Alexander Wang MS ’98 was recently named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” in the Art & Design category. Now a major figure in the fashion world, Wang, who turns 28 later this month, has built a $25 million business and earlier this year opened a store for his brand in the SoHo district of New York City. He has appeared regularly in publications such as The New York Times, Vogue and In Style. In September, he teamed up with designers Sophie Theallet and Billy Reid to design T-shirts celebrating the 40th anniversary of Starbucks Coffee.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Almost 200 high school students visited Nichols Hall on Oct. 22 for the first ever, independently organized TEDx Harker School event, put together by Neeraj Baid and Neel Bhoopalam, both grade 11. Headlined by keynote speaker Guy Kawasaki, the event featured five top entrepreneurs, each offering unique perspectives and advice to the young audience.
As chief evangelist at Apple in the 1980s, Kawasaki helped bring developers to Apple’s Macintosh platform. During his introduction, he asked how many members of the audience used Macs. Upon seeing the vast majority of the attendees raise their hands, he grinned and remarked, “I love to see that.”
With Steve Jobs still in headlines due to his recent passing, Kawasaki’s presentation focused on key lessons he learned from the late celebrity businessman and inventor. “I’m one of the few people who survived working for him twice,” he joked.
The first such lesson was, “Experts are clueless.” “If there’s anything that Apple has proven,” he said, “it’s that experts are often wrong.” He encouraged the audience to “learn to ignore experts.
“This may be contrary to what you’ve been taught, but experts usually define things within established limits, and I think you should break those limits,” he said.
Other lessons he learned from Jobs included the value of design, realizing that customers often don’t know what they need, and the concept that changing one’s mind is a sign of intelligence.
The conference was kicked off by Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Energy, who observed that the United States is “no longer number one in much of anything,” a far cry from when the U.S. “took over” the industrial revolution in the 1850s. Rising carbon dioxide levels present an opportunity for America to once again be a leading innovator, he said, “and the opportunity is to correct it.”
After identifying the various ways in which the world uses energy, Surace said there a number of things American businesses can now reinvent. “Whether it’s motors or pumps or washing machines or lighting or the way we operate buildings or all the supply side dynamics, we get to reinvent today, and this, in fact, is what America has always done best,” he said.
Karl Mehta, founder and CEO of PlaySpan, a micropayment company acquired by Visa in March, talked about what he called the “building blocks of entrepreneurship,” covering key principles that helped him in his business ventures. “Wealth creation is not just about money,” he said, but also about giving back to the people who enabled them to become entrepreneurs in the first place.
Mehta is currently a board member of Simpa Networks, which seeks to make energy available to people in poor and remote areas by allowing them to purchase credits for clean energy with an affordable “pay-as-you-go” model.
When founding a company, Mehta said, one of the most important steps is “to hire people who are smarter than you.” Forming an effective team means being able to find people who are strong in areas where others are not. “Seldom you’ll find individuals who are well-rounded, but generally only teams are well-rounded,” he said.
Following Mehta was Sramana Mitra, who has built three companies since 1994, two of which she has successfully sold. Instead of a presentation, she opted to “have a conversation” with the audience, recapping her journey as an entrepreneur and talking about some of the opportunities that await future generations. “By 2020, there are going to be five billion people on the Internet … So the potential for value creation, the potential for entrepreneurship, the potential for wealth creation ahead of your generation is immense,” she said.
She also talked about her “1 Million by 1 Million” initiative, which aims to help one million entrepreneurs reach $1 million in revenue by 2020, which would create a worldwide GDP of $1 trillion and create 10 million jobs. “We have entrepreneurs from all over the world, at all different stages of their lives and careers doing one million by one million right now,” she said. Those who wish to take part in the initiative can gain access to lectures, case studies and coaching via the website http://1m1m.sramanamitra.com
During the question and answer session, Mitra said that one way to help solve problems stemming from the current economic crisis is to “empower a lot more entrepreneurs … with the skills and knowledge of how to be successful entrepreneurs.”
Another dynamic speaker was Rahim Fazal, who sold his first company during his senior year of high school. He was spurred into entrepreneurship, funnily enough, after being fired from McDonald’s for working “too slow.” “I might be the only entrepreneur who’s ever been fired from McDonald’s,” he joked. He went on to start an online business with his friend, which resulted in him cutting several classes and sneaking out for far too many supposed bathroom breaks.
The pair made local headlines after selling the business for more than $1 million. Feeling confident, he stridently ignored his parents’ advice to go to college and started another business. “I thought I was on the top of the world,” he said. “That business ended up falling flat on its face, and lost almost all of this money that I made.” He then decided to listen to his parents and acquired an MBA.
Fazal’s current business is Involver, a social marketing company that helps companies leverage social networks to reach customers. Involver’s clients include Nike, Facebook and the National Football League.
He recommended that entrepreneurs build a group of people around them who can answer questions and solve problems for them that are outside their expertise, such as lawyers and accountants. Another point close to Fazal’s heart was “getting a life.” “If you’re not having a good time, if you’re not out there doing the things that regular kids do, then you’re going to completely regret it,” he said. “Make sure you’re actually doing stuff that’s fun, and that matters.”
Check out @TEDxHarker and tedx.harker.org for videos and photos of the event!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
The atmosphere at Harker’s Homecoming was jubilant in defiance of intermittent rain on Nov. 11, as both the JV and varsity Eagles met Cupertino High School at Davis Field. Both contests were thrillers, each decided by a single-score deficit, with JV losing 18-15 and varsity winning 35-28.
Aside from the games, the many attendees had plenty to keep them occupied. Prior to the varsity game, the Harker Jazz Band warmed up the crowd from the stands and the lower school’s junior cheer squad performed, to the delight of the audience. The Eaglets’ fly-by, a Harker Homecoming tradition, saw lower school students donning their trademark eagle costumes to perform a spirited and well-received dance routine. In a continuation of the spirit rally earlier in the day, students in grades 9 and 10 met to compete for third place in the tug of war contest, with the sophomores declared the winner.
Another special pre-game event was the singing of Harker’s school song as well as “The Star-Spangled Banner” by students representing vocal groups from all three Harker campuses.
In the stands and in areas around Davis Field, the atmosphere remained festive as people from virtually every corner of the Harker community came together. Lower and middle school students met and made new friends with upper school students. Returning alumni reunited and caught up with their former teachers and reminisced about their days as Harker students. “This brings back a lot of memories of last year,” said Chris McCallaCreary ’11. “I just hope these guys cherish it while they still have it.”
The upper school parking lot was active for the duration of the event, with student organizations setting up tables to sell food and souvenirs. John and Christine Davis, parents of Cole Davis ’11, brought their RV to the special alumni section, which was busy with alumni and parents chatting and enjoying the many food options available. The Eagle Buddies also had their own section, where students in that program, as well as their parents, met and socialized. “It’s just a great way for the K-12 community to get together and support the school,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school.
Following an exciting first half which left the varsity teams of Harker and Cupertino tied at 14 points, the crowd was treated to performances by the upper school cheerleaders and varsity dancers and also watched the tug of war contest between grades 11 and 12, who vied for first place. The seniors won the contest, continuing grade 12’s dominance in tug of war.
Capping off the halftime festivities was the appearance of the Homecoming court, each couple riding in golf carts driven by their class advisors. Nikoloff went out on to the field to thank the crowd for the great attendance and enthusiasm, before bestowing the title of Homecoming queen on Michelle Lo, grade 12, and naming Revanth Kosaraju, grade 12, this year’s Homecoming king.
The Eagles football players, thoroughly pumped to play two more quarters, burst through a large paper sign to signify the start of the second half. For the rest of the evening, onlookers watched as the Eagles soared to a hard-fought and well-deserved win.
On the following Monday, Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs, extended his thanks to all who helped make Homecoming “a rousing success. From the teams on the field, to the performers, to those working in the background on logistics; from food service, to the advancement staff, to the amazing facilities team; from the adults who volunteered or were assigned to work, to the athletic department; and finally, to those who simply attended and contributed to the wonderful spirit that could not be dampened by the rain – you have my thanks and appreciation for your contributions.”
Check out our Homecoming video posted on YouTube — search on “Harker Homecoming 2011”!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Harker, like most schools, hosts visitors at athletic events, student-run events like Junior States of America, performances of all types and debate and math invitationals. But as the school has matured, bringing people to the campus has taken on a new dimension.
A dozen years after the upper school came into being, Harker now hosts a myriad of events each year in addition to its student events, which bring to its Silicon Valley campuses visitors not only drawn from Harker families, but local and global intellectuals and art-seekers. The growth in visitors has been bolstered by a thriving academic environment across three campuses and the addition of the auditorium in Nichols Hall, which provides an acoustically appropriate space for small gatherings.
As the upper school found its groove, students began going off campus, representing Harker around the country, and, eventually, the globe. Administrators knew the value of bringing the world to Harker, too, and the doors were open to a variety of visitors from outside the Harker community of students, alumni, parents and relatives.
The Harker Invitational Debate Tournament, the first Harker-sponsored event to draw upper school students from other schools, started in 1999 and continues to this day. By its fifth year, the event drew teams from 20 schools from California, Oregon and Nevada. Another early event is the middle school’s Harker Math Invitational, which started in 2001.
The upper school performing arts events have always drawn crowds; in the fall of 2001, as the student body grew in size and maturity, the upper school play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” drew an estimated 1,000 audience members, and the following May more than 1,300 attended “Oklahoma!” Though audiences were no doubt mostly Harker community members, the shows have always been open to the public, and there were plenty of seats for friends, neighbors, and Shakespeare and musical aficionados.
Through the early 2000s, plays, concerts and dance productions involved more students, bringing more visitors to the campuses. Athletic events also grew in size and number as the upper school athletic program began to flower, and the debate tourney, now renamed the Howard and Diana Nichols Invitational Debate Tournament, and math invitational continued to draw middle school participants.
In 2004, events took on a new dimension and Harker began to bring people to campus to strengthen the school’s bonds with the greater community, inform parents and expose students to ever more sophisticated events. To that end, Harker joined Common Ground, a coalition of Bay Area schools working together to provide parent education to their communities.
As a member school, Harker began hosting speakers and, for the first time, parents from other schools began coming to campus regularly, other than for athletic events. In 2006, a Common Ground speaker at Harker drew 231 parents; 153 were from other schools, a full two-thirds of the audience.
In 2005, a wider variety of visitors started coming to Harker. The Junior State of America (JSA) club hosted a “Pizza and Politics” event to watch a presidential debate and more than 80 students and faculty, including JSA students from Independence High, San Jose High Academy and Monte Vista, attended and participated in the debate.
Capping off 2005, audiences were treated to Harker’s new performing arts venue in the middle school’s “cafetorium,” renamed the Blackford Theater by the performing arts department. The refurbished space is the primary performance venue for the school, with tons of parking, easy access through gates to the venue and a raised sound and light booth. Each year thousands attend events at the space, and the temporary digs have served a valuable function in keeping the performing arts department housed while funds are raised for the much-needed new performing arts center on the Saratoga campus.
In April 2006, a bright star, the Harker Research Symposium, appeared in the constellation of visitor-friendly events. Organized by Anita Chetty, science department chair, and the WiSTEM student organization (Women in Science Technology, Electronics and Mathematics), the symposium features talks by Siemens/Intel competitors and finalists; video conferences with Harker alumni at research labs across the United States; and workshops on technical writing, research internships and research competitions. The event has grown year by year and Chetty has been extremely successful in drawing progressively more high- profile speakers, who in turn draw avid adult listeners to the event.
The 2011 symposium, themed “A Call to Innovation,” drew 500 visitors, a 50 percent increase over 2010, and there were standing- room only audiences for world class keynote speakers Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO and chairman of the board of Sun Microsystems (and a Harker parent), and Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Facebook.
While science marched on, performing arts added new shows open to the public. The first all-jazz concert was held early in 2007 and in 2010 groups from all three campuses were participating. Upper school plays drew packed houses for their single-weekend performance runs and two musicals were selected to travel to the prestigious Festival Fringe in Scotland in the summers of 2007 and 2011.
In May 2007, ground was broken for a new science and technology building, Nichols Hall, including an auditorium with 192 stepped seats, a perfect venue for medium-sized audiences for lectures, small concerts and meetings.
At the other end of the campus, at the start of the 2007-08 school year, Davis Field opened. This emerald of a football field has it all, from a top notch artificial surface to ensure year-round games, to lights and seating for more than 500 spectators. Over this past summer seating was augmented, bringing the total capacity to 780. Besides spectators, last year Davis Field shook to the tramp of the 250-person UCLA Bruin Marching Band, which has four former members on faculty at Harker. The storied band borrowed Davis Field for practice before a game with University of California, Berkeley, to the delight of students and faculty.
A month after Davis Field opened, the adjacent, spacious Singh Aquatic Center was christened, providing a great competitive venue with bleachers for swimming and water polo competitions. To round out the athletic facilities, a new gym is planned on the same schedule as the performing arts center.
In March of 2008, Harker added a new dimension to its activities with the Harker Speaker Series (HSS), intended to bring leaders and visionaries from a wide variety of fields to share their expertise or unique experiences with both Harker and the greater community. Using the Nichols Hall auditorium, the gymnasium, or both, Harker has brought in nearly a dozen speakers of national acclaim.
“The addition of Nichols Hall – and the auditorium – provided the school with the perfect space to share even more with the K-12 community and the general public,” said Pam Dickinson, director of the Office of Communication. “We’ve always believed in fostering an inspiring and motivating community, and the expanded space gave us new opportunities to do that.”
From the start, HSS benefited from a serendipitous connection. “John Jerney helped us launch the HSS, and it was his brainchild,” said Dickinson. Jerney, a writer and Harker parent (Cristina, grade 11; John Nicolas, grade 8), brought the first speaker, Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, to Harker for the series, and followed up with many other connections.
HSS speakers in 2011 include decorated “Endeavour” astronaut Dr. Gregory Chamitoff, who spoke on achieving his lifelong dream of going into space, and Dr. Jill Tarter, director of SETI’s Center for SETI Research in Mountain View.
In January 2011, ragtime pianist Bob Milne, hired by the Library of Congress to create reference recordings of famous ragtime works, came to speak and perform as part of the HSS. His visit was the seed for the Harker Concert Series (HCS), which officially started two months later with a concert by the MarcOlivia Duo, two well-traveled, Fulbright-winning violinists who played stirring European folk songs. On December 2 of this year, Opera San Jose performed, and the spring semester 2012 will see visits from the Gerald Clayton Trio, pianist Adam Golka and Afiara String Quartet, all open to the public.
Two other important programs bring educators from around the Bay Area and beyond to Harker. Each year in late winter, Harker hosts the Silicon Valley Computer-Using Educators conference on the upper school campus. More than 200 teachers and administrators from all over Silicon Valley attended the conference in February 2010. In addition, each summer for the last five years, Harker’s technology department hosts teachers from around the Bay Area at the Harker Teacher Institute to hear speakers and attend workshops on classroom technology and other topics.
Harker librarians brought a stack of colleagues to Harker when they hosted a meeting of the Bay Area Independent School Librarians (BAISL) in 2010 on the Blackford campus. About 80 librarians, from Marin to Monterey, met in, of course, the library and in the multipurpose room.
Another unique event brought dozens of young Broadway hopefuls to Harker when the Broadway revival of “Annie” held its West Coast auditions at Blackford. For the full “Annie” story see page 36.
This year brought another first – a TEDx conference at Harker. This was the first student-organized and promoted conference and it was a resounding success, with speakers of world class caliber. For the full TEDx story, see page 6.
The launching of the Harker Speaker Series and the Harker Concert Series, combined with a focused performing arts program, events like the Harker Debate Invitational, the Harker Research Symposium and the Harker Math Invitational, have transformed Harker into a nexus for important ideas, events and gatherings, drawing more visitors and community members in 2010-11 than ever before. The benefit is that through these events, Harker families meet people who write, sing, play, travel in space, go to war zones, help the poor, develop new industries and entertain – truly illustrating Harker’s mission to raise global citizens and engage our local community.
Full reports on each of our events can be found at Harker News Online. Visit the News & Events tab at www.harker.org for upcoming Harker Speaker Series and Harker Concert Series events.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
1893
Manzanita Hall, founded by Frank Cramer at the urging of Stanford University’s first president, David Starr Jordan, is established in a private home at Waverly Street and University Avenue in Palo Alto.
1902
In September 1902, Catherine Harker, also encouraged by David Starr Jordon, opens The Thoburn School, a boarding school for young ladies. The preparatory school for girls is located at Kingsley and Bryant streets in Palo Alto. Initially a high school, The Thoburn School enrolls 80 students in its first year and graduates seven.
In the second year, the school’s name was changed to the Harker-Hughes School when Elizabeth Hughes came in as principal. Hughes stayed only one year.
1904
The Harker-Hughes School comes to be known simply as Miss Harker’s School in honor of Catherine Harker, whose scholarly achievements begin a tradition of academic excellence. Initially a high school, a lower school for girls age 5-14 is added between 1903 and 1921. The high school program is eliminated in the 1950s.
1907
Miss Harker’s School relocates to a 6.25-acre pasture at Harriet and Greenwood avenues in Palo Alto. The same year, Catherine’s sister, Sara Harker, joins the school as a silent business partner. Sara later becomes active in the school’s management.
1919
Colonel Richard P. Kelly, Dr. Greenville C. Emery, Katherine Monroe and Nellie P. Hansen purchase Manzanita Hall and launch the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA). At PAMA, in the second academic year, the high school is eliminated and grades 1-8 are taught. High school won’t return to either school until 1998.
Nellie Hanson spends 32 years operating the school’s summer camp, Camp El Dorado, at Alpine Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
1938
Catherine Harker dies suddenly, leaving the school’s management to her sister, Sara Harker.
1950
Major Donald L. Nichols, a 1926 graduate of Palo Alto Military Academy, purchases the school and takes over as superintendent when Col. Richard Kelly retires after 30 years of leading the school. Nichols brings along Lawrence Torcellini from San Rafael Military Academy as commandant of cadets.
1955
Alice Williams, a teacher at the school, is appointed principal of the Harker Day School, as it is reorganized to be a coeducational day school. Williams is influential in setting the philosophy and direction of the school in keeping with Sara Harker’s vision. Williams continues as principal when PAMA and Harker Day School merge and move to the new campus in San Jose.
1959
Major Donald L. Nichols purchases Harker Day School, located across the street from PAMA. He is simultaneously superintendent at PAMA and president of Harker Day School.
1965
Howard Nichols, son of Major Donald L. Nichols and a 1956 graduate of PAMA, joins PAMA’s staff as assistant commandant, P.E. teacher, athletic director and junior high school coach.
1972
PAMA and Harker Day School merge and become Harker Academy. The new school moves to the Mother Butler High School property in San Jose, now the upper school Saratoga campus. The new property is purchased with a significant personal investment from the Nichols family, and their commitment ensures the future of Harker Academy.
1976
The dedication of the Donald L. Nichols Sports Complex, with swimming, pool, tennis courts and athletic field, is held in May.
1979
Harker Grade 8 students take the first trip to Yosemite Institute.
Principal Alice Williams retires after 29 years of service.
The optional military program is phased out and extracurricular offerings are greatly expanded. Grade 9 is dropped and Harker Academy becomes a K-8 school.
1993
Nearly 100 years after Frank Cramer opened Manzanita Hall, Harker Academy is renamed The Harker School.
Headmaster Howard Nichols is named president of The Harker School and principal Diana Nichols is appointed as head of school.
Dobbins Hall opens in September on the Saratoga campus. The building includes 12 classrooms and two science labs.
1998
The Bucknall campus is purchased in January and opens in September with kindergarten through grade 3. The new Harker upper school opens on the Saratoga campus and admits the first grade 9 students. Adding one class per year, subsequent years brought grades 10, 11 and 12 to the upper school.
2000
Shah Hall opens in September for grades 7-8. The building includes nine classroom and three science labs
2002
The boarding program closes at the end of the academic year. The Harker Academy dorms were home to our boarding students for 30 years. With the opening of the upper school, the building was partially remodeled and named Manzanita Hall, where students now gather to dine.
Inaugural upper school graduation.
2005
Howard and Diana Nichols retire at the end of the academic year in June and Christopher Nikoloff, the associate head, is appointed as head of school.
2007
Davis Field, the first of two major athletic facilities to be completed, opens at the Saratoga campus in September.
2008
Saratoga’s new swimming complex, the Singh Aquatic Center, opens in January.
Nichols Hall, Harker’s LEED certified, 52,000-square-foot science and technology building, opens on the Saratoga campus in August.
Former Harker president Howard Nichols dies in December, aged 68.
2010
The new upper school library opens in August. The 3,803-square- foot facility features an eBeam-equipped classroom, expanded study areas and greater wireless connectivity.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
The Harker School has a long history of promoting the morals and character of its students, encouraging discovery of unique talents and passions and giving students opportunities to figure out who they are, and what they love. Recently, Harker added another dimension to its commitment to the whole student when the school was accepted as a Challenge Success partner.
Sponsored by Stanford University’s School of Education, Challenge Success “challenges the conventional, high pressure and narrow path to success and offers practical alternatives to pursue a broader definition of success,” said Butch Keller, upper school head.
“Partnering with Challenge Success is a good match for Harker. Their mission is to improve student well-being and engagement with learn ing, so the work we are doing at Challenge Success is a reflection of our philosophy, in many ways,” added Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for student affairs.
As a first step, Harker sent a team of administrators, faculty, parents and students to a weekend conference in early October. They attended workshops and met with Harker’s Challenge Success coach, Erika Fur.
“Erika is really a facilitator and helped us identify and clearly articulate our own goal,” said Gargano. “In general, our goal is to promote educational excellence and intellectual curiosity while honoring who our students are and their needs at every stage of development. We will meet with Erika in January so we can flesh out the goal and discuss potential action items. Later, we will discuss any steps we need to take to ensure we meet our goal.”
The Challenge Success team will attend the spring conference at Stanford to assess progress at that point and plan for the future to achieve Harker’s goals to best help students help themselves. If you would like more information, you can visit www. challengesuccess.org. You can also read more about the Harker team in Harker News Online; search on “Challenge Success.”
Team members are Gargano; Cindy Ellis, middle school head; Melinda Gonzales, academic counselor; Rebecca Williams, middle school English teacher; Mala Raghavan, upper school chemistry teacher; Helena Jerney, parent (Cristina, grade 11 and John Nicolas, grade 8); Jenny Chen, grade 11 student; and Darian Edvalson, grade 10 student.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
This October, a unique combination of events conspired to give performing arts students a at a hitherto unexplored area of their craft: the Broadway casting call.
It started when Laura Lang-Ree, K-12 performing arts department chair, was contacted by Lisa Schwebke ’04 about hosting a talent search she was associated with. Casting for a Broadway revival of “Annie” is underway and the West Coast casting call for the lead role and her orphan buddies needed a place to audition hopefuls.
Schwebke, a musical theater graduate of the Harker Conservatory certificate program, had interned and apprenticed at casting agency Telsey + Co., which was holding the casting call, and she now works as a talent agent with the Gersh Agency, who would love to place some of their talent in the show. Lang-Ree and the Telsey representative worked out the details and the deal was done.
The payoff was that Harker Conservatory certificate candidates and other performing arts students had an intense weekend in late October, attending a college casting workshop Friday afternoon, a workshop on casting in general that evening, and putting the new information to use at the casting call held at Blackford on Sunday.
Friday Afternoon
Schwebke was up to bat first. She hosted the Friday afternoon discussion in Nichols Hall with students in Cantilena, an upper school choral group, and the Advanced Scene Study, Choreography and Study of Dance classes.
Schwebke, perched on the edge of the stage, spoke about the satisfaction in her non-acting job and how she actually likes the casting side better than performing. A Manhattan resident who attended New York University’s Steinhardt School, she noted the training she received while getting her Conservatory certificate has helped her virtually every day of her career. “The discipline and foundation in the arts I learned [at Harker] comes into play every single day of my life,” she said. “I don’t think I would have gotten that training anywhere else.”
Her best advice for current Conservatory candidates is to “be open to all the possibilities. I really didn’t understand that there were options other than to be an actor, and I’m having so much more fun doing what I am doing now that I ever did when I was acting. I loved [acting], but to help other actors and to use different parts of my brain that I maybe wasn’t using on that track is such a treat.”
Friday Evening
That same evening, Schwebke and Telsey casting director Rachel Hoffman teamed up for a Conservatory-sponsored workshop, “How Broadway Casting is Done.” They discussed the difference between a talent agent and a casting director, gave tips to the students about following different courses in college, and answered the students’ various questions about “the biz.” Twenty-five Conservatory candidates attended the workshop.
“It was great,” said Lang-Ree of the audition workshop. “It was a unique look at the business of casting; not only could my students gain information about casting and understand it in a whole different way, but they got to show their stuff as well. I had a couple of students prepare their work to show it to Rachel for feedback. That was very informative not only for the students who were brave enough to do that but for the students watching. You learn so much by observation in the arts,” she said.
Sunday
Then, Sunday, 30 Conservatory candidates in two shifts helped manage the flow of tiny hopefuls to and from the audition rooms, as Hoffman and two of her New York colleagues finished up a yearlong search for the next cast of “Annie,” being revived on Broadway next year.
Gathering in the Blackford campus’ outdoor eating area, the morning shift of 15 interns was instructed on how to help those auditioning to fill out the proper releases, where the prospective Annies and orphans would go first, and where to take them when they moved to the second round or were through for the day.
Those trying out for parts began arriving at 8:30 a.m., settled at picnic tables and passed the time until called.
“The amphitheater is the holding room,” said Alice Tsui, grade 11 and a theater certificate candidate. Once called in, hopefuls “go in one by one and sing to them. It is very exciting,” she added.
Interns first led those auditioning in groups of eight to the initial try-out room, helping build energy and confidence by having them skip or weave between the poles along the walkway. While waiting outside the auditioning rooms, interns read parts to cue those auditioning, high-fived those exiting and gave advice on speaking with emphasis.
“I thought it would be a really good experience,” said Tsui, “especially because it was a real Broadway audition. I thought it would be a great chance to see what goes on beyond the walls of high school and it has been fascinating.”
“Auditions went great,” said Hoffman. “Having the casting call at Harker has been a win- win all around. Harker has been a beautiful facility. The interns have been fantastic. I think they’ve had fun and they have been great.
“I love that high school kids are the interns because little girls that age always look up to older girls, so they have been fantastic about being encouraging; a big part of this is to encourage self-esteem in these girls. The interns have been fantastic at that throughout the day!” said Hoffman.
Lang-Ree was on cloud nine with all the outside expertise flowing to Conservatory candidates. “It has been an incredible opportunity to have that kind of one-on-one contact with live theater on Broadway,” she said. “It has allowed students to see the business from a very personal point of view.”
Between the Friday afternoon session, the Friday evening session and Sunday’s casting call effort, “ interns have had an opportunity to see the business from multiple sides, and that is something that is really important to the Conservatory teachers,” Lang-Ree said.
“While we all understand that passion and joy of performing and we all still perform ourselves, there is something about knowing that there is more to being in the arts than being the one shining star on Broadway – that there is this whole world open to them to remain in the arts their entire lives in directing, casting, stage management or even being that star on Broadway.
“This whole process was so successful from our end, and hopefully from Telsey’s. We all got along so well they may return in February for a workshop and we hope to piggy back on that. This is a home run for us and a home run for them, so we would do it again in a heartbeat,” concluded Lang-Ree.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
In early November, Greg Kastelman ’05 returned to The Harker School to run a workshop for instrumentalists and vocalists interested in pursuing the arts in college.
Kastelman is a public relations manager and booking agent with iCadenza, a company that works with young professionals, aiming to give them a strong start and skill set in creative fields.
Kastelman contacted Laura Lang-Ree, chair of the K-12 performing arts department, about coming to speak with the students.
Twenty-five students attended the workshop, and Kastelman emphasized throughout the workshop, “You create your own opportunities. Your career is what you create.” This goes for everything from finding a job to self-promotion.
Govinda Dasu, grade 12, said, “You can create your own job in the performing arts.”
Kastelman talked to students about the differences between conservatories and regular universities with performing arts programs. Susan Nace, a performing arts teacher at the upper school, says he took care also to say, “You don’t have to major in performing arts to be involved in performing arts in college.”
This point particularly resonated with Sean Knudsen, grade 10, who said that learning there are lots of options in the performing arts in college, even if you aren’t majoring or minoring in them, was “the most important thing I learned.”
From there, Kastelman branched into being involved in the performing arts without necessarily being a performer.
According to Nace, the students agreed that an interactive discussion about competition and collaboration was the highlight of the event, with Kastelman arguing that, while “competition is good for continued growth, collaboration is important, too.”
At the end of event, Lang-Ree said, “I hope that it gave our students a different way about thinking about their future lives in the arts, perhaps a new direction or a renewed commitment. The workshop got them to focus on their strengths and ambitions, and on ways of looking for a college that best suits those.”
Reflecting on the workshop, Payal Modi, grade 11, said, “I gained a lot of insight into my main question: ‘What really happens when people go off to college to pursue performing arts as a career?’”
This article originally appeared in the winter 2011 Harker Quarterly.
Tevis Howard ’98 spent a gap year in Kenya doing malaria immunology research before attending Brown University to earn a B.Sc. in neuroscience in 2007. While a junior there, he founded KOMAZA, a social enterprise working to get rural families in Kenya out of extreme poverty. Since 2008, KOMAZA (www.komaza.org) has planted more than 650,000 income-generating trees with nearly 3,000 farmers, and is now working to grow more than 3.5 million trees with 15,000 families by 2013. Be sure to check out the videos of KOMAZA’s work when you log onto their site.
Q: When you were at Harker, did you dream of doing what you do now?
A: Never! In school I was passionate about science. Winning the Harker seventh grade science fair encouraged me to continue science through high school and into university. My gap year in Kenya exposed me to a new set of challenges and opportunities, inspiring me to switch my focus from science to social entrepreneurship.
Q: What personal traits make you successful at what you are doing?
A: Passion, creativity, critical thinking, empathy, psychological resiliency and unfailing perseverance; entrepreneurship is rarely easy or straightforward.
Q: What in your life so far took you the longest time to learn?
A: It took me some time to realize the need and passion for applying my efforts and leveraging my good fortunes (great education) to make dramatic and sustainable improvements in the lives of the least fortunate. There are big problems on this planet today – 1 billion people (three times the population of the U.S.) struggle for basic survival in extreme poverty on less than a dollar per day. Now I aspire to create as much positive real- world impact as possible.
Q: What’s on the top of your personal and professional “lists” right now?
A: Professionally, my biggest goals are to hire an experienced president to help me raise growth capital for scaling up. We have great traction in Kenya, but now we need to build the managerial and operational capacity to plant over 25 million trees with 100,000 farmers by 2015, becoming the largest forestry company in East Africa. Most of my current personal goals are also professional goals (like, reply to emails faster!). Once I have more time, I’d like to invest a bit more in rekindling friendships and old hobbies – skiing in California and road trips across Africa.
Q: Tell us something surprising about yourself.
A: Despite being prone to sunburn and not really enjoying beaches, I’ve spent more than six years living and working in coastal, equatorial Kenya. My favorite hobby is mediocre gardening/landscaping.
Q: What advice do you have for current Harker students?
A: Get out and see the world! Before you do, it seems really big; once you have, you’ll realize it’s very small. Educate yourself about the major challenges and opportunities we’re facing as a planet over the next 50 years. There are a dozen or so big issues, and many will become intensely exciting and critically important. We are incredibly fortunate to be born into this hyper-accelerating era of humanity (vs. a hunter-gather 20,000 years ago). As current and recent generations of Harker students, we have more opportunity to make an impact with our lives, to build the world we want, than any previous generation of humanity. And we better get it right – if we don’t, we’ll be in for some rough waters; if we do, the future will yield unimaginable awesomeness.
The following is excerpted from the story “New Features Around Campus,” which appears in the Aug. 26 edition of The Winged Post.
The science department has sponsored installation of an aquarium that features many species of tropical fish, coral and other invertebrates, and live rock from Fiji taken from an actual coral reef.
Science department chair and biology teacher Anita Chetty wanted to invite students to the atrium, rather than just have them pass through to class.
“I wanted to enhance the atrium and give it life,” Chetty said.
Funding for the installation came from the prize money won by last year’s seven Intel semifinalists.