Last week, the girls tennis team picked up a 4-3 win over rival Castilleja. Freshmen Rachel Broweleit, Srivani Vegesna and Amanda Cheung won their singles matches, with Connie Miao, grade 12, and Kathleen Cheng, grade 11, winning their doubles match. Later in the week, however, the Eagles lost to Pinewood 4-3. The Eagles will take on Sacred Heart Prep this Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys varsity water polo team stayed red hot, picking up a 16-6 win over Fremont High last week. It was the Eagles’ sixth straight league win, bringing their season record to 10-4. The boys team travels to Santa Clara on Tuesday and hosts Saratoga on Thursday.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the prestigious Stanford Invitational over the weekend, and both the boys and girls teams performed very well. Peter Connors, grade 11, and Andy Koonmen, grade 10, led the boys team. Niki Iyer, grade 12, led the girls team with a fourth place finish and a personal best. Lilia Gonzales, grade 10, and Aneesha Kumar, grade 10, each set personal bests. The Eagles’ team time was a school record for the Stanford course. Next up for the Eagles is a WBAL meet on Thursday at San Bruno Mountain Park, followed by the Serra Invitational this Saturday.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo team dropped a tight 3-2 match with Homestead before picking up a 5-3 win over Monta Vista last week. This week, the Eagles travel to Santa Clara on Tuesday before hosting Saratoga on Thursday.
Football
The Eagles traveled to Vallejo last week to face off with Saint Patrick-Saint Vincent. Unfortunately, the Eagles left with a 54-7 loss. Leading the way for the Harker was Anthony Contreras, grade 11, with 50 receiving yards and a touchdown, and James Pauli, grade 11, who picked off two passes on defense. The Eagles will take a week off before heading up to Modesto to face off with Big Valley Christian on Oct. 14.
Girls Volleyball
The girls varsity volleyball team defeated Mercy San Francisco last week in three games. This week the Eagles face off with Notre Dame Belmont at Harker on Tuesday, then travel to Notre Dame San Jose on Thursday.
Girls Golf
The girls varsity golf team hosts Notre Dame San Jose today at Los Lagos Golf Course at 4 p.m., then travels to Palo Alto Hills Country Club to take on Menlo on Wednesday. Go Eagles!
Los Altos Town Crier – Oct. 5, 2016: Maya Shukla and Aarzu Gupta, both grade 9, are featured in a story about their science project making the semifinals of the Broadcom MASTERS competition.
East Bay Times – Oct. 4, 2016: Aditya Dhar, grade 12, is featured in a story about being selected for the U.S. national debate team, as well as his future plans.
San Francisco Classical Voice – Sept. 30, 2016: Zina Jawadi ’14 is quoted in a story about hearing loss in musicians.
San Jose Mercury News – Sept. 25, 2016: Junior Alan Hughes offers advice to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the eve of their first debate.
San Jose Mercury News – Sept. 23, 2016: Cynthia Chen, grade 9, is one of five South Bay students mentioned in a story about local finalists in the Broadcom MASTERS competition.
The Independent – Sept. 22, 2016: Harker is briefly mentioned in a story about Priscilla Chan, who taught science at Harker for one year and was the commencement speaker at the 2016 Harker graduation ceremony.
Harvard-Westlake Chronicle – Aug. 30, 2016: Harker debate teacher Greg Achten is mentioned in a story about a summer debate camp he co-directed with the debate director at Los Angeles’ Harvard-Westlake School.
Between the videos, social media posts and updates from the administration, the construction progress of the new athletic and performing arts centers is clear. Harder to show is the sense that the campus is coming of age with these buildings.
From a modified café to a full-fledged theater for the hundreds of potential thespians throughout Harker, from rented theaters to home ground, with practice and dressing rooms, for hundreds of talented musicians, singers and dancers, the performing arts center looms large in imaginations.
“The students are beyond excited to work in classrooms and an actual theater in the new performing arts center,” said Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts. “While I think everybody realizes we do not have a theater, I think certain families realize just how difficult our job and the student learning is in our tiny, unpolished classrooms.
“We’ve never had a scene shop or a fly space, both of which will change both the audience experience and student learning,” Lang-Ree continued. “Our technical theater students will have a place to practice their craft and learn design elements as they will have a scene shop and light and sound booth on campus. Productions will look very different as we will be able to fly in set pieces (which is the norm) vs. building smaller sets and dragging them onstage!
“Having daily spaces with state-of-the-art sound and acoustical treatments that are triple and quadruple the sizes of some of our current classrooms will literally change the everyday learning experience for the thousands of students that will enjoy them in coming years.”
Our athletes also will have a home ground with the kind of essentials that allow them to focus on their performance instead of juggling rides and bags. The visions of a golden gym floor, of clean-tiled locker rooms, of training facilities that bring out the very best in our hard-working athletes are in the mind’s eye of Harker’s athletes and athletic staff.
“The athletes are absolutely thrilled about having a gym on this campus,” said Dan Molin, upper school athletic director. “One of them said, ‘It will truly feel like a home game.’ The new athletic center will generate more school spirit, more excitement and, frankly, more students will be interested in participating in sports. Students will walk by the gym, hear whistles and cheering, and come inside and join the excitement. This will positively change our sport culture and community, forever.”
The new centers, integrated as they are with Dobbins and Nichols halls, will bring a new maturity to the upper school campus.
“The athletic center completes the athletic complex, Molin said. “Looking at it visually, we’ll have the field, pool and gym all next to each other promoting a sense of unity between all sports and making a statement that we care about athletics as a part of the whole student.”
“I think the completion of both the performing arts center and gym will give our campus the feeling of completion and of being on par with other amazing high schools in the area,” said Lang-Ree. “We will have arrived!”
Now, with foundations set and walls rising, the dream is clearer than ever and the excitement is rising with the walls!
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
In mid-September, Melody Tang, a teacher at the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai, visited Harker as part of the Global Education annual teacher exchange between the two schools. During her visit, Tang had the opportunity to visit the lower, middle and upper school campuses.
“I have observed so many lessons, and they have all different characteristics, and I like them very much,” Tang said.
On her visit to the lower school, she taught a lesson on the autumn festival, which is celebrated in China. She also let students “write a poem about the moon, and they were very interested in that.”
Tang also received a lot of encouragement from Harker’s middle school teachers. “I have learned a lot of practical reading and writing skills, and these teachers are so kind and so helpful,” Tang said. “They recommended to me some books about reading and writing.”
Of the upper school campus, Tang noticed that students “take an active part in class discussion.” She also enjoyed the general atmosphere of the campus, and said “the teachers are very professional and they give a lot of useful guidance and advice.”
During her visit, Tang also enjoyed some leisurely activities, including a day trip to San Francisco, where she and Kate Shanahan, K-5 English department chair, visited the Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Sixth graders gathered in the MPR in mid-September to write letters of thanks to servicemen and servicewomen to be included in packages from Operation Gratitude. About 80 students RSVP’d to the event; a half hour in, the tables were full of chattering girls and boys. The letters will be inserted into packages of goodies and sundries, and then forwarded to service personnel who are far from their families during the holidays. The effort was coordinated by the grade level coordinators for grade 6.
The lower school started the school year with a bang-up barbecue in early September, drawing parents from grades K-5, plus siblings, for a wonderful evening gathering. The food – carnitas with all the fixings, cheese quesadillas and churros for dessert – pleased both students and their parents, who didn’t have to cook on the warm Friday evening. As always, the atmosphere was informal, with parents chatting while students played tag, threw Frisbees, hula hooped and generally exhausted themselves. It was a great evening for lower school parents to get acquainted and for children to work off pent up energy and hang out with friends!
The football team picked up a well-earned 27-25 victory over Santa Cruz High last Friday. Will Park, grade 12, rushed for 118 yards and Nate Kelly, grade 11, threw three touchdown passes, including two to Anthony Contreras, grade 11. The defense also stepped up as it forced six Santa Cruz turnovers, three interceptions and three fumbles. Check out some of the game highlights here: http://www.hudl.com/v/krSEW
Next up for the Eagles is a trip to Vallejo this Friday for a matchup with St. Patrick-St. Vincent.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team has stayed very busy, competing in four matches over the past week. Last week, the Eagles fell to Menlo by just nine strokes, but rebounded with convincing victories over Mercy Burlingame and Sacred Heart Prep. In the victory over the SHP Gators, the girls golf team set the school record for the lowest score ever shot by a girls team (183). On Monday, the Eagles also defeated Castilleja, their first victory over the defending league champions since 2008. Katherine Zhu, grade 11, and Katelyn Vo, grade 9, continue to lead the Eagles. The girls golf team will rest up this week and return to action next week against Notre Dame San Jose and Menlo.
Girls Volleyball
The girls volleyball team continued its difficult schedule against some of the best teams in the Bay Area last week. The Eagles fell to Menlo in three games, then dropped a tough five-game battle with Sacred Heart Prep. Lindsey Trinh and Rachel Cheng, both grade 12, led the Eagles with six kills each in the Menlo loss. Lauren Napier, grade 11, led Harker with 15 kills in the loss to SHP. On Tuesday, the Eagles travel to Mercy San Francisco.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team continued its winning ways as it picked up a 15-3 win over Cupertino and a 13-3 win over Milpitas. The Eagles are now 9-4 on the season. This week, the Eagles face off with Fremont High on Thursday at 6:45 p.m. at Harker.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opened its league season with a 6-1 loss to Menlo. Rachel Broweleit, grade 9, picked up a win at No. 3 singles. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 4-3. This week, the girls tennis team will face Castilleja on Tuesday and Pinewood on Thursday.
Girls Water Polo
Last week, the girls water polo team fell 7-3 against Wilcox, getting two goals from Meghana Karinthi, grade 11. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated Milpitas 12-2, with Karinthi, Alicia Xu, grade 9, Nina Levy, grade 12, and Cas Ruedy, grade 9 each scoring two goals. Finally, over the weekend the Eagles went 1-3 at the Watsonville Tournament led by four goals each from Xu and Karinthi. The girls water polo team plays at home twice this week: Tuesday at 7 p.m. against Homestead and Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against Monta Vista.
Cross Country
The cross country team returns to action this weekend as it competes in the Stanford Invitational.
In early September, synchronized swimming enthusiast Kate Chow, grade 11, helped team USA win the gold at the UANA Pan-American Synchronized Swimming Championship in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The team faced international competition from many South American countries, as well as from Canada.
“I actually began synchro because I didn’t make a dance team, and I needed something to do,” said Chow, who has been involved with synchronized swimming since the fifth grade. “It combined gymnastics, dance and swimming, and previously, I participated in all three separately.”
In the last six years, Chow has been a member of three U.S. nationals-winning teams. She plans to continue swimming with her club, the Santa Clara Aquamaids, and also would like to compete in college.
Last month, upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss’ classroom was visited by author D’Anne Burwell, who discussed her book, “Saving Jake.” Moss organized the visit as part of Harker’s ReCreate Reading program, which encourages students to read independently for their own pleasure.
“Saving Jake” deals with Burwell’s son Jake’s addiction to OxyContin, which began during his first year at college. “During the Recreate Reading talk with Harker students, she shared about how Jake, though now successfully finishing college and having received great job offers, will live with his addiction for the rest of his life,” Moss said. “Educating about addiction has become D’Anne’s life work and the experience has profoundly altered the relationships between all members of their family.”