Class Notes — Harker School 1992-Present – Harker Quarterly Fall 2014
This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly.
1992
Sasha Nikki Noonan ’92 had a beautiful wedding in gorgeous Sayulita, Mexico, back in May. Here she is pictured with Harker friends Liz Williams (matron of honor), Stacey Noonan (maid of honor and twin sister) and Amanda Bonomi (bridesmaid).
1995
Upper school Latin instructor John Hawley shared that he teamed up with Tom Garvey to play the World Series of Certamen (classical quiz bowl) at the National Junior Classical League Convention at Trinity University. Tom teaches Latin at The Meadows School in Las Vegas.
2002
In the summer issue of Harker Quarterly, we noted that Alexander Wang MS ’98 had been named as one of top 100 influential people by Time magazine. Madonna seems to agree, as she recently featured him in a video!
2005
Erika Gudmundson will take over as the new spokeswoman for the Clinton Foundation after the Clinton Global Initiative next month! To read more about it: http://nyti.ms/1hEKSVy.
2006
Tara Chandra (stage name Tara Priya) made Time Out London’s list of five rising musical acts to follow! Of Tara the publication says, “San Franciscan Tara Priya makes a mix of jazz, soul, and ’90s hip-hop. Her chilled vocals are made for sunny weekends and lazy evenings. Watching her charm London crowds with a beautiful voice is bliss.”
Bernie Lee dropped by the alumni relations office for lunch and a campus visit over the summer. He is working for DuPont Industrial Biosciences in Palo Alto. Bernie stepped up to serve as an alumni mentor to current seniors interested in working in his field. He still enjoys playing basketball, and spending time with old Harker friends, including former classmate Wilson Haung.
Mina Lee is having an incredible time working as chief of staff for Xiaomi in Southeast Asia. Check out this great article about her work: http://bit.ly/1LONiLU
Lauren Harries had a busy spring and summer in collaborations with The Philadelphia Theatre Company Tribe of Fools. In the early spring, she traveled to Georgia with Tribe of Fools to compete on TruTV’s second season of “Fake Off” (they made it to the finals), and for the summer Lauren was cast in their original Fringe Festival show “Zombies … with Guns.” In the middle of all this, she also got married on June 13 to Jeff Moorhead (they met at stage combat camp), and Casey Blair was her Best Ninja (aka Maid of Honor).
Abhishek Belani MS ’02 married Sara Kendall this summer in San Francisco in a festive, two day-long celebration. Here he is shown with fellow Harker friends Naushad Godrej ’06 and Casey Near ’06 (maid of honor).
2007
Emily Isaacs graduated from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Emily is going to be practicing as a vet in Vallejo. Congratulations, Emily!
2009
Harker Conservatory graduate DJ Blickenstaff shows off his acting chops in this Subway commercial, which just started airing nationally. Check it out at http://bit.ly/1KMPwws
Upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl had the opportunity to meet up with Ben Pibulsonggram in Bangkok. “I had a pretty amazing experience having brunch with Ben there. He was my student for several years. He works now in Bangkok and goes to N.Y. for his master’s next month,” said Ms. Stahl.
Sean Mandell told the alumni office that he has been living in San Francisco for two years and working in economic consulting. “I recently joined a nighttime soccer league where I’m teaming up with fellow ’09ers Jeff Mandell, David Kastelman, Kevin Laymoun and Barrett Glasauer,” he shared.
2013
Maverick McNealy has added yet another notch to his driver grip! He was named to the 2015 United States Walker Cup Team in early August. He is one of 10 team members who will compete in the 45th match against Great Britain and Ireland in one of the game’s most prestigious and watched golf matches. Mav was selected to the United States Palmer Cup team and received several other accolades for his golf this summer. Mav was also recently featured on the cover of Golfweek magazine’s college preview issue! Shrish Dwivedi (’15 and a Duke-bound golfer) went to Illinois to watch Maverick play at the Palmer Cup over the summer.
Michael Amick is on the “soccer Heisman” award watch list! The MAC Hermann Trophy is the most prestigious individual award in college soccer presented annually to one male and one female athlete. Read more about it: http://bit.ly/1gKvoj4
Aneesh Chona helped his sister Eesha, a Harker senior, launch a nonprofit organization called Association of Teens Against Cancer (ATAC). To read more about their work, see page 24 and http://bayareane.ws/1IN91yZ.
2015
Matthew Ho recently paid a visit to an upper school Study of Visual Arts class. He currently attends the Rhode Island School of Design.
Over the summer class agents Katy Sanchez and Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari stopped
by the alumni office to roll up their sleeves and help out with some volunteer work.
Maya Nandakumar, current National Junior Classical League first vice president, presented awards for a promotional video contest at the 2015 National Junior Classical Convention at Trinity University in San Antonio. She was awarded the organization’s Jessie Chambers Scholarship, established upon the retirement of Chambers, who served for many years as Federations Chairman of the Committee on the National Junior Classical League.
Eric Holt is currently pursuing a degree in chemistry at Oberlin College. He was a four-year varsity basketball player at Harker, where he amassed 962 points and 657 rebounds over a 90-game career, among other honors. He also played four years of varsity water polo and gained first-team honors his senior season.
Leeza Kuo and Hannah Bollar so enjoyed their time and experiences together at Harker that they embarked on a unique video project. Each day of their senior year, they had a photo taken of themselves holding up the date with their fingers. The video is on their YouTube channel, Kuo Bo.
Fourteen members of the Class of 2015 received National Merit Scholarship Awards! Read all about it: http://bit.ly/1XlKU5H
Over the summer CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) hosted 11 young students who won the CERN Special Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. These winners were selected from the 1,700 high school students who participated in the competition. Among them was Nitya Mani. “Seeing the accelerators was really cool. It was great to have the chance to get so close,” she is quoted as saying in this article: http://bit.ly/1JBXwMt