This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Class of 2012 Become Alumni at Induction Lunch Just before graduation, the Class of 2012 attended a special alumni induction lunch at Nichols Hall, where they officially became members of the Harker Alumni Association and also enjoyed a delicious lunch while reflecting on their years as Harker students and looking ahead to their post-high school futures.
Graduates’ Names Become Part of History at Brick Ceremony Graduating seniors and their parents gathered at Graduates’ Grove on the upper school campus on May 23 for the 2012 brick ceremony, in which students laid bricks engraved with their names and graduation years into the brick walkway. Students who placed bricks this year were Saira Ahuja, Bradley Araki, Simrun Bhagat, Rishi Bhandia, Rohan Bopardikar, Matt Carpenter, Crystal Chen, Lucy Cheng, Aura Dave, Zachary Ellenberg, Stephanie Hao, Stephen Hughes, Shreya Indukuri, Tariq Khalil Jahshan, Daanish Jamal, Jacqueline Jin, Margaret Krackeler, Richard Lee, Vivian Li, Jessica Lin, Chaitanya Malladi, Cole Manaster, Alisha Mayor, Daryl Neubieser, Devin Nguyen, Gerilyn Olsen, Christophe Pellissier, Mackenzie Porter, Ramya Rangan, Priyanka Sharma, Jessica Shen, Kathryn Siegel, Angela Singh, Ananth Subramaniam, Karen Wang, Paul West, Albert Wu, Lucy Xu and Johnny Yet.
Harker Lifers Celebrated at Dinner Hosted by Head of School Just before graduation, the Class of 2012 attended a special alumni induction lunch at Nichols Hall, where they officially became members of the Harker Alumni Association and also enjoyed a delicious lunch while reflecting on their years as Harker students and looking ahead to their post-high school futures.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Now in its second year, the Harker Eagle Buddies program continues to be a success, fostering friendships between upper and lower school students that Eagle Buddies coordinators hope will last beyond the Class of 2013’s graduation. Last year’s Eagle Buddies, now in grades 4 and 11, bonded during a number of fun activities during the fall and spring semesters.
“The kids had a really good time with it,” said upper school history teacher and Eagle Buddies coordinator Carol Zink. “Both the big kids and the little kids look forward to these things.”
Simar Mangat, grade 11, said his experience with Eagle Buddies so far has been “fantastic. Our lower school friends are always energetic and excited to play. Visiting allows us to reminisce about the good old days in lower school and escape the often stressful life.”
In November, grade 4 kids met up with their friends in the Class of 2013 at the lower school to put together boxes of utensils and candy that were donated to children in need at Scott Lane Elementary.
When the juniors visited again in mid-March, they dropped in on an assembly and played a game with their buddies in which groups of eight had to pose as various shapes or structures, such as a circle or a bridge. Afterward, they chatted over lunch.
In April the grade 4 buddies headed to the upper school to participate in a day of fun with a group of professional clowns hired by Jeff Draper, upper school performing arts teacher. In addition to watching the clowns perform entertaining and hilarious antics such as walking on stilts, spinning plates and balancing precariously on stacks of chairs, the students donned clown makeup, and learned scarf juggling and how to balance feathers on their fingertips and noses.
“It was fun because even though we were on the upper school campus, we all became 10-year-olds for a couple of hours,” said Tiphaine Delepine, grade 11. “It was fun to go to my college counseling meeting with a butterfly painted on my face and to see classmates walking all over campus with other crazy face-paint designs.”
The success of last year’s inaugural Eagle Buddies activities meant that students new to the program enjoyed the same fun. There was an initial meet-up and field day at the lower school in October, a special visit by grade 10 buddies to the Pajama Day assembly at the lower school, with students from both grades wearing pajamas for the occasion and a special visit to the upper school by the grade 3 buddies, who participated in the spring spirit rally’s scream-off, where they were recorded screaming at 101.3 decibels.
Sofia Fernandez, grade 3 student and the daughter of upper school math teacher Jeanette Fernandez, said the rally was her favorite Eagle Buddies event this year. “I enjoyed yelling and cheering for the 10th graders and running on the field chasing the advisors – my mom – during the skit.”
Bryan Zhang, also grade 3, agreed, “because you have the chance to watch the performance with your buddies and play with them at the upper school campus.”
For next year, the Eagle Buddies coordinators plan an added element, offering coaching to any grade 10 students who may not have a lot of experience with young children, hopefully thus increasing their enjoyment of the program even more. “So many of our students are the only child in their families or are the younger child themselves and don’t have a lot of experience with 8-yearolds,” Zink said. A special graduation ceremony for next year’s seniors and fifth graders (who will respectively be spending their final years at the upper and lower schools) is also planned.
“Eagle Buddies is a way to make Harker smaller and closer as a group while simultaneously giving the young students people to look up to,” said Delepine. “I wish there had been a program like Eagle Buddies when I was at the lower school!”
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
The Mitra Family Endowment, established last year, has borne its first fruit. Sarah Howells, grade 12 and the first Mitra scholar, added her effort to the handcrafted social and historical analyses produced by this year’s three John Near Endowment scholars. Howells chose a classic and controversial character for her subject and found an angle not fully explored for her paper, “Winston Churchill’s Efforts to Unify Britain From 1940-1941,” a look at his public relations efforts as they affected Britain’s morale in early World War II. In 2011, Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra (Shivani, grade 11) established the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, which matches gifts to the annual giving campaign up to a total of $100,000.
“The subject matters taught under humanities such as history, languages, communications and philosophy are critical skills and knowledge that develop well-rounded Harker students,” said Samir Mitra at last year’s reception. “Humanities is the bedrock of a superior education and will enable our students to stand out as recognized contributors in their future professions.”
“I knew I wanted to apply for the Mitra grant because I had enjoyed world history so much in my sophomore year,” said Howells. “I thought about Britain; my family was affected on two sides by World War II, both in Poland and in Britain.”
Too broad at first, her topic choices “quickly narrowed to Churchill’s remarkable unification of the government and retaining the trust of the people during the war,” said Howells, who will attend Princeton in the fall.
Howells noted, “The most interesting part of writing the paper was transitioning from the researching to the writing. That was the most difficult task for me, since I had a myriad of great resources but no idea how to put them all together.”
Howells took on a subject usually taken for granted – Churchill’s ability to relate to the “everyman” and to the highest in the land (he often personally briefed King George VI on the war’s progress) – and examined its worth in keeping the spirit of resistance alive in beleaguered England. Her writing, worth the read in itself, conveys the passion that Churchill used to inspire fellow politicians and those in the street. Her division of material shows the way for further research on how Churchill handled groups differently.
Like all good researchers, Howells pointed out the weakness in her own paper, the inability to examine the records of Mass Observation and Home Intelligence, a government bureau that monitored the public pulse, due to their volume and her limited access. Howells noted that lacking the confirming information in those records, it was hard to be sure of widespread public approval of Churchill.
“It’s been such a pleasure to work with Sarah,” said history teacher Ruth Meyer, Howells’ mentor through the process. “She is so balanced in her approach to research, she’s so steady in everything that she does, so well organized.”
“Overall, the process of writing the paper was an exciting and challenging opportunity,” said Howells, “and I’m glad I could get a taste of what real humanities research is like before I head off to college.”
At the reception, Howells gave emphatic thanks to her teachers and mentor, saying, “I don’t think I could have done this if you hadn’t suggested to me that I was capable of completing such a long senior thesis.”
“I’m overwhelmed,” said Sundari Mitra, noting the scholars’ efforts to “inspire us parents. We are really honored and proud that with whatever little we could do, the school has utilized it in such a tremendous manner, so thank you Mr. Nikoloff, the faculty, everyone. I’m really touched and inspired.”
The $300,000 John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, in memory of the 31-year veteran of Harker’s teaching staff who passed away in 2009, was made by his parents James and Patricia Near to, in John Near’s words, “help develop the history department, both through the acquisition of resources and by providing growth opportunities for both faculty and students.” Each year, three students receive grants from the endowment’s proceeds to be used for research.
Near scholar Max Isenberg, grade 12, chose a subject Churchill, as a former First Lord of the Admiralty, would have been very interested in: the use of on-station naval power as a worldwide deterrent, something at which the British were old hands.
Isenberg’s paper, “Arleigh Burke’s Submarine-Based Finite Deterrent: Alternative to the Nuclear Triad,” an examination of Admiral Arleigh Burke’s answer to ballooning costs involved with maintaining a three-point nuclear deterrent (aircraft, missiles and submarines all carrying nuclear devices), was carefully researched and covered the salient points of the argument.
Isenberg, who will attend the University of Pennsylvania for the Jerome Fisher Management and Technology program in the fall in a dual-degree program for business and engineering, noted, “My favorite part of the entire project was looking at the competing theories of nuclear strategy, and how they had consequences not immediately obvious until later in the Cold War.
“The most difficult part of the project was finding solid first-person sources, especially considering the tight classification of many details from the Cold War,” he added. “That difficulty partly contributed to my eventual focus on nuclear strategy as many of the major players in the development of the Triad and finite deterrence had published works, while a lot of the nitty-gritty details of submarines remain inaccessible.”
Isenberg is appreciative of the grant, thanking teacher and mentor Ramsey Westgate, Susan Smith, library director, and Donna Gilbert, history department chair, for their help. “I don’t think there are very many schools of any sort that offer such a rare opportunity to do history research specifically and then give the leeway to explore the topic in such a thorough manner,” he said.
Dwight Payne, grade 12, chose a current social topic and, as he was out of town during the reception, delivered his address via video. His work, “Can Charter Schools Close the Achievement Gap?” was mentored by teacher Kelly Horan.
Payne’s closely researched paper delves into the arcane world of evaluating charter school results. He located a number of studies which threw light on a portion of the process of evaluation and allowed limited conclusions to be drawn on the efficacy of the charter schools studied. Payne identified some commonalities within the studies and used them for his next step, interviewing charter school administrators and examining the records of their schools.
The schools examined in this portion of the project had a spectrum of student results and, although Payne found and used common criteria for eliminating or at least accounting for bias, the differences between schools, including stability, age of students (one was high school, the others lower and middle schools), location, teaching methods and teacher evaluation and training methods made drawing firm conclusions problematic. Payne was comfortable, however, generally endorsing charter schools as an option for helping those desirous of helping themselves, feeling that time will only improve the system as learning processes are refined and expanded.
When it came time to write the paper, “sifting through the breadth of literature was a difficult task,” said Payne, who will attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, majoring in business administration with a possible second major in either economics or psychology.
Another hurdle was maintaining objectivity. “It was difficult to swallow my own biases going into the process and accept that most of the literature I read presented inconclusive or conflicting data,” Payne said. “From that knowledge, however, it was rewarding to conduct interviews that examined specific examples of successes or challenges that were illuminating despite the difficulty of reaching an overall conclusion regarding the effectiveness of charter schools in closing the achievement gap. I particularly enjoyed meeting with school leaders, and I was very inspired by their dedication. The administrators whom I interviewed were incredibly helpful and eager to share their work; I am immensely grateful to them.”
Senior Cole Manaster, like Howells and Isenberg, chose a military topic with political ramifications. His effort, “The Changing Dynamic of Unconventional Warfare: The U.S. Special Forces in Vietnam and Their Impact on Modern
War,” traced the development of special operations forces first as trainers of villagers in war zones to strengthen them against enemy efforts, then in their roles as covert, uniformed operators behind enemy lines. Manaster documented the status of special operations forces as, following WWII, they grew from a compound of various forces – Army, Navy, Marine and CIA – to the ultimate acceptance of these forces and their integration in the overall military effort.
Today, we are all familiar with the effort to capture the “hearts and minds” of noncombatants in military zones, and Manaster illustrated how that effort grew from early efforts to keep South Vietnamese and other indigenous groups in Vietnam from falling, or being coerced, under the influence of North Vietnamese communists, while noting that a special operations forces mandate also puts them in the most dangerous situations a soldier is likely to face, i.e., behind enemy lines.
“I was fascinated by this facet of the war– how special forces were used,” he said,“so I looked at how they were used in the Vietnam War and somewhat how they have been used since.”
Manaster, who will be going to the University of Southern California next year as a business administration major, said he “wanted to be able to use the things I have learned in my history classes and all my classes,” but noted, “the toughest part of writing such an extensive paper was keeping myself on track timewise.”
His topic firm, Manaster found the next step a challenge. “If I could do it all again, I would probably have spent more time solidifying my outline before writing the paper itself. What I had in my outline made the writing process itself immensely easier, but I think I probably could have done even more, looking back on it now.”
“I was really happy to be Cole’s mentor,” said Carol Zink, history teacher. “I’ve seen his intellectual growth and development over the years and it’s always tremendously rewarding for a teacher to get to see that.”
Zink noted one of the challenges Manaster had in pursuing his research is that it is difficult to find unbiased sources on this topic. “There are a lot of books that are ‘Yay-rah, Green Berets!’” she said, “and then there are other books that say the United States should never have gone into Vietnam in the first place and they (the Green Berets) were the dirty dogs in the deal. It is very difficult to try to walk the middle line, and I know that was a struggle for Cole, but I know he persevered.”
Pam Dickinson, John Near’s widow and director of Harker’s Office of Communication, again represented the Near family. “Like last year, I felt very much as though John was channeled with the presentations,” Dickinson said, noting facets of each paper that interested the Near family. “John would be incredibly proud. I’m honored to be here on behalf of his parents, and it is a wonderful thing that the Mitras have done. Congratulations. You all have done a wonderful job.”
Manaster echoed the thanks of the other scholars, adding, “All of us have put in a lot of work and it is exciting to see our papers truly come to fruition and to have this at the close of our senior year, as well. I’m very honored to have been a part of this program, and it is something I’m going to remember for a long time.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker debaters finished up the spring on a high note, with strong performances at the Tournament of Champions, held in Kentucky in late April. Several students finished in the top 16 or better in multiple contests at the tournament. Harker also broke the record for most public forum teams from one school, with a total of 10 teams qualifying for the event.
Meanwhile, middle school students brought home a slew of firsts and seconds from the 2012 Glendale Middle School Warm-Up Speech and Debate Competition tournament hosted by Glendale Community College in late April. This is the first year the event has been held, and there were more than 100 entries, with Harker appearing in the final round of every debate event. Harker students usually participate in high school-level tournaments and were very excited to attend one of the few middle school tournaments of the year.
A group of 20 Harker middle school students attended the local Spring Forensics Tournament at Santa Clara University, held in early April. Many of them were competing for their very first time in the event, which predominantly consisted of high school students. The Harker contestants held their own, winning first place in humorous interpretation and finishing in the final and top 16 in several events.
In mid-April, upper school debaters earned several first place and top eight finishes at the National Debate Coaches Championship Tournament, in addition to receiving several awards for their speaking abilities.
The previous month, at the California Coast National Forensics League (NFL) Qualifier, Harker upper school students took third place in overall sweepstakes and second place in debate sweepstakes. Several students qualified for the NFL national tournament in Indiana in June. Harker’s freshman duo interpretation team very nearly qualified for nationals.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker bid a heartfelt farewell to the Class of 2012 at the baccalaureate ceremony on May 24. Juniors, graduating seniors and their parents, faculty and staff gathered at the quad on the upper school campus to hear some inspirational words, enjoy performances and welcome the juniors into their new role as leaders in the coming 2012-13 school year.
Following a performance by the upper school string ensemble, directed by Chris Florio, Susan Nace led upper school vocal groups Cantilena and Camerata in a performance of Gweneth Walker’s “To Sing is to Fly.” Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, then welcomed the Class of 2012 to the ceremony and congratulated them on taking this important step in their young lives – they would graduate the following day.
The upper school string ensemble, again directed by Florio, then performed Jean Sibelius’ “Andante Festivo,” which provided the perfect segue for Upper School Head Butch Keller’s introduction of this year’s faculty speaker, Jason Berry, an English teacher elected by the seniors to address them on this day.
At the start of their freshman year, he said, the students found themselves “spinning this way and that, tossed to the side one minute and chastised the next,” but always with the support of friends who were also navigating the sometimes tumultuous life of a high school student.
Upon entering college, he told the soon-to be graduates, “when you drive onto your campus in August or September, make us proud; make your parents proud, but most of all make yourselves proud. Take a class that’s far removed from your comfort zone just because you can. You may learn something that becomes a passion for you.” College, he said, is an opportunity to learn in many ways, be it through classes, social interaction or one’s own personal time. “Be who you want to be, and if that doesn’t agree with you, then find, once again, your center, your inner voice; don’t settle for an imitation of yourself. Bend the rules, but try not to break them.”
After a round of applause for Berry’s speech, Keller introduced salutatorian Michelle Deng, who gave her own farewell speech to her fellow graduates. She started with an observation about the senior photo collages that resided in the main hall on the upper school campus. “Looking at the photos, one might have felt that the members of the Class of 2012 seemed so perfect. The babies were adorable, the teenagers polished and glowing. Lives were filled with friends, joy, youth and love,” she said.
These collages, however, are idealized depictions made from “the best versions of ourselves.” Each student’s entire story paints a much different picture. “In our hearts, we know the whole story; we know how the collages of our beings truly look,” she said.
Reminiscing about her childhood, Deng said that thanks to her teachers and friends, she had become much more than the shy, short-statured 7-year-old she was upon first entering Harker. “I’ve grown into a dedicated scholar, blessed with the honor to speak here today and eager to continue my education,” she said, also crediting her experience in the journalism department with helping her to become a better communicator and leader.
Speaking to the juniors, she cautioned the students to make the most of their remaining time at Harker. “Even though at first your year may seem to drag by as slowly and painfully as nails on a chalkboard, remember that starting early spring, it’ll suddenly begin shooting by you faster than you can ever imagine, and before you know it, you’ll be sitting in our seats,” Deng said.
She then wished the Class of 2013 well on their journey ahead and said to her fellow graduating seniors, “Let’s go shake the world.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
During their graduation ceremony at the scenic Mountain Winery in Saratoga, Harker’s Class of 2012 sat poised, attentively listening to speeches, ready and eager to take on life after high school, when they were then challenged to turn back the clock and view the world through the eyes of a baby.
“If you see like a baby, you just might see yourself as the miracle you are,” advised Chris Nikoloff, head of school. He delivered his yearly farewell speech to the students after welcoming members of the board of trustees, the administration, faculty and staff, family, friends, alumni and the “true guests of honor” — the graduating Class of 2012.
Speaking of the inspiration for his address — the newest addition to his own family, baby Andreas — and here noting that this was the first graduation speech he’d written on an iPad, Nikoloff turned serious as he advised students to continually walk through life with a sense of wonder. He quoted Albert Einstein who wrote, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Prior to Nikoloff’s address, the graduation ceremony had gotten underway on a beautiful spring morning to the melodious sounds of the Harker Chamber Orchestra, led by Chris Florio. As the graduating class proceeded into the amphitheater, taking their front row seats, the strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” filled the air. Once the graduates were seated, Susan Nace led the 2012 Graduation Chorus in singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Butch Keller, upper school head, warmly addressed the seniors and their proud families, congratulating students on reaching this important milestone in their educational careers, then introduced this year’s valedictorian, Ramya Rangan.
In her speech, Rangan encouraged her fellow grads to, above all else, pursue their passions and find what makes them happy. Following the speech, the chorus, directed by Catherine Snider and accompanied by Rangan, sang “Leave No Song Unsung.”
The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Vandi V. Tompkins, research technologist, mobility and robotic systems, for NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory. Tompkins provided a wonderful role model of someone actively pursuing her dreams. In her captivating address, she passionately discussed her past work in flight operations for the Mars exploration rovers and the development of NASA’s science laboratory flight mission.
After the keynote speech, graduate and outgoing National Honor Society president Nicole Dalal passed the Lamp of Knowledge to rising senior and new NHS president Emily Wang. When it came time to receive their diplomas, one by one seniors were greeted by Keller, Nikoloff and this year’s class dean, Matthew Harley, upper school biology teacher.
Finally, with diplomas in hand, the students turned their attention to Nikoloff and Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, for their closing remarks. All watched as doves were released and the ceremony came to a close.
Graduates then moved their tassels as a symbol of their graduation. Soon after, they flung their caps in the air, watching, with a newborn’s sense of wonder, as the hats went high into the sky.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Good morning. I would like to welcome members of the board of trustees, the administration, faculty and staff, family, friends, alumni, and the true guests of honor, the graduating Class of 2012. As head of school, I currently hold the privilege of making a few remarks of farewell at graduation. The seniors who paid attention in British Literature will recognize this talk as a “valediction.” In an attempt to “forbid mourning,” I will continue the tradition of confining my remarks to one page of single-spaced, size-12 font.
This is the first graduation address I have ever written on an iPad. That is completely irrelevant to my talk, except that I have pictures of the newest addition to our family, Andreas, on my iPad and also my iPhone. I would show you pictures of Andreas on my iPhone but I cannot get it out of my robe.
The main advantage to writing on an iPad, besides the manipulations it offers to stay within my word count, is that while writing I can take breaks and look at pictures of Andreas, although I almost never do. In fact, I am not confident that my wife and I look at him very much in real life either. Oh, we watch him plenty to make sure he doesn’t eat a golf ball or something like that. But do we see him in the same way he sees us? Which brings me to my advice for you today – “to see like a baby.” I would offer the advice to sleep like a baby, which is only two letters away from seeing like a baby, but my wife and I have been reminded recently that babies do not sleep very well at all. Actually, you should aim to sleep like a toddler, not a baby. Toddlers crash within minutes of hitting the bed and can sleep through a Led Zeppelin concert. But to really see what is around you I advise you to see like a baby.
Albert Einstein wrote, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” If Einstein said this, then it must be true. One of the reasons Einstein made such great discoveries was his ability to see freshly, to see phenomena around him as if for the first time. I think it is very easy to slip into looking at life as if it were not a miracle. To the poet Walt Whitman even a blade of grass was a miracle. He wrote, “I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.” He famously misspelled loaf, without the help of the iPad’s spell check, by adding an extra e, but he saw the spear of grass as if it were a miracle. Perhaps it is.
Babies see everything as a miracle. I know that we might say hey, they are new to the world, so yes, everything is amazing to them, including their own fists. But what if they are seeing things the way they are supposed to be seen? What if we, with our overwhelming conviction that most things are ordinary, are the ones who are not truly seeing?
Have you ever noticed how babies look at something? Once their eyes are operational, which takes a while, they truly see. That is why they lose themselves looking at a light fixture, or a fold in a curtain, or a brightly colored, plastic ring. That is why they love faces and peek-a-boo. I have seen Andreas watch his brothers with complete abandon. Of course they almost always were doing something naughty. But when is the last time you looked at a loved one as if he or she were a wonder?
Now this might seem like romantic and impractical advice. But I would argue that truly seeing things as they are is supremely practical. It is critical in research, for example, and for problem solving of any kind. Truly seeing will help you with your relationships at work and with your loved ones. Plus when you see everything as a miracle, like a baby, it is difficult to become bored. A jelly bean can become the center of the universe. Maybe it is.
The big problem, of course, is that babies do not know that they are seeing everything as a miracle – they just see – and most adults do not know that they have lost this ability, or if they do, they do not know how to get it back. The trick is to see like a baby but not try to do it. That is what Yoda meant when he said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Or the great Zen saying, “In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.” That is why most of the great saints and spiritual leaders of the world admired children. Children at their best are devoid of self-consciousness, like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. But you cannot try not to try either, because that is still trying. “Above all, don’t wobble.”
Mr. Butch Keller, Harker’s upper school head, puts inspirational quotes on the bottom of his emails. He recently had another quote from Einstein in which the great scientist asks, “When was the last time you did anything for the first time?” I don’t believe Einstein just means bungee jumping or feats of that nature. I think he means seeing things as the miracles they are, like a baby. If you see like a baby, you just might see yourself as the miracle you are. Thank you.
The San Jose Stage Top Honors awards ceremony honored the best in Bay Area high school theater on June 4, and the Harker Conservatory’s cast of “The Drowsy Chaperone” walked away with with the award for best chorus.
The cast and staff was nominated in 11 categories, including best actor and actress, chorus, director, musical director and best show, earning the right to perform at the awards ceremony. “We performed the big song and dance number from the show,” said director Laura Lang-Ree. “The kids were fabulous, tons of energy … the audience loved them.” Newly graduated seniors Noel Witcosky and Tristan Killeen also performed as part of a best actor/actress nominee montage.
The best chorus award, which Harker also took home last year for “Pippin,” is the award the directing staff most appreciates winning. “It reflects the hard work, talent, dedication and commitment of the entire cast,” said Lang-Ree. “It’s ‘easy’ to feature a fabulous lead, but when you can take the entire ensemble of 43 and elevate them to that same level of joy and storytelling, that’s another story. We are all so proud of the team.”
This is the fourth year that Harker’s musical theater program has won this award, which was actually originated for Harker after the judging staff wanted to acknowledge the cast’s work in “Oklahoma!” in 2002.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
More than 400 attendees experienced the 2012 Harker Research Symposium on April 28, which featured some of the most fascinating speakers and presentations in the symposium’s six-year history.
Legendary entrepreneur Vinod Khosla was this year’s morning keynote speaker. “We were very fortunate that someone of Mr. Khosla’s stature would take time from a busy schedule and from a beautiful Saturday to come and share his thoughts with our students,” said Anita Chetty, science department chair and symposium coordinator. “I think that what he had to say certainly got us all thinking about the present as well as the future.”
Giving a joint presentation were John West and Atul Butte. West, a Harker parent and CEO of genome analysis company Personalis, was joined by Butte via video conference from Boston. Butte is chief of the division of systems medicine and associate professor of pediatrics, medicine and by courtesy, computer science at Stanford University. The two scientists discussed the collaborative project between a team of Stanford scientists led by Butte and West’s former company, Illumina, to sequence the West family’s DNA. This in turn led to an effort to develop software that would make genome sequencing accessible to more people.
This year’s alumni presentation was given by Jacob Bongers ’07, son of Jaap Bongers, art department chair, and a 2011 graduate from the University of Southern California. Bongers discussed his passion for archaeology and his related fieldwork and research, which led him to being published in the Journal of Archaeological Science while still an undergraduate. “Archaeology has been a passion of mine since I was a kid and since I have a tremendous amount of experience performing fieldwork and conducting research within the scope of archaeology, I felt like I had a lot to offer to anyone interested in learning about this fascinating field of study,” Bongers said. “I also wanted to talk about a field of study that, at Harker, may not get as much press as engineering, biology or medical research.”
Attendance remained high for the duration of the event, and the top caliber of this year’s student presentations kept visitors interested. “Every classroom was standing room only,” Chetty said.
One presenter at this year’s symposium, Alex Najibi, grade 12, said attending last year’s symposium provided the spark for his own interest in research. “I’ve always been interested in science and research, but when I went to the symposium last year, not as a presenter, I was really amazed by how many projects the other students were doing,” he said.
Although he was not sure at first that many people would find his presentation on particle physics engaging or accessible
enough, he quickly discovered that his audience found the topic quite compelling. “Particle physics isn’t really the most accessible topic, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly nearly everyone understood what I was discussing,” Najibi said.
Because of the expected high attendance, the symposium this year was arranged to create better foot traffic, and a tent was set up between Nichols Hall and Dobbins Hall to display the many impressive poster presentations by upper school students. The Dobbins Hall gallery was set aside for middle school student poster presentations.
Exhibitors occupied the atrium in Nichols Hall, demonstrating many scientific and technological advancementsand offering a peek into the kinds of careers that are open to students interested in scientific research. This year’s exhibitors were Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, The Triple Helix, East Bay Cardiovascular and Thoracic Associates, Lumoback, Symmetricom, Twin Creeks Technologies, Nvidia, Autodesk, Ericsson, Hunter Laboratories and Rector Porsche Audi.
“The industry piece is very important because it allows our students to see the connection between research and career, research and the economy of our valley,” Chetty said. “The exhibitors were so excited about their companies and their products and their research and development. That enthusiasm was really infectious.”
In addition to the student clubs such as WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and the Chemistry Club, who were instrumental in organizing this year’s event, Chetty was also thankful for the various departments that came together to make sure the Harker Research Symposium had another successful year.
“The symposium recognizes what our teachers and our students do throughout the year, and it’s a celebration of that work,” she said. “But the actual event also brings together the other departments that make our school run: facilities, technology, Office of Communication, the kitchen, security, all of those departments come together to run this huge event.”
Next year’s symposium, scheduled for April 13, is already in the planning stages, and will feature Nobel Prize-winning biologist Dr. David Baltimore as a keynote speaker.
This story was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly
Rina Sakuraba and Maki Shibata, two upper school students from Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Tamagawa Gakuen, spent a month at the upper school experiencing the life of Harker students firsthand.
The students had a schedule of classes and activities for each week of their stay. Shibata enjoyed psychology class and listening to the Harker orchestra during rehearsal, while Sakuraba had fun participating in Masako Onakado’s Contemporary Japanese class and sitting in on Cantilena’s class sessions to listen to the talented singers.
The students also had a great time at the Winter Ball and went on a trip to Santa Cruz on a day off, where they had fun on the rides at the famous beach boardwalk. Middle school Japanese students were also paid a visit by the two students, who gave presentations on Japanese cultural topics such as origami, kabuki and Japanese hot springs (known as onsen).
Prior to heading back to Japan, Sakuraba and Shibata said they found Harker students to be very friendly and hoped to strengthen their newfound friendships in the future.