This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Attendees at the 62nd Harker Family & Alumni Picnic on Oct. 14 gloried in the timelessness of the picnic: new things each year – especially the faces of students growing up – and some of the classics, like the never-get-tired-of-it dunk tank. The whole event, one of the big opening events of the school year, was attended by flocks of picnickers and again fulfilled its promise in providing fun and entertainment to the entire Harker community on a warm fall day.
Families were greeted by Harker faculty and staff as they reached the entrance to the middle school campus, where the day’s festivities took place. This year’s theme, “Jaws, Paws and Claws,” celebrated all manner of wildlife, and patrons were treated to animal shows at the Blackford amphitheater throughout the day.
The crowd was also entertained by an energetic show by a wide selection of groups from Harker’s performing arts department, including Dance Fusion, the grade 4-6 boys and girls dance group; Downbeat, the upper school show choir; and Dynamics, the grade 6 choir.
Picnickers, particularly the younger ones, especially enjoyed being able to see and pet the pigs, goats, rabbits and other animals on display at the petting area. Talented and well-trained dogs performed tricks and ran through an obstacle course to the delight of audiences, and even a python several feet in length was available for visitors to view and briefly wear on their shoulders.
The always-popular game booths were among the main attractions throughout the day. Volunteers spun wheels of fortune, players tossed golf balls, shot hoops and more to win a myriad of prizes, including stuffed animals, toys and bottles of wine. One of the most popular carnival games, the dunk tank, continued to be a hit with picnic-goers. “The dunk tank was a little cold today. If you noticed, the weather was a little overcast,” said upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine, who had an early shift. He was one of a number of faculty members who had the honor of sitting in the dunk tank this year, and one of the most enthusiastic: “I kind of like the anticipation,” Irvine said.
Kaela Bien, grade 5, who liked “watching the teachers get dunked,” also enjoyed the canine feats on display at the dog show. “It’s fun, and they’re sort of mischievous, too,” she said.
Generous student and parent volunteers helped sell tickets to the booths helped sell tickets to the booths that kept visitors entertained and fed all day. Food booths, run by parents, faculty and staff, served delicious refreshments, snacks and hot meals from a variety of vendors. Returning were the food trucks, which proved a hit during the 2011 picnic and received a similar response this year, serving Asian fusion and other types of cuisine.
At the “Claws Vegas” silent auction area, attendees bid on all sorts of prizes, ranging from trips to New York City and Las Vegas to sleepovers and animal-shaped topiaries. Parent alumna Tiffany Nishimura ’86 (Alexis, grade 2), said the silent auction was her favorite part of the picnic for the wide variety of prizes available and the various opportunities for “supporting the school.”
Harker alumni had a big presence at this year’s picnic, with more than 130 alumni and their families joining in on the fun. A special lunch area was set aside so that alumni could meet and reminisce, while alumni children enjoyed a craft activity. MaryEllis Deacon, alumni director, reflected on the picnic, saying, “It is a time to come back, reconnect and visit with those teachers who helped you as a child become who you are today. It also allows you to remember the fun things, the games, the food and the spirit of Harker.”
Parent Vincy Chan (Gemma, K; Gianna, grade 3) said she enjoyed seeing the community’s hard work come to fruition: “It’s like a family, so I just love helping out, and then … seeing all our hard work.”
“When you see everybody come together, and see all the people in their civilian clothing, it shows the magic that makes the Harker community Harker,” Irvine said.
Following the picnic, Chris Nikoloff, head of school, gave well-deserved credit to all responsible for the event’s success. “Special thanks to the talented and creative flock of volunteers who comprise the picnic committee and the Harker faculty and staff who were as busy as beavers helping to make the picnic a great success,” Nikoloff said, making special mention of picnic co-chairs Lynette Stapleton, Kelly Espinosa and Tiffany Hurst, “whose vision made it possible for all our little eagles and their families to soar to new heights today!”
This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-born best-selling author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” was the honored guest of the Harker Speaker Series on Nov. 30, speaking about the writing process, his experiences in Afghanistan and his humanitarian efforts with The Khaled Hosseini Foundation.Hosseini also attended a pre-event reception for attendees who purchased special tickets to meet the author and receive a personalized copy of one of his novels. Warm and charming, Hosseini chatted with ABC-7 anchor Cheryl Jennings on a range of topics. Jennings also participates in Afghani relief efforts and was a natural choice for this informal, interview-style conversation. Before his appearance, a video of an ABC-7 report by Jennings was shown, briefing the audience of about 400 on The Khaled Hosseini Foundation and briefly mentioning Harker’s involvement. Founded in 2007, the organization raises money to build shelters and provide education, food and healthcare to women and children in Afghanistan, which is experiencing many humanitarian crises after experiencing decades of war. Hosseini’s wife, Roya, is also deeply involved, helping with a program that enables Afghan women to sell crafts to raise money for humanitarian aid. These goods were being sold at a table in the gym the night of Hosseini’s visit. Jennings asked Hosseini about his 2003 and 2007 visits to Afghanistan, during which he saw “a ton of people who had come back to Afghanistan from either Pakistan or Iran trying to resettle, restart their lives in their country and were really having a very, very hard time,” he said. “It shattered me.” Although he watched much of the crises in Afghanistan unfold from outside the country, he nevertheless found that his memories of his childhood in the country were helpful in writing “The Kite Runner.” “It took me by surprise how vivid my memories were,” he said, recalling his time growing up with educated parents and living a somewhat “westernized” lifestyle. He was also surprised by how much the events he had written in the book came to life during his visit. “I started having experiences that I had just imagined this character would have, and I had even written a book about it,” he said. While working on “Splendid Suns,” he took on the challenge of writing from a woman’s perspective, something he at first approached with some overconfidence, despite warnings from his literary agent at the time, the late Elaine Koster. “I have to admit I was a little smug about it,” he recalled. “And then, about three, four months later, I began to see what she meant.” He overcame the difficulty by rendering women in a more universal sense. “I’m just going to concentrate on what motivates them; what do they want from life, what are they afraid of, what are their hopes, and so on,” he said. “It seems trite and simple enough, but all of the solutions in my writing life have always been simple – it’s just very hard to get to them.” Hosseini said he was proud to have changed the perceptions people have of the Afghan people through his writing. “I’ve had letters from people who were really kind of toxic haters of people from that region. And yet, they read the book and they saw something of themselves in the experiences of these characters,” he said. “And they slowly changed. That to me is a tremendous gift as a writer. That’s going to outlive anything that I’ve ever done.” Following his talk with Jennings, Hosseini stayed to take questions from the audience and sign books.
This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Students Clean Up the Coast
Almost 50 community members stepped up in September for the 26th annual California Coastal Cleanup Day. Inspired by this year’s lower school theme of compassion, parent volunteer Kelly Lewis Brezoczky (Katherine, grade 3; Charlotte, grade 5; Emma, grade 7) coordinated Harker’s participation, and service and spirit club advisor Katie Molin invited grade 4 and 5 families to help pick up debris littered across Pillar Point and Pilarcitos Creek in Half Moon Bay.
Youth Citizen of the Year
Tara Rezvani, grade 12, was recognized at Los Gatos’ Youth Park Citizen Day on Sept. 29 as one of Los Gatos’ Youth Citizens of the Year. Among Rezvani’s many accomplishments are organizing a health camp for children, volunteer work at El Camino Hospital and induction to the National French Honor Society.
Collecting Food for the Needy
The Service Club at the middle school ran a canned food drive and, for each item, students were given a strip of construction paper to hang in the windows of Activity Avenue to create a colorful, proud display of Harker’s giving spirit. The lower school also ran their annual food drive, organized for more than 20 years as the grade 5 service project by teacher Pat Walsh. Donations all went to St. Justin’s Church in Santa Clara. Walsh noted St. Justin’s provides groceries and hot meals all year long.
Advisories Help Prep Toiletries for Donation
Pat White, middle school history teacher, ran a toiletry drive again this year for the gloria Travis Center for Homeless Women and Children. White’s advisory sorts and bags donated items for delivery. White hopes to deliver about 500 sandwich bags of toiletries.
Holiday Gift Giving in Full Swing
Three different programs collected gifts for those in need. Family Supportive Housing, which runs the Adopt-a-Family program, collects holiday wish lists from families in need which are distributed to those who want to help out during the holiday season.
The Family Giving Tree matches givers up to individuals rather than families. This is Harker’s third year participating. Patricia Lai Burrows, an English teacher at the middle school, said, “Last year, we successfully fulfilled 200 wishes, and this year, I signed up to fulfill 350 wishes.” Currently, Harker is on track to fulfill 400.
Sunday Friends, a nonprofit that helps families in need, put together a list of holiday gift items their families would enjoy. The sophomore class used this year’s homecoming theme of Disney movies for inspiration and selected “Toy Story.” They made a giant toy box featuring characters from the movie, and each of the 185 members of the sophomore class donated a toy for Sunday Friends.
Giving to Our Furry Friends
Andrea Milius and Mark Gelineau, middle school teachers, wanted to do something special for this year’s family picnic theme of “Paws, Jaws and Claws” (click here for the picnic wrapup). They encouraged their advisories to do chores at home to earn money and then split the $230 in earnings between National Geographic’s campaign, “Create an Uproar” to save big cats, and a wolf pack at a sanctuary in Mississippi.
Hurricane Sandy Relief
The lower school took initiative in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and connected with Coney Island Preparatory School in New York, where 30 students lost their homes and 30 more families lost their cars. The administration at Coney Island Preparatory is offering storm victims modest grants. To help them achieve this goal, the student council at the lower school sold cups of hot chocolate on the playground over the course of several days and took donations. Business was brisk, and the entire amount was donated directly to the Coney Island Preparatory families.
This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Upper School
Football
The boys finished the season at 3-7 overall and 1-5 in league play despite an explosive offense that finished among the league’s leaders in scoring. Senior Spenser Quash earned all-league honors for most outstanding quarterback after posting 2,441 passing yards and 23 throwing touchdowns alongside 300 yards rushing and nine rushing touchdowns. Wide receivers Kevin Moss, grade 11, and Robert Deng, grade 12, and offensive lineman Darian Edvalson, grade 11, were named first team all-league. Deng led the team with 57 receptions for 734 yards, and his six touchdowns were just shy of the team record of seven set by Moss, who added 39 catches for 586 yards of his own.
Cross Country
While neither team qualified for the CCS championships, the girls missed qualifying by only 0.3 seconds and each team saw new school records set. For the girls, Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, achieved a new Harker record with a 19:24 run at the league championship meet at Crystal Springs Cross Country Park. On the boys’ side, Corey Gonzales, grade 10, was named league MVP for a season in which he posted the best time in Harker history – a 16:12 at the league championship.
Golf
It was a record-setting year for Harker in golf as Patricia Huang, grade 12, shot the best score any Harker golfer has ever achieved at CCS and Kristine Lin, grade 11, wrapped up the year as the league’s individual champion. The pair led Harker to a second-place finish in the league overall with a 7-3 record. At the CCS golf championships in Carmel, Huang ended her Harker golf career on a high note, shooting an 82 to finish in 30th place at Rancho Canada; she became the first Harker golfer to qualify for CCS as an individual all four years of her career. Her score of 82 represents the lowest score ever carded by a Harker girls golfer at CCS. At the same event, Lin followed up with an 85, placing 38th out of 90 participants, and became the first female Harker golfer to win the regular season individual title. To cap it off, she won the league championships with an impressive score of 73 at Poplar Creek.
Tennis
The girls tennis season came to a close as they lost to St. Francis 11-7 in the CCS quarterfinals. They finished with a 14-3 overall record and a second-place finish in the WBAL! Standout doubles team Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, and Katia Mironova, grade 11, won the WBAL doubles championship and represented Harker at the CCS individual tournament.
Volleyball
Congratulations to the varsity girls volleyball team, who won their league championship this year. They advanced to the CCS semifinals where, against top-seeded Harbor High School, the girls were able to take one game in the best of five match, ultimately losing 25-18, 21-25, 25-18, 25-14. The girls had won a nail-biter just to get to the semis when they made a dramatic comeback in the quarterfinals, winning three in a row to upset the fourth-seeded Soquel Knights. This was certainly one of the most exciting volleyball games in the program’s history! The girls finished the year with a 22-7 record overall and a 10-2 mark in league play. Shreya Dixit, grade 10, led the team with 183 kills, just above junior Divya Kalidindi’s 178, and Dixit’s kill percentage of 47.7 was just a few ticks shy of freshman Doreene Kang’s team-leading 49.2. On defense, Dixit and Kang shone as well, with 40 and 36 blocks, respectively, tying for a team lead in blocks-per-set with 0.6.
Water Polo
Girls water polo capped off a historic season with a league championship, defeating Mountain View 9-5 in the semifinal match of the league tournament, and their first-ever CCS appearance, finishing up the year with a 20-7 record. The team was led by league MVP Keri Clifford, grade 12, who racked up a gaudy stat line with 98 goals and 219 points. Congratulations, ladies, on your accomplishments and for making Harker history! The boys team finished 12-16 overall and 4-8 in league play but cruised into the offseason with some momentum for next year, having won their last two games to finish fourth in their league.
Lower School and Middle School
Football
Grade 8 varsity football finished in fifth place in their league, as did Grade 7 varsity football, but grade 6 football pulled off a perfect 9-0 season to capture their league championships, and grade 5 football secured an even record at 3-3 to finish in a tie for fourth place in their league.
Softball
Grade 6-8 varsity sluggers won second place in their league with a strong 5-1 season, while grade 4-5 softball ran the table with a 6-0 record and a league championship.
Cross Country
The team finished up their season with the WBAL cross country meet at Bayfront Park, where both the boys and girls teams finished in third place overall with a few standout individual performances. For the girls, Sarah Savage, grade 7, captured first place in her race with Niki Iyer, grade 8, just behind her for the second place finish. On the boys’ side, Arnav Tandon, grade 8, finished third to put Harker in the top three of both races.
Swimming
Harker swimmers concluded their fall with the WBAL swim meet at Sacred Heart Prep. In the grade 5-6 boys medley relay (MR), taking second place were Edwin Su, Arjun Kilaru, Stephan Sokolov and Krish Kapadia, all grade 6; and in third place, Noah Salisbury, Rohan Arora, Kai-Ming Ang and Cole Smitherman, all grade 5.
Further results were:
Grade 5-6 girls MR, third place: Angela Li, Sara Min, Anusha Kuppahally, Alexandra Janssen, all grade 6
Grade 5-6 girls Individual Medley (IM), first place: Angela Li
Grade 5-6 girls 25-back, first place: Angela Li
Grade 5-6 boys 100-free, third place: Arnav Jain, grade 5.
Grade 5-6 girls 25-breast, third place: Sara Min
Grade 7 boys MR, second place: Victor Shin, Jeffrey Ma, Alexander Wang, Derek Kuo
Grade 7 boys IM, first place and grade 7 boys 50-free, second place: Jeffrey Ma
Grade 7 boys 50-fly, third place: Adriano Hernandez
Grade 7 boys 50-breast, third place: Aadith Srinivisan
This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
A clear but slightly chilly evening at the upper school campus was the setting for the 2013 Harker Homecoming, highlighted by a tense faceoff between the varsity football teams of Harker and Lynbrook High School at Davis Field.
Attendees had plenty of fun both before and during the game, with tailgate areas serving many varieties of snacks and drinks to the patrons. Meanwhile, Mrs. Carley’s Café served savory barbecue and upper school students sold hot pizza by the slice. Harker journalism students sold programs they had made to raise money to pay for equipment and publishing costs. A favorite attraction during the evening was a taped-off area where attendees could take turns bashing a car, spray-painted with the graduation years of the upper school classes, with a sledgehammer or baseball bat.
Prior to the start of the game, Harker performing arts groups kept the attendees entertained. After a rousing performance by the upper school’s Varsity Dance Troupe, the lower school’s junior cheer squad received an enthusiastic ovation for their spirited and well-executed routine, and the crowd was equally receptive for the Eaglets flyby, a longstanding homecoming tradition, directed by Gail Palmer. Dressed in their eagle costumes and dancing to the appropriately familiar strains of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle,” the grade 2 performers were, as always, a highlight of the pre-game festivities.
Out on Rosenthal Field, younger children had a blast playing in no fewer than three inflatable structures: a bounce house, a large slide and an elaborate playhouse. Others made their own fun by tossing a football or playing other schoolyard games.
Akshaya Premkumar, grade 9, enjoyed homecoming for the opportunity to bond with friends. She was also cheering hard for an Eagle win. “I like cheering. I’m a very spirited person!” she said. Her friend Caitlin Benge, also grade 9, was enjoying her 10th homecoming since kindergarten. “My favorite part is the tug of war,” she said.
Harker alumni, including several Palo Alto Military Academy graduates, were out in force to support their alma mater and reminisce with old friends and teachers. The special alumni area was busy for the entire event with returning graduates, faculty and current students enjoying food and good company.
“There’s always good food and good conversation,” Steven Brimm ’02 said of Harker community events such as homecoming. Although it had been years since he had visited Harker, he said, he enjoyed seeing his former classmates and teachers.
Ed Williams ’02 said “the friends” were what brought him to this year’s homecoming. “Here’s one right here!” he exclaimed, as he reunited with his former advisor, John Hawley, the upper school Latin teacher.
During halftime, Head of School Chris Nikoloff took time to recognize the three alumni who received awards at Harker’s Alumni Day in June. See page 45 for details.
Just before kickoff, vocal groups from all three campuses gathered to sing stirring renditions of “The Harker School Song” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by Susan Nace.
Halftime entertainment began with a performance by Harker’s upper school cheer squad, who impressed the crowd with a complex routine. The traditions continued with the conclusion of this year’s tug of war competition, as the Classes of 2013 and 2014 took to the center of Davis Field. The seniors took home this year’s tug of war trophy after a well-earned victory.
As the third quarter approached, this year’s homecoming court was brought onto the field, riding golf carts driven by their advisors. Performing arts teacher and class dean Jeffrey Draper then revealed Maverick McNealy and Akarsha Gulukota, both grade 12, as this year’s homecoming king and queen.
The football team then took the field in spectacular fashion by bursting through a massive paper sign to begin the second half. Although the Eagles lost the hard-fought contest 39-45, it was nevertheless a memorable event for all in attendance that surely already has the Harker community eager for next year.
This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
In November, Harker students across all three campuses joined American voters, and global observers, by getting caught up in pre-election and Election Day fever!
At the lower and middle school campuses, students learned firsthand what it’s like to cast their votes for a presidential candidate, thanks to two separately held mock elections. Meanwhile, at the upper school, the Junior States of America (JSA) club conducted an innovative pre-election poll of staff and faculty (instead of students as they have in previous election years).
The results of the anonymous lower and middle school mock elections mirrored those of the real one – with President Barack Obama emerging as the winner. The results of the upper school poll (which favored Obama) were published in the online daily news feed of the student newspaper, The Winged Post. The JSA also hosted a Pizza and Politics evening on election night for students to convene, enjoy dinner and watch election coverage together.
The lower school saw Obama capturing 73 percent of the vote during its mock election, which was held on Oct. 30 for the entire student body in advance of the real election. Kristin Giammona, elementary school head, credited the lower school teachers with helping to prepare the students for their big voting turnout, which was conducted online with a weeklong absentee voting period.
Long after their voting sessions had ended, lower school students proudly continued wearing their “I voted” stickers on their shirts. The lower campus election was tied into part of a larger nationwide mock election effort called Every Kid Votes, designed specifically for elementary school students. In fact, Harker youngsters joined more than 1.19 million children participating in the program, sponsored by American Legacy Publishing, the publishers of Studies Weekly Publications.
“The main purpose of education is to produce a self-governing citizenry,” said Ed Rickers, president of Studies Weekly, explaining why the mock election was so productive.
Educating students about the presidential election process from an early age was certainly the goal at Bucknall, where even kindergartners voted during the first 10 minutes of their computer science classes. In Lisa Hackwood’s afternoon computer class, the youngsters were instructed that they were going to have a chance to cast their votes just like their parents.
“You know how mom and dad vote … now you get a chance!” said Hackwood to the class. “To cast your vote you just click on your candidate shown onscreen. And remember to keep it to yourself; voting is private.”
Kindergartner Avayna Glass was an old hand at voting, having done something similar in preschool for a different mock election. At first she was undecided whether to vote for the “dark-haired or gray-haired guy.” But eventually she made up her mind, keeping her decision, as instructed, to herself.
In grades 1 and 2 voting was done in homeroom classes. Grade 3 voted in their study skills classes, grade 4 in social studies, and grade 5 in computer science. And, in addition to the mock election, grade 1 students in Rita Stone’s class also held a second election on Election Day for a favorite storybook character, while second graders voted on their favorite cereals.
Using paper ballots and a voting booth, grade 1 homeroom teachers supervised their students’ book character voting at various times throughout the day. Students were instructed to put a check mark next to the top character of their choice. They were told they could pick only one from the following: Amelia Bedelia, Mrs. Frizzle, Harry the Dirty Dog, Elephant and Piggy, and Froggy.
And the winner went to … Elephant and Piggy with 32 votes! Mrs. Frizzle came in second with 19 votes and Harry the Dirty Dog, 18. Lagging behind was Froggy with just eight votes and poor Amelia Bedelia came in last place with zero.
“The first graders became really interested in the election … our mock elections and the real one! They were all talking about it the next day,” enthused Stone.
In grade 3, teacher Heather Russell’s afternoon class voted on an iPad at a back table set up with a divider and curtain. Before having the class vote, she spoke about what to expect and how an election works in real life. Hands went up as students eagerly participated in the discussion. “Not every country has the right, or privilege, to vote,” explained Russell.
Emilia Long, grade 3, was the first one to vote in the makeshift, curtained-off voting booth. Both presidential candidates appeared on the iPad and all the students had to do was tap the one they wanted to vote for. Emerging from the voting area, she said, “That was really fun. Now I have a better idea of what my parents are doing when they go to vote.”
At the middle school, students had a regular schedule on the Nov. 6 Election Day and voted during their advisory periods, which met in the morning. Grades 6-7 voted in their advisory rooms and grade 8 voted in the main gym. Unlike the high-tech national voting process of the lower school, middle schoolers voted via paper ballots which had been distributed to advisory teachers in advance. After voting in their designated areas, the students’ ballots were then collected, combined and hand counted in the library by mock election organizers Bernie Morrissey, the librarian, and Pat White, who teaches history.
“We held our election on Election Day – the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November – per the U.S. Constitution,” explained White.
Even Ellen DeGeneres got a vote in the middle school mock election, generating some great classroom discussions about third party and independent candidates. Standing outside the gym, sporting Harker Eagles sweatshirts and khaki shorts, were grade 8 students Alex Mo, Shekar Ramaswamy and Anthony DeVincenzi. The trio agreed that the mock election had been an impactful experience.
Ramaswamy called mock elections important because they “give students a sense of responsibility and an idea about the role politics play in society.”
“It was really fun,” added DeVincenzi. “Now I’m more interested in watching the election coverage on television.”
Election enthusiasm ran just as high at the upper school during the Pizza and Politics event held in the Bistro, which kicked off at 5 p.m. when the East Coast polls closed. It was attended by approximately 65 students and faculty members. Organized by JSA officers, Pizza and Politics was designed to increase political interest in the community as well as publicize the intentions and ideas behind JSA.
The upper school further kept the election excitement momentum moving by using it as a springboard to put many of the lessons that students learned to practical use. Butch Keller, upper school head, had earlier advised teachers to give their students the opportunity to watch the historic elections on Election Day by lightening that night’s homework load. Some teachers opted to make homework creatively tied to the elections.
Said JSA president Sachin Vadodaria, grade 11: “As Harker JSA is all about increasing youth interest in politics and leadership, we saw the elections, both national and state, as a great way to increase student interest in politics, or at least have people think and talk about these political decisions which ultimately do affect all of us.”
Thanks to Harker’s mock and other pre- and post-election activities – and regardless of whether or not students were in favor of Obama – all the grades agreed on one thing: politics can be fun!
Dec. 4 marks a historic moment for The Harker School. When The Palo Alto Military Academy and Miss Harker’s School for Girls merged and moved from Palo Alto to San Jose in 1972, the Nichols family took enormous risks in settling the school’s new home in San Jose. More than four decades later, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved The Harker School’s use permit of the 4525 Union Avenue property. “This historic vote moves Harker one step closer towards owning all three of our campuses, and securing the City of San Jose as the permanent home of our wonderful community,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school.
Harker plans to open a preschool in the fall of 2013 on the Union campus and later, as part of a broader strategy of unwinding from the Blackford lease, move the lower school program to Union and the middle school program to Bucknall. At that time the school will own all three of its San Jose sites, each uniquely dedicated to the needs of its students.
“An effort like the securing of the Union Avenue campus is not possible without the help of a great team and the support of the community. I want to thank everyone in the Harker community who leaned in to make this historic accomplishment a reality,” said Nikoloff.
Khaled Hosseini, author of best-selling novels “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” greeted more than 20 attendees who bought special tickets for a reception prior to Hosseini’s appearance at the Harker Speaker Series on Friday evening. In addition to being able to meet and chat with the author, the guests also received a personalized copy of one of Hosseini’s novels as well as admission to the main event.
Harker’s former director of global education, Bill Bost, passed away in June and his friends at Harker are joining with Bost’s dear friend, Mike Kerbyson, in holding a memorial to celebrate his life. The memorial will be Sat., Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in the Bucknall gym, followed by an informal gathering at Harry’s Hofbrau next to the Saratoga campus at 390 Saratoga Ave at 3:30 p.m. Bost’s children, Tanner and Klara, and their mother, Katrina Church, will be flying in from North Carolina. Bost started at Harker in 1993 as a grade 4 teacher and in 2001 became director of special projects in the advancement department.
A year later he took on the position of grant writer/director of international programs, which later became the global education program; Bost became director of that program in 2004. He also worked for many years as a summer program administrator. Kristin Giammona, elementary division head and long-time friend of Bost’s, said she hopes many will attend the memorial, “so Tanner and Klara can grasp how important and special Bill was to Harker and to his Harker friends.” If you have any photos you would like to include in the memorial’s slide show, please email them to Giammona at kristing@harker.org.
Upon request, Harker’s Advancement Department has established the Bill Bost Scholarship Fund. These funds will benefit the school’s general scholarship endowment fund. Those wishing to contribute to the Bill Bost Scholarship Fund may do so by making their checks payable to the Harker School and write in the memo Bill Bost Scholarship Endowment Fund. For those wishing to use their credit card to make the gift, please call Allison Vaughan, Donor Relations Director at 408-345-9629 or e-mail her at Allisonv@harker.org.
On Nov. 3 an intrepid quartet of Harker teachers placed third in the fifth annual Silicon Valley Trivia Challenge, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. The contest is a fundraiser held by the Junior League of San Jose, and Chris and Marcia Riedel of Hunter Labs (and former Harker parents) have kindly sponsored the Harker table since the contest’s inception in 2008. Finalists each year, Harker placed third in 2009 and second in 2010; all three times Harker has donated its winnings ($1,000 for second, $500 for third) back to the Junior League.
The Harker Eggheads – Linda Felice (middle school English), Brian Larsen (K-12 production manager), Tony Silk (upper school math) and Paul Vallerga (middle school technical director) – were one of 47 teams. After the preliminary elimination round of 20 questions on subjects like pop culture, chemistry, astronomy, geography and literature, Harker was one of only two teams with a perfect score. In the semifinals, no team was perfect, but Harker had 13 of 15 questions correct and easily made the finals. (It seems that “tittle,” the word for the little dot on a lowercase English i or j, stumped the room.) The final 10 teams held on, with a five-round sudden death finally determining this year’s first and second place winners: a group of friends from Santa Cruz who also won last year, and the team from NBC Bay Area, who called themselves La Triviata. The winner was finally determined by the team who could name the greatest number of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands.
Each year this fun event includes a costume contest, raffle drawings and cocktails and dinner, and is overseen by master of ceremonies Mike Inouye of NBC Bay Area and trivia question judge Lawrence Stone, the tax assessor for Santa Clara County, who handles the good-natured “boos” accompanying his introduction and judgments with aplomb.
Many thanks to the Harker Eggheads for representing the school so well!