In late February, AP Studio Art students put their works on display at a special reception held in the Nichols Hall atrium. Using a variety of media, grade 12 students created paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs covering a vast range of styles and themes. Each student used a central subject or theme as the inspirations for his/her pieces. Inspired by Tim O’Brien’s book, “The Things They Carried,” Emily Wang created a series of drawings depicting famous historical events, such as the raising of the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima, the Tiananmen Square protests and the Vietnam War. A series of sculptures by Sylvie Dobrota illustrated principles of tension and movement that came to mind while examining a knot. Eric Swenson’s photograph portraits featured subjects as they imagined key moments in their lives, such as the passing of a loved one or a climactic scene in a movie.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Cellist Sebastian Bäverstam, the 24-year-old former child prodigy who debuted at Carnegie Hall at age 14, brought the third season of the Harker Concert Series to a brilliant close on Feb. 8, performing a special collection of Russian music from Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff to a sold-out audience.
Partnered throughout the concert by accomplished pianist Pei-Shan Lee, Bäverstam began with Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, moving gracefully through its contemplative and somewhat somber first movement, trading phrases with Lee as though in conversation. The brisker second and third movements evoked a more upbeat style from the cellist, who swayed and bobbed through the faster sections as the call-and-response interplay with Lee continued. His physical expressiveness seemed to mirror his similarly impassioned interpretation of the material, as he took deep breaths before long legato passages and moved vigorously during the galloping, more technically challenging sections, for which he was more than up to the task. Lee handled the piece with the right amounts of aggression and restraint.
Bäverstam and Lee briefly left the stage following the conclusion of the sonata, returning a short time later to perform Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, but not before Bäverstam quipped, “Sorry. It’s not over yet.”
The shifting tensions and moods of Shostakovich’s sonata were brought out wonderfully by Bäverstam’s ability to interpret the varied themes with both subtlety and flair. The wide, ominous piano passages of the first movement were met by the disquieting melody provided by Bäverstam, whose splendid vibrato powerfully buoyed every note until the disturbing calm was broken by the second movement’s urgency and energy, driven by Bäverstam and Lee’s bombastic yet controlled approach, later contrasted by the desolation and sobriety of the “Largo” movement before being brought to a crashing finish in the final movement, guided by the dexterous, emotive performance of the two players.
Following the intermission, the duo performed the evening’s final piece, Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, whose challenging first movement, characterized by varying tempos and moods, was superbly handled. The sonata also gave ample opportunity for Lee to demonstrate her immense talents, nimbly maneuvering her way through the piece’s more challenging sections while simultaneously finding the array of emotion underneath. Despite an exhausting program, Bäverstam and Lee had no discernible trouble summoning the energy necessary for the final run of the Sonata’s “Vivace.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Basketball Camp Focuses on Fundamentals
Harker’s popular summer basketball camp will be back again this year, providing boys and girls in grades 4-8 and boys in grades 6-9 with a fun and rewarding experience for players of multiple skill levels. Held at the middle school campus, instruction will be led by Harker’s varsity basketball coaches and players who will focus on fundamental skills such as ball han dling, shooting, rebounding and basic defense. Campers will also participate in five-on-five games coached by varsity players.
Mark Collins, Harker’s varsity basketball coach, played at the professional level in Denmark for 10 years; he was named a five-time All-Star before going on to coach for two years. He also spent six years directing the training camp for the Golden State Warriors.
New Softball Camp Offering
This summer, Harker will offer its first-ever softball camp for girls in grades 4-8. Open to players of all skill levels, the camp will cover offensive and defensive drills and simulate in-game situations to help players build confidence and improve their skills on the field.
Students will work on fundamental skills such as throwing, catching, fielding, hitting and base-running, all in a fun, positive environment managed by trained and experienced coaches.
“This is the first year for our summer softball camp so we are excited and ready to get it going,” said softball coach Raul Rios, who led Harker’s upper school varsity softball team to its first CCS playoff appearance in 2011. “I am looking into getting some guest college players to help us with the program and also to speak to the players about being student athletes at the college level.”
Water Polo Camp Great for Newcomers
In late June, Harker will again offer its summer water polo camp to students in grades 4-8. Directed by Harker water polo coaches Allie Lamb and Ted Ujifusa, this camp is geared toward beginners who wish to learn more about the sport.
Students will learn about the rules and history of water polo as well as basic skills such as treading water, eggbeater and scissor kicking, passing, ball handling and shooting. They will also learn proper conditioning both in and out of the water. Campers must be able to swim a minimum of 25 yards to participate.
In her 15 years of water polo, Lamb has played for some of the sport’s top coaches, including former Olympic coaches Rich Corso and Ricardo Azevedo. She also played at the Division I level for four years at Santa Clara University. Ujifusa began his water polo career in 1964 and in his senior year at the University of California, Berkeley, he helped the Golden Bears win their very first NCAA championship. Since his coaching career began in 1974, he is the only CCS coach to win championships at two different public high schools and has coached more than 45 All-American players.
New TRX Camp a Unique, Innovative Fitness Approach
This year, Harker is adding a special TRX workout camp to its summer program options for students in grades 6-12. TRX is a form of suspension training developed by former Navy SEAL Randy Hetrick. By using gravity and the trainer’s own body weight, the TRX training system grants the user access to hundreds of exercises. By adjusting their body position or resistance settings, users can control how much they are challenged by each exercise.
Coach Karriem Stinson, who leads the camp, said it is an ideal training system for people who prefer not to use weights, because “this is an apparatus that deals with the person’s body. It’s more fit for everybody.” Among the system’s benefits are a stronger core, greater muscular endurance and better overall athletic performance.
Stinson, a certified TRX group instructor, coaches Harker’s middle and upper school wrestling teams as well as middle school football and track. He has coached three wrestlers to California’s national wrestling team.
Ever-Popular Soccer Camp Returns
Harker’s summer 2013 sports programs will again feature the popular soccer camp that has been a fixture of its summer programs for years. Campers will become immersed in “the beautiful game,” with instruction from professional coaches that is tailored to the needs of each camper.
Each camp session will include drills in futsal, tactical skills, psycho-motor training, and small and large games. Skill stations will allow campers to work on passing, dribbling and shooting. Campers will be placed in groups appropriate for their skill levels.
As in past years, the campers will also have the opportunity to learn from professional and college-level players who will visit to teach and offer their advice.
Volleyball Camp Great for Multiple Skill Levels
Volleyball camp, a mainstay of the Harker summer program, returns this year to provide students in grades 4-9 with top-level instruction in a fun and positive setting. This camp is designed for players of all skill levels and will help both beginners and experienced players improve their abilities through drills, exercises and game play.
Highly trained coaches will work with students on fundamental skills such as passing, setting and hitting, as well as strategies on both offense and defense. Individual teaching and evaluation also plays a vital role in the camp. College players and coaches will also be visiting the camp to enhance the overall experience.
Coaches Dan Molin and Theresa Smith bring with them more than 40 years of combined experience. Molin, the upper school athletic director and boys volleyball coach, has more than 20 years of coaching experience and was named one of Volleyball magazine’s “Fab 50.” In addition, the American Volleyball Coaches Association has recognized him as a 200-win coach. Smith, Harker’s grade 4-8 athletic director, was a member of the U.S. Amateur Olympic Volleyball team in 1990 and was chosen as the Positive Coaching Alliance’s Double Goal Coach of the Year and Mercury News CCS Volleyball Coach of the Year in 2007.
Swim School Trains Swimmers of Nearly Every Age
Swimmers of all skill levels at this camp will learn and improve their aquatic abilities in a fun, non-competitive environment for ages 3 to adult. Both private and group lessons are available and will be held at the Singh Aquatic Center at Harker’s upper school campus. Friendly and experienced instructors will guide swimmers through a sequence of lessons in 10 different skill levels. Swimmers aged 5-18 have the option of private and group lessons. Adults and children aged 3-4 may only take private lessons.
Novices and Advanced Competitors Welcome at New Wrestling Camp
Whether novices or experienced competitors, the Harker summer coed wrestling camp will offer students in grades 6-12 the chance to improve their skills and physical conditioning to help maximize their performance. Wrestlers will participate in a meticulously planned series of teaching sessions, drills and evaluations.
Students will learn and practice skills such as takedowns, positioning, escapes and reversals, in addition to applying their skills to wrestling matches. This camp will also integrate the TRX suspension training system and include visits by college-level wrestlers and coaches.
Harker wrestling coach Karriem Stinson and coach Shawn Henebry of Prospect High School will direct the camp, bringing their years of experience and success to a fun and positive environment. Stinson has coached at Harker since 1995 and has coached three members of the California national wrestling team in addition to many who have placed in the Central Coast Section. Three-time CCS participant Henebry has held coaching positions at California State University – Fullerton, West Valley College and Generation 2020 in Spain before joining Prospect High School. Wrestlers under his guidance include a CCS champion and several state championship qualifiers.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
In late February, the Harker Speaker Series hosted an event by Silicon Valley Reads titled “Invisible Wounds of War: Poetry from War.” The event featured poets Brian Turner and David Sullivan, who each read selections from their works, inspired by the Iraq war. The discussion was moderated by Parthenia Hicks, Los Gatos poet laureate emerita.
The discussion began with Turner, who spent seven years in the United States Army, one of which was on a tour in Iraq. Turner talked about how he was first exposed to poetry in his youth and how he took poetry classes in college in hopes that it would help him write lyrics for his band, which never took off.
He kept a journal during his time in Iraq, which he later used to write “Here, Bullet,” his latest collection of poems.
Turner went on to read selections from “Here, Bullet,” including the titular poem, and “Dreams From the Malaria Pills,” which describes the vivid and often bizarre dreams caused by pills that soldiers were required to take. He interspersed the frequently emotionally intense reading with stories from his tour in Iraq.
The conversation then turned to Sullivan, whose latest work, “Every Seed of the Pomegranate,” explores the lives of not only United States and Iraqi soldiers, but also civilians in both countries being affected by the conflict. A teacher at Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz, he taught Iraq war veteran students who were “struggling to figure out how to reintegrate with a culture that says it honors them but didn’t really want to hear many stories.”
Sullivan later met Turner, who encouraged him to continue with the project. Using information gleaned from Iraqi poets, documentaries and blogs by Iraqi citizens, he wrote “Every Seed of the Pomegranate.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Two former Harker students suited up for Stanford’s Rose Bowl victory on New Year’s Day, including Usua Amanam ’09, who played a key role and was named MVP for defense. Amanam attended Harker’s lower and middle schools from 1996-2005, going on to have a stellar career at Bellarmine (Harker had recently opened its upper school and the football program was still growing). In the Rose Bowl, Amanam was first tagged for roughing the kicker, but luckily the penalty was declined. Then Amanam made his big play, intercepting a pass in Wisconsin’s final drive with two minutes remaining to lock down the game for Stanford.
Gautam Krishnamurthi ’11, a sophomore at Stanford, was suited up as number 38 and ready to play. He joined the team during the off-season and is working towards a starting slot. Krishnamurthi earned two varsity letters as a wide receiver and safety and had a stellar, record-setting career with Harker, including being named an AP Scholar Athlete with Distinction.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly
Some 30 alumni returned to cheer on their friends for Harker’s first basketball league games of the season, held Jan. 4 in front of a boisterous home crowd at the middle school campus. That night was also the premiere of the Conservatory’s Student-Directed Showcase, concurrently held at Blackford, which many alumni chose to come out in support of as well.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
There was plenty of good cheer to go around during a special holiday celebration for alumni called Santa’s Winter Wonderland. About 50 people including Harker alumni, their families, faculty and staff joined Santa Claus (played by upper school English teacher Jason Berry) for a pre-Christmas gathering held at the lower school.
Santa talked and read stories to the children of alumni, making crafts with them as well, before explaining that he had to leave to take gifts back to the elves and Mrs. Claus. The children worked on crafts under the supervision of members of the Student Alumni Relations group (STAR). Art projects included ornament designing, platemaking using reindeer or elves decorations, and doing drawings from holiday coloring books.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Pavitra Rengarajan ‘12 has earned at State AP Scholar Award for her extraordinary performance on the 2012 Advanced Placement exams. She is one of 108 students nationwide to receive this honor.
As their literature explains, “The College Board, a mission-driven, not-for-profit organization that connects students to college success and opportunity, has conferred this distinction on one male and one female student in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia. Qualifying students must have the highest average score (at least 3.5) on all AP exams taken.”
Now a freshman at Stanford University, Rengarajan took a total of 18 exams during her years at Harker, earning a mean score of 4.83. Some of the areas she was tested in included economics, psychology, statistics, English literature and composition, computer science, biology, history, French language, physics, chemistry, human geography, calculus and music theory.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program provides academically prepared students the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school. Last year, 3.7 million exams were taken by 2.1 million students at more than 18,000 high schools.
“I didn’t go into the exams with the goal of receiving any special distinction, so I’m not sure that I had any expectations to begin with. In fact, I only realized I had earned this distinction when Ms. [Jennifer] Gargano [assistant head of school for academic affairs] sent me a congratulatory email!” reported Rengarajan, adding that the majority of the exams she took corresponded to her AP classes at Harker.
A handful of exam materials she studied on her own out of interest. She took the music theory exam, for example, in grade 7. “I had been very involved in music for several years, playing the flute and the piano and learning about music, so when one of my music teachers suggested that I might as well take the AP Music Theory exam, it seemed like a reasonable idea. The AP exams are just a nice way to get credit for the work that you have put in,” she added.
Rengarajan said that her college major will likely be computer science. She noted that Harker has “certainly prepared me well for the academic rigor of Stanford. Courses here seem like a natural progression from Harker. I am starting to realize how fortunate I was to have taken advanced topics classes.”
Outside of her academic life, Rengarajan enjoys being principal flutist of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. “I was fortunate enough to play the famous beautiful flute solo in Ravel’s ‘Daphnis et Chloe’ three times so far this year, twice in our newly opened, state-of-the-art building, Bing Concert Hall. Playing at the opening of the gorgeous new hall is undoubtedly a memory I will cherish for several years, and I am both proud and honored to have had the honor. Music has always been a significant part of my life, and I could not be any happier to be continuing this momentum in college.”
To current Harker students, she advices to work hard, but, “Don’t forget to smile, laugh and enjoy the process.”
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Sarah Howells ’12, now a freshman at Princeton University, recently won a prestigious new award. “The history department is delighted to congratulate Sarah on winning first prize in the Churchill Research Paper competition,” said Donna Gilbert, Harker’s history department chair. The competition is sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Churchill Center.
Howells is the contest’s first winner, and it’s not the only first that she has earned for the paper, titled “Winston Churchill’s Efforts to Unify Britain from 1940-1941.” It was also Howells’ submission to earn a grant from the Mitra Family Endowment, which was established last year by Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra (Shivani, grade 12). Howells went on to become the first Mitra Scholar for her entry.
“I was pretty surprised, since this being the first year of the competition I was not sure what the expectations were,” Howells said. “I would like to thank the Mitra family for supporting humanities research at Harker, Ms. [Donna] Gilbert, Dr. [Ruth] Meyer and Ms. [Susan] Smith for helping me with research and making the Harker history department a strong supporter of independent work, and Ms. [Julie] Wheeler for convincing me to apply for the grant in the first place.”
The Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities matches gifts to the annual giving campaign up to a total of $100,000.
“The subject matters taught under humanities such as history, languages, communications and philosophy are critical skills and knowledge that develop well-rounded Harker students,” said Samir Mitra, speaking at last year’s reception. “Humanities is the bedrock of a superior education and will enable our students to stand out as recognized contributors in their future professions.”
“I knew I wanted to apply for the Mitra grant because I had enjoyed world history so much in my sophomore year,” said Howells. “I thought about Britain; my family was affected on two sides by World War II, both in Poland and in Britain.”
Too broad at first, her topic choices “quickly narrowed to Churchill’s remarkable unification of the government and retaining the trust of the people during the war,” said Howells, noting that the most interesting part of writing the paper was transitioning from the researching to the writing.
This article was originally published in the spring 2013 Harker Quarterly.
From Hollywood to the Big Apple, two of Harker’s musical theater certificate graduates have gone on to pursue exciting acting careers, taking them both on stage and in front of the camera. Kim Wong ‘05 and D.J. Blickenstaff ‘09 are rapidly making their marks in show biz.
Most recently, Wong, now an actor and theater company founder/co-owner in New
York City, took time out to head to Los Angeles where she shot a bit part in the new, much hyped NBC television drama “Deception.”
“For the first time ever I’m going to be on TV!” she had enthused earlier when she alerted performing arts faculty at Harker that she was slated to be on the second episode of the show. “Don’t blink, and you might just catch yours truly as ‘Quinn,’ Mia’s (annoying) classmate.”
Wong is the co-founder of a groundbreaking theater company in New York called The Accidental Shakespeare Company, which mixes theater with improvisation, with casting decisions made by the audience moments before curtain and random props thrown into the mix. The theater company is dedicated to the idea of play.
Harker’s performing arts program played a significant role in Wong’s education. As a kindergartner, she was cast as a fairy princess in “Cinderella.” Every year thereafter Wong performed in Harker’s dance production, and she had the female lead in the upper school’s musical “42nd Street.” After graduation, Wong attended New York University, where she earned a BFA in drama.
She spent this past summer in upstate New York with the Adirondack Shakespeare Company. This spring she will be performing “Margaret” in The Kingship Cycle in New York City with the same company; the cycle presents concurrent productions of Shakespeare’s early history plays, with the cast members playing the same characters in each play in which those characters appear.
Wong reports her own acting company is going strong and experiencing a rapid growth in audiences: “I see how the work ethic, the professionalism and the passion that I learned at Harker set me apart from so many other actors. It is the reason why I can develop and run my company!”
Like Wong, Blickenstaff developed his acting chops at Harker, with major roles in both fall plays and spring musicals, culminating in his portrayal of “Harold Hill” in “The Music Man” in his senior year. Currently a senior at USC, Blickenstaff won rave reviews this past spring for his innovative direction of the musical “Sweeney Todd.”
These days Blickenstaff is thrilled to be a part of a parody musical production of the bestselling novel “Fifty Shades of Grey” which just opened in an off-Broadway theater in New York.
Musical sketch comedy group Baby Wants Candy brought their original production “50 Shades! The Musical” to New York’s Gramercy Theater on Jan. 11-12. The work, which is based on the controversial trilogy by British author E.L. James, drew packed audiences to the Chicago theater where it originally opened and was part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before its New York premiere. Baby Wants Candy and Harker have enjoyed a relationship since the group supported the Conservatory’s cast of “Pippin” at the Fringe in 2011; the group did a workshop at Harker last February, and Harker performing arts director Laura Lang-Ree helped bring Blickenstaff and the improv troupe together.
Blickenstaff worked behind the scenes in production for the show and also onstage as a dancer. “We did one performance there that somehow filled 788 seats of an 800-seat theater. People loved the show.
It was so much fun, and I went back to L.A. so happy to have been a part of it,” recalled Blickenstaff, who went on to do a run in Chicago at the Apollo Theater and the Skokie Center for the Performing Arts.
“I played the role of Elliot Grey (Christian Grey’s brother) and also was the assistant director. Once again, we filled every seat at the Apollo both nights and got over 500 in Skokie; and the audiences, to our almost disbelief and shock, loved the show,” he recalled.
“I have had the best time of my life. I am so lucky to be a part of this production and I am hoping to keep being in it … yay, Harker Conservatory!”