Alumnus ’09 heads up DoorDash sustainability initiative in SF
David Kastelman ’09 has co-authored an article on DoorDash’s sustainability initiative! https://blog.doordash.com/introducing-project-dash-bbc61ac0cb8c
Kastelman is business operations manager for DoorDash’s San Francisco operation and is a member of the Aquilones, a group of Harker students who attended the G8 conference in Wismar, Germany, who were featured in a retrospective in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine (page 48) https://issuu.com/theharkerschool/docs/harker_magazine_summer_2018
Graduate joins conservative political advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
Tyler Koteskey ‘11 began working for Americans for Prosperity, founded by brothers David and Charles Koch.
“Americans for Prosperity works to recruit, educate and mobilize citizens nationwide to support policies advancing a free and open society of mutual benefit,” Koteskey said. “I’m joining AFP’s headquarters policy team as an analyst focused primarily on foreign policy and criminal justice reform, where I’ll help translate the organization’s broader vision into practical policy stances that advance it. I’ve enjoyed politics since my time at Harker and it’s fulfilling to go into an office every morning to advance what I believe in.”
The organization was founded in 2004 and is a libertarian/conservative political advocacy group, according to Wikipedia. “As the Koch brothers’ primary political advocacy group, it is one of the most influential American conservative organizations,” the website notes.
Sonia Rastogi ’05 forges ahead with UNICEF work
Sonia Rastogi ’05 was noted in a post by the Taipei American School. She works for UNICEF supporting communities, especially women and girls, affected by crises, here is her bio from their website https://lnkd.in/e4_8KEs
“Sonia Rastogi serves as the GBV Guidelines Information Management Specialist. She is a gender-based violence and public health practitioner with expertise implementing and coordinating GBV, WASH, Education, Livelihoods and Youth programming in complex emergency settings. Most recently, Sonia served as the Head of Office in Bentiu, South Sudan with Mercy Corps. She is committed to developing evidence-based, accountable and intersectional programs and policies for people most affected by crisis. Prior to working in the humanitarian sector, Sonia advocated for policies and programs at the U.S. local, state and national level for women and girls living with HIV. She holds a Master in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.”
Very nice post by the Taipei American School https://www.tas.edu.tw/fs/pages/news?post=sonia-rastogi-visits-tas-in-september-20180810
Such a pleasure to see another alumna working for the greater good!
We love to hear what our alumni are doing, be it family, work or play! Send your alumni updates to news@harker.org, and don’t forget to include a photo! We’ll also include notices in the Class Notes section of Harker Magazine.
Late last month, middle school math teacher and department chair Vandana Kadam received the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Teaching in Middle School and High School. The Mathematical Association of America presents this award to teachers who foster student interest in mathematics by competing in the yearly American Mathematics Competitions.
Candidates are nominated based on recommendation letters from colleagues, and selected for the award based on criteria such as improving AMC scores, increased student participation and increased numbers of students invited to participate in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) and the USA Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO). Congrats to Ms. Kadam on this well-earned recognition!
Last month, upper school theater teacher Jeffrey Draper visited Australia as this year’s exchange teacher to St. Stephen’s College in Coomera, Queensland, located on the Gold Coast. Draper, who was notified of the opportunity by global education director Jennifer Walrod, said “[I’ve] always wanted to visit Australia and I’ve enjoyed having visitors from St. Stephen’s as guests in my classroom over the years.”
Draper spent much of his time at St. Stephen’s observing classes and noticed some similarities between the school and Harker, such as its record for academic achievements and high-quality extracurricular programs. “Where they have a house system as [Harker’s] middle school does, Harker’s upper school chooses to have competitions by class instead,” said Draper, who also noted that students at St. Stephen’s wear uniforms across all grade levels, and that its location in a tropical climate brings with it an array of birds whose calls make a nice soundtrack to the “very lush, green campus.”
Draper also appreciated St. Stephen’s emphasis on group collaboration, noting that a floor in one of the school’s central buildings is dedicated solely to team projects. He also enjoyed how the school dealt with student stress, “with the single counselor on campus assisting a large academic support program called Learning Enhancement,” he said. “The dedication of a large central space in the middle of the campus gives their Learning Enhancement staff a full-time space to focus only on academic support.”
Aside from his time at St. Stephen’s, Draper also enjoyed several sightseeing opportunities, visiting Cairns and its famous Great Barrier Reef, where he went scuba diving for the first time. The trip also included visits to Brisbane and Sydney.
The varsity volleyball team opened its 2018 season with a busy week. The Eagles fell 0-3 to Branham on Tuesday, followed by a 3-1 victory over Mountain View on Thursday at their home opener, and finished with a 2-3 showing at the Spikefest Tournament over the weekend. In the loss to Branham, Ashley Jazbec, grade 11, led the offense with nine kills. Michelle Ning, grade 10, had 11 kills in the win over Mountain View. This week, the Eagles host Carmel on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and Westmont on Friday at 6:45 p.m.
Cross Country
The cross country team had a strong showing at the Gunn High meet last week. Anna Weirich, grade 10, won her race, improving her time by 1 minute from last year, and posted the top girl’s time of the day. Ryan Adolf, grade 12, posted the best time for all Harker runners on the day. And, in his debut race, Kailash Ranganathan, grade 9, placed second. The Eagles travel to Golden Gate Park this weekend for the Lowell Invitational.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team opened its season in a tri-match last week against two of the best teams in the CCS, Valley Christian and Palo Alto. The Eagles came up short 201-196-191, but Sophie Zhang Murphy, grade 9, led the way with a 3-under-par 33, earning her first career medalist honor. The Eagles compete in the Helen Lengfeld Memorial Tournament today at the San Jose Country Club and take on Sacred Heart Prep and Notre Dame Belmont tomorrow at the Silver Creek Country Club.
Football
The football team improved to 2-1 on the season with a 40-6 win over Washington SF. Jared Anderson, grade 12, Anthony Meissner, grade 12 and Devin Keller, grade 11, led the offense with huge games. Anderson was a monster as he caught five passes for 137 yards and three scores, returned a punt for a touchdown and rushed for a 48-yard touchdown, adding up to over 300 all-purpose yards on the day. Meissner threw for 160 yards and three scores and Keller added 111 yards rushing and a score. On the defensive side of the ball, Trevor Thompson, grade 12, had three sacks, six tackles and a forced fumble. The Eagles host Marina High this Friday at 7 p.m.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens its season at the California Tennis Classic this weekend.
Water Polo
The boys and girls water polo teams have their home openers tonight versus Saratoga at the Singh Aquatic Center. The girls play at 4:45 p.m. with the boys starting at 6:45 p.m. Both teams then travel to Santa Clara on Thursday, with the boys competing in the Lynbrook Tournament over the weekend.
From Saturday, Aug. 18 to Sunday, Aug. 19, over 65 students attended the Harker DECA chapter’s fifth-annual DECA Launch, an event designed to introduce DECA to prospective members and to provide an overview of The Harker School’s business, economics and entrepreneurship department. Through alumni panels, detailed presentations, guest speakers, mock tournaments and interactive activities, students were given a realistic idea of the upcoming DECA year.
“Through the numerous activities that we have planned, DECA Launch provides a great opportunity for students to become familiar with not only DECA and the B.E. department, but also the upper school as a whole,” said Shania Wang, grade 12, Harker DECA chief executive officer. “This year, we introduced a lot of new changes based on feedback from previous years, which allowed us to host the best possible event for all of the students. We also had the most attendees compared to previous years, so I’m excited and hopeful for a successful year.”
Early Saturday morning, students met the chapter advisors and officers while enjoying breakfast from Noah’s Bagels in the Nichols Hall atrium. They then headed into the auditorium for the student opening ceremony, where former California DECA president David Xu, former co-CEO Shreyas Chandrashekaran ’18 and the former vice president of operations Vignesh Panchanatham ’18 shared their experiences with DECA and its impact on their future endeavors. Students also were given the opportunity to hear from previous Harker DECA alumni, including Glenn Reddy ’15, Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari ’15 and Lucas Wang ’17.
Afterward, the officers held an interactive ice-breaker during which students mingled before heading to the Innovation Center, where Juston Glass, the chapter advisor, introduced the Innovation Challenge. Students split themselves into teams of five to six, and with the guidance of an assigned mentor, each team thought of an innovative idea to explore and present at the closing ceremony.
“I think what I loved most during the mentoring process was seeing how excited and hard working the students in my team were during the challenge. I remember that after they went home on the first day, they shared and worked on their presentation even during Saturday night,” said Claire Luo, grade 10, director of role-plays. “In fact, when I saw them the next morning, they had come up with a new, more innovative idea than before and had created a beautiful presentation. That was when I realized how motivated these students were and how much I enjoyed helping them.”
Lunch followed, which gave participants time to continue to work with their teams while enjoying pizza from Pizza My Heart before the Scavenger Hunt. For the Scavenger Hunt, students were asked to find the DECA officers who were spread around campus. Each team received riddles revealing the location of each of the officers and a task to accomplish, allowing students to bond with the officers and explore the upper school campus.
The afternoon consisted of lectures on the different clusters: business management and administration, marketing, hospitality and tourism, finance and entrepreneurship. The day ended with more Innovation Challenge time before students headed home, concluding a successful first day of Launch.
The next day, students arrived at the Innovation Center early in the morning to mingle and learn about Harker’s various business, economics and entrepreneurship programs through a presentation by Glass. Then, student entrepreneur Mahi Kolla, grade 11, founder of TheMintyBoutique and executive VP of Harker DECA, shared her own experiences with creating her company. Competitive demonstrations followed, including a live role-play by Luo and an overview of written events by Anvitha Tummala, grade 10, Harker DECA director of written events. Following this, students were given some more time to work on the Innovation Challenge while enjoying burritos from Chipotle.
One of the last events of DECA Launch was the Role-Play Tournament, where officers and associate mentors introduced small groups of students to the expectations and guidelines of a role-play events. Students then paired up and received a chance to compete by preparing and presenting a role-play to the judges.
Next, students received their final allotment of time to wrap up their presentations for the Innovation Challenge before parents began to arrive for dinner and the closing ceremony. Each team introduced and presented their ideas to the judges, who graded each team based on innovation, sustainability, teamwork and presentation. Afterward, while the judges tabulated the scores, the students and parents enjoyed a recap video of the weekend. DECA Launch 2018 concluded with the announcement of the winners of the Role-Play Tournament and the Innovation Challenge, as well as closing remarks from Glass and Wang.
“The Launch was a fun, interactive and extremely informational weekend, and it has definitely sparked many ideas for my future in high school and in DECA,” said attendee Dawson Chen, grade 9.
Harker DECA is thrilled to welcome all the new and returning members and looks forward to another successful year as a community and chapter.
“This year’s Launch has been absolutely amazing, and I truly believe that they have a bright year of DECA ahead of them,” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows:
Role-Play Tournament
1st place: Irene Yuan and Teresa Cai, both grade 9
2nd place: Michael Tran and Rishab Parthasarathy, both grade 9
3rd place: Aimee Wang and Gloria Zhu, both grade 9
Innovation Challenge
Best Innovation: Alina Yuan, Aimee Wang, Kaden Kapadia, Shika Tseitlin, Gloria Zhu, all grade 9
Best Sustainability: Daniel Wu, Alivia Li, Dawson Chen, Vedant Kenkare, Nikki Kapadia, Ethan Huang, all grade 9
Teamwork and Presentation: Saanvi Arora, Harshil Garg, Trinity Chan, Tina Zhong, William Chien, Vinay Sudarsanam, all grade 9
Overall: April Sun, Rohan Rashingkar, Catherine Fung, Andrew Vodhin-Ho, Arvin Nidadavolu, Sujith Pakala, all grade 9
About The Harker School DECA
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Contact Information
To learn more about this story, please contact:
Elaine Zhai, Director of Communications
21ElaineZ@students.harker.org www.harkerdeca.org
The football team picked up a 22-18 win over James Lick last Friday. Marcus Tymous, grade 12, and Anthony Meissner, grade 12, each rushed for a score, and Meissner connected with Jared Anderson, grade 12, for a 73-yard touchdown. Anderson also added a 23-yard field goal. On the defensive side of the ball, Giovanni Rofa, grade 11, and Mitchell Granados, grade 12, each intercepted a pass. This week, the Eagles take on Washington High in San Francisco on Friday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team opened its 2018 season with an 18-5 win over Lynbrook at the Wilcox Tournament on Friday, but fell to Wilcox 16-12 and Monta Vista 18-17 on Saturday to take fourth place. Next up for the Eagles is a home match with Saratoga on Sept. 4 at 6:15 p.m.
Volleyball
The varsity girls volleyball team opens its season on Aug. 28 at Branham High School. The team’s first home action of the 2018 season will be on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m. when the Eagles host Mountain View.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team kicks off its season on Aug. 28 in a tri-match with Palo Alto High and Valley Christian.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens its season in early September at the California Tennis Classic in Fresno.
Cross Country
Cross Country will make its 2018 debut at the Gunn High Meet on Aug. 30.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo teams begin the season on Sept. 4 against Saratoga at the Singh Aquatic Center at 4:45 p.m.
Fifty-eight students participated in the inaugural upper school speech and debate team retreat on Aug. 25-26. The team met at the San Jose Sheraton for a mix of team building, prep for the season and a fun dinner/arcade trip. Maddie Huynh, grade 11, noted that the retreat “was a great way to meet the new freshmen, get a start on the season and bond with the team.” Ben Yuan, grade 12, added that he “loved getting a clear vision for the season.” The enthusiasm spilled over to the coaches who enjoyed having such a positive start to the season. Go speech and debate Eagles!
Fifty-eight students participated in the inaugural upper school speech and debate team retreat on Aug. 25-26. The team met at the San Jose Sheraton for a mix of team building, prep for the season and a fun dinner/arcade trip. Maddie Huynh, grade 11, noted that the retreat “was a great way to meet the new freshmen, get a start on the season and bond with the team.” Ben Yuan, grade 12, added that he “loved getting a clear vision for the season.” The enthusiasm spilled over to the coaches who enjoyed having such a positive start to the season. Go speech and debate Eagles!
Fifty-eight students participated in the inaugural upper school speech and debate team retreat on Aug. 25-26. The team met at the San Jose Sheraton for a mix of team building, prep for the season and a fun dinner/arcade trip. Maddie Huynh, grade 11, noted that the retreat “was a great way to meet the new freshmen, get a start on the season and bond with the team.” Ben Yuan, grade 12, added that he “loved getting a clear vision for the season.” The enthusiasm spilled over to the coaches who enjoyed having such a positive start to the season. Go speech and debate Eagles!
Have you ever felt dismay about the increasing quantity of litter along our freeways, including our own Saratoga Avenue exits? If so, you may take heart when you see white “Adopt-a-Highway” bags along the road! Several years ago, former upper school history teacher Carol Zink noticed the bags along our Saratoga Avenue exits, and decided to find out just who was responsible for taking on the eyesore of trashy freeways. She met former public school teacher Loui Tucker and her partner, Sabine Zappe, a math teacher at Del Mar High, who had adopted the section of highway between Meridian and Saratoga avenues 12 years ago.
Said Tucker, “I clearly remember becoming obsessed with an enormous piece of plastic (it could have wrapped a car!) on the off-ramp from 280 southbound up to San Jose City College. I snarled at it every time I drove past it. Finally, late one night, I stopped on the off-ramp, jumped out, grabbed the plastic, stuffed it in my car, got back in and drove off. I felt great! I contacted the Adopt-A-Highway program in Northern California and, after a couple of delays and false starts, got my first five-year permit. I suppose I could have asked for any section, but it made sense to clean an area that I would be able to easily keep an eye on during the month.”
Since then, the pair have faithfully coordinated groups of volunteers one Saturday each month, and this past July reached a milestone 5,000th bag of trash. After contacting the group, Zink put out an email to the Harker faculty, encouraging other members of our community to join the efforts, and since then several faculty members – including Diana Moss, Shaun Jashaun, Agnes Pommier and Brian Yager – students and parents have also volunteered. Kristin Carlson, administrative assistant to Jennifer Gargano, has even pitched in several times to buy lunch for the group, as Tucker and Zappe take the volunteers to lunch after each cleanup.
After each cleanup, Tucker sends amusing reports to participants chronicling the unusual discoveries along the freeways and on- and off-ramps. She said, “We have returned dozens of items to their owners. Many of them were obvious items like backpacks, wallets, purses, credit cards and drivers licenses. There was a chest X-ray that we dropped off at Good Samaritan Hospital. We returned an envelope full of very crisp new $5 bills, found along with a calendar that identified the owner, to the owner of a Chinese restaurant who had planned to give the $5 as Chinese New Year’s gifts to his employees. We found a wallet and called the woman who owned it. Initially she said to toss it because she’d replaced it – until we mentioned that tucked inside was a love note from someone named Dave. She gasped, said she’d be right over. She brought a bottle of wine.”
They are always looking for more volunteers to help, and high school students may fulfill community service hours for pitching in. Tucker explained, “You have to be 18 to work on the highway with us without permission of a parent. If you’re 16 or 17, you can work with parental permission. I try to give high school students who want to participate a relatively safe area to work – like Southwest Expressway – rather than the freeway shoulders. For those under 16, I have made bags available and sent them out to clean city streets or a neighborhood park instead.” If you would like to support this effort, you may contact Loui Tucker at loui@louitucker.com and ask to be included on the email list that she sends to each month.
We are grateful to Tucker and her group for helping pick up in our own neighborhood!