Joe Connolly, LS dean of students, is a sought-after speaker of family topics and widely known for his expertise and powerful speaking on parenting teens and young children. This summer, he brought his expertise to Harker in a special class. Connolly, author and creator of “3 STEPS to Parenting Teens” and the “One Minute Rule,” is one of the founders of Good Parents, Inc.. In his class this summer, he shared his knowledge with Harker and non-Harker families in two week-long evening workshops titled “Tools for Effective Parenting in the 21st Century” – one for Gr. 1-4 parents and one for Gr. 5-8 parents.
Parents enjoyed the class and were thankful for the tips. Tricia Swanson, parent of Megan, Gr. 4, and Stephanie, Gr. 3, reported, “(Husband) Michael and I very much enjoyed the parenting class this summer. We took away some good ideas. Joe has a lot of great information.”
Nina Smith, parent of Grant, K, said, “I am always interested in parenting classes and the psychology of kids. This class was very interesting and gave me some new ideas and helpful tips that I have been able to practice; and they work!”
Smith added, “Mr. Connolly kept the class interesting and funny. I think a good sense of humor in dealing with kids is a must!” Connolly included information on how to understand one’s children better, to communicate based on your child’s developmental level, and provided tools and skills to help with everyday parenting. This is the first year Connolly has offered his classes at Harker, and by all accounts, they were a success. Harker may offer similar classes in the fall, so watch for more news!
This past spring Harker hosted a series of receptions in Asia for Harker’s English Language Institute (ELI) and to reconnect with several alumni now residing there. The unique ELI program specializes in preparing international students for success at the nation’s premier boarding schools and English-speaking international schools.
“Harker has an outstanding reputation worldwide for this unique program,” said Joe Rosenthal, Harker’s executive director of advancement, who organizes the receptions each year and who directed Harker’s elementary boarding program for many years. “It is wonderful that so many of our former boarding students and their families are able to recommend their relatives, friends and business associates to our ELI summer program.”
In addition to recruiting students for the ELI program, Rosenthal visited with many boarding alumni during the trip. In Korea, a group of alumni gathered at the Outback Steak House on a Friday night before the ELI reception on Saturday, where Alex Lee ’97 agreed to head up the Korean alumni group. It was very impressive to have so many alumni attend the recruiting reception as well. The prospective families were impressed when Danny Yoo MS ’00, who was class president at Phillips Exeter, spoke about how Harker prepared him for his high school and his studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious school of business. “We had alumni who also attended Harker’s upper school, Choate Rosemary Hall, Woodside Priory, Stoney Brook and Mercersburg on hand to validate how well Harker prepares students for success at high school and beyond,” noted Rosenthal. Special thanks to Young Lee ’93 who once again served as the translator for our program and to the family of Chris ’03 and Harry MS ’08 Kim for hosting Harker’s visit in Korea.
Rosenthal then traveled to Beijing, where Harker parents Lucy Li and Allan Zhang (Bryan Zhang, K), hosted a very successful reception. Li and Zhang were proud to recommend Harker to the large crowd at the event. After the short trip to Beijing, Rosenthal headed to Shanghai to enjoy dinner with some parents of alumni, which was followed by another well-attended reception at the Renaissance Hotel. Then it was off to Hong Kong where boarding alumni Toku Chen ’92 and his wife, Candy, assisted him with the reception there. Chen also agreed to lead the effort in creating a Harker alumni group in Hong Kong.
The next ELI reception took place in Taipei, Taiwan, where alumni parents Ting and Angela Herh (Stephanie ’08) hosted the event, as they had done for past ELI programs. “In addition to having the alumni receptions and the recruiting receptions, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with and to thank and show the progress that has been made from several of our major benefactors to our Capital Campaign,” Rosenthal said. Rosenthal was also impressed by the people in Taiwan who recognized the Harker name and were familiar with its international reputation. “We had three different families that came up to us while we were waiting for our guests to arrive, who said, ‘My goodness! The Harker School! We know all about them!’” he recalled.
In Kyoto, Japan, Rosenthal met a family from Kobe who planned to send all four of their children to the ELI program for the summer. The trip concluded in Tokyo, where Rosenthal met with Keiichi Watase, head of the lower school at Harker’s sister-school Tamagawa Gakuen, who has served as Harker’s official translator for the past decade. Harker grandparent Zenichi Ogawa (Kei MS ’03) kindly hosted the final reception in Tokyo, which Rosenthal said was “unbelievably over-subscribed.” About 70 people attended the reception in a room set up to serve 30, Rosenthal estimated. Rosenthal said the three week-long trip resulted in an impressive 103 serious inquiries from families about the ELI program.
“It brings me great joy to visit with so many of our international alumni,” Rosenthal said. “It seems like only yesterday when these wonderful Harker students were 12 and 13 years old, living in our dorm. I am so proud to see them all grown up and leading successful and happy lives.”
AP Psychology teacher Naomi Schatz sends more of her regards from Australia. Read on for more of her experiences as an exchange teacher Down Under!
June 2, 2009:
“I finally got to do some teaching today! First off, spent some time doing some sport psychology with SSC’s [Saint Stephen’s College] Year 9 ‘Rugby Academy’ boys. As you can imagine, I know basically nothing about rugby, unless you count last year when Kevin [Williamson] and I took the kids to see a Rugby League game in Brisbane. I did learn a bit more on this past Friday when I watched the SSC kids play Rugby Union. For some reason I don’t understand the difference between rugby “League” versus “Union” – not to mention the Australian Football League (AFL) – as all three are very different sports!
“Anyway, the sport psych stuff went really well, in that we talked about performance anxiety, overcoming adversity, fear of injury, goal setting, confidence and self-talk. Hopefully, they also learned how to apply these same principles and strategies from sport into the classroom. Mick, the Rugby coach/teacher, seemed pleased with how the conversation went, so he is planning for me to do more of that during my stay with some of the older athletes, too.
“Later on, I spent some time with the Year 8 kids talking about bullying, sexting, peer pressure and anxiety. Amazing, isn’t it, that half a world away that the kids are still kids! That session, too, went well, and I am looking forward to following up with some of the students later on during my stay. Unfortunately, the older students (equivalent to our juniors/seniors) are all testing this week, so I am not going to have much time with them in the classrooms, although I am offering a ‘one-off’ session or two on managing stress/anxiety.”
June 12, 2009:
“I’ve had another busy week at [SSC]. Got a chance to watch the McDonald’s Cup Rugby Tournament with the MS boys. Major bummer was that Jed Dorrington, the son of the headmaster, got a concussion with his grade 7 team and then spent the afternoon in the hospital! On a brighter note, I did get to do some more sport psych work with the older rugby academy boys, as well as some test anxiety, stress and time management work with the upperclassmen. Very cool. I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the students I met last summer, as well as the chance to meet some new kids.
“Interestingly, their whole upper school essentially shuts down Friday afternoon, and the kids all load up on buses to go play sports at neighboring schools. This Friday, I kept score for the boys’ volleyball team (they won), and then watched some girls’ netball (similar to basketball, sort of), boys’ hockey and soccer, and then my new favorite sport, rugby (they lost). No concussions, but somehow a whole team managed to miss the buses home, so that was kind of funny! Speaking of sports, many kids here take a ‘sports tour’ during the the last week of school and into vacation, traveling to Melbourne and Sydney for some sightseeing and games. Good times.
“Highlight for me this week was watching their dance class! Hilarious! Some students really get into it. Others, well, not so much! On a more cultural note, I did get to join a school trip to hear the Tokyo string quartet play Wednesday night up in Brisbane – awesome! (Beethoven, Haydn & Mendelssohn for those who are interested).”
The Bay Area Showcase Chorus, of which MS French teacher Carol Parris is a member, recently won the national Forever Plaid Online Video Contest. The contest, part of a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Off-Broadway musical “Forever Plaid,” gave singing groups nationwide the chance to be featured during the Forever Plaid 20th Anniversary Special on July 9 at 8 p.m., which will be broadcast to 375 movie theaters across the country, including two theaters in the San Jose area: CineArts Santana Row 6 and AMC Eastridge Mall 15. The group’s performance will also be included as a special feature in the “Forever Plaid” DVD. More info about Bay Area Showcase Chorus (and a video of the performance that won them the contest) can be found at their Web site.
Naomi Schatz, US psychology teacher, flew to Australia in May as part of Harker’s teacher exchange program. Throughout the summer, she will be sharing her experiences overseas. Watch Harker News Online this summer for further adventures!
May 31: Greetings from Down Under….
“It has been a great weekend here in Aussie land! On Friday, I was a special guest-judge at a ‘Dilemmas’ competition where students had to speak off of the top of their heads about current political issues. Pretty fun, relatively speaking. After the event, the whole student body sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me, and presented me with a special Saint Stephen’s College rugby shirt… and I love it!
“Friday night I went out with Jaime Dorrington, head of school at SSC, and a few other colleagues I met last summer on the leadership retreat, to a nice dinner and blues festival down on the coast at Broadbeach. Saturday, we went for a picnic and a lovely hike with Jaime and his family up into the mountains in an area called Spring Brook and visited an awesome waterfall, called Purling Brook Falls. Sunday I went for a walk with Eden [former exchange student], who has very fond memories of his time at Harker!
“This week, I’m planning to present to students on stress/anxiety and testing as they have exams in the upper school. Also hoping to do some sport psychology lessons with their athletes, which should be fun! Jaime is keen on me presenting on some team-building and leadership issues as well, so working on that. I’m very excited! Well, that’s it for now!”
In May Harker received a visit from Sue Muir, upper school advanced level math teacher from St. Stephen’s College in Australia. A teacher for 33 years, Muir was on a sixmonth sabbatical from teaching, which all teachers at St. Stephen’s college get to do after seven years of service. She spent her first week observing all of Harker’s US math classes, and also did a lot of team teaching with US math teacher Gabriele Stahl.
“Sue and I had very fruitful conversations about the material,” Stahl said. “Whenever we started a new method we got together before and talked it through. We found out that our teaching styles were very similar. Sue came up with a few worksheets for the students.”
Added Stahl: “Sue adjusted very easily to Harker and I believe she had a lot of fun, too.”
Muir spent a day visiting Rob Regan’s Gr. 5 world geography class, where she talked to the kids about Australian culture. She also spent a day on the MS campus to observe teachers in class, and met with Vandana Kadam, math teacher, to discuss the possibility of St. Stephen’s joining the Harker Math Invitational as well as collaborating on a math exchange. “Sue was highly impressed with the advanced level of math our students do,” said Jennifer Abraham, global education director.
Harker’s Future Problem Solvers had another great year, garnering honors at both the state and international levels in April and May.
At the Future Problem Solving (FPS) California state finals, held on the Saratoga campus in April, Harker emerged as the state champion in a remarkable nine of 12 categories, and won the junior division for the very first time. The junior (Madhu Nori, Juhi Muthal, Simran Singh and Tiara Bhatacharya, all Gr. 6), middle (Daniela Lapidous, Akshay Tangutur, Chaitanya Malladi and Laura Yau, all Gr. 9) and senior (Namrata Anand, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Monisha Dilip, all Gr. 11) teams advanced to the international finals in Michigan.
In a stroke of luck, the second place team of eighth graders Ria Desai, Emily Wang, Pooja Shah and Sonia Gupta was invited to the international finals when one team dropped out due to the swine flu scare.
Two other Harker teams earned high rankings. Ninth graders Jennie Xu, Daanish Jamal, Ananth Subramaniam and Jackie Jin took third, while eighth graders Karan Das Grande, Shelby Rorabaugh, Jacqueline Wang and Connie Cheng earned fourth.
Harker also had the top middle and senior scenario writer, Rorabaugh and Olivia Zhu, Gr. 10. Alex Han, Gr. 11, was the top senior individual contestant, and qualified for the international finals.
For action plan presentations, Harker won at all three levels. Senior presenters were Christopher Berglund, Dominique Dabija, Ananya Anand and Nikhil Raghuram, Gr. 12, and Tim Chou, Gr. 10. Harker’s middle division action plan team was joined by Brian Tuan, Gr. 7, while Allen Huang and Sahana Rangarajan, both Gr. 7, joined the junior team to present their action plan.
Additionally, Cyrus Merrill, MS history teacher, was re-elected to be the state president of the nonprofit organization that runs FPS in the state of California.
At the international finals Michigan, all four Harker teams finished in the top half of their categories. The junior team fell just short of entering the final round, finishing third.
First place wins went to individual competitor Alex Han and to the team of action plan presenters in the senior division: juniors Monisha Dilip, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Alex Han, and sophomores Isaac Madan and Olivia Zhu. Namrata Anand fell ill and was absent from the finals, but managed to contribute via speakerphone while the team was preparing.
Shelby Rorabaugh, meanwhile, took third place in scenario writing, while Ananth Subramaniam took third in the middle division alternates category.
Phyllis Gwynn Carley, much beloved member of the Harker community for over 50 years, passed away in her sleep April 25, 2009. She was 88 years old. At a school that values its deep ties to the community, Mrs. Carley, as she was known to so many, was an institution and an irreplaceable tie to our past.
Nichols Hall hosted a gathering celebrating her life May 7 in Nichols Hall. The packed auditorium was the finest testimony the Harker community could make to the contribution Mrs. Carley made as the school grew from a boarding school in Palo Alto to the three-campus institution it has become today. The memorial included a welcome from Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and words from Diana Nichols, former head of school, on what Mrs. Carley meant to the school over the years.
Alumna Lauren Ammatuna ’08 sang “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” a paean to the deep love Mrs. Carley had for wide open spaces gained on horseback in her girlhood in Modesto. Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, spoke on Mrs. Carley’s legacy of caring and dedication; her stepson, Ken Blase, told stories of her from his childhood; and the memorial wrapped up with members of the audience sharing poignant, moving and joyous memories of how this outstanding, kind woman had touched their lives.
Born December 29, 1920, Mrs. Carley came of age prior to World War II in the Salinas Valley where in 1937, in one of her cherished moments, she was named Hostess of the California Rodeo in Salinas and awarded a pair of silver spurs she always treasured. She was a life-long aficionado of rodeos – always pronounced “ro day’ o” – and returned to Salinas to attend the California Rodeo every year, as well as attending other rodeos in central and northern California as often as possible.
The Harker School was graced with Mrs. Carley’s presence in a number of valuable roles, culminating with her services as secretary to the Board of Trustees and as a private clipping service for Harker’s Office of Communication. She opened her Harker career in 1952 in Palo Alto as a driver, shuttling local students to and from school. She progressed by virtue of her wonderful disposition and hard work to become secretary first to Donald Nichols, then to Howard Nichols and remained in that role for many years, though her contribution to campus life went far beyond her desk in the administration building.
As a student in the Central Valley, Mrs. Carley played polo, basketball and softball and noted once that being involved with Harker allowed her to relive her childhood, and for the duration of her life, she was one of Harker athletics’ biggest fans. “I love watching students of all ages coming together and having fun,” she said in a Winged Post (Harker’s student newspaper) article.
After retiring from Harker, Mrs. Carley continued to provide critical services to the school as secretary of the Board of Trustees. She was also a familiar face to current students and, as an avid sports fan, could be spotted at many home games. It didn’t matter what sport, she just enjoyed seeing kids active. Of no less value were her eight years of service to Harker’s Office of Communication where she scoured local newspapers for any mention of Harker. She dropped off the marked newspapers and her typed summary of news about Harker each week, and her visits were a welcome moment as she passed from office to office in the hallway – and also across the campus – dropping off clippings, sports scores and stories.
In 2006, Mrs. Carley received the Harker Alumni Association (HAA) Service Award, which was immediately renamed the HAA Phyllis Carley Service Award in her honor. Nikoloff noted, “Whether cheering our students at games or serving as secretary to the Board of Trustees, Phyllis Carley’s long career at The Harker School embodied the true spirit of service. Everyone at Harker enjoyed seeing Phyllis around campus, and her attitude of service and love has helped make Harker the special place it is today.”
Mrs. Carley lived the advice she once gave high school students, to “enjoy life and consider your friends. Academics are important, but so are our attitudes. Your attitude will stay with you throughout your life.” Mrs. Carley’s attitude, her dedication to her family and friends and to Harker will always inspire those who knew her.
She is preceded in death by her husband Rue Carley and survived by her grandson Dale Johnson (Harker Academy Class of 1980), stepsons Edwin and Ken Blase, as well as many other nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
San Jose Mercury News –June 26, 2009 Recent graduate Shelby Drabman ’09 made the list of All-Mercury News honorable mentions and was named to the first team for the Mercury’s Softball All-League team in the Santa Clara Valley’s West Bay region. Another graduate, Barrett Glasauer ’09 received an All-Mercury News honorable mention for baseball.
San Jose Mercury News – June 17, 2009 Junior Chad Gordon made the the All-Mercury News second team for boys volleyball. Senior Matthew Gehm and junior Eugene Huang received honorable mentions. Boys volleyball coach, Dan Molin, named one of two coaches of the year in the DeAnza Division.
Vogue.com – June 2009 The Alexander Wang Gap collaboration collection was written up in this Resort Report column by Mark Holgate.
NAIS.org– May 2009 The Ogre Awards were written about by founder Enid Davis, head librarian and the article was published with an update.
San Jose Mercury News– May 1, 2009 Harker Japanese students were mentioned as the winners of the National Japan Bowl. Harker swept all three top positions and one team will travel to Japan as part of their award (see full article in Harker News, May, 2009, page 1)
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal– May 15, 2009 Valley Life noted the Harker Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) won top honors at the national competition, bringing home $5,000 and a trophy (see full article in Harker News, June, 2008, page 32)
Image Magazine – May 2009 The annual Fashion Show was featured in a full page article showing many photos of students and parents.
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal – March 27, 2009 The Valley Life page featured photos and a short article about the Harker annual Fashion Show.
Each spring, campuses hold art shows to give students a venue for the works they have completed throughout the year. In addition, the US campus holds a special show for those in AP art classes. Here are a sampling of the many impressive pieces from the shows for your full color enjoyment!