Dance Jamz, the annual MS terpsichorean extravaganza held in early March, was upbeat, fast-paced and used a variety of music. Each dance had its own unique flare, and the original costumes were stylish and added to each dance. Gail Palmer, director/choreographer, said, “The dancers were dedicated, energetic and enthusiastic per formers!”
The show featured 145 students, Gr. 6-8, with 16 dance routines including jazz, modern, hip-hop and tap, and featured some all-boys dances. A new tradition, started to honor Gr. 8 dancers in their last big show, is the posting of all the previous Gr. 8 dance shows, starting in Gr. 1, so they could take a turn down memory lane. “It was touching for both the dancers and their parents,” noted Palmer. “We feel it is a privilege to work with many of the dancers from kindergarten through Gr. 8, and watch them grow as people, dancers and performers. This is one way we can say thank you for all the years of dancing with us.”
The US robotics team traveled to San Diego from March 4-7 for a three-day regional competition. Harker made it to the quarter final round before being eliminated by the alliance that wound up winning the competition. US science teacher and robotics advisor Eric Nelson was pleased with how the team per formed, and said the competition provided some much-needed practice for the Sacramento regional competition in late March.
At the US assembly on Feb. 23, members of the Honor Council spoke to their fellow students about how they plan to help the Harker community combat academic dishonesty. Arjun Mody, Gr. 11, shared what he and other Council students learned during a trip to New Orleans, where they attended a conference on school honor councils and codes. Mody said Harker was one of “about 20” schools in attendance. “We soon realized that many schools are dealing with the same problems that we face here,” he said. “It was interesting to see the different perspectives that the faculty and students have on this issue and how these differences can be reconciled.”
Based on student feedback and lessons learned from the New Orleans conference, the Honor Council members came up with a number of changes they decided to implement.
One such change will involve more openness with the Harker community about honor code violations, including publically disclosing the types of transgressions to the community, but not student names.
Speaking to the assembly, Olivia Zhu, Gr. 10, said the Honor Council will try to be more transparent about its activities. “Basically, we’re trying to show more about how we work and why honor should be important in the community,” she said.
The Honor Council will also add another member from the junior class. “This means that that additional member will be more grounded when he or she is a senior,” Zhu said.
Zhu also announced an outreach to the rest of the Harker community on the issue of academic dishonesty. Honor Council members will meet with faculty during their weekly meetings to discuss their concerns and how they can be addressed. Additionally, members will discuss the topic with LS and MS students.
Anthony Silk, US math teacher and Honor Council faculty advisor, said at the assembly that openness to share news of honor code infractions would initially be “painful,” but ultimately beneficial. “The more we know,” he said, “the better we’ll do.”
Silk later added: “We, all of us, need to take this seriously if we are serious in our desire to be our best, not just academically, but as an honor-bound community as well.”
As their last year in middle school enters its final months, Gr. 8 students got an extra dose of responsibility in caring for a flour sack baby in early March. The surrogates were looked after for an entire week and “it is important for the students to be responsible parents for the entire week,” said K-Gr. 8 P.E. department chair Chrissy Chang.
Students lost points if they abandoned their baby or it was harmed. Although the program permitted use of babysitters, they could look after no more than three babies at one time. The exercise took place during a week of dance show rehearsals and athletic schedules, so special day care stations had to be established – just like for real parents. While most students successfully cared for their flour sack babies, several soccer players were unable to prevent subjecting their charges to drenching rain.
“The objective of the project is to have responsibility for a child; therefore, they cannot just put it in the locker and leave it. They must care for it and make sure it is safe,” said Chang. Teachers and BEST staff participated by reporting neglect and other violations.
“I really got into the project, dressing the flour sack in clothes and giving it a name,” said Samantha Hoffman. “For a while, the sack felt almost like an actual baby, if only because it required so much constant attention.
“The most challenging aspect was keeping the ‘baby’ in pristine condition until the teachers could grade it,” Hoffman added. “Rain filled the entire week of the project, and daily activities such as lunch and recess posed possible threats to the flour sacks.”
Classmate Lydia Werthen agreed. “Having the ‘baby’ definitely gave me a sense of responsibility, particularly because we were judged on how well we could take care of it. It was difficult to carry an extra five pounds around campus on top of all my books, let alone having one pile of school things in one hand and a flour sack in the other. It made me much more aware of what I was doing and how I was holding everything, which is basically what a parent should think about too.”
Werthen noted two major difficulties in carr ying the baby around. “The first one was the weather; it was raining for the first half of the week and that was when none of us knew our babies had to be wearing clothes! For almost three days I was frantically trying to make sure that not a single drop of water hit my flour sack. The second hardest par t about it was when I had to use my locker. Even opening my locker and taking out a few notebooks was far more challenging than I had expected, and taking out my backpack was quite an ordeal. I noticed at the end of the week that most students had star ted carrying their backpacks around campus instead of making frequent trips to their lockers as well.”
Like Hoffman, Werthen did not lose points for neglect, “but there were several times when I was close to. For example, after Harmonics I would sometimes just walk away from the classroom to go home and suddenly remember my baby was still in ‘day care’ in the Harmonics room. It wasn’t uncommon to see a stampede of eighth graders running back to the room after school to fetch their babies, just like me!”
Hoffman noted, “My favorite part of this project was the lessons I took away from it. Surprisingly, carr ying a flour sack baby around for a week was a fun and efficient way to teach adolescents the disadvantages and hassles of being a teenage parent.”
Werthen found a bright side, too. “The most enjoyable par t about the flour sack baby week was placing myself in a parent’s shoes for five days and being able to share the experience with my friends. For most of the week it wore this really cute baby chicken mask and it was funny to see how ever yone else decorated their flour sacks. I also loved dressing up my baby. During lunch recess we would sit in a circle with all our babies and just take pictures and have fun with them. At the end of the week and into the weekend we were allowed to bake something using the flour, but most of my classmates chose not to and I can kind of understand why. This project just had a really great impact on our parenting skills and responsibility, even if we were working with basically five pounds of flour.“
‘Phyllis Gwynn Carley, much beloved member of the Harker community for over 50 years, passed away in her sleep April 25. She was 88 years old. At a school that values its deep ties to the community Mrs. Carley, as she was known to so many, was an institution and an irreplaceable tie to our past.
Born December 29, 1920, Mrs. Carley came of age prior to World War II in the Salinas Valley where in 1937, in one of her cherished moments, she was named Hostess of the California Rodeo in Salinas and awarded a pair of silver spurs she always treasured. She was a life-long aficionado of rodeos — always pronounced “ro day’ o” — and returned to Salinas to attend the California Rodeo every year, as well as attending other rodeos in central and northern California as often as possible.
Harker School was graced with Mrs. Carley’s presence in a number of valuable roles, culminating with her services as secretary to the Board of Trustees and as a private clipping service for Harker’s Office of Communication. She opened her Harker career in 1952 in Palo Alto as a driver, shuttling local students to and from school. She progressed by virtue of her wonderful disposition and hard work to become secretary first to Donald Nichols, then to Howard Nichols and remained in that role for many years, though her contribution to campus life went far beyond her desk in the administration building.
After retiring from Harker, Mrs. Carley went to work for her nephew at Hackett Pipeline and, following her retirement from there, Mrs. Carley continued to provide critical services to the school as secretary of the Board of Trustees. She was also a familiar face to current students and, as an avid sports fan, could be spotted at many home games. It didn’t matter what sport, she just enjoyed seeing kids active.
In 2006, Mrs. Carley received the Harker Alumni Association (HAA) Service Award, which was immediately renamed in her honor the HAA Phyllis Carley Service Award. Head of School Christopher Nikoloff noted, “Whether cheering our students at games or serving as secretary to the Board of Trustees, Phyllis Carley’s long career at The Harker School embodied the true spirit of service. Everyone at Harker enjoyed seeing Phyllis around campus, and her attitude of service and love has helped make Harker the special place it is today.”
Mrs. Carley lived the advice she once gave high school students, to “enjoy life and consider your friends. Academics are important, but so are our attitudes. Your attitude will stay with you throughout your life.” Mrs. Carley’s attitude, her dedication to her family and friends and to Harker will always inspire those who knew her.
She is preceded in death by her husband Rue Carley. Mrs. Carley is survived by her grandson, Dale Johnson (Harker Academy Class of 1980), stepsons Edwin and Ken Blasé, as well as many other nieces, nephews, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
A Celebration of Phyllis Carley’s Life will be held on Thursday, May 7 at 5 p.m. in Nichols Hall Auditorium, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations can be made to The Harker School with The Phyllis Carley Student Scholarship Fund noted in the memo section and sent to The Harker School Advancement Office at 3800 Blackford Avenue, San Jose, CA 95117.
On March 12, the Harker Speaker Series brought revered photojournalist Rick Smolan to Nichols Hall to discuss the increasing scarcity of clean drinking water around the world. His work as a photojournalist has appeared in publications such as Time and National Geographic, and he created the “A Day in the Life” series of photo books.
Smolan was “completely stunned at how interesting and troubling and in some ways inspiring the water problem is.” The difficulty, Smolan found, was worldwide. “It isn’t a problem; it’s a whole series of interrelated problems, and depending on where you are in the world, it’s a different problem.” Smolan then began working with Blue Planet Run, a water advocacy group, to create a photo book of the same name. The photojournalist, and now writer, seeks to change the perception the clean water crisis was only affecting the populations of poorer countries. Humans are now consuming water four times more quickly than nature is able to replenish it, and “Blue Planet Run features photos from Africa, where villagers must travel long distances to obtain gallons of filthy water, to West Virginia, where one family must deal with tap water so contaminated it runs blood red.” For the full story on this wonderful speaker’s visit to Harker, see the Harker Speaker Series page.
The new Harker Speaker Series kicked off with a bang March 7 with over 100 parents, students and faculty in attendance to hear the inaugural series presentation, “What Happens When E.T. Calls?” by Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute.
Shostak presented a lively and very entertaining exploration about the scientific hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence – which is now into its fifth decade – and how a timely convergence of extremely powerful computers, sensitive arrays of radio telescopes, and sophisticated software positions us in a unique place in human history where success in the search may not be that far off.
Watch the next Harker News for a recap of the presentation, and for news of future speakers. We hope to see you at the next one!
One Harker alumnus has leveraging his middle school science project to create a delicious wine. Will Jarvis, MS’ 97, while boarding at Harker, received special dispensation to conduct a winemaking experiment for his science class. This spring, Jarvis Winery (a family business), will release a wine based on the experiment. Jarvis, now attending Stanford business school, wasn’t able to sample the wine until he came of age nearly 10 years later. After ageing, the experimental wine was bottled and stored at the winery. When he and his family did open the bottles, they were excited enough about the flavor to call in their resident wine expert, who pronounced the wine exceptional.
“I wasn’t really sure what to expect,” said Jarvis, when he stopped by to help celebrate the opening of the Ringold Research Laboratory in Nichols Hall in February. “It was mostly conceived as a science experiment, so it wasn’t until later, when we actually tasted the wine, that we actually started to get excited about the quality.” That led to Jarvis’ second attempt to make wine. “Because it was inspired by the science project we decided to name it the Will Jarvis Science Project,” he said.
Since graduating from Harker middle school, while attending collage, Jarvis has been involved in winemaking. “I have cycled through different positions at the winery,” he noted “I did a summer working in the fields, a summer in shipping, I’ve done accounting and led tours for a summer, so made my rounds through the winery, but this is my only personal attempt at winemaking since Harker.”
Jarvis recalled the fuss around his original batch, which was in a 7- or 8-gallon cask, compared to the usual 60-galllon barrel. “There was a lot of excitement surrounding the experiment, given it was a fairly unusual project in that I was a 13- or 14-year-old middle school student making wine in my dorm room. Things were pretty compact so there wasn’t any where for me to put the barrel except the foot of my bed. That’s what I remember the most: having to live around the barrel, sort of negotiating my living space. Surprisingly enough, as far as I know, no one dipped into the keg–there weren’t any unauthorized wine tastings.”
Now, the new half-barrel (30-gallon) vintage, approved by the winery’s expert, is ready for sale. “We happened upon the quality of the smaller barrel serendipitously, through the science experiment,” said Jarvis, “but it makes a lot of sense because during winemaking there is a well known trade off during ageing between absorbing a lot of the desirable oaky flavors form the barrel, and losing some of the natural fruity flavor of the wine, which is also desirable. That (trade off) just seems to be a function of time.
“The idea with the smaller size barrel, which has a higher surface to volume ratio, is that you absorb the oak at an accelerated rate so you don’t need to age the wine as long in order to absorb the same amount of oak flavor. The end result is that you are ageing the wine for a shorter amount of time in the barrel before you bottle it (and) when you bottle it you are essentially capturing (the flavor at that moment). People have used smaller barrels for experimental purposes, before, but we are almost certainly the first winery to try on that a production scale.”
Julia Havard ’07, was inducted into the prestigious Signet Society of Harvard University. Founded in 1870, society had as its first president Charles Joseph Bonaparte. Members are chosen for their merit and accomplishment. Among the Signet Society notable members are President Franklin D. Roosevelt, author Samuel Eliot Morison, actor Tommy Lee Jones, poet T.S. Eliot and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Alex Han, Gr. 11 has been named one of the top runners-up in the 2009 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards in California, and, as a Distinguished Finalist, will receive an engraved medallion to commemorate the award at an assembly in March. Han also qualifies for the President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizing Americans of all ages who have volunteered for at least 100 hours of community service. Han spent two summers volunteering in Seoul, South Korea, assisting adults afflicted with Downs Syndrome and autism. Han helped with cooking and cleaning and assissted individuals to participate in sports, music, language and art classes.
There were only 234 finalists named out of over 5,000 local honorees, nationwide. “The recipients of these awards vividly demonstrate that young people across America are making remarkable contributions to the health and vitality of their communities, said John R. Strangerfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “They truly deserve all of the praise and encouragement we can give them.” The Presidents Award is via the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. More details on the Prudential award can be found on their Web site.
