A group of Harker upper school students – ninth graders Mir Bahri, Samvita Gautham, Eileen Ma, Dominick Piscione, Jessica Tang, Deeya Viradia and Carol Wininger; and juniors Ethan Choi and Natasha Yen – launched a GoFundMe campaign last month to assist low-income families who are facing greater difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic due to job loss. The group plans to give a portion of the proceeds to a local family-owned restaurant, so that it can distribute meals to people facing food scarcity as well as small businesses impacted by the pandemic. The remaining funds will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank, which is struggling to meet the swelling demand of its customers.
In addition, the students also plan to provide online tutoring to area students who cannot attend school due to closures.
Last week, volume 21 of HELM (Harker Eclectic Literature & Media) was released online via Issuu. It is the first issue of the annual student magazine to be published online upon release. This year’s collection of student-created poetry, essays, short stories and visuals deals with the subject of nostalgia and how it is experienced by the current generation of high schoolers. “We’re often left out of the conversation about generation differences, as a part of the in-between: too young to have grown up watching ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ while munching on Hubba Bubba gum, but not young enough to have spent our toddler years hogging the iPad to play with virtual toys,” reads the foreword by editors-in-chief Annie Ma and Amla Rashingkar, both seniors.
The magazine is readable in web browsers and available as a download in PDF format.
Class of 2018 alumnae Sohenee Banerjee and Meghana Karinthi have started a virtual tutoring service that donates tuition fees to organizations providing relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. The service, called TheTutorNextDoor, matches college students to elementary, middle and high school students seeking tutoring in a wide variety of subjects. It is also offering college counseling and SAT exam preparation. Tutoring is carried out via phone and video calls in both one-on-one and group sessions, held on a weekly or bi-weekly basis or as a one-time session. More information, including registration and pricing structure, visit TheTutorNextDoor’s website.
“Closing out the top two spots in original oratory stands out as an achievement that was unparalleled by any other,” said Heath Martin, a member of the California Coast District Committee and director of speech and debate at Presentation High School. Odekirk’s hard work in serving local competitions, which included streamlining the process of running tournaments, was also a factor. “His was a unanimous selection by the committee this year,” said Martin. “We are very proud to have him as our Coach of the Year. It’s a decision we know we got right.”
Last week, senior Ashna Reddy’s sculpture, “Soaked,” was awarded first prize in the sculpture category in New Museum Los Gatos’ 2020 ArtNow exhibition. The piece, an umbrella constructed from mesh, “explores the idea of uselessness, missing that which makes one whole,” Reddy wrote in her comments on the work. She was inspired to create the sculpture after witnessing the various ways in which the Earth’s “wholeness” has been depleted through human activity such as pollution and deforestation.
April 16, 2020
In March, pieces by senior Ashna Reddy and juniors Elliot Kampmeier and Maria Teplova were selected for the 2020 ArtNow exhibition by New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU). This annual juried exhibition highlights the top high school talent from Silicon Valley. The 76 entries in the exhibition were picked from more than 900 entries. The art for the exhibition was installed just before the museum closed in March due to California’s ongoing mandatory shelter-in-place. In lieu of a live reception, NUMU created a virtual tour to showcase this year’s exhibition. Each year’s ArtNow follows a different theme, and this year’s student submissions used water as the theme for their work. Pieces are evaluated and selected by a jury of university-level instructors. Prizes and scholarships totaling $10,000 are also awarded during the program.
After an impressive 13-2-3 season for the girls soccer team, four Eagles were named as part of the Prep2Prep All-CCS teams. Megha Salvi, grade 10, earned third team recognition, with Sarah Baicher, Emma Boyce and Aria Wong, all grade 11, earning honorable mentions. Check out the full list of girls soccer honorees. Go Eagles!
Over spring break, middle school math chair Vandana Kadam spent her spare time teaching math online to students who were unable to attend school due closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. She asked some of her current students, as well as former students who are now at the upper school, if they would like to assist, and seventh grader Jonathan Xue, eighth graders Claire Luo, Julie Shi, Cynthia Wang, Michelle Wei, Olivia Xu and Ella Yee, and ninth graders Riya Gupta, Stephen Xia and Sally Zhu all jumped at the chance to help. The sessions have continued past spring break and now take place twice a week. “It is so rewarding to see our students taking time from their busy schedules to help other students,” Kadam said. “They do it with tremendous dedication ensuring that the students benefit from the coaching.”
The upper school ASB and Student Council have launched a donation drive to support Silicon Valley Strong, an initiative started by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo that delivers aid to households put at risk of displacement during the COVID-19 pandemic due to factors such as illness, joblessness and lack of income. Small businesses and local organizations also are receiving assistance. The donation drive, which runs from today until Sunday, was launched to provide Silicon Valley Strong with more funding, which has become necessary due to the high demand for aid.
Harker middle school students earned high marks in math competitions in February and March. Fifteen students performed well enough on the American Mathematics Competition 10 (AMC10) to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), held in March. The following scores are the sum of the students’ scores on the AIME, multiplied by 10, and added to their scores on the AMC10. Eighth grader Olivia Xu scored 222 points and was the highest-scoring Harker middle school student. Right behind Xu was Ethan Liu, grade 8, with a score of 210.5, while Angela Liu and Jonathan Xue, both grade 7, each had a score of 197. Eighth grader Emma Gao scored 195. The remaining portions of the AMC, including the AIME II, the US Mathematical Olympiad and Junior Mathematical Olympiad, have been postponed until further notice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February, students took part in the Bay Area Math Olympiad, where the Harker middle school team’s score of 93 made it the top placing team. Olivia Xu was the top scorer for Harker with a score of 32 out of 35 points, placing second overall. Ethan Liu took fourth place with a score of 31 and eighth grader Aniketh Tummala, with a score of 30 points, received an honorable mention. Seventh grader Jonathan Xue’s 29 points also earned an honorable mention.
In mid-April, the Journalism Education Association named senior Eric Fang one of its national runners-up in their Journalist of the Year contest. Among the qualities that judges noticed in Fang’s work were his strengths in storytelling and leadership, as well as his ability to learn new skills. Judge Leah Waters of Heritage High School in Frisco, Texas praised Fang for his “firm understanding of the importance of a free press for an electorate and democracy.”
As a runner-up, Fang as also been awarded a Sister Rita Jeanne Scholarship of $850.
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April 8, 2020:
Last week, senior Eric Fang was named the 2020 California Journalist of the Year by the Journalism Education Association, becoming the first student in Harker history to win this recognition.
Fang has been highly prolific in Harker’s journalism department, contributing regularly to the Winged Post newspaper and student news website Harker Aquila. He has also served as news editor at the Winged Post and is currently its co-editor in chief. Fang has also been published in the San Jose Mercury News and the Stanford Daily, and presented on political reporting with other Harker journalists at the JEA/NSPA fall convention. His passion for the politics beat has led him to interview eight 2020 presidential candidates and travel to numerous town halls, rallies and protests. Last year, he visited Sonoma County to cover the aftermath of the Kincade wildfire, documenting the local community’s struggles through photos and interviews.
This contest requires entrants to submit portfolios that are judged on criteria such as news gathering, writing, editing, design and photojournalism. Judges also look for work that impacts communities, amplifies the voices of marginalized groups and increases awareness of pressing issues. Fang received high marks in every area, and is now in contention to be named Journalist of the Year. The winner will be announced April 16.