Last weekend, 29 upper school students made the trip to Ashland, Ore., to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The long-running repertory theater, founded in 1935, is an annual destination for upper school English teacher Pauline Paskali’s students, who gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s works by seeing them interpreted in a live setting by professional actors. Paskali first made the trip with four of her students in 2009.
This year, the group enjoyed performances of Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “Henry IV,” as well as a production of the 2014 play “Shakespeare in Love,” one of several contemporary works that OSF produces each year. Students also attended a workshop in which they learned about some of the narrative elements of Shakespeare’s plays.
Aditya Dhar ’17 was awarded a final accolade for his high school speech and debate efforts by the Stennis Center for Public Service Leadership. He was named to the 2017 National Student Congress as a member of the senate, based on his performance at the National Speech & Debate Association’s National Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., in June. Dhar was also the Senate Leadership Bowl Winner. Read more about Harker’s results in Birmingham.
In the summer of 2014, Bay Area high school students Luyi Zhang, Emily Li and Lucas Xin saw an opportunity to alleviate poverty while visiting the rural village of Dagouyan in China’s Ningxia region. The area’s cows, it turned out, were in demand in Chinese coastal cities because of Ningxia’s cleaner atmosphere. “However, most farmers in the village were unable to scrape up the tens of thousands in capital that are required to grow them,” said Jason Huang, a Harker junior. “As a result, the students raised several hundred thousand yuan and formed a cow collective.”
The students later formed Nanoseed, which Huang now leads as president, a nonprofit organization whose current main objective is to provide greater economic mobility for Dagouyan’s poor. “While it boasts several thousand in population, there only exists one factory that employs roughly two dozen workers depending upon the number of orders at the time, 27 workers max, while the remaining population survive by seeking temporary employment at larger cities or depending upon farming,” Huang said.
To date, most of Nanoseed’s work has gone into developing and supporting a “cow cooperative” that was started with the cooperation of several families in Dagouyan. Nanoseed raised funds for the operation and negotiated arrangements with a local butcher and a transportation agency.
Nanoseed employs the services of branches at other Bay Area schools for fundraising efforts, while the leadership resides at Harker. Funds raised by these branches are being funneled into a program that offers student loans to children in financially unstable situations. Funding also comes from donations and interest charged on loans they have made. “Loans are charged at a 6.6 percent interest rate. The rate is quite low when compared to the end fee of bank loans, which are usually not offered to the people we serve but often run over 20 to 30 percent in interest for others after accounting for corruption payments and other expenses,” Huang said.
Over the summer, Nanoseed helped found two online businesses in Dagouyan, a handmade shoe seller and a store for organic produce. Both businesses were started using the Chinese social media app WeChat, which includes platforms for instant messaging, networking and commerce.
“The shoe store specifically hires women from needy families to make their handcrafted products, while the organic produce store depends upon the only factory in the town,” Huang explained. “Specifically, this factory buys their ingredients at above market rates from farmers in the town, hires almost half of its production line workforce from needy families, and also donates supplies to the town school and organic fertilizer to farmers for their produce.”
Nanoseed leaders visit Ningxia periodically to work in person with the people involved in the businesses they help set up. Their future plans include improving the efficiency of the work done during these trips. “Current trips consist of a lot of impromptu actions and decisions by student leaders, with simple plans created in just a few days,” Huang said. “We want to create a comprehensive list of necessary actions for groups going to China to ensure steady progress, and also finalize business ideas and research before implementation in Ningxia.” During the school year, they plan to help expand the online businesses through marketing campaigns.
Huang hopes that Nanoseed’s example can spur others into action to help their communities: “Just like how small seeds grow into large trees, we hope our actions can encourage others to serve their community.”
The girls water polo team dropped a 7-14 match against Wilcox last week. Abigail Wisdom, grade 11, scored two goals, with Meghana Karinthi, grade 12, Claudia Opris, grade 11, Samantha Yanovsky, grade 11, Cas Ruedy, grade 10, and Anika Tiwari, grade 10, each adding a goal. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Milpitas 12-3 with Wisdom scoring four goals, Anna Arnaudova, grade 9, adding two goals and Karinthi, Ruedy, Yanovsky, Alicia Xu, grade 10, Sumi Wadhwa, grade 12, and Elizabeth Fields, grade 9, each scoring one goal. This week, the girls travel to Lynbrook on Tuesday and Cupertino on Thursday.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team kept on rolling last week as it picked up a 278-204 win over Notre Dame San Jose, a 192-186 win over defending league camp Menlo and a 237-205 win over Notre Dame Belmont. Natalie Vo, grade 9, won medalist honors with a 37 against Notre Dame and Katherine Zhu, grade 12, earned her second medalist honors of the season with an even par 34 against Menlo, followed by her third medalist honors of the year with an even par 35 against Belmont. Harker and Menlo are now tied atop the WBAL standing with 6-1 records. This week, the Eagles host Mercy Burlingame on Tuesday.
Football
The football team improved to 6-0 after defeating Marina High last Friday 30-0. Aaron Smith, grade 11, rushed for 173 yards and four TDs to lead the offense. On the defensive side, Jadan McDermott, grade 12, had 11 tackles and four sacks, with Jalen Clark, grade 12, adding three sacks. The Eagles have outscored their opponents 247-19 this season! The boys host Tamalpais this Friday at Davis Field at 7 p.m.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team picked up a 6-1 win over Pinewood last week before falling to Sacred Heart Prep 1-6 later in the week. This week, the Eagles host Evergreen Valley on Tuesday and Menlo on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
Last week, the boys water polo team was defeated by Los Altos 15-5 and 13-7 by Gunn High. This week, the boys travel to Lynbrook on Tuesday and Homestead on Thursday.
Volleyball
The girls volleyball team fell to Notre Dame Belmont in four games early last week and then lost a heartbreaking five-game match to Mercy San Francisco later in the week. In the loss to ND Belmont, Lauren Napier, grade 12, led the Eagles with 12 kills. Emily Cheng, grade 10, led the offense with 12 kills and Megan Cardosi, grade 12, added 11 kills in the loss to Mercy. This week, the Eagles host Menlo on Thursday.
Cross Country
This Thursday the Harker cross country team travels to Crystal Springs Cross Country Park to compete in WBAL Meet No. 1.
The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, due to open in February 2018, is designed to present a wide variety of wonderful shows to a comfortable audience, and there are a thousand elements, literally behind the scenes, that will enhance that experience. Here is a look at a few of the bigger elements that will make this center an outstanding performance venue for the Harker community for decades to come.
Architects for both the performing arts and athletic centers are Studio Bondy Architecture and Kevin Hart Architecture, which joined forces to design the gym and the theater, including the interiors and the site development, said Kevin Hart.
“As with any project of similar size, there is a large team of in-house architects and designers, consultants and sub-consultants,” he said, “in addition to the general contractor and subcontractors, who have important roles in the design and execution.” Of these many critical subcontractors, two play key roles in the development of the theater technology.
“The theater experts, The Shalleck Collaborative, worked as consultants to the architects to inform the design of the auditorium itself, the stage, rigging, theatrical lighting, orchestra pit, movable orchestra shell, control room, dressing rooms, and many other details,” noted Hart. “They also provided design of A/V systems, including the LED wall in the lobby.
“The acoustical experts, Charles M. Salter Associates, worked as consultants to the architects to design the acoustical qualities of the auditorium, which is adjustable for different uses. They also provided guidance for the acoustics in the rehearsal rooms and designed many of the wall and ceiling assemblies to prevent noise intrusion from outside and improve sound control between rooms.”
Display Wall
The most noticeable item attendees will see is the 34.5-foot-wide, 15-foot-high color LED display wall in the lobby. The display will showcase professional and student work. Once inside the building, the magic of technical theater won’t be as visible, but will provide for a remarkable audience experience.
Orchestra Pit Lift
One of the biggest and coolest pieces of equipment in the new facility is the custom-made, electromechanical orchestra pit lift. The lift is capable of raising and lowering the 48-foot-wide by 10-foot-deep elliptical segment of floor, 332 square feet in all, fully loaded. The segment can be used as a stage extension, for additional seating or as an orchestra pit.
Hart noted the lift platform is a steel superstructure with two interconnected heavy-duty motors which raise the platform on four “Spiralift” columns, Model #ND9, by Gala Systems.
These columns, fascinating pieces of machinery, are created anew each time the lift is used. Motors turn the column bases and a vertical steel band is locked into a spiraling horizontal steel band (picture a giant, high tech slinky) so the column “grows” as it goes up and is disassembled as it comes down, eliminating the need for a deep pit beneath the lift to house the column when in the down position.
Gala Systems noted the system is highly stable vertically and laterally, very quiet, nearly lubricant-free to eliminate any smell and should last the life of the facility with very little maintenance. The system is used in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and 55 countries around the world. Check out this video on how the system works: http://bit.ly/2yrGTEF. The lift will also be used to move the Bosendorfer concert grand piano from its stage-level closet to underneath the stage if needed. More about this wonderful piano in a future article!
Professional Fly Tower
Another of the major components is the fly tower, containing 35 counterweighted rigging battens for moving scenery, lighting and special effects, and the top of the movable concert orchestra shell. Each batten can be used to raise an item, or they can be used together to raise larger items.
There are three battens for moving the top of the orchestra shell (the back and side pieces roll into place), five battens dedicated to stage lighting and 27 scenery battens, said Jedd de Lucia, a principal at The Shalleck Collaborative. The eight battens that control the orchestra shell and the lighting racks are motorized and can lift up to 2,800 pounds each, while the remaining 27 battens, capable of lifting 1,500 pounds each, are controlled by hand – the counterweights make it possible to move the relatively lightweight scenery up and down by hand. The rigging and lighting equipment is accessed via a series of perforated metal catwalks that run the width of the fly.
Sound and Acoustic Tuning
The main audio control console will be a Yamaha QL5 mixing board, said deLucia. This state-of-the-art soundboard was chosen for its versatility, ease of use and compact size. These soundboards are in use in many venues worldwide.
“The speaker system has a left and a right line array for the main PA speakers as well as supplemental ‘fill’ speakers at the front row as well as below and above the balcony,” noted de Lucia. The system uses the ARCS series of speakers from L’Acoustics, a French manufacturer of loudspeakers, amplifiers and signal processing devices, include ARCS-Series Wide and Focus speakers for main left and right speakers; SB18i subwoofers; X8 balcony fill speakers and 5Xt speakers for under-balcony and front fill speakers. The system is driven via 4-channel LA4X amplifiers. Full specifications can be found at http://www.l-acoustics.com/products-catalog-75.html
The center will have a custom-built, moveable orchestra shell enclosure to create a fuller, more directed sound, said Hart. “The shell consists of overhead ceiling reflectors and rolling wall towers, which will provide an excellent acoustic environment for music performances,” he said. “The theater will also have an audio-visual system to support amplified music and musical theater as well as a projection system for media presentations, including movies.
“Further, the acoustics of the hall can be adjusted for different kinds of performances, like acoustic music, amplified media and spoken word. The mechanism for this adjustability is made up of four banks of curtains, located out of sight above the ceiling, which can be pulled open or drawn closed to change the sound of the hall,” Hart noted.
Lighting, Trap and Curtain
The stage’s production lighting system uses LED stage lighting fixtures, without dimmers, on 96 relay-controlled circuits, and is capable of millions of colors at the touch of a button. The system will be run from the Electronic Theater Control Ion Lighting Console with a 2 x 20 fader wing, said de Lucia. Each batten is capable of carrying up to 50 lights, with a light about every foot along the lighting racks.
The trap, mid-stage, “is 12 removable pieces of the stage floor, which opens access to a room below the stage,” said Hart. “There is no elevator or lift; it will be up to the technical directors to build whatever device makes sense for each production. It could be as simple as a stepladder, or something more elaborate, but the main thing is to enable this special, magical capability to emerge from or disappear into the floor.”
The main curtain of the auditorium, with fabric from one supplier, sewn by a second and hung by a third, from is made of red velour, sewn with fullness. Curtains with fullness have extra fabric across the width or height of the drape. This gives the drape a richer look while increasing depth of field, and the heavy curtain provides more light and sound absorption.
That stage curtain is only a few months from swinging open for the first time. Watch for further updates each month as the Rothschild Performing Arts Center nears completion in February.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
Harker chess players had a very successful weekend at the U.S. National Game/30 and Game/60 Championships in Santa Clara. In the main Game/60 event (where games are set for a maximum length of 60 minutes), Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, claimed first place in the 1200-1399 rating category, winning all four rounds.
Harker students also competed in a scholastic side event held that same weekend, in which Kyle Chang, grade 7, placed first in the Game/60 competition’s 400-599 category, and fourth grader Mihir Kotabgi earned a respectable seventh in the 800-999 category. Together with the points earned by seventh grader Max Pflaging, Harker was the first-place Under 1000 team with a total score of 8.5.
In the Game/30 scholastic event, where games are played with a 30-minute time limit, Kotbagi’s second-place performance in the 800-999 category and the points earned by Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, in the 400-599 category helped put Harker in a solid fifth place in the school team standing.
Melody Huang, a teacher at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy, spent two weeks in mid-September at Harker as part of this year’s teacher exchange with the Chinese sister school. She began her first week at Harker by visiting several lower school English classes, as well as Jared Ramsey’s U.S. history class and Tobias Wade’s world geography class. At the middle school, she taught Mandarin to Xiuyu Gao’s students, and observed classes in English and expository writing.
The following week, Huang visited several classes at the upper school and taught in Shaun Jahshan’s Mandarin classes. She also observed several English classes and witnessed the fun of the upper school’s Spirit Week celebrations, including the raucous Homecoming Rally.
“I absolutely love the people here. I felt very welcomed since the first day I came,” Huang recalled. “Everyone wears a smile when I meet them in the hallway. And I remember there were couple of times people just came up to me and asked if I needed any help.”
During one weekend outing, Huang traveled to the Los Angeles area, where she visited beaches, museums and art galleries. She also toured the Bay Area, making sojourns to spots around San Jose (particularly its many confectioneries) and enjoying a day in San Francisco.
Upon arrival back home, Huang said she hopes to integrate some of what she learned at Harker into her work at SWFLA. “Bringing food and tea to the advisory session is definitely something I’m going to do when I get back!” she exclaimed.