Numerous middle school students were recently recognized in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Each year the contest, which began in 1923, presents regional and national awards to students in grades 7 to 12 in a variety of literary and artistic categories. All students recognized will have their work showcased at local events, and Gold Key recipients will have their work evaluated to determine who will be named national medalists and honored at a special ceremony in New York City.
Students who received recognition in literary categories are:
Brian Chen, grade 7: Honorable mention (poetry)
Catherine He, grade 8: Honorable mention (personal essay and memoir)
In late January, 63 upper school students received recognition in the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Since 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have recognized the work of middle and high school students in the visual and literary arts. Past awardees include Langston Hughes, Sylvia Plath and Topaz Winters.
Students who received Gold Keys, Silver Keys and honorable mentions will have their work featured at local events. A panel of luminaries will judge the work of Gold Key winners to determine who will receive national medals and travel to New York City for the National Ceremony.
This year’s awardees for literature are:
Emily Chen, grade 12: Three Gold Keys (critical essay, poetry, writing portfolio), two Silver Keys (poetry, short story), three honorable mentions (poetry)
Gwyneth Chen, grade 12: Silver Key (personal essay and memoir)
Aditi Ghalsasi, grade 10: Honorable mention (personal essay and memoir)
Sophia Gottfried, grade 9: Silver Key (poetry)
Rose Guan, grade 11: Silver Key (journalism)
Ellen Guo, grade 10: Gold Key (critical essay)
Aarzu Gupta, grade 10: Two honorable mentions (poetry, personal essay and memoir)
Mahika Halepete, grade 10: Two honorable mentions (journalism)
Jacqueline He, grade 12: Two Gold Keys (poetry, writing portfolio), two Silver Keys (poetry), four honorable mentions (poetry, science fiction and fantasy, two in short story)
Larissa Tyagi, grade 10: Gold Key (personal essay and memoir)
Joshua Valluru, grade 10: Gold Key (critical essay), Silver Key (critical essay) and honorable mention (personal essay and memoir)
Liana Wang, grade 12: Silver Key (poetry)
Shania Wang, grade 11: Silver Key (personal essay and memoir)
Kelsey Wu, grade 11: Two Silver Keys (critical essay)
Helen Yang, grade 11: Two Silver Keys (flash fiction)
Alexander Young, grade 11: Two honorable mentions (poetry)
Katherine Zhang, grade 11: Two Gold Keys (journalism), three Silver Keys (journalism) and three honorable mentions (flash fiction, journalism, and short story)
Tiffany Zhao, grade 11: Silver Key (personal essay and memoir) and honorable mention (critical essay)
Awardees in visual arts are:
Raymond Banke, grade 11: Two Gold Keys (design and mixed media), Silver Key (design), four honorable mentions (design, drawing and illustration and two for painting)
Anoushka Buch, grade 9: Three honorable mentions (drawing and illustration, digital art and photography)
Cynthia Chen, grade 10: Gold Key (photography), two Silver Keys (drawing and illustration, and photograph), two honorable mentions (printmaking and drawing and illustration)
Katrina Liou, grade 11: Silver Key (drawing and illustration), four honorable mentions (two for mixed media, two for drawing and illustration and one for editorial cartoon)
Raveena Panja, grade 12: Honorable mention (drawing and illustration)
Rani Sheth, grade 10: Honorable mention (drawing and illustration)
Catherine Wang, grade 11: Gold Key (drawing and illustration), two Silver Keys (drawing and illustration)
Elizabeth Yang, grade 11: Gold Key (painting)
Emma Yu, grade 12: Honorable mention (art portfolio)
Anna Wang, grade 11: one Gold Key (painting), two Silver Keys (design and painting), two honorable mentions (drawing and illustration)
Joshua Zhou, grade 10: Three honorable mentions (photography)
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
Haris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”
At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen school-sponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.
Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.
The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”
Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands
Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.
Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.
Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”
In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”
Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures
Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California. Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.
Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”
The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks. “There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.
Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students. For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.
The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.
One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.
Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.
“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”
The Big One
In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.
Middle School Options
As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences. Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archaeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.
Upper School Options
Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.
Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?
For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.
The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said. The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change. They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.
While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.” Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.” Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”
Overseas Experiences
Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer. As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.
“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.
During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter. You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example,students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.
Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”
For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging out and getting close with my buddy.” For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova. Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.
“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said. “The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”
This story originally appeared in the fall/winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
While Harker’s academics may garner the most attention from students and parents, the school has significantly bolstered its after-school offerings in the past few years. The lower and middle school BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team and Blackford Enrichment and Supervision Team, respectively) programs have become an integral part of the school’s mission.
What eventually became the BEST program has existed at Harker in one form or another for nearly three decades. “[Howard] Nichols wanted to do just a little extra after-school program for those students who couldn’t get picked up right after school,” recalled Kim Cali, Harker’s lower school BEST director and the program’s founder. When Cali started working at Harker in 1987, she and four staff members formed what was then known as the recreation department.
The recreation Department was very different from the program that exists today. “We had maybe four or five activities when I first started, and now we have 25 activities just at the lower school,” said Cali. She said she began speaking with former head of school Chris Nikoloff as early as 2003 about restructuring and rebranding the growing department.
“We were still running the program with the assumption that we could do it with a director and five or six staff, and it was just too much for me to handle,” she remembered. Recognizing her dedication, Nikoloff asked her to put together a proposal.
Cali’s vision was to see the recreation department transformed from an assortment of after-school activities into an expansive program where students could explore a wide variety of interests. “I’ve always wanted children to be given the opportunity to explore different things,” she said, “so that by the time they get to fourth or fifth grade or by middle school, they really know where their true passion lies besides the classroom.”
Today, BEST caters to anexpansive array of interests, thanks largely to outside vendors who specialize in specific areas and methods of instruction. Activities included in tuition and available to all children until 6 p.m. include Legos, basketball and a host of other unstructured activities, and many children take advantage of those free hours. Both the lower and middle BEST programs also include dropin activities where students can experiment with art, computers and sports at their leisure. Learning workshops allow students to delve into more specific areas, such as web design, robotics and storytelling. Individual and group instruction are offered in a diverse selection of specialty classes, including martial arts, music, cooking, foreign languages and more.
BEST has been very popular among lower school families eager to enrich their children’s education. “We always have waitlists, especially at the beginning of the school year,” Cali said. “Parents are very eager to get their children into as many activities as possible.”
Performing arts classes, such as dance and instrumental music, are perennial favorites, as are STEM classes, such as engineering and robotics, according to Cali. The lower school’s BEST program is a big hit with parents, for whom it is a one-stop spot for extracurricular activities without the inconvenience of having to take their children to another location, she added.
“I’ve had a lot of parents over the course of the years that I’ve been here … who have said, ‘It was between Harker and such and such a school, and it was the extracurricular program that sold me,’” Cali said.
Jenny Cu Tully ’92, whose children, Kira, grade 2, and Brandon, grade 4, are both enrolled in BEST classes, said, “They both love staying after school, and it is so hard to get them to leave the campus. I think that speaks volumes about how much fun they are having in the BEST program.”
Tully said the program’s flexibility is a key feature. “I love that my kids can try a new activity each quarter to find their passion, or stick with the same ones if they know what they love already,” she said.
In addition to deepening their education, students at the middle school also use the BEST program as a way to relax. Activity Avenue, where many students meet after school, offers simple social activities, such as watching movies, playing board games or making crafts. Upon starting as middle school BEST director in 2008, Lorena Martinez introduced Fun Fridays, a weekly event similar in atmosphere to a carnival, with outdoor activities and music at the middle school campus amphitheater.
“The students work so hard, they study so hard,” Martinez said, “that I wanted them to know that at the end of the week, they could relax, they could have fun.”
Many popular activities at the lower school BEST program are already found in the middle school’s curriculum and extracurricular offerings, including athletics and performing arts. Martinez therefore designed the middle school BEST program to contain some less structured activities, and be a place for students to cut loose in a friendly environment.
Martinez also created the teen center, where the middle school’s older students socialize and de-stress. In addition, Martinez said, it has provided another way for teachers to get to know more about their students by participating in activities with them in a no-pressure environment.
“I enjoy their Fun Fridays, as they work extremely hard the whole week to make it fun for the middle schoolers,” said Saumi Mehta, grade 8. “I really think that the BEST program has made me enjoy Harker more and made me less stressed out because of the fun things that they put on for us.”
Middle school BEST staffers also have been keen to listen to student feedback, which Martinez said has been very useful in keeping the program robust and interesting to students. Martinez also advises the middle school’s student government, and has used submissions to their suggestion box to open up discussions about more activities.
“I kind of work with them to also get the heartbeat of what’s going on,” she said.
Much of BEST’s success as a program is owed to its dedicated staff, who Cali calls “the front line to the school,” because they are frequently the first and last people to interact with the students over the course of the day. In addition to running after-school programs, BEST staffers – many of them college-aged and seeking careers in education – also supervise during recess and other outdoor activities. Annie Kallbrier, a 10-year veteran of the BEST program who is now the kindergarten coordinator and a classroom aide, said that “engaging with students outside the classroom gives you a unique understanding of the personality and interests of each student. Watching them explore nature, and helping them to navigate through new social situations every day, is hugely gratifying for me.”
In addition to supervising and helping during various activities, BEST staff members also act as educators. “We seek to help students develop into people of good character as they grow. On the playground, BEST staff are able to teach students how to communicate and problem-solve with their peers,” said Kallbrier. “We hope that we can help every child discover that they are capable, creative and kind in character.”
Cali is highly appreciative of the BEST staff’s ability to work with children, as they must find a balance between the structure of the classroom and the level of freedom that BEST offers. “I think one of our bigger challenges is … sometimes [kids] just want some freedom to play,” she said. “But also, I find that some children like to be directed.
“We look at ourselves as social teachers,” Cali said. “We might not be in a classroom, but we really do have a huge responsibility to these children in helping them develop as good citizens and helping them learn how to work through conflicts and make good choices.”
Not surprisingly, BEST has provided a path to a teaching career for many current and former Harker teachers. “Many of my staff also are aiding in the classroom now,” said Cali, who estimated that more than half of BEST staff members go on to become teachers. “My passion and one of my goals has been to help young adults become teachers, and they’re getting all the experience that they need right here while they’re going to college.” Overall, BEST leaders at both the lower and middle school campuses hope to provide experiences and opportunities that the students will continue to remember as they further their education. Cali sees BEST as not just an area for students to play and learn, but also as a place that offers a sense of community for students who hail from many different parts of the Bay Area. “I always refer to our department as the ‘neighborhood’ for the children,” she said. “We come from all different areas. Some people come from Pacifica, Los Altos Hills, Fremont, wherever. And a lot of children are here for a good part of their day, so this becomes their neighborhood.”
Martinez, meanwhile, hopes that middle school students will continue to view BEST as a source of fun and socialization as important to the Harker experience as the education they receive in the classroom. “I just want the kids to have a good experience here at Harker,” said Martinez. “And I know they’re having a great experience with education, that’s a given. So I just want to make it come full circle. Outside the classroom, it should be just as amazing as it is inside.”
“As a Harker alum myself, some of my best friends, memories and skills were made after school,” said Tully. “The wide range of options is amazing, and I wish I could sign myself up for many of them!”
Nine Harker upper school students stepped into the shoes of diplomats as they represented Denmark this past weekend at the Santa Clara Valley Model United Nations Conference, held at Santa Teresa High School.
The students debated everything from “Establishing a Legal Framework for the Use of Military Drones” to “Promoting Sustainable Development in Urban Areas” with students from around the country representing different member countries of the United Nations. While not considered a competitive debate event, students can receive recognition for outstanding research as well as diplomatic engagement in both formal and informal debates.
All nine Harker students were recognized for their contributions to their committees, a notable achievement considering the strength of participation at the conference. Sophomores Sriya Prathuri and Jai Bahri were named outstanding delegation for their work in the Disarmament and International Security Committee. Sophomores Bryan Wang and Alyssa Huang were named outstanding delegation in the Economic and Social Council. Junior Ayush Vyas and freshman Andrew Lu received the research award for their work in the World Health Organization, as well as an honorable mention for overall conference engagement. Junior Logan Bhamidipaty, sophomore Jeffrey Liu, and senior Amy Dunphy received an honorable mention in the Legal Committee.
Nine Harker upper school students stepped into the shoes of diplomats as they represented Denmark this past weekend at the Santa Clara Valley Model United Nations Conference, held at Santa Teresa High School.
The students debated everything from “Establishing a Legal Framework for the Use of Military Drones” to “Promoting Sustainable Development in Urban Areas” with students from around the country representing different member countries of the United Nations. While not considered a competitive debate event, students can receive recognition for outstanding research as well as diplomatic engagement in both formal and informal debates.
All nine Harker students were recognized for their contributions to their committees, a notable achievement considering the strength of participation at the conference. Sophomores Sriya Prathuri and Jai Bahri were named outstanding delegation for their work in the Disarmament and International Security Committee. Sophomores Bryan Wang and Alyssa Huang were named outstanding delegation in the Economic and Social Council. Junior Ayush Vyas and freshman Andrew Lu received the research award for their work in the World Health Organization, as well as an honorable mention for overall conference engagement. Junior Logan Bhamidipaty, sophomore Jeffrey Liu, and senior Amy Dunphy received an honorable mention in the Legal Committee.
Nine Harker upper school students stepped into the shoes of diplomats as they represented Denmark this past weekend at the Santa Clara Valley Model United Nations Conference, held at Santa Teresa High School.
The students debated everything from “Establishing a Legal Framework for the Use of Military Drones” to “Promoting Sustainable Development in Urban Areas” with students from around the country representing different member countries of the United Nations. While not considered a competitive debate event, students can receive recognition for outstanding research as well as diplomatic engagement in both formal and informal debates.
All nine Harker students were recognized for their contributions to their committees, a notable achievement considering the strength of participation at the conference. Sophomores Sriya Prathuri and Jai Bahri were named outstanding delegation for their work in the Disarmament and International Security Committee. Sophomores Bryan Wang and Alyssa Huang were named outstanding delegation in the Economic and Social Council. Junior Ayush Vyas and freshman Andrew Lu received the research award for their work in the World Health Organization, as well as an honorable mention for overall conference engagement. Junior Logan Bhamidipaty, sophomore Jeffrey Liu, and senior Amy Dunphy received an honorable mention in the Legal Committee.
This past weekend, a team of eight Harker students took second place at the 2018 United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament (USIYPT) in Lynchburg, Va. According to upper school physics teacher Mark Brada, the team – made up of senior Neelesh Ramachandran; juniors Timothy Chang, Ashwin Rammohan, Kaushik Shivakumar and Nemo Yang; sophomores Finn Frankis and Sahil Gosain; and freshman Saloni Shah – spent the past year preparing for the tournament with help from fellow students Ayush Pancholy, Nishant Ravi and Akshay Ravoor, all grade 11. Together, the students worked to solve a set of four problems for the USIYPT.
“The competition was particularly strong this year as the tournament has reached its largest size ever, featuring 15 teams in total from the United States, China and Tunisia,” Brada said. The tournament received coverage from The News & Advance, Lynchburg’s daily local newspaper.