In early March, students Isaac Rothschild and Nikhil Dilip, both grade 11, attended the Enterprise Leadership Conference in Asilomar, where they learned about the ins and outs of business by developing product ideas with other students at the conference and coming up with plans to market them. Harker was invited to the conference by the San Jose Rotary Club, and the students were nominated by the faculty to attend.
“In addition, prominent businessmen with experience in the entrepreneurship, management, finance, marketing sectors spoke to us about their careers and provided us with advice for our own projects,” Dilip said. “The majority of the time was spent fleshing out the details of our product, detailing the finances, and devising a way to market it to our consumers.”
In addition to providing valuable lessons about how to conduct business ventures, the conference also gave the students the chance to meet and exchange ideas with students from other high schools. “In just three days, we worked with seven people whom we had never met before to create a plan for developing, financing and marketing a product we made ourselves,” said Dilip. “I found that the ability of each team to develop a unique product in such a short amount of time was remarkable.”
On March 16, Michelle Douglas, Cristina Jerney, Emily Wang, Amy Grace Wardenburg and Molly Wolfe, all grade 12, were honored by the Heritage Oaks Chapter of the National Charity League, Inc. NCL is a philanthropic organization that fosters mother-daughter relationships through community service, leadership development and cultural experiences. Over the past six years, the five seniors have logged hundreds of volunteer hours (often with their mothers) at many local organizations including the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity – Silicon Valley, Humane Society of Silicon Valley, InnVision, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Sacred Heart Community Services.
The students have volunteered more than 2,000 hours combined, and they were honored each year with awards for working at eight or more philanthropies during the year for more than 50, 75 and 100 hours. Mothers and daughters are also honored for working more than 20 hours together. In addition to these awards, Wardenburg has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for volunteering over 100 hours in a calendar year for all six years she has been volunteering, and Wolfe and Jerney have also each received the award in the past. Wardenburg will also be receiving the Senior Service Award, which is given to the graduating senior with the highest cumulative philanthropic hours earned during her years at National Charity League.
On Sunday, April 28, Harker will host Congressman Mike Honda’s Student Advisory Council Conference, organized by Honda’s Student Advisory Council (SAC), a group of high school students that identifies and researches issues of critical importance to young people. The event will be on the upper school campus.
Health and wellness will be the topics of this year’s conference, titled “Eat, Sleep, Move,” which takes place from 1-4 p.m. at the Nichols Hall atrium. Congressman Honda will be there himself to open the conference, which will feature two guest speakers, psychologist Marilee Ruebsamen and nutritionist Suellen Haggerty.
In addition to the speakers, attendees will be able to see the results of a survey of Bay Area high school students conducted by the SAC. “We surveyed hundreds of high school students from around the Bay Area, asking them about their dietary, exercise and sleeping habits,” said SAC member Felix Wu, grade 10. “We will be revealing the results of this survey at the conference and briefly analyzing the outcomes.”
Attendees will also learn about the nutritional value of common foods in a presentation based on the book “Eat This, Not That!” by David Zinczenko.
Admission to this event is free, and attendees will receive a goodie bag.
Harker community members were devastated when told Monday afternoon that longtime employee Sandy Padgett, co-director and founder of the upper school’s college counseling department, was killed in an incident in her Redwood City home late Sunday night.
School counselors, as well as grief counselors from The Centre for Living with Dying, assisted the administration in breaking the news to the faculty and students. Grief counselors were on campus through Wednesday and remain on call to assist the community in dealing with this tragic loss.
Testimonials began appearing on alumni Facebook pages as soon as the news became public, with many, many former students thanking “Ms. Padgett” for inspiring them to pursue their dreams and helping them choose what many called their “dream college.”
The college counseling department is working with Padgett’s current junior students to ensure college counseling sessions will continue as scheduled.
Padgett had an illustrious career guiding students. Before joining Harker in 1998, she taught AP English at San Carlos High School; was a counselor at Palo Alto High School; was a career placement counselor at Occidental College; and was a college counselor at the American School in London, the Westridge School in Pasadena and the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks.
Padgett held two lifetime credentials from the state of California: high school teaching and high school counseling. She was a member of the National Association of College Admission Counselors, Western Association of College Admission Counselors and Bay Area Association of Independent School College Counselors.
Condolences can be sent to nicoleh@harker.org and cards can be mailed to The Harker School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA, 95129; the school will forward to the family. Memorial service plans are pending.
At least 100 locally-based hospital patients desperately in need of blood will be helped, thanks to the annual Harker Blood Drive held at the upper school campus in March.
This year’s successful drive resulted in the collection of 44 total pints, which will benefit the Blood Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit organization that supplies blood to Northern California hospitals, doctors and patients.
The center’s current patients include a six-month-old baby girl suffering from a congenital heart defect, a 16-year-old girl fighting bone cancer, a 21-month-old baby boy with a new leukemia diagnosis and a 24-year-old man who has colon and liver cancer.
“Because whole blood can be separated into several different components, the drive can help up to 102 patients in need in the Bay Area!” reported Preeya Mehta, a senior and president of the Red Cross Club at Harker.
Thirty-nine Harker students, faculty and staff members gave blood at the drive, which was organized by the Red Cross Club, with five people donating double red cells.
According to Red Cross officials, the Harker drive averages about 50 units each year, roughly twice the amount of other community blood drives, which is good news for Bay Area hospitals currently faced with major shortages in blood. Within 72 hours, all the blood donated goes to a local hospital, and every donated unit can save up to three lives.
Harker’s WiSTEM club (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) held this year’s STEM week in late January, as students in Harker’s various science-based clubs and organizations held special on-campus events to celebrate a range of scientific fields. Activities included a gaming event held by the Harker chapter of the Interscholastic Gaming League and a quiz bowl in which the upper school grade levels tested their knowledge in friendly competition.
During the week, STEM clubs also raised money by selling sweatshirts and treats. Prior to STEM week, each grade chose an organization that they wanted to support. Proceeds to each organization were split according to the number of participation points each class earned. Grade 12, with 275 points, gave $550 to Operation Smile. The juniors scored 175 points and donated $350 to charity: water. Grades 9 and 10 tied with 150 points and respectively sent $300 to Heal the Bay and Doctors Without Borders.
Like many teens Urvi Gupta, grade 11, maintains a jam-packed schedule. An active student in Harker’s journalism program, she also plays as a starter on the school’s varsity volleyball team. After-school hours are spent practicing the violin, doing homework and hanging out with friends.
Yet Gupta also makes time to give back to her community by providing free math tutoring to K-3 kids at local libraries in San Jose using a unique program she created called OneInMath. The program teaches youngsters simple ways to add, subtract, multiply, divide and understand concepts quickly for math success.
“I designed the free volunteer-run program from the ground up, defining its purpose, goals and developing materials including 1,862 math problem sheets, teaching instructions, learning videos, program format, volunteer instructions, and the logistics of running it,” said Gupta, who teaches as well as independently manages the overall program.
She currently supervises more than 150 kids and 27 high school volunteers across three libraries using the program, which was implemented in November 2011. Now, the popular OneInMath classes – which utilize video instruction in addition to face-to-face volunteer tutoring – has both students and parents excited about learning mathematics.
Gupta said she was inspired to start tutoring math by her dad, who used to give her numerical problems every day when she was younger, which now helps her in high school math classes.
Consequently, she wished for other students to have the same opportunity she had to get a jump start on learning math. She also enjoys the good feeling that comes from volunteerism and tells teens thinking of starting or developing their own service project to “just go for it.”
“Whenever you have a new idea, there are lots of doubts and questions about whether or not it’s a good one. The best thing is to not overthink and just try it. It’s actually quite surprising how much interest people have in these types of projects. They truly appreciate your time and effort, and you feel really rewarded at the end,” she said.
Gupta was recently honored as Volunteer of the Year from the entire San Jose public library system for her dynamic math program and volunteer efforts. The top honor began with a nomination from local librarian Vidya Kilambi, who had been impressed with Gupta’s program for some time.
“Urvi’s amazing leadership and organizational skills are clearly demonstrated in the way she communicates with all the kids, teens, parents and staff at the different library locations,” said Kilambi, noting that in addition to her heavy school course load, Gupta juggles volunteer schedules, creates course content and tracks student progress.
The Global Empowerment and Outreach (GEO) student club held its annual GEO week in mid-March, raising nearly $1,000 for Pencils of Promise, an organization that works to build educational programs in poor areas of the world. Some of Pencils of Promise’s efforts include building schools, training teachers and providing supplies. The organization has already completed construction on 110 schools, and 14 are in construction with plans for at least four more.
GEO raised funds this year by selling merchandise during lunch and after school. “As a school ourselves, I thought it would be meaningful for students to be able to help out a fellow student somewhere else in the world,” said Amie Chien, grade 12, who serves as GEO president. “Given the opportunities we are blessed to have at Harker, I wanted the chance to be able to ‘pay it forward’ in a sense, passing on the chance at a good education for someone else, too.”
According to Chien, the cost to provide a year’s worth of education for a child in one of these areas is just $25. “A pair of jeans from Express is easily $25, a week’s worth of Starbucks every morning, about the same. If we were to give up a little luxury for a week, we could easily find a $25 lying around,” she said.
This story was submitted by Harker parent Narendra Nayak (Avinash, grade 11).
With a busy year winding down, grade 11 families decided on a get-together that would be fun and entertaining for all. Initiated by grade-level coordinators Ana Duraiswamy (Kevin, grade 11; Ashley, grade 5) and Priya Cherukuri (Varun, grade 11), a large group of families congregated March 16 at Nichols Hall on the Saratoga campus for the Multicultural Family Social. Attendees enjoyed music from across the world and across the decades, which helped set the tone for the evening. Several guests were attired in traditional clothing and the social hour that preceded dinner provided ample opportunity to meet and greet other guests. The multicultural dinner spread gave the guests a true taste for the diversity in culture the school’s families offer.
It was then time for family games. A challenging round of Bingo followed by a well-contested musical chairs had everyone in the audience on their feet, cheering the contestants as they engaged in cordial competition. The games were followed by entertainment in which both children and adults performed dance and vocal numbers. The crowd often tested the limits of the loudness meter when expressing their appreciation.
For the grand finale the floor was opened up for dancing to lively music with parents and children stepping it up with vigorous participation. While the four-hour event helped the grade 11 families mingle in a relaxed atmosphere, the one complaint from the 80-odd guests was that it was too short! Much credit for the success of the event goes to Harker’s advancement office, kitchen staff, facility department and security staff for their support in planning and running the event.
Sadhika Malladi, grade 9, received an Aspirations in Computing Award from the National Center for Women in Informational Technology (NCWIT), which recognizes young women in high schools across the country for their achievements in the various fields of computing. The NCWIT chooses awardees based on their aptitude, leadership skills, academic standing and their future goals for a career in computing. Malladi chose upper school AP Computer Science teacher Richard Page to endorse her.
Malladi said that winning the award has introduced her to a community of inspiring women in the computing industry. “I’ve been welcomed into this community of amazing and inspiring women who work in the computing field and many high school girls who share a similar interest in computing,” she said. “More than the prestige of the award, I’m excited to be part of this community because they share exciting technological opportunities and scholarships with everyone.”
Prizes that Malladi received for winning the award included an iPod Touch, a $250 Amazon gift card and a tour of the Google campus.
Previous Harker winners of this award include Sierra Lincoln, grade 12, Shreya Nathan ’11, Vivian Wong ’10 and Jacqueline Wang ’13 (deceased).