In April, the student-run nonprofit organization Nanoseed held a special benefit concert at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center. The concert featured performances by pianist Nina Zhou and trumpeter Dylan Girard of the San Francisco Symphony, and Anna Maria Mendieta, a harpist with the Sacramento Philharmonic. The concert also featured performances by Harker students Kai-Ming Ang, Charlotte Blanc, Jessica Jiang, Hanoom Lee, Anna Miner and Jeffrey Yang, all rising seniors; rising junior Audrey Liu; and rising sophomores Spencer Cha, Karolyn Cheng and Angeline Kiang.
The concert raised approximately $8,000 to help reduce poverty in rural China. Several members of Nanoseed are currently wrapping up a trip to Ningxia, an autonomous region of China, where they are providing local students and entrepreneurs with loans and grants.
Harker’s latest addition, the 50,000-square-foot Rothschild Performing Arts Center, was just awarded Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, accruing 66 out of 67 points attempted. The certification effort was managed by the various groups who oversaw construction, including Devcon Construction, The Integral Group, Studio Bondy Architecture and Kevin Hart Architecture.
This LEED Gold award follows two others. The new athletic center, opened in August 2017, earned LEED Gold certification in February 2018, and Harker’s Nichols Hall science and technology center, opened in 2007, also received LEED Gold certification.
“It is an honor to receive this certification, and a testament to the vision and efforts of the men and women who made these projects a reality,” said Brian Yager, head of school. “Having our two newest building receive LEED Gold certification not only acknowledges our desire to be environmentally responsible members of the community, but also furthers the message we hope to inspire in all of our students and staff that the world we live in needs a responsible approach to building the future.”
As a sustainable site, the center received five out of five points for development density and community connectivity, which encourages development in areas with existing infrastructure to conserve farmland and wildlife habitats, along with promoting walking and transportation efficiency. The building received six out of six points for alternative transportation (public transportation access). The full 19 points were awarded for optimizing energy performance, and seven out of seven points were awarded for onsite renewable energy. The building garnered many other points for things including site selection, light pollution reduction and enhanced refrigerant management, all of which contribute to an efficient building and overall sustainability efforts on campus.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Harker brought back its spring gala following completion of the athletic center, with its Zhang Gymnasium, and the Rothschild Performing Arts Center with its Patil Theater. More than 370 parents, alumni, faculty and staff were feted at the quickly-sold-out event with custom videos, singing, live music, dancers, top-drawer food and drink, a hot band and great company.
The event also served as the capstone for the school’s 125th anniversary celebration. “Our 125th Anniversary Gala was one for the ages!” said Kim Lobe, director of advancement. “It would never have been as successful as it was without the generosity of our guests and sponsors, and the commitment of our students and alumni, who all came together to honor Harker’s legacy and bright
promise for the future. Thank you!”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
In 2018, the boys varsity volleyball team came within inches of winning CCS and the NorCal championship, but ended up with second place finishes in both matches. The 2019 team returned its core players, and added some talented newcomers, which resulted in one of the best seasons of any team in Harker’s athletic history. The Eagles brought home the first team CCS championship in school history, played in the program’s second consecutive NorCal championship and finished the season as the No. 4 ranked team in the nation. Through the many highs and the seasonending low (a five-set loss to Monta Vista in the NorCal Division 1 finals), the 2019 boys varsity volleyball team proved it was a team for the ages.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from Head of School Brian Yager’s commencement address.
This past year, we have been especially focused on the history of Harker. As we have explored Harker’s past, it has been easy to link Harker’s trajectory with that of Silicon Valley, and many people have noted that the school has, over the past 125 years, enjoyed the same increase in scope, scale and success as has the valley in which we reside. This past year I delved into a book that provides further insight into the history of this part of the world.
In 1834, Richard Henry Dana, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard University, decided to take a break from his studies to explore the world. Following a dream he had harbored throughout his young life growing up on the riverside near the port of Boston, he signed on to the crew of the merchant ship Pilgrim, and for two years he lived at sea. Most of that time was spent along the coast of California, and he quartered with the other sailors in the forecastle – the room below the deck in front of the mast.
Dana kept a diary of his adventures, which he published in 1 39, with the apt title, “Two Years Before the Mast.”
There are many lessons to be found in Dana’s accounts, and among them are insights into the past and future of our state. At the time of his writing, California had a population of fewer than 14,000 people. His description of his ship’s first visit into San Francisco Bay is especially illustrative of the sparseness of population and human development. He writes, “There was no other habitation on this side of the bay, except a shanty of rough boards put up by a man named Richardson, who was doing a little trading between the vessels and the Indians.” In other words, in 1833, outside of the presidio and mission, there was a single house in what we today call the city of San Francisco. This past weekend, as the senior class traveled by bus to Laguna Beach, we traversed the land which Dana spent almost two years exploring by sea (in fact, Laguna Beach is adjacent to Dana Point, the city named after Dana).
In this journey, the Harker travelers spent time in what have arguably been humanity’s two most influential metropolises of the past half-century – San Francisco and Los Angeles – and through the valley that produces more sustenance than any other region on Earth. Yet Dana would not be surprised to see the grandeur of California today. In fact, he more or less predicted it, saying, “In the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be!”
Today, the state supports a population of almost 40 million people, and an economy that would be the fifth largest in the world if California were its own country. There are many factors that have contributed to the emergence of California from its sleepy beginnings at the time of Dana’s journey, from the natural resources and climate we enjoy, to the confluence of technological developments and geopolitics. There has also been a culture of optimism and a can-do attitude that has permeated the people of the state. This attitude has been both captured and promoted by the entertainment industry, epitomized by the “Company that Walt Built” – Disney.
As the seniors entered the park that Walt Disney built in 1955, they passed a sign that reads, “Here you leave today, and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”
Disney’s vision was to create experiences that helped the world appreciate what it had been, and dream what it might become, and to provide not just material for our dreams collective and individual, but also the permission to ask what might be.
And, at the same time, the story of Disney, and the story of California, are not all positive. In their growth there are cautions for us to heed. The state, for all of its brilliance, grandeur and wealth, faces significant social welfare challenges and is littered with our refuse. The technologies that drive our economy and propel us into the future come with costs both physical and emotional. The Disney empire has helped us dream, but it – and other media and entertainment companies like it – has also fueled a culture of consumption and commercialism that has perpetuated stereotypes and compromised our environment. Our growth and progress have come with a price. Yet, that same progress gives us hope for solutions to the problems we have created, and it is our hope – and our challenge to you and future generations of Harker students – that you can lead the way into a future that moves us forward without setting us back.
Sixty years after Dana’s vessel first rounded the tip of the Peninsula, a couple from the East Coast followed their dream of starting a university on their family ranch, and named it after their recently deceased son. While Palo Alto only had a population of some 1,500 people in 1892, it made a suitable home for the nascent institution the couple fondly referred to as “The Farm,” and officially called Leland Stanford Junior University. A year later, in 1893, a young educator named Frank Cramer started a small school called Manzanita Hall, and, as you know if you have been reading the various displays around our four campuses this past year, so began, 125 years ago, what we know today as The Harker School.
While much has happened to Harker in the past 125 years, its journey, like the journey of the state in which we live, has been remarkable one. It has also been one built on hope: the hope that we can produce graduates who can and will steer the future in a positive direction; the hope that we can, collectively, capitalize on the opportunities with which we are blessed to undo the mistakes we have made in getting here; and the hope that our efforts to educate you will enable you to appreciate the world of yesterday, love the world of tomorrow, and that your fantasy will be to stand in a world, 50, 60, 70, maybe even125 years from now, that is one that you can say, with pride and joy, that you helped make happen.
Members of the Class of 2019, we live in an incredible time, and also one that presents problems that we need you to solve. Borrowing from the lexicon of the sea with which Dana wrote about his travels, may the wind be at your back, and your sunrises golden and your sunsets crimson, and the current your friend, and may your shipmates be trustworthy, competent and good company, and your compass and tiller true, and your destination be a good one, but the journey there even better.
We hope, with all of our hearts, that in your journeys as graduates of The Harker School you will find joy, meaning and friend hip, and that each and every one of you will fare well!
These class notes originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
In Memoriam
It is with the deepest sadness that we report on the deaths of two of our young alumni.
Jason Yu ’12 passed away in a traffic accident in Seattle on May 6. Jason was involved in swimming, water polo, robotics and more during his three years at the upper school. A celebration of his life was held in Seattle on May 10.
Sandip Nirmel ’17 passed away on May 23 after an extended illness. At Harker Sandip was involved in student council, Model UN, DECA, research, golf, Challenge Success and more. He was attending Harvard University. A memorial was held at Harker’s upper school campus June 22. For complete biographies of Jason and Sandip please visit news.harker.org. Cards may be sent to Kristina Alaniz, alumni director, at The Harker School, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA, 95129.
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2002
Since leaving big law, Tiffany Tuong Vi Duong, has traveled the world to better understand her true passion: advocating for the oceans. She has honed her policy and advocacy skills, immersed herself in field experience (Amazon rainforest, shark tagging, coral restoration), and now is focused on creating real change for the wild places she loves most. See the feature on Tiffany on page 48.
2003
Shabnam Aggarwal was interviewed for a Q&A in The Swadle, a “media platform with a strong feminist lens” from India. Shabnam discusses her book, “Freedom to Fail: Lessons from My Quest for Startup Success.” Some great questions were asked, and some great answers given, about women in technology, first efforts at entrepreneurship and dealing with discrimination in business. Check it out! https:// theswaddle.com/a-chat-with-shabnam- aggarwal-author-of-freedom-tofail- lessons-from-my-quest-for-startupsuccess/
Gabrielle DeMers married Eric Snyder on the beaches of Mexico on April 27, 2019. The couple met in Baltimore, where Gabby is an opera singer. Guests at the wedding included Julia Gitis ’03, Angela (Pullen) Halusic ’03, and Lisa Schwebke ’04. Then, on May 17, Gabby and D.J. Blickenstaff ’09 were given Harker’s inaugural Life in the Arts award. See the box on page 61 for details.
2005
Kristen (Hulberg) Hunsbedt and husband, Mark, welcomed a second baby boy, Cameron Hunsbedt, on October 18, 2018. He joins big brother Andrew, age 2. Kristen and family reside in the Santa Cruz mountains.
2007
Anna Huang married Gergely Svigruha in Budapest, Hungary. Albert Wu ’04 and Siobhan Stevenson ’07 were members of the bridal party, and Natalie Torban ’07 was also in attendance.
2008
Tiffany Liou was awarded the 2019 Radio Television Digital News Foundation Michele Clark Fellowship. This award goes to a young, promising minority professional in television or radio news. Tiffany is currently a news reporter for WFAA in Dallas, Texas.
2009
On May 17, 2019, D.J. Blickenstaff, along with Gabrielle DeMers ’03, was given Harker’s inaugural Life in the Arts award. See the box above for details.
In 2016, Barrett Glasauer co-founded WanderJaunt, which partners with property owners to maximize value for short-term rentals. While working on his electrical engineering/computer science degree at the University of California, Berkeley, he met friends who would later join him at WanderJaunt. He has worked for Palantir Technologies, and also worked at DoorDash with other Harker alumni, including co-founder Andy Fang ’10, David Kastelman ’09, Rohan Chopra ’10 and Kevin Fu ’10. While there, he met his future partners. The team finds properties to update and rent out by searching Trulia, Zillow, Craigslist and Redfin for properties available for rent. The company is growing rapidly and WanderJaunt, like so many companies, is seeking good workers. “We would love to talk to software engineers and data scientists located in SF,” said Barrett. Read all about the company and Barrett’s journey at Harker News:https://wp.me/pOeLQ-9G8.
Candace Silva-Martin reports, “Over the course of this past year, I have experienced many difficult and amazing life changes. Last May I started a new position as a senior consultant data scientist at Deloitte, specializing in machine learning solutions for government clients. In January, I bought a beautiful home in Northern Virginia, and less than a month ago, I got engaged in Portugal to my longtime boyfriend, Matt Stagg. We look forward to starting this next chapter of our lives together!”
Nicole Woods got engaged to Jon Mattox.
Justin Iso won $10,000 for his Christmas cookies on Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge! Justin, a software engineer working on computer imaging, beat out professional bakers. He noted he would love to be a fulltime baker, and it looks like he is off to a great start! Justin, who works in New York City, also has been a sculptor and painter, which he said contributes to his cookie designs. In 2017, he won Best Baking Blog in the World awarded by Saveur Magazine. Check out his baking blog at http://chefiso.com.
2011
Adi Parige reports, “I recently released my debut album under the moniker Dothead. The record is a fusion of psychedelic rock with lyrical contemplations on South Asian identity. While some songs are a reflection of my views on Indian politics and history, others tackle more universal themes of mental health and love through the unique lens of the Hindu mythology. If you’d like to listen, the album is available on Spotify and iTunes!” You can keep up to date on Adi’s journey as Dothead by following him on Instagram at @dothead_tunes.
2014
Zina Jawadi visited the upper school campus in April to address students at a National Honor Society event. Zina is a former president of the Hearing Loss Association of America — California and was recently elected a member of the HLAA national board of directors. She was diagnosed with a hearing impairment at age 8 and, as a middle school student at Harker, began to advocate for the hearing impaired. She continued her advocacy through high school, college and grad school at Stanford. Zina spoke about Harker’s ongoing quest to promote diversity. Read more about her amazing efforts here: http://www.hearinglossca.org/zina-jawadi.
2015
Agata Sorotokin was named a 2019 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow for her drive, creativity, intellectual spirit and commitment to the values at the heart of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights. The fellowships support outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing a graduate education in the United States. Agata will be using her fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in music at SUNY Stony Brook. Read her bio here: https://www.pdso-ros.org/meet-the-fellows/agata-sorotokin
Hannah Bollar was recently interviewed by Siggraph, a prestigious international computer graphics organization. Hannah worked at both Cesium and Nvidia as a computer graphics software engineering intern in 2018 and is working on a master’s degree in science, engineering, computer graphics and game technology at the University of Pennsylvania. Read all about her unique path! https://www.siggraph.org/discover/inspiration/member-profiles/hannah-bollar
Cindy Liu received the FrederickEmmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award, which is given to the top 5 percent of engineering seniors at Stanford. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in biomedical computation, she will be pursuing a master’s in advanced computer science at Cambridge University as a Churchill scholar.
Savi Joshi recently led a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $3,000 so she could publish a cookbook, “Keeping it Hot: An Unofficial Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Cookbook.” This epic feat was accomplished from recipes Savi had concocted all in her college dorm kitchenette including classics like mac and cheese, and sugar cookies to more innovative dishes, such as Cheetos bagels and Cheetos-filled macarons.
Nitya Mani was awarded the J. E. Wallace Sterling Award for Scholastic Achievement from Stanford University and was also given an honorable mention for the 2019 Alice T. Schafer Prize for excellence in mathematics by an undergraduate woman.
Mishi Vachev was one of 25 students worldwide chosen as a 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists Conviron Scholar. She received her bachelor’s degree this spring and said, “I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in plant breeding and to specifically work on breeding crops for Third World countries or populations in need of improved agriculture.” You can check out more about Mishi and this wonderful honor in an article from Eckerd College at https://www.eckerd.edu/news/blog/eckerd-senior-accepted-into-plant-biologists-program/
2016
Zarek Drozda recently co-authored an environmental impact report that helped prompt the city of Chicago to pass a resolution committing to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035. Zarek founded a student-run nonprofit last year at the University of Chicago that focuses on public policy research, named the Paul Douglas Institute. If you have project ideas or want to support its work, please reach out!
2017
Harker’s college counselors visited a series of colleges in New York City and the surrounding area and met up with a trio of Harker alumni, Divya Rajasekharan, Kshithija (KJ) Mulam and Sanjana Marcé, all currently sophomores at Columbia.
2018
Katherine Zhu has been tearing it up in women’s golf at the University of California, Berkeley. She’s been named to the All-Pac 12 team with an honorable mention as a freshman! https://www. instagram.com/p/BwZ88_YFllT/
Reunions
The annual Grand Reunion was held on Oct. 6, 2018. This gathering honored the 5-, 10- and 15-year reunion markers for the classes of ’03, ’08 and ’13 but was open to and attended by multiple years in between and beyond. Alumni enjoyed music, food, a photo booth, epic time-capsule openings and tours of the newest building additions to campus.
The Class of 2008 held an additional celebration in a December gathering at Doppio Zero in Cupertino, where more than 40 alumni caught up over pizza and laughs!
125th Anniversary Alumni Regional Tours
More than 100 Harker alumni from the classes of 1979-2015 attended events held in New York City and Los Angeles.The last leg of the special anniversary tour will be celebrated in August in San Francisco.
While visiting New York City for the “Harker in New York,” event, Joe Rosenthal, Harker’s executive director of strategic initiatives, enjoyed visits with Howard Tsao ’91 and brothers Dennis Wang ’80 and Alexander Wang ’98. Mr. Rosenthal’s travels continued onto Asia where he attended several different receptions with boarding alumni who had attended the Harker English Language Institute.
This year’s final leg of the annual Keller tour took Butch and Jane Keller back to Southern California and then on to Colorado where they visited alumni from both UCLA and the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Visual arts teacher Pilar Agüero-Esparzaspent the spring break visiting some of her former students currently attending college arts programs or already working in the field on the East Coast. Alumni included Kelsey Chung ’10, Alisa Su ’18, Matthew Ho ‘15, Matt Gehm ‘09, Alexandra Gross ’17, Jeffrey Hsu ’15 and Juhi Gupta ’15.
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
When Ella Fitzgerald Park – complete with green grass, a jungle gym, a basketball court and two 60-foot murals – opened in summer 2018, Alexa Bush ’02 got to see firsthand the impact she is making in the world.
“We wanted to create a neighborhood that felt complete, intentional and cared for without having to build a single house,” she told online news source Citylab in an article about Detroit’s new holistic approach to redevelopment.
Bush was recruited by Detroit planning director Maurice Cox, who was one of her professors at the University of Virginia, where she earned her master’s degree in landscape architecture. Cox had a vision to focus on three different neighborhoods to create a model for redevelopment, and he encouraged Bush to leave the private sector to rebuild Detroit.
“Everything about Alexa’s story – her family’s roots in Detroit, her natural inclination to show empathy towards others, a design thesis spent reflecting on neighborhood vacant lots – has prepared her to ably guide residents toward courageous design solutions,” said Cox. “Alexa is such a wonderful role model for young professionals looking for their own path to making a positive difference in the world.”
Today, as design director for the city, she is leading a team of three planners and designers who are responsible for neighborhood planning, development and open space projects for the east side of Detroit.
The east side of Detroit is where Bush’s mom grew up – so when her then-boyfriend-now-husband asked her to move to Michigan after graduate school, it felt right.
Similarly, the decision to go to Harker for high school felt right many years ago. Bush was a member of the inaugural freshman class at Harker when it opened the upper school in 1998.
“Alexa was a huge part of steering the direction of the student body in those first years,” remembered Theresa “Smitty” Smith, head volleyball coach who coached Bush for four years. “It was tough to be a member of that first class, as we were all learning together how to be a high school. Alexa was a positive role model, a leader by example and a multitalented student.”
Members of the first class – who dubbed themselves “the guinea pigs” – bonded as they paved the way for Harker’s upper school. Bush commuted to Harker from Morgan Hill, so when the time came to look at colleges, she knew she wanted a campus where she could walk or take transit.
After a visit to Boston and acceptance to Harvard University, she packed up and headed to the East Coast. She studied visual and environmental studies, which cultivates skills in both the practice and critical study of the visual arts. She chose film production as her focus and thought commercial film was her future.
“I had an internship in New York working on a film and thought this was my path,” said Bush. “But then my senior year, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do, which was hard but felt right.”
She graduated from Harvard and landed a job at Google, where she worked for two years. It was interesting, but she realized that a desk job wasn’t for her because she wanted to be more creative and actually create tangible products, she explained. So she applied to graduate school and chose the University of Virginia to study landscape architecture.
She couldn’t have predicted how life after Harker would unfold, but she remembers sage advice a college advisor gave to her years ago when he said, “Alexa, I know you are successful and you like to plan your future, but sometimes you have to just be open to other things happening and then allow them to happen.”
Bush couldn’t agree more; she looks back on her journey and realizes that so much of it was being in the right place at the right time, despite all her planning and hard work. “Being open to opportunity can be incredibly rewarding,” Bush reflected.
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
There is a whole new world in medicine, thanks to technology,” said Rupan Bose ’07. “I’ve been lucky enough to have fantastic mentors, grow up in an environment of innovation and entrepreneurship, and be surrounded by extremely successful people at Harker.”
But, of course, it’s more than just luck. Bose is driven to make an impact in the world and he’s on his way to doing that through his studies in medicine and his passion for technology.
Bose came to Harker in fifth grade and stayed through the upper school, where he served as ASB president his senior year. He appreciated how Harker emphasized the intersection between different fields and trained him to think in a very multidisciplinary way. Bose focused on science and math but learned many valuable skills through his electives and other non-STEM courses.
“These teachers taught me to look at the world from a non-scientific view. I owe a lot to them, because even in science there’s art,” said Bose, who spoke at the fountain dedication for former Harker English teacher Cheryl Cavanaugh, who died of cancer in 2007. “Dr. C knew English wasn’t my strongest subject, but she took so much time after class to help me. I was honored to give the speech; it was a monumental, vivid and emotional experience that I will carry with me forever.”
As Bose remembers his past, he also looks optimistically toward his future as he completes his residency as a doctor of internal medicine.
Bose grew up in a house filled with engineers, so it was initially a surprise to his close-knit family when he veered toward medicine instead of technology.
Bose studied neuroscience/pre-med at the University of Southern California. He then went on to pursue a master’s degree in biotechnology, with a particular interest in entrepreneurship, at the University of Pennsylvania, because he appreciated the combination of medicine, technology and business.
It was while at Penn that he started seeing that medicine could be greatly improved by technology, and his worlds of medicine and technology began to merge.
He then moved back to Los Angeles and started working at the USC Center for Body Computing, a digital health research and innovation center that is at the forefront of the intersection of medicine and technology. There, he focused on developing wearable sensors, mobile medical apps and virtual reality models for health care.
While working at the CBC, he decided that next step to pursuing his dream of changing the world through medicine and technology was to become a doctor. So he returned to USC, this time attending the medical school with a focus on internal medicine and as a part of USC’s new health, technology and engineering dual medicine-technology program.
“Rupan is a remarkable, open-minded and naturally gifted leader who inspires others to confront challenges and pursue their goals,” said Jacob Bongers ’07, who attended Harker and USC with Bose. “I remember years ago having a frank discussion about career anxiety and uncertainty. He listened intently to my concerns and offered precious advice about how the future is always uncertain, but finishing projects, tasks and degrees is such an important and valuable skill to cultivate. His words renewed my motivation to finish my Ph.D. and drove me to look to the future with confidence.” (Read Harker Magazine’s profile on Bongers in the fall/winter 2018 issue.)
Bose and Bongers forged a strong friendship during their years at Harker and then USC. As the ever-humble Bose reflects back on his time at Harker, he realizes how important and formative it was.
“Harker pulls together some of the most impressive, amazing and friendly people,” said Bose with pride. “These people are the movers and shakers who are changing our world, and I’m just lucky I got to know them.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective
Editor’s Note: Harker’s speech and debate team ended on the highest of notes, with students taking first and second at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in mid-June. Check out these additional updates to the speech and debate year!: Nationals, middle school speech and debate results
This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Roshni Bhatnagar ’11 doesn’t recall why she was drawn to speech and debate during her sophomore year at Harker, beyond noticing that other students seemed to be having a lot of fun on the team. “I just know that I enjoyed it immensely once I joined,” she said. She competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate, a one-on-one format that emphasizes logic, ethics and philosophy. Competitions offered a reward for the weeks of hard work conducting research and writing arguments. “Debate was a phenomenal opportunity to be exposed to different ideas, to learn how to compete and to have fun traveling to new places,” Bhatnagar said.
She also noted that Harker’s team and coaches were encouraging and supportive. “Whether I won or lost, it was always OK, because we were encouraged to see each debate as a step in the road and a learning opportunity.”
Bhatnagar had been out of high school for several years before truly appreciating what she learned as a student debater at Harker. “I developed strong critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as the mental agility to think quickly and to recognize patterns,” said Bhatnagar, who will be an internal medicine resident at UCLA this fall. “Thinking strategically and analytically at such a young age was key to my development as an excellent communicator and listener, skills which serve me well in my work with patients now.”
Top Notch Hundreds of current Harker students are gaining the skills Bhatnagar spoke of – persuasion, organization of thoughts and ideas, intensive research and information literacy, poise and presentation – while finding success on the national speech and debate stage. The students are guided by the expertise of Harker’s speech and debate teachers Jenny Achten, Greg Achten and Scott Odekirk at the upper school, and Shania Hunt and JJ Kim at the middle school, who are in turn aided by numerous coaches (several of whom are Harker alumni).
Launched in 1998 when the upper school was founded, the speech and debate program has grown into one of Harker’s most popular student activities, with 115 upper schoolers and 175 middle schoolers involved this year. It is one of the best programs in the nation, consistently sending students to national competitions and winning both individual and team national titles.
As both an academic subject and an extracurricular activity at Harker, speech and debate emphasizes the connection between high-intensity learning inside the classroom and intellectual competition outside of class. “Our academic curriculum is largely about teaching kids to think critically about modern sociocultural controversies,” Odekirk said. “We translate that learning into the applied format of extracurricular competition, which adds so much to students’ intellectual and personal growth.”
Upper school students are required to take a course in the speech and debate department – at the introductory, intermediate or competitive level – in order to compete on the team, while middle schoolers can take speech and debate courses as electives. Upper schoolers mainly prepare and practice for tournaments during class time, while middle schoolers meet three times a week after school.
“Harker’s program is unique because of the dedication of a highly qualified faculty that is solely focused on teaching and coaching speech and debate,” said Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair for grades 6-12. “We also receive incredible programmatic resources and support.”
Harker is a member of the National Speech & Debate Association, which chooses topics for student debaters, sponsors tournaments, and offers conferences and resources for teachers and coaches. Harker students compete in four categories of debate, including Lincoln-Douglas, congressional, public forum and policy (see page 41 sidebar for descriptions). Students choose from a variety of speech categories, depending on their personal interest, including original oratory, dramatic interpretation, impromptu, extemporaneous and humorous interpretation. Speeches are either memorized in advance of a competition or prepared quickly (in 20 or 30 minutes) during the tournament. Harker students compete at 35 to 50 tournaments a year, though no one student attends all of them.
“We believe students should have the freedom to select the number of tournaments and events of their choosing, depending on interest and time and how well they can balance other commitments,” Jenny Achten said.
The competitive season runs the entire academic year, and this year, students have competed at tournaments in Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Phoenix, New Haven, Conn., and Jacksonville, Fla., as well as at local and regional tournaments throughout California (see page 39 sidebar for highlights). Eleven Harker students qualified for the postseason Tournament of Champions, held in late April at the University of Kentucky, and five students will compete at the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Dallas in mid-June.
“Tournaments don’t have age requirements so if a younger student – say a seventh grader – is advanced enough, they can compete at the varsity level, rather than junior varsity or novice,” said Hunt. “They may be in a little over their heads at first, but they learn fast.” It’s fairly common for upper school debaters to attend middle school practices to mentor and coach the younger students. Ariav Misra, grade 7, welcomed support from Harker’s upper school students after struggling at a varsity tournament in congressional debate. Harker’s older debaters help Misra with prepping bills and resolutions and give advice on how to compete effectively. “I love the sense of community on the team,” Misra said.
Jason Lin, grade 10, agreed. “The team has created a truly unique, wholesome dynamic where the advanced debaters don’t hesitate to help novices with whatever they need,” said Lin, who participates in congressional debate. “Older students are even enthusiastic about helping underclassmen with things not related to speech and debate, like math homework.”
The program has had such an impact on students that recent alumni often return from college to serve as assistant coaches. This year, Anika Jain ’17 and Ayush Midha ’15 have assisted the team as time allows.
Jain, who just finished her second year studying economics and social policy analysis at Rice University, recalled her days of being inspired by older debaters. “They were so skilled in argumentation and in spreading, which is a fast-talking technique used in policy debate, and that motivated me to improve my skills,” she said, noting that she hopes her assistance with current Harker debaters provides similar motivation. “It’s great to advise students on aspects of debate that confused me as a middle schooler.” Midha debated for Harvard University while earning a degree in human developmental and regenerative biology. He plans to attend medical school after spending a year in research at Boston’s Joslin Diabetes Center. As a high school student, he competed in policy debate and attended summer debate amps, intensively researching a topic and practicing debate with 30 other students. “Debate offers an interesting duality of a hypercompetitive activity that turns into a form of deep collaboration,” he said.
Midha also mentored middle schoolers while at Harker, and this year he watched two of his former mentees (now in grades 11 and 12) reach the quarterfinals of a national championship tournament. “That was the proudest moment of my involvement in Harker debate,” he said.
Alexandru Iftimie ’03 recalls lugging around several 20-gallon tubs of documents at debate competitions in the days before digital files were readily available. “We had to be prepared for every possible argument,” he said. “Those tubs contained piles of highlighted research at our fingertips.” Iftimie debated for the University of Southern California – coaching Harker students during the summer – and earned a J.D. from Yale University. He recently left the U.S. Department of Justice to return to the Bay Area as an attorney for a private-sector law firm.
“I still use the critical-thinking, publics peaking and advocacy skills I learned from debate,” Iftimie said. “Those skills have been tremendous assets to me as a lawyer.”
Student Driven Harker’ speech and debate program wouldn’t be as successful as it is without the students who commit to learning debate techniques and skills while conducting hours and hours of research.
“Speech and debate are academic competitions that allow our very bright students to apply their knowledge and test their wits against their peers, all while getting immediate feedback,” said Greg Achten.
Students join the program for a variety of reasons, from a desire to learn more about current events to wanting to lessen public speaking anxiety to their parents suggesting it.
Oftentimes, they’re hooked by the first taste of competition. Krish Mysoor, grade 7, tried speech and debate at his mother’s insistence and attended seven tournaments before he broke into the quarterfinals. “Taking all of those losses early on taught me that I was in it for the experience and the love of this brain sport more than I was into just winning,” he said. He has since seen more success, making it to a bid round for the Tournament of Champions this year.
Harker’s teaching and coaching staff works to de-emphasize a “winner take all” attitude in speech and debate. “We talk a lot about realistic expectations,” Greg Achten said. “We talk about goals not associated with wins or losses, such as achieving a better understanding of an argument or improving in a particular debate technique.”
Competing in speech and debate provides tangible rewards for students beyond wins and losses, noted Haris Hosseini, grade 12, who recently earned third place in original oratory at the Tournament of Champions.
“I’ve become a better speaker, writer and friend,” Hosseini said. “My capacity for empathy has deepened by listening to those wildly different in background and circumstance than me.”
Madison Huynh, grade 11, joined the debate program in sixth grade because she wanted to have intellectual discussions on topics beyond what she was learning in class. “I love debate’s basis in curiosity, research and strategy,” said Huynh, who finished fifth in the nation in policy debate at the National Debate Coaches Association National Tournament in April.
“From learning how to work on a team to developing strong critical thinking skills, being a part of speech and debate is truly a unique experience,” Huynh said. “It offers education and real-world skills in the most fun, intellectually spirited way possible.”
A banner year for speech and debate
In 2018-19, Harker students participated in dozens of speech and debate
tournaments across the country. After achieving great results during the
fall and winter, students continued to shine on the national speech and
debate stage this spring. Here are a few highlights of their successes:
Western Junior Varsity and Novice National Championship
(held at San Francisco State University, March 9-10)
Harker set a tournament history record by having the top six finishers
in JV Lincoln-Douglas debate – Deven Shah, Akhilesh Chegu, Karoun
Kaushik, Arnav Dani, all grade 9, and Krish Mysoor and Ansh Sheth,
both grade 7 – close out two quarterfinals and all of the semifinals,
making them co-champions. Shah also was the top speaker in the
Fourteen Harker students earned perfect scores on AP tests taken in the spring.
In economics, Ashwin Rammohan, grade 12, got perfect scores – no wrong answers – on both the macro- and microeconomics AP tests, one of only four students in the world to earn perfect scores on more than one AP exam! Enya Lu, grade 12, got a perfect score on the AP Macroeconomics test, making her one of only 31 worldwide to do so. Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 12, was one of only 26 students worldwide who aced the AP Microeconomics test.
In computer science, there were 193 perfect scores worldwide and nearly 6 percent of them were from 11 Harker students. Arya Maheshwari, Michelle Si, Daniel Wang, Russell Yang and Bowen Yin, all grade 10; and David Feng, Finn Frankis, Alyssa Huang, Rashmi Iyer, Chaitanya Ravuri and Bryan Wang, all grade 11, all had perfect scores.
Only six schools worldwide had four or more students with perfect scores.
Harker students have turned in numerous perfect scores over the years. Search “perfect score” to find related articles in Harker News.