A group of Harker upper school students signed on to volunteer with The Tutoring Network (TTN), a Stanford-based nonprofit organization that offers free after-school tutoring at local elementary schools.
Launched in 2008, TTN’s goal is to provide meaningful service experiences for high schoolers. For the second year in a row, Harker volunteers have tutored students at the Empire Gardens Elementary School in San Jose.
Called the Harker School-Empire Gardens Partnership, this year’s group comprises a board led by site co-directors Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, and Vienna Wang, grade 10. Joining them as board members are fellow Harker students Edward Sheu, Kristen Ko and Madison Tomihiro, all grade 11, and Allison Kiang, grade 12.
Malladi said she became interested in TTN in eighth grade, when she decided that all of her extra time should be put to good use doing community service. She went on to found the (now discontinued) Blackford Elementary School TTN site and is currently focused on growing the Empire Gardens site. In addition to serving as site co-director, Malladi helps to oversee board operations.
Wang said she began working with TTN because her sister had previously volunteered with the program. When she first joined TTN, she especially enjoyed teaching children math and watching them have fun while learning.
The commitment for the Harker TTN volunteers is two days per week, with the program running until June. The goal of improving the basic math skills of students in grades 2-5. The curriculum covered by tutors is set up by TTN volunteers and school staff.
In front of a raucous home crowd, the girls crushed archrival Sacred Heart Prep for the third time this season, advancing past the CCS quarterfinals and into the semifinals. This Wednesday, they will take on Soquel at 7:30 p.m. at Notre Dame-Belmont High School. Stay tuned for information on a rally bus that will take Eagles fans to the game!
Cross Country
Senior Corey Gonzales and sophomore Niki Iyer gave spectacular performances at the CCS finals last Saturday in Salinas to qualify for the state meet this Saturday in Fresno. Iyer had the fifth-best time of the day across all runners in all divisions, placing third in the Division 4 race, while Gonzales placed eighth out of 100 runners. Juniors Jack Rothschild and Alex Dellar also ran personal bests on Saturday’s course.
The Eagles ended their season with a triumphant win, dominating St. Francis-Watsonville 48-15 on senior night. Freshman quarterback Nate Kelly led Harker to a massive 480 yards of total offense, including touchdown passes to three different receivers. Seniors Christian Williams and Sid Krishnamurthi pulled down touchdown passes from 42 and 39 yards, respectively, while junior Miles DeWitt caught touchdowns of 21 and 19 yards. Krishnamurthi also intercepted a pass to set up a scoring drive, as did freshman Anthony Contreras. The Eagles also scored on a touchdown by sophomore Will Park and two extra points by senior Alyssa Amick.
Tennis
The girls varsity squad won its first-round CCS match last week, beating York School 4-3, before falling the next day to league rival Menlo to end the season. The Eagles finished their year with a 15-7 record, tied for the most victories in a season in Harker girls tennis history.
Big news out of Harker sports! An Eagles golfer made it farther than any other Eagle, while varsity volleyballers achieved one of the highest seeds in Harker’s history. Two cross country runners finished second in league and join two teammates for what is sure to be an epic CCS race this weekend. Tennis is off to CCS as well, while both water polo teams ended the season with wins. Let’s get to the news!
Golf
At the CCS Golf Championships last Tuesday at Rancho Canada in Carmel, freshman sensation Katherine Zhu shot a 3-under-par 69, the best-ever Harker golf finish, catapulting her into the Northern California Championship in Salinas – the furthest any Eagles golfer has ever advanced! There she finished 19th out of 84 golfers, capping off a season in which she also won the WBAL individual league championship.
After defeating Sacred Heart Prep on senior night to earn the WBAL league co-championship along with Menlo, the girls varsity squad earned a No. 2 seed in the CCS Tournament, tying them with the 2007 team for the highest-ever seed achieved by an Eagles girls volleyball team. This Saturday night, they’ll have the opportunity to advance in the tournament when they host a quarterfinal match at Blackford against either Del Mar or Sacred Heart Prep. You can be a part of the action, too! For CCS contests, there is an admission price of $8 for adults and $4 for students. The girls finished their regular season with a 16-8 overall record and a 9-1 league record.
Senior Corey Gonzales and sophomore Niki Iyer each finished second on Friday in the league cross country championships. They will be joined by two additional qualifiers – juniors Alexandra Dellar and Jack Rothschild, both in their first year of running cross country – at this Saturday’s CCS Cross Country meet in Toro Park, Salinas.
Tennis
The girls qualified for CCS! The Eagles will begin with a first-round match-up when the team hosts York School today at 2pm at The Bay Club-Santa Clara, where a win would send the girls to Menlo tomorrow.
Both the boys and girls teams ended the season with wins! The boys trumped Lynbrook 8-7 at to finish in third place with a 12-11 record, while the girls wrapped up their year in fifth place with a 12-7 victory over Cupertino, giving them a 9-12 overall record.
Football
The Eagles and the cheer squad have their senior night this Friday under the lights against St. Francis-Watsonville at 6pm. Come support senior players Sid Krishnamurthi, Keanu Forbes, Alyssa Amick, Christian Williams and Allen Huang in their final game and cheerleaders Riya Godbole, Daniela Lee, Erika Olsen and Mariam Sulakian.
Senior Mariam Sulakian was recently honored with a Harker Community Service Spotlight Award. During a Monday morning campus meeting in early November, she received a $200 check from The Harker Upper School Community Service Program.
Sulakian donated the award money to a nonprofit organization she volunteers with, which provides medical services, food and social support for elderly Armenian residents living on their own in the Stepanakert area. The cause, known as Hanganak NGO, is funded by the Armenian Women’s Welfare Association (A.W.W.A.).
The Community Service Spotlight Awards, sponsored by Harker’s outreach department, occur several times throughout the school year. They were created to celebrate the outstanding community service completed by upper school students. Sulakian is the first of three students who will be honored this school year; the others have not yet been named.
In her acceptance speech, Sulakian explained that she began doing community service somewhat reluctantly in middle school at the urging of her sister. “Eventually she annoyed me so much that I just gave in,” she conceded.
Since “giving in” to volunteer work, Sulakian has gone on to become a passionate advocate of volunteerism. In fact, she has completed more than 1,000 hours of community service in her high school years alone. Yet, she believes that community service is “not about the hours or just something I do to pass the time. It’s about making myself part of other people.”
Throughout the past four years, Sulakian has embraced numerous volunteer activities, including tutoring children in her church, participating in benefit concerts and modeling in fashion shows for various causes. However, her most memorable volunteer moments have come from her volunteer work with the A.W.W.A., she said.
For many years, Sulakian, who speaks Armenian, has traveled to the country and volunteered for Hanganak NGO during the summer. She accompanied and talked to elderly Armenian patients on doctor visits, helped measure their blood pressure, packed up bags of food and medication, and assisted with other activities.
“The word charity can be somewhat misleading since it assumes that one person benefits in a one-way transaction. On the contrary, it is a mutually beneficial exchange. Nourish others physically, and they will nourish you spiritually,” she surmised.
Concluding her talk, Sulakian stressed that community service is what makes her proud to be herself and to be a part of others’ lives. “It in essence keeps me loving, stitching together the broken parts of myself as I help bandage those of others,” she said.
Harker hosted the 15th annual Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational Debate Tournament on the last weekend of September. A total of 380 students from 26 California schools participated in the tournament, which was run primarily by Harker debate students. In addition to various debate competitions, the event included several workshops taught by Harker debate captains.
“These workshops were dreamed up by Harker captains years ago and have become something we are known for as our successful older students teach Harker and outside students who are new to debate,” said Harker debate teacher Carol Green.
The weekend also included a special novice public forum tournament for debaters in grades 6-8, in which 35 middle school students participated.
Harker debate students continued their successful year at a debate tournament held at the University of the Pacific in Stockton last weekend. Andrew Tierno, grade 10, took second place in open dramatic interpretation, while Lisa Liu, grade 11, earned third place in open humorous interpretation.
Meanwhile, the team of David Jin, grade 11, and Alex Lam, grade 10, as well as the team of freshmen Derek Kuo and Justin Xie, each finished in the top eight of open public forum debate.
Earlier in the month, at the St. Mark’s School in Dallas, policy debaters Ayush Midha, grade 12, and Panny Shan, grade 11, reached the semifinal round, finishing third out of 76 teams. Midha was named 14th speaker in the tournament and, on the invitation of a group of debate coaches, gave a special speech at St. Mark’s. These results qualified Midha and Shan for the Tournament of Champions. Additionally, Karen Qi, grade 11, reached the double-octofinal in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
At a Lincoln-Douglas debate event held at Presentation High School, Pranav Reddy, grade 12, was named the first-place speaker in the round robin and invitational events, in addition to reaching the semifinal round of the invitational and qualifying for the Tournament of Champions. Qi reached the quarterfinals of the invitational, placing her one step closer to qualifying for the Tournament of Champions.
This week’s sports scores are hot off the presses – literally! The San Jose Mercury News recognized both an Eagles volleyball player and football player, while a freshman golfer won an WBAL championship! Let’s get to the scores and news:
Golf:
Freshman golfing sensation Katherine Zhu shot a 71 at Poplar Creek to win the WBAL individual championship! Zhu’s spectacular performance launches her into Tuesday’s section championship at Rancho Canada in Carmel, where she will have the opportunity to compete against the best in CCS.
At Poplar Creek, the team came in third overall, while junior Ashley Zhong tied for ninth. Last week, the girls lost to both first-place Castilleja and to Menlo, but overpowered Notre Dame-San Jose en route to a 210-249 victory. The team finished the regular season with a .500 record at 5-5-1.
Volleyball:
With a 14-8 record, the girls varsity volleyball team was ranked No. 15 on the San Jose Mercury News’ CCS rankings. Meanwhile, the Merc named senior Shreya Dixit Santa Clara County girls Athlete of the Week for her 31 kills in a 3-2 win against Menlo, 22 kills in Harker’s 3-1 victory over Notre Dame-San Jose, and average of 12.2 kills in Harker’s four victories out of five matches in the Notre Dame-Belmont Tournament. The paper also commended Dixit for being accepted into Yale next year!
Last week, girls volleyball won against both Notre Dame-San Jose and rival Menlo, giving them a share of first place with Menlo in the WBAL-Foothill Division. The girls reached the finals in the Notre Dame-Belmont Tournament.
Football:
The Merc also commended a freshman standout on Harker’s varsity football squad. Nate Kelly was featured in the Mercury News’ high school sports highlight reel of top performances for the last week. He was recognized for throwing for 210 yards and five touchdowns and running for 108 yards in three touchdowns in Harker’s 64-40 victory over Emery. Kelly’s unbelievable game gave the Eagles’ their third win of the year. Harker also got touchdowns from juniors Johnathon Keller and Miles DeWitt, and seniors Sid Krishnamurthi, Christian Williams and Keanu Forbes. Senior Alyssa Amick was perfect on extra points, kicking all four of her attempts through the uprights. Today, the team travels to Fresno to take on Immanuel High School.
Tennis:
The girls varsity squad won twice last week, trumping both King’s Academy and Crystal Springs by scores of 6-1, catapulting the team’s record to a fantastic 14-4.
Cross Country:
Last week, junior Lev Sepetov, and sophomores Andrew Rule and Steven Cao, all ran personal bests for the boys. On the girls’ side, sophomore Niki Iyer led from the start and won by 20 seconds with a 18:24 time, while junior Alex Dellar ran a 21:03.
Water Polo:
The girls avenged an earlier double-overtime loss to Monta Vista by crushing them 10-5 last week. The team is now 7-12 overall and playing their best games of the season heading into the league tournament. The boys lost to strong Wilcox and Los Gatos teams, dropping their record to 9-10 overall.
During a special assembly on Oct. 19, upper school students heard from three representatives of The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS). Based at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, CNS aims to prevent weapons of mass destruction from spreading by educating young people on issues of nonproliferation.
At the beginning of the assembly, Diana Nichols, former head of school and member of the Harker Board of Trustees, announced a new partnership with CNS and introduced CNS researcher and project manager Masako Toki. After giving a brief rundown of CNS and its goals, Toki told students about the center’s Critical Issues Forum (CIF), a program that enables high school students from around the world to come together to discuss and present research on nonproliferation topics. Next year’s CIF Student Conference will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, where the first of two atomic bombs was dropped in 1945 to hasten the end of World War II.
Another speaker was Tom Greg, a CNS graduate and researcher who served in the U.S. Navy on a nuclear submarine and held a crucial role in the decision to launch nuclear missiles. He recounted the story of his visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museum, which he called “one of the most intense experiences of my life.” He later decided to devote his graduate studies to researching nuclear nonproliferation.
The final speaker was Avner Cohen, senior fellow and professor at CNS, who spoke about the history of the nuclear age, including the discovery of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, which had been hidden for many years. Cohen showed a video that recapped the advent of nuclear weapons, from the earliest threat of their potential use by the Nazis to the arms race that helped drive the Cold War.
Recently, a group of Harker students began working with computer science department chair Eric Nelson on nonproliferation studies. The students plan to research a topic yet to be chosen and present at the conference in Hiroshima.
“I see a future of going into politics or political science, and I’m also on the debate team, so it seemed like a topic that would be of interest to me,” said Zarek Drozda, grade 11, one of the students working with Nelson. “Certainly I’ve heard about nuclear problems through debate and such, so I think kind of doing debate awakened me to these issues and I found an interest in it.”
“We’re just every week trying to find different topics to cover that will take us in the right direction once the project gets started,” said Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 12, who discovered the topic through his interest in physics. “I’m really interested in physics and so I’ve been talking to Dr. Nelson about just nuclear weapons in general for the past year or so. He brought to my attention this project and I liked the politics part of it as well.”
The Maryland-based Excelsa Quartet gave a special workshop to Harker students in early October. Currently a quartet in residence at Stanford University’s Emerging String Quartet Program, the all-female ensemble played selections from their repertoire, offered insights as to how they work together and advised students on how to be more cohesive. For example, the group suggested using words as signals when learning to play rhythmically complex passages and practicing with simpler pieces to warm up for more complex material.
Two Harker students were featured in the San Jose Mercury News in early October for extracurricular projects they completed with friends from other schools. Leo Yu, grade 12, worked with friends from Leland High School and Monta Vista High School to create a 3-D printed prosthetic hand that can be attached to a human arm and hopefully will be used to improve the life of a child in need. Vineet Kosaraju, grade 11, and a friend at Monta Vista established their own nonprofit called Math and Coding to help students as young as 8 foster their interests in math and programming. Since founding Math and Coding in the spring, the students have traveled around the country to show it to various libraries. In December 2015, another article appeared on Kosajaru’s good works in the Los Altos Town Crier!