Four Harker fencers traveled to Memphis, Tenn., over the Presidents Week break to compete in the 2018 Junior Olympics Fencing Championships.
Nerine Uyanik and Sana Pandey, both grade 10, and Ethan Choi and Kishan Sood, both grade 9, made the trip.
Uyanik competed in cadet women’s foil on Saturday against 213 other women from across the United States, going 4-2 in pools, seeding 76th into the direct elimination table.
She got a bye in the round of 264, then faced the 52nd seed who she flipped 15-13 to advance into the 64. Uyanik then toed the line versus the 12th seed and fought her to time, but lost 11-9 (bouts go to 15 touches over three 3-minute periods), ending up 59th, a very respectable finish.
The previous day Uyanik joined two club mates from the San Francisco Fencing Club to take fourth place out of 12 teams. In that event, SFFC No. 2 women dominated the Mt. Airy/Wallingford Swarthmore Panthers 45-6 to advance to the next round where they faced SFFC No. 1 women, the “A” team from their own club. SFFC No. 2, including Uyanik, threw a twist into the universe when they beat their club mates 45-41 in a brutal match that saw Uyanik’s team take an immediate slim lead and hold it through most of the match to bring in a 45-41 victory. They then faced Gutkovskiy Fencing Academy, the eventual gold medalists, where they kept the fight tight, but lost 36-30 when time expired.
Finally, on Monday, Uyanik competed in the junior women’s foil event, including fencers up to age 19, where she split her pool 3-3, seeding 101st into the elimination table. She ran up against a tough opponent in her first direct elimination round and lost 15-8, finishing 136th out of 233 starters. Uyanik has qualified for JOs for three consecutive years and is a “B-rated” fencer (ratings run A-E, plus U for unrated, based on tournament results).
Pandey, grade 10, fenced in cadet and junior women’s epee events, Friday and Sunday, respectively. Pandey reached a milestone in December when she earned her “C” rating at the local JO qualifiers. This was Pandey’s first JOs and only her third national event, so she encountered a steep learning curve, as well as faced the eventual gold and bronze medal winners in her juniors pool, thus did not advance out of pools in either event. Pandey fences for International Fencing Academy.
Choi, grade 9, also attended the JOs, fencing in cadet and junior men’s foil events. In the cadet event, Choi seeded 50th out of 287 fencers and split his pool 3-3, losing each bout by two touches, so only six touches away from a perfect pool, thus dropping to 137 seed going into the elimination table. In his first elimination round, Choi flipped the 120th seed 15-9 to make the table of 132, then lost to a local powerhouse from Santa Rosa 15-8 to finish 116th.
In the junior event, Choi seeded 223 out of 282 starters. He started off with a very solid 4-2 record in pools, seeding 113th into the elimination table, but dropped his first elimination bout, so ended up 149th in juniors. Choi is a D-rated fencer and fences for Massialas Fencing Team.
Sood, grade 9, also fenced in cadet men’s foil, splitting his pool 3-3 to advance to direct eliminations in the 152nd slot. Matched up with the 105th seed, Sood fought a very tough fight, taking the score to 14-14 before his opponent made the final touch. In the final standings, Sood stood 162 out of 287 starters, a solid finish in that age bracket. Sood has an E rating and fences for California Fencing Academy, as does his sister, Ishani, grade 6.
Pandey and Uyanik are co-presidents of the Harker Fencing Club, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays in either the atrium or auxiliary gym.
At the NorCal FIRST Lego League Silicon Valley Championship in late January, a team made up of Harker sixth graders Jordan Labio, Dustin Miao and Kabir Ramzan – known as Alpha Wolves – took first place among the 35 teams at the event. The team’s robot performed exceptionally throughout the competition, scoring the highest two runs (one with 285 points and another with 265) and being the only robot to score more than 200 points on all four of its runs. Competition was fierce, as each team at the tournament had qualified by finishing in the top three at other local events. This win puts Harker’s team in the running to compete against other regional champions from across the world.
The Alpha Wolves’ next event is the Northern California FLL Innovations Expo in March, which the team was invited to attend after presenting a group research project at a previous event in November. Their project was one of 50 selected from 500 entries.
Late last month, the College Board revealed that seven Harker students and one 2017 alumna received perfect scores on Advanced Placement exams they took in May 2017, earning every possible point as well as the maximum score of five. Seniors Akhil Arun and Adriano Hernandez and 2017 graduate Divya Rajasekharan earned three of just 60 perfect scores on the AP Macroeconomics exam, while senior Vignesh Panchanatham earned one of only 26 perfect scores in AP Microeconomics.
On the AP Computer Science A exam, senior Swapnil Garg, junior Ryan Adolf and sophomores Eileen Li and Kyle Li earned four of 112 perfect scores. Harker was one of just 17 schools that had four or more students earn perfect scores on AP exams last year. According to the College Board, nearly 5 million AP exams were taken by almost 3 million students in 2017. Only 511 students earned every possible point.
DECA member Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 12, is a national finalist in the DECA Virtual Business Challenge 2018, following the second qualifying round. Ramachandran qualified in VBC Accounting by finishing in the top two in the region.
“This is exciting for us,” said Juston Glass, DECA advisor. “He will now go on to compete in his category at the international conference in April with the round one qualifiers to see who is the ‘best accountant’ for the virtual business challenge.”
The DECA Virtual Business Challenge tasks students with operating a web-based business simulation in the career areas of accounting, fashion, hotel management, personal finance, restaurant management, retail management or sports marketing.
This article was written by Roma Gandhi, grade 10.
In late January, CareerConnect hosted a mock interview workshop for students. In this workshop, students were given the opportunity to improve their skills by participating in a one-on-one mock interview with an industry professional.
Participants could chose from two interview scenarios: applying to be a club officer or applying for a research internship. The important skills they learned will help students when applying to summer programs or when taking on the role of a club officer at school. Fifteen students and five industry professionals participated in this event.
The workshop was an overall success, and students learned a lot from this great opportunity. “I have never been interviewed before for an internship,” said Jinhyuk Kim, grade 12, “and now I know what kinds of questions to expect in future interviews.”
Industry professionals who took on the role of interviewers also enjoyed the workshop. Yabo Lin (Jason, grade 9), a partner at law firm Sidley Austin LLP, said of one interviewee, “[his] experience was incredible, and the students were extremely well prepared and thoughtful.” This learning experience will definitely help students succeed in their future endeavors.
Harker middle school students had a great showing at the Santa Clara Valley MathCounts competition on Feb. 10, winning the team event and setting a new Harker record with four students earning perfect scores.
In individual competition, eighth graders Alexander Hu, Mark Hu and Rishab Parthasarathy and seventh grader Sally Zhu all had perfect scores of 46, tying with 11 other students at the event. Such a result demonstrates the level of competition in the Santa Clara Valley chapter, which “is known to be the toughest chapter for MathCounts in the country,” said middle school math teacher Vandana Kadam. The contest went to a tie-breaker, from which Parthasarathy emerged victorious. Connie Jiang, grade 7, was among the 15 students who tied for second place, and won the tie-breaker round to officially take second with 45 points. Grade 8 students David Dai, Rohan Thakur and Kevin Wang, as well as Riya Gupta, grade 7, placed in the top 25 percent at the event, which featured more than 400 competitors from 46 schools.
The team of Alex Hu, Rishab Parthasarathy, Sally Zhu and eight grader William Zhao won the team competition by a slim margin, inching past Miller Middle School by just a quarter of a point. This victory advances the team to the state competition, to be held March 31 at Stanford University. Due to their performances in the individual event, Mark Hu and Connie Jiang also advanced to the state level. Qualifiers from the state competition will travel to Washington, D.C., for the MathCounts National Championship in May.
The boys soccer team ended the regular season with its first loss of the year, 0-2 to The King’s Academy, but won the league title for the first time in school history and was given the No. 2 seed in the CCS Division 2 playoffs. The boys will host Santa Cruz on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., the first playoff hosting opportunity in school history for a boys team.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team won the last two games of its regular season to secure a spot in the CCS Division 4 playoffs. In a 47-39 win over Pinewood, Jack Connors, grade 10, led the offense with 14 points. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Sacred Heart Prep 68-56 behind 17 points from Connors and 15 points from Eric Jeong, grade 12. The Eagles will host Terra Nova on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first round of CCS playoffs.
Girls Basketball
Ending the season with two wins, the girls basketball team will host Pacific Grove on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the first round of the CCS Division 4 playoffs. The Eagles defeated The King’s Academy 57-52 behind 25 points from Selin Sayiner, grade 12, followed by a 44-36 win over Crystal Springs Uplands with Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 9, leading the Eagles with 16 points.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team ended the final week of its season with a 2-1 win over Pinewood before falling to Mercy Burlingame 1-4. The Eagles ended their season with a 9-8-1 record.
Earlier this week, upper school students donated backpacks and school supplies to children from low-income families at East San Jose’s Ocala Middle School. More than 40 backpacks were dropped off at the school, along with pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, reusable water bottles and other supplies.
The initiative was led by three students: Andrea Simonian, grade 11, came up with the idea and organized the project; senior Amitej Mehta set up the donation through his mother Nivisha’s connection with the Alum Rock Counseling Center, which assists local low-income families; and junior Kelsey Wu managed logistics to ensure the effort went smoothly.
Students initially intended to deliver the supplies inside the backpacks, but “we received a large excess of supplies to put in the backpacks, so we decided to donate the supplies in boxes instead of inside the backpacks to ensure equal distribution among students,” said Mehta. “Each advisory that participated went above and beyond what was expected, which was amazing, donating more than one of each requested item on the list.”
This story was submitted by Harker upper school Spanish teacher and Green Committee member Diana Moss.
Members of the upper school’s Harker Green Team – club co-presidents and seniors Anika Banga and Satchi Thockchom, vice president and sophomore Anvi Banga, members Anthony Shing and Alex Shing, grade 10, and Natasha Yen, grade 9, and faculty advisors Kate Shafer and Diana Moss – attended the Students for Green High Schools conference at the Google campus in Mountain View on Saturday, Jan. 26.
The event, sponsored by the Los Altos High School Green Team, was attended by 85 students from 15 high schools, both public and private, from throughout the Bay Area. Each school gave a five-minute presentation about initiatives their clubs have undertaken, what inspires them and specific environmental projects they hope to work on in the future.
Harker’s team gave a great presentation about our Environmental Community Service trips, Green Tips of the Week project, 2016 Harker Green Challenge using the SJ Environment phone app and 2017 Meatless Mondays proposal. Attendees also heard from Stanford student Sierra Rose García, who spoke about the initiatives that Students for a Sustainable Stanford are working on, and got a pep talk on continuing to promote sustainability on their campuses.
Harker Green Team members had the chance to meet and exchange ideas with many students and came back inspired to take on new projects. They are currently making plans for Earth Week this spring, April 16-22.
Harker Preschool’s Mara Beckerman, music and movement teacher, had a chance to revisit her roots this month in an interview with Call Me Adam, an entertainment website that does celebrity interviews.
Beckerman was the original Charlotte in the 1982 off-Broadway musical “Charlotte Sweet.” Feinstein’s/54 Below and the Second Act Series is celebrating the musical with a one-time show, “Charlotte Sweet in Concert,” on Feb. 27. The show, which will feature Beckerman as “The Narrator” and a new cast, will be held at Feinstein’s/54 Below, which bills itself as Broadway’s supper club and says it provides an “unforgettable New York nightlife experience, combining performances by Broadway’s best with world class dining in an elegant setting.”