On Sept. 28, upper school science teachers Jeff Sutton and Kate Schafer, facility coordinator Janet Rohrer and Office of Communication Director Pam Dickinson attended an event hosted by the County of Santa Clara Green Business Program, which recognized organizations certified as Green Businesses by the Bay Area Green Business Program. About half of the nearly 100 businesses recognized were newly certified; the remainder had their certifications renewed.
Harker was certified as a Green Business in July, following a multiyear effort that included all four campuses. The many initiatives included expanding the use of recycled paper, altering the use and acquisition of food products, and using recycled oil in Harker transportation vehicles.
At the event, Dickinson and Schafer spoke about how the program factored into Harker’s long-term sustainability goals and the process of coordinating the efforts of many different departments.
“There were many possible directions we could have gone, but the certified Green Business Program provided a crucial framework for how we could best proceed,” said Schafer. “It let us set reasonable benchmarks for ourselves across a wide range of topics, some of which we knew little about.”
Los Altos Town Crier – Oct. 5, 2016: Maya Shukla and Aarzu Gupta, both grade 9, are featured in a story about their science project making the semifinals of the Broadcom MASTERS competition.
East Bay Times – Oct. 4, 2016: Aditya Dhar, grade 12, is featured in a story about being selected for the U.S. national debate team, as well as his future plans.
San Francisco Classical Voice – Sept. 30, 2016: Zina Jawadi ’14 is quoted in a story about hearing loss in musicians.
San Jose Mercury News – Sept. 25, 2016: Junior Alan Hughes offers advice to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the eve of their first debate.
San Jose Mercury News – Sept. 23, 2016: Cynthia Chen, grade 9, is one of five South Bay students mentioned in a story about local finalists in the Broadcom MASTERS competition.
The Independent – Sept. 22, 2016: Harker is briefly mentioned in a story about Priscilla Chan, who taught science at Harker for one year and was the commencement speaker at the 2016 Harker graduation ceremony.
Harvard-Westlake Chronicle – Aug. 30, 2016: Harker debate teacher Greg Achten is mentioned in a story about a summer debate camp he co-directed with the debate director at Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake School.
Between the videos, social media posts and updates from the administration, the construction progress of the new athletic and performing arts centers is clear. Harder to show is the sense that the campus is coming of age with these buildings.
From a modified café to a full-fledged theater for the hundreds of potential thespians throughout Harker, from rented theaters to home ground, with practice and dressing rooms, for hundreds of talented musicians, singers and dancers, the performing arts center looms large in imaginations.
“The students are beyond excited to work in classrooms and an actual theater in the new performing arts center,” said Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts. “While I think everybody realizes we do not have a theater, I think certain families realize just how difficult our job and the student learning is in our tiny, unpolished classrooms.
“We’ve never had a scene shop or a fly space, both of which will change both the audience experience and student learning,” Lang-Ree continued. “Our technical theater students will have a place to practice their craft and learn design elements as they will have a scene shop and light and sound booth on campus. Productions will look very different as we will be able to fly in set pieces (which is the norm) vs. building smaller sets and dragging them onstage!
“Having daily spaces with state-of-the-art sound and acoustical treatments that are triple and quadruple the sizes of some of our current classrooms will literally change the everyday learning experience for the thousands of students that will enjoy them in coming years.”
Our athletes also will have a home ground with the kind of essentials that allow them to focus on their performance instead of juggling rides and bags. The visions of a golden gym floor, of clean-tiled locker rooms, of training facilities that bring out the very best in our hard-working athletes are in the mind’s eye of Harker’s athletes and athletic staff.
“The athletes are absolutely thrilled about having a gym on this campus,” said Dan Molin, upper school athletic director. “One of them said, ‘It will truly feel like a home game.’ The new athletic center will generate more school spirit, more excitement and, frankly, more students will be interested in participating in sports. Students will walk by the gym, hear whistles and cheering, and come inside and join the excitement. This will positively change our sport culture and community, forever.”
The new centers, integrated as they are with Dobbins and Nichols halls, will bring a new maturity to the upper school campus.
“The athletic center completes the athletic complex, Molin said. “Looking at it visually, we’ll have the field, pool and gym all next to each other promoting a sense of unity between all sports and making a statement that we care about athletics as a part of the whole student.”
“I think the completion of both the performing arts center and gym will give our campus the feeling of completion and of being on par with other amazing high schools in the area,” said Lang-Ree. “We will have arrived!”
Now, with foundations set and walls rising, the dream is clearer than ever and the excitement is rising with the walls!
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
In mid-September, Melody Tang, a teacher at the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai, visited Harker as part of the Global Education annual teacher exchange between the two schools. During her visit, Tang had the opportunity to visit the lower, middle and upper school campuses.
“I have observed so many lessons, and they have all different characteristics, and I like them very much,” Tang said.
On her visit to the lower school, she taught a lesson on the autumn festival, which is celebrated in China. She also let students “write a poem about the moon, and they were very interested in that.”
Tang also received a lot of encouragement from Harker’s middle school teachers. “I have learned a lot of practical reading and writing skills, and these teachers are so kind and so helpful,” Tang said. “They recommended to me some books about reading and writing.”
Of the upper school campus, Tang noticed that students “take an active part in class discussion.” She also enjoyed the general atmosphere of the campus, and said “the teachers are very professional and they give a lot of useful guidance and advice.”
During her visit, Tang also enjoyed some leisurely activities, including a day trip to San Francisco, where she and Kate Shanahan, K-5 English department chair, visited the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s annual baccalaureate ceremony on May 18 offered the Class of 2016 a chance to say their goodbyes and welcome the juniors into their new roles as leaders. Attendees gathered at the upper school campus quad, as the upper school vocal group Cantilena serenaded the audience with their wistful yet spirited version of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me,” followed by a stirring Harker String Orchestra performance of the first movement from Ottorino Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 3.”
College counselor Martin Walsh, who was chosen by the seniors as this year’s faculty speaker, asked both the soon-to-be graduates and soon-to-be seniors not to be wary of ceremony. Recalling a helicopter ride to Kazakhstan, he said, “I had finally made that mythical transition into adulthood. In retrospect, I desperately needed that helicopter ride. Up to that point in my life I was sleepwalking through all of life’s ceremonies.” He then urged the students to “not sleepwalk through your ceremony,” as it, like the helicopter ride, is an important signifier of change. “Something big is happening here.”
Edward Sheu, grade 12, delivered the student farewell, recalling his time as an aspiring water polo player who felt nervous for having to wear a Speedo. He eventually relented and tried one on, only to find “a shorts tan so blinding it was like two marble and diamond pillars sitting above my knees.” Despite his initial uneasiness, Sheu pressed on. “Water polo went on to be an activity that taught me work ethic, teamwork, perseverance and other values that made me into who I am today.” His story contained a valuable lesson for both the graduating seniors and the juniors about how to push past one’s apprehensions in pursuit of their passions.
Lower and middle school families that donated to the latest phase of our capital campaign gathered for two ice cream socials on the upper school campus this month to get a close-up look at the construction of our new performing arts and athletic centers. The gym is slated to be finished in June 2017 and the performing arts center by December 2017. For more information on the campaign and updates on the project, visit http://www.harker.org/giving/capital-giving.
San Jose Mercury News – July 27, 2016: Kailash Ranganathan, who starts seventh grade this year, is the subject of a profile focusing on his interest in the sitar.
Business Insider – July 10, 2016: Harker is included in a series of summer reading lists provided by private schools from all over the country.
Greenwich Time – July 9, 2016: Harker recommends “The Catcher in the Rye” in this story about recommended summer reading by top private schools.
Piedmont Patch – July 7, 2016: Ameek Singh ’16 is mentioned as one of five Bay Area youths selected to participate in paid summer internships at local nonprofits.
Harker’s Office of Communication recently earned an Award of Distinction in the annual Videographer Awards competition for their video on the Harker Research Symposium. The video was part of an extended online multimedia piece entitled, “A Decade of Wonder,” about the Harker Research Symposium, which has been held since 2006. Other Award of Distinction winners in this annual contest included Comcast, Bell Helicopters, Bayer Healthcare, Brigham Young University, Dell Computers and University of Massachusetts. Here is a direct link so you can watch full screen.
As of the last week in July, the athletic center and performing arts center construction site is sporting two deep holes, and plenty of work went on before they were dug.
“Over the past month we have been putting in all the underground infrastructure and that is complete,” said Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facility director. “We have our new storm lines to control storm water, our new sewer lines and many of our electric and low voltage duct banks in the ground. Those are all mapped by GPS. We can dig down to within an inch and find these pipes, the path they’re traveling and the depth they are in the ground. So if we have to find them later or alter them or add to the system, we know exactly where they are.”
Following installation of underground infrastructure, the whole site was carefully graded using GPS-directed graders which allow accuracy in leveling to within 1 inch, Bassoni noted. As soon as the grading was finished for the gym site, excavation began.
The athletic center excavation was started first and, for several days in mid-July, an unending stream of dirt haulers wound through the construction site, each collecting its load of dirt from the Caterpillar hydraulic excavator and hauling it off. The excavator moves about 135 cubic feet of dirt with every shovelful and the trucks haul away 3-5 shovelfuls each, depending on their capacity. About 1,900 truckloads of dirt will leave the construction site in the end.
The performing arts excavation is still in progress and the resulting huge pile of dirt will be trucked off campus when summer camps wrap up. The athletic center excavation is already having its earthen walls stabilized with a sprayed-on cement compound.
The basements are critical components in both buildings, noted Bassoni. The athletic center basement will be home to the playing courts, bleachers, locker rooms and guest team rooms. The theater basement will be home to the orchestra pit, below-stage storage areas, and dressing and equipment rooms. Both basements will house heating and air conditioning equipment, but the excavations also hold the main performance areas. “In the gymnasium, you’ll be walking into a promenade at the top of the seating which will cascade to the playing floor 14 feet below entry level,” said Bassoni.
“In the theater, again, you’ll walk into the top of the seating on the main floor and the seating will cascade about a dozen feet to the theater floor in front of the stage,” he added. “Also, underneath the stage, you’ll have trapdoors, an orchestra pit, a grand piano storage area with hydraulics to bring that to the grade level, and a very large mechanical system that will provide heating and cooling into the acting space with absolutely no sense of sound.
“Even when the theater goes to complete black you will not be able to hear the mechanical system running during an intermission or a pause in the acting. So, that’s why we’re creating these basement areas: it’s energy efficient because the earth keeps conditioned air much more stable so you are not using a lot of additional energy for heating and cooling,” Bassoni explained.
Energy efficiency runs deep in the double project. “Both buildings are going to achieve LEED Gold certification similar to that that Nichols Hall achieved in 2009,” said Bassoni. “All of the exterior windows are of a very high efficiency level so that they will keep heating and cooling within the building. The gymnasium will have a 140-kilowatt photovoltaic or solar electric system to keep both buildings about 25 percent off the grid.”
But before all that can be implemented, the basements need to be finished and the site arranged for drop-off access.
Now, in late July, concrete stabilization is already being poured for the athletic center. Once the stabilization is complete in the athletic center basement, the underground plumbing and electrical conduits will be installed, said Bassoni. “Finally, the concrete slab that will create the basement floor will be poured,” he said. “That will happen in late September or early October. We’re moving along at a really fast clip, 10-12 hours per day on excavations so the bulk can be finished by the time school starts.”
At this point, the perimeter around the excavations has been smoothed out and tamped down so that construction traffic can get around the site safely, and part of that access will remain in use for parent drop-off when school starts.
The performing arts center excavation will finish up about mid-August, and stabilization of the gym basement will finish up about the same time. The PA basement does not require a stabilization process as the excavation is utilizing a “lay-back process” which greatly reduces shoring of the excavated sidewalls during construction. The foundation cement pours are slated to begin about mid-September. The entire site will be groomed for the opening of classes in the first weeks of August so, although it might be a bit dusty, student drop-off and pickup will be ready for the start of the school year. Watch for our monthly report on construction project and for updates in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
San Jose Mercury News – June 22, 2016: Harker volleyball coach Mike Aitken, rising seniors Andrew Gu and Ray Song, and rising sophomores Charlie Molin and Chris Gong are noted for winning Coach of the Year, Juniors of the Year and Freshmen of the Year, respectively, in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s El Camino Division.
San Jose Mercury News – June 22, 2016: 2016 graduate Vineet Kosaraju is mentioned in this story about MathAndCoding, an organization he co-founded with his friend, Nikhil Cheerla, a rising senior at Monta Vista High School.
San Jose Councilman Chappie Jones’ Blog: The councilman’s blog details how Harker helped with the resurfacing of Rebecca Way, which is located near the middle school campus.
San Jose Mercury News – June 9, 2016: Rising senior Niki Iyer’s third-place finish at the CIF state track and field meet is featured in this roundup of the event.
San Jose Mercury News – June 7, 2016: Model United Nations coach Carol Green is mentioned for being awarded a Diamond Coach Award from the National Speech & Debate Association’s Honor Society.
San Jose Mercury News – June 1, 2016: Rising sophomore Rithvik Panchapakesan is featured in a story about being one of the country’s 66 winners in the H&R Block Budget Challenge.