Harker community members were devastated when told Monday afternoon that longtime employee Sandy Padgett, co-director and founder of the upper school’s college counseling department, was killed in an incident in her Redwood City home late Sunday night.
School counselors, as well as grief counselors from The Centre for Living with Dying, assisted the administration in breaking the news to the faculty and students. Grief counselors were on campus through Wednesday and remain on call to assist the community in dealing with this tragic loss.
Testimonials began appearing on alumni Facebook pages as soon as the news became public, with many, many former students thanking “Ms. Padgett” for inspiring them to pursue their dreams and helping them choose what many called their “dream college.”
The college counseling department is working with Padgett’s current junior students to ensure college counseling sessions will continue as scheduled.
Padgett had an illustrious career guiding students. Before joining Harker in 1998, she taught AP English at San Carlos High School; was a counselor at Palo Alto High School; was a career placement counselor at Occidental College; and was a college counselor at the American School in London, the Westridge School in Pasadena and the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks.
Padgett held two lifetime credentials from the state of California: high school teaching and high school counseling. She was a member of the National Association of College Admission Counselors, Western Association of College Admission Counselors and Bay Area Association of Independent School College Counselors.
Condolences can be sent to nicoleh@harker.org and cards can be mailed to The Harker School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA, 95129; the school will forward to the family. Memorial service plans are pending.
Hat-happy kindergartners donned unique and colorful headwear during this year’s annual Spring Hat Parade and egg hunt. Wearing hats they decorated at home themselves, Harker’s youngest lower school students participated in a fun parade which wound its way through the Bucknall campus, stopping off in various classrooms to model the students’ fabulous attire.
Lower, middle and upper school instrumentalists displayed their talents for an evening audience at the Spring Concert, held Apr. 12 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose. Students performed in various groups, performing orchestral music from a wide selection of styles and time periods.
Toni Woodruff conducted the first performers of the evening, the Lower School String Ensemble, who played a medley of American songs arranged by Bob Phillips, and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Finale from “Serenade for Strings.” Louis Hoffman then conducted the Lower School Orchestra, who performed 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, then performed “You Are My Sunshine” with guest conductor Paul Woodruff, who also led the grade 6 group Harker Strings in their renditions of “Irish Tune From County Derry” by Percy Grainger and a string arrangement of the popular Coldplay song “Clocks.” Woodruff stepped in that evening for conductor Dave Hart, who was on paternity leave.
Woodruff remained onstage to conduct the Grade 6 Orchestra’s performances of a medley of tunes from the “Harry Potter” film series and Johann Strauss’ “Radetzky March,” and also conducted the Grade 7 and 8 Orchestra, who played four pieces, including “Andham,” composed by Meghana Karinthi, grade 7, and the “Symphonic Suite” from the “Lord of the Rings” films.
After a brief intermission, the Upper School Orchestra, directed by Chris Florio, took the stage to perform the final series of songs for the night, which included “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.
Parents with incoming kindergartners recently met other new families while learning key information to best prepare for their first year at Harker during AnswerQuest, the school’s annual orientation event.
The special, informal evening was held in mid-April at the lower school. The information-packed event included a light supper, giving parents the opportunity to get to know one another.
After dinner, participants traveled from table to table in the gym at the Bucknall campus to chat with Harker staff during a program called “The Inside Scoop,” which afforded a helpful one-on-one “ask the experts” session.
An official administrative presentation, a demo of Web portals, and an additional chance for questions and answers followed. A booklet handed out during the program was also made available in a special section of the parent portal on Harker’s website the day after the event.
Sponsored by the Harker admission team as separate sessions for all grade levels, AnswerQuest is an especially important first step for parents of kindergartners who are new to the Harker community and may not have other children already attending the school.
By the end of the evening these new parents went home feeling warmly welcomed, connected to other newcomers, and better informed about all that kindergarten at Harker has to offer.
At least 100 locally-based hospital patients desperately in need of blood will be helped, thanks to the annual Harker Blood Drive held at the upper school campus in March.
This year’s successful drive resulted in the collection of 44 total pints, which will benefit the Blood Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit organization that supplies blood to Northern California hospitals, doctors and patients.
The center’s current patients include a six-month-old baby girl suffering from a congenital heart defect, a 16-year-old girl fighting bone cancer, a 21-month-old baby boy with a new leukemia diagnosis and a 24-year-old man who has colon and liver cancer.
“Because whole blood can be separated into several different components, the drive can help up to 102 patients in need in the Bay Area!” reported Preeya Mehta, a senior and president of the Red Cross Club at Harker.
Thirty-nine Harker students, faculty and staff members gave blood at the drive, which was organized by the Red Cross Club, with five people donating double red cells.
According to Red Cross officials, the Harker drive averages about 50 units each year, roughly twice the amount of other community blood drives, which is good news for Bay Area hospitals currently faced with major shortages in blood. Within 72 hours, all the blood donated goes to a local hospital, and every donated unit can save up to three lives.
Harker’s WiSTEM club (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) held this year’s STEM week in late January, as students in Harker’s various science-based clubs and organizations held special on-campus events to celebrate a range of scientific fields. Activities included a gaming event held by the Harker chapter of the Interscholastic Gaming League and a quiz bowl in which the upper school grade levels tested their knowledge in friendly competition.
During the week, STEM clubs also raised money by selling sweatshirts and treats. Prior to STEM week, each grade chose an organization that they wanted to support. Proceeds to each organization were split according to the number of participation points each class earned. Grade 12, with 275 points, gave $550 to Operation Smile. The juniors scored 175 points and donated $350 to charity: water. Grades 9 and 10 tied with 150 points and respectively sent $300 to Heal the Bay and Doctors Without Borders.
Life just got a little easier for animals at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, thanks to the efforts of the lower school’s grade 1 community service project.
The students showed their love for the shelter’s displaced rabbits, dogs and cats by collecting monetary donations, buying needed supplies and making toys for distribution to the shelter.
“We raised about $900 (a new record) and collected more than 80 bags of toys, supplies and food for the animals,” reported the students’ homeroom teacher, Cindy Proctor, who oversaw the project.
Before beginning their donation drive on behalf of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley, the children visited the 80-year-old independent, nonprofit animal shelter. They toured the facility and learned what the organization does as well as how best to care for their own pets.
In computer class, the youngsters made posters about the project, and in other classes, they made pet blankets and toys for donation. Parents also got involved in the drive, as students were encouraged to earn money for the humane society at home by doing small jobs.
In addition to monetary donations of any amount, items for collection included animal treats, collars, litter, toys, clean blankets, sheets, towels and comforters.
“We would like to express our thanks for the tremendous support and generosity of our Harker families for participating in this project. The donations continue to come in and we are extremely grateful,” said Proctor.
Middle school history teacher Andrea Milius loves spending her days speaking about events from the past. Last month, however, the inspiring instructor made a little history of her own after being selected as the first Harker faculty member to travel to Turkey on an impressive two-week historic and culturally-based teacher training trip.
Milius heard about “this wonderful opportunity” through a resource she had been working with for professional development called ORIAS (The Office of Resources for International and Area Studies). Sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley, ORIAS provides scholarly resources and professional development for K-12 and community college educators.
Her application to be considered for the trip consisted of a series of essay questions focused on the incorporation of global education and international perspectives into her curriculum, especially with concern to the Middle East and Islam.
The unique travel program was offered through the Middle Eastern Studies Center at Ohio State University, which strives to peacefully bridge gaps dividing people along cultural, ethnic and religious lines.
Aided by a Turkish guide named Serkand, Milius and nine other lucky trip recipients (ranging from teachers, curriculum writers, librarians and even an international lawyer) gained firsthand knowledge of the Middle East, its past and current economic, social and political developments.
The goal of the trip was to enable participants to return to their work in the United States better equipped to promote teaching, learning, research and public awareness of the diverse array of Middle Eastern languages, cultures and peoples.
“The trip achieved its objectives. I feel honored to have participated, and I am so thankful that Harker supported me in this endeavor. I learned so much about Turkish daily life and culture as well as the many intricate details about the actual practice of Islam, even though this was one of my major areas of research in graduate school,” reported Milius.
“Major trip highlights were collaborating and interacting with other instructors, getting fresh and innovative teaching ideas and gaining an understanding of Turkey’s impact on current world affairs,” she added.
During the trip, she visited all of the major historical sites of Istanbul: Ankara and Konya, The Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Sulaimaniya Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, the tomb of the poet Rumi at Konya and a boat tour of the Bosphorus, complete with dolphin sightings. Milius and her fellow participants also veered off the tourist path, visiting public and private schools in the country and having informative meetings with Turkey’s ministers of education and finance.
“Andrea is shy to blow her own horn, but this program was extremely competitive. Having lived in Turkey for three years, I can assure you it was a dream trip that few people could do on their own, certainly not within two weeks! It’s nice to see the amazing things our teachers are doing,” enthused middle school Spanish instructor Susan Moling, who informed Harker News Online about Milius’ incredible experience.
Like many teens Urvi Gupta, grade 11, maintains a jam-packed schedule. An active student in Harker’s journalism program, she also plays as a starter on the school’s varsity volleyball team. After-school hours are spent practicing the violin, doing homework and hanging out with friends.
Yet Gupta also makes time to give back to her community by providing free math tutoring to K-3 kids at local libraries in San Jose using a unique program she created called OneInMath. The program teaches youngsters simple ways to add, subtract, multiply, divide and understand concepts quickly for math success.
“I designed the free volunteer-run program from the ground up, defining its purpose, goals and developing materials including 1,862 math problem sheets, teaching instructions, learning videos, program format, volunteer instructions, and the logistics of running it,” said Gupta, who teaches as well as independently manages the overall program.
She currently supervises more than 150 kids and 27 high school volunteers across three libraries using the program, which was implemented in November 2011. Now, the popular OneInMath classes – which utilize video instruction in addition to face-to-face volunteer tutoring – has both students and parents excited about learning mathematics.
Gupta said she was inspired to start tutoring math by her dad, who used to give her numerical problems every day when she was younger, which now helps her in high school math classes.
Consequently, she wished for other students to have the same opportunity she had to get a jump start on learning math. She also enjoys the good feeling that comes from volunteerism and tells teens thinking of starting or developing their own service project to “just go for it.”
“Whenever you have a new idea, there are lots of doubts and questions about whether or not it’s a good one. The best thing is to not overthink and just try it. It’s actually quite surprising how much interest people have in these types of projects. They truly appreciate your time and effort, and you feel really rewarded at the end,” she said.
Gupta was recently honored as Volunteer of the Year from the entire San Jose public library system for her dynamic math program and volunteer efforts. The top honor began with a nomination from local librarian Vidya Kilambi, who had been impressed with Gupta’s program for some time.
“Urvi’s amazing leadership and organizational skills are clearly demonstrated in the way she communicates with all the kids, teens, parents and staff at the different library locations,” said Kilambi, noting that in addition to her heavy school course load, Gupta juggles volunteer schedules, creates course content and tracks student progress.
It was again a successful year at the Synopsys Championship for Harker middle and upper school students. Andrew Jin, grade 10, in the bioinformatics category, and Anika Radia-Dixit, grade 12, in medicine/health/gerontology, were both awarded grand prizes and an expenses-paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which takes place May 12-17 in Phoenix, Ariz. Venkat Sankar, grade 8, received a middle school special prize and a trip to the California State Fair in Los Angeles for his project in the environmental sciences category.
Harker was also named one of the top three high schools at the event, and upper school science teacher Chris Spenner was one of the top three high school teachers. Thomas Artiss, middle school science teacher, was named most promising new teacher.
A total of 26 upper school students were winners of various awards at this year’s contest. In the biochemistry/microbiology category, Sriram Somasundaram, grade 10, earned a First Award, while classmate Stanley Xie won a Second Award along with Pranav Reddy, also grade 10, who also received an Honorable Mention Certificate of Achievement from MedImmune.
Rohith Bhethanabotla, grade 11,won a First Award in chemistry, while fellow junior Mercedes Chien received a Second Award in the same category. Freshmen Rishabh Chandra and Jonathan Ma and juniors Avinash Nayak and Shreyas Parthasarathy all won Second Awards in physics.
Rishabh Jain, grade 10, won a second award in computers/mathematics as well as a First Place award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, which included a certificate and programmable robot. In the same category, Cindy Liu, grade 10, earned an Honorable Mention, and juniors Brian Tuan and Andrew Wang each received Honorable Mention Student Awards and certificates from the Association for Computing Machinery.
In earth/space sciences, senior Andrew Luo received a Second Award, and junior Stephanie Chen and sophomore Matthew Huang each received Certificates of Achievement from the NASA Ames Research Center.
Neil Movva, grade 10, earned several recognitions in engineering, including a First Award, a Certificate of Achievement and $50 voucher from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, an Honorable Mention from the U.S. Army and a Special Award from Varian Medical Systems, which included a $75 cash prize and a Certificate of Achievement. In the same category, Ramakrishnan Menon, grade 12, received a Second Award, was named a second-place student by the American Vacuum Society and was awarded a $50 cash prize and a Certificate of Achievement. Michael Kling, grade 11, also received a Second Award in this category and a Certificate of Achievement and Pewter Medallion Voucher from the Yale Science and Engineering Association. Yet another winner in engineering was Alison Rugar, grade 12, who earned a Third Place Award from A Society for Materials which included a $50 prize, a subscription to Popular Science magazine and a Certificate of Achievement. Finally, Avi Agarwal, grade 11, received an Honorable Mention.
In addition to Andrew Jin’s Grand Prize, the bioinformatics category also saw Steven Wang, grade 10, earn a First Award and a first place $150 cash prize and Certificate of Achievement and an award from the University of California, San Francisco Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology.
Other upper school winners were juniors Daniel Pak and Christopher Fu, who both received Second Awards in Zoology, senior Suchita Nety, who received a First Award in medicine/health/gerontology and sophomore Nikash Shankar, also a First Award winner in medicine/health/gerontology, who also won a second place prize of $200 from Rambus, honorable mention from MedImmune and an invite to the California States Science Fair.
The middle school had 16 students winning awards this year, including grade 8 students Avi Khemani and Manan Shah, who earned First Awards, and Jonathan Liu and Justin Xie, also both grade 8, who received Honorable Mentions in biochemistry/microbiology. In engineering, eighth graders Peter Wu, David Zhu and Amrita Singh all won Second Awards, with Singh also receiving a Certificate of Achievement and lapel pin from the National Society of Professional Engineers. Sandip Nirmel, also grade 8, received a Family and Friends membership from the Tech Museum of Innovation.
Eighth graders Aditya Dhar and Arjun Subramaniam each won Second Awards in computers/mathematics and Meena Gudapati, grade 7, won a First Award in behavioral/social. In the same category, grade 8 students Joyce Huang, Meilan Steimle and Swetha Tummala all earned Second Awards.
Grade 8 student Andrew Gu’s project in the botany category earned him a First Award, and Evani Radiya-Dixit, grade 8, was named a middle school Top Finalist for her medicine/health/gerontology project.
Congratulations to all the winners, and good luck next year!