Members of the Harmonics middle school performance group and Dance Fusion, comprising lower and middle school students, were thrilled to perform at CreaTV San Jose’s 2014 “CreaTiVe Awards Gala,” presented by TiVo, on Jan.10.
The fifth-annual formal evening event took place at the California Theatre in downtown San Jose and is slated to air on channel 30 in San Jose/Campbell on Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
Dance Fusion instructor Gail Palmer called it “an honor” for the students to be featured in such a high-profile show. Harmonics and Dance Fusion each performed one song during the gala, which pays tribute to Bay Area video makers. A VIP reception preceded the awards show, where winners in 10 categories were announced.
“I thought it was really cool that we got to meet local people in the business,” recalled Harmonics performer Kelsey Wu, grade 8.
Other students said it was fun to be on TV and a great performance opportunity. Grade 8 student Aryana Far called the night “a very different experience from our normal shows.” She added that the audience was very supportive.
Founded in 2007, CreaTV San Jose is a member-based, nonprofit community media center that helps the residents, businesses, schools and organizations in San Jose to effectively communicate their message to a broader audience using our public and education television and Internet channels.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
September Tournaments Yield TOC Bids
Harker debaters were busy in late September, earning impressive results at two events!
The debate team had a great weekend at the Greenhill Round Robin and Invitational in Dallas. Pranav Reddy, grade 12, was the first-place speaker in Lincoln- Douglas debate in both the round robin and the invitational. The round robin is for the top 16 Lincoln-Douglas debaters in the country, so a first place finish is quite an accomplishment. Reddy also made it to the quarterfinals of the invitational. Ayush Midha, grade 12 was the second place policy speaker at the invitational (out of 232 competitors). Midha and Panny Shan, grade 11, made it to the octofinals of the invitational. All three students earned one of the two required qualifying bids for the Tournament of Champions.
Nine Harker debaters traveled to New Haven, Conn., to compete at the Yale Debate Invitational. Alumni coaches Arjun Kumar ’14 and Aneesh Chona ’13 coached public forum debate and served as judges.
Sophomore Michael Tseitlin earned a bid to the prestigious Tournament of Champions by making it to the semi- final chamber in congressional debate.
Harker hosted the 15th annual Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational Debate Tournament on the last weekend of September. A total of 380 students from 26 California schools participated in the tournament, which was run primarily by Harker debate students. In addition to various debate competitions, the event included several workshops taught by Harker debate captains.
“These workshops were dreamed up by Harker captains years ago and have become something we are known for as our successful older students teach Harker and outside students who are new to debate,” said Harker debate teacher Carol Green.
The weekend also included a special novice public forum tournament for debaters in grades 6-8, in which 35 middle school students participated.
Grade 11 Debater Named to National Student Leadership Committee, Upper School Program Honored
On Oct. 13, Eesha Chona, grade 11, was selected to be a part of the National Speech & Debate Association’s Student Leadership Committee, which represents the needs of debate students and encourages student leaders to advocate for other association members. As a member of the committee, Chona will serve as a role model to other debate students, participate in monthly meetings and engage with social media outlets.
Additionally, the upper school’s speech and debate program was recognized for its extraordinary success by being named to the National Speech & Debate Association’s Pentagon Society, thereby making it one of the top 0.1 percent of high school speech and debate programs in the country, according to their press release. Harker earned this honor by receiving more than 500 honorary degrees during the 2013-14 school year. Harker ranked 15th overall out of 3,000 member schools nationwide.
Middle School Holds Intramural Tournament
On Oct. 30, 85 middle school students and their parents participated in the October Intramural Speech and Debate Tournament. Each student competed in three competitive rounds against other Harker students to practice and get a feel for what a competitive round is like. Parents and high school students volunteered as judges. The event was run in a timely fashion, with more than 50 total speech and debate rounds taking place on a Thursday evening.
Success Continues Through October
Harker debate students continued their successful year at a tournament held at the University of the Pacific in Stockton at the end of October. Andrew Tierno, grade 10, took second place in open dramatic interpretation, while Lisa Liu, grade 11, earned third place in open humorous interpretation.
Meanwhile, the team of David Jin, grade 11, and Alex Lam, grade 10, and the team of freshmen Derek Kuo and Justin Xie, both finished in the top eight of open public forum debate.
Earlier in the month, at the St. Mark’s School in Dallas, policy debaters Ayush Midha and Panny Shan reached the semifinal round, finishing third out of 76 teams. Midha was named 14th speaker in the tournament and, on the invitation of a group of debate coaches, gave a special speech at St. Mark’s. These results qualified Midha and Shan for the Tournament of Champions.
At a Lincoln-Douglas debate event held at Presentation High School, Pranav Reddy was named the first-place speaker in the round robin and invitational events, in addition to reaching the semifinal round of the invitational and qualifying for the Tournament of Champions. Karen Qi, grade 11, reached the quarterfinals of the invitational, placing her one step closer to qualifying for the Tournament of Champions.
Students Earn Accolades and TOC Spots in Public Forum
More than 30 Harker students attended the Presentation High School Public Forum Invitational held the weekend of Nov. 8. Eighteen upper school students competed in the varsity division while four upper school and eight middle school students competed in the novice division; three seniors came to the tournament to coach novices.
Two of Harker’s varsity teams made it into the Elite Eight, with one team debating its way to the final two, losing the final round on a 2-1 decision. Seniors Nikhil Kishore and Vamsi Gadiraju rocked their first tournament of the season as final-round participants and earned their first leg to the Tournament of Champions.
Kishore and Gadiraju are the fifth Harker public forum team to earn half of their qualifying legs only two months into the season.
The top eight teams in elimination rounds included the duo known as “The Brothers Lin” – David Lin, grade 12, and his younger brother Jimmy Lin, grade 9.
Sorjo Banerjee, grade 11, was named as the top overall individual speaker at the tournament with five other Harker students being recognized in the top 15 overall.
Success in Minneapolis
Six middle school and 10 upper school students traveled to Apple Valley, Minn., in early November to compete at the MinneApple Debate Tournament. This is the first year Harker middle school students have competed at this high school varsity national invitational and everyone had a wonderful time!
Every team from Harker won at least one of their preliminary rounds, an especially notable accomplishment for the middle schoolers as they were the only grade 7 debaters in the pool of mostly high school juniors and seniors.
Eesha Chona and Joyce Huang, grade 10, were 33rd seed and missed elimination rounds by the speaker point tie-breaker. Juniors Suraj Jagadeesh and Nikhil Bopardikar went undefeated in preliminaries and lost a close match in the first elimination round. Bopardikar was also named seventh overall individual speaker out of more than 200 speakers in the varsity division!
Abhinav Ketineni and Jasmine Liu, both grade 11, also went undefeated in prelims. They lost in the Sweet 16 as did the team of Alex Lam and David Jin. Both teams earned their first of two qualifying legs to the Tournament of Champions. Ketineni was also the ninth overall individual speaker.
Sorjo Banerjee and sophomore Emaad Raghib represented Harker all the way to the Elite Eight, losing in the quarterfinal round. They also picked up their first leg to the Tournament of Champions.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Football Varsity A flag football (grade 8) went 4-2 in league (third place) and 10-2 overall. The VA team also took first place at the Harker Flag Football tournament. Team awards went to Demonte Aleem (MVP), Jackson Williams (Eagle), and Charlie Molin and Zachary Hoffman (Coaches).
Varsity B flag football (grade 7) went 3-3 in league (fifth place) and 7-5 overall. The VB team also took first place at the Harker Flag Football tournament. Team awards went to James Rugnao and Aaron Featherstone (Co-MVP), Jeffrey Liu (Eagle) and Naveen Mirapuri (Coaches).
Junior varsity A flag football (grade 6) went 5-1 in league (second place) and 6-1 overall. Team awards went to Michael Mitchell (MVP), Srinath Somasundaram (Eagle), and Arjun Virmani and Marcus Anderson (Coaches).
Softball Varsity A softball (grade 6-8) went 6-1 in league (second place) and 6-2 overall. Team awards went to Lily Wancewicz and Taylor Lam, both grade 8 (Co-MVP), Alaina Valdez, grade 6 (Eagle) and Cameron Zell, grade 8 (Coaches).
Cross Country Cross country (grades 6-8) enjoyed a phenomenal season! In the final three meets of the season, the team really turned up the heat.
The following were first-place finishers at the Harker meet: Julia Amick, Alycia Cary, Lilia Gonzales, Aneesha Kumar and Anika Rajamani, all grade 8; and Gina Partridge, grade 7. These eighth graders also all were first-place finishers at the Menlo meet, and Amick, Cary, Gonzales, Partridge and Rajamani were first-place finishers at the WBAL final meet.
Team awards went to Mihir Sharma, grade 7 and Amick (top runners); Partridge, Arya Maheshwari, grade 6, and Alex Rule, grade 8 (co-MVPs); Gonzales, Anna Weirich, grade 8, and Noah Lincke, grade 8 (Eagle); and Kumar, Jasmine Wiese and Grant Miner, both grade 7 (Coaches).
Swimming The lower and middle school swim team participated in the Harker and Castilleja meets. First-place finishers at the Harker meet were Lorenzo Martinelli, grade 4, in the 100 IM and 100 freestyle; Ysabel Chen, grade 5, in the 100 IM and 100 freestyle; Ethan Hu, grade 7, in the 100 IM and 50 freestyle; Angela Li, grade 8, in the 100 IM and 50 backstroke; Bobby Bloomquist, grade 8, in the 50 freestyle; Rhys Edwards, grade 6, in the 50 breaststroke; and Matthew Hajjar, grade 8, in the 50 breaststroke.
First-place finishers in the Castilleja meet were Brandon Wang, grade 4, in the 100 IM and 100 freestyle; Hu in the 100 IM and 50 freestyle; Anh My Tran, grade 7, in the 50 freestyle; Bloomquist in the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke; Li in the 50 butterfly and 200 breaststroke; Leland Rossi, grade 6, in the 50 backstroke; Andrew Fox, grade 4, in the 25 breaststroke; and Leon Lu, grade 8, in the 50 breaststroke.
Awards for middle school swimming went to Li (MVP), Leah Anderson, grade 6 (Eagle), and Evan Bourke, grade 6 (Coaches). Awards for lower school swimming went to Lorenzo Martinelli (MVP), Arianna Martinelli, grade 4 (Eagle), and Daniel Fields, grade 5 (Coaches).
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
This year Harker was thrilled to welcome one of the largest-ever contingents of students from its sister school, the Tamagawa K-12 School & University in Tokyo. On Oct. 14, the 28 exchange students, along with their three chaperones, arrived at the middle school for their first in-person meeting with their grade 6 Harker buddies.
Each fall, as part of a long-running program, the Tamagawa students come to Harker for a much-anticipated weeklong visit. Prior to that, Harker and Tamagawa peers stay in touch through video conferences and email exchanges.
While here, the Japanese students stayed with their Harker buddies and their families. They went sightseeing around the Bay Area, and visited and observed classes at the Blackford campus.
Among their many activities, the students made tie-dyed T-shirts with both the Harker eagle and Tamagawa eagle on them (the schools coincidentally share the same mascot), made slushies, went on a scavenger hunt and enjoyed a bittersweet ice cream farewell party. The Japanese students also joined in on classes such as dance, drama, art and P.E.
The Tamagawa students also spent time at the lower school, where they worked with the kindergartners on an origami activity. Previously, the kindergarten students had received an album depicting life at Tamagawa’s kindergarten.
Kishan Sood, a grade 6 Harker student, said that he and his buddy, Satoya, had a lot of fun together. “We went to San Francisco and saw a lot of amazing things there.”
After his buddy returned to Japan, Sood received a thank you email from Satoya. “That really made me feel that he had a great time in America and he appreciated everything that we did for him. That made me feel special,” said Sood.
Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education, reported that all the students had an amazing time. “When the Tamagawa buddies first arrived, everyone was so quiet and shy. But by the farewell party, the kids were all running around, laughing, taking photos and behaving like the best of friends that they have become,” she said. 
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Halloween took on new meaning this year for grade 8 students in Cyrus Merrill’s history class, who donated care packages filled with thank you letters and candy to American troops stationed around the world, including in Afghanistan.
Last year when Merrill and his students launched the project, they were thrilled to receive responses from some of the soldiers.
This year, the care packages once again included nut-free candy sealed in Ziploc bags, packaged along with a “thank you for serving” letter addressed to “Any American Soldier.”
“The packages were sent to U.S. troops stationed around the globe. The candy served as either treats for soldiers or for them to hand out to children living around where they are stationed,” said Merrill.
The timing of the note writing also made it possible for students to reflect on and inform the soldiers about their recent grade 8 trip to Washington, D.C., and their often newfound passion and interest in the American government.
At their community social in mid-November, grade 6 students made warm blankets for Project Linus, a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization that provides blankets to children who are seriously ill or living in shelters.
Project Linus works to provide a sense of security, warmth and comfort through the donation of handmade, washable blankets lovingly created by volunteer makers or “blanketeers.”
This was the middle school students’ community service project for this year. In just one afternoon, the sixth graders produced 46 blankets for donation to the local branch of Project Linus, providing comfort and warmth to children in need for years to come.
Project Linus has delivered more than 4 million security blankets to children around the world and has nearly 400 chapters in the United States. The organization originally donated blankets to pediatric cancer patients, however, recipients now include any child who is seriously ill or traumatized.
Eight grade 7 students in the advisory of Cindy Ellis, middle school head, are collecting shoes for those in need. The shoe drive, which began on Nov. 17 and will run until Dec. 9, aims to collect gently used shoes for donation to Soles4Souls, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting poverty worldwide.
Prior to launching the shoe drive – their first service project of the year – Ellis and her advisory created fliers. “We will be collecting shoes to be processed and delivered to people around the world who don’t have any. Children can’t go to school without shoes and adults can’t go to work barefoot. Disease is rampant where people can’t protect their feet,” she said.
Ellis urged the entire Harker community to look in their closets to “find those gently used shoes that just don’t fit anymore or were never worn. We have collection tubs in the front and back loading zones as well as a collection box in the front office. Soles4Souls is the destination for your shoe stash. All sizes and styles are welcome!” she said.
Founded in 2006, Soles4Souls’ mission is to collect new and used shoes and clothing from individuals, schools, faith-based institutions, civic organizations and corporate partners, then distribute them via both direct donations to people in need and by provisioning qualified micro-enterprise programs designed to create jobs in poor and disadvantaged communities.
Middle school thespians found themselves in a motley collection of roles in this year’s middle school fall play, Alan Haehnel’s “The Unfinished.” Directed by Monica Colletti, this one-act comedy found its characters at the mercy of a writer (Alexander Kumar, grade 6) who has not yet finished their stories, essentially imprisoning them in his mind.
When the innocent Melisande (Claire Russell, grade 7) enters their already-crowded world, the characters are forced to examine the significance of a newcomer. The ever-cynical Guy (Haris Hosseini, grade 8) and the hopeful Narrator (Claire Newman, grade 8) disagree on the likelihood that they will ever be realized, while the surly Janitor (Max MacKinnon, grade 7) simply wishes they would all leave. In the end, the wide variety of character archetypes, including the Bride and Groom (Dilara Ezer and Matthew Hajjar, both grade 8), the Cheerleader (Ellie Lang-Ree, grade 8) and the Clown (Jai Bahri, grade 7), find themselves freed through the Writer’s clever inclusion of the mall in one manuscript – a play titled “The Unfinished.”
Paul Vallerga’s set design was appropriately sparse for this particularly character-driven story. Carol Clever’s costume design was also simple but effective, making the characters appropriately recognizable.
Middle school athletics coach Chrissy Chang spent part of October and November in Japan as this year’s exchange teacher with Tamagawa Academy K-12 & University in Tokyo. While teaching grade 7 boys basketball and a coed grade 8 international baccalaureate class, Chang noticed some of the things that make Tamagawa unique. “Each week, different classes had the responsibility of cleaning the campus,” she said. “Literally, brooms in hands sweeping up leaves in piles, throwing bags of leaves away, working diligently.”
She also noticed that Tamagawa students “were given the responsibility to govern themselves without adult supervision during break and lunch times. Students could check out equipment from the P.E. room and go out and play on the field by themselves.”
Working with the Tamagawa faculty, Chang said, was “awesome,” noting that “the physical education staff were fun and energetic.” She expressed eagerness to welcome the Tamagawa exchange teacher, Nobuya Osawa, in January. “I look forward to the opportunity to show him our great school and area as he did while on my visit,” she said.
During her visit, Chang embarked on some exciting cultural experiences and outings, including a tea ceremony and two “amazing home-cooked meals” by Osawa, who was also her host teacher. She also rode the “shinkansen”– Japan’s bullet train – to Karuizawa, a popular tourist destination, where she “spent a long weekend relaxing and sightseeing.” Later, she visited Kyoto to see a “geiko”(the Kyoto dialect word for “geisha”) and “maiko,”an apprentice.
Aside from the cultural experiences and bonding with faculty and students, the trip also gave Chang some instructional ideas that she plans to work into her own method. “I learned some new teaching practices that I can put in my lesson plans,” she said. “I was able to take some videos and pictures of new ways to teach particular skills and games.”
Prior to the Tamagawa students’ visit in October, Harker’s grade 6 students spoke with their buddies via special video conferences. The Harker students had been learning about their buddies’ likes and dislikes, which will be used to make a video game for the Tamagawa students. The video conferences gave Harker students the opportunity to learn more about their friends at Tokyo’s Tamagawa Academy K-12 & University. Participants asked each other questions about their respective schools, such as the number of students enrolled, special activities and more.