Contributed by middle school debate teacher Karina Momary
The middle school forensics team had an incredibly successful February break. The students competed mostly against high school students and received numerous awards. At Stanford, three teams advanced to the elimination rounds in JV policy debate, which discussed domestic transportation infrastructure.
Several grade 8 students had stand-out performances. Austin Tuan and Steven Cao made it to the top four at the tournament. Nidhi Jain attended her first tournament in humorous interpretation and won second place in the JV division with her piece about the perils of airline travel. Carissa Chen advanced to quarterfinals in varsity impromptu speaking. Aditya Dhar and Misha Tseitlin participated in Congressional Debate and received third and fourth place, respectively.
The University of California, Berkeley tournament is the largest tournament in the country and the most prestigious regular season tournament on the West Coast. Divya Rajasekharan, grade 8, advanced to the top 28 in Dramatic Interpretation out of more than 175 competitors with her piece on autism. Eighth grader Sneha Bhetanabhotla advanced in impromptu speaking. In Lincoln-Douglas, Sagar Rao, grade 7, discussed the benefits of rehabilitation over retribution and had a record of five wins and one loss and advanced to the elimination rounds. Dhar and Alexander Lam, grade 8, advanced to the final round of Congressional debate with more than 130 participants. Lam won 10th place and Dhar won fifth place.
These accomplishments, as well as the immense success of the upper school team, awarded Harker the first place debate sweepstakes award as well as the second place overall sweepstakes award out of 202 schools. This is the highest we have ever received as a 6-12 team at this tournament.
The boys’ march through the playoffs has come to an end after a 53-46 loss against league-rival Menlo last Saturday at Menlo. The teams had rocketed into their quarterfinal showdown after splitting their two matchups during the regular season. The loss marks a tough end to a very strong run by the the team. The boys had advanced to the playoffs after earning a #6 seed with a 17-7 overall record and an 11-3 record in league play. Their sterling play earned the team a first-round bye as they waited to play the winner of a first-round matchup between Stevenson and Pacific Grove. Pacific Grove defeated Stevenson, setting into motion a second-round game between Pacific Grove and Harker last Thursday at Blackford. There, Harker muscled through to a 64-56 victory. Senior Nikhil Panu led the way with a team-high 21 points and sophomore Nic Nguyen played well on all sides of the ball, delivering 13 points, five assists, and seven steals. That win set up the final game of the season against Menlo. Thanks to all of the fans for their support, and congratulations to the boys on their season!
The girls dropped their second-round game against Monte Vista Christian, 53-35, to cap off a season that saw them go 17-6 overall and 7-3 in league play, good for a third-place finish in the WBAL. The girls won their postseason game against 11th-seeded Ocean High School 51-40, setting up the challenge against #6-seeded Monte Vista Christian. Please congratulate the girls for their strong play, especially graduating seniors Daniza Rodriguez, Priscilla Auyueng, Emily Chu, Shreya Vemuri and Rebecca Liu.
Lacrosse
Girls lacrosse had three victories in their jamboree on Saturday in Menlo and then won their home opener on Monday against Tamalpais High School at Davis Field, 18-6. Michelle Douglas, grade 12, led the team with six goals, while Hannah Bollar, grade 10, added five and Wendy Shwe, grade 12, scored four. Tiphaine Delepine and Sam Hoffman, both grade 12, also added scores, while Delepine, Allison Kiang, grade 10, and Adrienne Mendel, grade 12, tacked on assists. Christine Lee, grade 11, had 10 saves in net as the girls’ season got off to a strong start.
Track and Field
Track and field competed at the Bellarmine Meet this Saturday with solid performances from sophomores Julia Wang and Corey Gonzales and seniors Sumit Minocha and Michael Chen, among others. They compete at Mitty and Willow Glen this week.
Lower and Middle School Update
Girls basketball
Grade 8 Varsity A team: 5-2, currently in second place in the WBAL. Key performers are Joelle Anderson, Jordan Thompson and Lindsey Trinh.
Grade 7 Varsity B team: 5-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Satchi Thockchom and Tiffany Shou.
Grade 6 JV A team: 0-5, currently tied for eighth place in the WBAL.Key performers are Jennifer Hayashi and Deana Kajmakovic.
Grade 5 JV B team: 2-2, currently in third place in the WBAL. Key performers are Haley Arena and Grace Hajjar.
Grade 4 JV C team: 4-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Courtney Thompson and Sarah Raymond.
Boys soccer
Grade 8 Varsity A team: 0-3, currently tied for sixth place in the WBAL. Key performers are Joseph Krackeler, Zayne Khouja and Quentin Delepine.
Grade 7 Varsity B team: 2-0, currently tied for first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Rohit Shah, Vedant Shah and Neelesh Ramachandran.
Grade 6 JV A team: 2-1-1, currently in third place in the WBAL. Key performers are Jarrett Anderson, Edwin Su, Stephan Sokolov and Brandon Bien.
Grade 5 JV B team: 4-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Darshan Chahal, Andrew Cheplyansky and Asmit Kumar.
The lights dim and spies climb on the runway to gather in front of a dark screen. A hooded figure flickers to life on a video screen and, with a disguised voice, tells the agents to find the secret to Harker’s success. And the countdown begins …
The homage to “Mission: Impossible” set the tone for this year’s fashion show, Mission: Possible – Dare to Try, Harker’s 10th annual fundraising spectacular. The visionary behind the show was Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts chair K-12, who, with parent chair John Keller and producer Beverly Zeiss, created a plotline that ran throughout the show: could undercover agents find the secret to why Harker students had so much fun, did so well and enjoyed school so much?
Student, parent and staff models took to the runway in clothes from several generous fashion partners, and occasionally a secret agent would pop up to try to infiltrate. Dance Fusion, Varsity Dance Troupe, Downbeat, Showstoppers and High Voltage performed dance numbers throughout the show; and in a spectacular finale, live instrumentalists graced the fashion show for the first time as a chamber ensemble and the Grade 5 Choir joined Downbeat to perform while senior models showed off formal evening wear.
By the time Chris Nikoloff was revealed as the agent in disguise, the audience had enjoyed a live auction, a lobby casino and another phenomenal Harker event.
See the TalonWP website for the student journalists’ writeup of the show.
On March 10, Harker will host the 12th annual Diana Nichols Math Invitational at the middle school campus, open to all math students in grades 6-8. Students from schools all over the Bay Area as well as India and China will participate in the contest, which began in 2002 as the Harker Math Invitational before being renamed in 2011 to honor Diana Nichols, who was instrumental in the contest’s inception.
Middle school math teacher Vandana Kadam started the contest to foster the problem-solving skills of Bay Area middle school math students. “Given the competence of students from the Bay Area, I thought it would be good to have a contest that challenges their thinking and puts them in competition with students of similar caliber,” she said.
The first invitational featured six schools and 120 students. For its 10th anniversary, attendance was nearly triple that of the first contest, and for the first time international schools were invited to participate. A special test is designed for international students with the help of middle school math students in elective classes, who assist in making the problems more compatible with the foreign students’ curricula and integrating terminology they have become accustomed to in their classes. “Creating a separate contest for the international schools has definitely made it more exciting for the international students,” said Kadam.
The invitational has become a labor of love for the middle school’s math department, whose members work tirelessly each year to make it happen. “Right from making the contest to running the show on the day of the contest, every single member of the math department contributes in a big way towards the successful hosting of this huge event, which has grown tremendously in the last 12 years,” Kadam said.
Kadam has also made strides toward increasing the role of upper school student participation in running the contest. In past years, upper school students helped with registration, proctoring exams and grading. Recently they have assisted in designing problems for the participants. “Apart from a core group who work with me for several weeks to create the contest, a number of upper school volunteers help out on the day of the contest,” Kadam said. “They feel good about coming back to the middle school to make a difference.”
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, taking deep breaths before long legato passages and moving 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, prompting some audience members to head to the lobby for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, believing the concert to be at an intermission. The two nevertheless returned 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 a crashing finish in the final movement, guided by the dexterous, emotive performance of the two players.
Following the (actual) intermission, the duo returned to the stage to perform 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.
Even with school closed for Presidents’ Day there was no relaxing for Harker’s grade 6 chess team, who spent the recent long weekend in Pleasanton bringing home the 30th National Annual U.S. Amateur Team Championship West title.
Nishant Ravi, Shafieen Ibrahim, Rini Vasan and Shaunak Maruvada, all grade 6, took home top player trophies by going undefeated (in the kids’ division event), with many perfect scores, on the chess boards.
In addition to the Harker group win in the kids’ category, Ibrahim and Maruvada also participated in the U.S. National Amateur Team Championship West’s adult division during the tournament weekend, winning the U1400 championship title. Playing with two other non-Harker players in order qualify as the required team of four, they were up against much higher rated players yet more than managed to hold their own over the course of several intense hours.
“We are very proud of what the kids did and how well they played. Some of the games were really tough and long but they persisted and prevailed,” noted Satish Maruvada, father of Shaunak. “It was a fantastic performance!”
On Feb. 6, students Michael Amick, Siobhan Cox, Karan Das-Grande and Andy Perez, all grade 12, each signed a national letter of intent to play their respective sports at the college level. Amick will join the UCLA men’s soccer squad, Cox will play women’s soccer at Stanford, Das-Grande pledged to play water polo at Connecticut College and Perez signed to play men’s soccer at University of California, Santa Barbara. Classmate Maverick McNealy signed with Stanford for golf in November. Watch for the full story of Harker letter of intent signers in the spring 2013 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s middle school recently played host to guests visiting from the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai, China.
Towards the end of January, students and staff at the Blackford campus graciously welcomed 19 WFLMS students and four chaperones as part of Harker’s student exchange program with its Chinese sister school.
The Harker students and their buddies from China, who had been corresponding since the fall, were thrilled to finally meet in person. Come spring, a contingent of Harker students will head to China as part of the annual exchange program which is a highlight and culmination of the middle school experience for many grade 8 students.
The WFLMS is a semiprivate school specializing in the study of foreign languages. From the school’s first day, it abandoned the traditional pattern in foreign language teaching in favor of students learning by practicing new languages at school, home and through travel abroad.
During their stay from Jan. 22-25, the WFLMS students were matched with 19 of Harker’s grade 7 and 8 students. While here, the exchange students observed and attended several middle school classes and headed over to the lower school for a traditional Chinese paper cutting project with grades 4 and 5. In their free time, the visitors ventured out for some sightseeing activities.
Harker’s unique relationship with the school in the People’s Republic of China began in 2003 and is the first of its kind.
“This past winter was really exciting with many international guests coming our way,” enthused Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education, explaining that beyond its relationship with WFLMS, Harker builds progressive academic and cultural relationships between institutions around the world. In addition to the WFLMS visit to the middle school, the upper school welcomed visitors from Harker’s sister schools in Japan, Switzerland and Australia.
The overall goal of Harker’s global education program, said Walrod, is to provide meaningful experiences for students at all grade levels, “preparing them to be true global citizens.”
Upper school dance talent took the stage at the Blackford Theater in early February to celebrate the classical elements of air, water, fire and earth at this year’s upper school dance production, fittingly titled “Elements of Dance.”
Directed by dance teachers Amalia De La Rosa and Karl Kuehn, the main portion of the show consisted of four parts, each highlighting one of the four elements through music, visuals and, of course, choreography. During the part of the production titled “Air,” the stage was bathed in atmospheric blue and green light, with light-footed dancers performing their routines to songs such as “Tornado” by Little Big Town and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” made famous by Judy Garland. Later, during “Fire,” the stage took on a red hue as the performers danced to Tina Turner’s “Disco Inferno” and Camryn’s “Set the Night on Fire,” among others.
In addition to starring in the show, several students also took on choreography duties, such as Tiphaine Delepine, grade 12, who did the choreography for Kerli’s “Walking On Air,” and Angela Ma, grade 11, who collaborated with Kuehn on the choreography for “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The fantastic scenery and lighting were the work of technical director Paul Vallerga and lighting designer Natti Pierce-Thomson, who both used their creativity and expertise to provide the show its atmosphere. Brian Larsen once again performed admirably as sound engineer, while also pulling double duty as production manager. The stylish costumes worn by the performers were designed by De La Rosa and Kuehn, as well as the student choreographers, with alterations made by Harker parent Kim Pellissier (Stephan, grade 11, and Christophe ’12).
Thanks to video conferencing, even students as young as kindergarten can participate in Harker’s successful global education program.
Long before the much-anticipated exchange program with the Tamagawa Gakuen School in Japan that occurs in grade 6, Harker’s youngest students begin building relations with their overseas pals in Tokyo.
Most recently, the lower school’s four kindergarten homerooms held a series of video chats with same-age children from Tamagawa, Harker’s sister school. Parents first learned of the scheduled conferences, which were held in January and February, back at their orientation meeting before the official start of the school year.
Since then, kindergarten families had been looking forward to the video chats, which ran for 30 minutes and afforded both Harker and Tamagawa youngsters the unique opportunity to interact with, learn from and entertain one another.
Because it was such a special happening, parents were invited to join their children for the event, which took place in a designated kindergarten classroom. Harker students were required to wear their full dress uniform the day of their video conference, including their sweaters.
The kindergartners’ initial contact with their Tamagawa buddies has now set the stage for an ongoing relationship that will develop all the way through high school.
“We have lots of fun … and it’s time very well spent!” enthused Sarah Leonard, primary school head, of the video conferences.
Global education programs for the lower school focus on teaching about the similarities and differences between students around the world. Through a variety of activities students learn from each other about their respective countries and cultures.
There are global exchange programs running on all three campuses for students of various grade levels. In addition to Japan, Harker has sister schools in China, Russia, India, Australia, Costa Rica, Spain, Thailand, Ethiopia, Switzerland, France and Saudi Arabia.