Grade 1 language arts classes had an opportunity to see literature in action when a demonstration of agility dog training came to campus. Led by a Harker mom, Tania Chadwick (Carter, grade 1), the visit tied in with students’ reading of “Officer Buckle and Gloria,” the story of a police officer and his faithful dog who are advocates for safe activities. Students heard a short introduction to the sport of dog agility, the importance of responsible dog ownership, the value of dog training and how to be a good citizen of the community with your dog.
Chadwick brought a variety of dogs, including border collies, golden retrievers and Havanese to show that any size and any age of dog can do agility courses. She talked about how the training relationship and teamwork is the crux of any successful agility team. Students then got to watch the Fortis Agility Team demonstrate their prowess on each obstacle before running through an abbreviated obstacle course including few jumps, an open tunnel and weave poles.
Chadwick has been competing in dog agility since 1996 and started Fortis Agility Sports Training, an agility training school, in 2002. She competes with two border collies, her third and fourth dogs involved in the activity. Chadwick has competed at the dog agility world championships for nine years and was a finalist in 2004; her border collie, Kidd, was ranked in the top ten of agility for four years and attained the highest achievement in the United States Dog Agility Association by earning the Platinum Agility Dog Champion title as well as attaining the Platinum Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Harker Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) released the inaugural edition of its newsletter in early April. “The Rainbow Connection” contains a variety of interviews, personal submissions and articles related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community. The newsletter features members of the Harker community including current students, alumni, a faculty member and a parent, and is available in print and online.
In his inaugural letter for the newsletter, Abel Olivas, GSA adviser and upper school Spanish teacher, said the newsletter is “an extension of the GSA’s objectives: to give a voice to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered members of our community and their families and allies.” Olivas said one of the newsletter’s goals is to provide support for LGBT folks, “facilitate their creating a space for themselves as LGBT people at our school and to promote understanding and respect for all of Harker’s diversity.”
April 20, 2011 – Alison Rugar, grade 10, softball pitcher, was noted in the San Jose Mercury News “Highlight Reel” section in sports in print and online for her 13-strikeout shutout of Mercy Burlingame. She was 7-1 following that game.
April 14, 2011 – Shannon Self MS ’91 was pictured and mentioned in the San Jose Mercury News entertainment section for her role in “Chicago,” a production by Children’s Musical Theater San Jose running through April 23.
April 10, 2011 – Anita Chetty, science department chair, was quoted in a San Jose Mercury News reprint/repost of a New York Times article about the new Google Science Fair.
April 6, 2011 – Jason Martin ’07 was noted in the San Jose Mercury News “Movin’ On Up” section in sports for having broken the first of many records he is approaching as a member of the San Jose State University baseball team. His 247 hits put him in the record books and he added two more hits that day to seal the deal.
March 25, 2011 – The Harker Concert Series’ Taylor Eigsti Trio was noted in the Take Your Pick! Section of the San Jose Mercury News.
March 16, 2011 – Ashley Del Alto, grade 10, was mentioned in print and online in the San Jose Mercury News “Highlight Reel” section in sports for her softball prowess in a 13-3 win over Andrew Hill. Del Alto had three hits, two RBIs and scored four runs in the game.
Jan. 26, 2011 – Daniza Rodriguez, grade 10, was named athlete of the week by the San Jose Mercury News and featured in their sports section in print and online. It mentioned several instances where she changed the course of the game though her efforts.
Upper school students packed the Saratoga gym in early April to attend a talk by Stanford graduate student Carissa Romero, who earlier in the year helped administer a test made up of SAT math questions to several Harker students.
The purpose of the test was to determine how a student’s mindset on intelligence could affect the outcome of an exam. During the April assembly, Romero presented eye-opening data from various studies that strongly supported the idea that intelligence can be grown, and that a high IQ is not something people simply do or do not have.
Students who believed that higher intelligence was the result of hard work and studying, for instance, were found to have better grades on exams than those who had the “fixed intelligence” mindset. These “growth mindset” students, her data showed, also highly valued effort and said they were more likely to spend more time on something when setbacks occurred. Fixed mindset students, on the other hand, were more likely to give up or spend less time when presented with setbacks.
During her presentation, Romero also showed a video TV news segment that showed children responded differently to various types of feedback. Children who were congratulated for working hard on a problem set were more likely to attempt more challenging problems, while those who were told that they were smart favored doing sets of similar problems to avoid being discouraged. In other studies, students with the growth mindset performed better on IQ tests than did those with the fixed mindset.
These and other data added more fuel to the notion that the brain is like a muscle that can be exercised to work better and more efficiently as it forms new connections between neurons. In one example, the part of the brain that specializes in spatial abilities was shown to be larger than average in London taxi drivers.
April 29, 2011 Update: Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer, has written an extensive blog about his visit with Daniela Lapidous and Shreya Indukuri, both grade 11. Read the blog here. April 20, 2011 Two Harker students attending Power Shift ’11 in Washington, D.C., earlier this month had the ear of 8,000 attendees, then had a private meeting with Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer in the Obama administration. Shreya Indukuri and Daniela Lapidous, both grade 11, addressed the crowd of 8,000-plus at the conference then went on to meet with Chopra for about 30 minutes. The two students have been very active in advocating for reducing energy use through technology and other methods. A list of Harker News Online articles on their activities is at the end of this article. “The meeting [with Chopra] went really well,” said Indukuri. “He was very impressed with the opportunities for energy efficiency in schools and he wants to have Lisa Jackson, administrator of the EPA, and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, write a letter to schools to launch a campaign for energy benchmarking. “He loved Harker’s new energy efficiency with the smart energy system and was very supportive of our efforts to take this to other schools; we already helped students implement this project successfully in the Los Gatos – Saratoga High School District,” she added. “We also met with staff members and the director of ARPA-E, (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy),” added Lapidous. “Their director is Arun Majumdar, and they basically invest in breakthrough clean energy technologies in hopes of finding the next big thing. “We made two presentations,” said Lapidous. “The first was more of an informal conversation while the second was a formal presentation including a segment of the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) presentation. The audience was a varying number of ARPA-E staff, who are all rather young and very nice.” Following the presentations, “Majumdar came to talk to us personally for about 30 minutes,” said Lapidous. “The post-doctoral fellow who organized the meeting for us, Karma Sawyer, said she couldn’t remember the last time she scheduled a 30-minute meeting for him – usually they are 10 minutes. He lives in the Bay Area when not working in D.C., and he knew exactly where Harker was. “Both he and Mr. Chopra said that this smart energy project was essentially a no-brainer with an obvious positive impact for schools. They both acknowledged the environmental importance but were understandably more interested in the 250 percent ROI our project turned over in about a year,” Lapidous said. “PowerShift, the meeting with Mr. Chopra, and the meeting with Mr. Majumdar were all very exciting and we are extremely inspired to work 10 times harder on SmartPowerEd and expand it to more schools in the Bay Area before the fall comes around,” she finished. http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/green-projects-featured-on-49ers-kids-program/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/energy-dashboard-goes-live/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/unicef-video-includes-activist-students-in-video/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/students-filmed-for-video-on-ace-grant-recipients/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/student-presents-at-tech-titans-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/harker-trio-gangs-up-on-global-warming/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/winged-post-reports-on-teen-tech-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/sophomores-report-on-l-a-climate-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/students-invited-to-climate-summit/
This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
L-R Matt Brooks, who graduated from Harker predecessor Palo Alto Military Academy in 1967; then-California Secretary of State Jerry Brown; and Major Donald L. Nichols. “This photo was likely taken in 1974 at the Brooks residence in San Leandro,” said Brooks. “Jerry Brown was California secretary of state, running for governor. My father, Jack Brooks, was Jerry Brown’s campaign finance chair, and I was Jerry Brown’s campaign youth chair.”
The Harker School, in collaboration with the Sutter Visiting Nurses organization, worked to provide middle and upper school students with their Pertussis (whooping cough) booster shots on both campuses April 19.
It will be required that middle school students and older all have these shots prior to starting school next fall, and in an effort to help Harker students (and parents) avoid the lines in September, Harker invited a team of nurses to deliver the shots to students.
Debra Nott, Harker’s head nurse, helped coordinate the effort that not only provided protection against whooping cough, but also against Diptheria and Tetanus (TDAP).
For more information, contact Nott at debran@harker.org.
Update:
April 19, 2011
Swimming
Boys swimming had their first meet of the season last week, a 90-64 loss to Menlo School. Harker won six of 11 events but Menlo’s depth out-paced Harker. Kevin Khojasteh and Daryl Neubieser, both grade 11, each won two events, and Chris Ng, grade 12, won one event. Also, the 200-relay team of Khojasteh, Ng, Neubieser and Hassaan Ebrahim, grade 12, won the 200-freestyle relay. CCS qualifications were made by Khojasteh in the 200-IM and 100-breaststroke and by Neubieser in the 50-freestyle and 500-freestyle. Also, the 200-medley relay and the 200-freestyle relay teams both qualified for CCS.
April 15, 2011
Track
Early in the season, at Leland’s Quicksilver Classic, Claudia Tischler, grade 9, galloped into third place for the two-mile race (3,200), running a 12:04. At the Del Mar Classic Invitational, Tischler took first place in the girls varsity two-mile, running a 12:09. Michael Chen, grade 10, placed third in both freshman/sophomore discus and shot put, throwing 86 ft. 4 in. and 38 ft. 10 in., respectively.
At WBAL 2, at the end of March, Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 10, took first place in both the one-mile and the two-mile, running a 5:52 and 12:48, respectively. Tyler Yeats, grade 10, took second in a photo finish two-mile running an 11:33.88, missing first place by .04 seconds. Isabelle Connell, grade 10, ran the 400-meter in 1:00.25, taking second place. Puneet Sidhu, grade 12, triple jumped her way into second place at 28 ft. 10 in. Matthew Giammona, grade 10, threw the discus 95 ft. 3.5 in. placing second; his classmate Chen threw the shot put 38 ft. 5.5 in., taking third in that event.
Prior to that, at the St. Francis Invitational, Connell placed third in the JV 400-meter, breaking one minute with a lightning fast 59.80, and setting a personal record!
Tennis
Harker defeated Mission Trail Athletic League leader Carmel High (13-5) this week at Blackford. Despite losing our No. 2 singles player, Derek Tzeng, grade 11, to illness, the team was forced to ‘play up’ and the singles players played out of position. Singles players Karthik Dhore, grade 12, Chris Chang, grade 10 and Justin Yang, grade 10, were all victorious. Equally impressive were Harker’s doubles teams, who all won in straight sets, particularly No. 2 doubles Nikhil Narayen and Sachin Jain, both grade 11 (6-2, 6-0), and No. 3 team of Simar Mangat and Nikhil Panu, both grade 10, (6-1, 6-1). With the victory, Harker’s overall record stands at 9-3.
Earlier week, the boys tennis team turned things around to beat Sacred Heart Prep (SHP) at their second meeting by the same score by which SHP had defeated them in March. This time, things were different as Harker had all three of its top singles players in the match. Only second and third doubles lost, both in close third set tiebreakers. With the win, Harker improves to an overall record of 8-3 and is 7-2 in the WBAL, tied with SHP. However, we hold the tiebreaker advantage over SHP by virtue of a slim 17-15 overall set advantage.
Softball
The softball team had five wins in a row between mid-March and early April, before losing a close one this week, 4-3 to Notre Dame-San Jose. Victoria Liang, grade 12, was two for four batting and Alison Rugar, grade 10, pitched 10 strikeouts. The loss puts them in a tie for first place in league at 3-1. In early April the girls defeated King’s Academy 4-2. Rugar pitched 16 strikeouts to seal the victory. A few days prior, for the first time ever, our softball team defeated rival Castilleja 8-3; Rugar pitched 10 strikeouts and went two for three batting with a triple, double and three RBIs. Hits were also recorded from Liang, Tracey Chan, Aileen Wen, all seniors; Ashley Del Alto, grade 10; and Nithya Vemireddy, grade 9.
Baseball
Baseball lost a close one in mid-April to Woodside 2-1. Amir Mortazavi, grade 12, pitched six solid innings in the loss. A few days before, the team had a dramatic come-from-behind victory against league foe Crystal Springs. Nate Hoffman, grade 11, had a clutch bases loaded double with two outs and a 3-2 count to lead a five-run sixth inning for the 8-7 victory. In early April the team lost to Capuchino 10-4, despite a triple and a run scored by Greg Cox, grade 12.
Golf
After four straight wins early in the season, boys golf broke rhythm when the rains hit, and in early April lost to SHP 214-221, though Maverick McNealy, grade 10, earned medalist honors shooting a 37. The boys are now 4-3 in league. In an earlier match against Menlo, freshman Vik Bhagat was Harker’s low man, shooting a 39.
Volleyball
Boys volleyball went 6-0 on April 9, the second day of the Bellarmine Tournament, earning the Bronze Division Championship by defeating Serra, Leland and Valley Christian to seal the title. The week before, the team defeated King’s Academy behind 22 kills from Jacob Chappell, grade 12. Classmate Zach Mank contributed with nine blocks. At the Watsonville Tournament, the team was named silver division champs; the boys lost to Pajaro Valley before defeating Palma, Watsonville and San Benito.
Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team’s skills are building, said coach Andrew Irvine. They beat Woodside 18-13, though the game was forfeited in the end. Woodside was short players so had to forfeit, but the teams played a 10-on-10 game (instead of the 12 players per side required) for fun. Michelle Douglas, grade 10, had 10 goals; Sam Hoffman, grade 10, had one; Jessica Son, grade 10, had one, and since she normally plays defense, scoring a goal was a rare treat; Julia Fink, grade 9, had four goals, one of which was an amazing quick stick shot; and Tiphaine Delepine, grade 10, had two goals.
Swimming
This week, girls swimming continued their dominating season in the WBAL with a 136-28 win over Menlo School. Harker won all eleven events, including one-two-three finishes in seven of the eleven events. Individual event winners were Jessica Khojasteh, grade 12 (two events); Rachelle Koch, Katie Siegel and Lucy Cheng, grade 11; Amie Chien, grade 10; and Manon Audebert and Kimberly Ma, grade 9. Audebert, Harker’s newest CCS qualifier, made the cut for the 200-meter freestyle by .08 of a second. Harker is now 4-0.
In late March, the girls swimming won their third straight meet at Castilleja, 121-49, winning 10 of 11 events. Double event winners were Khojasteh and Audebert. Other winners were Cheng, Siegel and Ma, as well as all three relays. Harker had one-two-three finishes in both the 500-free and the 100-breaststroke, and one-two finishes in both free relays.
This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
Harker managed to reach two milestones in January when Intel announced that seven Harker seniors — Roshni Bhatnagar, Josephine Chen, Benjamin Chen, Rohan Mahajan, Nikhil Parthasarathy, Susan Tu and Jason Young — were named Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists, a California record. Two weeks later Harker became the only school in the nation to have two finalists, Mahajan and Parthasarathy. At press time both were preparing to travel to Washington, D.C., to compete against 38 other high school students in the final round.
October brought the announcement that Jacqueline Wang, grade 10, had been named a regional finalist in the 2010 Siemens competition. Regional semifinalists from Harker were Bhatnagar, Mahajan, Parthasarathy and Supraja Swamy, grade 12.
Students teamed up with mentors to complete the projects they had submitted for the contests. The mentors used their experience and expertise to provide guidance to the students as they conducted their research, while also fostering their intellectual curiosity. “I worked very closely with my mentors to complete the project,” said Parthasarathy, who worked with University of California, Santa Cruz mentors Sandra Faber, professor of astronomy, and Kamson Lai, a postdoctoral scholar in the astronomy and astrophysics department. His project dealt with the structure of distant galaxies. “When I first arrived at Santa Cruz, they gave me a lot of help to understand the necessary background information and also introduced me to many of the tools astronomers use to analyze galaxies.”
“Although only a high school student, I was given the freedom and the resources to pursue any topic that interested me and to contribute my thoughts and ideas during lab meetings and discussions,” said Chen, who studied the effects the compound celastrol has on reducing asthmatic symptoms. “Supported by the guidance of the entire lab, I dared to venture further, performing experiments no one else in the lab was familiar with.”
Working on the projects with mentors in labs also provides insight to the students on the kinds of research and experiments they will be doing at the college level. “The work that Nikhil did is comparable to what we would give a beginning graduate student,” said Faber. “He picked things up remarkably fast, and it was a pleasure working with him.”
Students also get to experience the thrill of making discoveries that could have a significant real-world impact. “Realizing the impact our findings could have on emotion regulation research was a seminal moment for me,” said Bhatnagar, whose project on how the insula, a small part of the brain, changes its size according to how people manage negative emotions earned her a semifinalist ranking in both the Intel and Siemens competitions. “This study was really exploratory. There were very few similar studies to compare with.”
These recent successes bolster Harker’s already impressive track record in these and other science competitions. Mahajan and Parthasarathy became the third and fourth Intel finalists from Harker since the school began participating five years ago, and Wang is the second consecutive regional finalist from Harker in the Siemens competition.
“One of the things that we emphasize at Harker is pushing yourself to reach your potential. It’s just another bar [students] set for themselves,” said Anita Chetty, science department chair. “I just want to offer as many opportunities as I can, and it’s up to the students themselves to decide if they what to participate.”
“The education I got at Harker was invaluable in preparing me for my research,” Parthasarathy said. “Because of the interdisciplinary nature of astrophysics, this project really combined the knowledge I got at Harker in areas such as math, physics and computer science.”
Chetty pointed out that several other departments in addition to science also contribute greatly to Harker’s success in science competitions. At the first January assembly to announce Harker’s Intel semifinalists, teachers from the science department who read the students’ projects and offered guidance in the submission process, noted how much the writing of the projects had improved.
“[The paper is] the only way of communicating what they’ve done and what they think about it,” Chetty said. “It has to be detailed enough, yet it has to be clear and you can’t ramble on.” She credited Harker’s English and history departments as well as its librarians for training the students to write high-caliber papers.
“It gets back to the standard that we set in each of our departments,” she said. “I really believe it’s important to recognize we are actually teaching the same skills, even though we may be using different disciplines.”
This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
Experienced and aspiring tennis players aged 7 to 15 can choose from two Harker summer programs directed by varsity tennis coach Craig Pasqua.
In both programs, professional coaches combine on-court technique instruction with ball machine drills, video self-analysis and tactical strategy. Harker’s facilities partner, The Oakwood Tennis Center, provides five beautiful and well maintained courts for the programs on Saratoga Avenue, just minutes from the upper school campus.
Harker Summer Tennis Camp (HSTC) offers weekly sessions for players entering grades 2-8 who have an interest in improving their tennis knowledge and skill base, whatever their starting level.
The schedule includes daily strength and endurance training, as well as instruction in tennis rules, terminology, customs and history. Players are divided into three skill levels to ensure an appropriate learning environment and just-right challenges for each player. Intermediate and advanced players participate in match play.
Harker Oakwood Tennis Training System (HOTTS) is a minimum four-week program that offers competitive tennis players the opportunity to combine regular team practice with weekly matches against local tennis clubs.
Players learn advanced technical strokes, footwork and sports psychology through a regimen of match-tested drills, exercises and learning sessions geared toward the competitive player.
Whether you want to focus on school or sports, or a little of both, this summer, you can feed your passion at Harker! Please see www.summer.harker.org for more details.