This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
At the core of Silicon Valley startups is the idea of rapid expansion. This rapid-growth philosophy has been taken to heart by Harker’s new business and entrepreneurship department. The department is already flourishing with business classes, a podcast series, stewardship of Harker’s TedX program and its thriving DECA chapter.
Harker’s chapter is one of 3,500 DECA organizations that educate young leaders and entrepreneurs on marketing, finance, hospitality and management. (Formerly Distributive Education Clubs of America, the organization adopted the acronym as its full name when it became an international body.)
November is DECA month; chapters around the world are promoting the club and preparing its members for competition season. Harker’s DECA chapter is no exception, with students kicking off the school year at a fever pitch. One of their primary goals is maximizing the chapter’s visibility on campus. The chapter has gone from six members in 2009 to125 in 2012 and is looking to continue that impressive growth streak. Chapter vice president Ariana Shulman, grade 12, says, “I am looking forward to seeing the underclassmen get excited and involved in the DECA chapter this year.”
To publicize the chapter, DECA has organized numerous events, the first of which was an ice cream social to kick off DECA month. On Nov. 1, students flocked to the event to enjoy sundaes and learn about the chapter. Shannon Hong, grade 10, public relations officer for freshmen and juniors, said, “It was a great way to let over 200 students have fun while getting to know DECA.”
The chapter is using more than just frozen treats to inform the community about its activities. DECA participated in Harker’s student club fair, showcasing its events and highlighting what the students would learn over the course of the school year. The chapter even put on its own competitive events fair to discuss its upcoming competitions and events.
DECA is making sure to keep parents informed about what their students are up to through frequent press releases and events, including a Nov. 9 DECA parents night. More than 150 parents attended the event in the Nichols Hall atrium, where they learned about the chapter’s upcoming competitive schedule. Club president Monica Thukral, grade 12, said the parents visited event-specific booths to learn “how they could be involved as parents and what their students would be doing at each event.”
DECA also is participating in The Stock Market Game, a nationwide stock market competition. The SMG gives teams a virtual $100,000 to invest and measures their returns in real time. More than 130 Harker students and faculty are participating, which has led to a good-natured competition between the student and faculty participants. At press time, two student groups were ranked third and sixth in the Western region, out of approximately 1,200 teams; they are ninth and 17th nationally. The top 25 teams in the region will present their investment strategies to fellow attendees at a conference in May.
To further enhance learning, three investment speakers will visit Harker during the semester to discuss their stock market strategies and successes. On Oct. 30 Rajeev Seth kicked off the series by sharing his strategies for navigating the stock market. Seth is a leader in financial services who has worked with asset managers and hedge funds, and recently served as senior vice president at Bank of America.
Contributing to the community is a key part of DECA’s charter and, in that spirit, the chapter already has launched two efforts this year. On Nov. 6 DECA worked with the Red Cross Club to assemble 100 emergency preparedness kits during a lunch period. The kits, containing toothbrushes, hand sanitizer and other emergency essentials, were donated to those in need.
The DECA chapter also has partnered with the student council to help recycle Capri Sun containers at the end of every lunch period. Large banners on the wall of the Edge implore students not to throw the estimated 400 containers a day in the garbage, but instead recycle them to help promote a green Harker campus.
Meanwhile, the business and entrepreneurship department (BE), which is in its infancy, has hit the ground running. Juston Glass, the department’s advisor, says the goal for the program is “to connect the students with the outside business world” and eventually “be the most comprehensive business program at the high school level.”
One of the ways the program is connecting its students with the real business world is through its podcast series. Over the course of the school year, local business leaders will be interviewed and share their knowledge with the burgeoning entrepreneurs in the program. The first guest, Satish Dharmaraj, is a partner at Redpoint Ventures and was the CEO and cofounder of Zimbra. The program’s host, Glenn Reddy, grade 11, said, “It’s been great that I’ve been able to connect at a more personal level with these entrepreneurs and the podcast will give … watchers a lot of great information.”
The BE classes also are giving students practical experience on how to run a business through the Finish Line Challenge, put on by the athletic apparel retailer. During the Finish Line Challenge, future business leaders tackle real business problems. Students are asked to help design a more interactive, and ultimately more profitable, customer experience in Finish Line stores by using market research to evaluate and give suggestions to improve the retailer’s omnichannel strategy. To give real-world perspective on their solutions, Glass arranged for two guest speakers: a store manager with five years of firsthand experience and the Northern California district manager.
The store manager provided the students with insight into how new employees are trained to engage customers and gave them an inside look into store operations. After the session, the classes broke into groups and pitched their improvement ideas to the manager. The winning groups from each period were guaranteed interviews for a seasonal job at Finish Line. Ones of the winners, Scott Song, grade 9, said, “The best part of the Finish Line visit was learning the ins and outs as a manager of a store.”
Neither the DECA chapter nor the BE program show any signs of slowing down, with further investment discussions in late November and early December and more podcasts being recorded. DECA president Thukral was particularly excited for the Harker DECA fundraising outing to the premiere of the second “Hunger Games” movie on Nov. 22, calling it “an event for the whole school and a bonding event for DECA.” The Harker community can look forward to a packed calendar full of informative and entertaining events – and hopefully more ice cream.
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly
By Melinda Gonzales
As winter gets underway the buzz begins on all campuses about Harker’s annual fundraising gala. Excitement is building for a spectacular Night on the Town, where parents will enjoy a fabulous show, dinner, dancing, casino games, an auction and the chance to socialize with friends.
“We’re looking forward to creating an elegant evening for parents,” noted Danae McLaughlin, director of special events. “Not only will Night on the Town give parents a fun evening out, it will also help raise money for the students.” Proceeds go to provide financial assistance to students who would otherwise not be able to benefit from a Harker education, and to fund the construction of a new gym and performing arts center on the Saratoga campus. As a renowned K through Life institution, Harker’s students and programs rely on the support of parents, faculty, staff and friends to continue their outstanding contribution to the communities of Silicon Valley and beyond. Many opportunities are available for sponsoring and/or underwriting a portion of the upcoming gala.
Of course, such a grand event could not be organized without the work of parent chair Tina Najibi (Alex ‘12; Mary, grade 10) and the entire gala committee. Additional volunteer needs will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information about the show, please visit our website at www.harker. org/gala. Reservations will open in January.
Please consider joining our list of generous sponsors in making this event a success! We have several different packages, which offer varying tiers of sponsor benefits such as tickets to the show and recognition at the event and on related promotional materials. And new this year is the enhanced Harker Business Directory. For a small subscription fee, friends of Harker can be listed in the directory for one year,from January to January.
Big news on all campuses in the world of sports today!
First off, lower school:
Our grade 5 JVB1 boys basketball team took the championship last night in what turned out to be a tight game. The boys led most of the game, but Pinewood closed the gap to three points near the finish. Harker pulled it out, though, winning 31-28. The team finished 8-0. Congrats to coach Walid Fahmy and players McCoy Buchsteiner, Brandon Coulter, Nicholas Coulter, Gowtham Irrinki, Michael Mitchell, Jr., James Pflaging, Srinath Somasundaram, Levi Sutton, Dario Tzeng and Eric Zhu.
Middle school:
The grade 6 JVB6 boys basketball team lost in the championship game last night to Sacred Heart after enjoying a fantastic season. The team finished as tri-league champs based on their regular season record of 7-1. The team finished with an overall record of 8-2.
Grade 6 JVA boys basketball team defeated Pinewood, 37-16, to finish the season as third place tournament champs. The team finished with an overall record of 5-5.
In the upper school, two cross country runners were honored by the San Jose Mercury News yesterday: freshman Niki Iyer made first team All-Mercury News for cross country and junior Corey Gonzales made All-Mercury News honorable mention for boys. This is one of the highest honors for high school athletes in CCS. Congratulations to both runners!
Fall 2013 has been a very successful semester for Harker debaters at both the upper and middle schools, as evidenced by strong performances at the many events students have attended since the start of the school year.
Upper School
Public Forum debate has been a strong event for Harker this fall. At the Grapevine Classic in Texas in mid-September, Vamsi Gadiraju and Nikhil Kishore, both grade 11, reached the Elite 8 after being undefeated in the preliminaries. Kishore finished as the fourth overall speaker. Juniors Andrew Jin and David Lin were undefeated at a National Forensic League tournament at Leland High School on Oct. 19, earning them a spot in the state qualifier. Then Milpitas High School hosted a league tournament Nov. 9-10, in which both Gadiraju and Neil Khemani, grade 12, were undefeated and secured spots in the state qualifier.
Meanwhile, juniors Aadyot Bhatnagar and Avid Wadhwa won the Minneapple Debate Tournament at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota Nov. 1-2, with Jin and Lin reaching the semifinals. Sorjo Banerjee and Mohnish Shah, both grade 10, reached the Elite 8, while Kishore and Gadiraju made it to the top 32. Bhatnagar and Lin were named the third- and fourth-place speakers, respectively.
Harker also had several strong performances in Policy Debate, with juniors Ayush Midha and Arya Kaul reaching the octofinals at a mid-September tournament at Wake Forest University. They were also finalists at the USC Round Robin, winning all 14 possible ballots in the preliminary stage, and Kaul was named the top speaker. Panny Shan, grade 10, and Rahul Shukla, grade 9, were double octofinalists along with the team of Midha and Kaul at the Notre Dame/Harvard Westlake tournament at Notre Dame High School and Harvard-Westlake Upper School in early November. Midha was named the ninth-place speaker.
In Congressional Debate, Alex Lam, grade 9, placed third and was recognized as the top grade 9 student at the Crestian Tradition tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in early October. Saachi Jain, grade 12, placed fourth, with grade 9 students Aditya Dhar and Misha Tseitlin reaching the finals. At a league tournament at Presentation High School, Tseitlin placed first in his chamber.
Another strong category for Harker was Lincoln-Douglas, in which seniors Srikar Pyda and Pranav Reddy were quarterfinalists at the Greenhill Fall Classic in Texas in late September. Pyda and Reddy were also double octofinalist and semifinalist, respectively, at a mid-October tournament at Presentation High School. At a tournament at St. Mark’s School in Dallas, Reddy was a finalist and also was named the top speaker in a field of 120 debaters. Karen Qi, grade 10, was a double octofinalist at the late-October Meadows Invitational in Las Vegas and an octofinalist at the Harvard-Westlake tournament in early November.
Notable achievements for individual events included junior Rohith Kuditipudi’s fifth-place finish in Extemporaneous Speaking at Crestian (after scoring perfectly in the preliminaries) and Divya Rajasekharan, grade 9, taking fifth in Dramatic Interpretation at tournaments at the University of the Pacific in late October and at Milpitas High School in early November.
Middle School
At a late-September tournament at California State University, Long Beach, seventh grader Nikhil Dharmaraj reached the Open Oratory semifinals.
The following month, middle school debaters participated in the very first tournament held by the Bay Area Middle School Speech & Debate Association on Oct. 5. In Lincoln-Douglas, grade 8 students Sagar Rao and Liza Turchinsky both finished with records of 3-1, while Serena Lu, grade 8, went undefeated. Public Forum saw five teams finish 3-1: Eileen Li and Sejal Krishnan, grade 6; Michael Tang and Kenneth Liou, both grade 6; Naveen Mirapuri and Andrew Cheplyansky, both grade 6; Avi Gulati and Madison Huynh, grade 6; and eighth graders Kevin Xu and Derek Kuo. Tiffany Wong and Anjay Saklecha, both grade 7, placed first and second in Speech, respectively.
Just before Thanksgiving, debaters headed to a tournament at Santa Clara University, where Millie Lin and Aliesa Bahri, both grade 8, reached the elimination rounds in Policy Debate. Gulati placed second in Novice Dramatic Interpretation in his first tournament for this event. Wong placed well in Varsity Humorous Interpretation, coming in at seventh in an event filled with students in grades 11 and 12. Seventh grader Kelly Shen, meanwhile, placed fourth in Novice Humorous Interpretation, and Akshay Ravoor, grade 7 and Saklecha took fifth in Novice Duo Interpretation.
Aside from competition, middle school debate also has been working hard on community efforts. Each month, a busload of middle school forensics students visits the upper school to work with upper school students in preparation for upcoming tournaments. Sessions have included practice debates, case edits and script work, with upper school coaches and students staying late into the afternoon to help the middle school debaters. In addition, upper school students have been going to the middle school campus after school hour to attend speech and debate practices.
In early December, an intramural middle school debate tournament was held in which more than 60 students participated in a total of 37 practice debates and 42 speeches, with more than 40 Harker parents and upper school students volunteering as judges.
Faculty from other departments also have joined the cause, with middle school history teachers Jonathan Brusco, Cyrus Merrill and Andrew Keller giving talks at lunch time on topics such as the National Security Agency and compulsory voting. Middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey also has created research guides for debate topics. English teacher and debate coach Marjorie Hazeltine spends two days a week during lunch and after school working with speech students to prepare for tournaments. Harker parents are also involved, volunteering to help with event logistics, acting as chaperones and participating as judges at many tournaments.
Freshman Niki Iyer became the highest-placing Harker runner ever this weekend, finishing seventh out of 207 runners in the state cross country championships in Fresno! She earned a medal by running the 5K course in 18:33. Her fantastic finish is the triumphant conclusion to a phenomenal rookie season, one that saw Iyer progressing from junior varsity to varsity, winning races and breaking records, capturing the adoration of the San Jose Mercury News, and now, finally, racking up a Harker history-making finish at state.
In the race, Iyer started fast, finished her first mile in 5:28 in fourth place, and passed the second mile in fifth place en route to her seventh-place finish. She became the first Eagle runner ever on the state meet podium, winning her medal for her first team all-state status.
Harker’s CCS Champion Corey Gonzales, grade 11, also competed in the state championships, finishing in the top half of the 200-runner field. Congratulations to both athletes on a spectacular, record-breaking season.
Volleyball
Before Thanksgiving break, the girls varsity volleyball team’s playoff run ended when it was defeated by third-ranked Menlo. Harker nearly pushed Menlo to a fifth game, finally falling 21-25, 25-23, 14-25, 22-25 in the CCS semifinal contest.
“I was most proud of the competitive fire that our girls showed to make it a match!” said Theresa “Smitty” Smith, the team’s head coach, after the tough loss. “It’s always hard to see the season end, and it’s even harder to watch our seniors play their last high school match. However, on the positive side, we reload for next year as the majority of our team will return for yet another run at a CCS championship!”
Coming Up
On Thursday, the boys basketball teams are back in action. The freshmen play Woodside at 3 p.m., while the junior varsity and varsity teams play Monta Vista, with junior varsity tipping off first at 6 p.m. followed by varsity at 7:30 p.m.
Girls basketball also heads off to the Pescadero Tournament on Thursday, where they’ll play on Friday and Saturday as well.
When the “Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World” hit the bookshelves earlier this year, The Harker School was honored to be included in a chapter about the competitive advantage of being raised in the area.
Written by locally based entrepreneur and author Deborah Perry Piscione, the now national bestseller (published on April 2 by Palgrave-Macmillan) offers an inside look at Silicon Valley’s history and uniquely innovative culture, exploring how the region may hold the key to revitalizing global prosperity.
Harker is profiled in the book, along with the some of the area’s leading companies, tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The school’s section appears in chapter 12, which is titled “The Bench,” and includes quotes from interviews with both Jennifer Gargano, Harker’s assistant head of school for academic affairs, and Anita Chetty, an upper school biology teacher and science department chair.
In her book, Perry Piscione noted that Harker was labeled as “The It School for the Next Einsteins” by the San Jose Mercury News,partly based on the number of science winners the school can claim. Indeed, Harker consistently produces semifinalists and finalists in the Siemens Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition.
Gargano and Chetty attributed the “special sauce” behind Harker’s success to its student body, who they called uniquely motivated to learn and help improve the world. Harker News Online recently caught up with Perry Piscione at Litquake, a local literary event featuring more than 40 popular and upcoming authors. Piscione had just returned from a European book tour and was one of several Litquake speakers asked to appear at special “In Conversation” salons for in-depth discussions during the event, held at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto. The other two noted authors included Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, and Jane Smiley.
During her talk, she explained that in Silicon Valley there is not “one way” of doing things. “Overseas and on the East Coast there is a hunger for knowledge about this place,” said Perry Piscione, who, even before writing her book, was known for her work as a media commentator and public speaker. Perry Piscione is also the co-founder and CEO of Desha Productions, Inc., a multimedia company that owns and operates Alley to the Valley (a networking site for influential career women) and BettyConfidential (an online women’s magazine). Additionally, she is co-founder of Chump Genius, an educational gaming company for kids, whose two main characters are modeled after her twin sons. Moreover, she is the co-author of the book “Unfinished Business: The 10 Most Important Issues Women Face Today.” Before moving to Silicon Valley, Perry Piscione called Washington, D.C. – where she served as a staffer in the U.S. Congress and the White House – home.
While there, she also worked as a media commentator for CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, and as a guest lecturer at American University. The East Coast transplant said she relocated to the Los Altos Hills for a job opportunity her husband, Dino, had as a retail executive.
She conceded that at first she felt somewhat lost upon her arrival here, yet soon settled in and discovered that “there’s something in the air” that brings people in Silicon Valley together. “It matters only if you are smart; it’s not about where you came from. It’s like Oz out here; there is an openness and collaborative feeling,” she explained. Still, she conceded, Silicon Valley is not a perfect place: women are still not found in as strong positions as men, and there is also a dearth of African-American and Hispanic individuals. Meanwhile, elderly people living in the high tech area often feel alienated, and that they have nothing to contribute.
“We have a long way to go,” she said, “but there are organizations working to help change the conversation.” Jane Ganahl, Litquake co-founder, said of choosing Perry Piscione to talk at the literary event: “I was looking for someone with a newish book who could speak to both the present and past of Silicon Valley, and Deborah seemed perfect for that. Her book was a big bestseller, and she is highly thought of in the nonfiction world.” Among the audience applauding Perry Piscione following her discussion were her husband and three children, twin boys Drake and Dominick, and daughter Dayne Alexandria.
The children are now all students at Harker, as after researching the school for her book Perry Piscione decided to enroll them at the lower school. The twins attend grade 3 and their sister is in kindergarten. “We’ve heard her talk a lot of times!” enthused Drake, adding that he is really enjoying being a student at Harker. According to Perry Piscione, transitioning her children to Harker was seamless and made easier by “a like-minded parent community, who are engaged in their children’s lives on many levels.” She added that it was spending time at Singularity University, a learning institution located inside the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, that helped fully persuade her to become a part of the Harker community.
“Singularity University brings together the world’s leading scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs, and explores the future of science and technology. As I learned more about where the future lies, particularly as we will see a great shift in a 21st century workforce, I thought about my children and how we were going to best prepare them,” she said.
Perry Piscione said her next book will focus on risk management, the key to innovation. According to her, while America as a country has become more risk adverse, Silicon Valley has not followed suit. “Out here no idea is crazy … Anything is possible … You can dream big and find someone to back you … Nobody does risk better than Silicon Valley!” she said.
Shafieen Ibrahim, grade 7, finished in first place among players rated “under 1300” at the California Class Warfare Championship chess competition, hosted by Bay Area Chess Nov. 30-Dec. 1. He took home more than $400 for his hard-earned victory.
Six Harker students – Ashley Cook, grade 8; Jacob Fernandez, grade 3; Sofia Fernandez, grade 5; Christopher Hildum, grade 11; Lauren Luspo, grade 8; and Angela Ma, grade 12 – will be performing in the 10th anniversary San Jose Youth Ballet production of “The Nutcracker” at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose on Dec. 7, 8, 14 and 15. The show is produced and choreographed by Cristina McClelland, Maria Lamance, Xavier Ferla (Hamburg Ballet) and Maggie Parungao-Ferla (San Francisco Ballet). Hildum, Luspo and Cook previously performed in Ballet San Jose’s production of “The Nutcracker.” – Submitted by Harker parent Eric Hildum
Just before Thanksgiving break, grade 3 students Rahul Mulpuri, Dominick Piscione and Grant Sims won first place in the Project category at a First Lego League robotics tournament. The team, the youngest in the tournament, was chosen from 24 competing teams.
“Experimental” barely begins to describe The Respect Sextet’s performance in the first concert of this season’s Harker Concert Series. The New York-based group, rendered a quintet due to the unexpected absence of trombonist James Hirschfeld, is happy to wander outside conventional jazz while maintaining a healthy respect for why those conventions exist.
One could be forgiven for wondering where the performance was going the first time drummer Ted Poor abruptly left his kit and walked backstage, cymbal in hand, at which point loud crashing and banging could be heard erupting from the adjacent room. This came at the apex of a piece (an interpretation of Mischa Mengelberg’s “K Rhino”) that included extended, plaintive squeals courtesy of trumpeter Eli Asher, sudden pauses and tempo changes, and saxophonist Josh Rutner whistling along to the melody from Asher’s trumpet.
Then came a selection from “Executive Suite,” the band’s response to the late-2000s financial crisis, which opened with Asher and Rutner trading off – first as a conversation, then as an argument – ramping up the chaos before the rest of the band swooped in. In these situations, each member of the band seems to be on his own wavelength, until suddenly they converge. An exhilarating sense of contingency courses through every dissonant piano flourish from Red Wierenga, every tap of the tiny cymbals hanging from Asher’s music stand, every series of methodically atonal fits and starts, every thud from Malcom Kirby’s bass.
Somehow it wasn’t surprising that Respect decided to end its first set with “Danny Boy.” Take a room full of people to inner space for 45 minutes, and it seems only reasonable to bring them back to earth before breaking for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
“It’s phenomenal,” said concertgoer Steve Lassman, “just better than anything I could have expected.” Also unexpected was the generous helping of food available for the attendees. “The food was a total surprise; we didn’t know anything about it. So that was a definite plus.”
Karen Lassman said the band was “wonderful. This group is amazing. From the get go, [I] didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it would be a little more traditional, and it’s not, which is great.”
Attendee Jim Cleveland enjoyed Respect’s take on “outside jazz,” particularly Poor’s drumming, which he said was “very reminiscent of outside jazz. And then the melodies, just beautiful.”
The band returned from the intermission with “Paper Root,” perhaps its wildest departure of the night, with Poor rummaging through a stack of papers, stylistic turns and sure, why not, a mid-song break to talk about how it’s really not all that rainy in Seattle.
In a nod to a legendary jazz figure who could very well be one of their muses, the group next performed Sun Ra’s “Angels and Demons at Play,” working splendidly with the song’s 5/4 time signature as Kirby and Rutner showcased deft interplay.
Not ones to let an opportunity for a humorous moment slip by, Respect also launched into a barbershop quintet number about the inherent irony of billing themselves as a sextet while only boasting five members for the evening.
The band ended the show on a fun note, by displaying its mastery and respect for the craft in a blistering version of Fred Anderson’s “Three on Two,” letting the appreciative audience know they hadn’t forgotten about the ones who made it possible for them to explore the periphery in the first place.
The College Board recently announced that The Harker School earned the distinction this year of having the largest number of perfect scores of any school in the world. Harker had 10 students who earned perfect scores on their AP exams in spring 2013, but they earned a total of 11 perfect scores, as one student had perfect scores on two tests.
That is more than 10 percent of the total worldwide. “This is a tribute to the dedicated teachers and hardworking students at The Harker School,” said Deborah Davis, director of college readiness communications at The College Board. Samuel Lepler was the AP Economics teacher, last year, who guided these students through their studies.
The following students received perfect scores on the AP Microeconomics exam in 2013: Jennifer Dai, Kevin Duraiswamy Angela Ma, Vikram Naidu, Anisha Padwekar, Rahul Sridhar, Brandon Yang, all now seniors; Aaron Huang, Savi Joshi, now juniors; and Ashvin Swaminathan, who graduated in 2013.
Swaminathan received perfect scores on both the AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics exams, the only student in the world to do so; it also makes him one of only four students in the world to earn a perfect score on two AP exams in 2013.
“We started our ‘Perfect Scorer’ campaign last fall,” said Davis, “with the students who earned perfect scores on AP exams in 2012 – with letters to each student (and) their high school principals.”
This year, a total of 109 students worldwide earned a perfect score on an AP exam in 2013. Here is the worldwide breakdown by subject: Calculus AB – 8; Calculus BC – 11; Chemistry –1; Computer Science A – 19; Microeconomics – 33; Macroeconomics – 12; Physics C: Mechanics – 15; Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism – 8; Psychology – 2; Statistics– 2; United States Government and Politics – 2.
In early November, four teachers came together to form the Harker Eggheads, our entry in the sixth annual Silicon Valley Trivia Challenge, hosted by the Junior League. For the sixth year in a row, Harker blazed through the first two rounds and made it to the finals, one of 10 teams out of the original 40 to make it that far. Though we didn’t win (quick: name every type of Girl Scout cookie!) a great time was had by all and, as always, we were proud to support the San Jose/Silicon Valley Junior League and its fine works. This year’s Eggheads, teachers Lisa Masoni, Henry Cuningham, Andy Wicklund and Ellen Austin, represented Harker beautifully!