Harker bid a heartfelt farewell to the Class of 2017 at today’s graduation ceremony, held at the beautiful Mountain Winery in Saratoga. As attendees filed into their seats, they were treated to music performed by the Harker Chamber Orchestra, directed by Chris Florio. As the ceremony began and the graduating seniors took their seats at the front of the stage, the orchestra launched into “Pomp and Circumstance.” Following the Carl Oser-led 2017 Graduation Chorus’ stirring rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” upper school division head Butch Keller welcomed the late-afternoon audience to the ceremony.
He welcomed this year’s valedictorian, Kai Ang, mentioning not just his academic achievements but also his character, including his work teaching piano to children with special needs. In his speech, Ang compared the journey he and his classmates had made to that of Odysseus, with the caveat that their journey had not lasted as long. Although the seniors’ achievements are remarkable, however, he reminded his classmates that much of their success was due to the support of their parents, teachers and “the tender roasting of our friends.”
“We are indebted to all who have stood behind us,” he said, “seen and unseen.”
After the applause from Ang’s speech subsided, the Graduation Chorus, directed by Susan Nace, sang “New Beginnings.” This year’s graduation keynote speaker was Nvidia co-founder Chris Malachowsky, who reminisced about visiting Harker earlier in the month, remarking about the dedication of the faculty, as well as the curiosity and accomplishments of its students.
Malachowsky offered graduated three points of advice, the first of which was investment. “Not the typical monetary kind of investment,” he cautioned, but investment in themselves. At college, he said, the graduates “should make it a priority to use your time to expand your horizons, both culturally and intellectually,” and take advantage of all the resources available, including special events, clubs and employment opportunities.
The second point was confidence, which would enable them to take chances and achieve more, adding that students should create an environment for themselves in which confidence can grow. “If you haven’t figured it out by now, life is a team sport. So surround yourself with people who will challenge and help you grow,” he said.
The final of Malachowsky’s three points was responsibility. “It’s your life to live, and you should be looking to fully take the reins of it as you move through these next phases of your lives,” he said. He stressed that the graduates had to take it upon themselves to improve the world around them. “If something is wrong, broken, inefficient, take some measure of responsibility and fix and improve it for everyone,” he said.
After Malachowsky congratulated the graduates and wished them success in their future endeavors, Christopher Nikoloff took the podium to address Harker’s senior class for the last time as head of school. Nikoloff, who will assume duties as headmaster of The American School in Switzerland later this year, once again promised to keep his remarks to one page of single-spaced size 12 font while also making no promises about the size of the margins.
In Nikoloff’s signature manner, he opened with some light humor, remarking that he and the Class of 2017 “are in fact graduating together, but I am sure that you are graduating with a higher GPA.”
Nikoloff shared with the audience his favorite quote from the philosopher Voltaire, starting with the first sentence: “Life is a shipwreck.”
“I know, very inspiring,” Nikoloff quipped. But despite the apparent darkness of Voltaire’s opening line, Nikoloff said he didn’t believe Voltaire was being a total pessimist. “In both life and shipwrecks, you both end up in places you had not anticipated,” he said. “For instance, how many of you knew you would be born?”
He then stated Voltaire’s thought in its entirety: “Life is a shipwreck. But we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.”
Voltaire, Nikoloff said, was reminding us to “find joy no matter where you are, to pay attention to those in the lifeboat next to you, to see that your circumstances do not necessarily dictate your attitude about those circumstances.”
As Nikoloff finished his remarks, former head of school and board of trustees chair Diana Nichols stepped up to the podium to thank Nikoloff and surprise him with an honorary diploma expressing Harker’s eternal gratitude for his years of service to the school.
The members of the Class of 2017 then walked to the stage one at a time to receive their diplomas from Nikoloff, as their friends and families cheered from the stands. After the final diploma had been handed out, assistant head of school Jennifer Gargano and Nikoloff said one more goodbye to the senior class as doves were released into the air.
In addition to stellar showings at the California Junior Classical League State Convention, Harker Latin students also have been posting excellent results on recent national exams. In the advanced level of the National Roman Civilization Exam, Venkat Sankar, grade 12, and Edgar Lin, grade 11, both received gold medals and Andrew Semenza, grade 11, won silver. At the intermediate level, freshmen Jeffrey Fung and Jack Hansen, and sophomore Alexander Young, won gold medals, and freshman Kalyan Narayanan won silver.
In the Medusa Mythology Exam, Hansen won a bronze medal, Fung was awarded with a corona laurea, and Narayanan and Young each received a corona olivae.
Lin, Sankar and Semenza also had success in the advanced level of the National Classical Etymology Exam, with each student earning a gold medal. Notably, Sankar was one of just 24 students (out of 1,768 who took the exam) to score a 46 on the exam. Senior Arnav Tandon also did very well, winning a silver medal. Fung and Hansen each won gold medals at the intermediate level, where sophomore Ayush Pancholy also earned gold. Narayanan received a silver medal.
Students also performed splendidly on the National Latin Vocabulary Exam. In Latin Level 3, Fung received a gold medal, while Hansen and Narayanan both received silver. Pancholy and Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 10, each won silver in Latin Level 4, where Timmy Chang, also grade 10, won bronze. In Latin Level 5, Sankar and Semenza were both gold medal winners and Tandon took home silver.
Harker’s swimmers had an impressive showing at the CCS Finals last week, placing 17th out of 43 teams. Leading the way were Ethan Hu, grade 9, who won the 100 butterfly, breaking the school record and becoming only the sixth Harker athlete to win an individual CCS championship, and Vivian Wang, grade 11, who took second in the 100 breaststroke, also breaking a school record. Both Hu and Wang qualified for the CIF State Championships this weekend in Fresno. Wang is seeded fifth and Hu fourth in their respective events. Hu was also interviewed by the Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/14/ccs-boys-swimming-bellarmine-redemption-in-farewell/
Other impressive finishes included the boys 200 free relay team of Justin Culpepper, Michael Auld, Jack Farnham, all grade 12, and Hu finishing 13th, and the boys 400 free relay team of Culpepper, Auld, Farnham and Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 11, finishing 11th and breaking the school record.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team won the CCS regional tournament last week, a Harker first. Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11, was the overall individual winner and Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, took fourth. The Eagles move on to the CCS Finals on Tuesday in Monterey.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team opened the WBAL Skyline Division playoffs last week with a 13-8 win over visiting Sacred Heart Cathedral. However, the team’s season ended later in the week as it fell to eventual champion Burlingame High 14-3. It was a huge year for the girls, as they ended the season with a 13-7 record.
Boys Tennis
The boys doubles team of Edward Tischler, grade 12, and Ram Vegesna, grade 9, take the court on Tuesday against a duo from Aptos in the first round of the CCS doubles championship.
Track and Field
The Eagles competed at the WBAL Championships last Friday with lots of impressive results:
Niki Iyer, grade 12, finished first in the 3,200-meter and advances to the CCS trials this weekend.
Davis Dunaway, grade 12, finished first in the varsity pole vault with a personal best, qualifying for CCS. He also had a fourth place finish in the varsity long jump, setting a new school record, as well as new personal best in a fourth place 100 finish.
Davis Howard, grade 12, finished third in both the varsity shot put and discus, setting a personal best in the discus.
Grace Koonmen, grade 11, set a new school record while taking third place in the varsity long jump.
Anthony Contreras, grade 11, took third in both the varsity 200 and 400.
The varsity boys 4×100 relay team of Dunaway, Contreras, Angel Cervantes, grade 11, and Mitch Granados, grade 10, took third place.
Marcus Tymous, grade 10, took first in the JV boys 100 and 200, as well as second in the JV boys long jump.
Delaney Logue, grade 9, finished third in the JV girls 800.
Sameer Prakash, grade 9, finished third in the JV boys 100.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team lost 3-0 to Sobrato in the first round of the CCS playoffs last week. The Eagles finished 14-14 on the season.
Softball
The softball team dropped the final two games of the regular season, narrowly missing out on the playoffs. The Eagles dropped an 18-8 game to Mercy Burlingame before losing a heartbreaker to Pinweood 17-16 in the season finale. The girls finished 11-9 on the season.
Baseball
The baseball team ended its season last week with an 8-4 win over Mills, followed by a 12-2 loss to Menlo. In the win over Mills, juniors Tanay Kamat and Matthew Kennedy each drove in two runs. In the final game of the year, Dominic Cea, grade 11, and Varun Haltore, the lone senior, each drove in a run for the Eagles. The boys finished 13-11 on the season.
This article prepared from a report by Shania Wang, grade 10, vice president of public relations for Harker’s DECA chapter.
Students in Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to Anaheim for the 2017 International Career Development Conference (ICDC) this spring. The conference consisted of tough competitions, inspiring leadership academies and unforgettable memories. Eight teams from Harker DECA ended up in the preliminary finalists round. Six of those eight teams had the opportunity to compete in the finalist round, with three teams placing in the Top 10, one team taking third place and one student taking first place.
Finalists are as follows:
First Place
Evan Cheng, grade 9, Principles of Hospitality and Tourism
Third Place
Nishka Ayyar, Riya Gupta, both grade 10, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Top 10 Finalists
Enya Lu, grade 10, Business Finance Series
Shania Wang, grade 10, Public Relations Project
Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 11, Virtual Business Challenge – Accounting
Top 20 Finalists
Haley Tran, grade 12, Restaurant and Food Service Management
Testing – Top 10 Finalists
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 11, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
Mona Lee, grade 11, Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series
Wednesday, some students ran the DECA 5K at Angel Stadium to raise money and awareness for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. That evening, members attended the grand opening session, along with the 19,000 other ICDC attendees. The session included a fashion show presented by the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, an inspiring keynote keynote speaker, and performances from country singer Billy Gilman and band Echosmith.
Three students began their Emerging Leader Series in the Ignite Academy to build their leadership skills, and the next day, the group gave presentations and performed in role plays in the initial round of the competition.
“The atmosphere before our presentation was definitely different than previous conferences. We were sitting among tough competitors, and this definitely stressed us out,” said Katelyn Vo, grade 9, competitor in Fashion Merchandising Plan. “However, my partners and I pulled through, and I think we did really well overall. It was a great experience getting to compete at ICDC.”
After the competitive events and academies concluded, members could visit Disneyland for the rest of the day. Students also had the chance to visit the booths including exhibits by various business colleges and corporations.
Saturday was the last full day of ICDC. In the morning, students and chaperones gathered for the achievement awards session to find out whether they would move on to the final round of competitions taking place that day. In each event, approximately 20 competitors from the more than 200 teams would advance to finals. Top participants for presentations, career cluster exams and overall performers were recognized individually. Harker had an amazing turnout, with eight teams receiving the opportunity to come up on stage for their achievements. A total of six teams qualified to compete in the final round of competitions.
“In terms of competition, Harker DECA had its most successful ICDC thus far, which is really a result of everyone’s hard work over the past year,” said Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 11, Harker DECA co-CEO and testing finalist in Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series. “I loved seeing how much these students learned and improved regardless of whether they were finalists or not. Everyone was cheering on and rooting for their fellow students, and there was a real sense of camaraderie among them. We really came together as a group and that really contributed to the overall high energy of the chapter this year,” he said.
Five Harker teams were announced as top 10 finalists. The group roared its approval when Cheng was announced as first place winner in the Principles of Hospitality and Tourism event, and that Ayyar and Gupta received third place in the Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making event.
“It felt amazing going on stage,” said Gupta. “We didn’t believe it and it was really surreal, but we realized our accomplishment afterwards and my partner and I were really happy. I will truly never forget this moment.”
Wang, a top 10 finalist in Public Relations Project, also was recognized on stage for being a part of the ICDC Anaheim Live Social Media Team. Throughout the conference, she worked with DECA Inc. staff to ensure satisfactory social media coverage on all outlets. As part of the editorial team, Shania also wrote several articles for DECA Direct that will be posted in the upcoming weeks.
After the awards ceremony, Harker DECA celebrated all of their accomplishments throughout the past year with the rest of California DECA at the state dinner. ICDC 2017 definitely was one to remember for attendees.
“ICDC this year was an unforgettable experience for the Harker DECA chapter. We were able to come exceptionally prepared with our strongest competitors and they saw great success!” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA advisor. “My hope is that the positive energy experienced here will carry on into next year and bring our chapter to the next level. Most importantly, students were able strengthen their business acumen, develop professionally and grow in confidence as emerging leaders and entrepreneurs. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them as they own their future.”
Members of Harker’s Junior Classical League chapter competed at the California JCL State Convention late last month, taking top spots in several categories. The 20-person team included two middle school students – Arohee Bhoja and George Wehner, both grade 8 – who are enrolled in Latin at the upper school.
Harker placed second in two certamen (quiz bowl) competitions and had many stellar individual performances.
The breakdown of top three finishes by Harker students is as follows:
Venkat Sankar, grade 12 – First place: 6; second place: 1
Arohee Bhoja, grade 8 – First place: 4; second place: 2; third place: 3
Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 10 – First place: 2; second place: 2
Kyle Li, grade 9 – First place: 1; second place: 1; third place: 1
Bryan Wang, grade 9 – First place: 1
Edgar Lin, grade 11 – First place: 1; second place: 2
Andrew Semenza, grade 11 – First place: 1; second place: 3; third place: 1
Jai Bahri, grade 9 – Second place: 1
Jeffrey Fung, grade 9 – Second place: 3; third place: 1
Jack Hansen, grade 9 – Second place: 1
Montek Kalsi, grade 9 – Second place: 1
George Wehner, grade 8 – Second place: 2
Robert Bloomquist, grade 10 – Second place: 2
Sara Min, grade 10 – Second place: 1
Arnav Tandon, grade 12 – Second place: 1; third place: 1
The boys tennis team defeated Prospect 7-0 in the opening round of CCS last week, but it ran into undefeated St. Ignatius in the second round and was defeated 6-1, ending a historic season that saw it tally 19 wins. Congrats on a great year as a team! The doubles team of Ed Tischler, grade 12, and Ram Vegesna, grade 9, is still competing as they take on a duo from Aptos in the first round of CCS doubles on May 16.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team continued its amazing play as it won the WBAL Tournamnet last week, with Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11, winning the overall individual title and Jin Kim, grade 11, taking second. This week, the Eagles head to Laguna Seca for the CCS Regional Tournament.
Softball
The softball team brought its record to 11-7 after going 1-1 last week. In an 8-7 win over The King’s Academy, Marti Sutton, grade 12, had two hits and drove in three runs. Later in the week, the Eagles ran into a strong Notre Dame Belmont team and were defeated 10-1. Joyce Li, grade 12, drove in the only run for Harker. This week, the girls travel to Mercy Burlingame on Tuesday and Pinewood on Thursday with a CCS berth on the line.
Lacrosse
Last week, the lacrosse team picked up its seventh and eighth straight victories with an 18-14 win over Mercy Burlingame and a 15-6 win over Notre Dame San Jose. The girls finished fourth in league and will host their first round WBAL-Skyline Division playoff game against Sacred Heart Cathedral on Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Swim
The WBAL swim finals were held over the weekend with some good Harker results. Two Eagles became league champs as Vivian Wang, grade 11, won both the 50 free and 100 fly, and Ethan Hu, grade 9, started his high school career with a 200 IM league championship. Hu also set a new school record in the 100 back, finishing second. Other top finishers included Michael Auld, grade 12, who took second in the 200 free; Alex Yu, grade 10, who finished second in the 500 free; and Justin Culpepper, grade 12, who finished third in the 100 fly. In addition, the boys 200 medley relay team of Kevin Tzeng, grade 11, Arnav Joshi, grade 9, Alex Wang, grade 11, and Yu finished second; the boys 400 free relay team of Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 11, Hu, Auld and Yu finished third; and the boys 200 free relay team of Bohbot-Dridi, Culpepper, Auld and Hu finished second. CCS trials begin this Friday with the following Harker swimmers vying for a championship: Vivian Wang, grade 11, Angela Li, grade 10, Taylor Kohlmann, grade 11, Alyssa Huang, grade 9, Clarrisa Wang, grade 10, Alicia Xu, grade 9 (alternate), Ethan Hu, grade 9, Michael Auld, grade 12, Alex Yu, grade 10, Justin Culpepper, grade 12, Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 11, Jack Farnham, grade 12, Kevin Tzeng, grade 11, and Alex Wang grade 11 (alternate).
Track an Field
This Friday is the WBAL track and field finals at Palo Alto and the Eagles will be well represented. Anthony Contreras, grade 11, will run in the 200 and 400 after finishing second in both events at the trials; Angel Cervantes, grade 11, set personal bests in the 100 and 200 and will race in both events in the league finals; Grace Koonmen, grade 11, will compete for a league long jump title; and Davis Dunaway, grade 12, will sprint in the 100 league finals. In the JV finals, Kismet Singh, Nikki Solanki and Zoey Rosa, all grade 9, and Lilly Anderson, grade 10, all qualified for the 100 hurdles, and Delaney Logue, grade 9, will run in the 800.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team lost 3-0 to Monta Vista last week, but still qualified for CCS. The boys open up the first round of the tournament at Sobrato on Tuesday night.
Baseball
The baseball team pushed its record over .500 to 12-10 as it picked up three wins last week. In a 14-9 victory over Trinity Christian, Matthew Kennedy, grade 11, led the offense driving in three runs. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Jefferson 8-2 with Kennedy and Zach Hoffman, grade 10, each driving in two runs. Finally, the boys picked up a 7-4 win over Jefferson with Mitchell Kole, grade 11, picking up two hits and three RBIs. The Eagles finish their regular season this week with trips to Mills on Monday and Menlo on Thursday.
Congratulations to senior Meilan Steimle, who has been named a 2017 Presidential Scholar of the Arts! As one of just 161 scholars nationwide, she is now eligible to attend an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in June, where this year’s scholars will be honored. Scholars who attend this event will have the chance to meet with leading educators, scientists and authors, as well make new friends among their peers.
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April 21, 2017:
Earlier this week, seniors Manan Shah and Meilan Steimle were named semifinalists in the 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Their applications will be reviewed by the Commission on Presidential Scholars to determine this year’s Presidential Scholars.
Congratulations and good luck!
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Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced this year’s candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, and 19 Harker seniors were among them. Mission San Jose topped the local charts with 31. As many as 161 of the more than 5,000 candidates will be chosen as scholars.
The Presidential Scholars Program, launched in 1964, recognizes high school seniors of distinguished achievement in a variety of disciplines. It is recognized as one of the highest honors awarded to high school students.
Harker’s Presidential Scholar candidates for 2017 are:
Kai-Siang Ang
Steven Cao
Aditya Dhar
Davis Dunaway
Ria Gandhi
Andrew Gu
Zhuoying Huang
Lauren Liu
Sanjana Marce
Sandip Nirmel
Evani Radiya-Dixit
Divya Rajasekharan
Andrew Rule
Venkat Sankar
Manan Shah
Meilan Steimle
Arjun Subramaniam
Andrew Tierno
Michael Tseitlin
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Harker has the highest number of candidates from a school in California. Mission San Jose High School has 31 presidential scholar candidates, making it the California school with the most candidates. We apologize for the error.
Each year, a small number of students apply for and are selected to receive research grants from two endowments, the John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, established in 2009, and the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, established in 2011. The endowments provide funding each year for eight or nine seniors to pursue topics of their choice in depth. To date, 28 Near scholars and 19 Mitra scholars have completed papers on subjects ranging from a study of the Gettysburg campaign during the Civil War (2011) to the influence of punk music on the overthrow of the Soviet regime in Poland (2017), with many interesting titles in between.
The scholars, along with their mentors and parents, gather each spring at a reception on campus to celebrate the end of the long, sometimes trying, but always enlightening, journey. The student papers are a collaborative effort driven by the student, with the help of one or two history department mentors and an upper school librarian mentor. The mentors help students negotiate the highways and byways of in-depth research and compile the research into a coherent paper. At the reception, each scholar says a few words about their effort and then a mentor speaks to the journey he or she helped facilitate. What emerges is that the learning is great and the bonds of scholarship are strong.
“Tonight, we celebrate passion, persistence and partnership,” said Donna Gilbert, history department chair, as she opened the reception in late April. The mentors were there to “correct, guide and confront, not just cheerlead,” she said. Mentors questioned researchers’ presumptions, advised them to change direction, rewrite, reexamine, reorganize and narrow their focus, she added.
Susan Smith, Harker library director, noted this year’s scholars used 315 sources, appended 896 end notes and wrote 380 pages in their researches. “We celebrate the hundreds of hours of research that led you to scholarly analysis of literature, oral histories, journals, maps, images, technical papers and interviews. We celebrate all that you learned in the process of thinking deeply,” she said.
“We celebrate the bumps in the road that caused you to question, rethink, organize and question, again. That’s how you build new knowledge. Mostly, we celebrate your love of learning. There is no trophy to win or prize to take home, except what you learned along the way,” Smith finished.
Each scholar spoke for several minutes, touching on how deeply grateful they are for the support of their parents in the grueling effort to produce a great paper, as well as for the foundation of support from their library and history department mentors.
All scholars had poignant memories of how mentors and parents helped them through rough spots. All papers are listed below.
“Honestly, you have given me, and all of us, the chance to explore interests that I don’t think many of us knew we even had,” said Aditya Dhar. “The Near/Mitra program offers us unparalleled opportunities to learn more, not only about the rich history of different issues, but also about the broader research process.”
Dhar’s history department mentor, Katy Rees, noted “The real value of the Near/Mitra program is it can give students the opportunity to engage in authentic and independent research at a level that is impossible in the classroom.”
Andrew Rule found a true home in the research program. “I believe deeply in reading and in storytelling. I kind of would like to say I’m going to devote my entire life to storytelling, but in some ways, I’ve already started,” he said. “The idea is that myth is cyclical, that its ending is another beginning, and the ending of this paper is another beginning for me. I have a long, long way to go with Native American literature before I’m done, so thank you for this beginning.”
Rule’s history department mentor, Mark Janda, noted Rule “argues for the validity and the beauty of oral traditions [and] illustrates in his research the growing endless joy derived from literature when we understand the historical context that informs the writer or the speaker of that literature.”
Each scholar and mentor who spoke added to the sense that true scholarship had resulted from the efforts of the students. Each expressed passion for his or her topic and recognized the valuable skills he or she had gained in researching and writing the paper.
Soham Khan spoke for all the scholars when he said, “I’d like to acknowledge the Near/Mitra Endowments for empowering us to conduct high level research in the humanities. After all, the purpose of genuine scholastic inquiry is to examine the complexity of human experience, and I’m so grateful to have been offered this opportunity to explore my passion in a supportive space that affirmed my aspirations.”
The 2017-18 Near Scholars, all seniors, next year, will be Amy Jin, Matthew Lee, Andrew Semenza, Isabella Spradlin and Derek Yen. Mitra grant scholars are Nirban Bhatia, Emily Chen, Jacqueline He, Alan Jiang and Serena Lu. Best of luck to all these scholars as they begin their journey!
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, closed the event noting not only the hard work and wonderful scholarship on display, but the tremendous poise scholars displayed in presenting their papers. “Many years ago, when we talked with John Near about this concept,” said Rosenthal, “he really had a vision to continue to help the school in a way where students can really study and be very serious about researching topics that are of interest to them in the area of history, and the Mitra endowment followed that lead.”
“The idea was not only to help the students, but also to have deep involvement from the faculty. Sue [Smith] and Donna [Gilbert] have put together a program that is really, absolutely, what John had in mind when he conceived of this program. He would be very, very proud of what we are doing now, that’s for sure.”
Arnav Tandon: “Cross-Cultural Camaraderie: Tracing the Roots of Cicero’s Philosophy on Friendship to Aristotelian Ideas”
Maya Valluru: “Listen, This One’s for You: The Influence of Punk Music in the 1989 Overthrow of the Soviet Communist Regime in Poland”
Raymond Xu: “Saving Health Aid from Death’s Door: Analyzing Fraud in the The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Through the Principle-Agent Problem in Nigeria”
Tiffany Zhu: “Putting the Realism in Socialist Realism: Gorky’s ‘Mother’ as a Bridge between Soviet and Chernyshevskian Aesthetics”
Near Endowment Papers
Aditya Dhar: “Constitutional Conundrums and Measuring Minimalism: Analyzing the Incorporation of Restraint and Avoidance Canons in the Roberts Court’s Decision in Citizens United v. FEC”
Soham Khan: “Truth is a Pathless Land: Examining the Influence of Theosophy on Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Philosophy”
Sarisha Kurup: “Art in the Era of AIDS: A Look at the Emergence of ‘AIDS Art’ in 1980s and 90s New York City as a Result of AIDS Activism”
Andrew Rule: “Sunrise, Sunrise: Repurposing the Native American Oral Tradition in the Literature of the Activist 1970s”
Molly Wancewicz: “Crossing the Line: Angelina Grimké’s and Sojourner Truth’s Motivations as Representative of the Interaction Between the Women’s Suffrage and Abolition Movements”
Read more about the Near and Mitra Endowments at Harker News
As part of the Principles of Business & Entrepreneurship class, students recently attended the Saratoga State of the City address, where they met Mayor Emily Lo and U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, a democrat representing California. Following awards to police officers and firefighters, Sahil Jain, grade 9, noted, “It was really inspiring to hear all of the accomplishments [of] the award winners … and also how they were beneficial to the community. The advice that Congresswoman Eshoo gave me was this: Writing is the single most important thing in life. If you can master writing, you do anything in America.”
Brian Wang, grade 9, also attended. “I learned about the importance of community involvement in new projects and the significance of writing,” he noted. “Mayor Emily Lo discussed a variety of projects that the community worked on, and in many of the cases, the project’s success relied upon community members who were dedicated to making the community better, such as an elderly man who received the Citizen of the Year award for cleaning up trash in the community and planting more trees. In addition, Congresswoman Eshoo educated me on how writing would be incredibly essential later in my life, as there would come a time when I need to explain who I am and what I can do both concisely and effectively.”
In late April, the Harker Conservatory presented the stage version of the hit Disney film “High School Musical,” directed by Laura Lang-Ree, in which the students of Albuquerque, N.M.’s East High School vie for parts in an upcoming production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Star athlete Troy (Kayvon Solaimanpour) and shy new girl Gabriella (Chetana Kalidindi) unexpectedly become the top candidates for the coveted lead roles, which threatens to undo the social order of East High.
Complex and energetic musical numbers, courtesy of musical director Catherine Snider and choreographer Katie Champlin, dazzled the audience, and set designer Paul Vallerga’s understated rendering of East High School allowed for a variety of settings, providing the cast with ample play room. The student crew, headed up by stage manager and Harker alum Michael Prutton ’11, kept things flowing behind the scenes to ensure a smooth production.