Harker is pleased to announce its 2018-19 endowment awardees. Each student will receive a grant to help him or her write a research paper on a humanities subject. The scholars, all seniors, work throughout the year to define, research and write on a topic of their choosing, and papers are presented at a reception in the spring.
The two endowments, the John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, established in 2009, and the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, established in 2011, provide funding each year for eight or nine seniors to pursue topics of their choice in depth. Previous papers can be found on the Harker website.
The awardees are:
2019 John Near Scholars: Logan Bhamidipaty, mentored by Byron Stevens and Lauri Vaughan; Prameela Kottapalli, mentored by Mark Janda and Sue Smith; Leon Lu, mentored by Carol Green, Susan Nace and Meredith Cranston; Kelsey Wu, mentored by Kelly Horan and Sue Smith.
2019 Mitra Family Scholars: Nikhil Dharmaraj, mentored by Clifford Hull and Meredith Cranston; Rose Guan, mentored by Ruth Meyer and Meredith Cranston; Haris Hosseini, mentored by Andrea Milius, Josh Martinez and Sue Smith; Constance Horng, mentored by Roxana Pianko, Susan Nace and Lauri Vaughan; Katherine Tian, mentored by Damon Halback, Chris Spenner and Lauri Vaughan.
The girls water polo team picked up two big league wins last week followed by a strong tournament showing. The Eagles defeated Monta Vista 11-9 and Milpitas 12-2 during the week, with wins over Monta Vista, Santa Teresa and Lynbrook at the Lynbrook Tournament over the weekend. This week, the girls host Lynbrook on Tuesday and travel to Cupertino on Thursday before competing in the Watsonville Tournament this weekend.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team dominated in its two wins last week. Early in the week, the Eagles defeated rival Menlo 196-226 with the fab freshman duo of Tina Xu and Sophie Zhang-Murphy tying for medalist honors, each shooting a 38. Later in the week, the girls defeated Notre Dame San Jose 175-235 with Zhang-Murphy shooting a 33 to again lead the way for Harker. This week, the Eagles take on Sacred Heart Prep on Monday and Castilleja on Wednesday.
Girls Volleyball
Last week, the girls volleyball team defeated Los Altos 3-1 to improve to 5-5 on the season. This week, the Eagles travel to Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday and host Notre Dame Belmont on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
Last week, the boys water polo team fell to Monta Vista 9-13 before defeating Milpitas 19-11. This week, the Eagles host Fremont on Tuesday and travel to Cupertino on Thursday.
Football
The football team traveled to Watsonville last Friday to take on St. Francis, but came away with a 28-10 loss. Jared Anderson, grade 12, kicked a 38-yard field goal and caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Meissner, grade 12, in the loss. This week, the 3-2 Eagles host Lowell of San Francisco at 7 p.m. at Davis Field.
Cross Country
The Harker cross country team competes again on Sept.22 at the Pacific Tigers Invitational in Stockton.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team is back in action this week on Monday against Salinas, followed by a matchup with Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday and Crystal Springs Uplands on Thursday.
Yesterday, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 43 Harker seniors – 22 percent of the class of 2019 – were named semifinalists in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program.
This year’s semifinalists are:
Ayush Alag, Nishka Ayyar, Logan Bhamidipaty, Robert Bloomquist, Joshua Broweleit, Timothy Chang, Christie Chen, Pamela Duke, Kai Franz, Lilia Gonzales, Rose Guan, Matthew Hajjar, Haris Hosseini, Amelia Huchley, Krish Kapadia, Jacob Kim, Noah Lincke, Enya Lu, Leon Lu, Joel Manning, Jay Menon, Puneet Nayyar, Cedric Nowatzyk, Rithvik Panchapakesan, Ayush Pancholy, Jerry Peng, Meghna Phalke, Anika Rajamani, Ashwin Rammohan, Akshay Ravoor, Ashwin Reddy, Ruhi Sayana, Keval Shah, Kaushik Shivakumar, Neha Tallapragada, Katherine Tian, Timothy Wang, Alexander Wloka, Connie Xu, Helen Yang, Alexander Young, Alexander Yu and Katherine Zhang.
Semifinalists represent the top 1 percent – about 16,000 – of the 1.6 million students who entered the National Merit Scholarship Program in 2017 after taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Students who are to become finalists will be notified of their advancement in February.
Andrew Semenza ‘18 and Millie Lin ‘18, at the behest of brother Jason Lin, grade 10, performed at a benefit concert on Aug. 19 along with friend Kevin Zhu, a Bay Area native and world-renown violinist. All proceeds went to the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit committed to serving as many immigrant women and girls fleeing violence as possible.
Jason Lin was the primary organizer of the event. “After debating immigration issues at debate camp, I went to a talk by the Tahirih Justice Center about their work regarding asylum seekers, and was moved by their message,” he said. “Although the TJC has a 99 percent success rate, they can only help one in 10 clients! Like many others at the talk, I was motivated to take action. Since my friend Kevin, a fantastic violinist, was about to come over to the Bay Area, and since Andy Semenza was also available, I decided to organize a benefit concert. My friends helped me get the show on the road.”
Millie Lin also had attended the talk. “We wanted to help the organization and the people it supports, especially at a time when the family separation issue at the U.S.-Mexico border was so critical … so we partnered with the Tahirih Justice Center to organize the concert,” she said.
“Five weeks later, after Jason’s frantic daily communications with Tahirih, volunteers and performers to organize the event, the concert was wonderfully successful. We far surpassed our fundraising goal of $15,000, reaching about $31,000 from numerous small donations. In addition to organizational help from Tahirih, the majority of the effort was truly youth-led, as Jason, performers and volunteers were all around high school age,” Millie added.
Jason noted the success was a group effort. “Spreading word of the concert was a challenge,” he said. “Everyone is constantly being bombarded with news and notifications, so it was difficult to let everyone know. However, the Tahirih Justice Center helped us contact a few local news organizations, and I assembled a small team of volunteers to help advertise. About nine fellow Harker student volunteers sold tickets with me. Some went door to door, some posted notices at farmers markets or libraries, some posted on social media – and with the support of the community, seats quickly sold out.
“Seeing the entire community come together for the concert and the enthusiasm of the group of volunteers in selling tickets and ushering guests made the whole effort worth it for me. It was immensely fulfilling to see our efforts come together for the concert. Thanks to the avid support of the community, the event was a huge success! None of this would have been possible without the volunteers, the performers or the community,” said Jason.
“Personally,” said Millie, “due to the great results and warm support, this event reinvigorated my belief in our local community’s potential to reach out and help others. As a bystander to much of the organizational process, I watched the wonderful enthusiasm of Jason and his fellow volunteers and friends in putting this all together, and I’m especially hopeful for the potential for those younger than me to accomplish great and good things in the future.”
The girls volleyball team picked up two big wins last week, defeating Carmel 3-2 and Westmont 3-1. In the win over Carmel, Michelle Ning, grade 10, led the way with 10 kills, with Ashley Jazbec, grade 11, adding nine kills. This week, the 5-3 Eagles host Los Altos on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Girls Golf
Last week, the girls golf team finished third in the Helen Lengfeld Memorial Tournament, its best finish ever at the event, before defeating Notre Dame Belmont and Sacred Heart Prep 190-319-270, respectively. This week, the Eagles face off with Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday and Menlo on Wednesday.
Girls Tennis
At the California Girls Tennis Classic in Clovis over the weekend, the girls tennis team went 4-1, losing its only match to a top East Bay team by a third tiebreaker, becoming champions of the Division II Second Flight. The girls take to the courts again on Sept. 17 against Salinas High.
Football
The football team picked up its third win in a row as it defeated Marina High 26-2 on Friday. Marcus Tymous, grade 12, and Anthony Meissner, grade 12, each rushed for a touchdown, while Jared Anderson, grade 12, recovered a fumble for a score and Meissner connected with Anderson for a 34-yard touchdown. The Eagles travel to Watsonville to take on St. Francis this Friday.
Cross Country
The cross country team traveled to Golden Gate Park over the weekend to compete at the Lowell Invitational. Anna Weirich, grade 10, finished 11th in a field of some of the best runners from throughout the state. Ryan Adolf, grade 12, led the Eagles, improving his time on the course by 20 seconds. The Eagles race again on Sept. 22 at the Pacific Tigers Invitational at the Elkhorn Golf Club in Stockton.
Girls Water Polo
Last week, the girls water polo team opened its season with two losses. In a 10-6 loss to Saratoga, Cas Ruedy, grade 11, led the Eagles with two goals. Later in the week, the girls fell to Santa Clara 10-7 with Abby Wisdom, grade 12, and Alicia Xu, grade 12, each scoring two goals. This week, the Eagles host Monta Vista on Tuesday and travel to Milpitas on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team opened its league season last week with a 19-8 win over Saratoga and a 13-10 win over Santa Clara. Then, over the weekend, the Eagles went 1-2 at the Lynbrook Tournament, defeating Lynbrook 14-7 before falling to Mountain View 5-15 and Willow Glen 11-14. This week, the boys host Monta Vista on Tuesday and travel to Milpitas on Thursday.
Last month, upper school theater teacher Jeffrey Draper visited Australia as this year’s exchange teacher to St. Stephen’s College in Coomera, Queensland, located on the Gold Coast. Draper, who was notified of the opportunity by global education director Jennifer Walrod, said “[I’ve] always wanted to visit Australia and I’ve enjoyed having visitors from St. Stephen’s as guests in my classroom over the years.”
Draper spent much of his time at St. Stephen’s observing classes and noticed some similarities between the school and Harker, such as its record for academic achievements and high-quality extracurricular programs. “Where they have a house system as [Harker’s] middle school does, Harker’s upper school chooses to have competitions by class instead,” said Draper, who also noted that students at St. Stephen’s wear uniforms across all grade levels, and that its location in a tropical climate brings with it an array of birds whose calls make a nice soundtrack to the “very lush, green campus.”
Draper also appreciated St. Stephen’s emphasis on group collaboration, noting that a floor in one of the school’s central buildings is dedicated solely to team projects. He also enjoyed how the school dealt with student stress, “with the single counselor on campus assisting a large academic support program called Learning Enhancement,” he said. “The dedication of a large central space in the middle of the campus gives their Learning Enhancement staff a full-time space to focus only on academic support.”
Aside from his time at St. Stephen’s, Draper also enjoyed several sightseeing opportunities, visiting Cairns and its famous Great Barrier Reef, where he went scuba diving for the first time. The trip also included visits to Brisbane and Sydney.
The varsity volleyball team opened its 2018 season with a busy week. The Eagles fell 0-3 to Branham on Tuesday, followed by a 3-1 victory over Mountain View on Thursday at their home opener, and finished with a 2-3 showing at the Spikefest Tournament over the weekend. In the loss to Branham, Ashley Jazbec, grade 11, led the offense with nine kills. Michelle Ning, grade 10, had 11 kills in the win over Mountain View. This week, the Eagles host Carmel on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Westmont on Friday at 6:45 p.m.
Cross Country
The cross country team had a strong showing at the Gunn High meet last week. Anna Weirich, grade 10, won her race, improving her time by 1 minute from last year, and posted the top girl’s time of the day. Ryan Adolf, grade 12, posted the best time for all Harker runners on the day. And, in his debut race, Kailash Ranganathan, grade 9, placed second. The Eagles travel to Golden Gate Park this weekend for the Lowell Invitational.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team opened its season in a tri-match last week against two of the best teams in the CCS, Valley Christian and Palo Alto. The Eagles came up short 201-196-191, but Sophie Zhang Murphy, grade 9, led the way with a 3-under-par 33, earning her first career medalist honor. The Eagles compete in the Helen Lengfeld Memorial Tournament today at the San Jose Country Club and take on Sacred Heart Prep and Notre Dame Belmont tomorrow at the Silver Creek Country Club.
Football
The football team improved to 2-1 on the season with a 40-6 win over Washington SF. Jared Anderson, grade 12, Anthony Meissner, grade 12 and Devin Keller, grade 11, led the offense with huge games. Anderson was a monster as he caught five passes for 137 yards and three scores, returned a punt for a touchdown and rushed for a 48-yard touchdown, adding up to over 300 all-purpose yards on the day. Meissner threw for 160 yards and three scores and Keller added 111 yards rushing and a score. On the defensive side of the ball, Trevor Thompson, grade 12, had three sacks, six tackles and a forced fumble. The Eagles host Marina High this Friday at 7 p.m.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens its season at the California Tennis Classic this weekend.
Water Polo
The boys and girls water polo teams have their home openers tonight versus Saratoga at the Singh Aquatic Center. The girls play at 4:45 p.m. with the boys starting at 6:45 p.m. Both teams then travel to Santa Clara on Thursday, with the boys competing in the Lynbrook Tournament over the weekend.
From Saturday, Aug. 18 to Sunday, Aug. 19, over 65 students attended the Harker DECA chapter’s fifth-annual DECA Launch, an event designed to introduce DECA to prospective members and to provide an overview of The Harker School’s business, economics and entrepreneurship department. Through alumni panels, detailed presentations, guest speakers, mock tournaments and interactive activities, students were given a realistic idea of the upcoming DECA year.
“Through the numerous activities that we have planned, DECA Launch provides a great opportunity for students to become familiar with not only DECA and the B.E. department, but also the upper school as a whole,” said Shania Wang, grade 12, Harker DECA chief executive officer. “This year, we introduced a lot of new changes based on feedback from previous years, which allowed us to host the best possible event for all of the students. We also had the most attendees compared to previous years, so I’m excited and hopeful for a successful year.”
Early Saturday morning, students met the chapter advisors and officers while enjoying breakfast from Noah’s Bagels in the Nichols Hall atrium. They then headed into the auditorium for the student opening ceremony, where former California DECA president David Xu, former co-CEO Shreyas Chandrashekaran ’18 and the former vice president of operations Vignesh Panchanatham ’18 shared their experiences with DECA and its impact on their future endeavors. Students also were given the opportunity to hear from previous Harker DECA alumni, including Glenn Reddy ’15, Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari ’15 and Lucas Wang ’17.
Afterward, the officers held an interactive ice-breaker during which students mingled before heading to the Innovation Center, where Juston Glass, the chapter advisor, introduced the Innovation Challenge. Students split themselves into teams of five to six, and with the guidance of an assigned mentor, each team thought of an innovative idea to explore and present at the closing ceremony.
“I think what I loved most during the mentoring process was seeing how excited and hard working the students in my team were during the challenge. I remember that after they went home on the first day, they shared and worked on their presentation even during Saturday night,” said Claire Luo, grade 10, director of role-plays. “In fact, when I saw them the next morning, they had come up with a new, more innovative idea than before and had created a beautiful presentation. That was when I realized how motivated these students were and how much I enjoyed helping them.”
Lunch followed, which gave participants time to continue to work with their teams while enjoying pizza from Pizza My Heart before the Scavenger Hunt. For the Scavenger Hunt, students were asked to find the DECA officers who were spread around campus. Each team received riddles revealing the location of each of the officers and a task to accomplish, allowing students to bond with the officers and explore the upper school campus.
The afternoon consisted of lectures on the different clusters: business management and administration, marketing, hospitality and tourism, finance and entrepreneurship. The day ended with more Innovation Challenge time before students headed home, concluding a successful first day of Launch.
The next day, students arrived at the Innovation Center early in the morning to mingle and learn about Harker’s various business, economics and entrepreneurship programs through a presentation by Glass. Then, student entrepreneur Mahi Kolla, grade 11, founder of TheMintyBoutique and executive VP of Harker DECA, shared her own experiences with creating her company. Competitive demonstrations followed, including a live role-play by Luo and an overview of written events by Anvitha Tummala, grade 10, Harker DECA director of written events. Following this, students were given some more time to work on the Innovation Challenge while enjoying burritos from Chipotle.
One of the last events of DECA Launch was the Role-Play Tournament, where officers and associate mentors introduced small groups of students to the expectations and guidelines of a role-play events. Students then paired up and received a chance to compete by preparing and presenting a role-play to the judges.
Next, students received their final allotment of time to wrap up their presentations for the Innovation Challenge before parents began to arrive for dinner and the closing ceremony. Each team introduced and presented their ideas to the judges, who graded each team based on innovation, sustainability, teamwork and presentation. Afterward, while the judges tabulated the scores, the students and parents enjoyed a recap video of the weekend. DECA Launch 2018 concluded with the announcement of the winners of the Role-Play Tournament and the Innovation Challenge, as well as closing remarks from Glass and Wang.
“The Launch was a fun, interactive and extremely informational weekend, and it has definitely sparked many ideas for my future in high school and in DECA,” said attendee Dawson Chen, grade 9.
Harker DECA is thrilled to welcome all the new and returning members and looks forward to another successful year as a community and chapter.
“This year’s Launch has been absolutely amazing, and I truly believe that they have a bright year of DECA ahead of them,” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows:
Role-Play Tournament
1st place: Irene Yuan and Teresa Cai, both grade 9
2nd place: Michael Tran and Rishab Parthasarathy, both grade 9
3rd place: Aimee Wang and Gloria Zhu, both grade 9
Innovation Challenge
Best Innovation: Alina Yuan, Aimee Wang, Kaden Kapadia, Shika Tseitlin, Gloria Zhu, all grade 9
Best Sustainability: Daniel Wu, Alivia Li, Dawson Chen, Vedant Kenkare, Nikki Kapadia, Ethan Huang, all grade 9
Teamwork and Presentation: Saanvi Arora, Harshil Garg, Trinity Chan, Tina Zhong, William Chien, Vinay Sudarsanam, all grade 9
Overall: April Sun, Rohan Rashingkar, Catherine Fung, Andrew Vodhin-Ho, Arvin Nidadavolu, Sujith Pakala, all grade 9
About The Harker School DECA
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Contact Information
To learn more about this story, please contact:
Elaine Zhai, Director of Communications
21ElaineZ@students.harker.org www.harkerdeca.org
The football team picked up a 22-18 win over James Lick last Friday. Marcus Tymous, grade 12, and Anthony Meissner, grade 12, each rushed for a score, and Meissner connected with Jared Anderson, grade 12, for a 73-yard touchdown. Anderson also added a 23-yard field goal. On the defensive side of the ball, Giovanni Rofa, grade 11, and Mitchell Granados, grade 12, each intercepted a pass. This week, the Eagles take on Washington High in San Francisco on Friday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team opened its 2018 season with an 18-5 win over Lynbrook at the Wilcox Tournament on Friday, but fell to Wilcox 16-12 and Monta Vista 18-17 on Saturday to take fourth place. Next up for the Eagles is a home match with Saratoga on Sept. 4 at 6:15 p.m.
Volleyball
The varsity girls volleyball team opens its season on Aug. 28 at Branham High School. The team’s first home action of the 2018 season will be on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m. when the Eagles host Mountain View.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team kicks off its season on Aug. 28 in a tri-match with Palo Alto High and Valley Christian.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens its season in early September at the California Tennis Classic in Fresno.
Cross Country
Cross Country will make its 2018 debut at the Gunn High Meet on Aug. 30.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo teams begin the season on Sept. 4 against Saratoga at the Singh Aquatic Center at 4:45 p.m.
Fifty-eight students participated in the inaugural upper school speech and debate team retreat on Aug. 25-26. The team met at the San Jose Sheraton for a mix of team building, prep for the season and a fun dinner/arcade trip. Maddie Huynh, grade 11, noted that the retreat “was a great way to meet the new freshmen, get a start on the season and bond with the team.” Ben Yuan, grade 12, added that he “loved getting a clear vision for the season.” The enthusiasm spilled over to the coaches who enjoyed having such a positive start to the season. Go speech and debate Eagles!