A special lunchtime reception for students who participated in this year’s Siemens Competition and Intel Science Talent Search was held March 19 in the Nichols Hall rotunda. The event celebrated the hard work and dedication each of the students committed to their projects.
Science faculty also were in attendance as this year’s Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists, all seniors – Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Stephanie Chen, Christopher Fu, Anika Gupta, Saachi Jain, Sreyas Misra, Preethi Periyakoil, Rahul Sridhar, Vikram Sundar and Albert Zhao – received their certificates.
Students were treated to desserts and kind words from science department chair Anita Chetty. Shreyas Parthasarathy, grade 12, who entered both the Intel and Siemens competitions this year, said he enjoyed the process of doing research for his project. “I learned a whole bunch of stuff that I never thought I would learn,” he said, briefly discussing his project that dealt with mapping the Milky Way. “Astronomy sort of pulls from all these different disciplines.”
“I had a lot of fun doing my research,” said Periyakoil, an Intel semifinalist who said that the process was tough “but also very rewarding. It was nice to be able to share my work with others.”
A number of Harker students qualified for the National Speech & Debate Tournament at a qualifying event held at Bellarmine College Preparatory this past weekend. The national tournament, sponsored by the National Speech & Debate Association, will take place in Kansas in June.
In Public Forum debate, Jithin Vellian, grade 12, and Nikhil Kishore, grade 11, both qualified. Rohith Kuditipudi and Madhu Nori, both grade 11, qualified in International Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory, respectively. Kenny Zhang, grade 12, automatically qualified for a spot at the national tournament because of a second-place finish at last year’s tournament.
To qualify for the national tournament, most students must place in the top three at a tournament in their district. “The students get one weekend to give their best against some of the toughest opponents in the country, as the California Coast district is one of the top-performing districts in the nation at the national tournament,” said upper school debate teacher Carol Green. According to Green, students who compete every year for a spot at the national tournament number in the tens of thousands.
Meilan Steimle, grade 9, has been awarded a silver medal in this year’s Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for her short story, “Colorblind.” As a national medalist, Steimle is now eligible to attend the national awards ceremony at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in June. Congratulations!
—
Earlier this month, 21 Harker upper school students received the news that they had been named regional winners in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. These awards have recognized and rewarded the creativity and vision of American students since 1923, and are now widely regarded as among the most prestigious awards for creative teenagers. Past winners in this contest include legendary figures such as Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote and Joyce Carol Oates.
“Our writing program fosters close critical reading coupled with synthesis thinking,” said Marc Hufnagl, upper school English department chair. “There are many opportunities here that encourage creative inquiries into literature, but with an understanding of the qualities of written expression and a facility with the mechanics that renders articulate writing.”
Kacey Fang, grade 11, who received two Gold Key Awards, the highest regional honor, said the program has done much to help her develop her talents. “I’m so grateful for their encouragement and for the support they showed in reading the writing that I shared with them,” she said. “They’ve helped me realize more about myself and my writing, and I feel more open about sharing my work now.”
Essential to the upper school writing program’s success has been finding unconventional ways to bolster the creative faculties of its students. “We offer students the opportunity to express their insight and creativity in ways that transcend the analytic essay,” said Pauline Paskali, upper school English teacher. “Students take reflective nature walks, create poems, story boards, short stories, movies, collages, parodies, electronic art, etc., as means of interpreting and experiencing the world through language.”
Paskali added that a strong humanities education helps students enhance their outlook on the world by enabling them to view it from a wide range of perspectives. “To become innovators and creators, our students need to observe their surroundings with a fresh set of eyes,” she said.
Some students, such as senior Zina Jawadi, who earned an Honorable Mention in the Personal Essay/Memoir category, found inspiration for their work in personal experiences. Diagnosed with hearing loss at just 3 years old, Jawadi drew from the eight years she spent in speech therapy and the cultural perspectives on disability that she encountered growing up as a child of Arabic background. “In my essay, I narrate my experience with Khattiyya, which means “poor thing” in Arabic, and how Khattiyya has ironically motivated me to change society’s perceptions of people with disabilities,” she said. “Eradicating social perceptions of Khattiyya has since been one of my advocacy motives.”
Students also find that what they learn in the writing program has benefits in other academic disciplines. “Because of the writing skills I developed at Harker, I have been asked to write articles on behalf of the nonprofit organization I am involved with,” said Jawadi. “Additionally, the writing techniques I developed from Harker’s humanities program contributed to my success in public speaking.” Jawadi was national Original Oratory finalist in last year’s National Catholic Forensics League tournament.
Fang said that in addition to boosting her appreciation for literature, her English classes also have helped her “analyze, think creatively and discuss constructively with peers, all skills that I think aid me in other classes and that I hope will last me a long ways into the future.”
Harker students won a total of seven Gold Key awards in this year’s contest. Fang won two; Connie Li, grade 12, earned one in the Poetry category; Albert Chu, grade 12, Apoorva Rangan, grade 11, and Meilan Steimle, grade 9, each won one in the Short Story category; and Suzy Lou, grade 11, won one in the Persuasive Writing category. All regional Gold Key winners are eligible for national-level awards.
Silver Keys in Poetry went to Li, Sahana Narayanan, grade 10, and Menghua Wu, grade 11. Arden Hu and Maya Nandakumar, both grade 11, won Silver Keys in Personal Essay/Memoir. Vineet Kosaraju, grade 10, won two Silver Keys in the Journalism category, in which Rangan also won. Lou and Samyukta Yagati, grade 11, each won in Persuasive Writing. Steimle won Silver Keys in Short Story and Flash Fiction. Eric Cheung, grade 11, earned one in Science Fiction/Fantasy.
Honorable mentions went to Fang, Hu, Jawadi, Kosaraju, Nandakumar, Narayanan, Rangan, Steimle, senior Stephanie Chen and juniors Juhi Gupta, Allison Kiang, Cheryl Liu, Manthra Panchapakesan, Mariam Sulakian, Samyukta Yagati and Leo Yu.
Last week was huge for Harker sports, with the boys swimming team, girls swimming team, varsity boys tennis team, junior varsity boys tennis team, varsity boys volleyball team and boys golf team all undefeated, and the boys golf team and freshman runner Niki Iyer both setting new school records! Let’s dive in!
Swimming:
The boys and girls swim teams have had three meets apiece this year – to the tune of a combined six wins and no losses. That’s right. Zero. Nada. Zilch. After each beating Pinewood, Priory and Crystal Springs in the friendly confines of the Singh Aquatic Center, the teams can celebrate a dominant start to the year. On Wednesday, the girls will test their undefeated record, facing Notre Dame, Castilleja and Mercy.
Tennis:
Also undefeated last week were the varsity and junior varsity boys tennis teams. Varsity beat Priory, Kings and Pinewood, while the junior varsity team trumped Kings, St. Lawrence and Kehillah. Both teams face Crystal Springs today!
Volleyball:
But wait! There’s more! The varsity boys volleyball team is undefeated, too! Their streak is just at one, however, as they crushed Westmont in their season opener last week in three straight games. Senior Andrew Zhu lead the team with 14 kills and junior Shiki Dixit added 10.
Golf:
Are you sensing a theme here? The boys golf team started its season off hot as well, beating Crystal Springs twice and adding a victory against Kings Academy. But Harker’s golfers are not just winning, they are also winning in style: the Eagles shot a par 180 as a team, beating a school record set in 2012 by six strokes! In all three matches, junior Shrish Dwivedi earned medalist honors. Sophomore Dakota McNealy and freshman Avi Khemani carded one under par 35’s against Crystal as well. The Eagles are in first place in the WBAL with a 3-0 record in league.
Track and Field:
The track and field season has only just begun, but freshman Niki Iyer has already set her second school record of 2014, placing second in the 800m run with a time of 2:21:21. Freshman Winnie Li set three personal bests, breaking her previous marks in the 100m, 100m hurdles and long jump. Also setting personal bests were sophomore Calvin Kocienda and freshman Davis Dunaway, who ran great times in the 65m high hurdles. Senior Claudia Tischler took 10 seconds off her season best in the mile run. This Saturday, the team heads to Soquel High School to compete in the Garlic Classic!
Lacrosse:
The varsity girls defeated Santa Catalina last Wednesday, earning their first victory of the season. Junior Hannah Bollar scored six goals, senior Mary Liu recorded a personal high of five goals and junior Allison Kiang made three goals. Senior Mabel Luo contributed with two goals and senior defender Alicia Clark scored her first goal of the season. Already this season, the team has made dramatic strides. They play Burlingame at home tonight!
Softball:
Softball lost to Pinewood on Friday despite great defensive plays from sophomore Kavya Ramakrishnan, sophomore Tong Wu, junior Serena Wang and freshman Melinda Wisdom. Sophomore Alisa Wakita, junior Briana Liang, junior Sonali Netke, junior Vivian Isenberg, Ramakrishnan and Wu all had hits as well. The girls host Del Mar Wednesday at Blackford.
Baseball:
The team lost to Crystal Springs last week. Junior David Lin, and freshmen Nicolas Bean and Kedar Gupta all had hits. The boys host Pinewood at home on Thursday.
Three Harker singers – Shreya Maheshwari and Shreya Basu, both grade 11, and Helen Woodruff, grade 10 – earned “superior” ratings at the California Music Education Association’s South Bay Solo and Ensemble Festival on March 8. Basu and Woodruff also received a command performance commendation, granting them the opportunity to perform at the CMEA State Solo and Ensemble Festival, to be held in May at Sacramento State University. Congratulations to these three talented students!
Five teams of Harker upper school students – 40 students in all – competed in a regional Test of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition in late February. The TEAMS competition challenges students to collaborate to solve real-world engineering problems that test their knowledge of math and science.
At the event, held at San Jose State University, Harker won the top spots in both the grades 9-10 and grades 11-12 levels.
The “Harker D” team – made up of Rishabh Chandra, Jonathan Dai, Lawrence Li, Jonathan Ma, Anika Mohindra, Emily Pan, Michael Zhao and Jessica Zhu, all grade 10 – took first place in the grades 9-10 category. Taking second place in this category was the “Harker E” team of freshmen Kai-Siang Ang, Neymika Jain, Evani Radiya-Dixit, Venkat Sankar, Manan Shah, Peter Wu and David Zhu and sophomore Stanley Zhao.
First place in the grades 11-12 category went to the “Harker B” team of Andrew Jin, David Lin, Cindy Liu, Steven Wang, Rachel Wu, Stanley Xie, Leo Yu and Andrew Zhang, all grade 11. In second place was the “Harker A” team, comprising juniors Billy Bloomquist, Patrick Lin, Matthew Huang, Nitya Mani, Sachin Peddada, Vivek Sriram, Helen Wu and Samyukta Yagati.
Once the scores from this and other TEAMS competitions are tallied, the highest-scoring teams from California will move on to the national competition, held in July in Washington, D.C.
Each year grade 8 Latin students participate in contests sponsored by Ancient Coins for Education (ACE). Harker students Edgar Lin and Praveen Batra were named school winners in ACE’s recent essay contest.
Batra’s essay on Roman emperor Tiberius went on to win first place in the junior category, according to middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni. Both students received ancient Roman coins as prizes.
ACE’s goal is to encourage learning about the classical world through the use of primary sources. This is achieved by providing ancient coins for the students to identify and holding essay contests throughout the year.
Meanwhile, at the upper school, Harker recently received results from the National Classical Etymology Exam, which students in grade 9 and 10 took late last year. Fourteen Harker students participated in exam, sponsored by the National Junior Classical League, reported upper school Latin teacher John Hawley.
“The exam is designed to test a student’s ability to handle both Latin and Greek derivatives and their usage in the English language,” he said.
Of the 14 participants, 13 received either gold or silver medals for their prowess. Advanced level students who earned gold medals are Kevin Duraiswamy and Helena Huang, both grade 12, and Sophia Shatas, grade 11. Silver medals went to Tiffany Chu and Sreyas Misra, both grade 12, and Maya Nandakumar, grade 11.
Intermediate level students who earned gold medals are Rishabh Chandra, Elisabeth Siegel and Allison Wang, all grade 10, and Venkat Sankar and Arjun Subramaniam, grade 9. Silver medals went to grade 9 students Aditya Dhar and Nikhil Manglik.
The boys basketball team’s historic season came to a close Wednesday night as they lost to a strong St. Patrick/St. Vincent team 60-42 in a first-round NorCal playoff game. Wei Wei Buchsteiner, grade 12, led the Eagles with 16 points, and Will Deng, grade 12, came back from a knee injury to contribute 10 points. Last Saturday, they took on, but were defeated by, multiple CCS champ Sacred Heart Prep in the league championship. Though the boys lost in their first-ever appearance in the section finals 48-37, they united the entire Harker community during a fun and spirited afternoon of exciting basketball. The boys ended with an 18-11 record and their first-ever appearance in a section final and NorCal game. Congratulations boys!
Varsity girls lacrosse lost to Menlo-Atherton and Sequoia last week to open their season. The JV squad defeated Aragon 9-1 in their debut. The varsity team defeated Santa Catalina 17-14 on Wednesday in Monterey to earn their first victory of the season. Hannah Bollar, grade 11, scored 6 goals, Mary Liu, grade 12, recorded a personal high of five goals and Allison Kiang, grade 11, made three goals. Mabel Luo, grade 12, contributed with two goals, and defender Alicia Clark, grade 12, scored her first goal of the season. The entire team has improved dramatically since the first game of the season. Come support the girls as they play Burlingame at home next Tuesday!
The Eagle track team joined 3,000 other athletes in the K-Bell meet on Saturday. Niki Iyer, grade 9, defeated a strong field in her first ever 3200m run, running a time that would have ranked her in the top 10 in the CCS last year. She was mentioned in the San Jose Mercury News’ After School column http://blogs.mercurynews.com/hssports/2014/03/11/track-and-field-top-performances-from-the-k-bell-classic/
Meanwhile, Sidhart Krishnamurthi and Allen Huang, both grade 11, broke 13 seconds for the first time in their 100m races. Mehul Khetrapal, grade 10, won his race in the 200m and 400m. Lucas Wang and Winnie Li, both grade 9, took over the team long jump lead with fine jumps on Saturday; Li was also the top Eagle runner in the 100m. The team competes Saturday in the St. Francis Invitational.
Boys golf opened league play yesterday with a 182-230 victory over Crystal Springs at Los Lagos. Shrish Dwivedi, grade 11, was the low scorer with a 32. The boys face Crystal again today at Poplar Creek.
Softball lost to Fremont Friday in their opener 14-13. Hits were from: Tong Wu, grade 10; Sarah Bean, grade 11; Briana Liang, grade 11; Nitya Mani, grade 11; Alisa Wakita, grade 10; and Marti Sutton, grade 9. The girls face Silver Creek tomorrow at the middle school campus.
Boys tennis placed third in their division at the Fresno Tournament over the weekend, winning four matches and losing one.
Baseball started the season with losses to St. Lawrence and Washington last week.
Five Harker instrumentalists were selected for the 2014 All-State Honor Band and played in formal concerts over the weekend, and another student was selected for the National Youth Orchestra and will perform with that group this summer.
Victoria Ding, grade 10, flute; Andrew Kim, grade 10, double bass; Austin Lai, grade 11, viola; Kristen Park, grade 10, soprano clarinet; and James Shaw, grade 8, trombone, were selected from more than 1,700 applicants statewide by the California Band Directors Association, an affiliate of the California Association for Music Education. “This is the ninth straight year we’ve had students in all-state,” said Chris Florio, upper school orchestra director, “and this is the largest number of students we have had accepted in a single year.”
Those selected played in a concert band, jazz band or orchestra in Fresno following concentrated rehearsals. “James is a member of the Grades 7-8 Orchestra and Middle School Jazz Band this year,” said Dave Hart, middle school orchestra director. “He was first chair in the Junior High All-State Band. This was a great opportunity for James, who said that he left the experience inspired by the music and new friends he made.”
In other exciting music news, Helen Wu, grade 11, was recently accepted to the National Youth Orchestra. Wu has not yet committed to the program, but being accepted “is a huge honor,” said Florio. “It is a month-long program that is sponsored by Carnegie Hall and is 100 percent free. The orchestra is extremely competitive to get into. The orchestra will be conducted by St. Louis conductor David Robertson and will tour the U.S., performing at such halls as Carnegie, Disney Center and others.”
This report prepared by Gregory Achten, debate coach
The Harker Forensics program has a proud tradition of excellence and competitive success. Over President’s Day weekend, we had some particularly spectacular results that merit special recognition. One hundred twenty-seven Harker upper and middle school students competed in speech and debate events at the California Round Robin and the California Invitational at UC Berkeley. The California Round Robin is an elite tournament where some of the best debaters nationwide compete by invitation only. The California Invitational tournament had 2,064 entries from 197 schools from 26 states and five countries.
Round Robin In Public Forum, seniors Maneesha Panja and Sebi Nakos took first place in their pools while senior Jithin Vellian and junior Nikhil Kishore took second, causing them to meet in the semifinals. Panja and Nakos advanced and were named champions in Public Forum Debate. Nakos also was named third overall speaker in the division. In Lincoln-Douglas Debate, junior Pranav Reddy and senior Srikar Pyda both placed first in their respective pools. Pyda lost in the semifinals, but Reddy was undefeated and named tournament champion.
California Invitational at UC Berkeley The combined success of all members of the team earned Harker first place in debate sweepstakes and third place in the speech and debate combined sweepstakes. This is a huge accomplishment and all of the students played a part in helping Harker achieve this recognition.
In Lincoln-Douglas, Pranav Reddy won 13 consecutive debates at the tournament, beating out 280 competitors from across the country to be named the champion of one of the largest and most prestigious tournaments in the nation. Reddy is the first student in the history of the Harker Forensics program to win this event in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Reddy’s national dominance was further highlighted in early February by his victory at the Golden Desert Invitational at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
In Public Forum, sophomore Eesha Chona and freshman Joyce Huang advanced to finals, losing a close decision to Presentation High School. Chona and Huang beat out a field of 190 teams to reach the finals. In Congressional Debate senior Saachi Jain was also a finalist out of more than 130 competitors.