This article originally appeared in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.
Ohio native Tobias Wade has a busy Harker life. He teaches U.S. History and World Geography at the lower school, coaches grades 4-5 after-school sports, advises the Bucknall Spirit and Service Club, and directs afternoon activities for Harker’s summer camp. But at heart, he’s a family man, grateful to hang out with his wife, son, brother and brother’s kids. Wade said his 4-year-old son, Talon, “is always making me smile. He is the reason I get up in the morning.” Read on for more about this versatile teacher.
Why do you do what you do?
I think learning is truly magic. Giving kids the tools to discover the world around them is truly a blessing. I enjoy my students’ energy and I feel it keeps me young.
What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up?
Honestly, I think about my wife. She is a three-time cancer survivor. If she can do that, then I cannot give up on anything I try to do.
What are you obsessed with?
I love zombie books and movies.
What one piece of advice you would offer anyone who asks?
Enjoy life and don’t sweat the small things; we never know how much time we have on the earth.
What are some things you like to do when you finally have a block of free time?
I like to read and play with my son. I enjoy camping, watching football and cooking. And I’m trying to learn Bonsai.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.
Carol Parris is the department chair for the grades 1-8 modern and classical languages department, and – appropriately, given her name – teaches French at the middle school. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she lives in Sunnyvale. A woman of many interests, Parris especially loves travel, and singing in shows and with her vocal ensemble, the Sweet Adelines. She shared some of those interests, and a few surprises, with Harker Magazine.
Describe a great travel experience.
I went to Tahiti with a group of artists to paint watercolor flowers. I didn’t know how to draw or paint, but I wanted to speak French and visit Gauguin’s home.
What is something you would love to do so much that you would be OK with failing at it?
I wrote a novel of women’s fiction with romantic elements. Maybe one day I’ll publish it.
Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?
The Dalai Lama. I’d like to bask in his light. And Steph Curry … for the same reason.
For what in your life do you feel most grateful?
I’ll always be grateful that I was home one summer day years ago when [Harker Academy school principal] Alice Williams called, needing a language teacher right way. She said that she had tried to call me a few times, and this was her last attempt. I’ve been at Harker ever since, enjoying the family atmosphere that Howard Nichols talked about so often.
What is a recent accomplishment that you’re proud of?
I think that might be coming up in June. I grew up at a time when girls were rarely celebrated when they turned 13, although boys had a bar mitzvah. For the last two years, I’ve been attending an adult b’nai mitzvah class, and on June 2, I will be one of 11 adults celebrating my bat mitzvah, only just a few years late! Right now, I’m in the role of student with lots of homework to get ready for the big event, so I know what my students go through with their busy schedules.
On June 4, grade 3 English teacher Elise Robichaud’s students held a small ceremony for their Third Grade Veterans Tree, which was planted in the spring as “a living tribute to all veterans – something permanent that the children could enjoy for years to come,” Robichaud said. The tree was a gift from World War II veteran Edward Smith, the great grandfather of third grader Kamala Smith. Earlier this year, the class sent cards to Smith in appreciation of his service in WWII. He responded with a letter of appreciation and a check for $50, which was used to plant the tree.
“My hope is that [the students’] love and gratitude for others will continue to blossom just as their tree continues to grow,” Robichaud said.
Four Harker students joined five other team members for the local USA Ultimate championship tournament. Harker students Brian Harder, Athreya Daniel, Johnathan Mo, all grade 7, and Leah Harder, grade 4, participated. The Bay Area Disc Association hosts an annual tournament in California for kids ages 10-14; this year the tournament was in Newark. There are no preliminary games; the teams train all season for the big event, and the work paid off for these students!
In the Division II finals, the team edged out its opponent, Redwood Day School, beating it 8-6 to take home the championship trophy. A total of 24 middle school teams competed, evenly split between Division I and Division II. Teams competed from as far south as San Luis Obispo and as far north as Marin.
The students send out a special thanks to teacher Rebecca Williams for being the faculty sponsor for their after-school Ultimate club at the middle school. The club activity was instrumental in allowing Harker’s competitors to play together and work on skills throughout the year. The team is coached by Alan Harder, father of Brian and Leah, who has played at the club level for more than 15 years. With three seventh graders on the team, it will be exciting to see if they can defend their title next year!
Harker has announced that it will move its middle school program to its Union Avenue campus and phase out the preschool program currently operating at that site.
Brian Yager, Harker’s head of school, explained the history behind this announcement: “Harker’s acquisition of the Union property in 2012 marked a major milestone in the school’s master plan to own all three of our campuses, and plans are now firmed up to fulfill that plan.” Harker currently leases the middle school campus on Blackford Avenue from the Campbell Union High School District, and that lease is set to expire in 2025. “Our original plan was to move the lower school to our Union Avenue campus when the Blackford lease expired, and then move our middle school to the lower school campus,” Yager explained. “However, as the benefits of moving just one school rather than two became clear, including significantly reducing the stress on our students and faculty and reducing the costs of campus improvements, we decided to move the middle school instead.”
Yager added that the school will accelerate the move from Blackford to Union so that the middle school program will be on its new campus for the start of the 2021-22 school year. An architectural application to upgrade the Union Avenue campus to specifically meet the needs of grades 6-8, including the addition of classrooms and co-curricular spaces, is undergoing final adjustments and will be submitted to the city of San Jose this summer.
The original plan also included finding a new home for the preschool when Harker was ready to move older students to that campus. “Unfortunately, while we love the program and it has been a great success, thanks particularly to the efforts of the professionals who have implemented the program, locating a suitable location for the preschool has proven a formidable challenge,” said Yager, “so we will phase out Harker’s preschool program. The preschool will operate for two more years so that our current preschool families can finish out their programs.” He added that only families of transitional kindergarten-age children will be admitted in the preschool over the remaining two years.
Harker has held meetings with the Harker community and with Union Avenue neighbors to update all on the plans. The school will publish updates in the parent portal and on the Harker website as the multiyear process begins. For more information on the school’s plans contact communications@harker.org.
Second grader Manalee Chowdhury was recently awarded a bronze medal from the RSM Foundation after competing in the organization’s International Math Contest in March and April. Competing at the grade 3-4 level, Chowdhury answered 13 out of 14 problems correctly in an online 30-minute challenge to qualify for the next round of the competition. The next stage was held in person at various locations around the country, following the format of European Mathematical Olympiads. Bronze medalists represent the top 15 percent of the thousands of participants in the contest, according to the RSM Foundation’s website.
Chowdhury also took second place in the nation in her age group – in which more than 4,000 students participated – as well as in California in the annual Math Kangaroo competition, held in March. More than 29,000 students nationwide took part in this year’s Math Kangaroo, with more than 8,000 hailing from California. Congratulations!
Lower and middle school athletes fought hard and won some great accolades this past season! Check out these hard-working players!
VA (grades 6-8) Gold Tennis: The Varsity A gold tennis team, coached by John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished in first place in the WBAL at 8-0 and first place in the MTP at 6-1. The team finished the MTP tournament in first place and had an overall season record of 15-1. Team awards went to Shika Tseitlin, grade 8, and Dawson Chen, grade 8 (co-MVP), Dhruv Saoji, grade 8, and Shahzeb Lakhani, grade 8 (Eagle) and Anthony Tong, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (grades 6-8) Silver Tennis: The Varsity A silver tennis team, coached by John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 6-0. Team awards went to Jacob Huang, grade 7 (MVP), Kyle Johnson, grade 6 (Eagle), and Arissa Huda, grade 7, and Athena Wu, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by high school volleyball players Lauren Napier, grade 12, Isabella Spradlin, grade 12, Emily Cheng, grade 10, Lauren Beede, grade 10, and Dylan Williams, grade 9, finished in a three-way tie for second place in the WBAL with a record of 7-2. Team awards went to Tara Ozdemir, grade 8 (MVP), Brittany Shou, grade 8 (Eagle) and Ashley Barth, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by the same high school players, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 6-0. The team did not lose a single set all season! Team awards went to Elizabeth Shchegrov, grade 8 (MVP), Gwen-Zoe Yang, grade 7 (Eagle), and Leyla Artun, grade 8 and Emma Gurleroglu, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB2 (grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by the HS players, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 6-0. This team also did not lose a set all season! Team awards went to Sarah Leafstrand , grade 8 (MVP), Sonya He, grade 7 (Eagle) and Ashley Ma, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Belle Carley and high school player assistant Katie Carley, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Alice Tao, grade 6 (MVP), Margaret Cartee, grade 6 (Eagle) and Kate Grannis, grade 6 (Coaches).
JVB6 (grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Spring Wang and high school player Katie Carley, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-3. Team awards went to Ellie Schmidt, grade 6 (MVP), Emily McCartney, grade 6 (Eagle) and Jasmine Ishikawa, grade 6 (Coaches).
JVB1 (grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 5-0. Team awards went to Angelina Burrows, grade 5 (MVP), Young Min, grade 5 (Eagle), and Menaka Aron, grade 5 and Anika Pallapothu, grade 5 (Coaches).
JVB2 (grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by college volleyball player Allie Pereira, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-3. Team awards went to Elie Ahluwalia, grade 4, (MVP), Delara Gholami, grade 4, (Eagle), and Kira Bardin, grade 4 and Riley Olson, grade 4 (Coaches).
Intramural (grade 4) Girls Volleyball: Team awards went to Syna Sharma, grade 4 (MVP), Shaina Cohen, grade 4 (Eagle) and Kallie Wang, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by high school volleyball players Emily Pereira and Kaitlyn Seawright.
VA (grades 7-8) Baseball: The Varsity A team, coached Richard Amarillas, Matt Arensberg and Adam Albers finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 3-3. Team awards went to Chirag Kaushik, grade 8, and Mark Hu, grade 8 (co-MVPs); Freddy Hoch, grade 7 (Eagle) and Michael Pflaging, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (grades 4-6) Baseball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Tim Hopkins, Kristian Tiopo and Dan Pringle, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-4. Team awards went to Kyle Johnson, grade 6 (MVP), Brandon Zau, grade 6 and Chirant Shekar, grade 6 (Eagle) and Jack Ledford, grade 6 (Coaches).
Intramural (grades 4-5) Baseball: Team awards went to Luke Wu, grade 4 (MVP), Sahil Jain, grade 4 (Eagle) and Veeraz Thakkar, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Walid Fahmy and Tobias Wade.
VA (grades 7-8) Boys Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished in second place in the ADAL with a record of 7-1. The team went 7-2 overall. Team awards went to Marcus Page, grade 8 (MVP), Jack Hayashi, grade 8, (Eagle) and Maddux Carlisle, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (grades 6-7) Boys Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Sara Pawloski, finished in seventh place in the ADAL with a record of 2-6. Team awards went to Adrian Liu, grade 6 (MVP), Spencer Mak, grade 6, (Eagle) and Vivek Nayyar, grade 6 (Coaches).
MS (grades 6-8) Water Polo: The MS water polo team, coached by Ted Ujifusa, Allie Lamb and Trevor Wong, participated in six tournaments this season. The tournaments are mostly set up for player development and our boys, girls and coed teams all had good seasons. Team awards went to Jasleen Hansra, grade 7 (MVP), Lachlan Rossi, grade 6, (Eagle) and Vishal Rohra, grade 7 (Coaches).
MS (grades 6-8) Golf: The MS golf team, coached by Ie-Chen Cheng, took first place in the WBAL spring tournament held at the Moffet Field Golf Course. The team shot a 158 on the front nine. They beat the rest of the field by 19 strokes! The top eight golfers were Claire Chen, grade 7 (39), Ryan Zhang, grade 6 (39), Freddy Hoch, grade 7 (39), Athreya Daniel, grade 7 (41), Marcus Page, grade 8 (42), Arvin Nidadavolu, grade 8 (44), Jack Yang, grade 6, (47) and Rohan Gorti, grade 7 (48).
LS (grades 4-5) Boys and Girls Track: The lower school track team, coached by Brighid Wood, Karriem Stinson, Colleen Campbell, Brittney Moseley, Vanessa Rios and Dini Wong, took second place overall at the WBAL track meet.
First place finishers were Cyrus Ghane, grade 4 (800m), Vyom Vidyarthi, grade 5 (800m), Ori Muramatsu, grade 5 (long jump) and MacEnzie Blue, grade 4 (softball throw).
Second place finishers were Rushil Jaiswal, grade 5 (50m and 200m), Vyom Vidyarthi, grade 5 (400m), the team of Vyom Vidyarthi, Kaleb Goldin, Sohum Arora and Rushil Jaiswal, all grade 5 (4 x 100 relay), and MacEnzie Blue, grade 4 (long jump).
MS (grades 6-8) Boys and Girls Track: The middle school track team, coached by Brighid Wood, Karriem Stinson, Colleen Campbell, Brittney Moseley, Vanessa Rios and Dini Wong, took second place overall at the WBAL track meet.
First place finishers were Anjali Yella, grade 6 (200m), Rigo Gonzales, grade 7 (200m, 400m and 800m), Ishaan Mantripragada, grade 8 (200m), Michael Pflaging, grade 7 (1,200m), the team of Nageena Singh, Natasha Matta, Cindy Su and Brooklyn Cicero, all grade 8 (4 x 100 relay), and Brooklyn Cicero, grade 8 (softball throw).
Second place finishers were Anjali Yella, grade 6 (50m and 100m), Armaan Thakker, grade 7 (100m), Ishaan Mantripragada, grade 8 (100m), Emma Gao, grade 6 (400m), Cindy Su, grade 8 (400m), Veyd Patil, grade 6 (800m), Michael Pflaging, grade 7 (800m), Dawson Chen, grade 8 (1,200m), the team of Katie Reed, Cynthia Wang, Annabel Yang and Anjali Yella, all grade 6 (4 x 100 relay) and Siddharth Selvakumar, grade 7 (long jump and softball throw).
The grandparents and “grandfriends” of lower school students arrived in the hundreds today for the annual Lower School Grandparents’ Day. Visitors received a warm welcome from primary division head Sarah Leonard and elementary division head Kristin Giammona before being treated to performances by singers from grades 1 and 4, and the grades 4-6 Dance Fusion group. After some more words from Head of School Brian Yager, the guests met up with their grandchildren to tour the campus for an activity-packed afternoon, which included viewing student artwork at the Art Show, seeing a robotics demonstration, a book fair and a dazzling magic show!
Over the weekend, four Harker teams won awards in the 2018 Tech Challenge Showcase, held at the Tech Museum in San Jose. At the event, teams of grade 4-12 students demonstrated the devices they had constructed for this year’s contest. More than 600 teams comprising 2,000 students entered the competition, which challenged them to design and build a device that could successfully fall 10 feet into a drop zone, then deliver a payload to a target situated on a ramp, without the aid of batteries or electricity.
Grade 4 students Sofia Shah, Minal Jalil, MacEnzie Blue, Tiffany Zhu, Tanvi Sivakumar, Arushi Sahasi and honorary team member Rocky (Jalil’s dog) formed team “SMMARTT,” which received an outstanding overall award in the grades 4-5 category.
Sixth graders Nathan T. Liu, Adrian Liu and Aniketh Tummala, known as the “Huskies,” won the award for top tech challenge story, which explained the origins of the device they built. The “FlyteZON” team, made up of Neel Handa, Om Tandon and Zachary Blue, all grade 6, won an award for being outstanding overall.
Team “Flopper Waffles” – grade 7 students Brian Chen, Andrew Fu, Jacob Huang and Nicholas Wei – received an award for outstanding device performance.
Harker students from the lower, middle and upper schools headed to San Diego last weekend for the Future Problem Solving California State Bowl, where teams from all three divisions won in various categories.
In the senior division (grades 10-12), the grade 11 team of Taylor Lam, Sara Min, Kelly Shen, and Tiffany Wong won for Presentation of Action Plan. In Global Issues Problem Solving, Jin Tuan, Amla Rashingkar, Sriya Prathuri, and Arushi Madan, all grade 10, took third place. Tuan also did well in Individual Global Issues Problem Solving, placing fourth overall.
Middle division students (grades 7-9) were especially successful, with the grade 8 team of Rohan Thakur, Shahzeb Lakhani, Daniel Wu and Kailash Ranganathan emerging as the winners in Global Issues Problem Solving, qualifying them for the international competition in June. Ninth graders Stephanie Shen, Luisa Pan and Elaine Zhai all participated in the MAGIC (Multiple Affiliate Global Issues Competition) event, in which teams are formed with students from different schools. Shen’s team placed first in Presentation of Action Plan, in which Zhai’s team took second place. In Global Issues Problem Solving, Pan’s team placed first.
Competing in the junior division (grades 4-6) was the grade 5 team of Daniel Chen, Anika Pallapothu and Anandita Arun, who earned third place in Presentation of Action Plan.
Watch for the article on Future Problems Solvers and other competitive programs in the 2018 summer issue of Harker Magazine to be delivered in late June.