Shortly after the school year began, parents, students, faculty and staff filled Harker’s lower school campus for two separate events intended to welcome families back to school.
At the first happening, the campus’ newest students – the kindergarteners – took to the playground for their own mouth-watering and fun-filled barbeque. That event was followed by a larger, combined barbeque for grades 1-5, held on Bucknall’s Rincon Field.
Attendees of both events enjoyed the warm summer air, casual atmosphere and opportunity to connect and reconnect with both new and returning students and families.
Today, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the semifinalists in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program. A total of 59 students from Harker’s Class of 2015 were named, matching the all-time Harker record set in 2012.
This year’s semifinalists, listed in alphabetical order by last name, are:
Zabin Bashar, Aadyot Bhatnagar, William Bloomquist, Thyne Boonmark, Stacey Chao, Jason Chu, Anushka Das, Kacey Fang, Vamsi Gadiraju, Eugene Gil, Richard Gu, Arden Hu, Aaron Huang, Allen Huang, Matthew Huang, Vivian Isenberg, Rishabh Jain, Alex Jang, Rahul Jayaraman, Jaewon Jeong, Andrew Jin, Allison Kiang, Rohith Kuditipudi, Hemant Kunda, David Lin, Patrick Lin, Cindy Liu, Shiyu Liu, Suzy Lou, Ethan Ma, Shreya Maheshwari, Nitya Mani, Ayush Midha, Neil Movva, Juhi Muthal, Maya Nandakumar, Nori Madhuri, Sachin Peddada, Archana Podury, Apoorva Rangan, Sahana Rangarajan, Pranav Reddy, Vasudha Rengarajan, Sriram Somasundaram, Agata Sorotokin, Vivek Sriram, Shannon Su, Neha Sunil, Kelly Wang, Madelyn Wang, Serena Wang, Steven Wang, Felix Wu, Helen Wu, Menghua Wu, Stanley Xie, Samyukta Yagati, Andrew Zhang and Kevin Zhang.
These students, comprising about one-third of the senior class, scored in the top 1 percent nationally on the Preliminary SAT, which was taken last year by approximately 1.4 million grade 11 students nationwide. In total, 65 percent of Harker seniors scored in the top 3 percent of test takers nationwide.
Grade 5 student Yash Narayan recently received the “Best Educational App” award from iOSDevCamp, where he created an innovative app called BullyWatch.
In an event dominated by adult, veteran developers, Narayan was one of only two youth to participate among 500 talented industry insiders from companies including Facebook, Twitter and Apple. The camp (http://www.iosdevcamp.org/) is an annual nonprofit gathering where participants develop applications for iOS (an operating system used for mobile devices manufactured by Apple Inc.) products.
This year’s camp was held at PayPal’s San Jose headquarters over a weekend in late August.
The unique BullyWatch app, which takes the form of a watch, is designed to help stop bullying at school. Oftentimes students cannot express their emotions to a bully and sometimes bullies themselves are unaware that they are, in fact, bullying. Using BullyWatch, when a student feels bullied, they press a button that turns orange, expressing emotions to the bully of feeling bullied. Usually bullies will then back off, but if not, the student can then press the watch for a few more seconds and it will turn red, sending a text message to school staff with the victimized student’s name and location, thus alerting teachers.
“Thousands of kids are bullied in school every day and feel like nobody. My mission in life is to eliminate bullying from schools. I want every kid to feel safe and important. I created BullyWatch to help kids express their emotions to bullies with a click of one single button and get help quickly,” said Narayan.
According to his mother, Ritu Narayan, the iOSDevCamp is the second largest hackathon (an event where programmers meet to do collaborative computer programming) for iPhone- and iPad-based applications. She said Yash had just finished a summer camp at Stanford for developing iPhone applications, and out of curiosity accompanied his father to the hackathon. While there, he decided to pitch his BullyWatch app and subsequently built a working end-to-end product over the course of two days, never expecting to win the prestigious “Best Education Application” award.
Hackathons like the one the Narayans attended provide a venue for self-expression and creativity through technology. People with technical backgrounds come together, form teams around a problem or idea and collaboratively code a unique solution from scratch; the solutions generally take shape in the form of websites, mobile apps and robots.
“Everyone at the competition was very impressed by the courage and persistence Yash showed, and were curious about the school that was nurturing him,” said Ritu Narayan.
Narayan’s app is especially relevant for students these days. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ anti-bullying website, Stopbullying.gov, the majority of bullying today takes place at school, with one in three U.S. students reporting that they have been bullied there.
“We are all so proud of Yash’s recent accomplishments and recognition. He is part of a growing tradition here at Harker in which our students and alumni are exploring the intersection between entrepreneurialism and service to the greater community,” said Chris Nikoloff, Harker’s head of school.
The 2014-15 school year officially began for upper school students on Aug. 22 during the annual matriculation ceremony. Each grade filed into the neatly arranged seats in the upper school quad. As is now standard practice, the newly minted high schoolers of the Class of 2018 were greeted by a rousing ovation from the students of grades 10, 11 and 12.
Head of School Chris Nikoloff delivered the opening remarks, largely inspired by a TED talk by Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Nikoloff discussed the “experiencing self,” which lives in the moment, and the “remembering self,” which ponders the course of one’s life. “If you go on vacation, the self that is enjoying each moment is the experiencing self,” Nikoloff said. “The self who is planning the vacation beforehand and recalling it fondly while looking at pictures afterwards is the remembering self.”
Nikoloff explained that both selves are necessary to fully live our lives. “If we only had the experiencing self, we would live like a piece of music in which each note has no relation to the note that went before or the note that comes after,” he said. Later he added that living too much in accordance with the remembering self “can remove us from the life all around us.” Nikoloff ended his speech by communicating his hope that the students will be able to find the right balance between the two selves.
The women’s vocal group Cantilena then gave a stirring performance of “Dancing Singing” by Hans Leo Hassler, followed by remarks from Butch Keller, upper school division head. He challenged the students to discover the things that matter to them and gave them principles to follow to pursue their goals. “Have you put enough effort necessary into what really matters to you to be successful?” he asked the audience. “It’s really that simple. Even the person who won the lottery had to make the effort to buy the ticket.”
He also touched on commitment, saying, “There’s nothing worth chasing that’s not worth committing to. It means do what it takes at the cost of other things.”
Next, ASB president Sarah Bean, grade 12, welcomed the students to the new year and reflected that “time flies whether or not you’re having fun.” Bean reminisced about her previous three years, particularly the friends she grew to know and cherish. “When I look back on my freshman, sophomore and junior years, I remember the highs and lows of pretty much everything. I also remember the people I was with.” She encouraged the Class of 2018 to seek out new friends of their own and to seek the ASB’s help with any issues they may encounter. “There’s always something that can be better, and that’s what we’re here for,” she said.
ASB vice president Jessica Chang, grade 12, then led the students in the recitation of the matriculation oath, after which the freshmen signed the matriculation book as the Harker String Quartet, directed by Chris Florio, played a stunning version of the Led Zeppelin classic, “Stairway to Heaven.”
The ceremony closed with “Freshman 101,” in which the student council officers introduced to cornerstones of upper school life – including student clubs, time management and academic honesty – by way of hilarious parodies of the Kardashians, Kanye West and reality TV programs such as Master Chef.
Avni Barman, grade 12, has founded a successful art therapy program designed to bring the joy of art to local hospitals and homeless shelters.
To date, she has implemented her Art for Recovery Project at My Friends (a pediatric health care center), Regional Medical Center, Family Supportive Housing, as well as the shelters StandUp For Kids and Abode Services.
Barman, who has spent her life immersed in art, made cards for hospital patients and senior homes as a lower and middle school student. She first began to work with patients at Kaiser Hayward in the summer following her sophomore year and typically works with children ages 4-15, who have come to look forward to her visits and special one-on-one time.
Now, Barman is looking to expand the Art for Recovery Project to include more volunteers and implement the program in many Bay Area hospitals and shelters. Her long-term goal is to find other art students who would like to join her in teaching art to the sick and needy in the Bay Area.
“After personally seeing the therapeutic effects of art on patients in hospitals and troubled children in homeless shelters, my goal is to reach every needy shelter in the Bay Area. I welcome like-minded students from the Harker student body (artistic or not) to join me in scaling this program. Harker’s enriching environment has driven me to start something that leverages my passion, while serving the community,” she said.
Barman’s innovative art therapy endeavor was featured in the San Jose Mercury News. To read that story: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_26462913/harker-student-avni-barman-shares-her-passion-art.
Oct. 28, 2014: On Oct. 21, Daniela Lee, grade 12, and Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, were honored by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and the San Jose City Council with mayoral commendations for their success in the Google Science Fair. The students received the commendations at a meeting of the city council where they met both Mayor Reed and councilmember Ash Kalra.
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Sept. 23, 2014: The 2014 Google Science Fair has ended, and senior Daniela Lee and junior Sadhika Malladi have finished as global finalists in the 17-18 age group. Congratulations to these students for reaching this stage of this worldwide competition!
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Daniela Lee, grade 12, and Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, have been named finalists in the 2014 Google Science Fair in the 17-18 age group! The two entered as a team and their project is up for the Voter’s Choice Award. Voting is open until Sept. 13, so be sure visit the Google Science Fair website to cast your vote! Lee and Malladi also will compete at Google headquarters on Sept. 22 for a grand prize package that includes a National Geographic Expeditions excursion to the Galapagos Islands, a visit to the Virgin Galactic Spaceport and a $50,000 scholarship.
An enthusiastic audience experienced “An Evening of Jazz” in late March, as lower, middle and upper school student musicians took to the stage at the Blackford Theater. Louis Hoffman directed the Lower School Jazz Ensemble, which kicked things off with selections from Red Garland, Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton and Nat Adderley. The Middle School Jazz Band then joined in for “Killer Joe” by Benny Golson, which segued nicely into the group’s own set, which consisted of “Won’t You Come Home, Bill Bailey” by Hughie Cannon and “Caravan” by Juan Tizol, both arranged by the band, which was directed by Dave Hart.
The Harker School Jazz Band, directed by Chris Florio, performed renditions of Freddie Green’s “Corner Pocket,” “Feelin’ Good” by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, and “I Be Serious ‘Bout Dem Blues” by John Clayton. Other highlights included an appearance by Harker’s Lab Band, the upper school’s introductory jazz ensemble directed by Hart, and the night’s encore, which featured all of the middle and upper school musicians performing the traditional “Second Line.”
Whether looking to learn how to enjoy one of summer’s quintessential activities or exploring its more competitive aspects, Harker’s Summer Swim School had something to offer to swimmers of every skill level. The summer-long program, which started in mid-June and ended the first week of August, offered swim lessons for individuals and groups, as well as a junior swim team camp for students in grades 2-8 that introduced enthusiastic swimmers to competitive swimming.
The program took place at the upper school campus’ Singh Aquatic Center, whose 75-by-112.5-foot pool and 13 swimming lanes offered an ideal spot for learning swimmers. “There are not many places in the Bay Area that you can get private lessons in such a beautiful facility,” said swim school director Melissa Dondero. Swim lessons were offered at 10 different skill levels to accommodate the widest possible range of swimmers, and were designed to be safe and supportive in addition to helping swimmers build skills in a sensible order.
The Junior Swim Team program grew significantly this year, with roughly 15 students per week participating, Dondero said. This program is for students who are interested in learning key principles of competitive swimming, but haven’t yet decided if they’d like to compete and are “a little bit nervous about what that means,” she explained. Under the guidance of experienced instructors, swimmers participated in dry-land warm-ups before heading into the water to work on stroke technique, endurance and other important aspects of competition.
The benefits of the Junior Swim Team program extend beyond the pool. “I play competitive soccer and it’ll really help my endurance,” said Chance Hewitt, grade 6. He added that he was able to reduce the time it takes him to run a mile by three minutes. Henry Cuningham, grade 7, enjoyed the freestyle swimming. “It’s just fun to have it be a competitive sort of environment with your friends,” he said.
This summer at Harker featured some exciting first-time offerings for students, both local and from around the globe.
At the youngest level, history was made with the addition of a new preschool summer program. Meanwhile, the popular English Language Institute (ELI) launched an optional summer VIP tour, which was a huge hit with international students at both the lower and upper schools.
Each summer Harker opens its doors to the public, extending its offerings to local students. Noteworthy this year was skyrocketing attendance for all of Harker’s summer programs, particularly at the lower school’s Camp+ and upper school’s Summer Institute (SI).
In addition to the new preschool, ELI, Camp+ and SI, Harker also offered a large and varied summer sports camp, as well as a swim school.
“Once again, we enjoyed a successful summer … and were thrilled to be able to offer exciting new programming!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of Harker’s summer programs.
Below is a look back at Harker Summer 2014:
Harker Preschool Launches New Summer Program
This year marked the first time Harker Preschool, which opened last fall, has operated a summer camp at its Union Avenue campus. The preschool now joins the larger Harker community’s long-running tradition of offering programs after the regular school year ends.
The preschool’s successful inaugural summer camp featured two sessions, which began with a fun beach theme and ended with an action-packed wilderness motif. Session one, called “Down by the Shore,” ran from June 23-July 18 with 55 enthusiastic “beachgoers” filling the preschool’s sunny cottages, play yards and specialty classrooms (STEM, music and movement, and art.) Session two ran from July 21-Aug. 8 with the theme “Little Cabin in the Woods.” For the second session, children happily grabbed their backpacks and headed off to the (imaginary) forest.
Highlights of the first session included water play on “Splash Days,” as well as explorations of both sand and water. Four-year-old camper Luca Chan especially enjoyed the many ocean-themed books introduced and discussed during group times.
Classmate Miley Liu, also 4, said she liked “making a beach in a box,” an activity in which students filled plastic containers with sand, shells and other items you would see at a beach.
Meanwhile, in music and movement class, students made drums that sounded like the ocean, explained teacher Mara Beckerman. Then, in her aftercare class, they explored surfing to the upbeat music of “Wipe Out.”
In art class the children enjoyed sea foam watercolor painting, sand sculpture, sea life printmaking, lobster claw still life and shell weaving, among other activities. “We also discussed where pearls come from and what they look like at a bead-making table,” recalled art instructor Alexandria Kerekez.
The first summer session was filled with surf, sand and sun as the children “soaked in” all there was to see and do around this well-loved theme, noted Andrea Hart, director of Harker Preschool. “Together we explored sea life and play through sand and water, singing silly songs and reading stories about friends who live and play on the salty shore. All were inspired by our new pet hermit crab. There were also some excellent sandcastles that the children made themselves by manually grinding rocks into sand!” she enthused.
During the second session Hart recalled that the children had a great time meeting new forest animal friends, building with logs, digging in the dirt, pitching tents, creating with found objects, exploring common outdoorsy tools, and enjoying everything nature had to offer. “It was all the fun of a camping adventure without the worries of bears or mosquito bites!” she said.
Summer Camp+ Enjoyed Record-Breaking Attendance
Harker’s Summer Camp+ filled up at record speed, attracting some 774 (K-6) campers to the lower school campus. This year’s program had a fun-filled afternoon circus theme, called “Under the Big Top.”
Once again, Camp+ provided morning learning experiences followed by age-appropriate afternoon electives. Grade 5 Harker student and Camp+ enthusiast Jack Hayashi said his favorite thing about the program was playing ball hockey and going to the archery range. He also liked that there was plenty of time for simply “clowning around.”
Meanwhile, first-time Camp+ participant Rhiannon Sikand, a grade 3 Harker student, said she enjoyed the camp’s climbing wall and had a lot of fun going on a field trip to the Oakland Zoo. “I liked seeing all the animals … especially the turtles,” she said.
Camp+ students in grades 1-6 had the option of enrolling in one of two academic morning programs: Core Focus or Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL). Core Focus was a more traditional learning environment with language arts, math and academic electives for each grade level. LOL featured academic courses designed around literary subject matter; this year, LOL focused on the work of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.
Both Core Focus and LOL shared the same afternoon options, including arts and crafts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and array of other field sports – and of course, plenty of circus arts!
The Summer Camp+ program kicked off and ended with Color Clash, a fun event held in the lower school’s gymnasium. Groups of campers on yellow, red, green and blue teams participated in an array of silly games cheered on by captains (aka camp counselors) wearing color-coordinated outfits that ran the gamut from superhero costumes to hula skirts and fun hats. This year’s Color Clash finals showcased a video highlighting happenings from previous events.
Other on-site happenings included a water carnival, sleepover for older campers, presentation for parents and a birthday celebration for the camp mascot, “Ray,” according to Joe Chung, program director of Summer Camp+ and Harker’s elementary computer science teacher. Campers also enjoyed numerous field trips.
“I would recommend Camp+ to anyone!” said Hayashi.
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.
Summer Institute Offers Variety of Programs for Middle and Upper School Students
Harker’s Summer Institute (SI) was a tremendous success, attracting a total of 1,088 middle and upper school students, an increase of 242 over last summer.
The program, which began in mid-June and ran until mid-August, gave students in grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills and pursue individual interests.
The program was available to both Harker students and others, and offered two tracks – one for middle schoolers and another for high schoolers, explained SI middle school director Keith Hirota and SI principal for the upper school students Evan Barth.
The academic portion of the day consisted of rigorous for-credit courses including algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth including creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course was available for students ages 15 and up.
For middle schoolers (grades 6-8), SI’s afternoon activity program included many specialty classes and recreational activities; students in grade 9 were also invited to sign up for the afternoon activities. Specialty classes included backyard games, volleyball boot camp and cooking. Other classes include art, jewelry-making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts. There were also off-campus field trips every couple of weeks to places such as Shoreline Aquatics Center and Capitola.
This summer, a group of business-savvy students attending an SI finance class organized and ran a lemonade stand on the upper school campus. The students raised $228, which was divided among three local organizations (Abode Services, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Foundation) as part of a lesson on charitable giving. The stand was one of two culminating projects for a course called “Finance & Investing for Teens” (F.I.T., for short). For the other culminating project, students successfully designed their own mutual fund.
To run the lemonade stand, students were tasked to come up with a custom flavor, build a business plan, design a marketing strategy and staff the business with start-up money fronted by their instructor.
F.I.T. participant and stand worker Emily Zhou, a grade 7 student at the Challenger School, said that this was her first time attending SI. Previously, she had attended Harker’s Camp+ program, held at the lower school.
Zhou explained that to offset costs, such as cups and ingredients, drinks were sold for $1 for regular flavor and $1.50 for specialty flavors like mango or strawberry. “But we passed out coupons for 25 cents off to attract customers,” she said, noting that refills also went for 25 cents off.
Zhou’s F.I.T. classmate, grade 9 Harker student Eric Tran, said he was surprised at how much money the lemonade stand netted, noting that, “We made $85 in just the first half hour of its opening.” In addition to passing out coupons to help attract customers, Tran said that a lot of marketing was done “word of mouth” and by “putting up signs around campus.”
However, customer Grace Cao, a grade 11 Harker student, said that she simply happened upon the stand on her way to an SI class. Of the lemonade she ordered, she said, “It tasted great!”
New VIP Tour Took Learning on the Road for ELI Participants
This summer 57 upper school students and 42 lower school children came to Harker from countries around the globe to attend the increasingly popular English Language Institute (ELI).
Adding an international flair to summer at Harker, ELI provides overseas students with an opportunity to learn and practice their English skills. Many participants go on to attend top American and international schools.
First-time ELI student Hui-Hsuan (Maggie) Cheng, a grade 6 student from Taiwan, fondly recalled going on an outing to visit the tide pools. Cheng said that in a lesson prior to the field trip, her teacher had explained the importance of gently handling the tide pool animals.
New to ELI this summer was an optional “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour. Available to all ELI students (ages 6-16), the six-day VIP tour took place at the conclusion of the program’s regular five-week academic session. The trip, held in mid-August with 21 participants, took the students to local theme parks, museums, various school campuses and tourist attractions, culminating with an overnight stay in Yosemite National Park.
Destinations were carefully chosen to elevate historical and cultural awareness; allow students to create closer relationships with their peers and teachers; and provide enormous opportunity for continued English language development, according to ELI director Anthony Wood. Additionally, older students interested in attending American boarding schools or universities had the opportunity to visit and meet with staff at some of the area’s best schools.
Highlights of the VIP trip included whale watching in Monterey, a Jelly Belly factory tour, educational visits to UC Berkeley and Stanford University, a Giants (versus Chicago White Sox) game, a scavenger hunt at Huddart Park and a day of fun at Great America theme park.
In Yosemite National Park, ELI students viewed the majestic Yosemite Falls and visited the area’s museum and cultural center, with educational activities led by a park ranger. A short hike to the lower falls provided inspiration for a writing assignment and picture journal.
“A specially designed instructional component made each day’s adventure a learning experience catered to individual proficiency levels. Students wrote, spoke and read about their destinations, learned new vocabulary related to each new site, and had daily challenges involving English interaction in real-life situations. A travel journal was kept to document their learning … and of course all the fun!” recalled Wood.
Sports Camps and Swim School Keep Students Fit and Focused
Harker’s variety of summer sports offerings afforded students the chance to learn a new activity, improve as athletes or simply work on their overall fitness. Led by experienced and caring coaches, students gained new skills in a fun and nurturing environment.
Sport choices this summer included: wrestling, water polo, basketball, soccer, volleyball, football and a TRX (suspension) training program that was introduced last summer. In addition to the sports camps, Harker’s summer swim school offered individual instruction to swimmers of all ages looking to improve on their aquatic abilities.
Highlights of this year’s sports camps included a special guest visit to the wrestling camp by Anthony Robles, who won the 2010-11 NCAA championship in the 125-pound weight class despite being born with just one leg.
Directing this year’s basketball camp was Harker varsity basketball coach Mark Collins, who spent 10 years in Denmark as a professional player, being named an All-Star player five times. He also directed the Golden State Warriors training camp for six years.
The football camp was again led by Harker head football coach Ron Forbes, a 15-year collegiate Division 1 veteran. His career includes successful stints at the University of Florida and Stanford University, coaching more than 60 future NFL draftees.
Meanwhile, Harker’s water polo camp enjoyed two sessions this summer, due to its popularity in the past. “Last year a lot of the parents asked us to do two sessions, so this year we answered,” said water polo coach and camp co-director Allie Lamb, a 15-year veteran of the sport, who ran the camp with coach Ted Ujifusa, head coach of the Harker boys’ water polo team.
Returning to Harker’s lineup of summer sports camps after a successful first year, the TRX training camp offered middle and high school students the chance to learn several new fitness techniques and train for the upcoming school sports season. TRX is a suspension training system developed by Navy SEALs that utilizes the practitioner’s body weight and can be fine-tuned to each user’s needs and specifications. The highly portable training system helps develop strength, endurance and a solid core.
Camp director Karriem Stinson, Harker middle school athletics director and certified TRX group instructor, said that he has seen massive improvement in the students who were new to the camp. “We’ve had some kids that come in here [who] couldn’t even do a plank for 25 seconds, and now I’ve got kids who are doing planks for a minute,” he said. “The kids are responding to what the training’s doing for them.”
Stinson also noted that at least one student reported having been accepted to a varsity sports team, and said that she could not have done so without her TRX training.
Hockey enthusiast and rising Harker eighth grader Andrew Skrobak found TRX helpful as well. “I don’t get knocked off the puck as easily,” he said.
Ellie Olsen, who is entering grade 7 at Campbell Christian, credited TRX with helping prepare her for soccer competition. “It strengthens my legs a lot more,” she said, noting that the she also found the exercises fun.