After helping lead the girls lacrosse team to a 13-7 record and being named to the first team all-league team, Alayna Richmond ’17 finished off her high school career with an award recognizing her work in the classroom. For the second year in a row, Richmond was named to the US Lacrosse Girls High School All-Academic team. Richmond, who will attend Northwestern University in the fall, was one of only 16 Northern California girls and one of only three girls from the CCS to receive this national honor. Congratulations Alayna!
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine.
When Harker’s competitive robotics program was just starting in 2003, it needed help.
“From an engineering standpoint, the team was highly unpredictable and unreliable,” said Eric Nelson, robotics advisor. “Their creations tended not to function most of the time. Breaking down, losing parts and catching fire were the norm. The outcome was not surprising given that they resisted working as a unit.”
But since then, thanks to strong mentors and program changes, the team has steadily matured, and 2016-17 was its best competitive season yet.
The Robotics Club was founded by a student in the 2001-02 school year. Nelson, also a physics teacher and chair of the upper school’s computer science department, joined Harker and became club advisor in 2003-04, and has overseen the steady growth of the program.
In fall 2004, team captain Alex Segal ’05 both pulled the group together and had a clear design goal, said Nelson. While the robot that year had reliability issues, it had a competitive design and the team won the Sacramento regional competition and went on to Atlanta for the national event. The team held its own until mid-afternoon on the first day of the event, then slid behind for the remainder of the competition.
“The team culture was the biggest obstacle I had to overcome,” said Nelson. “That type of rebellious ‘me-first’ behavior is now the excep on rather than the norm, and it has made a big difference in the team performance.”
Jacqueline Rousseau ’07 was there early in the program’s development, too. She was on the robotics team for four years, starting in 2003-04. After college, she spent several years as a trader in foreign exchange options at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, but left recently to get a master’s in education from Harvard’s Teacher Education Program and plans to become a high school physics teacher after graduating next year. She remembers her time on the robotics team with great fondness.
“My freshman year was the team’s second year,” Rousseau said. “The first couple of years, we were just a group of students trying to figure out what we were doing, but by the time I left we had some semblance of organization. We definitely reinvented the wheel multiple times before we started learning how to pass on knowledge through the years.”
As a junior, Rousseau was programming subteam lead; her senior year she was vice president of the club. “What I actually did was a bit of everything!” she said. “My focus for the first three years was on electronics (wiring the robot) and programming (writing code and testing), and then, in senior year, managing all of the separate processes and organizing the timing of the project so we could ship on time.”
Out of Chaos, Order
For the first five years, Nelson built up the program, recruiting parents for supervision, mentoring and some technical oversight. “I also hooked a few faculty into watching the students so I could have a day off once in awhile. I am still very appreciative of [lower school science teacher] Giresh Ghooray for his help,” he said. “The one consistent aspect that I maintained was that the students had to do the design and engineering,” said Nelson. “This restriction meant that the students became very knowledgeable about the systems they developed and the tools they used, but those systems tended to look, and work, like they were made by students. They lost a lot of games.”
But the path to success began to open up in 2008. “The move into Nichols Hall [from a regular-sized classroom] was a huge game changer,” said Nelson. “We now had the space for real tools, not just hand drills and hacksaws, as well as room for ongoing projects. The new facilities and persistent structure helped a great deal in providing consistent oversight and continuity.”
By 2012, Nelson’s nine years of hard work had begun to pay off, but refinements were necessary to bring the program into the winner’s circle with consistency. “While the team’s internal performance did improve, in the sense that things stopped catching fire and losing parts,” said Nelson, “their competition performance did not. Their robots were still designed and constructed by students who only had part-time guidance for the design and engineering.”
Five years later, in 2017, the team lit up the scoreboard, making school history in March when, for the first time, it finished in the top eight of the seeding rounds of the Central Valley Regional FIRST Robotics Competition. The team ranked seventh out of 47 entries at the end of the first round, giving Harker the choice of alliance partners for the quarterfinals. During the quarterfinals, Harker’s alliance had the highest score for the entire tournament, moving it on to the semifinals. “Alas,” said Nelson, “we lost our two semifinal games. It was an excellent competition where the students really lived up to their abilities.”
Later that month the team made the semifinals in the Sacramento Regional FIRST Robotics Competition thus, for the first time, making the semifinals in both regionals in which it competes. “Our last two games were too close to call until the final official tally,” noted Nelson. A number of factors helped move the team into position for that winning season. “Over the past five years we have formalized the team structure, created a handbook so we can remember what we do that works and created a purchase tracking and approval system to keep costs under control,” Nelson said. Meanwhile, the club was converted to an official program, an important change to make it eligible for school funding.
In the past – and this season – the team had consistent help about every other week from Brian Oldziewski, Harker’s network administrator, and parent mentors – but that wasn’t quite enough. “We needed someone in the trenches who could work side by side with the students to keep them from diverting from good design ideas and from making bad last-minute decisions,” said Nelson.
Enter Martin Baynes, who has worked at Harker for a few years as a computer science teacher at the upper school and robotics teacher at the middle school. Before taking up teaching, Baynes was a senior manager in electronics and software companies in Silicon Valley for many years. “I am used to trying to be a catalyst for creativity, and a facilitator, priority and milestone clarifier,” he said.
Baynes teaches the robotics course and, Nelson noted, “works with the students in the engineering trenches on a daily – or perhaps hourly is a better word – basis during the build and competition season.” These changes, along with a new officer selection process, on top of the years of refining the program, all contributed to this year’s stellar results. Baynes is insistent the students made the difference. “The leadership by the students in all cases was excellent and the most crucial factor,” he said.
But one of his own contributions was key: During build season Baynes brought a voice of reason to proposed changes in plans, “to stop the over-creative enthusiasm,” he said. This focusing saved enough resources that the team was able to build a second robot for software development, tuning and practice. Baynes brought his expertise to the competition floor, too, “so I could help with debrief and stop them changing the robot prematurely,” he said. “They became a well-oiled operation team in both the pit and on the competition floor; it was most impressive at UC Davis.”
The transition has gone well. “Martin has taken over all the engineering oversight and lab management tasks,” Nelson said. “This is the first year that I did not know what the design was until I watched the robot in action. It was the first year that I did not put in 60- to 80-hour weeks during build, and it was the best year in terms of both internal and external overall performance.”
Along with supervising the build, Baynes’ two new robotics classes will add a fresh dimension to the robotics program as students who pass through them join the program in increasing numbers. Existing classes were already helping the software subteam, said Nelson. “Our computer science courses give those students a strong foundation, which makes a big difference in their coding efforts. The electronics course in the physics subdepartment helps the more electrical engineering-minded students.”
The new courses are robotics hardware and robotics software classes, one taught each semester. Both classes train students from a general principles perspective, not specifically on the competition hardware and software. However, the hardware course does train students in 3-D CAD, which the design team uses to build the robot; and the software course supports the software aspects of the club work. In both courses this year, about 30 percent of the students are in the competitive program.
Andrew Tierno, grade 12, executive president of the 2016-17 robotics team, has been on the team four years. “Ever since I went to the Harker open house as a rising freshman, I knew I wanted to join robotics,” he said. “A lot of what we do here at Harker is theoretical and intellectual, so it’s nice to have a program where we’re actually building things with our own two hands and learning, sometimes painfully, that not everything that should work in theory does work in practice.”
As a freshman, Tierno liked what he saw. “I admired the leadership of then executive president Sarika Bajaj ’14,” he said. “She had a way of maintaining order and championing the opinion of the underdog, all while keeping the environment fun and exciting to return to day after day. It’s that kind of energy that inspired the style of leadership I tried to bring to my presidency. I’m strongly of the opinion that it is the absolutely amazing bunch of students this year that afforded us our successes.”
Tierno agreed the changes noted above had a serious impact on results. One game changer was building that second robot thanks to Baynes’ efficiencies, “which gave us the practice crucial to our successes this year.”
Tierno, who will attend Stanford in the fall, motivated some changes of his own, included moving discussions onto the messaging platform Slack, cleaning out the robotics lab, reworking the robotics handbook and implementing a new scouting system.
All the changes added up to a landmark season. “We’ve found this special blend of strong mentors, effective organization and dedicated students that is critical for success,” said Tierno.
Tierno noted everyone on the roster made an exceptional effort this year. “Albert Xu [grade 12] deserves a special shout out for taking on the task of designing our robot and managing its construction essentially by himself,” he said.
“Christopher Leafstrand [grade 10] was our robot driver. He makes driving seem so easy, whizzing both forwards and in reverse at top speeds yet somehow dodging every single obstacle that comes in his way. On top of all that, he’s also a significant contributor to design and has already come up with a model for a robot to build over the summer.
“Nina Levy [grade 12] acted as our drive coach. Her quick thinking and ability to make snap decisions led us to victory more than once when we thought everything was lost. She has the incredible ability to make everyone stop and listen to her, which is critical in a game where teamwork is key (finals matches are played with two other teams against another three-team alliance),” finished Tierno.
Levy was the team’s 2017 director of public-facing operations, so she managed the drive team of five students but also helped with the build. She, too, has been on the team for four years. She organized drive team meetings and during the match, acted as the driver’s brain, coaching him on what to do, to get a gear (an item to be collected and re-deposited by the robot), to climb or defend, and alerting him on how much time is left and how many gears were in the goal.
“I have learned a multitude of engineering-related skills that have prepared me for college,” noted Levy, who will attend University of California, Davis in the fall. “I think over the years the biggest changes were in communication. When our team communicated with each other and worked together for one common goal, we succeeded both as a team and at competition.”
Levy revels in the community that develops with the team. “Within the team, everyone, each year, always talks about the close friends they have made and the people that they can trust and count on,” she said.
“I think that robotics is a really great opportunity for any high school student interested in STEM fields,” Levy added. “Whether you have previous knowledge about different aspects of robotics or know nothing but are willing to give it a try, the experience is completely worthwhile. I would say Harker Robotics is not just about a club that builds robots but also a community that fosters learning, growth, communication and respect between all the team members and mentors.”
Great Take-Aways for All
Baynes, like all good teachers, enjoys watching the students grow, seeing what they are capable of, and seeing them rewarded for their dedication and hard work in the competition achievements. “I believe if we had gone for a third competition, they could have won,” he said.
The next few years should be interesting. “I expect a high level of recruiting next year because of this year’s success,” said Baynes. “I hope for improved productivity from lab changes and robotics courses reinforcement. We cannot guarantee a group of students like this year’s every year, but hopefully we will attract similar personalities because of the competition and because its robot is student led, student designed, student built, student driven – unlike many other FIRST Robotics Competition teams where coaches and mentors are hands-on the robot design and build.”
Rousseau noted long-term benefits she gained from being on the team. “Learning to cooperate with a team is invaluable,” she said. “Trying to build a robot gets very messy at times, and I learned how to persevere and try new approaches to problem-solving if the first few ideas don’t work.”
She learned how to tackle an open-ended project. “Robotics was so much more like the real world than any class I took; there was no right answer, no instruction manual, and there was a hard deadline. Learning how to manage the six weeks of build and end with a functional robot taught a lot of skills that homework problems couldn’t.”
But the best thing Rousseau got out of the program were her many good memories. “During the build period, I would spend on average 40 hours a week, after school and weekends, on robotics. That, plus traveling to competitions, meant that most of my extracurricular life revolved around the team.”
Rousseau absolutely encourages girls to join the team; this season, 11 of the 40 members are female. “The more diverse perspectives the team has, the better the outcome will be,” she said. “Robotics teaches everyone how to be confident in their skills and how to communicate their ideas to the rest of the team, which can be particularly beneficial to women going into male dominated STEM fields.”
Rousseau noted that her decision to become a high school physics teacher had everything to do with her time at Harker. “I was fortunate enough to have two amazing physics teachers at Harker, Ms. [Lisa] Radice and Dr. Nelson, who inspired me to major in physics at Caltech. They are definitely in my mind as examples of the type of teacher I hope I’ll be able to be.”
Following a stellar season, Tierno reflected on his time in the robotics program. “I screamed so loud at our competitions that my voice went hoarse,” he said. “We had the right students, the right mentors, and the right organizational structure to create this perfect storm that led us to our successes. I’ve just been filled with an overwhelming pride for this team.”
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine.
Good evening. I would like to welcome members of the Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, staff, parents, friends and family, alumni, and the true guests of honor, the graduating Class of 2017. I have the privilege of saying a few words of farewell to our graduates each year. Like most graduation speeches, my talk takes the form of advice, like “Dare to Singletask” or “Love like a Labrador.” Because my talk is the only formality remaining between you and your diplomas, I will continue the tradition of confining my remarks to one page of single-space, size-12 font. But, as always, I will make no promises about the size of my margins. I can tell you that they are indeed marginal.
Today is a special graduation for me because we are in fact graduating together, although I am sure you are graduating with a higher GPA. After 18 years at Harker I will assume the role of headmaster of The American School in Switzerlandthis summer. When I am asked to name one positive thing about moving to Switzerland, I answer that its flag is a real big plus. Even though we are leaving Harker together, its values of lifelong learning, commitment to excellence, and service to others will not leave us. I know, however, that you will be upholding these values with a touch more spring in your step and no gray hair.
Which brings me to the advice I want to share with you today. I have chosen one of my all-time favorite quotes as the cornerstone of my advice – a quote, I believe, that encapsulates everything you need to know about life. I hope I am not overselling it. If I am, you cannot have your money back – or maybe you can, since I am leaving. No, you cannot. The quote comes from the great 18th century Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire. I will break it into two parts, the first half and the second half. The first half is as follows: “Life is a shipwreck …” I know, very inspiring. The original reads as follows: “La vie est un naufrage …” Please excuse my French. “Naufrage” literally means “ship breaking”; think “navigation” and “fracture” joined in one word. I prefer the English “shipwreck” – you know what you are facing with “shipwreck.” A “naufrage” sounds rather nice, like “massage.” “How much is the naufrage and does it involve warm stones?”
When Voltaire says, “Life is a shipwreck,” despite his reputation for satire, I don’t believe he is being completely pessimistic. Think about it – life and shipwrecks have much in common. In both life and shipwrecks, you wind up in places you had not anticipated. For instance, how many of you knew you would be born? Both shipwrecks and life require us to improvise. By saying “Life is a shipwreck,” Voltaire is pointing out that all of us, to a large degree, find ourselves bobbing around on the ocean of life, governed by gale forces that are at best indifferent to our preferences and very much out of our control.
Even though the first half of the quote is about what is out of our control, the second half is about what is within our control. Here is the full quote: “Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” There you have it – my advice for you today: “Don’t forget to sing in the lifeboats.”I expected that to be more dramatic than it was.
If the first half of the quote is not pure pessimism, the second half is not mindless pap either. I always wanted to use the word “pap” in a graduation speech. “Don’t forget to sing in the lifeboats” means to find joy no matter where you are; to pay attention to those in the lifeboat next to you, even if their presence, like today, is alphabetically determined; to see that circumstances do not necessarily dictate your attitude about those circumstances.
As you may be aware, Mr. Keller, our upper school head, places inspirational quotes at the end of his emails. I often look to see what quote he has placed there. In an uncanny coincidence, as if the universe were conspiring to send the Class of 2017 a common, powerful message, Mr. Keller’s latest quote on his email, after no coordination with me, is the following: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” The parallelisms are uncanny – spooky even. Shipwrecks – singing; storms – dancing.
“Don’t forget to sing in the lifeboats” is also practical advice. We are not saying that success or any specific outcome is certain when you come from a place of joy and appreciation. We are saying that instead of waiting for success from the outside, you can carry success on the inside. Singing in the lifeboats contributes to resilience, an ability to turn lemons into lemonade, something Harker food service does every day.
Remember, Voltaire doesn’t say “Sing in the lifeboats”; that would be too direct. He does not command us to sing, but instead he commands us not to forget to sing. His commanding us not to forget is important. Why? I believe that singing in the lifeboat is our natural state, like the joy children express, a joy we too easily forget. We all forget to sing in the lifeboats. You will forget from time to time. You may have already forgotten today. Given my talk, I would understand.
To close, Marianne Williamson has famously written, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” To continue to mix metaphors, now is the time to remember your light, to remember to sing in the lifeboats. Like Troy and Gabriella sang in our own 2017 production of “High School Musical”: “We’re soarin’, flyin’/There’s not a star in heaven/That we can’t reach.” If you “Don’t forget to sing in the lifeboats,” you will not only be a light unto yourself but a light unto the universe as well. Thank you and congratulations to you all.
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine.
Spanish teacher Abel Olivas is one of the few remaining teachers who started at Harker with the opening of the upper school. He serves as chair of the modern and classical languages department, is the faculty advisor for the Gender and Sexuality Alliance and the Spanish National Honor Society, and assists the Diversity Committee in various ways. A native of Texas whose life got off to a “really rough start,” his diverse interests and talents show a life well-lived and appreciated.
Q: What one piece of advice would you offer anyone who asks?
Don’t live your life for anyone else.
Q: What are you most proud of yourself for?
I got an MFA in writing and completed the manuscript for my memoir! My book details how grateful I am that my life turned out so nicely.
Q: What would constitute a perfect day for you?
After a solid eight hours of sleep, doing a couple of hours of fruitful writing; lunch at Books Inc. in Mountain View; another couple of hours of productive writing there; back home to listen to music and do some singing or dancing; a call with my mother or sister in Texas; and a nice, long dinner with my husband, Robert, at one of our favorite restaurants. My needs are simple!
Q: What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?
Getting my book published. Oh wait, it hasn’t happened yet. If/when it happens, it will be the greatest accomplishment of my life.
Q: What work of art has inspired you and why?
I’m inspired in my writing by writers and composers who have turned the stories of minority communities into art. “In the Heights,” my favorite musical of all time, resonates with me so much, I sing to the cast recording in my car all the time.
Q: What is your most treasured memory?
Exchanging wedding vows with Robert as my mother witnessed it lovingly from her seat in the front row.
After another dominating season for the boys golf team, Coach Ie-Chen Cheng was named the NorCal Boys Golf Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association. “This award is truly a reflection of the entire team, from the JV players to varsity to the amazing coaches we have on staff with Tom, Tyler and Don, and not to mention the entire support squad from transportation to administrative support and of course our athletic director, Dan Molin,” said Cheng. “It really does take an entire ‘village’ to allow the boys to do what they do.”
This year, the boys team was the WBAL league champs, the WBAL tournament champs, the CCS regional champs, the CIF NorCal champs and finished fifth at the state finals. It was quite an amazing year for the program that Coach Cheng took over in 2011. “I am super fortunate to have such incredible, dedicated and selfless golfers come through the program,” continued Cheng. “It really is all about the student athletes buying into the team concept, and believing in achieving something bigger than oneself.”
Upper school librarian Lauri Vaughan accepted the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the nation’s best reading program for teens at the American Library Association conference in Chicago on June 26. ReCreate Reading, Harker’s summer reading program, celebrates reading for pleasure and offers students in grades 10-12 a choice of about 70 titles sponsored by as many teachers. Teachers declare and students select their titles each spring and then meet to discuss the books in August.
Since the program’s inception in 2009, numerous book discussions have featured author participants, including luminaries Matt Richtel, David Quammen, Andrew Smith, Mariko Tamaki and Dave Cullen, among others. ReCreate Reading 2017 features 69 distinct titles, including the novels “The Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead, “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Black Panther” trilogy and the Agatha Christie classic “Murder on the Orient Express.” Nonfiction is also represented, including Michael Lewis’ “The Undoing Project” and Ashlee Vance’s eponymous biography of Elon Musk.
A highlight of this summer’s program is a discussion with Jeff Chang about his latest title, “We Gon’ Be Alright.” Chang, executive director of Stanford’s Institute of Diversity in the Arts, is most famous for his groundbreaking history of hip-hop, “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.” After joining about 40 students for a book discussion, Chang will visit art classes and offer a lunchtime presentation open to all students and faculty on ReCreate Reading discussion day, Aug. 31.
Former Harker student Andrew Shvarts will join performing arts teacher Brian Larsen’s group to discuss his debut fantasy novel “Royal Bastards.” Authors participating via Skype include Robert Moor, author of “On Trails,” Romina Russell, author of “Zodiac,” and James Renner, author of “True Crime Addict.”
Harker students had great success at the national TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) finals in Orlando, Fla., in late June, where they won the grades 9-10 division first-place trophy in problem-solving, and placed in the top 10 for both prepared presentation and best in nation. The team finished fourth overall nationally. The team members, who took second in the state finals, are all rising sophomores: Jackie Yang (team captain), Eileen Li, Sachin Shah, Emily Liu, Allison Jia, Cynthia Chen and Vani Mohindra. Kyle Li did not travel to Orlando, but was part of the team that took second in the state.
“Once again the top qualifying team from Harker has represented the school with honor,” said the team’s coach, Tony Silk, upper school mathematics department chair. “The students worked very hard and had a wonderful experience. I can only imagine how they’ll do in their second year! A special thanks to Harker parent Roxana Yang, who traveled with the students to Orlando, helping to make the trip, and the students’ success, possible.”
The theme for 2017, “Engineering the Environment,” included scenarios on energy efficiency, open-source geothermal heat pumps and wastewater treatment. The TEAMS competition helps to develop “STEM-capable” students in an engaging way by showing them how math and science, with an engineering focus, are used to make tangible differences in the world.
Update: Aug. 25, 2017
Great article by participant Edwin Su, grade 11, on what he gleaned from this great program:
http://inianislandsinstitute.org/2017/08/04/harker-school-to-inian-islands-institute/
Update July 13, 2017
While in Alaska, the Human Ecology class members continued to explore the issues they had been learning about in California, with an Alaskan focus. “We learned about fisheries and energy issues and had lots of opportunities to connect with nature,” noted Kate Schafer, who, with fellow upper school science teacher Chris Spenner, is leading the class.
Highlights included a hike to the outflow of the Mendenhall Glacier, a morning spent with a Tlingit tribal elder at the Alaska State Museum and a day spent on Glacier Bay with ample wildlife sightings including grizzly bears, mountain goats, whales, Steller sea lions, puffins, marbled murrelets and many other species of birds, and spectacular views of the Margerie Glacier.
“Students really appreciated the friendliness and freedom they experienced during their time spent in the small town of Gustavus,” said Schafer. “While there, we met with the author of a book we read about John Muir, did some trail maintenance with some local high school students and visited the hydropower plant that provides electricity for the town.”
The course culminated in four nights out at the Hobbit Hole on the Inian Islands, where the group, isolated from the internet and outside world, really got to connect with nature. Students gave up their phones during the time at the Hobbit Hole as a way to be better present in the moment and appreciate the experience of being at such an isolated place.
“Overall, the course was an amazing experience for all,” said Schafer. “Students will be sharing their final projects at an event in October and some will also be traveling to New Orleans in December to share what they’ve learned with a wider audience at the American Geophysical Union conference.” Go Nature Eagles!
June 27, 2017
Harker’s Human Ecology students sojourned last week to Bodega Bay for a stay at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab to learn about marine science, especially in the context of fisheries and the impact of ocean acidification on marine ecosystems. The group, led by Harker upper school science teachers Kate Schafer and Chris Spenner, conducted research on conditions in the tide pools and presented results to a group of students visiting from the Lawrence Hall of Science.
Students in the Human Ecology: Our Place in Nature class spend 10 days in California exploring our place in nature, not just as scientists, but as policymakers, journalists, artists and concerned citizens. They then spend 10 days in southeast Alaska, in and around Glacier Bay, exploring the same themes in a different place and culture, among different people.
After Bodega Bay, the group headed to the Pescadero area, where they camped under the redwoods at Butano State Park and continued their exploration of nature and human impact. While there, in addition to experiencing the beauty of the place, the group learned about the complex issues of land use and farming in areas with vital habitat for salmon and other endangered species.
They studied the issue of sustainable farming, both from the perspective of sustaining the land and providing sustainable conditions for people working on the land. The group also visited Pie Ranch and baked some delicious strawberry rhubarb pies with ingredients harvested from the farm, then met with Ben Ranz from an organization in Pescadero called Puente. This group is dedicated to providing support to the San Mateo coastal community members, many of whom are immigrant farm workers from Mexico. The group is now in Alaska.
“The trip was amazing and we are heading off on our first full day in Juneau,” said Schafer. We’ll be updating this story as the reports come in!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2016 Harker Magazine.
Eric Nelson has the distinction of teaching nine different courses at the upper school, seven on a regular basis. He is the computer science department chair, runs the robotics program, and teaches a variety of science classes, including astronomy and physics.
Though born and (mostly) raised in the Southern California town of Downey, Nelson spent his middle and high school years in the Los Gatos mountains (and attended Los Gatos High School), and he keeps those roots alive by living in Boulder Creek.
He and his wife, Kathleen, have five children between them, including Chandler, who graduated from Harker last year, and two grandchildren. His pithy answers to our questions illustrate his humor and directness.
What makes you feel like a kid again?
Disneyland.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
A professor, Dr. Michael Zeilik, said, “Be simple and direct.”
What are you doing when you feel most alive?
Standing quietly in the forest and just listening. Walking on an isolated beach, and again, just listening. Being able to focus on all the sensations, sights, smells and sounds where most people would simply find silence.
In what way are you above average?
I was an astrophysicist. What else do I need?
What is something that you pretend to understand when you really don’t?
Women.
Why do you do what you do?
Because I enjoy it. Life is too short to do something every day that you don’t enjoy doing.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2016 Harker Magazine.
By Casey Near ’06
Know yourself, know the colleges, know the process. That three-pronged approach has been the foundation of Harker’s college counseling process since the department formed nearly 15 years ago when the upper school was opened. At the department’s inception, Harker hired counselors with solid college admissions experience and, as the student body expanded during the first four years, filled out a team of counselors with a range of university counseling backgrounds.
The college counseling office is now run by Nicole Burrell, who started with the office when the upper school opened. During the past 15 years, the department has successfully guided students into higher education around the world, from the University of California system to universities in the United Kingdom and Asia.
Counselors help with the minutia that occupies students as they fill out forms and scrutinize university Curricula, but ultimately the counseling job is about teaching a process that will help students make good decisions – and that process, at its best, is rooted in a student’s self-reflection.
Know Yourself
Burrell and her team begin working with students in their junior year, a full calendar year before college application deadlines. Their efforts aim to ensure that, in the yearlong process, students will reflect deeply on what they want in a university education. “This is not something you just check off the list,” cautioned Burrell.
When students walk through their doors, the counselors urge them to not let high school and the college application process just happen to them. At this time, in particular, students must take ownership of their education, Burrell noted. Ideally, the student drives the learning process, while the parents serve as the guardrail, explained Martin Walsh, one of the four counselors on the team.
Know the Colleges As senior year approaches, counselors guide students to finalize their lists of colleges and universities where they feel they may thrive. Andrew Quinn, another counselor, said this is his favorite part of the process – introducing students to “possibilities beyond the schools they’ve heard of that could be a good fit.” Burrell said the students’ visions become reality as they expand their lists and, due to the reflection that takes place in the process, the students begin to develop their unique voices, which they share in their applications.
Know the Process
Starting in their junior year, students attend a weekly college counseling class, an original and comprehensive cornerstone of Harker’s college counseling program. Seniors then have regular meetings with their counselor, and the counselors have drop-in hours for all seniors. In addition, throughout the fall, college representatives come to campus to speak to students to help them make decisions. This year, nearly 75 colleges visited Harker, giving students a chance to better understand the broad range of college options available to them.
“This [counseling process] is the stuff that’s on the dream list of 99 percent of the high school college counselors I talk with,” said Walsh. With a caseload of fewer than 50 students per counselor, Harker’s ratio is well below most private schools; coupled with the availability of counselors, a college counseling class built into seniors’ schedules, and the carefully developed process, the program is built for student success. The Harker college counseling program is “the gold standard,” said Lauren Collins, a former Harker college counselor who has worked in college admissions and at many independent schools. “The counselors take time to analyze both local and national historical data, meet with families with great care and patience, and maintain important relationships with college admission colleagues – all while keeping the individual student at the front of this layered, dynamic and complicated process,” Collins added.
The counselors hope students will walk into their offices knowing this is a more organic process than they may have thought when they were freshmen – that it’s more about introspection than playing a perceived admission game. Padding accomplishments and joining clubs won’t guarantee an attractive application. Because each student’s goals are unique, the process will look different for each one, and counselors hope students will learn to follow their deepest interests, digging into what they really want and how they learn best.
Counselors’ Roles
“We’re college counselors, but we really are guides,” said Kevin Lum Lung, a 12-year veteran of the counseling office. “The expectation of a guide is that they’re going to help you, but not do the work for you.” A counselor’s role is to show students all the roads ahead, but students need to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. Parents also must stay engaged in the process through college parent nights or by attending a counseling meeting with their child to check in.
The process can become stressful when students don’t assume prime ownership of the process, Burrell said. A huge part of senior year is managing the calendar and showing up to college counseling sessions, she added. For the most successful students, the process includes a heavy dose of self-reflection. “Problems arise when you have a college list that makes no sense – too many [schools], or too many ‘reach’ schools,” said Martin, referring to schools that deny a vast majority of their applicants.
Many students and families can rely too heavily on various rankings, so the counseling team encourages students to supplement their research with big questions to encourage reflection about how and in what kinds of communities they learn best, he noted.
Success Defined
With more than 2,000 colleges and universities in this country, what precisely does success look like to Harker’s college counseling department? For Lum Lung, it all comes back to helping students manage the process. “If a student goes through the process with less anxiety than they would have without my help,” that’s success, he said. Plus, in an ideal world, students will learn something about themselves during the journey, added Walsh.
Burrell agreed, noting she hopes students can look back on the final outcome knowing they did everything in their power to choose well, and they don’t look back with any regrets. Sarah Payne ’09 had a particularly fulfilling experience in the college application process. She said that once she realized that the competitive admission process didn’t reflect on her value as a person, she “was able to focus on the qualities of a university that matched my expectations for a positive college experience.”
And when it came time for her younger brother Dwight ’12 to approach the college process, she counseled him “to open his horizons outside of [the] traditional lists during his college application process.” Sarah ended up at the University of Southern California, while her brother chose University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, choices they likely wouldn’t have made without the nudging and reflection encouraged by the counseling department.
Each spring, Lum Lung reminds seniors that they are not defined by their admissions decisions. As Sarah Payne wisely reflected, “Your acceptance letters are not your net worth.” And, when counselors finally send students off to college, Lum Lung said, their best moments occur when they hear how enthusiastic and happy their students are in their new college homes – the truest sign of a job well done.
Following graduation from Scripps College, Casey Near ’06 was an admissions counselor at Mills College and a director at Collegewise, which provides one-on-one counseling for high school students.