Organizers for this year’s Kicks Against Cancer raised funds during lunch on Wednesday by selling T-shirts that will be worn at the Friday soccer event. Every year, Kicks Against Cancer donates the proceeds from the sales to Camp Okizu, an organization that offers camp programs to families with children diagnosed with cancer.
Students also promoted the event by setting up a special “soccer bowling” game, in which participants kicked a ball at a set of pins for a chance to win a pass that would allow them to bypass the lunch line.
A total of three games will be played at Davis Field on Friday as part of the fundraiser. Boys junior varsity will play Menlo at 3 p.m., girls varsity will face off against Castilleja at 4:30 p.m. and the final game will feature boys varsity against Menlo at 6:15 p.m.
Harker’s middle school DECA Idea Challenge team is a global finalist!
The team, named Insulator Warrior Inc., is a finalist in the elementary/middle school category. Members of the team are Markus Zhang, Rohan Bhowmik, Arjun Barrett and Gordon Chen, all grade 7.
The annual Idea Challenge, held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, invites students to pitch an innovative new product that uses a mystery item. This year’s item was a rubber band; teams had to generate a new use for this traditional product. Check out their video showing a really innovative use of the humble rubber band! There were 2,255 submissions from teams around the world. Other finalist teams are from Bermuda, Canada, The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The global winners will be announced Jan. 23.
Last week, the girls soccer team defeated Pinewood 3-1 to pick up its fourth win in five matches. This week, the Eagles host Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday and Castilleja on Friday.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team continues its amazing season as it defeated Priory 6-0 and Crystal Springs Uplands 6-2 last week. The 8-0-1 Eagles host Sacred Heart Prep on Wednesday and Menlo on Friday.
Girls Basketball
In its lone contest of the week, the girls basketball team defeated Mercy Burlingame 57-39 behind 17 points from Akhila Ramgiri, grade 11, and 15 points from Satchi Thockchom, grade 12. This week, the Eagles take on Castilleja in Palo Alto on Wednesday before hosting The King’s Academy on Friday.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team had a rough week as it dropped two league games. First, in a close 47-43 loss to Eastside College Prep, Jarrett Anderson, grade 11, led the offense with 18 points. Later in the week, the boys were defeated by Menlo 68-35. Trevor Thompson, grade 11, led Harker with nine points. This week, the Eagles travel to The King’s Academy on Tuesday and host Pinewood on Friday.
The boys basketball team picked up two impressive wins last week. First, the Eagles defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 74-38 behind 13 points from Eric Jeong, grade 12, and 12 points from Peter Connors, grade 12. Later in the week, the boys defeated a very tall Woodside Priory team 73-62, with Jack Connors, grade 10, leading the way with 17 points, including five three-pointers. The 8-4 Eagles take on Eastside College Prep this Tuesday at home before traveling to Menlo on Thursday.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team won both matches last week as it defeated Eastside College Prep 3-0 and Mercy SF 7-1. The Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday at Davis Field at 3:30 p.m.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team won its fourth and fifth straight matches last week as it defeated The King’s Academy 4-1 and Monta Vista 6-0. The 6-0-1 Eagles travel to Priory this Wednesday and Crystal Springs Uplands on Friday.
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team dropped two games last week. Notre Dame San Jose defeated the Eagles 76-31 early in the week with Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 9, leading the way with nine points. Later in the week, the girls fell to Mercy SF 77-29. The Eagles travel to the College of San Mateo to take on Mercy Burlingame this Saturday.
Football
Congrats to Dominic Cea, grade 12, on being named to the third team of the All-Bay Area News Group offensive team. Athletes from Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties were recognized for their achievements on the gridiron this past fall season. Cea went 56 for 59 on extra points and seven of eight on field-goal attempts as a kicker, helping the Eagles to their best season in school history. Check out the full list here:
Today, upper school students attended an assembly that featured an appearance by Tom Nazario, an assistant law professor at the University of San Francisco and founder of The Forgotten International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty around the world. Nazario partnered with photojournalist Renee C. Byer to publish the 2014 book “Living on a Dollar a Day: The Lives and Faces of the World’s Poor.” The book chronicled the lives of extremely impoverished women and children in various parts of the world, including northern Ghana, Peru, India and Romania.
The publishing of the book led to the creation of a documentary of the same name, which students and faculty viewed at the assembly. Similar to the book, the film traveled to Ghana, Peru and India to examine the lives of people living in extreme poverty, with commentary provided by people the filmmakers encountered during their travels.
Following the viewing, Nazario answered questions from students. Nazario explained how interpreters were instrumental in overcoming language barriers and approaching people for interviews. Many of the people in the communities he visited, he added, were very close-knit and dependent on one another, a quality he noted is largely lacking in wealthier countries.
At Tuesday’s senior class meeting, a student-created app was used to hold the parking lottery for seniors who wish to park on campus when parking is opened to them later this month.
“We saw a need for a digitized parking system and sought to provide an efficient solution for students, faculty and administrators,” said Johnny Wang, grade 11, who created the app with fellow junior Cameron Jones. Seniors had their names entered into the app, which used “an efficient algorithm to randomly shuffle the students,” Wang said. The name of each selected student would then appeared on a projector, and he or she would be prompted to choose a space from the ones that were available. As an added convenience, the app simultaneously updates Harker’s parking database.
Wang and Jones worked closely with the Office of Student Affairs to develop the app, which impressed student affairs assistant head Greg Lawson. “They’ve got other plans for adding features to this on the back end as well,” he said. “It’s fascinating.”
Last week’s Student Directed Showcase spotlighted the directorial talents of seniors Anika Banga, Haley Keller, Jessica Skinner and Sameep Mangat. Directors spent several months developing their vision for each of the one-act plays featured at SDS, managing every aspect of the play, from casting to on-stage visual elements to event promotion.
As has been the case in previous years, this year’s featured plays ran the gamut. Banga directed “The Murderous Mansion of Mr. Uno,” a hilarious sendup of classic murder mysteries. “Imperfect Proposal,” directed by Keller, tells the story of a marriage proposal-turned-disaster. Skinner’s production of the surrealist “Chamber Music” studied the interactions among eight women interred in an asylum, each of them believing themselves to be a historically important woman. “Rabbit Hole,” directed by Mangat, examined the various ways in which families cope with loss.
For more information on the history of SDS and the process of producing a play, see the feature story on SDS from the spring 2015 issue of The Harker Quarterly.
Enya Lu, grade 11, was elected 2017-18 Silicon Valley DECA district president. This is very exciting news, as only one other Harker student has held such a prestigious position in DECA.
Lu will be working with California state legislators, prominent business leaders and school administrators to promote the DECA organization and represent thousands of DECA student members as emerging leaders and entrepreneurs.
This video catches the moment Harker students heard Lu’s name announced as president. It is great to see Harker students coming together and showing such great enthusiasm for each other’s accomplishments! Congrats and good luck, Enya!
DECA member Aditi Ghalsasi, grade 10, provided details and photos.
Nearly a score of Harker students attended QuickBooks Connect 2017, held at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in mid-November, as part of Harker’s CareerConnect program. The conference featured some great speakers, including Brad Smith, chairman and CEO of Intuit, and Sasan Goodarzi, executive vice president and general manager of the small business group at Intuit. There was also a live stream of journalist Lisa Ling interviewing SoulCycle co-founder Julie Rice on her experience as a female entrepreneur.
The event featured more than 50 booths, including Avalara, Chase, PayPal, Receipt Bank and T Sheets. On the day Harker students visited, the focus of the event was accounting. This year’s event also featured a tech exhibit showcasing the newest virtual and augmented reality products by Microsoft and others.
Over the last few weeks, the girls basketball team was defeated by Woodside and was victorious over Yerba Buena. In the 40-51 loss to Woodside, Akhila Ramgiri, grade 11, led the offense with 17 points. Then, in their inaugural game at the new Athletic Center, the girls defeated Yerba Buena 59-19 behind 13 points from Ramgiri and 10 points from Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 9. This week, the Eagles travel to Notre Dame San Jose on Wednesday and host Mercy SF on Friday.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team stayed busy during the holidays as it went 2-2 over the last few weeks. The Eagles stared off with a 55-70 loss to Woodside, with Richard Wang, grade 11, leading Harker with 17 points. The boys bounced back with a 63-53 win over Monta Vista with Eric Jeong, grade 12, dropping 22 points, and Jarrett Anderson, grade 11, adding 17 points. The Eagles then played their first-ever game in the new Athletic Center, but were defeated by Redwood Christian 62-54. Wang scored 12 points with Anderson adding 11 points. Finally, the Eagles ended their break with a 58-37 win over Del Mar. Jack Connors, grade 10, led the Eagles with 10 points. This week, the boys host Crystal Springs on Wednesday and Priory on Thursday.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team improved to 4-0-1 as it defeated Valley Christian Dublin 15-0. This Wednesday the Eagles host The King’s Academy on Wednesday.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team was defeated by Alisal 0-4 before the break. This week the girls host Eastside College Prep on Tuesday and travel to Mercy SF on Friday.