On Wednesday, a group of Harker students attended a special listening session held in San Francisco by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan. Last year, the EPA under the Trump administration began the process of ending the Obama-era policy meant to combat climate change.
Accompanied by science teacher Kate Schafer and Spanish teacher Diana Moss, members of Harker’s Green committee – senior Satchi Thockchom, sophomores Jai Bahri, Anvi Banga, Avi Gulati, Alex Shing and Anthony Shing, and freshman Akshay Manglik – all voiced their opposition to the repeal. The concerns voiced by the students included declining air quality, higher occurrence of national disasters and a lower quality of life for future generations.
“I think that attending and speaking at events such as these is supremely important,” Manglik said. “Making your voice heard at all levels of government, regardless of its import, is crucial for inculcating civic activism in a very civically apathetic (although that is quickly changing!) American electorate.”
In addition to giving students the opportunity to voice their concerns to government officials, the event also offered them new insight and perspective on climate change. “Not only did this event give students like us, who otherwise have next to no voice when it comes to national affairs, [a chance to speak] … but it also allowed us to hear personal stories of those directly affected by climate change,” said Bahri.
Students also mentioned that learning about climate change and the Clean Power Plan in their classes and activities at Harker helped them craft more powerful statements for the meeting. “In Green Team and AP government, I’ve learned a lot about renewable energy policy, specifically SB 100, a bill that would require CA to source 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030,” Thockchom said. “Because of my engagement with this bill, I could include it in my argument that there are growing factions between federal and state law.”
Despite their busy schedules, regional EPA officials spent time talking to the students. “Directly after the last piece of testimony was given, two of the three EPA listeners came up to us and congratulated us on our speeches,” said Bahri. “To know that what we said actually struck and impacted these people, who had heard hundreds of other pieces of testimony, was an amazing feeling.”
Ten Harker students have moved on to the invitational round of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad! Seniors Swapnil Garg, Joanna Lin, Rajiv Movva and Derek Yen; juniors Rose Guan, Katherine Tian, Michael Wang and Katherine Zhang; Rishi Dange, grade 10; and Luisa Pan, grade 9, will take part in the next stage of the contest next week for a chance at eligibility to compete in the International Linguistics Olympiad in Prague this summer.
About 1,700 students compete in NACLO every year, solving linguistic puzzles developed by professionals in various linguistic fields. Problems tackled during the contest include translating languages into English, solving arithmetic problems written in other languages, and deciphering writing systems and using them to compose a text. Congratulations and best of luck to these 10 next week!
Last month, senior Swapnil Garg was invited to participate in the Romanian Master of Mathematics competition, held Feb. 21-26 in Bucharest. He followed up this already-impressive feat by being one of just 10 competitors worldwide to win a gold medal. Garg’s performance in the competition also helped the United States team take first place overall. Receiving an invitation to RMM is a major achievement for math students, who must first perform well enough in the team selection test (TST) or team selection exam (TSE), which is taken by students who place among the top competitors in the USA Mathematical Olympiad.
Sophomore Avi Gulati achieved one of his dreams at the Cal High School Speech and Debate Tournament, held Feb. 17-19, by taking first place in original oratory. Not only does this performance make Galati a contender for the national championship, but he also got to speak to a huge audience on a stage that has featured many speech and debate legends. The whole team is very proud of this accomplishment. Huge congrats to Avi!
This past Saturday, 35 Harker upper school students, along with biology teacher Anita Chetty and Mandarin teacher Shaun Jahshan, visited the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge on an environmental service trip. Located in Alviso on the southern edge of the San Francisco Bay, the refuge is surrounded by uplands, marshes, salt ponds and a freshwater tidal slough. Students took a short walk along the trails and boardwalk and learned that Santa Clara Valley would flood without the refuge’s dikes and wetlands. They also learned about the animals and plants that make their homes in the bay wetlands, and saw a beautiful American kestrel up close, along with three huge white pelicans, other waterbirds and some very assertive Canada geese. Then the group worked in the upland garden area, removing invasive plants, building wire plant cages and planting and watering native plants.
“We are very fortunate in the Bay Area to have many groups and individuals who are passionate about preserving our beautiful natural open spaces,” said Spanish teacher Diana Moss, a member of Harker’s Green Committee. “The springtime is the perfect time to get out and explore them by hiking, biking or volunteering to help in their maintenance.”
New York City-based brass combo Lucky Chops, currently in the middle of a national tour, stopped by the upper school for a special assembly performance of its brand of high-energy funk. The band played a series of original songs and a medley consisting of familiar pop tunes by artists including Blondie, the Spice Girls and Daft Punk reimagined and adapted to its boisterous style. Toward the end of the assembly, senior saxophonists Edgar Lin and Bobby Schick, junior saxophonists Donna Boucher, Rahul Goyal and Jacob Kim, and drummers Satchi Thockchom, grade 12, and Neil Ramaswamy, grade 11, were invited to join Lucky Chops for an impromptu jam session!
Last week, the boys basketball team began its postseason with a 60-54 win over Terra Nova, with Brando Pakel, grade 12, and Jack Connors, grade 10, each scoring 12 points. The Eagles then upset the No. 5 seed Pacific Grove 58-45 behind 16 points from Connors and another 14 points from Marcus Tymous, grade 11. However, the season came to an end as the boys fell to Carmel 54-69 in the quarterfinals. The Eagles end the season with a 13-14 record.
Boys Soccer
After an historic season for the boys soccer team, the Eagles were ranked No. 2 heading into the Division 2 playoffs. However, Santa Cruz High upset the boys with a stunning 2-1 last-minute win. The boys soccer team ends the year with an impressive 14-2-3 record.
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team fell to Pacific Grove 35-54 in the first round of the CCS playoffs, ending its season with a 9-12 record.
SPRING
Baseball
The baseball team opened the year with a 17-1 win over visiting San Jose High, followed by a 7-2 win over Trinity Christian. In the matchup with San Jose, Dominic Cea, grade 12, had three hits and two RBIs, with Matthew Kennedy, grade 12, driving in three runs, and freshmen Levi Sutton, Ellis Goldman and Luke Wancewicz each driving in two runs in their first high school game. Kennedy had three RBIs and Cea had three hits to lead the way again in the win over Trinity Christian. This week, the Eagles travel to Menlo on Tuesday, host Pinewood on Thursday and travel to Lincoln SF on Saturday.
Swim
The swim team opened its season last week against Monterey. The 200 medley relay team of Ethan Hu, grade 10, Matthew Chung, grade 9, Jason Kwok, grade 9, and Alex Yu, grade 11, won the event and made the first CCS cut of the season. Also, Chung swam the 200 freestyle in nearly record-breaking time. The swimmers will compete again on March 10 at the Small School Invitational at Sacred Heart Prep. On Saturday, the team competed at the Spring Kickoff at Palo Alto High, which saw many swimmers achieve CCS cut times. Vivian Wang, grade 12, 50 free (first place) and 100 free (first place); Hu, 100 fly (first place) and 100 back (second place); Chung, 200 IM (second place) and 100 breast (third place); Kwok, 100 breast (first place); and the varsity girls 400 free relay team of Taylor Kohlmann, grade 12, Betsy Tian, grade 9, Alyssa Huang, grade 10, and Wang.
Softball
The softball team gets things rolling on Wednesday as it travels to Palo Alto, followed by a trip to Crystal Springs Uplands on Friday.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team kicks off its season at the Cowboy Classic in Livermore this Wednesday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team officially opens its season this Wednesday as players travel to Cupertino High. On Friday, the boys travel to Saratoga, followed by the Wilcox Tournament over the weekend.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team opens up its season with a busy week. The Eagles host Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday, before traveling to Aragon on Wednesday and Nueva on Thursday.
Track and Field
The track and field team will get the season off and running at the Willow Glen Invitational this Saturday.
Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team opens up the 2018 season on March 6 by hosting Salinas High at 4 p.m.
Aditi Ghalsasi, grade 10, contributed to this report
A group of young women from Harker attended the Watermark Conference for Women at the San Jose Convention Center on Feb. 23. More than 6,500 people attended the sold-out conference for women professionals.
The conference provided several networking and learning opportunities for female high school students. As part of the Young Women’s Program, the girls were able to attend a variety of workshops ranging from body positivity to life after high school graduation. The students also had the opportunity to observe two phenomenal keynote sessions with speakers Amal Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, and Jodi Kantor, who spoke about their personal experiences and about the role of women in the workplace.
Aliesa Bahri, grade 12, commented, “there were lots of great mentors and inspiring speakers that made it a genuinely amazing conference for me; especially Amal Clooney because she’s one of my personal heroes, and I am interested in law.”
Senior Melissa Kwan said, “I’ve never been in a room with that many people that care so much about equality and are willing to express their opinions on it. It was awesome to hear all the applause after all the points the speakers were making. Someone would say it’s time for equality in the workplace and everyone would stand up clapping.”
“The event featured speakers, workshops and exhibitors to empower, connect and inspire women from all over the Silicon Valley,” noted Juston Glass, business and entrepreneurship teacher. “This is a great CareerConnect event and opportunity for our young women to expand their network and skills in areas including personal branding, setting and achieving goals, communications, negotiations, leadership and organizational excellence,” he added.
Four Harker fencers traveled to Memphis, Tenn., over the Presidents Week break to compete in the 2018 Junior Olympics Fencing Championships.
Nerine Uyanik and Sana Pandey, both grade 10, and Ethan Choi and Kishan Sood, both grade 9, made the trip.
Uyanik competed in cadet women’s foil on Saturday against 213 other women from across the United States, going 4-2 in pools, seeding 76th into the direct elimination table.
She got a bye in the round of 264, then faced the 52nd seed who she flipped 15-13 to advance into the 64. Uyanik then toed the line versus the 12th seed and fought her to time, but lost 11-9 (bouts go to 15 touches over three 3-minute periods), ending up 59th, a very respectable finish.
The previous day Uyanik joined two club mates from the San Francisco Fencing Club to take fourth place out of 12 teams. In that event, SFFC No. 2 women dominated the Mt. Airy/Wallingford Swarthmore Panthers 45-6 to advance to the next round where they faced SFFC No. 1 women, the “A” team from their own club. SFFC No. 2, including Uyanik, threw a twist into the universe when they beat their club mates 45-41 in a brutal match that saw Uyanik’s team take an immediate slim lead and hold it through most of the match to bring in a 45-41 victory. They then faced Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy, the eventual gold medalists, where they kept the fight tight, but lost 36-30 when time expired.
Finally, on Monday, Uyanik competed in the junior women’s foil event, including fencers up to age 19, where she split her pool 3-3, seeding 101st into the elimination table. She ran up against a tough opponent in her first direct elimination round and lost 15-8, finishing 136th out of 233 starters. Uyanik has qualified for JOs for three consecutive years and is a “B-rated” fencer (ratings run A-E, plus U for unrated, based on tournament results).
Pandey, grade 10, fenced in cadet and junior women’s epee events, Friday and Sunday, respectively. Pandey reached a milestone in December when she earned her “C” rating at the local JO qualifiers. This was Pandey’s first JOs and only her third national event, so she encountered a steep learning curve, as well as faced the eventual gold and bronze medal winners in her juniors pool, thus did not advance out of pools in either event. Pandey fences for International Fencing Academy.
Choi, grade 9, also attended the JOs, fencing in cadet and junior men’s foil events. In the cadet event, Choi seeded 50th out of 287 fencers and split his pool 3-3, losing each bout by two touches, so only six touches away from a perfect pool, thus dropping to 137 seed going into the elimination table. In his first elimination round, Choi flipped the 120th seed 15-9 to make the table of 132, then lost to a local powerhouse from Santa Rosa 15-8 to finish 116th.
In the junior event, Choi seeded 223 out of 282 starters. He started off with a very solid 4-2 record in pools, seeding 113th into the elimination table, but dropped his first elimination bout, so ended up 149th in juniors. Choi is a D-rated fencer and fences for Massialas Fencing Team.
Sood, grade 9, also fenced in cadet men’s foil, splitting his pool 3-3 to advance to direct eliminations in the 152nd slot. Matched up with the 105th seed, Sood fought a very tough fight, taking the score to 14-14 before his opponent made the final touch. In the final standings, Sood stood 162 out of 287 starters, a solid finish in that age bracket. Sood has an E rating and fences for California Fencing Academy, as does his sister, Ishani, grade 6.
Pandey and Uyanik are co-presidents of the Harker Fencing Club, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in either the atrium or auxiliary gym.
Four Harker fencers traveled to Memphis, Tenn., over the Presidents Week break to compete in the 2018 Junior Olympics Fencing Championships.
Nerine Uyanik and Sana Pandey, both grade 10, and Ethan Choi and Kishan Sood, both grade 9, made the trip.
Uyanik competed in cadet women’s foil on Saturday against 213 other women from across the United States, going 4-2 in pools, seeding 76th into the direct elimination table.
She got a bye in the round of 264, then faced the 52nd seed who she flipped 15-13 to advance into the 64. Uyanik then toed the line versus the 12th seed and fought her to time, but lost 11-9 (bouts go to 15 touches over three 3-minute periods), ending up 59th, a very respectable finish.
The previous day Uyanik joined two club mates from the San Francisco Fencing Club to take fourth place out of 12 teams. In that event, SFFC No. 2 women dominated the Mt. Airy/Wallingford Swarthmore Panthers 45-6 to advance to the next round where they faced SFFC No. 1 women, the “A” team from their own club. SFFC No. 2, including Uyanik, threw a twist into the universe when they beat their club mates 45-41 in a brutal match that saw Uyanik’s team take an immediate slim lead and hold it through most of the match to bring in a 45-41 victory. They then faced Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy, the eventual gold medalists, where they kept the fight tight, but lost 36-30 when time expired.
Finally, on Monday, Uyanik competed in the junior women’s foil event, including fencers up to age 19, where she split her pool 3-3, seeding 101st into the elimination table. She ran up against a tough opponent in her first direct elimination round and lost 15-8, finishing 136th out of 233 starters. Uyanik has qualified for JOs for three consecutive years and is a “B-rated” fencer (ratings run A-E, plus U for unrated, based on tournament results).
Pandey, grade 10, fenced in cadet and junior women’s epee events, Friday and Sunday, respectively. Pandey reached a milestone in December when she earned her “C” rating at the local JO qualifiers. This was Pandey’s first JOs and only her third national event, so she encountered a steep learning curve, as well as faced the eventual gold and bronze medal winners in her juniors pool, thus did not advance out of pools in either event. Pandey fences for International Fencing Academy.
Choi, grade 9, also attended the JOs, fencing in cadet and junior men’s foil events. In the cadet event, Choi seeded 50th out of 287 fencers and split his pool 3-3, losing each bout by two touches, so only six touches away from a perfect pool, thus dropping to 137 seed going into the elimination table. In his first elimination round, Choi flipped the 120th seed 15-9 to make the table of 132, then lost to a local powerhouse from Santa Rosa 15-8 to finish 116th.
In the junior event, Choi seeded 223 out of 282 starters. He started off with a very solid 4-2 record in pools, seeding 113th into the elimination table, but dropped his first elimination bout, so ended up 149th in juniors. Choi is a D-rated fencer and fences for Massialas Fencing Team.
Sood, grade 9, also fenced in cadet men’s foil, splitting his pool 3-3 to advance to direct eliminations in the 152nd slot. Matched up with the 105th seed, Sood fought a very tough fight, taking the score to 14-14 before his opponent made the final touch. In the final standings, Sood stood 162 out of 287 starters, a solid finish in that age bracket. Sood has an E rating and fences for California Fencing Academy, as does his sister, Ishani, grade 6.
Pandey and Uyanik are co-presidents of the Harker Fencing Club, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in either the atrium or auxiliary gym.