Earlier this month, junior Prameela Kottapalli’s essay, “Because She Has Hope,” was named a Best in Class entry for grades 9-12 in the 2018 Growing Up Asian in America contest. This annual contest, held by the Asian Pacific Fund, celebrates the work of Asian-American and Pacific Islander-American students in grades K-12, who submit artwork, essays and video projects addressing a theme chosen for the year. This year’s theme was My Hope for the Future.
Kottapalli appeared on NBC Bay Area’s Asian Pacific America on Sunday to discuss her essay, which was inspired by the story of her mother, an immigrant who raised her as a single parent. “It’s really my mother’s hope that enabled her to overcome so much, and it’s her hope that inspires my hope for the future,” Kottapalli said during the segment.
Freshman Luisa Pan’s college account got a big boost from a $20,000 scholarship from H&R Block for winning the H&R Block Budget Challenge! Two other Harker students have won this award: Roma Gandhi, grade 10, in 2017 and Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 11, in 2016. Each semester, five awards are given out nationwide. H&R Block sent a representative to Harker today to award the check to Pan.
The most challenging aspect of the contest was recovering from unexpected events, said Pan. “I had to use overdraft protection in order to avoid a nonsufficient funds fee and risk losing even more.”
She did have to make special time to manage the challenge. “I managed to reserve a short period of time every day before going to sleep to check that all my checks had gone through, and I was following my budget plan,” she said. “Over the weekends, I had more time to properly plan my budget for the following week.
“I still have more to learn in terms of financial literacy and budgeting. I would most likely want to continue expanding my budgeting and decision-making skills.
“The challenge was a fun experience in all, and I don’t regret playing it. I think it’s a great way to teach students about finance and saving for the future before college. For me, I expect the challenge will help me to properly manage my money in college and beyond.”
In its congratulatory letter, H&R Block noted Pan “scored above thousands of students who participated in the online simulation.”
Freshman Luisa Pan’s college account got a big boost from a $20,000 scholarship from H&R Block for winning the H&R Block Budget Challenge! Two other Harker students have won this award: Roma Gandhi, grade 10, in 2017 and Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 11, in 2016. Each semester, five awards are given out nationwide. H&R Block sent a representative to Harker today to award the check to Pan.
The most challenging aspect of the contest was recovering from unexpected events, said Pan. “I had to use overdraft protection in order to avoid a nonsufficient funds fee and risk losing even more.”
She did have to make special time to manage the challenge. “I managed to reserve a short period of time every day before going to sleep to check that all my checks had gone through, and I was following my budget plan,” she said. “Over the weekends, I had more time to properly plan my budget for the following week.
“I still have more to learn in terms of financial literacy and budgeting. I would most likely want to continue expanding my budgeting and decision-making skills.
“The challenge was a fun experience in all, and I don’t regret playing it. I think it’s a great way to teach students about finance and saving for the future before college. For me, I expect the challenge will help me to properly manage my money in college and beyond.”
In its congratulatory letter, H&R Block noted Pan “scored above thousands of students who participated in the online simulation.”
Freshman Luisa Pan’s college account got a big boost from a $20,000 scholarship from H&R Block for winning the H&R Block Budget Challenge! Two other Harker students have won this award: Roma Gandhi, grade 10, in 2017 and Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 11, in 2016. Each semester, five awards are given out nationwide. H&R Block sent a representative to Harker today to award the check to Pan.
The most challenging aspect of the contest was recovering from unexpected events, said Pan. “I had to use overdraft protection in order to avoid a nonsufficient funds fee and risk losing even more.”
She did have to make special time to manage the challenge. “I managed to reserve a short period of time every day before going to sleep to check that all my checks had gone through, and I was following my budget plan,” she said. “Over the weekends, I had more time to properly plan my budget for the following week.
“I still have more to learn in terms of financial literacy and budgeting. I would most likely want to continue expanding my budgeting and decision-making skills.
“The challenge was a fun experience in all, and I don’t regret playing it. I think it’s a great way to teach students about finance and saving for the future before college. For me, I expect the challenge will help me to properly manage my money in college and beyond.”
In its congratulatory letter, H&R Block noted Pan “scored above thousands of students who participated in the online simulation.”
Harker middle school speech and debate team members competed at three tournaments in three states – California, Georgia and Texas – in April and early May.
In April, at the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship in Atlanta, 166 entries from 102 schools across 26 states competed. Harker had two middle school entrants and a few upper school entrants.
Also in April, 10 middle and upper school Harker students competed at the St. Marks Novice Round Up in Dallas. A dozen schools were represented. Results are below.
Novice Policy
1st – Deven Shah and Andy Lee, grades 8 and 9, respectively, went undefeated with a perfect 19-0 ballot count.
Novice Policy Speaker Awards
1st – Andy Lee
2nd – Deven Shah
6th – Ansh Sheth, grade 6
On May 7, approximately 40 Harker middle schools students competed against each other in two distinct intramural debate events in preparation for the Middle School Tournament of Champions Nationals, and earned the following awards:
Lincoln-Douglas
1st – Rahul Santhanam, grade 7
2nd – Brian Chen, grade 7
Public Forum
1st – Sriram Bhimaraju and Arjun Gurjar, both grade 6 (3-0)
2nd – Adam Sayed and Sathvik Chundru, both grade 6 (3-0)
Public Forum Speaker Awards
1st – Sascha Pakravan, grade 8
2nd – Carol Wininger, grade 7
3rd – Ansh Sheth, grade 6
4th – Ayan Nath, grade 8
5th – Deeya Viradia, grade 7
In early May, Harker speech and debate team members attended the middle school TOC at the University of Kentucky, in Lexington.
At the event, 232 of the best middle school speech and debate students from 35 schools competed. Overall, Harker had great success across all events. Harker won the First Place Sweepstakes Team Award for best middle school speech and debate team in the country.
Harker students won the following awards, competing against some of the best middle school teams in the country:
Policy
1st – Deven Shah and Mir Bahri, grade 7, undefeated, 20-0 ballot count
5th – Saanvi Arora, grade 8, and Sarah Mohammed, grade 7
Policy Speaker Awards
2nd – Deven Shah
18th – Mir Bahri
Lincoln-Douglas
2nd – Anshul Reddy, grade 8
3rd – Alexander Lan, grade 7
5th – Akhilesh Chegu, grade 8
5th – Arnav Dani, grade 8
9th – Brian Chen, grade 7
Lincoln-Douglas Speaker Awards
1st – Akhilesh Chegu, grade 8
3rd – Krish Maniar, grade 7
4th – Anshul Reddy, grade 8
Public Forum
1st – Sascha Pakravan and Ayan Nath
2nd – Krishna Mysoor, grade 7, and Ansh Sheth
5th – Arnav Jain and Rohan Rashingkar, both grade 8
17th – Michelle Jin and Lexi Nishimura, both grade 7
A huge congratulations to the five Harker swimmers who competed at the state championships this weekend. Ethan Hu, grade 10, brought home Harker’s first-ever state championship, in any sport, as he won the 100 butterfly. Hu also placed fourth in the 200 IM (and was mentioned in an article in The Mercury News); Matthew Chung, grade 9, took 20th in the 500 free; Jason Kwok, grade 9, was 33rd in the 100 breast; the 400 free relay team of Chung, Hu, Rhys Edwards, grade 9, and Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 12, took 21st; and the 200 medley relay team of Chung, Kwok, Hu and Edwards was 22nd.
Boys Tennis
David Wen, grade 12, won his first CCS match last week 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 before falling to the No. 1 seed in the second round. The duo of Neil Bai and Randy Zhao, both grade 12, also won their first round match, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, before falling to the No. 1 doubles team in the second round as well.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball season continues this Tuesday night as the Eagles are ranked No. 3 in the CIF D2 Boys Volleyball Championship and will host St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team finished its season in fifth place last week at the CCS Championships. Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 12, was the top individual Eagle finishing tied for seventh in CCS.
Track and Field
The lone Harker representative at the CCS preliminaries, Ayush Vyas, grade 11, finished 30th in CCS in the discus this weekend.
Spring Scholastic Championship Teams
Many Harker spring teams were named 2018 Scholastic Championship teams by having a top five GPA in their respective sports in CCS. Baseball (3.8780), boys volleyball (3.7400) and boys golf (3.8780) were tops in their sports; girls lacrosse (3.7250) and boys track and field (3.6950) finished second in their sports; softball (3.7250) and girls swimming (3.7560) each finished fourth; and boys swimming (3.6150) and boys tennis (3.6660) finished fifth. Congrats to our awesome student athletes.
The Harker swim team had an amazing showing at the CCS finals last week, resulting in the largest group in school history heading to the state finals in Clovis this weekend. The Eagles had two double CCS champs, as Vivian Wang, grade 12, took first in the 100 breast and 200 IM (breaking the school record), and Ethan Hu, grade 10, won the 200 IM (breaking the school record) and 100 fly (breaking the school record and the CCS record). Other highlights included the boys 400 free relay team placing fourth and breaking the school record; the boys medley relay team finishing fifth and breaking the school record; Jason Kwok, grade 9, placing fifth in the 100 breast; Matthew Chung, grade 9, placing ninth in the 500 free and breaking the school record, as well as finishing 10th in the 200 free and breaking the school record. Representing Harker at state will be Wang, Hu, Kwok, Chung, Rhys Edwards, grade 9, and Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 12.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team steamrolled through the first two rounds of the CCS D3 bracket as it defeated Sacred Heart Cathedral and Mt. Madonna, both 3-1. However, it was a tough finish as the Eagles fell to No. 1 seeded Carmel in a grueling five-game set. The Eagles are now 23-6 on the year and are qualified to compete in the CIF regional tournament that will be announced on May 20, with play beginning on May 22.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team headed into the WBAL Skyline tournament as the regular season league champs and they played very well. In its opening round 17-7 win over Mercy Burlingame, Elise Mayer, grade 11, led the Eagles with eight goals and two assists. Then, in the second round, the Eagles defeated Sequoia 9-7 with Mayer scoring five goals and Lauren Russell, grade 12, adding four more. However, the girls fell to Woodside 13-6 in the league tournament championship game. The Eagles finished the year with a 16-3 record.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team won its second consecutive CCS regional championship last week, beating out the field by just one stroke. The Eagles will look for a CCS finals championship win on Tuesday in Laguna Seca.
Track and Field
The track and field team posted 44 personal bests at the WBAL championships last week. Special congrats to Ayush Vyas, grade 11, for his discus league championship. Vyas will represent Harker at the CCS championship on Saturday at Gilroy High.
Boys Tennis
David Wen, grade 12, and the team of Neil Bai, grade 12, and Randy Zhao, grade 12, take the court this Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Imperial Courts in Aptos in the first round of the CCS individual and double boys tennis brackets.
Baseball
The Harker baseball team finished up a 10-11 season last week with a 1-2 loss to league champs Jefferson and an 11-2 win over Westmoor on Senior Day. Matthew Kennedy, grade 12, ended his high school career with three hits and two RBIs.
Softball
The softball team ended its season last week with a slugfest, 12-13 loss to Pinewood. Kristin LeBlanc, grade 12, finished off her Harker career in style with three hits and four RBIs; Molly Mobley, grade 9, added two hits and three RBIs as well. The girls finished the year with a 6-12 record.
On Tuesday, senior Jacqueline He was named a 2018 Presidential Scholar in the Arts, becoming the sixth student from Harker to earn Presidential Scholar recognition in the school’s history. He, who also won a national gold medal in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, selected English teacher Nicholas Manjoine to be recognized as a distinguished teacher.
About 5,200 students qualified for the program, based on a variety of achievements, including outstanding scores on College Board SAT and ACT exams, success in the National YoungArts Foundation’s YoungArts competition and nominations. The Commission on Presidential Scholars then selected 20 Presidential Scholars in the Arts based on artistic achievement, personal characteristics, and leadership and service activities.
As one of this year’s Presidential Scholars, He is eligible to attend a special ceremony in Washington, D.C. on June 24.
Harker DECA students traveled to Atlanta for the 2018 International Career Development Conference (ICDC), where they competed, presented, heard speakers and earned some great accolades. A dozen teams from Harker DECA ended up staging in the preliminary finalist round. Nine out of those 12 teams competed in the finalist round, with one team placing in the top 10, one team taking third place, two teams taking second place and one team taking first.
“In an event as big as ICDC, your love for your school and your state really comes through,” said Michelle Si, grade 9. “In every conference – first at Silicon Valley, then states, then at ICDC – your perspective changes as the picture grows. At first, it is about yourself and your friends. Then it is about your school. And then it is about your state.”
On Saturday morning, the day after arriving, Harker DECA participated in the DECA 5K, a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Later, students participated in the California competitive session, in which participants socialized with and picked the brains of previous ICDC winners. The group got a VIP tour of the Coca-Cola factory, then attended the grand opening session at 8:30 p.m., featuring keynote speaker menswear designer Joseph Abboud.
On Sunday, students attended a quick event briefing before taking their written examinations, which spanned the rest of the day. Students also were given an opportunity to visit career exhibits in between examinations, and they were exposed to a variety of different career paths, followed by a relaxing evening.
On Monday, students continued to visit career exhibits and began the preliminary round of role-plays and written presentations. That evening, the group attended the DECA concert featuring Andy Grammer, a country-pop artist.
“The experience was amazing,” said Aditi Ghalsasi, grade 10, “and being with the whole chapter at an event like that made the conference feel like more than a competition. I got to meet Andy Grammer myself, and my friends and I all enjoyed the night after a long day.”
On Tuesday, the Harker DECA chapter attended the achievement awards session, where the participants advancing to the final round of competitions were announced. In each event, the top 20 teams advance to finals. Top participants for presentations, career cluster exams and overall performers were acknowledged as well. Twelve of Harker’s teams were recognized for their achievements, and nine qualified to compete in the final round of competitions.
“Going into finals,” said Nishka Ayyar, grade 11, “I was surprisingly calm, because I was really proud that we had gotten this far, and I was just excited to have another chance to compete in the event I love.”
As finalists showed their mettle, the rest of the chapter was given time to relax and catch up on school assignments after a busy few days. The group came back together for the grand awards session, where a number of Harker DECA students were recognized (see awards below). Each award was greeted with enthusiastic applause.
“I was really surprised were even called on stage in the first place,” said Alyssa Huang, grade 10, “and then when they said our names for second place, I screamed for about five minutes straight. It was crazy, but really cool!”
As the event wound down, participants reflected on what they had learned. “Networking with competitors from across the globe, learning applicable skills in a collaborative environment and exploring the city of Atlanta made ICDC 2018 an event that I will remember for the rest of my life,” said Naveen Mirapuri, grade 10.
DECA advisor Juston Glass agreed it was a great trip. “We had our most successful ICDC ever!” he noted. “For the competitors who were recognized on stage and those that will try again next year, it was really nice for the students’ hard work throughout the year come to fruition. I’m so proud of every single one of them and of the Harker DECA chapter for all that we accomplished this year.”
“As a chapter, this year’s competitive performance at ICDC was the best that we’ve ever seen,” said Shania Wang, grade 11, Harker DECA CEO, “and I’m really excited to bring that energy and momentum into next year. I’m really hoping to build upon our successes over the past few years while bringing in new ideas and perspectives that can really make the DECA experience better for everyone. Overall, I’m very hopeful for an amazing next year.”
Finalists are as follows:
First Place
Devanshi Mehta, grade 11, and Sharon Yan, grade 12, Herff Jones National Marketing Challenge
Second Place
Enya Lu, grade 11, and Alyssa Huang, grade 10, Financial Services Team Decision Making
Erin Liu, grade 11, Business Growth Plan Third Place
Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 12, Virtual Business Challenge, Accounting
Top 10 Finalists
Rishi Dange, grade 10, Accounting Applications Series
Top 20 Finalists
Nishka Ayyar, and Riya Gupta, both grade 11, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Emma Andrews, grade 9, Principles of Business Management and Administration
Aditya Singhvi, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Andrew Sun, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Testing Finalists
Evan Cheng, grade 10, Business Services Marketing Series
Role-Play Finalists
Navel Mirapuri, grade 10, Food Marketing Series
David Feng, grade 10, Marketing Communications Series
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.
Miya Jones, high school representative from the Art Institute of San Francisco, came to Harker in late April as part of the CareerConnect program to educate students on various employment paths in the commercial art field. She presented student portfolios from the institute, along with works ranging from caricatures to advertisement videos.
Jones talked about potential job fields that require art skills, including culinary arts, graphic design, drawing, animation, 3-D design, photography and video game graphics. Students viewed examples of works by college students, and learned how to create a resume and display one’s works. Billy Fan, grade 9, said, “The speaker did a good job of explaining all of the features at the art institutes and gave me insight on different career paths.”
Jones also spoke to what the Art Institute provides in terms of advancing one’s career in the humanities. Maria Teplova, grade 9 noted, “(She) gave me an idea about potential college choices and whether the art institute would be good for me or not, and gave me an idea of different art major options.”
Jones stressed the importance of networking and going to college in an area that offers jobs in students’ field of interest. She ended the talk by answering students’ questions and offering them an opportunity to connect with the San Francisco Arts Institute.