Harker Magazine Spring/Summer 2021 by The Harker School

A PUBLICATION OF THE HARKER SCHOOL l SPRING/SUMMER 2021

M A G A Z I N E

A Day to Celebrate

Graduation returns to the winery

ESSENTIAL WORKERS

MIDDLE SCHOOL CAMPUS

JOURNALISM

M A G A Z I N E

SPRI NG/SU M M ER 2021, V O LU ME 12, N U MB E R 2

Pam Dickinson Office of Communication Director Catherine Snider Managing Editor Mark Kocina, Ben Green Photographers 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 30% recycled paper.

On the cover: Our seniors took a first step towards normalcy with an in-person graduation at the Mountain Winery. Photo by Ben Green On this page and back cover: Lower school students enjoy their return to school for Fun Fridays. This page: Photo by Mark Kocina Back cover: Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

HAR K E R MAGA Z I N E l SPRI N G/S UM M E R 2021

CONT E NTS Essential Workers The operational staff who keep Harker running.

A Vision Complete The new middle school campus fulfills a Harker dream.

Breaking the News How Harker’s journalism program trains tomorrow’s reporters.

A Remarkable Gesture of Thanks Alumnus gifts $10 million to fund scholarships.

6 16 28 40

Headlines Head of School Brian Yager’s graduation address on finding the positive. 2

Top Stories

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

Recent stories reprinted from Harker News online.

Harker News publishes stories online about our students and faculty, highlighting accomplishments and celebrating successes. Top Stories reprints the most widely read Harker News stories since the last issue of Harker Magazine (fall/winter 2020) 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.

Alumnus Justin Shamlou ’11, remembered for ability to inspire, passes at 27 Feb. 26, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-aXE Harker was saddened to report the passing of Justin Shamlou ‘11, who died unexpectedly on Feb. 15 at the age of 27. Born April 21, 1993 in Plantation, Fla., Shamlou moved with his family to Japan and Singapore before they settled in California. At Harker, Shamlou was a varsity football player with a love for music and poetry. After graduation, he attended the University of South Carolina. Most recently, he was a senior writer at the consumer advocacy website Grit Daily. (See more on page 47.)

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HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l S P RI N G/S UM M E R 2021

DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang ’10 gifts $10 million April 7, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-aZJ DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang, a 2010 Harker graduate, today gifted $10 million to The Harker School to establish The Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund. The fund will create a permanent legacy at The Harker School to provide need-based financial aid to students who qualify for admission, but otherwise could not afford tuition and fees. It will support Harker’s commitment to diversity at the school. (For the full story, see page 40.)

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Senior Anna Vazhaeparambil named Journalist of the Year Runner-Up April 16, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-aXZ In April, senior Anna Vazhaeparambil was named a runner-up in the JEA Journalist of the Year contest. JEA recognized Vazhaeparambil for her dedication to improving coverage of junior varsity and girls sports. “While we would cover every single football game, for example, there would only be one or two articles written about softball or girls water polo,” she told JEA. Her mission to increase diversity in reporting informed her later work covering political events such as elections and protests. Jurors praised Vazhaeparambil for her perseverance and ability to cover a wide range of topics as well as her leadership qualities.

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base hit and did not walk any hitters, only twice allowing the ball-count to reach three.

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18 graduates named National Merit winners May 17, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b0F

Senior becomes congressional debate national champion April 27, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b0X Senior Andrew Sun was named the congressional debate national champion at the online Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky. This tournament is difficult for students to even qualify to attend, let alone win first place! Students must place highly at regular season tournaments to be invited to attend the event.

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semifinalists were selected from 6,500 candidates in the competition, who were selected from 3.6 million graduating seniors. Priyam is one of 12 seniors who were selected as candidates in this year’s competition, which each year identifies students who have excelled in academics, the arts, and career and technical education. As part of their application, candidates submit materials including essays, transcripts and self-assessments. The Presidential Scholars program was created by the U.S. Department of Education in 1964 and is recognized as one of the highest honors U.S. high school students can receive.

............................................................... Successful season for middle and upper school robotics competitors April 29, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b14 Harker’s upper and middle school VEX robotics teams had a very successful year, with seven teams qualifying for the world championship in May and four winning awards at the recent California state championship. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most VEX events were held remotely.

Junior Mark Hu pitches first perfect game in Harker history May 12, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b29 Junior Mark Hu gave an incredible, history-making performance on the mound on May 11, pitching Harker baseball’s first-ever perfect game in a 15-0 victory against Priory. Striking out 18 of 21 batters, Hu denied Priory even a single

A total of 18 recent graduates have been named winners in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Competition. Congratulations to Manasa Bhimaraju, Preston Ellis, Fonda Hu, Jason Lin, Andrew Lu, Claire Luo, Arya Maheshwari, Akshay Manglik, Krishay Mukhija, Utkarsh Priyam, Aditya Singhvi, Andrew Sun, Betsy Tian, Daniel Wang, N Wang, Sidra Xu, Russell Yang and Helen Zhu! More winners are expected to be announced over the summer and Harker News will update this story accordingly.

............................................................... Girls tennis wins first team CCS championship, Chung ‘21 wins swimming titles June 1, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b2Z Harker girls tennis made history over Memorial Day weekend, winning their first ever Central Coast Section championship with a 6-1 win over Menlo School. It is the fourth team CCS championship in school history. Harker swimming had success at the CCS swimming championships, as Matthew Chung ‘21 became the CCS champion in both the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard butterfly.

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Senior Utkarsh Priyam named Presidential Scholar semifinalist April 29, 2021 https://wp.me/pOeLQ-b18 In April, senior Utkarsh Priyam was named one of 625 semifinalists in the 2021 Presidential Scholars competition. These H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, BEN GREEN

n total, Harker’s campuses make up more than half a million square feet and 240 classrooms. Over the last year, although the sites have remained largely empty, nearly 100 Harker staff members have remained regulars on campus, performing the essential duties that keep Harker running. For these staff members, the day usually starts early or ends late. Before the pandemic, bus driver Ray Frank, who currently supervises students on campus to make sure social distancing protocols are being followed, woke up at 4:30 a.m. to arrive in time to prepare the vehicles to transport students. “I’d get the buses warmed up and check them out, check the brakes and all the lights, make sure everything’s good before we get the kids,” said Frank, who has been at Harker for 13 years. “And when we pick the kids up, the bus is nice and warm.”

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JR Del Alto

The operational staff who keep Harker running H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Ray Frank

Urdelin Justo

Steve Pacheco

Maria Parry “The staff continue to impress with their willingness to be on-site every day, doing the things that make our working lives so much easier, and they are just an amazingly dedicated group.”

Roberto Pena

– Janet Rohrer, assistant facilities director

Janet Rohrer 8

HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l S P RI N G/S UM M E R 2021

Prior to the school shutdown, drivers moved hundreds of students every day, shuttling them between campuses and to and from sporting events and field trips, in addition to the several hometo-school routes Harker maintained, according to transportation director Heather Armada. With in-person instruction and activities drastically limited, drivers such as Frank have been kept busy with other important responsibilities. Frank currently arrives at the upper school campus prior to the arrival of students and works until lunch time. In the afternoon, he works with the lower school’s after-school program, checking students’ temperatures and making sure they are safe when leaving campus. For the many Harker events that took place throughout the year prior to last year’s shutdown, the final product that visitors see is the result of work that often begins early in the morning and ends late at night. “[Event preparation] starts at 6:30 in the morning and goes until 11 o’clock at night during the normal school year,” said Mike Bassoni,

Mike Bassoni organization to write in their needs.” These needs include the number of tables and chairs, the expected number of guests and food requests. “People don’t realize it until we all show up for some kind of presentation, but there are 42 people in the [facilities] department, so it takes a lot of people behind the scenes,” added Bassoni. Although the COVID-19 pandemic halted the vast majority of oncampus activity, facilities staff have remained to keep Harker’s campuses in top condition for the eventual full reopening. In the meantime, many faculty, staff and students have returned to campus to work under safety guidelines made necessary by the pandemic. “We wanted to assure anyone coming on the campus that they were coming to a safe and very sanitary workplace,” Bassoni said.

To this end, special bipolar ionization devices have been added to every airflow space across Harker’s campuses, and the maintenance staff has been a constant Laura Navarro presence since last spring. Although activity has fallen drastically, their work has remained essential. “All of us are pretty facilities director. “It’s almost a sevenmuch making sure everything’s still day-a-week process, and we actually getting cleaned, as if it was a normal have a formal software package school day, the bathrooms, garbage, that allows everyone in the Harker

all that stuff,” said Johnny Castro, a custodian at the upper school campus. “On top of that, we’re doing the disinfecting, which is very important right now.” In addition to the usual day-to-day duties, all high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs and desktops are thoroughly disinfected to maintain COVID-19 safety standards. Even with the limited activity on campus, however, the crew’s days can vary. “We have a normal routine of what we disinfect every day, but there are certain days where, for example, they have a performance in the theater or maybe they’re doing something in the auxiliary gym,” said Castro. “Those days we have either two or three extra people disinfecting everything, pretty much top to bottom.” In addition to cleaning, the facilities staff has been busy keeping Harker’s campuses in top condition. “We do everything from light HVAC repairs to electrical troubleshooting, making sure that everything’s up to par,” said JR Del Alto, upper school facilities manager. “Even during the lockdown, I was coming in every day. There are still things that need to have upkeep.” Campus facilities such as the upper school’s Singh Aquatic Center are in near-constant need of monitoring. “If we let the chemicals at the pool go bad, we can get plaster deterioration or green algae growing,” said Del Alto. H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Johnny Castro

Larry Washington Jovito Basilan Jim Gavron

“So there was always something to be done. Even during the period of a month or two when nobody was on campus, we were still here.” Maintaining campus grounds is also a year-round process, as groundskeepers maintain the health of the plants, trees and landscapes at every campus. “Groundskeepers also maintain a lot of the safety aspects for the school,” said Janet Rohrer, assistant facilities director. “They make sure there aren’t tripping hazards and that debris doesn’t accumulate that can cause a health hazard or a physical hazard.” During the pandemic, groundskeepers have sometimes found themselves busier during the day, as there are fewer worries about noise disturbances. “We don’t have time [for some work] during the school year because we don’t want to make too much noise close to the classrooms,” said Urdelin Justo, upper school groundskeeper. “But in this pandemic, we’ve done more than we have before.” Other ongoing needs include security, which has been maintained even with 10

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the massive reduction in on-campus activity. Before campuses were shut down, Maria Parry, a 21-year Harker employee who began working security at the middle school campus about six years ago, would arrive early to scan the campus before any other staff or students arrived. As people began to arrive, she would help direct traffic before setting out on patrols, which remained constant during the shutdown. “We are still patrolling,” Parry said. “We take it seriously.” Roberto Pena, a security worker assigned to the middle school campus, is typically on patrol until late in the evening. He has found that two days are seldom the same. “There’s always something different going on,” he said, noting that several athletic activities recently resumed. “We’ve got cross country going on and we’ve got the volleyball session going on, and then we do have baseball and softball starting up as well.” Pena finds his responsibilities shifting day to day, often communicated to him by email with specific guidelines for the day’s events. When not monitoring events, he spends time patrolling the campus. “When something else ends, something else starts,” he said. “It never feels like I’m not doing anything.” Like many of Harker’s essential workers, Pena is eager to see students resume regular campus attendance, particularly to experience sporting

events. “I was at the upper school campus when the girls volleyball team had their big CCS run,” he said. “When you’re walking by, hearing the crowd go off … those are the good parts.” Kitchen staff, who before the pandemic served hundreds of people every day, are hoping to return to the creativity they enjoyed when campuses teemed with activity. “During the year, there’s a lot more people here, so there’s a lot more variety to choose from,” said Laura Navarro, a kitchen aide at the upper school, who said she also misses seeing students and faculty on campus each day. “I like being around the kids and teachers. It makes me happy to give them the things that they like.” Lisa Machuca, food service manager at the middle school, also looks forward to “everything going back to normal, and being more creative with what we serve. We’re going to have a lot of different stations and different foods.” The dedication and hard work of the operational staff doesn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the Harker community, Rohrer said. “I have found at Harker that everybody makes special efforts to make sure to recognize our staff,” she said. “The staff continue to impress with their willingness to be on-site every day, doing the things that make our working lives so much easier, and they are just an amazingly dedicated group.”

face time

hen asked what she is grateful for, Abigail Joseph responds, “The opportunity to recreate myself over and over again.” This spirit of curiosity and deep reflection shines throughout Harker Magazine’s talk with the middle school’s director of learning, innovation and design (LID). Joseph’s family is an international one: Her parents immigrated to Canada (where Joseph was born) from Trinidad and Tobago. She has lots of family in those countries and in the U.S., as well as European family on her Finnish husband’s side. Joseph is a leader on the school’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team, an advisor to the middle school’s Student Diversity Coalition, and coordinator of both the Discovery X program and the middle school faculty and student LID Council. Enjoy learning more about this self-described nerd, creative and innovator with a Ph.D. in computer science.

What one piece of advice you would offer anyone who asks? Think big. Be big. And play big. You only get one life; you might as well live without regrets. Out of failure and disappointment grows resilience and perseverance.

Where is the one place in the world that you like to escape to? The ocean or any body of water. There is something about the sound of the waves, the smell of salt water, negative ions and looking into the void that melts away my worries, puts me at ease, and opens me to endless possibilities.

What are two things you like to do when you finally have a block of free time? Create and reflect. I love to learn through making things and dream about what can be and come up with ideas on how to get there.

What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows? I love to dance. In graduate school, I danced seven days a week – ballet, jazz, swing and salsa.

What are you most proud of? My 174-page dissertation. I defended my Ph.D. thesis the day after opening night of a dance show in which I performed and had my first choreographed piece. It was an epic moment in my life where I was in complete flow.

What are you doing when you feel most alive? Observing the world and connecting. I love to stop and smell the roses, people watch and uncover stories that go beyond.

When did you first really feel like an adult? When I bought my first car. I bought it new and it is now 23 years old and has over 320,000 miles and still keeps me moving from A to B.

Abigail Joseph H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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sports

HAR K E R MAGA Z I NE l S PRI N G/S UM M E R 2021

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BEN GREEN

ith a late start to a condensed season, the Eagles persevered, reaching great success in the realm of athletics. Girls varsity tennis ended Menlo’s 24-year WBAL win streak early on and finished the year strong with Harker’s first CCS title in the sport. Boys volleyball also won the CCS title. In baseball, junior Mark Hu threw the first documented perfect game in school history! Both boys and girls golf teams won CCS for the first time, and senior Natalie Vo was named individual CCS champion as well as WBAL Player of the Year. At press time, five track and field athletes and the boys 4x100 team had qualified for CCS finals after a historical league championship meet with three athletes crowned league champions, and girls basketball advanced from the CCS quarterfinals to the semifinals.

Photo by Maria Gong, alumni parent

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021 13

impact

Alumnus launches startup that disrupts the grocery space

“Sean is famous for saying, ‘If I can’t impact one person, how can I impact the world?’” – Henry Kim, Swiftly co-founder

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY SEAN TURNER ’06 AND HARKER ARCHIVES 14

ean Turner ’06 had the entrepreneurial spirit in middle school when he sold high-end pens from his suitcase to his classmates and teachers. Turner leveraged his mom’s business to purchase pens at wholesale, then marked them up to make a profit. He laughs when he thinks about the company; he became their No. 2 retailer and they had no idea they were working with a middle school student.

Turner proved himself at Intel during high school and continued working there while studying computer engineering/computer science at the University of Southern California. Then he landed an internship at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus, which ultimately led to his first job after he graduated from USC. While Turner was at Microsoft, he traveled extensively for work, including trips to his alma mater, where he recruited for the company.

Turner is a Harker lifer who found his love of technology in Dave Feinberg’s computer science classes. He had such natural intellect and passion for technology that Joe Rosenthal, then the director of advancement, tapped a connection and helped Turner land an internship at Intel.

It was during this time that Turner, in true engineering fashion, calculated how much time he was spending slogging through airports and security checks and decided that driving was actually quicker. But his problemsolving didn’t stop there. After he flew to Tahoe in a friend’s private plane in 45 minutes, he realized the ultimate way to get around was just to fly yourself. So he enrolled in flight school, earned his private pilot’s license and now owns his own plane.

“I had known Sean to have always been very capable, mature and responsible for years prior to recommending him for that internship,” remembered Rosenthal, now the executive director of strategic initiatives at Harker. “He had a strong interest in business and conducted himself like a good businessman even in those early years.”

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Turner is now an avid flyer, which comes in handy when he’s transporting the team at Swiftly, the startup he co-founded in 2018 with e-commerce veterans Henry Kim, Karen Ho and

Finding the magic

benefit both the consumer and the retailer. “We didn’t know the magic formula, but we knew we could figure it out,” said Turner, who points out that grocery is the No. 3 consumer spending category after housing and transportation. So the team headed to Southern California and got to work in a back conference room at Zion. They tested the software, and worked with customers, cashiers and suppliers to develop just the right set of features. Daniel Kim, all of whom were colleagues at Symphony Commerce, where he worked after Microsoft. Swiftly is a technology platform for supermarkets that brings the advantages of e-commerce to brick-and-mortar stores. From the start, the founders wanted to build the company differently than so many Silicon Valley startups, which are hyper focused on growth and eventual IPO, so they formed a relationship with Zion Market, a 10-store chain in California, Georgia and Texas. They wanted to develop a deep relationship with a meaningful partner to build software that would

Swiftly is a technology platform for supermarkets that helps consumers save money on their favorite brands, find new products and skip the checkout line by scanning and paying from their phone. Supermarkets benefit by growing sales, increasing store visits and winning customer loyalty. “We decided to work with Swiftly about three years ago and since then, the team has delivered on everything they said they would,” said Moses Hwang, COO of Zion Market. “They have increased our basket size [the average number of items sold in a single purchase] by 50 percent and frequency of visit by 40 percent for

shoppers who use the application. As COO, deciding to work with Swiftly is the best decision I have made.” Swiftly has raised more than $30 million in funding. Its technology is now deployed across 8,000 stores nationwide, most recently powering Family Dollar’s digital experience and The SaveMart Companies, which includes SaveMart, Lucky’s and FoodMaxx in California. “I have never worked with anyone – let alone met anyone – as smart and kind as Sean; I was drawn to him by his IQ, but what really stood out after getting to know him was his EQ [emotional quotient],” said Henry Kim, one of Swiftly’s co-founders. “Sean is famous for saying, ‘If I can’t impact one person, how can I impact the world?’ And with this mentality, he is having a huge impact on the world; retailers using our technology are able to sell food at more affordable prices. This is a huge reason why Sean is so passionate about bringing Swiftly tech to the masses.” Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY BEN GREEN UNLESS NOTED

The new middle school campus fulfills a Harker dream

n Aug. 24, 2021, 537 middle school students will be welcomed back not only to in-person school but to a beautiful new campus on Union Avenue in San Jose. When Harker acquired this site in 2012, it could not have imagined that the grand opening of the new campus would follow a global pandemic and more than a year of distance learning. Harker families, students and teachers will join together in celebration of so much – an environmentally friendly campus, a brightened sense of community and a new appreciation for a bustling campus. “I think we’ve all forgotten how much we need connection, and the benefits it brings to our daily lives. The validation that students (and staff ) receive just from talking to each other about their experiences is one of many interactions that I think we’ve all taken for granted,” said Kadar Arbuckle, grades 6-12 learning specialist. “In my mind, the largest challenge is going to be getting back into the day-to-day routine and helping students reacclimatize themselves to school, which will be a huge priority this fall.” The renovated campus will include a two-story classroom building with 39,000 square feet of flexible learning space and 37 classrooms, a theater, and gymnasium and a central sports field. The existing cottage structures will be used for administration offices, a library and a wellness center. “I am looking forward to seeing all of our ideas and planning come to fruition,” said Evan Barth, middle school head. “I am very excited about all the different places on campus the students will be able to connect and be together.” 16

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A VISION COMPLETE

Staying green

“In meeting with Bay Area commercial building trends, all of the newly constructed buildings will be 100 percent heated, cooled and powered by electricity. There will be no fossil fuel burning appliances in any of the new buildings,” said Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facilities director for 40 years, who will retire in June (see box). “These new systems will be supported by a 125 kilowatt solar electric system that will offset most of the power consumed to heat, cool and illuminate the buildings.” But the focus on the environment goes well beyond the new structures and includes many green features, Bassoni noted: • The landscaping primarily comprises drought-tolerant, low-water plants and even the primary lawn is a hybrid Bermuda grass that will provide excellent playability, repair itself quickly and need approximately half the water of traditional blade grass. • The campus will house several bio-

Middle School At a Glance 537

Students 36 Athletic teams 20+ Clubs 16 Sports 16 Annual performances

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Photo by Ben Green

The new campus is aiming for LEED Gold certification, which administrators feel confident they will achieve. Harker takes being green seriously. Nichols Hall, which opened in 2009, was the first LEED Gold certified school building in Santa Clara County. And Harker’s two newest facilities – the Rothschild Performing Arts Center and athletic center, with its Zhang Gymnasium – are also LEED Gold certified.

retention basins, which are large holding ponds that allow storm water to flow through multiple layers of filtering soil, sand and rock, which can then be introduced into the Santa Clara valley aquifer rather than running out into the San Francisco Bay. • And, of course, there will be ample recycling options since this has been part of Harker’s culture for many years. These features will allow all students, including the Middle School Green Team, to be part of protecting our planet. “The Middle School Green Team focuses on educating themselves and their peers on what is going on around the world that is positively or negatively affecting the environment,” said Megan Leonard, facilities coordinator and team advisor. “We have started a Green Team Tip column in the middle school student newsletter and we always try to help make the

connection between environmental issues and how they affect us here at home, even when they are halfway around the world.”

Creating community But being green is just one way that the new middle school will nurture community. From a robust library that expands beyond a physical space with many online resources, to a wellness center focusing on students’ emotional well-being, every nook in this campus is geared toward students. For example, the theater will have 3,600 square feet of audience space that will accommodate 260-360 seats, depending on how the space is arranged, and guarantee a pleasant viewing experience. Compared to the Blackford campus, the space for student actors and teachers will be larger with a better layout and newer equipment. The spacious instrumental music

“This is Harker’s future, and we are coming straight for it, full speed ahead.” – Ananya Pradhan, rising grade 8 student officer

Building Harker Mike Bassoni has worked at Harker for 40 years and will retire in June. Here’s a list of the major projects he has worked on during his tenure. “Being a small part of the past 40 years of Harker’s growth and success has been a real honor,” said Bassoni.

1992

1993-94

New kindergarten building, which is now the upper school art building Dobbins Hall

1998

Acquisition and renovation of original Bucknall campus

1999

Bucknall campus twostory classroom building, gym and pool complex

2000

Shah Hall

2001

Bucknall 500 building

2007-08

Nichols Hall

2016-18

Upper school Rothschild Performing Arts Center and athletic center, with its Zhang Gymnasium

2019-21

Union Avenue middle school campus

“In addition to the instrumental music room, the new campus will also have practice rooms where students can practice either individually or in small groups, creating spaces for music to flourish,” said Jaco Wong, instrumental music teacher. “Having a beautiful outdoor area, a chamber music group or jazz band may even play a few tunes during school days as entertainment!”

Bustling campus A new campus would be exciting under normal circumstances, but after

Photo provided by Devcon Construction, Inc.

room, located behind the theater stage, boasts many windows that will provide ample natural light where students will be free to explore musically while being far away from academic classrooms to avoid disruptions.

more than a year of distance learning, middle school students are ecstatic to see it.

meetings and I will also enjoy playing school volleyball,” said Luke Wu, at Harker since third grade.

“As an eighth grade officer [next year], I am looking forward to giving speeches to my classmates during Monday

The new campus is going to be like a breath of fresh air for the whole Harker community, which has been working

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

Photo provided by Devcon Construction, Inc. Photo provided by Devcon Construction, Inc.

“Despite all the challenges that we’ve faced through virtual learning, I do think that there is a silver lining – this entire experience has made me and other students value our in-person learning so much more!” said Ananya Pradhan, who also will be an eighth grade officer next year. “Finally, I’d like to say on behalf of myself and the student community that we are looking forward to ‘living and breathing’ in the Union campus, and we are so grateful to our teachers and everyone who is working on the construction there! This is Harker’s future, and we are coming straight for it, full speed ahead.”

Union campus features • Flexible learning space to inspire students • 37 classrooms with state-of-the-art equipment • A beautiful theater to take productions to the next level • Light-filled instrumental music room for our young performers 20 HAR KE R MAGA Z I NE l S P RI N G/S UM M E R 2021

• A library, both physical and virtual, to meet the needs of our brightest scholars • Wellness center with peaceful, safe places to help students get grounded • Gymnasium, complete with basketball and volleyball courts and a locker room complex

Photo by Eric Marten

hard to create a space that will be safe, inspiring and enriching for the students to learn and grow. From new classrooms and flexible spaces for students to gather to performing art spaces and athletic facilities, the campus is just waiting for students to arrive.

A VISION COMPLETE

What makes you feel like a kid again? Messing around with chemicals and getting caught up in learning about science.

What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows? I am on the kayak polo U.S. men’s development team and training to attend the kayak polo world championship.

What is the biggest risk you have ever taken in your life? Being a parent!

What gives you a reason to smile?

face time

sk upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine about himself and you’re apt to receive some unusual replies. Ask if he, his wife and two young children have any pets and he’ll tell you about a giant tarantula named Bertha, a sulcata tortoise named Durango and some poison dart frogs. Irvine was born and raised in New York City and Greenwich, Conn., but his choice of Boulder Creek for his current home is a clue to how much he loves hiking, camping and exploring nature. An advisor for the Harker Spirit Leadership Team and a lacrosse coach, Irvine tells Harker Magazine a bit more about his experiences.

Being a parent!

What are you obsessed with? I love uranium and radioactive materials – anything nuclear. I have a quarter pound of depleted uranium!

What is an experience you’ve had that you don’t believe anyone else has had? In 2019 in Death Valley, I saw two UFOs.

What is something one of your parents said that you will never forget? My mother often quoted her father, who survived World War II: “They can take your money, your stuff and your home, but they can never take away your education.”

Andrew Irvine H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021 3721 3721

passion

Brave filmmaker Alumna shares stories that need to be told

W “I started seeing gaps in the world and I knew I wanted to fill them. I had stories to tell and things I wanted to say.” – Sarah Newton ‘10 WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY SARAH NEWTON ’10 AND HARKER ARCHIVES

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hen Sarah Newton ’10, was in her fifth grade creative writing class, she made a list of things she wanted to accomplish: Move to New York, become an actress and don’t smoke. She has accomplished all those things – and so much more.

Newton is a Harker lifer who had many early epiphanies over the years. When she was just 3 years old, she was in a tap performance and discovered her love of theater and being on stage. Then at age 13, she decided she wanted to attend New York University after learning that’s where some Harker alumni who were standout performing artists had gone to college. And when she took AP Psychology, she wrote a play and discovered her love of playwrighting. “As a Harker student, Sarah was wicked funny with a very subtle but quick and sharp wit. She was a keen observer, taking everything in, even when others did not observe or see her, as though she had an invisibility cloak,” said Susan Nace, vocal music teacher. ”Sarah’s keen observations made their way into her creative work with memorably poignant performances. Sarah was not afraid to look at the underside of life with candor, humor and compassion.” From her earliest experiences singing in Harmonics to performing in the upper school plays, Newton’s experiences at Harker confirmed her early predictions that NYU was the right fit. “New York is made up of weird and brilliant individuals and I felt like I could fit and learn to thrive here,” said Newton, who was rarely recognized as a Californian. “When I arrived in New York, I knew I wanted to learn every aspect of theater, not just acting, which is why I was thrilled to be placed in the Playwrights Horizons Studio at NYU.”

Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU Tisch School of the Arts champions the philosophy that every performer should write, every writer should direct, every director should design, every designer should perform and, of course, everyone should be on crew.

check and a satirical look at our acceptance of police brutality in America.

Once Newton decided film would be her career focus, she was ready to launch. She graduated a semester early and she and her best friend from NYU launched B12 Productions, which is dedicated to telling untold stories focused on feminism, justice and awkward conversations.

“I love working with Sarah, because she is a creative genius, she has a great filmmaking mind that can take some of the most convoluted concepts and distill them into clear, powerful shootable scenes,” said Smith, an actor known for ground-breaking performances on television and advocacy for trans representation in media. “I always feel like I’m building when I work with Sarah – the idea is gonna grow and be elevated when she’s involved. She is the future. She is gifted. She is brave.”

They wrote short films and created their own mini film school where they cut their teeth. They learned to edit, add sound and shoot in color. Every short film – from “Hooked” to the “Compliance” series and her most recent, “S’mores” – allowed a skill to be perfected and honed.

In addition to B12, Newton is a film editor who also produces, directs, writes and acts. She and her husband, Will, live in New York and in perfect Manhattan style, got married in Central Park in 2018 under rainy skies with clear umbrellas.

This experience rocked her world and opened up a bevy of new possibilities. “At NYU, I started seeing gaps in the world and I knew I wanted to fill them. I had stories to tell and things I wanted to say,” said Newton enthusiastically. “You cannot be what you cannot see and NYU made me realize how many different options were out there.”

The “Compliance” series was the brainchild of Brian Michael Smith, who was shocked by the murders of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner. It is a series of shorts, a visual gut

It was “gorgeous and extraordinary” – almost like a scene from one of her productions. Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

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PHOTOGRAPHS OF ART

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PROVIDED BY THE ARTISTS UNLESS NOTED

Photos by Ben Green

Claire Zhang TK “Giraffe”

Katy Wang Grade 1 “Frida Catlo Portrait”

Crichton Rockwell Grade 5 “Mindful Moment”

Jessica Li

Grade 3 “MLK Jr. Portrait”

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isual arts students continued to produce amazing work this year. Due to restrictions imposed by pandemic safety guidelines, yearly events took place in online venues such as the website for the AP Studio Art Exhibition, designed by junior Gloria Zhu. Grades 6-12 visual arts chair Joshua Martinez promoted the Honors Directed Portfolio Exhibition in May by sending messages to the community displaying the students’ works. Gerry-louise Robinson, lower school art teacher, organized the Lower School Virtual Art Show, which featured a gallery of young artists posted next to their works. The Middle School Art Exhibit, organized by teacher Sofie Siegmann, also went virtual, showcasing hundreds of pieces by talented young artists.

David Kelly

Grade 6 “Illuminated Letter”

Photo by Mark Kocina

Natasha Yen

Eva Cheng Grade 7 “Found Objects”

Michelle Liu Grade 11 “Wish”

Grade 12 “Smart But Silent”

Aryana Bharali Grade 8 “Pig’s House”

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impact

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK, PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY MAYA HEY ’04 UNLESS NOTED

Bubbling with possibility

Alumna fascinated by fermentation, the impact it can have on our food and the future

“The focus was about celebrating food instead of a clinical approach, which always felt backwards to me: Why should we study people who are already sick?” – Maya Hey ’04

aya Hey ’04 is tucked inside her warm home in Montreal while she pursues her doctorate in communication studies at nearby Concordia University.

Hey writes on her website, Ready, Set, Ferment!, “I remember thumbing through a friend’s copy of Jamie Oliver’s ‘The Naked Chef’ and chancing upon his yogurt recipe. Unlike his other recipes with lists and steps in clear linear form, yogurt was written in paragraphs. In stories. Same with his bread recipe, and it would take me another 15 years to finally understand what ‘when the dough pushes back’ feels like in my fingertips.” So how does one come to find fermentation so fascinating? Hey’s journey actually began at Harker when she got interested in dance. “Maya was bright and inquisitive and was known as one of our most talented dancers,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, who then was Hey’s math teacher. “Dance was her passion.” Hey would commute to San Francisco on the weekends for pre-professional training with worldrenowned choreographers, and spend her summer months in immersive dance programs across the country. This was when she had two realizations: First, she wanted to dance professionally, and second, dancing was a young person’s profession, so she needed to pursue it before continuing her education. So after her first year in college, she freelanced with choreographers from Europe and performed at festivals throughout the Bay Area. It took Hey 10 years and six different colleges until she happily landed at California State University, Long Beach, where she earned her degree in nutrition, dietetics and food administration. She had always understood her body from a kinesthetic point of view, but looking at outside influences, like the nutrients and calories that fueled her body, gave her a new perspective that married her two passions.

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After earning her bachelor’s degree, Hey attended the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, where she earned her master’s degree in food culture and communications. “I chose this program because the focus was about celebrating food instead of a clinical approach, which always felt backwards to me: Why should we study people who are already sick?” Hey asked. “In Italy, I thought I needed to study another field and then weave food in, but then I thought, why not make food my field of study? After all, fermentation is one of the only methods that spans all cuisines, so why not?” She was forging a new path. She worked in Denmark at the R&D lab affiliated with the restaurant Noma, traveled throughout Japan to learn traditional food preservation techniques, and then settled in Montreal to pursue her Ph.D. examining fermentation and feminist theory (yet another interest!).

“Maya is a generous scholar who is more thoughtful about her audience than most scholars I know.” – Leigh Kinch-Pedrosa, head of marketing and communications at Pressbooks

The impact of this work could be relevant to doctors and researchers, farmers and the food industry, and home cooks and chefs. It has the potential to change how we think about eating and how we live on this planet. “Maya has taught me so much about challenging the norms of academia, and inspires me and many of her peers to incorporate progressive ideals into their work,” said Leigh Kinch-Pedrosa, who worked on multiple public scholarship projects with Hey and is now head of marketing and communications at Pressbooks. “Maya is a generous scholar who is more thoughtful about her audience than most scholars I know.” Hey came full circle, returning to Harker May 2020 to speak via Zoom to Kate Schafer’s The Science of Food students. From a Harker stage to a Canadian lab and back again, Hey’s journey continues to evolve as she facilitates discussions around contemporary food issues and the impact that food has on our world.

Photo provided by Harker Archives

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

Photo provided by Harker Archives

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How Harker’s journalism program trains tomorrow’s reporters

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, AND PROVIDED BY THE JOURNALISM DEPARTMENT

“A journalist is given the wonderful honor and responsibility of telling the story of other people in the world.” - Ellen Austin, director of journalism, upper school

In November 2019, 28 Harker journalism students were in Washington, D.C., attending the National High School Journalism convention. It was the largest group from Harker to ever take the trip. “We have a practice in Harker journalism that we don’t just attend conventions,” said journalism department director Ellen Austin. “We tell stories when we’re there. So they became a mobile newsroom in Washington, D.C.” While the students visited lead reporters from National Public Radio and chatted with the photo editor of the Associated Press, a major news event was happening nearby: the publicly broadcast inquiry into the impeachment of then-President Donald Trump. The students did not let the opportunity pass them by. “All of these young journalists were running around watching with their press passes on, with a DSLR camera around their necks, with their phones to record and notebooks,” Austin recalled. “They were everywhere. I got a text from one of the kids, saying, ‘Guess who we just found? Senator [Ted] Cruz.’” It was the opportunity the students had been preparing for since the beginning of their time in Harker’s journalism program, which instilled in them the skills, tenacity and resolve to capture such an immense national moment.

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The program had already been well-established by the time Austin arrived in 2013. “I think that’s a really compelling part of Harker’s upper school legacy, that from the very beginning, there was an inclusion of student voices through student publications,” Austin said. “Talon and Winged Post have been there from the beginning.” Austin joined Harker following the departure of Chris Daren, who spent years developing the journalism program from its origins as a student club. Daren organized yearly trips to New York City, Hawaii and even Europe for journalism workshops and directed the program to multiple CSPA Crown Awards, including two Gold Crowns. For Austin, having a long-running journalism program helped set Harker apart among independent schools. “Many times people in the scholastic journalism community tend to think that only public schools have really vibrant programs,” she said. “So to have a [private] school that’s got such a strong program is great. We’re really one of the very strong private school journalism programs in the U.S.” Impressive as it was for a program of its size, Austin was immediately struck by its outsized potential. “The journalism program didn’t have as big of a footprint or an influence as I believed it could have,” she said. “So when I came to Harker, I wanted to see the program expand, especially digitally.” The first major digital expansion was the student news website Harker Aquila, which launched in 2013. In addition to becoming a onestop spot for all of the journalism department’s news coverage, it also allowed coverage to expand into areas less beholden to the traditions of print media, which eventually led to one of the journalism department’s flagship series, “Humans of Harker.” Kicked off in 2017, the “Humans of Harker” series profiles each

member of the senior class, giving them space to tell their own stories about how they found their passions and how they hope to pursue them. It was originally intended to be a yearbook project in an effort “to get everybody photographed in the book, because there were only a handful of feature profiles”, said Austin. The ensuing discussions resulted in the annual collection of profile stories and videos. “It was massive,” said Austin. “It was 200 kids telling their stories, and you can’t miss one. You have to do them all.” After taking on the enormous project for three years, Austin recalled, a discussion among journalism students was held to determine if it should continue: “They said to do what we do as a program, it is so difficult to make that work. But every student also said it’s one of the most important things that we do.

Because we’re telling stories. We’re really doing an important thing with that project.” In addition to telling Harker’s stories, the department’s coverage in recent years has seen an increased focus on topics affecting the greater community and the rest of the nation, including issues such as gun control and police violence against Black Americans, as well as the recent wave of violence against Asian-American communities. Senior Arya Maheshwari, who is now a co-editor-in-chief of the Winged Post, remembered one assignment in particular that he and two of his peers were given regarding gun violence on school campuses. “It took us a long time to come to terms with our own emotions and thoughts and to figure out what needed to be said, but we slowly made progress from that afternoon through the night and ended up H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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publishing what I think was one of the most timely and meaningful editorials we’ve written,” he said. “And we certainly felt the gratification of having used our platform to convey an important, comforting message to our school community.“ With the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changing day-to-day life and revealing the flaws in many American institutions, student journalists were proactive in covering the situation from global, local and personal perspectives. They wrote personal essays about speaking to friends and family from isolation, explored the rise in single-use plastics and its impact on the environment, and chronicled how local businesses were adapting to rapidly changing conditions. One special in-depth spread, published in August 2020, examined how the Bay Area’s dearth of affordable housing had been exacerbated by the pandemic, placing lower income families at greater risk of eviction and homelessness. These and other in-depth features published by students in the last few years have brought more recognition to individual reporting, something Austin had hoped to see more of. “The publications were getting commended,” she said, “but I felt the individual students could have more chances 30 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l S PRI N G/S UM M E R 2021

TOURNAMENT OF BOOKS BREAKING THE NEWS

to have their own work commended, because they’re so fantastic.” Where Harker journalism’s news department covers breaking news stories both in and outside of the school, Talon, the upper school yearbook, captures the innumerable aspects of school life each year through interviewing, photography and highly creative spreads. This process often helps students reach out to people in their lives they may not have otherwise encountered. Austin recalled an exercise she’s had students do, in which students drew circles to represent people inside and out of their social groups. “[Yearbook] is hopefully a place where we can be very, very inclusive and go to that circle where we’re trying to get quotes and comments

and photos and commentary from people who aren’t our closest friends,” she said. “We’re trying to go to the person in our class that we don’t know as well.” Yearbook staff are encouraged to think about people who have not been properly represented, in photo spreads as well as interviews, and to speak with faculty and students in grades above their own. Journalistic practices, Austin said, are “everywhere” in the year-long process of creating the yearbook, “in the technical details of how you write a caption, how you take a good photo, how you cover a class or a department or a sport.” The journalism program has long been a place for students who both want

to develop and hone journalismspecific skills such as writing and design as well those who are still figuring out their future goals. “I actually joined the journalism program on a bit of a whim, switching in from another extra period option in the first two weeks of my freshman year,” said Maheshwari. “I think the fact that you don’t have to be someone who’s always known that they want to pursue writing or photography to thrive in journalism highlights one of the best parts of the program.” Anoushka Buch, grade 12, one of the co-editors of the Talon yearbook, also joined the program after being unsure where to go in her freshman year. “I joined the program as a freshman for a lack of a better elective to take,” she said. “I continued with the program because I fell in love with the way that several of my interests – writing, photography, design and communication – were combined so fluidly with the work we did.” Talon’s relatively small staff size, Buch said, often results in a close-knit group whose members learn to work well together and also bond over various activities. “We get really close over the course of the year, and we have lots of fun parties and events in addition to our work, like an annual Secret Santa,” she said. “In a normal year, we also have monthly Deadline Nights that correspond with our deadlines to Herff Jones, our publishing company, and those end up being a lot of fun because it’s one of the times that the entire staff, which is otherwise split into two classes, is working together, eating dinner together and having fun together.” Students learn basic journalistic principles and skills in an introductory class, taught by Sarah Roberts. The class covers how to write breaking news stories, opinion pieces, media reviews, “any writing that you might

see on Aquila or the Winged Post or book blurbs,” said Roberts. “That’s all something students have to learn how to write because obviously writing for journalism is very different than writing an essay for an English class.” Journalism students, Roberts said, learn how to focus on important details and check the facts presented in their writing. “[There’s a lot of ] thinking about the information we’re presenting and how it can be best conveyed to our audience,” she added. Students also learn about the importance of presenting information visually, particularly through photographs. “Currently in our photography unit we’re learning things like exposure, composition, how to adjust the focal ratio, things like that,” said Roberts.

be responsible journalists.” Since joining as a reporter in his freshman year, Maheshwari has been involved in many facets of the news side of the department, including acting as STEM editor at the Winged Post and managing editor of Aquila. The program’s welcoming atmosphere was a key factor in his near-immediate decision to get more involved. “Once I set my foot in the door, I realized it was a place I wanted to be, because of the compassion and

Editing photos for professionalquality publication is another important component as is “how to lay out yearbook pages or newspaper pages or anything in between.” As journalists, students are also taught the importance of information literacy, learning the importance of researching topics, conducting interviews in good faith and verifying the trustworthiness of their sources. “I think we are entering a time in which knowing where you’re getting your information from and being able to verify it is probably more important than it ever has been,” said Roberts. “It’s especially important … that they not only understand how to parse out their own information when they’re doing research, but also how to H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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support of the leaders in the program, which is an atmosphere we really try to maintain year after year,” he said. Other students, like senior Winged Post co-editor-in-chief Sara Yen, knew they were writers from the start. “I joined journalism in large part because I loved writing,” she said. “Out of all the extra period options that Harker offers, I thought that journalism would give me the most preprofessional and social skills.” Yen spent her freshman year writing news stories, opinion pieces, sports recaps and features. After a stint as the Winged Post features editor during her junior year, she decided she wanted to lead an entire staff. “I realized how much I enjoyed guiding and supporting the people in my section,” she said. “This 32 HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l S P RI N G/S UM M E R 2021

past year as co-editor-in-chief has been extremely fulfilling working with all of the people in journalism, and I relish the collaboration involved from start to finish of each issue.” Austin has found that the curiosity common among high school students makes journalism a good fit for a wide range of students with varying interests. “Journalism at its core is just the encouragement of curiosity and the duty of telling stories of others,” she said. “A journalist is given the wonderful honor and responsibility of telling the story of other people in the world.” Many of the students who’ve gone through the journalism department, Austin observed, often start out finding it difficult to approach older students for a story, and later become “these fierce, brave, fearless seniors by the time they’re four years down the path, who are running after political candidates in Washington, D.C.”

learning and shelter-in-place orders. “In replicating the content that we’d get in a normal year, we came up with alternatives to yearbook essentials,” said Buch. For Talon’s annual portraits section, the yearbook staff requested that students submit photos of themselves at home. “Getting photographs from 600 students wasn’t an easy feat, logistically, but we got to picture nearly all of the students in each grade,” said Buch. “[That] section is one of my favorites this year because I feel like the way that each student is shown in their own, personal environment is a perfect reflection of the at-home nature of our year.” A year after their time in Washington, D.C., journalism students found themselves at home covering the 2020 general election, one of the most watched elections in United States history. “They were live blogging the entire election. We started opening the newsroom in my Zoom room right after school,” said Austin. “Over the course of the night, I think there were more than 30 kids who came in to help report or cover some aspect of the story.” Interviews were conducted with students from across the country. “Even though none of them could vote, they were all about being there and trying to keep our community informed in a way that our community would want it,” said Austin.

This ability and willingness to meet great challenges was apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which students continued to pursue and publish quality work despite the obstacles presented by remote

Examples such as these are evidence of what Maheshwari feels are the most important things learned as journalism students, “things like effective collaboration and communication,” he said. “Developing those skills certainly comes with some glitches and strains, but part of the point is to learn to work through those, and the supportiveness and inclusivity of the journalism program makes it one of the best places to do that.” H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, BEN GREEN

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Even with restrictions in place, the arts continued in full force. Thanks to the dedication and ingenuity of performers and faculty, Student Directed Showcase, Dance Jamz and the lower school dance concert were filmed outside on campus. The upper school’s spring musical, “Les Misérables,” was produced as a full-length film, shot at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center, where the upper school dance show, “Outside the Box,” was also filmed. Senior Showcase was livestreamed from the theater and had a limited audience in attendance. Upper school singers released “In Concert: Still Singing,” and videos were also released by the instrumental groups from all divisions, including the debut of an orchestral piece by Anika Fuloria, grade 12. The middle school’s musical, “Snoopy!,” was released as a Zoom movie.

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staff kudos

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

Upper school English teacher Jennifer Siraganian has been named the next Poet Laureate of Los Gatos. Her duties during her threeyear term will include planning an annual poetry program at the local library, engaging with a local school to promote poetry education and surveying poetry for a collection that will be submitted to the local library archives at the end of her term.

In January, upper school speech and debate teacher Scott Odekirk was a recipient of the National Speech & Debate Association’s Coach of the Year Award. Odekirk has been one of NSDA’s most decorated coaches and last year was named Coach of the Year for the NSDA’s California Coast District.

Cyrus Merrill, middle school history teacher, organized the 2021 EDUC8 conference, held virtually from April 22-24. Merrill was given just seven weeks to organize the conference, which was a huge success, drawing more than 25,000 participants with 200 sessions in seven languages!

In March, middle school science teacher Raji Swaminathan published her third children’s book, “The Magical Periodic Table and The Element Girls - Book 3: The Halogens - Oh, So Reactive!” Each book in the series follows the main character, Atom, as she and her dog learn about the elements by using a magical periodic table. The books are available to purchase on Amazon.

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When did you first really feel like an adult? The day my son was born.

face time

indergarten teacher Katherine Lo calls herself “very family oriented.” A Bay Area native, she lives in San Jose with her husband, Robert (a graduate of Harker’s inaugural upper school class in 2002), and their son, Benjamin. Hanging out with them is her go-to activity when she has some free time. She and Robert enjoy watching dramas, and she and her younger brother have a “timeshare” with a rescue Maltipoo named Summer. Lo serves on the Diversity Committee, and she looks forward to introducing her son to volunteer work when he gets older.

What one piece of advice you would offer anyone who asks? You can’t please everyone so just do you!

What would constitute a perfect day for you? A perfect day for me would be a lazy morning, an afternoon outing with my son and husband, a cozy evening and delicious food for every meal.

Where in the world are you the happiest? I am the happiest at home. I also love Disneyland, but nothing beats being at home.

What is your most treasured memory? Spending summers in Singapore with my maternal grandparents.

What is something that you pretend to understand when you really don’t? Sports, like basketball when my husband really gets into a game and starts yelling at the TV.

What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up? My stubbornness, and knowing that I am an example to my son and students.

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be? I would want the ability to clone myself (multiple times) so that I won’t have mom guilt and can do everything I want to!

Katherine Lo H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021 3737

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LIVING AN Alumnus retired early as police chief to pursue creative endeavors

“The focus of my writing and life philosophy is to live an artful life. Love your family, feed your mind, take care of your body, embrace simplicity and pursue your creative passions.” - John Weiss MS ’79

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY JOHN WEISS MS ’79

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ar tful life W

hen John Weiss MS ’79 was a child, his piano teacher would carefully cut out political cartoons from the San Jose Mercury News and share them when he came for his lessons. He enjoyed learning to play the piano, but he treasured the cartoons and would spend hours studying the intricate drawings. This was when he fell in love with political cartoons – more the art than the politics. Weiss was a dedicated student and attended Denman Day School before it closed when he was in seventh grade. His father valued rigorous academics and enrolled him in Harker Academy, where he attended eighth grade for one memorable year. He remembers his algebra teacher, Col. Robert Tuttle, who had a military cut, an intimidating presence and immaculate handwriting. “Col. Tuttle was a brilliant, no-nonsense teacher who would draw a map of Europe on the chalkboard and then discuss where various math equations originated from,” remembered Weiss. “He made math interesting but also noticed when I was struggling and would stay after school to help me become less befuddled.” After Weiss graduated from Harker, he went to Saratoga High School, where he contributed cartoons to the newspaper. Although he dreamed of becoming a fulltime cartoonist, his father encouraged him to pursue a more practical line of work. When a police deputy visited his government class and talked about his career, a new door opened for Weiss. After high school, he studied criminal justice at Sonoma State University, then earned his master’s degree in the same subject at San Jose State University. When he graduated, he was hired by the Scotts Valley Police Department.

“When I interviewed John, it was obvious that he possessed a high degree of moral integrity, intelligence and desire to be a police officer,” said Steve Walpole Sr., retired chief of police for Scotts Valley. “John was a different cat than the normal police officer with a military background. He played the piano, sang, liked poetry and was an artist. He was famous around our department as a cartoonist who used his artistic talents to poke fun at the officers.” During his 26-year police career, Weiss held many positions, ultimately serving as chief of police for the last decade of his career. He loved his work but always kept cartooning and feeding his creative side. After a few of his controversial cartoons were published, he realized that police work and political cartoons might not go hand in hand. This was when he shifted artistically into painting. Weiss took vacations to study landscape painting with renowned artist Scott L. Christensen, among other artists. Weiss enjoyed police work but wanted to live an artful life.

“In 2016 at the age of 52, I intentionally retired early because I wanted to paint, write and draw full time,” said Weiss. “The timing was right for me, my wife and my son, who wanted to study computer science at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.” So Weiss retired and the family moved to Henderson, Nevada. Although he thought he would paint full time, he’s enjoying all his creative pursuits, including cartooning, writing and photography. Weiss is a top writer on the website Medium, has published work on dozens of sites and is the author of two books, “The Cartoon Art of John P. Weiss” and “An Artful Life: Inspirational Stories and Essays for the Artist in Everyone.” “The focus of my writing and life philosophy is to live an artful life,” Weiss writes on his website (johnpweiss.com). “Love your family, feed your mind, take care of your body, embrace simplicity and pursue your creative passions.” Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of Walden West Foundation.

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WORDS BY JENNIFER MARAGONI PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY HARKER ARCHIVES UNLESS NOTED

In April, DoorDash founder Andy Fang ‘10 donated $10 million to Harker to establish The Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund. The fund will create a permanent legacy at Harker to provide need-based financial aid to students who qualify for admission, but otherwise could not afford tuition and fees. It will support Harker’s commitment to increasing diversity at the school.

A Remarkable Gesture

“A great education is one of the best ways to even the playing field for underprivileged kids. I hope this endowment can help families from underserved communities achieve the American dream,” said Fang, who co-founded DoorDash (initially called Palo Alto Delivery) in 2013 with three Stanford University classmates. The company went public in December 2020. (Read more about Fang in the story “Dashing Through Life” in the fall/winter 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.)

of Thanks

Harker’s head of school, Brian Yager, expressed pride in Fang’s efforts to improve access to education at Harker. “Andy is doing something of profound impact for the school, and his vision, forethought and overwhelming generosity will have a significant effect on Harker and the community for generations to come,” he said. Board of trustee chair Albert Zecher, Jr. ‘79 added, “Andy’s commitment to creating this historic endowment for scholarships at Harker is inspiring. As a young alumnus, his philanthropy is especially laudable.” Fang said he hopes the gift inspires other alumni to give back to Harker. “When talking to other alumni, one of the biggest concerns they share about Harker is how cost-prohibitive tuition can be,” he said. “I hope this gift inspires other Harker alumni to give back to the Harker community and help reverse the trend of tuition costs increasing for future students.”

Photo by Devin Nguyen ‘12

Alumnus gifts $10 million to fund scholarships

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Fang recalls his time at Harker fondly and hopes the endowment will enable more students to share in the Harker experience. “I’m grateful for the opportunity I had at Harker to explore many areas that helped nurture my intellectual curiosity growing up, such as exploring different disciplines like art history and economics; participating in various afterschool activities like volleyball and the school musical; and pursuing college-level advanced computer science courses that influenced my professional ambitions,” he said. The Alumni Scholarship Endowment Fund compliments other donor-established endowments at Harker. The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, the Mitra Excellence in Humanities Endowment and the Chen Lin Family Faculty Grant Program support student humanities research. The Vegesna Teacher Excellence Endowment supports professional development for teachers. “Increasing our endowment is an important goal of our strategic plan. We couldn’t be more grateful that Andy has established this new Alumni Scholarship Endowment fund to inspire others to join him in giving to this very worthy cause,” said Kim Lobe, Harker’s director of advancement. Ph oto pro vid ed

Jennifer Maragoni is a freelance writer and editor based in Folsom.

by An dy Fan g ‘1 0

“I hope this endowment can help families from underserved communities achieve the American dream.” – Andy Fang ’10

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end of year

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n addition to graduation, traditions such as baccalaureate and the brick ceremonies were also held in person this year. At baccalaureate, addresses to the seniors and juniors (who will be assuming a new role as leaders of the school next year) were delivered by senior Michael Eng and Dean Lizardo, business and entrepreneurship teacher, both chosen by the senior class. The grade 5 and grade 8 promotion ceremonies were also held in person, welcoming lower and middle school students into the next stages of their lives at Harker. Strict safety protocols limited attendance, but livestreams of the promotions gave those who could not attend a way to experience the events from home.

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graduation

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fter last year’s heartbreaking cancellation, the annual graduation ceremony returned to the Mountain Winery this year, giving the Class of 2021 a memorable conclusion to their high school years. Strict safety protocols resulted in limited attendance this year, but livestreaming enabled the community to enjoy the ceremony from home. Highlights of the event included instrumental and vocal performances, the co-valedictorian addresses by Daniel Wang and Claire Luo, the keynote speech by Roberta Wolfson ’05 and the heartfelt parting words of Brian Yager, head of school. The releasing of doves marked the end of the seniors’ time as Harker students, who were thrilled to take part in this tradition.

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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.

2004

Jessica Liu and her husband, Tyler, welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Charlie, in fall 2020. Jess is thankful to still be so close to her Harker girlfriends and that they are sharing this motherhood journey together! Jessica and Charlie celebrated Christmas last year with classmates Karla Bracken and her son, Enzo, who turned 1 in February, (pictured, left), and Jennifer Lin and her son, Hudson (middle).

2007 Audrey Kwong was named one of 2021’s Harker Life in the Arts honorees! See page 48.

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In Memoriam

We are sad to announce the loss of two alumni in recent months.

Akiko Murphy ’80 passed away on Dec. 8, 2020. Akiko was both an alumna and a former Harker summer camp employee. Some of her classmates wished to share their loving memories. “I am reeling from this news. We will all remember her lust for life, her rainbow of hair and her giggle that lit up her room. Soar with the eagles, Kiko.” – Celia DeBenedetti ’80 “Akiko was such a bright spot for me at Harker. She had that beautiful mane of hair down her back and that megawatt smile.” – Betty Kamas Taylor ’80 “Akiko and I have been friends since sixth grade at Harker. I would call her Hapa girl (her mom was from Hawaii, like my dad), and we had that connection in common. Rest in Peace, Akiko! I’ll miss you, but I know you’re with your mom and dad in paradise. Aloha … till we meet again Hapa girl.” – Paul Aliason ’80

Justin Shamlou ’11passed away unexpectedly on Feb. 15. He enjoyed a full life of art and travel as can be seen in his freelance writing, poetry and music. Justin was born on April 21, 1993, in Plantation, Fla., and lived in Japan and Singapore before joining the Harker community for his high school years. At Harker, Justin was known for his athletics and reverberating laughter. His energy and intellect impacted everyone he met, and memories of his smile will be held dearly by those who knew him. His family is appreciative of all of his friends who were able to attend his service in February and of those who donated to chronic traumatic encephalopathy research in his name. They hope that his 27 years are remembered fondly by those who cared for him.

2009 Chetan Vakkalagadda married Laura Bliss on April 24 in San Jose! The couple had a traditional Hindu ceremony followed by a civil ceremony, both in Chetan’s family’s backyard and with only immediate families in attendance. H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021 20

class notes 2011 Harker Conservatory graduate Daniel Cho was named one of the 2021 Harker Life in the Arts honorees! See box at right.

2017 Joseph Krackeler and sister Margaret Krackeler ’12 adopted a cow and named it MOOshu.

In April, Misha Ivkov received the Mark Stehlik Alumni Undergraduate Impact Scholarship from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, which “recognizes and supports SCS undergraduates whose drive for excellence extends beyond the classroom,” according to the CMU SCS website. The scholarship is awarded to students as they approach the end of their undergraduate career.

2021 Life in the Arts Inductees Audrey Kwong ’07 and Daniel Cho ’11 are the newest inductees into the Conservatory’s Life in the Arts.

Need a Transcript? Harker has changed its transcript process. If you need a transcript, visit this link http://www.parchment.com/u/registration/93968/account and create a free account with Parchment. This service allows for secure transmission of the transcript, and also lets you track the request, so you can confirm it gets to the right place!

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After graduating with a Harker Conservatory certificate in instrumental music, Audrey attended USC for her bachelor’s degree in music as a violinist. She has performed under conductors such as John Williams and Michael Tilson Thomas and received her master’s degree in arts management from Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2017, she has been with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s artistic operations team. In her spare time, she plays violin (and occasionally sings backup) in the St. Louis-based folk rock band Boxcar! Inspired to perform after seeing Downbeat perform when he was in grade 7, Daniel focused on musical theater at Harker and fell in love with ballet after high school, later graduating from the Alonzo King LINES Ballet Training Program. He danced professionally for two years with Ohio’s Verb Ballets and traveled to Havana to perform in a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” He now lives and works as a performer in New York City.

We are transforming two of our

beloved annual events into one, incredible, stupendous …

Save the Date! Sat., Oct. 9, 2021 Upper School Campus Save the day for the whole family – current and alumni – to celebrate the spirit of Harker! • • • • • • • • •

70th annual Family & Alumni Picnic Homecoming football game Games and activities for the little ones Student performances Sports exhibition matches Food trucks Community service fair Athletic Hall of Fame Just hanging out!

Watch for emails in August with more details, but you won’t want to miss this reimagining of these treasured Harker traditions. It will be a great day to be an eagle and celebrate our community! Want to help? Contact advancement@harker.org.

See you on Harker Day! H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l SPR ING/SUM M ER 2021 20

Preschool

Summer Programs

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

final frame

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