The 2010 “Technology for Life” research symposium, held Saturday, April 10, in Nichols Center, featured two prominent keynote speakers who have propelled their scientific backgrounds into careers with global impact:
Dr. William McClure, a noted plastic surgeon and humanitarian, is a partner at Napa Valley Plastic Surgery, Inc. A graduate of the University of California-San Diego medical school and Stanford University in plastic and general surgical training, McClure has served as chief of surgery at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa. McClure’s presentation, however, focused on his volunteer work with the group Interplast, doing reconstructive surgery on children in developing countries.
Over 25 years and through 55 missions in 14 countries, McClure has repaired cleft lips and palates, neurofibromas and burn scars. Such deformities often doom a child to a life of shame or debilitating impairment. Referring to the cultural superstitions around cleft lips, a deformity in one out of 100 births, McClure said, “The sad part is it takes only 30 to 45 minutes to repair the deformity and change this child’s life.”
McClure told his audience, “I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in high school.” But then a math teacher with a burn scar on one side of his head stirred “my first interest in plastic surgery.” During residency, he was assigned to a plastic surgery rotation with the opportunity to take care of children in Mexico. “Something clicked. That changed my life,” said McClure, who saw how a handful of instruments and 35 minutes could change the life of a child with a cleft lip.
The longer-term solution to surgical needs, however, is training physicians and nurses in developing countries to do the operations themselves. “Surgery is a skill,” said McClure. “You learn it by doing it and we teach by doing. If each trip I can train a physician, we get tremendous leverage.”
McClure, who has already traveled to Laos this year and has a trip to Mexico planned, has received several awards for his philanthropic work, and in 2005 met the Dalai Lama. His “life’s journey” advice to students considering medical careers is threefold: Look to the future while living in the moment, be willing to change course, and plant seeds today. He also encouraged everyone to get involved. “It doesn’t take wealth, academic standing or special skills to make a difference. They secret key is compassion,” he noted. “The Dalai Lama says that if we want to be happy in our life, we have to practice compassion.”
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Dr. Christopher Gilbert is the vice president of science and technology at Keystone Dental, Inc. A graduate of the University of California-Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University in materials science, Gilbert has worked with McKinsey & Company, consulting with global biopharmaceutical clients on acquisitions and commercial strategy, and with Hologic, Inc.
Gilbert credited his early career inspiration to his father’s interest in bad science fiction, where fantastical micro-surgical tools and bionic eyes were part of the stories. Some of those medical devices, such as surgical robots and ocular implants, are now reality. Speaking about high-tech therapeutic devices such as pacemakers and small equipment like intravenous pumps, Gilbert said, “Medical technology has revolutionized health care since the 1960s. Discoveries improve lives; they change lives.”
With Hologic, Inc., Gilbert led the U.S. approval and launch of the Adiana permanent contraceptive device. A $210 billion industry with an expected growth rate of 6.5 percent, the medical device market comprises 25 percent of U.S. health care expenditures. Competitive and constantly changing, the highly regulated field interweaves the complexities of business, government, patients, physicians and advocacy groups. Gilbert encouraged students to take a variety of courses and take advantage of biomedical and business departments in college. “You need to interface with a wide range of people,” Gilbert advised.
Gilbert’s career began when a random application to a consulting firm ultimately led to his current position. “Believe in the extreme importance of serendipity in your career,” he said. “What kind of skills do you develop to take advantage of things that fall in your lap?” Gilbert said that the Bay Area economy encourages risks and accepts failure, out of which comes opportunity. “Failure will happen. It takes 10 to 12 years to take a product to market, and many of these fail.”
Noting the interdisciplinary nature of the field, Gilbert counseled, “Many of the skills you are now developing in science will serve you in the future. Many of the problem-solving skills I developed in the sciences have served me well in the business world.”
This article originally appeared in the spring 2010 Harker Quarterly.
Colin Dickey MS ’91 holds an M.F.A degree from the California Institute of the Arts and is finishing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Southern California. He resides in Los Angeles and is the author of “Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius.”
Emma Hawley ’04 studied acting at the University of California at Los Angeles and graduated valedictorian in 2008. Since then she has performed improvisational comedy, sung professionally, signed with a commercial agent and has appeared in two commercials for Jack in the Box. She lives in Los Angeles, where she continues looking into lead roles in voiceovers and theatrical productions.
Q: When you were at Harker, did you dream of doing what you do now?
A: Colin Dickey: Absolutely. I really developed a love of reading through Sylvia Harp’s literature classes in seventh and eighth grades. And the first story I ever wrote was a western that was based on all of my best friends at Harker.
A: Emma Hawley: While at Harker I knew I was going to pursue acting and a creative career – and I am.
Q: What do you find most exciting about your career or current project?
A: CD: I love working with words: seeing how a sentence can be put together, thinking of the way words sound and how they look on the page, and developing a sense of music and rhythm through writing.
A: EH: I love this opportunity to collaborate with talented, tenacious, conscious beings.
Q: What personal traits make you successful at what you’re doing?
A: CD: I’ve always had an insatiable curiosity, but I’ve also always been more interested in the stories that don’t get told, the things that run counter to the party line, the stuff that nobody knows about but is often hiding in plain sight. That desire to seek out the stuff that isn’t being talked about has been a great asset in terms of my current writing, since it allows me to bring these stories to light.
A: EH: I have an unceasing desire to be more fully myself.
Q: What in your life so far took you the longest time to learn?
A: CD: When to use “that” and when to use “which” correctly in a sentence.
A: EH: I understand a lot less than I think I do, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Q: What’s on the top of your personal and professional “lists” right now?
A: CD: Um, I’m reading a lot of Henry James – does that count? I’m also trying to find a way to try something on “The Thuringian War,” a long poem written by the sixth century German saint Radegund, which I think is incredibly beautiful and which no one I’ve ever met has heard of.
A: EH: The real priority is striking a balance between knowing what I already have going for me, moving through the steps I need to take and opening to the myriad opportunities presenting themselves every day.
Q: Tell us something surprising about yourself.
A: CD: I’m a really big fan of karaoke.
A: EH: I frequently swing on the traveling rings at the original Santa Monica Muscle Beach.
Q: What advice do you have for current Harker students?
A: CD: Have a healthy, positive relationship to failure. The more you can let yourself be okay with failure, the more risks you’ll take, and the more you can achieve. Failing at great things is always better than doing mediocre things.
A: EH: Learn to balance your head with your heart and your gut. Gratitude is your best friend. Stillness is underrated. Play more.
Nichols Hall on the Saratoga campus hummed with energy on April 10 during Harker’s fifth annual research symposium, “Technology for Life.” Begun in 2005 by upper school biology teacher and science department chair Anita Chetty, the student-led event is modeled after professional symposia that encourage the sharing of ideas in a non-competitive setting.
More than 300 people and 69 student presenters attended the increasingly popular event. “Each year sets a new standard and because of the nature of our community, we simply use that standard to grow from,” said Chetty. Three alumni also presented their current university research, and two keynote speakers linked science backgrounds to careers.
The day included breakout sessions led by 19 upper school students and poster presentations by an additional 16 students. Senior Anjali Menon formally presented her work with IBM’s Almaden facility, on using computers to replace human subjects in simulating the action of drug molecules. Her mother, Indira Somanathan, is enthusiastic about Harker’s research program. “Here you have your own facilities and technology. I’m really happy with Nichols Hall,” she said.
Amy Zhou, sponsor coordinator for the symposium and mother of Jason Young, Gr. 11, thinks Nichols Hall plays a big part in the excitement that middle school students have for science. “The level of science is getting better and better every year,” she said. “The teachers are encouraging and give you time to work in the lab, and the research class allows you to learn more skills like writing and presentation.” Young presented his work with epigenetic regulation of gene expression, which he will continue at the University of California, San Diego this summer.
The Chemistry Club presented demonstrations, and at a “Harker Hospital” workshop, middle school students, under the guidance of upper school students, ran EKGs, took blood pressure readings and analyzed simulated blood samples. “This was a great opportunity for us to not only showcase some of our sophisticated data acquisition tools, it was also a chance for our upper school students to mentor and inspire younger Harker students,” said Chetty.
Divya Kalidindi and Namita Ravi, both Gr. 8, were two of 34 middle school students on hand to discuss their poster presentations. By studying the effect of caffeine on the regeneration of body parts in planaria, they found that caffeine could halve the time required for planaria to grow a new head. Looking forward to working in Nichols Hall next year, Kalidindi said, “The center seems more professional. It is going to be really fun.” Ravi added, “The topics are really good here.”
Inspired by his Gr. 8 study of respiration to research the effect of phosphate on algae blooms in aquatic ecosystems, Josh Batra said, “It was fun to see my experiment in action.” Batra is looking forward to more exposure to biology and physics in the upper school.
Event sponsors offered hands-on technology demonstrations and career advice for students and parents. Brendon Yu, Gr. 8, stood in line to try out Autosuture, by Covidien Surgical. Taking a turn at the hand instruments for suturing, Yu said, “This helps you get inside the body and sew delicate arteries. It requires a lot of practice.”
The day closed with a workshop titled “Research Internships, Technical Writing and Research Competitions,” led by a panel of seniors. “These articulate and talented students gave such an informative talk that parents wanted to hear it again,” Chetty said. The videotaped presentation will be linked off of the research website. “The prospect of approaching a university researcher can be daunting. Seeing that their Harker peers have been successful in doing so is highly encouraging,” Chetty continued. “Presentations such as this one continue to assist in moving forward the mandate of the symposium, which is that it is a student-led research conference for students.”
Join us on Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m. in the Nichols Hall auditorium at the Saratoga campus for an evening with acclaimed entrepreneur and visionary Matt Flannery, as he shares his motivation, challenges and experiences in creating one of the most innovative modern tools in the campaign against world poverty, Kiva.org.
Kiva brings the global reach and power of the Internet to the exciting and fast-developing world of microfinance. By creating a global electronic marketplace, Kiva encourages and empowers individuals to connect with small entrepreneurs around the world and easily, efficiently and transparently lend modest sums of money for worthwhile business enterprises.
The numbers speak for themselves. As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans, helping over 300,000 entrepreneurs in over 100 countries. Kiva works because it matches the natural generosity and good business sense of contributors with the strong entrepreneurial spirit of people in developing areas who need access to often surprisingly small amounts of capital to fulfill their dreams of creating a better life for themselves and their families.
Kiva further shows that connecting people can also create relationships that extend well beyond financial transactions, building a global community that facilitates the support and encouragement of one another.
So join us on Friday, May 7 for your chance to meet, speak with and hear Matt Flannery as he describes one of the most exciting intersections of high technology and sustainable finance and development. Your outlook and hope for the world’s poor will likely never be the same. If you plan to attend this event, please RSVP by e-mailing HSSRSVP@harker.org.
About Matt Flannery
Matt Flannery began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side project with while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Flannery left his job to devote himself to Kiva full time. As CEO, Flannery has led Kiva’s growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and millions in dollars loaned to low income entrepreneurs. He is a Draper Richards Fellow, Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow. He graduated with a B.S. in symbolic systems and a master’s degree in philosophy, both from Stanford University.
About the Harker Speaker Series
Launched in 2007, the Harker Speaker Series (HSS) invites leaders and visionaries from a variety of fields to share ideas and experiences with Harker parents, faculty and students as well as the greater community.
Some of Harker’s most unique offerings are those of the global education department. While the many exchange programs are well-known, they are just the tip of the iceberg, explains Jennifer Abraham, director of global education.
The program has, especially in recent years, begun a transition to much more of an academic focus. In addition to student and teacher exchanges, the department sponsors cultural and curricular exchanges. “Through the variety of exchange programs, Harker students will become better world citizens,” said Abraham. The global education department hopes that “by nurturing these meaningful relationships between young people across various continents, we have the ability to create lasting understanding between the future leaders of the world,” she added.
There are exchanges on all three campuses for students in all grade levels. Harker has sister schools in Japan, China, Russia, India, Australia, Costa Rica, Spain, Thailand, Ethiopia, Switzerland, France and Saudi Arabia.
Programs for the lower school focus on teaching students about the similarities and differences between students around the world. Through a variety of activities students learn from each other about their respective countries and cultures. Kindergarten, second and third grade students work with students at the Tamagawa Gakuen School in Tokyo to learn more about each other before the exchange program that occurs in Gr. 6.
Second graders work with students from Saudi Arabia and Australia in the Mascot Project. The schools exchange stuffed animal mascots, and throughout the year communicate with one another about the adventures of the visiting mascots as they travel with students around the Bay Area and beyond. For example, the Harker eagle that traveled to Saudi Arabia had many adventures “including making tea, dressing in traditional Saudi clothing and attending school,” says Abraham.
Students at the middle school participate in email exchanges, forum discussion groups, and video conferencing with schools in Tokyo, Shanghai, Costa Rica, France and Australia. Regan Heslop, Gr. 6, participated in this year’s video conferences with Shanghai students. “We talked about the environment and global warming,” she said. “It was cool to be able to ask them questions about school and life in Shanghai.”
One of the longest running – over 15 years – and most popular middle school programs is the student exchange with sister school Tamagawa in Tokyo. The students collaborate across the world on environmental and computer science projects in e-mail exchanges and video conferences. Each year a group of students from each school crosses the ocean to spend 10 days in the others’ country, including a four-night stay with a host family. Many of the students renew friendships in Gr. 8 when groups from both schools meet in Washington, D.C.
Those students who are enrolled in advanced French language classes exchange letters and packages with students from
Institution Sevigne, Harker’s sister school in France. These packages often include items such as “yearbooks, school newspapers and teen magazines,” said Abraham.
Students in advanced art do a landscape project and post pictures of their work to an online gallery. Students then are able to view photos of their peers’ art and leave comments. Programs such as these help students to learn more about the people of another country than textbooks can ever teach.
During February, middle school students video conference with peers from around the world. Since 2003, Gr. 8 students have video-conferenced with their counterparts from the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai. Topics of their conversations include population growth and its impact on the environment. These talks culminate in an exchange program, which according to Abraham was the “first of its kind between a U.S. middle school and the People’s Republic of China, garnering significant international media attention.”
Upper school students continue the relationship with sister school Tamagawa through exchanges and foreign language work. Last summer seven upper school students traveled to Japan to learn more about that country’s culture. As part of the trip they visited with buddies from Tamagawa and stayed with their families for the weekend. David Wu, Gr. 11, said that he viewed the trip as a huge learning experience and that he “learned a lot about myself, Japanese culture and Japanese girls.”
Last summer, 10 seniors were also on a trip to Costa Rica. Students worked with endangered sea turtles in an effort to learn more about their reproductive habits. “The objective of the trip was to immerse students in field research so they could experience first-hand the excitement of discovery with the challenges of conducting research in the wilderness,” said Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair.
After experiencing some difficulties with her research project, Adrienne Wong, Gr. 12, said the trip “taught me that not everything always goes your way and the solution is not to give up but to find another way to achieve your goals.”
The trip focused on a variety of educational areas including biology, Spanish and computer science. In addition to offerings for students, there also exist programs for Harker’s teachers. These exchange programs provide our educators a means to learn about teaching techniques and styles from throughout the world. This includes exchange programs with schools in Switzerland, Japan and Australia.
Upper school psychology teacher Naomi Schatz traveled to Saint Stephen’s College, Harker’s sister school in Australia. At one point she gave a lecture about sport psychology which she said touched on “performance anxiety, overcoming adversity, fear of injury, goal setting, confidence and self-talk.”
She hopes that students will take these lessons and apply them in the classroom as well. Around the same time Sue Muir, a math teacher from Saint Stephen’s, visited Harker and, in addition to observing several upper school math classes, did some team teaching with math teacher Gabriele Stahl.
Overall, the programs offered by the global education department offer our students unparalleled access to their peers around the world. This exposure plays a huge role in the school’s goal of creating well-rounded global citizens. Rather than teaching our students about foreign cultures only through textbooks, Harker is committed to providing an interesting, dynamic and first-hand set of experiences that are invaluable as our students grow into world citizens.
On April 21, a group of Gr. 3 students traveled to Mission San Juan Bautista to learn about the early history of California. Refusing to let the cold, wet weather stand in the way of a fun and educational outing, the students toured the historic location and discovered what daily life was like during the time when the Spanish missions were at their most influential in this state.
Later, the group visited the Tops A Rock Shop just down the street from the mission for a lesson on sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. The session proved to be timely, as the students had just finished learning about rocks in their science classes. As a bonus, the presenter gave each student four types of rocks to keep.
To complete the excursion, the group went to Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor for treats. “The ice cream parlor was the hit of the day for the kids,” said Heidi Gough, lower school California history teacher. “No surprise there!”
Eight Harker students are among the 500 semifinalists nationwide who are vying to represent the U.S. in the International Biology Olympiad. Congratulations to seniors Jeanette Chin, Alex Han and Vishesh Jain, and juniors Rachel Fang, Ruchika Podury, Jerry Sun, Susan Tu and Jason Young.
Based on the two-hour semifinalist exam results, the top 20 students will be invited to the national finals in June. That will entail eight days of intensive practical and theoretical training at Purdue University in Indiana. The students will be taught by leading biologists and teachers, and conduct experiments in laboratories. At the end of the training, four students will be selected as the U.S. representatives to compete in the Olympiad, which will be held in July in Changwon, South Korea. The U.S. team has swept the competition and won gold three straight years.
The 2010 Ogre Awards took place March 25 at Bucknall Theater before a lively lunch-time crowd. A vignette from “Cinderella” started the show. In a change from past years, the awards did not present a story from start to finish by integrating the Ogre nominees into the tale’s plot. Instead, the Gr. 2 students acted out scenes from each of the 21 nominated stories.
Gr. 2 homeroom teachers co-hosted the event with Enid Davis, library director. As is customary, awards were given out to various characters featured in the show. This year’s Best Witch was Baba Yaga, the infamous hag from Russian folklore, portrayed by Simren Gupta. Best Wolf went to the Grey Wolf from “Czar Ivan and Grey Wolf,” played by Montek Kalsi. The title character from the Scottish fairy tale “Molly Whuppie,” played by Radhika Jain, won Best Heroine.
Best Magical Object was won by January’s staff from the story “Marusa and the Month Family,” while the Youngest Brother from “The Waters of Life,” played by Gabriel Chai, won Best Enchanted Creature. The titular character from “Lazy Jack,” portrayed by Devin Keller, was this year’s Best Fool, and the year’s Best Trickster was Anansi from “Anansi and Five,” depicted by Benjamin MacDonald. Finally, the 2010 Ogre Award for Favorite Story went to “Lazy Jack,” which was performed by students Keller, Andrew Cheplyansky, Matthew Jiang and Vance Vu.
This year’s Special Ogre Award went to Marie Clifford, who – along with Chris Nikoloff – spearheaded the drive for a new upper school library. Clifford was business manager for Harker schools for more than 20 years and is now a member of the board of trustees.
Congratulations to the six Harker teams that competed in the Silicon Valley Regional Destination Imagination Tournament on March 6. All the teams and their managers worked extremely hard, with some starting their preparations as early as November 2009. Everyone learned the true meaning of collaboration along the way.
Two of the teams, The Secret Atom, Gr. 3 and Delta Ismo, Gr. 4, placed in the top three in their division and advanced to the Destination Imagination California State Tournament, held April 6 at Independence High School. Although neither team advanced to the global finals, both groups refined their original presentations and received stellar reviews for their ingenuity, teamwork and performance. Additionally, team Delta Ismo received the prestigious Renaissance Award with the following pronouncement: “This was not a group of individuals; this was a team of brilliant young engineers. While others built their structure of strips or sheets of newspaper, they shredded the newspaper and re-engineered it into a pulp-based cylinder. The final design was possibly the strongest, best-engineered structure we have ever seen.”
Recently several students got to go to the home of Head of School Christopher Nikoloff for “American Idol” night. Siobhan Cox, Gr. 9, won this event at this year’s picnic silent auction. She turned the occasion into a celebration of her birthday as well.
Cox and her friends enjoyed an excellent dinner of Chinese food, prepared by Harker’s own chefs, which Nikoloff served. After dinner and birthday cake the girls and Nikoloff watched “American Idol” together and debated about who they thought is going to win the contest. Be on the lookout at next year’s picnic for your chance to enjoy some quality time with our head of school!