On March 7, some of Harker’s middle school and upper school students competed in the Synopsys Championship, a regional competition that showcases achievements in math and science. Harker has been competing in the Synopsys Championship for years in both the junior (grades 6-8) and senior (grades 9-12) categories. The competition draws hundreds of students from all types of schools, and awards and prizes are given in many areas.
In the competition, students work both independently and in teams to answer questions in many areas, including computer science, environmental science, medicine and health, chemistry and biology.
Chris Spenner, an upper school physics and science teacher, said that, “Harker students arrive at Synopsys along a variety of avenues: the research class, the Open Lab program, the Harker-arranged summer internships, and direct mentorship by Harker faculty. A few students pursue research independently of Harker programs.” To qualify, “students completed an application form which was reviewed for procedural safety, ethics and minimum quality standards by Synopsys volunteers. The fair is open to all projects in the sciences and engineering,” Spenner said.
The middle school students performed admirably at the fair. Anika Mohindra, grade 8, won the second award in the botany category, while Sneha Bhetanabhotla, grade 7, took home the first award in the physics category as well as second place for grades 6-8 for the Vacuum Coaters Society. Kristin Ko, grade 8, won the second place award for grades 6-8 for the American Society of Civil Engineers. Rishabh Chandra, grade 8, and Jonathan Ma, grade 8, took first award for the physics category, for their joint project. Both Avi Khemani, grade 7, and Manan Shah, also grade 7, brought home an honorable mention for the environmental sciences category for their project. Michael Zhao, grade 8, took the second award for his project in biochemistry/microbiology. Finally for the middle school, Venkat Sankar, grade 7, took home the first award in the botany category.
The upper school students also performed very well, with 27 students earning awards. Sriram Somosundaram, grade 9, took the first award for the biochemistry/microbiology category, as well as winning first place for the Inez M. Lechner award. Prag Batra, grade 12, took home an honorable mention in the med-immune category as well as a grade 12 individual project award. Stephanie Chen and Kristine Lin took home the second award in the chemistry category for their joint project, while Paulomi Bhattacharya and Eesha Khare, both grade 11, took home awards for outstanding sustainability as well as an honorable mention in the chemistry category for their project. Vikas Bhetanabhotla, grade 10, took home the first award in the physics category. Lucy Cheng, grade 12, took home the first award in the Earth/space sciences category, while Emily Chu, grade 11, and Payal Modi, also grade 11, took home the second award in the environmental sciences category. Another successful joint project was developed by Christopher Fu and Matthew Huang, grade 10 and grade 9 respectively, and it took home an honorable mention award in the physics category. Anika Gupta, grade 10, won the first award in the environmental sciences category. Another upper school student, Rishabh Jain, grade 9, received a second award in the computers/mathematics category. Saachi Jain, grade 10, also took home an award – the first award in the chemistry category.
Revanth Kosaraju, grade 12, took home two awards: an honorable mention in med-immune as well as a first award for biochemistry/microbiology. Neil Movva, grade 9, received first place for the Inez M. Lechner Award. Suchita Nety, grade 11, also placed, and was awarded the second award in the chemistry category. Anika Ridiya-Dixit, grade 11, received a prestigious award – a certificate of achievement from the United States Army for her project in the areas of medicine/health. Upper school student Tara Rezvani, grade 11, took home the first award in the behavioral/social areas. Vikram Sundar, grade 10, won the second award in the bioinformatics category. Vedant Thayagaraj, grade 9, was awarded second in the medicine/health/gerontology category. Sarina Vij, grade 11, also took home an award as a finalist in the Synopsys Outreach Foundation prize. Also at the fair, Albert Wu, grade 12, was awarded first in the bioinformatics category. Finally for the upper school, Stanley Xie, grade 9, took home an honorable mention in the medicine/health/gerontology category, while Samyukta Yagati, also grade 9, was awarded first in the computers/mathematics category.
This story was originally published in the spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly.
The Harker community breathed a collective sigh of relief on Feb. 1, the date that marked the completion of more than a year of intense self-reflection and evaluation as part of the school’s reaccreditation process for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS). Harker was awarded the maximum full six-year accreditation in 2006, and the present process for hopefully a further six-year nod was a schoolwide, all-hands-on-deck project.
Each accreditation cycle, CAIS-WASC supplies a template report which Harker is obliged to fill out, covering our philosophy, governing body, finances, fundraising, administration, faculty, staff, students, community, K-12 program, library, plant, health and safety, and an action plan; each of these divisions comprises a chapter in the more than 300-page document that the school prepares for a visiting accreditation team. The team was provided this report in late November, allowing them to prepare for an intensive, three-day visit Jan. 29- Feb. 1, during which they tried to delve as deeply as possible into the life of the school by visiting all three campuses, meeting people and absorbing as much of the culture as they could. The visit culminated in an all-school meeting at the middle school campus on Feb. 1, when the committee head, Larry Dougherty, head of school at The Buckley School in Southern California, addressed the faculty and staff to offer his team’s commendations and recommendations.
On all California schools’ accreditation teams, one member visits on behalf of WASC, while the others represent CAIS; the team then submits a joint recommendation to CAIS and WASC for the appropriate tenure of accreditation, with six years with no follow-up visit being the maximum amount awarded. Harker’s accreditation team was particularly appropriate for observing Harker; all from independent California schools, the group comprised four heads of school/principals, an assistant head of school, a director, an admissions director, a technology director, an academic dean and a director of instructional advancement.
The dynamic group dove into their responsibilities and could be spotted in classrooms and lunch areas, chatting with students and faculty throughout their visit. Their schedule, overseen by Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, included meetings with every academic department K-12; meetings with subsets of the committees who worked on each chapter of the report; school meetings at the middle and upper schools; and student council meetings, breakfasts and even fire drills at all three campuses. Many students and teachers found themselves being pulled aside for friendly chats, and the final day of the visit allowed committee members time to ask any last questions of the administration or other staff.
On the final day of the visit, Dougherty addressed the entire community to officially conclude their visit. While a detailed report of the committee’s findings will be sent to Harker in the spring, Dougherty did verbally commend the faculty, staff, students, administration, board of trustees, finance, business office and support staff for their excellent work. Perhaps even more gratifying, however, was that the CAIS-WASC team’s recommendations for development and improvement supported ones that the school has already identified for improvement, and in fact had been included in the self-study as places for growth.
After getting through the nitty-gritty, Dougherty said that he had some “warm fuzzies” to deliver, pointing out two special people who have so much to do with Harker’s success. The first was Gargano, whose comprehensive plan and hospitality for the CAIS-WASC team’s visit was truly exceptional. The other was Diana Nichols, and by extension her late husband, Howard Nichols, Harker’s longtime leaders and the founders of the upper school. Diana Nichols, who was present, is currently the chair of the board of trustees. Dougherty commended them on establishing and preserving the school’s family atmosphere and for choosing a successor (Chris Nikoloff) with such care and success.
His next comment, “As a committee, we’ve been Harkerized,” drew a warm laugh from the assembled group. After joking that he gained two pounds from the excellent food, Dougherty said he and his team are leaving inspired. He mentioned that all the people his team met were “on a journey” of continual learning, unwilling to settle and compromise, but rather continually seeking personal and professional growth. The children they spoke to had two main reactions when asked about their classes: they cited their teachers’ love and passion for learning and teaching, and the intense care the faculty feels for their students as individuals.
Pointing out that accreditation is a “mutual growth process,” Dougherty concluded that he and his team would be bringing wonderful ideas home to their schools, saying, “You really have set a standard that all schools should aspire to.”
Chris Nikoloff sent a congratulatory message to the Harker community when the visit was concluded, thanking the faculty and staff for their hard work in preparing the report and meeting with the committee: “Places like Harker do not spring up overnight, and take the concerted effort of talented, kind and caring people like you to continue its journey in excellence. While the structure of an organization may take different shapes over time, the core values, reflected in the people around us, are timeless.”
This story was originally published in the spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly.
Throughout its long history The Harker School has proactively adapted to changing environments to meet the needs of its growing student population. Now, with breaking news that Harker was the top bidder on a desirable, available campus property, the school finds itself at yet another turning point.
For years Harker, the largest K-12 independent school in California, has leased its middle school campus on Blackford Ave. And, while this has worked well, Harker’s forward-thinking administration has long dreamed of owning all three of its campuses. With the current bid accepted and pending final county approval, that vision of building permanency and security seems poised to become a reality.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, reviewed the plans for acquiring the ideally suited campus property located near Union Ave. and Highway 280 at a recent benefactor’s luncheon.
“We found an available campus structure that is exactly the right fit … so there is a strong sense that we should move on it,” Nikoloff said during the luncheon, after thanking attendees for coming out and partnering with Harker.
He then introduced some Harker science students, who came to the meeting to echo his gratitude to the school’s funders. The students also shared updates on their impressive research projects, with topics ranging from autism studies and embedding enzymes, to lab work towards fighting HIV infections and cancer.
“When I was in high school my biggest concern was why wouldn’t my teacher let me play Ping-Pong at recess,” joked Nikoloff, after congratulating the students on their accomplishments, which illus- trate how far the upper campus has come since its creation in 1998.
Nikoloff used the metaphor of “putting toothpaste back in the tube,” when comparing the option of having to move the middle school back to the upper school campus after the current Blackford lease runs out. “In other words, it is not a viable option,” he said, explaining the school has grown too much and that it would lead to serious problems of overcrowding.
Speaking on behalf of the administration and board members who have been diligently working to secure a suitable property, he added, “We are bullish on the Union property. It just doesn’t happen every day that you find something in the exact area you are looking for, with the exact features.”
The subsequent decision to put in a bid on the building was the result of an exhaustive community-wide effort to secure Harker’s future direction.
Alice Siegel (Elisabeth, grade 8; Kathryn, grade 12), who attended the benefactor luncheon, said that she trusts the school administra- tion to take the lead in moving forward with the bid. A parent of a Harker “lifer,” Siegel said she has watched the school, along with her children, successfully grow and change over the years.
Calling the new campus acquisition process part of the school’s cornerstone campaign, Joe Rosenthal, executive director of ad- vancement, elaborated that purchasing a third campus was one of four previously set strategic financial priorities, including ongoing program excellence, building out a master site plan and increasing endowment and reserves.
“Even when the bubble burst during the economic recession, givers to the advancement campaign pulled through, with continued enthusiasm for the expansion project,” said Rosenthal, noting that additional funds were raised through the capital campaign, which may enable Harker to purchase the new building outright.
“While excellent programs are always at the heart of the school, those programs are enhanced by the facilities and infrastructure that support them,” said Rosenthal.
If the county approves, and the bid does, indeed, move full steam ahead, the purchase and sale would likely close by the end of the summer. And that, said Nikoloff, would be a “major milestone” for Harker’s future.
This story was originally published in the spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly.
Throughout its long history The Harker School has proactively adapted to changing environments to meet the needs of its growing student population. Now, with breaking news that Harker was the top bidder on a desirable, available campus property, the school finds itself at yet another turning point.
For years Harker, the largest K-12 independent school in California, has leased its middle school campus on Blackford Ave. And, while this has worked well, Harker’s forward-thinking administration has long dreamed of owning all three of its campuses. With the current bid accepted and pending final county approval, that vision of building permanency and security seems poised to become a reality.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, reviewed the plans for acquiring the ideally suited campus property located near Union Ave. and Highway 280 at a recent benefactor’s luncheon.
“We found an available campus structure that is exactly the right fit … so there is a strong sense that we should move on it,” Nikoloff said during the luncheon, after thanking attendees for coming out and partnering with Harker.
He then introduced some Harker science students, who came to the meeting to echo his gratitude to the school’s funders. The students also shared updates on their impressive research projects, with topics ranging from autism studies and embedding enzymes, to lab work towards fighting HIV infections and cancer.
“When I was in high school my biggest concern was why wouldn’t my teacher let me play Ping-Pong at recess,” joked Nikoloff, after congratulating the students on their accomplishments, which illus- trate how far the upper campus has come since its creation in 1998.
Nikoloff used the metaphor of “putting toothpaste back in the tube,” when comparing the option of having to move the middle school back to the upper school campus after the current Blackford lease runs out. “In other words, it is not a viable option,” he said, explaining the school has grown too much and that it would lead to serious problems of overcrowding.
Speaking on behalf of the administration and board members who have been diligently working to secure a suitable property, he added, “We are bullish on the Union property. It just doesn’t happen every day that you find something in the exact area you are looking for, with the exact features.”
The subsequent decision to put in a bid on the building was the result of an exhaustive community-wide effort to secure Harker’s future direction.
Alice Siegel (Elisabeth, grade 8; Kathryn, grade 12), who attended the benefactor luncheon, said that she trusts the school administra- tion to take the lead in moving forward with the bid. A parent of a Harker “lifer,” Siegel said she has watched the school, along with her children, successfully grow and change over the years.
Calling the new campus acquisition process part of the school’s cornerstone campaign, Joe Rosenthal, executive director of ad- vancement, elaborated that purchasing a third campus was one of four previously set strategic financial priorities, including ongoing program excellence, building out a master site plan and increasing endowment and reserves.
“Even when the bubble burst during the economic recession, givers to the advancement campaign pulled through, with continued enthusiasm for the expansion project,” said Rosenthal, noting that additional funds were raised through the capital campaign, which may enable Harker to purchase the new building outright.
“While excellent programs are always at the heart of the school, those programs are enhanced by the facilities and infrastructure that support them,” said Rosenthal.
If the county approves, and the bid does, indeed, move full steam ahead, the purchase and sale would likely close by the end of the summer. And that, said Nikoloff, would be a “major milestone” for Harker’s future.
This story was originally published in the spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly.
Throughout its long history The Harker School has proactively adapted to changing environments to meet the needs of its growing student population. Now, with breaking news that Harker was the top bidder on a desirable, available campus property, the school finds itself at yet another turning point.
For years Harker, the largest K-12 independent school in California, has leased its middle school campus on Blackford Ave. And, while this has worked well, Harker’s forward-thinking administration has long dreamed of owning all three of its campuses. With the current bid accepted and pending final county approval, that vision of building permanency and security seems poised to become a reality.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, reviewed the plans for acquiring the ideally suited campus property located near Union Ave. and Highway 280 at a recent benefactor’s luncheon.
“We found an available campus structure that is exactly the right fit … so there is a strong sense that we should move on it,” Nikoloff said during the luncheon, after thanking attendees for coming out and partnering with Harker.
He then introduced some Harker science students, who came to the meeting to echo his gratitude to the school’s funders. The students also shared updates on their impressive research projects, with topics ranging from autism studies and embedding enzymes, to lab work towards fighting HIV infections and cancer.
“When I was in high school my biggest concern was why wouldn’t my teacher let me play Ping-Pong at recess,” joked Nikoloff, after congratulating the students on their accomplishments, which illus- trate how far the upper campus has come since its creation in 1998.
Nikoloff used the metaphor of “putting toothpaste back in the tube,” when comparing the option of having to move the middle school back to the upper school campus after the current Blackford lease runs out. “In other words, it is not a viable option,” he said, explaining the school has grown too much and that it would lead to serious problems of overcrowding.
Speaking on behalf of the administration and board members who have been diligently working to secure a suitable property, he added, “We are bullish on the Union property. It just doesn’t happen every day that you find something in the exact area you are looking for, with the exact features.”
The subsequent decision to put in a bid on the building was the result of an exhaustive community-wide effort to secure Harker’s future direction.
Alice Siegel (Elisabeth, grade 8; Kathryn, grade 12), who attended the benefactor luncheon, said that she trusts the school administra- tion to take the lead in moving forward with the bid. A parent of a Harker “lifer,” Siegel said she has watched the school, along with her children, successfully grow and change over the years.
Calling the new campus acquisition process part of the school’s cornerstone campaign, Joe Rosenthal, executive director of ad- vancement, elaborated that purchasing a third campus was one of four previously set strategic financial priorities, including ongoing program excellence, building out a master site plan and increasing endowment and reserves.
“Even when the bubble burst during the economic recession, givers to the advancement campaign pulled through, with continued enthusiasm for the expansion project,” said Rosenthal, noting that additional funds were raised through the capital campaign, which may enable Harker to purchase the new building outright.
“While excellent programs are always at the heart of the school, those programs are enhanced by the facilities and infrastructure that support them,” said Rosenthal.
If the county approves, and the bid does, indeed, move full steam ahead, the purchase and sale would likely close by the end of the summer. And that, said Nikoloff, would be a “major milestone” for Harker’s future.
This story was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly
Fashions may trend, but celebrating special moments with friends, family and as a community will never go out of style.
More than 1,000 guests who attended The Harker School’s recent fashion show had the rare opportunity both to unite for a good cause and catch a glimpse of the latest in runway fashion trends. The hottest looks by top designers were seen walking a catwalk not in Paris, Milan or even New York – but on a stage much closer to home.
Held at the bustling downtown San Jose Convention Center, the fashion show wowed its audience, living up to its nine-year-old reputation as a fun, profitable fundraiser. Appreciative guests filled both lunch and dinner gatherings, which were open to the public. The theme of the event, which raised funds and awareness for the school, was Celebrate! … K through Life! Money raised will go a long way towards aiding Harker’s scholarship and other funds.
The theme was carried through in celebrations of inner and outer beauty, illustrated with moving videos and breathtaking runway fashions. The videos shared the stories of the students themselves and the bonds they had formed with their close-knit community of teachers and peers. Fashions representing a range of top designers were expertly modeled by both students, teachers and parents alike.
Even before the doors officially opened, guests were entertained by perusing the variety of auction items on display outside the main ballroom. This year’s live auction included temptations such as a one-week stay at a luxury Costa Rican estate, a private dinner with the head of school, and a food and wine pairing party for 12 people.
Also on hand to provide ambience and drum up pre-show excitement were student chamber ensembles, playing in the outside hall. Some attendees spilled out to the adjoining patio to catch up with friends from the Harker community and enjoy the glorious weather. Others had their pictures taken with various props at a photo booth, run by volunteer students Crystal Chen and Mark Taboada, called “Celebrate Your Inner Fashionista.”
“We are first-time volunteers,” said the duo, both seniors, noting that they have the ambitious goal of wanting to attend every school event at least once before graduating.
Standing nearby was Rohan Arora, grade 4, who came out in support of his sister Riya, grade 2 and one of the fashion show’s models. Clad in a smart suit and tie to show his support of both the school and his sister, he said it is his first year attending, but now he wants to come every year.
Once invited inside, guests couldn’t help but admire the beautifully decorated ballroom, complete with floral centerpieces held in place by a bow-tied box designed to look like a present. In further keeping with the theme of celebrating special occasions was a box of toy noisemakers so the audience could cheer on the models.
As guests were taking their seats, the Harker Jazz Band, directed by Chris Florio, played. Then Varsity Dance Troupe took to the stage in a choreographed, energetic opener to formally open the show, performing in black pants, gold tops and black sequined jackets, their hair held up in sophisticated twists.
Chris Nikoloff, head of school, welcomed guests, noting that he had just enjoyed a personal celebration of his own – the birth of his third child. He later introduced Revanth Kosaraju, grade 12, the upper school’s student body president. Nikoloff joked that he might as well “hand over my keys to the office to Revanth,” calling Kosaraju an all-around amazing school representative. Taking the microphone, Kosaraju then thanked the fashion show donors, reading a moving quote from a student who wouldn’t otherwise have been able to attend Harker, had he not benefited from a financial aid scholarship.
The music and visuals which accompanied the models were all the brainchild of Laura Lang-Ree, the show’s director and chair of the performing arts department. The music was a mix of top-pop hits matching each themed model session. Clothes were graciously provided by designers Ken Chen, Eli Thomas for Men, Tommy Bahama, Old Navy, Oakley, Spazio and more. The Chen segment was especially exciting, as the couture designer dressed Harker’s models in some of the clothes he had just shown in New York at the premiere of his fall 2012 collection.
The modeling sessions moved effortlessly from young children who would have looked adorable even without the added benefit of gorgeous clothes, to adults who ruled the runway for the segment “A Job Well Done.” Props this year for the students were fun and playful, including skateboards, scooters and jump ropes. Adult props included briefcases, cell phones and Starbucks coffee cups. As if that weren’t enough excitement, Dance Fusion and Downbeat provided memorable musical numbers in between modeling segments.
For the grand finale, festive, multicolored confetti was shot high above the stage and everyone walked down the catwalk one last time, driving home the fact that this year’s fashion show – while honoring celebrations – was truly a grand celebration in and of itself.
In closing, Sue Prutton, fashion show liaison and upper school volunteer director, urged attendees to cherish memories of both their personal, family and communal school celebrations.
Net proceeds from Celebrate!, which are still being totaled at press time, go to provide financial assistance to students who would otherwise be unable to benefit from a Harker education, fund the construction of the new gym and performing arts center, and support the mission to purchase a third campus.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s athletic department is making a concerted effort to make available the best sport-specific training possible to lower and middle school athletes. The integrated program will enhance player skills, introduce them to varsity coaches and training techniques and should result in higher caliber teams for Harker.
Solid Staff
The integration has become possible with the careful expansion of the athletic staff. Dan Molin, athletic director, joined Harker in 2005 and recognized the benefit of harnessing Harker’s potential for an integrated athletic program. “We’d like our younger athletes to see themselves contributing someday to the upper school program,” he said. “They see the wonderful student and coach role models in the upper school and want to emulate them.”
The integration, gradually introduced where appropriate over the last few years, provides a smooth transition for student athletes as they progress towards and enter the upper school. “The main goals are to have similar skills taught at the lower and middle school programs as are taught in the upper school programs,” Molin said. “When those students come to the upper school, there is a seamless transition regarding those skills.”
Molin is a certified athletic administrator, a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and a lifetime member of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. At Harker he has led numerous athletic improvement projects, helped turn the football program around and coached the first boys athletic team to a Harker league championship.
One of his first steps was bringing a higher level of training to the varsity teams, and to that end, in 2007 Jaron Olson joined the department. Olson is a certified athletic trainer and a National Academy of Sports Medicine performance enhancement specialist.
The integration program took a long stride forward when Ron Forbes joined the athletic department in 2010. Forbes has national chops as a leader in developing winning athletic programs. He comes to Harker from Stanford University, where he was director of sports performance.
“Ron has been an outstanding addition to our athletic department,” said Molin. “He continually sets the bar to a higher standard.” In the last 15-plus years, Forbes has trained more than 60 athletes later drafted by the National Football League. He helped the University of Florida Gators to seven consecutive bowl games and helped Stanford secure its spot as one of the top teams in the NCAA’s PAC 10 division. His organizational ability and deep knowledge of sports programming give the athletic department the administrative depth to coordinate the additional program elements effectively.
Summer Sports Camps
Three programs – swimming, tennis and soccer – have long had summer camps that put athletes of all ages together, providing a de facto integrated program for each.
Swimming, a natural summer activity, benefitted from the opening of the Singh Aquatic Center at the upper school campus in 2008. This year a special competitive element, Junior Swim Team, was added for intermediate swimmers to practice competitive strokes and build endurance and fitness as part of a summer team.
The summer tennis program, directed by Harker’s tennis coach, Craig Pasqua (United States Professional Tennis Association certified), has been naturally integrated with the upper school tennis team as Pasqua trains young students during the summer, then sees them as they continue to compete and reach high school.
Competitive tennis players ages 6-18 train in the summer at Pasqua’s Harker Oakwood Tennis Training System (HOTTS), with team practices and interclub matches, in addition to instruction on advanced techniques, strategy, footwork and sports psychology. When students reach the upper school, they are fully acquainted with Pasqua’s methods and he with their strengths and weaknesses.
Harker also has long had a strong summer soccer program, drawing players from other schools and clubs, and enhancing the upper school’s soccer team, run by varsity coach Shaun Tsakiris. “My aim every year has been to create more and more of a buzz on campus about the sport,” says Tsakiris, a member of the 1997 U.S. National Team and winner of UCLA’s MVP Award in 2000. (For more on Tsakiris, see page 11.)
The Integration
Across the sports, integration has three elements. The first is a series of weekend training sessions during the season open to boys and girls in grades 4-8, run by varsity coaches. The middle school’s varsity A teams also practice with upper school teams. “I felt that it was extremely important for our lower and middle school athletes to see how we do things at the varsity level, see where we train and who we are as a coaching staff,” Tsakiris said. The soccer teams held an inaugural combined practice session in January, while girls basketball weekend training sessions for lower and middle school students started in early February. In addition, upper school track coaches will help with middle school track meets, and Molin, as boys varsity volleyball coach, plans to run training sessions with the grade 8 boys volleyball team.
The training sessions have enjoyed great attendance, with the basketball sessions attracting as many as 28 lower school and middle school athletes, said Molin.
Alfredo Alves, girls varsity basketball coach, noted the age groups mesh well. “At the workouts we have all four high school coaches and some varsity girls each week,” he said. “The varsity girls know everything we do and how we run things, so the coaches have full trust in the high school kids to teach the younger kids, and I feel like that is a key component to the workouts.”
“We were able to get the girls basketball clinics and boys soccer training sessions up and running for the third sports season of our lower and middle school calendar,” said Theresa “Smitty” Smith, the athletic director for grades 4-8. “Last season coach Butch Keller invited members of the lower and middle school boys basketball teams to sit on the bench at his upper school varsity basketball games.”
In addition, Smith said, “Wrestling coach Karriem Stinson runs middle school wrestling prior to upper school wrestling practice with a slight overlap so middle schoolers are integrated with upper schoolers. In the fall, we ran a grade 7 and 8 flag football tournament at the Saratoga campus, and the upper school football players helped out with everything from chain gang to scoring to clean up.”
There are other overlaps being added as schedules and personnel sync up. “In the fall,” Smith said, “upper school softball coach Raul Rios also coached the middle school softball team, and this spring we will have members of the upper school girls volleyball coaching staff, Alisa Vinkour and Diana Melendez, coach our middle school girls volleyball teams.”
Also this spring upper school water polo coaches Ted Ujifusa (boys) and Amelia Lamb (girls) will be coaching the middle school water polo teams.
New Programs
One of the jewels of the program is the new Harker Football School, taking place on Davis Field, March through May. The coed school is open to students from any school, grades 6-8, looking to improve their skills.
Forbes, who directs the football school, noted that the school has made the commitment to develop stronger players. “Success in producing football players who can compete on the highest level is the direct result of a consistent commitment to developing athletes who are sound in the fundamental skills of their respective positions,” he said. The athletic department is applying that maxim to as many sports as it can by presenting advanced techniques to younger players.
The second integration element is the plethora of sports camps Harker is running this summer. Along with tennis, swimming and soccer are now volleyball, football, basketball and water polo camps all run by Harker varsity coaches (see page 8 for details or visit www.harker.org).
In addition, Harker’s Summer Sports Conditioning (formerly Eagle Iron), a drop-in program that lasts most of the summer, meets daily and is managed by Olsen, Forbes and Smith.
The third element is the outreach upper school athletes do to the middle and lower school campuses, visiting to read or to help deliver core value messages along with school administrators. In addition, at the end of November, about 40 upper school athletes joined middle school students for lunch to get them excited about high school sports.
The advantages of the system are straightforward, said Molin. First, athletes will grow into their sports faster, gaining confidence and the ability to become better players – all good for the students’ personal growth. Second, the system will help Harker sports programs as coaches are better able to build on strengths and eliminate weaknesses of athletes, as well as better plan team play as skills build and are refined.
“We want there to be familiarity with the upper school program when students enter,” said Molin. “And naturally this will make our teams more competitive.”
This story was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly
While pushing my son on a swing the other day I noticed that he did not know how to swing himself. It is one thing when your son needs help getting on the swing – some are pretty high – but it’s another when he needs you, once he is on the swing, to get going at all. I began talking him through how to swing himself when I noticed another thing: explaining to a child how to swing himself is not easy. What do you say? It is sort of like explaining how to tie your shoes. Where do you begin? To swing, you have to lean back, pull with your arms, project your legs into the air. By the end my son looked like a piece of dough.
I then realized a third thing (it was a day full of epiphanies). I had never been taught how to swing – I had just learned on my own. I am not even sure how or when I learned. I then began thinking about all of the skills I had learned on my own through playing with kids in the neighborhood. Swimming. Throwing and hitting a ball, any kind of ball. Riding a bike, skateboarding, ice skating. Even bowling. And we didn’t just learn these skills, but we internalized the rules of the games as well. We knew enough to argue ferociously about right and wrong.
As I thought about it, my friends and I learned all of these skills organically, without a single lesson, parent or adult to help. If we hadn’t learned these skills we would have been excluded from a load of play and none of us wanted that. My boys, on the other hand, will learn none of these skills without me or some structured program. In other words, they will require the direct intervention of adults to learn these skills. Most of the children I grew up with simply did not take private lessons of any sort. Today, almost all children take some kind of private lesson or are in some structured activity.
I am not judging the present or recalling the good old days of the past. In fact, there was nothing special about our learning these skills ourselves. We learned these skills like we learned how to walk and talk – naturally. There was actually no way we could not learn them. However, my sons most likely will not learn them without my direct intervention. Why the change? What does it mean, if anything, that some children are growing up in a community where learning skills like these will not happen naturally, without direct instruction? If this is a symptom, what is the disease?
After all, learning these kinds of physical skills organically, through neighborhood play, implies a whole set of conditions that support organic learning the way that rich soil supports plant growth. As for conditions, the neighborhood needs mixed age groups among its children so that the older kids pull up the younger ones. There needs to be extended family, like cousins, aunts, uncles. The kids need to have large amounts of unbroken, unsupervised time for play. They need a common set of goals, meaning that most of them have to find playing baseball or riding bikes fun. There needs to be a loose, mutual understanding between parents, almost like unspoken radar. The children need a neighborhood structure that supports them finding each other in these informal, unstructured, but safe environments. They need, well, a neighborhood.
I am not saying that neighborhoods with playing children do not exist today. They even have a name for them – “playborhoods.” There is a website called playborhood.com that is dedicated to promoting free, unstructured play in neighborhoods precisely because it is difficult to find. However, the facts that a website exists to promote free play and that neighborhoods with open play have a special name tell us something. As Kenneth Jackson says in “Crabgrass Frontier,” a history of American suburbs, “There are few places as desolate and lonely as a suburban street on a hot afternoon.”
What do children learn in unsupervised neighborhood play? They learn socialization, to use a common buzzword today. I am pretty sure my aunts and uncles never used that word. The kids were just doing what they were supposed to do, which was play. They also learn what we now term 21st-century skills, like collaboration, communication and creativity, though none of my friends ever used or even understood those terms. We had to collaborate, communicate and create, otherwise we wouldn’t have any fun.
I did teach my son to pull up and swing himself that day. I still think he prefers to have me push him, but at least he can now swing himself independently. I watch my son among the other kids, followed around by their parents who are instructing, encouraging and preparing them for an uncertain future, arming them with all of the skills they can possibly absorb during their fleeting childhoods. When I see him across the playground, pulling himself up on the swing, flanked by children he doesn’t know, looking across at me smiling with pride, I become a little wistful for the days when children learned these things on their own.
From Stanford to Harvard, there is a lot of new activity in the world of online education and digital resources, and Harker is joining in as a member of the Global Online Academy (GOA). Started in the 2010-11 school year by schools including Lakeside (Seattle), Catlin Gabel (Portland), Kings Academy (near Amman, Jordan), Head-Royce (Oakland), Punahou (Honolulu), Sidwell Friends (Washington, D.C.) and Dalton (New York), GOA is operated by a consortium of member independent schools.
Courses are taught by faculty of member schools exclusively to students of member schools. A teacher at Dalton might have a mix of students from Jordan, Seattle and Honolulu. Each student’s course and grade appear on his or her transcript from the home school and no more than three students from any one school may participate in any one course.
Harker has a long history of effective use of digital resources to support our teaching and learning including being the first high school to have a “Bring Your Own Laptop” program, but approached online learning initiatives carefully. GOA meets Harker’s standards of excellence and the upper school will pilot the program for the 2012-13 academic year.
In January, the lower school campus was visited by about 20 people, who arrived by charter bus, from Community Leadership San Jose (CLSJ), a program offered by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce that identifies potential community leaders and helps them develop skills to address community issues.
“The class begins with a two day retreat in the fall that is followed with monthly all day classes that focus on different aspects within our community including the criminal justice system, SJ politics, the arts, media, education and the health care system,” said Todd Trekell, who participated in this year’s class and served on the team that specialized in education.
As part of their ongoing training, the group examined Harker and two other schools in an effort to learn about the various elementary school options that San Jose families have available to them. In addition to Harker, they also visited Discovery Charter School and Washington Elementary School. Before visiting, they had gathered information on each school, such as classroom size and student-to-teacher ratios. They then toured the schools to see how they worked, beyond the numbers. “We thought that it would be fascinating to get a real time look into how teachers teach, the various class room sizes, the ethnic makeup of the student body, the overall cost of enrollment to the parents, the food the children eat, the emphases placed on college, the funds allocated by the state to the school, etc.,” Trekell said. “We have all been reading so much about the challenges associated with the education system in California and we wanted to show our classmates firsthand what is going on. ”
The group’s visit to Harker was spurred by the school’s reputation as one of the nation’s top independent school. “We thought that it would be really interesting to understand why it has this reputation and to see if it was really that different from the two other schools that we toured,” said Trekell, who noted that Harker seems to be more well-known nationally than it is within Silicon Valley. “Although we were a class of nearly 30, many of our classmates had never heard of Harker prior to our tour,” he added.
As part of their tour, the CLSJ trainees visited three classrooms to get a sense of what a Harker lower school class session is like. They visited Michelle Anderson and Kelle Sloan’s kindergarten classroom to see a visit by a local fireman, and watched Cindy Proctor teach social studies to her grade 1 students. They also stopped by the gym to see a rehearsal of the grade 5 play, “School Daze.”
Following their tour, they sat down at the lower school library for a Q&A session with several Harker administrators, including Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and Sarah Leonard, primary division head, before returning to city hall to discuss their findings. What learned, Trekell recalled, was that “Not all schools are created equal. We were all very impressed based on what we saw at all three schools. The students were engaged, the teachers seemed to be passionate and as a class we felt that things appeared much better in the classroom then what our perception was based on how the media has portrayed day to day life in most elementary schools. “