In late March, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Apurva Tandon and Emily Chu, all grade 11, Monica Kumaran, grade 10, and Ayush Midha, grade 9, will travel with science department chair Anita Chetty and upper school biology teacher Gary Blickenstaff to Cambridge University for the first Triple Helix Science in Society Conference.
The conference is held by the Cambridge Chapter of The Triple Helix, a nonprofit organization that publishes scientific articles by university students from all over the world. Harker is the first, and so far only, high school chapter for the organization, and will be the only U.S. high school represented at the conference. The students and teachers will be attending the conference, which takes place April 5, with students from other U.K. private schools, and will have the chance to attend a panel debate, prepare posters to present their own research and more.
Football players in grades 6 through 8 looking to improve their skills at a certain position or learn a new one will have the chance to learn from one of the sport’s most respected trainers at the Harker Football School. The program starts Tues., March 13, and will run every Tuesday and Thursday until May 17.
“Success in producing football players who can compete on the highest level is the direct result of a consistent commitment to developing athletes who are sound in the fundamental skills of their respective positions,” says Harker football coach Ron Forbes, who directs the program.
Over a career spanning more than 15 years, Forbes has trained more than 60 athletes who were later drafted by the National Football League. He helped the University of Florida Gators on their way to seven consecutive bowl games, and helped Stanford secure its spot as one of the top teams in the NCAA’s PAC 10 division, second only to the University of Southern California.
Harker Football School sessions will take place at the upper school campus at 500 Saratoga Ave. in San Jose. Beginning- to advanced players will participate in practice drills to build speed, agility and quickness, learning fundamental skills such as proper stance and start, as well as higher-level concepts such as advanced offensive and defensive strategy.
Individual sessions can be purchased for $25 each. Purchasing a package of five sessions for $95 will save $6 per session for a total savings of $30. A package of 10 sessions is available for $125, cutting the cost of each session in half to save 50 percent overall. Tickets can be purchased at the following URL: http://bit.ly/wZOTko. The general public can register by clicking here. Harker parents should register from the link in the Harker Parent Portal.
Harker third graders enjoyed a memorable field trip Jan. 13, spending the day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. First on the agenda was attending the Ocean Explorers program, “Sharks: The Real Story.” The program, held in the aquarium’s gymnasium, helped focus the students for their visit with behind-the-scenes footage and “inside stories” from the deep seas.
After the presentation, the student groups were free to explore the aquarium on their own, and they took full advantage, enjoying the splash zone, jellyfish, touch pools, puffins and kelp forest. Jeannette Bhatia, grade 3 science instructor, said, “The children had a fantastic time with some of their favorite exhibits being the penguins and seahorses.” What an exciting, aquatic adventure!
Harker Conservatory alumni reunited in late December for the fourth Alumni Conservatory Classic, held in the Nichols Hall auditorium, featuring alumni from as far back as 2004.
Instrumental talent on display included violinists Audrey Kwong ’07 and Stephanie Kim ’08, violist Warren Kwong ’11 and cellist Julia Shim ’10, who performed Felix Mendelssohn’s “String Quartet in f minor, Op. 80” to kick off the concert. Later, guitarist Roger Kim ’07 performed his own arrangement of Cole Porter’s “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”
Among the many vocal performers onstage during the evening was Christina Li ’11, who performed an original song, titled “Run,” from her self-released album “Songs of Innocence,” with fellow 2011 grad Daisy Mohrman performing a dance to the song. Li later joined a large collection of former Cantilena members onstage to perform a selection of songs that included Abbie Betinis’ “Be Like the Bird,” which featured lyrics by Victor Hugo, the traditional “How Can I Keep From Singing” and “The Winter’s Night” by Nicholas Myers.
Other solo performances included “Breathe” from the Broadway musical “In the Heights,” by Siobhan Stevenson ’07, Andrew York’s “Letting Go” by guitarist Nikhil Parthasarathy ’11 and “Le Temps des Cathedrales” from the musical “Notre-Dame de Paris,” sung by Sean Avery-Martin ’11.
Guys’ Gig alumni closed the show with arranged versions of popular songs such as “In the End” by Linkin Park, and One Republic’s “All I Need” and “Good Life.”
A group of grade 6 advisories worked together to send 110 Valentine’s Day cards to deployed military personnel all over the world. The project involved the advisories of Lisa Masoni, Julie Pinzás, Kate Murphy, Karina Momary, Lorena Martinez, Mark Gelineau and Melanie McKenna. The groups met to make the Valentines, which will be shipped in care packages through the nonprofit “A Million Thanks.” “Students worked for a week and a half using glitter, construction paper, stamps and patterns,” said Momary. “Each card had a heartfelt message, kind comments, jokes and words of encouragement.”
Some advisories are continuing the card-making project through March, making thank you cards to be delivered later in the year.
Tara Priya (better known to us as Tara Chandra ’06) is hitting her stride as a professional singer! She is #2 in on the Japanese MacDonalds Zip Hot 100 chart this week and just released a new music video. Note: this video contains a bit of strong language and suggestive scenes. We rate it PG-13!
Chandra graduated from Columbia University in economics, political science and music performance in 2008. After spending a brief time in the financial field, she returned to her true passion, music. She recently moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, where she is pursuing a career as a singer and songwriter. To read more about her, see our Harker Quarterly article, reprinted in Harker News Online.
At the end of January, The Harker School had a pajama and book assembly at which pairs of pajamas and books were donated to The Pajama Program, who will give them to children living in shelters in the San Jose area.
Before the assembly started, friendship and caring among the Harker students was emphasized by a visit between the Eagle Buddies. Each grade 3 student is matched with a grade 10 “buddy,” and on this occasion, the buddies spent nearly half an hour before the assembly talking and catching up with each other.
The rest of the lower school students then filed in for the assembly. Pallie Zambrano from The Pajama Program came to pick up the donations – 425 pairs of pajamas and 475 books in all – and explained the importance of them, and what they mean for children living in shelters. She told students that Harker has donated more than 1800 pairs of pajamas over the last five years. Following her talk, Butch Keller, upper school division head, performed a lively reading of the book “The Spiffiest Giant in Town,” a story about a giant who gives his clothes to those in need.
The assembly finished off with all the students reading. The Eagle Buddies paired up again for the grade 10 buddies to read to their grade 3 buddies.
Joe Connolly, dean of students K-5, said the event was “lots of fun. It was special to see the interaction between the big buddies and little buddies. The 3rd graders look forward to the times they get to spend with their big buddies. They were so excited all week and they told me they had a great time.”
At the end of January, the upper school Conservatory had its annual WinterSong concert. This spectacular performance features Bel Canto, an introductory choir at Harker for students grades 9-11 known for the many musical genres it explores. Several of these were featured at the show, including musical theater, pop and classical, the last of which was particularly rich this year due to two special guests: Cantilena – Harker’s “all-classical-all-the-time” women’s ensemble – and Camerata – a mixed classical, choral chamber ensemble, who peform essential works in various languages. Each group performed one piece at WinterSong this year, directed by Susan Nace. Between the various groups as well as the solo artist, students from every upper school grade level were represented at this year’s event.
In addition to collaborating with soloists, Bel Canto also joined forces with a few talented instrumentalists. Jennifer Cowgill, Bel Canto’s conductor and the show’s director, was particular enthusiastic about the group’s rendition of “Old Dan Tucker.” She said, “Everyone had a wonderful time singing this American folk song,” which was accompanied by the fiddle and the bass, played by Toni Woodruff and Jeffrey Kwong, grade 12. Kwong and Woodruff also joined Paul Woodruff, a performing arts aide, on two movements from Vivaldi’s “Gloria.”
Members of the grade 6 choir “Dynamics” traveled to the lower school on Jan. 13 to present interested fourth and fifth graders with a taste of what to expect in middle school, and to drum up interest in taking the choir elective. The sixth graders, dressed in their bright blue Dynamics shirts, worked with the lower school students on tongue twisters with choreography to better enunciate while singing. The middle school students also performed a choreographed song, with the younger students dancing and singing along with them.
While grade 4 and 5 is a more traditional choir, Dynamics is a very high energy show choir, bearing some similarities to musical numbers on the television show “Glee.” “Every year I have sixth graders coming to me saying they wished they had signed up for choir, but they did not realize it was going to be so much fun,” said the group’s director, Roxann Hagemeyer. Based on the energy and laughter seen on Jan. 13, that may not be a problem next year.
On Dec. 10, four lucky Harker students enjoyed a whirlwind day in San Francisco with two of their favorite teachers. The grade 5 students, Arushee Bhoja, Devanshi Mehta, Nikhil Dharmaraj and Ayush Pancholy, won the trip at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic auction on Oct. 9, where fun and silly teacher packages are auctioned off every year.
Accompanied by teachers Pat Walsh and Kate Shanahan, the excited students rode a cable car, visited AT&T park, North Beach and Chinatown, where the fortune cookie factory was deemed “awesome.” Said Shanahan, “The kids got a special kick out of where we stopped for dessert on the way home – a famous drive-through convenience store in South San Francisco!”
All in all, it was a fantastic day, full of memories and laughter.