This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
This year’s “United Voices” concert moved to the beautiful Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose, where every one of Harker’s student vocal groups performed. The Bucknall Choir, comprising grade 4-5 students, got things started with the traditional Irish folk song “Shady Grove,” Franz Schubert’s “An Die Musik,” one of the few songs that evening to be sung in a foreign language, and “We Believe in Music” by Teresa Jennings.
The grade 6 show choir, Dynamics, included the iconic World War II hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Bigger Isn’t Better” in their three-song set.
Next up was the grade 7-8 group Harmonics, who sang “All That Jazz” from the musical “Chicago” before being joined by their classmates in Vivace, to sing their rendition of the Cyndi Lauper hit “True Colors.”
Starting off for the upper school was Bel Canto singing a medley from “West Side Story” and the traditional spiritual “Battle of Jericho.” Camerata sang Thomas Morley’s “Shoot False Love,” followed by the upper school show choir group Downbeat, who did the Michael Jackson classic “Man in the Mirror” and funk legends Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Sing a Song.”
The show ended with all of the night’s performers gathering on stage for a stirring performance of Jim Papoulis’ “Oye.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Following a brave battle with cancer, Chris Doll passed away on the afternoon of March 11, surrounded by family members. Harker staff member Doll, who worked as the scheduler for the upper school, was a beloved friend and colleague to all who knew her.
Doll saw Harker through many changes in her 29+ years at the school. She was an integral part of the institution, always going above and beyond her job description. Over the years she wore many hats, including working in the counseling department as well as directly with Diana Nichols, former assistant head of school and current chairman of the Harker Board of Trustees. Doll was known as a “master scheduler” who got her start at Harker as a part-time temporary employee. Not one for accolades, she never publicly accepted her Harker service pin during her many years with the school.
A natural mother hen at Harker, she often imparted her extensive knowledge about relationships, health and handling day-to-day problems. People were drawn to her kindness and her irreverent sense of humor, and she was sincerely loved at Harker. She will be missed deeply. To celebrate her life and service at Harker, a well-attended memorial celebration was held at the school.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A series of presentations started in 2011-12 seeks to equip Harker parents with the knowledge necessary to help their children become well-rounded digital citizens. The advent of constant access to the Internet and unprecedented interconnectivity via social media has made sound digital citizenship and management of one’s online identity more important than ever. While the instructional technology department had been engaging students and faculty on concepts of digital citizenship for some time, instructors realized that parents could benefit from knowing how their children were learning to conduct themselves online, and in turn could find the information useful in how they managed their students’ screen time.
“We realized that we were telling the students things that the parents didn’t necessarily know,” said Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology. “And that if what we’re trying to do is build Harker’s community and have effective parent-school partnerships, that this was an area where we could help Harker parents better understand what they needed to do to cope with all of the things that were going on.”
These talks began at the lower and middle schools, with K-5 parents learning about topics such as creating passwords, acting respectfully toward others online, interacting with strangers online, deciding what information should be shared with others and cyberbullying. Topics for each presentation are kept developmentally appropriate for the grade level of each family.
At the middle school level, topics include an introduction to social media, personal responsibilities in creating and managing an online identity and the various online tools that children may be using, such as Tumblr and Google Chat. “We let [students] know that we already know how they’re using [the Internet],” said Scott Kley Contini, assistant director of technology at the middle school, who designed and gave the parent presentations along with Gary Mallare, middle school academic counselor. A key point in developing these presentations was to make sure that they were more informative than cautionary.
“We wanted to make sure that we weren’t telling parents what to do,” said Kley Contini. “We said, this is what we’ve done and then left it open.”
This approach, he said, better enabled parents to make informed choices about what was best for their children.
Upper school presentations began in the spring semester and primarily informed parents about how their children were learning to manage their digital footprints, which included their students’ activities on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. “This is the point when the juniors need to be thinking about, well, what is a college going to find out about me if they go looking online?” Hudkins said. “And just as we’ve had student assemblies that addressed issues like that, we wanted to make sure we were talking with the parents about the same issues we were talking about with the students.”
The upper school talks, given by Diane Main, assistant director of instructional technology, emphasized the importance of enabling students to make good decisions on their own. “If [parents] lock down everything, they don’t get the opportunity to make a right choice. You’ve already made the choice for them,” she said. “We want to help our parents feel like they’re informed and that they can be involved in their students’ technology use in an appropriate way.”
Harker’s recently emerging philosophy on how to teach students and parents about online conduct is partly a reaction to information in the media and some educational materials that was perceived to be too fearful in tone.
“There was a lot of information that we do not think particularly highly of that came out five or 10 years ago that uses what I refer to as the ‘fear voice,’” Hudkins said.
“It scares them into not doing anything [online],” Kley Contini concurred.
One of the primary resources for the information contained within the presentations was Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that provides a wealth of information for parents and educators, including film reviews, book recommendations and, of particular use to the instructional technology department, resources on digital citizenship. Also, as Hudkins remarks, “they don’t use the fear voice.”
“We’ve used a lot of their stuff as the backbone of our sequencing and some of our topics,” Kley Contini said.
According to Kley Contini, parent response to the presentations so far has been positive overall. “The statement that children must earn screen time stayed with me,” said Chi- Pei Cherng, parent of Justin Chao, grade 1, and Jonathan Chao, grade 4. “Our family value of being responsible needs to carry over to their screen time mentality as well. It’s a subtle shift in thought from screen time as a prize or bribe to a simple acceptance that our responsibilities come first.”
While parents have shown appreciation for the talks, the courses of action that parents are taking in response have varied, with some parents instituting tighter restrictions on Internet usage and others relaxing them.
“For the most part, what we’re telling them is, you can go whatever route you want,” Kley Contini said. “We’re teaching them at a developmentally appropriate level, and we want you to know what that level is.”
Hudkins explained that part of the overall K-12 scope of the presentations is the idea that restrictions should gradually be lowered so that graduating seniors conduct themselves online properly once they are in college and free of constant supervision.
“The point we’re trying to make is to empower the parents to continue parenting, but to recognize that along the way, the process from kindergarten through 12th grade is one of very gradually letting go, and if kids have difficulty managing this kind of behavior when they’re in high school, we want them to fall on their faces now when we can pick them up and help them,” he said.
“We don’t want them to be so tightly wrapped that when they leave here and are no longer under adult supervision, they just explode.”
People outside Harker have also shown an interest in the school’s approach to this topic. At a February conference held by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), Kley Contini and Mallare prepared a presentation on how they speak to students and parents about online conduct and digital citizenship. At least one school has contacted Kley Contini so far about modeling its approach after Harker’s.
“I believe that these events can benefit every parent,” said Cherng. “Media exposure is pervasive in our children’s childhood, and it’s important to be aware of how to guide them in a positive, thoughtful and safe manner.”
“It’s important that we’re able to communicate what we’re telling kids, what our expectations are, and that we know that some kids are going to mess up,” Main said. “We’re just continuing what Harker does for students but in this specific area.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
This spring included league championships, scholarships and record-breaking performances for Harker. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
Track and Field
This year saw the most successful day in Harker’s track history when SumitMinocha, grade 12, won the CCS championship in the 200m, becoming Harker’s second-ever individual CCS champion. His effort was part of a banner day in which Harker had more of its most talented athletes qualify and score points at the CCS championships than ever before in its history. Nadia Palte, grade 9, Corey Gonzales and Julia Wang, grade 10, Claudia Tischler, grade 11, and seniors Isabelle Connell, Michael Chen and Ragini Bhattacharya all joined Minocha at the CCS championships. On the team side, both the boys and girls teams placed third in the team standings at the league championships.
Connell and Minocha finished up their high school track careers by becoming the first Harker athletes to qualify for the state meet, where they faced the toughest competition the state of California has to offer. Each came within less than a second of qualifying for the finals.
Track and field’s 2013 season has been studded with record-breaking moments. Cheryl Liu, grade 10, broke a Harker record in the 100m hurdles, then saw Palte break that same record minutes later. Michael Cheng, grade 12, broke a Harker record in the discus competition. Minocha broke a Harker record in the 100m for the boys, and Connell, who already owned the 100m Harker record for the girls, improved her own time. Minocha was also recognized as Athlete of the Week earlier this spring by the San Jose Mercury News. Congratulations to all of Harker’s track and field athletes on a thrilling season!
Softball
The girls won a league championship this year with an 11-1 record in league play, reaching the first round of the CCS playoffs. The league championship was the first in Harker’s history, and it came in dramatic fashion.
In the bottom of the seventh and final inning of a 1-1 tie game against King’s Academy with two outs and the league championship on the line, freshman Tong Wu singled to knock in sophomore Briana Liang from second base, delivering Harker a walk-off victory. With two out and no one on base, Liang knocked a double, setting up Wu’s hit and the exciting final moments.
Golf
Harker golfer Maverick McNealy, grade 12, is off to Stanford to compete on their golf team next year! He ended his high school career by tying for fourth place at the CCS championships after winning the WBAL individual title. Shrish Dwivedi, grade 10, also qualified for the CCS tournament.
Harker linksman Kyle Roter, grade 12, received a REACH (Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard Work) scholarship of $1,500 this spring. Over the past 17 years the REACH Youth Scholarship Program has been providing college funds to high school students who have overcome adversity to excel in academics and sports. Roter suffered from Chiari malformation, a condition in which brain tissue protrudes into the spinal canal. He underwent an operation to correct the problem after headaches became intolerable. Roter received the scholarship at the REACH awards breakfast, chaired by former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott at the San Jose Marriott.
Baseball
The boys ended their season with a 9-15-1 overall record. Kevin Cali, grade 12, led the team with a .425 average, socking seven homers with three triples and two doubles. Jacob Hoffman, also grade 12, led the team with 24 RBIs and was second on the team with three homers. Hoffman hit for a scorching .369 average this year, and senior Drew Goldstein also broke the .300 mark with a .333 average. Goldstein racked up a .452 on-base percentage, topped by Cali and Hoffman, who both reached base more than half of the time.
Overall, Cali and Hoffman had ridiculously impressive slash lines, with Cali slugging .863 and Hoffman slugging .723.
Volleyball
The boys volleyball team reached the CCS quarterfinals this year, finally falling to Leigh High School after winning their first-round game against Valley Christian San Jose.
On the girls’ side, Harker freshman Shannon Richardson and her partner won first place in the AAU Huntington Beach Open Volleyball Tournament 16U Division, qualifying to compete in the AAU Junior Olympic Games this July in Southern California and AAU’s Best of the Beach Tournament this August.
Congratulations to recent graduate Josh Tien and rising senior Andrew Zhu for being named to the boys volleyball All-Mercury News Honorable Mention list. This is an elite list of players from the 55 high school boys volleyball teams in the section. Go Eagles!
Tennis
Boys varsity tennis got off to a great start, and the team was 5-1 in mid-March. The bottom end of the schedule was more challenging, but the boys held their own and then some, beating first Pinewood, then Priory 6-1, capping that streak by beating Aragon 4-3, thus holding a 9-4 record in early April. The team then hit a tough run of three losses to end up with winning record of 9-7 for the season.
In middle school, the varsity A tennis team (grades 6-8) swept both public and private league championships for the first time, winning 5-4 against Kennedy to clinch the second title. The team went 20-0 for the season.
This is the first time the team has gone undefeated in both the regular season and the playoffs, and the first time the team has won both the private and public middle school tennis titles. “This is about as big as it gets in middle school sports!” said Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs.
Lawson added that over the last two years, the team compiled a 36-2 record and won three of four divisional titles. “Coach John Fruttero has done amazing things with the team,” Lawson added.
At the winning game, Fruttero said, “Today was not the 9-0 against Menlo last week in the WBAL championship match, but special in a very different way. The team battled from being down 4-1 for the second time this season to win 5-4. It was amazing to see these kids grow and transform themselves into a united championship team, from the inside out. It was an honor to lead them in entertaining a couple of hundred cheering fans today. What a blast!”
Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team’s historic run for a league championship came to a halt with a 17-14 loss to Notre Dame. This year, the girls set a Harker record for the most victories in a season with 12. With heart, determination and senior leadership, the girls finished the season by defeating rival Mercy Burlingame 18-8. This win was a sweet one, especially after the team had fallen just shy of success in their bid to capture a league title. After several years of struggle, the lacrosse program now finds itself carrying consecutive winning seasons forward.
Additionally there is thrilling news for the girls and for the Harker community. Two Harker lacrosse players, Christine Lee, grade 11, and Hannah Bollar, grade 10, have been named to the regional team for the national tournament.
On April 21, female high school varsity players from all throughout the Bay Area came together to compete for spots on the two Sub-Regional Pacific NorCal teams. The teams will compete in the 2013 U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament in May. This year marks the 81st anniversary of the event. It is one of the largest women’s lacrosse events in the nation. The 2013 tournament highlights include division championships, a U.S. team exhibition and a premier recruiting opportunity for high school players.
Swimming
Congratulations to all of Harker’s swimmers and divers on a fantastic season. Harker’s CCS swimmers include freshmen Angela Huang, Grace Guan and Sandhana Kannan; sophomores Aaron Huang and Craig Neubieser; juniors Manon Audebert and Kimmy Ma; and senior Amie Chien. Diver Stacey Chao, grade 10, was Harker’s lone diver this season.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Sandy Padgett, longtime member of the upper school faculty and founding director of Harker’s college counseling program, tragically passed away on April 22. In May she was honored in a special memorial event held in the upper school quad.
During the ceremony many of the moving comments received from her former students were shared. Her invaluable contributions to Harker, and to the lives of so many, were recalled.
“This has been a sad and tragic loss for the community. We continue to provide support to our students and staff, and we hope the outpouring from our community about Sandy’s impact in their lives is a comfort to her family,” said Chris Nikoloff, Harker’s head of school.
Harker community members were devastated when they learned that Padgett was killed in a domestic incident in her Redwood City home. School counselors, as well as grief counselors from The Centre for Living with Dying, assisted the administration in breaking the news to the faculty and students.
Padgett had an illustrious career guiding students. Before joining Harker in 1998, she taught AP English at San Carlos High School; was a counselor at Palo Alto High School; was a career placement counselor at Occidental College; and was a college counselor at the American School in London, the Westridge School in Pasadena and the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks.
In lieu of flowers, Padgett’s family has requested that donations be sent to The Sandy Padgett Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund, established in her memory. Checks can be mailed to the Sandy Padgett Memorial Fund, Harker Advancement, 500 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129. Please note “Sandy Padgett Memorial Fund” in the check’s memo line.
On June 7, Harker hosted its ninth annual Teacher Institute, inviting teachers from schools all over the Bay Area to attend a wide variety of workshops intended to improve their teaching methods and their understanding of instructional technologies.
The event was organized by Harker’s instructional technology department and sponsored by Silicon Valley Computer-Using Educators (SVCUE). Each of the Teacher Institute’s three sessions consisted of a number of classes that visiting teachers were free to visit. In one class Diane Main, upper school instructional technology director, showed how a special educational version of the popular online game Minecraft could be used for teaching purposes. At another, teachers learned digital grading techniques from middle school English teacher Mark Gelineau. Other workshops included lower school history teacher Jared Ramsey’s class on different ways to assess history projects, a class on using Google Drive to improve creative writing classes, taught by middle school English teacher Patricia Lai Burrows, and a presentation on the use of Google Chromebooks by lower school instructional technology director Lisa Diffenderfer.
“There were so many things we are going to take back to our school,” said Julia Maynard, a language arts and social studies teacher at Parkside Middle School in San Bruno. “I have been to several tech conferences, and this was by far the most beneficial!”
“The sessions were much more informative than many tech conferences that I have been to lately,” said Kristy Simmons, a teacher at San Bruno’s Crestmoor Elementary. “The wide array of topics, the dynamic presenters, the beautiful campus and the fabulous lunch all made for an enjoyable day of learning.”
By Daniel Hudkins Dan Hudkins is Harker’s K-12 director of instructional technology. This article originally appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Independent School Magazine and was also printed in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Every school plans a curriculum that attempts to meet two parallel objectives: to be consistent with its core values and to prepare its students to be competent and successful adults. This tension leads schools to teach a variety of required courses based on values and perceived needs. But over time, those values and needs change. There were lengthy parts of our educational history in which wood and metal shop or home economics had been considered core skills. In the early 20th century, what independent school would not have included Latin as a required curricular element? Yet how many independent schools require Latin today?
In addition to everything else we teach, at The Harker School (California) we are convinced that the habits of mind learned through an understanding of computational thinking are required if one is to be a knowledgeable adult in the 21st century. And we believe that these skills are best learned through an understanding of computer science.
Vinton Cerf, the father of the Internet, makes the essential argument for computer science classes today: “Embedded computers and their animating software are everywhere, and a well-educated person today has to appreciate and understand their roles in daily life, business, entertainment and scientific research. No curriculum is complete without it.”
Even President Obama has chimed in. Responding to a question about teaching computer science in high school recently, he stated that making that training available in high school “not only prepares young people who may choose not to go to a four-year college to be job-ready, but it also engages kids.”
Here at The Harker School, we have had a graduation requirement of at least one semester of computer science since the first high school graduating class in 2002. The statement in our Program of Studies makes the case for the requirement this way: “The growth of the computer and electronic industries has contributed to profound and fundamental changes in how we work, live, interact with others, and play. We are surrounded with computers, both hidden and obvious, in all aspects of our lives. The computer science department offers a well-rounded program in technology and computer science, with courses that will appeal to the lay user as well as the computer science-bound student.”
Among educators in general, there is widespread confusion about what computer science entails and where it belongs in the curriculum. Computer science is not about teaching students how to use a word processor, spreadsheet or some other computer-based productivity tool. It is not about helping students learn how to make a set of PowerPoint slides to support an oral presentation. It is not about helping students learn how to use digital probeware in a science lab, or how to make a video in a humanities class, or how to create an engaging poster in a graphic arts lab. And it is not just about computer programming. All of these skills can be worthy and valuable parts of a K-12 education, and certainly contribute to one’s technological fluency. However, we are aiming for the higher goal of helping students develop the habits of mind that Jeannette Wing, of Carnegie Mellon University, describes as “computational thinking.”
Wing describes computational thinking as being able to apply human solutions to real-world problems. It represents a human way of thinking, rather than a computer’s way of functioning. As she puts it, “Computational thinking is a way humans solve problems; it is not trying to get humans to think like computers. Computers are dull and boring; humans are clever and imaginative.”
Our computer science classes are informed by experts in the field. Jeannette Wing’s work on defining computational thinking has crystalized much of our course work at Harker and elsewhere. Matt Brenner, of CSTeachLearn and formerly of Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire) and Sidwell Friends School (Washington, D.C.), made the case for computer science in independent schools some time ago. He argued that, just as a basic understanding of mechanization and automation were the transformative ideas that undergirded the industrial revolution, algorithmic thinking is driving the current transformation of our society. “If we don’t know what they [algorithms] are or how to think about, invent, and apply them,” Brenner writes, “then we cannot use them to improve our lives and our society, nor can we understand how others use or wish to use them to the advantage or disadvantage of ourselves and our society.”
In addition, Chris Bigenho, of the Greenhill School (Texas) and the University of North Texas, has gathered evidence of current practices in teaching computer science in many independent schools. Casting a broad net, he posted a request for responses on two active independent school listservs. From his response summary, it is clear that this is a very active topic in the independent school world. While some respondents were in the exploratory phase, it appears that most were actively developing a computer science program that spanned middle and high school. They shared a broad agreement that computer science is a discipline in its own right with its own habits of mind. However, the surveys revealed some impediments to delivering computer science instruction in an independent school. This is leading to active discussion of several concerns including logistical questions (Can programming be taught on an iPad?), pedagogical questions (How can we best introduce students to the “hard fun” of learning to code?), and questions of recognition for independent learning (Is course credit the only meaningful measure or should we follow the world of industry and the MOOCs and look at badging and other forms of recognition?).
Teaching Computational Thinking
The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) recently sponsored a working group to further outline the essence of computational thinking. In a summary report on the working group, Chris Stephenson and Valerie Barr write, “Computational Thinking (CT) is an approach to solving problems in a way that can be implemented with a computer. Students become not merely tool users but tool builders. They use a set of concepts, such as abstraction, recursion and iteration, to process and analyze data, and to create real and virtual artifacts. CT is a problem-solving methodology that can be automated, transferred and applied across subjects.”
While this may feel abstract, it encapsulates the logic that is leading schools to incorporate game design and robotics at a variety of levels. Incorporating a deeper understanding of computational thinking is not unlike what we do in a wide variety of other academic disciplines in which we lead students to take skills acquired in one course and apply them in another (i.e., applying the ability to create a graph to a population study in a geography class).
At Harker, we have done extensive work to embed information literacy across the curriculum. In 2013–14 we will offer a 2:1 iPad program in K-2, a 2:1 Chromebook program in grade 3, a 1:1 Chromebook program in grades 4-5, a 1:1 laptop program (student choice of Windows or Mac OS) in the middle school, and a 1:1 bring-your-own-laptop program in the upper school. We believe that using technological tools to learn across the curriculum with a variety of tools leads to a greater degree of technological fluency.
But none of these programmatic steps directly addresses computational thinking. That requires teaching computer science.
Our computer science classes focus on problem-solving with computers because we know it’s a valuable 21st-century skill in courses and experiences across the curriculum, both inside and outside the classroom. Computer science classes begin in the lower school in fourth grade, where we work with computer simulations and animation. In the middle school, through required courses and elective offerings, the concepts and applications become more sophisticated. Required courses cover game design theory, robotics and the development of mobile applications. Elective offerings include Web animation, introductory programming and an introduction to Java programming.
The high school program, in part because of our Silicon Valley location, is unusually deep. A semester-length course is required for graduation. Students can meet this requirement by either of two options. The Digital World course is designed for students with limited interest in computer science. It teaches computer modeling and digital representation, and spends substantial time exploring the implications of living in a digital world. For those students with a deeper interest, the sequence begins with computer programming, but includes AP Computer Science as well as a series of advanced topics in computer science that vary from year to year. Recent topics have included Computer Architecture, Digital Signal Processing, Expert Systems, Neural Networks, Numerical Methods, Programming Languages and Compiler Systems.
The Computer Science Department
Another area of confusion about computer science concerns the question of where it should be taught. Some schools fold computer science into the math or science departments. While this may be necessary in the short term, it is not a great long-term solution. For the long term, it is important to recognize that computer science has evolved into its own discipline with skills that are distinct from science or math – and therefore requires its own department.
While non-specialist teachers (like me) can introduce computer science concepts in the early years, they are less capable as the sophistication of the computational thinking objectives increases. For the higher end courses – even the middle school courses – it’s best to tap the skills of a specialist. In other words, for courses that rely on introductory tools like Alice, Stagecast or Robolab, non-specialists can teach quite effectively. However, as the sophistication of the tools and concepts increases – think AP Computer Science and above – it becomes necessary to have computer science courses taught by experienced computer science teachers. We want our English teachers to be able to lead students to a deeper understanding of the text than could be provided by an enthusiastic but unsophisticated reader. Shouldn’t we want the same in computer science?
Educators are well aware that the limiting factor in all of our teaching and learning is time, and the competition for that time among academic disciplines, athletics, extracurricular activities, service-learning programs, etc., is an ongoing struggle. But shouldn’t we be asking, are we really preparing our students to be 21st-century citizens if we’re not teaching them the logic of the 21st century – computational thinking through computer science?
Vinton Cerf says, “No.” And we agree.
When part of a high-quality academic program, computer science classes add an element that helps all students navigate our complex, technologically driven world. It also gives our graduates an edge over those who are not taught these increasingly essential skills.
When Harker parent Geetha Madhavan and her daughter Maya, a rising senior, learned about the memorial fund created in honor of beloved longtime upper school employee Sandy Padgett, they came up with an idea to help promote the cause.
To raise money for the Sandy Padgett Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund the duo motivated Harker to take part in a “walkathon” on behalf of the fund. Called Sevathon, the walkathon is sponsored by the India Community Center, a nonprofit, locally based organization, and is slated to occur on the morning of Sun., July 14 at the Baylands Park in Sunnyvale.
One of the largest social and service platforms of its kind, Sevathon unites walkers, runners, nonprofits, sponsors, family members and friends in support of various local and global causes. Nonprofit agencies like Harker sign up to partner with Sevathon, and in turn participants register to walk or run for a desired cause, separately pledging donations to their choice of more than 50 locally and globally based nonprofits.
“When we found out about the walkathon for charity, Maya suggested that we should run for a cause in honor of Ms. Padgett, who was her counselor. We then thought that other Harker kids might want to join in, so we checked with the advancement department and together formed the idea of running for the scholarship fund,” said Madhavan, who is also the parent of Meera ’13. “It would be nice to have Harker students and staff sign up for the run,” she added.
According to Sevathon organizers, the word seva means “a service which is given without consideration of anything in return” and is regarded as “the nature of goodness.” The walkathon nurtures a spirit of giving by empowering individuals of diverse backgrounds to unite. It also enables each nonprofit partner organization to deliver its own message and further its unique cause.
A fun community happening promoting fitness and healthy living, Sevathon offers participants the choice of signing up for a 5k, 10k (both $25 with pre-registration) or half-marathon ($40 with pre-registration). Pre-registration closes the day before the event, after which prices go up. To register for Sevathon and support the Sandy Padgett Memorial Fund, go to www.indiacc.org/Sevathon and select Harker as the nonprofit of choice.
For those unable to participate in the event but who still want to make a donation to the Padgett fund, checks may be mailed directly to Harker Advancement, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. Please note “Sandy Padgett Memorial Fund” in the check’s memo line.
An original member of the upper school faculty and founding director of Harker’s college counseling program, Padgett passed away on April 22. Padgett’s family had previously requested that in lieu of flowers, all donations be sent to The Sandy Padgett Memorial Endowed Scholarship Fund, established in her memory. After her memorial service, checks were mailed to the fund and continue to be collected via Harker’s advancement department.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The busy commotion of construction at Harker’s recently acquired third campus on San Jose’s Union Avenue will soon be replaced by an even more exciting noise: the welcome sound of children at play.
Thanks to a dedicated crew of construction workers, architects and landscapers, the Union campus – which formerly served as a children’s shelter – is getting a much-needed facelift. Now the property seems well poised to open its doors as Harker Preschool this coming school year.
Turning the eight-acre property into a preschool, as well as the future permanent home of Harker’s lower school, has been no easy feat. To that end, Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facility manager, has routinely met with a team of professionals who for months have worked tirelessly to turn the school’s vision of creating the perfect environment for young children into a reality. The coveted Union site first opened in 1995 as a state-of-the-art shelter for abused and neglected children, boasting residential cottages surrounding a beautiful play area. However, over time there was a shift away from placing troubled kids into residential facilities, resulting in the shelter becoming nearly empty and underutilized.
Now, Anderson Brulé Architects, Inc. (ABA) is working with Harker to redesign the shelter to meet the needs of a preschool. Crystal Sanderson, a project manager with ABA, reported that the process of converting the property from a residential setting to one intended for educational day use was going remarkably well.
“The shelter was dated, so we are updating it with refreshing finishes to make it more vibrant, as well as accommodating the special needs of a preschool, with areas for napping, playing and restrooms to size,” she said, adding that her firm’s overarching goal is to help Harker transform the Union campus into a fun, safe environment, with day to day functional needs met.
To achieve that goal, existing buildings are being modified to make them more open, turning formerly enclosed housing cottages into classroom space with more natural light and room for children to play.
“Harker was really smart to find a facility that could be reused in this way,” noted Sanderson.
Pamela Anderson-Brulé, a founder and the president of ABA, added that her firm was charged with the task of not only freeing up living areas for classroom space, but for administrative office use as well. The building also had to be up to fire safety code and meet the needs of the disabled in compliance with California’s state law.
Anderson-Brulé said they were able to work largely with what they had without having to “start over,” and without a lot of construction waste. “It’s a perfect second use/second life for these facilities,” she said.
Harker first made breaking news when it became top bidder on the available third campus property. Following a due diligence period, where Harker reviewed areas such as permit, traffic, environmental and title use, the administration successfully closed on the Union property in January.
Ever since opening the upper school in 1998, Harker has planned to own three campuses. Currently Harker owns the upper Saratoga and lower Bucknall campuses, but holds a lease on the middle school Blackford campus until 2025. However, the Blackford lease has long been viewed as a temporary stopgap measure.
The school’s long-term plan is to locate the middle school on the Bucknall campus and move the lower school to the Union campus. Other plans in the works include building a gym and theater complex on the Saratoga campus to replace the gym and theater on the Blackford campus; creating a permanent solution for field use; making improvements on the Union campus in preparation for its K-5 use; and relocating some operations currently at Blackford.
And, while the preschool would initially operate on the Union property, it would later be transitioned to leased or purchased land when the time comes to move the K-5 programs to Union. The preschool will serve ages 3 through (young) 5-year-olds with the capacity to serve up to 120 students.
According to Bassoni, the addition of a new driveway to the site should help alleviate traffic flow concerns. Additionally, he said construction crews are implementing an emergency vehicle access and designated drop-off area.
Voicing his appreciation for all the donors who helped enable Harker to purchase the property, he said the project will finally be complete on “the day I get to see children enjoying and exploring the new facility.”
Indeed, the entire Harker community looks forward to the time when the sight of workers walking around the Union campus clad in yellow vests and hard hats will be replaced by young children laughing and playing.
“Harker is 120 years old … and we intend to continue our history for many more years to come,” Bassoni said.
Look for updates about the new Union campus and preschool in continuous coverage by Harker Quarterly. FAQs about the preschool are also available online at www.harker.org/preschool.
Harker’s maturing endowment program produced six scholars this year, all seniors, who each presented their papers in late April to fellow students, parents, faculty and administrators in the Nichols Hall auditorium.
Established in 2009, the John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, the first of its kind at Harker, was joined by the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities in 2011, and since then there have been nine Near scholars and four Mitra scholars, including this year’s awardees.
The $300,000 John Near fund, established in memory of the 31-year veteran of Harker’s teaching staff who passed away in 2009, was made by his parents, James and Patricia Near, to, in John Near’s words, “help develop the history department, both through the acquisition of resources and providing growth opportunities for both faculty and students.”
Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra (Shivani, grade 12) established the Mitra Family Endowment, which matches gifts to the annual giving campaign up to a total of $100,000.
This year’s papers ran the gamut from traditional historical research to an examination of social conditions.
Artists
One of the Mitra scholars is actually a Mitra. Shivani Mitra chose an enduring topic for both artists and feminists: Frida Kahlo, the iconic Mexican painter who explored politics, art, feminism and sexuality during the course of her life. Mitra frankly discussed Kahlo’s sexuality, paintings and politics, often referencing Kahlo’s diary, but the most notable portions of the paper were Mitra’s analyses of the crossovers and tie-ins between these three facets of Kahlo’s nature. One example:
“Frida, who was a supporter of the communist party with Diego (Rivera), wore the clothing that symbolized communist allegiance without acknowledgement to the social norm for women to never be involved in politics. In addition to challenging the political position of females, Frida refused to take on the feminine attitude that wives were supposed to in her second marriage. In a personal essay about Diego for an exhibition of Diego’s work in 1940 Frida wrote, ‘Some people may expect me to paint a very personal, ‘feminine,’ anecdotal entertaining portrait of Diego, filled with complaints and even a certain amount of gossip …’”
“In the beginning of my sophomore year I took AP Art History with Ms. (Donna) Gilbert,” Mitra said at the reception, “and I fell in love with this subject. Art history allowed me to learn about the historical periods and individuals of the past through a painter’s hand or a sculptor’s tools filled with color, texture and emotion that really took me back in time and history. When this opportunity came up, I was intrigued by the idea I could explore one of my favorite artists, Frida Kahlo, in much more depth.”
Duels
Near scholar Nina Sabharwal chose one of the most enigmatic episodes in the personal history of the United States’ founding fathers: the duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton that resulted in the death of Hamilton and the destruction of Burr’s political life.
Dueling was regarded as the only honorable way to settle a dispute not then actionable under law, and both men were familiar with the practice both as a deterrent and as a remedy for those making disparaging remarks. Indeed, Hamilton lost his beloved eldest son, Phillip, to a duel prior to his own death and, according to “Hamilton” by Ron Chernow, Hamilton had been on the fringes of six other duels, including acting as a second or adviser. Neither Burr nor Hamilton lived an unimpeachable life. Burr schemed to enrich himself and further his political ambitions becoming a controversial figure in U.S. politics as the young country worked out its growing pains. Hamilton was equally busy trying to solidify his place in U.S. politics and history, and the two clashed in the political arena more than once.
“This project has been a culmination of the years of learning in our history classes,” said Sabharwal. “The research skills I’ve acquired will be invaluable to me in college.”
Sabharwal’s conclusion is that “the famous duel was the result, largely, of ill-will formed between the two men over many years. In the specific, Burr accused Hamilton of speaking ill of him in society and sent his second to call on Hamilton. The deadly meeting between the two seems almost inevitable when their history together is examined.”
Composers Near scholar Ashvin Swaminathan delved into political and musical history to plumb the premise that two of the United States’ most influential composers, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, both sought to illuminate Hispanic forces in America in their works, especially Copland’s “El Salón México” and Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”
“I really like history because I like finding historical connections between various events,” said Swaminathan, “and I like music and the study of musical history, the study of how the evolution of music and how composers were influenced by the sociopolitical climates of their times. I really wanted to do this research because there has already been much research done on European classical music and how European composers were influenced by the politics of their days. I wanted to create an American parallel for that. Doing this research project has really influenced what I am going to study in college.”
Swaminathan’s work is best defined by a paragraph from his paper: “Copland’s 1936 symphonic work “El Salón México” may be viewed as an artistic reaction to the contemporaneous Mexican Repatriation, and Bernstein’s 1957 musical “West Side Story” must be taken as a politically overt response to the youth gang violence that plagued New York City throughout the 1950s.”
Thus, Swaminathan begins his journey to illuminate what motivated these composers to create works that exposed the cultural pressures of a then-much-overlooked segment of U.S. society. Copland’s composition was stimulated by the forced, government-mandated Mexican repatriation of the 1930, when 500,000 or more people of Mexican heritage, including U.S. citizens, were forced to return to Mexico.
Bernstein’s “West Side Story” is a reflection of the frustration built up as Puerto Ricans emigrated to the U.S. when laws changed granting them citizenship and as World War II created jobs for them on the U.S. mainland. Many ended up in New York.
Swaminathan notes in his paper, “The combination of heightened unemployment on the island, greater perceived job opportunities in alluring mainland U.S. cities like New York and increased affordability of airfares led to a sudden, exponential rise in the migration rate of Puerto Ricans to the U.S. mainland. From 1950 to 1959, a total of about 470,000 Puerto Ricans migrated to the U.S. mainland.”
According to one source, the United States census showed that by 1960 there were more than 600,000 New Yorkers of Puerto Rican birth or parentage, and Swaminathan notes, “As a consequence of New York’s changing ethnic composition, many rivalries arose between teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds; in 1955, New York was plagued by nearly 100 teenage gangs.” It was from these circumstances that Bernstein drew inspiration for “West Side Story.”
Nazi Errors
In a more traditional approach, Mitra scholar Apurva Tandon took on a subject daunting to professional historians, the short- and long-term effects of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed in 1931 and the subsequent violation of that pact in 1941 when the Wehrmacht invaded Russia.
The subject of the pact has been covered extensively by noted historians, but Tandon coalesces the primary mistakes by Hitler that led to the ultimate failure of the Third Reich to survive at all, including fighting an ideological war instead of a political/military war and the utter disregard for the economic dependence Germany had on trade with the Soviet Union that was suspended when the invasion of Russia began.
Perhaps her most interesting point, drawn from a Stanford University lecture by Timothy Snyder, was that Hitler saw his invasion as the second phase of the destruction of Eastern European states, after the Soviet Union had started the job. Tandon asserts Stalin’s purges and ruthless collectivization of farms prior to the start of World War II were the opening act to the main show – Barbarossa – of destroying the populations of the satellite states to produce Lebensraum, and that viewpoint has not been widely aired.
“I’ve enjoyed tackling one of the subjects that is so widely explored in the field,” said Tandon, “and just being able to come up with my very own take on that and then put it out there is scary but rewarding – so truly rewarding. My mind is already racing with another follow-up topic that I want to research in college that is kind of an offshoot of this topic, and having this kind of experience under my belt is what is going to make that possible.”
ERA
In her paper, Near scholar Apricot Tang discussed the most important amendment that never passed, the Equal Rights Amendment, as its journey was affected by two ardent feminists from the right and left, Phyllis Schlafly and Betty Friedan. One of the most controversial amendments to be proposed, it was opposed by labor unions and Eleanor Roosevelt, yet supported by President Dwight Eisenhower and the Republican Party. Roosevelt opposed it because it would block legislation designed to protect women workers from harsh factory conditions, and the amendment seemed designed to help educated middle-class women, and so labor unions opposed it, according to Bookrags.com, an educational research site.
There were three life-changing points Tang experienced, she said. “First, I have found role models for myself. Seeking out the research has helped me be inspired by women such as Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan and Phylis Schlafly, all extremely courageous and strong women of their time. Second, I found myself through the research process: searching, reading, being lost, thinking you’re not lost, then returning to the black fold and the sources. It has been a process through which I have found myself. And third, I’ve been learning about the kind of writer, the kind of student and the kind of thinker I am.”
As the feminist movement grew in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s, the amendment seems, in retrospect, to be an obvious step forward in ensuring full rights under the law, but it was opposed by Phyllis Schlafly, a forceful, outspoken advocate for traditional womanhood. The amendment’s path in the 1960s and ‘70s could be seen as a reflection of the changing values Americans were all struggling with as Vietnam split communities, unions lost their ability to speak for the American worker and ethnic minorities advocated for equal treatment and protection under the law. Tang’s paper takes on the complex battle that shaped up between Schlafly and Betty Friedan, who founded the National Organization of Women in 1966 following publication of “The Feminine Mystique” in 1963, which examined women’s roles beyond traditional expectations of homemaking and motherhood.
Economics
Mitra scholar Warren Zhang chose to look at societal economics in his paper on how technological growth negatively affected income equality as technology development replaced manufacturing as a major component of the U.S. economy. This ambitious effort delved into the complexities of the job market, maturing understanding of modern economics technological growth and what it meant to everyone from university graduates to line workers in assembly plants.
Zhang’s conclusion is stated in 10 words in the opening sentence: “Modern technology breeds inequality and inhibits sustainable, broad-based growth.” Zhang notes that the income gap between the college-educated and the high school-educated grew after World War II, saying, “A college degree replaced a high school diploma as the mark of an educated person, and high school graduates and high school dropouts increasingly became substitutes in the labor market.”
He goes on to discuss in depth the changes effected by rising wages for the college-educated, the effect of unionization on both workers’ earnings and their college-educated counterparts. Finally, Zhang presents evidence that the rise in wages for college-educated workers and their ability to work more efficiently due to technology (computers) and the drop in unionization has created a dichotomy in our economy that is not sustainable: “Because modern innovations only make a small subset of skilled workers more productive, they induce damaging, even crisis-provoking, inequality,” Zhang said.
“The important thing, and the crux of my paper, is this idea (that) skills buy technological change. If you work with computers, if it is your job to tell the ‘robots’ what to do, to create the programs that make modern life possible, then the rise of information technology has been a wonderful thing.
“On the other hand, if you have a manufacturing job or you are doing some sort of routine office work, there are robots and there is software that will do your job better, faster and more efficiently, and … will never demand vacation, and that is the crux of it. While the growth of information technology has made workers at the top much more productive and thus given them the skills to demand higher and higher wages, it is also much harder to have a middle class job and a middle class life style if you don’t have those skills.”
Next year’s endowment recipients, all seniors, have been chosen. Mitra scholars are Maya Madhavan, Anisha Padwekar and Monica Thukral; Near scholars will be Kevin Duraiswamy, Zina Jawadi, Divya Kalidindi, Connie Li and Angela Ma.