This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
In the spring of 2012, Harker began participating in the Global Online Academy (GOA), a consortium of independent schools located throughout the United States and abroad who organized during the 2010-11 school year to provide high-quality online classes to students at member schools.
Classes are taught by the faculty of member schools and cover a wide variety of topics, including playwriting, global health and app development for the iOS platform. This topical diversity was Harker’s primary reason for applying for membership in the GOA. “Continuously seeking broader programs and broader academics requires that we go beyond what we can deliver just with our own faculty,” said Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology.
The quality of the schools involved in the GOA also meant little worry over the quality of the instruction. “All of the students are members of one of those schools, and all of the people who are teaching are people who are teaching in one of those schools, so we have no issues whatsoever about the quality of instruction or the peers whom the students will be working with,” Hudkins said.
In all, 14 students have taken GOA classes so far. Anushka Das, grade 10, enrolled in a global health class, taught by an instructor at the Lakeside School in Seattle, in the spring semester. One of the main motivators for her was the opportunity to collaborate with students from different areas and cultures. “Plus, it was a completely different setting,” she added. “The class involved lectures, video and technology that I had not used before, and the chance of having a new experience was enticing.”
The course itself also offered a new area of study. “I have always been interested in biology, and this course gave a totally new perspective into the world of diseases and how diseases affect and are affected by social, political and cultural systems,” she said. “It allowed me to globalize my knowledge and gain several new points of view on diseases around the world.”
Classes are conducted via a range of means, using tools such as Skype to video conference with classmates and teachers as well as Google Docs to collaborate on projects. Students also coordinate for their class projects using online discussion threads. Class sizes are capped at 18 students in order to help maximize effectiveness.
Evan Barth, dean of studies at the upper school, said students who participate in GOA should be prepared to take the online course as seriously as they would any of their other classes at Harker. “A lot of it comes down to mindset,” he said. “It takes a certain amount of time management skills. This class counts as one of their class periods.”
Harker plans to expand its participation in the GOA in the coming years, with some teachers already training to conduct classes online. “After teaching for 28 years, I don’t want to become one of those stuck teachers who doesn’t have the flexibility anymore to adjust to new needs and developments in the pedagogical field,” said upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl. “At the same time, technology challenges me and sometimes scares me. So I chose this course to leave my comfort zone.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The middle school production of the punk-sci-fi musical “Starmites” took audiences on a wildly colorful romp through a young teenager’s imagination on May 10-11 at the Blackford Theater. This energetic, rock music-driven story centers on a teenager who retreats into a world of comic book characters who then set out on a journey to find a powerful musical instrument.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
For this year’s spring musical, the Harker Conservatory returned to a familiar favorite, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” directed by Laura Lang-Ree. “I’m so drawn to this story,” Lang- Ree noted. “It’s a perfect chance for our students to experience a true classic, with strong characters, amazing language and beautiful music.”
The huge upper school cast included several grade 5 students, all of whom gave splendid performances. Musical director Catherine Snider led the “Oklahoma!” band, whose interpretation of the beloved score provided the perfect backing for the talented singing and dancing actors.
The show earned eight nominations at the Bay Area High School Musical Theatre: Stage Top Honor Awards in early June, including best overall production and best chorus. The production took home wins in sound and choreography. Read all about it here! Hooray, cast and crew!
On May 24 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose, the graduating seniors in the Harker Conservatory certificate program performed selections from their senior portfolios at the 2013 Harker Conservatory Senior Showcase to an appreciative crowd of more than 500.
All 27 graduates of the program put on a diverse array of performances, from instrumental pieces to dance routines to reenactments of scenes from plays. The students have spent the previous four years in the program honing their talents in one of six fields offered by the certificate program.
Renee Tam, Apricot Tang and Michelle Christine Douglas, backed up by five friends,got the evening crowd going with their energetic dance performance to the Allstar Weekend song “Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
The show included several dramatic reenactments, including Alice Tsui’s performance of a monologue from Jessie McCormack’s comedy “Spine,” and Apurva Tandon delivering Lady Macbeth’s chilling “Out, out damned spot” speech from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”
As always, the musical talents of Harker’s Conservatory students were a treat, including vocalist Rebecca Liu’s stirring version of “Ave Maria” and Payal Modi singing the Kelly Clarkson hit “A Moment Like This,” in addition to the many great instrumental pieces from musicians such as Nayeon Kim, Katherine Woodruff and Albert Chen. Cecilia Lang-Ree’s jazzy number from the Broadway hit “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” came complete with backup dancers. Jazz, classical, pop and Broadway were all well-represented by this versatile group.
After the performances had concluded, the graduates lined up on stage and were called forward to receive their engraved plaques signaling successful completion of this intense arts program.
Congratulations to this year’s Conservatory graduates!
Instrumental Music: Tara Sheida Rezvani, Nayeon Kim, Katherine Woodruff, Albert Y. Chen, Wendy Shwe, Pooja Shah, Patricia Huang
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
On June 5, the Class of 2020 took the final step on their journey as lower school students at the grade 5 promotion ceremony. Opening with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by grade 5 class president Avi Gulati, the ceremony continued with Chris Nikoloff, head of school, greeting the students, parents and faculty in attendance and congratulating the grade 5 class on reaching the pivotal next step in their careers as Harker students.
The grade 4-6 dance group Dance Fusion, led by Gail Palmer, amped up the audience with an exciting performance before a special slide show recapping the 2012-13 school year was shown. The members of the grade 5 class then walked up to receive their promotion certificates.
Jennifer Sandusky led the newly promoted students in singing “Lean On Me” and “The Harker School Song” before incoming middle school ASB president Megan Huynh, grade 7, gave a special welcome speech to the students who will be starting middle school in the fall.
Kristin Giammona, elementary division head, offered a heartwarming closing speech to the audience before the ceremony came to a close.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A two-part show on May 3, titled “In Concert,” brought together all of the upper school vocal groups to ring in the summer and bid farewell to the graduating seniors and honor them for their dedication to Harker’s performing arts programs.
The first portion of the show was dedicated primarily to songs hailing from Great Britain and the countries that were part of its once-massive empire. Selections included Camerata’s performance of “Shoot False Love” by Thomas Morley; Cantilena closed the first portion of the show with their rendition of the Sting hit “Fields of Gold.”
Bel Canto kicked off the second part of the show with a pair of African folk songs and a medley of songs from Leonard Bernstein’s beloved score from “West Side Story.” Upper school show choir Downbeat concluded the concert, singing a variety of pop standards, including the poignant a cappella song by Billy Joel “And So It Goes.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Music lovers packed the Bucknall Theater on May 9 for a special performance by many of Harker’s youngest musicians, as several instrumental groups took the stage at the Spring Music Concert.
The show started fittingly enough with a performance of “The Harker School Song” by the Bucknall Choir, lower school orchestra and lower school string ensemble. The show moved from group to group, demonstrating a wide range of material and versatility. The Bucknall Choir returned to sing several pieces, including an Irish folk song, Schubert art song and a fun calypso number called “Shake the Papaya Down.”
The Lower School Jazz Band and first-year strings group performed a variety of catchy numbers and celebrated student composers.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Middle school singers sang about the ups and downs of being a kid at this year’s Spring Sing concert, 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 Miserables,” “West Side Story” and “Hairspray.”
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.
The baccalaureate ceremony, one of Harker’s proudest graduation traditions, took place on May 23 at the upper school campus quad and was highlighted by heartfelt farewells from both student and faculty representatives. Also in attendance was the Class of 2014, next year’s seniors, who began making the transition to being leaders and role models.
This year’s ceremony began with a pair of performances from a string ensemble, directed by Chris Florio, and the female vocal group Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace.
After Jennifer Gargano, the assistant head of school for academic affairs, opened, Butch Keller, upper school head, introduced the faculty speaker, history teacher Julie Wheeler. “I will be the first to admit that I have been in a state of quasi-denial that you, the Class of 2013, were really about to graduate, say goodbye, and start a new and exciting phase of your life outside of Harker,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler noted the Class of 2013 may find it “downright exhausting trying to explain Harker to those who haven’t experienced it as they may doubt whether the fictional, Oz-like place that you describe really exists,” but “it’s an opportunity to redefine yourself.”
Emily Wang ’13, salutatorian, said the most important lesson she has learned is that “the great things are the quiet things. When I look back at these days, of course I’ll fondly remember the homecoming games, the spirit rallies, the school dances, the spring musicals. But I think that high school is defined by the smaller moments, those brief flashes of time when you look around you and think, hey, I like where I am right now.”
She likened these moments to building blanket forts as a child. “That experience – of sitting under a blanket and dreaming wildly – is perhaps long gone,” she said. “Yet we carry those dreams with us, an indomitable conviction that we can build castles from bed sheets, that we can build anything, that we can be anything.”
New to this year’s ceremony was the addition of a senior student speaker chosen by the graduating class. The first to be selected for this honor was Carlos Johnson-Cruz, who began his speech by recreating a scene described in the infamous Rebecca Black song, “Friday.”
“You see your friends over at the stop, and they’re in their fancy automobile. One guy is ‘kicking it’ in the front seat, another is ‘kicking it’ the back seat, but they’ll get up if you want them to. Now, you have to make your mind up. Which seat do you take?” Johnson-Cruz asked. “Here, you made something, anything of yourself,” he said. In closing, he reminded his classmates to be aware of the choices that they make and how they affect other people as well as themselves. “‘Know thyself,’ said the Greeks. ‘Know thine actions,’ says Carlos,” he finished.
Head of School Chris Nikoloff closed the ceremony with some heartfelt words of his own before the students departed, the seniors no doubt eagerly anticipating their graduation exercises that weekend. The full text of this story can be found here.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
On May 24 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose, the graduating seniors in the Harker Conservatory certificate program performed selections from their senior portfolios at the 2013 Harker Conservatory Senior Showcase to an appreciative crowd of more than 500.
All 27 graduates of the program have spent the previous four years honing their talents in one of six fields offered by the certificate program.
The show included several dramatic reenactments and, as always, the musical talents of Harker’s Conservatory students were a treat, including vocalist Rebecca Liu’s stirring version of “Ave Maria” and Payal Modi singing the Kelly Clarkson hit “A Moment Like This.”
After the performances had concluded, the graduates lined up on stage and were called forward to receive their engraved plaques signaling successful completion of this intense arts program.