Last week, the final piece of a new kiosk outside the upper school library was attached. Freshman Peter Connors designed and built the structure for his Eagle Scout project. Maintenance director J.R. Del Alto used a forklift to place the roof, which was then fastened, completing a campus feature that upper school division head Butch Keller had wanted to see added for some time. Located at the busy intersection of the walkways outside Manzanita Hall, the upper school library and the main building, the kiosk will provide another way to keep the upper school community informed.
Connors received help in building the kiosk from fellow freshmen Vinny Vu and Amitej Mehta, of whom Connors said, “Without them, this project would never have been completed.”
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
A parent was recently talking to me about the big idea behind organizations. It was his contention that when an organization is founded on a big idea, like ending poverty or stopping global warming, people follow that organization more readily. The big idea can be quite simple, but it has to be big.
The parent then asked me what Harker’s big idea was. I immediately thought that Harker students are taking their academic knowledge and applying it to real-world problems to make a difference in the world.
Yes, most independent schools say something like this. And yes, this sounds a little like a parody of a sentiment from the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley,” when the founder of the fictional company Goolybib says, “But most importantly we’re making the world a better place. Through constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility.”
So we too are guilty of dreaming big. We have students doing award-winning research in tumor detection and climate modeling. We have a second grader who wrote the White House about her concerns about smoking.
We have journalists who wrote about the gender gap in technology in the student-run magazine Wingspan. We have students from preschool through senior year making beauty in the world through visual and performing arts.
Most schools fortunate enough to have students and teachers like ours can highlight similar efforts. The point is that students today want to learn deeply in academic and extracurricular domains and apply their learning to the world around them. Learning and doing to make a difference. (Hey, that sounds like a motto.)
It is inspiring to watch. It is even more inspiring to inspire, as our teachers have the opportunity to do.
The difference students make in the world as children and young adults does not have to be large in scale. Ralph Waldo Emerson defines success like this: “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” Now that is a big idea.
So what’s the big idea? When I was in high school, my biggest preoccupations were getting a date to the prom and joining a rock band. Teens still have some of those concerns these days – and thank goodness they do. But I am optimistic about today’s youth precisely because of their propensity to learn and do to make a difference. Will they make the world a better place? That is a tall order for any generation, but I think this generation already has.
Ancient and modern China formed an intriguing focus of study for 21 middle school students during their recent visit to the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS), Harker’s sister school in Shanghai.
At the end of March, 16 seventh graders and five eighth graders united for an action-packed week with their WFLMS buddies, who had earlier in the school year spent time at Harker as part of an annual reciprocal student exchange program.
Journeying to China is a much-anticipated adventure and highlight of the middle school experience for many grade 7 and 8 students. While there, the Harker contingent visited numerous landmarks and historic sites.
Originally based around the grade 8 computer science class’ global issues forum, the annual China trip expanded two years ago to incorporate the grade 7 historical component of learning about ancient China.
Keith Hirota, grade 6 ancient civilizations teacher, headed this year’s trip. Carol Green, Harker’s middle and upper school communication studies department chair, who was already in China serving as an exchange teacher at WFLMS, joined the group as a chaperone.
After a smooth flight, the students were warmly welcomed at Pudong International Airport by their pals from WFLMS, Hirota recalled. From there, they hopped on a WFLMS bus for the short drive into the city to meet their host families.
The next morning, when the group arrived on the school’s campus, a large electronic sign read, “We warmly welcome the teachers and students from The Harker School.”
“The students were greeted by WFLMS computer teacher Jack Sheng (who speaks fluent English with an Aussie accent), who sent them around campus on a fun orientation/scavenger hunt,” shared Hirota.
After that, the Harker students participated in a dance class, followed by a class on the history, culture and food of China. The students also attended a class on Chinese geography that highlighted the Shanghai area. At the conclusion of the lesson, they headed to the auditorium, where they shared information about their American culture with the WFLMS student body.
“They each did a great job talking about Harker clubs, after-school activities, spirit events and houses, speech and debate, special classes and electives, middle school sports, lunch and snacks, American holidays, famous American points of interest, video gaming and social media,” Hirota observed.
The Harker students then hopped on a bus and headed for Zhujiajiao. The word Zhujiajiao means “Zhu Family Settlement.” It is one of six ancient water villages on the outskirts of Shanghai. With a population of 60,000, it features 36 stone bridges and thousands of ancient buildings along the riverbanks. After a boat ride through the canal, the students were given time to explore and bargain hunt throughout the hundreds of food and novelty shops in the area.
“We had a 12-course family style lunch with a scenic view overlooking the canal and shops. After lunch, students were given more time to explore and shop. We drove back to Shanghai and had an early dinner at Da Niang Dumplings. Before heading off to ‘Era’ (the Shanghai Circus), the students had some time to buy desert and snacks at a few local shops. After a brief drive through the city, we arrived at the circus venue and our students were met by their WFLMS buddies. The circus was simply amazing and the highlight of the day!” reported Hirota.
The students’ subsequent time at WFLMS included learning a form of ancient Kung Fu called Wushu and how to play Chinese instruments called the erhu and pipa. They also had fun making Chinese opera masks to take home.
Another highlight for the Harker students was taking a rickshaw tour of Beijing, which included a moving visit to Tiananmen Square, site of the 1989 protests and ensuing military action. From there the group headed to the Forbidden City, where they were guided through several of its 980 palatial buildings. Then came a memorable visit to the Great Wall of China. After taking a ski lift to the top of the mountain, the group entered the wall. Students took many photos of the renowned structure and enjoyed a toboggan ride back down the mountain.
The students’ time at WFLMS ended with a farewell ceremony and dinner. “The ceremony was bittersweet as we watched several students from both schools give touching speeches and performances,” recalled Hirota, noting that Harker students and their WFLMS buddies had been faithfully corresponding since the fall.
Reflecting on the trip, grade 7 student Jatin Kohli said he really enjoyed the homestay with his buddy and the time they spent walking along the Huangpu River and the Bund, a famous waterfront area. “I wish our buddies could have joined us on our trip north to Beijing. The trip felt too short and I wish I had more time,” he said.
Grade 8 student Julia Amick added, “My favorite part of the homestay was getting to tour around Shanghai with my buddy and her parents and trying new and exotic foods like stinky tofu!”
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
United Voices
“United Voices,” Harker’s annual celebration of vocal music, returned to the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in early February. The concert featured a wide range of vocal groups from the lower, middle and upper schools, performing classical pieces, renditions of modern pop songs, selections from musicals, traditional songs from various cultures and much more. The Bucknall Choir greeted the evening audience with its rendition of the enduring hymn “Ubi Caritas” before making way for the middle school choirs to perform the Zambian traditional “Bonse Aba.” The middle school groups then performed individually. Other highlights included the upper school women’s group Cantilena singing Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” show choir Downbeat’s rollicking version of the Brian Setzer hit “Rock This Town” and the evening’s finale, in which all performers gathered on stage to sing “Circle of Life,” from the classic Disney film “The Lion King.”
Lower School Singers Greet the Holiday Season
A huge cast of performers from grades 2 and 3 took the stage at the Bucknall Theater on Dec. 18 for the annual Holiday Show. Dozens of students, directed by music teacher Carena Montany, sang a variety of songs to celebrate the holiday season, from classics “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” “O Chanukah, O Chanukah” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” to newer fare including “Let It Go,” from the hit film “Frozen.”
The show ran smoothly thanks to the hard work of technical director Danny Dunn and her grade 5 technical theater class, as well as deck manager Ken Boswell and stage manager Stephanie Woolsey. Choreography was done by Kimberly Teodoro, and Melissa Lin and Toni Woodruff provided accompaniment on piano and violin, respectively.
Annual Grade 1 Show Celebrates the Spirit of the Holidays
Days before the start of winter break, the homeroom students of Imelda Kusuma, Cindy Proctor, Larissa Weaver and Rita Stone gathered for the holiday show, titled “My Favorite Time of Year.” Directed by Carena Montany, the concert featured students singing holiday favorites such as “Frosty the Snow Man,” “Jingle Bells” and “Spin a Little Dreidl,” with students doing narration between songs. The performance of “Little Saint nick” featured several dancers, with choreography by Jessalyn Espiritu.
Instrumental accompaniment was provided by pianist Melissa Lin and violinist Toni Woodruff. Danny Dunn and her grade 5 technical theater class served as the technical director and crew, respectively.
‘Wild’ Upper School Show Features 130 Dancers
“Welcome to the Jungle,” the title of this year’s upper school dance production, took audiences into the wild for a jungle-themed romp that featured a cast of more than 130 dancers performing in sync to songs by artists including Guns n’ Roses, Phil Collins, Bjork and Lil Jon. The production was a showcase for student choreographers as well as dancers, with seniors Jacqui Villarreal, Sindhu Ravuri, Ryan Pachauri, Darby Millard, Erika Olsen, Andrew Zhang, noel Banerjee and Ashir Bansal, and juniors Emily Pan, Ankita Sharma, Helena Dworak and Allison Wang choreographing routines.
Singers Perform with State and National Honor Choirs
Five Upper School singers successfully auditioned for the California American Choral Directors Association’s All-State Honor Choir. Ishanya Anthapur, grade 12, was named to the mixed choir; Madhu Karra and Sahana narayanan, both grade 11, earned spots in the women’s choir; and Ashwin Rao, grade 10, and Gurutam Thockchom, grade 11, will join the men’s choir. Earlier this year, Anthapur and Narayanan were named to ACDA’s Regional Honor Choir. Rehearsals began in March for a special performance at the First United Methodist Church of Pasadena on March 28.
At the American Choral Directors Association’s national conference in late February, Karli Sharp, grade 8, performed with the Middle School national Girls Honor Choir, conducted by Elena Sharkova, chorus master of Symphony Silicon Valley and an expert on the choral music of Russia.
Winter Concert Showcases Middle and Upper School Musicians
Middle and upper school music groups gave their first concert of the new year on Jan. 16 at the 2015 Winter Concert at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater. Performers included the two middle school jazz bands, the Grade 6 Orchestra, the Grades 7-8 Orchestra, The Harker School Jazz Band and The Harker School Orchestra. Among the many highlights was a special appearance by the middle school chamber groups, which performed both modern and classical pieces, including works by Bach and Green Day. The Harker Lab Band also made an appearance, playing a series of jazz selections by Duke Ellington, Fred Sturm and more. The Harker School Orchestra closed the evening, playing the entirety of Dvořák’s “Symphony no. 9” (popularly known as the “new World Symphony”) and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Overture to La Forza del Destino.”
Fifth Graders Bring Pinocchio to Life
This year’s grade 5 show, held Jan. 29-30 at the Bucknall Theater, brought together a huge cast of 130 students for “no Strings Attached,” an updated musical adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” Directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, the production followed the familiar tale of a wooden puppet’s quest to become a real boy and the challenges he encounters along the way, teaching him the value of friendship and honesty. The massive task of directing so many students could not have been undertaken without the help of a skilled and dedicated crew, which included Danny Dunn and her lower school technical theater class, costumer Carol Clever, stage manager Ken Boswell, deck managers Jordan Wong and Daniel Clark ’10, scenic artist Whitney Pintello, microphone managers Randy LeGris and Oanhna Ly and choreographer Jessalyn Espiritu.
Orchestra Takes First in Portland Festival
The Harker Orchestra took top honors at the northwest Orchestra Festival held near Portland, Ore., March 6 and 7! The musicians performed so well that “judges decided that a final round was not necessary to determine the winner, despite us competing as the smallest school in our division!” said Chris Florio, orchestra director. The annual middle and high school event is held at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, adjacent to Portland.
Harker competed in Division IVF (full orchestra). “We were actually supposed to be in Division IIIF (schools with 1,300 students or fewer), but I was advised to compete in Division IV (1,301 students or more) since it’s more competitive.”
Florio thinks it likely Harker received the highest score of any group at the festival. “There were around 40 or more groups there,” he noted. “One judge gave us a perfect score. The orchestra director from the University of Portland was one of our judges, and he half jokingly offered our entire orchestra admission to his school.”
All in all, it was tremendous experience. “As a last minute honor, the festival director asked us to perform a command performance for the entire group of attendees,” said Florio. “He felt we were so exceptional that it would be a great experience for the other groups and judges to hear us.”
Dancers Perform at London New Year’s Day Parade
Seniors Darby Millard and Noel Banerjee headed to London in late December to perform in the London new Year’s Day parade. “The two dancers earned an invitation this past summer while at the United Spirit Association Dance Camp, for their exceptional technique and performance skills,” said Karl Kuehn, upper school dance teacher. Aside from their performance in the parade, the students also went sightseeing around The Big Smoke and caught a performance of the musical “Wicked.”
Senior Earns Place in National Orchestra – Again
Helen Wu, grade 12, has landed a spot on the national Youth Orchestra for the second consecutive year. “This group has quickly become the country’s premier honor for high school orchestral musicians,” said Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and orchestra director. The orchestra will embark on a tour of China over the summer, performing with famed Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit and pianist Yundi Li and premiering a new work by composer Tan Dun, the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning composer of the score for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Harker Instrumentalists Named to All-State Honor Bands
In January, several Harker students were named to the California Band Directors Association All-State honor ensembles. Trumpeter Jack Farnham, grade 10, and clarinetists Kristen Park and Cynthia Hao, both grade 11, successfully auditioned for spots in the high school band, while clarinetists Nishka Ayyar, grade 8, and Jenny Shaw, grade 7, were named to the junior high school concert band. The students performed with their respective ensembles at the California Music Educators Association Conference in Fresno, held Feb. 19-22, rehearsing with students and performing for mu- sic educators from across California.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
In January, Student Directed Showcase put on its 14th show, further cementing its status as one of the Harker Conservatory’s key programs.
The class, available to students who are selected after a thorough review process, puts students in the director’s chair and charges them with handling all aspects of putting on a show, including casting, blocking (positioning and movement of the actors on stage), visual elements, promotion and everything in between.
“The college counselors tell me it’s up there with one or two APs in terms of the load that a student will have when they choose to direct,” said performing arts department chair Laura Lang-Ree, who runs the class. “If a student chooses to direct, they often will know [of their interest by] seventh or eighth grade. They’ve been coming to SDS or they’ve heard about SDS and they have this passion for leading something, though they may not really know what it is.”
Lang-Ree got the idea for SDS while in graduate school. “I’ve always had a passion for all different types of performing, from dance to instrumental to theater, but when I took [a] directing class, all the light bulbs went on,” she recalled.
After earning a master’s in acting with an emphasis in directing, Lang-Ree began teaching performing arts at the upper school, where she set the wheels in motion for the first Student Directed Showcase. “Too often, in schools and in colleges too, the focus is on one area. Usually it’s performance, and there isn’t a whole lot of attention given to all of the other many, many areas of art that you can not only fall in love with but have a career in,” she said.
Like Lang-Ree, many Harker students have discovered their interest in directing through acting. “I remember my freshman year experience in SDS so clearly,” said senior Caroline Howells, who directed “Almost, Maine” at this year’s SDS and was one of four directors in the class. “I have such fond memories of it, and I’ve done it every year since, and when it came meme to apply to be a director I said, ‘Sure, let’s do this.’”
“I loved my directors, I loved the shows and I loved my characters,” said Zoe Woehrmann, grade 12, director of “Exit” at the most recent SDS. “All of my [fellow] directors ended up becoming huge role models for me.”
The process of selecting directors begins early in the spring semester, when Lang-Ree finds students who are interested in directing a play. “Around March or April, I’ll send them a series of questions to answer in written form and they’ll come and meet with me and we just talk,” she said. After taking a close look at every candidate’s work in the Conservatory, as well as “all the classes that they’ve taken here, leadership that they’ve done inside and outside of Harker,” she receives feedback from school administrators and selects the following year’s directors.
Once the students accept their role as directors, they are given the summer to choose a play, which can be a lengthy but extremely important process. “When you’re going to work on something that intensely and that deeply every single day and you literally can’t stop thinking about it, you’ve got to love it,” said Lang-Ree. “It really has to speak to them.”
Selecting a play proved time-consuming for Howells, who looked at about 50 plays before settling on “Almost, Maine,” a romantic urban fairy tale set in a fictional town. “I read the first scene, the prologue scene, which is very iconic for the show, and I just knew I had to do it,” she said.
“I didn’t actually know what I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want,” Woehrmann said. “I realized I wanted a heavy ensemble show. I didn’t want one protagonist.” “Exit,” which examines five characters who awaken to find themselves in a theater with no memory of how they arrived, was a perfect fit.
Once the plays are chosen, Lang-Ree meets with the directors to analyze and dissect their plays, which helps them discover what they will be looking for when choosing cast members.
“I think the lion’s share of the academic work is taking these scripts and breaking them apart into the specific acting unit,” said Lang-Ree. “What’s the point of attack? What is the protagonist’s goal? Where is the climax for the production? How does it arc?”
Directors also read one anothers’ plays and offer their own insights. The thorough analysis process gives students “plenty of room to play with their casts and get their interpretation and their feedback,” Lang-Ree said.
About 50 students audition for each play, and the directors work with one another and Lang-Ree to decide who will appear in each production. The entire process takes place in a single evening. “We discuss who is going to be in which production and why, what’s best for the student who’s auditioning, what’s best for the production, and because we know each other so well, usually it’s a pretty collaborative night,” said Lang-Ree.
For some students, the transition from acting to directing can be daunting at times. “It was completely weird for me,” said Woehrmann. “Honestly, when I walked into the first rehearsal and I was the only one there and I was setting everything up and sitting in the director’s chair, I was like, ‘What am I going to say to them?’”
“I always knew that it took a lot to put on a play, but I never realized how much thought and planning goes into every moment. Every scene, every blocking choice, every rehearsal is carefully thought out,” said Grace Hudkins ’08, who directed “The Importance of Being Earnest” in the 2008 production. “You never know what an actor is going to need and you have to be prepared with a ton of tools in your back pocket ready to support whatever gets thrown at you.”
Not surprisingly, the nature of each director’s play results in different directing styles, which can include taking some creative risks. When Woehrmann revealed “Exit’s” surprise ending to cast members after keeping it from them for a period of time, she was relieved that they liked it.
After callbacks with her cast, Howells replaced an entire scene with another one from the play she was directing, which led to some worry about how her actors would handle it. “The first rehearsal I had with them, I actually breathed such a sigh of relief because they actually had pretty good chemistry on stage,” she said. The changes didn’t end there. “If you look at the script of my show, it has very, very specific stage directions, and I pretty much ignored most of them.”
The first-time directors also experienced other challenges that directors face on a project. “With some people in my cast, I wasn’t always quite sure how to communicate with them,” said Howells. “Like, what does this person need in order to get them to the point that I want them to be at? And so definitely with some people it took me longer to find that point, but they all got there in the end.”
Scheduling was another issue. “When you have 10 different people who all have different days where they’re not available, it’s very hard to find time,” Howells said. “And we have our own lives too.
This wasn’t the only thing that I was doing after school.” Because Woehrmann’s “Exit” did not utilize any scenery, she had to get creative with blocking to keep the action from looking too static. “I kind of didn’t want them to be walking aimlessly,” she said. “Because I wanted them to focus on the important parts, but I didn’t want them to be standing still in the middle of the stage not doing anything.”
Moreover, the live setting of a theater production always presents uncertainty. “I was terrified that they were going to forget a line, or that a costume was going to go missing or that a cue wasn’t going to happen. All of these things were constantly going through my head,” Woehrmann said.
“One of the most challenging things about SDS is that you’re not just the director; you’re the stage manager, the set designer, the costume designer, the publicist, the entire production team,” said Hudkins.
Thankfully, the actors’ growth during rehearsals and the confidence they had in the directors were a constant source of inspiration. “When you see people place their trust in you, it makes you care in such a different way than I ever have doing a show,” said Howells. “Having them place so much trust in you, it made make me work harder for them. They’re all my best friends now.”
During discussions with her cast, Woehrmann was pleased to discover that they had thrown themselves fully into their roles and had spotted aspects of their characters’ development that she hadn’t noticed.
Despite the challenges that come with directing a show, the directors find the experience to be highly rewarding. “The Thursday before we had an audience, when we ran through the whole show, I started crying,” Woehrmann said. “Because after it ended, it was just such a relief and we were so proud of our casts and that everything had come together.”
“Being a student director was challenging, it was exhausting, and it pushed me to my breaking point and beyond,” said Hudkins. “But it was also probably my favorite thing I did at Harker, and one of my proudest accomplishments.”
SDS also develops skills that extend far beyond the theater and into a wide range of careers. “Of course it’s a highly artistic process,” said Lang-Ree, “but everything that they’re doing, they’re literally going to use from now on: how to plan a meeting, how to handle a hard conversation, how to organize advertising for your event and make it successful, how to build a team that respects and likes you, how to make phone calls, how to put in receipts, how to go shopping for things.”
“It makes me more confident going forward in college and if I want to do auditions during college, then I’ll be able to handle all of that,” said Woehrmann.
Howells felt similarly. “In the college program I’m going to, I know I’m going to have a lot of different opportunities to act and sing and direct and other things like that, and so I hope that this is just the first show of many,” she said.
Hudkins, who graduated from Mount Holyoke College and now teaches drama at an international school in South Korea, attributes her trajectory since graduation to her time as an SDS director. “When I got to Mount Holyoke, I was already poised in my first year to take on major roles in production teams in our student theater organization, and I became involved practically by accident,” she recalled. Upon graduation, she became an intern at the school where she now works. “I truly believe that you can draw a straight line from SDS to my extensive college theater experience to my current career,” she said.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Girls Basketball
Junior Varsity B (grade 5) girls basketball, coached by Dan Pringle and Vanessa Rios, finished the league season with a 6-0 record and are league champs! The girls also participated in the WBAL tournament and finished in second place. They finished with an overall record of 8-1.
Team awards went to Brooklyn Cicero and Jacqueline Hu (MVP), Angela Jia and Ashley Barth (Eagle), and Gianna Chan and Anishka Raina (Coaches).
Junior Varsity C (grade 4) girls basketball, coached by Christina Mendoza and Tim Hopkins, finished their season with a league record of 3-3. Team awards went to Athena Wu (MVP), Brooke Baker (Eagle) and Jia Parikh (Coaches).
Lower school (grades 4-5) intramural basketball, coached by Therese Wunnenberg and Sean Leeper, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of basketball and playing intersquad scrimmages. Team awards went to Syna Gogte, grade 5 (MVP), Aria Jain, grade 4 (Eagle) and Kavita Murthy, grade 5 (Coaches).
Boys Soccer
Junior Varsity B (grade 5) boys soccer, coached by Jared Ramsey and Tobias Wade, is currently 1-3 with two matches remaining in the season. Team awards went to Raj Patel (MVP), Aaditya Gulati (Eagle) and Bailey Castle (Coaches).
Lower school (grade 4) intramural soccer, coached by Jim McGovern and Kristian Tiopo, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of soccer and playing intersquad matches. Team awards went to Rigo Gonzales (Eagle), and Pranav Mullappalli and Michael Pflaging (Coaches).
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Girls Basketball
Varsity A (grades 7-8) girls basketball, coached by Richard Amarillas and Angelo Parangat, finished the season with a league record of 1-5 and have the WBAL tournament remaining on the schedule. Team awards went to Jennifer Hayashi (MVP), Lilly Wancewicz (Eagle), and Prameela Kottapalli (Coaches), all grade 8.
Varsity B (grade 7) girls basketball, coached by Allison Burzio and Kelcie Lai, is currently 3-3 with one game and the WBAL tournament remaining. Team awards went to Cassandra Ruedy (MVP), Adhya Hoskote (Eagle) and Radhika Jain (Coaches). Junior Varsity A (grade 6) girls basketball, coached by Coli Simmons and Jon Cvitanich, finished the league season with a 7-0 record and are league champs! The girls will also participate in the WBAL tournament. Team awards went to Courtni Thompson (MVP), Hunter Hernandez (Eagle) and Reina Joseph (Coaches).
Middle school (grades 6-8) intramural basketball, coached by Chrissy Chang and Vince Salinas, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of basketball and playing intersquad scrimmages. Team awards went to Vaishnavi Murari and Shreya Srinivasan (Eagle) and Aditi Vinod (Coaches).
Wrestling
Middle school (grades 6-8) wrestling, coached by Karriem Stinson, Charlie Ward, Jason Mendel and Jeff Paull, worked tirelessly to learn the fundamentals of wrestling. They will compete in two upcoming tournaments. Team awards went to Kobe Howard, grade 8 (MVP), Devin Keller, grade 7 (Eagle), and Eric Fang, grade 7 and Anish Kilaru, grade 6 (Coaches).
Boys Soccer
Varsity A (grade 8) boys soccer, coached by Matt Arensberg, is currently 3-1-1 with two matches remaining in the season. Team awards went to Jared Anderson (MVP), Edwin Su (Eagle), and Aleksander Erk and Logan Frank (Coaches).
Varsity B (grade 7) boys soccer, coached by Emily Oliver, finished the season with a league record of 2-2-1. Team awards went to Andrew Cheplyansky (MVP), Henry Wiese (Eagle) and Griffin Crook (Coaches).
Varsity B2 (grades 6-7) boys soccer, coached by Cyrus Merrill, is currently 0-6 with one match remaining in the season.
Junior Varsity A (grade 6) boys soccer, coached by Brighid Wood, is currently 3-1 with one match remaining in the season.
Team awards went to Ryan Tobin (MVP), Tuhin Chatterjee (Eagle), and Arjun Virmani and Rosh Roy (Coaches).
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s DECA program hit on all cylinders this winter, achieving new milestones!
First off, Harker DECA president Savi Joshi, grade 12 and advisor Juston Glass were named student of the year and advisor of the year, respectively. The winners were chosen by nomination and no chapter has ever had both a student and advisor named in the same year. Joshi was chosen from more than 5,000 student members in California, and Glass was chosen out of more than 100 advisors in California.
State DECA Conference In late February and early March, 98 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara to attend California’s State Career Development Conference. This four-day business conference and competition included workshops with renowned speakers, events with tough opponents and experiences for a lifetime.
“Our students did very well in competitions,” said junior Shannon Hong, Harker DECA director of communications and executive vice president of Silicon Valley DECA. The group took home three first-place awards, two third-place awards and 21 other top 10 awards.
Attending the state conference “was [not just] my final competition prior to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) last April,” said Joshi, who took home a fourth-place award for her community service project. “It meant seeing my family in its element. That’s what DECA has become for me: a family. It’s the place and people I can go to when I need help, comfort or a challenge.
“ICDC is definitely a bittersweet event, as it signifies the end of a life-changing four year journey. I am DECA. We are Harker DECA. Welcome to our family,” added Joshi.
Along with competitions, students attended workshops, competed in role play and written events, had fun at Great America and sang karaoke. They also attended a formal dance, and the mini and grand awards ceremonies.
Advocacy Video Competition DECA’s “I am DECA” theme is the cornerstone of its 2014-15 marketing and membership campaign, and the video by Ankur Karwal, grade 11, and Alexis Gauba, grade 10, was named one of the top three in the DECA Advocacy Video Challenge. DECA challenged its members to produce a short video during Career and Technical Education Month that expressed their own stories and shared how career and technical education has impacted their high school experience so far.
More than 30 videos were submitted from high school and collegiate DECA members.
Finish Line Finalists Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, traveled to Indianapolis as one of three finalist teams nationwide competing in the DECA Finish Line Challenge. The teams advised Finish Line Inc. executives on how the company can best utilize and improve upon its omni-channel retailing strategy and company branding. Reddy and Drazovich submitted a video as part of the competition, and they received the winning accolades, coming in ahead of the other two finalist teams.
CareerConnect CareerConnect is Harker’s mentorship, career panel and professionalism program, featuring speakers from across a spectrum of professions. Recent CareerConnect guests have included Jag Kapoor, president of Golden State Restaurants Inc.; Cammie Dunaway, CEO of KidZania United States; Gigi Kelly, adjunct professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia; and Gary Gauba, president of Cognilytics-CenturyLink.
“CareerConnect’s panels were a great success in their second year,” said Shannon Hong. “Many students came out to hear from professionals in the fields of medicine, law, computer science, engineering and business. The panels provide a platform for students to learn from these professionals to gain an idea of a potential career path and build their network. We are now launching our second year of mentorship, a program that pairs students with professionals in their specific fields of interest so they can learn more about that specific niche and even shadow their mentors at their workplaces.”
Lead On More than 30 girls attended the Lead On Silicon Valley Conference for Women, along with more than 5,000 women from various industries, including technology, business, entrepreneurship and more. CareerConnect, part of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program, sponsored the event with the help of Riverbed Technology Inc., which funded the entire Harker contingent to the event. Many, but not all, of the Harker attendees were from the B.E./DECA program.
Stock Market Game Harker DECA won its region with a final amount of $179,387.65. The next highest winner in the Western region scored $150,333.92; those were also the two highest scores nationwide. Team members Safia Khouja and David Lin, both seniors, are eligible to travel to Orlando, Fla., in April to participate in the Stock Market Game at the 2015 DECA International Career Development Conference. At that event, they will defend their investment decisions for a chance to be recognized at the ICDC Grand Awards Session.
The year isn’t over, but seniors are beginning to look back on their time with DECA with nostalgia and appreciation. “Of all my years of participating in Harker DECA, this year has certainly been the most enjoyable and rewarding,” said Jonathan Lee, grade 12, Harker DECA vice president of operations. “I felt that the spirit, camaraderie and mutual support reached an all-time high this year. Personally, I think DECA taught me what it means to be a leader. It means that I have to put my team and my chapter before myself whenever I make a decision. Of course this lesson of leadership, loyalty and commitment has extended into every aspect of my life.”
Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition so the next generation will be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
The much-anticipated Jan. 16 arrival of grade 10 students to the lower school campus signaled the start of two beloved annual Harker happenings: the schoolwide Pajama Day assembly and grade 3 Eagle Buddies get-together.
The sophomore students participated in the assembly as part of the Eagle Buddies program. Held in the gym, the event celebrated a grade 3 service project in which students collected items to donate to the Pajama Program (www.pajamaprogram.org), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
For the past eight years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated countless pairs of pajamas and boxes of books to the program. Over the years, Harker has contributed thousands of new items, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive was primarily a grade 3 effort, all elementary school families were invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urged parents to encourage their children to bring a pair of never-worn pajamas or a new book to donate to the program, noting that each “small donation will go a long way for someone who is less fortunate.”
The assembly occurred on a special dress pajama day, when all the students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. The program got underway with Butch Keller, upper school head, reading from the book “The Most Magnificent Thing” by award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires. Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller donning a comfy robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage.
“Raise your hand if you brought a book for your Eagle Buddy to read,” said Keller, after he finished the story. A bunch of eager hands went up. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who had also been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and snuggly knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for a pizza lunch, socializing and field games.
“I have a little sister at home, so I am used to being around younger kids. However, it is always the same group of younger kids – her friends – so I really liked getting to know a totally new group of lower school students through this program,” said Kshithija Mulam, grade 10.
Mulam’s grade 3 pal, Alisha Jain, said “I like hanging out with my buddies. I really liked doing the relay races together. That was a lot of fun.”
Jain’s other buddy, sophomore Vienna Wang, observed that “being an Eagle Buddy is a great stress reliever. You get to act like a kid again!”
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.
Two afternoons a week, the lower school’s room 509 gets transformed into a movie and broadcast video production studio, thanks to two popular BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team) after-school offerings.
At the end of the regular school day on Tuesdays, students in grades 4-5 become producers in the new Harker Student Productions (HSP) class, where they hone their video broadcasting skills. Then, on Thursdays, it’s “lights, camera, action” for grade 3 students enrolled in the Movie Makers class, now in its second year. In that class, students work to create part of the third grade video yearbook.
Following on the heels of last year’s successful Movie Makers class, BEST launched the HSP course at the start of this school year. Sixteen students are enrolled in HSP, working in teams to plan, film, edit and prepare footage about school events, service projects and classroom happenings to be shared at the end of the class with the entire Harker community. HSP students learn how to use iMovie on iPads and can also apply to become volunteer mentors to the Movie Makers class.
In the Movie Makers class, students capture, import, edit and bring images to life, also via the iMovie app for iPads. The 14 students now enrolled work in teams and cover such topics as field trips, classroom events, playground fun, parties, service projects, sprit events and Eagle Buddies gatherings. These shorter clips are then put together at the end of the year to serve as a video yearbook at the grade 3 party (a link is shared with parents as well).
Max Blennemann, grade 4, participated in last year’s Movie Makers class and is now enrolled in the HSP class. He also volunteers as a mentor to students in this year’s Movie Makers class. Taking his newly acquired filmmaking skills a step further, he recently made a short documentary, titled “Day in the Life of a Fourth Grader,” which was shared at an event for grade 4 parents.
“My dream was for students to have a positive experience in the Movie Makers class and then want to give back as a mentor in the HSP class,” noted lower school teacher Heather Russell, who launched both the HSP and Movie Makers classes. “Max is an example of that dream becoming a reality.”
“We have fun making videos and playing on the iPad. This is my favorite class at Harker. Someday I want to be a movie director because of it,” said Blennemann.
The first video put out by HSP was a 14-minute-long labor of love for class participants and is available for viewing at http://youtu.be/eaYbJ4x1ca0. “The end result is a wonderful student-made production that captures lots of memorable moments inside and outside of the classroom,” reported Russell.
The HSP class evolved out of a Harker-sponsored technology project grant Russell received after being inspired as an exchange teacher in Japan last year. After seeing a similar student-led video broadcast at Harker’s sister school in Tamagawa, Russell led Harker’s Movie Makers class in a collaborative video yearbook to show to the Japanese students. She wanted to expand on the idea of a grade-level video and also provide a vehicle for students to cover schoolwide topics.
The HSP broadcast is a student-directed, student-created, organic celebration of happenings at the lower school, Russellexplained. The production includes concerns the students feel should be constructively expressed, reinforcement of the theme of the year and The Toolbox Project, and allows the students to be creative in communicating important issues and events at the lower school.
The iPads being used by students in both the Movie Makers and HSP classes were made available from donations to Harker’s annual giving campaign – a gift for which grade 3 student Ceren Erdogan is especially grateful.
“I appreciate that we get to use electronics, because most schools don’t,” said Erdogan.