After an informative middle school orientation meeting held on the morning of Aug. 27, parents headed to the multipurpose room where they mingled with one another, enjoyed a delicious breakfast, and learned about the various volunteer opportunities at Harker.
“This is our one big event to present all the parent volunteer options,” explained Jennifer Hargreaves, director of Harker’s middle and upper school volunteer programs, noting that veteran parent volunteers were on hand at each sign-up table to share their experiences and encourage other parents to become involved.
Current volunteer options range from big community events such as the picnic or fashion show to working with clubs like debate or helping with the cancer walk. “There is something for everyone – from leadership and ongoing positions to one-time tasks. This year we were fortunate to have had many parents come and lots of sign-ups,” said Hargreaves.
Any parents who did not have a chance to sign up can email Hargreaves at JenniferH2@harker.org and she will send them a list of available volunteer opportunities. “It’s not too late!” she said.
“Yosemite Grasslands,” a short story by Meilan Steimle, grade 8, winner of a statewide Scholastic Gold Key award, has been published in the July-August issue of Stone Soup, a national magazine of children’s artwork and writing. The story was first published in Enlight’ning, Harker’s middle school literary publication.
Fencing
Jerrica Liao, grade 7, is now ranked second in the U.S. in women’s foil age 12 and under and is ranked 16th in the U.S. in age 14 and under, following stellar results at the U.S. Fencing National Championships in Anaheim in July.
On July 3, in the Y-14 event with 123 fencers, Liao started out going 3-2 in pools and seeding 56. She won her first elimination bout handily 15-6, then weathered a very tough bout against the 25th seed, winning on time 6-5 (Y14 and older fencers fence to 15 touches or for nine minutes), an exhausting way to win! Then Liao ran into some luck. She would normally have faced the number one seed, but that girl had been eliminated and her path hijacked by the 33rd seed, who lost to the 48th seed — and that’s who Liao (seeded originally 58th) faced in the quarter finals. Liao triumphed 8-3, then hit a hard spot, facing the number four seed, to who she succumbed, finishing in third place, for an outstanding result in a bracket above her age group. This finish upped Liao’s competitive rating from E12 to a B12, putting her among the top fencers in her age bracket.
The next day, July 4, Liao fenced in the Y-12 bracket finishing 18th of 135. She seeded third out of pools, winning all her bouts and being touched only three times while delivering 29 touches, to give her a +26 indicator. She won her first two matches easily, then ran into a toughie in the table of 32: Y-12 fencers fence for best of three five-touch bouts and Liao lost the first bout 2-1, won the second 5-1 and lost the third 2-1 to finish 18th and locking her into the number two spot in the country.
Squash
This summer Sunya Siddiqu, grade 6, played a lot of squash, coming in first and taking two seconds in three August competitions. She is ranked 14th in the U.S. in her bracket, girls under age 11.
In late August, Siddiqu competed in the San Diego Gold tournament in the girls under 11 (GU11) singles category and won all three matches to come in first. With six participants, players compete in boxes: three participants in each box do a round robin, then the top two finishers play for the championship. Siddiqu won her box, then lost to the other top finisher to take second.
In early August, Siddiqu competed in the Decathlon Junior Open Junior Silver. Siddiqu won her boxes in both the GU11 and GU13 events, but lost in the final to take second in both events.
Basketball
Benjamin Soraire and Levi Sutton, both grade 4, played in the Silicon Valley National Junior Basketball summer season and the boys met when their respective teams played each other in the championship game. The Bulldogs (Soraire’s team) and the Ballers (Sutton’s team) set a new record with the championship game going into five overtime periods and, finally, to sudden death play. In a tough struggle for the win, the Ballers sank one for the win. Both boys plan to play for Harker this year. Congratulations to both boys for their efforts this summer!
The middle school celebrated the end of the first week of school with its annual ice cream social. The fact that it was preceded by a three-day weekend and that sixth graders had just received their laptops that morning in advisory caused one sixth grader to say, “It just can’t get any better than this!” The amphitheater was really rocking during the assembly period, with students preparing for a paper airplane contest, listening to music, dancing, eating ice cream, socializing and discovering what their laptops were going to offer them!
What began as an interest in sailing morphed into a crusade to save the earth’s waterways from plastic pollution for Dolan Dworak, grade 7.
When 12-year-old Dworak enrolled in sailing lessons a couple years back he had no idea the classes would lead to his current volunteer efforts with the Sea Scavenger Conservancy, a nonprofit San Francisco-based organization working to rid our waterways of plastic pollution.
Looking back it seems almost fated that he took up sailing at San Francisco’s McCovey Cove, where he met and bonded with Sea Scavenger founder Lorraine Palmer, who would go onto become his mentor. Today, as the Junior “SeaEO” of Sea Scavenger, Dworak represents the organization as a spokesperson, educating fellow Harker classmates, speaking at scout troop, church, school and city council meetings, and even attending international marine biology conferences to spread the word about the dangers of petroleum, a byproduct of plastic waste infesting our oceans, seas and tributaries. He is also busy recruiting other Bay Area students to serve on Sea Scavenger’s junior board of directors and helps coordinate monthly shoreline clean-up efforts and publicity for the cause.
Last year he visited Harker’s lower school where he led an engaging presentation about his work with Sea Scavenger. He brought along an art project titled “The Picket Line: Protest Plastic Pollution” to show the younger students what he and several students from the middle school (along with art instructor Elizabeth Saltos) created with trash they picked up during a cleanup at a local beach tied to wooden pickets. “The Picket Line” will soon be displayed at multiple locations in the Bay Area.
Most recently, he used the summer break to travel the East Coast from Maine to Delaware where he continued his education in marine biology along diverse shorelines – urban industrial, rocky beaches on remote islands, high density sandy beaches near resorts – from small inlets to wide-open ocean. His greatest concern is the oceans and the sea life within.
All five of the world’s oceans contain gyres – massive islands of trash afloat off the coast – attributed to the overuse of plastic, which gets into waterways and oceans. In fact, millions of tons of plastic have accumulated and created the gyres. The plastic breaks down through wind, sun and wave action and the chemicals leach into the water – water that flows all over the world. Also, sea animals mistake the plastic for food, ingest it, are poisoned and die. Humans ingest the harmful chemicals through tainted water and seafood.
“Too much marine life is dying due to plastic pollution, and my generation can stop the problem and save the animals,” said Dworak.
Dolan’s mom, Susan, added, “We can’t stop using all plastics, of course, but we need to stop polluting the earth with wasteful, single-use, harmful plastics. We are overwhelming the earth and causing irreversible harm. There is hope. Every single person can make a difference every single day by reducing, reusing, replacing or refusing plastics. Every plastic bag. Every plastic water bottle. Every bit helps, and changes in lifestyle are easy to make.”
Founded in 2008, Sea Scavenger works to establish ongoing cleanup operations in the remote ocean gyres where great concentrations of plastic are accumulating. They also strive to develop new technologies for plastic extraction and seek innovative uses for recycled ocean plastics.
Dworak’s family donate their motor yacht to assist in a monthly shoreline cleanup effort along the Bay, which the entire Dworak family takes part in. Beyond removing harmful trash along the beaches, they collect it and sort it out by various types of plastic to determine its origin and work with its manufacturers to try and find alternatives to using plastic.
A highlight of Dworak’s volunteer efforts with Sea Scavenger was attending the fifth International Marine Debris Conference in Hawaii. He went there in his role as junior spokesperson for Sea Scavenger, accompanied by his mom. The event, held every 10 years, hosts 38 participating countries, and attracts a large number of participants, including hundreds of scientists. But Dworak had the distinction of being the only child there.
Next up on Dworak’s agenda is a trip in June of 2013 to Seward, Alaska, to participate in Gyre X, an international expedition led by the Alaska Sea Life Center. Dworak has been asked to serve as Gyre X’s youth social media coordinator. The expedition will include an array of scientists and artists who will study and collect marine debris from remote parts of Alaska that will later result in an exhibit sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution traveling to museums around the world.
“I hope to get more people involved and to increase awareness, because the less plastic we use means the quicker the problem is solved,” said Dworak.
Plastic pollution is a huge problem, but one that is not impossible to solve. Scientists are studying the environment. Industry is redesigning products. And organizations – like the one Dworak is involved in – are creating awareness.
Four Harker students were recently named semifinalists in the 2012 Broadcom Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering as Rising Stars (MASTERS) competition. Rishabh Chandra, Jonathan Ma and Rajiv Sancheti, all grade 9, and Venkat Sankar, grade 8, were four of 300 middle school students chosen from nearly 1,500 nationwide entries.
Broadcom MASTERS is a science fair competition in which middle school students enter science and engineering projects at fairs affiliated with the Society for Science and the Public. If their projects are nominated at these fairs, they then submit applications to describe their interests and related careers they are considering. A panel of scientists and engineers then selects the 300 national semifinalists.
Once again, Enlight’ning, Harker’s annual award-winning (2009, 2010, 2011) literary arts magazine, showcased the work of a number of talented middle school students. But this year it also provided a unique opportunity for Enlight’ning club members to learn what it takes to create such a publication.
Students on both ends – published and publishers – played an integral role in making this year’s issue of Enlight’ning such a success.
Created in 2002 as an opportunity for selected students to publish their outstanding writing and art, the magazine traditionally has been produced by a club, which meets weekly during the school day in the second semester to solicit and evaluate magazine submissions.
This year, however, the club took the process a step further, by also meeting once a week during the first semester to get a behind-the-scenes look into the process of putting together a magazine. For the first time, club members had the chance to learn the ins and outs of publishing a literary journal – from publicity to formulating responses to sample submissions and print production. Also during the first semester, Enlight’ning ran a contest for poetry, prose and art to raise the number of early submissions, which were judged “blind.”
“This year’s issue’s really beautiful,” enthused Sabina Grogan, who teaches middle school expository writing and served as an advisor for the 2012 Enlight’ning staff.
Enlight’ning is recognized by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), American Scholastic Press Association and Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) for its exemplary product. In fact, it has placed as a gold medalist by CSPA and a silver medalist by NSPA in a recent scholastic literary journal competition.
The theme of this edition of the literary magazine was “journeys,” as suggested by the publication’s many images of trains and boats, and also travel through time and memory, explored by several poems and prose works showcased in the magazine. Moreover, Enlight’ning’s editors explained that the overriding theme of the journey motif expressed is one of transformation – as middle school itself is a stretch of intense and at times startling change.
Last spring, Enlight’ning held a kickoff launch and celebration, with students featured in the magazine reading excerpts from their pieces and talking about their work. The event saw published students and audience members lingering long after the readings to schmooze and enjoy refreshments.
At the end of the school year, Grogan urged seventh and incoming eighth graders to consider submitting writing and artwork for next year’s edition, stating, “You’ve got all summer to come up with something!”
Taking a short break from algebraic theories, a group of middle school math students took time out at the end of the school year to create a giant dome.
Students in mathematics teacher Margaret Huntley’s Algebra 1 class built the impressive, huge geodesic dome in about half an hour, with assistance from other students who helped roll out newspaper beforehand in preparation.
The class dome construction project was not part of the regular curriculum. According to Huntley it was something she had done previously as a geometry teacher and now served as a “bit of mathematical fun at the end of the year.”
Using 65 sheets of newspaper and some masking tape, the students based their dome on the work of famed inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller, who pioneered the use of geodesic domes as houses.
“It was great to see the students all working together to create something so amazing out of pieces of newspaper. I think at the start they didn’t really believe it would work and seeing it take shape was great.”
Even though it wasn’t related to the algebra curriculum, Huntley elaborated that it helped students see and appreciate the beauty of math. “Seeing the reactions of my other classes as they walked in was pretty cool, too. The students took turns doing their review for finals in it. I like to think that it’s better studying math in a dome!” she added.
Brian Park, rising sixth grader (on right in photo) earned a bronze medal at the North American Cup in Anaheim in early July. He fenced in the Youth-10 Men’s Foil event on July 4, finishing third out of 122 entries. He is now ranked 25th in the U.S. in his age bracket.
In the tournament, Park, who fences at Silicon Valley Fencing Center in Los Altos and trains with the owners, Aleksei and Yuliya Murugin, won his pool with five victories and one defeat, seeding 22 going in to the elimination rounds. Park beat his first two elimination opponents easily, then came up against some of the toughest fencers in his age group in the country, starting with Kenji Bravo, who was seeded eighth out of pools and is ranked 14th in the U.S. Elimination bouts for those age 10 and under are of two out of three five-touch encounters.
In each of Park’s first two elimination bouts he won the first two encounters to advance; in the bout with Bravo it took all three encounters. Park won the first encounter 5-3, lost the second 2-5 then came back strong to win the tie breaker 5-0. Park advanced again after beating James Chen, ranked 11th in the U.S., then fenced a very tough bout with Leo Holmes, ranked fourth in the U.S., losing the first encounter 5-4, but overcoming that deficit with back-to-back wins 5-3, 5-3, to lock in a top-three medal.
Park was finally eliminated by Marcello Olivares, who took second, and is ranked number two in the U.S. Park, who has fenced for about three years, has only competed in two national events and four are totaled for national rankings. If Park continues to fencing well nationally his national ranking will rise rapidly. Congrats and best of luck in the upcoming season!
It’s not every day Harker librarians get the opportunity to spread their passion for reading by handing out free copies of their favorite books to an unsuspecting public.
Armed with a fierce belief in the power of the written word, two Harker librarians joined fellow bookworms from across the United States in participation of World Book Night, an ambitious campaign to give away half a million books for free in just one day.
On April 23, Lauri Vaughan, upper school campus librarian and Bernie Morrissey, middle school librarian, undertook the concerted effort to promote the joy of reading – one person at a time. From Kodiak, Ala., to Key West, Fla., in 6,000 towns and cities across America, volunteers like Vaughan and Morrissey went out into the community in order to share books in locations as diverse as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, ballparks, mass transit, diners and more.
Volunteers were given 20 specially printed copies of their stated favorite books, personally giving them away to new or light readers. They tried to reach many people in underserved places, knowing that a book has the power to open up the doors to new possibilities, and help make the world a better place.
American booksellers and publishers partnered with the first World Book Night in the U.S., following the impressive launch of this campaign by their bookselling and publishing colleagues in the U.K. and Ireland last year. This year, World Book Night took place in the U.K., U.S., and Germany, with thousands of volunteers going out into their communities to give away the special free paperbacks.
Vaughan, who is vice president of the Bay Area Independent School Librarian Association, chose to give out 20 copies of Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” at the Summit Store on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“I gave away 20 copies … it was so fun! I had to convince shoppers in about 10 seconds they should take the book from me. I had about a 90 percent success rate – almost anyone who listened took a copy of the book. Some needed convincing, but I loved the guy who said, ‘I know this book!’ and snatched it out of my hand. Overall it was a wonderful experience and gave me a great opportunity to practice my reading evangelism in public. It took me about a half hour to give away all 20 copies of ‘Ender’s Game,’” recalled Vaughan.
Meanwhile, Morrissey took to the streets of San Francisco, handing out his beloved copies of Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ rehearsal. “All 20 copies were gone in less than five minutes. I had announced the event in email and Facebook messages ahead of time, but some who didn’t get the message were suspicious about something being offered for free, with no strings attached. If given the opportunity, I would definitely participate again next year, probably by standing at the corner of 18th and Castro, handing out books in a much less structured environment,” he said.
The books, whittled down to 30 popular titles, were chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians through several rounds of voting. The printing of the free books was possible due to generosity of the authors, publishers and book manufacturing companies.
Examples of some of the books handed out included: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou (Ballantine), “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic), “Blood Work” by Michael Connelly (Grand Central), “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers (Vintage), “The Stand” by Stephen King (Anchor) and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult (Atria).
World Book Night in the U.S. is a nonprofit organization, backed by publishers, Barnes & Noble, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Ingram Content Group, United Parcel Services, and more than a dozen printers and paper companies.
Anna Quindlen, the U.S. campaign’s Honorary National Chairperson, said: “What’s better than a good book? A whole box of them, and the opportunity to share them with new readers. The idea behind World Book Night is inspired, and as a writer and a reader I’m thrilled to be part of it.”