Two students have recognized as national medalists in the 2017 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Soham Khan, grade 12, won a gold medal for his critical essay, “Understanding the Bolshevik and Stalinist Revolutions through the Music of Shostakovich: A Music-Historical Analysis,” and sophomore Katrina Liou’s painting “Sardines” won her a silver medal.
As a gold medalist, Khan is now eligible to attend the National Ceremony, held in New York City this June. Congratulations!
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Earlier this month, 60 Harker students were named regional winners in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The awards, founded in 1923, recognize the creative work of young people in a wide variety of visual and literary disciplines.
Students were successful in many visual arts categories. Senior Irene Bashar received an honorable mention in architecture and industrial design. Debarati Chatterjee, grade 11, won a Gold Key in printmaking and two honorable mentions in digital art. Cynthia Chen, grade 9, was awarded an honorable mention in photography, and Gwyneth Chen, grade 11, received a Silver Key in sculpture and an honorable mention in jewelry.
Sophomore Rithika Devarakonda won a Gold Key in drawing and illustration, while Elizaveta Egorova, grade 10, won a Gold Key in digital art. Senior Alexa Gross hauled in an impressive eight awards, including Gold Keys in digital art and jewelry. She also won two Silver Keys in photography and a Silver Key in art portfolio, as well as honorable mentions in printmaking, art portfolio and digital art.
Senior Jeremy Harari won a Gold Key for his entry in photography, and Susan He, grade 10, received two Silver Keys and an honorable mention for her works in drawing and illustration. Kaitlin Hsu, grade 11, won four Silver Keys – two each in the painting, and drawing and illustration categories – and an honorable mention in painting.
Sophomore Jason Huang’s two entries in the painting category won him a pair of Silver Keys, and Ashley Jiang, grade 11, had great success in the photography category, winning three Silver Keys and an honorable mention. Raveena Kapatkar, grade 12, received a Silver Key in painting and an honorable mention in photography. Another senior, Angela Kim, won three Gold Keys, a Silver Key and an honorable mention in the design category.
Senior Sarisha Kurup earned a Gold Key and a Silver Key in painting, as well as an honorable mention for mixed media. Meanwhile, senior Isabel Lai collected an honorable mention and a Silver Key in drawing and illustration. Chen Yu Li, grade 12, was a big winner in drawing and illustration, winning a Gold Key and four Silver Keys. In addition, Li also received honorable mentions in art portfolio and painting.
Junior Millie Lin picked up a Silver Key in photography, and Katrina Liou, grade 10, won Gold Keys in both painting, and drawing and illustration, as well as honorable mentions in comic art and painting. Sophomore Erin Liu’s entry in photography won a Silver Key, while juniors Matthew McCallaCreary and Alexandra Michael picked up honorable mentions in digital art.
Senior Alex Mo won a Silver Key in photography, and junior Brandon Mo received a Silver Key and three honorable mentions in the painting category. Junior Kaitlyn Nguyen won a Silver Key in drawing and illustration, while fellow junior Raveena Panja earned a Silver Key in drawing and illustration and an honorable mention in comic art.
Senior Grace Park had a great showing this year, winning a Gold Key in painting and a Silver Key in photography, as well as honorable mentions in painting, art portfolio, and drawing and illustration. In photography, senior William Park and junior Abha Patkar received Silver Keys. Junior Alisa Su won an honorable mention in drawing and illustration. Senior Marti Sutton was very successful in painting, winning two Gold Keys and an honorable mention. He also received two honorable mentions in art portfolio.
Sophomore Catherine Wang won four awards in drawing and illustration – a Gold Key, two Silver Keys and an honorable mention. Elizabeth Yang, grade 10, also had success in drawing and illustration, winning a Silver Key and an honorable mention.
More than two dozen students also were recognized for their writing talents. Cynthia Chen, grade 9, earned a Gold Key in poetry and an honorable mention in flash fiction. Emily Chen, grade 11, was awarded an honorable mention in personal essay/memoir. Gwyneth Chen, grade 11, received a Silver Key in poetry and Ishani Cheshire, grade 10, earned an honorable mention in science fiction/fantasy. Junior Amy Dunphy received a Gold Key for her entry in flash fiction, while freshman Avi Gulati earned an honorable mention in critical essay and Mahika Halepete, grade 9, won a Silver Key in flash fiction.
Jacqueline He, grade 11, won a total of eight awards, earning four Gold Keys in poetry, two Silver Keys in short story and additional Silver Keys in flash fiction and poetry. Junior Amy Jin earned a Gold Key in critical essay, Silver Keys in critical essay and personal essay/memoir and an honorable mention in journalism. Soham Khan, grade 12, received a Gold Key in critical essay, and junior Jimmy Lin won Silver Keys in critical essay and journalism. Millie Lin, also grade 11, won a Gold Key in personal essay/memoir and an honorable mention in critical essay.
Sophomore Erin Liu was awarded a Silver Key in personal essay/memoir, Annie Ma, grade 9, won a Gold Key in poetry and Kalyan Narayanan, also grade 9, received an honorable mention in flash fiction. Amla Rashingkar, grade 9, won an honorable mention in short story and a Silver Key in poetry, and senior Andrew Rule received two honorable mentions in the short story category. Kismet Singh, grade 9, earned an honorable mention in flash fiction and junior Sahana Srinivasan won a Silver Key in poetry.
Earning four awards, senior Meilan Steimle received two Gold Keys in short story and personal essay/memoir, a Silver Key in short story and an honorable mention in short story. In personal essay/memoir, Satchi Thockchom, grade 11, won a Silver Key. Grade 9 student Nellie Tonev received an honorable mention for her work in the poetry category, and Shania Wang, grade 10, won honorable mention in personal essay/memoir. Derek Yen, grade 11, was awarded a Silver Key in critical essay and an honorable mention in poetry, and sophomore Alexander Young received a Silver Key in poetry and an honorable mention in personal essay/memoir.
Katherine Zhang, grade 10, hauled in five awards, winning Silver Keys for short story and personal essay/memoir and honorable mentions for poetry and two journalism entries. Senior Tiffany Zhu received a Gold Key for poetry and a Silver Key for short story.
As Gold Key winners, Cynthia Chen, Debarati Chatterjee, Rithika Devarakonda, Elizaveta Egorova, Jeremy Harari, Jacqueline He, Amy Jin, Soham Khan, Angela Kim, Sarisha Kurup, Chen Yu Li, Millie Lin, Katrina Liou, Annie Ma, Grace Park, Meilan Steimle, Marti Sutton, Catherine Wang and Tiffany Zhu are now eligible to receive national recognition. National medal awardees will be invited to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards national events in New York City.
Congratulations to all the talented students featured here!
Middle school cellist Angeline Kiang, grade 7, recently won first prize in the second edition of the Enkor International Music Competition, in the strings category for musicians ages 11-15. A member of the Grades 7-8 Orchestra, Kiang scored a stellar 94.37 from the jury, which comprises more than 500 members.
UPDATE Mar. 27, 2017
Harker’s robotics team took their game to Sacramento over the past weekend and, again, made the finals. This year, for the first time, the team made the semifinals in both regionals in which it competes. The team has had a banner year, notes advisor Eric Nelson. “Our last two games were too close to call until the final official tally. It has been a great season!” he said.
Mar. 21, 2017
Harker Robotics made school history in mid-March when, for the first time, it finished in the top eight of the seeding rounds of the Central Valley Robotics Regional Competition. The robotics team ranked seventh out of 47 entries at the end of the event, held in Madera. This ranking gave Harker the choice of alliance partners for the quarterfinals. During the quarterfinals, Harker’s alliance had the highest score for the entire tournament, moving it on to the semifinals. “Alas,” noted team advisor Eric Nelson, “we lost our two semifinal games. It was an excellent competition where the students really lived up to their abilities.”
Harker’s upper school robotics program, nearly 60 strong including 11 girls, is run like a startup, with each year’s team starting with a budget, the equipment already on hand and a timetable set by the competition rules. Each year, the team has to build a robot to accomplish tasks defined by the competition for that season. This means each year the team must reconfigure the robot’s abilities, learn to manage the machine in competitions and stay within the designated budget.
The big difference this year is Harker has hired a robotics coach to help students manage the complex processes needed to both function as a startup and provide a useful product for the competitions.
“We hired Martin Baynes to teach two robotics courses and to work with the students at the engineering level during the build season,” Nelson said. “In prior years the technical oversight was done when people were available, and it was spread around between me and some parent volunteers. With Martin providing dedicated faculty oversight, we have continuity and consistency. This year was the best overall performance I have seen since I came here in 2003. I fully expect to see a similar, and most likely better, level of performance this week at UC Davis.”
Last week, the Eagles competed at their first WBAL league meet at The King’s Academy. Highlights included wins by Anthony Contreras, grade 11, in the 100- and 200-meter races, as well as the anchor leg in the winning 400 relay that also included Angel Cervantes, grade 11, Mitchell Granados, grade 10, and Davis Dunaway, grade 12. Lilly Anderson, grade 10, won her race in the 100 hurdles as well as her first-ever race in the 300 hurdles. Also making his debut in the 300 hurdles with a win was Alex Rule, grade 10. Tiffany Shou, grade 11, set personal bests in the discus and shot put, placing second in the discus. Later in the week, several Eagles competed at the St. Francis Invitational, with the team of Cervantes, Contreras, Grace Koonmen, grade 11, and Gloria Guo, grade 11, setting a school record in a special co-ed relay. Henry Wong, grade 10, also set the fastest Harker 800 time of the year. The track and field team competes again Saturday at the Firebird Invitational at Fremont High.
Boys Tennis
The boys tennis team stayed red hot last week as it defeated Pinewood 6-1, Nueva 6-1 and Priory 7-0 for a fifth straight victory. This week, the Eagles travel to Priory on Monday, Menlo on Tuesday and Sacred Heart Prep on Thursday.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team dominated in two wins last week. Early on, the Eagles defeated The King’s Academy 185-239 with Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11, shooting a 34 and medaling. Ryan Vaughan, grade 12, shot a 36 and was tied for second. Later in the week, Harker took down Pinewood 199-279 with Vaughan, Shaan Gagneja, grade 11, and Avi Khemani, grade 12, all shooting 39s to lead the Eagles. This week, the boys travel to the Marin Catholic Wildcat Invitational on Monday before facing off with Menlo on Tuesday and Sacred Heart Prep on Wednesday.
Baseball
The varsity baseball team defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 15-1 last week to improve to 5-1 on the season. Max Lee, grade 9, and Karan Gupta, grade 10, each drove in three runs, and Varun Haltore, grade 12, pitched a complete game, three-hitter for the win. This week, the Eagles host El Camino on Tuesday and Jefferson on Thursday before traveling to Harbor on Saturday.
Swim
The swim team competed at the Small School Invitational at Sacred Heart Prep over the weekend. Ethan Hu, grade 9, and Alex Yu, grade 10, went second and third in the 200IM, both with CCS cut times. Hu also took first in the 100 free, also with a CCS cut time. Yu also took first in the 500 free with Michael Auld, grade 12, taking second, and both hitting CCS cut times. The Eagles host their first home meet of the year this Thursday.
Lacrosse
Picking up the 13-8 victory over Sacred Heart Cathedral last week, the lacrosse team improved its record to 3-3. Elise Mayer, grade 10, led the Eagles with six goals. Lauren Russell, grade 11, and Mahlet Demissachew, grade 12, each had three goals in the victory. The Eagles start league play this week as they travel to Woodside on Tuesday and Burlingame on Friday.
Softball
Early last week, the softball team picked up a big 4-0 win over Castilleja with Cameron Zell, grade 10, leading the offense with two hits and three RBIs. Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, was stellar on the mound, pitching a complete game, four-hit shutout, striking out six. However, later in the week, St. Francis Watsonville handed the Eagles their first loss of the season in a 7-2 ballgame. Lily Wancewicz, grade 10, had a hit and an RBI in the loss. This week, the girls travel to Notre Dame San Jose on Tuesday and The King’s Academy on Thursday.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team played extremely well last week, picking up two wins and taking a third match to five games. The Eagles defeated Serra 3-0, before losing a heartbreaker to Mountain View 3-2, but they bounced back for the 3-1 win over Los Gatos. It’s another busy week for the boys as they travel to Homestead on Wednesday, Saratoga on Friday and Leigh for the Campbell Classic on Saturday.
Alumni
Over the weekend, Izzy Connell ’13 continued to break Pepperdine school records. Earlier this year, she broke her own record in the 400-meter, before a teammate topped her time last week. That seemed to fire up Connell, as she took back the 400-meter record with a 56.35 time and a fourth place finish at Saturday’s meet at UC Irvine. Connell was also part of the 4×400 relay team that bested the Pepperdine record set last year by four seconds. Check out the whole story and a photo of Connell here:
The Harker Alumni Association held a special Harker Family & Alumni Dinner on the Bund in Shanghai in March to celebrate the 35 years Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, has been working at Harker. The crowd, about 75 strong, enjoyed an evening cruise, during which the Alumni Association awarded Rosenthal the Phyllis Carley Award, presented each spring to an individual who has devoted time and energy, and made significant contributions, toward advancing The Harker School’s programs. Former boarding students and alumni gathered to celebrate the award and the contributions Rosenthal has made over his many years at Harker.
Grade 5 students joined preschool students this week to help them understand math! There were so many fifth grade students who wanted to go that math teacher Eileen Schick had to turn some away. What a great way to learn about math!
The Harker Red Cross club held its annual blood drive at the Nichols Hall atrium earlier this month, collecting 21 donations. The drive was held at Nichols Hall, rather than its usual location at the upper school gym, due to the ongoing construction on campus. See Harker Aquila’s coverage of the event for more details.
Harker Preschool held an Amazing Art Show opening reception and presentation last week. Alexandria Kerekez, preschool visual arts specialist, showed off the children’s artwork and discussed the process and techniques strengthened through the various projects.
Some of the projects reflect a collaborative effort over an extended period of time. For example, the Acorn children (ages 4 and 5) collaborated over the past two months to construct a grand scale “passenger airplane” complete with detailed renderings of the travelers. Their peers in the Clover cottage (also ages 4 and 5) elected to focus their efforts on weaving. Over the last two months, the students beautified the campus with colorful woven works installed on the fences and also fashioned one-of-a-kind woven works from repurposed textiles.
Meanwhile, the 3-year-olds have been studying the fundamentals of ceramics. Efforts with techniques like “slab” and “coil” involve a wealth of important skills like 3-D design and vocabulary acquisition. Their unique sculptures are currently on display and demonstrate the children’s patience and perseverance with a new technical, multiple-step process.
The current gallery showcase will be on display until the end of April and the next and final gallery show will be linked with Harker’s annual Grandparents’ Day event in May.
This report prepared by Shania Wang, grade 10, Harker DECA director of communications
In early March more than 100 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Santa Clara Marriott to compete in the 2017 State Career Development Conference (SCDC). This four-day business conference featured competitions with tough opponents, skill-building workshops and unforgettable experiences. Harker proved its competitive excellence with 49 teams in the top ten and 21 groups in the top four across various categories, qualifying for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
“I think Harker DECA did amazingly in terms of competitive success at states this year. It was our best conference ever, with 21 teams qualifying,” said Vignesh Panchanatham, grade 11, Harker DECA’s director of examinations. “The students all put in a lot of hard work to prepare, and it obviously paid off.”
Finalists are as follows:
First Place
Rohan Cherukuri, grade 9, Principles of Business Management and Administration
Evan Cheng, grade 9, Principles of Hospitality and Tourism
Enya Lu and Shania Wang, both grade 10, Public Relations Project
Mishu Nitulescu, grade 11, Professional Selling Event
Second Place
Enya Lu, grade 10, Business Finance Series
Nishka Ayyar and Riya Gupta, both grade 10, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Reiya Das, Zara Vakath and Katelyn Vo, all grade 9, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan
Arnav Joshi, grade 9, Principles of Business Management and Administration
Alex Chen, grade 11, Principles of Marketing
Third Place
Alexis Gauba, grade 12, Business Services Marketing Series
Erin Liu, grade 10, Business Growth Plan
Chandan Aggarwal, Jeffrey Liu and Rakesh Nori, all grade 9, Independent Business Plan
Ashna Chandra, grade 11, Haley Tran and Lucas Wang, both grade 12, Entrepreneurship Promotion Project
Riya Chandra and Alexis Gauba, both grade 12, Learn and Earn Project
Phil Han, grade 9, Principles of Marketing
Shivani Awasthi, grade 12, Professional Selling Event
Haley Tran, grade 12, Restaurant and Food Service Management Series
Fourth Place
Allison Jia, grade 9, Innovation Plan
Vignesh Panchanatham, grade 11, Professional Selling Event
Derek Kuo, grade 11, Retail Merchandising Series
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 11, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
Fifth Place
Mona Lee, grade 11, Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series
Dolan Dworak and Michael Sikand, both grade 11, Marketing Management Team Decision Making
Sachin Shah, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Larissa Tyagi, grade 9, Principles of Marketing
Sixth Place
Roma Gandhi, Jessica Jiang and Larissa Tyagi, all grade 9, International Business Plan
Rishi Dange, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Seventh Place
Rahul Mehta, grade 11, Advertising Campaign
Amitej Mehta and Vignesh Panchanatham, both grade 11, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Nikhil Sharma, grade 9, Business Services Operations Research
Shivani Awasthi and Ankita Uppugunduri, both grade 12, Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making
Eighth Place
Eric Fang, grade 9, Financial Consulting Event
Naveen Mirapuri, grade 9, Principles of Marketing
Ninth Place
Karena Kong, Ananya Krishnan and Aashe Sreekumar, all grade 11, Buying and Merchandising Operations Research
Shreyas Chandrashekaran and Shaan Gagneja, both grade 11, Business Services Operations Research
Helen Yang, grade 10, Business Services Marketing Series
Nikhil Sharma, grade 9, Principles of Business Management and Administration
Bryan Wang, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Radhika Jain, grade 9, Principles of Marketing
Phil Han and Max Lee, both grade 9, Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan
Shania Wang and Kelsey Wu, both grade 10, Travel and Tourism Marketing Team Decision Making
10th Place
Michael Sikand, grade 11, Advertising Campaign
Natasha Maniar, grade 10, Startup Business Plan
Jessica Pan, grade 10, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan
Jai Bahri, grade 9, Principles of Business Management and Administration
Shea Tuli, grade 11, Personal Financial Literacy
Ronit Gagneja, grade 9, Principles of Finance
David Feng, grade 9, Principles of Hospitality and Tourism
Rahul Mehta and Vanessa Tyagi, both grade 11, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making
“What excited me most was how excited our freshmen were,” said Riya Chandra, grade 12, Harker DECA co-Chief Executive Officer. “To see all the hard work they put in was just a great feeling as a leader and mentor of Harker DECA, so my favorite part as a senior now is seeing freshmen feel confident about their project. If they get on stage, it’s so amazing to see the smiles on their faces.”
After arriving at the hotel, there was a last-minute study session for students to prepare their role-plays, tests and written presentations. That afternoon and evening, all students took their written examinations.
The next day, students gathered to compete in their role-play events. Competitions occurred throughout the day, with each student receiving an individual time slot. At the general session, aside from learning valuable lessons from keynote speaker John Beede, a mountain climber and motivational speaker, Harker also earned recognition for being one of five schools in California to complete all chapter campaigns at the Thrive Level, earning six spots at the Thrive Leadership Academy at the ICDC. Furthermore, Harker’s very own Alisa Su, grade 11, received a plaque for designing the winning California ICDC pin, and advisor Juston Glass was honored for five years of service to DECA.
Saturday, written event presentations were made and, in the evening , chapters once against convened at the convention center for the Formal Recognition Session, where individuals who placed highly in their event were awarded medals. Harker DECA energetically supported all of its members as numerous students staged. Later that night, students had the option to attend a formal dance.
Throughout Friday and Saturday, students were given the opportunity to visit corporate booths, attend workshops and take protégé events. Several company sponsors set up tables to provide DECA members with more information, including The Men’s Wearhouse, the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and Arizona State University. Workshop topics ranged from internship success to teen entrepreneurship, and many students enjoyed the chance to improve their skills and meet business professionals.
“I really enjoyed that this conference was really interesting and fun and additionally offered many more opportunities and things besides competing,” said Ronit Gagneja, grade 9. “In the workshop I went to, I learned to always have a positive attitude and believe in myself.”
Protégé events tested students’ aptitude in association/nonprofit management, event planning, green business, investing, insurance and real estate. Although these tests do not quality participants for ICDC, Harker still had many finalists, including Rishi Dange, grade 9, Enya Lu, grade 10, Arnav Joshi, grade 9, Jeffrey Liu, grade 9, Sachin Shah, grade 9, Bryan Wang, grade 9, Jessica Jiang, grade 9, Arun Sundaresan, grade 9, Johnny Wang, grade 10, Max Lee, grade 9, Evan Cheng, grade 9, Rohan Cherukuri, grade 9, Ronit Gagneja, grade 9, Mahi Kolla, grade 9, and Naveen Mirapuri, grade 9, Moreover, throughout the entire conference, students had a chance to network with other schools and expand their social connections.
“I really loved SCDC this year! It was such a great experience, and my favorite part was being able to meet so many new people and forming new friends,” said Riya Gupta, grade 10.
Finally, the Grand Awards Session occurred on Sunday morning. Harker performed admirably, earning the notice of other schools on YikYak after the constant cheering and staging of students.
“I really loved seeing the students in another light, really seeing what they’re passionate about, stepping out of their normal roles at school and just watching them get really excited about DECA,” said Kevin Williamson, Harker upper school dean of students and Harker DECA chaperone. “I was surprised by the level of professionalism that they showed, and the level of interest made it very exciting to be a part of the whole program.”
For some of the nine seniors in attendance, the 2017 state conference also marked the end of their DECA careers, causing a bittersweet moment. The entire chapter took a moment to recognize all their commitment and contributions to DECA over the past four years.
“I think that DECA conferences are crazy and thrilling, in a good way, and that I’m going to miss the people I met the most,” Chandra said. “Some of my best friends really came from DECA. Our officer team is all pretty close as well, so I’m definitely going to miss them! While it’s hard to move on from DECA, I think it’s time for a new chapter in my life, and I can’t wait to come back as an alumna and judge next year.”
Everyone then gathered to take chapter photos before saying goodbye to SCDC, ending yet another successful and amazing conference for Harker DECA. Qualifying students will have the opportunity to compete at ICDC in Anaheim April 25-30. Go Eagles!
About The Harker School DECA
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Harker Preschool students and their parents went all out to assist San Jose residents who were affected by the recent flooding. Preschool families donated about 80 bags and boxes of clothing, household goods, toys and canned food, as well as a television and $100 in gift cards. It took a village just to transport all the items!
The preschool’s effort was in conjunction with San Jose Councilman Raul Peralez’s office and Selma Olinder Elementary School, which partially flooded. Some parents contacted the school directly to donate larger items, said Jessica Macias, extended care coordinator at the preschool, who organized the effort at Harker.