Elisabeth Siegel ’16, a Mitra Grant recipient during her senior year at Harker, has had her Mitra 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! http://yris.yira.org/essays/2005.
Harker history teacher Damon Halback, who mentored Siegel while she wrote the paper, spotted Siegel’s Facebook post, and noted she had added a call to action to current Harker students:
“HARKER STUDENTS — if you still have the chance to apply for a Near/Mitra grant, PLEASE do. It was definitely one of the highlights of my time in high school. It took me on so many unexpected twists and turns, from learning practical skills like writing natural language processing stuff to aid a social science paper as well as not leaving footnotes till the last week before the due date, as well as less tangible things, like determination and self-drive, how much of my life I’d taken for granted, and much more. DO IT!”
Halback also added a special kudos to his colleagues who help administer and manage the endowment papers process. “This is a credit to all the hard work put in every year by Donna [Gilbert, history department chair], Sue [Smith, library director], Meredith [Cranston, upper school librarian] and Lauri [Vaughan, upper school campus librarian] to make Near/Mitra such a wonderful example of the scholarly values that Harker promotes,” he said.
The deadline to apply for a John Near or Mitra Family endowment grant is April 21 at 6 p.m. Details can be found here: http://library.harker.org/Scholars/ScholarApps
Grade 1 students conducted their annual drive for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley in mid-March, raising $556 in addition to collecting about 50 bags of supplies, toys, food, treats and other goods from the lower school community. The students made many of the items they donated. For example, Grace Wallace’s class made dog toys and Cindy Proctor’s students made cat blankets. Proctor reported that the folks at HSSV were “thrilled and very appreciative” of the donations.
Wednesday was a big day for a group of Harker athletes as they committed to playing their sports in college. Seniors Ryan Vaughan, Rachel Cheng, Taylor Iantosca, Marti Sutton and Niki Iyer gleamed with excitement as their peers, teachers and families joined them in the quad for the ceremony celebrating their athletic futures.
Vaughan will play golf at the University of California, San Diego. Among his high school accolades, he was named WBAL Player of the Year last season, and received first team and second team honors his sophomore and freshman years, respectively. “I’m really excited because this an experience that not a lot of people get and it keeps me working hard,” said Vaughan.
Cheng will play volleyball for Washington University-St. Louis in the fall. While at Harker, she was a first team WBAL selection during her junior and senior years, and an honorable mention her sophomore year. “I’m really excited to go to a new environment and still have something that I’m familiar with,” stated Cheng. “I’m also looking forward to meeting the team and hopefully making bonds that will last the rest of my life.”
Iantosca, who was a standout volleyball and lacrosse player at Harker, will join the crew team at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s always been a dream of mine to compete at the collegiate level,” said Iantosca. “Crew isn’t a common high school sport, so I always had to do club, but now it’s cool to be a part of a team within the school.”
Sutton will travel to Iowa in the fall to play softball at Dordt College. Sutton received second team All-League honors, as well as an honorable mention, while at Harker and currently sports a .417 average for the Eagles. “I am so excited and really honored,” stated Sutton. “I’m really looking forward to how I can improve myself and my skills.”
Iyer will run cross country and track for the Golden Bears at the University of California, Berkeley. She was named WBAL Cross Country Runner of the Year her freshman, junior and senior seasons, as well as Most Outstanding Track Runner her junior year. She was a CCS champion in the 3200 last spring and also holds the school records in the 800m, 1600m and 3200m. “I’m really excited for both the challenges and rewards that will happen in the future,” said Iyer. “I’m also really looking forward to working with some amazing coaches and having a really fun college experience.”
Congratulations to our amazing student athletes! Go Eagles!
The boys tennis team continues to roll as it picked up 7-0 wins against The King’s Academy, Nueva and Crystal Springs Uplands before the break. The 15-3 Eagles take on Evergreen Valley on Wednesday and Aptos on Friday.
Baseball
Just before the break, the baseball team picked up two big league wins over Westmoor. In an 8-7 win, Tanay Kamat, grade 11, had two hits and two RBIs. Later in the week, Varun Haltore, grade 12, was amazing on the mound as he pitched a complete two-hit, 13-strike out gem. This week, the Eagles host Mills on Tuesday and travel to Mills on Thursday.
Swim
Last weekend, the Harker swim team competed at the Ron Freeman Invitational at Monta Vista. Among the highlights, Vivian Wang, grade 11, won the varsity 500 free, while lowering the school record by 5 seconds; Justin Culpepper, grade 12, and Alex Wang, grade 11, each swam personal bests in the varsity 50 free; Clarissa Wang, grade 10, set a personal best in the varsity 100 free and 100 back; and Alicia Xu, grade 9, set a personal best in the JV 100 breast. This Wednesday, Harker hosts Jamboree No. 4 at the Singh Aquatic Center.
Lacrosse
The lacrosse team dropped an 8-7 match with Aragon and a 13-5 match with Sequoia before the break. This week, the Eagles host Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday and travel to Newark Memorial on Thursday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team enjoyed spring break after a busy week that saw them go 4-2. The boys opened the week with a 3-0 victory over Los Altos and a 3-1 victory over Mountain View before a 2-2 showing at the Aptos Tournament, where they picked up wins over San Lorenzo Valley and Harbor. The Eagles are 13-8 on the season and tied for third in the SCVAL De Anza Division. This week, the boys travel to Westmont on Tuesday and Los Gatos on Friday.
Softball
Going 1-2 before the break, the softball team now sits at 6-4 on the season. In a 9-1 victory over Notre Dame San Jose, Cameron Zell, Anika Rajamani and Mahi Gurram, all grade 10, each drove in two runs. After a 15-0 loss to Notre Dame Belmont, the girls fell to Mercy Burlingame 9-8. In the loss, Marti Sutton, grade 12, had three hits and three RBIs, while Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, had four hits. This week, the Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday and Palo Alto on Thursday.
Boys Golf
Over the break, the boys golf team continued to impress, finishing 16th out of 49 teams at the 2017 Champions Invitational held in Indio. Also, the most recent WBAL boys golf stats show that Harker has five of the top 10 scorers in league play, including four of the top five! Next up for the golfers is a match with Pinewood on Monday before a much-needed break in the action.
Track and Field
After a few weeks off, the track and field team competes at WBAL meet No. 2 at Bellarmine this Wednesday, followed by the Bearcat Meet at San Mateo High on Saturday.
Late March was a special time for the students in the Harker School Orchestra, who headed to New York City to perform at the famous Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Sounds of Spring festival, hosted by World Projects. The March 28 performance consisted of pieces by Modest Mussorgsky, Dmitry Kabalevsky and John Williams. The orchestra also had the distinct honor of debuting a piece by composer John Carnahan titled “Les Bourgeon Du Printemps.” The momentous occasion prompted dozens of Harker parents and several alumni to attend the concert. Students also had the pleasure of attending a clinic conducted by Carnahan, who is the director of bands and a professor of conducting at California State University Long Beach’s Bob Cole Conservatory of Music.
Under the direction of upper school music teacher Chris Florio, the orchestra spent months preparing for trip, which Florio had been organizing for two years. Luckily, there was also time to enjoy some of the many sights the big city had on offer. Outings during the trip included a visit to the Statue of Liberty and attending a performance of “Anastasia” on Broadway.
Head on over to Harker Aquila for the full story! Audio recordings of the Carnegie Hall performance are available via Soundcloud.
An impressive 46 teams showed up to participate in this year’s Harker Programming Invitational, which took place March 19 at the upper school campus. Open to all Bay Area high schools, the event featured both advanced and novice divisions and had teams solve coding problems designed by officers in the Harker Programming Club, who organized the event.
“This year, our contest ran very smoothly as we planned the problem set development and contest details well in advance of the competition itself,” said club co-president Manan Shah, grade 12. “Each member of our team contributed significantly to the success of the competition, whether it be in writing the problems, setting up our contest server, talking to our sponsors or managing the completion of designated tasks.”
Club members also had the task of attracting event sponsors, which included IBM, the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, Star League, Make School and ACEprep.
In addition to the competition, the event also featured talks by Stanford University professor Chris Manning, and Angie Krackeler of IBM’s Watson team, both experts in artificial intelligence.
Members of Harker’s Technology Student Association visited California State University Bakersfield March 24-26 to participate in the TSA California State Conference, where students placed highly in several categories.
The team of Gary Tsai, Markus Wong, David Wen, Aadith Srinivasan, Kevin Tzeng and Neil Bai, all grade 11, took first place in architectural design. Junior Adrian Chu won first place in extemporaneous speech. In promotional design, Andrew Chang, grade 10, placed first and junior Derek Kuo took second. First place in scientific visualization went to Catherine Zhao, Eileen Li and Jackie Yang, all grade 9. The team of juniors Derek Yen and Sumer Kohli and sophomore Alexander Young earned first place in Technology Bowl, where the team of Gary Tsai, David Wen and Adrian Chu took second. Finally, the team of juniors Sharon Yan, Julia Huang and Ashley Jiang and sophomore Anna Wang took second place in fashion design.
Founded in 1978, the Technology Student Association provides development opportunities for K-12 students in technological disciplines. It has 250,000 student members nationwide, according to its website.
Diana Nichols, chair of Harker’s Board of Trustees, announced Wednesday that Brian Yager was elected as the new head of the school, filling the vacancy of current head, Chris Nikoloff, who accepted a position as headmaster of The American School in Switzerland. Yager will start July 1.
Nikoloff has served as Harker’s head of school for 11 years, after six years as middle school head and assistant head. “I have been deeply honored to steward this truly one-of-a-kind institution at a critical time in its impressive history,” said Nikoloff. “While I know that this is the right move for my family at this time, and I am excited by the new challenges and opportunities ahead of me, I remain a steadfast champion of Harker’s mission.”
Of Nikoloff, Nichols stated, “He has been a well-respected leader and a personal friend, and he has worked hard to guide the school over the last 11 years. The school is flourishing, and we wish him the very best.”
Harker’s search for a new head began last year and, with the help of a national search firm, included surveys to parents and alumni, and on-campus interviews with all potential candidates. The board was pleased to find such a well-suited and highly qualified candidate in Yager, and unanimously elected him to the position of permanent head.
“We were very fortunate to find Mr. Yager,” Nichols said. “He has been in education for 26 years and he has experience working with students in pre-K though 12, thus bringing that full range of grade level experience to us.”
Nichols went on to note that Yager has held many educational positions, serving as a teacher, department chair and head of upper school. For more than 15 years, he worked in various capacities for the Cate School in Carpinteria, including director of residential life, annual fund director, lacrosse, water polo and soccer coach, and founder of the summer program. For the last seven years, he has been the head of school at the Keystone School in San Antonio, Texas, a well-respected school of about 500 students. “His educational vision aligns with Harker’s, and he has a personality that will fit in very well with our community,” she added.
Yager and his wife, Megan, have three children, one of whom will be joining Harker next year as a sophomore.
Yager has a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, with emphases in administration and planning, and technology in education. He was a Klingenstein Summer Fellow (https://www.profellow.com/fellowship/klingenstein-summer-institute/) at Columbia University and graduated from Stanford with a B.A. in quantitative economics and a B.S. with honors and distinction in applied earth sciences.
“We believe the entire community will be impressed with Mr. Yager, and delighted at what he will bring to the Harker community,” Nichols added.
Over Presidents Day weekend, three Harker middle schoolers competed at the California State Games hockey tournament in Escondido, where they won the 12U PeeWee A championship in dramatic fashion. Playing for the San Jose Jr. Sharks, Robert Zhang, grade 6, Carter Chadwick, grade 7, and Rupert Chen, grade 6, went 3-1 in the tournament, taking the final two must-win games, including the 4-2 victory against the undefeated LA Jr. Kings in the championship. Congratulations!
Upper school Shakespeare enthusiasts made their way to the gym in late January for a competition in which participants performed monologues from Shakespeare plays. One of these students, senior Zahra Budhwani, was chosen as the best of the 16 performers by a panel of judges that included Harker English teachers Pauline Paskali, Christopher Hurshman and Charles Shuttleworth, as well as drama teacher Jeff Draper. After guidance and support from Draper, Budhwani went on to compete at the regional round of the National Shakespeare Competition, organized by the English-Speaking Union of the United States, where she performed a monologue and a sonnet. Though she did not win the regional event, Budhwani “performed admirably in representing our school,” Shuttleworth said.