This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly.
1984
Former Harker boarding school student Danielle Glosser wrote in that she has lived in Washington, D.C., for half of her life. While attending graduate school at The George Washington University, Danielle worked for the National Conference for Community and Justice in the city’s Anacostia neighborhood, fighting all forms of discrimination. Later, she pursued her interest of becoming a diversity trainer by working with a firm that conducted organizational development programs for Fortune 500 companies. Danielle had the opportunity to continue her work with adults on such issues with the Clinton administration’s Initiative on Race program. Danielle primarily worked with religious leaders on plans to engage more people in a national conversation. Most recently she started a firm, Client Raiser, that helps artists increase the visibility of their art and attract clients. She established Client Raiser (www.clientraiser.com) to help artists achieve their business goals through customized plans of action. Ironically, Danielle’s company has brought her back to familiar territory as one of her clients has commissioned a number of works for The White House Historical Association. Danielle describes her experience at Harker as a defining period in her life. “Harker exposed me to a diverse student body that taught me the importance and richness of working with people of other races, religions and cultures,” she shared.
This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly.
The alumni office is launching a program called the Alumni Connect Initiative. The initiative is aimed at connecting alumni both to each other and to the school in ways that are meaningful to them.
Karri Sakai Baker ’84, Harker’s director of alumni relations, reported that the first step is on the way. Class agents are forming committees to help collect updated information on as many alumni as possible. In addition to contact information, they will update the regions of the country in which alumni live, the industries in which they work and the programs at Harker they may be interested in getting involved in or keeping updated about (e.g., performing arts, athletics, science, business and entrepreneurship, etc.).
Having updated information will allow the alumni office to segment communications to alumni and keep everyone up to date on activities and opportunities that are of interest and value to each individual alumnus.
Teré Aceves, director of middle and upper school volunteer programs, has expanded her role to include supporting alumni volunteers. Such engagement might take the form of returning to Harker to be a guest speaker in a class or at an event, or to serve as a judge for a debate tournament.
Another part of this reconnect is the “virtual mentor” program, allowing current upper school students to video conference and engage with alumni from all over the world. The goal is to help alumni find ways to volunteer and reconnect with the school, beyond attending social events.
“The idea behind the Alumni Connect Initiative is to enable Harker alumni to benefit from making strategic and meaningful connections and taking full advantage of the ‘Harker network,’” Baker added.
This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly.
More than a decade has passed since Abhinav Mathur MS ’05 was a middle school student taking computer science with instructor Mike Schmidt. Over the summer, Mathur returned to Harker as a guest lecturer for a new course, called Beginning Python, that Schmidt was teaching for the Summer Institute (SI).
Being back in Schmidt’s classroom, filled with 17 middle school students, Mathur experienced an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Now a sought after coding expert, Mathur said he was excited to teach a class at Harker and give back to the school that provided him with so much.
Schmidt, Harker’s longtime middle school computer science teacher and current department chair, explained that Mathur had designed the instructional software program he was using in the SI coding class.
Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Mathur created an online learning environment, called Pythonroom.com, focused on Python. He and another young entrepreneur, Keshav Saharia, founded a company called HulaLoop, which provides Web-based educational platforms for various programming systems, of which Pythonroom is currently their main focus.
“I had been using their product for my newly created Python programming course to teach middle schoolers the world of text-based programming. The kids were crazy about it and absorbed all the lessons like sponges!” recalled Schmidt.
Pythonroom provides a solid foundation for Python programming by allowing students to move forward at their own pace, Schmidt added.
“I think Pythonroom is great for beginners and it is really fun,” agreed Angela Cai, a grade 7 Harker student who attended the class. “Abhi was a great [guest] teacher, and he gave great advice on finding easier ways to do certain problems,” added Stephen Yang, a grade 8 student at Miller Middle School.
Held on the upper school campus from June 15-Aug. 7, SI was open to both Harker students and grade 6-12 students from area schools. SI enabled participants, like those enrolled in the Python class, to get a jump start on the coming school year, as well as enrich their learning on topics of interest.
Maverick McNealy ’13 was noted in the San Jose Mercury News on July 16 for holding down third place at the inaugural Barbasol Championship PGA golf tournament in Opelika, Ala. See story at http://bayareane.ws/1Okicw1. McNealy, who won the Haskins Award as the top college linksman, is also the 2015 Division I recipient of the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award, presented by Barbasol on June 5.
An article posted at www.Nicklaus.com notes McNealy’s accomplishments this year:
“A sophomore from Portola Valley, Calif., McNealy led NCAA Division I with six collegiate victories this year. He posted a dominant 10-stroke win at the Pac-12 Conference Championships, where his 18-under aggregate score of 262 established a new league tournament scoring record. The Pac-12 Conference Player owns a 69.05 season scoring average, the second best in recorded NCAA history. McNealy claimed medalist honors at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional, Southwestern Intercollegiate, Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational, The Prestige at PGA West and The Goodwin. McNealy was selected to compete this summer on the United States Palmer Cup team.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
The community of researchers that Harker started building with its first research symposium in 2006 showed up in full force for the 10th annual event on April 11.
“We had a record number of student posters, student talks and exhibitors,” said symposium founder and director Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair. “The skills we’re teaching [students] about scientific research, they will take with them for a lifetime even if they don’t end up in a lab.”
Chetty cited the excitement of the teachers, staff, students and parents for expanding and sustaining this annual celebration of discovery and innovation.
This year’s event attracted about 450 to 500 people, including the community-minded Jin family. Shu Jin helped for months as a parent outreach coordinator for the event. His son Andrew, grade 12, presented his first-place work from the nationwide Intel Science Talent Search (STS). Andrew’s sister, Amy, grade 9, is also a researcher and a member of WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the club that helps organize and run the symposium every year.
Outfitted in white lab coats, members of WiSTEM and the Research Club introduced speakers and hosted the popular STEM Buddies stations, where kids viewed EEG images of their brain waves, rolled marbles onto a blue fabric representing space-time and much more.
In addition to the talks, attendees flocked to interactive booths set up by the exhibitors: DynoSense, Google, IBM, mCube, Nod Labs, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Medical Foundation/ Sutter Health, South Asian Heart Center, Technical Instruments, Tesla, Trek Medics International, Upgrademe and Verizon, plus student startup Sail Research, and the Infinities and Subatomic Smarticles robotics teams.
As the symposium has grown over the years, so has the stature of research done by Harker students. Including Jin, 15 Harker students were named Intel STS semifinalists and three were finalists. In the most recent Siemens Competition, 13 students were California semifinalists and four of them regional finalists.
“Getting the opportunity to see all the incredible projects that the kids have done is really phenomenal,” said Harker alumna and keynote speaker Shabnam Aggarwal ’03, who graduated before the event existed.
Senior Steven Wang, one of 24 student speakers and one of the three Intel STS finalists, used computer methods to find a new gene associated with colorectal cancer and then tested the mutations in microscopic mini-organs in a Stanford University lab.
“I got to be on the forefront of organoid research and run my own experiment,” he said. “The lab niche was very fun. We ate lunch together and watched movies.”
Siemens regional semifinalist Ankita Pannu, grade 12, tackled the lack of organization in online cancer support group discussions.
“My main engineering goal was to help patients gather information,” said Pannu, who developed an algorithm to summarize and categorize information from posts. With no prior background in text mining, she asked for an informal internship at IBM’s research lab where a mentor pointed her in the right direction.
Throughout the daylong symposium, middle and upper school students displayed their endeavors on more than 50 posters in categories including engineering, nanoscience, microbiology, environmental science, bioinformatics and behavioral science.
Amy Dunphy, grade 9, purified the allergen in poison oak and worked on polymerizing it into a bigger chain of molecules to prevent transmission through the skin. She contracted the rash a few times in the name of science, but nodded yes without hesitation when keynote presenter James McClintock asked if she wanted to be a scientist.
McClintock is the endowed university professor of polar and marine biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Antarctica is one of the richest marine environments on the planet,” he said, but rapid warming from climate change is altering the local weather and conditions that populations have depended on for millennia.
As the annual sea ice disappears, so do krill. Adélie penguins are declining as unseasonably late snow melts and floods their eggs. Sub-Antarctic gentoo and chinstrap penguins have moved in, as have king crabs. Antarctic marine life has no defenses against crushing claws.
“Communities always change, but over a few decades this is a profound change,” he said.
One of the repercussions could be the loss of medicinal chemicals; recent discoveries from Antarctic life include compounds active against cancer and H1N1 flu.
In the afternoon, father-son duo Suhas and DJ Patil had a “fireside” chat in wingback chairs in the auditorium, sharing their outlooks on education and entrepreneurialism.
Suhas, a former Harker parent (daughter Teja graduated in 2002), is the founder and retired chairman of Cirrus Logic, a semiconductor company. He’s seen in his son an example of where Silicon Valley is headed: “Our young people will need to get trained or they must train themselves to be very agile with respect to what they work on.”
DJ is the first chief data scientist at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and co-coined the term “data scientist.”
“Stick to your convictions,” he advised, “but listen to people and outside views to course correct.”
In a special session, John Wolpert, IBM’s Watson evangelist, discussed the new era of cognitive computing led by systems like Watson that can learn from context and see patterns in fragmented, unstructured data.
“It’s about extending the human capability,” he said, encouraging students to try solving problems with newly available Watson subsystems.
Watson algorithms have found new targets for cancer research and developed unique recipes praised by top chefs.
The second keynote speaker, David Mortlock, son of upper school statistics teacher Mary Mortlock, works at the White House as director for international economic affairs for the National Security Council.
Both in responding to the recent Ebola outbreak and pressuring Iran through sanctions to return to nuclear negotiations, the U.S. government “really relied on research and development … to try and make the world a slightly more prosperous and safer place,” he said.
Having your proposals embraced by the president is thrilling, he said. “It takes guts to say, ‘I have an idea and people should listen to me.’ It’s really exciting to see [Harker students] doing the same thing here with your work and presentations.”
Harker Alumni Researchers Share Latest Updates
From introducing underrepresented minorities to mathematical problem-solving techniques to undertaking lab work focused on better understanding the Ebola virus in West Africa, Harker alumni researchers are involved in numerous incredible projects. Read on for the latest updates.
Yi Sun ’06 Intel finalist, Second Place National
Yin Sun ’06 is currently a fourth year Ph.D. student in the mathematics department at MIT. “My research is in representation theory, a branch of mathematics which gives a precise algebraic understanding of the symmetries of a system. I am particularly interested in connections between these algebraic techniques and recent applications to statistical mechanics and high-dimensional statistics,” he said.
Recently, Sun also has been collaborating with fellow Harker alumnus Tatsunori Hashimoto ’07 on a project in machine learning. Outside of research, for the last eight years he has been involved in teaching high school students at the Math Olympiad Summer Program. “This year, I’m helping organize MathROOTS, a new summer program at MIT (mathroots.mit.edu), to introduce underrepresented minorities to mathematical problem-solving techniques,” he added.
Frank Wang ’08 Intel semifinalist
Frank Wang ’08 reports that he is currently a Ph.D. student in computer science at MIT, working on computer security.
Aaron Lin ’09 JSHS regional finalist
Aaron Lin ’09 lives in Boston. He attended Harker’s middle and upper schools. “Though I didn’t qualify for Siemens or Intel, I learned a lot about research while at Harker and had a blast at the local Santa Clara science fair, the California state science fair and the JSHS [Junior Science and Humanities Symposia]. Since then, I’ve continued research. The summer after graduation, and again a second summer during college, I performed research in Mark Davis’ immunology lab at Stanford and co-authored a research paper there, which appeared in the Journal of Immunology in 2011,” he said.
At Princeton, he joined the virology and proteomics lab of Ileana Cristea during his sophomore year. “By graduation in 2013, I wrote a thesis and a first author research paper, which appeared in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics in 2013, and another co-authored paper, which appeared in Proteomics this year,” he recalled.
After college, Lin was accepted into the Ph.D. program in virology at Harvard, and is currently in his second year there. In December, he passed his preliminary qualifying exams and officially became a Ph.D. candidate. After rotating through a couple labs, he joined the lab of Pardis Sabeti in March 2014.
“Interestingly, I actually met [Harker senior and national Intel Science Talent Search winner] Andrew Jin, who joined the lab for a summer research project. Though our expertise and research interests didn’t overlap much, I was blown away by his end-of-the-summer lab meeting presentation, and it’s pretty clear to everyone that Andrew will continue to succeed in the future. It’s been productive for me as well, as I have co-authored one research paper in mBio in 2015, have another co-authored manuscript in Cell under review and another co-authored manuscript in preparation,” he noted.
At the moment, Lin’s work focuses on understanding the genomic variation among Ebola virus isolates in the current West African outbreak. His lab is a leader in the field of high-throughput, deep sequencing of inactivated genomes from BSL-4 viruses such as Ebola and Lassa virus, and is now using this data about viral variation to learn about viral transmission, improve field diagnostics, and inform vaccine and therapeutic strategies.
“It’s great to hear the amazing news about Andrew, and the rest of the other Intel and Siemens winners as well! The growth in the research program at Harker has been outstanding, and I’m sure that the current students are paving the way for themselves, and will continue to do so into the future,” said Lin.
Vishesh Jain ’10 Intel semifinalist
“It was exciting to hear about Andrew’s achievement, as well as those of all the student researchers at Harker over the past five years,” said Vishesh Jain ’10. Jain reported that he is excited to start medical school this fall. “During my gap year, I am doing cardiovascular research and volunteering at Stanford, and I am working at the biomedical nanotech startup Bikanta,” he added.
For Shabnam Aggarwal ’03 Failure was a Means to Success and Happiness
Thanks to serendipity, hard work, passion – and most of all, failure – Shabnam Aggarwal ’03 is the happy CEO of the education technology company she started in India.
The alumna keynote speaker for the 10th annual Harker Research Symposium, Aggarwal assured parents and students that “failure is not a four-letter word. Failure is inevitable and failure is necessary.” It teaches resilience.
She experienced a rough academic patch in high school, but got into Carnegie Mellon and earned an electrical and computer engineering degree. Then she shocked her parents by quitting her high-paying job at Merrill Lynch on Wall Street to teach English in Cambodia to girls who had escaped the sex trade. In pursuing her passion for equality in education, she later had “six hard years in India,” trying everything from teaching preschool to designing cell phone games.
“I failed many, many, many times before arriving at this solution,” said about her Delhi-based business KleverKid, which works to bring the best teachers, coaches and tutors to the kids who need them most.
She asked parents in the audience to imagine sitting in the back of a canoe, letting their kids paddle even if they aren’t steering the way you’d advise.
“Often they’re going to make the wrong decision, but what’s imperative for them to master is picking up again and doing it over and over until they succeed.”
Both of Aggarwal’s parents were in the auditorium, and she shared the stage with her dad for a few minutes. “Through all these zigs and zags she’s gone through, she’s never given up,” Avnish Aggarwal said. “The investors saw her passion and persistence.”
She returned the compliment. “There would be one less person in the world trying to make a difference if my parents and teachers had never given me the space to fail,” she said.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
A Look Back at the 2014-15 Keller Tour
Every year Butch Keller, upper school head, and his wife, Jane, an upper school math teacher, look forward to the “Keller Tour.” The much-anticipated tour is actually an annual series of trips during which they visit with Harker alumni attending various colleges throughout the United States.
With the 2014-15 Keller Tour now behind them, the couple took time out to share some of the highlights.
“It seems like so long ago that we were chaperoning a debate trip at the Bronx Science High School and were able to slip away for dinner with the Columbia and NYU alums. That marvelous dinner was just a hint of the fun we would later be having during the Keller Tour,” recalled Butch Keller.
He went on to reminisce about the sun setting on a cold and windy day as he and his wife walked around the Boston College campus on a “wonderful tour” led by Michelle Douglas ’13, followed by a dinner with her and other alums attending the college.
The next day the Kellers visited Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where they enjoyed dinner with a large group of alumni there. Soon after, WeiWei Buchsteiner ’14, Shreya Indukuri ’12 and Kimberly Ma ’14 graciously showed them around campus.
Butch Keller noted that a fun fact of Keller Tour history is that Michelle Vu ’11 now “leads the way” with three Keller Tour din- ner appearances. “She first joined us in Boston her freshman year, then joined us this fall in New York while visiting friends, and then finally this year we were with her at the Boston College event,” he said.
Speaking of fun, he added, Naomi So ’11 was in Houston visiting Michelle Lo ’12 while they were on campus at Rice University. Won Hee Le ’10, also a Rice graduate, was also in Houston and joined along. “We truly appreciated those three spending their day with us!” Jane Keller said.
Dinner that night was casual yet informative as the Kellers caught up with three additional Rice students: Kevin Mohanram ’14, Sapna Suresh ’14 and Shilpa Nataraj ’12. While in Houston, the Kellers had the unexpected pleasure of spending time with Duke University student Drew Goldstein ’13 who was in town for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as one of the team managers.
After the trip to the Northeast, the Keller Tour was off to sunny Southern California where Johnny Hughes ’14 escorted them around the Loyola Marymount campus, showing his dorm, class buildings and other hangout spaces with great pride.
“It was obvious that Johnny had chosen a perfect home for his college experience. The LMU campus was beautiful with views spanning all of Los Angeles and out to the Pacific. Dinner following was a continuation of stories about his life at LMU [and] recollections of his time at Harker and how well-prepared he felt to begin his new journey,” noted Butch Keller.
The following day, as the trip wound its way to a close, the Kellers traveled to Chapman University to tour the area with Nick Navarro ’14 before joining Alice Tsui ’13 at a local bistro for lunch.
The first Keller Tour occurred in spring 2009 when the Kellers headed to New York to attend a performance by The Harker School Orchestra at Lincoln Center. Several alumni living in the area heard the Kellers were in town and asked them to stop by. Soon after, requests began flooding in from other alumni to “come out and see us,” recalled Butch Keller.
Today, he added, the tour serves as an opportunity not only to stay in touch with alumni, but also to visit with them while they are still in college, gaining invaluable feedback on how well Harker prepared them for university life.
“The Keller Tour concluded this year with many smiles and joyous moments leaving us excited to plan ahead for the 2015-16 tour!” he said.
Record Attendance for Alumni Families Easter Egg Hunt
The beautiful Union campus was once again the perfect setting for the fifth annual Harker Alumni Families Easter Egg Hunt. Held in March, the egg hunt attracted a record high of more than 130 people, with over 1,250 eggs hidden.
Previously, the egg hunt had been held at the lower school campus. This year saw age divisions for egg hunting, and arts and crafts activities. Eggs were strategically hidden throughout the grounds. The day also featured a fun bounce house and surprise visit by the Easter Bunny, who posed for photographs with the children.
“It was a wonderful morning of catching up with old and new friends,” recalled Karri Sakai Baker ’84, Harker’s director of alumni relations.
Harker Alumnus Travels the World Working as a Private Chef
Harker alumnus and class agent Stephen Worsley ’72 has had an incredibly interesting and unique career, living out of a suitcase and traveling around the world working as a top Michelin-rated chef.
Professionally known as “Chef Stephen,” the alumnus who “loves to cook and travel” recently stopped by the upper school for a visit with Karri Baker ’84, Harker’s director of alumni relations.
Harker Quarterly met up with Worsley for lunch in the Edge, where he was reminiscing with Baker about his days at Harker’s predecessor, the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA), a school for boys in grades 1-9. Together, he and Baker pored over old photos taken when Worsley was a young PAMA boarding student.
Harker food, he observed, has come a long way since PAMA’s school cafeteria. Worsley said he was “amazingly impressed” with all the lunch offerings at the upper school, made from scratch with fresh, locally purchased, well- balanced quality items. He even had a chance to chat with Harker’s kitchen staff about their work and healthy food philosophy, which is similar to his own.
Worsley recalled watching with fascination as the PAMA cook, Mrs. Kennedy, made grilled cheese sandwiches and tater tots for the boys. “I used to love hanging out and watching her. It was so exciting to me. It probably had something to do with planting the seeds of my becoming a chef!” he said.
To date, Worsley has worked as a chef in more than 134 countries, studying and preparing many types of cuisine for luxury vacationers worldwide. He spent two boating seasons as a chef for a cruise ship in Croatia on the beautiful Dalmatian coast. His working motto, he noted, is: “Have knife, will travel.”
One interesting aspect of working as a chef on a boat is that, although you get to travel a lot, you never really see much of the sights, Worsley said. “Because the next meal is the most important thing, the moment I step off the boat I’m heading for the local market in search of the best fresh fruits and vegetables they have,” he explained.
Worsley makes himself available for private hire, ready to go almost anywhere at a moment’s notice. He especially likes to work with “foody” sailing families (of up to eight with a crew) specializing in fresh fish presentations. Among his tailor-made culinary experiences are classical French catered dinners, romantic candlelit dinners, casual yet sumptuous lunches, and a variety of other gourmet meals.
“I love the international markets as I learn so much from these hardworking people, from Calcutta to Rio,” he said, adding that one of the most important lessons of working as a chef is to always “consider the audience” and know the tastes of those for whom you are cooking.
Worsley credits his time at PAMA with helping to instill a strong work ethic. He worked his way up through the PAMA ranking system to win a special “Drill Down Award” and become the school’s “most improved cadet.” He said he also learned how to juggle two worlds – that of a young man attending a military academy while simultaneously growing up in the radically changing times of the ’60s and ’70s.
“I am a living reminder of Harker history,” he said, referring to PAMA’s creation in 1919 under the direction of Richard P. Kelly. Donald L. Nichols assumed leadership of PAMA in 1950 and Howard E. Nichols assumed leadership of the school in 1973, eventually dropping the military program and expanding academics and other program offerings.
Alumni Association Warmly Welcomes Class of 2015
The Class of 2015 was officially welcomed into the Harker Alumni Association during an induction luncheon in the Nichols Hall atrium on May 21.
The event took place after the seniors’ graduation rehearsal at Mountain Winery, giving the students a chance to pause and reflect upon their final year at Harker.
During the luncheon, prizes were handed out to students who had participated in the senior trip’s volleyball tournament and sandcastle-building contest. The seniors were then introduced to their class agents, who will act as liaisons between Harker’s alumni department and the 2015 graduates.
In preparation for college, each senior received what has become a fun Harker tradition: a laundry bag along with instructions on doing one’s own laundry. Finally, the soon- to-be-graduates wrote special messages to friends, teachers, parents and others to be placed in a time capsule that will be opened at the Class of 2015’s 10-year reunion. They hung out after the event to sign yearbooks and visit with friends from other grades.
Alumni Association Sponsors Harker Golf Classic at Renowned Stanford University Course
This year marked the first time the annual Harker Golf Classic was presented by the Harker Alumni Association. The successful event took place on April 13 at the Stanford University Golf Course, raising funds for Harker’s general endowment fund.
The 2015 Harker Golf Classic brought together Harker alumni, parents, alumni parents and their friends, totaling about 80 golfers. The fundraiser was largely spearheaded by Jeremy Pomer ’91 and Jeff Rogers ’84. Former Harker faculty member Howard Saltzman and current lower school math teacher Pat Walsh served as honorary marshals for the day, handing out prize ribbons and libations to golfers.
A variety of special awards and prizes, as well as numerous generous sponsors, helped make the event special. Capping off the occasion was a 19th-hole reception on the clubhouse patio for golfers, as well as non-golfers wishing to join in on the fun.
At the end of the day, the winning foursome was announced: Jen Eng, Raymond Hsieh, Herb Repp and Robert Nakamura.
The Stanford golf course, designed in 1930 by renowned golf course architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, is located in the foothills above the Stanford University campus. In 2009, it was rated the nation’s third-best college course by golf coaches.
“It was a great game of golf and, more important, all the participants left with the wonderful knowledge that they had helped raise funds for Harker’s general endowment, which will benefit future generations of students,” enthused Karri Sakai Baker ’84, director of alumni relations.
Alumni Celebrations
Please join us in congratulating the following alumni:
Sasha Stepanenko ’06 has had a busy year, finishing her Ph.D. program in clinical psychology and getting married in March. Many of her classmates were in attendance, including Casey Near, who officiated, and Gail Nakano and Ankur Gupta, who were in the wedding party. Sasha and her husband, Ryan Soykin, also enjoyed spending time with Alexi Ladonnikov ’05, Casey Blair ’06, Naushad Godrej ’06, Mariah Bush ’06, Steve Boyle ’06 and Shivani Bhargava ’06.
Last year for the summer issue we ran an alumni Celebrations photo about a couple (Heidi Wang ’08 and Neil Chao ’06) who had some of their engagement photos taken at Harker’s upper school campus. This year, we are thrilled to report that a couple from 2003 took things a step further and actually got engaged on campus! Congratulations to Jigish Patel, who proposed to Charitha Reddy in the gym at the upper school, which had been cleverly decorated to look like a scene from a high school dance, thanks to assistance from Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement. Rosenthal recalled coaching Jigish in basketball back in grade 5, and was thrilled that Jigish contacted the alumni office and expressed how much Harker still meant to both him and Charitha. “We had been good friends in high school and reconnected a few years ago so it seemed like a natural place to propose since it was filled with good memories for both of us! It was really hard keeping it a secret but I had a lot of help from both of our families so she would be surprised!” said Jigish.
“We are so glad to have them share this special moment as part of the Harker family!” said Rosenthal.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
2002
Congratulations to Alexander Wang (MS ’98) who was named one of “The 100 Most Influential People” by Time Magazine. The magazine recently released its annual list and Alex was one of the few fashion designers among the elite to make the cut.
2003
Maheen Kaleem is a recent Georgetown University Law Center graduate. She was featured (with both a quote and photo) in a thought-provoking front-page article in The Washington Post on the future value of a legal degree. In the piece, she shared that she wants to practice public interest law, but said she didn’t enter law school with “blinders on about the job market.” To read the full piece: http://wapo.st/1J4ESAO.
Jigish Patel and Charitha Reddy got engaged at Harker’s upper school campus. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2006
Steve Boyle has been getting rave reviews for his work directing the play “Exit, Pursued by a Bear,” which had a successful run with the City Lights Theater Company, ending mid-June.
Of the play, critic John Orr at Regarding Arts said, “Director Steve M. Boyle has this cast and show ticking like a fine Swiss watch.” Steve worked with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare performing arts theater last summer and, during his senior year at Harker, was a student director in the Conservatory. Look for a full profile on Steve and his performing arts work in the fall issue of Harker Quarterly!
Lauren Harries recently traveled to Georgia on a secret project with a lo- cal theater company to compete against a diverse pool of entertainment groups in a reality variety show called “Fake Off.” The first episode aired on May 6. “Episodes air at 10 p.m. (Eastern time) on the TruTV network every Wednesday through June 10 (the finale). If you don’t have the network in your cable package, episodes may be watched through the network’s website the morning after the air date,” reported Lauren. Check out the show’s main webpage: http://www.trutv.com/ shows/fake-off/index.html.
Sharon Her recently graduated with her M.A. in education with an emphasis on child life in hospitals and is currently working as a certified child life specialist (CCLS) at Sutter Children‘s Center in Sacramento. She helps support the psychosocial well-being of all the kids and families there through procedural preparation and support, education and play.
After three years of working from 3 a.m.-4 p.m. on the trade floor of the world’s largest asset management company, Roshni Mehra left her job in finance to pursue her passion in philanthropy. Most recently, Roshni started working at Stanford University‘s Graduate School of Business in the external relations and development office, and is a freelance writer for the health and nutrition section of India.com. Roshni also sent in a photo taken at an impromptu ’06 mini-reunion in Ghirardelli Square. Shown, from left, are: Shilpika Lahri ’07 and ’06 alums Priya Takiar, Roshni, Amulya Mandava and Jaya Pareek.
Sasha Stepanenko got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2008
Alex Underwood has returned to Harker – to work! Alex recently joined the Harker staff as a theater technician in the performing arts department at the upper school campus. Welcome back to Harker, Alex!
Catherine Chiu, now in medical school at UCSF, returned to the upper school with fellow former classmate Neelaysh Vukkadala (also a UCSF medical student) to lead an engaging suturing workshop for advanced science students at the end of April.
2011
In mid-March, upper school math teacher Victor Adler met up with 19 Harker alumni at Gather restaurant in Berkeley. The alumni in attendance were from the classes of 2011 and 2014.
2012
Rachelle Koch co- authored a research pa- per about a University of Chicago study in which participants were taught to identify piano notes by sound alone, demonstrating that absolute pitch can be a learned skill.
This new study was published by the scientific journal “Cognition.” See more at: http://news.uchicago. edu/article/2015/05/28/ acquiring-perfect-pitch- may-be-possible-some- adults#sthash.6I39ZNdx. a0eF7fet.dpuf.
2013
Maverick McNealy is getting serious attention for his golf game, though he says he’ll probably still go into business (sooner or later) after college! Recently there was a great KTVU (http://bit.ly/1J6zTjr) piece on him, and here are a couple of articles, both from the Wall Street Journal, on his plans and how his presence could affect the game. And, in breaking news as Harker Quarterly was about to go to press, Maverick won the Haskins Award for his stellar performance on the links as part of the Stanford golf team! This prestigious award is given to the top college player in golf. Read all about it: http://bit. ly/1Fq9shp. http://www.wsj.com/ articles/the-golfing- upstart-of-silicon- valley-1431125032 http://www.wsj.com/ articles/what-golf-needs-a- rival-for-rory-1428506420
Over spring break, some 2013 alums – Curran Shah, Kevin Susai, Rags Selvaraj, Neel Bhoopalam and Tiphaine Delepine – met up at USC. They had a blast catching up and meeting each other‘s new friends. Not pictured: Nick Chuang, Ragini Bhattacharya, Raghav Sehtia, Michael Amick and Adithram Rengaramchandran.
Cecilia Lang-Ree was named national champion in late May for Individual Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter at the national finals of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in Springfield, Mass. She competed as an individual, representing Stanford University, where she’s a sophomore.
Drew Goldstein is now sporting an NCAA Championship ring following Duke University’s successful basketball season. Drew is team manager and helps throughout the season with game videos, sideline needs and equipment wrangling, all of which contributed to the team’s success. “It was great to watch him during and after a game,” said Butch Keller, upper school head. “We had a couple of text exchanges and he is so excited – as he should be!” Take a look at Drew’s sportscenter’s Instagram account; he is the red-haired guy on top of the pile! https://instagram. com/p/1KLr9GH_qZ/?taken- by=sportscenter.
Indu Seeni and Shreya Vemuri recently dropped by the alumni relations office for a visit. Indu is attending St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, and Shreya is enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University. Both were home for spring break. Indu had just enjoyed lunch with classmate Jenny Chen. Shreya and Indu were friends from Harker’s middle school, and still keep in touch.
2014
Zina Jawadi was elected president of the Hearing Loss Association of America, California State Association (HLAA-CA). She has been HLAA-CA webmaster since July 2013 and served as HLAA-CA Facebook moderator from 2013 to 2014. Zina has interned at the UCSF Otology and Cochlear Implant Center and at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Zina is a three-time recipient of the United States President’s Volunteer Service Award, is the recipient of the 2014 HLAA Outstanding Young Adult Award, and was the founder of the Disability Awareness Program at Harker. Zina attends Stanford University.
2015
The Class of 2015 is already making news. Four of the 20 featured in Business In- sider’s story of the most impressive high school grads are from Harker! The Harker students included in the article are Samantha Madala, Rohith Kuditipudi, Andrew Jin and Daniela Lee. To see the full story: http://www.businessinsider. com/most-impressive-kids- graduating-from-high- school-2015-5?op=1.
Congratulations to the Class of 2015 on your graduation and welcome to the Alumni Association! We look forward to hearing updates from you!
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
1972
Stephen Worsley is living and working abroad as a private traveling chef. Read all about it in the Alumni News section on page 57.
1976
Andre Woodvine wrote that he attended Harker Academy from 1973-76 and has fond memories of playing in the Harker band under musical director Dana Morgan. In 1976 his family immigrated to the Caribbean island of Barbados.
After initially studying for a career in sciences, Andre realized his abilities and love for music were stronger. In 1986 he earned a music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Andre has released four albums of original Carib bean jazz, assisted in the creation of an associ ate degree of music program in Barbados, and regularly performs concerts in France and the Caribbean. “Follow your passions toward your own definition of success” is Andre’s advice to future musicians.
1989
Harker lower school math teacher Pat Walsh recently had the opportunity to reconnect with David Owens, whom he taught back in the fifth grade. Now David works as a grade 5 teacher himself, at Hall Middle School in Lark spur. “I’ve attached a photo of me with my wife, Karen, from our annual fifth grade Colonial Day. We co-teach two grade 5 classes. We currently live in San Francisco,” he said.
This year marked the first time the annual Harker Golf Classic was presented by the Harker Alumni Association. The successful event took place on April 13 at the renowned Stanford University Golf Course, raising funds for Harker’s General Endowment Fund.
The 2015 Harker Golf Classic brought together Harker alumni, parents, alumni parents and their friends, totaling about 80 golfers. The fundraiser was largely spearheaded by alums Jeremy Pomer ’91 and Jeff Rogers ’84. Former Harker faculty member Howard Saltzman and current lower school math teacher Pat Walsh served as honorary marshals for the day, handing out prize ribbons and libations to golfers.
A variety of special awards and prizes, as well as numerous generous sponsors, helped make the event special. Capping off the occasion was a 19th hole reception on the clubhouse patio for golfers, as well as non-golfers, wishing to join in on the fun.
At the end of the day, the winning foursome was announced: Jen Eng, Raymond Hsieh, Herb Repp and Robert Nakamura.
The Stanford golf course, designed in 1930 by renowned golf course architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, is located in the foothills above the Stanford University campus. In 2009, it was rated the nation’s third-best college course by golf coaches.
“It was a great game of golf and, more important, all the participants left with the wonderful knowledge that they had helped raise funds for Harker’s General Endowment, which will benefit future generations of students,” enthused Karri Baker ’84, director of alumni relations.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
2003
Class agents Maheen Kaleem and Julia Gitis were thrilled to report busy and productive happenings from the Class of 2003! The agents noted that last year both Ilya Sukhar and Surbhi Sarna were named to the Forbes “30 under 30” lists for their incredible accomplishments. Ilya is the co-founder and CEO of Parse and Surbhi is the founder of nVision Medical. The Harker Quarterly covered that story in its spring 2014 issue. (Please see the Alumni News section of this issue for an article about Andy Fang ’10 who was included on a Forbes list this year.)
Misha Nasledov is a lead engineer at if (we), a social and mobile technology company, and is one of only three people who’ve won two Weeble awards. He spends his free time car racing, sometimes doing nonstop endurance races that last up to 24 hours.
Dav Yendler works as an illustrator in Chicago. His work appeared in the Cards Against Humanity’s Holiday 2014 Campaign.
Cathy Kim is finishing up law school at Columbia and will be returning home to clerk for Magistrate Paul S. Grewal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
After spending a few years in New York, Shanghai and Beijing, Deborah Tu returned to the Bay Area where she develops urban infill residential and mixed-use projects.
Speaking of coming back home, Peter Noonan’s son is now in kindergarten at Harker, and Julia Gitis is now the lower school’s admission director. Julia also recently got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2004
Jessica Liu sent in a fun photo of a mini-reunion she enjoyed with some former Harker classmates over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. “We are all still very good friends and decided to rent a house in Santa Barbara over the MLK holiday. This photo was taken on the Santa Barbara pier with my GoPro,” she explained. Front row (L to R): Sameer Deen, Aditi Bhattacharyya, Nickisa Hodgson, Jacinda Mein. Back row (L to R): Courtney Johnson, Prithi Trivedi, Jessica Liu.
Having spent the last half of 2014 volunteering in India, Emma Hawley has relocated to the Bay Area for the first time since graduating from Harker and staying in LA after finishing at UCLA. While abroad, she volunteered at the ashram headquarters of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in Chennai, an organization devoted to offering free heart-based meditation in more than 100 countries worldwide. She helped in the publications and media departments, including working on a redesign of the quarterly English magazine, various graphic design projects and artistic direction of multimedia. She’s happy to now be near the local ashram in Fremont where she continues to help in various capacities. She’s part of the open house committee, facilitating introductory meditation sessions around the Bay. She’s thrilled to be back in Santa Clara near her family (Harker’s upper school Latin teacher John Hawley and wife, Claire).
The Class of 2004 had its 10-year reunion the evening of Dec. 23 at the Village Bistro in Santana Row. Upper school faculty and staff were invited to attend as a gesture of gratitude for all the guidance and encouragement they provided the alumni during their special high school years. About 50 people attended and a good time was had by all.
2009
Back in December, Neelaysh Vukkadala, who is now in medical school at UCSF, returned to Harker to lead a workshop during several afternoon classes of HAPy (Human Anatomy and Physiology). During his visit to the upper school, he showed students how to perform thoracic surgery as well as suturing up the incision.
Upper school math teacher Tony Silk enjoyed getting together for lunch with Evan Maynard back in December. “Evan recently graduated from Purdue with his master’s in aerospace engineering (as did I). He now works in Seattle on spacecraft,” recalled Silk.
Sophi Scarnewman (formerly Newman) got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details! In other news, Sophi is a newly minted birth and postpartum doula working in the Bay Area. She is currently building her doula business, Blackberry Babies. She graduated from Stanford University in 2013 and spent a year as an associate product manager at Google before leaving to pursue a career as a doula. “I spent a year working on Google+, with my biggest project being a complete redesign of the Android Google+ sharing function. Ultimately, my decision to leave Google has much less to do with any shortcomings of my teams (whom I loved) or Google (a truly great employer) than it does with my own passions and priorities as an individual. Although I certainly studied a lot of disciplines in college, I cared most about and put the most of myself into Stanford’s Sexual Health Peer Resource Center. I worked there for four years and spent my last two years of college at the helm. My work as a doula picks up those threads of reproductive health, running a business, and providing support/counseling. I hope to help mothers and their partners make birth into an empowering, energizing and meaningful experience,” she added.
2011
Karthik Dhore sent in a photo from his fall racing season (he is at the front of the boat) on the crew of Princeton’s rowing team. “I’m a senior on Princeton’s lightweight rowing team and have been on the team for four years. Our spring racing season starts in a month so we’re getting ready for that right now,” he said.
2012
Conservatory grad Lauren Pinzás, currently a junior studying vocal performance at Southern Methodist University, wrote to performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree that she is getting serious mileage out of her musical theater certificate training at Harker! She notes she is debuting one of the lead roles in “Wading Home,” an opera based on Rosalyn Story’s novel, centered around the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The show opens in April. “My background in musical theater helped because I may have to dance for it, and I will definitely be acting and singing. Thank you for your input in my process as a singing artist!” she writes.
2013
Rohan Chandra is part of Brown University’s all-male choir, “Brown Derbies.” In early January he came out here with the group and put on a great show at the upper school. Rohan is Derbie No. 153; to learn more about the group: http:// brownderbies.com/.
2014
The College Board recently announced that Albert Zhao earned the distinction of being one of only 15 students who got perfect scores on their AP Micro-economics exams, taken in spring 2014. AP Exams are graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the top score, but Albert went a step further, earning every point possible on the examination, answering every multiple choice question correctly and earning full points on the free-response section of the exam.
Shenel Ekici, a freshman at Barnard College, was selected to be part of a photo shoot for the December issue of the Barnard Bulletin. Check out the online version at http://issuu.com/barnardbulletin/docs/barnardbulletindec2014. She’s featured on pages 3, 5 and 21 (main section) and is one of the “alternate” front covers. One of the things Shenel loves most about being at Barnard is that she gets to enjoy a small, liberal arts women’s college while attending classes on the same campus at a major ivy-league school (Columbia, with which Barnard is affiliated). Shenel is majoring in neuroscience and is on the pre-med track.