The Harker School, students and faculty are featured in the recently released film, “Hard Problems” by Zala Films, documenting U. S. students preparing for the 2006 U.S. International Math Olympiad team. Director George Csicsery and crew were on site interviewing and filming the day of the qualifying test in April 2006. Interviews with Harker student Yi Sun ’06, parents, and math teachers Joanne Mason and Misael Fisico were included in the movie. Yi Sun won a silver medal for the U.S. at the International Math Olympiad in Slovenia that year and now attends Harvard University. The movie is screening at conferences and lectures worldwide and is available at amazon.com.
Senior volleyball player Tanya Schmidt made Harker history in November as the first Harker student ever to sign a national letter of intent. Schmidt will attend Santa Clara University. We are fortunate to be able to continue to watch the outstanding middle blocker over the next four years as she plays for the Division 1 Broncos on a full athletic scholarship. Schmidt plans to enter the College of Arts and Sciences. Long-time Harker student Schmidt commented, “It’s a bonus that I will be close to home, so I will still be able to support Harker’s athletics and keep in touch with the community.”
The groundbreaking event held May 30 for Harker’s new Science & Technology Center and athletic field and pool was a school wide celebration that included over 500 parents, faculty, staff, students and alumni. After viewing student-created science and technology displays, taking a virtual tour of the coming facilities and bopping to the Harker Jazz Band, the crowd feasted on barbeque and witnessed the official groundbreaking in front of Dobbins Hall. All attendees went away with a mini-beaker keepsake filled with dirt from the groundbreaking to commemorate the occasion. It was an exciting and proud afternoon for the entire Harker community.
A team of eight Harker students was selected to represent the United States at the 2007 Junior 8 (J8) Summit in Wismar, Germany, a parallel youth event to the G8 Summit. “If these are tomorrow’s leaders, the future looks good indeed,” said Caryl Stern, acting-president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, sponsors (along with Morgan Stanley) of the J8 program.
On June 6 a delegation of J8 students from different countries, including a Harker representative, were taken by helicopter to the Summit meeting site to present the J8 communiqué to world leaders. Harker’s representative was seated next to President Bush and interviewed by the BBC.
Harker’s Future Problem Solving (FPS) team earned first place worldwide at the 2007 International Conference finals, held in early June in Colorado. Competing against teams from all over the world, one Harker student placed 10th overall and a classmate placed third in a separate team competition. This past spring, Harker hosted the State Bowl of the Future Problem Solving Program where the seven eighth graders who earned the honor of representing the school at nationals dominated the individual competition at the state level and rose to the challenge at the national level.
In an additional honor Gr. 8 history teacher and Harker FPS coach, Cyrus Merrill, was voted in as president of the nonprofit board of the Future Problem Solving Program for the state of California.