On April 10, middle and upper school orchestra ensembles gathered at San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater for the 2015 Spring Orchestra Concert.
Up first was the Grade 6 Orchestra, directed by Dave Hart, which performed Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5” and the modern folk classic “Ashokan Farewell” by Jay Ungar, finishing with the famous “James Bond Theme” by Monty Norman. The Grades 7-8 Orchestra, also directed by Hart, began with the invigorating theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and continued with selections by Brahms, Wagner and Tchaikovsky.
The middle school orchestras then joined forces for a crowd-pleasing performance of “Prelude to Carmen” by Georges Bizet.
Chris Florio directed The Harker School Orchestra, which headlined the evening, starting with Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Danse Macabre” before performing the entirety of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird.” Two soloists also performed. The first, senior violist Austin Lai, performed Léo Delibes “La Paix,” from the ballet “Coppélia,” while senior violinist Helen Wu, who recently earned a spot on the National Youth Orchestra for the second year in a row, performed the allegro from Samuel Barber’s “Concert for Violin & Orchestra.” The orchestra closed the evening with a spirited version of “Huapango” by renowned Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo.
This year marked the first time the annual Harker Golf Classic was presented by the Harker Alumni Association. The successful event took place on April 13 at the renowned Stanford University Golf Course, raising funds for Harker’s General Endowment Fund.
The 2015 Harker Golf Classic brought together Harker alumni, parents, alumni parents and their friends, totaling about 80 golfers. The fundraiser was largely spearheaded by alums Jeremy Pomer ’91 and Jeff Rogers ’84. Former Harker faculty member Howard Saltzman and current lower school math teacher Pat Walsh served as honorary marshals for the day, handing out prize ribbons and libations to golfers.
A variety of special awards and prizes, as well as numerous generous sponsors, helped make the event special. Capping off the occasion was a 19th hole reception on the clubhouse patio for golfers, as well as non-golfers, wishing to join in on the fun.
At the end of the day, the winning foursome was announced: Jen Eng, Raymond Hsieh, Herb Repp and Robert Nakamura.
The Stanford golf course, designed in 1930 by renowned golf course architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, is located in the foothills above the Stanford University campus. In 2009, it was rated the nation’s third-best college course by golf coaches.
“It was a great game of golf and, more important, all the participants left with the wonderful knowledge that they had helped raise funds for Harker’s General Endowment, which will benefit future generations of students,” enthused Karri Baker ’84, director of alumni relations.
In mid-April, Harker CareerConnect hosted its annual mentorship banquet at which mentors and students had a chance to meet in a relaxed atmosphere. The mentorship program partners students with a professionals in their field of interest, giving them a chance to learn more about that career pathway. Students then keep in touch throughout the summer, often visiting their mentor’s workplace.
Applications are flowing in for Harker’s world-renowned English Language Institute (ELI), held on both the lower and upper school campuses. The program, which begins on July 6, will bring top-level English instruction to international students.
ELI offers two tracks, with multiple academic levels. The program provides a nurturing environment for students looking to improve their language skills or prepare for admission to American boarding schools and English-speaking international schools. Small classes and experienced teachers help foreign students develop speaking, reading and writing skills to ensure their readiness.
The elementary division is for ages 6-11 and the secondary division is for ages 12-16. After a full day of instruction, students in both programs interact with Harker’s regular summer participants to make new friends and practice their English with native speakers.
New to the program last year was a week-long “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour. This option, available to all ELI students, proved successful and will be offered again this year at the conclusion of ELI’s regular five-week academic session.
During the VIP trip, students follow a specialized course of study to continue developing reading, writing and speaking competency while visiting university campuses, Silicon Valley businesses, places of interest and treasured landmarks. The tour will be capped off with an overnight trip to the scenic California coast.
The VIP tour was born from widespread interest from ELI participants in having more excursions to enhance their American social and cultural experiences, explained ELI director Anthony Wood last year. Wood said that enrollment is again expected to fill up quickly.
Fun outings on this year’s VIP tour will include attending a professional baseball game, whale watching in Monterey, hiking in Big Sur, touring the Jelly Belly factory, attending an outdoor performance in Carmel and going to Great America.
ELI initially began as a year-round boarding school program, which closed in 2001 due to Harker’s upper school expansion. It evolved into the current summer program, which launched in 2004. For the past few summers ELI has steadily grown in attendance, especially in the primary division.
International students come to Harker accompanied by a parent or local guardian and stay in nearby apartments or with area family and friends. At the end of the ELI session, students receive an English proficiency certificate based on academic performance and progress, as well as a comprehensive teacher report and testing evaluation.
For more information about the ELI program: ELI@harker.org.
Middle and upper school debate had a stellar past few weeks, performing well at tournaments in and out of state. In Las Vegas, senior Pranav Reddy was named the national Lincoln-Douglas debate champion for the second straight year by offering a convincing argument for increasing the minimum wage.
At the California Middle School Speech and Debate Tournament in southern California, Maddie Huynh, grade 7, and Anusha Kuppahally, grade 8, were named the policy debate state champions. The team of Julia Biswas, grade 6, and Jai Bahri, grade 7, and the team of Jason Lin and Andy Lee, both grade 6, finished in the semifinals. Kuppahally was named first speaker.
Seventh grader Nakul Bajaj was named the top speaker in public forum, where the team of Clarissa Wang and Cindy Wang, both grade 8, reached the semifinals. Akshay Manglik, grade 6, was a semifinalist in Lincoln-Douglas, and Jason Huang, grade 8, finished third in congressional debate.
In speech events, Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 8, was named state champion in original oratory and impromptu speaking, where Avi Gulati, grade 7, took second and third, respectively. Riya Gupta, grade 8, took fourth in original oratory. Yet another state champion, seventh grader Nikki Solanki, won in in dramatic interpretation, in which Matthew Hajjar, grade 8, took third, Gulati finished fourth and Gupta took fifth. Natalia Feinberg, grade 8, won third place in humorous interpretation. In storytelling, Ashli Jain, grade 8, and Feinberg took fifth and sixth place, respectively.
In late March, 45 debaters from the middle school attended the Cesar Chavez Memorial Tournament in Union City, where Harker performed very well in speech events, finishing first in three events and appearing in the top three multiple times. Avi Gulati took first in original oratory, with Ashli Jain finishing as a finalist. Kelly Shen and Matthew Hajjar, both grade 8, took first and second, respectively, in dramatic interpretation, while sixth grader Arusha Patil took second place in declamation and Natalia Feinberg finished second in humorous interpretation. Jain was also a finalist in the storytelling event.
In debate events, Harker was recognized several times for going undefeated. Kenneth Liou, grade 7, and Krishay Mukhija, grade 6, were undefeated in Public Forum, while Catherine Zhao, grade 7, Akshay Manglik, grade 6, Alexander Young, grade 8, and Sachin Shah, grade 7, went without a single loss in Lincoln-Douglas. Finishing with only one loss in public forum were the teams of Emma Boyce and Sidra Xu, both grade 6, and Nikki Solanki and Naveen Mirapuri, both grade 7. Annie Ma, grade 7, and Suraj Pakala, grade 8, were recognized for losing only once in Lincoln Douglas.
For the second year in a row, Harker Preschool will offer a summer camp program, filling its beautiful eight-acre Union Avenue campus with children after the regular school year ends. Campers will enjoy the school’s large sunny cottages, spacious play yards and specialty classrooms.
Preschool summer camp is held in two sessions, each designed to engage and excite young children through familiar summer themes. The program is staffed by year-round Harker teachers, assistant teachers and aides. Students are grouped by age, with families choosing one or both sessions to match their schedules.
When it launched its summer program, the preschool joined the Harker community’s long-running tradition of making summer offerings open the public. Session one will run for four weeks from June 22-July 17; session two begins on July 20 and ends three weeks later on August 7. Full and half-day options are available, with extended care offered in the early morning and late afternoon.
This year, campers will focus on three specialty areas: art, music and movement, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Each classroom will spend a week with a specialty teacher in a workshop format designed for maximum exploration and exceptional fun.
“We are excited to highlight our specialty programs during the summer session,” reported Kelly Espinosa, director of summer and preschool programs. “The partnership between specialist and the children’s regular classroom teachers will ensure a rich balance of activities throughout the summer. It’s going to be great fun!”
To be eligible for Harker Preschool’s summer program, children must turn three by Dec. 1, 2015 and be under the age of six by August 2015. For more information, visit preschool.harker.org.
The boys remain in first place in league thanks to a big victory over Pinewood last week. Senior Shrish Dwivedi led all golfers with a 34 while sophomore Sandip Nirmel shot a 36. They face King’s Academy on Tuesday and league rival Sacred Heart on Friday
Track and Field
Sophomore Winnie Li and freshmen Aria Coalson, Gloria Guo and Grace Koonmen won the sprint medley and set a Harker record at the DeAnza Invitational! Sophomore Niki Iyer followed that up by setting a new Harker record in the 3200-meter at the prestigious Arcadia Invitational. The team has a league meet Tuesday and a big invitational next Saturday in San Mateo.
Softball
Softball had a dramatic 6-5 win over Saint Francis Watsonville thanks to a tremendous game-saving catch in the top of the seventh by junior Tong Wu. The Eagles got big hits from seniors Briana Liang and Sarah Bean, sophomore Vivian Isenberg and freshman Kristin LeBlanc. They host Mercy on Tuesday.
Lacrosse
The girls walloped Aragon 14-6 last Wednesday, with goals by seniors Hannah Bollar, Allison Kiang, Priscilla Pan and Leeza Kuo, junior Natasha Mayor and sophomore Taylor Iantosca. Sophomore goalie Meilan Steimie had nine saves in the win. The Eagles play Sequoia on Wednesday.
Tennis
Boys tennis now has a 12-2 overall record after a 6-1 victory over Pinewood last week. The team travels to Priory on Tuesday and hosts Crystal Springs on Thursday.
Volleyball
The boys beat Monterey and Live Oak at the Bellarmine Tournament over the weekend to go 2-3 overall in the competition. Their record now stands at 6-12 overall. They’ll look to improve that mark when they hit the road to play in Mountain View and Los Gatos this week.
Baseball
The Eagles dropped to 6-7 overall after a 9-4 loss at Fremont last week, but junior Miles DeWitt was featured in the Mercury News Highlight Reel for his huge two home run performance against Trinity Christian. Learn more here:
Come support our swimmers this Friday at the Singh Aquatic Center as they compete in their second home meet of the season!
Moving On
Last but never least, Shreya Dixit, grade 12, has been noted by the Yale women’s volleyball coach as an incoming athlete for the class of 2019. Read her write up, here!
Last week, Harker’s Team Hurrikeynes – made up of seniors Aaron Huang, Rohith Kuditipudi (not pictured), Ashwath Thirumalai, Steven Wang and Leo Yu and advised by economics teachers Sam Lepler and Damon Halback – qualified for the national semifinal round of the National Economics Challenge. The April 7 competition, which took place at the San Francisco Federal Reserve, consisted of a testing round in which five participating teams (three of which were from Harker) closely matched. Team Hurrikenes’ runaway success in the quiz bowl round was the deciding factor in their victory. Next week’s semifinal exam will determine if Team Hurrikeynes travels to New York City for the televised national finals. Wish them luck!
Registration is off to a great start for Harker’s Summer Camp+, an annual program for students in grades K-5 held on the lower school campus. Camp+ offers a well-rounded summer experience by providing morning learning sessions followed by a wide variety of afternoon activities.
This year the theme of Camp+ is “Camp on the 7 Seas.” Campers will be jumping on board an on-site sailing ship with the camp mascot “Ray” for a summer full of exciting seafaring adventures and special events. Last summer, the increasingly popular program filled up at record speed, attracting some 774 campers.
Camp+ students in grades 1-5 have traditionally had the option of enrolling in one of two academic morning programs: Core Focus or Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL). Core Focus is a more traditional learning environment with language arts, math and academic electives for each grade level. LOL features academic courses designed around literary subject matter. Both Core Focus and LOL feature the same afternoon options, including arts and crafts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and array of field sports.
New this year, campers in grades 2-5 may choose an art and music program for the morning session, which will include an artist’s studio and an orchestra, a rock band and songwriting workshops. These programs provide additional options for students who have an interest in or talent for art and/or music. See below for further details about this exciting new offering.
Artist Studio
During the four-week session, campers will have the option to choose Artist Studio instead of the morning Core Focus program. Artists will spend their camp mornings involved in activities and lessons designed to stimulate and enhance their creativity and knowledge of art. Campers will learn about art history and famous artists, in addition to practicing and exploring a variety of art mediums and techniques in depth. Art exploration also strengthens skills that are important to academic achievement and success: confidence, problem solving, perseverance, focus, collaboration and accountability. The class also will take field trips to galleries and museums. Artist Studio may be chosen as a morning-only class or combined with the Camp+ activity program to create a partial or full-day schedule.
Summer Music
During two-week sessions, campers have the option to choose a music class instead of the morning LOL program or the Camp+ activity program. Musically inclined students may create their own combinations for maximum learning and musical fun.
Orchestra Workshop
These two-week workshops offer instrumental students entering grades 2-5 the opportunity to explore music, through exposure to music theory and composition, improvisation, ear training and singing, ensembles and full orchestral playing. Participants must have at least six months of experience playing the violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, French horn and trombone. A performance, recording and printed score will be given to each student at the conclusion of each session.
Rock Band Workshop
Who doesn’t want to join a band? This two-week workshop offers instrumental students with at least six months of experience playing guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and voice a cool opportunity to explore music, through exposure to music theory, composition, improvisation, ear training and singing while creating their own band! A performance, recording and printed score will be given to each student at the conclusion of each session.
Songwriters Studio
A songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics to songs, the musical composition (chords) or melody to songs or both. Students in this class will learn melody writing, lyric writing, popular song forms, basic music production and more. There’s no need to know music theory or notation or even to play a musical instrument … just sign up and start writing!
For more information about Camp+, including schedules and pricing, visit http://summer.harker.org. The Harker School has offered extensive summer programs for more than 50 years. The Summer Camp+ program is accredited nationally by the American Camping Association.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
2003
Class agents Maheen Kaleem and Julia Gitis were thrilled to report busy and productive happenings from the Class of 2003! The agents noted that last year both Ilya Sukhar and Surbhi Sarna were named to the Forbes “30 under 30” lists for their incredible accomplishments. Ilya is the co-founder and CEO of Parse and Surbhi is the founder of nVision Medical. The Harker Quarterly covered that story in its spring 2014 issue. (Please see the Alumni News section of this issue for an article about Andy Fang ’10 who was included on a Forbes list this year.)
Misha Nasledov is a lead engineer at if (we), a social and mobile technology company, and is one of only three people who’ve won two Weeble awards. He spends his free time car racing, sometimes doing nonstop endurance races that last up to 24 hours.
Dav Yendler works as an illustrator in Chicago. His work appeared in the Cards Against Humanity’s Holiday 2014 Campaign.
Cathy Kim is finishing up law school at Columbia and will be returning home to clerk for Magistrate Paul S. Grewal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
After spending a few years in New York, Shanghai and Beijing, Deborah Tu returned to the Bay Area where she develops urban infill residential and mixed-use projects.
Speaking of coming back home, Peter Noonan’s son is now in kindergarten at Harker, and Julia Gitis is now the lower school’s admission director. Julia also recently got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2004
Jessica Liu sent in a fun photo of a mini-reunion she enjoyed with some former Harker classmates over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. “We are all still very good friends and decided to rent a house in Santa Barbara over the MLK holiday. This photo was taken on the Santa Barbara pier with my GoPro,” she explained. Front row (L to R): Sameer Deen, Aditi Bhattacharyya, Nickisa Hodgson, Jacinda Mein. Back row (L to R): Courtney Johnson, Prithi Trivedi, Jessica Liu.
Having spent the last half of 2014 volunteering in India, Emma Hawley has relocated to the Bay Area for the first time since graduating from Harker and staying in LA after finishing at UCLA. While abroad, she volunteered at the ashram headquarters of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in Chennai, an organization devoted to offering free heart-based meditation in more than 100 countries worldwide. She helped in the publications and media departments, including working on a redesign of the quarterly English magazine, various graphic design projects and artistic direction of multimedia. She’s happy to now be near the local ashram in Fremont where she continues to help in various capacities. She’s part of the open house committee, facilitating introductory meditation sessions around the Bay. She’s thrilled to be back in Santa Clara near her family (Harker’s upper school Latin teacher John Hawley and wife, Claire).
The Class of 2004 had its 10-year reunion the evening of Dec. 23 at the Village Bistro in Santana Row. Upper school faculty and staff were invited to attend as a gesture of gratitude for all the guidance and encouragement they provided the alumni during their special high school years. About 50 people attended and a good time was had by all.
2009
Back in December, Neelaysh Vukkadala, who is now in medical school at UCSF, returned to Harker to lead a workshop during several afternoon classes of HAPy (Human Anatomy and Physiology). During his visit to the upper school, he showed students how to perform thoracic surgery as well as suturing up the incision.
Upper school math teacher Tony Silk enjoyed getting together for lunch with Evan Maynard back in December. “Evan recently graduated from Purdue with his master’s in aerospace engineering (as did I). He now works in Seattle on spacecraft,” recalled Silk.
Sophi Scarnewman (formerly Newman) got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details! In other news, Sophi is a newly minted birth and postpartum doula working in the Bay Area. She is currently building her doula business, Blackberry Babies. She graduated from Stanford University in 2013 and spent a year as an associate product manager at Google before leaving to pursue a career as a doula. “I spent a year working on Google+, with my biggest project being a complete redesign of the Android Google+ sharing function. Ultimately, my decision to leave Google has much less to do with any shortcomings of my teams (whom I loved) or Google (a truly great employer) than it does with my own passions and priorities as an individual. Although I certainly studied a lot of disciplines in college, I cared most about and put the most of myself into Stanford’s Sexual Health Peer Resource Center. I worked there for four years and spent my last two years of college at the helm. My work as a doula picks up those threads of reproductive health, running a business, and providing support/counseling. I hope to help mothers and their partners make birth into an empowering, energizing and meaningful experience,” she added.
2011
Karthik Dhore sent in a photo from his fall racing season (he is at the front of the boat) on the crew of Princeton’s rowing team. “I’m a senior on Princeton’s lightweight rowing team and have been on the team for four years. Our spring racing season starts in a month so we’re getting ready for that right now,” he said.
2012
Conservatory grad Lauren Pinzás, currently a junior studying vocal performance at Southern Methodist University, wrote to performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree that she is getting serious mileage out of her musical theater certificate training at Harker! She notes she is debuting one of the lead roles in “Wading Home,” an opera based on Rosalyn Story’s novel, centered around the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The show opens in April. “My background in musical theater helped because I may have to dance for it, and I will definitely be acting and singing. Thank you for your input in my process as a singing artist!” she writes.
2013
Rohan Chandra is part of Brown University’s all-male choir, “Brown Derbies.” In early January he came out here with the group and put on a great show at the upper school. Rohan is Derbie No. 153; to learn more about the group: http:// brownderbies.com/.
2014
The College Board recently announced that Albert Zhao earned the distinction of being one of only 15 students who got perfect scores on their AP Micro-economics exams, taken in spring 2014. AP Exams are graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the top score, but Albert went a step further, earning every point possible on the examination, answering every multiple choice question correctly and earning full points on the free-response section of the exam.
Shenel Ekici, a freshman at Barnard College, was selected to be part of a photo shoot for the December issue of the Barnard Bulletin. Check out the online version at http://issuu.com/barnardbulletin/docs/barnardbulletindec2014. She’s featured on pages 3, 5 and 21 (main section) and is one of the “alternate” front covers. One of the things Shenel loves most about being at Barnard is that she gets to enjoy a small, liberal arts women’s college while attending classes on the same campus at a major ivy-league school (Columbia, with which Barnard is affiliated). Shenel is majoring in neuroscience and is on the pre-med track.