Harker continues to go electronic, moving away from paper in a number of ways. Besides making Harker News Online our primary news channel, the Harker Parent Portal (HPP) was streamlined for easier use this year. Of equal interest are the ways Harker’s technology department is helping students and parents work easier and faster. Parents in all divisions can already view student course, section and activity times for the current grading period via the HPP and, as of January 2010, monthly statements will arrive by e-mail. In addition, registration for lower school students in the BEST after-school program starts Jan. 4 and online registration is slated for middle school students in the fourth quarter. Finally, the lower school campus is rolling out a wireless network. Coverage will initially include areas where teacher gather for training and the library.
The Harker Research Symposium will take place April 10, 2010, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Nichols Hall. Submissions are due Fri., Jan. 29, 2010.
Since 2006, the Harker Research Symposium has offered students with a passion for a science a forum to present and discuss the results of their many hours of research and experimentation. Visited by more than 300 people annually, the symposium has featured students presenting on a wide variety of topics and has attracted an impressive array of guest speakers.
The symposium is open to students in Gr. 6-12 who wish to share their work with fellow students, parents or even those currently working in the field of research. Students often give paper presentations, which consist of 12-minute talks about research documents they have produced, followed by an eight-minute Q&A session. They also have poster presentations, in which they display their research results on three-panel boards and take questions from attendees.
On Saturday, Dec. 19 on KTVU, Harker was featured on “Eco Company,” a national TV program covering teens who are taking an active role in creating greener communities. The segment on Harker featured the upper school campus’ greenhouse and organic garden, the LEED gold-certified Nichols Hall, the lower school’s energy monitoring systems and more. Those who were unable to tune in can watch the segment on Eco Company’s Web site.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2009 Harker Quarterly.
In a culture of philanthropy, constituents support an organization’s mission and recognize the need for charitable contributions to help achieve that mission. In recent years we have seen Harker’s culture of philanthropy take root and flourish within our school community.
This past fall we have been the fortunate recipients of three types of charitable gifts that are new to the school.
1. Endowed Gifts
The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund
Harker received its first endowment in memory of a 31-year veteran of Harker’s teaching staff, John Near, who passed away in late September. Near’s parents, James and Patricia Near, are funding the $300,000 endowment by taking advantage of the IRA Charitable Rollover Extension, which they learned about in the November 2008 issue of the Harker News. This rollover extension allows them to contribute funds from their IRA without having to pay the tax on the appreciation. The proceeds will be used to “help develop the history department, both through the acquisition of resources and providing growth opportunities for both faculty and students,” as John Near articulated in August of this year as he and his parents planned this gift.
To create an endowed fund at Harker, a donor makes a gift or series of gifts, which make up a principal amount. That principal is permanently restricted and will only be used to generate interest income. A pre-set amount of the annual interest is used each year to support the purpose for which the endowed fund was established or the general fund, depending on the donor’s wishes. Endowed funds can continue to grow over time if the interest earned on the principal exceeds the set amount used for the annual payout, and the excess is added the principal. The pre-set interest on endowed funds will support the purpose for which they are created year after year in perpetuity.
2. Privately Held Stock Gifts
Harker parents Selvaraj Venugopal and Sumathi Selvaraj (Raghav, Gr. 9; Anu, Gr. 2), Raj and Shailaja Velagapudi (Anish, Gr. 6; Anmol, Gr. 1) and Michel and Sudha Susai (Kevin, Gr. 9; Jessica, Gr. 4) are transferring shares of privately-held stock in their companies to the school.
Given Harker’s location in the Silicon Valley, it is not surprising that a large number of our constituents are entrepreneurs. Making a gift of privately-held stock is a way for some of our parents who have funds tied up in their start-up companies to share their entrepreneurial successes with the school.
3. Private Equity Fund Gifts
Current Harker parents Srini and Durga Madala (Samantha, Gr. 7; Ajay, Gr. 1) became Visionary Benefactors during Phase 3 of the school’s capital campaign two years ago, and they are leading the way again by introducing a new type of charitable gift. The Madalas are contributing an Endowment Management Account, the funds of which are invested primarily in private equity.
Returns from private equity investments usually pay out over several years. With the gift structured to ensure that the school has no liability for capital calls, and assuming the fund continues to grow, the school will eventually receive not only the current value of the fund, but any growth the fund achieves as well.
Those wishing to contribute to the John Near endowment fund or to discuss these or other gift types should contact Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, at joer@harker.org.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2009 Harker Quarterly.
Homecoming 2009 blended old and new traditions on a crisp fall evening Nov. 13. Held for the first time on campus, but incorporating many old traditions, homecoming at Davis Field provided a home field advantage for both players and fans.
Early in the evening, K-Gr. 12 students, alumni, staff, parents and friends enjoyed the junior varsity game despite the 18-9 loss; tailgate parties and the traditional pre-game and half-time entertainment got the crowd excited and ready to watch the big game. Fan favorites – the class tug-of-wars, the Eaglets’ performance and the homecoming court – were accompanied by the addition of a Bounce Zone with slide and bounce house, on adjacent, well-lit Rosenthal Field.
Although Davis Field has been open for three years, the logistics of holding homecoming on campus have been daunting. Previous homecoming events were held at PAL stadium and at Foothill College. This year, through the tireless efforts of staff and administration, parking, seating and entertainment were all organized to fit the smaller venue. Upper school students vacated their parking spaces in good order to make room for grade-level and alumni tailgates, as well as the traditional team tailgate at Christine and John Davis’ (Cole, Gr. 12) motor home. The arrangement created a safe zone where parents and students could come and go freely throughout the game.
One of the more obvious advantages to having the event on campus was having executive chef Steve Martin’s tasty food right to hand. To accommodate the crowd of over 1,200, additional bleacher seating was brought in, shuttles ran to the Blackford parking lot, and the homecoming court traveled green, arriving via pedicabs instead of the traditional convertibles. Chris Daren, upper school activities and yearbook/newspaper advisor, organized an entertaining week of spirit events for the Saratoga students as well as the homecoming court event.
One of the refinements of the home field location was the above-mentioned Bounce Zone, supervised by ever-vigilant BEST staff, heavily used by an enthusiastic crowd of younger Eagles until close to the end of the game.
This year, with a real “home coming,” the crowd was energized. Before the varsity game, attendees were treated to an impressive routine by the varsity Dance Troupe, directed by Laura Rae, and an enthusiastic performance by the lower school’s junior cheerleaders, instructed by Melinda Beason. Prior to kickoff, vocal groups from all three campuses sang both the Harker anthem and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by upper school music teacher Catherine Snider.
The first half was a hard-fought struggle, with coach Karriem Stinson’s Eagles behind 12-7 when the halftime whistle blew. Throughout the first half of the game, the junior cheerleaders from Bucknall, with the upper school cheerleaders, coached by Chris King, led the crowd in rousing cheers in support of the gridiron gladiators on the emerald field below.
During halftime, the finals of the upper school tug-of-war contest took place, with seniors maintaining the status quo by taking first over the juniors. More halftime entertainment was provided by the cheerleaders, who put on an acrobatic display of school spirit.
Irresistibly cute, the Gr. 1-2 Eaglets, instructed by lower school dance teacher Gail Palmer, performed their annual dance, this year held in the home grandstand, and, shortly afterward, the 2009 homecoming court arrived on the field via carriages pedaled by class deans. Seniors Kevin Fu (playing running back and defensive end, thus in his football uniform) and Mahum Jamal were crowned Homecoming King and Queen. Other members of the court included freshmen Rahul Nalamasu and Maya Sathaye, sophomores Aaron Bisla and Laura Yau, juniors Nirjhar Mundkur and Brianna Tran, as well as seniors Thomas Enzminger, Valerie Hwa, Arjun Mody and Jackie Ho. In another long-established tradition, faculty cheerleaders rallied the crowd prior to the start of the second half.
As in previous years, the crowd was entertained throughout the game by the sounds of the upper school’s Jazz Band, led by Chris Florio. In the stands and on the field, students and players reveled in the first on-campus homecoming. “It just felt right being on Davis Field: it’s where we have all of our spirit events and football games and class meetings and such,” said Danielle Buis, Gr. 12. “So much activity happens on Davis Field, so it’s just always going to bring back those good memories of high school and all the things we did together. We have a lot of spirit and pride in what we do at the high school and homecoming is just our way to show it off to the other campuses.”
Football player Gautam Krishnamurthi, Gr. 11, playing wide receiver and cornerback, concurred: “The fact that it was ‘home’-coming was really defined by the atmosphere that was there at this last game because of the proximity of the fans as well as because it was where we practice and play every day.” Krishnamurthi also liked the fact that the game was held after the regular season and that the opponent, Berean Christian, provided a challenge, which made the game exciting to watch.
Even the younger students enjoyed the home field event. Jithin Vellian, Gr. 8, has attended homecoming games since he was in the lower school. Although he played football with his friends during the game, which is what he says he has done every year, he felt that having the game at the Saratoga campus made it special. “I like how homecoming was at the school itself, instead of some random place. It was nice to have it somewhere I’ve been before.” Victor Shin, Gr. 4, liked the game being at home. Shin explained, “I really liked the food and being with my friends, but I didn’t like that we lost.”
The crowd was thoroughly fired up for the second half and both teams showed great competitive spirit. The game was announced throughout by our own Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs. Although Harker eventually lost the grueling contest 25-13, Homecoming 2009 allowed our ever-growing athletic department to show off one of the many upper school sports, as well as our impressive facilities.
Since its inception, the athletic department has been steadily growing, adding sports and facilities and training increasingly talented athletes. In 2005-06, approximately 50 percent of the upper school student body played after- school sports; now, 65-70 percent compete in at least one sport.
Currently, 14 former Harker students are playing athletics at the college level, in swimming, gymnastics, tennis, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and diving. Schools include Penn State, Northeastern, Cornell and Villanova as well as West Coast schools University of Puget Sound, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University, Pepperdine and San Jose State University. Current seniors Cole Davis, Arthi Padmanabhan, Michael Clifford and Greg Plauck all are planning to play college athletics as well. Davis has already been accepted to swim at Stanford, and Plauck will be playing baseball at Santa Clara next year.
Harker teams have won an impressive list of titles and championships, including 14 league titles, one Nor-Cal championship, over 35 section scholastic championships, and three state scholastic titles since Dan Molin took over as athletic director in 2005. Already this year, Harker has had two more firsts: the football team qualified for playoffs for the first time in school history, and the girls tennis team made it to the CCS quarterfinals.
“I’m continually amazed at and inspired by what Harker student-athletes accomplish,” said Molin. “They always rise to the occasion and go beyond our expectations on the court, field or pool.”
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancment, added, “Looking to the future, there have been and continue to be meetings to rally support for a new gym building to be built at the same time as the planned performing arts center.”
Homecoming at Davis Field this year was just another step in bringing our athletic department to a higher level, and we look forward to the continued growth of Harker sports.
In November, two teams made up of Harker faculty and staff competed at the Junior League of San Jose’s second annual trivia challenge at Club Auto Sport. Upper school performing arts teacher Brian Larsen, middle school English department chair Stacie Newman, upper school math teacher Anthony Silk and middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni formed the “Harker Eagle Eggheads,” while upper school music teacher Cathy Snider, upper school history teacher Carol Zink, upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine and facility manager Mike Bassoni competed under the moniker “Harkerpedia.”
The Harker Eagle Eggheads went on to place third in the event and took home a $500 prize!
Students on all three campuses are once again spreading holiday cheer this year through the sale of Snowman ‘Grams. At $1 apiece, the ‘grams are delivered with a small bag of candy and an optional note. The artwork on this year’s Snowman ‘Grams was created by Gr. 4 students Ashna Chandra, Dolan Dworak, Raveena Panja, Jenna Sadhu and Sumati Wadhwa. ” The main purpose is to give the children an opportunity to send a nice thought to their friends and teachers during the holidays,” said Joe Connolly, K-5 dean of students.
San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 30: Laurie Daniel’s column featured the new Jarvis Winery offering, “Will’s Science Project,” which was a product of alumnus Will Jarvis’ MS ’97 Harker days and his Gr. 8 project. Link
San Jose Business Journal, Oct. 2: SJBJ’s list on LEED-certified spaces included Harker’s Nichols Hall as a gold-certified building.
San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 30: The Harker football team’s 3-0 starting record, a first in its 10-year history, is recognized with mentions of Rishi Bhatia, Gautam Krishnamurthi, both Gr. 11, and Cole Davis, Gr. 12, and the team’s decision to dedicate the season to John Near. Link
San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 30: Girls Highlight Reel mentions water polo captain senior Christina Ma’s strong start with 31 goals. Link
New York Magazine, Oct. 5: Japanese retailers named designer and alumnus Alexander Wang MS ’88 the hottest international designer brand. Wang received twice as many votes as Givenchy, named as the second-hottest international designer brand. Link
PR Newswire: Eight Harker students were awarded top honors in the Junior Engineering Technology Society’s (JETS) annual TEAMS engineering competition. Competing against more than 1,200 teams from around the nation, class of 2009 graduates Hanh Dang, Daniel Kim, Tsung-Ju (Jeff) Lu, Kartik Venkatraman, Kevin Wang, Kevin Wu, Nikita Sinha and Jeff Mandell were given eight real-life theme park engineering scenarios involving design, construction and performance. In addition to individual certificates of excellence, the team was awarded a three-night stay at Walt Disney World and Harker received $5,000. Link
New York Times, Oct. 16: Designer and Harker alumnus Alexander Wang MS ’88 had a photo and mention in the Style slideshow. Link
ABC News, Aug. 19:Ramya Rangan, Gr. 10, was one of seven girls from the United States who participated in the eighth annual China Girls Math Olympiad; she brought home a bronze medal. Link
Over the summer, a team of young entrepreneurs led by Michaela Kastelman, Gr. 9, won the Camp Bizsmart competition, sponsored by companies such as Cisco, Better World Books, Revolution Foods and Hara. Kastelman was one of three Harker students in the group, along with fellow freshman Michael Cheng and Sachin Vadodaria,Gr. 8.The team designed an application for the Apple iPhone that tracks energy usage. In September, the team presented its idea to the CEO of Hara, a company that develops Web-based software deployed by businesses to track the use of resources and reduce emissions.
Freshmen Sarina Vij and Piyush Prasad also participated on a team of their own, presenting a business plan to energy supplement seller FRS. Their plan to market the company’s Healthy Energy Line to the teenage demographic was voted “most likely to go to market” by a panel of judges. FRS president and chief executive officer Maigread Eichten said the team’s business plan was better than the one proposed by a group of MBA students who were tasked with creating a similar proposal.
On Nov. 18, the members of the winning team were honored at the finals of the Newpreneur of the Year competition, held in San Francisco. During the event, influential businessman and best-selling author Tom Peters took the time to talk to the young entrepreneurs and pose for a photo. One attendee remarked that the students speaking with Peters “is like young musicians talking with Paul McCartney. Nothing beats meeting a living legend.”
Harker students received high honors in late October, placing in the top three on various academic tests and in the Open Certamen of Ludi Octobres, Junior Classical League’s fall mini-convention. These games are a preliminary to the California JCL convention that will be held in Irvine in April.
For level four and above, April Luo, Gr. 11, placed first in Latin Derivatives and third in Pentathlon; Anjali Menon, Gr. 12, first in Mottoes, Quotations and Abbreviations and second in Latin Reading Comprehension; Jessica Lin, Gr. 10, first in Roman Daily Life; Brandon Araki, Gr. 12, first in Latin Vocabulary and first in Latin Reading Comprehension; Alexander Hsu, Gr. 10, second in Latin Grammar; Prag Batra, Gr. 10, third in Mottoes, Quotations and Abbreviations, first in Myth Spelling Bee, and second in Latin Derivatives; Phillip Oung, Gr. 10, first in Mythology.
For level three, Richard Fan, received first in Roman Daily Life and first in Mythology; Suchita Nety, second in Mottoes, Quotations and Abbreviations and third in Pentathlon; Sean Fernandes, second in Roman Daily Life and third in Mythology; Anuj Sharma, first in Mottoes, Quotations and Abbreviations and third in Latin Grammar; Shannon Su, second in Latin Derivatives; Michael Cheng, third in Latin Grammar and first in Latin Vocabulary; Jenny Chen, third in Latin Reading Comprehension. All of these students are Gr. 9.
In Open Certamen, a quiz bowl game, Harker students were split into different teams with students from other schools and Araki and Menon’s team placed second. Ramya Rangan, Gr. 10 and Nety were also recognized, placing third and first respectively.
At the middle school level one, Sadhika Malladi, Gr. 6, placed third in Reading Comprehension. At the middle school advanced level, Anni Ankola, Gr. 7, placed second in Mythology; Oishi Banerjee, Gr. 8, first in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations and second in Reading Comprehension; Aadyot Bhatnagar, Gr. 7, first in Vocabulary and first in Reading Comprehension; Kevin Duraiswamy, Gr. 8, first in Reading Comprehension and second in Mottoes, Quotes and Abbreviations. In Open Certamen, Banerjee’s team placed first and Bhatnagar’s placed third.
Additionally, Ankola, Vivek Sriram, Ryan Pachauri and Billy Bloomquist, all Gr. 7, placed third in the impromptu art competition.