Last month, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) announced that two 2017-18 Harker journalism publications would receive Crown awards, the organization’s highest honor. The Winged Post was named a finalist in the High School Print News category, and the Talon yearbook was announced as a finalist later in the month. In March, the finalists will find out which level of Crown award they’ve received: gold or silver.
Upper school journalism teacher Ellen Austin noted that this will be “the first time that Harker journalism will receive multiple Crowns from CSPA in the same year, and it’s the first time that I, as an advisor, will have two publications that I advise getting Crowns at the same time.”
Karlene McCallaCreary ’09 was a Raiderette of the week in early October! A graduate of Harker’s Conservatory dance program and former member of Harker’s varsity dance team, she is in her first season with the Raiderettes.
McCallaCreary began dancing at a young age and jazz/hip-hop quickly became her favorite styles. After Harker, she studied accounting at Santa Clara University where she graduated with honors. She danced while at SCU: one year in the theater and two years on the dance team.
“My dance experience at Harker and Santa Clara gave me the foundation and encouragement to audition for a professional team. I have been loving my first season on the Raiderettes,” McCallaCreary said, “and I am really thankful to have this opportunity to continue dancing for an incredible organization among a talented group of women.”
The girls volleyball team steamrolled its way through the first three rounds of CCS, defeating Marina, Mercy Burlingame and Santa Cruz all in straight sets, which led to a matchup with Notre Dame Belmont in the D4 championships. It was a tight match, but the Tigers defeated the Eagles in five games, winning the decisive game 16-14, giving Harker the second place finish. However, this qualified the Eagles for a trip to the NorCal tournament. The girls travel to Fairfield on Tuesday to take on Vanden High in the D2 brackets.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the WBAL finals last week, with Ryan Adolf, grade 12, and Ritika Rajamani, grade 9, qualifying for the CCS finals on Sunday at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo season came to an end last week as the team fell 4-11 to Aptos in the opening round of the CCS playoffs. Congrats on a great year!
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens up CCS on Monday as it travels to Mountain View High. On Nov. 13, the doubles team of Sachi Bajaj and Fonda Hu, both grade 10, will face off against Soquel to start the tournament.
Girls Golf
After a second place CCS finish, the girls golf team heads to Lodi today to begin its quest for a NorCal championship. Check out results throughout the day at https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1288547
Scholastic Teams
Harker once again made its presence felt on the Fall Scholastic Championship Teams list. Boys cross country (3.9 GPA) and boys water polo (3.728) earned the top spots in their sports, while girls golf (3.786) finished second in their sport. Congrats to our wonderful student athletes!
The girls volleyball team steamrolled its way through the first three rounds of CCS, defeating Marina, Mercy Burlingame and Santa Cruz all in straight sets, which led to a matchup with Notre Dame Belmont in the D4 championships. It was a tight match, but the Tigers defeated the Eagles in five games, winning the decisive game 16-14, giving Harker the second place finish. However, this qualified the Eagles for a trip to the NorCal tournament. The girls travel to Fairfield on Tuesday to take on Vanden High in the D2 brackets.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the WBAL finals last week, with Ryan Adolf, grade 12, and Ritika Rajamani, grade 9, qualifying for the CCS finals on Sunday at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo season came to an end last week as the team fell 4-11 to Aptos in the opening round of the CCS playoffs. Congrats on a great year!
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens up CCS on Monday as it travels to Mountain View High. On Nov. 13, the doubles team of Sachi Bajaj and Fonda Hu, both grade 10, will face off against Soquel to start the tournament.
Girls Golf
After a second place CCS finish, the girls golf team heads to Lodi today to begin its quest for a NorCal championship. Check out results throughout the day at https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1288547
Scholastic Teams
Harker once again made its presence felt on the Fall Scholastic Championship Teams list. Boys cross country (3.9 GPA) and boys water polo (3.728) earned the top spots in their sports, while girls golf (3.786) finished second in their sport. Congrats to our wonderful student athletes!
The girls volleyball team steamrolled its way through the first three rounds of CCS, defeating Marina, Mercy Burlingame and Santa Cruz all in straight sets, which led to a matchup with Notre Dame Belmont in the D4 championships. It was a tight match, but the Tigers defeated the Eagles in five games, winning the decisive game 16-14, giving Harker the second place finish. However, this qualified the Eagles for a trip to the NorCal tournament. The girls travel to Fairfield on Tuesday to take on Vanden High in the D2 brackets.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the WBAL finals last week, with Ryan Adolf, grade 12, and Ritika Rajamani, grade 9, qualifying for the CCS finals on Sunday at the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo season came to an end last week as the team fell 4-11 to Aptos in the opening round of the CCS playoffs. Congrats on a great year!
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens up CCS on Monday as it travels to Mountain View High. On Nov. 13, the doubles team of Sachi Bajaj and Fonda Hu, both grade 10, will face off against Soquel to start the tournament.
Girls Golf
After a second place CCS finish, the girls golf team heads to Lodi today to begin its quest for a NorCal championship. Check out results throughout the day at https://www.golfgenius.com/pages/1288547
Scholastic Teams
Harker once again made its presence felt on the Fall Scholastic Championship Teams list. Boys cross country (3.9 GPA) and boys water polo (3.728) earned the top spots in their sports, while girls golf (3.786) finished second in their sport. Congrats to our wonderful student athletes!
By Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair, 6-12
The speech and debate team has had some great results thus far in the season. Students have won awards in both local and national events in all five major events (policy debate, speech, Lincoln-Douglas debate, public forum debate and Congress).
The team of Anusha Kuppahally, grade 12, and Maddie Huynh, grade 11, made it to elimination rounds at both the Valley Invitational in Iowa and the St. Mark’s tournament in Texas. Andy Lee, grade 10, and Deven Shah, grade 9, were also in elimination rounds in Iowa. In policy debate, the yearlong topic is about whether the United States should ease restrictions on immigration. Harker’s advocated for the United States to accept more refugees from Syria.
The speech students are also off to a great start with Alycia Cary, grade 12, winning an award at the Yale Invitational in original oratory. Nikki Solanki, grade 11, took second place in both programmed oral interpretation and dramatic interpretation at the Florida Blue Key tournament. Solanki also won first place in dramatic performance at the Florida Blue Key round robin. Jay Menon, grade 12, also reached elimination rounds in Florida with his oratory. The team is also proud of Brian Pinkston and Ellis Goldman, both grade 10; Andrea Thia, grade 9; and Brandon Lin, grade 11, for making the final rounds of a local league tournament.
A number of the Lincoln-Douglas students also have represented Harker extremely well. Kelly Shen, grade 12; Akshay Manglik, grade 10; and Quentin Clark, grade 11, all qualified for elimination rounds at the Valley tournament in Iowa. Manglik also made it to elimination rounds at the Presentation tournament in San Jose, along with Aditya Tadimeti, grade 10; Sachin Shah, grade 11; and Anshul Reddy, grade 9. Manglik, Tadimeti and Reddy also cleared at the St. Mark’s tournament in Texas. They have debated topics ranging from the rights of reporters to protect confidential sources to privacy concerns for candidates for public office.
In public forum, the duo of Annie Ma and Amanda Cheung, both grade 11, as well as Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 12, and the pairing of Datha Arramreddy, grade 11, and Raymond Banke, grade 12, were in elimination rounds of the Milpitas Invitational. Naveen Mirapuri and Chandan Aggarwal, both grade 11, also won awards at the St. Francis tournament. Their current topic is about whether or not the federal government should impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry.
Finally, in Congressional debate, Jason Lin, grade 10; Jason Huang, grade 12; and Andrew Sun, grade 10, earned bids to nationals at the Yale Invitational. Sun and Nakul Bajaj, grade 11, both placed second at a league event. Lin, Sun, Riyaa Randhawa, grade 9, and David Feng, grade 11, earned bids to nationals at the Florida Blue Key Invitational.
The coaches are very proud of the success students have enjoyed across the team. This semester, the team will also travel to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, and Oakland in addition to attending some local events in San Jose and Santa Clara.
Coach Greg Achten noted, “I am really proud of our students’ success but even more proud of the way they have come together this year and worked as a team. The level of support the students show one another and work to help their teammates both in class and at tournaments tells me a lot about how inclusive and caring our students are.”
Mercury News columnist Sal Pizarro was kind enough to give Harker’s Taylor Eigsti appearance a shout out in his Oct. 16 column, in which he also mentioned the new Rothschild Performing Arts Center (RPAC).
HMH Landscape Architecture company noted the landscaping around the Saratoga campus’ new athletic center and RPAC in its blog.
Niche.com released a list of top STEM high schools, and the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article noting Harker’s high school is at the top of the heap in California and No. 2 in the United States.
This Tech & Learning article notes Sriram Bhimaraju, grade 7, earned fourth place at the 2018 Discover Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge for the development of an Archery Assistant app that improves an archer’s accuracy by correcting form in real-time using a Bluetooth sensor.
Audiovideosr noted Harker’s RPAC audio system in a blog post.
Grade 7 students spent last week visiting America’s scenic and historic national parks, viewing their many natural wonders. Early in the trip, the students ventured to the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most breathtaking sights. “The students and teachers who have never seen the Grand Canyon before experienced a blind trust walk to a scenic spot,” said assistant middle school division head Patricia Burrows, who accompanied the students on the trip. “When they took off their blindfolds, the gasps of delight, wonder and marvel were so satisfying.”
The next day the students moved on to Monument Valley, situated on the Arizona-Utah border. Highlights included driving to Honeymoon Arch for a climbing challenge and to hear a Navajo elder share some of the tribe’s values and traditions. At lunchtime the students enjoyed an outdoor barbecue near the Three Sisters monument where their guide, Daryl, shared more about the Navajo culture. “He distributed to them healing rocks, which he encouraged them to keep in their pocket,” said Burrows. “The one he has in his pocket is 15 years old.”
On their last day in Monument Valley, students started their trip to Bryce Canyon, a journey which included stops at the Glen Canyon Dam and Pink Coral Sand Dunes. Playing among the dunes was a highlight for many students.
The students’ first sight of Bryce Canyon the next day elicited many awed gasps. “The vibrant colors of orange, white, green as well as the blended colors in between transported us to a world we do not experience in Silicon Valley,” Burrows said. “This is why this is such a special trip for our students.” Each bus group spent the day hiking around the canyon and preparing for skits they would later perform.
Before heading home, the students went on a short hike in Zion National Park, which was a favorite part of the trip for some students, who enjoyed “the wide variety of environments,” Burrows said.
Harker Preschool held its annual Halloween Parade and the cuteness would not stop! There were many, many smiles from superheroes, fuzzy animals, fancy ladies and others in the parade. There is a full gallery in the Harker Parent Portal.
The yearly grade 8 trip to the Washington, D.C., area took place last week, as students traveled across the country to learn more about the history of the area and its role in the formation of the United States. After arriving in Williamsburg, Va., the students visited Jamestown, North America’s first permanent English settlement. Guides showed the students various facets of everyday life, including food preparation, living arrangements and the making of clothes. Afterward, the students visited Colonial Williamsburg, a living recreation of a colonial city, visiting its capitol, court and governor’s palace, in addition to a wig maker, apothecary and other shops. While visiting the College of William & Mary, the students toured the campus and saw several of its landmarks, and visited an interactive African-American music exhibition.
The next day, in Washington, D.C., the students visited Pamplin Park, and learned much about the Civil War, including the daily lives of soldiers. They toured the Tudor Hall Plantation, home to the Boisseau family and a confederate general’s headquarters during the war. A highlight of the first day was a visit to the Capitol Hill Club to see Maheen Kaleem ’03, now working in Washington as a program officer for NoVo Foundation’s initiative to end violence against girls and women. Kaleem introduced the students to her work and informed them that they could make a difference by “standing up for others, asking questions and in general trying to advocate for what is right,” reported assistant head of school Jennifer Gargano. Following Kaleem’s presentation, the students visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial.
Day two in Washington began with visits to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) and Arlington National Cemetery, where they witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The students later enjoyed lunch at Old Town Alexandria, home to many shops and restaurants, before visiting Mount Vernon, the storied home of George and Martha Washington. Students explored the Washingtons’ mansion and visited the tomb of the first U.S. president, while also speaking to guides on the property who were in-character as people who lived during Washington’s presidency.
On Wednesday, Oct. 24, the students headed to the Newseum to view its amazing series of exhibits on the importance and influence of journalism on American society. Students marveled at the Pulitzer Prize photograph gallery and the front page gallery. Later, at FBI headquarters, the students were treated to a tour that featured various interactive exhibits, as well as a scavenger hunt that had them searching for information at the exhibits. Their final stop for the day was the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, where they delved into the history of one of the greatest tragedies of modern times. “They took a lot of time reading the displays and watching the various available videos to more deeply understand this atrocity,” Gargano said.
Day six of the trip was very packed, as students started with a tour of the Capitol Building, where they viewed the floor of the House of Representatives and the Senate. “The students were excited to see where the State of the Union address takes place, among many other important affairs,” said Gargano. They also had the opportunity to meet with three members of Sen. Diane Feinstein’s staff and ask them questions about the work of a U.S. senator. Other stops included the Library of Congress, the National Archives and the Supreme Court.