Silicon Valley Philanthropy Day is an annual event with awards presented by the Association of Fundraising Professionals Silicon Valley Chapter (AFP SVC) at a luncheon in mid-November to prominent individuals and organizations for their contributions to the community. This year, the event was held at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, and 11 students from Harker were honored with awards for their work with the Pacific Autism Center for Education’s Youth Leadership Committee (PACE YLC). As PACE puts it, their mission is, “to provide high quality programs for individuals with Autism and its related developmental disabilities, so they may experience the satisfaction and fulfillment that come from learning, self-care, productive work, and interpersonal and community experiences.” The aim is to one day be the world leader in connecting a full range of services for persons with autism.
Of the 25 motivated high school students in the group, nearly half are from Harker, including: Jackie Jin, Isha Kawatra, Divya Sarathy and Jennie Xu, grade 12; Emily Chu, Kevin Lin, Isha Patnaik, Indulaxmi Seeni, Pranav Sharma, Apri Tang and Joseph Wang, all grade 11. Over the past two years, the group has raised more than $15,000 through various fundraisers, and this year they’re leading an anti-bullying seminar at local middle schools to talk about awareness and acceptance of students with disabilities.
Recently, the San Francisco Day School decided their performing arts program needed to be revised and revamped. Of all the schools in the Bay Area, they chose Harker as the school whose arts program they wanted to emulate. In mid-November, a task force from the school came down to visit all three campuses, and get a varied taste of what Harker offers.
The first stop was a music class at the upper school, followed immediately by a meeting with an upper school music teacher. Then they went to the lower school, where they met with teachers at their department meeting, then observed a dance class and a music class, as well as a rehearsal. Middle school was the final stop. There, the team sat in on a strings class, then had another chance to meet with and talk to teachers.
The task force spent a full school day at the three campuses, and after all the class time and meetings, headed back to San Francisco with a first-hand perspective on the arts program.
In late November, The Harker School’s grade 5 students spent their day at the Blackford campus to get a look at what will be in store for them next year when they officially become middle school students. Upon arriving at the campus, groups of fifth graders were matched with a middle school student mentor and proceeded to the auditorium, where they learned about a variety of middle school programs, including athletics, BEST and debate. Following the presentations, the students went to tour the campus and meet faculty and staff, then enjoyed lunch with their middle school friends.
In an effort to reach out to the larger community, Harker admission directors hosted booths at local cultural events in August, September and early October. Nan Nielsen, director of admission, was present at the Fiesta de Artes in Los Gatos in August, where kids who visited the booth had their faces painted with all sorts of festive designs.
In September, Danielle Holquin, the middle school’s admission director, and Lana Morrison, middle school dean of students, attended the Santana Row School Fair, organized by “M” magazine. Pam Gelineau, lower school admission director, ran the booth at the Los Altos Fall Festival during the first weekend of October, greeting and answering questions for festival attendees, who got to play a “Pick a Pencil” game, in which the person who picked a pencil with a blue dot on the bottom won a prize. “It was so much fun,” Gelineau said. “The children were very happy, along with their parents. I met some preschool directors and we are going to exchange school visits. All in all, it was a great success.”
Harker’s annual open house events started with the upper school this past Sunday; Harker Live! a middle school open house, is Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 9:30, while Sun., Nov 13 the lower school will host Harker Live! open houses for Kindergarten at 10 a.m. and grades 1-5 at 1 p.m.
Prospective families will visit classrooms and attend mini-lessons conducted by Harker teachers, to sample the Harker student experience.
These open houses will feature teacher presentations on Harker’s academics, character-building and broad program offerings. Teachers will host special presentations on each of these core principles, complete with video footage of teachers in the classroom. Attendees will also be able to visit classrooms and talk to teachers from each department.
On Sun., Dec. 4, at 11 a.m., the middle school open house will provide visitors with the opportunity to visit classrooms and sit in on mini-lessons with Harker teachers. As with the upper school open house, teachers from the various academic departments and other programs will be available to answer questions and provide pamphlets and other literature to attendees.
Update Nov 12, 2011 This update courtesy of Ray Fowler. The above photos are from 2010–an updated slideshow will be posted on Monday–watch for the tweet! –ed.
The Harker Eagles (3-7) defeated the visiting Cupertino Pioneers (2-8) last night by a score of 35-28 in a contest between two teams each battling for its first SCVAL El Camino league victory.
The first half ended in a 14-14 tie, but Harker outlasted Cupertino in an exciting second half which saw momentum shift to both sides before the final buzzer sounded. Harker highlights included a near perfect performance by junior QB Spenser Quash. Quash connected on 12 of 15 pass attempts for 175 yards and two touchdowns.
Junior WR Robert Deng caught both touchdown passes. Quash also rushed for three touchdowns. However, the top rusher of the night was junior RB Ryan Mui with 115 tough yards on 15 carries. Defensive standouts were junior DE Josh Bollar and junior LB Michael Chen.
Both Bollar nd Chen recovered Cupertino fumbles while harassing Pioneer running backs throughout the game. In the secondary, senior DB Avinash Patel broke up several deep passes intended for Cupertino receivers.
Nov 1, 2011
The Harker School’s Homecoming game is fast approaching, but the fun will begin on Mon., Nov. 7, when spirit week kicks off at the upper school campus. Each grade will have their own dress-up day, and on Fri., Nov. 11, the entire upper school student body will be wearing their class colors and heading to Davis Field on the Saratoga campus for the annual homecoming rally to get amped for the afternoon and evening football games against Cupertino High School.
The action will start at 4 p.m. on Friday with the JV game, with the varsity game scheduled for 7 p.m. Carley’s Cafe will serve hot dogs, veggie chili and clam chowder, while other tables will have tri-tip, pulled pork and barbeque veggie cutlet for hungry Eagles fans. Attendees can also look forward to games, a bounce house and other attractions, making Homecoming an event for all ages. Get the latest news from our Homecoming page!
The tailgate section will be teaming with activity beginning at 5:45 p.m. as each campus has its own section. Harker alumni can grab some barbeque at a special alumni booth, and the returning Eagle Buddies tailgate spot will be twice as large (and fun!) as last year’s.
This event is free to attend, and is a wonderful opportunity to connect with the entire Harker community, so come on out and support your Eagles! Parking for this event is limited and only available on a first-come, first-served basis. Parking is available at, and shuttle service will run from, the Blackford campus at 3800 Blackford Ave. in San Jose. Shuttles start at 4 p.m. and will run continuously between Blackford and Saratoga, ending 45 minutes after the end of the varsity game.
From the moment you wake up in the morning until you drift off to sleep at night, you’ll face about 26 adversities, ranging from petty annoyances to major setbacks, according to Dr. Paul Stoltz, president and CEO of Peak Learning Inc., who recently visited The Harker School as part of the Common Ground Speaker Series. Witty and engaging, Stoltz captivated the audience gathered at Nichols Hall with examples of resilience to adversities in his personal life.
A decade ago, Stoltz coined the term “Adversity Quotient,” or AQ, to describe the science of human resilience. To have a successful AQ is to perform optimally in the face of adversity. A person with low AQ, on the other hand, would be the first to burn out. Adversity, Stoltz said, “both destroys and elevates, strangles and sparks life.” Some people with high AQ can actually cause more adversity than they harness. Stoltz believes many are afraid of failures because their parents have been so lovingly protective and have done their best in removing every fathomable adversity.
Stoltz went on to identify the three types of AQ people: climbers, quitters and campers. High AQ climbers seek challenge, low AQ quitters flee from it and moderate AQ campers, which Stoltz said make up about 80 percent of the work force, are content and happy, stuck in the status quo.
Going hand-in-hand with AQ is Response Ability. This term for the response when adversity strikes is the key to building and developing resilience. When employers worldwide were asked which they would prefer, a person with great talent but low resilience, or a person with exceptional resilience but low talent, almost 90 percent picked resilience. This is because they believe “highly resilient people will find a way to figure out how to learn to do what they have to do whereas those lacking resilience will join the throngs of great talent gone to waste,” Stoltz explained.
For those of us who are concerned with our response when faced with adversity, it is comforting to know that people can improve their resilience and, in turn, improve their performance.
Stoltz said that if we think of any person we consider great, that person has overcome adversity along the way – we can’t unleash the greatness in ourselves without adversity. We are all “hardwired” to react differently to adversity, but unlike IQ, it’s possible to improve AQ.
Stoltz then talked about the importance of developing what he calls the 3G mindset, which is broken into, “global, good and grit.” Global he defines as an openness and connectivity to the greater world; good, as may be expected, refers to integrity and kindness; and grit relates to toughness and tenacity.
“You can’t necessarily control what happens but if you can master how you respond to what happens, you can craft your destiny. So if adversity is harnessed with superior resilience, it could be the fuel cell of your success,” said Stoltz.
Parents were welcomed to the Harker campuses in September for a series of Back-to-School events. The upper school held its event on Sept. 10, allowing parents to tour the upper school campus, visit classrooms and hear upper school teachers talk about their classes and teaching methods. Student club representatives also set up tables in Nichols Hall to give parents a look at the different clubs their students can join.
The lower school held two Back-to-School Nights, one for grades 4-5 on Sept. 12, and another for grades 1-3 on Sept. 13. Both had parents touring the Bucknall gym, where teachers had tables and displays set up containing information about their classes. They also toured the campus and attended demonstrations by Harker teachers in their classrooms.
Finally, the middle school Back-to-School Night on Sept. 15 also took parents to presentations in classrooms, and science teacher Daniel Sommer even got the parents involved in a basic science project. Middle school art teacher Elizabeth Saltos entertained her audience with some very creative hat designs.
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Hotel Toiletries Gathered for Homeless
Pat White, middle school history teacher, has again led a collection of donations of hotel toiletries for the Georgia Travis Center for homeless women and children in San Jose. White’s group last donated 210 individual plastic bags of soap, shampoo and other personal care products for individual use in June, and this fall were well on their way to reaching that level at press time.“Thank you so much for your generosity,” said White.
Mother/Daughter Teams in Relay for Life
Michelle Douglas and Amy Wardenburg, 11, created a mother/daughter team for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life held July 9-10 in Campbell. The pair’s lives have been impacted by cancer and they were inspired to create a team to help fight it. For the past four years, Douglas and Wardenburg have volunteered at the Campbell Relay for Life. This year, along with their mothers, Chris and Heather, they were joined by fellow 2013 classmates and their mothers Cristina and Helena Jerney, Cecilia and Laura Lang-Ree, Hannah and Sue Prutton, and Molly and Roni Wolfe. Lang-Ree is chair of the performing arts department at Harker and Prutton is director of upper school volunteer programs. The team walked for 24 hours and raised $4,000.
Senior Raises Funds for Propionic Acidemia
Maya Gattupalli, grade 12, organized a fundraiser in August for the Propionic Acidemia Foundation and invited the Class of 2012 to participate. The event was a 5K walk in Vasona Park in Los Gatos on Aug. 14. “Nine other Harker seniors volunteered at the event,” said Gattupalli. “We had about 83 people attend the walk and we raised $5,256 (and therefore reached our goal of raising 5K).” Propionic acidemia, a recessive genetic disorder affecting one in every 100,000 people in the U.S., is characterized by a nonfunctioning enzyme used in the digestive process, leaving those afflicted unable to break down certain proteins and fats. This leads to the build-up of toxins and acids, which can cause organ dysfunction.
This article was originally published in the Fall 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Over the course of the past two years, many members across the spectrum of the Harker community have participated in various head of school gatherings, focus groups and online surveys concerning campus planning and, in early September, Head of School Chris Nikoloff held a series of informational campus luncheons to update families on Harker’s strategic planning.
Additionally, in preparation for this year’s accreditation cycle by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a comprehensive self-study has been undertaken, resulting in Harker’s Strategic Planning Philosophy Statement. The statement serves as a guide for the school’s overall financial planning process.
Based upon the input of the school community and the work that was done in the self-study, four major strategic financial priorities have been identified: 1) ongoing program excellence; 2) purchasing a third campus to replace the leased Blackford campus; 3) continuing improvements on the Saratoga campus according to the master site plan; and 4) increasing endowment/reserves.
Ongoing program excellence, the first and most important priority, is funded by tuition, annual giving and the annual interest earned from our endowments. The down payment on the third campus, plus both new buildings on the Saratoga campus, gym and theater, will need to be funded by capital giving. Phase 4 of the Cornerstones of Success Campaign will raise funds specifically for these financial priorities.
Completion date of the new facilities will depend on the progress of the campaign. The hope is that enough funds will be raised so the school will be able to construct both gym and theater at the same time, saving money and limiting the disruption to the campus during construction. For more information or to make a contribution, please contact Joe Rosenthal, the executive director of advancement, at joer@harker.org.