This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
Alumni gathered in early January in the Edge for the now-traditional Home for the Holidays get-together at Harker. Approximately 100 people, including faculty and administrators, attended.
“We want you to feel like when you are back in the Bay Area, or going to school in the Bay Area, Harker is a home to you: come anytime,” said Christopher Nikoloff, head of school, addressing the gathering.
The event brings college-aged alumni (this year they are from the classes of ’07, ’08, ’09 and ’10) back to campus to visit with teachers and with friends who may still be students. The atmosphere was congenial, and celebrants had cookies and cider as they caught up with friends and met administrators.
Kristen Park, grade 7, has been selected to the 2011 California All-State Concert Band. Park, who plays the B-flat soprano clarinet, competed against more than a thousand applicants vying for a prestigious spot in the band.
“Kristen is very musical and self-driven, and she has improved greatly throughout the year,” said David Hart, director of the middle school’s orchestra and jazz bands. “It does not surprise me at all that she is one of the top middle school clarinetists in California.”
To audition, applicants must prepare complicated musical pieces and scales, depending on the instrument. They are judged on intonation, tone, rhythm, technique, interpretation, balance and overall performance.
Park is the first grade 7 student from Harker to ever make the all-state band. Congratulations!
This story was first published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
Albert Zecher ’79 has joined Harker’s Board of Directors. Zecher graduated from The Harker Middle School and went on to earn a B.A. in history from Santa Clara University I 1986, J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1990 and a diploma in fine arts in 2008 from Cambridge University in England. Zecher is a highly accomplished attorney with 20 years of experience in corporate governance, regulatory and civil litigation matters, both as in-house counsel and while with national law firms.
“The Harker School is thrilled with adding representation to the Board of Trustees from this important constituency in our community,” said Christopher Nikoloff, head of school. “Albert, as a Harker alumnus, brings a unique perspective on the history and the future of the school.” Harker welcomes this deeply experienced board member!
Melinda Gonzales, director of development, was honored in late February by Modern Woodsmen, a fraternal financial organization, for her professionalism and outstanding customer service. The organization, which donated trees to the Saratoga campus last year and will again this year, celebrated Gonzales at a dinner and presented her with a certificate as part of their Hometown Heroes program. Allen Phillips, regional director, and his wife, Aleda, presented the certificate to Gonzales to recognize her accomplishments and show appreciation for her contribution to the community. The organization included a donation to Harker, as well.
Student Shasvat Jawahar, grade 6, wanted to treat his classmates to something special for his twelveth birthday. Instead of the usual party-and-snacks affair, however, he asked Dr. Sailesh Rao of the non-profit company Climate Healers to speak at a special after-school assembly.
Rao founded climate healers after 20 years in the networking industry, prompted by a talk from former vice president Al Gore about the ongoing climate crisis. Inspired, he started up Climate Healers with belief that if humanity could reforest one-sixth of the earth’s ice-free land, CO2 emissions could be reduced enough to halt or even reverse the amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere.
In his presentation, Rao presented the example of an area of India that had become dried and withered as farmers allowed their livestock to graze on the land and deforested as people chopped trees for wood. A group called the Foundation for Ecological Security reached an agreement that allowed for the protection of a portion of the land and within four years, lush greenery and forests had returned to the protected area.
The earth’s resources, Rao said, are being depleted at an astonishing rate. According to Rao, over the past 200 years, the worldwide human consumption measured in dollars has jumped from $400 billion in 1800 to $25 trillion in 2000. Since 1980, human consumption has exceeded what the earth can produce. In doing his part to combat this, Rao has become vegan and participates in a “buy everything day,” in which he purchases almost all of the year’s necessities and buys only food and gasoline for the rest of the year.
Rao has also been traveling abroad to find ways to reduce resource consumption. During one trip to a village in India, he handed out solar lights to discourage the use of kerosene lamps. The lights ended up having the welcome side-effect of reducing snakebites by allowing people to see where they were walking at night.
On another trip, he gave solar cookers to the villagers to prevent them from chopping down trees for firewood. When he returned months later, he found out that the villagers weren’t using the cookers because during the day they worked in the fields, and no sunlight was available to power the cookers once they returned home. Undeterred, Rao has been working with teams at the University of Iowa and the University of California at Berkeley to build a solar cooker that can store energy for nighttime use. A prototype, he said, is due in May.
Following the presentation, Rao invited the students outside to enjoy samosas made with a solar cooker. Cloudy weather notwithstanding, students enjoyed both the sun-cooked treats and one of the 200 brownies that Shasvat’s mother, Radha, baked for the occasion.
This article was originally published in the Harker Quarterly Spring 2011 Edition
Last year close to 800 volunteers supported the different events and programs at Harker and there are probably 50 at the three campuses on any given school day, said Teré Aceves, director of K-8 volunteer programs.
Volunteers help out in some highly visible places, like staffing event venues, but most of the effort is behind the scenes; one is apt to spot a dedicated helper assisting in classrooms and libraries, chaperoning field trips, supporting extracurricular programs like performing arts, athletics and debate, and holding down a multitude of critical positions at big fundraisers like the Harker Family and Alumni Picnic and the annual Harker Fashion Show (see page 18). They also help at community building events such as Grandparents’ Day (coming up this year on May 6; see page X for details).
“Our extraordinary parent volunteers also organize a range of community events after school hours and on weekends, from three day camping trips to museum tours, movie nights, coffees, lunches and play-dates in the park,” said Aceves.
Volunteers are deeply appreciated at Harker, and in recent months a support system for K-8 volunteers was introduced to offer immediate assistance and advice, and represent volunteer interests.
“For example,” said Aceves, “for Lunar New Year this year, parents from the grade 3 class have worked very closely with grade level coordinators and me to give the third graders a truly authentic cultural experience. They arranged to have authentic food, decorations, kids’ activities and the highlight – a specially invited group of young dancers to perform a traditional Chinese dance.”
Volunteers are a special group and Aceves notes the hidden value of being a volunteer. “There is a special bond that mothers and fathers make with the students when they volunteer,” she said. “I have observed how proud the children are to see their moms or dads. When our parents volunteer in the classroom they are touching dozens of lives in a unique way, not to mention creating memorable experiences for all the students; this is a value that cannot be purchased.”
Sue Prutton, director of volunteer programs at the upper school, added, “Volunteers also have a wonderful opportunity to get to know fellow parents and staff members, often building strong friendships that can last beyond their time with Harker.”
Volunteers are just as often working parents as not. “I have a parent who is there for the program every time I need a volunteer, and she works full time,” Aceves said. “We have a group of parents with very busy schedules and huge work responsibilities who are still happy to come and write thank you notes early in the morning, before they go to work.”
New volunteers are always welcome, said Aceves. Along with the aforementioned activities, volunteers can help with morning drop offs at the middle school and with the annual middle school cancer walk, to name just two. Parent volunteers are always needed at the upper school to support programs like robotics, debate, JCL, performing arts and athletics as well as division wide opportunities like the mentor and ambassador programs. “The great thing is that if parents would like to volunteer and have a particular interest or expertise, we can usually match that interest to a volunteer activity,” said Aceves. “It gives them an extra reward and sense of satisfaction for the use of their time.
“Volunteers bring an incredible value and energy to events as they work tirelessly behind the scenes to support our community building and fundraising efforts. It is all about the personal touch. At Harker we are extremely thankful for every second and every thought that any of our volunteers have given to benefit thousands of students.”
This year’s volunteer workshops, to create awareness of opportunities and to invite new parents to get involved, will be held at the middle school campus on April 14 for lower school volunteers and April 29 for middle and upper school volunteers. “We will have a panel of volunteers representing the various volunteer opportunities at the school and volunteers can sign up for programs they are interested in,” said Aceves.
Aceves and Prutton send out their gratitude to all volunteers. “We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of our school and our children, also we would like to encourage everyone to be part of their children’s life at school. It does not need to be a monthly or a weekly commitment; it can be as flexible as you need. No experience is required and you will have a lot of support!”
The Harker School Orchestra, led by Chris Florio, reached a new pinnacle in its development today when it received a unanimous superior rating at the Californian Music Educators Association festival. The orchestra, 71 students strong, performed “Elsa’s Procession” from “Lohengrin”by Richard Wagner and “Polovetsian Dances” by Alexander Borodin. Judges’ comments included, “very ambitious program, nicely done; impressive technique; excellent solo work.”
“Our program has been growing and improving steadily for the past six years,” said Florio. “This honor is really a testament to the hard work that these students and those who have graduated from our orchestra have put in.
“Although we don’t measure our success as an orchestra by these festivals, they are a still a great event that helps the greater musical public know what great things we are doing at Harker. Our students love to play orchestral music and that passion comes out in their playing. That is what the judges heard today and that is what, I believe, led to our unanimous superior,” Florio added.
Several Harker students participated in a fundraising mixer for the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE). Jackie Jin and Jennie Xu, both grade 11, and Emily Chu, Isha Kawatra, Kevin Lin, Indu Seeni, Sarina Vij and Joseph Wang, all grade 10, are members of the PACE Youth Leadership Committee (YLC) that put on the event, which raised more than $8,000.
“The whole process of collaborating with other people who really care about autism and see so many of my friends from school come to the mixer was what made my experience at PACE thus far so rewarding,” said Wang, who was a project manager and co-chair for the mixer. Wang, whose cousin is autistic, first got involved with PACE last August and was a big reason for the event’s success. His responsibilities included booking the venue, hiring a DJ and promoting the event.
“He was definitely responsible for a large part of the success we had this year,” said Jin, who acted as marketing chair. “We had a fantastic first year with the mixer last year, but I guess the word got around and we had a huge rise in interest this year.”
Jin continued: “PACE is a really fantastic organization and it’s just an added bonus that raising awareness and funds for it as part of the YLC is so much fun.”
The Harker Innovation Team has submitted a video to the LEAF ECOmmercial contest and they need your help to win! The competition has a variety of prizes including Most Viewed and Most Liked, so please help the team promote their video to the Harker community by viewing the video and liking it on Facebook by April 12.
“The goal of our video is to promote lower electricity consumption by encouraging people to take action – particularly to turn off lights whenever possible,” said Isaac Madan, grade 12. “We chose to focus on this because electricity is often assumed to be an unlimited resource that can be consumed without qualms. Yet, energy conservation is necessary to protect our environment and limit fossil fuel use.
“We figured that reminding people to turn off the lights is a great way for people to begin limiting their electricity use and begin thinking more about their electricity demand. Moreover, we emphasized that often the talk about the environment by scientists, politicians, etc., can be overwhelming, but taking action to protect the environment individually can be quite simple,” Madan noted.
The Harker Innovation Team works on a variety of competitive engineering and environmental projects throughout the school year and hopes their message will resonate with viewers of all ages who are aware of issues around global warming and environmentalism.
The team consists of Madan as captain and founder; Ambrish Amaranathan, grade 12; Sachin Jain, Prag Batra, Arihant Jain, all grade 11; Ram Menon and Shantanu Joshi, both grade 10.
The goal of the competition is to develop a public service commercial that encourages environmental awareness and/or conservation. There are various prizes in the competition, including Most Viewed and Most Liked (via Facebook). “We hope to do well in the award categories, but primarily our goal is to promote the idea of limiting electricity consumption to protect the environment,” added Madan.
Jason Martin ’07 became San Jose State University (SJSU) baseball’s all-time career leader in hits over the April 2-3 weekend. Martin is a senior and is poised to break several other records in this, his final season! Check out these articles from the SJSU athletics department, spartandaily.com, San Jose Mercury News and in Harker News [Online]. Congratulations!
The grade 7 students in Patricia Lai Burrows’ English classes had a chance to get into character to perform speeches from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”