Technological learning was in full swing for the lower school’s grade 5 class during a recent class field trip to the Intel Museum.
This past October, fifth graders visited the museum, conveniently located near Harker at Intel headquarters in Santa Clara. The museum has exhibits of Intel’s products and history as well as semiconductor technology in general.
The museum got its start in the early 1980s as an internal project to record Intel history. It opened to the public in 1992, and was expanded in 1999 to triple its size and add a store. Today the museum has exhibits about how semiconductor chip technology works and is a popular destination for gradeschool educational programs. Intel is especially relevant to many students at Harker, who live in the area or have parents who work in Silicon Valley’s high tech industry.
Lisa Diffenderfer, an assistant director of instructional technology at Harker, said that prior to the outing students had been shown an interactive presentation on “Writing Good Emails.” Viewed on a projector as a whole class activity, the lesson (via a journey with Gmail) taught students what occurs when you send out an email. Taking a behind-the-scenes look at what happens “after you click send,” the students were treated to an insider’s view of data centers through videos, photos and more.
Both the interactive classroom presentation and field trip provided informative and fun ways to get students plugged into and invested in learning more about the quickly growing, ever changing, increasingly global world of high tech.
Each year the lower school Service and Spirit Club sells “snowman-grams” on all three of Harker’s campuses in an effort to promote holiday cheer and raise funds for various causes. Sold during the month of December for a dollar apiece, the ‘grams are delivered with a small bag of candy and an optional note to the Harker recipient of choice at the lower, middle and upper schools.
An annual contest is held amongst the fourth and fifth graders to select a handful of drawings that will be used for the ‘grams. This year Service and Spirit Club moderators reported having received 22 entries, of which they selected five winners. The winners were: grade 4 students Vidya Jeyendran, Sofia Fernandez and Ruya Ozveren, and grade 5 students Jasmine Wiese and Aarzu Gupta.
Last year the money raised by the ‘grams paid for racks outside of the gym lobby where grades 4-5 leave their belongings while at lunch or during assemblies. This year, the $636 raised was donated towards Superstorm Sandy relief efforts.
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) recently for a pre-Christmas gathering held at the lower school.
Santa talked to and read stories to the children of alumni, as well as made crafts with them, before explaining that he had to leave to take gifts back to the elves and Mrs. Claus.
According to MaryEllis Deacon, director of alumni relations, 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.
“Alumni had a great time seeing people they hadn’t in years, and shared a wonderful morning bringing in the holiday season with their extended Harker family,” Deacon recalled.
After reading a book about the American legend Johnny Appleseed this past fall, grade 2 students in teacher Judi Beil’s classroom marked his accomplishments by holding a classroom celebration in his honor. During the gathering, the lower school students had the opportunity to discuss the life of Appleseed, lesser known by his birth name, John Chapman.
“The children wrote and illustrated a brief biography of him, made a recipe book containing only recipes that used apples, and brought in their made recipe for the celebration; we had a tasting of all kinds of apple foods … lots of fun!” recalled Beil.
Like many people, some of the students believed Appleseed to be a fictional character, but he was, in fact, a real person who planted and supplied apple trees to much of the United States. A skilled nurseryman, Appleseed gave away and sold many trees. Although he was successful he was said to have lived a simple life as a vegetarian.
Born in Leominster, Mass., on Sept. 26, 1774, he died at the age of 70 after spending 50 years growing apple trees. In 1966, the U.S. Postal Service designed a 5-cent stamp honoring him.
A contingent of Harker students had the unique opportunity to hear six-time Olympic medalist, motivational speaker and foundation founder Jackie Joyner-Kersee give the keynote address at this year’s local YWCA luncheon.
A longtime supporter of the YWCA of Silicon Valley’s annual luncheon event, Harker has regularly hosted a table for upper school students who have a special passion for that year’s topic.
As one of the most decorated female athletes of all time, Joyner-Kersee serves as a role model for girls and women alike. She dominated the track and field circuit for 13 years and won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals, spanning four Olympic games during her illustrious career.
The YWCA’s 21st annual luncheon was held in October at the Santa Clara Convention Center, with event proceeds supporting the group’s much lauded services. Each year, more than 40 companies and hundreds of individuals sponsor the YWCA’s luncheon. Past speakers have included Isabelle Allende, Gloria Steinem, Sally Ride, Janet Reno and Mary Lou Retton. Next year’s keynote address with Dr. Jane Goodall is anticipated to draw a sell-out crowd.
Harker students this year had the good fortune to meet with former Olympic medalists Anne Warner Cribbs and Marilyn King, who were special guests at the event. Cribbs won a gold medal for swimming and King was a two-time Olympian in the grueling five event Pentathlon.
The mission of the YWCA is to empower women, children and families, and to eliminate racism, hatred and prejudice. The organization provides programs in the areas of sexual assault intervention and prevention, counseling services, domestic violence, child care, youth programs, family services, and social and racial justice.
The YWCA serves nearly 18,000 Santa Clara County residents each year, and has provided services across the county for more than 100 years. More information can be found at www.ywca-sv.org.
Upper School
Varsity Basketball Aloha! Both boys and girls varsity basketball teams traveled to Maui over the holiday break and came away undefeated. The girls earned victories over Seabury Hall (twice) and Kamehameha-Maui while the boys defeated Kamehameha, Molokai and Seabury Hall. The girls now hold an impressive 9-1 record
Soccer
Sophomore Jeremiah Anderson had a goal and an assist in the 3-1 boys varsity soccer victory over KIPP Collegiate as the team improved to 2-1 overall. Kiran Arimilli and Kevin Moss also scored for the Eagles. The boys face ECP next Wednesday.
Wrestling Our wrestlers competed over the holiday break against Milpitas High with Junior Vincent Lin earning his first high school victory. Trailing 9-5 on the scoreboard Vincent got a reversal and pinned his opponent with 30 seconds left on the clock. Junior Darian Edvalson won with a dominating performance leading 8-0 before pinning his opponent in the second period. The team competes at the Cupertino High Tournament this weekend.
Volleyball Harker freshman Shannon Richardson participated in the USA High Performance Junior Beach Holiday Camp held at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista from Jan. 2-5 in the Girls’ A1/A2 Select group. The only players invited were those that had qualified for the High Performance program through rigorous tryouts in June of 2012 and participated in camp and championships last summer. Richardson and her partner took first place in the U15 division of the High Performance Championships. This is Richardson’s fourth invitation and visit to the Olympic Training Center since June of 2011.
Middle School
Soccer The grade 7-8 varsity A girls soccer team finished the season as league champions with an undefeated 11-0 record. The team finished off the season with exciting, close victories over Castilleja and King’s Academy to preserve the perfect record. Lyndsey Mitchell and Joelle Anderson, both grade 8, went home with the team’s Co-MVP Award, while Anuva Mittal, grade 8, and Anuja Shah, grade 7, each won the Eagle Award and Maile Chung and Stephanie Scaglia, both grade 8, were given the Coaches Award. Congratulations to the whole team, led by coaches Chrissy Chang, CJ Cali and Allison Burzio, on a banner season!
The grade 6 junior varsity A girls soccer team, coached by Cyrus Merrill, Rafeh Akram and Miles Brown, finished the season at 0-7. Despite the lopsided record, the girls made significant improvements to their game as the season progressed, which should bode well for their future soccer careers with Harker. In particular, the girls have developed an excitement for the game, leading to passionate and dynamic play even in defeat. With an eye toward continuing to improve their skills, many on the team have tried out for and plan to play on outside club soccer teams. The team had two very tight games with Nueva and Girls Middle School – their best chances at a victory – and dropped each by the score of 2-1. Team awards went to MVP Lilia Gonzalez, Eagle Award winner Allison Cartee, and Coaches Award winner Alexandra Janssen.
Our grade 5 junior varsity B girls soccer team, coached by Anthony Wood and Jared Ramsey, finished the season just a game below .500 at 2-3. The team enjoyed victories over Castilleja and Girls Middle School; in the latter game, Harker won 5-3 in an exciting home win in front of a raucous crowd. Grace Hajjar and Dylan Williams captured Co-MVP honors from the team, while Grace F. Huang was presented with the Eagle Award and Carissa Nelson received the Coaches Award.
Middle School Basketball
Harker’s grade 7-8 boys basketball teams will resume their season after the close of the holiday break. The grade 8 varsity A team, coached by Joe Mentillo, is at the moment locked at .500 with a 4-4 record in league play. The grade 7-8 varsity B team, coached by Mike Delfino, is at present holding down first place in the league with a sterling 5-1 record. Even better, the team’s sole loss came in overtime in a 39-38 game, so grade 7-8 varsity B has not dropped a game in regulation so far this year. The grade 7 varsity B2 team, coached by Dan Pringle, is currently hanging in there at 3-3 in the league.
The grade 6 junior varsity A boys basketball team, coached by Greg Lawson, finished their year in second place in the league and then won second place a the WBAL tournament. Their final record was an amazing 9-2 with both losses coming at the hands of a tough Sacred Heart team. Over the entire season, Harker won most of its games in dominant fashion, winning by at least 20 points or more. Team MVP went to Jackson Williams. The Eagle Award went to Jason Peetz, and the Coaches Award to Zach Hoffman.
Harker’s grade 6 junior varsity B6 boys basketball team, coached by Steve Carroll, finished the season at 3-5 in league. The boys enjoyed exciting victories over Nueva, Keys and Crystal Springs, and gave well-deserved awards to Surya Gudapati (MVP), Carl Gross (Eagle Award) and Neil Ramaswamy (Coaches Award).
The grade 5 Junior Varsity B1 boys basketball team, coached by Terence Pellum, finished the season as league champs and WBAL Tournament champs with a final record of 9-0. The boys fought hard to win the league championship with a final league game victory over Sacred Heart by a score of 23-20. They played the very same Sacred Heart team in the finals of the WBAL tournament and won 26-21. The team awards went toAditya Gupta ( MVP), Jeffrey Liu (Eagle Award)and Asmit Kumar (Coaches Award).
The grade 5 Junior Varsity B2 boys basketball team, coached by Patrick Hightower, finished the season with a league record of 1-6. The boys had some very close games with Sacred Heart and Pinewood and steadily improved throughout the course of the season. The team awards went to Kevin Chen (MVP), Jai Bahri (Eagle Award ) and Kyle Li (Coaches Award ).
The grade 4 Junior Varsity C boys basketball team, coached by Jim McGovern, finished the season with a league record of 5-1, good enough to earn them Tri-Champions of the league! The boys enjoyed a very exciting season, only losing to a tough Pinewood team in their final game 19-25. The team awards went to Benjamin Soraire (MVP), Anmol Velagapudi (Eagle Award) and Andrew Chavez (Coaches Award).
Congratulations to all the LS/MS Early Winter sports teams for a phenomenal season and good luck to our G7 and G8 boys basketball players still in season!!
Thanks to a unique online poetry forum, grade 7 students in Mark Gelineau’s English class have gone poetically cyber – taking their literary studies to a whole new global, interactive and virtual level.
Using the forum, some 80 students have connected with roughly the same number of peers from the Nazarbayev Intellectual School (NIS) in Kazakhstan to discuss selected poetic works. The poetry exchange program has already generated well over 1,000 posts.
Gelineau created the forum in conjunction with Harker alumna Lauren Gutstein ’06, who currently works at the NIS school in Astana, one of a group of seven existing state funded selective schools for middle and high school aged students spread throughout major cities in Kazakhstan.
The largest of the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union, Kazakhstan is prosperous and highly literate. Named after the president of the county, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the NIS schools have an international focus.
Through their online postings, students from both Harker and NIS share insights and observations about posted poems up for discussion. Currently, the forum consists of two poems: “Stopping by Woods” by Robert Frost and “Winter” by Kunanbaev Ibragim Abai, a well-known Kazakh poet.
Each poem was given a literature-based question for students to answer, as well as one that was more cultural in nature. Students at both schools used the questions as starting points to initiate their own discussions, now in process.
“This forum is a wonderful example of how well global education can enhance and enrich academic learning,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education. “It directly ties into Mark’s poetry unit and Lauren taught it through her ESL classes as it gave her students an opportunity to communicate with native speakers.”
Before participating in the online discussions Harker and NIS students had studied both poems, which are themed around winter, in their respective classrooms. While the Frost poem contains very peaceful verses, the Abai poem conveys a much darker mood.
According to Gelineau, the Frost piece is a lovely poem about pausing to watch a patch of forest fill with snow. By contrast, he said the Kazakh poet offers up a much bleaker view, where rather than something to be enjoyed in tranquility, winter is to be struggled against.
Using the contrasting poems as springboards for discussion, Harker and NIS students created and posted their own stanzas, seeking to enhance or alter the established moods depicted by the two poets. The students then discussed their newly written works with one another by regularly logging onto the site and keeping conversations running smoothly.
“I love the fact that the poetry forum is a curriculum-based project that integrates a global perspective. It is also interesting for the kids to be able to communicate with peers from a part of the world that we do not learn much about at all,” observed Walrod.
“This project has been an incredible success!” added Gelineau.
Two former Harker students suited up for Stanford’s Rose Bowl victory on New Year’s day, and Usua Amanam ’09, played a key role and was named MVP for defense. Amanan, who attended Harker’s lower and middle schools from 1996-2005, went on to 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 – 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. Read all about it in his Stanford team profile.
Congrats to both men and best of luck in future efforts!
Harker debate students made history in the final week leading up to the holiday break, being the first team to both win the Public Forum open invitational and the elite Public Forum round robin hosted by The Blake School in Minneapolis.
Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona, both grade 12, won the Public Forum division of the 50th annual John Edie Holiday Classic, a tournament that boasts 104 entries from throughout the United States. Chona also earned 11th overall speaker and Sharma earned 12th overall speaker out of 208 students. Seniors David Grossman and Nikhil Agarwal made it to the top 16 teams and seniors Reyhan Kader and Kiran Arimilli earned a spot in the top 32.
The Twin Cities Round Robin, an elite tournament inviting 12 of the top Public Forum teams in the country, was held the day after the open invitational concluded. Sharma and Chona won their preliminary pod and went on to win the round robin. Chona was named the top overall speaker at the round robin and Sharma earned second overall speaker.
At a special assembly held in the upper school gym on Nov. 27, students got a firsthand look at many exotic (and to some, scary) creatures. Michelle Durant of WildLIFE Associates, an organization that adopts and cares for animals unfit for release into the wild, brought out a variety of reptiles for the audience, including an American alligator, a desert tortoise and a large monitor lizard. The only non-reptilian specimen displayed was a rose hair tarantula, the sight of which proved too creepy for some. Although these creatures are frightening to many, Durant emphasized that they are crucial to maintaining the delicate natural balance of the animal population.