This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
This spring the Harker Mentoring Program has been running a series of special career panels geared toward giving students expert career guidance and advice without adding too much to their already busy schedules. “The purpose of these panels is to give students a broader perspective and allow them to explore different avenues without actually having to commit to a full internship or mentor shadowing program,” said MaryEllis Deacon, assistant to the executive director of advancement, who coordinates the panels along with Joe Rosenthal, advancement director.
They also serve to give students a better idea of the types of internships they might want to apply for or mentors they may want to shadow.
Deacon and Rosenthal have been working with the Next Entrepreneurs of the World (NEW) student club to help bring in speakers and generate student interest in the panels by announcing the speakers at student assemblies. They also provide suggestions for speakers at upcoming panels and pass along student feedback to provide the organizers with more insight.
“We are so lucky to live here in Silicon Valley with such amazing innovators in science, technology, biotech, solar power, you name it,” said Sarina Vij, grade 10, who is co-president of NEW with her brother, Sameer, grade 9. “We as Harker students are very fortunate for having the opportunity to hear some of the most inspiring entrepreneurs and also receive internship opportunities.”
Speakers are culled from the Harker community, and most panelists so far have been Harker parents. “It does give the students an easier starting point, and that makes them feel a little more comfortable, given that they know that [the mentors] are Harker parents,” Deacon said, adding that it is easier for students to relate to members of the Harker community.
The three panels held thus far have featured inspirational success stories such as Gary Gauba (parent of Alexis, grade 6 and Ashley, grade 2), who founded a number of successful startups in the 1990s and early 2000s and is now the CEO and founder of Cognilytics, Inc., which offers predictive analysis and business intelligence to its clients.
During the first panel in January, which focused on entrepreneurship, Gauba told the students, “Entrepreneurship is in your DNA. You need an event or a catalyst to unleash that entrepreneur out of you.” One such event, he said, could be working at a company where one’s ideas are not being heard. “I’m a firm believer of Darwin’s theory. You have to adapt, evolve and thrive,” he said. “You need to continuously adapt, but you have to have an end goal in mind.”
Being innovative, having a solution to a specific problem and working with the right people, he said, are also highly important. The “core elements,” he said, “are all in you. You have to figure out how to pull them together.”
Charles Huang (Kaylan, grade 7) also spoke at an entrepreneurship panel. Huang founded a company called RedOctane in 1999 with his brother, Kai. Inspired by music-based games that were extremely popular in Asia, RedOctane went on to create “Guitar Hero,” one of the most popular video game franchises of the last decade.
“Guitar Hero” offered an interesting twist on the music game genre, which was not very popular outside of Asia. “What we were trying to do was to create a game that would sell you the aspiration that you were a rock star,” he said. This story demonstrated the wealth of great ideas waiting to be leveraged all over the world. “Go see the world. Look for opportunities,” he said. He also encouraged students to do what they love, but also to “do what other people love. What you love allows you to make great products and services and generate great ideas, but if you can do what a lot of other people love, then that gives you a tremendous opportunity to enter a big market.”
Each new panel offers speakers from different fields. The most recent panel on Feb. 16 featured tech executives Srini Madala of SoftSol (Ajay, grade 2; Samantha, grade 8) and Anita Manwani-Bhagat (Simrun, grade 11; Vikram, grade 9) of Carobar Business Solutions. The purpose of offering panels with different themes is to help students gather guidance on a wide variety of careers so that they are better able to know what paths are available to them. Panelists also engage in question and-answer sessions following their lectures, allowing students further insight into possible career choices.
Deacon said students have responded positively to the panels so far. “Some have come and given their resumes, and they are trying to figure out internships,” she said. “For some students it’s kind of opened different doors.”
Students also appreciate that the panels are scheduled during long lunches so that they do not interfere with studies or class time. “It doesn’t take away from academic time, and it gives them a little insight,” Deacon said. “It’s just to let them learn.”
The Harker School Orchestra, led by Chris Florio, reached a new pinnacle in its development today when it received a unanimous superior rating at the Californian Music Educators Association festival. The orchestra, 71 students strong, performed “Elsa’s Procession” from “Lohengrin”by Richard Wagner and “Polovetsian Dances” by Alexander Borodin. Judges’ comments included, “very ambitious program, nicely done; impressive technique; excellent solo work.”
“Our program has been growing and improving steadily for the past six years,” said Florio. “This honor is really a testament to the hard work that these students and those who have graduated from our orchestra have put in.
“Although we don’t measure our success as an orchestra by these festivals, they are a still a great event that helps the greater musical public know what great things we are doing at Harker. Our students love to play orchestral music and that passion comes out in their playing. That is what the judges heard today and that is what, I believe, led to our unanimous superior,” Florio added.
Several Harker students participated in a fundraising mixer for the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE). Jackie Jin and Jennie Xu, both grade 11, and Emily Chu, Isha Kawatra, Kevin Lin, Indu Seeni, Sarina Vij and Joseph Wang, all grade 10, are members of the PACE Youth Leadership Committee (YLC) that put on the event, which raised more than $8,000.
“The whole process of collaborating with other people who really care about autism and see so many of my friends from school come to the mixer was what made my experience at PACE thus far so rewarding,” said Wang, who was a project manager and co-chair for the mixer. Wang, whose cousin is autistic, first got involved with PACE last August and was a big reason for the event’s success. His responsibilities included booking the venue, hiring a DJ and promoting the event.
“He was definitely responsible for a large part of the success we had this year,” said Jin, who acted as marketing chair. “We had a fantastic first year with the mixer last year, but I guess the word got around and we had a huge rise in interest this year.”
Jin continued: “PACE is a really fantastic organization and it’s just an added bonus that raising awareness and funds for it as part of the YLC is so much fun.”
The Harker Innovation Team has submitted a video to the LEAF ECOmmercial contest and they need your help to win! The competition has a variety of prizes including Most Viewed and Most Liked, so please help the team promote their video to the Harker community by viewing the video and liking it on Facebook by April 12.
“The goal of our video is to promote lower electricity consumption by encouraging people to take action – particularly to turn off lights whenever possible,” said Isaac Madan, grade 12. “We chose to focus on this because electricity is often assumed to be an unlimited resource that can be consumed without qualms. Yet, energy conservation is necessary to protect our environment and limit fossil fuel use.
“We figured that reminding people to turn off the lights is a great way for people to begin limiting their electricity use and begin thinking more about their electricity demand. Moreover, we emphasized that often the talk about the environment by scientists, politicians, etc., can be overwhelming, but taking action to protect the environment individually can be quite simple,” Madan noted.
The Harker Innovation Team works on a variety of competitive engineering and environmental projects throughout the school year and hopes their message will resonate with viewers of all ages who are aware of issues around global warming and environmentalism.
The team consists of Madan as captain and founder; Ambrish Amaranathan, grade 12; Sachin Jain, Prag Batra, Arihant Jain, all grade 11; Ram Menon and Shantanu Joshi, both grade 10.
The goal of the competition is to develop a public service commercial that encourages environmental awareness and/or conservation. There are various prizes in the competition, including Most Viewed and Most Liked (via Facebook). “We hope to do well in the award categories, but primarily our goal is to promote the idea of limiting electricity consumption to protect the environment,” added Madan.
The week of March 14- 18 was upper school multicultural week, a celebration of cultures from around the world. The collective effort of well over a hundred students, guided by members of the Global Empowerment and Outreach (GEO) Club, included a multicultural carnival, assembly and dress-up day.
At the multicultural carnival, upper school students ran booths showcasing different countries. The event was held in the Nichols Hall atrium and accompanying activities included bocce ball games, a jazz combo, henna tattoo art and a plethora of multicultural food. Countries represented included Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, Syria, United States and Wales.
“Although we study about [different cultures] in history classes, getting a hands-on experience is what makes the multicultural carnival special,” commented Muralikrishna Joshi, grade 11. “It is a great way to learn.”
In the multicultural assembly, students and teachers performed a multitude of acts, including an Argentine Tango, several songs in foreign languages, a Korean pop dance medley, two Indian dance numbers, and pieces on the guitar and harp. Julian Wise, grade 12 and Tristan Killeen, grade 11, emceed the assembly.
The week brought rays of sunshine to the campus in a rainy week and students thrived on the varied activities. “I think it was amazing that people were not only proudly displaying their own cultures, but also learning and enjoying others’ cultures,” said Richard Fan, grade 10.
In mid-March, Harker hosted a meeting of approximately 40 student-politicians from Junior States of America (JSA). The one-day JSA convention included thought talks; open-ended discussions on certain questions and topics; debates, which are formal arguments on resolutions; and a keynote address by Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager. The topics discussed included rights of corporations, the Dream Act, Second Amendment interpretation, California districting and many others.
Yeager discussed how politicians are having a real impact on the community, including fighting childhood obesity and exposure to first and second hand smoke in public places.
Govinda Dasu, grade 11, mayor of the Golden Gate Region of Northern California JSA and one of the organizers, said, “It was truly a great experience. Not only did we get greater numbers than expected, but the thought talks and debates went truly in-depth into both the practical and ideological implications of the resolutions. The event exceeded my expectations in both quality and quantity.”
The Triple Helix Online, the online journal of The Triple Helix, Inc., recently published several stories written by Harker students. The Triple Helix, Inc. (TTH), is an international nonprofit organization made up of students from universities worldwide that specializes in journalism in the fields of science, society, business, ethics and law.
Harker is the first and so far only high school chapter of TTH, which has 27 chapters in universities all over the world and receives funding from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The partnership was kick-started by Jennifer Ong ’06, who is TTH’s chief operating officer. Students Naomi So, grade 12, and Pavitra Rengarajan, grade 11, act as the editors-in-chief for the Harker chapter, and collaborate with TTH senior editors to prepare Harker student submissions for publication.
Basu and Tandon had their writings made into posters, which were displayed at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., which took place Feb. 17-21. The two students were in attendance at the meeting as the guests of Triple Helix. They attended a number of workshops and met members of TTH from other universities, as well as attending talks with top researchers.
Anita Chetty, science department chair, who accompanied Basu and Tandon to Washington, said The Triple Helix offers a way for students to parlay their interests in subjects such as science and technology into an avenue for publication. “They like to look at the issues,” she said. “They’re not necessarily interested in research. They want to do more of a commentary.”
The Harker chapter’s print edition of the Triple Helix magazine will be distributed at the Harker Research Symposium on April 23.
A special ceremony was held on March 21 for the new inductees of the Harker Cum Laude Society. New members from the class of 2011 are Roshni Bhatnagar, Tracey Chan, Christine Chien, Tiffany Chien, Timothy Chou, Saloni Gupta, Andrew Liang, Isaac Madan, Rohan Mahajan, Zachary Mank, Moneesha Mukherjee, Shreya Nathan, Margaux Nielsen, Dawn Queen, Swetha Repakula and Brianna Tran.
New members from the class of 2012 are Prag Batra, Lucy Cheng, Chun Man Chow, Nicole Dalal, Govinda Dasu, Michelle Deng, Alexander Hsu, Max Isenberg, Revanth Kosaraju, Jeffrey Kwong, Chaitanya Malladi, Ramya Rangan, Pavitra Rengarajan, Kathryn Siegel, Albert Wu and Patrick Yang.
Attendees were also treated to a performance by the Harker Woodwind Quintet, and English teacher John Heyes distributed the latest issue of “Reflections,” the Harker Cum Laude Society’s print magazine.
Accolades from the winter season: in early March, girls basketball player Daniza Rodriguez, grade 10, was named West Bay Athletic League-Skyline Division Most Valuable Player.
Spring Sports
Swimming
Harker varsity swimming had a dominating win over Mercy Burlingame last week, winning all eleven events to post a 129-36 win. The girls team has yet to lose a single event this season and are now 2-0 and in first place in the WBAL. Double event winners were Jessica Khojasteh, grade 12 and Manon Audebert, grade 9.
Other event winners were Rachelle Koch, Lucy Cheng, Katie Siegel and Tiffany Wong, all grade 11, as well as all three relays: Harker had 1-2-3 sweeps in the 50 freestyle, the 500 freestyle, and the 100 breaststroke. Cheng had her first CCS qualifying swim of the year in the 200 IM. Of special note from the boys’ scrimmage: Kevin Khojasteh, grade 11, had a spectacular swim in the 200 freestyle, breaking now-junior Daryl Neubieser’s school record, set last May, by .11 of a second, going 1:46.79.
Golf
Our boys golfers opened league play in early March with a victory over King’s Academy 207-237 at Los Lagos. Co-medalist honors went to sophomores Kyle Roter and Maverick McNealy, shooting 2 over par at 36. In mid-March, linksmen defeated Pinewood and lost to SHP. McNealy earned medalist honors against Prep.
Track and Field
The track and field team had an outstanding display at the Willow Glen Invitational in early March. Isabelle Connell, grade 10, placed first in both the 200m and 400m races, and Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 10, took fourth in both the 1600m and 3200m races. On the boys team, Charles Levine, grade 10, placed eighth in the 800m, Krish Chandani, grade 9, finished eighth for the freshman-sophomore (FS) boys 400m. Matthew Giammona, grade 10, threw to place fifth in the boys FS discus, while classmate Michael Chen finished seventh.
In their first league meet, in mid-March, track and field had some notable moments. Individual highlights include Claudia Tischler, grade 9, who took first place in both the mile (1600m) and the 2 mile (3200m), running a 5:39 and 12:34, respectively. Connell took first place in both the 400 meter and the 200 meter dashes, running a 1:01.48 and a 26.95, respectively. Sonya Chalaka, grade 11, took first place in the triple jump, jumping 29 feet and 9 and one half inches, and second place in the long jump, jumping 13 feet and 8 inches.
For the boys, Jonny Yet, grade 11, ran the 100 meter dash in 12.71 seconds, placing second. Giammona took second place in the discus, throwing 88 feet and 5 inches, and Chen took third place in both the shot put and the discus, throwing 37 feet and one half inches and 87 feet and six inches, respectively.
Softball
Softball started the season 1-1 in early March, defeating San Jose High 14-1 in their opener and losing to Independence High the week before. Against San Jose, Ashley Del Alto, grade 10, had a triple with three RBIs, Tracey Chan, grade 12, hit a home run, and Alison Rugar, grade 10, pitched eight strikeouts. The following week the team defeated Yerba Buena 18-3 and Alma Heights 7-3. Against Alma Heights, Del Alto pitched 15 strikeouts, Rugar hit a triple and we had hits from Chan, Victoria Liang, Aileen Wen and Trisha Basu, all seniors, and Sonia Gupta, grade 10.
Baseball
Varsity baseball started the season 0-3. The junior varsity team lost 6-5 in early March in 10 innings against Santa Clara. Noah Levy, grade 11, had three hits, Drew Goldstein, grade 10, had a hit, and Kevin Cali, grade 10, pitched 13 strikeouts.
Volleyball
Boys volleyball went 4-1 at the Aptos Tournament in early March, placing second behind Mt. Madonna. In mid-March, they lost first to St. Ignatius and then a nail-biter to Mt. Madonna last week to drop to 5-5 on the season. Jacob Chappell, grade 12, had 22 kills against Mt. Madonna.
Tennis
Boys tennis started out 2-0 after victories over Piedmont Hills and Priory. Against Priory, Derek Tzeng, grade 11, played #1 singles and didn’t drop a game, winning 6-0, 6-0. Sophmore Chris Chang played #2 singles and was almost as impressive, winning 6-0, 6-1. Senior Nick Parth won a tiebreaker at #3, 8-7. Nikhil Narayen, grade 10, played his first singles match, winning at #4, 6-1, 6-2. In doubles, the #1 team of Adarsh Ranganathan, grade 12 and freshman Killian Burke won 6-1, 6-1. Also impressive was #2 doubles team of Sachin Jain, grade 11 and Justin Yang, grade 10, who also won 6-1, 6-1. Finally, Revanth Kosaraju, grade 11 and Simar Mangat, grade 10, won 6-2, 6-3 at #3 doubles. In mid-March the boys defeated Crystal Springs but lost to Cupertino and Sacred Heart Prep. The boys take their 5-2 record against national power Menlo and Monte Vista this week.
Lacrosse
Girls lacrosse lost their home opener in early March and the team has been fighting for their first win. They get two more chances before spring break, with home games against Mercy and Stevenson March 23 and 24 at 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., respectively.
Harker sent 28 instrumentalists to the California Association for Music Education (CMEA) Solo and Ensemble Festival in mid-March and earned more Command Performance and Superior ratings at Saturday’s festival than any other school participating!
Harker was well represented with standout performances by Cole Manaster, Dylan Qian and Cindy Tay, all grade 11; Patricia Huang and Katherine Woodruff, both grade 10; Dennis Moon and Daniel Pak, both grade 9, all of whom earned Superior ratings.
Superior/Command Performance ratings, the highest given at the festival, were earned by Arthur Oung, grade 4, Jeffrey Kwong and Andrew Lee, both grade 11; Albert Chen and Nayeon Kim, both grade 10; and Krishan Kumar, grade 9.
Other participants included seniors Jasmine Nee, Catherine Stiles and Jason Young; juniors Vivian Li, Nandita Krishna, Dwight Payne, Gene Wong and Evan Yao; sophomores Rohan Chandra and Lydia Werthen; and freshmen Meena Chetty, Nathan Dhablania, Sahithya Prakash, Renu Singh and Andrew Wang.