Reprinted from the Harker Quarterly June 2010 issue
Student artists of all disciplines and their families had three opportunities in May to celebrate the unveiling of the conceptual design of their new space, a performing and visual arts center (PVAC) planned for the center of the Saratoga campus as part of phase 4 of Harker’s master site plan.
Diana Nichols, former head of school and lifetime trustee, hosted the events in the Nichols Hall auditorium. The programs included talks by visual arts chair Jaap Bongers, performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree, and an impassioned speech by Nichols herself, who charmed, cajoled and nudged the audience into understanding the importance of completing this new venue for Harker.
Bongers outlined the difficulties his students have trying to make art pieces in the same space they are stored, and the need to work outside in all weather, because there are no rooms with proper ventilation or floor space. Lang-Ree’s speech included a dramatic visual punch – a video made by a local school that shows a time-lapse sequence of their new space, and testimonials by their faculty detailing how competitive and attractive their school can now be because of their arts center. Lang-Ree pointed out that while audiences may only see the “glitz and glamour of our productions,” what they don’t see is much more revealing; the students then gave a laundry-list of challenges they face as performers in their limited and unequipped spaces.
Student performers gave the potential donors a look at their future beneficiaries, performing dances, songs or dramatic scenes at each of the gatherings. Nichols then opened the floor to questions and comments.
The highlight of each show, though, was the presentation of the site plans. Built around the theme of a crystal – which is constantly changing, growing and reflecting light, the way students are – the new gym, student center and PVAC have glass entries. Waterfalls, a suspension bridge, a roof vegetable garden and green space will make the center a stunning addition to the campus.
A special “gift club” called The Director’s Circle has been established to recognize the many teachers, staff members and others who have made early gifts to this campaign.
The excitement at these gatherings was palpable, and momentum is growing. The time to get on board is now!
A special dinner was held May 20 at the house of Chris Nikoloff, head of school, to honor the “Lifers” in the Class of 2010 – graduating seniors who have been students at Harker for their entire educational careers.
The seven members of the Class of 2010 who have been with Harker since junior kindergarten are: Rohan Chopra, Carina Fernandes, Yash Khandwala, Miriam Lee, Kevin Liu, Alexander Ringold and Amy Rorabaugh.
Graduates who started in kindergarten are: Matthew Azebu, Arjun Bhargava, Danielle Buis, Ryan Cali, Kelsey Chung, Michael Clifford, Cole Davis, Erica Hansen, Jackie Ho, Eugene Huang, Vishesh Jain, Kacie Kaneyuki, Tamara Kawadri, Nicole Lindars, Arjun Mody, Scott Mohanram, Kendra Moss, Sarah Newton, Ketul Patel, Shanna Polzin, Rohan Prakash, Colby Rapson, Rohan Shah, Stephen Wang, Sarah Wang, Adrienne Wong and Lung-Ying Yu.
The annual brick ceremony took place in May to honor several graduating seniors by having bricks engraved with their names and graduation years set in the sidewalk leading to the Graduates’ Grove. This year, 43 families honored their graduates by having bricks placed. The honorees are: Namrata Anand, Brandon Araki, Alison Axelrad, Esther Belogolovsky, Natasha Chitkara, Rohan Chopra, Brittany Chu, Alexander Creasman, Brandon Dai, Cole Davis, Monisha Dilip, Stefan Eckhardt, Thomas Enzminger, Kevin Fu, Akum Gill, Chad Gordon, Erica Hansen, Tara Hansen, Kelsey Hilbrich, Jackie Ho, Sonya Huang, Nalini Jain, Mahum Jamal, Jonathan Lau, Nicole Lindars, Kevin Liu, Connie Lu, Sachin Mitra, Sarah Newton, Ketul Patel, Shanna Polzin, Alexander Ringold, Amy Rorabaugh, Priya Sathaye, Kevin Saxon, Rohan Shah, Elaine Song, Shizuka Tiernan, Christine Trinh, Jeremy Whang, Margaret Woods, Kelly Yu and Kevin Zhang.
Following the ceremony, the patio outside the new library was dedicated as the senior parent appreciation gift from the more than 80 families who contributed to fund its landscaping.
Ashvin Swaminathan, Gr. 9, recently earned a spot in the violin section of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, one of the top groups of its kind in the country. The young musicians will have the privilege of training with members of the symphony, and will perform four concerts with the orchestra.
Harker students who have been members of the SFSYO include violinist Catherine Chiu, ’08, cellist Tiffany Yu, ’08, and cellist Julia Shim, ’10.
The Modern and Classical Languages department held its eighth annual Honor Societies Induction Ceremony on April 19. The ceremony began with an inspiring talk by alumna Katherin Hudkins, ’06, who spoke about studying Spanish at both Harker and Smith College, as well as her life-changing experience living in Ecuador during her junior year at Smith. Hudkins highly recommended that the students take advantage of study abroad programs at some point during their education.
After Hudkins spoke, each National Honor Society (French, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin and Spanish) made a short cultural presentation, which included beautiful songs in French, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish. The Latin group performed a humorous skit. New members were then inducted into each society, which has its own specific criteria set by the national office of the organization. “In general, all induct a very select group of students with high averages in their language courses,” said Abel Olivas, upper school Spanish teacher. Congratulations to all of the students for this achievement.
New inductees to each National Honor Society are as follows:
Japanese: Erik Andersen, Tiffany Jang, Victoria Liang, Catherine Manea, Jessica Shen, Indica Sur, Lorraine Wong, Gene Wong, Iris Xia and Wilbur Yang.
Latin: Jenny Chen, Michael Cheng, Jonathan Cho, Nik Datuashvili, Richard Fan, Jason Kuan, Andrew Luo, Ramakrishnan Menon, Suchita Nety, Laura Pedrotti, Anuj Sharma, Pranav Sharma, Shannon Su, Ashvin Swaminathan, Ravi Tadinada and Molly Wolfe.
Mandarin: Sally Chen, Lucy Cheng, James Du, Eric Kong, Michelle Lo, Moneesha Mukherjee, Derek Tzeng and Patrick Yang.
Spanish: Sarika Asthana, Appu Bhaskar, Rohan Bopardikar, Nicole Dalal, Sharanya Haran, Sarah Howells, Max Isenberg, Isha Kawatra, Revanth Kosaraju, Jeffrey Kwong, Andrew Liang, Rahul Madduluri, Priyanka Mody, Alexander Najibi, Nikhil Narayen, Sankalp Raju, Sona Sulakian, Cindy Tay, Anne West and Albert Wu.
Upper school Latin students scored big on national Latin and Greek exams, which were taken in March. In all, students won 24 gold medals, 13 silver medals, 12 magna cum laude certificates and six cum laude certificates.
In Latin I, Cobi Ashkenazi, Gr.9, won a gold medal, with silver medals going to fellow freshmen Apurva Tandon, Andrew Luo and Christopher Sund. Rising senior Karen Wong won a cum laude certificate.
Gold medals in Latin II were won by Eric Henshall, Gr. 10, and Simon Orr, Gr. 9, while Ram Menon, Gr. 9, and Samantha Walker, Gr. 10, earned silver. Matthew Carpenter and Nathan Hoffman, both Gr. 10, won magna cum laude, and Gr. 9 students Piyush Prasad and Robert Deng won cum laude.
Freshmen Sean Fernandes and Rahul Desirazu won gold medals in Latin III, where Eric Zhang, Molly Wolfe and Katherine Woodruff, all Gr. 9, earned silver medals. Magna cum laude winners in this category were Nisha Bhikha and Ravi Tadinada, both Gr. 9, Gerard Glasauer, Gr. 10, and recent graduate Lauren Guerra.
Harker took more gold medals in Latin III Honors Prose than in any other category, with Gr. 9 students Ashvin Swaminathan, Jonathan Cho, Nik Datuashvili, Pranav Sharma, Michael Cheng, Richard Fan, Shannon Su and Saloni Gupta, Gr. 11, all earning top honors. Suchita Nety and Anuj Sharma, Gr. 9, took home the silver, and Vivian Li, Gr. 10, earned a cum laude certificate.
In Latin IV Prose, Robert Maxton, Gr. 10, won gold, and fellow sophomores Ila Dwivedi and Christophe Pellissier both won magna cum laude awards.
Ramya Rangan, Gr. 10, was a big winner in Latin IV Poetry, earning a gold medal and a Perfect Paper award. Other gold medal winners in this category were sophomores Alex Hsu, Ananth Subramaniam and Jessica Lin, and rising seniors Justine Liu and April Luo. Earning silver medals were Max Lan, Gr. 11, and Prag Batra, Gr. 10. Jason Kuan, Christine Hsu, both Gr. 10, and Supraja Swamy, Gr. 11, won magna cum laude certificates and Philip Oung, Gr. 10, won cum laude.
Graduate Anjali Menon won a gold medal in Latin V, while Alex Han, also Class of 2010, took silver and Colby Rapson, another recent graduate, won cum laude.
Recent graduate Brandon Araki was one point shy of having a perfect paper but still won the gold in Latin VI, as did fellow grads Sohini Khan and Maggie Woods.
In the national Greek exam, Menon earned a blue ribbon in the Greek Prose category, the highest honor, and missed earning a perfect paper by a single point. Menon also earned a red ribbon award in Greek Tragedy, missing another perfect paper by three points.
Upper school physics students recently took first place in their region in the annual American Association of Physics Teachers’ Physics Bowl. The United States is comprised of 15 regions and Harker ranked third across all regions. Approximately 4,500 students from 200 schools took the examination across the United States, Canada, China and the Republic of Korea.
Harker competes in the division two portion of the competition, which is for students who have completed a year of physics. All of our students enrolled in AP physics B and C take the examination. They do not do any special preparation for the test, other than their already rigorous class work, making their accomplishments all the more impressive.
Ramya Rangan, Gr. 10, recently learned that she received a perfect score on her Level 4 Poetry National Latin Exam. Of the close to 7,000 students who took the exam, only 81 received perfect scores, slightly more than 1 percent. Harker students have a history of strong performance on Latin exams and we are proud to congratulate Rangan for upholding this tradition of excellence.
On May 17, mothers of the 2010 senior class were celebrated during the Senior Moms Luncheon in the Nichols Hall atrium. This time-honored event once again brought mothers together to socialize, catch up with longtime friends and share the memories of their children’s times at Harker. Dozens of mothers, many of them the parents of Harker “Lifers,” took the podium one by one to address their friends, often through tears and laughter, and thank Harker for the wonderful opportunities it offered to their children. Congrats, moms!
Graduates, friends and family were once again greeted by gorgeous weather and surroundings at the Mountain Winery on May 22 for the upper school’s ninth annual commencement ceremony. The Harker Chamber Orchestra, directed by Chris Florio, officially began the ceremony by welcoming the graduates with “Pomp and Circumstance.” Following the processional, Susan Nace directed the 2010 Graduation Chorus in her arrangement of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Following a brief welcome speech by Butch Keller, upper school head, salutatorian Adam Perelman addressed his classmates in a light-hearted speech; Andrew Zhou, who, as valedictorian, traditionally would have spoken, was not able to attend the ceremony because he was attending the U.S. Physics Olympiad team training in Maryland (see p. 7).
“I was so excited when I found out that I had the chance to speak today. And that’s not just because [college counselor] Mr. [Kevin] Lum Lung promised me twenty bucks if I mentioned his name in this speech,” Perelman joked. He went on to list the many accomplishments of the Class of 2010, which included but were not limited to winning consecutive spirit championships and running a marathon to honor John Near, the much-loved 30-year veteran history teacher who passed away last September (see p. 48). “What I’m trying to say is that, we’re kind of a big deal, Class of 2010,” Perelman quipped.
The speech got another big laugh when Perelman reflected on how much the class had changed since freshman year. “A lot of you probably remember that back then, I looked a lot more like this!” he exclaimed, donning an afro wig.
Before closing, Perelman thanked the Harkerteachers and families who helped him and his classmates become the people they are. He then thanked his fellow graduates “for making high school so unforgettable.”
After much applause, Catherine Snider conducted the 2010 Graduation Chorus, singing the Taylor Hicks hit “Do I Make You Proud,” before the day’s keynote speaker, San Jose Mercury News columnist Scott Herhold, took the podium. In his speech, Herhold made special note of the accomplishments that the graduating seniors had achieved as part of a collaborative effort. He recognized several students by name and recapped many of the accomplishments they achieved together in areas such as community service, sports and performing arts.
In another yearly tradition, graduate and outgoing National Honor Society president Anjali Menon then passed the Lamp of Knowledge to rising senior and new NHS president Ashtyn Ka. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, then went to the stage to give his customary parting words to the senior class (see p. 4) before individually awarding the diplomas to the class of 2010, along with Keller and Naomi Schatz, class dean and psychology teacher. Nikoloff and Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, then said their closing words and released doves, before the Harker Chamber Orchestra performed the recessional piece, “March Heroique” by Saint-Saens, to bring the ceremonies and a great senior year to an end!