This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The kindergarten classes of teachers Katherine Chi, Michelle Anderson, Kimberley Sandoval and Kelle Sloan delighted audiences during a series of shows that took place April 25-26 at the Bucknall Theater. Titled “Arf!” each of the four shows, directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, featured each kindergarten class performing canine-themed songs with hilarious skits in between, all the while wearing adorable dog costumes provided by Marylin Watts.
Students provided support behind the scenes, as Danny Dunn’s grade 5 technical theater students acted as the crew for the show. Sasha Pikiner, grade 6, also provided scenic elements to complement Whitney Pintello’s wonderful scenic artwork.
Middle school singers sang about ups and downs of being a kid at this year’s Spring Sing concert, directed by Mary Ellen Agnew-Place and titled “Just Kidding!” The show featured the grade 6 class and also featured middle school vocal groups Dynamics, Harmonics and Vivace, performing a series of songs about childhood from several famous Broadway musicals such as “Les Misérables,” “West Side Story” and “Hairspray.”
After the opening number of “Kids” from “Bye, Bye, Birdie,” the show entered its first set of songs, which followed the theme of famous orphaned characters of Broadway musicals. Grade 6 student groups sang the wistful “Castle on a Cloud” from “Les Misérables” and “Where is Love?” from the 1960 musical “Oliver.” The grade 6 show choir Dynamics, directed by Agnew-Place, finished the set with the “Annie” favorite “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” and “I Won’t Grow Up” from “Peter Pan.”
Adolescent angst was the theme for another stage of the show, which featured Vivace and the girls of Harmonics, directed by Dave Hart, singing Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman’s “Mama, I’m a Big Girl Now,” from “Hairspray,” and performances of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” by the male singers of Harmonics.
Director Monica Colletti and the entire group of Harmonics singers kicked off the next part of the show, dedicated to parents, with another Rodgers and Hammerstein piece, “The Other Generation” from “Flower Drum Song.” Vivace returned to the stage to sing Harold Rome’s “Be Kind to Your Parents” before grade 6 students performed “Never Say No” and “Plant a Radish” from “The Fantasticks.”
For the finale, all of the night’s singers stood together onstage to sing “Happiness” from “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Lower, middle and upper school instrumentalists displayed their talents for an evening audience at the Spring Concert, held April 12 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose. Several groups performed orchestral music from a wide selection of styles and time periods.
The Lower School String Ensemble kicked off the evening with a medley of American songs, and the Lower School Orchestra followed with Beethoven’s famous “Ode to Joy” and “Aragonaise” by Georges Bizet.
The Middle School Orchestra then introduced themselves to the show by teaming up with the Lower School Orchestra for a performance of a segment of Mozart’s Symphony No. 25. Harker Winds, the grade 6 wind ensemble, performed “You Are My Sunshine.”
After a brief intermission the Harker Orchestra took the stage, performing, among other pieces, “The Moldau” from Bedrich Smetana’s “Ma Vlast,” Max Bruch’s “Romanze for Viola and Orchestra,” featuring Nayeon Kim, grade 12, and the final piece of the night, “Huapango” by Jose Pablo Moncayo.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
This year’s “United Voices” concert moved to the beautiful Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose, where every one of Harker’s student vocal groups performed. The Bucknall Choir, comprising grade 4-5 students, got things started with the traditional Irish folk song “Shady Grove,” Franz Schubert’s “An Die Musik,” one of the few songs that evening to be sung in a foreign language, and “We Believe in Music” by Teresa Jennings.
The grade 6 show choir, Dynamics, included the iconic World War II hit “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Bigger Isn’t Better” in their three-song set.
Next up was the grade 7-8 group Harmonics, who sang “All That Jazz” from the musical “Chicago” before being joined by their classmates in Vivace, to sing their rendition of the Cyndi Lauper hit “True Colors.”
Starting off for the upper school was Bel Canto singing a medley from “West Side Story” and the traditional spiritual “Battle of Jericho.” Camerata sang Thomas Morley’s “Shoot False Love,” followed by the upper school show choir group Downbeat, who did the Michael Jackson classic “Man in the Mirror” and funk legends Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Sing a Song.”
The show ended with all of the night’s performers gathering on stage for a stirring performance of Jim Papoulis’ “Oye.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
“One Hit Wonders!,” this year’s lower school dance production, which took place at the Bucknall Theater at the end of the school year, featured 240 dancers from grades 1-5 moving to the rhythm of some of the most famous one-time chart-toppers of decades past.
Students performed numbers to songs such as the “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats, “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” by Ohio Express, The Cascades’ “Rhythm of the Rain” and Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee).” In all, 28 routines were performed at each show.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Dance Jamz, the annual middle school dance show, entertained audiences at the Blackford Theater on March 8-9. Directed by Gail Palmer with choreography by Rachelle Ellis, Grant Chenok, Stephanie Bayer, Kimberley Teodoro and Palmer herself, middle school students (and several faculty members) hit the stage to perform a variety of uptempo dance numbers set to music by Skrillex, David Guetta, No Doubt, Michael Jackson and more. One of the highlights of the show was a routine featuring a cast made up entirely of faculty members, including history teacher Cyrus Merrill, English teacher Patricia Lai Burrows and art teacher Elizabeth Saltos. The finale saw the entire cast of dancers gather on the stage for a rousing number that received a fittingly enthusiastic ovation.
As usual, the stalwart crew of set designer Paul Vallerga, sound engineer Brian Larsen and lighting designer Natti Pierce-Thomson worked tirelessly to keep all the moving parts of this technically demanding show in order.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Following a brave battle with cancer, Chris Doll passed away on the afternoon of March 11, surrounded by family members. Harker staff member Doll, who worked as the scheduler for the upper school, was a beloved friend and colleague to all who knew her.
Doll saw Harker through many changes in her 29+ years at the school. She was an integral part of the institution, always going above and beyond her job description. Over the years she wore many hats, including working in the counseling department as well as directly with Diana Nichols, former assistant head of school and current chairman of the Harker Board of Trustees. Doll was known as a “master scheduler” who got her start at Harker as a part-time temporary employee. Not one for accolades, she never publicly accepted her Harker service pin during her many years with the school.
A natural mother hen at Harker, she often imparted her extensive knowledge about relationships, health and handling day-to-day problems. People were drawn to her kindness and her irreverent sense of humor, and she was sincerely loved at Harker. She will be missed deeply. To celebrate her life and service at Harker, a well-attended memorial celebration was held at the school.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s upper school debate squads saw plenty of success in the spring. Their most recent competition was the National Catholic Forensic League’s (NCFL) Grand National Tournament in Philadelphia, held over Memorial Day weekend. There, Zina Jawadi, grade 11, placed fourth out of hundreds of competitors in original oratory. Meanwhile, Kenny Zhang, grade 11, was a quarterfinalist in dramatic interpretation; Steven Wang, grade 10, and junior Andrew Wang were octofinalists in extemporaneous speaking and original oratory, respectively; and Saachi Jain, grade 11, was a semifinalist in Congressional debate.
At the National Debate Coaches Association Championships in April, Pranav Reddy, grade 10, was a finalist in Lincoln-Douglas debate, finishing second, while Reyhan Kader, grade 12, and Kevin Duraiswamy, grade 11, finished third in Public Forum. Also placing high in Public Forum was the team of seniors Kiran Arimilli and Neel Jani, who finished in the top eight. Shivani Mitra, grade 12, and Stephanie Lu, grade 11, finished in the top 12, as did the team of juniors Sreyas Misra and Neil Khemani.
Grade 11 student Srikar Pyda won the seventh place speaker award, and Reddy won the eighth place speaker award in Lincoln-Douglas debate. Other individual achievements in Public Forum debate were Arimilli winning the seventh place speaker award and Lu winning the 10th place speaker award. In Congressional debate, sophomore Leon Chin earned sixth place.
At the California High School Speech Association’s State Tournament, also held in April, Zhang reached the semifinals of dramatic interpretation, while Madhuri Nori, grade 10, and Andrew Wang both reached the semifinals of Original Oratory.
The Tournament of Champions, held April 27-29, saw more Harker students placing high in Public Forum debate. The team of Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona, both grade 12, reached the top eight, with two additional teams – Kader and Duraiswamy and seniors David Grossman and Nik Agarwal – placing in the top 16. Misra and Khemani reached the elimination round. Also performing well at this tournament was Steven Wang, who was a quarterfinalist in extemporaneous speaking.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A series of presentations started in 2011-12 seeks to equip Harker parents with the knowledge necessary to help their children become well-rounded digital citizens. The advent of constant access to the Internet and unprecedented interconnectivity via social media has made sound digital citizenship and management of one’s online identity more important than ever. While the instructional technology department had been engaging students and faculty on concepts of digital citizenship for some time, instructors realized that parents could benefit from knowing how their children were learning to conduct themselves online, and in turn could find the information useful in how they managed their students’ screen time.
“We realized that we were telling the students things that the parents didn’t necessarily know,” said Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology. “And that if what we’re trying to do is build Harker’s community and have effective parent-school partnerships, that this was an area where we could help Harker parents better understand what they needed to do to cope with all of the things that were going on.”
These talks began at the lower and middle schools, with K-5 parents learning about topics such as creating passwords, acting respectfully toward others online, interacting with strangers online, deciding what information should be shared with others and cyberbullying. Topics for each presentation are kept developmentally appropriate for the grade level of each family.
At the middle school level, topics include an introduction to social media, personal responsibilities in creating and managing an online identity and the various online tools that children may be using, such as Tumblr and Google Chat. “We let [students] know that we already know how they’re using [the Internet],” said Scott Kley Contini, assistant director of technology at the middle school, who designed and gave the parent presentations along with Gary Mallare, middle school academic counselor. A key point in developing these presentations was to make sure that they were more informative than cautionary.
“We wanted to make sure that we weren’t telling parents what to do,” said Kley Contini. “We said, this is what we’ve done and then left it open.”
This approach, he said, better enabled parents to make informed choices about what was best for their children.
Upper school presentations began in the spring semester and primarily informed parents about how their children were learning to manage their digital footprints, which included their students’ activities on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. “This is the point when the juniors need to be thinking about, well, what is a college going to find out about me if they go looking online?” Hudkins said. “And just as we’ve had student assemblies that addressed issues like that, we wanted to make sure we were talking with the parents about the same issues we were talking about with the students.”
The upper school talks, given by Diane Main, assistant director of instructional technology, emphasized the importance of enabling students to make good decisions on their own. “If [parents] lock down everything, they don’t get the opportunity to make a right choice. You’ve already made the choice for them,” she said. “We want to help our parents feel like they’re informed and that they can be involved in their students’ technology use in an appropriate way.”
Harker’s recently emerging philosophy on how to teach students and parents about online conduct is partly a reaction to information in the media and some educational materials that was perceived to be too fearful in tone.
“There was a lot of information that we do not think particularly highly of that came out five or 10 years ago that uses what I refer to as the ‘fear voice,’” Hudkins said.
“It scares them into not doing anything [online],” Kley Contini concurred.
One of the primary resources for the information contained within the presentations was Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that provides a wealth of information for parents and educators, including film reviews, book recommendations and, of particular use to the instructional technology department, resources on digital citizenship. Also, as Hudkins remarks, “they don’t use the fear voice.”
“We’ve used a lot of their stuff as the backbone of our sequencing and some of our topics,” Kley Contini said.
According to Kley Contini, parent response to the presentations so far has been positive overall. “The statement that children must earn screen time stayed with me,” said Chi- Pei Cherng, parent of Justin Chao, grade 1, and Jonathan Chao, grade 4. “Our family value of being responsible needs to carry over to their screen time mentality as well. It’s a subtle shift in thought from screen time as a prize or bribe to a simple acceptance that our responsibilities come first.”
While parents have shown appreciation for the talks, the courses of action that parents are taking in response have varied, with some parents instituting tighter restrictions on Internet usage and others relaxing them.
“For the most part, what we’re telling them is, you can go whatever route you want,” Kley Contini said. “We’re teaching them at a developmentally appropriate level, and we want you to know what that level is.”
Hudkins explained that part of the overall K-12 scope of the presentations is the idea that restrictions should gradually be lowered so that graduating seniors conduct themselves online properly once they are in college and free of constant supervision.
“The point we’re trying to make is to empower the parents to continue parenting, but to recognize that along the way, the process from kindergarten through 12th grade is one of very gradually letting go, and if kids have difficulty managing this kind of behavior when they’re in high school, we want them to fall on their faces now when we can pick them up and help them,” he said.
“We don’t want them to be so tightly wrapped that when they leave here and are no longer under adult supervision, they just explode.”
People outside Harker have also shown an interest in the school’s approach to this topic. At a February conference held by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), Kley Contini and Mallare prepared a presentation on how they speak to students and parents about online conduct and digital citizenship. At least one school has contacted Kley Contini so far about modeling its approach after Harker’s.
“I believe that these events can benefit every parent,” said Cherng. “Media exposure is pervasive in our children’s childhood, and it’s important to be aware of how to guide them in a positive, thoughtful and safe manner.”
“It’s important that we’re able to communicate what we’re telling kids, what our expectations are, and that we know that some kids are going to mess up,” Main said. “We’re just continuing what Harker does for students but in this specific area.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
This spring included league championships, scholarships and record-breaking performances for Harker. Without further ado, let’s get to it!
Track and Field
This year saw the most successful day in Harker’s track history when SumitMinocha, grade 12, won the CCS championship in the 200m, becoming Harker’s second-ever individual CCS champion. His effort was part of a banner day in which Harker had more of its most talented athletes qualify and score points at the CCS championships than ever before in its history. Nadia Palte, grade 9, Corey Gonzales and Julia Wang, grade 10, Claudia Tischler, grade 11, and seniors Isabelle Connell, Michael Chen and Ragini Bhattacharya all joined Minocha at the CCS championships. On the team side, both the boys and girls teams placed third in the team standings at the league championships.
Connell and Minocha finished up their high school track careers by becoming the first Harker athletes to qualify for the state meet, where they faced the toughest competition the state of California has to offer. Each came within less than a second of qualifying for the finals.
Track and field’s 2013 season has been studded with record-breaking moments. Cheryl Liu, grade 10, broke a Harker record in the 100m hurdles, then saw Palte break that same record minutes later. Michael Cheng, grade 12, broke a Harker record in the discus competition. Minocha broke a Harker record in the 100m for the boys, and Connell, who already owned the 100m Harker record for the girls, improved her own time. Minocha was also recognized as Athlete of the Week earlier this spring by the San Jose Mercury News. Congratulations to all of Harker’s track and field athletes on a thrilling season!
Softball
The girls won a league championship this year with an 11-1 record in league play, reaching the first round of the CCS playoffs. The league championship was the first in Harker’s history, and it came in dramatic fashion.
In the bottom of the seventh and final inning of a 1-1 tie game against King’s Academy with two outs and the league championship on the line, freshman Tong Wu singled to knock in sophomore Briana Liang from second base, delivering Harker a walk-off victory. With two out and no one on base, Liang knocked a double, setting up Wu’s hit and the exciting final moments.
Golf
Harker golfer Maverick McNealy, grade 12, is off to Stanford to compete on their golf team next year! He ended his high school career by tying for fourth place at the CCS championships after winning the WBAL individual title. Shrish Dwivedi, grade 10, also qualified for the CCS tournament.
Harker linksman Kyle Roter, grade 12, received a REACH (Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard Work) scholarship of $1,500 this spring. Over the past 17 years the REACH Youth Scholarship Program has been providing college funds to high school students who have overcome adversity to excel in academics and sports. Roter suffered from Chiari malformation, a condition in which brain tissue protrudes into the spinal canal. He underwent an operation to correct the problem after headaches became intolerable. Roter received the scholarship at the REACH awards breakfast, chaired by former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott at the San Jose Marriott.
Baseball
The boys ended their season with a 9-15-1 overall record. Kevin Cali, grade 12, led the team with a .425 average, socking seven homers with three triples and two doubles. Jacob Hoffman, also grade 12, led the team with 24 RBIs and was second on the team with three homers. Hoffman hit for a scorching .369 average this year, and senior Drew Goldstein also broke the .300 mark with a .333 average. Goldstein racked up a .452 on-base percentage, topped by Cali and Hoffman, who both reached base more than half of the time.
Overall, Cali and Hoffman had ridiculously impressive slash lines, with Cali slugging .863 and Hoffman slugging .723.
Volleyball
The boys volleyball team reached the CCS quarterfinals this year, finally falling to Leigh High School after winning their first-round game against Valley Christian San Jose.
On the girls’ side, Harker freshman Shannon Richardson and her partner won first place in the AAU Huntington Beach Open Volleyball Tournament 16U Division, qualifying to compete in the AAU Junior Olympic Games this July in Southern California and AAU’s Best of the Beach Tournament this August.
Congratulations to recent graduate Josh Tien and rising senior Andrew Zhu for being named to the boys volleyball All-Mercury News Honorable Mention list. This is an elite list of players from the 55 high school boys volleyball teams in the section. Go Eagles!
Tennis
Boys varsity tennis got off to a great start, and the team was 5-1 in mid-March. The bottom end of the schedule was more challenging, but the boys held their own and then some, beating first Pinewood, then Priory 6-1, capping that streak by beating Aragon 4-3, thus holding a 9-4 record in early April. The team then hit a tough run of three losses to end up with winning record of 9-7 for the season.
In middle school, the varsity A tennis team (grades 6-8) swept both public and private league championships for the first time, winning 5-4 against Kennedy to clinch the second title. The team went 20-0 for the season.
This is the first time the team has gone undefeated in both the regular season and the playoffs, and the first time the team has won both the private and public middle school tennis titles. “This is about as big as it gets in middle school sports!” said Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs.
Lawson added that over the last two years, the team compiled a 36-2 record and won three of four divisional titles. “Coach John Fruttero has done amazing things with the team,” Lawson added.
At the winning game, Fruttero said, “Today was not the 9-0 against Menlo last week in the WBAL championship match, but special in a very different way. The team battled from being down 4-1 for the second time this season to win 5-4. It was amazing to see these kids grow and transform themselves into a united championship team, from the inside out. It was an honor to lead them in entertaining a couple of hundred cheering fans today. What a blast!”
Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team’s historic run for a league championship came to a halt with a 17-14 loss to Notre Dame. This year, the girls set a Harker record for the most victories in a season with 12. With heart, determination and senior leadership, the girls finished the season by defeating rival Mercy Burlingame 18-8. This win was a sweet one, especially after the team had fallen just shy of success in their bid to capture a league title. After several years of struggle, the lacrosse program now finds itself carrying consecutive winning seasons forward.
Additionally there is thrilling news for the girls and for the Harker community. Two Harker lacrosse players, Christine Lee, grade 11, and Hannah Bollar, grade 10, have been named to the regional team for the national tournament.
On April 21, female high school varsity players from all throughout the Bay Area came together to compete for spots on the two Sub-Regional Pacific NorCal teams. The teams will compete in the 2013 U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament in May. This year marks the 81st anniversary of the event. It is one of the largest women’s lacrosse events in the nation. The 2013 tournament highlights include division championships, a U.S. team exhibition and a premier recruiting opportunity for high school players.
Swimming
Congratulations to all of Harker’s swimmers and divers on a fantastic season. Harker’s CCS swimmers include freshmen Angela Huang, Grace Guan and Sandhana Kannan; sophomores Aaron Huang and Craig Neubieser; juniors Manon Audebert and Kimmy Ma; and senior Amie Chien. Diver Stacey Chao, grade 10, was Harker’s lone diver this season.