Today, Harker took a historic step toward building the new athletic center and performing arts center as students, faculty, staff, donors and the board of trustees broke ground at a special afternoon ceremony on Rosenthal Field, site of the new facilities.
Head of School Chris Nikoloff made some opening remarks to the crowd before introducing Diana Nichols, chair of the Harker board of trustees and former head of school. She began by thanking the donors who were present at the ceremony for their vision and generosity. “I can’t say enough about the board of directors, who have worked quietly and in the background on every detail of this project, and without whose effort it could not have come to fruition,” she said.
Addressing the students, she said, “you are the very heart of this project. Everything we have done and are doing is for you, and I thank you for being the kind of student body that inspires the adults in your life to want to do good things for you.”
She also brought to the podium construction manager Dave Albert, architects Kevin Hart and Bill Bondi, and Devcon Construction’s Gary Filizetti and Andy Schatzman, who were all recognized as key figures in bringing the new facilities from conception to reality.
“We were fortunate enough to have true leaders in the personas of Jeffrey and Marieke Rothschild,” Nichols announced. The Rothschilds’ $10 million matching gift was crucial to making the project possible and “inspired others to rise to the challenge,” Nichols said. Shortly after, the Harker Eaglets presented flowers to the Rothschilds.
Several groups of people were then given the honor of breaking ground with gold-painted shovels. Members of the board of trustees, donors, Harker faculty and staff, the construction team, performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree, athletic director Dan Molin and student council representatives of every grade level all took turns digging.
To celebrate the historic and symbolic gesture, all attendees gathered at the center of the field for a drone fly-by and a celebratory blast of (biodegradable) confetti.
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
Harker juniors Manan Shah and Tiffany Zhu, accompanied by computer science chair Eric Nelson, attended the Critical Issues Forum in mid-April, where they presented and viewed presentations by other high school students on issues related to nuclear nonproliferation.
The topic of the conference – which was held at Santa Catalina School in Monterey and sponsored by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) – was the likelihood of a nuclear detonation. Shah and Zhu crafted and delivered a presentation on several narrowly averted nuclear disasters, “which were caused by a combination of technical errors and human negligence,” said Shah. “We hope to learn from past encounters and recognize that significant changes must occur in the implementation of nuclear policy as well as the modernization of nuclear technology.”
The presentation was based on a 20-page paper composed by a team of 11 Harker students – Enya Lu, grade 9, and juniors Aashish Jain, Nikhil Manglik, Parth Pendurkar, Rahul Shukla, Arjun Subramaniam, Misha Tseitlin, Raymond Xu and Alex Youn, in addition to Shah and Zhu – “describing the urgency of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world, identifying reasons that the world remained vulnerable to nuclear detonations and proposing measures for countries to achieve that goal,” Zhu said.
It was viewed by a number of key figures at the conference, among them former United States Secretary of Defense William Perry, who described the presentation as “excellent.” Other students in attendance also gave positive feedback on Shah and Zhu’s presentation, which inspired many questions about their proposal for disarmament as well as their insights on the today’s most dangerous nuclear threats.
Both Shah and Zhu described visiting and presenting at the Critical Issues Forum as a highly rewarding experience. For Shah, the highlight of the event was meeting and conversing with Perry, whom Shah described as “an amazing speaker who, having worked most of his career with nuclear weapons, is now working tirelessly to eliminate the weapons, which he considers a grave and dangerous threat to civilization.”
“I’m extremely grateful to have been able to partake in CIF,” Zhu said. “I gained my first taste of the arduous, but critical and ultimately rewarding task of proposing solutions to a wide-reaching problem, and without initially intending to, at the conference, I caught a glimpse of how diplomats and policymakers interact in real life.”
The boys volleyball hot streak continued last week as the Eagles defeated Eastside College Prep and Santa Clara, each in three games. Over the weekend, the Eagles went 4-2 in the Harbor High Tournament, taking the silver division championship. They are now 15-11 on the season and still undefeated in league. This Wednesday is Senior Night as the Eagles face King’s Academy at Blackford at 5:45 p.m. to determine the league champion!
Swimming
Seniors Karen Tu, Grace Guan, Angela Huang, Justan Su and Philip Krause were honored at their final home meet last week as the swim team took on King’s Academy. Alex Yu, grade 9, took first in the 500 free and qualified for CCS. The 200m relay team of Guan, Huang, Taylor Kohlmann, grade 10, and Vivian Wang, grade 10, also qualified for CCS with their first place time. Other event winners included Guan in the 100 fly, 100 back and 400 free relay, Huang in the 100 free and 400 free relay, Ihita Mandal, grade 9, in the 500 free, and 400 free relay, Kohlmann in the 400 free relay, and Angela Li, grade 9, in the 400 free relay. The Eagles travel to Sacred heart Prep for the WBAL trials this Friday and Saturday.
Boys Tennis
After a 7-0 loss to undefeated Menlo early last week, the boys tennis team headed into the WBAL tournament looking to regain some momentum heading into CCS. The Eagles did just that, as six of the seven Harker participants advanced to the round of 16. Also showing well at the tournament was the doubles team of Randy Zhao, grade 10, and Anjay Saklecha, grade 9, who eventually ended with a third place finish. The Eagles now await their seeding fate as CCS begins later this week.
Softball
Tong Wu, grade 12, had two hits and two RBIs as the softball team dropped a 15-5 game to Castilleja early last week. However, later in the week the Eagles defeated Pinewood 7-6 in dramatic fashion as Anika Rajamani, grade 9, came through in the clutch with a two out, two run, bases loaded, walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning. Check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FepIOFW8iFo
On Tuesday the Eagles travel to Mercy Burlingame and are home on Friday versus King’s Academy for Senior Day.
Baseball
The baseball team picked up two wins against Westmoor last week. In a 10-4 victory early in the week, Dominic Cea, grade 10, had three hits and two RBIs. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated the Rams 12-6. Tanay Kamat, grade 10, and Miles DeWitt, grade 12, each drove in two runs, and Nate Kelly, grade 10, added three hits. The Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday a 4 p.m., and then travel to Pinewood on Thursday and Menlo on Friday.
Track and Field
It was another big day for the Harker track and field team last week, as 25 season bests were produced at the meet at King’s Academy. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, continued his impressive season as he won the 200m and 400m and anchored the winning 1600m relay. Demonte Aleem, grade 9, took first in the shot put with a throw of 41’0”. Kevin Wang and Jason Lee, both grade 12, took second and fourth, respectively, in the shot put. Wang also placed second in the discus, with Jonathan Hochberg, grade 12, placing third. Finishing fourth in their respective races were Gloria Guo, grade 10, in the 800m, Sara Min, grade 9, in the girls 200m, and Bill Liang, grade 11, in the boys 200m. Jonathan Dai, grade 12 , sprinted to a third place finish in the 100. Finally, Arthur Ye, grade 12, and Davis Howard, grade 11, took first and second in the JV shot put. This weekend, the Eagles travel to Palo Alto high school for the WBAL League Championships.
Boys Golf
Last week the boys golf team picked up a win by forefeit, but still enjoyed Senior Day as Dakota McNealy and Zarek Drozda, both grade 12, were honored. The Eagles travel to Half Moon Bay today to defend their league title, followed by the start of CCS next week.
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team dropped a 12-9 matchup with Mercy Burlingame and an 11-10 game against Carlmont last week. In the tight matchup with Carlmont, the Eagles fell in the final minute, but Elise Mayer, grade 9, scored 5 goals in the loss. This week, the Eagles host Aragon on Wednesday and travel to Woodside on Friday.
Last month, The Harker School Orchestra traveled to Sonoma State University to perform at the fourth annual Sonoma Invitational Wind Band & Orchestra Festival. They performed a selection of pieces from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” as well as the finale from Howard Hanson’s second symphony. Director Chris Florio reported that the performances were well-received by Sonoma State faculty.
Florio nearly missed the concert due to the birth of his son the previous day. Luckily, a family friend who is a pilot graciously flew him to a nearby airport so that he could conduct the performances.
Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 9, was named an H&R Block Budget Challenge scholarship winner! Panchapakesan won the award for proving himself a personal finance master in the game of “life.” Students who participated in the challenge were given a virtual job, complete with a 401(k), credit card bills and student loans. They then had to successfully manage their paychecks for 10 weeks. Panchapakesan was in competition with thousands of students nationwide and was one of only 22 to receive the $20,000 scholarship.
“The most challenging part of the budget challenge was managing my credit card utilization rate,” said Panchapakesan. “The game deducted points from your score if you used more than 50 percent of your available credit. In the simulation, I had to overdraft multiple times, increasing my credit card balance. Therefore, I brainstormed different ways to decrease my balance and near the end of the simulation, purposely paid a deductible late in order to lose fewer points because I would lose more points if I over drafted from my credit card.”
“I think this challenge will help me manage my money in life because it brought the different issues of money management to my attention and allowed me to formulate and try out solutions to these problems, therefore increasing my knowledge about finance,” Panchapakesan finished. Great strategy, great appreciation of the value and a great win!
Earlier this semester, upper school students began building structures using Keva planks in an ongoing contest comprising various challenges. “We thought this might be a fun way for kids to do something creative and de-stress in the library,” said upper school librarian Lauri Vaughan. “The planks are out for anyone to use pretty much all the time.”
In the first challenge, students were tasked with extending a structure as far as possible past the edge of a table with no underlying support. Winners Tiffany Zhu, grade 11, Connie Miao, grade 11, and Vivek Bharadwaj, grade 12, devised a structure that stretched 18 inches past the table’s edge.
Most recently, students were challenged to build the tallest structure possible using only 50 blocks. Two teams tied with a winning height of 63 inches: seniors Evan Lohn and Divya Periyakoil and seniors Vivek Bharadwaj and Naman Jindal.
Earlier this month, sophomore Liana Wang was named one of 30 winners of an essay contest held by the New York City-based Joffrey Ballet School. As one of the winners (chosen from 1,200 entrants), and as a award-winning, accomplished dancer, Wang received a full scholarship to a two-week intensive jazz and contemporary dance program that will take place this summer.
“Liana is an incredibly talented dancer and performer,” noted Karl Kuehn, dance teacher, “and we are very fortunate to have her on the Varsity Dance Team, and as a Performing Arts Conservatory dance certificate candidate. Her strong work ethic, advanced technique, and exceptional performance skills identify her as an ideal candidate for this summer intensive program.”
The boys golf team took ninth place at the Aptos Tournament last week, with Scout McNealy, grade 9, leading the way with a 2-over-par 73 to place second individually. Colt McNealy, grade 11, had a good day as well, finishing tied for fifth. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Crystal Springs Uplands with Ryan Vaughan, grade 11, shooting a team low 1-over-par 37. On Monday, the Eagles took down Sacred Heart Prep to stay unbeaten in league. Scout once again led the way, this time shooting a 1-over-par 37. The boys golf team takes on Pinewood on Tuesday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team continues to roll in league play as it defeated Wilcox and Fremont last week, both in three games. The team is still undefeated and in first place in league. This week, the Eagles are at Eastside College Prep on Wednesday, home against Santa Clara on Friday and at the Habor Tournament on Saturday.
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team fell to Woodside 13-2 last week. It’s a busy week for the Eagles as they travel to Mercy Burlingame on Tuesday, host Christian Brothers of Sacramento on Wednesday and then travel to Carlmont on Friday.
Baseball
The varsity baseball team dropped two high scoring games to Jefferson High last week. In a 12-8 loss, Trenton Thomas, grade 12, drove in two runs. Later in the week, Miles DeWitt, grade 12, had two hits and three RBIs in a 9-7 loss. This week the Eagles will play at Westmoor on Tuesday and host Westmoor on Thursday at 4 p.m.
Softball
The Eagles fell 6-2 to Castilleja last week, but Kristin LeBlanc, grade 10, had three hits and an RBI in the loss. This week the softball team is at Castilleja on Tuesday, followed by homes games on Wednesday versus Yerba Buena and Friday versus Pinewood.
Track and Field
Last Friday the track team competed at the CCS Top 8 event at Los Gatos High School. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, took second in the frosh soph 100m; Demonte Aleem, grade 9, hit a personal best by three feet in the shot put to place fifth; and Niki Iyer, grade 11, was fifth in the varsity girls 1600m, with her season best time of 4:59.55. The track team was back at it on Saturday as it headed to Mountain View to compete in the Saint Francis Invitational against some of the top athletes in Northern California. Contreras placed fifth in the varsity 100m, setting a personal best and sophomore school record as well. Bill Liang, grade 11, took home a fourth place finish in the 300m hurdles. Next up for the Eagles is a WBAL meet at King’s Academy on Wednesday.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team split its two matches last week, losing to Sacred Heart Prep 5-2, but defeating Crystal Springs Uplands 4-3. The team will travel to Menlo on Tuesday and then begin the WBAL tournament on Thursday.
Swimming
The Harker swimmers host King’s Academy on Wednesday. It is also Senior Day, so come support our graduating Eagles. The festivities start at 3:40 p.m., and the meet starts at 4 p.m.
The 2016 Spring Orchestra Concert, featuring the middle and upper school orchestras, took place April 8 at De Anza College’s Visual & Performing Arts Center. The Grade 6 Orchestra, directed by Dave Hart, started the evening off with the iconic theme from “Star Wars” and a collection of favorites from the “Harry Potter” films.
Following a series of special performances by chamber groups, the Grades 7-8 Orchestra, also directed by Hart, performed pieces by Johannes Brahms and George Gershwin, as well as a medley of pieces from “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Director Chris Florio and The Harker School Orchestra delivered the final performances of the evening, with a set that included a series of dances from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and a rousing rendition of the “William Tell Overture.”
Last weekend, the National Scholastic Press Association awarded Harker Aquila, Harker’s online student news site, with its first Online Pacemaker Award for schools with an enrollment of fewer than 1,500 students. The Pacemaker is a national honor that also is awarded to student newspapers, yearbooks, magazines and broadcast reports. Winners for these categories are still to be determined.
Journalism’s success didn’t stop there. The Winged Post, the upper school student newspaper, took third place in Best of Show for newspaper broadsheets of 17 or more pages in length.