Grade 7 science teacher Raji Swaminathan recently published her second book about the elements, titled “The Alkaline Earth Metals – They Rock and Bone!” The illustrated book follows Atom, who is gifted a magical periodic table for her birthday and is transported (with her dog, Electron) to each element’s domain to learn more about them. The book, which also contains illustrations by Swaminathan, takes Atom to locations including Utah, California, Greece and Scotland. Proceeds from the book, which is available through Amazon, are being donated to children’s charities.
The regional winners of the 2021 Bay Area Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were announced last week, and Harker students pulled in 189 awards (73 in art and 116 in writing). Sophomore Sarah Mohammed’s poem, “Homeland, Gone,” was selected as one of five nominees for the Bay Area Writing Region’s National American Voices Medal, the winner of which will be announced in March, along with all of this year’s national award winners.
Harker won a total of 42 Gold Keys, 54 Silver Keys and 93 Honorable Mentions. Gold Key winners are eligible to win national awards, and all national award winners will be honored at a ceremony in June.
The complete list of Harker winners is as follows:
Art:
Name
Grade
Category
Award
Anoushka Buch
12
Design
Silver Key
Anoushka Buch
12
Design
Honorable Mention
Shareen Chahal
12
Photography
Gold Key
Dawson Chen
9
Drawing & Illustration
Honorable Mention
Karina Chen
11
Film & Animation
Silver Key
Karina Chen
10
Comic Art
Gold Key
Alice Feng
10
Digital Art
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Silver Key
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Gold Key
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alice Feng
11
Sculpture
Gold Key
Alice Feng
11
Fashion
Silver Key
Mirabelle Feng
11
Fashion
Silver Key
Mirabelle Feng
8
Photography
Silver Key
Sonya He
8
Painting
Honorable Mention
Reagan Ka
10
Painting
Honorable Mention
Reagan Ka
11
Expanded Projects
Honorable Mention
Reagan Ka
11
Sculpture
Honorable Mention
Reagan Ka
11
Design
Honorable Mention
Ally Lee
11
Design
Honorable Mention
Michelle Liu
10
Digital Art
Silver Key
Michelle Liu
11
Digital Art
Honorable Mention
Michelle Liu
11
Design
Honorable Mention
Aastha Mangla
11
Expanded Projects
Silver Key
Sarah Fathima Mohammed
10
Painting
Honorable Mention
Muthiah Panchanatham
10
Digital Art
Silver Key
Julie Shi
9
Digital Art
Silver Key
Claire Su
9
Digital Art
Silver Key
Alysa Suleiman
9
Painting
Honorable Mention
Alysa Suleiman
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alysa Suleiman
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Alysa Suleiman
11
Photography
Honorable Mention
Emily Tan
11
Photography
Silver Key
Emily Tan
11
“Editorial Cartoon sponsored by The Herb Block Foundation”
Honorable Mention
Nicole Tian
11
“Editorial Cartoon sponsored by The Herb Block Foundation”
On Friday, a virtual middle school assembly celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the assembly, a series of grade 7 speakers delivered calls to action on issues important to them in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day’s designation as a day of service.
The activity was directed by English teacher Rebecca Williams, who asked her students to be “voices of change” by bringing awareness to issues they felt were important.
Linda Zeng spoke on the pressure felt by students preparing for standardized tests and offered some ways students could alleviate stress. Ritik Raman and Rahul Sundaresan spoke on the danger posed to aquatic life by pollution and how people can contribute to a more sustainable world. Disha Gupta offered a passionate plea for the community to find ways to end bullying, which she said creates “a never-ending cycle of abuse.” Savitha Satish talked about the discrimination faced by sufferers of mental illness and encouraged people to educate themselves and others on mental health. Elie Ahluwalia and Myra Thakker talked about how stereotypes can lead to discrimination and explained the difference between being a passive “non-racist” and an active “anti-racist” who analyzes their own stereotyping thoughts and works for a more equal society. Finally, Sofia Shah talked about gender inequality in the workplace and how norms that keep women at home and in a narrow set of jobs must be rejected.
Following the student talks, seventh grader Tanvi Sivakumar announced the Blessing Bags service project, which will provide basic necessities such as water, food and toiletries to the homeless.
The assembly ended with Williams challenging the attendees to find issues they care about and learn how to become an agent of change, followed by attendees announcing the issues they chose in the Zoom room’s text chat.
Following a rigorous audition process, six Harker students were recently named members of California All-State Ensembles.
Bassoonist Chelsea Park, grade 8, was selected to play for the junior high school symphonic band and violist Keira Chang, grade 7, was chosen to perform with the junior high school symphony orchestra. From the upper school, vocalist Malar Bala, grade 11, was named to the high school vocal jazz band, junior Rylan Yang was selected to play French horn in the high school symphonic band, and juniors Austin Wang and Tina Zhong, both violinists, were selected for the high school symphony orchestra and high school string orchestra, respectively.
As the future middle school campus continues to take shape, Mike Bassoni, Harker facility manager, details how the site is being readied for winter weather in the latest construction update!
Over the weekend of Nov. 7-8, 16 upper and middle school students took part in BearMUN, a Model UN conference hosted by the Model UN team at UC Berkeley. The conference featured debates between students on a wide range of topics, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the colonization of Mars.
Several students had strong showings at the conference, including sophomore Krish Maniar, who won Outstanding Delegate for representing Iraq in the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. Junior Daniel Wu also won Outstanding Delegate for representing Sima Cuo in the Crisis Committee for the Unification of the Warring States Period.
Other strong performers were junior Akhilesh Chegu, who received an honorable mention for UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia; sophomore Trisha Variyar, who received a verbal commendation for the Court of Versailles: The Reign of Louis XIV crisis committee; Anika Mantripragada, grade 9, and Luke Wu, grade 7, who were each awarded a verbal commendation for their work in the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia; and Alice Tao, grade 9, who was awarded a verbal commendation for her work on the Unification of the Warring States Period Crisis Committee.
In this month’s construction update video, facility manager Mike Bassoni talks about the metal studs used to form the interior and exterior walls of the new buildings and how they improve safety and expedite the construction process. Take a look!
Last week, freshman Sriram Bhimaraju received the third place Wells Fargo Community Innovation Award in Arizona State University’s Sustainability Solutions Science Fair at the middle school level. Bhimaraju’s project is an app called Saagara: Sunscreen Advisors, which checks the ingredients of sunscreen brands to determine if they are a threat to coral reefs. In addition to the app, Bhimaraju also devised a method for removing water pollution that employs beads that absorb polluting chemicals in water.
Bhimaraju has been offered a mentorship opportunity with ASU’s Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Service, which will display his work in a future webinar. More than 600 entries were received for the fair since June. In addition to mentorship opportunities, winners also received up to $2,500 in cash prizes.
This story was submitted by Jenny Achten, grades 6-12 speech and debate chair.
The upper and middle speech and debate teams did not miss a beat as they switched to the new world of online tournaments. Although they look forward to being able to compete in person again, the students have done a wonderful job of adapting and their competitive success highlights their hard work.
In September, the team competed at tournaments hosted by CSU Long Beach, the Greenhill School of Texas, Valley High School in Iowa and Milpitas High School. In October, they were at tournaments held by Yale University, Presentation High School and Damien High School. Award winners are listed by competition event below. Events are in the varsity division, unless otherwise noted.
Original oratory: Andrea Thia, William Chien, grade 11; Sara Wan, grade 10
Congressional debate: Nathan Ohana, grade 12; April Sun, Aaditya Gulati, grade 11
Lincoln-Douglas debate: Akshay Manglik, Andy Lee, grade 12; Rohan Thakur, Anshul Reddy, Deven Shah, grade 11; Rahul Mulpuri, Deeya Viradia, grade 10; Ansh Sheth, grade 9
Impromptu speaking: William Chien, Andrea Thia, grade 11; Dyllan Han, grade 10
Dramatic interpretation: Dyllan Han, grade 10
Extemporaneous speaking: Michelle Jin, grade 10; Ella Lan, grade 9
Public forum debate: Melody Luo, Vienna Parnell, Vedant Kenkare, Caden Lin, Rohan Rashingkar, Arnav Jain, grade 11; Carol Wininger, grade 10; Max Xing, grade 9
Junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate: Stefan Maxim, grade 8
Junior varsity public forum debate: Ruhan Sahasi, Veer Sahasi, grade 8
Novice Lincoln-Douglas debate: Aarush Vailaya, grade 8; Ananya Pradhan, Sofia Shah, grade 7
In this month’s middle school construction project update, facility manager Mike Bassoni talks steel and shares some exciting details about the new gym and theater complex as the buildings begin to take shape.