Harker senior Aditya Dhar was named to Debate Team USA! He is one of only nine students selected nationwide to represent the U.S. in World Schools Debate. The team, selected from applications submitted to the National Speech & Debate Association, will compete in a series of global debate competitions with teams from six continents, and will finish up at the World Championship in August.
The application process began in May and took several months, said Cindi Timmons, team manager and coach. The selection process was rigorous. “From hundreds of applicants that began with an online application, a series of essays, a teacher and administrator recommendation, and a video speech, we moved to a semifinal round that involved another video of a debate speech and then to the final 20 that participated in an online interview process with a nationwide panel,” she noted.
The team has an extensive travel schedule, including trips to the EurOpen in Hamburg, Germany, the PanAm Tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and domestic trips. The year will culminate at the World Championship in Bali, Indonesia, in August. Go Aditya!
In August, Lawrence Li ’16 received a gold medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics, an international programming competition held this year in the Russian city of Kazan. Li’s medal was one of three gold medals won by the United States team, which tied for first place with China and Russia. The event consisted of six problems, each worth up to 100 points. A minimum of 416 points was necessary to earn a gold medal.
One of five international science Olympiads (along with those in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology), the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) was started in 1989 to foster student interest in computer science. This year, 308 contestants from 80 countries participated in the competition.
Senior Venkat Sankar and Arohee Bhoja, grade 8, had excellent runs at this summer’s National Junior Classical League Convention at Indiana University.
Sankar reached the top 10 in no fewer than 11 events. He took second place in Greek Derivatives IV; third place in Ancient Geography IV, Classical Art IV and Roman Life IV; fourth place in Greek Life and Literature IV, Latin Vocabulary IV and Reading Comprehension IV; sixth place in Boys Dramatic Interpretation, Sight Latin Poetry and Maps, Drawn 11-2; and ninth place in Latin Derivatives IV.
Meanwhile, Bhoja took fourth place in Sight Latin Girls II, and ninth in Latin Vocabulary II and Reading Comprehension II, and helped the team representing California reach ninth place in Intermediate Certamen.
Sankar and Bhoja also helped the California delegation win the spirit competition.
Congratulations to Maile Chung, grade 12, who is a finalist for a Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship. Chung is one of 20 Bay Area high school student athletes vying for a scholarship, out of 3,200 applicants.
PCA awards scholarships of up to $2,000 based on essays in which applicants explain how they have met the standards of personal mastery, leadership and honoring the game, as defined by PCA founder Jim Thompson in his book, “Elevating Your Game.” Winners will be selected and announced at a local awards ceremony in the fall or winter.
Chung, who earned a WBAL honorable mention in girls soccer as a junior, is also a talented musician and a member of school leadership. Good luck, Maile!
Updated: The latest video!
Early in the morning on Saturday, Aug. 20, a construction crew at Harker’s upper school campus pumped concrete into the footings of what will be the theater at the new performing arts center.
“We actually pumped approximately 1 million pounds of concrete over the course of about five hours,” said Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facilities director. The pour was carried out by a truck with a 136-foot boom that stretched nearly the entire length of the construction site.
One of the footings will act as support for the theater’s fly tower, which houses the system of ropes, pulleys, counterweights and other apparatus that stage crews use to lift and move various theater components such as lights, curtains, scenery and, occasionally, actors. Due to the size of the fly tower’s walls (which will be 75-feet tall upon completion), its footing is the largest of the two buildings. The remaining theater footings have been dug, and steel rebar has been applied, in preparation for another concrete pour on Sept. 9.
“We’re also working very quickly on the footings in the basement of the gymnasium. Those will be ready for pouring later in September,” Bassoni said. “We’re on track to keep these buildings ready for opening in 2017, and we’re very excited about the progress.”
Earlier in the month, lower and middle school families who donated to the capital campaign gathered for a pair of ice cream socials that took place in view of the construction site. Harker News will continue to post updates about the construction progress and related events every month, so stay tuned!
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
Lower and middle school families that donated to the latest phase of our capital campaign gathered for two ice cream socials on the upper school campus this month to get a close-up look at the construction of our new performing arts and athletic centers. The gym is slated to be finished in June 2017 and the performing arts center by December 2017. For more information on the campaign and updates on the project, visit http://www.harker.org/giving/capital-giving.
Each summer, Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department holds a Wharton SOAR (Strategy, Operations, Action, Research) Camp. This year, students learned the basics of working on a team, and starting and operating a business, through a simulation focused on the needs and challenges of a box-selling company.
In this exercise, camp members assigned roles and delegated tasks to each other in order to increase the bottom line and win every “month” (every hour, in the simulation). Students incorporated marketing strategies into their business, with each team creating an advertisement skit to perform for the group.
Next came the car simulation, in which campers strengthened their teamwork skills, and learned about manufacturing and the complex operations of running a business in the automotive industry. The students were then judged on the appearance and functionality of their cars, and learned the effects of supply and demand.
Students also traveled to San Francisco, where they took an in-depth tour of the startup incubator Runway, located in the Twitter headquarters building. Campers explored futuristic inventions, like virtual reality equipment, biometric scanners and advanced hydration technologies, among others. Afterward, the group headed to the San Francisco Federal Reserve, where students learned about monetary policy, the history of the Fed, and the effects of economics on daily life. Campers also were allowed to visit the “cash” (a play on the word cache), where they saw the management and destruction of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of worn-out U.S. currency.
On Aug. 14, new and returning preschool and lower school families gathered at John D. Morgan Park in Campbell for an afternoon of fun, food and socializing in the summer sun. See the accompanying slideshow to get a peek at the festivities!
Keller was nominated for the award by Harker journalism teacher Ellen Austin, who told the JEA that Keller was the first administrator she felt was worthy of nominating in her 16 years as a school journalism adviser.
“With him in the principal’s chair, my students have produced stories about sex trafficking, presidential elections, feminism, sexism in tech sectors and in math classes, LGBTQ issues and equity, and more,” Austin told JEA. “Butch has not balked at nor tried to suppress any of these stories. If anything, he has just encouraged my students (and me) to ensure that our work is careful and accurate.”
The JEA and National Scholastic Press Association will honor Keller at their Fall National High School Journalism Convention, to be held Nov. 12 in Indianapolis.