On Thursday, Harker’s Recreate Reading program welcomed author Julie Berry to discuss her latest novel, “The Lovely War.” In the book, the lives of four young people during World War I are examined from the perspective of Greek gods. Berry went into detail about the process of creating the novel, including the tremendous amount of research involved.
“Berry was inspired to write a book about World War I because there are a lot of young adult books about World War II but not a lot about World War I,” said senior Anika Fuloria. “She was also super interested in the subject matter, likening writing a book to doing a master’s degree in terms of research and dedication.”
The discussion also helped students find more ways to appreciate the book. “The reasoning behind her use of the Greek gods as the narrators helped me view the narrators differently,” said sophomore Keesha Gondipalli. “They were used to personify both love and war and create a way to tell the story both broadly and with details.”
Fuloria enjoyed Berry’s explanation of the book’s ending: “She walked us through a few drafts of her book where each one had a different ending and explained why she did choose the ending in this way,” she said. “I found it super fulfilling as a reader of the book who imagined a few possible endings as I was reading.”
From Aug. 15-16, 70 students attended Harker DECA’s seventh annual Launch event, which is designed to introduce prospective members to DECA and the Harker School’s business, economics and entrepreneurship department. Through detailed lectures, interactive activities, mock competitions, guest speakers and alumni panels, students were given an idea of what this year will look like. Due to the current circumstances, Launch was held over Zoom this year. Because this was the first virtual Launch, the officer team tried to simulate the in-person experience online.
“The Innovation Challenge allows our DECA Launch attendees to design a mini business plan for a product or service that they see a need for in the market. Along with creating an executive summary, groups present their ideas before a panel of alumni judges at the end of DECA Launch,” said Harker DECA co-chief executive officer Lisa Barooah, grade 12. “Since this year DECA Launch was held virtually, we redesigned the activities to be more engaging and more considerate of screen time. We added three icebreaker activities for group bonding and inserted 10-minute breaks into the schedule. Finally, after noticing room for improvement in the groups’ presentations at last year’s launch, our director of technology held a graphic design workshop on day two. Students presented impressive pitches in the Closing Ceremony due to these changes, which I thoroughly enjoyed.”
Early Saturday morning, students joined the Zoom call and viewed a slideshow of images from past conferences while the operations team took attendance. Then, sophomore Rohan Gorti as well as CEO of the 2019-20 school year, Phil Han ‘20, spoke about their past experiences with Harker DECA.
The officers held an icebreaker game for the attendees to get to know their innovation challenge teammates and the officers. Junior Melody Luo, director of writtens, introduced the students to the weekend’s main activity, the Innovation Challenge, before students went into breakout rooms with their teams and assigned officers. With the guidance of an upperclassman mentor, attendees brainstormed product ideas on virtual whiteboards and started working on their executive summaries.
“Despite the unprecedented online format, this year’s Launch was just as memorable, if not more so, as past events, with students embracing each part of the experience with brimming enthusiasm,” Luo said. “As they learned the ins and outs of roleplays with their mentors and collaborated together on their very first executive summary, there was an emerging sense of community that DECA is so known for. Launch is always special to the DECA officer team because it’s our first opportunity to bond with the new members and share with them the thrilling aspects of the competitive season.”
Next, the attendees bonded with their Innovation Challenge teams through an at-home Scavenger Hunt, in which they were asked to complete a DECA Bingo and pitch a random item for 30 seconds, along with other various activities. Through this exercise, students formed a stronger bond with their mentors and teammates. Attendees were then introduced to the several sectors of DECA events through the Cluster Presentations.
The last day of Launch, Juston Glass, business and entrepreneurship teacher and DECA chapter advisor, presented on all of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship programs. Next, sophomore Anika Muddu, director of roleplays, hosted a presentation introducing the attendees to roleplays before senior Bryan Zhang, VP of competitions, hosted a Kahoot! game covering the Business Administration Core exam topics. Afterward, Catherine He, grade 11, director of technology, hosted a graphic design workshop, which further prepared attendees for their Innovation Challenge presentations. Attendees then went back to their breakout session to work on the Innovation Challenge.
The Roleplay Tournament was a key part of Launch and took place on Sunday afternoon. Mentors were assigned to small groups and explained the process and guidelines of a roleplay. Subsequently, students were paired up with judges to present their roleplays.
“Launch was a fun and exciting way to learn more about DECA. I enjoyed with my team on the innovation challenge and competing in the roleplay and I look forward to participating in these events during the school year,” said Olivia Xu, grade 9.
Attendees were given extra time after the Roleplay Tournament for practicing their Innovation Challenge presentations before the parents joined the session for the Alumni Panel and the Closing Ceremony. The students and parents were given the opportunity to ask five alumni – Vignesh Panchanatham ’18, Enya Lu ’19, Lucas Wang ’17, Shania Wang ’19 and Savi Joshi ’15 – questions about how DECA has impacted their high school and college paths, as well as career choices. Afterward, teams pitched their Innovation Challenge ideas to the judges, who graded them on, presentation, innovation and teamwork. Attendees and parents watched a Launch recap video while the judges worked on scoring the teams. Closing speeches from Glass and the CEOs and the award ceremony concluded the weekend.
“Despite it being online, I really enjoyed the DECA launch this year and I can’t wait to attend conferences!” said attendee Sonya Apsey, grade 9.
Harker DECA is excited to welcome all new and returning members and is looking forward to starting the next school year with an exceptional group of future leaders.
“While the event was unprecedented in its delivery format, both the participants and our DECA officer team were very open, receptive and excited to dive right into the program. Students were able to meet new friends, prepare for the upcoming DECA year and finished the weekend with amazing business ideas and pitches. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds for our Harker DECA chapter. Go Eagles!” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows (all winners are in grade 9):
On Saturday, Harker students were invited to explore a virtual replica of the upper school campus, created in Minecraft by a team of about 40 students. The detailed recreation features nearly every room on campus, including teachers’ classrooms and staff offices.
“We’ve filled in many rooms and will make it as accurate as possible,” said senior Jason Lin, a lead on the project. “In some places, the detail is truly impressive. For instance, the inside library room, from which students are often ejected for being too loud, permanently has a red card next to its door, which signifies that it’s getting too loud.”
Those who did not have a Minecraft account were invited to view a special livestream for a tour of the campus. Minecraft players and viewers on the livestream combined for a total of nearly 200 visitors.
The project – led by Lin and seniors Richard Chang, Arusha Patil and Ethan Steeg, as well as junior Kailash Ranganathan and sophomores Rupert Chen, Kris Estrada, Michelle Jin and Anthony Tong – was staged on a Minecraft server set up toward the end of the 2019-20 school year with the help of upper school learning, innovation and design (LID) director Diane Main. “We worked with Mrs. Main to make sure that this server would be a positive, contained environment,” Lin said. “It went pretty well – dozens of people met with classmates, built houses together and just had fun on these servers amidst shelter-in-place.”
The upper school campus project was started over the summer, with map data, aerial footage and an online graphing calculator being used to recreate the campus. Lin hopes the Minecraft campus can continue to be a place for students to convene. “[Upper school dean of students Kevin Williamson] and the class deans have been very open and helpful in this process,” said Lin. “We will work with them to make sure that the server can be a positive, contained space for students to have fun together throughout the year.”
Lin said visiting the virtual campus with his friends has helped foster a sense of community in a time when students are spending so much time apart. “Nothing beats the feeling of racing down the hallways of [the campus’ main building] again with six friends,” he said. “Even though it’s Minecraft, the sense of togetherness is real.”
This morning, upper school students attended a virtual version of the 2020 matriculation ceremony, which featured welcoming speeches by Head of School Brian Yager and upper school Division Head Butch Keller. Yager encouraged the Class of 2021 to lead “in a manner that honors and builds upon the efforts of the 127 years of graduates preceding you.” To the incoming freshmen, he advised, “enjoy and embrace the process, and look to the students in the grades above you for the guidance and inspiration, as well as for examples of what will be expected of you in the years to come.”
Keller remarked at the lack of students in front of him, as well as the unusual silence that greeted his mention of each class. “Typically this is the first attempt for the seniors to demonstrate their superiority,” he joked. He nevertheless offered advice on showing gratitude and exhibiting determination. He also reiterated one of his favorite maxims: “It’s not the situation that’s important. It’s your reaction to the situation.”
Students were treated to a performance of Andy Grammer’s “Keep Your Head Up” by senior Alexander Kumar, and heard from ASB president Jason Lin, grade 12, and ASB vice president Arusha Patil, who led the recitation of the upper school’s matriculation oath. Lin related a story of playing soccer in his backyard during the summer and shattering one of the outdoor lamps, which was followed by dread over having to inform his parents. This event reminded him of the importance of communication, which became the theme of his speech. “Communication is key, now more than ever,” he said, following with examples of how the community can stay connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ceremony ended with a hilarious and informative video package that included a musical tour of the upper school campus and introductions to various elements of school life, such as the dress code, waste disposal, spirit and the honor code. A video of the entire event is available on Vimeo.
Senior Ethan Steeg has been spending his summer as an intern at Silicon Valley Robotics, a nonprofit organization that supports the robotics and artificial intelligence industry in a variety of fields, including agriculture, retail and transportation.
Steeg is currently leading an effort to create face shields for Circuit Launch, an Oakland-based maker space that has partnered with Silicon Valley Robotics. “Circuit Launch hosts innovative, early-stage robotics, [augmented reality/virtual reality] and AI startups and has a wide variety of machining capabilities,” Steeg said. The goal is to create 5,000 face shields before summer’s end. “From the beginning of the summer to present, my team has produced over 1,500 face shields and we expect to produce 3,500 more by the end of the summer,” he said.
Three student films were recently selected for the All American High School Film Festival, one of the largest and most prestigious film festivals of its kind. Rising seniors Jason Lin and Ajay Madala created the short film “Duality” for Nicholas Manjoine’s English class, in which students developed creative projects based on the works studied in class. “Ajay and I had made our own films before, so we decided to partner up to make a short film,” said Lin. “We chose Emerson and Thoreau texts, because we felt that they exposed meaningful relationships between individuals and society.”
“Duality” was structured to reflect the two creators’ perspectives, “mine representing nature and Jason’s representing society,” Madala said. “We used quotes about nature and society from Emerson and Thoreau to contrast the difference between the two. The way I represented nature and the way Jason represented society were decidedly opposites of each other.”
Lin and Madala worked on the film separately, each creating their own half without managing the other’s portion. “I know Jason as a great filmmaker and knew he would do a good job,” said Madala. “He also had trusted me as a filmmaker and believed I would make something up to the task.” Once each half of the film was ready, a transition from one section of the film to the next was added to make the film function as a whole.
Madala’s own film, titled “Stay Inside,” also was chosen for the film festival. A surrealist work that deals with feelings of isolation, boredom and confusion during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was inspired by Madala’s readings “about a person who wakes up in a room and has no idea how they got there, why they’re there or even who they are,” he said. “I immediately connected this to quarantine and started writing.”
“Stay Inside” is purposefully light on dialogue and narrative structure and was originally 15 minutes long. “The festival had a time limit on their shorts, so I decided to make a much shorter version that would encapsulate the same energy and tone of the 15-minute version with even less dialogue and plot,” said Madala.
Both filmmakers expressed surprise at being selected for the All American High School Film Festival, with Lin describing his own reaction as “incredulous disbelief.” Madala found after checking the festival’s Twitter account, which posted the list of selections that included “Duality,” “Stay Inside,” and “Cmd-Delete,” a film Lin created with classmates Sara Yen and Amar Karoshi that was named the grand prize winner of C-SPAN’s StudentCam contest in March.
The All American High School Film Festival, historically held in New York City, takes place Oct. 9-11 and will be hosted online this year due to closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
By Marla Holt
Simar Bajaj, a Harker senior with dual interests in history and medicine, spent a large part of his senior year researching and writing about the complex impacts of the “The Flexner Report” of 1910, a landmark paper that established high standards for today’s four-year medical school system while also nearly eliminating the path to medicine for women, African Americans and the working class.
“The report’s most harmful effect was to make the medical profession the domain of white middle- and upper-class men,” said Bajaj, who conducted much of his research at Stanford University’s Lane Medical Library, pouring over countless journal articles and books related to the history of medicine.
Seniors Kathy Fang and Ellen Guo also were hard at work conducting independent research on topics about which they are passionate.
The three students and five of their classmates were this year’s participants in Harker’s Near/Mitra scholars program, which is celebrating its 10th year. The program supports eight to 10 seniors in pursuing academically rigorous, independent research on a topic of their choice in U.S. history, literature, art, music and the social sciences. The student scholars are selected in the spring of their junior year, after which they work with one or two faculty mentors and a librarian to refine their research topics. The majority of their research is conducted over the summer, with additional research and writing continuing through the fall and winter. Their lengthy papers, similar to a college thesis, are published by Harker and presented at a reception in April.
Fang spent last summer at the University of Cambridge, the National Archives in London’s Kew Gardens and the Folger Institute in Washington, D.C., examining the portrayal of women and gender roles in Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare in light of the advent of actresses in public theaters. Her research led her to conclude that “women’s status in the public sphere was degraded by playwrights who created oversexualized female characters,” she said.
Meanwhile, Guo focused on examining bisexuality in the queer theory canon. She conducted a close read of Eve Sedgwick’s “Epistemology of the Closet” and then applied modern theorizing about bisexual identity and experience to the author’s theses. “This project has expanded my thinking beyond binary-isms and the limits of naturalized, Western thought,” she said.
The skills and lessons Near/Mitra scholars learn are varied, said library director Lauri Vaughan, who co-directs the program with history teacher Donna Gilbert. Overall, students strengthen their critical thinking, writing and reading comprehension skills through high-level interdisciplinary research. They also become more tenacious and resilient.
“We don’t give the Near/Mitra scholars a roadmap, so they undertake a big, messy process of truly organic research,” Vaughan said. “It becomes a personal journey of exploration.”
High-Level Research Support
Launched in 2009, the Near/Mitra scholars program is managed by the history department with support from the library. The John Near Excellence in History Endowment, founded in 2009, and the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, added two years later, provide small grants to students to cover research expenses, such as travel costs, book purchases, and archive and library fees. The funds also have allowed Harker’s library to expand its student access to electronic databases essential for higher-level research. The first Near scholars were from the Class of 2011, making this the 10th year of senior research papers. Mitra scholars began submitting papers in 2012. Near/Mitra scholars can enjoy the comfort and privacy of the John Near Resource Room in Shah Hall, which is available to them as a study space.
John Near was a beloved history teacher at Harker until his death in 2009. His career spanned 31 years as a middle and upper school teacher, coach and department chair. His parents, Jim and Pat Near, together with his wife, Pam Dickinson, director of Harker’s Office of Communication, and his daughter, Casey Near ’06, established the Excellence in History Endowment according to John’s wishes.
“John’s vision was to promote professional development and pedagogical excellence in history education,” Gilbert said. “John wanted students to build research skills through a deeper dive into history.” To that end, she and former library director Sue Smith developed the scholars program, engaging librarians to guide the students in research skills and information literacy, as well as faculty members to serve as subject matter advisors.
“That first year, we worried no one would want to do it,” said Smith, noting that Near/Mitra is a research program with a level of rigor not often seen at the high school level. “But Harker being Harker, we have amazing students who have always embraced the love of learning.”
Six students were selected as Near scholars in the first two years of the program, completing papers on such topics as the suitability of military justice during the Vietnam War and Sino-American economic relations from 1972 to 1989.
In 2011, an endowment established by Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra expanded the program to include support for students who wished to conduct research in the humanities, including literature, art, music and the social sciences. The first Mitra scholar was Sarah Howells ’12, who wrote about Winston Churchill’s efforts to unify Britain from 1940 to 1941. Her paper won first place at the 2012 Churchill Research Paper competition at the University of Minnesota.
“This program transforms students from those waiting for teachers to take the lead into students who take the reins of their learning,” said upper school librarian Meredith Cranston, who has advised Near/Mitra scholars since 2011. “It’s so rewarding to see the delight in their eyes as they make discoveries and connections. The rise in their intellectual confidence is amazing to watch.”
The program emphasizes the process of conducting rigorous research and writing a lengthy paper; therefore, Near/Mitra scholars are not graded on their work, nor is there any monetary prize awarded to them.
“Because the program operates outside of the normal high school evaluation process, our students don’t have to focus on having achieved what they may think is success or failure based on a final grade,” said history teacher Damon Halback, who has mentored nine Near/Mitra scholars. “It’s more important that they learn what serious advanced academic scholarship looks like and achieve a level of critical thinking they can carry with them lifelong.”
Wide-Ranging Research Interests
Sixty-one Harker students have participated in the Near/Mitra scholars program in the first decade of its existence, and the research topics they’ve chosen have been as varied as the students themselves.
“As the program grew, we saw a rise in interdisciplinary interests,” said Smith, who retired from Harker last year. “That reflects students’ thinking that solving problems isn’t siloed in a singular field.”
Some Near/Mitra scholars have gone beyond expectations for their research. For example, Mitra scholar Shivani Mitra ’13 – the daughter of program benefactors – wrote a paper on artist Frida Kahlo. She traveled to Mexico City to visit museums and archives and communicated with one of Kahlo’s relatives. Near scholar Leon Lu ’19 talked his way into the Library of Congress to study the original works of his research subject, jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus.Lu, a first-year student at Columbia University, said access to those materials was pivotal to his research.
“I got great perspective into Mingus’ temperament and how he approached writing music, including that every note he placed on the paper had meaning. It also gave me a portal into the Civil Rights era during which he was writing,” Lu said.
Mitra scholar Elisabeth Siegel ’16 wrote an algorithm to help her examine how news organizations used language to portray Palestinians during the summer of the 2014 offensive in Gaza. She then drew connections to an existing scholarly system about the impacts of colonialism.
“It was my first in-depth and focused look at Middle East politics,” she said. “I gained a lot of knowledge about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that I was able to bring with me to college.” She is a senior international relations major at Yale University and her Mitra paper was published in the university’s Review of International Studies in March 2017.
Near/Mitra scholars agree that what makes the program so successful is the expertise and guidance of their faculty mentors and librarians.
Near scholar Andrew Rule ’17, a junior studying comparative literature and Chinese at Williams College, examined the coinciding of the increase in published Native American literature with the rise in activist movements between 1968 and 1978.
“My mentors taught me how to effectively construct and write an advanced academic argument,” he said. “I felt well prepared for comparative literature courses in college and had the expected ability to digest dense literary criticism, since I’d already done that in high school.”
Near scholar Kelsey Wu ’19, a first-year student at Harvard University, wrote about the role culture plays in the challenges faced by first-generation Chinese-American parents of autistic children. Her paper was awarded the Best Manuscript Award in the fall 2019 issue of The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal.
Wu’s mentors were her “most valuable resources,” she said. “Beyond a deeper knowledge of my topic, I learned how to properly cite sources, how to avoid plagiarism and how to use keywords effectively to find the exact sources I needed. These are research skills I’m using in college.”
The gratitude for the program goes both ways, with mentors equally relishing their work with students. “Most teachers and librarians would say Near/Mitra is an incredible opportunity to work one-on-one with students,” Smith said. “That’s something we could never have foreseen when we began this program in 2009 – that it would become such a joy for faculty. It’s so rewarding to see that it’s blossomed into an amazing experience for everyone involved.”
In June and July, Bay Area high school students in grades 9 and 10 bolstered their writing skills at Harker’s Creative Writing Workshop. Working remotely with upper school English teacher Chris Hurshman, students explored various literary concepts and styles and how to apply them to their own writing.
Students studied various forms of writing, including short stories, poems and screenplays, and used them as models for their own compositions. “Students read and discussed representative models and were encouraged to write in imitation of them using a variety of prompts,” said Hurshman. After completing their drafts, students reviewed one another’s work and received feedback from their classmates as well as Hurshman.
When writing and offering feedback, students were given guidelines on what to use in their works and in discussions. “For example, they might be asked to return to a draft of a short story and to expand on the methods of characterization they’ve used,” said Hurshman. “They might be challenged to draw a character entirely through dialogue, for example, or to flesh out the telling details of that character’s appearance and environment.”
During one exercise, students workshopped a poem in class by examining its structure, themes and other features and sharing what they noticed. They then continued to critique each other’s work in small groups.
Hurshman said the students enjoyed having a place to have conversations about writing and develop their skills. “Most students don’t have much experience thinking about literature and creativity from an authorly perspective,” he said. “I think they enjoy seeing the many elements that go into producing a beautiful bit of writing and pushing themselves to achieve that goal.”
This summer, Harker’s upper school journalism department created the Humans of Harker Magazine, which arrived in the Harker community’s mailboxes in July, as a tribute to the Class of 2020. It features photos and small profiles of students from each of the 2020 senior advisories, as well as special messages from upper school head Butch Keller, dance teacher and Class of 2020 dean Karl Kuehn and alumni director Kristina Alaniz.
The magazine is named after the series of videos produced profiling members of the senior class and was conceived at the start of editor-in-chief Saloni Shah’s junior year. “As Humans of Harker editor-in-chief, I discussed my vision for Humans of Harker with Ms. Austin,” said Shah, now a rising senior. “In addition to its multi-platform content, I brought up the possibility of creating Humans of Harker’s own publication, a magazine.”
With the onset of shelter-in-place orders in the spring, production of the magazine went ahead to honor the Class of 2020, which faced extraordinary circumstances as COVID-19 caused nationwide school closures. “Our journalism staff wanted to pay tribute to the Class of 2020 and bring the community together during these unprecedented times,” said Shah.
Lead designer Anoushka Buch, a rising senior, arranged the student photos and profiles and the pages were designed and laid out by Buch and Talon yearbook staffers Nilisha Baid, Shreya Srinivasan and Helen Zhu, all rising seniors.
According to Shah, the magazine has been very well-received. “I’ve received so much love from our entire community whether it be students, alumni or even parents,” she said. “Alumni have told me how much the magazine means to them, especially since they were unable to experience the end of their high school career with their best friends; students have expressed their gratitude at being able to learn more about their peers and parents have emphasized their joy of seeing their children featured and recognized.”
Earlier this week, the first issue of the upper school’s student-run economics magazine, “Equilibrium,” was published at Harker’s Issuu site. The 64-page magazine contains stories on problems facing pensioners in China, how COVID-19 has affected how people consume media and the economic principles demonstrated in the card game “Magic: The Gathering” and Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing” video game.
“At the end of the sophomore year, we were looking into ways to expand the reach of economics at Harker,” said rising senior Arushi Saxena, who co-edited and co-designed “Equilibrium” with fellow rising senior Michelle Si. “We were aware of the several classes offered and saw the interest that classes such as Game Theory and AP Economics drew, but realized that there was a lack of opportunities for students to delve further into the field.” The magazine provided an opportunity for students to investigate topics in economics they found personally interesting. “Our main purpose was to inspire economic curiosity and scholarship, and, as we say in our mission statement, we hope to illuminate the importance of economics in the modern world by inspiring young thinkers to explore beyond the borders of the classroom and advance their interest in this field,” Saxena said.
Contributions to the magazine were a combination of student work that had been done in class and original pieces. In the future, Saxena said, the magazine’s creators “hope to include more diverse content, including interviews with economists, features for some of our speakers and economics book recommendations from Harker teachers. We would love to include the general student body more in economics discussions, so we look forward to sending out polls and surveys as well!”