The Siemens Foundation announced today this year’s semifinalists and regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Ten Harker students, four finalists and six semifinalists, were among the students named. Harker students submitted a total of 24 group and individual projects for the contest. One third of the finalists from California are Harker students. They are: Ashvin Swaminathan (individual), Paulomi Bhattacharya (individual), Rohan Chandra (individual), all grade 12, and Zareen Choudhury (group), grade 11. This year’s semifinalists are: Andrew Luo (individual), Kevin Susai (individual) and Ravi Tadinada (group), all grade 12, Anika Gupta (group) and Saachi Jain (group), both grade 11, and Andrew Zhang (group), grade 10. Each of the regional finalists were awarded $1,000.
All of the students spent many hours doing advanced research and analysis for the projects they submitted for the contest, which has thousands of entrants every year.
Over the weekend of Sept. 29, 27 upper school students traveled to Ashland, Ore., to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), which was nearing the end of its 2012 season.
The students saw performances of the Shakespeare plays “Troilus and Cressida,” “Henry V,” “Romeo and Juliet” and a modern-day take on “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” which takes place just after the Iowa caucuses and features a United States senator as the main character.
Students also had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with OSF actors on the finer points of acting and production, and were taken on a tour of the festival’s three theaters.
Upper School Football Runningback DeVonte Smith, grade 10, ignited the Harker Eagles’ offense on the road against the Los Altos Eagles, rushing 14 times for 160 yards and a touchdown in Harker’s 14-12 win, their first Santa Clara Valley Athletic League victory of the season. Smith led on both sides of the ball, finishing the game with a team-high 10 solo tackles, and a third-quarter three-yard plunge into the endzone by quarterback Spenser Quash, grade 12, put Harker up for good. Linebacker Ryan Mui, grade 12, had nine solo tackles. Samir Chaudhry, grade 11, and Justin Marion, grade 9, each had a fumble recovery. This Friday is senior night for the team as they host Monta Vista on Davis Field.
Cross Country
In cross country action, both the boys and girls teams ran in the Crystal Springs Center Meet last Thursday. Corey Gonzales, grade 10, continued a fine year, setting a new Harker record with a 16:13 run and finishing in fifth place. Gonzales’ run was 40 seconds faster than his previous personal best, set in the CCS Championships last year, and 1:30 faster than his time at the same meet the year before. Tyler Yeats, grade 12, placed 26th, helping the team to a 12th place finish. Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, ran her best race of the year, placing 10th on a cold and rainy afternoon while running a season-best 20:11. Claudia Tischler, grade 11, was right behind Bhattacharya in 12th, running her personal best on the Crystal course, 20:19. Outstanding freshman Mary Najibi placed 41st with a time of 22:09, a top-five all-time freshman mark for Harker.
Water Polo
Girls water polo went 4-1 this past weekend at the Western State Tournament in Modesto, with their only loss coming in sudden-death overtime to Liberty High. The girls earned fifth place overall with victories over Gregori, West, Notre-Dame-Belmont and Pitman. Keri Clifford, grade 12, had 24 goals over the weekend and goalie Helena Dworak, grade 9, had 28 saves. The tournament success comes on the heels of the girls’ dramatic 6-5 victory over league foe Santa Clara last Thursday. Harker is now an impressive 16-5 overall, the most wins in the program’s history, and tied for first place in the league at 7-2.
Boys water polo suffered two nail-biter losses last week, dropping games to Fremont 6-5 and Santa Clara 12-11. Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, had six goals against Santa Clara and Eric Holt, grade 10, chipped in five. Both the boys and girls play their senior day at home this Thursday.
Golf
The girls golf team dominated Mercy Burlingame with a 249-299 win at Crystal Springs on Friday. Patricia Huang, grade 12, led the Eagles with a five over par 41 performance on a difficult course. Daphne Liang, grade 9, shot her career-best 46. Contributing scores were junior Kristine Lin’s 46, senior Jessica Son’s 48 and junior Connie Li’s 68. Newcomer Madelyn Wang, grade 10, made her debut league performance, having only picked up golf at the beginning of the season. The Eagles remain in sole possession of second place in the WBAL with a 4-1 record, taking on first-place undefeated Castilleja today and Friday of this week.
Volleyball Girls volleyball had an excellent showing at the Presentation Tournament on Saturday, considered to be among the toughest tournaments in California. The girls started the day by losing to the 13th ranked team in the nation, Archbishop Mitty, in a very respectable match, then went 1-3 the rest of the day.
Tennis
Girls tennis took nearly three hours to complete their match on Thursday as rain poured down, but as the storm receded, Harker defeated host Crystal Springs 4-2. Harker had leapt out to a swift 3-0 lead before the rain interrupted and caused a long delay. Two other teams lost after the delay, and it was not until Athlete of the Month Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, who played #2, stepped up to defeat her opponent in near darkness that Harker finally sealed the victory. Harker now stands at 8-1 and 5-1 in league. Girls tennis senior day is this Friday v. Notre Dame-San Jose.
Attendees at the 62nd Harker Family & Alumni Picnic on Oct. 14 gloried in the timelessness of the picnic: new things each year–especially the faces of students growing up–and some of the classics, like the never-get-tired-of-it dunk tank. The whole event, one of the big opening events of the school year, was attended by about 800 people and again fulfilled its promise in providing fun and entertainment to the entire Harker community on a warm fall day.
Families were greeted by Harker faculty and staff as they reached the entrance to the middle school campus, where the day’s festivities took place. This year’s theme, “Jaws, Paws and Claws,” celebrated all manner of wildlife, and patrons were treated to animal shows at the Blackford amphitheater throughout the day.
The crowd was also entertained by an energetic show by a wide selection of groups from Harker’s performing arts department, including Dance Fusion, the grade 4-6 boys and girls dance group; Downbeat, the upper school show choir; and the grade 6 choir, Dynamics.
Picknickers, particularly the younger ones, especially enjoyed being able to see and pet the pigs, goats, rabbits and other animals on display at the petting area. Talented and well-trained dogs performed tricks and ran through an obstacle course to the delight of audiences, and even a python several feet in length was available for visitors to view and briefly wear on their shoulders.
The always-popular game booths were among the main attractions throughout the day. Volunteers spun wheels of fortune, players tossed golf balls, shot hoops and more to win a myriad of prizes, including stuffed animals, toys and bottles of wine. One of the most popular carnival games, the dunk tank, continued to be a hit with picnic-goers. “The dunk tank was a little cold today. If you noticed, the weather was a little overcast,” said upper school chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine, who had an early shift. He was one of a number of faculty members who had the honor of sitting in the dunk tank this year, and one of the most enthusiastic: “I kind of like the anticipation,” Irvine said.
Kaela Bien, grade 5, who liked “watching the teachers get dunked,” also enjoyed the canine feats on display at the dog show. “It’s fun, and they’re sort of mischievous too,” she said.
Generous student and parent volunteers helped sell tickets to the booths that kept visitors entertained and fed all day. Food booths, run by parents, faculty and staff, served delicious refreshments, snacks and hot meals from a variety of vendors. Returning were the food trucks, which proved a hit during the 2011 picnic and received a similar response this year, serving Asian fusion and other types of cuisine.
At the “Claws Vegas” silent auction area, attendees bid on all sorts of prizes, ranging from trips to New York City and Las Vegas to sleepovers and animal-shaped topiaries. Parent alumna Tiffany Nishimura ’86 (Alexis, grade 2), said the silent auction was her favorite part of the picnic for the wide variety of prizes available and the various opportunities for “supporting the school.”
Harker alumni had a big presence at this year’s picnic, with more than 130 alumni and their families joining in on the fun. A special lunch area was set aside so that alumni could meet and reminisce, while alumni children enjoyed a craft activity. Alumni director MaryEllis Deacon reflected on the picnic, saying, “It is a time to come back, reconnect, and visit with those teachers who helped you as a child become who you are today. It also allows you to remember the fun things, the games, the food and the spirit of Harker.”
Vincy Chan, parent of Gemma, K, and Gianna, grade 3, said she enjoyed seeing the community’s hard work come to fruition: “It’s like a family, so I just love helping out, and then … seeing all our hard work.”
“When you see everybody come together, and see all the people in their civilian clothing, it shows the magic that makes the Harker community Harker,” Irvine said.
Following the picnic, Chris Nikoloff, head of school, gave well-deserved credit to all responsible for the event’s success. “Special thanks to the talented and creative flock of volunteers who comprise the picnic committee and the Harker faculty and staff who were as busy as beavers helping to make the picnic a great success,” Nikoloff said, making special mention of picnic co-chairs Lynette Stapleton, Kelly Espinosa and Tiffany Hurst, “whose vision made it possible for all our little eagles and their families to soar to new heights today!”
Learning and a whole lot of fun was had by grade 8 students during a recent biology lab class on calorimetry. Thanks to biology teacher Thomas Artiss, the students had the opportunity to run the perennial calorimetry lab, which involves burning food to estimate its caloric content. They also had the chance to warm their hands over roasting marshmallows!
It’s all about “kids doing science and having fun,” enthused Artiss, who used the lab experiment as an opportunity to teach his students about how calorimeters are used to determine the energy content of foods by burning them in an oxygen atmosphere and measuring the energy yield in terms of the increase in temperature of the calorimeter.
Golf Harker girls golfers defeated Menlo with only five girls, 236-242, to remain undefeated. Harker is tied atop the West Bay Athletic League with Castilleja. The girls face tough tests this week against Sacred Heart and then against Mercy-Burlingame on Friday.
Girls Volleyball The girls volleyball team defeated ECP last week, but lost in three tight games to a tough Crystal Springs squad on Thursday, 23-25, 23-25, 25-27. Even after the tough loss, however, the girls’ record remains at 14-2. This week, they hit the road for two games.
Girls Tennis Despite dropping last Thursday’s contest to Menlo 5-2, the girls took a major step toward removing the “Menlo Mystique,” a cloud of invincibility held by Menlo over Harker since joining the West Bay Athletic League.
The match was much closer than the score dictates. Harker had two opportunities to win the match on their service, but Menlo was able to break on those occasions and ultimately came out on top.
“The girls knew they should have won and are eager to play again,” commented coach Craig Pasqua, adding, “This could be the very event that makes us stronger and hungry for the next level.”
Dora Tzeng, grade 11, completely demolished two-time WBAL MVP Giannina Ong at #2, winning 3 and 1. Harker’s #1 doubles team, which features Sat Prakash, grade 11, and Arden Hu, grade 10, also defeated Menlo’s strong #1 team by an equally impressive 2 and 2. Both #2 and #3 doubles teams raced to early leads in their matches, but both came up short. At #1 singles, Jenny Chen, grade 12, lost a close three set match, losing in a third-set tiebreaker. Harker’s other two singles players both went down, losing in straight set matches.
Harker has another chance to lock up the league title when they play Menlo again in a couple of weeks. After Menlo’s victory this week, Harker stands alone in second place with a 3-1 record in league play and a 6-1 record overall.
Upper School Football Eagles quarterback Spenser Quash, grade 12, passed for 294 yards and rushed for 79, but Harker could not match Gunn High School’s 506 total yards as the Titans defeated the Eagles 49-21. Robert Deng, grade 12, and Kevin Moss, grade 11, each had touchdown catches, and kicker Deniz Celik, grade 12, added two field goals. Harker (2-4, 0-2) travels to Los Altos for a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League game this Saturday.
Cross Country Harker’s cross country teams competed in their first league meet last week. Corey Gonzales, grade 10, placed second overall in the varsity boys race, beating his time from last year by 40 seconds. For the girls, Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, placed 10th, and Claudia Tischler, grade 11, ran a solid race, placing 16th. The teams run again this Thursday at Crystal Springs.
Water Polo Both boys and girls water polo lost to Saratoga this past week. The boys lost 16-9 with goals scored by Karan Das-Grande, Gilad Nilo and Ryan Hume, all grade 12. The girls lost 6-3 for only their second league loss with goals by Keri Clifford, grade 12, Anna Levine, grade 11, and Anushka Das, grade 10. The boys also went 1-2 at the Live Oak Tournament over the weekend, defeating Harbor High and losing to Live Oak and Evergreen Valley. Goalie Sean Pan, grade 11, scored in the Evergreen loss, and David Grossman, grade 12, scored his first career goal. Both the boys and the girls host Santa Clara this Thursday.
On Sept. 21 and 28, grade 6 students mettheir Tamagawa buddies and families from Harker’s sister school, Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan, for the first time via two separately held video conferences.
The much anticipated initial meetings for Harker’s 27 middle school students participating in the Tamagawa exchange program served as a prequel to the even more exciting upcoming live meetings slated to occur Oct. 16 when Tamagawa students visit Harker. Then in the spring, Harker students will head to Japan as part of the reciprocal exchange program.
“The video conferences are fun events held on the Blackford campus where each Harker family is scheduled for 10 minutes to meet their child’s Japanese buddy and family. We have a translator present to assist with communication,” explained Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
The video conferences began with Harker students introducing their families and asking questions about what their buddies want to see, do, or eat while they are visiting at the end of October. The Japanese buddies also got to ask questions about their fast-approaching visit.
“The students are always so excited for this event! We meet beforehand to discuss what types of questions to ask, the kids brainstorm and write down things. Some students wear various uniforms to show their buddies and even bring in photos of their home, bedroom and family pet to share. The conferences are also a good time for parents to give information about any allergies or special concerns their child may have about traveling to a foreign country. I talk with each family as they leave their video conference,” said Walrod.
Tamagawa Gakuen is a K-12 school and university founded in 1929 as an elementary education organization. Later secondary education divisions were added, and in 1947 Tamagawa University received approval for establishment as an “old system” (pre-war) university. As a comprehensive institution (gakuen), they currently provide education from kindergarten to graduate school within a single campus.
The recent video conferences have now set the stage for what should prove to be an exciting student exchange program between the Tamagawa and Harker schools. Through its rich global education program, Harker has long strived to weave global activities into its students’ daily lives.
Simona Snitkovskaya, Russian opera coach with Opera San Jose, visited the upper school on Sept. 25 to speak to some of Susan Nace’s music students. An accomplished pianist with a vast knowledge of Russian music, Snitkovskaya has coached professional singers hoping to expand their repertoire of Russian music, helping them with their pronunciation, diction and interpretation.
She began by sharing with the students some of the history of Russian classical music and its key figures. “Russian music basically came from non-professional composers,” she said. “The first composers we had, they all did it for fun. It was their hobby.”
Among Russia’s first notable professional composers were Modest Mussorgsky, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The class was later joined by professional opera singers Kindra Scharich and Kirk Eichelberger, who shared their experiences learning how to perform Russian music. While studying music, Eichelberger said, “We have to learn, in addition to English, French, German, Italian and a lot of Latin.” The only way to learn how to perform in Russian was to do so independently. “It was long and painstaking, but so worth it.”
“Each language has its own music,” Scharich said. “Just to be able to make those sounds is part of the music of the language. You get a whole new palette of sounds that you can deal with.”
The singers then performed some pieces in Russian, demonstrating their hard-earned command of the language.
The Harker School’s global education and performing arts departments were thrilled to warmly welcome more than two dozen students who recently visited from Saint Stephen’s College, a college preparatory independent school located on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Accompanied by three chaperones, the group of 25 performing arts students were at Harker from Sept. 22-26. After spending their first weekend upon arrival checking in at a nearby hotel and going on an all-day tour of San Francisco, they got off to a bright and early start Monday morning at Harker. Their first day here began with an early breakfast in the upper school’s bistro followed by a tour of the campus.
The group’s packed performing arts itinerary included visits to Harker’s theater, music, choreography and acting classes, as well as a special observation of a rehearsal of the fall play, “Hamlet,” followed by dinner.
According to Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education, the visit went extremely well and was part of a larger performing arts tour of the United States that the Australian exchange students and their chaperones were taking.
“They had spent six days in New York City before coming to San Jose for five days, with their tour ending down in Los Angeles. They enjoyed visiting a wide variety of performing arts classes here at Harker, as well as attending regular classes to see how the American educational system works,” she said.
Especially gratifying to Walrod was the fact that numerous performing arts students at Harker helped out with the visit, accompanying Saint Stephen’s students for breakfast and lunch, escorting them to and from classes, and even joining them for a fun night out shopping and dining at Santana Row.
During the past decade, Harker has enjoyed a warm relationship and mutually beneficial exchange program with Saint Stephen’s College. Last year, Ruth Meyer, an upper school history teacher, spent two weeks in Australia at the college as part of that year’s teacher exchange program. Meyer spent most of her time teaching freshman history and junior English to the school’s students, who she said were like Harker students in that, “they are happy, helpful and enjoy school.” English teacher Jennifer Siraganian enjoyed the exchange this past summer (see Harker Quarterly, fall 2012).
“We have also hosted two previous summer upper school trips where students visited Saint Stephen’s, attended their weeklong leadership retreat, and stayed in homestays. Plus their exchange students and teachers always visit our middle and lower schools to read stories and talk about Australian history,” added Walrod.
The 13th annual Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational debate tournament took place at the upper school campus Sept. 28-30, bringing in 208 students from 28 schools in California, Arizona and Washington. Because Harker qualified for the Tournament of Champions, Harker students were not permitted to participate in the main tournament, but Harker students did participate in the novice and tournament experience workshops. Nikhil Bopardikar and Anish Velagapudi, both grade 9, were in the top 20 in the novice division.
Harker students were instrumental in ensuring that the tournament and the novice workshop were run smoothly. “Student leaders organized and did the majority of teaching at the workshop. They also oversaw the timely management of the varsity tournament and managed our student workers. Our parents hosted visiting students in their homes, served meals and judged debates,” said Carol Green, chair of Harker’s communication studies department.
One student from Foothill High School commented the tournament was “extremely well run. Not only was the judging pool outstanding, but I really felt like The Harker School cared. The students were all around helping directing us, while there was a help desk and delicious food. Adding on to that, the rooms in which we debated were really nice also.”