Earlier this month, Harker took first place at the 2017 Northern California State Championship quiz bowl tournament, organized by National Academic Quiz Tournaments. The Harker A team of senior Nikhil Manglik, juniors Swapnil Garg and Edgar Lin, and freshman Kyle Li went 10-1 overall in the event, which took place April 15 at U.C. Berkeley. In a format similar to game shows, players were asked questions on a wide variety of topics and had to “buzz in” to answer the question before the opposing team.
The Harker A team — minus Garg, due to a schedule conflict — will be competing at the national championship in Atlanta in May, as will another team from Harker made up of ninth graders Arun Sundaresan, Jeffrey Fung and Rohan Cherukuri. Best of luck!
On April 11, Kumi Matsui’s Japanese language students embarked on a field trip to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, where they put their Japanese skills into practice and learned more about Japanese culture.
The first stop on the trip was a local Japanese eatery called Tomi Sushi. “The staff of this restaurant usually speaks native Japanese and they serve authentic Japanese dishes,” said Matsui. “The students had the opportunity to order dishes only in Japanese.”
Upon reaching Hakone Gardens, the students took an opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture by participating in a tea ceremony, after which they enjoyed a walk through the famously lush gardens, stopping for a moment at a pond to feed fish and turtles.
Congratulations to Elise Mayer, grade 10, who was among the top female lacrosse players in the Bay Area to be invited to try out for the National Lacrosse Team. After a grueling tryout, Mayer made Team No. 1 and will represent NorCal in a national competition at Yale over Memorial Day weekend. Great job Elise!
Boys Golf
It was business as usual for the boys golf team last week as it picked up two more wins. The Eagles started the week shooting their best score in Harker history with a 2-under-par performance as a team, defeating Menlo 178-187. Jin Kim, grade 11, led the team as he medaled with a 34. Later in the week, the boys defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 178-207. The Eagles shot the top four scores, with Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, leading the way with a 33, followed closely by Avi Khemani, grade 12, shooting a 34. Today, the Eagles take on Sacred Heart Prep and Thursday they face off with The King’s Academy.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team stayed red hot as it swept Priory and Pinewood last week, both 7-0, and have now won seven matches in a row. Today and tomorrow, the Eagles will be playing in CCS qualifying matches at Menlo, with CCS starting next week.
Lacrosse
It was a very good week for the lacrosse team as it picked up three wins to bring the season record to 8-6. The girls started the week with an 18-10 win over Salinas, followed by a hard-fought 13-12 win over Carlmont, with a 20-10 victory over Stevenson to finish the week. This week, the Eagles host Notre Dame Belmont on Tuesday and travel to Sacred Heart Cathedral on Friday.
Softball
Members of the softball team flexed their muscles as they put up big numbers in two wins last week. In a 12-1 win over Fremont early in the week, Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, had three hits and three RBIs, with Grace Park, grade 12, and Taylor Lam, grade 10, also driving in two runs each. Later in the week, it was LeBlanc making noise on the mound as she no-hit Castilleja in a 15-0 mercy rule game. Park led the offense with three RBIs. This week, the Eagles travel to Cupertino on Tuesday and host Notre Dame San Jose on Thursday.
Track and Field
The Eagles took their largest team ever to face off with some of the best in CCS track last week at the CCS Top 8 at Los Gatos. The girls 400-meter relay team of Grace Koonmen, grade 11, Gloria Guo, grade 11, Nikki Solanki, grade 9, and Alycia Cary, grade 10, broke their school record for the third time this season, lowering their mark by .5 seconds. Also, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, ran a personal best in the 400. Next up for the Eagles is a trip to Sacred Heart Prep for WBAL meet No. 3.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team dropped a 3-2 match with Homestead last week to bring its season record to 14-10 on the season. This week, the Eagles take on Saratoga at home on Wednesday and travel to Cupertino on Friday.
Baseball
The baseball team went 1-2 last week, dropping 9-0 and 6-4 games to Crystal Springs Uplands, before defeating San Jose 13-2 later in the week. The 8-8 Eagles play home and away on Tuesday and Thursday versus El Camino before traveling to North Valley Baptist on Friday.
Swim
The swim team was off last week.It will take on The King’s Academy this Wednesday at Singh Aquatic Center.
The literary success continues for Jacqueline He, grade 11, who was recently awarded second place in the fiction portion of the Bennington College Young Writers Awards. More than 2,000 students from across the world entered this year’s contest, held by Vermont’s Bennington College, whose alumni have included Pulitzer Prize winners, poet laureates and a MacArthur Fellow.
Earlier this year, He received four Gold Keys and four Silver Keys in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and took first place in the high school poetry category in Writing Conference Inc.’s 2017 Writing Contest. In December, she was named a national finalist in the 2017 YoungArts Competition.
Ashvin Swaminathan ’13 was just awarded a Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans honors the contributions of immigrants and children of immigrants to the United States. Each year, the program provides funding for graduate studies for 30 immigrants and children of immigrants “who are poised to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture or their academic field,” according to the website, which goes on to note that each fellow receives up to $90,000 in financial support over two years.
Swaminathan, a senior at Harvard, is graduating in May with degrees in mathematics and physics. In the fall, he will start his graduate studies in mathematics at Princeton. Other awardees include a jazz trumpeter at The Juilliard School, a printmaker at Yale and a philosophy major at Columbia. Swaminathan was valedictorian for his graduating class at Harker and earned a number of distinctions while still in high school, including being named a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search (now the Regeneron Science Talent Search) and a John Near Scholar Endowment recipient. Amazing work, Ashvin! Best wishes for a continued great career! The photo is from the 2013 Near-Mitra Endowment reception.
A team of Harker students won the first Stanford Pre-Collegiate Economics Competition, held April 15 at Stanford University. The team of Adriano Hernandez, Alan Jiang, Jacob Ohana, Derek Yen and Randy Zhao, all grade 11, narrowly defeated teams from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and The Bishop’s School in San Diego. During the competition, Harker’s team gave a presentation on the federal response to the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis. The competition also included a multiple-choice exam. As a bonus, the students also had the opportunity to attend a talk by influential macroeconomist John Taylor, who is currently a professor at Stanford.
The annual grade 2 production of the Ogre Awards took place in late March at the Bucknall Theater, where this year’s cast traveled “Around the World in 80 Pages.” Students portrayed characters from stories originating from places including Hawaii, Ghana, Russia and Vietnam.
During the preceding months, the students heard stories from various cultures (told by lower school librarian Kathy Clark) and had lengthy discussions about each story’s characters and the different archetypes they represented. They later voted on which characters would win awards in various categories. Students then played these characters in the Ogre Awards show, where they were presented with the awards.
The theme for the show was based on the classic Jules Verne novel “Around the World in 80 Days,” and rose out of an amusing wager between Clark and fellow lower school librarian Judy Atterholt.
“Ms. Atterholt and I bet on the fastest way to get around the world in stories: through nonfiction like atlases and geography textbooks, or through fiction and folklore,” said Clark.
Lower school technical theater teacher Danny Dunn provided considerable help by tracking down variations of “It’s a Small World (After All)” that were based on musical traditions from the cultures represented in the show.
As has become tradition in the 20-plus-year history of the Ogre Awards, a special Ogre Award was bestowed upon a Harker staff member for his or her support of Harker’s libraries. This year’s recipient was none other than Dan Hudkins, director of information technology service and support. “Mr. Hudkins has always been a library advocate, even before he was a founding member of the school’s Information Literacy Committee,” Clark said.
Currently ranked No. 1 on the World Amateur Golf Ranking and tied with Tiger Woods on the Stanford all-time wins list, Maverick McNealy ’13 has a lot to be proud of. In his final year at Stanford, McNealy recently added to his prestigious career when he received the 2017 Byron Nelson Award. Only graduating seniors are eligible for the award, and a golfer’s entire collegiate and academic career, plus his integrity and character, are considered when selecting the winner.
“It is an absolute honor to be the recipient of this award, one that carries on Mr. Nelson’s legacy,” said McNealy in a statement. “I am humbled to be thought of as an exemplar of what he stood for, and his example will continue to serve as a great model in golf and life. I look forward to the challenge of representing and upholding the values of this award to the best of my abilities.”
The track and field team was very busy and very successful last week. On Wednesday, it traveled to Bellarmine to compete at the WBAL No. 2. Highlights included a new school record in the girls 400-meter relay by Grace Koonmen, grade 11, Gloria Guo, grade 11, Nikki Solanki, grade 9, and Alycia Cary, grade 10. In addition, Davis Dunaway, grade 12, won both the 100-meter dash and 300 hurdles; Andy Koonmen, grade 10, won the boys 3200; Niki Iyer, grade 12, won the girls 1600; Davis Howard, grade 12, won both the discus and shot put; and Kismet Singh, grade 9, won the 100 hurdles, followed by Lilly Anderson, grade 10, and Solanki, for a Harker 1-2-3 sweep.
Later in the week, the Eagles competed at the Bearcat Invitational at San Mateo High. Koonmen, Guo, Solanki and Cary once again broke the school record in the 400 relay, finishing with the third fastest time in league this season. Angel Cervantes, grade 11, Mitch Granados, grade 10, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, and Dunaway ran the fastest 400 relay time in league this year. Contreras also ran 200 and 400 races that put him No. 2 in league, while Dunaway set the best pole vault mark in league this year. Setting season bests were Koonmen in the 100, Singh and Anderson in the 100 hurdles, and Tiffany Shou, grade 11, in the discus. In addition, Howard set a personal best in the discus by 20 feet.
Next up for the Eagles is the CCS Top 8 meet at Los Gatos on Saturday.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team continues to dominate as it took care of Pinewood 199-300 last week. Jaimin Bhagat, grade 9, led Harker with a 38, followed by Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, and Victor Shin, grade 11, each shooting 39. This week, the Eagles take on Menlo on Wednesday and Crystal Springs Uplands on Friday.
Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team picked up a hard-fought 9-8 victory over Newark memorial last week. It’s a busy week for the Eagles as they host Salinas on Tuesday and Carlmont on Wednesday before traveling to Stevenson on Friday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team went 1-1 last week and is now 14-9 on the season. The Eagles defeated Westmont 3-2 early in the week before falling to Los Gatos 3-2. This week, the boys host Homestead on Tuesday.
Swim
The Harker swim team hosted a jamboree last week, with good results. Highlights included Vivian Wang, grade 11, winning the 200 and 100 free in CCS qualifying times; Angela Li, grade 10, winning the 200 individual medley; the 200 medley relay team of Wang, Li, Alyssa Huang, grade 9, and Clarissa Wang, grade 10, winning their race in CCS qualifying time; Ethan Hu, grade 9, qualifying for CCS in both the 100fly and 100 breast; and the team of Jack Farnham, grade 12, Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 11, Justin Culpepper, grade 12, and Hu qualifying for CCS in the 200 medley relay. Next up for the Eagles is a home meet versus The King’s Academy on April 26.
Baseball
The baseball team dropped two games to Mills last week. The Eagles started the week with a 4-0 loss, followed by a 6-4 loss. In the latter game, Max Lee, grade 9, and Varun Haltore, grade 12, each had two hits and an RBI. Next up for the boys is a trip to Crystal Springs Uplands on Tuesday and a home game with CSU on Thursday.
Softball
Last week, the softball team picked up a 9-2 win over Pinewood before dropping a tough game to Palo Alto 12-8. In the win over Pinewood, Taylor Lam, grade 10, and Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, each drove in two runs. In the loss to Palo Alto, Marti Sutton, grade 12, and Lam each drove in two runs and Cameron Zell, grade 10, had three hits and an RBI. This week, the Eagles host Fremont on Tuesday and travel to Castilleja on Thursday.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team continues to roll as it defeated Evergreen 6-1 last week. The Eagles have won 10 of their last 11 matches. This week, the boys take on Priory on Wednesday and Pinewood on Thursday.
Update: Here is the playlist of videos of speakers at the Harker Research Symposium. Topics ranged from AI to VR/ML to rockets! Students who were finalists in various science contests presented their research and the panel discussion was an informational presentation of the scientific research opportunities at Harker, geared towards younger students who are considering pursuing research in the near future. Enjoy!
Harker’s large community of science enthusiasts gathered at the upper school campus on April 15 for the 2017 Harker Research Symposium. Early arrivals packed the Nichols Hall auditorium for a talk by leading artificial intelligence expert Fei-Fei Li, who spoke about advancements in developing visual intelligence for computers.
Attendees then filled the Nichols Hall atrium, examining the many corporate exhibits, from companies including Google, IBM, Xilinx, Nvidia and Titanium Falcon. They later made their way to the quad for the lunchtime chemistry magic show, staged by Andrew Irvine, who awed the crowd with several spectacular chemical reactions.
This year’s alumni speaker was Evan Maynard ’09, who now works at Blue Origin as a propulsion development engineer. Maynard discussed his current work in making spaceflight more affordable, as well as the development of reusable rockets.
Throughout the day, Harker students presented their work at breakout sessions, detailing research they had done in a variety of scientific fields, including astronomy, medicine and climatology. At the upper school gym, visitors listened attentively to the many middle school students who gave poster presentations.
The afternoon keynote was delivered by Achin Bhowmik, vice president and general manager of Intel’s perceptual computing group. His talk covered technological advancements that have enabled machines to more closely sense and interact with the world around them.
This year’s symposium also included three very special student talks by Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists Evani Radiya-Dixit, Arjun Subramaniam and Manan Shah, all grade 12. The students shared specifics of the research that earned them their impressive accolades.
Following their presentations, Radiya-Dixit, Subramaniam and Shah were part of a panel discussion that included science department chair Anita Chetty, physics teacher Chris Spenner, juniors Amy Jin and Rajiv Movva and senior Sandip Nirmel. The panelists discussed Harker’s many opportunities for science research, before bringing the event to a close.