This story originally appeared in the fall 2013 Harker Quarterly.
About 160 new-to-Harker parents received a warm welcome upon attending an evening reception held in their honor at the Silver Creek Valley Country Club in San Jose.
Held in June, the annual event that welcomes new parents to Harker was graciously hosted by board member Sally Anderson. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, opened the reception. Then, while socializing over appetizers and beverages, attendees visited with current parent “ambassadors” from various grades who were on hand to answer questions.
The group viewed a variety of video clips highlighting Harker’s strong academic, performing arts and athletic programs. Capping off the event was Casey Near ’06, who spoke about her many memorable experiences at Harker and how they have helped shape her as a person.
“At the end of the evening, guests had connected with one another and were very excited to become a part of the Harker community,” observed Rosenthal.
This story originally appeared in the fall 2013 Harker Quarterly.
With more than 100 members, Harker’s Parent Development Council (PDC) is a dedicated group of parent volunteers who work on behalf of the students to raise this year’s goal of $1.6 million to fund student programs such as field trips, the arts, athletics, library, technology and much more.
Near the start of every school year, these parents reach out to the rest of the parent body to secure annual giving gifts and pledges. “PDC members are committed to the success of our students and the school community,” said Melinda Gonzales, Harker’s managing director of advancement.
New PDC members are nominated either by current members or Harker faculty and staff. Nominations are reviewed by the school administration, and invitations to join are issued in May of each year for the following school year.
“We would like to extend our sincere gratitude for all that these important parent volunteers do for the students,” said Gonzales, noting that a complete list of PDC members is accessible via the Harker website at http://www.harker.org/page.cfm?p=173.
Spectators arrived in droves to the upper school campus’ Davis Field for this year’s Homecoming, attended by families – both new and returning — from all of Harker’s four campuses.
Even though it occurred at a much earlier date than usual, and with slightly warmer weather, the event still retained the atmosphere that has made it a favorite with the Harker community. Prior to the game, early arrivals enjoyed food prepared by Harker parents at the parking lot tailgate area and by Harker’s kitchen staff, who served various dishes from the Mrs. Carley’s Café trailer, now a beloved tradition of every Homecoming. Grade 9 students sold pizza, sodas and candy to raise funds for various projects and spirit activities.
Younger attendees, meanwhile, had a blast at Rosenthal Field, where several bounce houses were set up so they could jump to their heart’s content. Others played schoolyard games and tossed Frisbees and footballs back and forth.
Back at Davis Field, onlookers enjoyed watching the first of two tug-of-war contests, with grade 10 defeating the Class of 2017. Spectators then watched performances by the lower school’s junior cheer squad and the upper school’s varsity dancers. Harker’s upper school jazz band, led by Chris Florio, also performed throughout the evening from their perch overlooking the field from the bleachers.
As the contest between Harker and Mount Pleasant drew nearer, the crowd enjoyed one of Homecoming’s most anticipated traditions, the Eaglets’ “Fly Through,” with lower school students adorned in eagle costumes performing a dance routine to the familiar strains of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle.”
Shortly after the Harker Eagles burst through the Gauntlet of Spirit, flanked by members of Harker’s various cheer teams, singers from the lower, middle and upper school campuses gathered mid-field for a rousing version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by Jennifer Sandusky.
As the Eagles faced off against Mount Pleasant, the festivities continued both on the field and in the tailgate area. While the boosters in the stands cheered on their Eagles, Harker alumni in attendance met and reminisced in the special alumni area and parents socialized, while students relished the opportunity to spend more time with their friends.
“I like how there’s a lot of spirit and happiness,” said Angele Yang, grade 6. “It’s really fun and you can meet all of your friends, and it’s really fun to watch the game.”
Come halftime, the upper school cheer squad took to the field to entertain the crowd, and the Class of 2014 bested the juniors in the final tug-of-war contest of the year.
Upper school math teacher Victor Adler, dean of the class of 2014, then introduced this year’s Homecoming Court, who circled the field before the announcement of Adithram Rengaramchandran, grade 12, and Renu Singh, grade 11, as this year’s Homecoming King and Queen.
Although Harker lost the game 52-26 to Mount Pleasant, those in attendance still enjoyed the time spent bonding with other members of the community. “A lot of fun things go on. A lot of kids are having fun, so it’s a great event,” said parent Kim Hailey (Chris, grade 9). “A lot of great people and parents are at the school, and it’s good for them to get together.”
When asked to give the special gift of time during a series of recent back-to-school events, Harker parents across all school campuses generously responded by signing up in the hundreds to serve as volunteers.
Thanks to a vast network of talented and enthusiastic parent volunteers, last year more than 1,100 hard-working volunteers set new records by collectively giving well over 4,800 hours of service on behalf of students, faculty and staff. This year, parents seem poised to repeat or even best that record.
At the lower school alone more than 300 sign-ups were collected electronically via iPads on hand at a special breakfast for parents, and about a hundred more flowed in after the event. Some parents chose to use QR codes (printed on sheets of paper and available at the breakfast) which they downloaded using their smart phones.
“We also had sign-ups available at the middle school breakfast, and an upper school welcome barbecue evening event. The upper school parent event coincided with the student social First Friday which had a great turnout as well,” reported Jennifer Hargreaves, director of middle and upper school volunteer programs.
According to her, parents could socialize, sign up and browse the range of volunteer opportunities. “We’ve had over 600 volunteer slots across the middle and upper school signed up for and counting …. We get people signing up every day!” she said.
This year Harker’s volunteer department went paperless with its successful launch of a convenient, new, user friendly, schoolwide online sign-up system called I-volunteer. I-volunteer was introduced across all divisions during the well-attended back-to-school functions. For parents of all campuses, a listing of volunteer opportunities is available on the parent community page of the portal with instructions for signing up.
“Parents were very receptive to both volunteering and the new online sign-up system,” said Tere Aceves, director of the preschool and lower school’s volunteer programs. She had been working on creating the I-volunteer system for the past several years and said she is hoping to soon bring it to the now open Harker Preschool.
Yet, putting technology aside, all of the back-to-school events served as an important opportunity for parents to become better acquainted with the school’s vibrant community by bonding with fellow parents. Present at all events were current parent volunteers and advancement office personnel to welcome newcomers and answer any and all questions about volunteering.
As the long lazy days of summer drew to a close, Harker sponsored several separately held welcome-back-to-school barbecues at the lower, middle and upper schools. It was all part of a schoolwide effort to help students and their families more successfully transition into a new year.
Harker’s Bucknall campus set the scene for two different back-to-school barbecues – one for kindergartners and another for grades 1-5.
In late August kindergartners and their families gathered at the lower school to socialize and enjoy delicious food, which was generously donated in part by Brown Chicken Brown Cow, a new restaurant recently opened in Campbell by Harker alumnus Chris Yamashita ’90.
Following the kindergarten barbecue, the rest of the lower school held their own larger, combined event in early September. “Over 600 people attended …. The energy was great, the food was delicious and company fantastic,” enthused Tere Aceves, volunteer director at the lower school. “What a great beginning of the year!”
At both happenings, parents took the opportunity to relax and catch their breath during the hectic back-to-school time, casually chatting with one another, as well as with faculty and staff, while their children took to the play yards.
Meanwhile, the middle school hosted their second annual barbecue on the Blackford campus in mid-September, with more than 400 attendees. Parents went the extra mile, pitching in by cooking and creating fun activities for the students, including volleyball, tug of war and making candy sushi.
“The relaxed event was a great way for new families to meet current Harker families and to bring the community together,” recalled Jennifer Hargreaves, Harker’s director of middle and upper school volunteer programs.
Hargreaves further noted that there was also an upper school welcome barbecue evening event for parents (replacing last year’s breakfast for parents) which coincided with the student social First Friday. Both events had a large turnout, with the added bonus of bringing upper school students and parents to the Saratoga campus simultaneously.
Over the years, Harker’s volunteer-led back-to-school barbecue events at all three campuses have grown in popularity, with attendance increasing steadily.
The global education department kicked off the new school year with a visit from Jin Yanfen, a teacher with a specialty in English as a Second Language from the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai, China.
Jin (who goes by the name Fendy) was the first exchange teacher this school year to visit from WFLMS, Harker’s Chinese sister school. Established in 1996, WFLMS is located in the southwest part of the Xuhui District in Shanghai, an area regarded as an important educational location.
During her recent schoolwide visit, Jin observed and taught classes in both world history and Mandarin at the middle school. She also taught a Mandarin class at the upper school and read a book about Chinese writing to kindergartners at the lower school.
Voicing her support of Harker’s global education program, Jin, who had never been to Harker before, expressed how welcome she had been made to feel upon her arrival at Harker and her belief that “two minds are always better than one.”
She elaborated that when students are able to have an ongoing exchange, they have more options and ways to face problems. “When we talk with each other, both schools develop more quickly.”
Harker’s teacher exchange program is an example of its ongoing effort to build progressive academic and cultural partnerships between institutions around the world, providing meaningful experiences for students at all grade levels and preparing them to be true global citizens.
“We (WFLMS and Harker) have known each other for a long time. Our students enjoy the chance to communicate with an English-speaking friend; we especially want to know about America,” said Jin.
During her time at Harker, Jin was diligent about introducing information about Chinese culture and its traditional festivals, food and Confucianism so that students could more readily understand it. She also informed both Harker teachers and students alike about how China’s educational system operates.
“Our students – at all campuses – really benefit from these exchanges. They always approach me, asking questions about our guests and wanting to find out more about them,” reported Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Synchronized Swimmers Shine Nationally and Overseas
Over the summer, synchronized swimmers Katie Gu, grade 12, Kate Chow, grade 8, and Anna Piskun, also grade 8, who are all members of the Santa Clara Aquamaids synchronized swimming club, traveled to a number of competitions.
Gu finished fourth at the 2013-14 Senior National Team Trials in Riverside, Calif., and later traveled to Puerto Rico with the rest of the U.S. Junior National Team to the Unión Americana de Natación (Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas) Pan-American Games. There, the team won first place.
At the U.S. Age Group Synchronized Swimming Championships in Riverside, Piskun’s team placed second overall in the 13-15 age group. Piskun also placed third in combination routine at the U.S. Open Synchro Swimming Championships in Irving, Texas.
Chow also competed at the Pan-American Games as a member of the 2013-14 national team in the 11-12 age group, and her team ended up placing first. At the U.S. Age Group Championships in Riverside, Chow’s team won first place. Her duet performance won third place, as did her trio.
Eighth Grade Swordswoman is National Champion
Foilist Jerrica Liao, grade 8, is the Youth-12 U.S. champion! She took the gold medal at the U.S. Fencing Summer National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, this July. Liao has finished in the top 16 in the past, but this year, her last in the Y-12 bracket, she earned the ultimate triumph.
Liao lost only one bout in her pool of seven but, out of 158 fencers, that was enough to seed her only 20th. Then the real fights began. Y-12 fencers fence for the best of two out of three five-touch bouts, and Liao, after a bye in the first round, beat her first three opponents in two bouts each. In the round of eight, things got tougher, as she faced the number three seed, winning in three bouts , 5-0, 0-1 and 1-0 (bouts with scores under five points went to time—3 minutes), in what must have been exhausting bouts after an already long day on the piste.
Liao then fenced the number four Y-12 female fencer in the country, who was seeded fifth, crushing her in two bouts 5-3, 5-0, but beating her next opponent to reach the gold medal match was tougher. Liao held her course, however, winning in three bouts 2-5, 5-4, 4-3. The gold medal match was a bit of an anticlimax, with Liao cruising to the championship 5-1, 5-1.
Liao’s finish left her ranked second in the U.S. in Y-12. Though she has now aged out of the Y-12 bracket, she has already made inroads in the Y-14 competitions. In Columbus, she fenced in the Y-14 bracket, where she took 22nd out of 152 fencers and is now ranked 11th in the U.S. in the Y-14 bracket. Liao trains at and fences for California Fencing Academy in San Jose. Congrats!
Student Helps Team to Basketball Tournament Victory
Grade 5 basketball enthusiast Benjamin Soraire and his National Junior Basketball League team, the Saratoga Fire, won the full court tournament on Aug. 25, defeating the South Bay Warriors. The Fire struggled early in the season, but rallied to make an impressive appearance in the playoffs, which culminated in last month’s tournament win.
San Jose Mercury News, August 1, 2013: A short article in the “Around the Valley” section covers the opening of Harker Preschool.
San Jose Mercury News, July 20, 2013: Rising freshman Venkat Sankar is one of five Bay Area students mentioned in a story about the Google Science in Action competition. Sankar is a finalist in the competition.
San Jose Mercury News, July 27, 2013: Rising freshmen Andrew Jin, David Lin, Cindy Liu, Steven Wang, Rachel Wu, Stanley Xie, Leo Yu and Andrew Zhang are recognized for their first-place win at the national Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition.
This story was submitted by Harker math teacher Misael Fisico
The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC)
The 2012-13 school year proved to be a winning one for The Harker School as it continued to do very well in the highly regarded American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), which is run by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), responsible for selecting U.S. representatives for various international competitions, such as the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the China All Girls Mathematical Olympiad and the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad.
AMC is a series of math competitions consisting of the AMC8, AMC10 and the AMC12. Top performing students in these contests are invited to move further to the next stage: the American Invitational Mathematical Examinations (AIME). Finally, students who perform well in the AIME take the proof-based USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO).
Last school year, about 250 upper school and middle school students participated in the first event – the AMC10 and the AMC12. Among these students, 50 exceptional students qualified to AIME, which is very unusual as the average number of AIME qualifiers per school is five students or fewer. Harker’s dominance did not end in the AIME. The average number of participants per school for USAMO and the Junior USA Mathematical Olympiad is only one student. However, Harker students reached another milestone by having five USAMO qualifiers and eight junior USAMO qualifiers. The Harker School is ranked second in the nation for having 13 student qualifiers in this very prestigious mathematics tilt. Students Vikram Sundar, grade 12, and Richard Yi, grade 11, were among the top 24 students in the nation and each were given the Honorable Mention Certificates from the USAMO and USAJMO, respectively. Junior Ashwath Thirumalai’s USAMO score also qualified him to the very selective Olympiad training program, the Math Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP). Thirumalai and Sundar both attended this training at the University of Nebraska in June 2013.
AMC10 and AMC12 were designed for high school students but Harker had two middle school students who took these tests and gave many high school students a healthy competition. Grade 7 (now grade 8) AIME qualifiers were Edgar Lin and Jimmy Lin while grade 8 (now grade 9) AIME qualifiers were Peter Wu, David Zhu, Quentin Delepine and Kai Ang.
In the upper school, grade 9 AIME qualifers were Jonathan Dai, Jessica Zhu, Anika Mohindra, Richard Yi, Michael Zhao, Grace Guan, Esther Wang, Jonathan Ma, Lawrence Li, Allison Wang and Rishabh Chandra, all now grade 10. Grade 10 (now grade 11) AIME qualifers were Steven Wang, Nitya Mani, Leo Yu, Stanley Xie, Ashwath Thirumalai, Andrew Zhang, David Lin, Suzy Lou, Matthew Huang, Cindy Liu, Sachin Peddada, Patrick Lin, Madavan Nair, Menghua Rachel Wu, Andrew Jin, Ayush Midha and Vivek Sriram.
Grade 11 AIME qualifiers were Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Vikram Sundar, Varun Mohan, Rahul Sridhar, Alex Pei, Kevin Zhu, Nihal Uppugunduri, Chris Fu, Albert Zhao, Meena Chetty, Andrew Wang, Pranav Batra, Josh Batra, Allen Chen and Gerry Zhou, all now seniors. Harker’s grade 12 AIME qualifier was Ashvin Swaminathan ’13.
The USAMO Harker qualifiers were Vikram Sundar, grade 12, recent graduate Ashvin Swaminathan, Varun Mohan, grade 12, Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 11 and Rahul Sridhar. The eight USAJMO qualifiers were Richard Yi, grade 10, Peter Wu grade 9, Nitya Mani, grade 11, Patrick Lin, grade 11, David Zhu, grade 9, Suzy Lou, grade 11, Michael Zhao, grade 10 and Cindy Liu. The director of the AMC, Steven Dunbar, personally congratulated teacher Misael Fisico for the exceptional and historical performance of the Harker students this school year.
Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad
One of the most highly respected mathematics Olympiads in the country is the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad (BAMO), which is organized by various mathematicians in the Bay Area. Professors from Stanford University, University of California, San Francisco, University of San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley, are among the active members of this proof-based competition. Harker earned many awards at the BAMO awarding ceremonies, which was held at UC Berkeley on March 10, with David Zhu, grade 9, and Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 11, as the grand winners. A total of 19 Harker students participated in the contest, which was held Feb. 26.
The following awards were given to our students: David Zhu, grand prize winner in BAMO8 category, Ashwath Thirumalai, first place in grade 10 and under category. Honorable mention BAMO12 awards were given to Vikram Sundar, grade 12, Suzy Lou, grade 11, Patrick Lin, grade 11, Nitya Mani, grade 11. Honorable Mention BAMO8 was given to Kai-Siang Ang, grade 9, Peter Wu, grade 9, and Edgar Lin, grade 8.
The Harker middle school placed third in the team competition with members David Zhu, Kai-Siang Ang, and Edgar Lin and the upper school also placed third with members Ashwath Thirumalai, Vikram Sundar and Suzy Lou.
Team participation awards are given to schools with students who are able to prove at least one of the Olympiad problems, and Harker upper school and middle school students placed second with members Lawrence Li, grade 10, Patrick Lin, grade 11, Suzy Lou, grade 11, Nitya Mani, grade 11, Varun Mohan, grade 12, Alex Pei, grade 12, Rahul Sridhar, grade 12, Vikram Sundar, grade 12, Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 11, Nihal Uppugunduri, grade 12, Allison Wang, grade 10, Richard Yi, grade 10, Peter Wu, grade 9, Kai-Siang Ang, grade 8, Edgar Lin, grade 8 and David Zhu, grade 9.
California Mathematics League, Mandelbrot Mathematics Contest
Every school year, the mathematics competitions group in the upper school participates in various competitions sponsored by different mathematics organizations throughout the country. These are usually given in five or six rounds from September to March. Thee contests are used as training materials in preparation for much bigger contests. Two of these contests are the California Mathematics League (CML) and the Mandelbrot Math Contests.
The CML tests were taken by Harker students on Oct. 16, Nov. 13 and Dec. 11, Jan. 15, Feb. 12 and March 12. In each round, students solved six problems. After six rounds, Varun Mohan, grade 12, and Cindy Liu, grade 11, both perfected the contest and were named first place winners, earning Harker its third consecutive first place award.
The annual Mandelbrot competition had five rounds in the competition: Nov. 7, Dec. 5, Jan. 2, Jan. 30 and Feb. 27. Students were given the option of participating in either the national contest or the regional contest.
In the national level competition, the Harker teams made it to the national leaderboard list of the Mandelbrot competitions. The Harker School Team 1’s score of 217 was ranked sixth nationally, while Team 2 had a score of 152 points and was still ranked nationally and is included in leaderboard list.
In the individual events, Harker students Varun Mohan, grade 12, and Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 11, were among the top-performing students with Mohan’s 58 points and Thirumalai’s 54 points.
Alex Pei, grade 12, Rahul Sridhar, grade 12, and Lawrence Li, grade 10, were included in the second tier list of top students.
In the third tier were Vikram Sundar, grade 12, David Lin, grade 11, and Richard Yi, grade 11.
In the Mandelbrot regional contests, California is its own region, known the Redwood Region. In the school standing the two Harker teams were also included in the leaderboard list, with Team 1 ranked fourth with a score of 253 points. The second Harker team had a score 184 points.
In the individual events, Cindy Liu, grade 11, was ranked fourth. Patrick Lin, grade 11, Suzy Lou, grade 11, and Nitya Mani, grade 11, joined Liu in the leaderboard list.
In the second tier list were Andrew Zhang, grade 11, with 44 points and Michael Zhao, grade 10, with 40 points.
The third tier list included Rahul Jayaraman, grade 11, scoring 38 points, Jonathan Ma, grade 10, with 38 points, Vivek Sriram, grade 11, with 34 points and Jessica Zhu, grade 10, scoring 33 points.
National Assessments Contests
Aside from CML and the Mandelbrot math contests, the National Assessment contests were also given in installment form: The Fall Startup Event was the very first contest taken by the Harker Math Club members every year. This was given on Sept. 27, 2012, and it was a fast-paced competition in which individuals have only 30 minutes to solve 100 problems. Harker students received individual awards, helping their team to place second in the nation. Richard Yi, grade 11, placed 1st, Allison Wang (grade 10) was second, and Lawrence Li, grade 10, placed 19th. Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 11, placed eighth, junior Rahul Jayaraman was 10th and juniors Sachin Peddada and Cindy Liu both tied for 21st place and David Lin, grade 11, and Patrick Lin, grade 11, both tied for 23rd place. Vikram Sundar, grade 12, placed fifth and Varun Mohan, grade 12, was 19th.
All members of the Harker Math Group also joined forces from April 10-17 and participated in the Collaborative Problem Solving Contest, also sponsored by the National Assessment Contests. This competition consisted of 15 intricate multipart questions that the entire school club collaborated on for the week. The fun experience got The Harker School a seventh place finish.
Math Prize for Girls Contest/Olympiad
The Mathematics Prize for Girls Contest started in 2009 in New York City, and it has become one of the most sought-after mathematics contests in North America. The first-place winner receives $25,000, the largest monetary math prize in the world. Since its inception, The Harker School girls have been traveling every year either to New York City or to Boston for this very prestigious contest for high school girls. Its goal is “to encourage young women with exceptional potential to become the mathematical and scientific leaders of tomorrow.”
The fourth annual contest was held on Sept. 22, 2012, at MIT, where 263 girls from across the United States and Canada competed for $49,000 in cash prizes. Students who qualified had an AMC 10A score of at least 115.5 points or at least 120 points in the AMC 10B. For students who took the AMC12, girls were invited if they had a score of at least 94.5 points in the AMC12A, or at least 99 points in the AMC 12B. Those scores match the scores needed to qualify for the AIME exam.
Four Harker girls traveled to MIT and participated in this exciting event: honorable mention awardees Cindy Liu, Nitya Mani and Suzy Lou and Lynda Tang ‘13.
After the Math Prize for Girls, the three honorable mention winners were among the top 44 students who were invited to take the 2012 Math Prize Olympiad, which was held Nov. 7, 2012. The Olympiad is a proof-oriented contest, consisting of four problems to be solved in four hours.
The Stanford Mathematics Tournaments, Berkeley Mathematics Tournament and Santa Clara University High School Mathematics Contest
The Harker School participated in interscholastic mathematics competitions as well. The three contests that Harker participated in last school year were the Santa Clara University High School Mathematics Contest on Nov. 12, 2012, the Stanford Mathematics Tournament (SMT) in February and the UC Berkeley Mathematics Tournament (BMT) in late March.
The Santa Clara University contest had nine open-ended problems. The results were released in February and Suzy Lou and Patrick Lin were awarded first place and second place, respectively.
In the SMT, the Harker Omega Team placed sixth overall while placing fifth in the team category. In the individual rounds, Varun Mohan won first place and third awards in the algebra category and advanced topics (precalculus) category, respectively. Nihal Uppugunduri originally tied for second place award in the calculus category and ended up fifth place after tie-breaking questions. During awards ceremony, Uppugunduri’s excitement was so contagious, and he was the picture of a very satisfied student. Albert Zhao, grade 12, also received the seventh place award. In the geometry category, Ashwath Thirumalai and Rahul Sridhar both tied for the eighth place awards.
SMT Harker participants from the Team Alpha were Peter Wu, Albert Zhao, Rahul Jayaraman, Jessica Zhu, Andrew Zhang, Nihal Uppugunduri, David Zhu and Lawrence Li.
Team Omega members were Varun Mohan, Richard Yi, Patrick Lin, Rahul Sridhar, Kevin Zhu, David Lin, Alex Pei and Ashwath Thirumalai.
In the BMT, Harker Team Omega also placed sixth overall. Participants from Harker at the BMT were Patrick Lin, David Lin, Ashwath Thirumalai, Richard Yi, Jessica Zhu, Suzy Lou, Nihal Uppugunduri, Lawrence Li, Allison Wang, Vivek Bharadwaj, Rahul Jayaraman and Kevin Zhu.
Purple Comet Mathematics Meet
The Harker Math Competitions Group also participated in an online mathematics contest last school year, the Purple Comet Mathematics Meet. This international team mathematics competition is designed for middle and high school students, and it was held on April 16. More than 3,000 teams from the United States and 21 other countries participated in this event. Interestingly, the contest was offered in 17 languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Many members of the math club signed up for this event and ended up forming four very strong teams, and each team received an award. The Harker Omega Team received a score of 27 points out of a possible 30 and received the fourth place award. The Harker Sophs Team received 26 points and an honorable mention award. The Harker Frosh Team and the Harker Mixed Team got 24 points and 21 points, respectively and both qualified for honorable mention awards as well.
The T1 Harker Omega Team was composed of Varun Mohan, Ashvin Swaminathan ‘13, Alex Pei, Rahul Sridhar, Nihal Uppugunduri and Vikram Sundar. The T2 Harker Sophs Team was Ashwath Thirumalai, Cindy Liu, Patrick Lin, Suzy Lou, Sachin Peddada and Matthew Huang, grade 11. The T3 Harker Frosh Team was made up of Richard Yi, Allison Wang, Michael Zhao, Lawrence Li, Jessica Zhu, and Grace Guan, grade 10. The T4 Harker Mixed Team was composed of Andrew Zhang, Nitya Mani, Albert Zhao, Jonathan Ma, Vivek Bharadwaj and David Lin.
The CHMMC Caltech Harvey Mudd Math Competition, the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament and The American Regions Mathematics League
In addition to the contests that are officially sponsored by adviser Misael Fisico, members of the Harker Mathematics Competitions Group also participated in other contests outside of the Bay Area. Contestants were eager to join in as many math contests as possible. Thus, they formed alliances with their equally talented math friends from the neighboring schools and they traveled to Southern California and participated in the 2012 Fall CHMMC Caltech Harvey Mudd Math Competition on in November at Harvey Mudd College. Students of the CalTech and Harvey Mudd mathematic clubs sponsored the contest. Teammates Ashwath Thirumalai and Rahul Sridhar received the third honors award while teammates David Lin and Richard Yi received fifth honors award.
These students, together with Nihal Uppugunduri, also traveled to Massachusetts in November for the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament.
Ashwath Thirumalai and Richard Yi were also part of the winning San Francisco Bay Area Team in the recently concluded American Regions Mathematics League (ARML) held at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas in June.
Mexican Mathematical Olympiad
In November, Varun Mohan traveled to Mexico together with the United States team and participated in the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad. He was so proud of his accomplishment since he not only received a silver medal, but was able to express himself verbally and in written form in Spanish. The contest had more than 200 participants and there were many U.S. teams. Mohan’s team had four students from Long Island, Chicago and Virginia. He was just a few points away from the gold medal award and wrote his mathematical proofs in Spanish.
The Harker Mathematics Competitions Group
The Harker Mathematics Competitions Group is student driven. The club conducts various contests during club activities on Wednesdays during long lunch. The contests that are taken on Wednesdays serve as the training/experiences in preparation for the big contests that are usually held in February and March every year. In special events, students are also assigned as team leaders or team captains. Invitations have already been given out for the Math Prize for Girls, which will take place at MIT in early September. Veteran Harker contestants are now forming a team that will compete at the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament that will take place Nov. 9 and Feb. 22, 2014 at MIT, and also the Caltech Harvey Mudd Contest which will happen on Nov. 23, at CalTech.
Summertime fun kicked into high gear at Harker, this year, as enrollment for camps and other seasonal programming skyrocketed across all three campuses, resulting in a record-breaking number of participants.
Shortly after school let out, Harker opened its doors to the public, becoming a one-stop-summer-program-shop by extending its huge variety of offerings to K-12 students both locally and from around the globe.
According to Harker’s summer programs office, attendance at all summer happenings totaled some 2,740 participants. On the Harker summer menu were a camp for young kids, an institute for middle and high school-aged students, a program for foreigners to learn English, a large and varied sports camp, and a swim school that even adults could attend.
“We were thrilled and delighted at the incredible turnout for Harker summer this year!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of summer programs. She noted that Harker has been providing outstanding summer programming for more than half a century.
In addition to the larger number in overall enrollment, there were exciting new happenings in both the English Language Institute (ELI) and Summer Institute (SI) programs. At the lower school ELI saw a huge jump in enrollment specific to elementary school students. Meanwhile, at the upper school, SI successfully added specialty classes to its afternoon activity program.
“Harker summer had everything a camp consumer could want,” said Espinosa, adding that she was also pleased to see how many non-Harker students chose to spend their summer at the school.
Below is an overview of the record-breaking Harker Summer 2013:
Summer Camp+ Wows K-6 at the Lower School
It truly was “the summer of wow!” over at the lower school’s Summer Camp+ program, where 763 children in K-6 enjoyed a wide array of summertime activities designed to delight and amaze them.
According to Joe Chung, program director of Camp+, Harker’s youngest students were happily occupied with such on site highlights as a patriotic games bash, water carnival, sleepover for older campers, presentation for parents, and birthday celebration for camp mascot “Ray.” Campers also partook in numerous offsite field trips, from local outings for bowling and miniature golf to farther trips out to the Oakland Zoo and Coyote Point.
Students had the choice of enrolling in either CoreFocus or LOL (Learning Opportunities in Literature) for the academic portion of the day. Core Focus was a three- or four-week math and language-arts-focused program. LOL was a two-week integrated curriculum centered around a literary theme. Both programs left room for the optional added afternoon activity program.
Afternoon activities were grouped by ages and weeks, with kindergartners attending kindercamp. First and second graders were in the owls group, third and fourth graders were called condors, and fifth and sixth graders were referred to as eagles. The first session of camp included such weekly themes as wow, whamo, wipe out, and work out. The second session featured weeks called wisdom of wizards, waiting on winter and wonders of wildlife.
“This was my third time at Camp+, and I really recommend it!” enthused grade 3 student Alexis Nishimura. To her, the best part about camp was “hanging out with friends,” followed by “all the fun activities and outings.”
Summer Institute Offers Individualized Programs for Students, Grades 6-12
From backyard games held on the upper school field to volleyball boot camp and a cooking corner in the gym and kitchen, Summer Institute (SI) students this year enjoyed brand new specialty class period offerings.
Open to both Harker students and the general public in grades 6-12, the institute got underway mid-June and ran until early August. SI had two separate tracks, one designed for middle schoolers and another geared towards high school students. SI participants typically combined a morning academic program with afternoon activities, allowing them to earn credits and learn new skills with plenty of time leftover for summertime fun.
The unique specialty classes were made available via SI’s afternoon activity program where many middle school students (and some high school freshmen) signed up for courses which changed weekly and included off-campus field trips. Rotating course options included art, cooking, outdoor games, volleyball, jewelry making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts.
Proudly displaying a plate she had been working on in ceramics class, Anjali Ravella, a soon-to-be grade 6 student at the new Summit Denali charter school in Santa Clara, said it was her favorite special activity so far. A first-time participant to SI, she noted that she also enjoyed learning from podcasts in her earlier academic class on “super study skills.”
The institute’s academic portion offered rigorous for-credit courses such as algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth like creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course was available for students aged 15 and up.
Grade 9 students had the option to either participate in Activity Program (AP) or join the older high school students who had no organized afternoon activity program but enjoyed free drop-in access to the library, pool, art room, Ping-Pong table, basketball courts and study spaces. For all grades, an on-site prepared lunch was included.
According to Keith Hirota, summer middle school director, a total of 920 middle and upper school students were enrolled in this summer’s overall SI program, of which 550 participants were non-Harker students.
Ten-year-old Richard Hsieh is non-Harker student who met his new Harker pal Nakul Bajaj, age 11, in SI. Although the two took different morning academic tracks, they said they enjoyed hanging out together for many of the afternoon activities – and now hope to continue their newfound friendship during the regular school year.
English Language Institute Attracts Participants, Aged 6-16, From Across the Globe
Summer at Harker brought with it its own special international flavor, as students at both the lower and upper schools got to meet and interact with peers from all over the world.
Thanks to the school’s renowned English Language Institute (ELI) program, more than 100 international students – from elementary through high school – come to Harker to increase their chances of admission to primarily English speaking educational institutions.
According to Anthony Wood, ELI director, this year’s program saw a notable increase in enrollment at the beginner level, requiring a total of four classes, with at least 55 youngsters enrolled in the primary division. Older students (middle and high school aged) attended ELI on the Saratoga campus.
At the lower school program, 9-year-old ELI student Helen Kozak recalled that going on a recent field trip to the beach at Santa Cruz reminded her of being back home in Ukraine, where she lives near the sea. “I like the ocean very much,” she said in remarkably good English, adding “I swim all day long.” In addition to swimming, her favorite things about ELI were archery, circus arts and computer lab. “I like it all,” said Kozak, who has been to the United States several times but never before in the ELI program.
“My favorite thing about ELI was recess … which we are in right now!” added 11-year-old Aaron Guo of China. The first time ELI participant said that his second favorite activity was basketball. He also liked all the “fun outings” to places like the Golden Gate Bridge and tide pools at the ocean.
At the Saratoga campus older ELI students worked on special projects tailored to their needs, including SAT preparation. They were assisted by mentors (called buddies or conversation partners) who are Harker juniors, seniors or recent graduates. At the end of their time at Harker, ELI students, upon full completion of either a three- or seven-week course, received a certificate and recommendation from their teachers.
On field trip days ELI students of all ages could be seen sporting green Harker T-shirts as they headed out for cultural adventures to diverse Bay Area tourist attractions. Upon their return, their travel experiences were strategically incorporated into their learning curriculum.
Sports Camps Cater to All Skill Levels of Students, Aged 9-16
The middle and upper school campuses set the scene for Harker’s wide variety of on-site, first-rate sports camps, where 518 athletes learned a new sport or worked on improving skills in a sport they had already taken up. This year Harker offered softball, basketball, football, soccer, TRX (suspension body training), wrestling, volleyball and water polo camps.
Wrestling camp was new to this year’s summer sports program. Designed to motivate the novice wrestler and challenge the more advanced, the camp was open to students in grades 6-12. Serena Olmos, a senior at Lincoln High School, said she enjoyed the new camp offering because it helped students focus on their weakness as wrestlers, “and not just on what you’re good at.”
It was just last year that water polo was added to the sports camp choices. All of Harker’s summer sports camps are designed to be a positive, skill-focused environment where highly experienced coaches provide training in a well-structured, character driven atmosphere. Young athletes were encouraged to improve skills, develop teamwork and, most of all, have fun!
Swim School Offers Beginner to Advanced Lessons for Participants, Ages 3-Adult
The Harker Swim School provided both children and adults the opportunity to learn, refine and extend their swimming abilities in a noncompetitive, positive environment. Held at the upper school’s beautiful Singh Aquatic Center, it offered swim lessons for all skill levels, as well as a junior swim team for students in grades 2-8. The swim school is not part of Harker’s regular sports camp programming (for example, the water polo camp is not taught through the swim school).
For more information on Harker’s varied summer offerings visit summer.harker.org.