Registration is filling up fast for Summer Camp+, which this year will feature a fun circus theme called “Under the Big Top.” The popular K-6 camp will include a wide variety of circus-related activities, guests and special events.
Held on the lower school campus, Summer Camp+ provides morning learning experiences followed by age-appropriate afternoon electives. Students in grades 1-6 will have the option of enrolling in two different academic morning programs called Core Focus and Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL). Core Focus is a more traditional learning environment with language arts, math and academic electives for each grade level. LOL features academic courses designed around a literary theme.
This year LOL will focus on the work of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. Both programs feature the same afternoon options, including arts and crafts, circus arts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and array of other field sports. The Summer Camp+ program traditionally kicks off with Color Clash, a fun event held in the Bucknall gymnasium.
Groups of campers on yellow, red, green and blue teams participate in an array of silly games cheered on by captains (aka camp counselors) wearing color-coordinated outfits that run the gamut from superheroes to hula skirts and silly hats. The kickoff is just the start of a session full of friendly competition around the color groups.
“It’s a great way to build team spirit and the kids just love it,” said longtime camp counselor Troy Townzen, ’08. “Color Clash costumes and activities create some of the best camp memories!”
The program offers something for everyone, according to Joe Chung, program director of Summer Camp+ and elementary computer science teacher. On-site happenings often include a patriotic games bash, a water carnival, a sleepover for older campers, a presentation for parents and a birthday celebration for camp mascot “Ray.”
Campers also partake in numerous field trips, including bowling, miniature golf, the Oakland Zoo and Coyote Point. Last year enrollment for camps and other summer programs skyrocketed to a record-breaking 2,740 participants across all campuses, according to Harker’s summer programs office.
“We were thrilled and delighted at the incredible turnout for Harker summer last year … and are already seeing a jump in enrollment for this year!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of summer programs. The Harker School has offered extensive summer programs for more than 50 years. The Summer Camp+ program is accredited nationally by the American Camping Association.
Applications are now being accepted for Harker’s long-running and highly successful English Language Institute (ELI), held on both the lower and upper school campuses.
ELI provides overseas students with the opportunity to learn and practice their English skills, enabling many participants to go on to attend top American and international schools.
New to the program this year will be a “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour. The optional VIP offering, available to all ELI students (ages 6-16), will take place at the conclusion of the program’s regular five-week academic session. The tour will take students around Silicon Valley and the Bay Area to visit theme parks, museums, companies, school campuses and more. It will be capped off with an overnight trip to Yosemite.
“Over the past few summers, I have received interest from ELI participants in having more trips and excursions to enhance their American social and cultural experience,” reported ELI director Anthony Wood.
So, Wood decided to introduce the VIP program, which will allow students to discover California outside the classroom by embarking on strategic visits to boarding schools, university campuses and places of interest such as a Giants game, Point Lobos State Marine Reserve, the Jelly Belly Factory and Six Flags amusement park. The action-packed tour will conclude with an overnight stay in Yosemite.
Wood said that enrollment for the trip is expected to fill up quickly. He also noted that ELI teachers will accompany the students on the tour and provide a specialized curriculum to continue with their language learning.
To help get the word out about ELI, current Harker and alumni families are sponsoring receptions in cities around the world in early spring. The receptions will provide an opportunity for interested families to meet Wood and learn about the benefits and features of the program. In March and April, ELI receptions will take place in Russia, Turkey, China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Joe Rosenthal, Harker’s executive director of advancement, who directed the school’s former elementary boarding program for 20 years, will be on hand as well. Rosenthal is a frequent guest lecturer to the current ELI program on the topic of studying in the United States.
“The ELI receptions are a wonderful way to get the word out about the quality of our program,” he said.
Each year, Rosenthal travels abroad to meet prospective ELI students. He said he enjoys meeting with alumni and their families, updating them and keeping them connected to the school.
ELI initially began as a year-round boarding school program, which closed in 2001 due to Harker’s upper school expansion. It evolved into the current summer program, which launched in 2004. Last summer, more than 60 students enrolled for the secondary division and a record-breaking 55 enrolled in the primary division.
“The goal is to keep the program small and offer a very high-quality experience,” explained Wood.
The annual Pajama Day assembly on Jan. 17 was special for the Eagle Buddies of grades 3 and 10, who met at the lower school gym and shared some of their favorite books with one another. It was also a special day for Rishi Narain, grade 10, who started Harker’s pajama program while he was a student at the lower school. The program collects and distributes pajamas, books and other goods to underprivileged children all around the world.
Per Eagle Buddies tradition, Butch Keller, upper school head, donned a robe, took his seat at a rocking chair located on the stage and read a story to the audience. This year’s story, fittingly enough, was “Pajama Day” by Lynn Plourde. After the reading, the third graders and their sophomore buddies chatted and read to each other from the books they had brought. They later headed to the lawn for a special pizza lunch. “It’s good to have a friend that you know you can trust,” said Brooke Baker, grade 3, who added that she looks forward to having more fun with her Eagle Buddies in the upcoming months.
Kevin Kim, grade 10, said being involved in the Eagle Buddies program is “really fun. It’s good to meet little kids and have fun with them.” The Eagle Buddies program was started during the 2010-11 school year as a means of establishing a bond between the students of the lower and upper schools. The program matches up grade 3 students with grade 10 students, who then meet periodically until the sophomores graduate and the third graders move on to the middle school.
Registration for Harker’s summer programs is now open! For students of all ages, whether they’re interested in academics, sports or just want to enjoy some fun in the sun, much excitement is in store for Harker Summer Camp students in 2014.
For those looking to gain high school credit during the summer, learn a new skill or simply enrich their summer experience, Harker’s Summer Institute offers a wide variety of classes to students in grades 6-12. Courses are offered in many disciplines, including math, computer programming, creative writing, performing arts and many more. The Summer Institute’s custom scheduling gives students the ability to create schedules suitable to their academic growth, and afternoon activity programs are available to both middle and high school students.
Harker’s signature summer sports camps will return better than ever. As always, the sports camps will emphasize positive, skill-based instruction in a wide variety of sports from Harker’s staff of experienced, caring coaches, many of whom are Harker coaches during the academic year. This year, the popular water polo camp will now be two weeks long, expanding on the fundamentals-based instruction that made it a success in previous years. The wrestling camp, now in its second year, will receive a visit by Anthony Robles, winner of the 2010-11 NCAA championship in the 125-pound weight class and author of “Unstoppable: From Underdog to Undefeated: How I Became a Champion.” Robles made waves in the wrestling world for winning the NCAA championship despite a birth defect that left him with only one leg. Watch for articles with details on each sports camp to appear over the next few weeks.
The Camp+ program will once again provide an exciting learning experience to students in kindergarten through grade 6. Camp+ has morning academics in math, language arts and electives, followed by afternoon activities that will be tailored to each student. The theme of this year’s Camp+ will be “Under the Big Top,” and will feature a wide variety of circus-themed activities, guests and special events. Students in grades 1-6 will have the option of enrolling in the Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL) program, which features academic courses designed around a literary theme, which this year will be the work of the legendary and beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. Afternoons are devoted to fun, with many options, including computer time, wall climbing, archery and more field sports available.
Harker’s long-running and highly successful English Language Institute has earned a worldwide reputation for providing overseas students with a proven English language education that prepares them for applications to top American and international schools and grants them valuable communication skills that will be useful in their future careers. This year, ELI is adding a new “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour, which will take place at the end of the program’s academic session. This tour will take students around Silicon Valley and the Bay Area to visit theme parks, museums, company campuses and more, capped off with a trip to Yosemite at the end of the week. ELI students have plenty of outside time in the afternoons, too!
For adults and children looking to improve their swimming ability, the Harker Summer Swim School offers several learning opportunities for swimmers of nearly any age, with instruction designed for ten different skill levels. The school is held at the beautiful Singh Aquatic Center and private and group lessons are available to swimmers aged 5-18, with private lessons available to adults and children aged 3-4. Students in grades 3-8 may participate in a Junior Swim Team program that emphasizes building skills for competitive swimming, working on skills such as stroke technique and endurance.
The summer office has permanently relocated to Harker’s preschool campus at 4525 Union Ave. in San Jose. The summer programs will take place on Harker’s lower, middle and upper school campuses. Harker summer 2014 is set to be a fun, exciting and enlightening experience for students. Parents are encouraged to register early as programs will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis!
The Huffington Post reported that Harker’s SAT scores rank it as No. 2 in the country. The online story states, “A website that analyzes and reviews K-12 schools and colleges in the U.S., Niche.com, collected data to find which 25 high schools throughout the entire country produce the highest SAT and ACT scores. The information is based on self-reported scores from 75,834 test-takers at 909 schools from 2012-2014. In order to be considered in the findings, a school had to have at least 100 students submit their scores.” Here’s a link to the findings: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/schools-highest-sat-scores_n_4654077.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education Go academic Eagles!
Darshan Chahal, grade 6, participated in the World Futsal Cup in Barcelona from Dec 28-30. Chahal plays futsal (indoor soccer) for the San Jose Legends Futsal Club. His futsal club won the USA Futsal National Championship in North Carolina in July, earning it the right to represent the United States in Barcelona. In addition to participating in the tournament, Chahal enjoyed touring the soccer stadiums of the world famous Real Madrid FC (Estadio Santiago Bernabeu) and FC Barcelona (Camp Nou). He also spent a night at the Ciudad del Futbol (Soccer City), a sports complex build for the Royal Spanish Football Federation, where the Spanish national soccer team stays and practices prior to international tournaments. Submitted by Harker parent Karen Singh
Twin boys Drake and Dominick Piscione, grade 3, have been acting and modeling since they were 5 years old. Most recently, they were thrilled to share the spotlight with a select group of children featured in a “MythBusters” spinoff television show, which just aired on the Discovery Channel. Co-hosted by MythBusters stars Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, the one-hour special was called “Dangerous Toys.” In the show, Hyneman and Savage mined the children’s imaginations for ideas on how to build such kid-inspired “toys” as a 25-foot couch fort and explosive robot armies. In other news, Drake recently filmed a pilot for the A&E network for a show called “Restless Souls,” which will air in the spring.
Nathan Liu, grade 2, made a number of very important chess wins at the recent CalChess State Grade Level Championship, held in mid-January at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Burlinghame. Among his awards was an individual trophy for “super performance.” He also joined the Bay Area Chess team and won second place for a team trophy. Liu learned how to play chess in an after-school club at Harker just last year and fell in love with it.
In other chess news, Shafieen Ibrahim, grade 7, recently tied for fifth place in the Golden Gate Open Chess Tournament held in Concord. The weekend event was sponsored by the Continental Chess Association.
Last week, Harker’s soccer teams were all undefeated! That’s right, the boys varsity, girls varsity and boys junior varsity teams went a combined 6-0!
The girls doubled up Castilleja 6-3 and then beat Crystal Springs for the first time ever by the score of 3-1 to remain undefeated in league with three wins and zero losses. The girls own a 7-1 record overall. Against Castilleja, freshman Joelle Anderson’s hat trick accounted for half of Harker’s goals. Senior Alicia Clark had 15 saves en route to holding Crystal Springs to just one goal, including a clutch save on a penalty kick. Earlier this week, the girls hosted Mercy-Burlingame and tied them 2-2. Today, the girls host Summit Prep in the Kicks Against Cancer Game.
The varsity boys beat both Priory and Crystal Springs last week. They are now in second place in league with a 3-1 record and are 6-2-1 overall. Junior Omar Hamade scored a hat trick to lead Harker to a 4-2 win over Priory, then scored again, along with senior Arun Goyal, junior Jeremiah Anderson and junior Nikhil Kishore, in Harker’s 5-2 victory over Crystal Springs. Today, they host Pinewood in the Kicks Against Cancer Game.
The junior varsity boys beat both Priory and KIPP-San Jose last week, avenging their earlier defeat at the hands of KIPP-San Jose when freshman Parth Pendurkar scored in the final minute of play to break a 0-0 tie and give Harker a dramatic victory.
Over at Blackford, Harker’s middle school soccer teams wrapped up their seasons. The varsity B girls of grades 7 and 8 finished undefeated in league with a 5-0-1 record, winning their league championship! Grade 6’s junior varsity A girls soccer team finished 0-6-1 in league, finishing in eighth, and grade 5’s JV B girls finished 2-4 in league for a second-place finish.
Wrestling
The boys won four matches and dropped only one against the Homestead Mustangs last Thursday, but because they lacked enough wrestlers to fill all weight classes, the contest goes down in the standings as a 27-36 loss. Senior Vincent Lin won at 128 lbs, junior Annirudh Ankola won by pin at 154 lbs, freshman Danny Reidenbach won by pin at 160 lbs, freshman Davis Howard won by pin at heavyweight and senior Ravi Bhandia fought hard in a loss at 138 lbs.
Basketball
Boys basketball beat both Crystal Springs and ECP last week, bumping their record up to 9-5 overall and 2-2 in league. Senior Wei Wei Buchsteiner scored 27 and Will Deng added 14 in the boys’ dominant 71-37 trouncing of Crystal Springs. Earlier this week, they added a victory against King’s Academy. Today, the boys host Menlo.
The girls lost to ICA 44-40, then defeated Crystal Springs 44-28. Senior Nithya Vemireddy led the team, scoring 18 points against Crystal Springs and 20 against ICA. The girls host Castilleja today.
The middle school basketball teams all wrapped up their seasons last week, with impressive results! Five out of eight of Harker’s boys basketball teams won their league championships!
For players in grades 7 and 8, the varsity A boys team finished in third place in league with a 5-2 league record and 6-4 overall record, then finished in fourth place in the VA Gold Division of the WBAL Tournament. The varsity B boys team went undefeated in league with a 9-0 record en route to winning the League Championship! They then went on to finish in fourth place of the VA Gold Division of the WBAL Tournament. The varsity B2 boys also won their League Championship with an undefeated 8-0 record in league and an overall record of 10-1, finishing second in the VB Gold Vision of the WBAL Tournament.
For players in grade 6, the junior varsity A boys finished in fifth place in league with a league record of 4-4 and an overall record of 5-5, finishing in third place in the JVA Silver Division of the WBAL Tournament. The junior varsity B6 boys won a Quad-League Championship with a 7-1 record in league and 8-2 record overall, then finished in second place in the JVB6 Gold Vision of the WBAl Tournament.
Grade 5’s junior varsity B1 boys went undefeated on the year, finishing 6-0 in league and 8-0 overall, winning both a League Championship and a Tournament Championship in the JVB Gold Vision of the WBAl Tournament. The junior varsity B2 boys of grade 5 finished 3-3 in league, good for a fourth place finish. Grade 4’s junior varsity C boys won their league championship with a 5-1 league record and 6-1 overall record.
Congratulations to senior Sreyas Misra, who has been named a finalist in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, one of eight hailing from the Bay Area. Misra’s project, “Design and Characterization of a Novel Single-headed and Hand-held PET Camera Using 511 keV Photon Collimation via Compton Scatter,” earned him a place among just 40 other students from an original pool of nearly 1,800 entrants. These students will participate in the final stage of the Intel STS in Washington, D.C. from March 6-12, where $630,000 in prizes will be awarded, including the $100,000 grand prize.
—
Ten Harker seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2014 Intel Science Talent Search (STS), the second-highest number of semifinalists in the nation and just one short of Harker’s record of 11, set in 2012.
This year’s semifinalists and their projects are: Vikas Bhetanabhotla (“Identification of Satellite Galaxies around Milky Way Galactic Analogs Using Machine Learning Algorithms”), Stephanie Chen (“Globular Clusters as Tracers of Dark Matter in Virgo Cluster Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies”), Christopher Fu (“Molecular Characterization and Rapid Generation of Human Rotavirus VP6-Specific Monoclonal Antibodies”), Anika Gupta (“Novel Drug Delivery Systems Targeting Cancer Stem Cells for Next-Generation Chemotherapy”), Saachi Jain (“MicroRNA-223 Promotes Macrophage Differentiation”), Sreyas Misra (“Design and Characterization of a Novel Single-Headed and Hand-Held PET Camera Using 511 keV Photon Collimation via Compton Scatter”), Preethi Periyakoil (“A Video-Assisted, Time-Lapse Analysis of the Effects of the ELF5 Transcription Factor on the Morphology and Proliferation Kinetics of Breast Cancer Cells”), Rahul Sridhar (“Understanding the Effect of Hinge Mutations on Domain-Swapping in Antiviral Lectin Cyanovirin-N”), Vikram Sundar (“Computational Analysis of Novel Drug Opportunities Using Protein-Protein Docking”) and Albert Zhao (“Oxygen Reduction Activity of Dodecyne-Functionalized AuPd Nanoparticles”).
These 10 students are among 300 nationwide who were selected from nearly 1,800 original entrants from across the country and in overseas schools. Each semifinalist will be awarded $1,000, and in order to bolster education in science, math and engineering, every semifinalist school will receive $1,000 for each student from that school named a semifinalist.
On Jan. 22, 40 of these semifinalists will be chosen to participate in the final stage of the Intel STS in Washington, D.C., where they will share their work with both the public and the scientific community, and compete for a $100,000 grand prize.
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Bands at Harker are nothing new, as we see from this photo, but the orchestra of today is a long way from the drum and bugle corp of yesteryear. In 2012, The Harker School Orchestra was in London by government invitation to perform for London’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
In April 2014, The Harker School Orchestra will travel to Chicago to perform at the Chicago International Music Festival. “We auditioned for this festival last spring and were thrilled to be accepted,” said Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and the group’s director. The orchestra is working with composer Jeremy Van Buskirk of the Boston Composers’ Coalition on a new composition to be premiered by Harker students.
“My interaction with Jeremy was a lot of fun,” said Florio. He was very curious about Harker (and) opened our meeting by telling me how impressed he was with our orchestra and how excited he was to work with them. On describing his upcoming work for us, he said, ‘It would not be [Pierre] Boulez, but it would not be [Aaron] Copland either; it will most likely be somewhere in between.’ What a wonderful experience for our orchestra to be involved in the creative process of a large new work from beginning to premiere!”
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Three new e-Book services provided by Harker’s libraries mean avid readers can access books 24/7/365, and they can choose what format to read them in – an attractive facet for younger readers. BrainHive, FollettShelf and OverDrive enable students and teachers at the lower, middle and upper schools, respectively, to instantly access popular titles for pleasure reading. Each service was selected to suit campus needs and works with a number of devices, including iPad, Kindle, Nook, smart phone, tablet and the everyday laptop.
The upper school library led the way when it launched OverDrive at the close of the 2013 school year. Using an interface designed by OverDrive specifically for Harker, students and teachers can browse an electronic library of more than 300 titles ready for download; more titles are being added as use of the service ramps up. “We originally planned to roll out Over- Drive in August, but were so excited once the initial collection was created in the finals days of the school year, we thought, ‘Why wait?’ Before we knew it, 25 percent of the collection was checked out!” said Meredith Cranston,upper school librarian.
“Three hundred titles may not seem like a big number,” noted Sue Smith, library director, “but for a pleasure reading collection – which has to be fresh – it’s pretty good.”
Teachers, too, took advantage of the new service. “It was easy to download the books,” said upper school history teacher Carol Zink. “I appreciate the variety and portability afforded by OverDrive. I downloaded and read three books over the summer and really enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to pack so many books in my suitcase.”
With the successful launch of e-books for pleasure reading underway with older students, Bernie Morrissey, middle school campus librarian, brought FollettShelf online in time for the weeklong October trips.
“FollettShelf seemed the perfect choice for the middle school because it fully integrates with our catalog and check-out is a breeze!” said Smith. “Our students can easily read titles on their laptops, a device we know everyone has!” Readers have taken quickly to the enhanced access.
Like the upper school, a high percentage of the initial collection flew off the virtual shelves. “My newest Follett e-books appeared at 6:03 this morning,” said Morrissey in November,” and by 7:30 some of them were already checked out!” The middle school currently has 171 titles available and is adding more monthly.
Sonya Verma, grade 7, is thrilled with the new service. “I have always loved books, and I always take them with me wherever I go. Now there’s a great selection of e-books that I can keep on my phone! All of the forgetfulness associated with remembering to bring the book is gone!” she said.
In early December, the lower school library rolled out their app for teachers, prior to a campuswide release. The service is compatible with the Chromebooks lower school students are using, as well as iPads, which are used in K-2 classrooms.
“BrainHive covers both fiction as well as nonfiction books for a variety of ages,” said Kathy Clark, lower school campus librarian. “Teachers will be able to place their students into virtual book clubs and they will be able to read the books, take notes and share recommendations.” BrainHive has a library of about 3,400 titles, which are all available to Harker students.
Harker’s stacks won’t disappear into the cloud anytime soon, however. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, folks who read e-books read more in general (both print and electronic books).
While some avid readers enjoy the convenience and mobility of e-books, others are reluctant to give up the printed word. Harker readers are no different.
“Having a physical copy of a book contributes to the complete experience of reading; as a result, I personally prefer reading printed books,” said Zina Jawadi, grade 12.
“E-books are great, but I don’t think that they should completely replace the printed word,” agreed Karen Tu, grade 10. “For some reason, reading from a physically tangible book somehow makes reading more relaxing than reading from something electronic.”
Harker librarians are committed to offering both e-books and print books so students can enjoy both experiences.
Tu was an early convert. “The best thing about having a book on a mobile device is that I can access it from wherever I want. Whether I’m reading from my phone or my laptop, I don’t really have to worry about leaving a book
somewhere or forgetting it at home.”