This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Students took charge as both dancers and choreographers to celebrate “Peace, Love, and Dance” at the 2014 upper school dance production, directed by dance teachers Amalia De La Rosa and Karl Kuehn. The production was staged in three parts, with each word of the show’s title corresponding to a section of the show.
“Peace” followed a thread from conflict to unity, with dancers performing to works such as the pensive “Heartbreak Warfare” by John Mayer, choreographed by De La Rosa, and the more energetic “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic, choreographed by Erika Olsen, grade 11.
In “Love,” Kuehn’s choreography for “Coin-Operated Boy” by The Dresden Dolls featured an inventive use of props, as the titular boys emerged from boxes as though they were action figures come to life. Other visuals elements included Natti Pierce-Thomson’s lighting design, which heightened the mood and atmosphere of each performance, and the costumes by De La Rosa, Kuehn and the student choreographers.
The final portion of the show, “Dance,” featured some of the most upbeat performances of the evening, with complex and spirited routines set to the likes of Groove Factory, Robyn and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This stage of the production also featured the lone solo performance of the show, as Angela Ma, grade 12, danced evocatively against a black backdrop to Clint Mansell’s “Lux Aeterna.”
The show closed on an exhilarating note, with the production’s entire cast gathering on stage for the final number, and the excitement moved into the crowd, punctuated with a cascade of confetti.
Technical director Paul Vallerga and production manager Brian Larsen made sure the show ran smoothly, with the help of student crew members Sean Knudsen and Nicky Semenza, both grade 12; Alexander Thomas, Steven Wang and Harry Xu, all grade 11; and Justin Culpepper, grade 9.
This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
By Debbie Cohen and Zach Jones
Even Democrats and Republicans agree on the crucial need for American students to become computer literate. To help meet that need, Harker, which already promotes computer science (C.S.) education in all grades, has been systematically upgrading its C.S. program at the middle school.
A new required programming class for grade 7 and an advanced programming elective were added at the start of the school year. Harker also beefed up various elements of the C.S. program for the middle school’s entire student body (grades 6-8).
The expanded C.S. program aims to provide students with a foundation to become well-rounded programmers in the future, according to Abigail Joseph, middle school computer science teacher.
“Courses at each grade level provide students with not only foundational programming concepts, but also curriculum that develop students’ critical thinking, problem-solving and design abilities,” she said.
“We are definitely seeing an upswing in interest in computer science,” reported Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs.
Since Eric Nelson became the chair of the upper school computer science department in 2010, that program has matured significantly, now offering a number of pathways to students interested in entering the field as a career.
Nelson said his desire to create a comprehensive and effective C.S. program stretches back more than two decades, when he found himself unsatisfied with the level of competency he saw in many of his co-workers. “At that time I remember swearing if I was ever, ever in a position where I could teach students computer science, I would make sure I didn’t have people like this walking into my office,” he said. He began taking copious notes. When the time finally came for him to develop a curriculum, “I already had the framework, and so that’s what we ended up with.”
Upper school students fulfill their C.S. requirements in the Digital Worlds class, which covers basic concepts, how computers work and algorithmic thinking. Those who are interesting in furthering their C.S. education can take either an introductory or advanced programming class. Depending on their choice of class, students may then enter one of two Advanced Placement classes, one for introductory students and another for those who have completed advanced programming. Both AP classes lead into more advanced topics.
The program is also designed to allow teachers freedom to move students into different areas of the program as necessary. “If a kid says they’re interested in computer science, the first thing I ask is, well what have you done?” Nelson said. If their experience is limited they are directed to either of the starting programming classes. Those students who demonstrate a certain level of experience become eligible to take a challenge exam to determine whether they can skip the programming courses entirely.
“It’s not an exam on Java or any other language,” Nelson said. Instead, it tests the student’s ability to think algorithmically and their understanding of key concepts. “How they approach a problem will tell us that.”
Although the program has not yet reached K-3 in earnest, students do begin learning key concepts related to computer science, such as algorithmic thinking, problem solving and logical reasoning, as early as kindergarten. This year, kindergartners also will begin playing a board game that introduces some programming concepts. In the coming years, actual teaching of computer science will be slowly integrated into the lower grades.
Currently, grade 2 students are learning computer science concepts by working with robots that can be programmed by placing cards in a certain order. Next year, grade 3 students will use Pro-Bots that will be programmed manually to execute more complex instructions. Grade 4 students learn to program simple games, and grade 5 students go deeper into programming while also learning binary code and searching and sorting algorithms. “We do all of that with very little use of the technology,” said Lisa Diffenderfer, K-8 computer science chair. “We learn binary sort with a deck of playing cards. We learn some searching algorithms by playing ‘Battleship’-type games.”
As with the upper school, understanding computer science on a conceptual level is important to the lower and middle school computer science programs. “We really stress the underlying principles and fundamentals of programming and not one specific language,” said Diffenderfer. “We don’t want to teach one language because we don’t know what the language of the future is going to be.
It used to be C++ and now it’s Java. Who knows what it’s going to be 10 years from now?”
In fact, C.S. curriculum is so sorely lacking in many other schools that both President Barack Obama and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA, have united to support the recent launch of the “Hour of Code,” a massive publicity campaign to promote scholastic computer science education.
Due to the global effort, more than 33,000 schools in 166 countries dedicated time to computer science education as part of Code.org’s initiative, which was timed to coincide with Computer Science Education Week in December. The Hour of Code was part of Code.org’s broader campaign to encourage computer science education in more classrooms.
“The impact of the Hour of Code to change communities and propel computer science education to a new level of awareness globally is tremendous,” affirmed Joseph.
The Bureau of Labor estimates that more than 140,000 computer science jobs are added to the American economy every year, making it one of the fastest-growing occupations. Yet, according to the National Science Foundation, just 40,000 college students are graduating with computer science degrees.
“When part of a high-quality academic program, computer science classes add an element that helps all students navigate our complex, technologically driven world. It also gives our graduates an edge over those who are not taught these increasingly essential skills,” Dan Hudkins, Harker’s K-12 director of instructional technology, was quoted as saying in an article that originally appeared in the summer 2013 issue of Independent School Magazine, and also was printed in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The latest installment of TEDxHarkerSchool was held March 22 at the upper school campus. Launched in fall 2011, the student-organized series of events gives high school students interested in entrepreneurship the chance to hear inspiring speakers and meet with mentors from many different fields.
Organizers put together another impressive lineup of speakers for this year’s event. Among them was Harker student Arjun Mehta, grade 12, who has received much attention for his most recent endeavor, a conferencing app known as Stoodle, which already boasts thousands of users since its launch in December 2012. With the assistance of his father, Karl, Mehta’s previous business idea grew into PlaySpan, which sold for $200 million.
Mehta detailed what he believed were key steps for young entrepreneurs. He advised students to look for “pain points” in their everyday lives, seeking solutions to problems they regularly encounter. In response to the differences he noticed between Harker and his previous school, Mehta founded Stoodle to help give students at other schools a chance to collaborate and share their knowledge with one another. Mehta also encouraged future entrepreneurs to work in familiar spaces. Because Mehta was a high school student, he and his Stoodle collaborators were treated as “experts in the room” when meeting with older, more experienced entrepreneurs.
Mehta also offered advice on how to reconcile the busy life of a young entrepreneur with the obligations of a high school student. He cited a “willingness to be misunderstood” due to not having as much time for friends and extracurricular activities.
During the Q&A session that followed his talk, Mehta demonstrated his 30-second elevator pitch to the audience. He added that he plans to continue working on Stoodle while in college and keep it free to all.
A morning break allowed students to converse with the speakers and mentors in attendance. Students also got the chance to sit down with various entrepreneurs during lunch, gaining knowledge and sharing ideas.
“I find the mentor luncheon to be the most unique aspect of TEDxHarkerSchool, as it gives attendees an opportunity to interact with professionals on a more personal level,” said Glenn Reddy, grade 11, who helped organize and run the event.
New this year, various companies showed their products in the Nichols Hall atrium. This year’s exhibitors were GoPro, Master Images, Stoodle, Fuhu and Lighting for Literacy. “The attendees jumped at the chance to check out the booths in the atrium, and they were one of the most popular parts of the day,” Reddy said.
Antoine Delcayre, a grade 10 student at Branham High School who also attended last year’s TEDxHarker event, found the speakers helpful and “really enjoyed the knowledge they shared.”
Fellow Branham student Saumya Bhatia, grade 10, said attending TEDxHarker the previous year helped inspire her and her friends to start a DECA chapter at their school. She particularly enjoyed the talk from Stanford University lecturer Rashmi Menon, who said that it was good for people to admit to needing help. “I think that’s really important because I feel like a lot of times I don’t admit to not knowing things and I sort of want to be the expert in everything,” Bhatia said. “But I feel like she really clarified that it’s OK to ask for help and that in the end it’s for your own benefit.”
One of the more popular afternoon speakers was Dr. Ronda Beaman, chief creative officer at PEAK Learning and clinical professor at Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business. Known for her infectious speaking style and stage presence, Beaman started her talk by leading the audience in the Hokey Pokey. Beaman told the audience about the importance of neoteny, which is the ability for people to keep their “childlike qualities” – such as curiosity, creativity and an inclination toward experimentation – through their adult lives. The “neotenous mind” is what allows for the creative entrepreneurship that leads to exciting ideas such as phones that converse with their owners, and microfinance organizations such as Kiva, she said.
“Most of us are right-answered, brown-desked, tested right out of our original selves,” she said, lamenting the loss of creativity that occurs as children grow up. Beaman suggested that to help themselves retain the adventurousness of childhood, students could carry around a picture of their much younger selves as a reminder of the qualities they had at that age. She also suggested carrying around a crayon to smell, which greatly amused the audience. “The scent brings you back to kindergarten, before you knew ‘no,’ before you were told to sit down, before you were told to be quiet,” she said. “It just takes you back to possibility and color, and I hope you colored outside the lines.”
Last week, the undefeated boys golf team took down undefeated Menlo to remain in first place.
This week, they did it again, eking out a 191-194 victory against Sacred Heart Prep. The boys are now in sole possession of first place in the WBAL. Junior Shrish Dwivedi and sophomore Dakota McNealy both shot 2-over-par 37’s to give Harker a three-stoke lead after the first group. Freshman sensation Avi Khemani gave Harker its best score of the day with a 1-over-par 36, crushing his opponent by five strokes and giving Harker a thrilling victory.
Harker’s male golfers are off to the best start in their history, after becoming the first Harker team to defeat both Menlo and Sacred Heart Prep in the same season.
Volleyball
The boys went 3-0 last week, trouncing Eastside College Prep twice and handing then-undefeated Lynbrook (13-0) their first defeat of the season! The hot week bumped the boys’ record up to 10-2 overall and 4-1 in league. Senior Andrew Zhu led the team in kills over the week, with senior Will Deng, junior Shiki Dixit and freshman Andrew Gu right behind him. Junior Matt Ho led the team in assists. This Friday and Saturday, Harker is a host site for the Bellarmine Tournament, in which some of the top teams in the state will compete.
Soccer
The season is over, but the accolades keep coming! This week, three of Harker’s female athletes were featured in the San Jose Mercury News as honorable mentions for the All-Mercury News girls soccer team: freshman forward Joelle Anderson, junior defender Gabi Gupta and senior goalkeeper Alicia Clark.
Track and Field
The Eagles are off to a hot start, posting 15 personal bests in their first league track meet. The top three finishers in the high jump were Harker athletes, led by senior Parth Kothari. Senior Claudia Tischler and freshman Niki Iyer won their 1600m and 3200m, with Iyer’s time of 5:08:84 from last week holding up as the top freshman time in the state. Harker senior Arjun Kumar and sophomore Arthur Ye won their divisions in varsity and junior varsity shotput, respectively. Senior Nithya Vemireddy and junior Julia Wang placed third and fifth in the shotput and second and third in the discus, respectively.
Swimming
The girls beat out King’s Academy last week with a tense 81-78 victory, while the boys fell 77-90. The varsity event winners included senior Manon Audebert, senior Kimberley Ma, sophomore Angela Huang, sophomore Sandhana Kannan, sophomore Grace Guan, junior Aaron Huang, junior Craig Neubieser and freshman Michael Auld. Guan, Angela Huang, Ma, Auld and Aaron Huang all qualified for CCS.
Softball
Harker’s sluggers earned their first victory of the season in blowout fashion, dominating Andrew Hill 16-4. Junior Sarah Bean, junior Vivian Isenberg, freshman Marti Sutton and sophomore Alisa Wakita each had more than one hit.
Baseball
The boys nearly pulled off a triumphant comeback but finally fell short in an 8-7 loss to Priory. Freshman Varun Haltore had two RBI’s, while junior Keanu Forbes had two hits. On the mound, freshman Nic Bean and senior Varun Kamat combined for 11 strikeouts.
Tennis
The boys lost to state powerhouse Menlo last week, but still own a winning record at 8-5. The junior varsity team has a 4-2 record.
Lacrosse
The girls suffered some tough league losses last week to rivals Notre Dame San Jose, Gunn and Mitty. Goals were scored by junior Hannah Bollar, junior Allison Kiang, senior Mabel Luo and senior Mary Liu. Senior Christine Lee had 43 saves in goal over those three games.
Late last month, Bradley Stoll, mathematics department chair, was named the recipient of an Inspirational Teacher Award from MIT. Alumna Lorraine Wong ’13 nominated Stoll for the award, saying of him, “I am immensely grateful that you believed in me in math, and more importantly, in life, and that you are not afraid to share your belief that being a kind human is more important than getting the best grades in a class.”
Stoll expressed gratitude at being nominated and said he was honored by Wong’s sentiments. “Lorraine’s nomination will be a constant reminder to me that I need to see and treat each student as an individual and not compartmentalize them by their grades,” he said “that I need to be compassionate, that sometimes I need to be their teacher, sometimes I need to be their friend.”
This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
After hitting the ground running in the fall, the business and entrepreneurship department and DECA chapter have hardly stopped to take a breath. The B.E. department is launching a slate of ambitious programs in the spring and the DECA chapter has been traveling and competing as conference season comes into its own.
The B.E. department is set to launch CareerConnect in the spring. The program will unify three separate pillars under one umbrella – mentorship, professionalism and panels – with the goal of preparing Harker students to excel in the workplace.
The first of the three pillars of CareerConnect is the mentorship program that will pair more than 100 sophomores and juniors with mentors in their desired fields to receive career advice. Over the course of the school year, they will meet with these mentors multiple times to learn about their mentors’ career paths and how they can begin shaping their own.
The second of the three pillars, professionalism, involves attending and networking at exclusive conferences and events in various venues across the valley, including the Stanford Venture Lab and Computer History Museum. This will also include the hosting of a series of professional workshops where students will learn interview tips, networking skills and how to construct engaging resumes and LinkedIn profiles to help them jump to the top of the stack when applying for positions. Sarah Bean, grade 11, says, “Contacting and confirming the … speakers on our fast-approaching deadline has been the most challenging aspect [of starting the program].”
Addressing the final pillar of CareerConnect is the career panel series that kicked off in March. The series will bring professionals from the law, medical, business, computer science and engineering disciplines to Harker to present on their fields and entertain students’ questions as they decide which fields to pursue. Bean says she and the other five students coordinating the CareerConnect program are “working hard to assure our career panel month is a success.”
The B.E. department sent nine students and department chair Juston Glass to the Stanford Venture Lab in January to hear from five entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who are running successful companies. Chirag Aswani, grade 11, said, “I was able to get … strong insight on the process of starting … a company, including the risks. Out of all the events I [have] attended [this year], the Stanford event is by far the best.” Before and after the panel and Q&A, the students were given time to network and meet with other aspiring entrepreneurs at the event.
The Harker DECA chapter, which started the year with community outreach and exciting new programs, has continued its rapid pace as the year is hitting its halfway point. The Stock Market Game, run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), has concluded with impressive results. Three student teams finished in the top 25 in the nation. The game included a friendly competition between students and faculty teams which, as Glass relates, the students “dominated.” The combined virtual earnings of all three of these teams approached nearly $100,000 in three months.
SIFMA also hosts the national essay competition InvestWrite. Thousands of students analyzed an investment opportunity and submitted portfolio allocation plans for short- and long-term returns. Manthra Panchapakesan, grade 11, was ranked first in the state of California and third in the country for grades 9-12.
DECA
DECA students engaged in a different kind of competition this year when they took part in the Virtual Business Challenge. The challenge required students to pick one of four business categories (sports, restaurants, retail or personal finance) and run a virtual business in that industry. Once the students picked their industry, they were challenged to run their virtual business over the course of a simulated year, with the goal of maximizing their profits. Competing in the restaurant category, David Zhu and Peter Wu, both grade 9, placed first in the Western region and third in the nation. When asked about the event, Zhu said, “Restaurant appealed to me most since it was more small-scaled and feasible.” When asked if he was considering translating his talents into becoming a young restaurateur, he replied, “[It] is always a possibility, but I believe the simulation gave me a preview on running all sorts of businesses.”
The chapter continued its busy year when Glass and 90 students made the trek to Anaheim to attend the California DECA conference. Along with nearly 2,000 other students, the Harker chapter competed in 35 events over the course of three
long days. Of the 35 events in which Harker students competed, 32 competitors finished in the top 10 and 13 resulted in top four finishes, thereby qualifying for the international conference competition. These accomplishments proved strong enough to make Harker No. 1 among all schools in California with enrollment under 2,000, fourth overall, out of 70 schools that participate in California DECA.
While the chapter as a whole performed extremely well, chapter president Monica Thukral, grade 12, was singled out as California DECA’s student of the year from more than 4,500 members. While her achievements as a part of DECA are numerous, she says she is “most proud of how I have contributed to the chapter’s growth at Harker and within Silicon Valley,” and that “DECA has made me a much more confident and responsible person.”
The DECA organization as a whole challenged each individual chapter to grow by completing campaigns across multiple categories: DECA promotion, community service, global entrepreneurship week and recruiting. Glass said he was “extremely proud” of the DECA chapter for being the only chapter in California to complete all four campaigns and receive recognition from the international DECA organization.
While the winter has not brought California enough rain, it has brought more than enough conferences, activities and new programs to keep the students of the business and entrepreneurship department and DECA chapter busy. This trend will continue to the end of the year and through the summer as monthly podcasts continue, CareerConnect kicks off, Harker hosts the TEDx conference and sponsors a Wharton/ Harker summer business program, and the DECA chapter continues to travel and compete at the international conference.
Ninja Innovation and Start Up Culture Conference Outlines Strategies
In mid-February, seven business and entrepreneurship department students traveled to the Ninja Innovation and Startup Culture Conference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to hear Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, discuss his book “Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses.”
The evening began with refreshments, where students networked with business professionals.
During the program, Robert Scoble, a tech evangelist, moderated the discussion with Shapiro, who spoke about his experiences with the Consumer Electronics Show and in the business world, focusing on disruption, determination, discipline and passion. Shapiro shared his knowledge and described key emerging trends that are helping direct startup “ninja innovation” in this competitive landscape.
“Gary was great, very casual. He was very open about his opinions and not as political in his words as you might expect,” noted Glenn Reddy, grade 11.
“The Computer History Museum is a great location and, thanks to the Silicon Valley Bank, there was a huge spread of food for all attendees,” added Reddy. “It was great to see Harker’s B.E. students in action; I saw students controlling conversations with various executives around the room. Harker students left an impression at the event and made a great showing.”
This report provided by Shannon Hong, grade 10, director of PR for Harker DECA
Students Attend ‘Dress for Success’ Presentation by Men’s Wearhouse
As February wrapped up, business-oriented student groups brought representatives from Men’s Wearhouse to the upper school to discuss how students should dress in professional environments.
“The presentation was informational, entertaining and useful, because I now know what to wear to an interview,” said Kevina Xiao, grade 10.
Sponsored by Harker DECA, Career Connect, and the business and entrepreneurship department, more than 60 students attended, receiving valuable tips and guidelines to follow when dressing for job interviews and other formal events. They also learned how to tie ties and other necessary wardrobe skills.
“It helped me decide what to wear for interviews and how a simple blazer can be used for various events,” said Chirag Aswani, grade 11.
The Men’s Wearhouse representatives not only instructed the attending students how to dress well but also gave advice on how to network and converse in formal settings. In addition, they talked about other valuable life skills that would help students to become more professionally responsible.
This report provided by Sophia Luo, grade 10, intern to director of PR for Harker DECA
This spring saw an amazing number of important outreach efforts at both Harker’s lower and upper schools. At the lower school, grade 1 students broke a new record raising funds for animals living at the Humane Society. Additionally, a number of grade 5 girls took it upon themselves to help sew items for local charities, and a grade 5 boy started a foundation providing sick children with comforting toys. Meanwhile, happenings at the upper school included a freshman serving as a featured speaker for an organization that seeks to eradicate child labor; a senior receiving an award for her advocacy work on behalf of the hearing impaired; and two juniors working to improve the lives of women in poverty. Read on for a more detailed overview of all of these outreach efforts, each one significant in its own right.
Grade 1 Students Raise Money, Create and Collect Items for Shelter Animals
Grade 1 students at the lower school recently completed their annual community service project for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. The entire first grade student body worked to improve the lives of the shelter’s displaced rabbits, dogs and cats by collecting monetary donations as well as buying needed supplies and making toys for distribution to the animals.
“It was pretty sweet to get Ziplock bags filled with dollar bills and coins. Every bit made a difference … We also collected over 50 bags of food, toys, rabbit hay, treats, collars, leashes, blankets, sheets and towels. We also raised over $1,250. A new record!” reported Cindy Proctor, a grade 1 homeroom teacher who helped oversee the project.
To learn as much as possible about the Humane Society – an 80-year-old independent, nonprofit animal shelter – the children toured the nearby Silicon Valley facility. Following the fun and informative outing, the students decorated a bulletin board with photos of themselves and their animal friends. They also made pet blankets and toys for donation.
Parents played a role as well, as the children were encouraged to earn extra money for the Humane Society at home by doing small jobs around the house.
“The animals will be really happy because they will feel special when they receive all their gifts,” observed grade 1 student Angelina Burrows, who said she spent time cleaning her room to help raise money for the shelter effort.
Her classmate, Stefan Maxim, said he did “a bunch” of extra jobs to help raise money as well, including watering the garden, washing the car and “even washing the house!”
“I want to express our gratitude for the support of the entire Bucknall campus. This grade 1 donation drive was a huge success!” enthused Proctor.
Grade 5 Student Honored for Philanthropic Work at Children’s Hospital
Bryan Zhang, grade 5, recently received a certificate from the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in recognition of his philanthropic efforts there providing young patients with comforting toys.
“This hospital means a lot to me, and the patients there deserve the service and toys. I am delighted to be helping the Lucile Packard’s Children Hospital,” said Zhang.
Four years ago, when the Los Altos resident was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, his nurses brought him a stuffed teddy bear, which he found very reassuring. Upon returning home, Zhang began thinking about all the other sick children at the hospital and wondering whether they also received such gifts to help ease their hospital stays.
He had a lot of souvenirs from countries he had visited while traveling with his parents and decided to donate them to children at the hospital – an idea he shared with the staff at the hospital. They were very receptive to the suggestion. Soon after, Zhang’s parents helped him carry his vision even further by forming the nonprofit World Toys for Children Foundation, whose mission is to “support Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital with donations that educate, inspire imagination and comfort sick children.”
Now, thanks to Zhang and his parents, many sick children at the hospital will benefit from the cheering effect that new toys can bring to young patients.
Grade 5 Students Spend Presidents’ Break Volunteering for Sew for Love Program
Five fifth grade girls shared the joy of volunteering during a fun community service project called Sew for Love, an event consisting of sewing needed items for local charities.
Nilisha Baid had heard about the opportunity via her Girl Scouts group. She had met the Sew for Love organizer at other Girl Scout events and been wanting to volunteer herself. So she decided to ask some of her classmates to join her at this year’s 12th annual Sew For Love, which was held on a weekend over the Presidents’ Week break.
There, she and some of her friends (fellow grade 5 students: Ankita Kundu, Advika Phadnis, Pramiti Sankar and Arushi Saxena) joined other volunteers who were working in shifts on projects together.
Whether busy at the sewing machine, scissors cutting, hand sewing or threading, Sew for Love volunteers were able to combine their efforts to produce some 871 items in just two days. Completed items included child and adult quilts, pet beds, tote and drawstring bags, fleece hats, bean bag chairs, and small “Pocket Love Bears.”
Reflecting back upon their volunteer work, Baid and her Harker pals agreed it was a very rewarding experience to learn to assemble and sew a variety of items for a worthy cause. And, as an added bonus since the event, all the girls have now signed up to be Girl Scouts together, where they are sure to continue to enjoy further shared communal outreach efforts.
Grade 11 Students Work to Help Empower Impoverished Women and Children
When grade 11 student Ashwini Iyer was in seventh grade she went off to Tanzania, Africa, with her father and a school teacher to help orphans there learn math and English. It was that firsthand experience, she said, that planted the seeds for her current volunteer efforts striving to empower poverty stricken women and children from around the globe.
“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, who is the founder and president of Harker’s Rising International Club. The club is one of several local chapters of an international nonprofit by the same name whose mission 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 house party, 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 Rising organization.
In addition to selling arts and crafts made by women locally and in developing nations, they hosted several guest speakers including Rising’s CEO Carmel Jud and Saratoga city council candidate Pragati Grover. Jud and Grover discussed the topic of women empowerment and the importance of teaching impoverished women around the world how to run their own sustainable micro-enterprises.
Iyer originally met Jud at the Khaled Hosseini Harker Speaker Series event held at the upper school last year, which she was covering for journalism. “As we talked, I explained my experiences, and how much I wanted to give back to my community, and she told me to contact her to see if I could get involved in her organization,” recalled Iyer.
Iyer then began her volunteer work with Rising International by working with Jud and two students from other high schools to organize a successful large scale fundraiser at the AMC 14 theaters in Saratoga, as well as their own private home parties.
“Sometimes it’s easy to get overwhelmed with grades and college applications, but we have to remember that many of these women and children would give anything for these worries. Since we are so blessed, I believe that it is our duty to help them and share all that we have,” said Iyer.
“Growing up in Silicon Valley we are in a relatively sheltered environment and I find it really important for all of us to realize that the world isn’t as perfect as it seems. I saw Rising as a wonderful way to bring attention to the cause,” added Pankhaniya.
Zina Jawadi, grade 12, received Harker’s Community Service Spotlight Award at a recent Monday morning school meeting. At the gathering she was given a $200 check from the upper school community service program, which she in turn donated to the Hearing Loss Association of America’s (HLAA) Walk4Hearing event to help promote awareness about children with hearing loss.
The community service spotlight awards are given several times during the school year. They were created to celebrate and honor outstanding community service by upper school students.
In her acceptance speech at the meeting, Jawadi explained that HLAA is the largest national nonprofit support and advocacy organization serving people with hearing loss, with 200 chapters and tens of thousands of members.
A couple years ago Jawadi, who herself has hearing loss, became the youngest board member of any HLAA board nationwide. Shortly after, she was nominated and unanimously elected HLAA-CA secretary. And, she was recently voted HLAA-CA vice president. Among her work for the cause, Jawadi has organized and spearheaded youth events, conventions and fundraisers. She also has been asked to serve as a guest speaker on behalf of the organization.
Previously, between her freshman and sophomore years, she launched a used hearing aid collection in the Bay Area on behalf of the Starkey Hearing Foundation, an effort which she has continued by signing up 29 audiologists and hearing aid dispensers, and collecting more than 600 hearing aids for needy people with hearing loss.
During her speech, Jawadi noted that she used to be inspired to do community service because of her hearing loss. However, she said her source of inspiration has since changed as she is simply grateful to be able to serve people with disabilities, who she believes face more socioeconomic and educational barriers than all other minorities combined.
“Zina was selected to receive our community outreach award because of her passion for community service,” said Kerry Enzensperger, director of community service and activity director.
“She has turned in over 500 hours of community service but continues to volunteer without turning in hours because she so loves what she does! In fact, if she did turn in her hours she would be over 1,000 hours of community service,” said Enzensperger.
Grade 9 Student Presents Alongside Celebrities at Free the Children’s WE Day
Harker freshman Arjun Subramaniam recently joined celebrities and prominent activists in addressing an audience of more than 16,000 children from various California schools gathered at the Oakland Arena for an event called WE Day.
The event, held on March 26, was sponsored by an organization called Free the Children, which 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 nonprofit organization. He then presented a short segment, telecast live, on the story of a young child laborer called Iqbal Masih.
Masih’s story had originally inspired the founding of Free the Children by a man named Craig Kielburger back in 1995. Kielburger was only 12 years old when he gathered 11 school friends to begin fighting child labor, laying the seeds for the organization.
Today, 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.” The organization works domestically to educate, engage and empower youth to become active local and global citizens.
Subramaniam said he first got involved with Free the Children after reading an article about child labor and being upset to learn that kids his own age and younger were being forced to work up to 15 hours a day and denied an education.
“While perusing the Web for organizations that were targeting this issue, I came across Free the Children, and their mission shared many parallels with my interests and passion,” recalled Subramaniam, noting that, by chance, the organization’s only office in the United States was just a few minutes away from his house.
Last year Subramaniam brought a Free the Children representative to speak at the middle school. Shortly after, he and a couple of friends set up a fundraiser on campus to help raise money for the cause.
“I have also talked to leading figures in the child labor movement in India, including Kailash Satyarthi, whose organization has rescued hundreds of thousands of child laborers and successfully petitioned the Indian government to change its child labor laws,” he said.
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.
This story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
On the parenting circuit these days there is much talk about resilience, grit and how these two characteristics contribute to success. Angela Lee Duckworth, an education researcher who studies non-IQ based competencies, has a popular TED talk on perseverance and grit. In Amy Chua’s new book, “The Triple Package,” she and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, argue that impulse control is one of three traits that contribute to success. Paul Tough talks about grit in his acclaimed “How Children Succeed.” It seems that parents and education researchers cannot get enough of “true grit.”
But how do we teach such things as grit and perseverance? In educational research we periodically discover the secret to success and then try to figure out how to teach it. We pretend the secret to success is teachable and we react to its discovery as if we found plutonium. Can we teach grit? It is not unlike asking whether or not we can teach creativity, entrepreneurialism or thinking skills. And how new an insight is this? Would our grandparents be surprised by the notion that grit and perseverance contribute to success?
April is Ogre Awards month at Harker, when the second grade celebrates stories from around the world. Many of the ancient stories – myths, folk and fairy tales – instruct in grit and perseverance, though they never use these terms. In these stories, heroes figuratively transform their greatest weakness into their greatest strength; their fear into courage; their spiritual poverty into soulful gold. These transformations are demonstrated, not discussed, and they communicate straight to a child’s psyche, bypassing his brain. In this regard they are the opposite of algebra.
In many of the stories by the Brothers Grimm and others, for instance, a hero faces the darker elements of nature, himself or experiences a humbling ordeal. Cinderella famously spends her days sweeping the hearth; the king’s son in Iron Hans apprentices himself to the gardener; Hansel and Gretel are taken to the witch’s home; Jonah is swallowed by a whale; Odysseus travels to the underworld.
These structures persist in contemporary storytelling too. Luke Skywalker flies into the center of the Death Star. In “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” Flint Lockwood, the movie’s hero, journeys to the center of a giant meatball to thwart food hurricanes. There is something in the structure of these stories that resonates with the structure of our psyches. When children tap into grit or persevere through difficulty, they are experiencing their own ordeal through which transformation happens.
There are parts of life that no amount of “helicopter parenting,” “snowplow parenting” or even “tiger mothering” can immune our children from, however well-intentioned. I think we sometimes fruitlessly try to bring our children all light and no darkness, but that is not how existence works. My father-in-law always says that we cannot walk in our children’s shoes – they will find their own way. On the search for the Holy Grail, Percival, one of King Arthur’s knights, must enter the woods where there is no path.
The newly found awareness of grit and perseverance is probably good for parenting, education and kids, though like many other fads, I hope parents and educators do not take it too far. I can see courses and assemblies on grit. Better to have kids discover their grit naturally and intrinsically. Lao Tzu said, “Mastering others is power. Mastering yourself is true strength.” It is the hope of education that each child, through grit and perseverance, finds true strength and takes the journey of a lifetime – her own.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
What an amazing winter it was for Harker sports! While the East Coast was blanketed in snow, the sun shone bright on California – and nowhere did it shine brighter than on Harker’s athletes, who pushed further and, for some, achieved more than they ever had before. That’s right, while California faced a drought, Harker’s athletes ended two droughts of their own, with one team winning a league championship for the first time in school history and another becoming the first the boys team of any sport to qualify for the section finals. After a fall that saw Harker athletes take home a CCS Division IV cross country league championship, WBAL cross country championship and a WBAL women’s golf championship, Harker’s teams kept rolling all through the winter, making this a year to remember for Harker athletics. Let’s get to it!
Soccer
This was one of the greatest girls soccer seasons in Harker’s history, as the team won the most victories ever for a Harker girls soccer team en route to a 12-3-1 overall record and a league championship. The season ended when the team lost a heartbreaker to King’s Academy in the last 30 seconds of the game. A King’s Academy goal gave Harker’s rivals a 2-1 win and catapulted them into the CCS tournament, stunning Harker.
Harker’s achievements in the WBAL were well-recognized this year. Out of four All-League team awards, Harker received three. Freshman Joelle Anderson won forward of the year, junior Gabi Gupta won defender of the year and senior Alicia Clark was recognized as goalkeeper of the year. Harker also saw five athletes make First Team All-League and another make Second Team All-League, with two honorable mentions. On First Team All-League was senior Julia Fink, juniors Safia Khouja and Nikita Parulkar, and freshmen Kailee Gifford and Lyndsey Mitchell. On Second Team All-League was junior Alyssa Amick, while sophomore Sadhika Malladi and freshman Anuva Mittal were each awarded honorable mentions.
The girls, meanwhile, averaged a jaw-dropping 4.75 goals per game, which befits a league champion. More than a third of those goals – a staggering figure – were scored by Joelle Anderson, who scored 27. Kailee Gifford scored 18. Anderson also had 19 assists, giving her an average – an average! – of 4.6 points per game, while Gifford had 11 assists and an average of 3.1 points per game. Nikita Parulkar averaged 1.3 points per game.
Harker students are not just talented athletes, they are also incredible people, whose sportsmanship and character unite the community. With their season over, the girls had one last great act left in them. The squad changed the start time of its year-end banquet to be able to travel to watch the varsity boys basketball team in its CCS tournament game. The gesture was just the latest reminder of the great work Harker’s athletes do both on and off the field.
Meanwhile, the boys finished the year with a tremendous 11-6-2 record. Despite winning nearly two-thirds of their games, the boys missed the CCS tournament. Sophomore Omar Hamade led the team for the year with 15 goals, and sophomore Oisin Coveney cracked double digits as well with 10. Jeremiah Anderson, grade 11, led the team with 10 assists, while Hamade and Kevin Moss, grade 12, had 8 and 7, respectively. That means that Hamade led the team for the year with 38 points, finishing with an average of more than two points per game, while Coveney and Anderson each averaged more than a point per game. Overall, the team averaged about 2.7 goals per game.
Basketball
This winter the boys, led by coach Butch Keller, made their first-ever appearance in the section finals. This was the first time any Harker boys team has qualified for the section finals in any sport! Here’s how they got there:
After going 15-9 in league play in the regular season, the boys earned a first-round bye in the 2014 CCS Boys Basketball Division IV Championship. In the second round, the boys met Carmel at Harker and outplayed them for a 46-40 victory. Next, they packed up and headed down the winding, sylvan road to Santa Cruz to defeat Soquel 46-40 in a quarterfinal matchup at Kaiser Arena. That win catapulted them into the semifinals, where they returned to the Bay to face off against Seaside at Menlo School. There, the boys walked away with a sound victory, trumping Seaside 71- 61. That set up a finals game between Harker and Sacred Heart Prep. The event united the Harker community, and a generous donor stepped up to sponsor the admission fee for all students, faculty and faculty spouses. Fans poured in to watch Harker compete to bring home the title, but the Eagles dropped a heartbreaker, 48-37.
The boys went on to compete for the first time in the Northern California Playoffs in a single elimination tournament at St. Patrick/St. Vincent of Vallejo, where they finished their season with a 60-42 loss.
Earlier in the year, for only the third time in 10 years, the boys varsity basketball team defeated rival Sacred Heart on the road. The boys’ dramatic upset earned a full report in the San Jose Mercury News, where they were written up as exciting spoilers to Sacred Heart’s title hopes. Huck Vaughan, grade 12, was commended for his “huge game,” and Coach Keller was quoted.
The girls, meanwhile, went all the way to the third round of the CCS tournament, losing a heartbreaker by three points to Mercy Burlingame. After the regular season ended, the girls met Oceana at Harker for a first round matchup for the right to continue on in the tournament. The girls crushed Oceana 58-49, sending them to Archbishop Riordan for a second-round matchup against Immaculate Conception Academy. They walked away again with a large victory, trouncing Immaculate Conception 52-44. From there, it was on to the third round, where the girls lost 30- 27 to Mercy Burlingame at College of San Mateo.
Nithya Vemireddy, grade 12, led the girls with 12.4 points per game and 323 total points. Jordan Thompson, grade 9, was second in both categories with an even 11.0 points per game and 287 points on the year, and Regina Chen, grade 12, finished third with 7.6 points per game and 182 total points. Chen also led the team with 4.8 assists per game.
For the boys, Wei Wei Buchsteiner, grade 12, led the team with 270 total points, giving him an even 10 per game, while Eric Holt, grade 11, who was limited to just 18 games this season, led the team with 12.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, meaning that he nearly averaged a doubledouble per game.
Wrestling
It was another great year for Harker wrestling. Davis Howard became only the third freshman in Harker’s history to qualify for the CCS tournament, after he and senior Darian Edvalson each competed in the league championships and finished sixth in their respective weight classes, earning them places in the tournament. Danny Reidenbach, grade 9, placed fourth in the junior varsity championships.
Harker linksmen have had a stellar week! Coach Ie-Chen Cheng provided this report:
In another heated battle of the unbeatens, Harker edged Sacred Heart Prep 191-194 to take sole possession of first place in the WBAL golf race. Both Shrish Dwivedi, grade 11, and sophomore Dakota McNealy, grade 10, shot two over par 37 to take a three stroke lead after completion of the first group. Sandip Nirmel and Ryan Vaughan, both grade 9, continue their strong season with 39 and 42 respectively, losing to their opponents by five, resulting in a two shot deficit with one group still on the course. Avi Khemani, grade 9, nearly missed a 25 foot birdie putt on the ninth hole, knocking it dead center, but with slightly too much speed, resulting in a lip out. With Harker’s best score of the day at one over par 36, the frosh sensation beat his opponent by five strokes to win a very exciting match for Harker. The win marks the best start in Harker golf history, and the first time any team has beaten both Menlo and SHP in the same season. The Eagles are atop the WBAL with a 7-0 record. The two teams meet again on Tuesday at San Jose Country Club.
Coach’s Corner: This match was won on the greens and a tribute to those practices where we putt until our backs ached. Our golfers made key putts while our opponents struggled within 5 feet. That was the difference maker. We are slowly learning to play smarter by understanding the risk reward of each shot. Dakota improved his play from yesterday by three strokes. His course management was evidenced by using an iron off the tee on the par 5 7th hole, knowing that going for the green in two is not feasible. So, he played it smart and made a tap in par. What differentiates this team from the previous years is our focus around the greens. With great wedge play, we put ourselves in positions to score even on an off day of ball striking.
Considering SHP was coming off its first tournament title at the Meadow Club where they shot a ridiculous 8 over as a team on a 18 hole course, and they were Norcal Finalists last year, this was a shocking defeat for them. Again, we played like savvy veterans with great poise and composure. Like the Menlo match, we’ve had different players come up big for us. Yesterday it was Avi and Dakota. The win displays our depth even with an off day from Shrish. (Well, an off day for Shrish is in reality just one bad shot mixed in with an unlucky lie). Please congratulate the boys on a remarkable week. But we’re not done yet. We’ve set our sights on bigger and better prizes.
Eagles golfers are off to an amazing start after a clash of the titans with undefeated Menlo, and Harker’s track and field squad sees more records broken. This is the week in sports:
Golf
The boys defeated Pinewood and King’s Academy, extending their unbeaten streak to start the season to 5-0, then faced off against undefeated Menlo and pulled out a 192-212 victory at Palo Alto Hills Country Club. Junior Shrish Dwivedi finished with an even par 35, earning his sixth consecutive medalist honors. Freshman Ryan Vaughan finished with a 37, including a near miss of a hole-in-one on the second hole. Freshmen Sandip Nirmel and Avi Khemani carded 39 and 41, respectively. Sophomore Dakota McNealy had an excellent day of chipping and putting to finish with a 40. The win marks the second time Harker has ever defeated Menlo, and the first since 2009. It is also Menlo’s fist loss in a league match in 16 straight appearances, dating back to 2012. Harker now stands in first place in the WBAL with a 6-0 record. Their next contest is against another undefeated team: Sacred Heart Prep.
Track and Field
Harker saw a number of records broken at the 30-team Garlic Invitational at Soquel High School. Freshman Winnie Li tied the school record in the high jump at 4’8″. Junior Julia Wang and senior Nithya Vemireddy both broke the school record in the shot put, with Wang beating the record by two feet and then Vemireddy by three to hold the record. Freshman Niki Iyer placed second in the mile run with a 5:08. The relay team of freshman Lucas Wang, sophomore Calvin Kocienda, sophomore Zeyad El-Arabaty and sophomore Mehul Khetrapal finished third in the 400m relay. Junior Sriv Irrinki posted the fastest 100m run of the year for any of Harker’s athletes with a 12.33. Ten other Eagles also had their best marks of the season.
Volleyball
The boys bounced back from a tough loss to Mountain View with a great run last week, defeating Kings Academy in 5 games last Thursday, then going 5-1 and reaching the finals at the 16-team Harbor Tournament, finally falling to Pacific Collegiate and bringing home the 2nd place trophy. The boys followed this up with two wins, including pulling out a victory over then-undefeated Lynbrook to bump their record up to 9-2.
Lacrosse
Junior Hannah Bollar, junior Allison Kiang, and senior Mary Liu scored in the girls’ loss to Burlingame.
Baseball
The boys recorded a season-high 10 hits in a loss to Pinewood, with freshman Nic Bean going 4-4 with a double, RBI and two runs at the plate and pitching 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball on the mound. Sophomore Dalton Forbes also had hits in all of his at-bats, going 2-2 with a double and a run scored. Freshman Varun Haltore drove in two runs.
Softball
The girls lost to Del Mar and Cupertino last week, despite hits from junior Brianna Liang and freshman Marti Sutton.
Swimming
The girls lost to Castilleja but defeated Notre Dame, Mercy-San Francisco, and Mercy-Burlingame in last week’s meet.
Tennis
The boys varsity team ultimately dropped a tough contest against Crystal Springs 4-3, while the JV team crushed the Gryphons 6-1.