Every year, Harker employees who have been with the school for five years are recognized for their service to the community by receiving commemorative pins. Every subsequent five years, a diamond is set into the pin to signify the employees’ continued dedication. This year, three teachers celebrated a major milestone: 30 years with the school! Congratulations to Pete Anderson, middle school P.E. department chair; Gail Palmer, dance teacher and lead performing arts teacher for K-8; and Theresa “Smitty” Smith, lower and middle school athletic director. Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.
Diana Nichols, Harker’s former head of school who passed away in 2018, was inducted into the second class of the performing arts department’s Life in the Arts honorees. Nichols was the driving force behind the development of the school’s performing arts department and the creation of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.
In May, speech and debate teacher Scott Odekirk was named Coach of the Year by the California Coast District of the National Speech & Debate Association. Odekirk was recognized for his students’ run at the 2019 NSDA National Tournament, in which Haris Hosseini ‘19 and senior Avi Gulati took first and second place, respectively, in original oratory.
Middle school math chair Vandana Kadam coached two teams to victory in February, when a team of eighth graders placed first in a Santa Clara chapter MathCounts competition and another group of grade 8 students became regional champions at the Middle School Science Bowl.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
By Vikki Bowes-Mok
Emily Chow ’08 enjoys digging into important problems with smart people – and that’s exactly what she does every day as site product director for washingtonpost.com.
“Part of what drew me to journalism and keeps me at The Washington Post is our mission to inform the world and build a better democracy,” said Chow from her office in Washington, D.C. “We have incredible reporters writing groundbreaking stories, and I enjoy figuring out how to get stories into the world in an easy and readable form.”
Chow’s role sits at the intersection of journalism, design and technology, and she appreciates the impact that good stories have on a healthy democracy. As the site product director, she works with product managers, engineers and designers to drive the strategy and direction of offerings to Washington Post readers and subscribers.
Her interest in the field was nurtured at Harker, where she was a yearbook staff member during her four years at theupper school. Chow also spent a lot of time in the dance room, usually auditioning for annual showcases.
“Emily Chow is a force of nature – inquisitive, intelligent and thorough, with a great eye for composition and detail. Journalism appeared to come very naturally to her in her time at Harker,” remembered Brian Larsen, the performing arts department’s production manager. “It was no surprise to me she pursued it as a career, and it makes sense that her skills and passion landed her with The Washington Post.”
After her Harker college counselor put Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism on her radar, Chow never looked back.
While at Northwestern, she worked with many student publications, including North by Northwestern, nuAsian and Northwestern Magazine, where she covered events, took photos and designed layouts. During college, she even interned at Harker, writing stories, taking photos and editing audio and video for the website.
“When she worked for our department, she was a star. She captured some great images and we loved having her help. The perspective of an alumna always improves what we do,” said Pam Dickinson, Office of Communication director. “We have followed her path in journalism and are so incredibly proud of her.”
In addition to student publications and working for Harker, she also worked as an intern at Sunset magazine, the Chicago Tribune and The Washington Post.
“I got my first taste of what it’s like to be an editor from Harker’s yearbook program,” Chow told Harker Quarterly magazine in the spring 2012 story “Award-Winning Journalism Program Builds Valuable Skills.” “It was the first time I had to make tough decisions, step into some big shoes and really learn how to edit critically and how to manage a group. I’ve held several editor positions [since Harker] and each experience has built on top of the Harker experience.”
Her internship at The Washington Post included working with the graphics team and the news design team.
“I learned a little bit about everything I wanted to do,” said Chow. “So when I graduated a quarter early and the graphics team offered me a job, I was excited to get started.”
Chow had worked at The Washington Post for more than five years when she decided to try something new and took a position with Mapbox, and online platform for custom maps. After more than a year at Mapbox, she realized that she missed working in news and happily returned to The Post.
“I enjoy working near the original startup of all startups – the newsroom – where deadlines are daily, unexpected fires can crop up at any time, and grit, scrappiness, determination and resilience are qualities that drive success,” said Chow.
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
By Vikki Bowes-Mok
Audrey Kwong ’07 was 2 ½ years old when she took her first violin lesson.
“Music has been such a big part of my life from the beginning,” said Kwong.
Kwong attended Harker from grades 6-12 and was very involved in every aspect of performing arts, from orchestra and choir to dance. She was the featured violin soloist when the orchestra traveled to Budapest, Vienna and Prague her sophomore year and France her senior year.
“Audrey was the music gal of her graduating class. She not only sang in Cantilena but was concertmaster of the orchestra and participated in the dance show,” said Susan Nace, upper school choral teacher. “Audrey was a curious and provocative student, and most memorably, she chose an unusual piece for her senior showcase performance. Rather than the usual classical concerto or sonata movement, she went rogue and played a jazzy solo violin version of Gershwin’s ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’ from ‘Porgy and Bess,’ complete with choreography! It was an unexpected delight in an otherwise very classical evening of Vivaldi, Haydn, Chopin and Fauré.”
When Kwong wasn’t performing at school, she played in the California Youth Symphony from grades 6-12 and took to the stage with Children’s Musical Theater. She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts one summer during high school and was completely filled up by being surrounded by people who were so passionate about music.
After graduating from Harker, Kwong went on to study violin performance at the University of Southern California, where she practiced violin for six to eight hours every day. Before her senior year, she had an internship with the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, where she broadened her views about a career in music.
Kwong realized that she needed a little more “marination time” before she launched her career and was encouraged to consider an arts management program. After being accepted by a variety of schools, she decided to attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University.
“Thank goodness for Harker’s excellent academics, because Carnegie’s arts management program was much more academically rigorous than USC’s music program. It was a complete shift, but I was ready for it,” remembered Kwong with a smile. “Then I interned with the Pittsburgh Symphony as an operations intern and I realized that logistics was my thing.” That realization has guided her career in music ever since. First Kwong interned at the Aspen Music Festival and School, a massive musical festival with 400 public events over eight weeks. The experience, which she calls “the craziest thing I’ll ever do,” confirmed her love of logistics.
She enjoyed it so much that she took a full-time position at the Aspen Festival and stayed for six seasons, where she said she grew up professionally.
Although she loved her time in Aspen, it was small-town living and she was looking for a new challenge when an opportunity opened up in St. Louis. Kwong was excited to become artistic operations manager, helping the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra from behind the scenes. She wears many hats, including coordinating musicians with stage and house managers to keep performances on time and budget, to managing tours and special events.
When she’s not keeping the symphony on track, Kwong plays in two bands, Boxcar and Andrew & the Dolls.
“Playing in these bands feeds a totally different musical side because a lot of what we play is improv, but then I’ll grab napkins and write down the notes so I can play it again,” said Kwong enthusiastically. “Music is about community and finding your people; and I’m able to do this whether I’m playing in bands or working for the symphony, both of which feed my musical passion.”
In June and July, Bay Area high school students in grades 9 and 10 bolstered their writing skills at Harker’s Creative Writing Workshop. Working remotely with upper school English teacher Chris Hurshman, students explored various literary concepts and styles and how to apply them to their own writing.
Students studied various forms of writing, including short stories, poems and screenplays, and used them as models for their own compositions. “Students read and discussed representative models and were encouraged to write in imitation of them using a variety of prompts,” said Hurshman. After completing their drafts, students reviewed one another’s work and received feedback from their classmates as well as Hurshman.
When writing and offering feedback, students were given guidelines on what to use in their works and in discussions. “For example, they might be asked to return to a draft of a short story and to expand on the methods of characterization they’ve used,” said Hurshman. “They might be challenged to draw a character entirely through dialogue, for example, or to flesh out the telling details of that character’s appearance and environment.”
During one exercise, students workshopped a poem in class by examining its structure, themes and other features and sharing what they noticed. They then continued to critique each other’s work in small groups.
Hurshman said the students enjoyed having a place to have conversations about writing and develop their skills. “Most students don’t have much experience thinking about literature and creativity from an authorly perspective,” he said. “I think they enjoy seeing the many elements that go into producing a beautiful bit of writing and pushing themselves to achieve that goal.”
This summer, Harker’s upper school journalism department created the Humans of Harker Magazine, which arrived in the Harker community’s mailboxes in July, as a tribute to the Class of 2020. It features photos and small profiles of students from each of the 2020 senior advisories, as well as special messages from upper school head Butch Keller, dance teacher and Class of 2020 dean Karl Kuehn and alumni director Kristina Alaniz.
The magazine is named after the series of videos produced profiling members of the senior class and was conceived at the start of editor-in-chief Saloni Shah’s junior year. “As Humans of Harker editor-in-chief, I discussed my vision for Humans of Harker with Ms. Austin,” said Shah, now a rising senior. “In addition to its multi-platform content, I brought up the possibility of creating Humans of Harker’s own publication, a magazine.”
With the onset of shelter-in-place orders in the spring, production of the magazine went ahead to honor the Class of 2020, which faced extraordinary circumstances as COVID-19 caused nationwide school closures. “Our journalism staff wanted to pay tribute to the Class of 2020 and bring the community together during these unprecedented times,” said Shah.
Lead designer Anoushka Buch, a rising senior, arranged the student photos and profiles and the pages were designed and laid out by Buch and Talon yearbook staffers Nilisha Baid, Shreya Srinivasan and Helen Zhu, all rising seniors.
According to Shah, the magazine has been very well-received. “I’ve received so much love from our entire community whether it be students, alumni or even parents,” she said. “Alumni have told me how much the magazine means to them, especially since they were unable to experience the end of their high school career with their best friends; students have expressed their gratitude at being able to learn more about their peers and parents have emphasized their joy of seeing their children featured and recognized.”
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
Chadwick Manning ’04 is an entrepreneur working to solve big problems, from tackling global energy challenges to helping people quit vaping. He’s making an impact on the planet and on people – and he’s just getting started.
Manning’s Harker journey began in elementary school, where he remembers learning about the stock market in Bill Boss’ fourth grade math class. Boss would give students paper money and teach them how to invest and then throw parties when the stock market hit 10,000. These joyful celebrations are one of Manning’s favorite Harker memories. He also fondly remembers his grade 5 teacher, Pat Walsh.
“Chad was high energy, very positive and had what I love in a student: drive, enthusiasm and appreciation,” said Walsh, who is now retired. “He was respectful and often very humorous; he was hard not to like – a lot.”
Manning attended Harker from grades 3-8 before heading to Bellarmine College Preparatory.
“One of things I appreciated most about Harker is that [teachers] really empowered us to be independent and curious,” said Manning. “They Alumnus making an impact on the planet and on people through two different startups impact encouraged us to ask questions, seek answers and take education into our own hands.”
It’s an approach that Manning, a serial entrepreneur, has taken throughout his life.
While attending the University of San Diego, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting, Manning founded his first startup – Torero Laundry Services, an on-campus pickup/drop-off laundry service. Although he got a taste of entrepreneurship, he decided to take a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers after college.
“[Working at PwC] was an invaluable experience, because I learned about how companies were formed, how to read a term sheet and how to structure deals,” remembered Manning. “But to be honest, I hated it and after three years of too many 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. days, I realized I needed to make a change.”
Manning left PwC to work for a couple of startups before starting ElectrIQ. As he saw the world become ever more reliant on technology, he realized that home batteries would become more essential and didn’t see anyone integrating batteries and a power source with intelligent software. He saw a business opportunity to create a smart home battery backup system to help consumers save on electricity costs and protect against blackouts. That’s when he created a two-page business plan and asked a friend to introduce him to Jim Lovewell, an electrical engineer and mad scientist. The two raised $10 million in seed financing and ElectricIQ was launched.
“I was always interested in renewable energy,” said Manning. “So I decided to follow my dreams because I figured that you might as well fail at something you love than hate.”
Manning was recognized for his work by Forbes “30 Under 30” list and also was named a Grist 50 honoree. Grist, which describes itself as an independent, irreverent news outlet, “scour[s] the sustainability space to find up-and-coming people doing potentially game-changing work,” according to its website.
And life-changing work is happening all over the globe. In Haiti, ElectrIQ donated two systems to a school in Cité Solée in Port-au-Prince that allows more than 400 students to receive an education; in Puerto Rico, right after the hurricanes, the company donated another two systems that helped many families keep their power on.
ElectrIQ is still going strong, but Manning left to pursue a new cause.
He had started vaping and wanted to quit, so this past March he launched Fluux, a digital health company, to help people moderate their usage and ultimately quit.
“I love what I’m doing now because I always felt like a cog in a machine at larger companies,” said Manning. “It takes a lot of persistence and many failures before you find success, but when I realized that I’m really good at taking risks and getting people to believe in crazy ideas, I never looked back.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
By Brian Yager, Head of School
My grandmother lived close to the elementary school my brothers and I attended. Whenever we became sick during the school day, she would drive the four blocks up the road, pick us up, and return us to her house to recuperate. Invariably, as we lay on her couch (sometimes with a bowl of ice cream in our laps, others with a thermometer in our mouths), she would turn on the old record player and we would listen to the symphonic recording of the story “Peter and the Wolf.” I can still feel the vibration of the bass drum that would fill the room, simulating the sound of Peter’s firearm. And I can easily recall the image of the sunlight shining on the rim of the couch, dust illuminated by the rays, and I can still capture the smell of my grandparents’ house – a mixture of the lemon blossoms and cut grass from outside mingled with the faint smell of cigarette smoke sneaking out of my grandmother’s room.
I never considered it odd that some of my fondest – and clearest – memories from my time with my grandmother are from those days when she was taking care of me when I was ill. Looking forward, it seems likely that our experiences today in this time of COVID-19 and social unrest will occupy an important place in our memories when we reminisce on our lives many years from now. The disruption to our routines caused by this illness and the uncertainty it brings, followed by the transgressions of justice and the ensuing protests, illuminates for us that it is times when we are most disrupted that we remember (and learn from) the most. After all, there is not much that is memorable about the routine, or much that is educational about times that are easy.
In my remarks at this year’s virtual baccalaureate ceremony, I noted that Nietzsche said, “Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were to go through our life without any obstacles, we would be crippled. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.”
There have been many ways that we have been challenged this year, as individuals, as communities, and as a school. But, as we shifted to remote learning, it has also been a time for us to shine. At Harker, the spirit of our endeavor has lifted us to levels of learning and accomplishment that have been inspiring. While things have not always been smooth, the efforts of teachers, students and parents have been sublime.
Our struggles, and the obstacles we have faced, have allowed us to flex new muscles, and even sprout wings to help us overcome unexpected hurdles. As noted throughout this issue and in the communications to our community this year, there have been many moments, efforts and accomplishments worthy of celebrating, and that will stick with us throughout our lives, reverberating like the It is times when we are most disrupted that we remember (and learn from) the most.
But even as our own Harker community was rallying to meet the challenges of the shelter-in-place orders and the coronavirus, we were called upon as American citizens to face the systemic racial inequality that has plagued our country for centuries, and that was recently laid bare by the senseless killing of George Floyd. How, then, do we guide our students through such a time, as we bade farewell to them for the summer?
Harker’s mission statement is clear: it includes the language that we strive to “foster kindness, respect and integrity within a safe and nurturing environment…. We honor individuality, embrace diversity, and promote leadership and service….” As a school, not only do we have a commitment and obligation to ensure that Harker is a safe and supportive place for all, we also need to know that the education we are offering helps our students be prepared to contribute to the solutions that are so needed in our country. We embrace this responsibility and the conversations we need to have with students, alumni, teachers, staff and parents – and any changes we need to make – to ensure that our students are prepared to be the changemakers needed in our country.
Our unusual circumstances bring to my mind a work of author Edward Abbey, called “Desert Solitaire.” In it, Abbey shares his experiences living alone in the windswept and vermillion canyons of the Utah desert. While perhaps more germane to the isolation caused by the coronavirus, there are lessons to be learned for all of the struggles we face.
The first is that there is great beauty all around us, and that when we have the time and the inclination to look for it, grand discoveries await in places – both physical and mental – which we take for granted. It is interesting how many people have remarked about the cleaner air and prevalence of bird song these past two months. While both of these things may be more abundant now than they were two months ago, it also seems likely that the bigger change has been our ability – and desire – to notice more fully what was already around us.
Another is that we are all more capable of enduring hardships – physical, emotional, interpersonal – than we think we are.Abbey’s trials came climbing peaks beneath the sun’s pounding rays, in moments of consuming loneliness on starry nights, and in conflicts with those who desecrated the environment he loved. Our hardships have taken different forms, but have been no less affirming of our resilience.
When we each look back on this frame many years from now, we will remember different things and draw different conclusions and lessons from our current experiences. Yet some memories and lessons will be universal in our collective conscience, and among these will be the ability of Harker students, teachers and parents to remain dedicated to learning and to bettering ourselves at every turn, not just because the situation has demanded it, but because the situation has given us the ability to do so. I realize now that this was true of my grandmother as she took care of us as children. In her eyes, our illness and her proximity did not provide her with an obligation, but instead, an opportunity.
Harker will continue to embrace diversity and take its place with the other organizations and individuals who believe that racial injustice for some is racial injustice for all. We take seriously the mandate to practice what we preach, and teach our students to do the same.
May we all reflect deeply on the opportunities for betterment that this time brings us, while also warmly anticipating the time when we can see each other again.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
“We need 100% compliance on this one,” Debra Nott wrote to lower school teachers in late January, imploring them to place hand sanitizer in their classrooms. Harker’s health services director had been receiving emails from concerned families regarding the new coronavirus that had just begun spreading in U.S. cities. “The coronavirus is like a big wave,” she cautioned. “We either ride ahead of it, choosing our path, or it will tumble us around out of control.”
Harker administration had started tracking the spread of the coronavirus earlier that month, and with news that COVID-19 was spreading, talks of what to do in the event of a closure were becoming more common. “When the talk of possible school closure came up, I had no idea of how we were going to continue with our classes,” said middle school math chair Vandana Kadam. “I also did not think it would happen so soon after the initial [faculty] discussions on the closures.”
In February a protocol was put in place for the school to close if a member of the community tested positive for COVID-19. It was enacted on March 12, when it was learned that a parent of a non-teaching staff member had tested positive. Days later, with COVID-19 cases rapidly increasing in California, Santa Clara County issued a shelter-in-place order to begin March 17. Students, faculty and staff began readying themselves for a shift to remote learning. “As we had been preparing for the transition both emotionally and logistically, I found that my feelings were a mix of disappointment that we could not continue in our in-person mode, but confidence in our ability to optimize the experience for ourselves and our students,” said Brian Yager, head of school.
School was originally scheduled to reopen in April, but as the situation surrounding the pandemic developed, the question became how to effectively continue classes for the remainder of the year. Cases were increasing exponentially across the world, and shelter-in-place orders were being extended as the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in the U.S. – and concerns – grew.
“When I realized I would not be able to go to school for a while, I was devastated that I would not be able to see my friends, the campus and Harker staff,” said Elie Ahluwalia, grade 6.
Reports that schools may shut down for much longer than originally anticipated worried fourth grader Aarya Vaidya, but she was heartened by how the community adapted. “What surprised me the most was how everyone dealt with it, how everyone was ready and how the Harker community helped everyone,” she said.
Going Remote
With a long history of delivering assignments and homework online, the transition to fully remote learning was relatively smooth. As closure loomed, teachers were briefed on how to conduct classes online via Zoom, a video conferencing platform that saw a massive surge in popularity. “The basic instruction about online teaching that was given just before school closed helped us get started,” Kadam said. After that, we were able to contact the [Learning, Innovation and Design] team and the administration for any clarifications.”
Preparation for the transition also became a community effort. “A friend and I started a document to compile Zoom links and other advice before the school closure in case we needed to transition to remote learning,” said eighth grader Kabir Ramzan. “The Harker community responded with overwhelming support, and when the school declared that we would be transitioning to remote learning, hundreds of students added links, answered questions and suggested what people could do when they were bored.”
Teachers quickly became savvy with Zoom sessions as the new default classroom, and though these online meetings were no replacement for in-person instruction, the limitations didn’t prevent teachers from turning their virtual classrooms into dynamic spaces. Working from home allowed lower school science teacher Shital Ashar to give a lesson on seed anatomy by making a salad from her kitchen, an activity her students happily also performed. Upper school dance teacher Rachelle Haun’s students enthusiastically recorded themselves dancing at home with stuffed animals or while doing chores. Preschool teacher Amanda Crook snail-mailed her students a likeness of herself she made using the website Bitmoji. She later received photos and videos of the parachutes and amusement park rides students had made for the miniature version of their teacher.
“I am so touched and impressed how quickly teachers and the entire school regrouped and ensured that our kids continue to receive top quality education,” said Alina Gicqueau, mother of Benjamin, grade 11, and Paulina, grade 9. “I am so grateful for our teachers’ and administration’s dedication and exemplary professionalism and helping us with maintaining normalcy and regular cadence of our children’s lives.”
For their part, students also adapted well to the remote learning environment, organizing all manner of community events, which often leveraged the Zoom platform in clever ways. “With the help of so many dedicated leaders, my friends, and the administration, we’ve been able to pull off virtual elections, talent shows, movie nights, a mask drive, a check-in newspaper, Zoom background contests, a virtual road trip and so much more,” said senior Avi Gulati, who served as upper school Associated Student Body president during the 2019-20 school year.Seizing on the internet trend of people posting the backgrounds they used in Zoom meetings, the upper school held its own Zoom background contest. Students even devised a way to move the twice-a-year Quadchella music festival to Zoom, playing recorded student performances for attendees. The remote format also had unexpected benefits, allowing for a greater diversity of talents to be showcased, including cooking and clothing design.
“While being in quarantine has its limitations, it also forces us to think outside of the box with regards to having fun,” said Rani Sheth, grade 12. “I’ve had Netflix parties, danced to a Zumba video, and FaceTimed while doing workouts with my friends. It’s nowhere close to the norm, but looking back on it 10 years from now, those are memories that I will cherish.“
Ahluwalia and her friends even devised a way of meeting in-person, organizingwhat she called “trunk playdates,” during which they meet at a friend’s house and converse with one another from their parents’ cars. And in the lower school, beloved events such as the talent show and art show shifted online
To Yager, the community’s response was impressive but far from shocking. “Nothing surprised me,” he said. “I knew feature that the adults and students were ready and prepared to optimize the transition, and that we would approach the change with a determined attitude and professional approach befitting the Harker community.”
Leaning In, Reaching Out
The community was spurred to action outside of school as well, as service efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up dramatically. There was a massive outpouring of support for medical workers, as families sent large caches of medical supplies to local hospitals and also produced homemade masks and 3D-printed face shields. Harker parent Virag Saksena (Riva, grade 12, and Anya, grade 8) even went so far as to convert his single-malt whisky distillery into a producer of hand sanitizer, which required getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration, itself a difficult task.
Initiatives also were kicked off to help those affected by the pandemic. Recognizing the risk of displacement faced by many South Bay families, the upper school’s Associated Student Body and Student Council organized a schoolwide donation drive that won praise from San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and raised more than $11,000. Larissa Tyagi, grade 12, organized a blood drive to offset the American Red Cross’ massive blood shortage. The Student Council also joined the Medical Club and Key Club to deliver 640 homemade masks to the local homeless population through LifeMoves, a Bay Area-based organization that offers shelter, food and other services to people facing homelessness. (For more stories on those contributing to the relief effort, visit Harker News and search “outreach.”)
Bittersweet Endings
There remained, however, a sense of loss due to the cancellation of many yearly activities, including the particularly busy spring performing arts lineup and the end-of-year activities the senior class had been anticipating for years.
“When school closed, my initial reaction was disappointment that I wouldn’t beable to partake in so many activities – trips, get-togethers, ceremonies,” said Sheth. “As a second-semester senior, I was looking forward to spending time with my friends and relishing my last bit of time at the upper school campus.”
The Class of 2020 sadly did not get to experience its graduation exercises, but staples such as baccalaureate and the Senior Showcase went on, with videos created from submissions participants created at home, and launched for viewing at the time the events would have taken place. A heartfelt video, “Lights On for 2020,” was produced to help provide a fitting send-off to a class that thrived under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Other divisions also moved their traditions online, such as the middle school’s Student LID Vision Day, during which students gave talks on homemade inventions, performed music and showed off a virtual rendition of the middle school campus made in Minecraft. Lower school traditions such as the grade 5 promotion ceremony were compiled from individual recordings and released online, as was the grades 4 and 5 talent show.
“COVID-19 tried to stop so many students from celebrating and commemorating aspects of the high school experience, but in the end, it couldn’t,” said Gulati.
“We have a community of individuals whose primary goals are to make sure our students’ need and desire for shortand long-term intellectual growth and general well-being do not go unmet,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “I knew we would rise to the occasion to achieve these goals.”
As the coronavirus situation evolves, Yager has remained similarly confidentabout the community’s ability to adapt. “While the uncertainty of what we will be required and allowed to do as a school in the coming year makes it difficult to predict just how school will be modified next year, one thing is certain,” he said. “The Harker community of staff, students and parents will meet the challenge and exceed expectations.”
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2020 issue of Harker Magazine.
One morning in October 2010, third graders gathered at the lower school campus field to await a busload of sophomores, with whom they’d spent weeks corresponding. As their friends approached, the students clapped and chanted “Eagle Buddies!” signaling that the new program was off to a promising start.
This fall, the Eagle Buddies program will begin its 10th year as a bridge between the lower and upper school communities. The program connects students in grades 3 and 10, and lasts until the lower school students finish grade 5 and the upper school students graduate. Once the younger students reach grade 10, they are introduced to grade 3 students and re-enter the program from the other perspective.
The inspiration for Eagle Buddies came from upper school head Butch Keller and upper school math teacher Jane Keller’s stint at a previous school, which had a similar program that paired younger and older students in an effort to help younger students forge lifelong bonds within the school.
“[At the school where I previously worked] in Virginia, we had a big brother, little brother, big sister, little sister program,” Jane Keller recalled. “And it was at a K-through-12 school. Granted, we were on one campus, so it was a little more inclusive, but it made a big difference for the little kids to be connected to the older students and for the older students to remember what it’s like to be young.”
Because Harker has multiple campuses, the Kellers felt it was even more important to provide a bridge between the school’s younger and older students. “If we get into our own little island and think only about what happens at the upper school without regard to the other campuses, and the other campuses may be feeling the same, that to me inhibits a smooth transition and growth process for our students,” said Butch Keller.
“We kind of all have to be beads on the same thread, so that we’re taking the steps in the same direction,” said Jane Keller. “Not necessarily the exact steps, because everybody does things differently, but we still have to be teaching the same elements, the same values along the way.”
The idea was met with excitement at the lower school, and planning began in summer 2010. Weeks before their first face-to-face meeting, the third graders and sophomores exchanged cards and messages to generate excitement for the kickoff. “I thought it was great because at the time my son [Matthew ’13] was part of the first class [of sophomore buddies],” said Kristin Giammona, elementary division head, who still remembers fondly the first visit by the sophomores. “Just seeing those kids get off the bus and how much they’d grown up [since elementary school], and then seeing how much the little kids loved them, it was just great.”
The enthusiasm from both the third graders and sophomores was precisely what organizers had been hoping to see. Lower schoolers in the program, Giammona said, enjoy learning more about their older buddies’ experiences and gaining a look into what their own daily lives will be like once they reach high school. “I think they just love the idea that that they get to go to the upper school campus,” she said. “The big kids show them, here’s my locker, here’s what I did during the day, this is what you should be doing.”
It also helps the lower school students feel closer to the community as a whole. “Meeting with upper school students helps the lower school students know that the upper school exists, and makes them feel like they’re part of the whole school,” said Butch Keller. “And it reminds our big kids of what it was like to be little.”
Many cross-campus activities have been organized for Eagle Buddies events, including carnival games, face painting, clown shows and visits to see buddies perform at annual shows, such as the upper school spring musical and the grade 5 show, as well as the yearly upper school visit to the lower school to celebrate the conclusion of the year’s Pajama Program. But often it is the less structured activities that create the most enduring memories.
Senior Jessica Jiang had an especially energetic younger buddy who once engaged her in an impromptu face-painting activity with another upper school friend, decorating their faces with eyebrows, hearts and mustaches. The experience was an example for Jiang of how Eagle Buddies gives upper school students a unique opportunity to be “extremely silly.”
“Most of the time I don’t think about having fun or relaxing or being in themoment, because there’s so much to do, both in school and outside of school,” she said. “In my experience, the Eagle Buddies program encourages whimsical exploration and simply having fun, which is just as important as being busy.”
Seniors who joined the program as third graders, such as Sachin Shah, found it beneficial to see how older students experienced the world, which they extended to their younger buddies once they reached the upper school. “I think that just getting a perspective on life from someone at a different stage of it was really nice,” Shah said. “I remember my older buddies trying to teach me how to enjoy middle school, and I remember trying to chase my younger buddies as they played soccer.”
Upper school students have found that simply learning to talk to someone several years younger than them has been a valuable experience. “Being in the Eagle Buddies program has taught me mainly that I have no idea how to talk to kids,” laughed Jiang. “I’m still figuring out how to best communicate with children, but I love how Eagle Buddies makes us learn how to interact with people younger than us.”