Harker’s global education department is thriving, as is evident when one looks at some of the amazing places Harker students and teachers traveled to this summer. Enjoy the ride!
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Upper School Students Visit Friends in Switzerland
In late May and early June, several students traveled to Switzerland with Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs and Kevin Williamson, upper school dean of students, to meet their buddies at the Collège de Gambach in Fribourg.
The Harker students began their first day at Collège de Gambach by learning about Switzerland, said Gargano. The students also attended an English class to participate in discussions, helping the Swiss students with their English skills and giving the Harker students an opportunity to gain insights into Swiss culture. Harker French students also participated in a French class for German speakers.
The next day they traveled to Lausanne to visit the Olympic Museum, which featured many interactive exhibits. Vevey was their next destination, which they traveled to via a boat ride across Lake Geneva. Vevey’s Food Museum provided a fascinating look into the history of how food is prepared and consumed.
Since Switzerland is famous for its chocolate, the students visited the Maison Cailler chocolate factory in Broc. “Many students described Maison Cailler as ‘Disneyland-like’ and some indeed said they felt like they were in Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory,” Gargano said.
Thursday of that week was set aside for classes. The Harker students were divided into French-speaking and non-French-speaking groups and assigned an appropriate set of courses to attend. After classes, the Harker students were taken out to lunch, after which they left on a train to explore the town of Murten, where they enjoyed a scavenger hunt.
Another day of classes was followed by a train trip to the country’s capital city, Bern, to have lunch at a local hotel, where the Swiss buddies were thanked for being so kind and accommodating.
The students’ final day in Switzerland was spent hanging out with their Swiss friends playing sports, shopping and exploring the local mountains.
Middle School Students Visit Costa Rica for Spanish Immersion
Middle school Spanish students, chaperoned by Spanish teachers Julie Pinzás and Susan Moling, participated in Harker’s vibrant global education department with a trip to Costa Rica, starting in late July and extending into mid-August.
The students arrived in the Costa Rican capital city of San José on July 31, and were taken to the town of Grecia, where they ate at a restaurant tucked away in a bamboo forest in the mountains. Everyone headed to San Luis the next day to go zip lining through the lush treetops, which Pinzás said was “a definite highlight of the trip.”
Getting down to business, the students began their classes at the Academia Centroamericana de Español (ACCE). “As usual, they impressed the director and their Costa Rican teachers with their Spanish!” Pinzás exclaimed. They also visited Centro Educativo Nuevo Milenio, a private K-12 school, where they shadowed CENM students in grades 7, 8 and 9 during their classes. Another school visited was a local public school with more than 1,400 students in grades 7-11.
During their visit to La Carpio, a refugee camp inhabited mostly by Nicaraguan immigrants, the Harker students went to a daycare center in a park just outside the camp and played with some local children.
En route to Manuel Antonio National Park, the students saw crocodiles and macaws by the Tárcoles River and hiked through Rainmaker Park, a beautiful remnant rainforest. Once at the national park, they saw many species of plants and animals, and took a refreshing dip into the water at a pristine beach.
Other fun activities contributing to the goal of cultural and linguistic immersion included a painting class at the town of Sarchi, known for its painted oxcart wheels and hand-carved furniture and crafts, a Latin dance class, and a scavenger hunt in Grecia.
During their final evening, the students and teachers had tremendous fun (and great food!) during a special farewell barbecue party. The Harker students were each presented with a group photo of the ACCE students they had befriended during the trip, and another successful Harker global education journey came to a close.
Grade 8 Students Discover Beauty and Culture of China on Annual Trip
Each year a group of grade 8 students embark on a trip across the world, and this year’s participants, who departed on May 29, now have lasting memories of a fun- filled and enlightening excursion.
The trip hooks students up with Harker’s sister school in Shanghai, the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS). After a sightseeing stop which included the Oriental Pearl TV tower, the travelers took part in an assembly at the school, at which Harker student Neil Sadhu spoke about the long-standing student exchange between the two institutions. Harker students participated in a number of classes, including one on Chinese opera.
Over the next couple of days, the students visited Zhujiajiao, the water town known for its canals and historic buildings dating back 1,700 years, and the famed Yuyuan Gardens in downtown Shanghai.
Later, the students flew to Beijing and visited the Temple of Heaven, which the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties visited annually to offer prayers for a good harvest. They next explored the hutongs, Beijing’s traditional alleyway neighborhoods, riding on rickshaws to the house of a man who kindly allowed the students to take a tour of his home and answered questions on a variety of topics.
At the Ming Tombs outside of Beijing, the students were led to the dragon- headed turtle pavilion, where they rubbed the statue’s tail for a long life, and its head for continued happiness. The next major stop was none other than the Great Wall of China. “We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain where we could enter onto the wall. It was amazing!” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s global education director, in one of several dispatches to parents.
Upon returning to Beijing, the hardy group visited Tiananmen Square, and then headed to the Forbidden City, touring several of its 980 palatial buildings. The group later visited the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, and rode a dragon boat to the palace’s pavilion.
The students arrived back home on June 6, ready to rest and reflect on a trip they won’t soon forget.
History Teacher Visits Australia for Annual Exchange
Ruth Meyer, upper school history teacher, spent two weeks in Australia for this year’s teacher exchange with Saint Stephen’s College in the small Queensland town of Coomera. Meyer spent most of her time teaching freshman history and junior English to the school’s students, who she said were like Harker students in that, “they are happy, helpful and enjoy school.”
Meyer, who has always been interested in dream analysis, was able to instruct juniors about the role apparitions play in “Macbeth.” She also sat in on an intriguing lecture exploring gender roles, and anticipates using her experiences to explore gender roles in history when she teaches her Harker classes on feminist literature in Western Political Thought.
The staff and faculty, Meyer said, were also a treat to work with. “They were all tremendously helpful and made me feel like one of their team,” she said. “I felt very comfortable there and they gave me a great welcome.”
Meyer enjoyed some learning of her own, visiting a rainforest and a heritage museum to learn about life in the Australian countryside circa 1900. She also went to an attraction called The Outback Experience, where she learned about the role Australian horses played in World War I. She benefitted from the reversal of seasons from crossing the equator; her counterpart, who traveled from St. Stephen’s to Harker last April, missed school, while Meyer was on her summer vacation.
One of the differences between Harker and St. Stephen’s, Meyer noted, was class size. “The class sizes are a lot bigger than at Harker,” she said. “Some classes that I taught had 26 students.” Friday afternoons at St. Stephen’s are set aside for sports activities.
Like Harker, however, the St. Stephen’s students were “very friendly and kind,” Meyer found, and the school also has “excellent library facilities and a very dedicated and friendly group of teachers.”
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s Latin program is going strong, and students have an annual event at which to showcase their knowledge in the National Junior Classical League Convention.
In July, Harker students, along with John Hawley and Lisa Masoni, upper and middle school Latin teachers, traveled to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Ky., for this year’s convention. The convention is attended by more than 1,000 students every year who compete in multiple academic and creative arts contests, and several Harker students had top 10 placements in multiple categories.
Nik Datuashvili, grade 11, took second place in four categories: ancient geography IV, Greek derivatives, Latin derivatives and reading comprehension. He also earned fourth place in academic heptathlon and eighth place in Latin grammar advanced, Latin vocabulary IV and Certamen advanced level.
Meawhile, junior Richard Fan took eighth in Hellenic history IV, ninth in Greek derivatives IV and Roman history IV and eighth in Certamen advanced.
Sean Fernandes, grade 11, reached ninth place in ancient geography and 10th in reading comprehension prose level IV.
Finishing fifth in girls dramatic interpretation and Latin oratory III was Zina Jawadi, grade 10, who also took sixth place in girls Latin prose.
Grade 12 student Jessica Lin took first place in Roman life V+ and 10th in the grade 11 girls essay category.
Finally, junior Sean Nierat earned fourth place in grade 10 traditional photography.
The Harker School held its second annual What’s Brewing event at the middle school, once again providing parents of new (or soon to be new) middle school students a chance to explore the campus and learn about all the exciting opportunities available for grade 6-8 students. The event started in the multipurpose room, giving everyone a chance to meet and socialize over muffins. After the meet-and-greet, parents of current middle schoolers gave tours of the campus, bringing the new-to-the-middle-school crowd to the buildings and classrooms their children will be spending time in.
Once the tour ended, parents went to the multipurpose room to hear a presentation by Chris Nikoloff, head of school, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head and Lana Morrison, the middle school dean. Together, they covered everything parents of new middle schoolers could want to know: how the day is broken up, what kinds of classes the students will be taking, global opportunities (such as the grade 6 trip to Japan), community life, clubs, middle school field trips and much more. At the end of the presentation, parents were given the opportunity to ask the administrators any other questions they might have about the campus, school life and academics at the middle school.
Danielle Holquin, the admissions director for grades 6-8, said her favorite part of the event was watching current parents give tours to the new parents. “I hope everyone left with a clear understanding of how middle school works,” Holquin said.
Shanghai’s World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) teacher Katie Qiqing visited Harker in late September and early October as this year’s exchange teacher from China. During the first week of her stay, Qiqing, who teaches grade 7 English at WFLMS, observed several classes, including Karina Momary’s middle school debate class, a class on Shakespeare comedies taught by Marc Hufnagl and grade 4 advanced core English with Nancy Tomlitz.
Qiqing noted that students at Harker are encouraged to use their creativity and, “to ask different kinds of questions related to the topic. And, moreover, their curiosity is greatly appreciated.”
As is customary for exchange teachers, Qiqing also taught several classes during her stay. At the upper school, she taught four different levels of Mandarin, while at the middle school she taught Mandarin, Chinese culture, Chinese school life and the history of Shanghai. At the lower school, she taught a class on Chinese culture.
During the first weekend in October, Qiqing visited the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium and went sightseeing around San Francisco.
“The teachers here are quite nice and hospitable,” she said. “To tell the truth, they are much busier than I thought.” She added that Harker’s students are “well-behaved,” and that some students demonstrated exceptional skill with the Chinese language. “They know a lot about China and Chinese, which made me so happy and excited,” she concluded.
“Are we ready to get some jumping jacks done?” Chrissy Chang asked the 590 middle school students and staff who had gathered at the Blackford quad. A rousing cheer went up as the middle school prepared to join National Geographic Kids and United States First Lady Michelle Obama in Let’s Jump!, an attempt to break the world record for the most people doing jumping jacks at the same time.
Chang, the K-8 physical education department chair, said that in addition to Let’s Jump! being a great physical activity for everyone to participate in, the White House’s sponsorship influenced her decision to get the middle school involved. “I think it’s great that the First Lady is promoting the importance of physical activity and healthy eating with her Let’s Move campaign. At Harker, we are fortunate to have a phenomenal physical education program. By participating in Let’s Jump!, our students can say that they played a role in setting the record, and can help increase health awareness,” Chang said.
The students were enthusiastic, as well. “It’s really cool!” said Alexandra Michael, grade 6, about the First Lady’s world-record breaking idea.
To set a new record, more than 20,425 people across the globe will need to perform jumping jacks for one minute during the 24-hour time period between 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 11 and 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 12.
Chang led the students and staff in the minute of jumping jacks on the morning of Oct. 12, playing music to get everyone pumped up and excited, and leading a countdown during the last 10 seconds.
Jerrica Liao, grade 6, said it was “really exciting” to be part of the record-breaking attempt. She, Chang and all the other students and staff at the middle school will be waiting anxiously to hear if the record was broken.
Let’s Jump! is part of National Geographic Kids’ movement to get kids outdoors and living active, healthy lives.
For everything to be official, Harker recruited friends of parents and neighbors who were all needed as neutral observers of the jump to verify it to the Guinness Book of World Records. Special thanks to those individuals: Nancy Morgan, Mack Johansen, Helen Azbill, Michael Canziani (Prestige Potraits), Nahla Nijmeh (Diamond Quality Printing), April Medina (Diamond Quality Printing), Judy Crow, Laura Parker (Jostens), Jayson Rocha, Kay Rooney, Steve Malik (California Sport Design), Bella Mahoney (Our Lady of Fatima Villa, Saratoga), Denis Hoye, Jeanette Murphy, Armando DeGraca, Andrea Taylor and Steve Tedesco (former SJ Chamber director, and Campbell Union School District board member).
“It was awesome. Unbelievable. It’s great to be able to see our entire school participate,” Chang said after the event.
In early October, The Harker School had 18 middle school students and three upper school students attend the Jack Howe Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament at California State University, Long Beach. The tournament has been running for 16 years, and attracts students from all over California and Nevada. This year’s tournament included a student congress, all 11 California High School Speech Association individual events and three styles of debate. The students competed in policy debate, congressional debate and original oratory.
In JV policy debate, four middle school students competed on two teams: Panny Shan, grade 8, and Steven Cao, grade 7, along with Ananya Krishnaswamy, grade 8, and Shivani Gohil, grade 8. Not only did Shan and Cao advance to the quarterfinals in this category, but the students were also recognized individually for their exceptional speaking skills. Shan received the second place speaker award, Cao received the eighth and Gohil received the 17th.
In congressional debate, Misha Tseitlin, Emaad Raghib and Aditya Dhar, all grade 7, competed in the varsity division, with Dhar advancing to the finals. In the novice division, Arjun Mehta and Arjun Goyal, both grade 10 students who were competing for the first time, advanced to the finals.
For original oratory, Carissa Chen, grade 7, competed in the novice division. She wrote and memorized a 10-minute speech for which she received second place. Finally, in varsity original oratory, sophomore Zina Jawadi advanced to the semifinals, placing her in the top 12 contestants.
Arjun Subramaniam, grade 7, and Andrea Wang ’10 both made it to the final rounds in two singing contests similar to American Idol, winning awards for their talent.
Subramaniam was awarded the Star Kid trophy, which recognizes rising talent, by Carnatic Music Idol USA.
Carnatic Music Idol is a popular TV program in India that is coming to the United States for the first time. Similar to American Idol, Carnatic Music Idol recruits talent from across the country, and came to the Bay Area as part of its first U.S. auditions process. Subramaniam was one of 20 competing in the “juniors” category in the show’s finals.
Subramaniam sings with Harmonics at Harker, a by-audition show choir for students in grades 7-8.
On ETTV Top Idol 2011, a Chinese spin-off of American Idol, Wang was chosen as the top performer and made it to the top 10. Going into the semifinals, Wang had the highest score.
Like American Idol, ETTV Top Idol is an annual competition that launches a countrywide search to discover the “potential pop stars of tomorrow.” This year, ETTV Top Idol auditions were held in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Wang auditioned at a friend’s suggestion and has had much success in the competition. It is easy to see why from this video of Wang singing Bonnie Raitt’s “Have a Heart.”
The final round of the competition took place in Los Angeles in mid-September but results are not available.
In late July, as the summer break began to wind down, middle school Spanish students, chaperoned by Spanish teachers Julie Pinzás and Susan Moling, took a trip to Costa Rica that extended into mid-August.
The students arrived in the Costa Rican capital city of San José on July 31, and were soon taken to the town of Grecia, where they ate at a restaurant tucked away in a bamboo forest in the mountains. “The open-air restaurant served us a delicious classic Costa Rican dish called ‘casado’ which literally means ‘married’ since the locals always eat rice and black beans together,” Pinzás wrote in one of several email dispatches.
Afterwards, they got settled into their living quarters for some rest. Students passed time chatting, playing volleyball and hanging out in a nearby courtyard and garden. “Beautiful exotic butterflies could be seen everywhere,” Pinzás said.
The group then ventured out to explore a local grocery store, and enjoyed dinner before heading back to their “casitas” (little houses) for the night.
The next day, the group headed to San Luis for an exciting day of zip lining through the lush treetops. “Mid-way through we tried the Tarzan swing, and then ended our tour using the new ‘Superman’ harness in which you lay face down overlooking the canyon for nearly a mile,” Pinzás wrote. “It was a blast! A definite highlight of the trip.” The day was capped off with some sampling of Costa Rican ice cream.
The day after their zip lining adventure, the students began their first day of classes at the Academia Centroamericana de Español (ACCE), known in English as the Central American Spanish Academy. Students took a diagnostic test and were placed in small groups of three to four students per teacher. “As usual, they impressed the director and their Costa Rican teachers with their Spanish!” Pinzás said. The students also experienced their first Costa Rican thunderstorm during their classes. “They were fascinated by the intensity of the lightning, thunder and downpour,” Pinzás wrote. “The powerful thunder was truly startling at times!”
That night, the students ate fajitas and enjoyed a viewing of Disney’s “Gnomeo and Juliet,” which was shown in Spanish, of course!
On Aug. 2, the students and chaperones rose early to partake in the celebration of Costa Rica’s last patron saint, La Virgen de Los Angeles (la Negrita), also known as the “black virgin.” Local legend says that in 1635, a young girl discovered a small, black doll in the image of the Virgin Mary on top of a stone in the forest, and took it home with her. When the doll went missing the next morning, the young girl went back to the forest to find it resting upon the same stone on which she found it the previous day. She took the doll home again, only for it to disappear a second time. She decided to leave the doll where it stood, and the town built a church around it, which in Cartago today they call the Basilica.
The group headed to Grecia’s beautiful red church for the celebration, where most of the citizens of Grecia had already gathered. “We were fortunate enough to enter the church to observe some of the religious service and to see a replica of the ‘black virgin’ on the altar,” Pinzás reported. Following a church service, the replica was carried in a procession for several blocks. The rest of the day was spent exploring a local market and experiencing another thunderstorm.
The next day, everyone visited Centro Educativo Nuevo Milenio, a private K-12 school, and after meeting some of the students they attended a special assembly for Science and Technology Day. Harker students then shadowed CENM students in grades 7-9 during their chemistry, math, computer, English and Spanish classes. “They had such a good time that students from both schools are hoping to meet again,” Pinzás said.
Continuing their visit to various schools in Costa Rica, on Aug. 4 the students toured a local public school with more than 1,400 students in grades 7-11. “Interestingly enough, those students who do not pass any given subject must repeat that subject until they pass it. There are no advanced classes, and teachers, not students, move between classes,” Pinzás observed.
Later, at a local woman’s home, the students took part in a cooking class and enjoyed a home-cooked meal. “The students helped Sra. Lavinia prepare a sumptuous arroz con pollo (chicken in rice), a traditional Costa Rican dish which features several local vegetables, special seasonings and chicken,” Pinzás wrote. “There was also a delectable vegetarian version for those who preferred it meat-free, and both were served with fried bananas (plátanos maduros), salad and refreshing fruit smoothies.” Best of all, the students all received the recipe so they could make the delicious dish themselves once they returned home.
The group’s next stop was the neighborhood of La Carpio, located just outside San Jose. Home to about 34,000 people, mostly Nicaraguan immigrants, La Carpio is known for the extreme poverty of most of its inhabitants. The Harker students took a private bus to a park just outside the neighborhood, where they played with some local children at a daycare center. “Our students thoroughly enjoyed playing with the 25 or so children, whose ages ranged from three months to four years old,” Pinzás said. “It was touching to see the instantaneous bonding that transcended cultures and language.”
Early the next morning, the students began heading north to Manuel Antonio National Park. Along the way, they stopped at the Tárcoles River to see the crocodiles that lived along its shores and also saw several macaws flying around the area. They also hiked through Rainmaker Park, a beautiful remnant rainforest, and observed the various plant and animal life there, such as poison dart frogs and centipedes. Upon reaching a waterfall, the students took the opportunity to step inside the natural pool below it. After another hour of driving, the group arrived at the hotel to rest up for the next day’s trek through Manuel Antonio National Park.
Pinzás reported “perfect weather” on the day of the visit to “one of the country’s smallest but most spectacular national parks.” They took a leisurely hike through the rainforest, and their guide identified many different insects, plants and animals. “We enjoyed seeing two- and three-toed sloths and many Congo monkeys, among others,” Pinzás wrote.
When they got to the beach (“which looked like it was from a movie set with majestic palm trees surrounding a turquoise bay,” Pinzás said), the students jumped into the pristine water almost immediately. A few hours later, everyone headed back to the hotel before they were beset by the afternoon rain.
The morning of Aug. 9, the group headed to the town of Sarchi. “The town is very historic because it lies along the old Pan American highway which connects Central and South America,” Pinzás said. Sarchi is famous for its painted oxcart wheels and hand-carved furniture and crafts. The students attended a painting class to learn the fundamentals of painting wheels. Don William, a local artist, invited the students into his house, where each student was given a small white wheel to paint.
Later, at the Eloy Alfaro factory, founded in 1920, the students learned about the making of the wheels and saw the artisans at work. “One of the most fascinating aspects of the factory is the fact that the machinery is still powered by water, not electricity, exactly as it was in 1920,” Pinzás said.
Near the end of the trip, the group went to a local sports complex to enjoy some fun athletic activities, and later that evening, they enjoyed dinner at the Mirador Ram Luna Restaurant. “This restaurant is located on the slopes of the Escazú hills in the city of Asserí, which is about 90 minutes away from Grecia,” Pinzás wrote. The restaurant offers a “breathtaking” view of Costa Rica’s Central Valley, she added. The students were treated to an entertaining music and dance show there. “Both the dinner and show were fantastic!” Pinzás said. Alyssa Amick, grade 8, was even called up to dance. “She made it look so effortless,” said Pinzás. “It was a memorable evening for all!”
The previous night’s fun actually served as a precursor to the students’ first activity on Aug. 11, a trip to a local dance studio for a Latin dance class. “The whole class was taught in Spanish! Our instructor, Jonathan, taught us how to do the Bachata, Cumbia, Salsa and a popular dance to a song called ‘Qué te pica’ by Notch,” Pinzás said. That evening, the students played an indoor soccer match with some local youths before heading back to the casitas for pizza and chatting.
On the final day of their trip, the group visited downtown Grecia for a scavenger hunt. “This activity was developed by one of our wonderful local contacts here, Amy Paschal,” Pinzás explained. “Students were divided up into groups of three or four and then had to follow the steps on their individualized scavenger hunts in both Spanish and English.” Certain tasks required conversing with the local townspeople, giving the students opportunity to practice their Spanish skills with native speakers. One such task involved asking a local to snap a photo of a group in front of a landmark. “Everyone laughed a lot and had a great time,” Pinzás recalled.
That evening after classes, the students and teachers had tremendous fun (and great food!) during a special farewell barbecue party. The Harker students were each presented with a group photo of the ACCE students they had befriended during the trip. The night concluded with the Harker students dancing to Yingo’s “Culikitaca” with some of the friends they had made during their stay.
In July, Shaya Zarkesh, who starts grade 6 in the fall, helped Team USA win the team championship at this year’s Indonesia International Math Competition in Bali, Indonesia. As the youngest member on the team, Zarkesh competed with his teammates in a tough bracket, going up against top teams such as Thailand, Bulgaria, overall champions China and others.
Over the summer, Kaushik Sankar, grade 7, participated in the Tech Museum’s Tech Challenge event, where he and his team “Inception” won the Most Reliable Device Performance award. This year’s challenge, which had nearly 1,200 competitors, had each team collect garbage from an artificial ocean without harming any of the sea life. Each team created a different device to achieve the task. Notably, Sankar performed well despite having to rush to his final rehearsal for the middle school production of “Beauty and the Beast.” Congratulations to Sankar and his teammates!