Cheered on by family, friends and fellow students, the Harker varsity football team started off the season with a 21-7 win against the San Jose High Academy Bulldogs at San Jose on Sept. 11. Bogdan Botcharov, Gr. 12, scored on runs from the 21-yard and 5-yard lines in the first quarter to take an early 14-0 lead. San Jose scored the Bulldogs’ lone touchdown before the end of the first half but Rishi Bhatia, Gr. 11, kept the Bulldogs deep in their own territory with pinpoint kickoffs until the third quarter. Bhatia then booted a 50-yard punt that came to rest on the San Jose 10-yard line. Two plays later, Cole Davis, Gr. 12, scooped up a fumble from his linebacker position and returned it for the game’s final score. Davis was Harker’s standout on defense with 18 tackles. Jose Costa, Gr. 12, kicked three extra points for the Eagles. The Harker squad is preparing for their next game on Fri., Sept. 18, at Yerba Buena in San Jose. For the schedule of varsity football games, see http://www.harker.org/page.cfm?p=250
Prior to the varsity game, the JV team lost a hard-fought contest against San Jose High Academy 12-6. JV coach Geoff Lundie is very optimistic about next week’s away game against Yerba Buena.
Salad was served courtesy of the Harker garden on Aug. 27. Vegetables picked from the Saratoga campus greenhouse by Kerry Enzensperger, community service director, were prepared by kitchen staff member Samantha Brailey and served as a salad during lunch hour at the upper school campus.
Members and students interested in joining the upper school’s performing arts department, known as the the Harker Conservatory, met on Sept. 3 in the Blackford Theater to learn about the programs available to budding artists. The Conservatory faculty, led by Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts, each spoke about their specific fields, and also addressed the evening’s main theme – integrity within the arts. Special topics included how to hear and give feedback, how to respond appropriately to peer pressure and potential disappointment, and tips on making the process of production equally as enjoyable as the final performance.
Jeff Draper, upper school drama teacher, announced that he will be directing Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo” as this year’s fall play, and Lang-Ree revealed that the spring musical will be “Les Misérables.”
More than 370 parents and students attended, with freshmen interested in learning about the specialized Certificate Program remaining after the main program.
Anita Satish, Gr. 12 and Avanika Krishnaswamy ’09 spent an exciting part of their summers as interns at Kaiser Permanente. Satish, who aspires to become a doctor, felt the internship could help her gain more insight into the field of medicine. She even spent part of the previous summer in the surgical ward of a hospital in India.
“I knew that the medical institutions in the U.S would be very different and wanted to get a feel for the environment and everyday life of doctors,” she said. “I also wanted to explore the different medical fields and learn more about them to see if they appealed to me.”
Satish and Krishnaswamy spent their time at Kaiser as student observers. “Our main duty was to learn as much as we could and ask the doctors any questions that we had,” Satish said. The primary goal was to learn as much about the various medical fields as possible, and to get a close-up look at the daily activities and experiences of a medical doctor. The interns spent time in such departments as neurology, cardiology, general surgery and pediatrics, to name a few.
“The few days we spent with the neurology department were my favorite, and I learned a lot about neurology that I didn’t know before,” Satish said, “both in terms of medical and scientific knowledge, as well as the day-to-day ups and downs that neurologists face.”
Satish also enjoyed the talks she had with the doctors she and Krishnaswamy were observing. “They were very receptive to us and our questions, and provided us with their own stories and honest insights and perspectives,” she said.
More than a dozen Harker alumni, parents and staff participated on Team Near in the Relay for Life Aug. 15-16, in support of 31-year veteran Harker teacher and mentor John Near, who has metastasized colorectal cancer.
The Harker School and San Jose Gastroenterology (Dr. Huy Trinh, father of Jamie ’05; VyVy ’07; Christine, Gr. 12; and Lindsey, Gr. 5) were corporate sponsors for the team, which was also supported by dozens of other donors. Relay for Life is the signature activity of the American Cancer Society and Team Near has raised nearly $6,500 to date which will go to cancer research. “The luminaria ceremony was particularly touching, as it gave me a moment to think about all those I know who are battling or have battled cancer, particularly my favorite teacher and coach,” said Vickie Duong ’04, a key organizer of the event. Classmate Jessica Liu ’04 noted that the “very cool” John Near T-shirts (see slide show) and sweatshirts seen at the Relay, “awesomely designed by Vickie,” are available at http://mrneartshirts.eventbrite.com.
An open house turned into an impromptu alumni reunion when John Near, a 31-year veteran of Harker who has metastasized colorectal cancer, his wife, Pam Dickinson, director of Harker’s Office of Communication, and daughter alumna Casey Near ’06, opened their home to friends and family on Aug. 22. The event was attended by hundreds of the many alumni, faculty, family and friends impacted by Near’s life as a teacher, coach and friend. Near’s comments on recent events can be found on www.caringbridge.com; search for johnnear.
Related Stories
Teacher and Mentor Twice Honored (Story to be posted shortly)
In late July, 10 US students along with US science department chair Anita Chetty embarked on an eye-opening journey to scenic Costa Rica. Accompanied by US physics teacher Chris Spenner, the group spent approximately two weeks performing research, conservation work and keeping tabs on the country’s wildlife.
Students on the trip were Amy Rorabaugh, Noriko Ishisoko, Miriam Lee, Adrienne Wong, Tiffany Kyi, Erica Hansen, Carina Fernandes, Alex Creasman, Brittany Chu and Melanie Herscher, all currently Gr. 12.
After arriving in Costa Rica with five large tubs of research equipment, the team embarked on a lengthy bus and boat trek to Tortuguero National Park the following day. On Sunday morning, the students performed a beach clean-up to prepare for tagging sea turtles for the Caribbean Conservation League that evening.
Creasman nearly became “the first Harker student whose turtle built a nest and for all intents and purposes, was on target to deposit eggs,” Chetty said. Just as Creasman was about to start counting, however, the turtle had a change of heart and decided not to lay eggs after all!
A highlight of the trip to Tortuguero was the opportunity to work with Costa Rican school children in educating the locals about electricity use and carbon load. “The local people tend to leave their lights on throughout the night as a safety and security measure,” Chetty said. “Our students worked with local school children to create posters advertising the advantages of using compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of regular incandescent bulbs. They then walked through the town distributing bulbs that we purchased in San Jose. The local shopkeepers were very enthusiastic about putting up the posters in their shops and the people were very grateful to receive the bulbs, which are very expensive in Costa Rica.” Chetty added, “This was a great chance to practice Spanish as well.”
After two days of turtle tagging and egg counting (Chu was the record holder at 92 eggs counted), students headed back to the hotel to begin research projects in the conference-room-turned-research-lab. “The objective of the trip was to immerse students in field research so they could experience first-hand the excitement of discovery with the challenges of conducting research in the wilderness,” Chetty said. “Unlike a controlled laboratory setting, the field presents many unpredictable variables such as sudden weather changes, bugs and just simply the unpredictability of animal behavior.”
It was a great opportunity for the young scientists to display their problem-solving and troubleshooting skills. Ishisoko discovered a long PVC pipe in a remote hardware store and used it to connect to her microphone. The long pipe allowed her to record frog calls at a safe distance so that the frog behavior was not affected by her presence.
Spenner’s skills in computer programming came in handy when he helped Chu and Creasman predict the behavior of leaf cutter ants. A program he created predicted how long it would take a disturbed leaf cutter ant to reorient itself back to its original path. Chu and Creasman then conducted studies to determine how long it actually took the ants to find their old path and compared it to the predicted value.
Lee and Kyi spent many hours collecting ants that gathered around flowering plants. Their prediction was that ants were unlikely pollinators of plants. Carrying their digital microscopes all over Costa Rica, Kyi and Lee collected and stained ants and the pollen that collected on their bodies, taking digital images to show that pollen that collects on ants does not germinate.
Hansen examined soils in banana and coffee plantations to determine whether the overuse of fertilizers might be impacting the nitrate levels in water that leeches out of the soils. She was fortunate to culminate her research in Monteverde under the mentorship of a soil scientist. Herscher reconstructed hummingbird feeders trying to examine how the presence of feeders affects those birds’ social behavior, while Wong examined butterfly diversity in forests and plantations. Rorabaugh and Fernandes conducted a water quality assessment using digital monitoring equipment.
At Monteverde Institute (MVI), the students worked many hours refining and writing up their research findings. They presented their findings at the institute and are expected to present at Harker’s own research symposium in March. “The mentors at MVI became so attached to our students that the director of the program shed tears as we were leaving,” Chetty said. “She ordinarily works with UC students and told me that she had never met such talented and motivated students.”
The next stage of the trip took place back at the MVI, where the students continued their work alongside research assistants. They did more field work, examining Costa Rica’s abundance of varied wildlife, although the elements nearly stymied their efforts. “It rained hard last night and we are waiting for things to dry up so they can observe their leaf cutter ants,” Chetty wrote in one of her frequent updates back to Harker. Students caught some notable lectures, one given by Dr. Alan Pounds, whose papers in the journal “Nature” have shed light upon the relationship between climate change and the extinction of the golden toad. They also attended a talk by world-renowned bat specialist Dr. Richard LaVal.
Days of field work, research, observation and preparation at last culminated toward the end of the trip when the students presented their results at the Monteverde Institute.
At various points during the trip, the student researchers also managed to get away for some fun, spending some time whitewater rafting, swimming and even salsa dancing. They also went zipline riding and visited a cacao plantation, where they learned how the “drink of the gods” was made for the Mayan kings. “Grinding roasted cocoa beans and making hot chocolate and chocolate bars was a highlight,” Chetty said.
Chetty said next year’s trip to Costa Rica will occur over the same time period. She explained that there will be some changes made to the itinerary and that a new collaboration with the University of Georgia will expand the research component of the trip.
Anand Natarajan, Gr. 12, recently won an individual silver medal and helped his team take the silver prize at the sixth International Olympiad in Linguistics (IOL) in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria in early August.
Natarajan was included in one of two teams representing the United States at the event. He was the only Harker student to make U.S. Team 1, taking fourth place in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), out of an original pool of nearly 800 participants. He is also a member of Harker’s World Language Club, in which students solve linguistic problems all year-round.
In addition to the U.S., 15 other teams from 10 countries took part in the IOL, including Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia and Sweden.
Geared specifically to high-school students, IOL contestants solve problems related to a wide variety of languages. This year’s contest had students solve problems dealing with Micmac (spoken by Native Americans in Canada), Old Norse, New Caledonia’s Drehu and Cemi languages, southern Mexico’s Copainala Zoque, and Inuktikut (the language of the Canadian Inuit people). A final team exercise dealt with various Chinese dialects. For this contest, students used the same skills utilized by linguistics researchers and scholars.
Awards were given for the best solutions to a single problem, the highest total of the combined scores to each solution, and to the team scoring the most points in the contest. Natarajan received a silver medal for the total accumulation of his scores, and his team’s total score netted them a silver award.
In addition to winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the team and individual contests, the U.S. also received the highest cumulative score. The U.S. won 11 of the 33 awards given at the Olympiad, including two gold medals.
‘Long-time Harker teacher John Near was honored Aug. 20 at the school’s opening faculty dinner, where he was told the top history department award would be named for him and that he had received a prestigious service award.
Donna Gilbert, history and social science department chair, said, “The history department, to honor John Near and his lifelong passion for history and politics, his unparalleled devotion to his students, and the lasting impact that he has had on so many Harker students for 30-plus years, will now call our senior award the John Near Excellence in History Award. This is the top award given out each May to one deserving senior. The award will thusforth read: The senior who has earned the John Near Excellence in History award is one who embodies those remarkable qualities of John Near: a love of learning and an abiding passion for the drama and mystery of the human story.”
Near was further honored with the annual Harker Alumni Association’s Phyllis Carley Award, given each spring to an individual who has devoted time and energy, and made significant contributions, towards advancing The Harker School’s programs.
“The Phyllis Carley Service Award is meant to honor outstanding service to the school, and I can think of no worthier recipient than John Near,” said Head of School Chris Nikoloff. “John is a teacher’s teacher who puts students and education first. His service to the school flows from his unswerving commitment to excellence in history education and his uncanny ability to hook students onto the subject of history.”
Christina Yan ’93, spoke movingly on how being treated like an adult by Near made a such a difference in her life. “That was the magic of being in your classroom. You accepted our adolescence, and used that understanding to help us see more of the world in its contexts and complications. Life is never one-sided; history is always a matter of perspective. You respected our desire to be treated as adults and you taught us how to engage in the adult world by entertaining all matter of questions with a tone of seriousness. You never let us feel that you’d dumbed something down for us, and you allowed us to partake in your wry and dry humor.
“For myself, I thank you for helping me find appreciation and understanding for all the complexities of human social interaction – be they between friends or nations. Thank you for teaching me to reflect and see myself for who I actually am, and be proud. And on behalf of all of your students over the years, thank you for your dedication to helping the teenage mind and heart grow in so many ways.”
Fellow history teacher Ramsay Westgate attended the dinner and said, “John is someone for whom my respect and admiration professionally and personally knows no bounds. It was an honor and a privilege to be in attendance and to be able to celebrate how much John means to our community. The opportunity to work with him and get to know him the past five years has been invaluable and something that I treasure. ”
Related Stories
Open House Becomes Alumni Event
Update: Relay for Life Brings Cheer
Let teens read what they like and they will like to read. The tenet of reading evangelists was in evidence Aug. 28 as US students and faculty spent an hour avidly chatting about their summer reads. Launched last spring by US librarians Sue Smith and Lauri Vaughan, the ReCreate Reading program sought to emphasize reading for pleasure and allowed students completely free choice in their selection of a title. To help build enthusiasm for ReCreate Reading, Smith and Vaughan leveraged the US faculty’s passion for books to encourage students. Teachers were asked to sponsor a particular title or be willing to facilitate a discussion group in which all students came prepared to talk about a different book. The latter, referred to as the catch-all option, permitted students to preserve their choice of a book to something that struck their fancy sometime during the summer break.
Students in Gr. 10-12 were given the option to select from over 35 teacher-sponsored titles or participate in the catch-all option. Freshmen were asked to read a title of their choice which they discussed with their advisories. Teacher-sponsored titles ranged from fun reads such as Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” series led by ButchKeller and Jane Keller, US head and math teacher, respectively, to discussions on Fareed Zakaria’s“The Post-American World”facilitated by history teacher Ramsay Westgate and “Godel’s Proof” by Ernest Nagel and facilitated by math teacher Misael Fisico.
A highlight of the day was a visit by Matt Richtel, author of the psychological thriller “Hooked.” Sponsored by psychology teacher Naomi Schatz, the title drew the interest of over three dozen students and several faculty members who enjoyed an hour-long discussion with the Bay Area author in the Nichols auditorium.
“ReCreate Reading was a resounding success!” said Vaughan. “Folks tend to think of reading as an individual pursuit, but in many ways it’s very social. Anyone who’s read a great book loves to share it – in fact that’s how most of us figure out what we’ll read next. Not only did ReCreate Reading provide enthusiastic readers with a convenient outlet, many of them have a list of books they want to read next.”
Other titles discussed included non-fiction books such as “The Tao of Pooh”by Benjamin Hoff, “The Endurance” by Alfred Lansing, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place”by Aron Ralston, “Bringing Down the House”by Ben Mezrich and two Michael Pollan titles, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”and “In Defense of Food.” Fiction ranged from poetry (“The Autobiography of Red” by Anne Carson) to science fiction (” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams and “Anathem”by Neal Stephenson) to realistic fiction (“Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult) to historical fiction (“The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing”) by M.T. Anderson.