Staff members of the Talon and Winged Post visited New York City in late June and early July to attend a summer journalism camp by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Accompanied by US journalism advisor and activities director Chris Daren, the students got to take in the many sights and sounds of the City That Never Sleeps, including Central Park, Coney Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Harker journalists also did very well at the camp, winning several awards. The Talon staff earned the top honor in the Achievement in Theme category, while level one and level two layout awards were given to Isha Kawatra, Gr. 10 and Brianna Tran, Gr. 11, respectively. Design awards were received by junior Dawn Queen for Outstanding Headline Package and by the team of Queen and fellow junior Monisha Appalaraju for Outstanding Secondary Module (for example, a sidebar).
In Newspaper Awards, Shreya Nathan, Gr. 11, won for Best Personality Profile, Malika Mehrotra, Gr. 11, for Best Section Design and Mahum Jamal, Gr. 12, for Top All-Around Journalist.
Other highlights of the trip included an interview with Scott Harrison of charity:water, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attending a production of “Billy Elliot” on Broadway and catching an advance screening of the new CBS show “The Good Wife,” after which the group spotted the show’s star, Julianna Margulies, two rows ahead of them at a production of “Mary Stuart”! Not to mention enjoying the many storied food establishments located throughout the city.
In all, a trip that was just as rewarding academically as it was recreationally!
Recent grads D.J. Blickenstaff, Emma Blickenstaff and Cailin Mackenzie, all ’09, along with Clara Blickenstaff, a rising junior, and Noel Witcosky, a rising sophomore, performed July 24-Aug. 2 in the San Jose Children’s Musical Theater production of “Tommy,” the classic rock opera by The Who. The production received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and Harker’s 2009-10 MS drama teacher, Kikau Alvaro, a member of the artistic staff of SJCMT, choreographed an electrifying show.
Three Harker students were honored for their fine volleyball season this past year. Chad Gordon, a rising senior, was named to the All-Mercury Second Team as outside hitter, while alumnus Matthew Gehm ’09, middle blocker and Eugene Huang, also a rising senior, setter, received honorable mentions. In addition, for his leadership and inspiration, boys volleyball coach and athletic director Dan Molin was named Santa Clara Valley Athletic League Co-Coach of the Year.
In the spring, Harker rising seniors Roslyn Li and Sarah Wang, along with Kevin Wang ’09 earned the top spots at the National Japan Bowl in Washington, D.C., in the Level IV category. For their accomplishment, the team and US Japanese teacher Masako Onakado was awarded a 13-day trip to Japan to see the country and meet Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado.
The group arrived in Japan on July 17 and the next day headed to Kawasaki City, where they visited the Toshiba Science Museum. “Toshiba was one of the sponsors of Japan Bowl, and they gave us a guided tour,” Onakado said. “We were fascinated to see their wide variety of cutting-edge technologies such as superconductivity, robotic technology and digital image processing.”
For the next few days, the group was given free time to explore Tokyo and its many wards. On July 21, they visited the historic town of Takayama, famous for its old houses and streets reminiscent of Japan’s Edo period. They also trekked to the Hida Folk Village, a window to the past marked by several buildings hundreds of years old.
After their stay at a traditional-style inn, it was off to Hiroshima on July 22 to visit the city’s government offices. “We visited the Hiroshima Prefectural Government Office and were greeted by Mr. Hashimoto, the division director of international affairs,” Onakado said. “He and his staff explained to us the general overview of Hiroshima as well as its communications with other states and provinces abroad.” One of the staff members was an American who studied Japanese in the U.S. and then traveled to Japan in the Japan Exchange and Teaching program.
“Since we tend to immediately associate Hiroshima with the atomic bomb, it was informative and interesting to learn about different sides of Hiroshima,” Onakado recalled.
Later, the students went to a small island known as Naoshima. Onakado made sure to visit this island because it was one of the subjects the students studied when practicing for the Japan Bowl. One side of the island contains two museums, while on the other side sits a village with several art displays. The group received a guided tour of the various art sites and “learned how beautifully their art, architecture, history and nature merge together,” Onakado said.
The next day the group went to Kyoto to meet a teacher and four students from Kobe’s Canadian Academy. “Canadian Academy is a school known as the best international college-prep school in the Osaka/Kobe area,” noted Onakado. The Harker and Canadian Academy students visited a series of UNESCO World Heritage sites and shared information about each other’s schools.
Next on the agenda was a visit to Tsushima, located just outside the major city of Nagoya. “The town is known for its summer festival, which is one of the three biggest river festivals and that has been held annually over the last 500 years,” Onakado said. They stayed at the house of a taiko drum maker and were treated to the festival, which lasted from the evening until the next morning. “The festival included floating boats decorated with hundreds of paper lanterns, traditional flute and taiko music, dynamic fireworks, a procession of feudal lords and Shinto rituals,” the teacher said. “At the festival, we enjoyed the fantastic scenes in the river as well as the traditional music and attires of warriors from the Edo period.” They concluded their stay in Tsushima with performance by a famous taiko performer.
With their trip almost over, the final two days were spent in Tokyo, where they visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and met the director of the General Public Diplomacy Department, who explained how Japan is promoting its culture to young overseas audiences. They then visited Mita High School, one of Tokyo’s most prestigious public college-prep schools, and attended a tea ceremony. The Harker students also wore yukatas (a summer kimono) and socialized with their new friends at Mita.
Soon after, it was time for the students to meet Princess Takamodo at the Imperial Palace. “We were very nervous about going to meet with an imperial family, but she was very friendly to us, spending almost two hours, sharing her episodes about her daily life and her three daughters who are currently college students,” recalled Onakado.
Onakado said the trip gave the students the “once-in-a-lifetime chance” to experience first-hand the things they had studied when preparing for the Japan Bowl. “It was also very valuable that we met with so many people who treated the students as ‘little ambassadors’ and gave them encouragement and advice for continuing to study Japanese.”
After their visit, Tokyo Embassy Deputy Chief Mission James P. Zumwalt wrote a blog entry about the students’ visit to the embassy, saying he found them to be “extremely impressive.” An error in the blog entry states that Wang will be attending Princeton in the fall. Wang will in fact be studying at Dartmouth.
In June, seven upper school students visited Japan along with US Japanese teacher Masako Onakado and nurse Clare Elchert to experience the country’s rich culture first-hand.
Students on the trip were Tiffany Chang, Ashley Hejtmanek, Katie Liang, Victoria Liang and David Wu, all rising juniors, and rising seniors Jonathan Lau and Kelly Chen.
The group’s first stop was the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on June 8, where they visited the Atomic Bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum. Before leaving Hiroshima, the group met a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing who volunteered at the park as a storyteller, and who shared his experience in Hiroshima and his opinions on the bombing.
That evening, everyone went to Miyajima Island and had fun playing with fireworks before retiring for the night in a traditional-style inn. The next morning, the group visited Itsukushima shrine.
After leaving Miyajima Island the next day, the group headed to Kyoto via bullet train and stayed the night in a temple. The following day was highlighted by a walk through Kyoto’s Arashiyama district and more temple visits.
Not ones to linger for very long, the students and chaperones boarded another bullet train for Yokohama on June 11. This year marked the 150th anniversary of the city opening its port to Western countries, and to commemorate the milestone a celebration known as the Y150 Expo was taking place. There, they saw a performance by a giant robotic spider and checked out several interactive exhibits.
The next day the group checked in with Harker’s sister school, Tamagawa Academy. The students got to meet with their buddies for the first time. “We took a tour of the campus and were amazed by the facilities and wide range of classes offered at Tamagawa,” Onakado said. “Students also enjoyed eating the lunch made by their buddies’ moms in the buddies’ homeroom.” Following the tour, the Harker students went home with their buddies to stay with their host families for the weekend.
Harker’s students returned to school with their buddies the following Monday and took part in a Japanese class and learned how to make some Japanese snacks. Later, the group met with school president Yoshiaki Obara.
The group’s final day was spent sightseeing in Tokyo, visiting the famous Sensoji Temple and the Akihabara district, famous for its multitude of electronics stores. As a final surprise, Onakado took the students to a karaoke parlor for some last-minute fun before heading back home.
Harker recently received a certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization committed to cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings, signifying that Nichols Hall has received a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Harker is the first school in Santa Clara County to achieve a gold ranking. Dan Geiger, executive director of the USGBC’s Northern California chapter, visited Harker Aug. 13 to deliver the certificate and congratulate those involved in its achievement.
Nichols Hall, Harker’s new science and technology center, opened in August 2008, and embodies the school’s long-held commitment to environmental issues, which influenced every decision in the construction. Originally expected to earn the Silver level of certification, Harker students did the work that pushed the building to Gold status, noted Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facilities manager.
He noted that recognition of the multiple displays on green living and green building construction developed by students in teacher Jeff Sutton’s class for the 2009 Harker Research Symposium were key to gaining the Gold rating. “The USGBC recognized these displays as ongoing educational material developed by the students and that gave us the final point needed to place us in the Gold category,” said Bassoni.
According to the USGBC Web site, “LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
There are a few other schools around the Bay Area with LEED-certified buildings, including Windrush School in El Cerrito, whose Platinum-rated library opened in 2008; Marin County Day School in Corte Madera has a Gold rating for its Step 1 project; and Nueva School in Hillsborough, San Mateo County, opened a Gold-rated learning complex in 2007. The LEED certification system, created by the USGBC, scores buildings in multiple categories and the total number of points determines level of certification: 40 or more points for Certified, 50 or more for Silver, 60 or more for Gold and 80 or more for Platinum.
Criteria for certification include the sustainability of the building site, how efficiently the building manages water, how it uses energy, its indoor air quality and its proximity to pre-existing infrastructure and public transit. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/YhRUk
Harker’s Bacteria Busters eCybermission team flew to Washington D.C. for the eCybermission finals in late June where they participated in team-building workshops, lunched with Army brass and met with eCybermission judges. The group visited various D.C. sights and made a special trip to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds research labs. Although the team did not take top honors, each member received a $3,500 savings bond (in addition to the $3,000 bond awarded for their regional finish) and a medal for participating in the finals. In addition, this year, adviser Raji Swaminathan was awarded two plaques: one for being a founding participant and the second for being a five year participant.
In June US Spanish teacher Diana Moss, K-Gr. 5 dean of students Joe Connolly and several students headed to Switzerland to visit with the students from College de Gambach in Fribourg, who visited Harker during the spring semester, and to brush up on their French language skills. Not to mention immerse themselves in the country’s vast culture and beauty.
Students who embarked on the trip were incoming sophomores Shivani Bigler, Neda Ghaffarian, Neha Kumar, Daniela Lapidous, Jay Reddy and Shreya Indukuri; incoming juniors Michael Patland, Jason Young and Michelle Vu and incoming senior Kendra Moss.
The group had plenty to do once they touched down and met with their host families, with whom they stayed for the duration of the trip. Visiting the city of Lausanne by train, the group visited the Olympic Museum to view the vast archive of Olympic memorabilia and learn more about the history of the games. Then it was off on a boat ride across Lake Geneva to the Nestle Food Museum in Vevey, where the students attended a cooking class. Nestle was founded in the city more than 140 years ago and is headquartered there to this day. Following the visit, “you would think all we’ve done here is eat!” Diana Moss exclaimed. “Fortunately, we’ve had plenty of walking too!” The next day, the group went to a cheese factory in Gruyeres, a city so famous for its cheese that the food was named after it.
All the while, the Harker and Gambach students got better acquainted as they shared more and more about one another’s cultures. “All the Harker students and Swiss students are getting along so well,” Moss reported from Switzerland during the trip. “It makes me so proud of them!” Moss was also impressed at how well the students were able to communicate with one another. “Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of our trip has been watching our students interact with the Swiss students,” she said. “The Swiss are amazing linguists, moving between one language to the next with ease, but we are proud of the great efforts and growth our kids are making with their French.” While there, the group was even featured in a local newspaper covering their visit (see photo).
Before leaving, the Harker and Gambach students enjoyed a fondue party before the Harker students departed for the weekend. The whole group reunited and said their goodbyes in Zurich on Monday before majority of the Harker students flew back home. Moss and her daughter Kendra stayed behind to spend some more time exploring Europe. “It was a fabulous experience staying with a family that spoke very little English because it encouraged me to fully immerse myself in the French language,” Kendra said. “Switzerland was just as beautiful as one would imagine it to be.”
Updated June 25, 2009 with additional winner, Chetan Vakkalagadda.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) has made its first three of four announcements of scholarship winners. The first announcement presents the winners of corporate sponsorships, the second, National Meritsponsored awards, and the third, college-sponsored gifts. Watch our fall edition for more college-sponsored winners, which are announced in mid-July.
These scholars, all Gr. 12, were chosen from the finalists in the National Merit Scholarship competition, based on their PSAT scores from last year. According to NMSC, “Most of these awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and provide annual stipends that range from $500 to $10,000 per year. Some provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Recipients can use their awards at any regionally accredited U.S. college or university of their choice.”
Congratulations to Harker’s corporate scholarship winners: Roshmi Bhattacharya – National Merit Rockwell Collins Scholarship; Sarah A. Christiano – National Merit National Distillers Distributors Foundation Scholarship; Shirley M. Galbiati – National Merit Synopsys, Inc. Scholarship.
And to our National Merit Scholarship $2,500 winners: Daniel Kim, David Kastelman, Vikram Nathan, Anu Ramachandran, Lexi Ross, Kartik Venkatraman, Susan Wang, Jeffrey Mandell, Sophia Gilman and Anand Natarajan.
A National Merit Washington University in St. Louis scholarship was awarded to Michelle Lin and Chetan Vakkalagadda (Vakkalagadda did not appear on the initial list of winners due to an omission on the list distributed to the schools by the NMSC). Diana Lai received a National Merit University of Southern California scholarship.
Students from Harker’s journalism department have embarked on a summer camp session in New York City. Journalism advisor and US student activities director Chris Daren is chronicling their adventures back East, which readers can follow via blog and Twitter. Happy trails to the students as they experience the city that never sleeps!