This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
While Harker’s academics may garner the most attention from students and parents, the school has significantly bolstered its after-school offerings in the past few years. The lower and middle school BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team and Blackford Enrichment and Supervision Team, respectively) programs have become an integral part of the school’s mission.
What eventually became the BEST program has existed at Harker in one form or another for nearly three decades. “[Howard] Nichols wanted to do just a little extra after-school program for those students who couldn’t get picked up right after school,” recalled Kim Cali, Harker’s lower school BEST director and the program’s founder. When Cali started working at Harker in 1987, she and four staff members formed what was then known as the recreation department.
The recreation Department was very different from the program that exists today. “We had maybe four or five activities when I first started, and now we have 25 activities just at the lower school,” said Cali. She said she began speaking with former head of school Chris Nikoloff as early as 2003 about restructuring and rebranding the growing department.
“We were still running the program with the assumption that we could do it with a director and five or six staff, and it was just too much for me to handle,” she remembered. Recognizing her dedication, Nikoloff asked her to put together a proposal.
Cali’s vision was to see the recreation department transformed from an assortment of after-school activities into an expansive program where students could explore a wide variety of interests. “I’ve always wanted children to be given the opportunity to explore different things,” she said, “so that by the time they get to fourth or fifth grade or by middle school, they really know where their true passion lies besides the classroom.”
Today, BEST caters to anexpansive array of interests, thanks largely to outside vendors who specialize in specific areas and methods of instruction. Activities included in tuition and available to all children until 6 p.m. include Legos, basketball and a host of other unstructured activities, and many children take advantage of those free hours. Both the lower and middle BEST programs also include dropin activities where students can experiment with art, computers and sports at their leisure. Learning workshops allow students to delve into more specific areas, such as web design, robotics and storytelling. Individual and group instruction are offered in a diverse selection of specialty classes, including martial arts, music, cooking, foreign languages and more.
BEST has been very popular among lower school families eager to enrich their children’s education. “We always have waitlists, especially at the beginning of the school year,” Cali said. “Parents are very eager to get their children into as many activities as possible.”
Performing arts classes, such as dance and instrumental music, are perennial favorites, as are STEM classes, such as engineering and robotics, according to Cali. The lower school’s BEST program is a big hit with parents, for whom it is a one-stop spot for extracurricular activities without the inconvenience of having to take their children to another location, she added.
“I’ve had a lot of parents over the course of the years that I’ve been here … who have said, ‘It was between Harker and such and such a school, and it was the extracurricular program that sold me,’” Cali said.
Jenny Cu Tully ’92, whose children, Kira, grade 2, and Brandon, grade 4, are both enrolled in BEST classes, said, “They both love staying after school, and it is so hard to get them to leave the campus. I think that speaks volumes about how much fun they are having in the BEST program.”
Tully said the program’s flexibility is a key feature. “I love that my kids can try a new activity each quarter to find their passion, or stick with the same ones if they know what they love already,” she said.
In addition to deepening their education, students at the middle school also use the BEST program as a way to relax. Activity Avenue, where many students meet after school, offers simple social activities, such as watching movies, playing board games or making crafts. Upon starting as middle school BEST director in 2008, Lorena Martinez introduced Fun Fridays, a weekly event similar in atmosphere to a carnival, with outdoor activities and music at the middle school campus amphitheater.
“The students work so hard, they study so hard,” Martinez said, “that I wanted them to know that at the end of the week, they could relax, they could have fun.”
Many popular activities at the lower school BEST program are already found in the middle school’s curriculum and extracurricular offerings, including athletics and performing arts. Martinez therefore designed the middle school BEST program to contain some less structured activities, and be a place for students to cut loose in a friendly environment.
Martinez also created the teen center, where the middle school’s older students socialize and de-stress. In addition, Martinez said, it has provided another way for teachers to get to know more about their students by participating in activities with them in a no-pressure environment.
“I enjoy their Fun Fridays, as they work extremely hard the whole week to make it fun for the middle schoolers,” said Saumi Mehta, grade 8. “I really think that the BEST program has made me enjoy Harker more and made me less stressed out because of the fun things that they put on for us.”
Middle school BEST staffers also have been keen to listen to student feedback, which Martinez said has been very useful in keeping the program robust and interesting to students. Martinez also advises the middle school’s student government, and has used submissions to their suggestion box to open up discussions about more activities.
“I kind of work with them to also get the heartbeat of what’s going on,” she said.
Much of BEST’s success as a program is owed to its dedicated staff, who Cali calls “the front line to the school,” because they are frequently the first and last people to interact with the students over the course of the day. In addition to running after-school programs, BEST staffers – many of them college-aged and seeking careers in education – also supervise during recess and other outdoor activities. Annie Kallbrier, a 10-year veteran of the BEST program who is now the kindergarten coordinator and a classroom aide, said that “engaging with students outside the classroom gives you a unique understanding of the personality and interests of each student. Watching them explore nature, and helping them to navigate through new social situations every day, is hugely gratifying for me.”
In addition to supervising and helping during various activities, BEST staff members also act as educators. “We seek to help students develop into people of good character as they grow. On the playground, BEST staff are able to teach students how to communicate and problem-solve with their peers,” said Kallbrier. “We hope that we can help every child discover that they are capable, creative and kind in character.”
Cali is highly appreciative of the BEST staff’s ability to work with children, as they must find a balance between the structure of the classroom and the level of freedom that BEST offers. “I think one of our bigger challenges is … sometimes [kids] just want some freedom to play,” she said. “But also, I find that some children like to be directed.
“We look at ourselves as social teachers,” Cali said. “We might not be in a classroom, but we really do have a huge responsibility to these children in helping them develop as good citizens and helping them learn how to work through conflicts and make good choices.”
Not surprisingly, BEST has provided a path to a teaching career for many current and former Harker teachers. “Many of my staff also are aiding in the classroom now,” said Cali, who estimated that more than half of BEST staff members go on to become teachers. “My passion and one of my goals has been to help young adults become teachers, and they’re getting all the experience that they need right here while they’re going to college.” Overall, BEST leaders at both the lower and middle school campuses hope to provide experiences and opportunities that the students will continue to remember as they further their education. Cali sees BEST as not just an area for students to play and learn, but also as a place that offers a sense of community for students who hail from many different parts of the Bay Area. “I always refer to our department as the ‘neighborhood’ for the children,” she said. “We come from all different areas. Some people come from Pacifica, Los Altos Hills, Fremont, wherever. And a lot of children are here for a good part of their day, so this becomes their neighborhood.”
Martinez, meanwhile, hopes that middle school students will continue to view BEST as a source of fun and socialization as important to the Harker experience as the education they receive in the classroom. “I just want the kids to have a good experience here at Harker,” said Martinez. “And I know they’re having a great experience with education, that’s a given. So I just want to make it come full circle. Outside the classroom, it should be just as amazing as it is inside.”
“As a Harker alum myself, some of my best friends, memories and skills were made after school,” said Tully. “The wide range of options is amazing, and I wish I could sign myself up for many of them!”
On Wednesday, grade 3 students celebrated Dress for History Day by wearing costumes inspired by modes of dress from different cultures and historical periods. The costumes, each made by a student on a small budget, were worn throughout the school day and included miners, hippies and Civil War veterans.
“The idea behind Dress for History Day is to give students the opportunity to explore the past in a different way and to use their creative problem-solving skills to come up with a costume,” said history teacher Heidi Gough, who started the annual project in 2009.
Students were given their choice of any historical period and used their creativity and knowledge of that period’s dress to create a costume without spending more than $10. They also were asked to be ready to explain the history behind the outfits they made.
“I believe strongly in giving students choice in how they learn and what they do, both to develop creativity and keep curiosity at the forefront of learning whenever possible,” Gough said. “This seemed like a fun way to do that.”
To see how Harker makes history come alive throughout the school, check out the Harker Magazine article published last summer!
Two Harker Preschool teachers recently attended the California Kindergarten Association’s conference in Santa Clara. The annual gathering brings together pre-K, transitional kindergarten, kindergarten and grade 1 teachers from across the state to share best practices and innovative strategies for engaging young children. The theme this year was STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, art and math).
Mara Beckerman, preschool music and movement specialist, and Robyn Stone, preschool STEM specialist, both spoke at the conference.
More than a score of teachers attended Stone’s workshop, titled “Mathematize This!” Attendees posted many positive reviews, including, “This has been the most valuable workshop so far. It was an ‘aha’ workshop! Awesome presenter, I learned so much.” Another reviewer said, “Great ideas to use in the classroom. Showing activities we can use. Great ideas I can’t wait to use.”
Beckerman held a workshop called “Using Music and Movement to Educate the Whole Child.” Her workshop focused on giving teachers ways to incorporate creative movement into their classrooms, and how to use songs, rhymes and books to inspire such experiences. About 60 attended, Beckerman noted. Attendees who evaluated her online posted many kind remarks, including “So much useful information regarding child development and how it correlates/grows by using music and movement. Loved doing the exercises!” and “This was my favorite class of the conference. Can’t wait to use her ideas in my classroom.”
Last week, grade 1 students visited the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University for an up-close look at works from various periods. Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture “The Thinker” was a favorite of the students, who tried to imitate the sculpture’s pose and “discovered how awkward the pose actually is!” reported teacher Cindy Proctor.
Elsewhere, students engaged in an activity in which they studied two paintings to gather information on each of them. “One of the paintings was of the Stanford family,” Proctor said. “The children looked closely and were able to tell the docent quite a bit about the family based on the painting.” After examining another painting, the students constructed a story about a daring river rescue.
Other highlights included spotting geometric patterns in a mural and perusing the museum’s renowned collection of Rodin sculptures, one of the largest in the world.
This week, grades 1-3 staged their annual holiday shows at the Bucknall Theater to celebrate the season as the community headed into the winter break. Attendees were delighted to hear the voices of grade 1 students singing odes to the holiday season at Tuesday’s Grade 1 Holiday Show, where the homeroom students of teachers Imelda Cantu, Cindy Proctor, Larissa Weaver and Grace Wallace performed an assortment of tunes. In keeping with the show’s title, “All I Want This Holiday,” students sang several songs about holiday wishes, including “I Want to Be an Elf,” “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” and “That’s What I Want for Christmas.” Other songs performed that afternoon included “My Favorite Time of Year,” “Spin a Little Dreidl” and “A Gift for Santa.”
On Thursday, grades 2 and 3 teamed up for their holiday show, “This Joyous Holiday,” where they performed holiday staples such as “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Winter Wonderland” and “O Chanukah, O Chanukah.” During grade 3’s rendition of “Auld Lang Syne,” they were joined by classmate instrumentalists Lucas Lum, Vera Sorotokin, Annabel Huang and Billy Liang on violin and Ayden Grover on cello. Other special guests included grade 2 teachers Andi Bo, Hillaray Carroll, Sejal Mehta and Ayesha Tahir, who recited the famous poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Today, the grade 4 holiday toy drive came to a successful end as students delivered 435 toys to St. Justin’s Community Ministry in Santa Clara. All Bucknall families were invited to join the 10-day effort by bringing unwrapped toys to the lower school gymnasium lobby. Each year, St. Justin’s serves thousands of people by providing necessities, such as food and clothing. The annual holiday toy drive gives underprivileged families the opportunity to “shop” for the ideal toys for their children. Elementary division head Kristin Giammona and lower school dean of students Mary Holaday accompanied the students during the drop-off at St. Justin’s, which was no doubt glad to receive the massive contribution!
The Lower School Winter Concert on Dec. 7 brought together lower school instrumental and vocal groups – including the choir, orchestra, jazz ensemble and string ensemble – to perform a variety of well-loved tunes, including several holiday favorites. As a special treat, middle school and after-school music instructors took the stage for a special group performance of their own!