This past spring, Shannon Richardson, grade 8, was the envy of her classmates as she and five of her friends enjoyed a leisurely, lovely birthday luncheon served in the gazebo at the lower school campus’ amphitheater.
The birthday lunch was a gift from her parents, Brian and Lee, who were the highest bidders on the popular auction item described as “lunch al fresco with a stellar wait staff,” purchased at last year’s Harker family picnic.
Thanks to her parents, Richardson celebrated turning 14 in style, with Harker’s top administrative echelon catering to her every dining need. Her top-notch wait staff at the event, held on a sunny March 19 afternoon, was none other than Chris Nikoloff, head of school, Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school and Cindy Ellis, middle school head. The trio, having served at this event in the past, performed their duties with professionalism and flair.
Birthday girl Richardson had the opportunity to hand-pick her special lunch menu, comprising all her favorite foods. On the menu were Caesar salad, chicken pot pies, teriyaki chicken wings, cheese pizza, fruit smoothies, chocolate chip cookies, Dr. Pepper and cupcakes.
“As always, a stellar job was done by all! The girls loved it. I’ve already had inquiries from students about how they can have lunch on the quad with such a superlative wait staff,” said Kate Murphy, middle school English teacher, who helped coordinate the event.
This October, during Harker’s upcoming picnic, the unique luncheon will once again be available for purchase as a much sought after silent auction item.
Middle school Latin students took the National Latin Exam in March, and of the 52 Harker students who received awards, 18 won gold medals and four had perfect papers.
In the Introduction to Latin category, Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Andrew Semenza, Eric Tran, Jeffrey Ma, Derek Yen, Rahul Bhethanabotla, Justin Au, all grade 6, and Grace Park, Raymond Xu and Arnav Tandon, all grade 7, received outstanding achievement awards. Achievement awards went to grade 6 students Sanjana Avula, Joshua Broweleit, Michael Kwan, Olivia Long, Sameep Mangat, Grant Chen and Satchi Thockchom.
Grade 7 students Venkat Sankar, Austin Tuan, Aditya Dhar, Amrita Singh, Arjun Subramaniam, Alayna Richmond, James He, Albert Xu and Kshithija Mulam all won gold/summa cum laude awards in Latin I, with Sankar and Tuan each submitting perfect papers. Meanwhile, Alexis Gauba, Manan Shah, Alexander Lam, Peter Wu, Eric Pei, Karthik Sundaram, all grade 7, and Anthony Luo, grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards. Winning magna cum laude were Alex Youn, grade 7, and John Jerney, grade 8. Grade 7 students Brendan Tobin, Brandon Chow and Jackson Su all won cum laude awards.
In the Latin II category, Elisabeth Siegel, Allison Wang, Rishabh Chandra, Sadhika Malladi, Gurutam Thockchom and Michael Moncton, all grade 8, won gold/summa cum laude awards, and Siegel and Wang were recognized for having perfect papers. Arjun Narayan, Grace Guan, Malvika Khanna and Kaushik Sankar, all grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards, and cum laude awards were won by eighth graders Jonathan Dai and Jonathan Yu.
Earlier this year, results for the National Classical Etymology Exam were also revealed, and Sadhika Malladi and Elisabeth Siegel, grade 8, and Venkat Sankar, grade 7 all received gold awards. Rishabh Chandra, Alison Wang, both grade 8, and Nikhil Manglik and Albert Xu, both grade 7, won silver, and grade 7 students Chris Finsterbusch and Alexander Lam won bronze.
For some middle school and high school students summer is all about relaxing and having fun. To others it’s a time to get a leg up academically. At Harker, it’s an opportunity to have the best of both worlds.
By combining a morning academic program with afternoon activities, Harker’s Summer Institute (SI) gives students in grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills, follow their passions and have a whole lot of summer fun.
But Harker students aren’t the only ones with these options. During summer the school opens its doors to the general public, attracting local residents to its Saratoga campus, where this year’s SI runs from June 18 to Aug. 10. A total of 722 students are enrolled in the program, of which more than half are non-Harker students.
The institute’s learning program offers rigorous for-credit courses such as algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth like creative writing, drawing and robotics.
A range of group afternoon activities are planned for middle schoolers. And, while there are no organized happenings for high school students, they have free afternoon drop-in access to the library, pool, art room, Ping Pong table, basketball courts and study spaces. For all grades, an on-site prepared lunch is included as part of the overall program.
Some examples of featured planned group events for the middle school grades are: making sidewalk art and tiki masks in the Olympic Village (aka the orchestra room next to Rosenthal Field), having water wars and boogie board relays in the pool, playing Hawaiian handball in the gym, and going on field trips to the beach.
On one particularly gorgeous sunny day, a group of SI participants were immersed in an exciting game of street hockey out on the front blacktop. Meanwhile, another group was equally engaged in a drum-making activity on the adjacent field.
Taking a break on a bench on the sidelines, participant Daniel Liu Miller, 11, looked up as a light breeze blew the paper he was holding. Miller is not a Harker student, but learned about the program from a friend who attends the school. Now back for his second year at the institute, he said he especially looks forward to all the fun afternoon activities.
Sitting next to him, Jedwin Mok, also 11, said he had previously attended camp over at the lower school, and has now moved up the ranks for his first year as a Summer Institute participant. His favorite part of the program is the morning academics where he is studying robotics.
Meanwhile, busily building a drum by hand, Sophia Angus, a Harker student who will be entering grade 6 this fall, said this is her third year attending a summer program and her second year attending Harker as a regular student. In fact, it was her initial experience going to camp at the lower school that prompted the switch to becoming a year-round Harker student. She said the best thing about SI, and Harker, are “the incredibly supportive people,” including her coaches, teachers and friends.
Standing out on the Rosenthal Field next to Angus, SI counselor Adam Smith explained that the campers were making drum sets from scratch and would then be decorating them. His first year working as a counselor, Smith, a staff member of Harker’s regular after-school BEST program (the Bucknall/Blackford Enrichment and Supervision Team) said he is really enjoying his new summer role, and that the institute had gotten off to a great start.
Street hockey and drum-making were just a couple of many fun activities which kicked off the SI. Another was making banana lumpia with Danae McLaughlin, Harker’s executive sous chef. For this activity, the students were allowed to get a “behind the scenes” look at The Edge’s kitchen facility, where they learned to make the yummy Filipino dessert made with bananas wrapped in spring-roll-like wrappers and fried.
Their hands-on session began by creating a solution called “egg wash” with eggs and water, and dipping the wrappers into the mixture before winding them tightly around a banana. After baking and topping them off with powdered sugar, cinnamon, chocolate syrup and whipped cream — their sweet smell wafting down the hallway — each student ate several of the delicious creations.
In addition to making banana lumpia, Sukrit Arora, 12, a first year SI participant and non-Harker student who will be going into grade 8, also enjoyed another Filipino-themed activity: a traditional dance routine. “It was really fun and interesting,” said Arora, who has family and friends who go to Harker. “I also liked the free throw competition and capture the flag game.”
According to Chris Florio, director of the SI program, the wide range of choices and flexibility allows each student to design a schedule around his or her own academic needs and personal interests, giving everyone just the right mix of summer activity, learning and fun.
Although it is her first time at a Harker summer program, soon to be seventh grader Jenna Sladlu has been attending the school since kindergarten. “Yeah, I’m a Harker K-lifer,” she enthused, noting how much has enjoyed meeting new summer friends. “It’s more laid back than during the regular school year … with more activities and freedom. I’m really glad Harker made the Summer Institute and highly recommend it!”
Indianapolis – June 18, 2012 – Harker’s middle school speech and debate team capped another strong season last Friday, earning one of only three all-around school of excellence awards at the National Junior Forensic League (NJFL) National Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. This honor recognizes the combined accomplishment of the 26 speakers and debaters from Harker who competed. While this is the first all-around award Harker has earned, the team extended their streak of being recognized as one of the five recipients of the school of excellence in debate award to three consecutive years.
Aditya Dhar, grade 7, improved another of the team’s streaks to three straight years with at least one student earning an individual national championship. Debating topics ranging from abolishing the Electoral College to passing the DREAM Act, Dhar dominated competition in congressional debate. He was joined in the final round of congress by teammate Alexander Lam, grade 7, who earned second place, as well as teammates Sophia Luo, grade 8, and Misha Tseitlin, grade 7.
Harker also enjoyed its best performance to date at nationals in policy debate by advancing all three teams it entered. The team of Steven Cao, grade 7, and Panny Shan, grade 8, advanced to semifinals (top four) before falling to the eventual champions from the Kinkaid School in Texas. Lisa Liu and Sophia Luo, both grade 8, compiled an undefeated record in preliminary competition and proceeded to quarterfinals (top eight) before falling. Joining these others was the team of Shannon Hong, grade 8, and Rahul Shukla, grade 7, who reached octafinals (top 16). This year’s policy topic focused on whether the United States should significantly increase exploration of space.
Numerous public forum debate teams advanced to elimination competition as well. The team of Sorjo Banerjee and Suraj Jagadeesh, both grade 8, advanced to quarterfinals (top eight) while the team of Kevin Chen, grade 8, and Joyce Huang, grade 7, reached octafinals (top 16). In addition to their successes in congress, Dhar and Lam joined forces to reach octafinals (top 16) in public forum. Debaters in this event discussed whether stand your ground laws are a legitimate expansion of self-defense.
The all-around school of excellence award was made possible by a breakthrough for Harker’s forensics program, as the school entered a significant number of students in the speech events for the first time. Though the middle school speech program is new, that did not stop several students from excelling at the tournament. Complementing her award in policy debate, Lisa Liu may have been the hardest working student at the tournament, advancing to semifinals (top 14) in poetry reading and quarterfinals (top 24) in dramatic interpretation of literature. Quarterfinalists in speech (top 24) included Sana Aladin, grade 7, in storytelling; Carissa Chen, grade 7, in original oratory; and Divya Rajasekharan, grade 7, in dramatic interpretation of literature.
Harker’s growing accomplishments at NJFL Nationals have occurred under the leadership of Karina Momary, the director of middle school forensics. This year the school also welcomed new assistant coach Marjorie Hazeltine, who has ably coached the fledgling group of speech competitors. The returning middle school students look forward to continuing their tradition of success next season in preparation for the 2013 NJFL Nationals in Birmingham, Ala.
Best-selling author D.J. MacHale, whose works include the series of novels “Morpheus Road” and “Pendragon,” as well as the Nickelodeon TV series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” spoke to Harker middle school students via Skype in early May to answer their questions about the writing process and the business of being a published author. Topics discussed included formulating ideas, the decision to become an author and the experience of writing for television and movies.
In mid-April, the middle school campus celebrated Spirit Week 2012 with themed free-dress days and a host of fun activities. The week kicked off with a different kind of Monday morning: middle school students didn’t have to worry about getting up and getting dressed. They got to come to school in their pajamas.
Tuesday brought a campus-wide masquerade. Students brought and wore masks that ranged from paper to Halloween to superhero. The next day found students disguised even more. For Wednesday’s Cartoon Day, students either wore something with their favorite cartoon character on it or actually dressed up like them.
Thursday had teachers and staff seeing double with Twin Day. Middle school students got together in groups of at least two and arranged to wear identical outfits. Finally, the end of the week saw the campus honoring their house colors by dressing up in them. The activities culminated Friday afternoon in the middle school’s traditional lip sync contest.
Several middle school debate students headed to the Menlo School in late March for the State Latin Convention, where many of the students placed well in competition.
Several grade 6 students placed high in middle school level 1 contests, including Justin Au, who earned first place in grammar, dramatic interpretation and brass/winds, while placing second in reading comprehension and vocabulary. Praveen Batra took second in mythology and Latin Oratory. Classmate Michael Kwan took second in ancient geography, where Marcus Chen received an honorable mention. Adrian Chu took second place in Roman history, while Meena Gudapati won first in posters and second in greeting cards. In mottoes, quotes and abbreviations, Rishi Iyer received an honorable mention. Sunny Jayam took third in daily life, while Edgar Lin won first in mythology, third in derivatives and third in brass/winds. Jeffrey Ma finished third in both grammar and the 50-meter breaststroke. Andrew Semester earned first place in piano. Three grade 7 students also participated in the MS level 1 events. Grace Park earned first in black pencil and third in both dramatic interpretation and chalk/pastel. Arnav Tandon won first place in reading comprehension and second place in grammar. Finally, Raymond Xu was first in pentathlon, second in Roman history and third in vocabulary.
Grade 7 students competed in the MS level 2 events, in which Aditya Dhar took first in mythology and second in pentathlon and dramatic interpretation. Alexander Lam finished first in mottoes, quotes and abbreviations and received an honorable mention for his performance in pentathlon. Venkat Sankar earned first in both ancient geography and Latin oratory, as well as second in daily life and reading comprehension. Manan Shah was awarded an honorable mention for his performance in pentathlon. Arjun Subramaniam placed first in vocal music, second in mythology and the “That’s Entertainment” talent show (in which classmate Karthik Sundaram placed third) and third in derivatives. Austin Tuan placed second in ancient geography and grammar and also took third in pentathlon.
In the middle school advanced events, grade 8 students had many top placements. Rishabh Chandra won first place in reading comprehension, second in grammar and third in pentathlon. Sadhika Malladi took second in reading comprehension, while Kaushik Sankar took third in both mythology and dramatic interpretation and was given an honorable mention in reading comprehension. Elisabeth Siegel took first in grammar and second in mythology. Allison Wang earned high placements in a total of five categories, placing first in both mottoes, quotes and abbreviations and pentathlon, and second in mythology, dramatic interpretation and essay.
Harker took the Academic Sweepstakes prize for the middle school level, with Justin Au, Venkar Sankar and Allison Wang taking the top awards in the state.
Grade 8 students Shannon Hong and Natalie Simonian led a team that designed a banner to represent Harker at the event and won first prize. Grade 8 student Kevin Ke’s t-shirt design also took the top spot.
In Certamen (quiz bowl), the team of Justin Au, Adrian Chu, Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Andrew Semenza and Raymond Xu took first place statewide in the middle school level 1 category. Harker’s middle school level 2 Certamen team, made up of Aditya Dhar, Alexander Lam, Venkar Sankar, Manan Shah and Arjun Subramaniam, was named second in the state. The middle school advanced team of Rshabh Chandra, Kaushik Sankar, Elisabeth Siegel and Allison Wang took first in the state.
Thanks to the students’ splendid performances, Harker was the top middle school in the state at the convention.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Students Enjoy Spring Pool Party An excited group of 13 middle school students enjoyed a pool party in mid-April at the Bucknall campus pool. The party was an auction prize won at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic in October and also celebrated the birthday of Shannon O’Shea, grade 8; thus the students also enjoyed cake and other refreshments in addition to swimming under the warm spring sun. Teachers Keith Hirota, Julie Pinzás, Rebecca Williams and Patricia Lai Burrows donated the package and put together this fun day for the kids.
Lower School Family Picnic Raffle Winners Enjoy Fun Field Trip Fifty happy K-2 students took a field trip in mid-March to Pump it Up, a warehouse filled with jump houses, obstacle courses and slides. The event was the reward for the students who sold at least 100 raffle tickets for the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic. Kim Coulter, director of the Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team (BEST), said, “The children had a great afternoon playing. They enjoyed going through the obstacle courses and racing some of their favorite BEST staff.” Top ticket sellers this year were grade 2 students Emma Gurleroglu with 2,780, Callie Mayer with 1,640 and Aaditya Gulati with 1,520.
Students Enjoy Picnic Outing in San Francisco On Dec. 10, four lucky Harker students enjoyed a whirlwind day in San Francisco with two of their favorite teachers. The grade 5 students, Arushee Bhoja, Devanshi Mehta, Nikhil Dharmaraj and Ayush Pancholy, won the trip at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic auction on Oct. 9, where fun and silly teacher packages are auctioned off every year.
Accompanied by teachers Pat Walsh and Kate Shanahan, the excited students rode a cable car, visited AT&T park, North Beach and Chinatown, where the fortune cookie factory was deemed “awesome.” Said Shanahan, “The kids got a special kick out of where we stopped for dessert on the way home – a famous drive-through convenience store in South San Francisco!”
Walsh was a busy chaperone – he also accompanied about 30 kids to an Oakland A’s baseball game in late April.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
A dozen and a half grade 6 students 18 students, along with chaperones Jennifer Walrod, global education ddirector, and Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology, boarded a Tokyo-bound plane in mid-May for the annual trip to Japan. They were greeted, as always, by a tour guide and an English teacher from Harker’s longtime sister school Tamagawa Gakuen.
At a rest stop on their way to their hotel for their first night’s stay, the students sampled Japanese snacks, ice cream and fried chicken. Their first stop on the weeklong trek was Hakone National Park, where they visited the Hakone sekisho (“checkpoint”), an important inspection area for travelers during Japan’s Edo period, and walked along Lake Ashi. A boat ferried the group to the other side of the lake, where a beautiful wooded area awaited them. “We stopped at a small Shinto shrine where the kids wished for good luck before heading back,” Walrod said in one of several emails to the parents she sent during the trip. Afterward, they rode a gondola to the top of a nearby mountain, where they took photos of the breathtaking scenery.
Saturday was special for the Harker students, as they reunited with their buddies from Tamagawa. En route to the school’s campus, the students practiced their Japanese speeches and asked questions about their homestays. “As we drove across the Tamagawa campus we could see all our buddies, families and teachers outside the middle school awaiting our arrival. The kids were so excited!” Walrod said. At their welcome ceremony, the Harker students were treated to a performance by Tamagawa’s handbell ensemble, accompanied by two singers. “Our students did a great job with their Japanese speeches!” exclaimed Walrod.
Two Harker students, Sameep Mangat and Ania Kranz, sang a duet to their Tamagawa friends. During the rest of their time at Tamagawa the students enjoyed a scavenger hunt and a variety of Japanese treats. Afterward, the Harker students went to enjoy the rest of the day with their homestay families. During their first full school day at Tamagawa, the Harker kids accompanied their host buddies to a number of classes, including math, Japanese, science and P.E. Later, they met with Yoshiaki Obara, president of Tamagawa, to share with him their experiences so far during the trip.
“He told the kids that this trip was good for them as it made them realize that not everyone spoke English,” Walrod wrote. The students later gave presentations on American culture during an English class, covering topics such as the Fourth of July, music and food. May 15 started with the Harker students being introduced to all of Tamagawa’s middle school students. From there, the students received a tour of some of the Tamagawa facilities, including the planetarium and the Future Sci Tech Lab, where they saw a presentation by a representative from their Plant Factory Research Center and Space Farming Lab, during which they learned of Tamagawa’s involvement with the research of crop production in space.
Later, the students enjoyed lunch with their Tamagawa friends and spent the afternoon in a calligraphy class. The following day was the Harker students’ last day at Tamagawa. In the morning, they were introduced to Tamagawa’s lower school students and visited several classes, where they played games, folded origami, enjoyed activities with hula hoops and more. After a potluck lunch, the students enjoyed a farewell party. “Tamagawa kids sang, played the piano, danced and gave speeches, all performed and organized by the ‘Harker Welcome Committee,’ a student-run group who had organized much of our visit to the school,” Walrod said. Mangat and Kranz again sang to their Tamagawa friends, and Rajiv Movva gave a moving speech.
The Harker visitors each then received a gift bag from their Tamagawa buddies.“As the bus drove away, we passed tons of kids and families lining the sidewalk waving goodbye,” Walrod remembered. “Between the sounds of the kids laughing and sharing their homestay stories with one another, we could hear several kids still sniffling and crying, sad to see such a wonderful experience come to an end.”
Thursday began with a two-hour shinkansen (“bullet train”) ride to Kyoto, where they met with Ms. Sawa, who would act as their guide for the rest of the group’s stay in Japan. They first visited Kiyomizu Temple, a Buddhist temple constructed without the use of any nails. The temple’s veranda offered a wonderful view for taking photos, and the students also paid to receive their fortunes, “and for those of us who got not-so-good fortunes, we were sure to tie the paper fortunes onto a railing provided so we could keep the adverse fortune at the temple,” Walrod said.
At the Jishu shrine, the group found two stones placed approximately 20 feet away from one another. Local legend told that those who could find their way from one stone to the next with their eyes closed would find true love. Those who needed assistance would need a “go between” to help them in finding their mates.
After exploring more of the temple, the next stop was the famed Kinkakuji, also known as the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. The brilliant golden building, situated in a pond, is surrounded by gorgeous trees, with the scenery reflecting off the surface of the water. The students were instructed not to talk. “We walked around the pond and through the trees, stopping to take photos of the natural beauty,” said Walrod.
On their last full day in Japan, the group boarded the shinkansen to Hiroshima. There, they stopped briefly at Hiroshima castle for a quick photo op, then continued on to Miyajima Island. The group enjoyed lunch at a restaurant that specialized in okonomiyaki, a pancake made with egg, pork, soba noodles and other ingredients. “The kids seemed to really enjoy this meal as there were lots of empty plates at the end of lunch,” Walrod said.
With lunch finished, everyone headed to Itsukushima Shrine and its famous torii (“gate”). The gate was covered with scaffolding due to a storm that blew off the top of the structure, but students nevertheless took several photos of the historic site.
The next stop on this very busy day was Peace Memorial Park, where they visited the Atomic Bomb Dome, which marks the spot where the first atomic bomb landed in Japan. The ruins at the site are dedicated to those who died there. Later, students delivered 1,000 paper cranes they had folded earlier this year to the Children’s Memorial, referencing the famous true story told in the book “Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes.” The cranes were hung in an enclosure along with thousands of other similar cranes delivered by kids from all over the world.
Continuing through the park, the group stopped briefly at the Flame of Peace, which has burned since first being lit in 1964. “This flame continues to burn as a symbol of the Japanese anti-nuclear resolve to burn the flame until all nuclear weapons are gone from this earth,” said Walrod.
Finally, at the Peace Memorial Museum, the students learned about the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and the aftereffects. The museum contained artifacts owned by survivors of the bombing and some of the paper cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki, the titular figure of “Sadako and the 1,000 Paper Cranes.”
The trip back to the hotel gave the students time for reflection on the meaning of peace and the fun-filled, memorable journey they had embarked on over the last week.
On May 19, the last day of sightseeing, the group went to scenic Arashiyama, a popular tourist spot located just outside of Kyoto. While hiking up Arashiyama Mountain, the students noticed some of the area’s wildlife. “The kids were excited to spot the first monkeys running up the side of the mountain and in the trees,” Walrod said. “At the top of the mountain, there were dozens of monkeys wandering around.” The kids also got to feed the monkeys in a special “people cage.”
The final stop of the day was at Kyoto’s Nijo Castle, home of the Tokugawa Shogunate. The visitors removed their shoes before entering the castle, which had special floors installed during the Tokugawa period that made noise when walked upon so that assassins could not walk about the castle undetected. “Only highly trained ninjas can walk on these floors silently,” said Walrod. After taking photos and viewing scenes and paintings of life as a shogun, everyone headed back to the airport for the long flight home.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker debaters finished up the spring on a high note, with strong performances at the Tournament of Champions, held in Kentucky in late April. Several students finished in the top 16 or better in multiple contests at the tournament. Harker also broke the record for most public forum teams from one school, with a total of 10 teams qualifying for the event.
Meanwhile, middle school students brought home a slew of firsts and seconds from the 2012 Glendale Middle School Warm-Up Speech and Debate Competition tournament hosted by Glendale Community College in late April. This is the first year the event has been held, and there were more than 100 entries, with Harker appearing in the final round of every debate event. Harker students usually participate in high school-level tournaments and were very excited to attend one of the few middle school tournaments of the year.
A group of 20 Harker middle school students attended the local Spring Forensics Tournament at Santa Clara University, held in early April. Many of them were competing for their very first time in the event, which predominantly consisted of high school students. The Harker contestants held their own, winning first place in humorous interpretation and finishing in the final and top 16 in several events.
In mid-April, upper school debaters earned several first place and top eight finishes at the National Debate Coaches Championship Tournament, in addition to receiving several awards for their speaking abilities.
The previous month, at the California Coast National Forensics League (NFL) Qualifier, Harker upper school students took third place in overall sweepstakes and second place in debate sweepstakes. Several students qualified for the NFL national tournament in Indiana in June. Harker’s freshman duo interpretation team very nearly qualified for nationals.