Each year grade 10 students sojourn to the Bucknall campus to meet up with their grade 3 Eagle Buddies at the lower school’s annual Pajama Day Assembly.
The event, held in the gym, celebrates a grade 3 service project in which students collect items for the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
Over the past nine years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated thousands of items to the program, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive is primarily a grade 3 effort, all lower school families are invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urges parents to encourage their children to help the less fortunate by donating a new pair pajamas or book to the program.
This year’s assembly occurred on a special-dress pajama day a couple of months ago, when all students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. Butch Keller, upper school head, kicked off the assembly by reading the book “Courage,” a story about bravery by author and illustrator Bernard Waber.
Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller in his robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read a book with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who also had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for lunch, socializing and field games.
“Being an Eagle Buddy is a lot of fun!” said Ellen Minkin, grade 10. “Today we’ve had a really nice time reading together, having lunch and just chilling out on the field.”
Her grade 3 pal, Bahar Sodeifi, said that she really likes the Eagle Buddies program and always looks forward to having the “big kids” come over for a visit.
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
The pajama and book drive originally began at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, grade 12, who got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Narain was motivated to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive.
MS Wrestling – The wrestling team, coached by Karriem Stinson, Charlie Ward and Jeff Paull, participated in the Maverick’s Invitational in Santa Cruz. The following team members placed: Eric Bollar, grade 6, first place; Dezi Johnsen, grade 6, second place; Rohan Arora, grade 8, second place; Max MacKinnon, grade 8, fourth place; and Eric Fang, grade 8, fourth place.
Team awards went to Eric Fang, grade 8, (Eagle), and Henry Cunningham, grade 8, and Ava Lett, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 7/8) Girls Basketball – The Varsity A team, coached by Josh Miller and Dan Pringle, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 6-1 record and went 8-2 overall. Team awards went to Courtni Thompson, grade 7 (MVP), Hunter Hernandez, grade 7 (Eagle) and Haley Arena, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7/8) Girls Basketball – The Varsity B team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in a three-way tie for second place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record. Team awards went to Mariamma Vazhaeparambil, grade 7 (MVP), Renee Page, grade 7 (Eagle) and Reina Joseph, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grade 7) Girls Basketball – The Varsity B2 team, coached by Richard Amarillas and Raul Rios, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a 1-6 record. Team awards went to Shalini Rohra (MVP), Aditi Vinod (Eagle) and Anna Weirich (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Brittney Moseley, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record. Team awards went to Jacqueline Hu (MVP), Ashley Barth (Eagle), and Priya Rohra and Anya Warrier (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Lisa Lubke, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-4 record. Team awards went to Amrita Pasupathy (MVP), Avery Olson (Eagle) and Alexis Nishimura (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Maria Maldonado, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 2-4 record. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Maya Kelly (Eagle) and Harshini Chaturvedula (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Basketball – Team awards went to Jasleen Hansra, grade 5 (MVP), Alena Su, grade 4 (Eagle) and Emily McCartney, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen and Kristian Tiopo.
VA (Grades 7/8) Boys Soccer – The Varsity A team, coached by Chris Salcido and Matt Arensberg, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-5. Team awards went to Andrew Cheplyansky, grade 8 (MVP), Ryan Tobin, grade 7 (Eagle) and Arya Maheshwari, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Boys Soccer – The Varsity B team, coached by Brighid Wood, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-3 record. Team awards went to Anton Novikov (MVP), Rosh Roy (Eagle) and James Pflaging and Marcos Acero (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Soccer – The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Cyrus Merrill and Dan Williams, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-2-3. Team awards went to Ishaan Mantripragada (MVP), Sasvath Ramachandran (Eagle) and Dhruv Saoji (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Boys Soccer – The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Jared Ramsey and Tobias Wade, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 2-1-1 and went 3-1-2 overall. Team awards went to Rodrigo Gonzales (MVP), Pranav Mullappalli (Eagle) and Michael Pflaging (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Soccer – Team awards went to Neel Handa, grade 4 (Eagle), and Andrew Au and Matthew Goetting, both grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Randy Le Gris and Jim McGovern.
Kindergartner Aiden Young recently served as the lower school’s “principal for a day,” thanks to an auction item he won at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic.
Going by the name Principal Aiden, he took his seat behind the principal’s desk on the morning of March 23. His first order of business was canceling a faculty meeting to allow lower school teachers more time to prepare for conferences.
“The teachers were just overwhelmingly supportive in emailing him back with words of gratitude, each of which brought a smile to his face,” recalled Sarah Leonard, primary division head.
Leonard recalled that Principal Aiden passed up an opportunity to have lunch at a restaurant of his choice in favor of eating on campus. There, Chef David prepared him lunch that consisted of his requested grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and water. While dipping half sandwiches into the soup, he rated the lunch as “very delicious,” said Leonard.
Later on in the day, Principal Aiden met one-on-one with Chris Nikoloff, head of school, followed by a meeting with the operational team of administrators, who each offered a summary of their respective roles at Harker.
At the end of the day, Principal Aiden directed a craft activity in his homeroom. Under his instruction, his peers made bunny ear headbands. Their determined work was rewarded with small packets of gummy bunny treats that Principal Aiden happily passed out at dismissal time.
The recent 20th Annual Ogre Awards, with its timely election year theme, marked two decades of entertaining performances by the grade 2 Ogre Academy.
“The Ogres are over, and the results of the election are in. The winner is grade 2!” said Danny Dunn, who serves as the show’s writer and director, as well as technical director of the Bucknall Theater.
Sponsored by the lower school library department, this year’s ceremony took place on “Super Thursday,” the afternoon of March 17, in the Bucknall gym. The second graders enthusiastically portrayed an array of colorful characters, including enchanted royalty, witches, fools, tricksters, heroines, villains and magical objects, based on the folklore of cultures from around the world.
Before the lights dimmed, audience members scanned their programs in eager anticipation of the production. They read about how, in the enchanted kingdom of Harker, a general election would be held, with one story elected to the highest office in the land – and subsequently named Best Story. “Candidates from 21 folk and fairy tales have thrown their hats into the ring in the hopes of securing the vote. It looks like a tight race!” stated the program.
The road to the Oval Library began with primary elections, whereby candidates lobbied for their literary party’s nomination. Once they had chosen their candidate, they faced off in the general election. There, 88 delegates of the 2016 Second Grade Ogre Electoral College decided who won the Best Story of 2016.
Lower school librarian Kathy Clark served as the storyteller and mistress of ceremonies for the show, which was created in 1996 by former library director Enid Davis, who retired four years ago.
“I have been lucky enough to be part of The Ogre Awards from the start, when Enid Davis first put the idea forward of a comparative folklore curriculum for the second graders. From the very beginning, we felt that this particular age was still eager to listen to stories and be old enough to have opinions about the archetypical characters,” said Clark.
Clark added that past Ogre Academy participants often reminisce fondly about the stories they represented and their roles. All participants receive a mini Ogre Award for their participation. “I know that many still have theirs, including Harker alumni!” she said.
The Ogre Awards show originally began as an evening performance. A few years later, it expanded to four shows (one per homeroom) until the production evolved to its current format.
There were plenty of election references at this year’s show, including talk of secret ballots, campaign headquarters, town hall meetings and mudslinging ads. According to Dunn, the clever idea of having characters campaigning for their awards had been in the works for a long time, “but of course we wanted to save it for an election year.” Elections seemed to work very well as a theme, she said, because it gave the characters a chance to explain why and how their stories were winners and best represented their categories.
Each year all but one of The Ogre Awards are bestowed upon fairy tale characters. A special Ogre Award is given to a member of the Harker community who provides exceptional service or support to the Harker libraries.
This year that honor went to Diann Chung, who became the lower school admission director in 2015. She came to Harker as a grade 1 teacher in 1995 and went on to teach grade 2 and serve as the K-2 department chair. More recently, she also took on the role of academic principal for the Camp+ summer program.
Chung said she was thrilled to receive The Ogre Award for Lifetime Achievement. While accepting the award, she shared that one of the things she misses most about being a teacher is story time. “Keep reading!” she urged the students. “Books are a wonderful magical transport.”
As the show came to an end, and the polls came to a close, it was time to announce the winner for the new term in office for Best Story. The much-anticipated Best Folk or Fairy Tale Award went to “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship,” a book illustrated by Uri Shulevitz that retells a Russian fairy tale of the same name. The win was especially notable given the fact that this is the first year the book has been a part of The Ogres.
Before concluding the awards show, Clark informed the cheering audience that The Ogres were made possible by a dedicated team of faculty, staff and parent volunteers.
“I am very proud to be part of a long tradition of Ogres!” said Dunn.
Physical education took on new meaning for lower school students on March 4, thanks to the annual Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser held during regular P.E. for K-5 students.
“No one had to be an experienced jumper to join in. It was good fun for a good cause!” recalled Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s P.E. department and spearheaded the event, which raised $9,589 for the American Heart Association.
Students were able to participate in a concurrent Hoops for Heart effort on the outdoor basketball courts during the first six periods, until rain forced everyone indoors, McGovern noted.
Some staff and faculty members also got in on the action, jumping rope in the Bucknall gym. Students and grown-ups alike had a blast showing off their double dutch moves in support of a worthy cause.
They also had fun playing with hula hoops and participating in a raffle for T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.
For the past few weeks, the lower school – under the leadership of the grade 1 students – has been collecting toys, collars, kitty litter, food, blankets and monetary donations for the animals at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.
On March 21, the first graders helped carry the donations, which had been stored in the Bucknall gym, out to a car for delivery to the Humane Society.
“We had a lot of donated items. Some of the first graders did extra chores at home to earn money to donate. The total monetary contribution to the animal shelter was $486.86,” reported Rita Stone, grade 1 teacher.
Right before the service project began, the first graders took a field trip to the 80-year-old nonprofit animal shelter. There they enjoyed a tour of the facility and learned what the organization does, as well as how best to care for their own pets.
Students from grades 5 and 12 met up on March 11 for their final Eagle Buddies event, as the seniors prepare to graduate this spring. The buddies met at the upper school gym before being sent off to eat St. Patrick’s Day themed cupcakes and play with noisemakers and beach balls.
“The first time I met [my grade 5 buddy, Max Blennemann], he was really shy and quiet, but at the end of that first meeting, we just connected,” said senior Raghav Jain, “and since then we send emails to each other to keep in touch.”
“It’s fun to see what older kids do … in high school and stuff,” said Blennemann.
“It’s really fun. I really enjoy connecting with the lower school. It’s like having a little sibling,” added Sophia Luo, grade 12.
Christopher Nikoloff, head of school, dropped by toward the end of the meeting to share his appreciation for the Eagle Buddies program, saying, “It’s very, very important to the community. It’s very, very important to the growth of our young students and I hope the growth of our older students as they look back and remember when they were kids.”
The Eagle Buddies program began during the 2010-11 school year and pairs students in grade 3 with a buddy in grade 10. The two students correspond and engage in activities together each year until the sophomores graduate and the grade 3 students enter the middle school.
Lower school BEST celebrated Courage Week last week. Students explored what courage means and looks like in day-to-day life.
“Our students have challenged themselves to make new friends by sitting at different tables during lunch,” said Brielle Rizzotti, assistant director of BEST for grades 3-5. “They’ve read and told their own stories about courage. They have stretched their palettes by trying new foods at the salad bar. They’ve carried out courageous acts all week and were recognized by our staff. Some notable moments included when our first, second and third grade students courageously took the ‘stage’ to participate in a comedy open mic, while our fourth and fifth graders shared their talents and danced to the ‘Whip/Nae Nae.’ The students have learned so much and we’re really proud of their participation, enthusiasm and, of course, their courage!”
Adventure on the high seas was in store for audiences of this year’s grade 5 show, “Pirates! The Musical,” directed by Kellie Binney-Smart. A cast of 132 took the stage for a series of sea shanties about their swashbuckling exploits. In addition to the fifth graders, several faculty members joined in on the fun, including Katie Molin, Shelby Guarino, Jared Ramsey, Gerry-louise Robinson, Kate Shanahan and Kristin Giammona. Songs performed during the show included “A Pirate’s Life for Me,” “Stowaway,” “King of the High C’s” and “The Pirate King.”
Grade 5 students also worked behind the scenes, as Danny Dunn’s grade 5 technical theater students acted as the production crew. Costumer Karoli Clever arranged the wardrobe for the sea-faring cast and Whitney Pintello’s scenic designs perfectly matched the theme of the show.
Lower and middle school results provided by Theresa “Smitty” Smith.
Boys Soccer
Picking up its fifth win in six games, the boys soccer team defeated Eastside Prep 2-1 the week before last with goals from Jared Anderson, grade 9, and Rohit Shah, grade 10. However, King’s Academy got the best of the Eagles later in the week, defeating Harker 4-1.
Girls soccer
The girls soccer team fell to King’s Academy and Notre Dame San Jose in Late January.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team went 1-1 to bring its season record to 10-6. In a tight 59-55 loss to Priory, Rohan Desikan, grade 12, had a team high 20 points with Elijah Edgehill, grade 12, adding 16 points and 11 rebounds. The team rebounded with a 67-32 win over Crystal Springs Uplands later in the week. Roy Yuan, grade 9, led all scorers with 20 points.
Girls Basketball
Continuing her amazing scoring streak, Jordan Thompson, grade 11, had 29 points to lead the Eagles over Immaculate Conception 76-56 last Wednesday. Thompson’s performance made her Harker’s all-time leading scorer. The previous record was held by Daniza Rodriguez ’13, who is currently playing at Whittier College. However, the girls team suffered a rare loss later in the week as it fell to Woodside Priory 76-66. Thompson again had 29 points with Akhila Ramgiri, grade 9, adding a season high 20 points, as the Eagles went to 14-4 on the season. The girls team will host first place Mercy SF tonight at Blackford at 6:30 p.m.
The Harker wrestling team fell to Santa Clara High last Wednesday 60-36.
MS Basketball
Michael Mitchell Jr., grade 7, will be attending West Coast Elite Basketball’s Jr. All-American Camp Feb. 6-7 in Cerritos. The camp attracts some of the top middle school players in the country. Mitchell was recently named the MVP of Harker’s VB boys basketball team. Good luck, Michael!
The early winter sports season for grades 4-8 has concluded. Nearly 220 students participated across the lower and middle school levels in boys basketball and girls soccer!
Our Varsity B and JVB1 boys basketball teams both won league championships and were also tournament champs!
Here is how our teams did this early winter season.
VB (Grades 7-8) Boys Basketball: The varsity B team, coached by Josh Miller and Rich Amarillas, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record and went 9-0 overall. They were league champs of the south division and tournament champs! Team awards went to Michael Mitchell, grade 7 (MVP), Vance Vu, grade 8 (Eagle) and Vedanth Sundaram, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grade 7) Boys Basketball: The varsity B2 team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in sixth place in the WBAL with a 3-4 record. Team awards went to Levi Sutton (MVP), Marcus Anderson (Eagle) and Anmol Velagapudi (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity A team, coached by Mike Delfino, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-3 record and went 3-4 overall. Team awards went to Rishi Jain (MVP), Anquan Boldin Jr. (Eagle) and Alex Zhang (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B6 team, coached by Matt Arensberg, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a 3-4 record. Team awards went to Marcus Page (MVP), Josh Tseitlin (Eagle) and Jack Hayashi (Coaches).
MS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Tuhin Chatterjee, grade 7 (MVP), Alex Shing, grade 8 (Eagle) and Harrison Chang, grade 6, and Akshay Manglik, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by CJ Cali, Jeff Martarano and Raul Rios.
JVB1 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B1 team, coached by Dan Pringle and Karriem Stinson, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 7-0 record and went 9-0 overall. They were league champs and tournament champs! Team awards went to Matthew Chen (MVP), Zeke Weng (Eagle), and Michael Pflaging and Armaan Thakker (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity B2 team, coached by Kristian Tiopo, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-3 record. Team awards went to Boulus Ajlouny (MVP), Max Pflaging (Eagle) and Pranav Mullappalli (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Boys Basketball: The junior varsity C team, coached by Jim McGovern, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-3 record. Team awards went to Om Tandon (MVP), Rohin Bhagat (Eagle) and Spencer Mak (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Basketball: Team awards went to Panav Gogte, grade 4 (MVP), Jack Ledford and Kyle Leung, both grade 4 (Eagle) and Vivek Nayyar, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen and Jeff Paull.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Soccer: The varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood, Brittney Moseley and Kelcie Lai, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a record of 2-5-0. Team awards went to Aria Wong and Hannah Grannis, both grade 7, (MVP), and Dylan Williams, grade 7, and Delaney Logue, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Soccer: The junior varsity A team, coached by Cyrus Merrill and Mandy Schroeder, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-3-1. Team awards went to Ashley Barth (MVP), Angela Jia (Eagle) and Diana Kohr (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Soccer: The junior varsity B team, coached by Lisa Lubke and Jared Ramsey, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 2-1-1 and went 2-3-1 overall. Team awards went to Anya Chauhan (MVP), Anika Muddu (Eagle) and Jia Parikh (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Soccer: Team awards went to Ananya Sriram, grade 4 (Eagle) and Kinnera Mulam, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Randy Le Gris and Maria Maldonado.