This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Harker has robust debate programs in the middle and upper schools – and it was a successful year for both!
Middle School by Karina Momary
Growth and Competitive Success
The middle school speech and debate program has seen tremendous growth in the past five years. In 2010, the competitive debate team had fewer than 15 students and participated in only one type of debate. This year, 120 students competed in four styles of debate and 10 speech events.
Team members are dedicated, with students attending lunchtime workshops, after-school practices and weekend competitions. All of this hard work has yielded notable competitive success. The team has been awarded an Overall School of Excellence Award by the National Speech & Debate Association for the past two years.
This prestigious award is given to the top four speech and debate programs nationwide. In addition, the team has won five national championships and numerous regional awards. Several students, including eighth graders Serena Lu and Alan Hughes, have been recognized as undefeated during debates, and speech and debate students in all grades have brought home first, second and third place finishes.
Community
While competitive success is valued, the speech and debate team also builds a strong sense of community. The program hosts numerous team-building events for students and families. For example, the Forensics Family Dinner offered speech and debate families a chance to share a meal and build lasting connections. The team also hosted a speech and debate showcase in May, giving families and students an opportunity to hear from some of the talented team members and providing extra practice to those attending the California Middle School Speech & Debate State Tournament and the National Speech & Debate Association Middle School Nationals.
Preparation for state and national competitions has allowed the students to share the work they have honed over the year with an even larger audience.
Upper School Buddies
This year, relationships were forged as upper school buddies helped middle school team members prepare for competitions. Together, the buddy teams have edited cases, watched videos and shared useful feedback – and the result has been tremendous growth for Harker’s younger debaters. This student interaction also will help ease the transition for middle school students as they move on to the upper school. Upper school buddies have provided middle schoolers with personal coaches and a cheering squad for each tournament.
As the teams prepare for summer trips, they are all excited to share their debating skills with the rest of the country.
Karina Momary is a middle school debate teacher.
Upper School
by Jenny Heidt
Harker’s upper school teams took home national titles this year in Lincoln- Douglas, public forum and congressional debate. Individual events and policy debate students also did very well, and several qualified to compete at nationals. In fact, Harker had more students qualified to compete at the elite Tournament of Champions than any other school in the country.
The team has a long history of winning top awards, but what set this year apart was the breadth of success across all of the forensic events. The upper school team has about 165 students competing in five main events: policy debate, public forum debate, individual events, congressional debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate. The team competes at tournaments throughout the state and nation.
Policy Debate
At various policy debate tournaments, our students advocated for lifting the embargo against Cuba, better enforcing money-laundering laws with Mexican authorities and assisting with a reforestation project in Mexico. Other teams proposed entering into a treaty regarding oil with Venezuela, giving more humanitarian aid to Cuba and improving our border infrastructure. Next year, they will debate the development and exploration of the oceans.
Several policy debaters are considering debate in college, including our most successful pair of Arya Kaul and Ayush Midha, both grade 11. The duo made it to the final round of the elite University of Southern California Round Robin and qualified for nationals. Anika Jain, Aditi Maheshwari, Emmie Malyugina, Rahul Shukla, Molly Wancewicz, Vienna Wang and Ray Xu, all grade 9; Panny Shan, grade 10; and Nitya Mani, grade 11, also brought home trophies.
Policy debaters compete in pairs, argue about the details of public policy and have one resolution for the entire year. This year’s topic was about increasing economic engagement with Mexico, Venezuela or Cuba. Debaters have to innovate and learn about a wide variety of possible public policies to stay current with the topic. Judges tend to be highly trained in argumentation and are looking for students to maximize the number of logical points made during their speeches. As a result, the rate of delivery is very rapid and there is a premium on strategic thinking and research skills.
The in-depth research required for success teaches policy debaters skills that go far beyond the debate rounds. Midha says that policy debate “has been incredibly valuable not only because it has facilitated my research, critical thinking and advocacy skills, but also because the activity has improved my efficiency, time management and organization.” Chandini Thakur, grade 10, agreed, adding, “I’ve learned several methods of research, organization and analysis that I can apply to my other classes.”
Public Forum Debate
“Debate teaches you some of the most important skills in life,” said Sorjo Banerjee, grade 10, public forum team member. “Research, public speaking and critical thinking are all required to become adept at debate. Debate is an amazing extracurricular where you grow as an individual and compete with friends.”
Public forum debate is focused on persuading a general audience. Students need to make logical arguments, but focus on public speaking. Their topics change every two months and cover a wide variety of areas. One of the topics this year asked them to weigh the value of single-sex education, while another was about economic development in India.
Vamsi Gadiraju, grade 11, added that he “enjoyed getting to meet and befriend people from all over the country” and from as far away as China.
Some of the most successful public forum students included Jasmine Liu, grade 10 and Kevin Duraiswamy, Arjun Kumar, Stephanie Lu, Sreyas Misra and Sebi Nakos, all grade 12. Misra and Nakos closed out the National Debate Coaches Association Championship Tournament. Duraiswamy, along with Aadyot Bhatnagar, Nikhil Kishore and Avik Wadhwa, grade 11, and Shreyas Parthasarathy and Jithin Vellian, grade 12, also closed out a tournament, winning a three-way championship at James Logan High School. Finally, Maneesha Panja, grade 12, and Nakos were the champions of the College Prep School Round Robin.
Individual Events
Harker will have three students competing at the National Speech & Debate Association Championship in June: Rohith Kuditipudi and Madhu Nori, both grade 11, and Kenny Zhang, grade 12. Continuing on the theme of strong success across the events, Harker set a new record by qualifying five students to compete at the state tournament in individual events. Kuditipudi; Lisa Liu, grade 10; Steven Wang, grade 11; Andy Wang, grade 12; and Zhang performed very well at the state tournament, with four of them advancing to semifinals.
Students in individual events compete in categories such as original oratory, extemporaneous speaking or dramatic interpretation of literature. Unlike the other debate events, there is not an element of refutation and so students strive to perfect their presentation and are largely judged based on their public speaking skills.
Sarah de Vegvar, grade 9, said that when she was in middle school, she never dreamed she would enter into speech competitions, but that the experience has given her a “chance to improve [her] public speaking skills and become more well-rounded.”
Congressional Debate
“My favorite aspect of (congressional) debate is learning how to deal with competitors in a group setting,” said Sandip Nirmel, grade 9. “This is especially important in congressional debate, where politics play a large role in deciding who gets to speak the most and who gets the most influence in the chamber. Learning people skills is really important for me because I know that they are relevant in the real world,” he added.
Students in congressional debate propose and debate various pieces of mock legislation. They need to be well-versed in current events and excellent public speakers to be successful. Captain Saachi Jain, grade 12, was a fantastic team leader and was especially helpful in coordinating the many research assignments that are needed for the students to be ready to give speeches about a wide variety of domestic and international topics.
Her leadership helped Aditya Dhar and Misha Tseitlin, both grade 9, qualify for nationals. Tseitlin was also first at the National Debate Coaches Association Championship. It is unusual for freshmen to do so well at the varsity level and it speaks to the talent of these students and the quality of the program.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Srikar Pyda, grade 12, and Pranav Reddy, grade 11, had particularly successful years in Lincoln-Douglas competitions. Both young men qualified for nationals. Reddy also took home first place at the National Debate Coaches Association Championship and won titles at several invitationals. There is no one official ranking system for season-long performance, but it is safe to say that Reddy was one of the top five debaters in the country and that Pyda was not far behind him.
Lincoln-Douglas students debate as individuals and their topics change every two months. The topics tend to be philosophical and ask students to weigh competing values. For instance, one of the spring topics asked how poorer nations should prioritize economic development when it poses a threat to the environment.
Natalie Simonian, grade 10, summed up her first year of Lincoln-Douglas debate by saying that she had “a lot of fun going to tournaments” and making “many new friends and getting closer to some of the old ones thanks to debate.”
Summer Plans
Many students are looking forward to a major tournament this June in Kansas City. Harker also has students participating in summer debate workshops that last between one and seven weeks. It has been a great season and the teams look forward to preparing for the next one!
Jenny Heidt is an upper school debate teacher.
Late-breaking news!
The middle school speech and debate program made history in late May at the first California Middle School Speech & Debate State Tournament! Harker emerged with two state championships – a single and a team – and numerous top five finishes. The students spent countless hours preparing and their hard work definitely paid off.
Sagar Rao, grade 8, was named the 2014 Lincoln-Douglas debate California state champion.
Megan Huynh and Aliesa Bahri, both grade 8, and Maddie Huynh and Avi Gulati, both grade 6, were named 2014 policy debate California state co-champions. In Lincoln-Douglas, Serena Lu, grade 8, took third place and was recognized as the top speaker in her division. Alan Hughes, grade 8, was a quarterfinalist and recognized as the third speaker in his division.
In Policy, Maddie Huynh was recognized as the top speaker in her division. Sonya Verma, grade 7, was recognized as the second speaker in her division.
In Dramatic Interpretation, Nikki Solanki, grade 6, was a finalist and Gulati won fourth place.
In Original Oratory, Millie Lin, grade 8, took fourth place and Riya Gupta, grade 7, took third place.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The annual middle school dance show, Dance Jamz, shook the Blackford Theater March 14-15. Directed by Gail Palmer and assistant directors Rachelle Haun and Kimberley Teodoro (who were also the costumers), the show had students performing exhilarating and complex routines to hitmakers including Lady Gaga, Imagine Dragons, One Republic and Ludacris. Kento Vo, Jasmine Villarreal and Ernie Sierra also choreographed. The veteran team of technical director Paul Vallerga, sound engineer Brian Larsen and lighting designer Natti Pierce-Thomson were indispensable, as always.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The middle school performing arts department turned to the works of Walt Disney for this year’s spring musical, bringing the classic animated film “Aladdin” to the stage at the Blackford Theater. The musical followed the plot of the beloved 1992 film, in which the street urchin for which the movie is named (played by Sahil Kapur, grade 8) comes into the possession of a magic lamp containing a Genie (Sameep Mangat, grade 8) who will grant him three wishes. This prompts a series of exciting and hilarious adventures, with Aladdin trying to undo the machinations of the evil vizier Jafar (Akhil Arun, grade 8) while love blooms between Aladdin and the sultan’s daughter, Princess Jasmine (Vanessa Tyagi, grade 8).
As in the film, the stage production contained many elaborate musical numbers, which were choreographed by Natalie Quilici. Meanwhile, vocal director Mary Ellen Agnew-Place and music director Lane Sanders presided over the fantastic music from the band and the cast. The film’s Arabian setting was rendered wonderfully by set designer Paul Vallerga, with lighting designed by Natti Pierce-Thomson. As always, student crew members were a crucial part of the operation, helping to ensure that the production ran smoothly at all times.
This story was submitted by middle school debate teacher Karina Momary.
The middle school speech and debate team was awarded the Overall School of Excellence Award for the third year in a row at the National Speech & Debate Tournament, held in Kansas in June. The award, based on the overall success of the team, is given to the top three middle school programs in the country.
Notable achievements at the event included two National Championships. The team of Aliesa Bahri and Megan Huynh, both rising freshmen, won the National Championship in Policy Debate, debating the pros and cons of economic engagement with Mexico. Nikhil Dharmaraj, a rising eighth grader, won the National Championship in Original Oratory, presenting a 10-minute memorized speech he wrote about talent versus practice. These two wins mark the sixth and seventh National Championships earned by the middle school debate team since 2010.
Attending the tournament were 730 students from 100 schools spanning 31 states, the Northern Mariana Islands, Canada and Taiwan. Those students constituted more than 1,200 entries across 14 speech and debate events. Harker was one of the larger entries, with 29 students competing in eight events.
Middle school English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine helped the speech students prepare throughout the year. Upper school debate teachers Jenny Alme, Greg Achten and Carol Green joined the team at Nationals and helped coach the students to perform to their level of success.
In late April, the middle school choir Vivace traveled to Anaheim for the Heritage Music Festival, where it earned third place among the six junior high and high school choral ensembles. Vivace earned high marks from the professors at the festival, who commented on the musicality in their performance. The ensemble also was invited to the 2015 Festival of Gold in San Francisco, an honor reserved only for groups that are rated 90 or higher. To celebrate, the group visited Disneyland the following day. “It was a blast!” said Dave Hart, middle school music teacher and Vivace director.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Abigail Joseph, middle school computer science teacher, has been very busy! In mid-May, she attended the Making Possibilities Workshop, held at Intel’s headquarters in Santa Clara. The event was geared toward helping public educators and those working with low-income youth, and covered various formal and informal approaches to teaching on a variety of topics. She also spent several weeks working with Harker students for this year’s Technovation Challenge, a competition for young women in technology.
Joseph also traveled to Nashville in March for the national conference of the National Society of Black Engineers. There, she worked with the Bay Area, New York and Memphis chapters of Black Girls Code, an organization dedicated to fostering coding skills in young women of color. Joseph teamed up with Black Girls Code to deliver mobile app development workshops for nearly 200 middle and high school students. She also worked with a company called Hidden Level Games to hold a game jam workshop.
That same month, she headed to southern Texas to train a team of Latina middle school girls to develop an app idea that was a winner in this year’s Verizon App Innovation Challenge.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
In early June a promotion ceremony was held for Harker’s grade 8 class, marking the end of students’ middle school years.
Kicking off the touching ceremony, Cindy Ellis, middle school head, welcomed the eighth graders and congratulated them on reaching this important milestone and beginning a new stage in their academic lives.
Julie Pinzás, middle school Spanish teacher and Class of 2018 advisory dean, gave a moving farewell address to the soon-to-be upper school students, encouraging them to welcome the many opportunities that await them over the next four years.
Next up was a beautiful performance of the song “Home” by the middle school vocal groups Harmonics and Vivace.
A welcome address to the Class of 2018 was delivered by rising senior Sarah Bean, who will be next year’s upper school ASB president.
Finally, members of the grade 8 class received their promotion certificates from Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and Ellis, who made some warm closing remarks. A special happening, not listed in the program, followed as the eighth graders surprised teachers with their own special “thank-you” slideshow, which they had secretly created earlier. The slideshow included numerous memorable moments shot by the students throughout the school year.
The ceremony concluded, as in years past, with the singing of “The Harker School Song,” followed by a recessional and well-attended reception held in the amphitheater.
Grade 8 students enrolled in advanced Spanish, French, Japanese and Mandarin language courses recently partook in several fun and educational outings to local restaurants. All four outings served up plenty of delicious food, stimulating conversation and authentic cultural atmosphere.
Students taking Spanish with instructors Julie Pinzás and Susan Moling visited Habana Cuba Restaurant. The menu included lightly buttered rice with or without beans, fried bananas, chicken, pork and vegetarian options. Moling noted that the advanced Spanish students had been immersing themselves in Cuban culture prior to the outing.
“I really enjoyed it and so did all of my friends,” recalled student Shaya Zarkesh. “The restaurant’s chandeliers and decorations made for a relaxing, peaceful atmosphere. The staff was very courteous and not at all disruptive, making the restaurant perfect for having a conversation with friends. As for the food itself: in short, it tasted outstanding. I ordered the chicken meal. Before I knew it, my plate was finished and I craved more, despite my full stomach! I would certainly recommend Habana Cuba Restaurant to anyone in San Jose looking for Cuban food.”
Classmate Millie Lin remembered that “a small crowd of hungry teenagers” piled onto the bus to go to the Cuban restaurant. “I was one of the people in that group. The restaurant gave off a rather warm, festive feeling to its diners. Its colorful walls were painted red, yellow, green and blue, and there was lively music playing in the background. I could imagine that I was really in Cuba, with all the colors and sounds around me,” she said.
Carol Parris, who is a French teacher as well as chair of K-8 modern and classical languages, reported that her students had a lovely luncheon at the Left Bank on Santana Row.
“They had a private room surrounded by French murals with cozy round tables dressed in white linen and French flag centerpieces,” she said. “The restaurant also encouraged me to bring my own decorations from the classes’ last celebration for Mardi Gras, where beads abounded and King Cake from New Orleans was devoured.”
She said the meal was delicious, with a choice of three French dishes, dessert and many baskets of French bread. “The students commented on the warm, friendly atmosphere at the restaurant. During the lunch, an awards celebration was held. The students had just learned how to use the superlative of adjectives. Their assessment was an opinion poll where they voted for their classmates in 12 categories, including best in French, best dancer, most generous, etc. Good spirit was shown by all as they applauded the winners in each category,” she said.
Meanwhile, students in Kumi Matsui’s Japanese 2M course headed to Tomi Sushi. “The staff of this restaurant spoke native Japanese and they served authentic Japanese dishes. The students had the opportunity to order dishes only in Japanese. The students benefitted from practicing Japanese outside the classroom while learning Japanese food culture. After lunch, we went to Hakone Gardens to experience a tea ceremony. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn about Japanese culture,” recalled Matsui.
Rounding out the foreign language field trips, middle school Mandarin teacher Virginia Mau took her students to lunch at the Southland Flavor Cafe in Cupertino, followed by a scavenger hunt in which they were randomly divided into three groups. During the hunt, students had to speak entirely in Chinese, including asking for directions, if necessary. The goal was to discover where Mau was waiting for them.
“I personally have been taking students out on this type of trips for over 10 years, but this is the first time ever at Harker!” enthused Mau, who helped launch Harker’s middle school Mandarin program in 2011. “Ten students from my Mandarin 2M classes went on the trip. The kids had a great time, and were very happy and proud to use what they had learned!”
The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk set the scene for a memorable field trip enjoyed by grade 6 students in June. On the agenda for the Sixth Grade End-of-Year Boardwalk Blast was a day of fun in the sun!
“We had a terrific day at the Boardwalk. The students really seemed to enjoy themselves, and it gave them a wonderful memory with which to end their first year at the middle school,” recalled grade 6 lead advisor and English teacher Patricia Lai Burrows.
The inaugural event was planned by a committee of grade 6 teachers. “At the beginning of the year, five sixth grade teachers formed a committee to plan a celebratory end-of-year trip for the grade 6 students. Every year, the sixth grade attends a field trip on the Tuesday of the last week of school. In the past, we have visited the Chabot Space Center in Oakland, the Cal Academy of Science, and last year we went to Roaring Camp Railroads. This year, we wanted to plan a trip that we knew the kids would love and remember; this gave birth to the Boardwalk Blast field trip,” explained Lai Burrows.
The students started their day by playing in the sand, waddling ankle deep into the cold ocean water and just having fun together. When the amusement park opened later in the morning, they ventured over for thrilling rides, fun games and yummy food.
“The students rose to the occasion beautifully; they behaved politely, respectfully and gratefully. And, because of the location, there was something for everyone to enjoy,” said Lai Burrows. Upon the students’ return to campus, they united by wrapping up the day – and the year – with a special gratitude circle.
“Even though it lasted for just under five minutes, it gave each person at least one opportunity to share what they appreciated about the day with someone else,” she added, noting that the outing was such a success it will now become an annual tradition.
In other year-end middle school news, back in May, grade 7 students celebrated the coming of summer by having a special on-campus activity day with their advisors. Also in May, eighth graders went on a celebratory field trip to Great America.
Enlight’ning magazine has gone digital. After a print tradition spanning 12 years, the award-winning art and literary journal, published annually at Harker’s middle school, is now available exclusively online.
At the end of May, Enlight’ning moved to an all-digital format, joining a growing trend in publishing. This move should give the magazine a wider readership, as it is now available to anyone with web access. The preview edition is available at http://enlightning.harker.org.
Like its print predecessor, the online publication will showcase artwork, poetry and prose created entirely by middle school students. But the digital format makes it more interactive. For example, the current issue contains songs by numerous student musicians, as well as a video upload about Bollywood. The video, titled “A Glimpse of Bollywood,” was made by grade 7 student Devanshi Mehta.
The online journal had taken its “first baby steps out into the greater world,” explain Enlight’ning editors, adding that by the end of summer the website will be more fully constructed and boast a stronger multimedia experience. There are still a few glitches to be worked out, so the editors advise readers to use Chrome or Safari browsers, not Firefox, for the best user experience. Also, to see the text as it was intended (either from the central scrolling area or from the “category” listings), click on the titles, as clicking on the photos and artwork will enlarge them to full screen.
Current features of the online magazine include a blog and issue archives, as well as category pages for art, poetry, photography, music, prose and video. Faculty advisors for this year’s publication were Sabina Grogan, middle school expository writing instructor, and Bernie Morrissey, middle school librarian.
“Enlight’ning Online can now publish a greater variety of mediums, including more photography, as well as music and film, representing a wider range of the creative work of Harker middle school’s students. We hope some day Enlight’ning may serve as a central hub of arts at the middle school,” wrote magazine editors and rising grade 9 students Praveen Batra, Nastya Grebin and Andrew Semenza.