In late February, seventh grader Aaron Ma took first place in the instrumental solo junior group and the instrumental ensemble intermediate group and in the United States Open Music Competition, an annual competition highlighting young classical musicians. In addition to his two first place wins, Ma also received the Outstanding Gold Medalist award at the USOMC winners’ concert.
Tags: kudosJunior Sally Zhu was recently published in the Concord Review, an academic journal featuring the historical research of high school students. Zhu’s paper surveys China’s hukou system, a household registration system set up in 1958, and the effects it has had on the country’s economy and citizens in the more than 60 years since it was founded. “I learned about the hukou system from my parents, who grew up in China,” Zhu said. “My mother came from an urban part of China, while my father came from a rural hukou, and they lived drastically differently, when it came to food, income, education and more.”
Zhu spent last summer and the fall working on the paper and conducted research using resources she had access to in her history classes and while doing previous research projects with Harker librarians. “I want to thank my history teachers and librarians for all I’ve learned from them when it comes to historical research and writing, [which] led me to submit my essay!” she said.
Tags: Concord Review, eweekly, history, HumanitiesEarlier this month at the US Squash Junior Nationals in Philadelphia, fifth grader Sarah Thiru received the Most Improved Player award in the U13 division. This award is given to the junior players in each division who exhibited outstanding growth. Congratulations!
Tags: eweekly, kudos, squashLast week, 21 students were recognized in the National Center for Women & Information Technology’s (NCWIT) 2022 Award for Aspirations in Computing. This award recognizes “women, genderqueer or non-binary students for their computing-related achievements and interests, and encourages them to pursue their passions,” according to the NCWIT website. Students (all of them in grades 9-12) enter by submitting an application containing essay and multiple-choice questions.
Senior Alice Feng and juniors Ashley Hu, Ella Lan, Nidhya Shivakumar, Deeya Viradia, Sabrina Zhu and Sally Zhu all won National Honorable Mentions – the second-highest tier of award – and were all regional Affiliate Winners. Senior Alina Yuan was named an Affiliate Winner. Amiya Chokhawala, Amrita Pasupathy and Ariya Reddy, all grade 11; Ella Yee, grade 10; and ninth graders Melody Yin and Sophia Zhu each won an Affiliate Honorable Mention. Junior Michelle Jin, sophomores Harshini Chaturvedula, Claire Luo and Saloni Shah, and ninth graders Ainslie Chen, Chiling Han and Kashish Priyam were named Affiliate Rising Stars.
Tags: alumni-express, Computer Science, eweekly, express, NCWIT, topscienceHarker students participated in two math competitions last month, with commendable results in both. On Feb. 19, at the Harvard-MIT Math Tournament, the Harker team of senior Alex Hu, junior Sally Zhu, 10th graders Olivia Xu and William Zhang, and ninth grader Jonny Xue, placed 29th out of 91 teams, their best performance in the competition since Harker began participating in 2016. In the Carnegie-Mellon Informatics and Mathematics Competition, held virtually on Feb. 27, the team of Hu, Zhu and juniors Stephen Xia and Anthony Tong placed seventh in the Theoretical Computer Science portion.
Tags: MathematicsLast week, junior Aneesha Asthana was on a panel of speakers as part of a parallel event to the United Nations’ 66th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). The virtual event was hosted by Rose Academies, an organization that provides health care education to people in rural Uganda. Asthana, who is the global youth ambassador for Rose Academies, spoke on the experience of being a trans non-binary person and how it shaped her view of the importance of access to health care.
“My experience … was not only about the more well-known processes of coming out but it also sparked a years-long search for vital information about my health and my identity,” Asthana said. Her findings indicated that misconceptions of the LGBTQ+ community were still widespread, even in the supposedly forward-thinking Silicon Valley. She added that living in a wealthier part of the world granted her enormous privilege, noting that she has much greater access to important information about her own health than rural Ugandans. Asthana also delved into the importance of health education for Ugandan women, which makes up a large part of Rose Academies’ work.
Asthana’s full speech can be viewed on the recording of the event, starting at 45 minutes and 30 seconds.
Tags: alumni-express, DEI, eweekly, express, OutreachAudrey Kwong ’07, a Harker Conservatory graduate who currently works as artistic operations manager for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, has been producing virtual concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I score call for cameras during the filming itself, and then work with a video editor to produce the videos themselves once we get into post-production,” she said. Her latest project is a performance of Edward Elgar’s “Sea Pictures,” Jake Heggie’s “The Work at Hand” and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and cellist Elizabeth Chung. It is available to purchase at the SLSO website.
Tags: Class of 2007, express, Performing ArtsHarker student publications have won four Crown Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association for their work during the 2020-21 school year. Harker received two Gold Crowns – one each for the student news website Harker Aquila and the Talon yearbook – and a Silver Crown each for the Winged Post newspaper and the student literary magazine HELM. The CSPA Crown Awards are given to digital and print publications that demonstrate overall excellence, based on evaluations of their design, photography, coverage and writing. In all, 817 publications were evaluated.
Tags: alumni-express, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, eweekly, express, JournalismLast month, Harker won the overall sweepstakes award at a speech and debate tournament held at the University of California, Berkeley. The team is particularly proud of this award, as it reflects the combined record of all of the over 100 upper and middle School students who participated. Every good ranking or win added to the total, which reflected the students’ effort toward achieving the same goal. This tournament is the largest invitational in the country, and winning the sweepstakes is a major goal for the team. Teams at both campuses enjoyed ice cream socials to celebrate. “The coaches are very proud of how resilient the students have been during online events,” said Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair. “We look forward to getting back to traveling in person to tournaments soon.”
Tags: alumni-express, eweekly, express, Speech and DebateThe 2021-22 Harker DECA officer team was awarded first place in DECA’s Lead4Change Challenge. Lead4Change is an organization that promotes student leadership and teaches important skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaboration and critical thinking through lessons and challenges. Specifically, the Lead4Change Challenge asked participants to enter a submission where each team solved a problem or promoted a cause. These included a detailed action plan, an elevator pitch, reflections, graphical representations of the project process and much more. The $2,000 grant received from this award will be donated to a chosen charity. The team is made up of co-CEOs Gigi Chan and Clarice Wang, both grade 12; VP of operations Arin Jain, grade 11; VP of finance Trisha Variyar, grade 11; VP of public relations Catherine He, grade 12; VP of competitions Anika Muddu, grade 11; director of membership Chloe Lee, grade 10; director of community engagement Indigo Lee, grade 11; director of technology: Shreeya Merchia, grade 10; director of communications: Claire Luo, grade 10; director of roleplays Cynthia Wang, grade 10; and director of written events Kaitlyn Wang, grade 10
Chapter advisor Juston Glass said, “I’m super proud of this year’s officer team for their continual efforts to lead and inspire others for both change and making the world a better place. We are especially excited for the Lead4Change program and all that it does to teach and guide our students in improving their communities one day at a time.”
Tags: Business and Entrepreneurship, DECA, eweekly, express, Outreach