Members of Harker’s varsity and JV dance teams returned today from a four-day dance camp with the United Spirit Association at UC Santa Cruz. Harker received the highest Superior award for choreography, and the team also was honored with the “Hardest Working Team” plaque. Individual awards were given to Emily Pan and Ankita Sharma, both rising juniors, for their drill-down technique. Meanwhile, among the 150 participants, Noel Banerjee, Darby Millard, both rising seniors, and Liana Wang, rising freshman, were recognized as All-American dancers, earning an invitation to perform in London.
While it is always amazing to be awarded for hard work and technique, “the most memorable part of camp was being told by the USA instructors that Harker’s dancers were incredibly polite, dedicated, humble and supportive of both their team members and the other participating schools,” noted Karl Kuehn, dance team coach. “Their passion to learn and grow as dancers fueled the team’s success, and I could not be more proud of this fantastic group of students.” Go Dance Team Eagles!
Providing a fun, sweet start to Harker’s Summer Institute (SI) program, a group of business-savvy students attending an SI finance class recently organized and ran a lemonade stand on the upper school campus.
The students raised $228, which was divided among three local organizations (Abode Services, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Foundation) as part of a lesson on charitable giving. The stand was one of two culminating projects for a course called “Finance & Investing for Teens” (F.I.T., for short). For the other culminating project, students successfully designed their own mutual fund.
The lemonade sale, held in early July during SI’s morning break and lunch hour, attracted customers including SI students and faculty, as well as other Harker staff working on the Saratoga campus. Harker’s SI, which began in mid-June and runs until mid-August, gives students in grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills and follow their passions.
The program is off to great start, with a total of 1,088 middle and upper school students enrolled in the institute (a 242 increase from last summer), according to SI middle school director Keith Hirota and Evan Barth, SI principal for the upper school students.
Available to both Harker students and others, SI offers two tracks –one designed for middle schoolers and another for high school students. Participants typically combine a morning academic program with afternoon activities, allowing them to earn credits and learn new skills, yet still enjoy summertime fun.
The academic portion of the day offers rigorous for-credit courses such as algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth including creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course is available for students ages 15 and up.
For middle schoolers (grades 6-8), SI’s afternoon activity program includes many specialty classes and recreational activities; students in grade 9 are also invited to sign up for the afternoon activities. Specialty classes include backyard games, volleyball boot camp and cooking. Other classes include art, jewelry-making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts. There are also off-campus field trips every couple of weeks to places such as Shoreline Aquatics Center and Capitola.
The lemonade stand is an example of SI’s continued commitment to combine learning with hands-on activities. To run the stand, students in the institute’s F.I.T. class were divided into three teams and tasked to come up with a custom flavor, build a business plan, design a marketing strategy and staff the business.
Start-up money was fronted by their instructor, Jonathan Brusco. “We discussed charitable giving and how to evaluate charities based on a number of factors, including their mission statement, financial efficiency, program effectiveness and transparency. Each student evaluated a specific charity and the group voted for the final selection,” he said.
F.I.T. participant and stand worker Emily Zhou, a rising grade 7 student at the Challenger School, said that this was her first time attending SI. Previously, she had attended Harker’s Camp+ program, held at the lower school.
Zhou explained that to offset such costs as cups and ingredients, drinks were sold for $1 for regular flavor and $1.50 for specialty flavors like mango or strawberry. “But we passed out coupons for 25 cents off to attract customers,” she said, noting that refills also went for 25 cents off.
Zhou’s F.I.T. classmate, rising grade 9 Harker student Eric Tran, said he was surprised at how much money the lemonade stand netted, noting that “We made $85 in just the first half hour of its opening.” In addition to passing out coupons to help attract customers, Tran said that a lot of marketing was done “word of mouth” and by “putting up signs around campus.”
However, customer Grace Cao, a rising grade 11 Harker student, said that she simply happened upon the stand on her way to an SI class. Of the lemonade she ordered, she said, “It tasted great!”
July 23, 2014 UPDATE 2: Congratulations to Vikram Sundar ’14, who earned a gold medal at this year’s International Physics Olympiad in Astana, Kazakhstan! As one of three gold medalists (alongside two silver medalists) on the U.S. team, Sundar was instrumental in helping the U.S. tie for third place overall in the event, in which 86 countries participated.
June 9, 2014 UPDATE: Vikram Sundar ’14, will be one of only five U.S. International Physics Olympiad team members heading to the International Physics Olympiad to be held from July 13 to 21, 2014 in Astana, Kazakhstan! Go Vikram-best of luck in this prestigious event!
May 22, 2014 Four Harker students are among America’s brightest emerging physicists, who will gather at Physics Boot Camp in College Park, Md., later this month, to train and hopefully qualify for the final U.S. Physics Olympiad Team.
Harker students who qualified are Rahul Sridhar, grade 12; Vikram Sundar, grade 12; Andrew Zhang, grade 11; and Kevin Zhu, grade 12. They will be vying for one of the five spots on the team (plus an alternate), who will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan, from July 13-21. There, more than 400 student scholars from 92 nations will test their physics knowledge, competing with the best in the world.
“This must be some kind of record!” said Jason Bardi, director of media services at the American Institute of Physics, which administers the test, runs the boot camp and sponsors the team’s trip to the Olympiad. “It’s tremendous because [Harker] kids are competing with all the huge, powerhouse science magnet public schools on the East Coast, like Stuyvesant and Montgomery Blair, which together have only three members on the team — as well as all the other high schools in the country,” he said.
Over the past 10 years, every U.S. Physics Team member traveling to the international competition has returned with a medal. In 2009, Anand Natarajan ’09 earned a gold medal at the International Physics Olympiad in Mexico. Harker sends a student to the boot camp most years, but has not had four members in recent memory.
The U.S. team is selected from 19 students who have emerged through a rigorous exam taken by 4,277 students. Eleven of the 19 finalists are students are from California; nine of them are from the Bay Area, including Gunn High School, Mission High School, Monta Vista High School, Palo Alto High School and Saratoga High School. The full list is here: http://www.aapt.org/aboutaapt/2014-United-States-Physics-Team-Announced.cfm.
“The competition for a position on the U.S. Physics Team is intense and each student who participated in the 2014 selection process is deserving of recognition,” said Beth Cunningham, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers. “They are the future of America’s success in physics-related fields. AAPT is honored to recognize the exceptional scholars who qualified for the team and to support their further participation in the International Physics Olympiad.”
An integral part of the team experience is the training camp. Most of the students invited to the camp are the top science student in their high school. For many, it is their first chance to meet other students who are truly their peers. The training camp is a crash course in the first two years of university physics. Students learn at a very fast pace. They have an opportunity to hear about cutting edge research from some of the community’s leading physicists. At the end of the training camp, five students will be selected to travel to Kazakhstan for the international competition.
The coaches for the 2014 U.S. Physics Team are Paul Stanley, academic director; Andrew Lin, senior coach; JiaJia Dong and David Fallest, coaches; and Lucy Chen, assistant coach.
The U.S. Physics Team is sponsored by the generous support of private donors and the member societies of the American Institute for Physics.
About AAPT AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists and industrial scientists, with members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Last spring, as track and field season heated up, a funny thing happened: Harker records began to fall en masse. With 2013 now drawing to a close, the cross country team has kept the streak alive, making the past calendar year one for the record books for Harker runners.
It all started in March at the Willow Glen Track and Field Invitational, when Corey Gonzales, now grade 11, topped his own Harker record in the 3,200-meter run by 40 seconds. Isabelle Connell ’13, then a senior, broke her own record in the 200 meter, and Michael Chen ’13 broke his own record in the shot put. A week later, Connell set a new Harker record in the 100 meter, while Julia Wang, now grade 11, set a new shot put record, then posted the second-best mark in Harker history for girls discus. A week after that, Gonzales set a new Harker record in the mile run, Connell set a new Harker record in the 400-meter run, and Sumit Minocha ’13 set a new Harker record in the 100-meter run.
A month later, Cheryl Liu ’13 broke a Harker record in the 100-meter hurdles. Then, three minutes later, Nadia Palte, just a freshman at the time, broke Liu’s record. That same day, Chen broke a Harker record in the discus competition. A few days later, Minocha broke a Harker record in the 100-meter run, and Palte broke her own record in the 100-meter hurdles. At the WBAL championships, Minocha won the 200-meter race, Gonzales won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races, Claudia Tischler, now grade 12, won the 1,600-meter race, and Connell won the 100-meter and 200-meter races. A relay team of Tischler, Palte, Connell and Ragini Bhattacharya ’13 also came in first place. Discus throwers Wang and Chen all advanced to CCS.
All told, Harker sent more athletes to CCS and saw more athletes score points at CCS than ever before. Minocha won the CCS championships in the 200-meter run, becoming the first runner in Harker’s history to win an individual CCS championship and the second Harker athlete ever to achieve such a mark. Minocha and Connell became the first athletes in Harker history to qualify for the state meet, and they and Gonzales all set personal records at CCS. Minocha was recognized as athlete of the week by the San Jose Mercury News.
It was an incredible finish to an incredible year. Spring 2013 was a breakthrough season for the program, unlikely to be rivaled. The seniors graduated, and Minocha’s and Connell’s new records were noted in the Harker gym.
When the returning athletes came back to school in the fall, an amazing thing happened: the cross country team picked up right where it left off. Tischler was now the team’s senior statesman, and Gonzales was freshly saddled with new expectations to continue his record-breaking streak. They were joined this year by a new phenom: freshman Niki Iyer.
Running cross country in September, Iyer won the first race of her Harker career. In her next effort, her first varsity race, she ran the best time of any female runner in Harker’s history, coming in second place by a single second. In her next race, she racked up her first varsity win, setting a new school record with one of the 10 best times for a freshman in the course’s 70-year history, an achievement that Harker’s athletic director Dan Molin called “truly elite level.” That race won Iyer athlete of the week recognition from the San Jose Mercury News.
In the first WBAL meet of the year, Gonzales set a new course record, while Iyer won her race and missed out on setting a new course record by, again, a single second. At Baylands, Iyer won another race, beating the previous year’s league champion and setting a new course record. At Crystal Springs, Gonzales and Iyer both set new Harker records. Both runners came in first at the WBAL championships. They and Tischler all qualified for the CCS championships, where Iyer placed third in her race and Gonzales won his, making him the new Division 4 CCS cross country champion. Both qualified for the state meet, where Iyer took seventh and Gonzales finished 85th. See the Eagle Report, page 36, for details.
One of the things that changed Harker’s fortunes was a new head coach. The 2012- 13 school year was the first for Scott Chisam, who had run cross country and track at UCLA, then coached UCLA’s women’s track and field team to two NCAA national championships. All told, Chisam has coached 36 NCAA All-Americans and Olympians, and coached the U.S. women’s cross country team in the 1984 World Cross Country Championships.
“He’s as good as it gets,” says director Molin. “The Chisam name in cross country and track is well known.” The team agrees.
“I really could not have asked for better coaches,” says Gonzales. When Chisam arrived, he took naturally quick runners and made them into smart runners, teaching them techniques to improve their times and their stamina, ensuring that not only would they improve, but improve sustainably.
“It’s amazing how little they knew. They could run fast, but just things like starts, staying near the line on the turn. Just the things that make differences, to the hundreds, to the tenths,” said Chisam.
The team’s success has been contagious. “Last year’s team has been such an inspiration,” says Iyer. “They used to break the records like every week,” she remembers. Iyer, in turn, has inspired her teammates. “She’s more tenacious than any runner I’ve ever seen,” says Gonzales. “Being able to have Niki at practice has made me more tenacious as a runner as well.” He has kind words for Tischler’s leadership, as well. “I’ve always looked up to her,” Gonzales adds. “She’s the real captain on the team. She keeps everyone together. We all look up to Claudia.”
The inspiration of last year’s team, the expertise of Chisam, Gonzales’ ascendance, Tischler’s leadership and Iyer’s sudden emergence have created a great vibe among the runners.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better team this year,” raved Iyer. “The dynamics of our team are just so amazing.” Iyer can recall walking into the gym and gaping at the records set by the team the year before. Now, she is proud to see her name on that list as well. When, at a recent race, an athlete at another school asked Iyer if she’d prefer to be at Simi Valley, one of the state’s top cross country programs, Iyer cut her off mid-sentence. “Once an Eagle, always an Eagle,” was Iyer’s definitive reply.
Earlier this week at the DECA Emerging Leader Summit in Phoenix, Harker’s DECA officers received the “Best Project Model Award” for their presentation on the Harker DECA club’s upcoming Launch2014 event. Taking place Aug. 14-15, Launch2014 is designed to welcome both new and returning Harker DECA members, and offer them a preview of the exciting year ahead. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in student-run workshops and competitions, hear keynote speakers and engage in a variety of activities. “Few, if any, chapters hold such an event during the summer, and the student and judge audiences were very excited about the innovative idea,” said Juston Glass, Harker business and entrepreneurship teacher. “The judges were especially impressed by the thorough planning, professionalism, leadership skills, and creative thinking that was shown by the officer team not only during the presentation but throughout the entire summit.”
Glass received some recognition of his own for the work he had done with Harker’s DECA team, receiving the 2014 Outstanding New Advisor Award from DECA International.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Nichols Hall’s auditorium was packed on Nov. 15 for this year’s fall choral concert, which featured upper school singing groups Bel Canto, Camerata, Guys’ Gig and Cantilena. This concert focused on the work of Eastern and Central European composers, with a smattering of holiday favorites included in the spirit of the season.
Camerata, directed by Susan Nace, were the first performers of the evening with a pair of holiday songs by Arvo Pärt and Pierre Certon. Jennah Somers then directed Bel Canto, who performed traditional Russian and Macedonian folk songs, as well as a clever version of “The Nutcracker” with its familiar melodies sung to the lyrics of “Jingle Bells.”
Always crowd favorites, the allmale a cappella group Guys’ Gig took the stage and started things off with their rendition of Billy Joel’s “For the Longest Time.” Following some amusing banter in which they realized their set was not in keeping with the theme of the show, the boys launched into “Tchaikovsky and Other Russians,” an amusing meditation on the tongue-twisting nature of Russian surnames. Susan Nace returned to direct headliners Cantilena, who were accompanied by Camerata on their first song of the evening, Tchaikovsky’s “Let My Prayer Arise,” which had the two groups trading verses, adapted to match each group’s style. They followed with a stirring performance of Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk,” popularly known as “Carol of the Bells,” and ended the show on a rousing note with Zoltán Kodály’s “Táncnóta” (“Dancing Song”), which fittingly had the singers stomping in rhythm.
Rising senior Helen Wu, who was selected to play and travel with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America this summer, embarks on a two-week national tour starting July 24, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Massachusetts, Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago, Green Music Center at Sonoma State University, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and more. Wu is one of only three violinists from California who were selected to join the prestigious orchestra this summer! Here is a little background: https://staging.news.harker.org/instrumentalists-honored-by-selection-to-all-state-one-selected-for-national-youth-orchestra/
“This is one of the greatest accomplishments and honors a Harker instrumentalist has ever achieved, so I’m really proud to share it with you,” said Chris Florio, leader of The Harker School Orchestra. The photo was taken last week of Wu and world-renowned violinist Gil Shaham after his first rehearsal with the youth orchestra. Tour dates are on the Carnegie Hall website: http://www.carnegiehall.org/Education/National-Youth-Orchestra-of-the-United-States-of-America/
Congrats to Helen and best wishes for a great summer tour!
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Harker freshman Arjun Subramaniam recently joined celebrities and prominent activists in addressing an audience of more than 16,000 students from various California schools at an event called We Day.
The event, held on March 26 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, was sponsored by Free The Children, a nonprofit organization that works to eradicate child labor in developing nations. After being introduced by actress Selena Gomez, Subramaniam took to the stage to speak about his work with the organization.
Free The Children is an international charity and educational partner that believes “in a world where all children are free to achieve their fullest potential as agents of change,” according to its website. The organization works domestically to educate, engage and empower youth to become active local and global citizens.
Speaking at the recent We Day was a transformative experience for Subramaniam. “Everyone there has inspired me to keep being part of the fight to eradicate child labor,” he said. For more information about We Day and Free The Children, visit: www.freethechildren.com.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
When junior Ashwini Iyer was in grade 7, she went to Tanzania with her father and a teacher to help orphans there learn math and English. That firsthand experience, she said, planted the seeds for her current volunteer efforts to empower povertystricken women and children from around the globe, and led to the founding of Harker’s Rising International Club.
“Ever since then, I have been trying to find ways to give back and help those who are not as fortunate, without having to travel too far,” said Iyer, founder and president of the the club, which is one of several local chapters of an international nonprofit by the same name whose mission is to help end world poverty.
On March 30, Iyer, with the help of schoolmate and club vice president Roshni Pankhaniya, grade 11, hosted a home-based fundraising event attended by about 60 Harker students and parents, as well as neighbors and family friends. All proceeds from the event, which totaled $4,226 (with more donations expected to flow in from people who could not attend but wanted to donate), went directly to the organization.
For more information about Rising International, go to http://www.risinginternational.org.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
When junior Ashwini Iyer was in grade 7, she went to Tanzania with her father and a teacher to help orphans there learn math and English. That firsthand experience, she said, planted the seeds for her current volunteer efforts to empower povertystricken women and children from around the globe, and led to the founding of Harker’s Rising International Club.
“Ever since then, I have been trying to find ways to give back and help those who are not as fortunate, without having to travel too far,” said Iyer, founder and president of the the club, which is one of several local chapters of an international nonprofit by the same name whose mission is to help end world poverty.
On March 30, Iyer, with the help of schoolmate and club vice president Roshni Pankhaniya, grade 11, hosted a home-based fundraising event attended by about 60 Harker students and parents, as well as neighbors and family friends. All proceeds from the event, which totaled $4,226 (with more donations expected to flow in from people who could not attend but wanted to donate), went directly to the organization.
For more information about Rising International, go to http://www.risinginternational.org.