Students from Gr. 3, 4 and 5 had impressive results in this year’s math competitions. All Gr. 3 students recently completed participation in the Continental Mathematics League (CML) contest, where the high team score earned Harker a regional award. The six problems for each meet require logical thinking and reasoning, and schools compete internationally. Earning a perfect score of 18 over the three meets this year was Brandon Ma, who earned a medal for his achievement.
Although the top-scoring student always wins a medal, this is only the third time since Stephanie Woolsey, Gr. 3 math teacher and contest advisor, began administering the contest approximately six years ago that a perfect score has been earned. Ma earned an additional medal for being a national student winner for his perfect score.
Previous scores of 18 were earned by Grace Guan in 2007 and Rishabh Gargeya in 2008. Scoring a total of 16 points and earning certificates of recognition were Lilia Gonzales, Jerry Peng and Tiffany Wong.
Two students, Sahana Narayen and Nishant Ravi, both earned scores of five on each meet, for a total score of 15. The meets occur once a month in January, February and March during regular math classes. Scores are reported as both team and individual scores, with the highest possible team score being 36 for each meet. The highest six scores for the grade are reported as the team scores each month.
This year, students earning a score of six for at least one meet, in addition to the winners listed above, included Priya Bhanot, Bobby Bloomquist, Tim Chang, Brian Faun, Jacob Kim and Gene Wang. “These questions are challenging, and require students to think creatively and work carefully,” said Woolsey. She added, “It’s a great way for students to demonstrate their problem-solving abilities outside of the normal course material.”
The cumulative Harker team score was 101, which tied with the Mirman School for the Gifted in Los Angeles and earned a regional award. This team score is in the top five percent of the 462 schools that participated this year.
Gr. 4 ranked in the top five percent of all 271 schools, earning 168 points out of a possible 180 points. Rajiv Movva, scoring 26 out of 30, was the fourth grade leader. The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests: Movva, Michael Kwan, Shaya Zarkesh, Adrian Chu, Amy Dunphy, Edgar Lin, Griffin Ellis, Justin Su, Sahana Srinivasan, Neeraj Aggarwal and Rose Guan, who competed as a Gr. 3 cross-grader.
The Gr. 5 competitors were regional winners and ranked in the top two percent of all 287 schools, earning 172 out of a possible 180 points. Two students, David Zhu and Aneesh Samineni, earned regional individual awards and both had a cumulative score of 29 out of 30. The following students scored a perfect score of six on one or more contests: Zhu, Samineni, Peter Wu, Quentin Delepine, Steven Cao, Aditya Dhar, Alexander Lam, Antony Sagayaraj, Eric Pei, Kshithija Mulam and Rishab Gargeya.
Jason Martin ’07 continues to stun opponents and wow his coaches. Martin was written up in the San Jose Mercury News by Dennis Knight in his Movin’ on Up column, April 20. “The former Harker standout started his career as a walk-on, but he has developed into the Spartans’ top offensive player as a junior,” said Knight. “The Spartans have dropped three of four to New Mexico State last weekend, but Martin has been hot. In the past four games, the outfielder went 7 for 16 with a double, a home run and four RBI. Batting third in his most recent games, Martin leads the Spartans with a .403 batting average. He has 56 hits, 23 runs, eight doubles, a triple, one home run, 19 RBI and five stolen bases. He has a .462 on-base percentage.” Martin is the first player out of Harker to play Division I baseball. Go, former Eagle!
Patrick Campbell, Gr. 12, was named the 2010 River of Words Environmental Poetry and Art Contest Bioregion Prize Winner for a poem he wrote about watersheds titled “Old Country.” River of Words is a California-based, nonprofit organization that seeks to encourage connections between creative young people and their natural environment.
According to their website, award-winning artwork and poetry “is exhibited around the globe and is seen by millions of people each year, both in person, and reprinted in magazines, books, annual reports and other media.” Campbell wrote his poem while a student in Jennifer Siraganian’s Creative Writing class last fall. Campbell accepted his award at a ceremony on April 17 at the San Francisco Public Library.
“The award ceremony was lovely,” reported Siraganian, who added that Pamela Michael, River of Words executive director and co-founder, described Campbell’s poem as the strongest from the thousands of entries received from Bay Area students. In addition to enjoying publication in the River of Words annual anthology, Campbell has been invited to the national awards ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., in June.
The upper school production of “Les Miserables” was a grand spectacle worthy of the musical’s impressive pedigree. Directed by performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree, the beloved through-sung retelling of the classic Victor Hugo novel was wonderfully brought to life by the massive cast of upper school students, many of them playing multiple roles. During a run of four shows, the students played this most ambitious of musicals to a packed house each time, with more than 300 in attendance at every performance.
A sprawling, epic tale of redemption and romance spanning two decades in 19th century France, “Les Miserables” chronicles the life of ex-convict Jean Valjean (Nirjhar Mundkur, Gr. 11) as he transforms himself from a petty thief into an honest man while revolution begins to foment among the Paris youth.
The elaborate, multi-tiered set, which changed the orientation of the theater to have the stage in the middle of the room and the audience on three sides, was designed and built by middle school performing arts teacher Paul Vallerga, and creatively implemented a rotating floor to show scenes from multiple perspectives. The dramatic lighting by Natti Pierce-Thomson enhanced every scene with the appropriate level of atmosphere.
Upper school music teacher Catherine Snider, utilizing a supplemental computerized orchestration for the first time in the Conservatory, conducted a five-piece band as they provided seamless musical accompaniment to the onstage performances.
Students also provided a tremendous amount of offstage assistance, operating light and sound boards, managing the stage, assisting with wardrobe and performing many other duties to keep the show running on all cylinders.
[Update] The San Jose Mercury News noted the stellar performance of Harker’s boys volleyball team in an April 21 article by Dennis Knight:
“The race for the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division title could go down to the wire,” said Knight. “Ranked 15th in the state by Maxpreps, Harker School (20-3, 6-1) has been playing well and is atop the league after a three-game sweep of visiting Los Gatos last week. The Eagles are a senior-laden team led by setter Eugene Huang (Gr. 12) and hitter Chad Gordon (Gr. 12), who averages 4.4 kills a game.”
The article went on to quote Dan Molin, Harker’s athletic director and volleyball coach. “‘He’s only 5-10, but he is one of the most crafty and skilled players I’ve ever had,’ Harker coach Dan Molin said of Gordon. Middle blocker Jacob Chappell, a 6-5 junior, has also been a key contributor,” finished Knight.
April 20, 2010
Upper school athletes continued competing over the spring break. These updates include results from mid-March to the first week of April.
Boys Golf The boys golf team defeated The King’s Academy 190–266 on March 17. The cumulative score of 190 is the lowest ever for a Harker team! Maverick McNealy, Gr. 9, was a medalist with 35; James Feng, Gr. 12 and Kyle Roter, Gr. 9, both scored 36, with Jeremy Whang, Gr. 12, shooting 38 and Vinay Kumar, Gr. 12, shooting 45.
The boys also defeated Crystal Springs 213-239 on March 22 and, on April 5, beat Pinewood 193-208 to improve to 4-2. Feng shot a 36 to lead the way.
Swimming Girls swimming handily defeated Mercy-Burlingame on March 17 with a score of 121-48, but lost March 19 to Gunn 50-120. They performed well April 7 against Mercy-San Francisco, Pinewood and Crystal Springs with scores of 140-16, 132-33 and 140-6, respectively. Boys took down Pinewood 130-20 and Crystal Springs Uplands School 140-4.
Track and Field At the St. Francis Invitational on March 20, track and field members turned in some strong performances. For the frosh/sophs, Ragini Bhattacharya, Gr. 9, was fifth in the mile, Sonya Chalaka, Gr. 10, took fourth in long jump and fifth in triple jump, Sumit Minocha, Gr. 9, came in second in the 400m and 10th in the 100m. Johnny Yet, Gr. 10, was 10th in the long jump.On the varsity team,Isabelle Connell, Gr. 9, was seventh in the 800m while Tiffany Kyi, Gr. 12, was third in the triple jump. Aadithya Prakash, Gr. 12, placed fifth in the 3,000m and Scott Underwood, Gr. 12, took 10th in discus.
At the first WBAL track and field meet, held March 24 at Sacred Heart Prep, both boys and girls performed well. The boys had an outstanding showing in the throwing events, with Underwood taking first place in the discus and Thomas Enzminger, Gr. 12, throwing for second place in both discus and shot put. Prakash had a stellar run in the 3,200m, placing first; he took second in the 1,600m run. For the girls, Kyi took first in the high jump, triple jump and long jump. Tara Hansen, Gr. 12, captured second in the 300m hurdles, and Bhattacharya placed first in both the 1,600m and 3,200m. She also took third in the 800m run. Connell came in first in the 800m, and was a close second in the 200m. Adrienne Mendel, Gr. 9, placed third in the 3,200m. The girls finished the meet with an incredible 4x400m relay as Tanya Rai, Gr. 11, Hansen, Shivani Bigler, Gr. 10 and Connell earned first place.
The team also had a strong showing at the Gilroy meet on April 3, where Connell placed fifth in the varsity 800, and Minocha took second in the frosh/soph 400 and fourth in the frosh/soph 200. Enzminger, Connell, Minocha, Rai and Tyler Yeats, Gr. 9, all had personal records in their events.
Boys Volleyball The boys volleyball team defeated Monta Vista on March 17, with Chad Gordon, Gr. 12, on fire with 21 kills that evening. They suffered their first league loss March 26 to Mountain View, losing 16-14 in the fifth game of the match. The next day the boys went 3-1 in the Leland Tournament and took the silver division championship, or fifth place out of 12. They continued their winning ways by defeating Saratoga on April 7 and Monta Vista on April 9 to improve to 18-3 overall and 4-1 in league play. Kevin Fu, Gr. 12, had seven kills against Saratoga, Gordon had 11 and Jacob Chappell, Gr. 11, had 10 against Monta Vista.
Boys Tennis After losing a tough one to a strong Monta Vista team March 17, the boys tennis team rebounded March 18 with a 7-0 defeat of Pinewood. They returned to action April 5 with a 4-3 victory over Cupertino, another CCS-bound team. The match was even closer than the score indicated, as all three of Harker’s losses were decided in final set tiebreakers. Number 1 singles Karthik Dhore, Gr. 11, #1 doubles Tim Weng, Gr. 11 and Sachin Jain, Gr. 10, and #3 doubles Sanjeev Datta/Samir Datta, both Gr. 12, all won in straight sets and quickly gave Harker a 3-0 lead. Cupertino fought back, winning the next three matches for a 3-3 tie. Simar Mangat, Gr. 9, a doubles specialist, played #4 singles for the first time, filling in the singles lineup for an injured Derek Tzeng, Gr. 10. Mangat played superbly and, in a dramatic performance with both teams watching from the sidelines, won in straight sets 6-3, 6-3, clinching Harker’s 10th victory. The boys also beat Homestead 6-1 on April 7. Harker is now 11-2.
Softball The girls hung tough for five innings March 19 against The King’s Academy before King’s started to wear Harker down in the final innings. The girls lost, 2-10. On March 26, Alison Rugar, Gr. 9, pitched an impressive 13 strikeouts and Ashley Del Alto, Gr. 9, had a triple play against Notre Dame, but the girls lost 1-9. They also lost a close non-league game, 3-5, against Gunderson on April 9. Tracey Chan, Gr. 11, had two hits in the contest.
Baseball Stefan Eckhardt, Gr. 12, pitched six strong innings March 13 in a 2-0 loss to Irvington in the Dougherty Valley Tournament. Kevin Cali, Gr. 9, Alex Ringold, Gr. 12, Jacob Hoffman, Gr. 9 and Eckhardt each had hits for the Eagles. The boys beat Monta Vista on March 23, but lost to Gunn on March 27. Over the break, the team defeated Saratoga High 9-3 and lost to Lynbrook 7-6. Against Saratoga, Greg Plauck, Gr. 12, had four RBI and a home run while Eckhardt went 3 for 4. The boys defeated Cupertino 3-2 on April 10 to improve to 6-8-1 overall.
Girls Lacrosse Girls lacrosse earned their first victory of the year March 25 by defeating Mercy-Burlingame 9-7. Michelle Douglas, Gr. 9, had four goals, while Julia Shim, Gr. 12 and Elaine Song, Gr. 12, each scored twice and Monisha Appalaraju, Gr. 11, made one goal and had four assists. Ruhi Kumbhani, Gr. 11, had 11 saves in goal. After defeating Woodside 15-7 on April 9, the girls improved to 2-0 in league play. Goals were scored by Shim, Song, Appalaraju, Douglas and Samantha Walker, Gr. 10.
Updates on fall and winter athletes Congratulations to Ryan Cali, Gr. 12, for being named All Mercury News Honorable Mention for boys basketball!
Rohan Shah, Gr. 12, has been selected to participate in the 36th Annual Silicon Valley Youth Classic High School Football All Star Game on July 21 at Spartan Stadium. Congratulations!
Aadithya Prakash, Gr. 12, competed in the Golden Gate Headlands Marathon and placed first in his age group and seventh overall with a time of 3:49.01. Track and cross country coach Paul Nangle advised and assisted Prakash during his training prior to the event. Congratulations on this remarkable accomplishment!
The upper school orchestra has been named the top scoring orchestra of the Los Angeles Festival of Gold. The orchestra is in southern California today – April 19 — and has the honor of performing in Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight for the entire group of festival participants and families. The judges and festival director requested the orchestra play the Elgar Cello Concerto, featuring Julia Shim, Gr. 12, for the encore performance. “The kids are thrilled, as this is greatest honor our young orchestra has ever achieved,” said Chris Florio, orchestra director.
Anika Gupta, Gr. 8, sang at an October fundraiser for the Akshaya Patra organization, which works to combat hunger and improve education in India. There, Gupta also got to meet keynote speaker Narayana Murthy, founder of the information technology services company Infosys and the highly regarded “Bill Gates of India.” The event raised more than $500,000 and Gupta’s performance of the Dionne Warwick hit “That’s What Friends are For” was enthusiastically received.
Harker ‘s middle and upper schools were once again big winners at the Synopsys Science and Technology Championship, pulling in more than 40 awards. Two upper school students, Alex Han, Gr. 12 and Revanth Kosaraju, Gr. 10, walked away with grand prizes for “Best of Championship” in the Biological Sciences category. Both were awarded a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May.
Also winning in the Biological Sciences category was Josephine Chen, Gr. 11, who received a First Award and a $100 prize for the best technical paper from the Dr. Paul X Callahan Technical Paper Awards.
Kosaraju also won a First Award for Individual Project in the Behavioral/Social category, as did Aditi Joshi (Honorable Mention, Individual Project) and Max Lan (First Award, Individual Project), both Gr. 11.
Han also took home First Awards for Individual Project and Technical Paper in the Biochemistry/Microbiology category, where junior Jason David Young earned an Honorable Mention for Individual Project.
Harker US winners in the Medicine/Health/Gerontology category were Jeanette Chin (Second Award, Technical Paper), Supraja Swamy (Second Award, Technical Paper) and Isaac Madan (Honorable Mentions for Individual Project and Technical Paper), all Gr. 11 and Pranav Sharma, Gr. 9 (Honorable Mention, Individual Project).
A trio of Harker students performed well in the Engineering category, with senior Andrea Lincoln winning Second Awards for Individual Project and Technical Paper, junior Kiran Vodrahalli earning awards from Yale Science and Engineering Association, United States Army and more and sophomore Ashley King walking away with a first place bronze medallion award from the United States Army.
Upper school award winners in other categories were senior Tiffany Chien in Chemistry (First Award, Individual Project), senior Andrew Zhou earning a First Award in the Technical Paper category, senior Kevin Zhang in Earth/Space Sciences (Honorable Mention, Inividual Project) and Paulomi Bhattacharya, Gr. 9, in Environmental Science (First Award, Individual Project).
Harker had nearly 30 award winners at the middle school level. Winners in the Biochemistry/Microbiology category were Christopher Fu (Second Award, Team Project), Brendon Yu (Second Award Team Project), Mercedes Chien (Labcoat Award for Lab Bench Finesse) and Vikram Sundar (First Award, Individual Project), all Gr. 8.
In Environmental Sciences, awards were won by eighth graders Saachi Jain (Second Award, Team Project), Kristine Lin (Second Award, Team Project) and Aditya Batra (Honorable Mention, Individual Project).
Winners in Zoology were Divya Kalidindi (Second Award, Team Project), Namita Ravi (Second Award, Team Project), Pooja Chopra (Honorable Mention, Team Project) and Maneesha Panja (Honorable Mention, Team Project), all Gr. 8, while Anika Ayyar won a Second Award for Individual Project in Botany.
Harker’s biggest category was Physics, with a total of 13 winners: seventh graders Archana Podury (IEEE Award from Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), Corey Gonzales (First Award, Team Project), Madhu Nori (First Award, Team Project), Apoorva Rangan (First Award, Team Project), Allen Huang (Honorable Mention, Individual Project), Hemant Kunda (Second Award, Team Project), Neha Sunil (Second Award, Team Project), Sahana Rangarajan (First Award, Team Project), Vivek Sriram (First Award, Team Project), Rahul Balikrishnan (Second Award, Team Project) and Avinash Nayak (First Award, Team Project) and eighth graders Raymond Xu (First Award, Team Project) and Vikas Bhetanabotla (First Award, Individual Project).
Middle school award winners in the Engineering category were Neil Movva, Gr. 7 (Second Award, Individual Project) and Brian Tuan, Gr. 8 (Honorable Mention from the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering).
Finally, Jennifer Dai, Gr. 8, won a First Award in the Chemistry category.
In addition to the dozens of student awards, upper school science teacher Kate Schafer was named one of two Outstanding High School Teachers. The upper school received a $100 prize from the Wireless Communication Alliance and $1,000 from the Whitney Education Foundation for having the best biological science project. The middle school received an Outstanding School Award from the Santa Clara Valley Science and Engineering Fair Association.
To see the full list of student winners, including all awards won and project titles, visit the middle school and upper school winners pages on the Synopsys Championship website, or download the lists of the middle school winners and upper school winners in PDF format.
Congratulations to all of Harker’s award winners at this year’s Synopsys Science and Technology Championship!
Nine Harker students traveled to Washington, D.C., in early April for the 2010 National Japan Bowl competition. All three Harker teams made the final round, ultimately placing first in Level II, second in Level III and second in Level IV.
Japan Bowl is an academic competition that tests the achievements of high school students studying Japanese in the United States. The competition tests not only the students’ language skills but also their knowledge of proverbs and onomatopoeic (words that represent sounds, like “buzz” and “hiss”) expressions as well as various cultural elements.
Each year, the competition tests different non-language questions, and this year’s non-language questions included extensive topics such as the history of the showa and heisei periods, haiku, folk tales, demography, transportation, communications infrastructure and mass media, economy, business, Japanese artifacts, anime and manga and more.
Teams were:
Level II: Shilpa Nataraj, team captain, Gr. 10; Crystal Chen, Gr. 10; and Meera Madhavan, Gr. 9.
Level III; Tiffany Jang, team captain, Gr. 10; Victoria Liang Gr.11; and Lorraine Wong, Gr. 9.
Level IV: Kelly Chen, team captain, Gr. 12; Katie Liang, Gr. 11, and Jerry Sun, Gr. 11.
Olivia Zhu, Gr. 11, has been named one of the top 10 national finalists in the First Freedom Student Competition and will receive an honorable mention. More than 2,200 high school students competed nationwide.
The First Freedom Student Competition offers monetary awards for student efforts on history, current events and the right to freedom of religion. The competition is hosted by the First Freedom Center, an organization that provides programs to increase understanding and respect for religious freedom.
For the competition, students write an essay on religious freedom which is judged by historians, historical site and museum professionals, retired educators and business executives. The semifinalists’ essays are judged by constitutional law and religious freedom scholars to determine the top 10 essays and final judging is by experts in the fields of higher education and law.
The competition is held annually and is open to students in the United States, U.S. territories and to American schools and American home-schooled students worldwide.