May 17 was a busy day for the 190 members of the Class of 2017, who attended the Alumni Induction Lunch at Nichols Hall, where they officially became Harker alumni and presented this year’s senior gift: a $2,000 donation to Harker’s advancement department. History teacher Damon Halback spoke at the event, wishing the departing seniors well in the coming years.
Several graduating seniors had their names inscribed on bricks that were later placed into the Senior Walk at Graduates’ Grove during this year’s Brick Ceremony, where math teacher Troy Thiele offered some kind and inspiring parting words to the soon-to-be graduates.
That afternoon, the seniors gathered with the juniors at the upper school campus quad for the baccalaureate ceremony, held each year to wish the seniors well in their future endeavors and welcome the juniors into their new roles as seniors. Economics teacher Sam Lepler was chosen by the students to be this year’s faculty baccalaureate speaker and senior Aditya Dhar also shared some parting words of wisdom with his classmates and the seniors-to-be. As a special surprise, former Harker teacher Ben Spencer-Cooke appeared to offer congratulations to the graduates.
The seniors who entered Harker as kindergartners then headed to the lower school campus to celebrate their time as Harker students at a very special Lifers Dinner, fittingly held at the campus where their Harker careers began.
The Class of 2017 arrived at the Mountain Winery on May 18 for an afternoon of celebration and bittersweet farewells. Valedictorian Kai Ang used his time at the podium to remind his classmates that “we are indebted to all who stood behind us, seen and unseen.” Keynote speaker Chris Malachowsky, co-founder of graphics technology company Nvidia, offered students advice based on three points: investment in oneself, confidence and responsibility. Finally, departing Head of School Chris Nikoloff gave his final graduation speech before exiting to serve as headmaster of The American School in Switzerland. Invoking Voltaire’s observation that “life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats,” Nikoloff advised the audience to “find joy no matter where you are, to pay attention to those in the lifeboat next to you, to see that your circumstances do not necessarily dictate your attitude about those circumstances.”
Earlier this month, eighth grader Jacqueline Au and junior Matthew Lee received accolades in the 2017 Growing Up Asian in America Awards, organized by the Asian Pacific Fund. Au was named Best in Class among students in grades 6-8 in the art category for her piece, titled “Together, We Lead.” Lee received an honorable mention in the essay category for grades 9-12.
More than 600 Bay Area students in grades K-12 entered this year’s contest, which offers more than $20,000 in prizes for artwork, essays and video projects. The theme of this year’s contest was “Letter to the Senator,” in which students were encouraged to send messages to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who made history in the 2016 general election as the first Indian-American and second African-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Last month, recent graduates Manan Shah ’17 and Michael Tseitlin ’17, accompanied by computer science chair Eric Nelson, attended the Critical Issues Forum in Nagasaki, Japan, an annual event for high school students around the world interested in nuclear disarmament.
The conference, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, was co-sponsored by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Kwassui High School in Nagasaki and the Nagasaki Council for Nuclear Weapons Abolition.
During the three-day event, students from the United States, Russia and Japan gave presentations on this year’s assigned topic, “Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and its Role for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons.” Shah and Tseitlin’s presentation examined ways that current nuclear weapons ban agreements could be improved. “Our research highlighted the major concerns in numerous high-risk nuclear regions of interest and proposed a unique test-ban solution focusing on broad global precedents and specific regional implementations to prevent the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Shah said.
Attendees also heard from leading nonproliferation experts, including Lassina Zerbo, executive secretary at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, who gave a talk “about the accomplishments and hurdles surrounding the implementation of the treaty,” Shah recalled. Shah also was asked to be one of two students from the United States to appear on a panel, where he discussed how he became a researcher and activist for nuclear nonproliferation.
Outside of the conference, students had the opportunity to explore Hiroshima and its many exhibits related to the bombing that eventually led to the end of World War II. “I was truly inspired by visiting the site of the atomic bomb explosion on Aug. 6, 1945 and obtaining a firsthand understanding of the damage that was inflicted by the bomb on Japanese citizens,” Shah reported. “I’m also incredibly grateful for the opportunity to live with a host family who helped me understand and appreciate Japanese culture.”
The annual Parent Development Council luncheon was again held at the home of Melinda Gonzales, managing director of advancement. About 50 members of the council attended the lunch, which served to thank these dedicated parents for all of their hard work. The event, catered by Luna Mexican Kitchen, was a delightful interlude as the school year winds up!
Harker students had another stellar year at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, which took place in late March. Two students – junior Amy Jin and recent graduate Manan Shah ’17 – were grand prize winners, earning them trips to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Synopsys Championship website includes the full list of middle and upper school winners, which also can be found below.
Middle School
Arohee Bhoja, grade 8: $250 to the winning student or team in middle school bioscience, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Sidra Xu, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Russell Yang, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Alexandra Baeckler, grade 8: Nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th Grade; first award, biological science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, NASA Earth System Science Award.
Ankita Kundu, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Akshay Manglik, grade 8: Nominated to compete envelope, Broadcom MASTERS – 8th Grade; first award, physical science and engineering category.
Elizabeth Szeto, grade 8: Middle school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; honorable mention, biological science and engineering category.
Upper School
Akhil Arun, grade 11: Second award, biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Cynthia Chen, grade 9: Second award, physical science and engineering category; $100 first place, certificate of achievement and letter, Inez M. Lechner Award.
Karena Kong, grade 11: Honorable mention student award, $50 and certificate of achievement, Association for Computing Machinery, San Francisco Bay Area Professional Chapter; first award, physical science and engineering category.
Eileen Li, grade 9: BBC Microbit development kit, TechLab Education.
Millie Lin, grade 11: Certificate and nomination to enter 2018 Sustainability Soutions Festival in Arizona, Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives; certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association; honorable mention, certificate of achievement and goody bag, Association for Women in Science, Palo Alto Chapter.
Emily Liu, grade 9: BBC Microbit development kit, TechLab Education.
Maya Shukla, grade 9: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Sahana Srinivasan, grade 11: Second award, biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Krish Kapadia, grade 10, and Anjay Saklecha, grade 10: $500 to the winning student or team in high school bioscience, Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; high school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; first award, RRI biological science and engineering category.
Katherine Tian, grade 10: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Kevin Xu, grade 10, and Raymond Xu ’17: Certificate of achievement, American Psychological Association.
Katherine Zhang, grade 10: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Kaushik Shivakumar, grade 10: Honorable mention, biological science and engineering category; certificate and nomination to enter 2018 Sustainability Soutions Festival in Arizona, Arizona State University Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives.
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 11: Honorable mention, biological science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, United States Public Health Service.
Shaya Zarkesh, grade 11: Honorable mention student award: $50 and certificate of achievement, Association for Computing Machinery, San Francisco Bay Area Professional Chapter; honorable mention, physical science and engineering category.
Jerry Chen, grade 11: High school – one packet with letter, certificate of achievement, ONR Medallion and form for $50 gift card, United States Navy and Marine Corps.
Amy Dunphy, grade 11: IEEE Electro-Technology $50 gift card and a certificate, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
Amy Jin, grade 11: Grand prize – best of championship, physical sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI physical science and engineering category; $100 and a certificate of achievement, IBM award.
Cameron Jones, grade 10: Second award, biological science and engineering category.
Arnav Joshi, grade 9: High school finalist certificate and Amazon.com gift certificate; Synopsys Outreach Foundation n+1 Prize; second award, biological science and engineering category.
Rishab Gargeya ’17: $100 first prize, Morgan Lewis; second award, RRI physical science and engineering category.
Anastasiya Grebin, grade 11: First award, biological science and engineering category.
Jimmy Lin, grade 11: First award, RRI biological science and engineering category.
Sandip Nirmel ’17: Second award, RRI physical science and engineering category; certificate of achievement, American Meteorological Society.
Evani Radiya-Dixit ’17: Second award, RRI biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and Membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Manan Shah ’17: Grand prize, best of championship, biological sciences, trip to Intel ISEF and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; first award, RRI biological science and engineering category; $100 and a certificate of achievement, IBM Award; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Arjun Subramaniam ’17: Grand prize alternate, biological sciences, trip to state science fair and plaque, Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association, board of directors awards, high school; second award, RRI biological science and engineering category; ASEI Silicon Valley emerging technology certificate of achievement award and membership to American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin, American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin Award.
Maddie Huynh, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
Michelle Kwan, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
Carolyn Lu, grade 9: First place award, $150 cash and certificate of achievement, American Society of Civil Engineers, San Jose branch.
At the National Economics Challenge finals in New York City, Harker’s team took fourth place overall in the Adam Smith division, narrowly missing the top two and a chance to appear on CNBC. Nevertheless, the students performed admirably to place in the top four nationwide. Congratulations!
Update May 1, 2017:
Harker’s National Economics Challenge team received word on Friday that it had qualified for the 2017 National Finals, set to take place in New York City May 20-22. The team – made up of Arindam Ghosh, Sumer Kohli, Adriano Hernandez and Praveen Batra, all grade 11 — previously won the state-level competition, placing it among the top four teams in the country. More than 10,500 students participate in the competition each year.
The final competition will consist of three multiple choice exam rounds, a case study presentation and a quiz bowl round.
April 4, 2017
Harker has qualified two teams for the national semifinals of the 2017 National Economics Challenge, which tests students’ knowledge of economics using real-world scenarios. Following qualification, competitions are held at the state, national semifinal and national final levels for high school students in two divisions: the Adam Smith Division for advanced placement, international baccalaureate and honors students; and the David Ricardo Division for semester general economics students. Harker competes in the Adam Smith Division.
After qualifying the maximum of two teams per school via the initial online test, both Harker teams qualified at state finals for the next round, the national semifinals. Harker teams finished first and second at state finals, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on April 3. The first place teamcomprised Praveen Batra, Adriano Hernandez and Sumer Kohli. Arindam Ghosh is also on the team but missed this round due to the flu. All are grade 11.
The second place team is Alex Lam, grade 12; and Eric Jeong, Derek Kuo and Alex Wang, all grade 11. The national semifinals are a proctored exam held at each team’s school on April 25. Scores will be tallied nationwide and the four top-scoring teams will then meet in New York City on an all-expenses-paid trip to compete for the championship.
The second part of this year’s exchange with the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy kicked off in late March. Thirteen middle school students – accompanied by global education director Jennifer Walrod, lower school English teacher Kate Shanahan and technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga – traveled to China to visit with their SWFLA buddies and experience some of the country’s rich history, culture and geographic landmarks.
Upon arriving on March 28, the Harker students met up with their SWFLA buddies and families who would be their homestays for the following few days. The students received a very warm welcome on their first day at SWFLA, where they were treated to a flag raising ceremony and introduced themselves to the school in Mandarin. “Apparently … on our drive back from the airport, the SWFLA buddies were busy teaching our kids how to introduce themselves in Mandarin,” said Walrod. Later, the Harker students attended a class on Shanghai history and participated in an art class. The students spent the afternoon learning how to make dumplings and spring rolls,” Walrod said. “Luckily, they did a good job as that is what we ate for dinner.”
Harker students embarked on a field trip the next day to the town of Zhujiajiao, often called the “Venice of China” because of its large network of canals. The visit started with a boat ride to the Fangsheng Bridge. “Once we arrived, everyone bought bags of fish and turtles to set free in order to give them a second life,” said Erica Cai, grade 7. “We then strolled down the many streets and shops of Zhujiajiao, bargaining with the merchants there. All of the vendors were kind and willing to lower prices for us.”
April 1 was the final day for Harker students to spend time on campus with their SWFLA buddies. The day started with morning exercises and a martial arts class, followed by a class on Tibetan-style dance. In music class, the students learned about movements from the Peking opera and Chinese instruments such as the pipa and guzheng. At the end of the day, the Harker guests were treated to a farewell ceremony that included performances by both Harker and SWFLA students.
Harker students spent the next few days with their homestays before departing for Beijing on April 5. Their first stop in China’s massive capital city was the Temple of Heaven, where they learned of the temple’s history as a symbol of the relationship between heaven and earth. After a brief tai chi lesson on the temple grounds, the group headed for the Hutongs, a network of narrow streets and alleyways, where they visited a traditional home known as a “siheyuan,” which consists of a group of small dwellings situated around a courtyard. They also whipped through the alleyways on rickshaws, which Saumi Mehta, grade 7, described as “less bumpy than expected, but fast!”
The next day in Beijing started with a stroll through Tiananmen Square, where they learned about the Monument to People’s Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. Later, they visited the Forbidden City, one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which contains 9,000 rooms in 800 buildings. They later visited the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, which features a corridor that stretches for more than 700 meters.
The students’ final day in China was a full one, starting with a trip to the Spirit Walkway of the Ming Tombs, which serves as the resting place for 13 Chinese emperors. “We wandered down the pathway, taking numerous photos of opposing pairs of animal and human statues lining the way,” said Walrod. Later, the group headed to the Great Wall of China, walking along the world-famous fortification, taking photos and marveling at the massive structure. “As we descended from the wall, we basked in the fact that we had just seen one of the wonders of the world!” recalled Emma Andrews, grade 8.
At dinner that evening, the students enjoyed Peking duck while viewing a shadow puppet show, and went shopping one last time before leaving the next day.
Congratulations to Vivian Wang, grade 11, and Ethan Hu, grade 9, each of whom placed fourth at the CIF State Swimming Championships. Wang competed in the 100 breaststroke and Hu in the 100 butterfly. Congratulations!
Boys Tennis
Harker sent two doubles teams to compete in CCS last week. Ed Tischler, grade 12, and Ram Vegesna, grade 9, defeated Monterey in the first round before falling to Cupertino in the second round. Juniors Neil Bai and Randy Zhao lost their first round matchup with Pioneer. Congrats on a great season!
Track and Field
Over the weekend, Davis Dunaway, grade 12, represented Harker at the CCS track prelims in the pole vault. Although Dunaway did not make it to the finals, he had a great season!
Alumni Golf
On Monday, Maverick McNealy ’13 made his third trip to the Ben Hogan Award ceremony, and this time he was named the top men’s collegiate golfer. McNealy is one of only two golfers in the award’s history to be a finalist three times, and he is currently one of only two golfers to be ranked in the top 10 in all four major college and amateur ranking systems. Check out the full story and video from the event:
Lower and middle school results provided by Theresa “Smitty” Smith.
VA (Grades 7-8) Baseball: The Varsity A team, coached by Jeff Paull, Matt Arensberg and Richard Amarillas, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 5-0. This is the first lower or middle school baseball team to win a league title since the league started back in 2008! Team awards went to Marcus Anderson, grade 8, and Nicholas Coulter, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Levi Sutton, grade 8 (Eagle) and George Wehner, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 4-6) Baseball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Tim Hopkins and Jeff Martarano, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Drew Diffenderfer, grade 4 (MVP), Jack Ledford, grade 5 (Eagle) and Wyatt Cote, grade 6 (Coaches).
Intramural (Grades 4-5) Baseball: Team awards went to Nathan Wilcox, grade 4 (Eagle) and Anderson Chung, grade 4, and Advay Monga, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen, Tobias Wade and Justin Sullivan.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by Lindsey Trinh, grade 12, and Lauren Napier, grade 11, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 5-3. Team awards went to Julia Yusupov, grade 8 (MVP), Emma Dionne, grade 8 (Eagle), and Shreya Srinivasan, grade 8, and Anvitha Tummala, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B team, coached by Xiaofeng Foret, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 7-0. The team did not lose a single set all season! Team awards went to Catherine Feng, grade 7 (MVP), Alivia Li, grade 7 (Eagle) and Brooklyn Cicero, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Josh Miller, finished tied for third place in the WBAL with a record of 5-2. Team awards went to Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 8 (MVP), Sarah Leafstrand, grade 7 (Eagle) and Lucy Ge, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Sara Pawloski, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-4. Team awards went to Allison Zhu (MVP), Sonya He (Eagle) and Austina Xu (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Belle Carley, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Riya Gupta and Amruta Dharmapurikar (Eagle) and Shea Bryden (Coaches).
JVB1 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Michelle Wei (Eagle) and Alice Tao (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Sydney Voss, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Ava Pakravan (MVP), Emily Kwan (Eagle) and Claire Bauschlicher (Coaches).
Intramural (Grade 4) Girls Volleyball: Team awards went to Saira Ramakrishnan (MVP), Angelina Burrows (Eagle) and Menaka Aron (Coaches). The team was coached by Allison Pereira.
VA (Grades 7-8) Boys Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. The team went 7-2 overall. Team awards went to Marcus Page, grade 7 (MVP), Avery Young, grade 8 (Eagle) and David Gong, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 6-7) Boys Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Julie Meline, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. Team awards went to Sam Boucher, grade 7, and Sujith Pakala, grade 7 (Co-MVP), Jack Lyon, grade 6 (Eagle) and Carlo Banzon, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Water Polo: The Varsity A water polo team, coached by Ted Ujifusa and Allie Lamb, finished the season with a league tournament. Although the team went 0-2 in that tournament, the scores were very close and the team improved tremendously over the course of the season. Team awards went to Bayden Yazalina, grade 8 (MVP), Elizabeth Fields, grade 8, and Daniel Fields, grade 7 (Eagle) and Anna Arnaudova, grade 8 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity A tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished in second place in the WBAL at 3-1 and third place in the MTP at 3-1. The team finished the MTP tournament in third place and had an overall season record of 8-3. Team awards went to Santoshi Tirumala, grade 8, and Gowtham Irrinki, grade 8 (Co-MVP), Dhruv Saoji, grade 7, and Sachi Bajaj, grade 8 (Eagle) and Dawson Chen, grade 7, and Tuhin Chatterjee, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity B tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished tied for first place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1. Team awards went to Anishka Raina, grade 7 (MVP), Madeleine Hansen, grade 7, and Victoria Han, grade 7 (Eagle), and Samuel Jonker, grade 6, and Kailash Ranganathan, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Golf: The Varsity A golf team, coached by Ie-Chen Cheng, took first place in the WBAL spring tournament, held at a tough Crystal Springs Golf Course. The team shot a 164 on the front nine. They beat the rest of the field by 21 strokes! The top four golfers were Natalie Vo, grade 8 (39), Aditya Tadimeti, grade 8 (39), Bowen Yin, grade 8 (42) and Marcus Page, grade 7 (44).
LS (Grades 4-5) Boys Track: The lower school boys team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. The top fifth grade performance was turned in by Veyd Patil (second place in the 800). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Vyom Vidyarthi (first place in the 400 and 800 and second place in the 200), Ori Muramatsu (second place in the 800), Robert Fields (second place in the 400) and Oskar Baumgarte (second place in the long jump).
LS (Grades 4-5) Girls Track: The lower school girls team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top fifth grade performances were turned in by Katherine Fields (second place in the 800) and Mira Goodwin (second place in the 400). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Chiling Han (first place in the 800), Claire Anderson (second place in the softball throw) and the 4×100 relay team (third place with Claire Anderson, Chiling Han, Genieve Malinen and Sidak Sanghari)
MS (Grades 6-8) Boys Track: The middle school boys track team took first place overall at the WBAL track meet for the first time ever! Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anton Novikov (first place in the 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Bayden Yazalina, McCoy Buchsteiner and Rosh Roy) and Arya Maheshwari (first place in the 1200). Top seventh grade performances were turned in by Justin Fung (first place in the 50, 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Ishaan Mantripragada, Muthiah Panchanatham and Harsh Deep) and Harsh Deep (first place in the 400). Top sixth grade performances were turned in by Rigo Gonzales (first place in the 100, 200 and 400) and Siddharth Selvakumar (first place in the softball throw).
MS (Grades 6-8) Girls Track: The middle school girls track team took fifth place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anna Vazhaeparambil (first place in the long jump) and Anna Weirich (second place in the 800 and 1,200). The top seventh grade performance was turned in Ashley Barth (third place in the long jump).
Two Harker students won awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held last week in Los Angeles.
Junior Amy Jin’s project, titled “Deep Learning-Based Automated Tool Detection and Analysis of Surgical Videos to Assess Operative Skill,” won her a Second Award in the robotics and intelligent machines category. She also won a First Geno Award, which included a $1,000 cash prize, from the Samvid Education Foundation.
Recent graduate Manan Shah ’17 won a Second Award in the computational biology and bioinformatics category for his project, titled “Deep Learning Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Histopathological Images for Categorical and Molecular Breast Cancer Severity Diagnosis.” The project also earned him an honorable mention from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.
Both students won their trips to Intel ISEF at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship in March, where they each received grand prizes.
The Harker boys golf team took the Northern California Championship yesterday, driving its way into the Harker record books as the first boys varsity team to win a championship since Harker opened its high school in 1998. Congrats to Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11; Ryan Vaughan, grade 12; Sandip Nirmel, grade 12; Victor Shin, grade 11; Jin Kim, grade 11; Avi Khemani, grade 12; and coaches Ie-Chen Cheng and Tom Vaughan!
“This has been an outstanding year athletically,” said Dan Molin, upper school athletic director, “capped off by our boys golf team earning the school’s first boys Northern California Championship. The boys have worked extremely hard and are all about team and supporting each other. Coach Ie-Chen has had a plan and philosophy, which has been paying dividends as shown by four straight league championships, two CCS second place finishes and now a NorCal title. From the golfers to coaches, they’ve earned every bit of their success.”
Cheng was thrilled by the boys’ performance but saw the team’s potential early on. “To be honest, I felt very confident entering this postseason,” Cheng said. “In the beginning of the season, I challenged the team to shoot even par as a team for every one of our matches and tournaments. I told them if we can do this, we can win NorCals. That was our goal – win the NorCal Championship – and that is exactly what happened. We struggled throughout the season to put together a round where each shot their best.
“The team started the season well, winning their first tournament at Lone Tree” and followed with some decent scores, Cheng continued, “but we certainly weren’t playing our collective best. Our first sign of impending success was against Menlo at their home course. They played their best, and we went 2-under as a team; that put a lot of life back into the team,” she said.
Cheng went on to put together a very strategic schedule that tested the boys in many different environments. They played as many tournaments as possible, going to Las Vegas, Palm Springs, the East Bay and Marin, playing against the best possible competition she could find. “I knew this would help us in the long run, especially during the postseason,” Cheng added. “We talked consistently about getting each other’s backs and playing for each other.”
Cheng looked at the postseason as five stages. “We won the first stage by winning our league tournament,” she said. “Then, we went on to win the CCS Regionals, a first for us. Then we came in second for the second straight year at the CCS Championships. The fourth phase was winning NorCals.
“We were 2-over as a team at the turn. We had a long wait to start the back nine, and I was concerned it would ruin our rhythm,” she continued. “But we made sure the boys stayed loose, refueled to prepare for a very hot afternoon and back nine. They responded. I know we were the most prepared team. So yes, I had a quiet confidence we could pull this out. However, I think most teams there were surprised we played this well. The boys were absolutely phenomenal yesterday on the biggest stage.
“And now this is the final step for us, State Championships. Historically, Southern California has dominated the golf championships, but we’re going to give it our best shot,” Cheng stated.
Naturally, the boys were excited. “I realized we had a good chance to win when I came in with a good score and heard from the coaches that my teammates were playing well,” said Nirmel. “I have a ton of confidence in my teammates, because they always play hard and are strong competitors. However, in golf, you never really know who will be the winner until all the players have completed their rounds, and so we all cheered on our teammates as they came in on the final hole; after all, every shot counts!
“When I saw that we had won the tournament, I felt proud of all the work we had put in this year,” he continued. “Winning NorCals is no easy feat. We celebrated the occasion by high-fiving each other and taking a few pictures by the 18th green.”
As a graduate, Nirmel is going out on a high note. “It sure feels satisfying to clinch the NorCal Championship. This is what we’ve worked so hard for these past four years, slowly inching closer to the top of the leaderboard each and every time. Winning is nice, but what I’ve really enjoyed is hanging out with my team – a genuine, classy group of awesome people.”