In late November, Kevin Zhang, grade 11, was notified by ACT Inc. that he had achieved the highest possible composite score of 36 on the ACT college admission and placement exam. According to ACT, this score is reached by less than a tenth of a percent of the students who take the test each year. Of the 1.8 million students who took the test last year, only 1,162 scored 36. Congratulations to Zhang on this accomplishment!
Harker students are running a number of fund raisers, gift and food drives this season, as they always do, and they are all detailed in the Greater Good section of the upcoming issue of Harker Quarterly, which should be in your mailboxes during the holiday break. We just got the news on some exceptionally generous gifts, however, and thought we’d share, in this season of sharing. –Ed.
The week after Thanksgiving break, the lower school’s student council sponsored a hot chocolate sale to help raise money to aid relief efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan and along with the the hot chocolate sales, there were some exceptional gifts made to the fund.
“The fundraiser was a huge success. We were able to raise $726 from the hot chocolate sales. In addition, we had some special donations, which brought our grand total to $6,996,” reported Kristin Giammona, elementary division head.
The special donations included $5,000 from an anonymous grade 5 family, $1,000 from the Mulpuri family (Rahul, grade 3) and $270 from Faux Hair Salon. Faculty and staff also pitched in by donating money to offset the cost of the hot chocolate, which was then sold for $1 a cup.
Further aiding the endeavor were grades 4-5 student council members, who served the hot chocolate. Various lower school teachers, the dean of students and members of the BEST staff helped ensure the sale ran smoothly.
Proceeds from the sale were then combined with funds previously collected by the middle school for donation to Habitat for Humanity to help typhoon victims rebuild their homes and provide clean-up kits. The boost from the middle school drive brought the grand total up to $8,096.12 raised on behalf of the people of the Philippines.
“I am very touched by the generosity and care of our Harker community. We will combine our funds raised with the middle school’s funds and send one check to Habitat for Humanity to assist with the rebuilding of homes in the Philippines,” said Giammona.
The Siemens Foundation announced earlier today that grade 11 students Andrew Jin and Steven Wang have won a $40,000 team scholarship in this year’s Siemens Competition, making them the first Harker students to win a scholarship at the national finals since Harker students began entering the competition during the 2005-06 school year. The prize will be split evenly between the two students.
Another student from California, Eric Chen of San Diego, was this year’s individual grand prize winner of a $100,000 scholarship.
Congratulations to all!
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Andrew Jin and Steven Wang, both grade 11, won the team portion of the regional finals of this year’s Siemens Competition, held at the California Institute of Technology last weekend, netting them a shared scholarship of $6,000. They are now headed to the national finals, held Dec. 6-10 in Washington, D.C., where they will compete for as much as $100,000 in scholarships.
This marks Harker’s first appearance in the national finals since Harker students began entering the competition in 2005. Jin and Wang were thankful to their teachers – Anita Chetty, Gary Blickenstaff, Michael Pistacchi, Mala Raghavan and Chris Spenner – for their guidance and feedback on their project, which explored the use of computer modeling and biological experiments to more quickly find anti-cancer drug treatments.
“During the days before the competition, we made a ton of changes based on your feedback, and we were able to improve the presentation significantly,” Jin said in an email. “We couldn’t have made it this far without all your help!”
Fall 2013 has been a very successful semester for Harker debaters at both the upper and middle schools, as evidenced by strong performances at the many events students have attended since the start of the school year.
Upper School
Public Forum debate has been a strong event for Harker this fall. At the Grapevine Classic in Texas in mid-September, Vamsi Gadiraju and Nikhil Kishore, both grade 11, reached the Elite 8 after being undefeated in the preliminaries. Kishore finished as the fourth overall speaker. Juniors Andrew Jin and David Lin were undefeated at a National Forensic League tournament at Leland High School on Oct. 19, earning them a spot in the state qualifier. Then Milpitas High School hosted a league tournament Nov. 9-10, in which both Gadiraju and Neil Khemani, grade 12, were undefeated and secured spots in the state qualifier.
Meanwhile, juniors Aadyot Bhatnagar and Avid Wadhwa won the Minneapple Debate Tournament at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota Nov. 1-2, with Jin and Lin reaching the semifinals. Sorjo Banerjee and Mohnish Shah, both grade 10, reached the Elite 8, while Kishore and Gadiraju made it to the top 32. Bhatnagar and Lin were named the third- and fourth-place speakers, respectively.
Harker also had several strong performances in Policy Debate, with juniors Ayush Midha and Arya Kaul reaching the octofinals at a mid-September tournament at Wake Forest University. They were also finalists at the USC Round Robin, winning all 14 possible ballots in the preliminary stage, and Kaul was named the top speaker. Panny Shan, grade 10, and Rahul Shukla, grade 9, were double octofinalists along with the team of Midha and Kaul at the Notre Dame/Harvard Westlake tournament at Notre Dame High School and Harvard-Westlake Upper School in early November. Midha was named the ninth-place speaker.
In Congressional Debate, Alex Lam, grade 9, placed third and was recognized as the top grade 9 student at the Crestian Tradition tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in early October. Saachi Jain, grade 12, placed fourth, with grade 9 students Aditya Dhar and Misha Tseitlin reaching the finals. At a league tournament at Presentation High School, Tseitlin placed first in his chamber.
Another strong category for Harker was Lincoln-Douglas, in which seniors Srikar Pyda and Pranav Reddy were quarterfinalists at the Greenhill Fall Classic in Texas in late September. Pyda and Reddy were also double octofinalist and semifinalist, respectively, at a mid-October tournament at Presentation High School. At a tournament at St. Mark’s School in Dallas, Reddy was a finalist and also was named the top speaker in a field of 120 debaters. Karen Qi, grade 10, was a double octofinalist at the late-October Meadows Invitational in Las Vegas and an octofinalist at the Harvard-Westlake tournament in early November.
Notable achievements for individual events included junior Rohith Kuditipudi’s fifth-place finish in Extemporaneous Speaking at Crestian (after scoring perfectly in the preliminaries) and Divya Rajasekharan, grade 9, taking fifth in Dramatic Interpretation at tournaments at the University of the Pacific in late October and at Milpitas High School in early November.
Middle School
At a late-September tournament at California State University, Long Beach, seventh grader Nikhil Dharmaraj reached the Open Oratory semifinals.
The following month, middle school debaters participated in the very first tournament held by the Bay Area Middle School Speech & Debate Association on Oct. 5. In Lincoln-Douglas, grade 8 students Sagar Rao and Liza Turchinsky both finished with records of 3-1, while Serena Lu, grade 8, went undefeated. Public Forum saw five teams finish 3-1: Eileen Li and Sejal Krishnan, grade 6; Michael Tang and Kenneth Liou, both grade 6; Naveen Mirapuri and Andrew Cheplyansky, both grade 6; Avi Gulati and Madison Huynh, grade 6; and eighth graders Kevin Xu and Derek Kuo. Tiffany Wong and Anjay Saklecha, both grade 7, placed first and second in Speech, respectively.
Just before Thanksgiving, debaters headed to a tournament at Santa Clara University, where Millie Lin and Aliesa Bahri, both grade 8, reached the elimination rounds in Policy Debate. Gulati placed second in Novice Dramatic Interpretation in his first tournament for this event. Wong placed well in Varsity Humorous Interpretation, coming in at seventh in an event filled with students in grades 11 and 12. Seventh grader Kelly Shen, meanwhile, placed fourth in Novice Humorous Interpretation, and Akshay Ravoor, grade 7 and Saklecha took fifth in Novice Duo Interpretation.
Aside from competition, middle school debate also has been working hard on community efforts. Each month, a busload of middle school forensics students visits the upper school to work with upper school students in preparation for upcoming tournaments. Sessions have included practice debates, case edits and script work, with upper school coaches and students staying late into the afternoon to help the middle school debaters. In addition, upper school students have been going to the middle school campus after school hour to attend speech and debate practices.
In early December, an intramural middle school debate tournament was held in which more than 60 students participated in a total of 37 practice debates and 42 speeches, with more than 40 Harker parents and upper school students volunteering as judges.
Faculty from other departments also have joined the cause, with middle school history teachers Jonathan Brusco, Cyrus Merrill and Andrew Keller giving talks at lunch time on topics such as the National Security Agency and compulsory voting. Middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey also has created research guides for debate topics. English teacher and debate coach Marjorie Hazeltine spends two days a week during lunch and after school working with speech students to prepare for tournaments. Harker parents are also involved, volunteering to help with event logistics, acting as chaperones and participating as judges at many tournaments.
In November, Harker students participated and ranked in numerous math competitions, both individually and as teams.
On Nov. 7, Harker tied for second place nationwide with a score of 78 in the National Assessment Team Scramble, a 100-problem, 30-minute team contest. Students collaborated after school on the questions, which covered a broad range of math topics.
In addition, Harker continued to do well in Interstellar, an online math contest endorsed by the Math Association of America and run by American Math Competitions. The contest, implemented this year, differs from traditional math tests in its online, round-robin format.
“Interstellar isn’t all that different from other contests, but I’ve made typos when putting in my answer, so you do have to be more careful,” said Patrick Lin, grade 11. “We’ve consistently been getting top finishes each week, so we should hopefully go pretty far in the contest.”
Harker defeated Morgantown High School, Grand Blanc High School and BASIS Tucson North to reach the octofinals in their division. The team is currently ranked second nationwide.
In addition, the first round of the Mandelbrot competition, a five-round individual contest, was held Nov. 4. Students chose between the regional test and the more difficult national test.
In national rankings, Richard Yi, grade 10, and seniors Vikram Sundar and Varun Mohan tied for first place with perfect scores of 14. Junior Ashwath Thirumalai was close behind with a score of 12. In regional rankings, Nitya Mani, grade 11, earned a perfect score, and sophomore Jessica Zhu scored 11. Harker is ranked seventh nationwide based on the scores from the first round.
Meanwhile, 10 students participated in the Santa Clara University High School Mathematics Competition on Nov. 16. The results of the contest have not yet been released.
Freshman Niki Iyer became the highest-placing Harker runner ever this weekend, finishing seventh out of 207 runners in the state cross country championships in Fresno! She earned a medal by running the 5K course in 18:33. Her fantastic finish is the triumphant conclusion to a phenomenal rookie season, one that saw Iyer progressing from junior varsity to varsity, winning races and breaking records, capturing the adoration of the San Jose Mercury News, and now, finally, racking up a Harker history-making finish at state.
In the race, Iyer started fast, finished her first mile in 5:28 in fourth place, and passed the second mile in fifth place en route to her seventh-place finish. She became the first Eagle runner ever on the state meet podium, winning her medal for her first team all-state status.
Harker’s CCS Champion Corey Gonzales, grade 11, also competed in the state championships, finishing in the top half of the 200-runner field. Congratulations to both athletes on a spectacular, record-breaking season.
Volleyball
Before Thanksgiving break, the girls varsity volleyball team’s playoff run ended when it was defeated by third-ranked Menlo. Harker nearly pushed Menlo to a fifth game, finally falling 21-25, 25-23, 14-25, 22-25 in the CCS semifinal contest.
“I was most proud of the competitive fire that our girls showed to make it a match!” said Theresa “Smitty” Smith, the team’s head coach, after the tough loss. “It’s always hard to see the season end, and it’s even harder to watch our seniors play their last high school match. However, on the positive side, we reload for next year as the majority of our team will return for yet another run at a CCS championship!”
Coming Up
On Thursday, the boys basketball teams are back in action. The freshmen play Woodside at 3 p.m., while the junior varsity and varsity teams play Monta Vista, with junior varsity tipping off first at 6 p.m. followed by varsity at 7:30 p.m.
Girls basketball also heads off to the Pescadero Tournament on Thursday, where they’ll play on Friday and Saturday as well.
When the “Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World” hit the bookshelves earlier this year, The Harker School was honored to be included in a chapter about the competitive advantage of being raised in the area.
Written by locally based entrepreneur and author Deborah Perry Piscione, the now national bestseller (published on April 2 by Palgrave-Macmillan) offers an inside look at Silicon Valley’s history and uniquely innovative culture, exploring how the region may hold the key to revitalizing global prosperity.
Harker is profiled in the book, along with the some of the area’s leading companies, tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The school’s section appears in chapter 12, which is titled “The Bench,” and includes quotes from interviews with both Jennifer Gargano, Harker’s assistant head of school for academic affairs, and Anita Chetty, an upper school biology teacher and science department chair.
In her book, Perry Piscione noted that Harker was labeled as “The It School for the Next Einsteins” by the San Jose Mercury News,partly based on the number of science winners the school can claim. Indeed, Harker consistently produces semifinalists and finalists in the Siemens Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition.
Gargano and Chetty attributed the “special sauce” behind Harker’s success to its student body, who they called uniquely motivated to learn and help improve the world. Harker News Online recently caught up with Perry Piscione at Litquake, a local literary event featuring more than 40 popular and upcoming authors. Piscione had just returned from a European book tour and was one of several Litquake speakers asked to appear at special “In Conversation” salons for in-depth discussions during the event, held at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto. The other two noted authors included Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, and Jane Smiley.
During her talk, she explained that in Silicon Valley there is not “one way” of doing things. “Overseas and on the East Coast there is a hunger for knowledge about this place,” said Perry Piscione, who, even before writing her book, was known for her work as a media commentator and public speaker. Perry Piscione is also the co-founder and CEO of Desha Productions, Inc., a multimedia company that owns and operates Alley to the Valley (a networking site for influential career women) and BettyConfidential (an online women’s magazine). Additionally, she is co-founder of Chump Genius, an educational gaming company for kids, whose two main characters are modeled after her twin sons. Moreover, she is the co-author of the book “Unfinished Business: The 10 Most Important Issues Women Face Today.” Before moving to Silicon Valley, Perry Piscione called Washington, D.C. – where she served as a staffer in the U.S. Congress and the White House – home.
While there, she also worked as a media commentator for CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, and as a guest lecturer at American University. The East Coast transplant said she relocated to the Los Altos Hills for a job opportunity her husband, Dino, had as a retail executive.
She conceded that at first she felt somewhat lost upon her arrival here, yet soon settled in and discovered that “there’s something in the air” that brings people in Silicon Valley together. “It matters only if you are smart; it’s not about where you came from. It’s like Oz out here; there is an openness and collaborative feeling,” she explained. Still, she conceded, Silicon Valley is not a perfect place: women are still not found in as strong positions as men, and there is also a dearth of African-American and Hispanic individuals. Meanwhile, elderly people living in the high tech area often feel alienated, and that they have nothing to contribute.
“We have a long way to go,” she said, “but there are organizations working to help change the conversation.” Jane Ganahl, Litquake co-founder, said of choosing Perry Piscione to talk at the literary event: “I was looking for someone with a newish book who could speak to both the present and past of Silicon Valley, and Deborah seemed perfect for that. Her book was a big bestseller, and she is highly thought of in the nonfiction world.” Among the audience applauding Perry Piscione following her discussion were her husband and three children, twin boys Drake and Dominick, and daughter Dayne Alexandria.
The children are now all students at Harker, as after researching the school for her book Perry Piscione decided to enroll them at the lower school. The twins attend grade 3 and their sister is in kindergarten. “We’ve heard her talk a lot of times!” enthused Drake, adding that he is really enjoying being a student at Harker. According to Perry Piscione, transitioning her children to Harker was seamless and made easier by “a like-minded parent community, who are engaged in their children’s lives on many levels.” She added that it was spending time at Singularity University, a learning institution located inside the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, that helped fully persuade her to become a part of the Harker community.
“Singularity University brings together the world’s leading scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs, and explores the future of science and technology. As I learned more about where the future lies, particularly as we will see a great shift in a 21st century workforce, I thought about my children and how we were going to best prepare them,” she said.
Perry Piscione said her next book will focus on risk management, the key to innovation. According to her, while America as a country has become more risk adverse, Silicon Valley has not followed suit. “Out here no idea is crazy … Anything is possible … You can dream big and find someone to back you … Nobody does risk better than Silicon Valley!” she said.
Shafieen Ibrahim, grade 7, finished in first place among players rated “under 1300” at the California Class Warfare Championship chess competition, hosted by Bay Area Chess Nov. 30-Dec. 1. He took home more than $400 for his hard-earned victory.
Six Harker students – Ashley Cook, grade 8; Jacob Fernandez, grade 3; Sofia Fernandez, grade 5; Christopher Hildum, grade 11; Lauren Luspo, grade 8; and Angela Ma, grade 12 – will be performing in the 10th anniversary San Jose Youth Ballet production of “The Nutcracker” at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose on Dec. 7, 8, 14 and 15. The show is produced and choreographed by Cristina McClelland, Maria Lamance, Xavier Ferla (Hamburg Ballet) and Maggie Parungao-Ferla (San Francisco Ballet). Hildum, Luspo and Cook previously performed in Ballet San Jose’s production of “The Nutcracker.” – Submitted by Harker parent Eric Hildum
Just before Thanksgiving break, grade 3 students Rahul Mulpuri, Dominick Piscione and Grant Sims won first place in the Project category at a First Lego League robotics tournament. The team, the youngest in the tournament, was chosen from 24 competing teams.
Spring break will be extra special for the students of the Harker upper school orchestra, who will be traveling to Chicago to perform at the Chicago International Music Festival. The festival will take place April 8 at the Chicago Symphony Center. “We auditioned for this festival last spring and were thrilled to be accepted,” said Chris Florio, upper school music teacher.
In addition to being invited to perform, the orchestra also was honored with the opportunity to premiere a composition commissioned for the festival. The orchestra is working with composer Jeremy Van Buskirk of the Boston Composers’ Coalition on the piece, which will be heard by an international audience for the first time at the festival, as performed by Harker students. Florio spoke to Van Buskirk to exchange information about the piece. “My interaction with Jeremy was a lot of fun. He was very curious about Harker and wanted to learn a lot about the school in general, in addition to our orchestra,” Florio said. “He opened our meeting by telling me how impressed he was with our orchestra and excited to work with them. He had done quite a bit of investigating on YouTube to view our past performances. 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!”
Expect more news on this tremendous opportunity in the coming months!
“Experimental” barely begins to describe The Respect Sextet’s performance in the first concert of this season’s Harker Concert Series. The New York-based group, rendered a quintet due to the unexpected absence of trombonist James Hirschfeld, is happy to wander outside conventional jazz while maintaining a healthy respect for why those conventions exist.
One could be forgiven for wondering where the performance was going the first time drummer Ted Poor abruptly left his kit and walked backstage, cymbal in hand, at which point loud crashing and banging could be heard erupting from the adjacent room. This came at the apex of a piece (an interpretation of Mischa Mengelberg’s “K Rhino”) that included extended, plaintive squeals courtesy of trumpeter Eli Asher, sudden pauses and tempo changes, and saxophonist Josh Rutner whistling along to the melody from Asher’s trumpet.
Then came a selection from “Executive Suite,” the band’s response to the late-2000s financial crisis, which opened with Asher and Rutner trading off – first as a conversation, then as an argument – ramping up the chaos before the rest of the band swooped in. In these situations, each member of the band seems to be on his own wavelength, until suddenly they converge. An exhilarating sense of contingency courses through every dissonant piano flourish from Red Wierenga, every tap of the tiny cymbals hanging from Asher’s music stand, every series of methodically atonal fits and starts, every thud from Malcom Kirby’s bass.
Somehow it wasn’t surprising that Respect decided to end its first set with “Danny Boy.” Take a room full of people to inner space for 45 minutes, and it seems only reasonable to bring them back to earth before breaking for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.
“It’s phenomenal,” said concertgoer Steve Lassman, “just better than anything I could have expected.” Also unexpected was the generous helping of food available for the attendees. “The food was a total surprise; we didn’t know anything about it. So that was a definite plus.”
Karen Lassman said the band was “wonderful. This group is amazing. From the get go, [I] didn’t really know what to expect. I thought it would be a little more traditional, and it’s not, which is great.”
Attendee Jim Cleveland enjoyed Respect’s take on “outside jazz,” particularly Poor’s drumming, which he said was “very reminiscent of outside jazz. And then the melodies, just beautiful.”
The band returned from the intermission with “Paper Root,” perhaps its wildest departure of the night, with Poor rummaging through a stack of papers, stylistic turns and sure, why not, a mid-song break to talk about how it’s really not all that rainy in Seattle.
In a nod to a legendary jazz figure who could very well be one of their muses, the group next performed Sun Ra’s “Angels and Demons at Play,” working splendidly with the song’s 5/4 time signature as Kirby and Rutner showcased deft interplay.
Not ones to let an opportunity for a humorous moment slip by, Respect also launched into a barbershop quintet number about the inherent irony of billing themselves as a sextet while only boasting five members for the evening.
The band ended the show on a fun note, by displaying its mastery and respect for the craft in a blistering version of Fred Anderson’s “Three on Two,” letting the appreciative audience know they hadn’t forgotten about the ones who made it possible for them to explore the periphery in the first place.