Lower school students have spirit assemblies, about one a month, throughout the year to promote school spirit and homeroom unity. The students compete against one another for spirit points and the homeroom with the highest score at the end of the year wins a party, so the stakes are high!
The year’s first assembly was held this week, much to everyone’s delight, and included peace tag, freeze dance and body shapes. In the body shapes competition each homeroom used a minimum of 15 students to spell out words, letters or shapes with – what else? – their bodies. The result was a hilarious morning meeting and a great start to the spirit program!
In early September, linksman Maverick McNealy, grade 10, won the Stanford Men’s Golf Club Championship, finishing one under par when the match ended on the 12th hole. This is the second time McNealy, who also plays for Harker, has won the tournament, which is open to all ages. His win last year made him the youngest winner of the event at 13 years, 9 months. In addition, on Sept. 18 he took the Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club Junior Club Championship (ages 15-17) by 17 strokes, shooting a 72. “From previous experience, I knew that, especially in match play, you cannot ease up and play conservatively or you give the other player opportunities to get back into the match; I kept shooting at the flags until the match was over,” said McNealy.
Jerrica Liao, grade 5, brought home two medals from the first Regional Youth Circuit in Northern California, held in Half Moon Bay in late September. Liao, who fences foil for California Fencing Academy, took second in the Youth-10 girls category and third in the Y-12 girls category.
Along with the robust offerings in the Harker/Oakwood Tennis Training System (HOTTS), coach Craig Pasqua is now offering the Quickstart Junior Team Tennis League for ages 6-10. The league is open to the public.
“We started this program to meet the needs of the new player who wants to have fun!” said Pasqua. “QuickStart Tennis fundamentally differs from traditional tennis. In the traditional tennis teaching mode, students are taught how to play tennis. In QST, participants play to learn tennis. They do this by using smaller court dimensions, slower bouncing balls and shorter rackets,” he said.
“For the longest of times, tennis has been taught on regulation-sized, 78-foot courts,” Pasqua added. “To a youngster, that distance seems like a football field! QST uses 36- and 60-foot courts and slower-paced balls to size the game down to a 6-year-old’s level. With the equipment changes, youngsters find the sport less challenging and are able to rally longer and have more fun!” he said.
The first six-week session starts Oct. 2. The group will meet Saturdays from 1-2 p.m. at the Oakwood Tennis Center on Saratoga Avenue. Students will be split by age into two groups, then divided further into teams. Matches will consist of a half-hour team tennis format. The first 10 sign-ups will receive a free racket and beginner rackets will be available for purchase. Registration is open now, with an open house Sat., Sept. 25. See the Tennis page of the Harker website for full details or contact Pasqua at craigp@harker.org or 408.590.7347.
Toward the end of the 2009-10 school year, the first recipients of the John Near Scholar Grant were announced. Students Tyler Koteskey, Justine Liu and Olivia Zhu, all grade 12, have been spending the last few months preparing for their projects and are excited to start in earnest.
With the help of mentors, the students chose a specific topic to research with the aid of the grant. Koteskey is examining how the Confederacy incorporated diplomacy, intelligence gathering, military force and economic and political powers into its strategy during the Civil War. Specifically, he will use the Gettysburg campaign as an example of how all of these factors worked in unison to create a military strategy. “The Civil War has been a fascination of mine almost as long as history itself,” he said. “I clearly remember dressing up as a Union cavalry officer for Halloween in second grade.”
Koteskey says the grant money enabled him to travel to Pennsylvania over the summer, where he interviewed professors at the U.S. Army War College and at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. He also visited such landmarks as Antietam National Battlefield and Gettysburg National Military Park.
Liu’s project will investigate the evolving economic relationship between China and the United States, from President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. “I started exploring some of the current challenges facing U.S.-China economic ties last year in Mr. Itokazu’s AP Macroeconomics class for our final paper and for prior debate topics,” Liu said. “I became more curious about how a relationship that has such an impact on U.S. foreign policy today has only developed in the past couple of decades, especially after analyzing the Cold War relations between China and the United States in Mr. Westgate’s AP U.S. History class last year.”
Liu plans to use the grant money to visit the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., to look further into his presidency and find out more about his 1972 visit to China.
Zhu plans to study how the military dealt with insubordination during the Vietnam War. “I’ll be analyzing how it was tested and what the response of the military was to acts of disobedience,” she said. “I think insubordination is kind of a cool topic, since there’s always been a sense of pushing the frontier and individualism throughout American history.” The Vietnam War, she added, was also an important moment in American history because of the changing public opinion on war. “It was the first time the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) was really tested, so it serves as an important setting for this theme of insubordination.”
For her project, Zhu is considering doing some research at the Presidio in San Francisco, which was once a prison for AWOL soldiers and also a site of major protests conducted by soldiers against the Vietnam War. “If I get the chance, it would also be really great to be able to interview some veterans and hear their side of the story.”
The 2011 National Merit semifinalists have been announced by the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to commending the academic accomplishments of high school juniors throughout the country.
Students who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in 2009, about 1.5 million, were automatically entered into the contest. Less than 1 percent of students who take the exam qualify to be semifinalists.
This year, Harker has 37 senior semifinalists: Samir Asthana, Roshni Bhatnagar, Benjamin Chen, Josephine Chen, Richard Chiou, Karthik Dhore, Nikunj Donde, Hassaan Ebrahim, Rachel Fang, Nidhi Gandhi, Ejaz Haque, Ashtyn Ka, Gautam Krishnamurthi, Arthi Kumar, Max Lan, Victoria Liang, Justin Liu, Alice Loofbourrow, April Luo, Isaac Madan, Zachary Mank, Nilesh Murali, Shreya Nathan, Jasmine Nee, Nikhil Parthasarathy, Dawn Queen, Jerry Sun, Benjamin Tien, Brianna Tran, Kevin Tran, Susan Tu, Kiran Vodrahalli, Julian Wise, Erica Woolsey, David Wu, Jason Young and Olivia Zhu.
In order to become finalists, students must maintain excellent academic standing throughout their high school careers, receive an endorsement from their high school’s principal and receive SAT scores that reflect their level of performance on the PSAT/NMSQT.
Winners will receive one of three types of scholarships: one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships, one of 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards from approximately 250 corporations, or one of 4,900 college-sponsored awards financed by about 200 colleges and universities.
Pilar Aguero-Esparza, upper school art teacher, has been participating in an artist residency in Zero1’s biennial project, “Out of the Garage,” with fellow artist H. Dio Mendoza. The pair spent time with Aguero-Esparza’s father in his shoe shop in South Central Los Angeles. They then furnished their Zero1 artist’s space in San Jose with similar equipment in order to create huarache sandals – traditional, modern and artistic – and other shoes. The Zero1 space will be open through the weekend as various events put on by all the participating artists take place. Aguero-Esparza and Mendoza presented their new line of huarache footwear at a fashion show on Sept. 18, from 7-9 p.m. at Works Gallery in San Jose. Here is a profile of their work and a video of their journey to becoming shoemakers.
Cross Country The cross country team started their season recently with a match at Blach Intermediate School. Because the meet was non-league our runners did not officially place, but several did very well unofficially. The meet consisted of six races, all one-and-a-quarter miles in length, with athletes competing against only students of their gender and grade level. Corey Gonzales, grade 8, posted the team’s fastest time at 7:56, which earned him 15th place. Grade 8 students Alyssa Amick, 8:13, and Diba Massihpour, 8:16, placed fourth and fifth respectively. Alex Dellar, grade 7, took tenth place with a time of 9:05 and Joelle Anderson, grade 6, took the highest place for the team at third with a time of 8:35. The squad is looking forward to their first official meet this week.
Flag Football
Varsity A football lost a close match to Menlo, 20-6, last week. The team’s defense was strong with the exception of two big plays where they got beat long for touchdowns. The team is looking to rebound at additional games this week.
Varsity B has their season opener this week; check back next week for results.
Junior varsity A had a big opening victory at home against the King’s Academy. The team is relying on their dominant offensive power to get them a lot of victories this season.
Coming Soon
Both softball and swimming have their season openers this week, so check back next week.
UpperSchool
Football The varsity football team is also off to an excellent start with two big victories. The first came at the season opener at Davis Field on Sept. 3. The Eagles defeated San Jose High 14-6 with big plays by several key players. Middle linebacker Greg Cox, grade 12, had 18 tackles and sealed the win with a late interception. Meanwhile, quarterback Rishi Bhatia, grade 12, threw for 150 yards and two scores, one to Danish Jamal, grade 11, on the first play of the game and one to Gautam Krishnamurthi, grade 12.
Their second game was a stunning 34-0 victory at Marina High on Sept. 11. Touchdowns were scored by a slew of Eagles. They were Chris McCallaCreary, grade 12; Krishnamurthi; Bhatia; Ejaz Haque, grade 12; and Cox.
The team looks forward to their next game, a non-league match, against Soledad High.
Volleyball The girls varsity volleyball team is currently 4-0 with victories over Mt. Pleasant (3-0), Westmont (3-2), Evergreen Valley (3-0) and Santa Teresa (3-1). They are led by their senior captains, Shireen Moshkelani, who has 100 digs in just four matches, and Henna Mishra, as well as seniors Christine Chien and Ava Rezvani. They are also led by the amazing play of Julia Lambertz, grade 11, who currently leads the team in kills with 60 in just four matches!
The JV volleyball team is 7-2 after competing in the JV Spikefest over the weekend, where they took first place in the Red Division. They also have victories over Mt. Pleasant (2-0), Evergreen Valley (2-0) and Santa Teresa (2-0). The team is led on defense by Lucy Xu, grade 11, and on offense and serving by Divya Kalidindi, grade 9.
For the first time ever Harker is also able to field a freshman team which is coming together nicely. The coaches were very pleased when they started tryouts this fall to find so many girls interested in playing. These 11 girls have been working very hard to improve their skills and have their first game on Sept. 17. The team has been led by Christine Lee and Sapna Suresh.
The Harker volleyball coaching staff has been happy with the efforts of all the girls in the program. Look for them this Thursday and Friday in home games against Saratoga and Leigh respectively.
Water Polo The boys team has competed strongly in two tournaments already this season. Currently their record is 4-2 with victories over Monterey, San Lorenzo Valley, Mt. Pleasant and Terra Nova. Chris Ng, grade 12, leads the team with 23 goals.
Both the boys and girls teams open league play Wednesday at home against Wilcox.
Coming Soon This week is a big week for Harker sports as many of our teams have games scheduled. Girls golf has their first test this week at the Fall Classic Invitational at Monarch Bay Golf Club. Girls tennis also opens their season this week with back-to-back matches Tuesday and Wednesday. The cross country team starts their season off with a meet this Saturday in Salinas.
This year marks the beginning of the Eagles Buddies Program, which pairs one or two sophomores with a grade 3 student to foster an ongoing relationship that will continue when the Class of 2013 graduates and the lower school students move on to middle school.
During Thursday advisory, sophomores sprawled out across desks, and even the floor, with markers, crayons and colored pens to write introductions to their new young buddies. “I’m very excited to meet you. I remember when I was in third grade. I had a buddy as well. It was lots of fun. I know we’ll have fun as well,” Apricot Tang, Gr. 10, wrote to her third-grade counterpart, Annie Ma.
“My favorite activity is tennis,” Christopher Chang wrote to his buddy, Ekdatha Arramreddy. “Maybe one day you can come watch me play. What activities do you enjoy?”
“The goals for the program are to foster a K-12 sense of community, and to promote responsibility, relationships and communication,” sophomore advisor Carol Zink said. Inspired by Butch Keller’s experiences with a similar buddy program his daughters went through, faculty and advisors from both grade levels – including sophomore class dean Jeff Draper, lower school dean of students Joe Connolly and Zink – have worked together to establish events throughout the year.
Before the official kick-off on Oct. 6, when the sophomores travel to Bucknall to meet face-to-face and play games with their buddies, the students have begun writing letters to each other to introduce themselves, sharing their summer stories and favorite activities. They’re also preparing for a fun-packed year filled with events like watching the homecoming game together, participating in the lower school’s Pajama Day and attending the Spring Spirit Week rally.
Many teachers noted how enthusiastic the sophomores were. “The girls especially got into it, filling their cards with pictures and using different color markers,” history teacher Ally Montana said.
Both students and faculty alike are looking forward to forging friendships.
“I am most looking to watching the students interact during the various activities we have planned for them at each campus,” Connolly said. “I am also looking forward to watching the relationships develop and the positive benefits each student, young and old, will receive.”
As summer drew to a close, Craig Pasqua, Harker tennis director, traveled to Flushing, N.Y., to volunteer at Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day 2010, held Aug. 28 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. According to Pasqua, who was attending the event for the third straight year, more than 30,000 children and adults used the 18 available tennis courts, which included Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Pasqua was busy giving lessons for the United States Tennis Association Serves Foundation, a charitable corporation that offers support to programs that serve at-risk children and people with disabilities.
While in New York, Pasqua also attended the USTA Tennis Teachers Conference, which took place during the U.S. Open. He attended speaking engagements with several well-known tennis coaches, including Tom Gullikson, Jose Higueras, Oscar Wegner, Mary Joe Fernandez, Tracy Austin, Cliff Drysdale and Billie Jean King. In addition, he was able to meet a number of young rising stars, such as Melanie Oudin and Coco Vandeweghe. He even had a chance meeting with alumna and former varsity tennis player Brittany Chu ’10, who was preparing for her first year at Columbia University.
Pasqua announced during the conference that he would be stepping down as the chairman of the USTA diversity committee in November, but said he looked forward “to joining the USTA’s community tennis committee, as my own nonprofit, Standing Tall Tennis, will begin serving the San Jose American Indian community this fall.”
Finally, besides getting to view the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Pasqua was also able to attend a taping of “Late Night With David Letterman.”
Students thronged the gym in early September shopping for a club or clubs that suit their fancy. Choices range from the robust Robotics Club to cultural clubs like the Japanese Club to the Tri-sports Club(Fencing, Ultimate Frisbee, Four Square), and included offerings from the Gay Straight Alliance and the Chemistry Club. Held during a long lunch, students ate and ran, or brought a bite to eat, to the gym. Clever recuriters strewed mini candy bars on their tables and reaped email addresses of interested students. Harker has a legacy of club activism and the tables of stalwarts like GEO (Global Empowerment and Outreach) and HEART (Harker Environmental and Animal Rights Team) were staffed by those long-committed to contributing to the world.