Maruko Ishigami, a visiting exchange teacher from Tamagawa Academy K-12 School & University – Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Japan – was touched by the warm welcome she received from students and faculty during her visit to Harker Jan. 7-18.
“This has been a very good experience. I am impressed by the children’s artwork here,” said Ishigami, who teaches art at Tamagawa’s elementary school and spent time observing classes at Harker’s lower, middle and upper school campuses.
She also helped teach art classes for grades 2-5, showing the second and third graders how to make traditional Japanese wood coasters and instructing the fourth and fifth graders in various painting techniques used in her country.
Grade 2 students Emi Fujimura, Shayla He and Shareen Chahal agreed that the best thing about making the wood coasters with Ishigami was “building it” from scratch, noting that the process reminded them of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Fellow classmate Vivek Nayyar said he especially enjoyed having a “visiting teacher” come to the classroom.
“It has been a truly fantastic experience having Maruko here,” agreed Gerry-louise Robinson, Harker’s lower school art teacher. “All the students warmed quickly to Maruko’s wonderful smile and gentle approach. Both grades 2 and 3 embraced this project with enthusiasm and determination!”
Ishigami also observed ceramics classes at the middle school and sat in on graphic arts, stone carving, drawing, photography and other art courses at the upper school.
Because her English is not fluent, Ishigami was aided by several Japanese-speaking faculty members who offered to be interpreters, joining her for meals and serving as friendly faces around campus.
From the moment her plane touched down at the San Francisco International Airport, Ishigami was kept engaged and busy. In addition to spending time observing and teaching classes at Harker, other highlights of her visit included lunch with the administration, a visit to the San Jose Museum of Art, and sightseeing expeditions to Monterey Bay and San Francisco.
“I’ve really enjoyed showing Maruko around. She is very interested in everything that we do at Harker and is eager to learn all she can about our school and students. As an art teacher, she enjoyed viewing all the types of artwork our students are doing. It’s been fun seeing the students enjoying showing her their work,” noted Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Tamagawa, a K-12 school and university, was founded in 1929 as an elementary education organization. Secondary education divisions were added later, and in 1947 Tamagawa University received approval for establishment as an “old system” (pre-war) university. As a comprehensive institution (gakuen), they currently provide education from kindergarten to graduate school on a single campus.
Learning how to make Native American dream catchers was one of many exciting activities students from the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai, China, enjoyed during their visit to Harker in mid-January.
While patiently working on her dream catcher, WFLMS student Liza Xiao looked up for a moment to exclaim, “I’m having an awesome time visiting Harker! And my buddy is really sweet. The teachers are all kind and the classes are fun.”
Xiao was one of 18 students visiting from Harker’s sister school in China. The students learned all about the dream catchers (a generations-old part of Native American culture) before making their own to take home as cherished souvenirs. The traditional dream catcher was intended to protect sleeping individuals from negative dreams, while letting positive ones through.
This year, there was an emphasis on deepening the Chinese students’ understanding of Native American culture, according to Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Harker’s unique partnership with the school in the People’s Republic of China began in 2003 and is the first of its kind. The visiting students were accompanied by several chaperones (all teachers at WFLMS). They were welcomed to Harker and introduced at a morning meeting at the middle school before embarking on a tour of Stanford, including a visit to university’s museum to see the Native American collection.
Harker’s middle school students and their WFLMS buddies had been corresponding since the fall. Come spring, a contingent of Harker students will head to China as part of the reciprocal exchange program, which is an annual highlight of the middle school experience for many grade 7 and 8 students.
“This year, the students participated in a wide range of activities where they had the opportunity to deepen their understanding of American culture and the surrounding area. They learned all about football and tailgating, watched American movies, created their own lunch of ‘California cuisine,’ and participated in a walking tour of San Jose,” reported Walrod.
While here, the exchange students observed and attended several middle school classes, including history, art, drama and dance. They also enjoyed a scavenger hunt on the middle school campus and a field trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. The WFLMS students’ visit ended with a fun farewell party – and a promise to see their buddies again in the spring!
San Jose Mercury News – Dec. 18, 2013: Andrew Jin and Steven Wang, both grade 11, are mentioned in a “School Scene” story about their success in the Siemens Competition.
Connecticut Cottages & Gardens – Dec. 2013: The magazine’s holiday gift guide lists a yoga mat by Alexander Wang, MS ’98.
Congratulations to senior Sreyas Misra, who has been named a finalist in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, one of eight hailing from the Bay Area. Misra’s project, “Design and Characterization of a Novel Single-headed and Hand-held PET Camera Using 511 keV Photon Collimation via Compton Scatter,” earned him a place among just 40 other students from an original pool of nearly 1,800 entrants. These students will participate in the final stage of the Intel STS in Washington, D.C. from March 6-12, where $630,000 in prizes will be awarded, including the $100,000 grand prize.
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Ten Harker seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2014 Intel Science Talent Search (STS), the second-highest number of semifinalists in the nation and just one short of Harker’s record of 11, set in 2012.
This year’s semifinalists and their projects are: Vikas Bhetanabhotla (“Identification of Satellite Galaxies around Milky Way Galactic Analogs Using Machine Learning Algorithms”), Stephanie Chen (“Globular Clusters as Tracers of Dark Matter in Virgo Cluster Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies”), Christopher Fu (“Molecular Characterization and Rapid Generation of Human Rotavirus VP6-Specific Monoclonal Antibodies”), Anika Gupta (“Novel Drug Delivery Systems Targeting Cancer Stem Cells for Next-Generation Chemotherapy”), Saachi Jain (“MicroRNA-223 Promotes Macrophage Differentiation”), Sreyas Misra (“Design and Characterization of a Novel Single-Headed and Hand-Held PET Camera Using 511 keV Photon Collimation via Compton Scatter”), Preethi Periyakoil (“A Video-Assisted, Time-Lapse Analysis of the Effects of the ELF5 Transcription Factor on the Morphology and Proliferation Kinetics of Breast Cancer Cells”), Rahul Sridhar (“Understanding the Effect of Hinge Mutations on Domain-Swapping in Antiviral Lectin Cyanovirin-N”), Vikram Sundar (“Computational Analysis of Novel Drug Opportunities Using Protein-Protein Docking”) and Albert Zhao (“Oxygen Reduction Activity of Dodecyne-Functionalized AuPd Nanoparticles”).
These 10 students are among 300 nationwide who were selected from nearly 1,800 original entrants from across the country and in overseas schools. Each semifinalist will be awarded $1,000, and in order to bolster education in science, math and engineering, every semifinalist school will receive $1,000 for each student from that school named a semifinalist.
On Jan. 22, 40 of these semifinalists will be chosen to participate in the final stage of the Intel STS in Washington, D.C., where they will share their work with both the public and the scientific community, and compete for a $100,000 grand prize.
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Bands at Harker are nothing new, as we see from this photo, but the orchestra of today is a long way from the drum and bugle corp of yesteryear. In 2012, The Harker School Orchestra was in London by government invitation to perform for London’s 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
In April 2014, The Harker School Orchestra will travel to Chicago to perform at the Chicago International Music Festival. “We auditioned for this festival last spring and were thrilled to be accepted,” said Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and the group’s director. The orchestra is working with composer Jeremy Van Buskirk of the Boston Composers’ Coalition on a new composition to be premiered by Harker students.
“My interaction with Jeremy was a lot of fun,” said Florio. He was very curious about Harker (and) opened our meeting by telling me how impressed he was with our orchestra and how excited he was to work with them. On describing his upcoming work for us, he said, ‘It would not be [Pierre] Boulez, but it would not be [Aaron] Copland either; it will most likely be somewhere in between.’ What a wonderful experience for our orchestra to be involved in the creative process of a large new work from beginning to premiere!”
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Three new e-Book services provided by Harker’s libraries mean avid readers can access books 24/7/365, and they can choose what format to read them in – an attractive facet for younger readers. BrainHive, FollettShelf and OverDrive enable students and teachers at the lower, middle and upper schools, respectively, to instantly access popular titles for pleasure reading. Each service was selected to suit campus needs and works with a number of devices, including iPad, Kindle, Nook, smart phone, tablet and the everyday laptop.
The upper school library led the way when it launched OverDrive at the close of the 2013 school year. Using an interface designed by OverDrive specifically for Harker, students and teachers can browse an electronic library of more than 300 titles ready for download; more titles are being added as use of the service ramps up. “We originally planned to roll out Over- Drive in August, but were so excited once the initial collection was created in the finals days of the school year, we thought, ‘Why wait?’ Before we knew it, 25 percent of the collection was checked out!” said Meredith Cranston,upper school librarian.
“Three hundred titles may not seem like a big number,” noted Sue Smith, library director, “but for a pleasure reading collection – which has to be fresh – it’s pretty good.”
Teachers, too, took advantage of the new service. “It was easy to download the books,” said upper school history teacher Carol Zink. “I appreciate the variety and portability afforded by OverDrive. I downloaded and read three books over the summer and really enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to pack so many books in my suitcase.”
With the successful launch of e-books for pleasure reading underway with older students, Bernie Morrissey, middle school campus librarian, brought FollettShelf online in time for the weeklong October trips.
“FollettShelf seemed the perfect choice for the middle school because it fully integrates with our catalog and check-out is a breeze!” said Smith. “Our students can easily read titles on their laptops, a device we know everyone has!” Readers have taken quickly to the enhanced access.
Like the upper school, a high percentage of the initial collection flew off the virtual shelves. “My newest Follett e-books appeared at 6:03 this morning,” said Morrissey in November,” and by 7:30 some of them were already checked out!” The middle school currently has 171 titles available and is adding more monthly.
Sonya Verma, grade 7, is thrilled with the new service. “I have always loved books, and I always take them with me wherever I go. Now there’s a great selection of e-books that I can keep on my phone! All of the forgetfulness associated with remembering to bring the book is gone!” she said.
In early December, the lower school library rolled out their app for teachers, prior to a campuswide release. The service is compatible with the Chromebooks lower school students are using, as well as iPads, which are used in K-2 classrooms.
“BrainHive covers both fiction as well as nonfiction books for a variety of ages,” said Kathy Clark, lower school campus librarian. “Teachers will be able to place their students into virtual book clubs and they will be able to read the books, take notes and share recommendations.” BrainHive has a library of about 3,400 titles, which are all available to Harker students.
Harker’s stacks won’t disappear into the cloud anytime soon, however. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, folks who read e-books read more in general (both print and electronic books).
While some avid readers enjoy the convenience and mobility of e-books, others are reluctant to give up the printed word. Harker readers are no different.
“Having a physical copy of a book contributes to the complete experience of reading; as a result, I personally prefer reading printed books,” said Zina Jawadi, grade 12.
“E-books are great, but I don’t think that they should completely replace the printed word,” agreed Karen Tu, grade 10. “For some reason, reading from a physically tangible book somehow makes reading more relaxing than reading from something electronic.”
Harker librarians are committed to offering both e-books and print books so students can enjoy both experiences.
Tu was an early convert. “The best thing about having a book on a mobile device is that I can access it from wherever I want. Whether I’m reading from my phone or my laptop, I don’t really have to worry about leaving a book
somewhere or forgetting it at home.”
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
At the core of Silicon Valley startups is the idea of rapid expansion. This rapid-growth philosophy has been taken to heart by Harker’s new business and entrepreneurship department. The department is already flourishing with business classes, a podcast series, stewardship of Harker’s TedX program and its thriving DECA chapter.
Harker’s chapter is one of 3,500 DECA organizations that educate young leaders and entrepreneurs on marketing, finance, hospitality and management. (Formerly Distributive Education Clubs of America, the organization adopted the acronym as its full name when it became an international body.)
November is DECA month; chapters around the world are promoting the club and preparing its members for competition season. Harker’s DECA chapter is no exception, with students kicking off the school year at a fever pitch. One of their primary goals is maximizing the chapter’s visibility on campus. The chapter has gone from six members in 2009 to125 in 2012 and is looking to continue that impressive growth streak. Chapter vice president Ariana Shulman, grade 12, says, “I am looking forward to seeing the underclassmen get excited and involved in the DECA chapter this year.”
To publicize the chapter, DECA has organized numerous events, the first of which was an ice cream social to kick off DECA month. On Nov. 1, students flocked to the event to enjoy sundaes and learn about the chapter. Shannon Hong, grade 10, public relations officer for freshmen and juniors, said, “It was a great way to let over 200 students have fun while getting to know DECA.”
The chapter is using more than just frozen treats to inform the community about its activities. DECA participated in Harker’s student club fair, showcasing its events and highlighting what the students would learn over the course of the school year. The chapter even put on its own competitive events fair to discuss its upcoming competitions and events.
DECA is making sure to keep parents informed about what their students are up to through frequent press releases and events, including a Nov. 9 DECA parents night. More than 150 parents attended the event in the Nichols Hall atrium, where they learned about the chapter’s upcoming competitive schedule. Club president Monica Thukral, grade 12, said the parents visited event-specific booths to learn “how they could be involved as parents and what their students would be doing at each event.”
DECA also is participating in The Stock Market Game, a nationwide stock market competition. The SMG gives teams a virtual $100,000 to invest and measures their returns in real time. More than 130 Harker students and faculty are participating, which has led to a good-natured competition between the student and faculty participants. At press time, two student groups were ranked third and sixth in the Western region, out of approximately 1,200 teams; they are ninth and 17th nationally. The top 25 teams in the region will present their investment strategies to fellow attendees at a conference in May.
To further enhance learning, three investment speakers will visit Harker during the semester to discuss their stock market strategies and successes. On Oct. 30 Rajeev Seth kicked off the series by sharing his strategies for navigating the stock market. Seth is a leader in financial services who has worked with asset managers and hedge funds, and recently served as senior vice president at Bank of America.
Contributing to the community is a key part of DECA’s charter and, in that spirit, the chapter already has launched two efforts this year. On Nov. 6 DECA worked with the Red Cross Club to assemble 100 emergency preparedness kits during a lunch period. The kits, containing toothbrushes, hand sanitizer and other emergency essentials, were donated to those in need.
The DECA chapter also has partnered with the student council to help recycle Capri Sun containers at the end of every lunch period. Large banners on the wall of the Edge implore students not to throw the estimated 400 containers a day in the garbage, but instead recycle them to help promote a green Harker campus.
Meanwhile, the business and entrepreneurship department (BE), which is in its infancy, has hit the ground running. Juston Glass, the department’s advisor, says the goal for the program is “to connect the students with the outside business world” and eventually “be the most comprehensive business program at the high school level.”
One of the ways the program is connecting its students with the real business world is through its podcast series. Over the course of the school year, local business leaders will be interviewed and share their knowledge with the burgeoning entrepreneurs in the program. The first guest, Satish Dharmaraj, is a partner at Redpoint Ventures and was the CEO and cofounder of Zimbra. The program’s host, Glenn Reddy, grade 11, said, “It’s been great that I’ve been able to connect at a more personal level with these entrepreneurs and the podcast will give … watchers a lot of great information.”
The BE classes also are giving students practical experience on how to run a business through the Finish Line Challenge, put on by the athletic apparel retailer. During the Finish Line Challenge, future business leaders tackle real business problems. Students are asked to help design a more interactive, and ultimately more profitable, customer experience in Finish Line stores by using market research to evaluate and give suggestions to improve the retailer’s omnichannel strategy. To give real-world perspective on their solutions, Glass arranged for two guest speakers: a store manager with five years of firsthand experience and the Northern California district manager.
The store manager provided the students with insight into how new employees are trained to engage customers and gave them an inside look into store operations. After the session, the classes broke into groups and pitched their improvement ideas to the manager. The winning groups from each period were guaranteed interviews for a seasonal job at Finish Line. Ones of the winners, Scott Song, grade 9, said, “The best part of the Finish Line visit was learning the ins and outs as a manager of a store.”
Neither the DECA chapter nor the BE program show any signs of slowing down, with further investment discussions in late November and early December and more podcasts being recorded. DECA president Thukral was particularly excited for the Harker DECA fundraising outing to the premiere of the second “Hunger Games” movie on Nov. 22, calling it “an event for the whole school and a bonding event for DECA.” The Harker community can look forward to a packed calendar full of informative and entertaining events – and hopefully more ice cream.
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A beautiful fall day provided the perfect backdrop for the 2013 Harker Harvest Festival, the school’s 63rd annual Family & Alumni Picnic. As in previous years, the event was held on the middle school campus, but faithful picnic-goers surely noticed the fresh and fun changes to this family-oriented day. The multipurpose room held extravagant silent auction packages, offering art, outings with teachers, gift baskets and more.
The cafetorium was kept wide open for laser tag, and lower school children were spotted ducking behind blinds scattered through the room as they tried to catch each other with light beams. The blacktop was, as always, the site of carnival game booths. Here families tried their luck at skill games, attempting to knock down, hit, fill, pop or ring objects for prize tickets.
The Pig Pong Toss was a wall of cute painted piggies with boxes for noses, which kids tried to fill with Ping-Pong balls. At another popular booth, kids threw paint on Frisbees as they spun around, resulting in fun and swirly souvenirs. Around the edges of the blacktop were many fun activities to tempt kids of all ages.
A petting zoo with goats and ducks, pony rides, bounce slides, a dunk tank and more attracted crowds; and, new this year, old-fashioned tricycle and sack races kept both kids and adults giggling. Katie Florio, kindergarten teacher, enjoyed the trike races: “It’s great to see all the kids out having fun with their families and getting to play with all their teachers.” As Florio alluded to, the structure of the day was changed to allow teachers more time to hang out with their students, and intense games of foosball, Ping-Pong and basketball were played out in the gym. Lower school math teacher Diane Plauck laughed, “I started my day having a Ping-Pong match with one of [my students]. He beat me, but still it was fun.”
“It’s really great for the lower school and middle school kids to have a chance to play Ping-Pong or foosball with teachers, to really change up the dynamic of how they interact with one another,” said upper school science teacher Gary Blickenstaff. Aside from the opportunity to bond with their teachers, students also enjoyed meeting up with their friends in a fun and welcoming environment.
“I like that most of my friends come here and we just have fun. It’s basically a huge carnival,” said student volunteer Calvin Kocienda, grade 10, who worked the laser tag area with his friends in the Robotics Club. Classmate Alyssa Crawford liked that the Harvest Festival “brings all the different grades together.” Parent volunteers also had a big impact on the event’s success, running game booths, selling tickets and serving food to the hundreds of attendees. “I just think it’s a great opportunity to help the children and help the school,” said parent Tracy Baeckler (Alexandra, grade 5), who has volunteered since her daughter was a kindergartner.
Themed around a fictional Harker Thanksgiving Parade, the student show was a huge hit, highlighting dozens of kids from nine performing arts troupes. Mallika Vashist, grade 6, who performed with the choir group Dynamics, enjoyed that the Harker Harvest Festival offered her the chance to perform in front of a large audience. “Performing in front of a bunch of people is really fun for me,” she said.
Making cameos in the show were Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, as Cookie Monster; Head of School Chris Nikoloff as a giant turkey; and Butch Keller, upper school head, as a big SpongeBob SquarePants “float.” Other administrators as well as the IT and facility departments also walked the stage in the “parade,” to a warm and appreciative round of applause from spectators. Alumni gathered at their shady grove to reunite and chat, and they had new neighbors this year: the preschool was
a welcome presence at this long Harker tradition, with teachers and the newest Eagles having fun in a pumpkin patch. Preschool teacher Tanya Burrell, enjoying her first family picnic, said that not only was it “exciting to see [the preschoolers] outside of the school setting, we’re seeing them explore some of the other booths. It’s nice that they’re part of the larger Harker community.” Indeed, this event truly captured the community spirit that is so much a part of Harker.
This article was originally published in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly
By Melinda Gonzales
As winter gets underway the buzz begins on all campuses about Harker’s annual fundraising gala. Excitement is building for a spectacular Night on the Town, where parents will enjoy a fabulous show, dinner, dancing, casino games, an auction and the chance to socialize with friends.
“We’re looking forward to creating an elegant evening for parents,” noted Danae McLaughlin, director of special events. “Not only will Night on the Town give parents a fun evening out, it will also help raise money for the students.” Proceeds go to provide financial assistance to students who would otherwise not be able to benefit from a Harker education, and to fund the construction of a new gym and performing arts center on the Saratoga campus. As a renowned K through Life institution, Harker’s students and programs rely on the support of parents, faculty, staff and friends to continue their outstanding contribution to the communities of Silicon Valley and beyond. Many opportunities are available for sponsoring and/or underwriting a portion of the upcoming gala.
Of course, such a grand event could not be organized without the work of parent chair Tina Najibi (Alex ‘12; Mary, grade 10) and the entire gala committee. Additional volunteer needs will be announced in the coming weeks. For more information about the show, please visit our website at www.harker. org/gala. Reservations will open in January.
Please consider joining our list of generous sponsors in making this event a success! We have several different packages, which offer varying tiers of sponsor benefits such as tickets to the show and recognition at the event and on related promotional materials. And new this year is the enhanced Harker Business Directory. For a small subscription fee, friends of Harker can be listed in the directory for one year,from January to January.