This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Upper school journalism students, accompanied by journalism teacher Chris Daren, history teacher Julie Wheeler and Evan Barth, dean of studies, spent two weeks at the end of June on Maui for this year’s annual trip, preparing for the challenges of the upcoming school year.
Staff members for the yearbook, the Winged Post student newspaper and the Harker journalism news website TalonWP.com gathered to plan for coverage, learn how to use the tools of the trade and, most importantly, hone their real-world journalism skills taking photos, interviewing locals and writing and publishing stories about their experiences on the island.
The students spent the first few days of the trip discussing the incoming school year and prospecting for stories. Students discovered a local artist carrying on the traditional South Pacific artistry taught to him by his grandfather and told his story, in addition to publishing a detailed review of the nearby Makena Beach.
The second week started with an interview at the Maui Academy of Performing Arts (mAPA), whose staff discussed their latest production, “Narnia.” Later, the journalists got a firsthand look at the process of harvesting, preparing and skinning pineapples.
A highlight of the trip was the trek up the face of the enormous Haleakala, the shield volcano that makes up more than three quarters of the island of Maui. As the students reached the crater, the breathtaking visual. The group later took a trip along the road to Hana, famous for its gorgeous scenery. The final few days of the trip were packed with activity, starting with a double dose of live theater and finishing up with, of course, surfing lessons.
This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona, now seniors, were crowned national champions in public forum debate at the National Forensic League’s national tournament on June 15. Recent graduates Akshay Jagadeesh ‘12 and Aakash Jagadeesh ‘12 (no relation) reached the top 30. The tournament featured more than 260 teams, and thousands of students across the country competed just to qualify for the tournament.
Harker also won a school of excellence award in the debate category. These awards are given to schools with multiple successful teams.
Harker’s honor council hosted an honor and ethics conference that brought together representatives from the Pacific Collegiate School, San Francisco University High School, Pinewood School and the Bay School of San Francisco to discuss various scenarios and find out what issues schools need to address. The Harker students came up with case studies and presented them to the other schools’ representatives. Case studies included information on tests revealed during conversations between periods, plagiarism and theft of unattended school-related items such as books and calculators.
Evan Barth, dean of upper school students, said the scenarios presented in each case study were primarily used to generate feedback from each school and spur discussion in order to discover the issues that schools were having with ethics violations. “It’s for the students to have ideas to bounce off of each other,” he said.
This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s InvenTeam visited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June for this year’s EurekaFest, an annual event held by Lemelson-MIT for young inventors. 2012 graduates Prag Batra, Sachin Jain and Arihant Jain, along with grade 12 students Shantanu Joshi, Wilbur Yang and Ramakrishnan Menon and grade 11 student Nikhil Dilip, were at the event to showcase the invention that won them funding in this year’s InvenTeam contest. Their project, an aquatic thermoelectric generator that can produce solar energy without the need for expensive panels, won them a $9,110 grant in the fall of last year to build a prototype.
During their time at the event, the team toured MIT’s wind tunnels and fusion lab, and participated in a 20-minute design challenge in which they were randomly placed into teams which were then instructed to build a free-standing structure made with balloons. They also attended presentations that showed them how to market their inventions, and saw presentations by the collegiate and industrial winners of the InvenTeam competition.
This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Current juniors Andrew Wang and Namrata Vakkalagadda attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Northern California Seminar in mid-June, held at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY for short) is a national organization that seeks to build principles of service and leadership in high school students. Students are selected by their schools to participate in HOBY events, where they participate in leadership-building activities, hear from important figures in a variety of fields and more.
“There were many activities that essentially made us ask ourselves how we would behave in certain circumstances that questioned our decision-making skills or our opinions,” said Wang.
Students also learned about different types of leadership, such as personal leadership, group leadership and society leadership.
“One of my favorite activities was where we answered a set of questions and found out which ‘color’ we are. each color represented certain qualities that person possesses,” Vakkalagadda said. People of the same color were then put into groups and told to build a tower with the materials provided. “Each group had a very different experience, but all the towers failed. The activity showed us how all four types of leadership are needed to keep any type of organization or group running.”
Middle School
Girls Softball
Harker 7 – Menlo 0! Our dynamic duo of Meghan Robertson and Anika Rajamani, both grade 6, played a great game Sept. 18 against Menlo. Robertson pitched and brings great control and speed to the team; Rajamani is the catcher and is like a wall behind the plate, said Raul Rios, coach. “We had great defensive plays by Marti Sutton, grade 8, Taylor Lam, grade 6, and Grace Park, grade 8. We have a very young but strong team this year; if they stay together and keep playing they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming years.” The team is now 2-0.
Upper School
Varsity Football
Varsity football now stands at 2-1, having won Sept. 7 and lost Sept. 14. First, the gridiron guys took down Andrew Hill High School 23-16. One highlight was senior Deniz Celik’s 32-yard field goal which, coupled with quarterback senior Spenser Quash’s pair of second-half touchdown passes kept Harker in the lead to help survive a late Andrew Hill drive. Trailing 16-11 in the third quarter, Quash connected with Adarsh Battu, grade 11, on a 10-yard score to put the Eagles ahead 17-16. Another TD pass, on a screen to Ryan Mui, grade 12, provided insurance and Harker needed every bit of it. The game ended with Hill inside the Harker five-yard line, so a bit closer than desired!
The following week, Sept 14. against San Jose High School, with the score 8-8 late in the fourth quarter, SJHS’ Bulldogs drove the ball 60 yards and kicked a field goal with only seconds remaining to seal the 11-8 victory. Robert Deng, grade 12, scored a one-yard touchdown pass from Quash and Keanu Forbes, grade 10, scored the two-point conversion for the Eagles. The 2-1 Eagles are away at Mills High School Saturday afternoon this week.
Girls Tennis
Girls tennis didn’t lose a set in the Sept. 6 7-0 rout of Fremont, played on Fremont’s home courts. Sophomore Arden Hu, playing #4 singles, had the closest match, and was pushed to a first set tiebreaker before prevailing 7-6, 6-0, making the team 2-0. Then, over the weekend, varsity girls had an excellent performance at the Santa Catalina tournament, winning second place out of 16 teams. The standings were very close, with the team just one win away from tying for first place.
Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, was the #3 singles champion and did not drop a single set throughout the tournament. Number 2 doubles team Chau Nguyen, grade 12, and Izzy Gross, grade 9, won first place and remain undefeated this season with six wins. Katia Mironova, grade 11, was a finalist at #4 singles, and Indica Sur, grade 12, and Ariana Shulman, grade 11, were finalists at #3 doubles. Jenny Chen, grade 12, reached the semifinals at #1 singles, and #1 doubles team Sylvie Dobrota, grade 12, and Hu made it to the quarterfinals. Adding to the team’s total, Sahithya Prakash, grade 11, also reached consolation finals at #2 singles. The girls open league play next week.
Girls Volleyball
Girls volleyball lost to a strong Homestead High team Sept. 12, but rebounded against Fremont two days later in a three-game sweep. Shreya Dixit, grade 10, led the team with 12 kills to make the team 2-1. Sept. 13, the team defeated Saratoga High three games to one to improve to 3-1 on the season. Divya Kalidindi, grade 11, and Dixit had 11 kills each. Sept. 17 the girls hosted Immaculate Conception Academy. They face Pinewood High School tonight so come on out and cheer!
Boys Water Polo
Varsity lost the first game of the Wilcox Tournament Sept. 8-9 against Pioneer, but had solid victories over Willow Glen and Santa Clara 18-10 and 15-10, respectively. Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, scored 11 goals over the three games; Ryan Hume, grade 12, got 10; Eric Holt, grade 10, and Gilad Nilo, grade 12, had six each; Stephan Pellissier, grade 11, had four; and Albert Chu, grade 11, put one in.
The boys went on to a solid 8-6 victory over Fremont Sept. 13 to improve to 5-3 on the season. Hume had three goals, Holt added two. Sean Pan, grade 11, was stellar in goal. On Sept. 18, the boys beat Santa Clara High School 18-11 and they host Wilcox High Thurs., Sept. 20.
Girls Water Polo
Girls water polo opened the season last week with a pair of victories over league opponents. On Sept 11, they defeated Saratoga 9-7; and two days later they worked over Fremont 8-5. Senior Keri Clifford, grade 12, led the way with eight goals over the two games. Sierra Lincoln, grade 12, had 13 saves in goal against Saratoga. The girls then went 2-2 in the Wilcox Lady Chargers seventh annual Girls Varsity Water Polo Tournament over the weekend. In that tournament, Clifford had eight goals in three games, and freshman Helena Dworak had seven saves in a very close loss to Lynbrook.
Scores
Harker-7, SCHS-10, with goals by Anushka Das, grade 10; Clifford, Daphne Millard, grade 12; Anna Levine, grade 12 ( three); and Sonia Sidhu. Eight blocks by Lincoln.
Harker-5, Fremont-2 with goals by Clifford (two), Yanovsky and Levine (two); Lincoln, five blocks.
Harker-8, Lynbrook-10, with goals by Clifford (five), Levine (two) and Sidhu; seven blocks by Helena Dworak, grade 9.
Harker-5, Saratoga-0: Saratoga forfeit.
On Sept. 18, the girls beat Santa Clara High School 8-7 and they face Mountain View High School Thurs., Sept. 20.
Girls Golf
Girls golf lost to Notre Dame-Belmont Sept. 7 at Los Lagos in a non-league matchup 240-231. Kristine Lin, grade 11, led all golfers with a 38. They beat Menlo School Sept. 17 221-232 and Lin earned medalist honors, shooting four over par 38. Senior Jessica Son’s timely career best 42 helped the team notch this very important win. Also contributing her personal best was junior Connie Li with a 50. Freshman Daphne Liang debuted with a steady 47 while senior Patricia Huang shot a 44. Late breaking news: Triumph over Sacred Heart Prep Sept. 18, in a close one, 223-227.
Cross Country
Cross country competed at Toro Park in Salinas Sept. 15, and sophomore Corey Gonzales placed 17th in the varsity boys race. His time of 17:07 is a personal best by 30 seconds on the Toro course; the time is second on the all-time Harker list, and also sets a sophomore school record, breaking the old one by two minutes. Freshman Mary Najibi placed ninth in the frosh-soph race, leading her team to a fourth place finish. Najibi’s time of 22:49 is the third all-time freshman time. Another freshman, Connor O’Neill, ran a 19:55, which is the second fastest freshman time in Harker history.
When the San Jose police department reached out for support of its annual National Night Out crime and drug prevention event, The Harker School gladly accepted.
Held at the Starbird Park in San Jose on Aug. 7, National Night Out was an opportunity to participate with many other neighborhoods across the country in celebration of the nationwide effort sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and co-sponsored locally by the police.
This year marked the 29th anniversary of the program, with more than 37 million people across the country participating.
Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facility manager, reported that the school once again provided 500 hot dogs, chips and condiments for the evening event, which began around 6 p.m. Bassoni and other Harker volunteers were on hand helping to distribute food and drinks as well as provide logistical support.
National Night Out is designed to not only heighten crime and drug prevention awareness but to generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts. It also works to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police/community partnerships while sending a message to criminals that cities are united in fighting back.
According to the San Jose police department participating neighborhoods were asked to turn on outside lights, lock their doors and spend the evening outside with neighbors and police. Moreover, neighborhoods used the event as a launching board to plan further programming such as disaster preparedness, setting neighborhood goals or watches, organizing food or clothing drives and planning to beautify a common area with a cleanup day.
During the National Night Out event itself there were some police officers present, army recruiters, representatives from the San Jose Earthquakes and the Starbird Community Center – and, of course, Bassoni and his Harker crew!
On Sept. 6, Yu Sasaki, a Japanese representative from Save the Children, visited Harker to talk to the students about her relief work in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March of 2011. “She was thrilled that the Harker kids helped fundraise for the relief efforts,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s global education director.
Sasaki visited several classes throughout the day, including Keiko Irino’s honors Japanese classes and Masako Onakado’s AP Japanese and contemporary Japan classes. “She stayed with us all day long, giving presentations to five classes,” Onakado said, adding that presentations were given in both English and Japanese. “Students asked some good questions, and they said that the presentation was very informative!”
San Jose Mercury News, Sept. 6, 2012: Usua Amanam ’09, now in his junior year at Stanford, is featured in a story about his role on the Cardinal football team.
Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, Sept. 10, 2012: A news update mentions the visit to Harker by Olympians Rowdy Gaines, Cullen Jones and Anne Warner Cribs, who came for an event to support the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash program. Gaines and Jones spoke to Harker athletes prior to the event.
Author and neighborhood organizer Mike Lanza spoke at the first Harker Speaker Series event of the year on Sept. 14 to share his insights into how neighborhoods can be great places for children to grow up and lead fun, fulfilling lives.
Beginning with some of the problems currently facing children, Lanza made the point that many kids spend too much time in front of screens, be they television, sets, laptops or tablets. On average, he noted, kids spend about eight hours each day consuming visual media.
Their lives are also highly scheduled, with sporting events, lessons and other activities. “They have no time on their own in the world to do things,” Lanza said.
Lack of unstructured play time leads to several problems, he said, among them obesity, depression and lack of creativity. He added, however, that taking away screen time and sending kids off into their neighborhoods won’t work on its own, because many neighborhoods are “boring.”
To remedy this problem in his Menlo Park neighborhood, Lanza got active and began making changes to his home to make it into a place where neighborhood children could play whenever they wanted. Among the modifications made to his home were a driveway that could be drawn on (it now contains a mural representing different parts of the neighborhood), a picnic table in the front yard, a whiteboard fixed to a fence and a play house where kids have been encouraged to write on the walls.
“We’re defacing everything we can,” Lanza said. “We want this place to look like kids live here. We want them to feel like they own this place.”
He and his family also visited homes throughout the neighborhood and encouraged other families to use the various amenities he had installed, even when no one was home. As a result, children regularly engage with one another in outdoor activities and neighborhood families have come to know one another much better.
Lanza also touched on other examples of American neighborhoods that were transformed to provide their children with meaningful play lives, such as Lyman Place, located in the South Bronx of New York City, normally an area associated with drug problems and high crime rates. In the 1970s, Lyman Place resident Hetty Fox led an effort to designate the area as a traffic-free spot from the morning until the late afternoon during the summer months. For more than 35 years, Fox has helped maintain the neighborhood as a place where kids of all ages can play safely in the street, and hires youth workers as assistants.
Another case study was a spot in Portland, Ore., where an architect had the street in his neighborhood painted with intricate designs and placed installations on every corner, including a clubhouse with toys for kids, a book exchange station and a solar-powered tea stand that is refilled by residents of the neighborhood.
Lanza finished the talk by providing advice to the audience about what they could do to change the atmosphere of their neighborhoods to accommodate kids at play. When moving, he said, parents should think about what’s in their children’s interests besides schools and housing amenities. “Are we really moving for our kids? Do they want this high-pressure school district you’re moving them to? Do they want the extra bedroom?” he asked. “Kids would love to double up in bedrooms if they have a neighborhood that’s thriving, that’s really happening.”
He also urged parents to make a neighborhood hangout, a place where kids could be certain something was happening a good portion of the time. “Kids are not going to go outside if there’ s nothing going on,” he said. “The best way to assure that something’s going on is if there’s a place where people can go where there’s something happening.”
Another important task, he said, is to “make the place you live into a close, communal village, where you know people, where they know you, where they know your kids, where you know their kids. If you can make that into a nice, comfortable place then you’ll comfortable letting your kids go. And other kids will show up at your door because they’re comfortable with you.”