harker and unveil their newly etched

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2021

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Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

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TOURNAMENT HARKER OF BOOKS DAY

names on the Hall of Fame display. “The Hall of Fame induction ceremony is a chance to honor individuals or teams that have made a positive difference in our department,” said athletic director Dan Molin, who introduced each of this year’s inductees. “But more than their impressive statistics, we’re appreciative of the foundation they’ve helped establish for future Eagles.”

A popular addition to the day was the sports, with JV and varsity boys water polo, varsity girls water polo, and JV and varsity girls volleyball teams highlighted in competitions throughout the day.

Traditional Homecoming festivities rounded out the day, with the class tug-of-war, cheer and dance performances and the annual football game.

The two combined special fall events are sure to become a beloved new tradition.

Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

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face time

A

s befits an actor and director, upper school theater teacher Jeff Draper is very thoughtful. Harker Magazine’s interview with him revealed not only simple likes and favorites, but deep consideration of our place in the world.

A native of St. Cloud, Minn., Draper was raised in South San Jose (“back when we had orchards everywhere”) and currently lives with his husband in San Francisco. He is a mentor in the Harker Conservatory, serves on the Sustainability Committee and is dean of the freshman class. He also volunteers for Citizen’s Climate Lobby, an organization he plans to spend much more time with in the coming years.

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

What is something one of your parents said that you will never forget?

Listen before giving advice. As people think and talk through their challenge, they sometimes land on the piece of advice I was considering, and them getting it on their own is better for them in the long run than anything I could say.

Having recently lost my father, I have many things he taught me that are fresh in my mind. I have one of his favorite quotes in my classroom: “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” The world needs more people like my dad.

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

What does your inner child want?

I love the fact that I’ve experienced pretty much everything that some others have. We are all walking on ground with well-worn paths by those who have come before, and that is comforting.

My inner child is a performer, and I would love to live the lifestyle of a full-time professional actor, perhaps for a year. Then I would return from my sabbatical and dive right back into the classroom, where I am most at home.

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

Michelle Obama, Harvey Milk and William Shakespeare. I want to be with people who witnessed the world exactly as it is, the good and the bad, and then moved to change it for the better.

Jeff Draper H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2021 3737

staff kudos

staff kudos

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

Performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree was interviewed by Authority Magazine in September as part of a series of stories on cancer survivors. In the article, Lang-Ree discusses her experience parenting a 3-year-old with leukemia, describing in detail her immediate reaction to the news (“I bought a stack of books and tried in vain to become an ‘expert’ in all things cancer.”), how she created a “new normal” for herself and her family and how having a positive attitude provided a turning point during the experience. Lang-Ree is currently working on a book with the aim of helping parents of cancer patients and publishes articles and podcasts on her website: https://www. lauradekrakerlang-ree.com/.

In September, middle school science teacher Raji Swaminathan published her fourth children’s book on the elements, titled “The Magical Periodic Table and The Element Girls - Book 4: Chalcogens - Ore Forming,” which is available to purchase through Amazon. The book is the fourth in her series, “The Magical Periodic Table and The Element Girls,” in which the main character, Atom, explores the worlds of the elements with her dog, Electron. Throughout the series, Atom’s adventures have taken her to places including California’s Muir Woods, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, an artist’s studio and the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw, Poland.

Middle school mathematics department chair Vandana Kadam won her second Edyth May Sliffe Award in September.

This award is given to middle and high school math teachers who have shown dedication to teaching by motivating students to participate in the American Mathematics Competitions. Kadam last won the award in 2018. Candidates are nominated by colleagues, students, parents and administrators, and winners are chosen based on criteria including demonstrated improvement in AMC scores over multiple years, increased participation in the competitions and increased participation in invitational events such as the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME) and the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO).

In June, during the final speech and debate tournament of the 2020-21 school year, upper school debate teacher Scott Odekirk was named Educator of the Year, a recognition received by only one to three coaches out of thousands of coaches annually. Speech and debate department chair Jenny Achten received a fourth Diamond award, signifying 20 years of successfully coaching a large debate team.

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Two Harker coaches were recognized for their stellar work during the 2020-21 school year by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Theresa Smith, longtime varsity volleyball coach and lower and middle school athletic director, was named the California Central Coast Section Coach of the Year for girls volleyball, and upper school golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng was named the CCS Coach of the Year for girls golf.

Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members, Thanks Retirees The Harker Board of Trustees welcomed four new members during 2020-21 and bid farewell to two long-standing school supporters.

Surbhi Sarna ’03 joined the board in 2020. She is an investor and entrepreneur who founded nVision Medical, a company that produced “the only device cleared by the FDA to collect cells from the fallopian tube, the known site of the most lethal forms of ovarian cancer,” according to her LinkedIn page. nVision Medical was acquired by Boston Scientific in April 2018, and Sarna now is a board director at Penumbra Medical and Progenity.

Also joining in 2020, Satish Dharmaraj is a venture capitalist and managing director at Redpoint Ventures. Before that he was CEO of Zimbra. He is father to two Harker Eagles: Nikhil ’19 and Nila, grade 10. He placed No. 6 on the 2021 Forbes Midas List of top 100 VC investors.

Physician Teja Patil ’02 became a member in 2021. Patil is the chief nocturnist and head of surgical co-management for the

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In January 2020 she cofounded Resilience in Healthcare, which is dedicated to giving health care providers wellness support to prevent burnout.

Joining with Patil was Andy Fang ’10, co-founder and CTO of DoorDash.

In April 2021 he gifted $10 million to Harker to establish The Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund to provide need-based financial aid to qualified students in the hopes of increasing diversity at the school.

Retiring from the board in 2021 are Lynette Stapleton and Linda Sabeh, and Harker thanks these two women for their incredible dedication to and passion for the school over the years.

Stapleton served on the board for 32 years and saw two children through Harker: Emily ’93 and Sam ’89. She

served on the Nominating/Governance Committee, the Development/ Advancement Committee and the Buildings & Grounds Committee.

Stapleton also co-chaired many Family & Alumni Picnics and is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge about that favorite campus event. She continues to work at the school today as a community liaison and is a familiar face in the upper school’s front offices.

Sabeh was an inaugural member of the Board of Fellows in 2012, taking her place on the board upon the death of her husband, longtime board member Joseph Sabeh Sr. in 2013. She served on the Long Range/Strategic Planning Committee and the Development/Advancement Committee. Sabeh is mother to two Harker Eagles: Joe Sabeh Jr. ’93 and Grace (Sabeh) Wallace ’95. An interior designer, Sabeh ran her own company, Exquisite Interior Designs, for 22 years, and then transitioned to real estate. She is a buyer’s agent under the Joseph Sabeh Executive Homes Group at Venture Sotheby’s International Realty.

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passion

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS BY

“I get to … offer strategies to help cultivate a more compassionate America.”– Wajahat Ali MS’ 94 A sampling of Ali’s writings

Ali’s new book that is coming out on Jan. 25

Please Vaccinate Your Teenager to Protect My 4-Year-Old The New York Times, May 29, 2021

It Took a Near Coup From the Military to Stop Trump’s Coup The Daily Beast, Sept. 14, 2021

The Domestic Crusaders McSweeny’s Publishing

32 HARKER MAGAZINE l FALL/WINTER 2020 40 HAR KE R MAGA Z I NE l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

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Photo by Damon Dahlen, Huffington Post

hen Wajahat Ali MS ’94 arrived at Harker, he was a shy, nerdy kid who wore Husky pants and had lentil stains on his shirt. In fifth grade, he suffered from debilitating allergies and missed more than 30 days of school. His family pleaded with the school to let him stay. The school agreed, with the understanding that he would have to work hard to catch up, which he did, making what he called “an epic comeback.”

But it was more than a comeback. When his favorite lower school teacher, Sue Peterson, asked students to write a one-page story, Ali was inspired and wrote 10 pages. Peterson loved it and asked him to recite it in front of the class and then again at the talent show, which he did to rave reviews. The experience made him realize the power of his voice.

It was then that Ali began to find his passion – storytelling – but it was a messy and unconventional journey. He’s a big believer in blowing up the societal checklist of what we should be striving for.

Photo provided by W. W. Norton & Company

“Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American”

Photo provided by Wajahat Ali MS ‘94

Alumnus found his passion after taking messy, unconventional road

CONTRIBUTORS AS NOTED

“I would not have found my passion if I had followed the checklist of expectations,” said Ali. “If I hadn’t gone off the path, then I would probably be a miserable corporate attorney. But I’m not, and I’m so grateful I get to do what I’m passionate about.”

Ali has many titles, from playwright and author to speaker and journalist. He has a new book coming out in January, titled “Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American.”

“Wajahat Ali’s deeply personal and keenly perceptive memoir is a cleareyed account of his American immigrant experience – an experience that is both unique and universal,” said Katie Couric, the Emmy Award-winning journalist who read an advance copy. “We are all fortunate to be on the receiving end of not only his intellect, but his humanity and heart.”

His humanity and heart were nurtured on his bumpy road that was filled with challenges, detours and uncertainty. But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ali attended the University of California, Berkeley, and in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he became an accidental activist. During his senior year, he missed

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo provided by Lavin Agency

classes for three weeks as he organized protests, gathered with fellow student leaders and became an ambassador of all things Muslim.

Kureshi, a family medicine physician, and started a family that now includes three children under the age of 7.

But when Ali returned to his English class with professor Ishmael Reed, he was given an opportunity for another epic comeback.

Reed told Ali to write a 20-page play on the inner lives of American Muslims in order to pass the class. Despite having no experience writing plays, Ali turned in a play (what would become “The Domestic Crusaders”) and did indeed pass the class. At that point, Ali had applied to law school and was planning to cross off another item on his checklist to success when his parents were arrested in Operation Cyberstorm.

“Today I am very happy and fulfilled because I get to do what I’m passionate about – write and talk to diverse audiences, be present for my family and hopefully offer indispensable lessons and strategies to help cultivate a more compassionate America,” said Ali, who is grateful that the old checklist blew up and he got to create a new one. “Remember that failure can be a great blessing and while it’s important to strive for success, it’s also important to be happy.”

Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

“The checklist blew up – my parents were in jail, I moved home to care for my aging grandmother, bankruptcy loomed and law school was off the table – so I had to create my own checklist,” said Ali, who was the golden child until this moment. “I was supposed to be risk averse, but I had nothing more to lose, so I went all in on the play and my writing career, thinking, ‘I’ll either drown or make this happen.’”

But then his 30s were a time for renewal as he became a regular contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic and The Washington Post. He also helped launch the Al Jazeera America network as co-host of “The Stream,” a daily news show that extended the conversation to social media and beyond. During this time, he also moved to Washington, D.C., married Sarah

Photo provided by Harker Archives

Photo by Mark Kocina

Photo by Bret Hartman

Ultimately, he decided to attend law school while continuing to write. Ali put everything he had into “The Domestic Crusaders,” which was successfully published and produced while he attended law school at the University of California, Davis. He graduated in 2007. He describes his 20s as pure survival as he grappled with family challenges, completed law school and worked hard to continue writing.

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face time

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ina Anand is a grade 1 science teacher with strong family roots. With four sisters, a mom with “boundless energy and positivity,” a husband of 32 years, and two daughters (Ananya ’09 and Namrata ‘10) who are “loving and amazing,” Anand is deeply grateful for the support and strength of her family. That family also includes two chocolate labs, Deva and Simha. Anand was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Chennai, India, and has taught at Harker for 21 years. Read on to learn more about this longtime member of the Harker family.

What are two things you like to do when you finally have a block of free time?

Singing and taking long walks on the beach.

What is the one thing in the world you would fix if you could wave a magic wand?

I would make all human beings feel empathy and kindness, so people no longer cause pain and suffering to animals and others.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Being in the classroom with my students.

What is something you would happily fail at?

I believe that failing is a prerequisite for learning and mastery. I am happy to fail at anything, especially at things I want to learn.

What is something one of your parents said that you will never forget?

My father always said, “Give people the benefit of the doubt.”

What gives you a reason to smile?

Spotting a deer, watching a hawk, hearing a crow caw, the ocean waves, the tree branches swaying, the clouds in the sky …

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Nina Anand

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New Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment

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he school is pleased to announce the addition of a new endowment at Harker to benefit Harker’s visual arts department and visual arts students.

The Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment was launched this year and is made possible by the generosity of Pam Dickinson, Office of Communication director and parent of Casey Near ’06. This endowment recognizes the school’s impressive K-12 visual arts department by providing resources to inspire and enhance the educational experience of Harker’s visual art students.

“This endowment brings much-deserved recognition and support to the incredible visual arts department that has always been a strong and vital part of Harker’s academic program. We are excited by the opportunities that this will afford our students and our school community,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs.

“This endowment will strengthen our school’s connection to the global community.”

— Joshua Martinez, visual arts department chair Photos provided by Britta Clausnitzer

“This endowment will strengthen our school’s connection to the global art community by facilitating the expansion of our artist residency program,” said Joshua Martinez, visual arts department chair. “Our students will be able to work with a diverse group of artists who will open them up to new and exciting perspectives. We are so thankful for this generous gift!”

“When I was a child, I devoted more time in school making elaborate report covers and displays than on the projects themselves,” laughed Dickinson, who has also been a graphic designer and photographer in her career. “I have always loved art and the way it moves and transforms us. It’s actually a gift for me to have this opportunity to give some heartfelt love to Harker’s art department and art students.”

The endowment’s inaugural event will be the residence of Britta Clausnitzer in January 2022. She is an artist, curator and museum educator living and working in Berlin, and will be at Harker for one week, giving talks and leading the middle and upper school arts students in a collaborative project that is part painting and part performance.

The Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment joins the following Harker endowments: The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, est. 2009; The Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, est. 2011; the Raju & Balu Vegesna Foundation Teacher Excellence Program, est. 2015; the Chen Lin Family Endowment in the Humanities, est. 2020; the Rothschild Family Financial Aid Endowment Fund, est. 2020; The Mohammed Family Endowment for Creative Opportunities for the Upper School Humanities and Journalism Faculty, est. 2020; the Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund, est. 2021; the Zhu Family Endowment in Support of the Humanities, est. 2021; and The Ron Chen and Fiona Griffiths Family Endowment in Support of the Humanities, est. 2021. For more information on establishing endowments or to support an existing endowment, contact Kim Lobe, director of advancement, at kim.lobe@harker.org.

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class notes

class notes Keep up to date on the lives of your classmates.

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

For a list of Harker Academy class agents for the Classes of 1972-97, please contact Kristina Alaniz at alumni@harker.org.

1984 ’85 and Kimani Irby ’85, and loved every minute of our ’80s flashback moments!” Okimura further reports that she was appointed to the board of trustees for Safe Sport International, a U.K.-based charity working with international sport federations in the area of athlete safeguarding. She is also on the executive board of Angel City Sports in Los Angeles, a human rights organization focused on providing opportunities for disabled and non-disabled persons to participate in adaptive sports through the annual Angel City Games and leading up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics.

2002 CLASS AGENTS: Akhsar Kharebov axarharebate@gmail.com Yasmin Ali yasminfali@gmail.com

Adrienne Luce was named director of the Claremont Museum of Art. After attending Harker Academy from 198184, Adrienne went on to graduate from Tabor Academy in 1988. She attended Arizona State University, receiving her B.A. as a double major in art history and studio art, and received her MFA in sculpture at Claremont Graduate University. Read the full announcement: https://bit.ly/3pqpb2i 44

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Isabella Liu isabella.a.liu@gmail.com

Teja Patil married Amar Patel on July 31 in an intimate family ceremony in Mendocino. Teja is a hospitalist at the VA Palo Alto and recently became a certified physician coach. This year, she also joined the Harker Board of Trustees.

See more about her work on page 39.

Photo provided by World Paravolley/Tokyo 2020

Lori Okimura writes, “I had the opportunity to be involved as an international technical official in the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. While in Tokyo, I was invited to participate in the ‘Tokyo Action’ campaign to highlight diversity and inclusion efforts by Tokyo 2020. I was honored to become the first American woman, and the only woman, to serve on the competition jury for sitting volleyball at the Paralympic Games (the U.S. women won gold!). It was amazing to watch the United States become the first country in the history of the games to win gold in all disciplines of a single sport: Olympic women’s indoor and beach volleyball, and Paralympic women’s sitting volleyball.

A few years ago in Southern California, I had the chance to catch up with good friends Loren Due

2003

2006

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENTS:

Julia N. Gitis juliag@gmail.com

Casey L. Near caseylane@gmail.com

Maheen Kaleem maheenkaleem@gmail.com

Meghana Dhar meghanadhar@gmail.com

2004

Jeffrey Le Jeff87@gmail.com

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

Whitney Huang returned to the upper school campus this fall to teach journalism. Writers for the upper school student newspaper, “Winged Post,” wrote more about Whitney’s journey back to Harker and how it feels like to be back on campus in her new role.

Read the story here: https://issuu.com/ harkeraqila/docs/harker_upperschool_ wingedpost_issue2_21-22

2009 CLASS AGENTS: : Stephanie J. Guo stephanie.j.guo@gmail.com David Kastelman davidksworld@gmail.com

Vickie Duong and her husband, Alan Lo, welcomed their baby boy, Remy, on Sept.

9. Remy’s middle name is inspired by the race track in Italy that the couple visited on their honeymoon, and his first name is a play on the couple’s moniker “Alkie.”

2005 CLASS AGENT: Erika N. Gudmundson erika.gudmundson@gmail.com

After 10 years with Tesla and Casper, Jeff Liu joined Ephemeral Tattoo as CEO in 2020. It took six years of research and development for Ephemeral Tattoo to create the world’s only made-to-fade tattoo (applied by real tattoo artists), which are designed to last nine to 15 months.

After opening its first studio in Brooklyn in March, Ephemeral raised a $20 million Series A to fund its expansion (a Los Angeles location is coming soon), and its mission is to create a world of limitless self-expression. You can read more about the company’s story at https://www. bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-0707/-tattoo-for-a-year-startup-ephemeralinks-20-million-funding-round

2007 CLASS AGENTS: Cassandra Kerkhoff cass.kerkhoff@gmail.com

Alex Loh reports, “I left for officer training school in August and graduated at the end of September. I will be heading back to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., to attend Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course (JASOC).”

He adds that he and his wife, Melissa, recently moved back to Saratoga, and that once he returns from JASOC, he will be joining Akerman LLP in January.

Audrey L. Kwong Audmusic@gmail.com

2008 CLASS AGENTS: Senan Ebrahim sebrahim@fas.harvard.edu Stephanie J. Syu ssyu363@yahoo.com

Candace Silva-Martin writes, “After postponing our wedding celebration over a year due to COVID, my husband and I finally held our wedding in San Diego with all of our friends and family. Although we had to wait longer than anticipated, we did get to include our son, Cassian, in the festivities and all of my West Coast family finally got to meet him!

“Also, I just recently started a new role with PricewaterhouseCoopers as a senior manager in their investigations and forensics practice. I will be focused on leading data teams to analyze and develop technical solutions to some of the most challenging fraud and forensics problems impacting organizations today.”

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class notes It’s never too late to catch up! The Class of 2010 will finally be celebrating its 10year reunion this year. Please reach out to your class agents for more details!

Daniel Wyleczuk-Stern married Christina Jannuzzi in North Beach, Md., on Aug. 1.

Lana Luong married Alan Truong on Oct. 8. She writes, “We met in the first grade (not at Harker, unfortunately) and have known each other ever since, but we didn’t start dating until after college.

He proposed at Disneyland, which is one of our favorite places to visit, and also managed to make the proposal feel nice and private, which is quite the feat if you’ve ever seen the crowds at Disneyland!” Michael Clifford and Amy Rorabaugh were at the wedding, as was Timothy Luong ’13, Luong’s brother and the officiant.

CLASS AGENTS: Adrienne Wong adriee@gmail.com Kevin J. Fu kf800@yahoo.com 46

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2011 CLASS AGENTS: Hassaan Ebrahim hassaan.e@gmail.com Moneesha R. Mukherjee rani.mukherjee18@gmail.com

The Class of 2011 will be celebrating its 10-year reunion this year. Please reach out to your class agents for more details!

Daniel Cho writes, “I recently joined BalletX as a dance fellow for their 202021 season. Ever since I started ballet, this contemporary ballet company based in Philadelphia had always been my dream company for their immensely talented

Ananya Anand got engaged in October to Kyle Treige. Ananya, daughter of longtime Harker teacher Nina Anand, is a general surgery resident at Stanford.

Kyle works at a venture capital firm in San Francisco and is originally from Madison, Wis. The proposal took place at Ananya’s childhood home, where the couple celebrated with close friends and family.

2010

Kendra Moss married Felipe Saffie at the Carousel House in Santa Barbara on Oct. 23. In attendance were maid of honor Liz Cutler ’09, Lexi Ross ’09 and Sophi Scarnewman ’09, and of course her brother Kevin Moss ’14. The couple lives in Santa Barbara.

In August, Liz Burstein tied the knot with Braden Allchin in Napa Valley. The two gathered 140 treasured friends and family members to celebrate their love.

Liz and Braden live in New York City, where she runs a virtual neurology startup called Neura Health and he works at a stealth startup.

dancers and the incredible variety in their repertoire. I feel so grateful to be continuing my dance career especially coming out of a pandemic and can’t wait to continue my growth as a ballet dancer and an artist!”

Read more about Daniel and BalletX at https://www.balletx.org/dancer/daniel-cho/

Henri with the New York City skyline in the background and some help from a few friends holding up a tarp. Drew and Leah met while attending Duke University, and Leah is a fellow Bay Area native.

They plan to get married late next year.

2018

2014

Gloria Guo gloria.jx.guo@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS:

Dolan Dworak ddworak@umich.edu

2012

Adith Rengaramchandran adithram@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS:

Nithya Vemireddy nithya.vemireddy@gmail.com

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

2015

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

2016 CLASS AGENTS:

On Oct. 8, Max Isenberg got down on one knee and proposed to longtime girlfriend Julia Chen in Philadelphia.

Stephanie Huang stephaniehuang17@gmail.com

2013

Michael Zhao michael.zhao@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS:

Mary Najibi mary.najibi@gmail.com

Nick Chuang njchuang@usc.edu Nikhil Panu guruhounddawg@gmail.com

Drew Goldstein proposed to fiancée Leah Goldman on Aug. 21, getting on one knee in the middle of Hurricane

Melissa Kwon mwjkwan@gmail.com

Connie Li connieli32@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS: Katy Sanchez ktlynnsanchez@gmail.com

Kathir Sundarraj kathir.sraj95@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS: Amitej Mehta djamitej@gmail.com

Grace Guan guanzgrace@gmail.com

Edward Sheu edwardsheu.ca@gmail.com Kurt Schwartz kurticus100@gmail.com

2017

Last summer, Anastasia Cheplyansky had a unique opportunity to participate in the creation of world-renowned choreographer Vasily Medvedev and assistant choreographer Stanislav Feco’s world premiere, “The Romance of the Rose and the Butterfly - A Love Story.”

Medvedev has set ballets on the biggest stages in Europe, including Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow and Staatsballett Berlin.

Anastasia had the honor of performing the lead role as the Rose and the antagonist, Nasturtium, for this new ballet. The performance was held at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and will also be performed by schools and companies throughout Europe.

2019

CLASS AGENTS: Emre Ezer emre.ezer10@gmail.com

CLASS AGENTS: Matthew Hajjar matthew.hajjar@gmail.com

Alex Youn ahsyoun@gmail.com

Olivia Esparza oesparza@poets.whittier.edu

David Zhu david.zhu@gmail.com

Mahi Gurram mgurram@colgate.edu

Maile Chung mailchung.pb@gmail.com

Riya Gupta gupta2001riya@gmail.com

Haley Tran haleyktran@gmail.com

Kelsey Wu kelseywu@college.harvard.edu H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2021 47

class notes 2020

2021

CLASS AGENTS:

CLASS AGENTS:

Lauren Beede 20blauren@gmail.com

Kristin Tong kristintong@gmail.com

Chloe Chen chloe.chen@bc.edu

Olivia Guo olivia.guo@pepperdine.edu

Garce Hajjar gracehajjar@g.ucla.edu

Helen Zhu helen.c.zhu@gmail.com

life, so being able to meet with her at a football game was an amazing way to reconnect the Notre Dame way!”

Bennett Liu bennett.c.liu@gmail.com Anika Tiwari anika.tiwari@gmail.com

Don’t miss out! The Class of 2020 will be honored on Jan 2, 2022, at Hayes Mansion in San Jose. Contact Kristina Alaniz at kristina.alaniz@harker.org for more details on this event.

In October, Simar Bajaj had manuscripts published in medical journals “Nature Medicine” and “The Lancet.” His works focused on voter engagement in the health care field and the racism and misogyny faced by Black women in medicine. He writes, “For me, writing represents civic engagement and a unique opportunity to help bring about a more equitable world. With waves of voter suppression targeted at disadvantaged communities and the suffocating double standard experienced by Black women professionals, I wanted to offer my voice to discuss these injustices and the corresponding responsibilities of health care professionals to combat them. I am humbled that ‘Nature Medicine’ and ‘The Lancet’ published my work and grateful that they are helping push the conversation forward on health equity. I am also endlessly grateful for my teachers and mentors at Harker who empowered me to use my voice and my craft in service of justice.”

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HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2021

Multiyear Teja Patil ’02 and Andy Fang ’10 were appointed to Harker’s board of trustees. They join Surbhi Sarna ’03 and chair Albert Zecher Jr. ’79 as alumni members. See the full story on page 39.

Tiphaine said, “I had such a blast reconnecting with Lauren at a football game this fall. It was wonderful and surreal seeing my Eagle buddy all grown up, thousands of miles from home and thriving at my alma mater!”

Lauren Beede ’20 and Tiphaine Delépine ’13 met as students paired up in Harker’s Eagle Buddies program and shared a touching story about how they have connected through the years.

Cole Davis ’10, Drew Goldstein ’13 and “Once I was admitted to Notre Dame, Jessica Khojasteh ’11 became the latest Tiphaine provided insight as an alum,” said inductees into the Harker Athletic Hall of Lauren. “Having her guidance has been Fame at a special ceremony held at the extremely helpful as I acclimate to college athletic center at this year’s Harker Day.

“Alma Mater, Proud and True” A majority of current Harvard students from Harker met up for brunch in Dunster House.

Shown clockwise from left: Alycia Cary ’19, Gloria Zhang ’20, Andrew Lu ’21, Simar Bajaj ’20, Avi Gulati ’20, Alyssa Huang ’20, Rakesh Nori ’20, Katherine Tian ’19, Cynthia Chen ’20, Jai Bahri ’20, Sahana Srinivasan ’18, Justin Xie ’18, Aditya Dhar ’17 and Melissa Kwan ’18.

“We had a great time!” said Avi.

In Memoriam

On July 3, beloved former upper school English teacher Marc Hufnagl passed away at his home in Switzerland following a brave battle with prostate cancer. He had been living in Switzerland with his husband, Juerg, after his retirement in 2016.

He was accompanied by Juerg, his sister, Jan, and his dog, Nico, at the time of his death. “We are heartbroken from the loss of our beloved Marc, but we know he will live on in the hearts and minds of all those who knew and loved him,” Jan said. Mr. Hufnagl joined Harker in 2001 and taught English at the upper school for 15 years. For more, please see https://news.harker.org/former-english-teacher-marc-hufnagl-passes-away/

Honoring the

Cl a ss of 2020!

Due to the pandemic, the traditional graduation, with all its pomp and circumstance, for the Class of 2020 had to be canceled. We are proud and honored to bring this historic class back for the celebration that they missed.

On Jan. 2, 2022, we will be honoring them at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose. While this is only for the graduates, their families and advisors, we know you all join us in congratulating this special class!

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2021 49

Preschool

I

Summer Programs

Thewww.harker.org Harker School 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose , CA 95129

final frame

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