For many children warmer weather means campouts – sleeping under the stars – but the outing is a bit sweeter when it’s in their teacher’s backyard as it was for six students, all entering grade 4. Complete with s’mores, the campout for six boys was a teacher package offered at last year’s 61st annual Harker Family & Alumni Picnic.
This past spring, grade 3 teacher Heather Russell hosted six of her students (Jonathan Chao, Nikhil Gargeya, Ryan Tobin, Chance Hewitt, Brandon Coulter and Nicholas Coulter) and all had a night to remember.
Chao and the Coulter twins were the lucky bidders of “Mrs. Russell’s Backyard Campout” and each invited a friend to share in the overnight experience, the first sleepover away from home for some of the boys.
“They enjoyed swimming, a backyard barbecue, a bubblegum-blowing contest, silly string wars, making s’mores by a fire pit, and watching a movie in their sleeping bags in a tent,” said Russell, noting that the event was made further complete with flashlight tag and a pancake breakfast in the morning.
Plenty of memories were made for both the boys and their innovative teacher. And, rumor has it, the backyard campout will be up again for bid at this coming year’s picnic!
Young volleyball enthusiasts of various skill levels gathered at the middle school campus gym the week of July 16 for this year’s summer volleyball camp. Led by Dan Molin, Harker’s athletic director, and Theresa “Smitty” Smith, volleyball coach, the primary aim of the camp was to provide a fun and lively way to give budding players a solid foundation on which to build.
Each day at the camp began with ball control warm-up exercises, followed by groups of students moving to different areas, or “stations,” that each worked on a different skill, such as setting, serving, spiking or passing. From there, the students would break into teams to play a game utilizing the skills they had just practiced.
“Most importantly, we just want them to have fun,” Molin said. “We try to keep it loose and lively and active, and keep it moving.”
The week started off with a visit from John Wallace, volleyball coach at Santa Clara University, where Harker volleyball star Tanya Schmidt ’07 attended college. “He came in on Monday and did a great job,” Molin recalled. After sharing some of his insights about the sport and how it’s played at a college level, Wallace ran some serving drills with the students.
Lauren Hogan, a grade 8 student at Ida Price Middle School, enrolled in the camp because she wants to try out for her school’s volleyball team. The camp’s setting training was important for her, she said, “Because I want to be a setter and I want to learn how to do it better.”
Another Ida Price student, Derek Hogan, grade 6, also plans to try out for the school volleyball team, and hoped to get better at spiking, “because it helps you get points.”
Although the camp mainly stressed fundamental skills, more advanced concepts such as team formations, defensive positioning and the each player’s role on the court were introduced later in the week.
By the end, however, Molin hoped the students had fun and that they were better equipped to improve themselves as players in the future.
“It’s hard to become a volleyball player in one week,” he said. “Maybe at the end of the week they’ll be a little bit better and they’ll remember one or two things that they can carry to the next level.”
Harker’s library director and resident history buff Sue Smith had a very pleasant surprise over the summer: a visit from the grandson of Frank Cramer, the founder of Manzanita Hall, the school that eventually became The Harker School. Tom Lasley and his wife, Jayne, live in Southern California, but made a trip up to the Bay Area to show their own grandchildren some of their family’s old haunts.
Smith and Office of Communication staffer Catherine Snider showed the Lasley family around the campus on a peaceful Saturday afternoon, being sure to stop at the history wall in the main building and the current Manzanita Hall, named, of course, in homage to Cramer’s original institution. It was Manzanita Hall that became Palo Alto Military Academy, which in turn merged with Miss Harker’s School for Girls to become Harker Academy and later The Harker School.
Details of Cramer’s life have been hard to come by, so Smith and Lasley had a very pleasant hour catching each other up on photos, old documents and stories. “I feel like we’ve filled in some big gaps in our knowledge of our school’s founder,” said Smith, “and we’ve made plans to continue to share documents and information. It was such a wonderful surprise to meet Frank Cramer’s descendant!”
Harker’s campuses are a hubub of sumertime activity as the school opens its doors to the public, extending its huge variety of programs to local students, Harker and non-Harker, and to students from around the globe.
This year saw a potpourri of summer programming options: from Camp+ for younger children, to the Summer Institute (SI) for middle and high school students, to a bevy of sports offerings, and the world renowned English Language Institute (ELI) program.
In fact, for the last 50 years Harker has served as a recognized resource for a wide breadth of summer happenings. New this season was expanded programming for the sports camps. According to Kelly Espinosa, director of summer programs, Harker has always had tennis, soccer, swimming and sports performance camps. But added this year were football, basketball, volleyball and water polo camps.
Much thought went into the new sports camps, which integrated lower and middle-school athletics with upper school instructors to create a seamless path for athletes within their chosen sports. Moreover, sports camp participants taking a morning sports program had the option to enroll separately in another camp’s afternoon activity as well.
At Harker, known for its academic excellence, athletic camps are just one of the summer options. For students in grades K-6, Camp+ offered a full day of morning academics and afternoon activities. Located on Harker’s lower school campus, parents chose sessions by their preferred format, with full, partial-day and morning-only options. Students had the choice of enrolling in either CoreFocus or LOL (Learning Opportunities in Literature). Both programs concluded at 11:30 a.m. to make room for the afternoon activity program, which lasts until 3:30. Core Focus is a three- or four-week math and language arts-focused program. LOL is a two-week integrated curriculum centered around a literary theme. After care is provided until 5:30, which includes pool time, archery and a climbing wall, among other activities.
Meanwhile, The Harker School’s Summer Institute (SI) gives students from grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills and follow their passions. This year’s institute attracted some 722 students, with many taking multiple courses. New offerings were art classes, including portfolio preparation in drawing, 2-D and 3-D. The for-credit courses included a variety of classes across math, history and technology. Upper school enrichment courses spanned math, writing, art, history and driver’s education. Middle school enrichment was also offered, and included several core subjects as well as classes such as So You Think You Can Cook? and Champion Chess.
All SI participants had access to the libraries, pools and a prepared lunch. The wide range of choices and flexible program allowed each student to design a schedule around his or her own academic needs and personal interests to give each their own mix of learning and fun.
In addition to sports offerings, Camp+ and SI, each year more than 100 international students – from elementary through high school – participate in Harker’s renowned ELI program. They come with the goal of improving their English and writing skills but leave with a breathtaking exposure to cultural adventures as well.
It may be an old cliché, but when it comes to educating these foreign students, the world really is their classroom. Cultural adventures give international students the opportunity to get out of the classroom and see top Bay Area sights and, in ELI, weekly field trips provide international students exposure to local points of interest such as the Golden Gate Bridge, beautiful California beaches, Northern California redwood forests and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The trips are incorporated into the curriculum and students use their travel experiences to create written and oral projects for presentation.
“Harker has been offering outstanding summer programs, held on the school’s safe, secure and centrally-located campuses, for over 50 years. We have everything a camp consumer could want,” said Espinosa, noting that whether just out of preschool or about to enter their last year of high school, students of all ages and backgrounds can find their perfect summer program at Harker.
For more information on Harker’s summer offerings visit www.summer.harker.org.
It’s not every day a Harker graduate gets to experience life on the other side of the classroom, but Vyvy Trinh ’07 was on the other side of the desk when she came out to Harker for a visit last spring.
Trinh, who starts medical school at Brown University this fall, had been teaching grade 5-6 after-school programs in San Francisco when she connected with Kate Shanahan, lower school English department chair.
“We had been in touch,” recalled Shanahan, “and I told her that if she wanted to, I’d love for her to come in and spend the day teaching in my room. She took me up on it and we essentially team-taught a lesson on the Hobbit book, something I had read with her many years ago.”
According to Shanahan, the students loved having Trinh in the classroom. And, she added, “it was great to come full circle with Vyvy!”
Harker volleyball team member Shannon Richardson, grade 9, wrapped up a stellar July by winning the USA Beach Junior Volleyball Championships, (National Division), age 14 and under category, with her partner, Alexandra Kim of Daly City. The event was held in Milwaukee, on July 28-29. In the two days of play, Richardson and Kim went undefeated.
Richardson and Kim competed against 16 other teams from around the country for the title. “It was a fantastic tournament,” said Ben Barr of USA Beach Junior Volleyball. “They should be very proud!”
In her warm up to nationals, Richardson had a great round in July, including four tournaments and a high performance camp and mini-tournament that was even tougher than the Nationals event.
Her first event was July 14. Richardson and her partner for the trip, Chanti Holroyd, a freshman at Mountain View High School, competed in a California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA) Cal Cup Qualifier in Pacific Palisades, earning first place in the age 14 and under category, qualifying them for the Sept. 2 championships in Manhattan Beach (see photos – Richardson is on the left in both, Holroyd is wearing the black and white top; Kim is wearing a tee shirt).
Next stop was the USA Junior Beach Volleyball High Performance Camp at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. At the conclusion of the four-day camp on July 18, Richardson participated in a mini-tournament in which girls had to play with a different partner for every match. Richardson was the only camper who did not lose a single match with any of her partners.
Immediately afterwards, Richardson moved on to the USA Junior Beach High Performance Championships at Hermosa Beach, July 19-21. The tourney started with two days of pool play, followed by a day with cross pool and finals. Richardson and Holroyd lost only one match on the first day of pool play, so advanced to finals where they took the gold medal, beating the one team they had lost to in pool play.
Next, July 22, the pair went after the 16-and under category in a CBVA tournament in Doheny, Calif., where they had some tough practice and earned second place.
Richardson’s last outing in this trip was a CBVA Qualifier in Santa Barbara July 24 where Richardson and Holroyd took first place, beating the team they lost to in Doheny two days earlier.
Richardson, who has competed for Harker since grade 4, then traveled to Milwaukee for the USA Junior Beach Championships, where she and partner Kim triumphed!
Brian Park, rising sixth grader (on right in photo) earned a bronze medal at the North American Cup in Anaheim in early July. He fenced in the Youth-10 Men’s Foil event on July 4, finishing third out of 122 entries. He is now ranked 25th in the U.S. in his age bracket.
In the tournament, Park, who fences at Silicon Valley Fencing Center in Los Altos and trains with the owners, Aleksei and Yuliya Murugin, won his pool with five victories and one defeat, seeding 22 going in to the elimination rounds. Park beat his first two elimination opponents easily, then came up against some of the toughest fencers in his age group in the country, starting with Kenji Bravo, who was seeded eighth out of pools and is ranked 14th in the U.S. Elimination bouts for those age 10 and under are of two out of three five-touch encounters.
In each of Park’s first two elimination bouts he won the first two encounters to advance; in the bout with Bravo it took all three encounters. Park won the first encounter 5-3, lost the second 2-5 then came back strong to win the tie breaker 5-0. Park advanced again after beating James Chen, ranked 11th in the U.S., then fenced a very tough bout with Leo Holmes, ranked fourth in the U.S., losing the first encounter 5-4, but overcoming that deficit with back-to-back wins 5-3, 5-3, to lock in a top-three medal.
Park was finally eliminated by Marcello Olivares, who took second, and is ranked number two in the U.S. Park, who has fenced for about three years, has only competed in two national events and four are totaled for national rankings. If Park continues to fencing well nationally his national ranking will rise rapidly. Congrats and best of luck in the upcoming season!
It’s not every day Harker librarians get the opportunity to spread their passion for reading by handing out free copies of their favorite books to an unsuspecting public.
Armed with a fierce belief in the power of the written word, two Harker librarians joined fellow bookworms from across the United States in participation of World Book Night, an ambitious campaign to give away half a million books for free in just one day.
On April 23, Lauri Vaughan, upper school campus librarian and Bernie Morrissey, middle school librarian, undertook the concerted effort to promote the joy of reading – one person at a time. From Kodiak, Ala., to Key West, Fla., in 6,000 towns and cities across America, volunteers like Vaughan and Morrissey went out into the community in order to share books in locations as diverse as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, ballparks, mass transit, diners and more.
Volunteers were given 20 specially printed copies of their stated favorite books, personally giving them away to new or light readers. They tried to reach many people in underserved places, knowing that a book has the power to open up the doors to new possibilities, and help make the world a better place.
American booksellers and publishers partnered with the first World Book Night in the U.S., following the impressive launch of this campaign by their bookselling and publishing colleagues in the U.K. and Ireland last year. This year, World Book Night took place in the U.K., U.S., and Germany, with thousands of volunteers going out into their communities to give away the special free paperbacks.
Vaughan, who is vice president of the Bay Area Independent School Librarian Association, chose to give out 20 copies of Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” at the Summit Store on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“I gave away 20 copies … it was so fun! I had to convince shoppers in about 10 seconds they should take the book from me. I had about a 90 percent success rate – almost anyone who listened took a copy of the book. Some needed convincing, but I loved the guy who said, ‘I know this book!’ and snatched it out of my hand. Overall it was a wonderful experience and gave me a great opportunity to practice my reading evangelism in public. It took me about a half hour to give away all 20 copies of ‘Ender’s Game,’” recalled Vaughan.
Meanwhile, Morrissey took to the streets of San Francisco, handing out his beloved copies of Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ rehearsal. “All 20 copies were gone in less than five minutes. I had announced the event in email and Facebook messages ahead of time, but some who didn’t get the message were suspicious about something being offered for free, with no strings attached. If given the opportunity, I would definitely participate again next year, probably by standing at the corner of 18th and Castro, handing out books in a much less structured environment,” he said.
The books, whittled down to 30 popular titles, were chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians through several rounds of voting. The printing of the free books was possible due to generosity of the authors, publishers and book manufacturing companies.
Examples of some of the books handed out included: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou (Ballantine), “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic), “Blood Work” by Michael Connelly (Grand Central), “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers (Vintage), “The Stand” by Stephen King (Anchor) and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult (Atria).
World Book Night in the U.S. is a nonprofit organization, backed by publishers, Barnes & Noble, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Ingram Content Group, United Parcel Services, and more than a dozen printers and paper companies.
Anna Quindlen, the U.S. campaign’s Honorary National Chairperson, said: “What’s better than a good book? A whole box of them, and the opportunity to share them with new readers. The idea behind World Book Night is inspired, and as a writer and a reader I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
Student golfer Maverick McNealy, who will enter grade 12 this fall, managed to make it to the final eight at the USGA Junior Amateur championship, held July 16-21 at the Golf Club of New England in Stratham, N.H.
McNealy faced Canada’s Matthew Scobie in the quarterfinal match, where he rallied back from 4 down after eight holes, winning three straight holes with birdies on holes nine and 10 and a bogey on hole 11. The back-and-forth continued with Scobie winning holes 12 and 14, and McNealy responding with a pair of birdies on the next two holes. On hole 18, McNealy earned a par to force the match to extra holes. Both players scored par on hole 19, but Scobie parred on the 20th hole to finally win the match.
“Though it was slightly disappointing, I was very, very happy with my first performance on an international stage,” McNealy said. “By making the top 8, I earned an exemption from qualifying for next year’s Junior Amateur at Martis Camp in Tahoe! Very exciting!”
McNealy closed several point deficits in the early rounds to qualify for the top 64, defeating Cameron Young of Scarborough, N.Y., Dylan Wu of Medford, Ore. and China’s Zecheng Dou.
June 13, 2012:
Rising senior Maverick McNealy recently took second place overall at the U.S. Junior Amateur qualifying golf tournament at the Sunnyside Country Club in Fresno. McNealy shot 70-73, earning the final spot in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship by a single shot, becoming one of 150 golfers in the country younger than 18 to compete in the championship.
The Sunnyside tournament was McNealy’s third attempt at qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur. In 100-degree weather, the tournament was especially challenging. “It was very difficult to stay mentally and physically sharp,” he said, “but I think the fact that I was very regimented with nutrition and hydration allowed me to make up a lot of ground on the second round.”
Part of the secret to McNealy’s recent success has been his steady training routine. “I practice and play every day of the summer, and have a very regimented pre-tournament routine. I do a workout two days before a tournament, but none the day of or day before. I get to the course 50 minutes before my tee time, and warm up on the range (I hit 13 wedges, 13 irons and 13 woods), then I chip and hit sand shots for about five minutes, and then putt until I head to the first tee,” he said.
McNealy will compete in the California State Amateur tournament in late June before heading to the U.S. Junior Amateur in July. He hopes one day to play division 1 golf in college.
Harker’s budding painters, photographers and mixed media gurus participated in two local art competitions in April and May, coming away with some prestigious awards. The office of Congressman Mike Honda held its annual “An Artistic Discovery” art contest on April 24.
The contest was open to students residing or going to school within the 15th Congressional District (which includes Harker). Winners included Anika Radiya-Dixit, grade 11, for best discussion piece, Sanjana Baldwa, grade 12, for best work in photography and Aditya Sastry, grade 12, for honorable mention in photography. Well done!
The museums of Los Gatos held “Social Matters,” a juried art exhibition at the Los Gatos Art Museum on May 9. The competition asked grade 9-12 students from around Santa Clara County: “What matters?” Awards ranged from being selected as an exhibited work to a grand prize award of $5,000.
Artists also could choose to include their framed pieces in a silent auction. Congratulations to Kacey Fang, grade 9, Tara Rezvani, grade 11, and Karen Wang, grade 12, whose art was exhibited and shown in the museum’ art reception.