Brian McEuen ‘ 08 has been named to the 2007-08 American Volleyball Coaches Association Boy’s High School Senior All-America Team. McEuen is the first player from Harker to be so named. He has been an instrumental player in the boys program for the last four years, making this a great culminating event for high school. McEuen plans to attend UCSD in the fall.
Tags: Sports, topathleticsSenior class president and graduating senior Senan Ebrahim was named as one of two California Presidential Scholars , joining the ranks of other scholars – one man and one woman from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, along with at-large, out-of-the-country and Arts scholars- selected for the honor. Ebrahim earned a perfect SAT score, was Bausch & Lomb Top Science Scholar, a semifinalist in the Intel and Siemens competitions, and won top marks on nine AP exams. His interests range from swimming and cross-country to theater, speech and debate, and he serves as a tutor, camp counselor, hospital volunteer and disaster relief fundraiser. All Presidential Scholars are invited to attend a ceremony in their honor in Washington, D.C., in June. Ebrahim chose his Harker history teacher, Ramsay Westgate to accompany him as his most inspiring and challenging teacher.
Tags: Harker History, topacademicsThe second event in the Harker Speaker Series took place on May 16 at the Blackford campus with an engaged audience of parents, students and faculty in attendance to hear Dahr Jamail recount his experiences as one of only a very few unembedded journalists in war-torn Iraq.
Jamail, whose work now regularly appears in leading newspapers and magazines mostly in Europe and Asia, described how his outrage with the mainstream media led him to leave a comfortable life in Alaska to travel to Baghdad in the early months of the war in 2003.
Equipped with only an inexpensive laptop computer, a small digital camera, meager savings and the e-mail addresses of 130 friends and acquaintances back in Alaska, Jamail described how a fortuitous combination of Internet research and an early string of opportune encounters not only got him into Baghdad safely, but also helped him secure his first driver and interpreter.
Once in Iraq, Jamail was able to talk directly to the people most affected by the conflict, both citizens and soldiers. Jamail explained how this immediacy, along with his ability to bypass military censorship, enabled him to report on events that went either unseen or were falsely reported by mainstream observers offering, for example, a firsthand account of the actual events inside Fallujah following the now-famous siege.
Jamail spoke directly to the dozen or more middle school and younger children present when he stressed that the most important precept of journalism was to simply get out and tell the story.
Following the 45-minute presentation, the audience enthusiastically engaged Jamail with detailed questions, some of the most enlightening coming from the students. Jamail noted afterward that it was the response of the students, in particular, that gave him the most hope, saying that the intelligent comments and questions made his work that much more worthwhile.
Jamail’s upcoming work focuses on a quiet resistance movement that has been gradually spreading amongst deployed soldiers, and its impact on the war.
by John Jerney (John Nicolas, Gr. 4; Cristina, Gr. 7)
Tags: Harker Speaker SeriesThe Harker Environmental and Animal Rights Team (HEART) was awarded a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition May 18 as winners of Rep. Mike Honda’s Go Green Contest.
The competition, sponsored by Honda’s Student Advisory Council and engaged area high schools, prompted students to reduce their school’s carbon footprint. At Harker, this was “the PSI effort”: a team of students checked and corrected the tire pressure of about 50 vehicles on the Harker campuses. HEART estimates the effort offset 3,232.83 kg of carbon entering the atmosphere – equivalent to having planted 147 trees. Representative Honda called the initiative “truly groundbreaking and innovative.”
Tags: Green Initiatives, Outreach, topoutreachHarker students have yet again stepped up to help others who most need it. Starting in late May, the MS started collecting funds to support relief efforts in China and Myanmar. All funds collected were donated to the International Red Cross. These two tragic disasters have affected countless families around the globe and the school provided some moral support to our Chinese sister school, the Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School, sending a card of sympathy for those who have families in the affected areas.
Tags: OutreachGr. 7 and 8 student council members set out to beautify Vasona Park in April. The half dozen students were participating in a beautification day at the Los Gatos park and spent their time raking leaves, pulling weeds and cleaning bulletin boards.
The middle school student council leads dozens of community service activities throughout the year.
Tags: OutreachAfter the lower school art exhibition closed with the school year, many pieces were selected to move on for display at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) at Stanford University.
The arrangement came about when art teacher Eric Hoffman, intent on getting a public showing, asked his students for suggestions on where they could exhibit. Said Hoffman, “One of my students, Matthew Ho, Gr. 5, suggested a hospital and I thought, ‘what a great idea!’ Since we already have an association with Stanford it seemed only natural to ask them if they were interested.
“I think our students do great work and something I have always wanted to do is get the work out into the public, so that people can see how great our children are and certainly to promote the school and our programs. That is just a really positive thing to do,” Hoffman said. “My students are very excited about it.”
Hoffman made his first inquiry before Christmas, and the process was nearly completed in May. “We had an initial meeting, where we went to visit the hospital,” said Hoffman. “We met with their staff and talked about the possibility of having an exhibition there. We had also taken a collection of work, paintings, drawings, prints and collages that had already been completed. After the initial meeting, I invited them to come to Bucknall and view the art around campus. I had Chef Dave Hendricks prepare a special lunch for them which was quite wonderful,” Hoffman noted.
“They brought in their specialist, Ted Cohen, one of the leading exhibition designers in the country and somebody I had met when I was going through graduate school,” said Hoffman. “He designs exhibitions for a number of museums and galleries in the area and across the United States as well. It was very nice to know he was in charge.”
The process is underway for about 50 pieces to go on display, and Hoffman and Cohen will decide on the pieces to be used. Three-dimensional art will go in the hospital art display cases on the ground floor of the hospital and there will be framed art across the street in the outpatient clinic in waiting rooms and corridors. The exhibition should be in place by the end of the year, said Susan Gray, administrative project manager at the hospital.
“The goal is simply to make another connection to our community and share the talents of other children with our patients and families,” Gray said. “The level of talent, color, imaginative design, whimsy and nature themes all resonated with us and our art committee’s goals.”
The display will rotate pieces after about six months, Hoffman said. Although the initial plan is to run the exhibition for a year, “we are hoping for a long-lasting association.”
“As Sue Bass (art teacher), Jamie Fung (art assistant) and I toured the LPCH facility, you could really see how the artwork brightened people’s lives. It is a stressful time for a lot of families, especially at a children’s hospital. The artwork helps put a little smile on their faces, somehow,” Hoffman said. “We really felt that it was a good thing to do. It is about cheering up somebody’s life, and for our students it is, number one, a great way for them to give back to the community.”
Tags: OutreachThe Harker art department hosted its inaugural Juried Art Exhibition in the Shah Hall Gallery on Apr. 30. Over 100 student artists featured 244 original creations in six competitive categories: drawing; painting; sculpture; ceramics; digital photography and graphic design; and printmaking, collage and mixed media.
“We had double the amount of classes this year,” said teacher Pilar Agüera-Esparza, who reflected on the expansion of the Study of Visual Art class to freshmen and sophomores this year. The growth, she added, resulted in “more variety in the types of projects created.”
When asked about the benefits such an event brings to Harker, Agüera-Esparza quoted Stanford professor and artist Elliot Eisner: “Not everything has a practical utility, but maybe it’s experientially valuable. Learning through the arts promotes the idea that there is more than one solution to a problem, or more than one answer to a question.”
Harker students and faculty experienced the exhibits while munching pizza and cake and enjoying a performance by the US Jazz Band, with vocalist Frankie Nagle, Gr. 9, and conducted by Chris Florio. Artist, educator and retired member of the Harker faculty, Don Maxwell, served as judge. Best of Show award went to freshman Susan Tu and sophomores Jeanette Chin and Jackie Ho for their mixed media creation “Plank Mask.” Ho, who displayed nine works, also won the award for Most Exhibited Artist. Categorical awards included:
Drawing – First Place: “Light Study: Chairs and Stools,” charcoal and pastel by Jackie Ho, Gr. 10.
Drawing – Honorable Mention: “Paper Light Study,” charcoal by Winny Huang, Gr. 11.
Painting – First Place: “Commotion,” acrylic on canvas by Eugenia Sorotokin, Gr. 12.
Painting – Honorable Mention: “Grass,” oil on canvas by Heidi Wang, Gr. 12.
Sculpture – First Place: “Untitled,” alabaster stone by Jami Woolsey, Gr. 12.
Sculpture – Honorable Mention: “Untitled,” alabaster stone by Kyle Drummer, Gr. 10.
Photo/Digital – First place: “Cliffs,” digital illustration by Melissa Chen, Gr. 12.
Photo/Digital – Honorable Mention: “Self-Portrait,” digital illustration by Katrina Kao, Gr. 10.
Ceramics – First Place: “Yellow/Orange Vessel,” ceramics by Julian Stahl, Gr. 11.
Ceramics – Honorable Mention: “Ochre & White Vessel,” ceramics by Lauren Moser, Gr. 11.
Printmaking/Collage/Mixed Media – First Place: “I love love,” collage by Tiffany Lai, Gr. 12.
Printmaking/Collage/Mixed Media – Honorable Mention: “Inspired by Social Realism,” by Niti Shahi, Gr. 10.
The second event in the Harker Speaker Series took place May 16 attended by parents, students and faculty, who came to hear Dahr Jamail recount his experiences as one of only a very few unembedded journalists in war-torn Iraq.
Jamail, whose work now regularly appears in leading newspapers and magazines mostly in Europe and Asia, described how his outrage with the mainstream media led him to leave a comfortable life in Alaska to travel to Baghdad in the early months of the war in 2003. Equipped with only an inexpensive laptop computer, a small digital camera, meager savings and the e-mail addresses of 130 friends and acquaintances back in Alaska, Jamail described how a fortuitous combination of Internet research and an early string of opportune encounters not only got him into Baghdad safely, but also helped him secure his first driver and interpreter. Once in Iraq, Jamail was able to talk directly to the people most affected by the conflict, both citizens and soldiers. Jamail explained how this immediacy, along with his ability to bypass military censorship, enabled him to report on events that went either unseen or were falsely reported by mainstream observers offering, for example, a firsthand account of the actual events inside Fallujah following the now-famous siege.
Jamail noted afterward his presentation that it was the response of the students, in particular, that gave him the most hope, saying that the intelligent comments and questions made his work that much more worthwhile. Jamail’s upcoming work focuses on a quiet resistance movement that has been gradually spreading amongst deployed soldiers, and its impact on the war.
Tags: Harker History, Harker Speaker SeriesThe Harker School, students and faculty are featured in the recently released film, “Hard Problems” by Zala Films, documenting U. S. students preparing for the 2006 U.S. International Math Olympiad team. Director George Csicsery and crew were on site interviewing and filming the day of the qualifying test in April 2006. Interviews with Harker student Yi Sun ’06, parents, and math teachers Joanne Mason and Misael Fisico were included in the movie. Yi Sun won a silver medal for the U.S. at the International Math Olympiad in Slovenia that year and now attends Harvard University. The movie is screening at conferences and lectures worldwide and is available at amazon.com.
Tags: topacademics