March 2, 2014
Harker’s Business and Entrepreneurial Podcast Series posted its fourth interview, this weekend, featuring Adam Draper. Draper is the CEO and founder of Boost, an organization that accelerates startup companies. His online biography notes he has invested in companies, started companies and daydreamed at different times in his life, and adds, “my life’s ambition is to assist in the creation of an Iron Man suit.”
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Feb. 3, 2014: The third episode of the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series, which features entrepreneur and author Deborah Piscione, is now available for viewing and download in video and audio formats from the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series website, as well as iTunes. Piscione speaks with student Glenn Reddy, grade 11, about her entrepreneurial history in Silicon Valley, her upcoming book and her insights into the future of Silicon Valley business culture.
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On Dec. 31, the latest episode of the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series went live, featuring an interview with Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Harker parent (Maverick ’13; Dakota, grade 10; Colt, grade 9; and Scout, grade 7). During the episode McNealy discusses his most recent venture, the social media service Wayin. The previous episode featured Satish Dharmaraj, a partner at Redpoint Ventures and Harker parent of Nikhil, grade 7, and Nila, grade 2. Dharmaraj grew his previous company, Zimbra, to $20 million in subscription sales.
The podcast series was started by host Glenn Reddy, grade 11, who approached business and entrepreneurship teacher Juston Glass at the start of the school year about taking on a new project. “After some brainstorming, we decided to make a podcast/videocast series featuring prominent Silicon Valley leaders,” Reddy said.
Episodes are recorded in the multimedia studio at the upper school campus and edited by John Jerney, grade 10. “Right now, the series is sponsored by Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department, but I hope to expand it to include miniseries hosted by other Harker clubs and programs,” said Reddy, adding that the plan is to have new episodes every month, each ranging from about 20 to 30 minutes in length.
March 6, 2014
UPDATE: Huge congratulations to our boys basketball team and Coach Keller on their history making performance Tuesday night! The #6 seeded Eagles defeated #2 seed Seaside 71-61 in the CCS semifinals at Menlo. The win propels the boys into the CCS finals Saturday at Independence High at 4 p.m. vs. league rival Sacred Heart Prep. Additionally, qualifying for the finals entitles them to compete in the Northern California playoffs which start next week. This is the first Harker boys team to qualify for the section finals in any sport!
News Flash: A generous donor has stepped forward to sponsor this Saturday’s entry fee for K-12 students, faculty, and faculty spouses. Last night’s supportive crowd certainly made a huge difference for the boys so please come on out and help the boys bring home the title! GO EAGLES!! Bracket:
http://www.cifccs.org/playoffs/results/13-14/BASKETBALL%20BOYS%20D4%202014.pdf
March 5, 2014
UPDATE: Here are a couple articles on our recent activity in boys basketball!
March 3, 2014
Spring sports get started, but varsity boys basketball is extending its season!
Basketball Last week, both the boys and girls varsity basketball squads competed in CCS Tournament games. The boys advanced to the semifinals after defeating Soquel on Saturday, following their defeat of Carmel 46-40. The score Saturday was 49-42 with Nicholas Nguyen, grade 11, leading the team in assists, steals and deflections while hitting three clutch free throws in the final minute. He was supported by teammates Eric Holt, grade 11, who had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and spark-plug Dylan Patel, grade 11, off the bench, who provided both defensive and offensive fire power in the final quarter. The boys will compete in the semifinals for the second time in three years Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. against No. 2 seed Seaside High at Menlo. Please come show your support!
The girls’ season ended after they lost a close third round match-up against Mercy Burlingame, 30-27, at College of San Mateo.
Track and Field The Eagles began their track and field season on a cold, rainy day at Mitty. SeniorArjun Kumar and juniorJulia Wang opened up the season with wins in the shot put, while freshman Niki Iyer, making her high school track and field debut after a tremendous cross country season earlier this school year, won the 800m run with a time of 2:24.84.
Tennis The boys tennis team kicked off its season with a 6-1 victory over Leigh High School.
Soccer The girls’ 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 rival a 2-1 win and catapulted them into the CCS Tournament, stunning Harker. The tough loss ended one of the great seasons in Harker’s history, as the girls 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 incredible run did not end on the field, however, as the team had one last great act left in them. The squad changed the start time of their year-end banquet to be able to travel to watch the varsity boys basketball team win in their CCS Tournament game against Carmel. The gesture was just the latest reminder of the great work Harker’s athletes do both on and off the field.
The boys soccer team lost their senior day 4-2 to ECP, with juniorJeremiah Anderson and sophomore Oisin Coveney accounting for the scoring. The boys finish the year with an 11-6-2 record. Go Eagles!
Come June, the upper school campus will be filled with students in grades 6-12 who are participating in Harker’s Summer Institute (SI), a unique program open to both Harker students and those from other schools.
The Summer Institute has 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. Last year’s participants were introduced to specialty classes including backyard games, volleyball boot camp and cooking. These classes will be available again this year, along with other rotating options such as art, jewelry making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts. There also will be off-campus field trips every couple of weeks to various sites such as The Tech Museum and Capitola.
Keith Hirota will reprise his role as SI middle school director and Evan Barth, upper school dean of studies, has enthusiastically taken on the role of SI principal for the upper school students.
Barth – who joined Harker in fall 2000 and has taught mathematics, coached soccer and volleyball, been a class dean and served on the Honor Council – said he is looking forward to working with SI’s older students this summer. In his present capacity as the dean of studies, he meets with each incoming student to create an academic plan for high school.
Hirota noted the success of last year’s program, which totaled some 920 middle and upper school students. An average of 80-85 students per week attended the afternoon activities.
Both Hirota and Barth agreed that the variety of choices and flexibility of the SI program allows students to design their own perfect schedule, taking into consideration individual academic needs and personal interests.
This article prepared from a DECA press release by Shannon Hong, grade 10, director of public relations for Harker DECA
In early February more than 100 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim to attend the California State Career Development Conference (CDC). The three-day event featured workshops with renowned speakers, tough competition and experiences for a lifetime. Harker performed admirably with 26 finalists in the top eight; of those, 16 advanced to the top four, qualifying for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). In addition, Harker will send eight students to ICDC to participate either in The Stock Market game or the Virtual Business Challenge.
After school on Feb. 5, 103 students took charter buses from Harker to Anaheim, stopping only for refreshments at In-and-Out Burger. The following morning, Harker hosted a chapter breakfast at Denny’s and “Officer Hours,” during which students could get last-minute advice and tips. That afternoon, students took their written examinations and then headed to the opening session. During the opening session, Sandip Nirmel, grade 9, spoke to the crowd, urging them to elect him president of the 64th California DECA Team. Although Nirmel did not win, he did a great job and was recognized by many of his peers as a rising star.
“For me, this year’s state CDC can be summed up in four words: Talk about awesome, possum!” said Nirmel. “Leading up to the conference, I really didn’t know what to expect. The highlight of my conference definitely was speaking to a crowd of around 2,000 people on why they should elect me president. Standing on stage as the audience cheered and my school’s DECA chapter chanted, “Sandip! Sandip! Sandip!” made me smile, and it still makes me smile today, just a week later. As it turned out, standing at my booth for nearly five hours allowed me to meet so many charismatic and friendly people that I had never met before. This is what DECA is really about, in my opinion.”
Next, attendants gathered for their role-play events. After the competition, Harker DECA took the students to Disneyland to relax after a challenging, but rewarding day.
The next day students competing in written events had their time to shine. Afterward, at the Recognition and Mini-Awards Session, Harker was honored for its wonderful performance as a chapter. Harker was the only California school to complete every campaign: Membership, Global Entrepreneurship, Promotional and Community Service. For this achievement, Harker earned six extra stops to the ICDC Thrive Academy. In addition, out of a total of six California teams to qualify for the international conference in the Stock Market Game, Harker sent three.
“This was my first state conference as a freshman,” said Haley Tran, grade 9. “I had so much fun meeting new people and seeing how wonderful and how big California DECA is. I used this conference more of as a learning experience to test out the waters for future year; I can’t wait for the next time.”
Harker DECA president Monica Thukral, grade 12, was named California DECA student of the year. Her passion is one of the main reasons the business and entrepreneurship program is so successful. “Being student of the year was really amazing,” said Thukral. “I got called back to the stage during the awards ceremony and afterwards people came up to me and congratulated me. I’m so grateful to [adviser] Mr. [Juston] Glass, to my officer team, and to a remarkable chapter I’m proud to be a part of.”
“This conference is also my last states conference,” added Thukral. “It was definitely bittersweet. I’m so glad that we were so successful this year as a chapter. I’ve invested a lot of time into DECA with late nights and early mornings. But I’ve really enjoyed all of it, especially working with other students and helping them prepare. I’ll miss it so much. DECA gave me so much in terms of how I’ve grown as a person; I’m definitely more confident and self-assured than I was before. Go Harker DECA!”
The day ended with a conference dance, at which students let loose and had fun after a full day of competing and learning about business.
Throughout the weekend, workshops were held to complement the competition. Topics included communication, manufacturing, technology, start-ups, financial planning and networking. Students found them entertaining and helpful, and came home eager to begin implementing some of the tips in their daily lives.
“In our free time, we went to workshops, which covered topics about everything from understanding relationships between people to healthy business practices. It was really awesome to talk to the business professionals!” said Tong Wu, grade 10.
In addition, protégé events (examinations based on specialized skill sets) included green business, event planning, finance and investing, real estate and emerging leaders. Harker competed and finished top eight in every event. Two students placed among top three; Shannon Hong, grade 10 earned first place in emerging leaders, Mabel Luo, grade 12, took third place in event planning.
The finale was the Grand Awards Ceremony, at which Harker took a record number of wins (see results below) and left as one of the most-respected schools. The International Career Development Conference will be May 2-7. More than 20 Harker students are expected to represent us. Go Eagles!
First Place: Simran Singh, grade 11, Entrepreneurship Written Plan.
Second Place: Julia Fink, grade 12, Apparel and Accessories Marketing; Raymond Xu, grade 9, Principles of Finance; Riya Chandra and Alexis Gauba, both grade 9, Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; Emily Lin and Allison Sun, both grade 12, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research Event.
Third Place: Ankur Karwal and Mehul Khetrapal, both grade 10, Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; Leo Yu, grade 11, and Sophia Luo, grade 10, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research Event; Simran Singh and Manthra Panchapakesan, both grade 11, Marketing Communications Team Decision Making Event; Alexander Mo, grade 9, Professional Selling Event.
Fourth Place: Sachin Vadodaria, grade 12, Director of Individual Series Events and Business Finance Individual Series Event; Raymond Xu, grade 9, Principles of Finance.
Fifth Place: Shannon Hong, grade 10, Restaurant and Food Service Management Individual Series Event; Monica Thukral, grade 12, Food Marketing Individual Series Event.
Sixth Place: Arben Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 9, Professional Selling Event; Jonathan Lee, grade 11, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research Event.
Eighth Place: Mabel Luo, grade 12, Business Services Marketing Individual Series Event; Ria Gandhi, grade 9, Entrepreneurship Participating – Independent.
Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Eagle Update: The boys basketball team defeated Pinewood-Los Altos Hills 51-45 Thursday evening throwing a loop into that schools league title hopes– read the Merc article here!
Feb. 18, 2014
Huge news for the girls soccer and boys basketball teams, as one earned the first league championship in school history and the other earned a spot in the San Jose Mercury News after a dramatic upset.
Soccer:
For the first time in Harker’s history, the girls soccer team is the league champion! Two goals from freshman Joelle Anderson and one apiece from freshman Kailee Gifford and junior Gabi Gupta gave the team a 4-0 shutout victory over Summit Prep to complete the girls’ ascent to the title. Now, after their 12-2-1 season and 8-1-1 league campaign, the girls will play a one-game, winner-take-all playoff against the WBAL Foothill Division’s fourth place team, King’s Academy, for a shot at the league’s final remaining CCS playoff birth. Fans can catch the high-pressure action this Thursday at 3:30 p.m. at King’s Academy!
Thursday also will mark senior day for the boys soccer team, which plays at 4 p.m. on Davis Field. Their senior day ceremony will be held just before the game’s start.
Basketball:
More exciting news for Harker sports: For only the third time in 10 years, the boys varsity basketball team defeated rival Sacred Heart Prep 71-65 on the road. Senior Huck Vaughan started in place of injured senior Will Deng and rose to the occasion, scoring a career-high 23 points, shooting 11-16 from the field. Junior Eric Holt anchored the team with a double-double, netting 14 points and 14 rebounds.
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. Vaughan was commended for his “huge game,” and Harker’s coach, Butch Keller, was quoted. The team will ride this wave of momentum into a senior night showdown this Thursday against first place Pinewood.
Wrestling:
Davis Howard has become only the third freshman in Harker’s history to qualify for the CCS Tournament after he and senior Darian Edvalson competed in last week’s league championships and finished sixth in their respective weigh classes, each earning a place in the tournament. Freshman Danny Reidenbach placed fourth in the Junior Varsity Championships.
The global water and pollution crisis was the subject of an informative talk jointly hosted by the upper school’s Clean Tech Club and Venezia Wee, a visiting student from the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS), Harker’s sister school in Shanghai, China.
Held at the end of January during a long lunch in the Nichols Hall auditorium, the collaborative effort promoted the use of clean technology and importance of water conservation.
Steven Wang, a grade 11 student and president of the Clean Tech Club, opened the seminar, which attracted nearly two dozen students. He introduced Wee, noting that the WFLMS junior was using her winter break to go on a self-funded, self-organized worldwide tour to bring attention to the global water crisis.
“I’m super excited the two of us connected,” said Wang, adding that Wee contacted him about doing the talk together. Each year the Clean Tech Club chooses a new theme; this year’s theme was “A Solution to Pollution,” Wang explained. During his address, he noted that air pollution was the basis for global warming and stressed that there is an urgent need to develop new technologies to combat air pollution.
“I’m honored to be joining hands with the Clean Tech Club,” said Wee from the podium. She discussed her work as founder of the Global Water Crisis Awareness (GWA) International Movement, of which Harker is now an ambassador.
“In the past I used water like it was nobody’s business. Why? Because I took it for granted,” said Wee, who later learned about the lack of safe drinking water worldwide, including the shocking statistic that a child dies every 21 seconds from a water-related illness. That, and other findings, prompted her to take on the global water crisis as her “personal project.”
She kicked off her talk by showing a powerful video about the international water shortage, citing it as particularly relevant to Harker students currently impacted by California’s drought, which has been declared a statewide emergency.
“We are going to run out of water before we run out of oil,” said Wee, who ended her talk by offering practical water conservation tips.
Back at WFLMS, Wee launched a five-day GWA exhibition about her movement, which works to both increase awareness and raise money to help impoverished schools in countries including Africa, Latin America and Asia improve their water hygiene. She said she used her own scholarship money to help finance her recent speaking tours at schools and other locations all over Asia, the United States and Europe.
“I was thrilled that this took place!” enthused Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education, who has encouraged such global student-to-student collaborations.
The fifth-annual Kicks Against Cancer boys and girls varsity soccer games raised more than $5,000 for children who attend Camp Okizu, a camp for cancer patients and their families.
“Camp Okizu provides peer support, respite, mentoring and recreational programs to meet the needs of all members of families affected by childhood cancer. The amount raised this year will help send five children to camp this summer,” reported Dan Molin, upper school athletic director.
The recent games were also a huge success out on the field. “Boys varsity started the double-header with a 6-0 victory over Pinewood. The girls also won by the score of 6-0 v. Summit Prep,” enthused Chris Collins, who works with Molin as an assistant.
The upper school’s Davis Field was the scene of the match off against Summit Preparatory High School and Pinewood High School. Grade 12 students Apurva Gorti and Julia Fink served as Harker’s boys and girls soccer captains, respectively.
The Kicks Against Cancer event got its start four years ago as a collaboration between the Class of 2010 and the varsity soccer coaches. Since then, the event has continued to serve as an opportunity to raise money for Camp Okizu, which runs week-long camp programs in Berry Creek.
This year’s fundraising efforts included a bake sale and T-shirt sale (the $12 T-shirts served as tickets to the games). The soccer teams also used long lunch periods leading up to the games as an opportunity to sell beanies, full-sleeve purple shirts, visors, bracelets and pens. Donations also were accepted during lunch periods.
As in previous years, faculty and staff were invited to pledge money for the number of goals the teams scored. There was even a silly half-time “butts-up” game in which students paid money to try and kick a ball at their favorite teacher’s backside. Game officials also donated their fees to the cause by officiating the games pro-bono.
In addition, the CIF/Central Coast Section website, http://www.cifccs.org/, is featuring the Kicks Against Cancer story and photo!
“The organization and leadership of the fundraiser was all student-driven,” said Molin.
To donate directly to Camp Okizu, visit www.okizu.org.
Harker’s upper school soccer teams competed last week in the annual Kicks Against Cancer games, putting up big numbers in the fundraising tally and on the scoreboard as both the boys and the girls trounced their opponents 6-0. The boys’ blowout came against Pinewood, led by 2 goals from sophomore Oisin Coveney, a penalty kick goal from senior goalie Samir Chaudhry, and scores by seniors Isaac Rothschild and Jeff Hanke, and sophomore Omar Hamade. The girls’ victory came against Summit Prep after freshman Joelle Anderson scored an amazing four goals. Junior Safia Khouja and senior Julia Fink added scores as well to extend the girls’ undefeated streak in league. The girls are now 6-0-1 in league play and 8-1-1 overall. On Tuesday, the girls go up against ECP, then play their senior day on Friday against Mercy San Francisco. The boys, meanwhile, who are 4-2 in league and 7-3-1 overall, host ECP on Wednesday and then play rival Sacred Heart on Friday.
Basketball
The varsity boys took Menlo to overtime on Friday before finally falling 72-65. After the loss, their record still stands at 5-2 in league and 10-6 overall. In the loss, junior Eric Holt had a double-double, netting 11 points and snagging 10 rebounds. Junior Nic Nguyen led the team with 15 points, with senior Will Deng close behind with 14.
The junior varsity boys, meanwhile, pulled out an amazing 44-43 victory over Menlo, with sophomore Rohan Desikan accounting for nearly half the scoring after putting up 19 points. The boys all travel to Priory on Tuesday, then return home to host Crystal Springs on Friday.
The girls played first place Castilleja last week and held tough throughout the first half before slipping in the second and finally falling 46-23. The girls will host ICA on Wednesday, and then hold their senior night on Friday against Crystal Springs.
Wrestling
On Thursday, freshman Philip Kendall won a match against an opponent from Lynbrook High.
The Huffington Post reported that Harker’s SAT scores rank it as No. 2 in the country. The online story states, “A website that analyzes and reviews K-12 schools and colleges in the U.S., Niche.com, collected data to find which 25 high schools throughout the entire country produce the highest SAT and ACT scores. The information is based on self-reported scores from 75,834 test-takers at 909 schools from 2012-2014. In order to be considered in the findings, a school had to have at least 100 students submit their scores.” Here’s a link to the findings: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/23/schools-highest-sat-scores_n_4654077.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education Go academic Eagles!
Maruko Ishigami, a visiting exchange teacher from Tamagawa Academy K-12 School & University – Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Japan – was touched by the warm welcome she received from students and faculty during her visit to Harker Jan. 7-18.
“This has been a very good experience. I am impressed by the children’s artwork here,” said Ishigami, who teaches art at Tamagawa’s elementary school and spent time observing classes at Harker’s lower, middle and upper school campuses.
She also helped teach art classes for grades 2-5, showing the second and third graders how to make traditional Japanese wood coasters and instructing the fourth and fifth graders in various painting techniques used in her country.
Grade 2 students Emi Fujimura, Shayla He and Shareen Chahal agreed that the best thing about making the wood coasters with Ishigami was “building it” from scratch, noting that the process reminded them of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Fellow classmate Vivek Nayyar said he especially enjoyed having a “visiting teacher” come to the classroom.
“It has been a truly fantastic experience having Maruko here,” agreed Gerry-louise Robinson, Harker’s lower school art teacher. “All the students warmed quickly to Maruko’s wonderful smile and gentle approach. Both grades 2 and 3 embraced this project with enthusiasm and determination!”
Ishigami also observed ceramics classes at the middle school and sat in on graphic arts, stone carving, drawing, photography and other art courses at the upper school.
Because her English is not fluent, Ishigami was aided by several Japanese-speaking faculty members who offered to be interpreters, joining her for meals and serving as friendly faces around campus.
From the moment her plane touched down at the San Francisco International Airport, Ishigami was kept engaged and busy. In addition to spending time observing and teaching classes at Harker, other highlights of her visit included lunch with the administration, a visit to the San Jose Museum of Art, and sightseeing expeditions to Monterey Bay and San Francisco.
“I’ve really enjoyed showing Maruko around. She is very interested in everything that we do at Harker and is eager to learn all she can about our school and students. As an art teacher, she enjoyed viewing all the types of artwork our students are doing. It’s been fun seeing the students enjoying showing her their work,” noted Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Tamagawa, a K-12 school and university, was founded in 1929 as an elementary education organization. Secondary education divisions were added later, and in 1947 Tamagawa University received approval for establishment as an “old system” (pre-war) university. As a comprehensive institution (gakuen), they currently provide education from kindergarten to graduate school on a single campus.