More than 600 Harker community members attended the opening celebration of Harker’s athletic center on Friday evening. The celebration included heartfelt thanks from Harker faculty and administrators to all who made possible the construction of the new building, as well a special dedication to longtime head of school Howard Nichols, for whom the court in the facility’s 12,000-square-foot gym is named. See the embedded slide show for more photos from the event, and view the accompanying video for a look at the massive construction effort and the reactions from the first student athletes to set foot in the center.
Last month, rising senior Millie Lin was named a member of the All-National Honor Ensembles by the National Association for Music Education. Lin will perform in late November as a member of the Mixed Choir at the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
According to the NAfME website, the All-National Honor Ensembles are made up of “the top performing high school musicians in the United States.” Students audition for ensembles by submitting unedited videos of an unaccompanied performance. Lin also is slated to be a section leader for the Cantilena women’s choir during the 2017-18 school year.
Harker’s business and entrepreneurship (B.E.) department this summer introduced the Harker Incubator Program, one of the first high school incubator programs in the country. As a result, not only are two Harker student entrepreneurs well-positioned to take their business dreams to the next level, one has found a backer ready to help him get there. The five other members of the program took on various leadership roles that helped them become familiar with the entrepreneurial process.
The incubator is an intensive, student-led and community-supported program in which student entrepreneurs receive a seed grant, mentorship, academic curriculum and internal support from a student leadership team to help them develop and grow their startup companies while networking with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, startups and investors. Officially, the program ran from July 24 to Aug. 4, but entrepreneurs, teachers and student leaders worked all summer on the businesses.
The program supplies three of the critical ingredients for entrepreneurial success, said Michael Acheatel, who teaches the class: strategic advice and mentorship, a dedicated support team and seed funding.
Funding was provided by Harker via a generous supporter of the incubator program. Strategic advice and mentorship was provided by industry professionals, including seasoned entrepreneurs, serial investors, corporate executives, product marketers and technology developers. Students also visited mentor companies in the Bay Area. Acheatel, who teaches in in the B.E. department during the school year, provided dedicated support along the with the other student leaders in the program.
In the Beginning
In the spring, students submitted business plans and pitched their companies; after carefully considering the applicants, Acheatel and his student leadership team selected two student companies and things started moving.
Rising senior Nirban Bhatia, founder of Xpress Chef, has undertaken significant pivots with his business concept, a common occurrence in the startup world, and has nearly completed the development of an online marketplace that provides on-demand, in-home, private chef dining experiences. Xpress Chef is launching its pilot this summer. The company provides a personalized, less expensive alternative to the personal chef industry through a unique, vertical integration business model.
Bhatia’s strategic advisor has committed to funding his pilot program and linked him up with a local restaurateur who has committed to providing operational support – facilities and chefs – for the pilot program, said Acheatel.
Bhatia found the whole experience eye-opening. “I think my biggest takeaway is that entrepreneurship doesn’t come easy at all,” he said. “We hear about companies that have been bought for millions of dollars, but we never really realize how much blood, sweat and tears are necessary to make the smallest of ideas successful. Once you get your feet wet and actually begin to put together a business, it’s clear that there will always be challenges and surprises that jump out without warning, so you have to be aware and make sure every loose end is taken care of.”
Bhatia said his mentors were game changers. “The mentors I met through the incubator program have truly sprung me forward with their great advice, constructive criticism and support for my vision,” he noted. “The back and forth conversations with some of my mentors have led me to develop the final concept I will be pitching at the event on Friday. After reworking different business models through these last two weeks, I truly have to credit my final investor stage plan to the belief and support my mentors provided.
“Due to strategic partnerships, I have aligned with a Silicon Valley restaurateur and a serial entrepreneur, and a pilot program for the service should be up and running in the South Bay within a few weeks,” he said. “If all goes well, we anticipate growing our chef network and developing a full mobile application for the platform.
“This idea wouldn’t have come to fruition without the incubator,” said Bhatia. “The tremendous opportunity to connect with mentors and have access to a small amount of seed funding is a major incentive and motivator for entrepreneurs who have no other way to begin. I still remember the day I heard about the inaugural incubator program at a school meeting and I thought to myself, ‘This is my chance.'”
Meanwhile, Harker rising sophomore Mahi Kolla founded The Minty Boutique, a producer of artistic stationary supplies specializing in hand-crafted pins and clips. Launched in 2015, The Minty Boutique has sold over 100 units on Etsy with sales coming from the company’s social media marketing efforts.
The nascent company already has been offered partnership opportunities with online retailers and is actively expanding into brick-and-mortar retailers. Kolla is leveraging social media with sites on Etsy shop, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. This summer, Kolla launched an e-commerce site, expanded her product line to include notebooks, became an approved vendor at the Downtown San Jose Farmers Market and ran her first Google, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns.
Kolla also found her mentors to be exceptionally helpful. “My biggest takeaway from the incubator summer program has been the connection I made with my mentors,” she said. “The mentors that Acheatel and the incubator officers have curated for both of the students’ companies are extremely helpful and committed to benefiting the students in any way possible.
“The mentors have been really helpful in building a brand around my product. They are very dedicated when working with the student. All of my mentors have followed up with me after our meeting to see how they can further assist me in my entrepreneurial journey. All of them have offered unique suggestions based on their area of expertise,” she said.
The incubator program has turbocharged her growth. “My company would not have grown as much as it has through the incubator,” noted Kolla. “The incubator program has provided me a clear plan for the next five years. I know exactly what I should be focusing on and how I should be expanding the company.
“I now know how to build a cohesive brand, how to analyze my customers’ behavior and how to act on this information. I have learned so many things from the incubator and I will forever be grateful for this amazing experience. I am really excited to showcase what I learned and how my company has grown in the last two weeks. My company has always been a passion project until I realized it has the potential to be a major brand in the stationery industry,” Kolla finished.
Over the summer, the two entrepreneurs were busy. Kolla rented a booth at the Downtown San Jose Farmers Market to test that environment. Sales surpassed expectations and The Minty Boutique has become an approved vendor. She also ran test marketing campaigns on social media sites, developed her own website to supplement her Etsy site and built up her inventory.
Bhatia continued to develop and modify his online platform, conducted surveys and did some alpha testing. He has gone through several iterations of his product and business model. This experience not only saved him significant time and money, but provided him with invaluable lessons that most first-time entrepreneurs learn the hard way. During the two-week program, the entrepreneurs brought their pitches up to investor-grade quality by refining their pitch decks and doing mock presentations.
The two entrepreneurs also saw startups in action. Bhatia toured Y Media Labs in Redwood City, a world-class mobile app design and development company, where he learned from the senior product manager about the company’s development philosophy, strategies and methodologies. Bhatia also had a rap session with the CEO to discuss product strategy. Kolla toured Minted in San Francisco, an online marketplace of independent artists and designers, where she met with professionals from marketing, artist relations, partnerships, operations and finance.
It Takes a Village
The five student officers who came at the program from the administrative angle gained many of the same insights as the entrepreneurs, as they helped them prepare for the Startup Showcase, the culminating investor pitch event on Aug. 4. They are rising seniors Rahul Mehta, executive director; Vignesh Panchanatham, operations director; Kaitlin Hsu, marketing director; Shreyas Chandrashekaran, curriculum development director; and rising junior Jessica Pan, public relations director.
These five students made calls to recruit and cultivate mentors, helped plan the Startup Showcase, tirelessly supported the student entrepreneurs and helped plan the curriculum for the full-time class coming in the 2018-19 school year.
“As the director of the incubator,” said Mehta, “I learned a lot about leadership and dedication. As a result of this program, [my] leadership has gone beyond helping others and into also empowering and inspiring individuals to achieve their vision. I am excited for the future of the incubator.”
Mehta and the other class members pitched in where needed to help the two entrepreneurs get ready for their next steps. “I helped the entrepreneurs in various ways,” said Mehta. “For one company, I helped with setting up marketing and ad campaigns, finding retailers and setting up the website. For the other company, I helped with recruiting chefs, designing the pitch deck and setting up his MVP (minimum viable product).”
That work was instructive. “It became clear that startups operate at a lightning-fast pace,” said Mehta. “Often, they pivot solutions in the span of days and have to start all over again. Nevertheless, their struggles are all to create the best product, which is what every startup aims to do.”
Chandrashekaran had a similar experience in finding strength as a leader. “I gained leadership experience and a keen outsider’s view of what it takes to succeed in the startup atmosphere,” he said. “Looking at the process through an unbiased lens really helped me see the important aspects of starting a business and growing it. I worked on websites, created ads, connected entrepreneurs to professionals and helped out however they asked me to. It was like I was an early-stage employee of their company.”
He noted that the administrative team had some critical assignments. “The officer team planned the entire two-week program, while acting as support for Mr. Acheatel, and worked to get mentors and contacts to help with the program,” he said.
Pan, the group’s public relations officer, said she gained knowledge that will be invaluable to her in the future. “The class gave me better insight to how real business works,” she said. “This method is much better than just learning content from a book. We helped others and learned how the student entrepreneurs run their businesses. We also improved our skills in event organizing and leading a team.”
Summer Program to Regular Curriculum
The incubator program aimed to teach the students problem solving, said Acheatel. “Entrepreneurship, boiled down to its simplest form, is all about problem solving,” he said. “Invariably, every startup will hit roadblock after roadblock. All successful entrepreneurs have one trait in common: resiliency, a never-give-up attitude and the ability to see problems as opportunities.”
Student entrepreneurs experienced problem solving firsthand by creating products that meet customer needs; business models that deliver value; work environments that attract and retain high-quality employees; partner and investor agreements that provide the equity and sweat equity needed; and highly targeted marketing campaigns that attract target customers, Acheatel noted.
That problem solving emphatically included the officer team who, along with the above named duties, created websites; set up Google Adwords, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns; and created pitch decks and financial projections along with providing general support, said Acheatel.
“A cool thing about the student officer leadership program is that they are learning many of the same lessons that our student entrepreneurs have learned through their firsthand experience supporting the entrepreneurs, along with learning how to serve their program constituents to ensure their success,” he said.
Acheatel realized early in the summer that the program required more work than could be done effectively in two weeks, so the incubator will become a regular, semester-long course in 2018-19 school year. Students wishing to continue for another semester may do so with teacher approval. That class will host about five student startups, dependent on student interest and the viability of their proposed companies.
“The semester course starting in fall 2018 will include entrepreneurship basics, ideation and product development, intellectual property, market and competitive research, business model development, funding, team building, marketing, operations and finance, in addition to the one-on-one coaching,” said Acheatel. Given the success achieved by the first pair of entrepreneurs, and the knowledge the student officers gained, the class should take the Harker Incubator Program to a new level.
From Concept to Pitch
The Startup Showcase presented an opportunity for the two student entrepreneurs to pitch investors, hoping for encouragement and advice. Kolla and Bhatia each gave detailed presentations explaining their companies’ products and services, including what differentiated them from other businesses in their respective markets. Each of the presentations also included growth plans and projections.
“I think my pitch went well!” exclaimed Kolla. “I was able to convey my brand to the mentors, show them what my goals are and explain where the company will be going in the future.”
Kolla said that for future pitches, she would like to be more interactive, perhaps inviting someone in attendance to unbox one of her packages. Of the feedback she received from the panelists, Kolla said she most appreciated the comments about expanding her company’s product line. “All of my competitors have many more products than I currently have. This puts me at a disadvantage, since there aren’t many options for a customer to buy more than one type of product in their order,” she said. “For example, right now, customers can only purchase bow paperclips. Though they come in different colors and patterns, a customer would be more likely to spend more if there were matching notebooks or pens to go with their clip.”
Bhatia felt that despite a few “rookie mistakes,” he delivered his pitch well. “At my next pitch, I want to slow down a little bit, so I can emphasize certain points rather than glossing over them,” he said. “I guess once you’re in the heat of the pitch, you don’t realize how fast you’re going till you realize that you’ve skipped a few important points.”
After receiving some pointed questions from the panelists, Bhatia decided that he would like to rework certain parts of his plan. “A couple investor judges commented about some chef logistics and that has led me to revise the overall chef vetting and training process, so Xpress Chefs can provide a perfect experience regardless of circumstance,” he said.
“You had everything from boutique to big, bold and dangerous,” said Harker parent John Keller (Devin, grade 10, Haley, grade 12, and Johnathan ’16), a serial entrepreneur and investor who served as an investor judge. “It’s great to see kids at this age already dealing and grappling with real-world questions that some of the judges are firing at them, so I thought it was very impressive.”
Harker alumna Sonya Huang ’10, a private equity professional and another investor judge, found the presentations very thoughtful, which was impressive for less-experienced entrepreneurs. “Working in the industry, you see ad execs pulling millions of dollars that haven’t put that level of thought into it.”
Harker had a solid showing in the 2017 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Rising seniors Swapnil Garg, Jimmy Lin and Neelesh Ramachandran, and rising junior Cindy Wang were among the top 100 scorers in Division 2 (comprising second-year physics students). Out of a possible 40 points, Garg scored 28, Lin and Neelesh each scored 25, and Wang scored 23. The average score for Division 2 participants was 13.1.
With a team total of 122 points, Harker took third place in Division 2, tying with Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which placed second due to having the highest-scoring student.
The Physics Bowl, which this year included more than 7,100 students from around the world, is a 45-minute, multiple-choice exam consisting of 40 questions on topics commonly covered in high school physics courses.
Harker had a solid showing in the 2017 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Rising seniors Swapnil Garg, Jimmy Lin and Neelesh Ramachandran, and rising junior Cindy Wang were among the top 100 scorers in Division 2 (comprising second-year physics students). Out of a possible 40 points, Garg scored 28, Lin and Neelesh each scored 25, and Wang scored 23. The average score for Division 2 participants was 13.1.
With a team total of 122 points, Harker took third place in Division 2, tying with Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which placed second due to having the highest-scoring student.
The Physics Bowl, which this year included more than 7,100 students from around the world, is a 45-minute, multiple-choice exam consisting of 40 questions on topics commonly covered in high school physics courses.
Harker had a solid showing in the 2017 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Rising seniors Swapnil Garg, Jimmy Lin and Neelesh Ramachandran, and rising junior Cindy Wang were among the top 100 scorers in Division 2 (comprising second-year physics students). Out of a possible 40 points, Garg scored 28, Lin and Neelesh each scored 25, and Wang scored 23. The average score for Division 2 participants was 13.1.
With a team total of 122 points, Harker took third place in Division 2, tying with Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which placed second due to having the highest-scoring student.
The Physics Bowl, which this year included more than 7,100 students from around the world, is a 45-minute, multiple-choice exam consisting of 40 questions on topics commonly covered in high school physics courses.
Harker 2017 graduates Steven Cao, Divya Rajasekharan, Sandip Nirmel, Angela Kim, Andrew Rule, Kai-Siang Ang, David Zhu, Anuva Mittal, Amrita Singh and Albert Xu were named 2017 National Merit Scholarship Winners. Cao, Rajasekharan, Nirmel, Kim, Rule, Ang and Zhu were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, a one-time prize that can be put toward their studies at any accredited U.S. college or university. Mittal, Singh and Xu received college-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which provide an annual amount of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years.
Following its regional Quiz Bowl win in April, Harker’s A-team of Nikhil Manglik ’17, rising senior Edgar Lin and rising sophomores Rohan Cherukuri and Jeffrey Fung, traveled to Atlanta for the national championship. The team had a respectable finish, taking 25th in a competition with more than 300 teams. Rising sophomore Kyle Li, a member of the Harker B-team, ranked No. 2 among freshmen nationwide and was named a Freshman Rising Star. Li also was ranked 45 overall among the 1,500 participants.
The eagle has literally landed on the gym floor in Harker’s new athletic center, and the whole project is nearing completion in plenty of time for the Aug. 18 grand opening!
A recent tour of the athletic center showed just how close the building is to being finished. The sheetrock is in and taped, with 80 percent of the walls painted, drinking fountains (with sensor-driven bottle refill stations) are running, the lighting is being tested for proper luminescence and even the window for the snack bar was tested and found ready.
A walk-through shows some of the useful refinements Harker has included in this amazing facility, including Dyson Blade hand dryers, in-office showers for coaches and polished concrete floors in hallways, while side rooms and office floors are covered with durable high-traffic carpet that deadens noise and helps avoid slips. Interior appointments include huge, inspiring banners and some beautiful maple trim that provide both visual relief and help make the gym an inviting campus center for students.
So much for the nuts and bolts of the center, on to the spectaculars!
The heart of the center, the sprung hardwood floor, is being finalized with all the lines for various sports that will play in the gym, but the centerpiece is a huge bald eagle, wings spread, that covers a large part of the floor. The eagle, in its natural colors of brown and white, is positioned so it is center court when the bleachers are fully extended. The eagle has been stained into the floor and court lines will be laid down over the next few days. Next, the entire floor will be varnished with special non-skid varnish that protects the floor and gives athletes great traction (watch the video!). There is also a full-size video screen, 20 feet wide, in the gym facing the bleachers, so the facility can be used for various assemblies.
Jaron Olson, head athletic trainer, noted a few of the amenities that will change the way Harker cares for its student athletes. “I am most excited about our new athletic training room,” he said. “This is a beautiful new space for our certified athletic trainers to assist our athletes with the care and prevention of athletic injuries. It features a taping/first aid area, an area for treatment tables, space for therapeutic exercise, an office, exam room, and the crown-jewel … the hydrotherapy area.”
One of the long-awaited major fixtures is the HydroWorx 300 therapy pool adjacent to a dual tank hot/cold Cryotherm pool from Grimm Scientific.
“The therapy pool will be fantastic for therapeutic exercise and of rehabilitation of athletic injuries,” said Olson. “For any athletes who cannot tolerate full weight-bearing exercise, the HydroWorx pool allows for continued activity during the recovery process when only partial weight-bearing is indicated.” The remedy is particularly valuable for rehabbing lower extremity injuries, low back pain, post-surgical rehab, etc., he added.
Olson said the hot/cold tubs allow for cold treatment for lower extremities following activity, or full-body cold plunge to aid in recovery after training. “This is particularly popular following those hot football practices in August, or after those vigorous cross country workouts running in the hills,” he said.
The athletic training room is strategically located on the east side of the building, adjacent to Davis Field, with doors leading directly to the field. Visiting athletes will also have direct access from the field to a team conference room furnished with a projector and screen. That room has a divider that can be used during the school day and folded back so classes or visiting teams can use the whole room to view the white board and video.
Olson also noted that the hardwood-floored multipurpose room on the second floor in the southwest corner will be another exciting and heavily used feature. “It will give a home to our P.E. offerings such as yoga, capoeira and fitness, as well as providing a practice space for cheerleading or other teams,” said Olson. “It is set up with a teaching wall for class instruction or other functions, and it has a fantastic sky-box view of the competition courts below.”
“Current and future Eagles are absolutely thrilled about having such a beautiful athletic center they can call their own,” said Dan Molin, upper school athletic director. “This facility will truly inspire all Harker athletes to train and compete even harder. We are all so thankful for the many people involved in helping this dream become a reality.”
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
Both the upper and middle school speech and debate teams did incredibly well recently at one of the three major national speech and debate tournaments. The National Speech & Debate Association Tournament was held in Birmingham, Ala., June 18-23. Thousands of students compete at the massive event.
Four upper school students qualified to attend the tournament, and each had impressive results. Aditya Dhar ’17 took home top honors in congressional debate with the senate leadership bowl and a second-place-finish overall. The leadership bowl award is voted on by the debaters, and congressional debate coach Marjorie Hazeltine noted that the whole team was thrilled for Dhar, especially because he has been an incredible team leader and role model throughout his time at the upper school.
Jenny Achten, Harker’s speech and debate department chair, noted Dhar “was seen as a great competitor and also a fair and encouraging presence in the community. It really speaks to how highly he was held as a role model in the Congressional Debate community and within our team.”
Nikhil Dharmaraj, rising junior, made it to the quarterfinals of original oratory with his speech on the importance of quality over quantity. Dharmaraj also made it to the top 20 in impromptu speaking. Avi Gulati, rising sophomore, was close to making it to elimination rounds in oratory and also placed in the top third in impromptu. Rounding out the upper school contingent was Jason Huang, rising junior, who earned a winning record in the relatively new event of world schools debate.
The middle school team also did extremely well in its division, with 157 middle schools from 33 states represented. Harker won the School of Excellence Debate Award, given to the school with the strongest overall record in the debate events across the entire field. Coach Chris Thiele was honored to accept the award on behalf of the whole team.
The duo of Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both rising freshmen, won first place in policy debate on a 5-0 decision, as they successfully argued that the United States ought to increase its diplomatic engagement with the People’s Republic of China, particularly in the area of joint space exploration. Deven Shah, rising eighth grader, and Akshay Manglik, rising freshman, made it to the semifinals of policy debate. In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Rishi Jain, rising eighth grader, was in the semifinals and Akhilesh Chegu, also a rising eighth grader, was in the octofinals.
Harker’s grade 7 public forum teams also had impressive finishes, debating humanitarian assistance and antiterrorism efforts in East Africa. Anshul Reddy and Ayan Nath were semifinalists, Alina Yuan and Amiee Wang made it to octofinals, and Arnav Jain and Harsh Deep, along with Yejin Song and Alysa Su, were double octofinalists. All are rising eighth graders.
Arusha Patil, rising freshman, was a semifinalist in both original oratory and storytelling. Rhea Nanavati, rising fresman, was a quarterfinalist in dramatic interpretation of literature.
The coaches are very proud of all of the students’ accomplishments and send a special thanks to Class of 2017 graduates Sana Aladin, Molly Wancewicz and Anika Jain for joining the coaching staff for this exciting event.