Harker had a solid showing in the 2017 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Rising seniors Swapnil Garg, Jimmy Lin and Neelesh Ramachandran, and rising junior Cindy Wang were among the top 100 scorers in Division 2 (comprising second-year physics students). Out of a possible 40 points, Garg scored 28, Lin and Neelesh each scored 25, and Wang scored 23. The average score for Division 2 participants was 13.1.
With a team total of 122 points, Harker took third place in Division 2, tying with Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which placed second due to having the highest-scoring student.
The Physics Bowl, which this year included more than 7,100 students from around the world, is a 45-minute, multiple-choice exam consisting of 40 questions on topics commonly covered in high school physics courses.
Harker 2017 graduates Steven Cao, Divya Rajasekharan, Sandip Nirmel, Angela Kim, Andrew Rule, Kai-Siang Ang, David Zhu, Anuva Mittal, Amrita Singh and Albert Xu were named 2017 National Merit Scholarship Winners. Cao, Rajasekharan, Nirmel, Kim, Rule, Ang and Zhu were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, a one-time prize that can be put toward their studies at any accredited U.S. college or university. Mittal, Singh and Xu received college-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which provide an annual amount of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years.
More than 30 middle school students posted medal-winning scores in this year’s National Myth Exam, which took place during the spring semester. The annual exam, taken by all middle school Latin students, includes questions on Greek and Roman myths.
Silver medals, awarded to students who scored between 95 and 99 percent, were awarded to rising seventh graders Hita Thota, Jeremy Ko, Alan Jiang, Jasmine Li, Andrew Fu and Andrew Pluzhnikov; rising eighth graders Nicole Tian, Anoushka Khatri, Arnav Jain, Brandon Park, Jacqueline Hu, Angela Jia, Aaron Lo and Alex Zhang; and rising ninth graders Betsy Tian, Angela Cai and Akshay Manglik.
Bronze medal winners, who scored between 90 and 94 percent, were rising seventh graders Atri Banerjee, Anthony Tong, Linette Hoffman, Nicholas Wei and Isaac Yang; rising eighth graders Ishaan Parate, Aaron Tran, Prakrit Jain, Thresia Vazhaeparambil, Ysabel Chen and Akhilesh Chegu; and rising ninth graders Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Shalini Rohra and Maria Vazhaeparambil.
These students were presented with their medals and certificates in May at the California Junior Classical League’s state convention.
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine.
While in high school, Elyse VyVy Trinh ’07 attended a Vietnamese Catholic youth group where she heard a priest talk about human trafficking. It lit a fire in Trinh, the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, and fueled her desire to make a difference in the world.
“It really hit me that day,” remembered Trinh in a thoughtful, upbeat tone. “I had heard these stories before, but I felt like I was waking up.” Trinh later attended a leadership event that was packed with young people who wanted to change the world.
After the event, Trinh sent an email to two Harker administrators, saying that the school needed a revolution. She and a group of friends dedicated themselves to raising funds – ultimately, nearly $14,000 – to support displaced people in Darfur, Sudan. “It was like Dumbledore’s Army,” she said with a smile. “This was my earliest experience organizing a group of people and it felt so empowering. I realized this is what I want to do – this is what matters.”
While Trinh was becoming an activist, she also considered herself a writer and an artist. Although her family thought she would go into medicine, Trinh wasn’t convinced. But then two things happened that ultimately led her down that path.
First, she read “Mountains Beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder, which gave her a new perspective on the role of a physician. The book is about Dr. Paul Farmer, whose passion, dedication and tireless efforts resulted in improved health care for the desperately poor in Haiti and beyond. She realized that following one’s calling can lead to a meaningful life.
Then John Near, a beloved Harker history teacher, got sick and Trinh watched helplessly, wishing here was something she could do. She began to see herself practicing medicine. After a four-year battle with cancer, Near died in 2009.
A family friend told her about a medical program at Brown University in Providence, R.I., that allowed students to explore their passions as undergraduates so that they would develop into well-rounded, humanistic doctors. She took a leap of faith that she could forge a connection between health, community and education.
“Brown’s true education to us will have been this lesson above all: that it is never foolish to feel love; that compassion is the enduring and most important connection among of all fields of study,” she said in a commencement speech at Brown in May 2011.
Trinh fell in love with education at Brown – and even took a year off between her third and fourth years of medical school to earn a master’s degree in education at Harvard University. For this she received a Zuckerman Fellowship, which enables students who have or are pursuing a professional degree to spend a year earning a public service degree.
Meanwhile, she nurtured her passions for social justice, community and education by volunteering with BRYTE (Brown Refugee Youth Tutoring and Enrichment), which works one-on-one with refugee youth in K-12. “I’d like to think I played some role in her success but, of course, I know she achieved all she has without my help,” said Brigid Miller, a Harker English teacher and Trinh’s high school advisor. “VyVy is a force, a magnetic personality whom others are drawn to. She’s a person you want to know forever; she’s my idol.”
She’s also an idol to the young refugees she has tutored and mentored through BRYTE (www. brownrefugeetutoring.weebly.com). Known as “BRYTE Grandma,” she co-directed the summer camp for years and still works as a tutor and advisor. “VyVy is [nicknamed] BRYTE Grandma because she loves our program and all the people in it! Whenever we are trying to contact a camper’s family, we call VyVy because she memorized all of the addresses and she always knows it,” said Mechack Ira, assistant director at BRYTE and former tutee and camper. “I will forever be grateful to VyVy for believing in me.”
As Trinh wraps up her time in Rhode Island and heads to California for her residency, she hasn’t slowed down a bit. In addition to working with BRYTE, she’s trying to connect Haitian peanut farms to global markets and working with young Vietnamese Americans to organize and stand with today’s refugees. Her LinkedIn profile ends with “Come dream and scheme with me!” capturing her mission to make a difference in the world.
Contributor Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine.
By Vikki Bowes-Mok
When Tiffany Liou ’08 arrived at Harker in seventh grade, she had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. What she did know was that she was interested in a lot of different things, so she jumped in and got involved.
“I remember her start to announcements at school meetings with her energetic ‘Hey, guysssss’ – drawing out the second word and giving her classic huge Tiffany smile,” said Evan Barth, upper school academic dean. “Her energy was contagious, and her peers loved to follow her lead as much as Tiffany enjoyed leading.”
From being president of the Spirit Club and serving on student council to playing varsity basketball and golf and participating in Junior State of America, Liou’s enthusiasm for life and learning led her down many different paths. “High school was one of the best times of my life,” she said with a smile. “Harker gave me opportunities to test the waters wherever I wanted to and taught me to always try new things.”
She attended Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, where she studied marketing and communications. While in college, she did a marketing internship at KGO-TV, an ABC-owned television station in San Francisco. As Liou crunched numbers for Nielsen ratings, she watched the newscasters and realized she wanted to be in front of the camera, not behind it. Although she was intrigued with broadcast journalism, she wasn’t sure about her next step.
She took a job with Salesforce.com out of college but decided to take a TV broadcasting class at Ohlone College, which she absolutely loved. This led to an internship at KTVU, a Fox-owned station, and then she was hired as the overnight assignment editor. Liou juggled two jobs for more than a year, working at Salesforce.com by day and KTVU at night. She took catnaps in her car and learned the power of 5-Hour Energy shots, while working 70-80 hours a week.
“Everything I’ve accomplished, I’ve earned through hard work,” she said. “I don’t think everyone can say they love their job, but I do!” Once she realized her dream, there was no stopping this driven young woman. Her first broadcast job offer came from West Monroe, La.
“This was one of hardest decisions I’ve ever made – to quit a great job at Salesforce in the Bay Area near all my family and friends for a producer job in Louisiana, a state I had never even visited!” she recalled.
After some tears and soul searching, she knew she had to go for it. So she packed up and trekked across the country. This was her first stop on her broadcasting journey, which has taken her from Louisiana to Iowa to Oklahoma, where she is now a reporter at KWTV News 9. She covers everything from hard crime to tornadoes but always works to find a human element in her stories. “There’s always a reason to tell a story because there’s always a group of people it impacts,” she reflected.
Liou learned this firsthand on her way to a new job in Iowa, when her airplane had to make an emergency landing in Greenville, Texas. “Smoke filled the cockpit, panic was everywhere, but we all stuck together and landed uninjured thanks to the leadership of our flight crew,” she reported. “I sent one viral tweet, and ended up on NBC Dallas, Today and CNN before I even started my first day of work. What an entrance!”
Her arrival in Oklahoma wasn’t as action-packed, but she is now enjoying a full life there with her fiancé, Allen, and their two dogs, Suki and Bacon. They are planning a wedding in March 2018 in the Bay Area – where Liou also hopes to fulfill her career dreams. She may not have known her passion when she started as a middle schooler at Harker, but she definitely does now.
As Liou said, “Reporting is my passion and I will go anywhere at any time to cover a story.”
Contributor Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
Harker Preschool students have experienced some wonderful music and movement activities this summer. Mara Beckerman, music and movement specialist, turned her space into the ocean for an Under the Sea week in mid-July. Each morning, upon arrival, students removed shoes and socks to get ready to become waves and fish.
“We usually start with the song ‘Hello My Friends’ by Pam Donkin,” said Beckerman. “It’s a chance to welcome each child by name in song and for the child to stand up and do some short movement.”
The students took an imaginary trip to an aquarium, pretending to get on a bus and ride to the aquarium. Once at the “aquarium,” the class sang a delightful song by Tom Paxton that includes the lyrics, “At the ‘quarium, the ‘quarium, all the fishes make the googlie eyes and stare-ium …”
During one activity, students were transformed into clams and tried to move themselves with one leg , like a clam. They also transformed into swordfish and octopi.
In the musical portion, “The children had the opportunity to bang on pots and pans, always fun, but this time the props were in water,” so students could discover the difference in underwater sounds, explained Beckerman.
Beckerman also introduced the children to a unique instrument called a Tibetan water bowl, used in Tibetan temples. “You fill the bowl with water and gently rub your hands on the two handles,” she said. “The friction of your hands (assuming you’ve washed them with soap and water and removed oils from your hand) will cause the handles to make a low sound. That sound creates vibrations that affect the water. The water begins to move creating lines and when the vibrations are just right the water starts to spurt upwards like a fountain, or what I call ‘water fireworks!’” Students are thus able to see the ripples— or “see” sound.
Students also were introduced to a unique drum called an ocean drum that sounds like the ocean and each child made a small ocean drum to take home, Beckerman said. The trip may have been fantasy, but the learning and fun were all real. It was a great week for these young learners!
This article first appeared in the summer 2017 Harker Magazine
1992
Toku Chen attended the March 18 Asia alumni reunion and presented Joe Rosenthal with the Carley Service Award at the alumni dinner on the Bund in Shanghai. The Carley Service Award recognizes alumni or friends who have unselfishly devoted their time and energy, and made significant contributions toward, advancing the programs of The Harker School. Toku gave a warm speech that included memories of Mr. Rosenthal during the dorm days. He also highlighted Mr. Rosenthal’s work benefiting young people, education and fundraising over his 30-plus year investment at Harker Academy and The Harker School.
1994
Leyna Cotran was the keynote speaker at an alumni networking luncheon held during the Harker Research Symposium last month. She focused on the important collaboration between academia and industry.
Alumnus-in-the-media alert! Wajahat Ali has been busy. Here he is in a CNN point-counterpoint discussion on the U.S. Attorney General nominee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=440KPaYH-kI
And here’s an interesting opinion piece by Wajahat in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/sunday/do-muslims-have-to-be-democrats-now.html
1996
Several members of the Class of ‘96 met at Campo di Bocce and celebrated 20 years since graduating from eighth grade! Class agent Andrea (Nott) Miles submitted a few photos of the event.
Pictured left to right are Patrick Fellowes, Elizabeth (Keezer) Isaak, Andrea, Wendy (Okimura) Diaz, Sheila Collins, Ann (Chu) Blomquist, Marlen Alcaraz and Steven Blomquist.
2003
Andrew Shvarts published his first book! “Royal Bastards,” for teens and young adults, is the story of a castle lord’s disenfranchised “natural” children who are drawn into castle intrigue. Check out our profile on Andrew on page 48.
2004
Jessica Liu was married over the Memorial Day weekend to Tyler Chang Seaman, who was the boy next door all through their childhoods! Pictured (all ‘04 unless noted) are Vickie Duong, Jessica, Jen Lin and Jacinda Mein (front row); Nickisa Hodgson, Karla Bracken, Laena Keyashian and Christiana Rattazzi ’03 (middle row); and Tanya Schmidt ’08, Casey Near ’06 and Courtney Johnson (top row).
2005
Adhir Ravipati received Positive Coaching Alliance’s National Double-Goal Coach Award. He was also one of four coaches selected out of more than 2,000 nominations to be featured on stage at PCA’s National Youth Sports Awards. Adhir is a football coach at Menlo-Atherton High School.
http://bayareane.ws/2qbbpBy
2006
Gail Nakano is a chemist, but has been a volunteer in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus for seven seasons. The symphony did a great video featuring Gail: https://www.facebook.com/sfsymphony/videos/vl.554392084714335/10154570668528292/ ?type=1
The Class of 2006 met for a 10-year reunion in San Francisco just before Christmas. Alumni gathered to enjoy refreshments, appetizers and plenty of festive alumni company at the Thirsty Bear Brewing Company. There were more than 50 people at the event, including faculty members Brian Larsen and Lisa Radice. It was a nice, long evening – folks stayed quite late catching up and enjoying a (only slightly embarrassing) slideshow of archive photos!
2007
Jacqueline Rousseau recently married Tommy Morphet. They met as undergrads at Caltech. Natalie Torban was one of Jacqueline’s bridesmaids.
2008
The Washington Post made a wonderful video featuring employee Emily Chow. Check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqAHf3gMhUo
2009
Chetan Vakkalagadda graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in May. After eight years in St. Louis, he is moving to Chicago in June to start his internal medicine residency at Northwestern.
Stephanie Guo and Steven Tran met up in Copenhagen, Denmark, while he was on a business trip. Stephanie said Steven saw her Instagram post and reached out.
D.J. Blickenstaff’s acting career continues to heat up. He will appear as “Arman” in three episodes of Netflix’s new series, “Dear White People,” which premiered April 28. Check him out in the trailer:
The show can be streamed on Netflix at https://www.netflix.com/title/80095698
Evan Maynard was the alumni speaker at this year’s Harker Research Symposium. Evan works at Blue Origin as a propulsion development engineer. His talk focused on making spaceflight more affordable, as well as the development of reusable rockets. Check him out on the video playlist:
2009
Neha Sabharwal, attending Harvard Law School, is an avid runner and ran this year’s Boston Marathon as part of the Girls on the Run team. Neha became involved with the nonprofit organization seven years ago while an undergraduate student at Duke University in North Carolina, where the organization is based. Here’s a nice article about her: https://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/community/177-features/54955-
2010
Several Harker classmates helped Kevin Zhang celebrate his birthday. Pictured left to right are Albert Wu ’12, Stefan Eckhard ’10, Jackie Ho ’10, Kevin, James Feng ’10, Karthik Dhore ’11, Sean Morgan ’10 and Kyu Bok Lee ’08.
Priya Sathaye got engaged! After graduating from Cornell, Priya started grad school at the University of Pennsylvania. She and her fiancé, John, met while running out of their graduate student housing apartments when the fire alarm went off. They ran down 11 floors to the courtyard, and ended up cooking dinner together that evening. John is a Ph.D. student in the mechanical engineering department.
2011
James Seifert found himself on the stage once again with Cecilia Lang-Ree ’13 in Stanford University’s spring mainstage production, “The Wild Party.” James and Cecilia were in “Les Misérables” and “Pippin” together at Harker, and both were in Downbeat. Both will graduate from Stanford this year. Cecilia plans to continue at Stanford, working on her master’s in community health and prevention research.
2013
Pranav Sharma is the editor-in-chief of the Brown Journal of World Affairs (a journal similar to Foreign Affairs), which recently released an issue featuring scholarly work on global populism, India’s developing national identity, and art, identity and conflict (available for purchase at some Barnes & Noble locations).
Maverick McNealy is currently ranked No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Rankings and is tied with Tiger Woods on the Stanford all-time wins list. He was named one of three finalists for The Ben Hogan Award, given annually to the top male college golfer. It’s the third year Maverick has been nominated; the winner will be named after our press time. He also recently received the 2017 Byron Nelson Award. Read all about it in Harker News: http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8hh
Ashvin Swaminathan was awarded a Soros Fellowship for New Americans, honoring the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. Ashvin was valedictorian and won a number of prizes while at Harker, including being named a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search; he was also a John Near Endowment scholar.
Michael Amick was drafted by Major League Soccer team the Portland Timbers! Read all about it at
http://wp.me/pOeLQ-83J.
Izzy Connell and Ryan Mui got engaged to each other this spring! Huge congrats to both of them. The news emerged at the annual Keller Tour, so the whole group celebrated! Read more about it in the Keller Tour story on the next page.
2015
Sarah Bean will be interning this summer at the studio of Alexander Wang ’98. She will be working in the merchandising department at the Broadway office in Manhattan.
Ayush Midha is still winning debate awards – now as a Harvard student! He and his debate partner won the Rex Copeland Award, which is presented to the top college debate team in the nation. The duo won several invitational tournaments, giving them the best overall record of the year. The award was announced at the National Debate Tournament, held in March at the University of Kansas. Harker debate coaches Greg Achten and Jenny (Alme) Achten (yes, they recently married!) attended the tournament and were very proud to see Ayush receive the Copeland and make it to the quarterfinals of the tournament. “It is a ton of fun to watch our alums debate so successfully at the collegiate level,” said Jenny Achten. Greg Achten added that Ayush’s debate achievements are especially laudable alongside his rigorous pre-med course of study.
2016
Elisabeth Siegel has had her Harker Mitra grant paper, titled “Ideology through Subliminal Propaganda: A Critique of Portrayals of Palestine and Palestinians in Israeli and Western Online News Media during Operation Protective Edge,” published by Yale Review of International Studies! Read more at Harker news: http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8gh
Andrew Zhu ’14, a junior at NYU, was recently recognized with All-Academic honors by the United Volleyball Conference. This is the second year in a row that Zhu has received this award. This season, his team won its first UVC title, as well as made its first trip to the NCAA D3 volleyball tournament and finished the season ranked No. 7 in the nation. While at Harker, Zhu was a three-time captain and MVP. Congrats Andrew!
Following its regional Quiz Bowl win in April, Harker’s A-team of Nikhil Manglik ’17, rising senior Edgar Lin and rising sophomores Rohan Cherukuri and Jeffrey Fung, traveled to Atlanta for the national championship. The team had a respectable finish, taking 25th in a competition with more than 300 teams. Rising sophomore Kyle Li, a member of the Harker B-team, ranked No. 2 among freshmen nationwide and was named a Freshman Rising Star. Li also was ranked 45 overall among the 1,500 participants.
At the World Chess Federation’s 28th Panamerican Youth Championship, held June 30 to July 7 in Costa Rica, student Omya Vidyarthi, a rising grade 2 student, took first place among girls under age 8. Vidyarthi was one of four gold medalists to represent the United States at the competition, and her win helped make the U.S. the highest-placing country. She also received the title of Woman Candidate Master, which is awarded to female players who have at one point achieved a rating of 2,000, and she placed first in her age group for blitz chess, a variation of speed chess.