Earlier this month, Harker junior Angela Kim received the Best in Class award in the grades 9-12 video category in this year’s Growing Up Asian in America Awards. Kim earned the award for her short film, “Mother’s Love,” and was honored at a special ceremony held at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. She and other winners were later featured on an NBC Bay Area segment about the contest. Each year, the Asian Pacific Fund holds the Growing Up Asian in America Awards to feature the creative work of young Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Nearly 1,000 students from around the Bay Area participate every year, submitting artwork, poetry, prose and video projects.
As if that wasn’t enough to get excited about, Kim also will participate in the eight-week Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program, starting in June.
The Class of 2016 received a grand send-off at yesterday’s commencement exercises, held at the beautiful Mountain Winery in Saratoga. Graduates, students, parents and faculty came together one last time for a special evening of inspiring words and lifelong memories.
In her speech, valedictorian Anika Mohindra confessed that she found it “ironic that they ask the person who has presumably spent the most time holed up in a room studying to give you life advice.”
After cleverly enumerating all the possible nuggets of academic and career advice she could give, Mohindra remarked on the many talents of her classmates and how they’ve likely been reminded of those talents many times. However, she added, “Talent doesn’t breed success or, more importantly, fulfillment. Talent simply means that you have an inherent knack for doing something—a natural skill.”
It was passion, however, that truly set her classmates apart, she said: “We can be good at things—talent—but not enjoy doing them. We might not be so good at other things but still enjoy doing them. And that’s a much better place to start because if you’re truly passionate about something, you will be able to push yourself to work hard, to improve, and to attain success by our traditional standards.”
“When I think back on my Harker journey, there are definitely things I would have done differently,” she said near the end of her speech. “I would have spent more time exploring new activities, discovering my passions, and talking to more people.” Focusing on those things might have meant making sacrifices in some academic areas, “but that’s perfectly fine. That’s not what matters at the end of it all.”
Most of all, she said, “I’m going to remember the things I loved doing and the people I loved spending time with you. I hope you do too.”
Commencement speaker Priscilla Chan, co-chair of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (which seeks to promote equality in health, education, scientific research and other areas) and a former Harker teacher, recognized some of her former students among the graduates. “You guys are so tall,” she remarked, eliciting laughter. Calling for recognition for the families of the graduates, she said, “Parents, family, you have done an excellent job. This is your moment in reward for the past 18 years of parenthood. You deserve a round of applause.” The crowd gladly obliged.
Allaying the anxieties typically facing high school graduates, Chan told the class not to panic in response to questions about college and careers. “The answer isn’t necessarily the path towards a specific job or title,” she said. “The world changes too fast for that. Rather, focus yourself on the change that you want to see in the world. Take on what’s most interesting to you. Take lots of risks. Ask for help. Believe in yourself and ask others to take a bet on you.”
Toward the end of her speech, Chan presented the elementary school yearbook from the last year she taught at Harker and read a few heartwarming messages that some of her students – sitting before her now as almost-graduates – had written for her as she left Harker to begin medical school. “Good luck. I really, really hope you graduate. (You probably will.)” wrote Namitha Villian. “Too good to be forgotten,” scribbled Naomi Molin.
“Class of 2016,” said Chan, choking back tears, “you are too good to be forgotten.”
The final speaker of the event was Head of School Chris Nikoloff, who in his typically humorous and engaging fashion, promised to keep his speech to “one page of single-spaced size 12 font. I will continue, however, to make no promises about the size of my margins.”
Nikoloff encouraged the graduates to “drop any concept you have about who you should be in the future,” and to make plans and set goals, “but just don’t get too attached to them. Use them, but do not let them use you.”
He delved into what he called the “take and make” model of life. “By ‘take,’ I mean accept, and by ‘accept’ I do not mean resignation. I mean a more active acceptance, the way a Warriors teammate accepts a pass from Steph Curry,” he said. “I promised my boys I would sneak in a Warriors reference.”
To illustrate this concept, he asked the adults in attendance to raise their hands if their lives had gone the way they imagined they would when they were 18 years old. When, inevitably, no hands were raised, he told the graduates to look around. “Your life will take unexpected, unplanned, unnecessary, unfruitful and even unpleasant turns, and there is no way you can know where you will be or what you will be doing,” he continued. “This is a good thing. Start with being born; you didn’t know what would happen, did you?
“In philosophical terms, making your life is an existential point of view. Taking your life is a fatalistic point of view,” Nikoloff said. “I say both viewpoints are true. You make your life, but only after it is handed to you.”
Nikoloff went on to explain that the students’ contributions to the world will be revealed to them as they continue their journey through life. “You are taking and making your life as you go, and who knows what ripples throughout eternity you will create?” he said.
Following Nikoloff’s speech, the graduates walked to the stage one by one to receive their diplomas, greeted by joyous applause when each name was announced.
After the last name had been announced, the graduates flipped the tassels on their caps to commemorate their accomplishments and all at once threw their caps in the air, chanting: “Twen-ty-six-teen! Twen-ty-six-teen!” The ceremony officially ended with released doves rising to the sky to symbolize the graduates’ trek into the wide world beyond high school. See Harker’s Facebook page for more photos and a short video clip!
Nearly three dozen seniors in the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program gave their final performances of the year and received their certificates at the 15th annual Senior Showcase, held May 13 at Foothill College’s Smithwick Theatre. Each graduate of the Conservatory had spent their four years at the upper school focusing on one of seven disciplines in the performing arts: dance, vocal music, musical theater, theater, instrumental music, instrumental composition or technical theater. Watch the video!
Graduating seniors honored at the event were:
Dance: Sharanya Balaji, Helena Dworak, Emily Pan, Ankita Sharma and Allison Wang.
Vocal music: Madhu Karra, Sahana Narayanan, Gurutam Thockchom and Helen Woodruff.
Musical theater: Rishabh Chandra, Mary Najibi, Rachel Renteria, Kaushik Sankar and Namitha Vellian.
Theater: Janet Lee, Naomi Molin, Melina Nakos and M.C. Smitherman.
Instrumental music: Victoria Ding, Andrew Kim, Kevin Min Hwan Kim, Jason Lee, Selin Ozcelik, Kristen Park, Nikhil Parmar, Elina Sendornaris, Daphne Yang and Jessica Zhu.
Instrumental composition: Jonathan Ta and Alice Wu.
Technical theater: Zarek Drozda, Aishu Murari, Chandler Nelson and Shilpa Repakula.
Heartiest congratulations to all the Conservatory Certificate Graduates of 2016!
Harker sent a number of budding scientists to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held May 8-13 in Phoenix, and four came home with significant awards.
Jonathan Ma, grade 12, an Intel Science Talent Search finalist this year, received a First Award of $1,500 from the American Statistical Association at Intel ISEF for his project, “Genomics-Based Cancer Drug Response Prediction Through the Adaptive Elastic Net.”
Amy Dunphy, grade 10, was awarded $1,200 by the China Association for Science and Technology for her project, “Preventing Urushiol (Poison Oak) Induced Dermatitis by Deactivating the Allergen.”
The team of Rishab Gargeya and Manan Ajay Shah, both grade 11, won a Third Award of $1,000 for their project, “Automated Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy Severity in Color Fundus Images Using a Novel Synthesis of Biological and Data Driven Approaches.”
A handful of Harker swimmers competed at the CCS finals over the weekend. Vivian Wang, grade 10, took second place in both the women’s 200 IM and the women’s 100 free and will compete this weekend at the CIF state championships in Fresno. Wang’s CCS success helped lead the Harker women’s team to a 21st place CCS finish. The top men’s swimmer was Michael Auld, grade 11, who finished 18th in the men’s 500 free.
Track and Field
Five track and field athletes will be competing at the CCS championships next Saturday. Harker competed at the WBAL finals last week and the top two finishers in each event stamped their ticket to CCS. Davis Dunaway, grade 11, took first in the pole vault and second in the 300m hurdles; Demonte Aleem, grade 9, won the shot put; Kevin Wang, grade 12, took second in the discus; Anthony Contreras, grade 10, finished second in the 400m and 200m; and Niki Iyer, grade 11, won both the 1600m and 3200m races, setting a new meet record in the latter. Good luck at CCS!
Boys Golf
The boys golf team kicked off its CCS journey last week as six golfers represented Harker in the regional tournament. The Eagles placed second in the regional tournament and tied for third overall, sending them to the CCS finals to be played on Tuesday. Avi Khemani, grade 11, and Scout McNealy, grade 9, were the top Harker golfers, each shooting a 73 and tying for ninth. If the Eagles place in the top three of the final eight teams, they will play in the state tournament.
Boys Tennis
The season came to an end for the boys tennis team last week. After a first round CCS victory over Santa Cruz, the Eagles lost 5-2 to No. 8 seeded Gunn High School. Congrats on a great season!
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team’s season came to end last week as the Eagles lost to Notre Dame San Jose on Senior Day 19-9. The team went 2-18 on the year.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team rode an undefeated league record into CCS, where they were given home court in their first-round match against Westmont. The Eagles fought hard and took the Warriors to the limit, but eventually lost in five games. Congrats on a great season!
Baseball
The varsity baseball team finished off its season last week with a win over San Jose and a loss to Jefferson in the season finale. Taking on San Jose High in their final home game of the season, the Eagles came away with the 9-2 win. Jefferson defeated the Eagles 10-2 to close out the season for the Eagles, who finished 9-13 on the year.
Softball
The softball team played its last two games of the season last week. In a 12-11 loss to Notre Dame San Jose, Taylor Lam, grade 9, had a huge game with two hits, including a grand slam, and seven RBIs. On Senior Day, the Eagles dropped another close game, this time to The King’s Academy, 9-8. The Eagles were 6-10 on the year.
As a top scorer in the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), Swapnil Garg, grade 10, was recently invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP) at Carnegie Mellon University.
“The purpose of the MOSP program is to broaden participants’ view of mathematics and foster their excitement toward further study,” said Anthony Silk, upper school math teacher. “It prepares students for possible future participation on our International Mathematical Olympiad team, as well as for possible careers involving mathematics.”
Garg is one of several Harker students who qualified to take part in the USAMO and the USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) based on their performance in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) and American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME).
Other USAMO qualifiers were senior Richard Yi, junior Kai Ang and junior David Zhu. Sophomore Jimmy Lin, and freshmen Katherine Tian and Michael Wang qualified for the USAJMO. More than 200,000 students took the AMC 10 (grades 10 and below) and AMC 12 (grades 12 and below) exams.
The top 230 scorers on the AMC 10 qualify to compete in the USAJMO. The AMC 12’s top 270 scorers are eligible to participate in the USAMO.
Upper school vocal groups Bel Canto, Camerata, Guys’ Gig, Cantilena, Acoustics and Downbeat took the stage at the Nichols Hall auditorium on April 29 for the final upper school choral concert of the year.
Titled “¡Yo le Canto!” the concert featured several songs sung in Spanish, from composers including Juan Ponce, Josquin des Prez and Carlos Benavides. The performers’ repertoire also included a number of popular modern songs, including Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” (performed by Downbeat, with accompaniment from senior Gurutam Thockchom on guitar and freshman Neil Ramasawamy on drums), Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” (performed by Guys’ Gig) and the finale, a performance of Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams” by Downbeat and Bel Canto. What a great show to wrap up the choral performance year!
Harker’s baseball and girls lacrosse teams took top honors, with GPAs of 3.7519 and 3.9098, respectively, in the spring 2016 CCS Scholastic Team Awards. Five more Harker teams were in the top five in their sport: boys golf (3.7100 GPA), boys swimming (3.5441), girls swimming (3.8451), boys track and field (3.4807) and boys volleyball (3.6760). Each team had a collective GPA that was among the top five in their sport for the season.
Five fall teams and three winter teams also received Scholastic Team Awards, making for an impressive 2015-16 season. Congratulations to all the hard-working Harker student athletes!
The boys tennis team won its CCS opening round match against Santa Cruz 5-2 last week. They travel to Gunn High School today at 3 p.m. for their second round match. Good luck, Eagles!
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team defeated The King’s Academy in four games last week to win its fourth league championship in school history and its first since 2008, going 10-0 in league play this season. The Eagles earned an 11th seed and host Westmont on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the opening round of CCS. Good luck!
Track and Field
The track and field team will be well represented in the league finals next Friday at Palo Alto, as the Eagles had 29 season bests at the league trials last week. Qualifying for the league finals are: Sara Min, grade 9, in the JV 100m; Alycia Cary, grade 9, in the JV 200m and JV 800m; Gloria Guo, grade 10, and Niki Iyer, grade 11, in the varsity 800m; Demonte Aleem, grade 9, in the varsity 100m and shot put; Anthony Contreras, grade 10, in the 200m and 400m; Aashish Jain, grade 11, in the JV long jump; Jain, Mitch Granados, grade 9, and Jonathan Yiu, grade 12, in the JV 100m; Arthur Ye, grade 12, in the JV shot put; Davis Dunaway, grade 11, and Kevin Kim, grade 12, in the varsity 300m hurdles; and Dunaway in the varsity pole vault, where he also qualified for the CCS championships. Good luck, Harker track and field!
Softball
The varsity softball team dropped an 8-4 game to Mercy Burlingame last week, but Tong Wu, grade 12, had two hits and three RBIs. The 6-8 Eagles finish their regular season this week as they travel to Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday, and host The King’s Academy on Wednesday.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team was upset in the league championship tournament as it took home a second place finish last week. This Wednesday the Eagles will begin their CCS journey at Rancho Cañada Golf Club in Carmel. Good luck, Eagles!
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team dropped two games last week – a 13-3 loss to Aragon and a 15-5 loss to Woodside. The Eagles finish off their season on Tuesday as they travel to Notre Dame San Jose.
Baseball
The boys baseball team swept a two game-series with Pinewood last week. In a 16-9 victory over the Panthers early in the week, Miles DeWitt, grade 12, had two hits and six RBIs, including a grand slam, to make it a very memorable Senior Day. In the 6-2 win over Pinewood later in the week, Matthew Kennedy, grade 10, had two hits and two RBIs to lead the way for the Eagles. Harker traveled to Menlo to end the week, but lost 11-3. Trenton Thomas and Arthur Wolff Goldstein, both grade 12, each drove in a run in the defeat. The 8-12 Eagles finish off the regular season this week with a game today at Blackford versus San Jose High and then travel to Jefferson on Tuesday.
Swim
Last week, the Harker swim team competed in the league championships. Highlights included a second place finish for the girls 200 medley relay team of Vivian Wang, grade 10, Taylor Kohlmann, grade 10, Grace Guan, grade 12, and Angela Huang, grade 12; Guan placing third in the girls 100 fly; Wang taking first and Guan taking third in the girls 100 back; Jack Farnham, grade 11, winning the boys 100 back; the girls 400 free relay team of Wang, Kohlmann, Guan and Huang placing second; the boys 400 free relay team of Farnham, Michael Auld, grade 11, Justin Culpepper, grade 11, and Alex Yu, grade 9, placing third; and Wang winning the girls 200 free, while breaking the Harker and league record!
Swimmers competing in CCS events starting this Friday are Wang, Kohlmann, Guan, Huang, Yu, Culpepper, Farnham, Auld, Angela Li, grade 9, Justan Su, grade 10, Karen Tu, grade 12, Ihita Mandal, grade 9, Kevin Tzeng, grade 10, and Clarissa Wang, grade 9.
In late April, 20 students from Harker’s DECA chapter attended the 2016 International Career Development Conference (ICDC) at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., with great results!
“The four-day business conference featured competitions with tough opponents, skill-building leadership academies and unforgettable experiences,” said Shania Wang, grade 9, director of communications for DECA.
Two Harker teams finished in the top 20 during preliminary competitions, earning them the chance to compete in the final round and, for the first time in Harker DECA history, a student from the chapter received first place in a role-play event at ICDC. Enya Lu, grade 9, took top honors in the principles of finance category, while teammates Dolan Dworak, Brandon Mo and Michael Sikand, all grade 10, were finalists in the independent business plan category.
The group began its trip with a DECA-sponsored 5K run in nearby Shelby Park to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Afterward, competitors attended a competition preparation session with rest of California DECA and received their registration packets, including California bucket hats and state trading pins.
The day ended with the grand opening session, where Harker joined nearly 18,000 high school DECA members from all over the world. The official start to ICDC, this session featured a fashion show by the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), keynotes from Marriott executives and a performance by country singer Lauren Alaina.
The next day, Sunday, students took written examinations and attended event briefings. Aside from the 15 students competing, five members began their Emerging Leader Series, with four in the Thrive division and one in Ignite. Afterward, the chapter enjoyed a fun night on the beautiful Cumberland River aboard the General Jackson Showboat.
Monday consisted of all preliminary competitive events, as well as the finale of the Emerging Leader Series. Harker DECA members attended the Nashville Sounds vs. New Orleans Zephyrs minor league baseball game.
On Sunday and Monday, students could go to the Exhibit Hall throughout the day. The career exhibits featured colleges, companies and organizations, and gave students the chance to network and meet new people. These booths allowed members to learn about business opportunities beyond high school. Campaign booths were also available to learn more about those running for next year’s DECA executive positions.
“It was a great opportunity to learn about how business works in a culture like that of Nashville and get feedback from local business owners about how to appeal to a non-Bay Area market,” said Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 10, Harker DECA vice president of competitions and strategy and a competitor in the finance operations research category.
Spirits ran high on Tuesday, the last official day of ICDC. That morning, students attended the achievement awards session, when they learned whether they would be one of the 20 teams to advance to the final round of competition in their events.
Harker advanced two teams into the final round of competitions: Lu and the team of Dworak, Mo and Sikand. While those students competed, the rest of the chapter explored the downtown area and got a taste of Nashville at Rippy’s Bar & Grill. Later that evening, all California DECA members came together for a group photo before heading over to the grand awards session.
After applauding for the new national executive team, many scholarship recipients and numerous finalists, Harker DECA exploded in cheers as Lu was named a top 10 finalist. Within minutes, it was announced that Lu won first place in her event, principles of finance – the first time in chapter history that a Harker member received first in role-play at ICDC.
“It felt amazing,” said Lu. “I was very surprised and I was kind of scared when I went up. I was really excited and I thought that I did well already, but I really wasn’t expecting it. When they announced third and second, I thought that I wouldn’t get it, but then I did, and it was amazing.”
Everybody was beaming with smiles as they finished their last night at ICDC with the state dinner with rest of California DECA, noted Wang.
“This year’s ICDC was an amazing experience for students who were able to connect professionally, serve their community, and develop further as future business professionals and emerging leaders,” added Juston Glass, Harker DECA advisor.
On Wednesday, Harker DECA took a chapter photo before heading to the airport. “ICDC was the last conference of the year and definitely an unforgettable experience for all those that attended,” said Wang. “Harker DECA is proud of another successful competitive season and looks forward to next year.”