This article originally appeared in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.
“I’m actually still shocked.… When they read out the second place, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting anything,” said a smiling Yi Sun ’06, when he was interviewed in 2009 by NBC 11 after winning second place in the Intel Science Talent Search. “I really didn’t think it went that well.”
But obviously, it did go well for Sun, then a senior at Harker, who competed against 1,500 students to win second place in the prestigious competition.
Sun, who was born in Shanghai and moved all over China, then to Canada and a few cities in the U.S. as a child, arrived at Harker in seventh grade. His natural inclination toward complex math topics was evident to every teacher he encountered, including Vandana Kadam, middle school math department chair, who encouraged him to participate in math competitions.
“He is one of three students who I have taught in 20 years that I remember to have had a genuine love for the subject, which was at a level that is unparalleled,” said Kadam. “Apart from his amazing math abilities, the one thing that I fondly remember about Yi is his immense modesty and his maturity at that age.”
His modesty is still intact even after completing his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master of advanced studies in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a bachelor’s and master’s in mathematics from Harvard University.
Today Sun is a Simons Fellow in the math department at Columbia University. His research interests are in representation theory and integrable systems and their applications to probability and random matrices.
“These are pretty technical subjects that aren’t going to be that relatable, but basically I spend my time researching, writing papers and teaching,” said Sun. “I like to have a balance between the three and working with freshmen is kinda refreshing.”
Sun’s passion for teaching has been fed over the years at the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program, where he has been an instructor for seven summers.
“I attended this summer program after doing well in math competitions, which are not very fun to watch,” Sun said with a soft laugh. “The first year I went, I thought I was good at math, but then I was surrounded by these super smart people and very difficult problems.”
As a student, in addition to mathematics, he also loved history, art history, French and English, which allowed him to reflect on various subjects from a different angle.
“Sure, he was exceptionally brilliant, but what I remember most was his smile and how much he loved to laugh,” said Kevin Lum Lung, a college counselor at Harker. “And he always greeted everyone with that wonderful smile, treated everyone with respect and was willing to help anyone who asked.”
Although math is clearly Sun’s passion, other interests include trivia (he captained Harker’s Quiz Bowl team to two second place finishes), coffee (he’s been to nearly every coffee shop in New York City) and powerlifting (which he learned from a “large Ukrainian dude who had a silver medal”).
“Yi was a genius, but he also worked very hard. He could’ve easily skipped on doing the mundane homework, but he never did,” said Bradley Stoll, upper school math teacher. “To this day, Yi is the one student by whom all others could be measured, if one were to do that. He’s a legend at Harker … really.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.
“I’m actually still shocked.… When they read out the second place, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be getting anything,” said a smiling Yi Sun ’06, when he was interviewed in 2009 by NBC 11 after winning second place in the Intel Science Talent Search. “I really didn’t think it went that well.”
But obviously, it did go well for Sun, then a senior at Harker, who competed against 1,500 students to win second place in the prestigious competition.
Sun, who was born in Shanghai and moved all over China, then to Canada and a few cities in the U.S. as a child, arrived at Harker in seventh grade. His natural inclination toward complex math topics was evident to every teacher he encountered, including Vandana Kadam, middle school math department chair, who encouraged him to participate in math competitions.
“He is one of three students who I have taught in 20 years that I remember to have had a genuine love for the subject, which was at a level that is unparalleled,” said Kadam. “Apart from his amazing math abilities, the one thing that I fondly remember about Yi is his immense modesty and his maturity at that age.”
His modesty is still intact even after completing his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master of advanced studies in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and a bachelor’s and master’s in mathematics from Harvard University.
Today Sun is a Simons Fellow in the math department at Columbia University. His research interests are in representation theory and integrable systems and their applications to probability and random matrices.
“These are pretty technical subjects that aren’t going to be that relatable, but basically I spend my time researching, writing papers and teaching,” said Sun. “I like to have a balance between the three and working with freshmen is kinda refreshing.”
Sun’s passion for teaching has been fed over the years at the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program, where he has been an instructor for seven summers.
“I attended this summer program after doing well in math competitions, which are not very fun to watch,” Sun said with a soft laugh. “The first year I went, I thought I was good at math, but then I was surrounded by these super smart people and very difficult problems.”
As a student, in addition to mathematics, he also loved history, art history, French and English, which allowed him to reflect on various subjects from a different angle.
“Sure, he was exceptionally brilliant, but what I remember most was his smile and how much he loved to laugh,” said Kevin Lum Lung, a college counselor at Harker. “And he always greeted everyone with that wonderful smile, treated everyone with respect and was willing to help anyone who asked.”
Although math is clearly Sun’s passion, other interests include trivia (he captained Harker’s Quiz Bowl team to two second place finishes), coffee (he’s been to nearly every coffee shop in New York City) and powerlifting (which he learned from a “large Ukrainian dude who had a silver medal”).
“Yi was a genius, but he also worked very hard. He could’ve easily skipped on doing the mundane homework, but he never did,” said Bradley Stoll, upper school math teacher. “To this day, Yi is the one student by whom all others could be measured, if one were to do that. He’s a legend at Harker … really.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2018 issue of Harker Magazine.
In June 2007, eight Harker students met with fellow students and world leaders in Wismar, Germany, to talk about pressing global issues, and the trip changed their lives. The Harker group was chosen from a field of 63 teams to represent the United States at the J8 (Junior 8) parallel summit. The team met with then-President George W. Bush and the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom at the annual G8 Summit (now the G7 Summit, as Russia no longer participates).
The Aquilones, as they called themselves, were Sudha Gollapudi ’08, Kritika Kailash ’08, David Kastelman ’09, Aarathi Minisandram ’08, Rohit Nalamasu ’08, Kavitha Narra ’08, Kelly O’Reilly ’08 and Rachel Peterson ’08. They were all members of Harker’s Model UN and Amnesty International chapters.
While in Germany, they worked alongside youth teams from the other represented countries and a special contingent of 10 youths from emerging economies and developing nations to write a declaration tackling economic prospects for Africa, HIV/AIDS, new challenges for the global economy and climate change, and energy efficiency. Now, 10 years after leaving Harker, those alumni look back at that wonderful experience.
Sudha Gollapudi
“I continued to stay politically aware all through college,” said Sudha Gollapudi, “probably much more than I would have if I hadn’t gotten the opportunity to participate in the J8 Summit. I have definitely been a lot more politically aware and active since the trip. I follow the news very closely and try to contact local representatives regarding issues that are important to me.”
She also thinks about the trip frequently. “I see updates from the people I’ve added on social media … and it’s been really interesting to see how their lives have progressed over the last 10 years.” What Gollapudi especially remembers about the trip were the passion and ideas of the other participants.
“Everyone was so excited to contribute their thoughts and ideas to help make the world a better place. It was a wonderful and eye-opening experience for me to meet so many people from around the world who cared about the planet as much as I did. It made me feel a lot more connected to the rest of the world.”
Kritika Kailash
The trip launched Kritika Kailash on a different path than she otherwise would have chosen. “The whole J8 experience really pushed me toward the social sector and public policy, and I got to explore these in my classes and activities in college,” she said. “I met many memorable young people fighting for social justice in their countries, and hearing their experiences was really humbling. I’m still friends on Facebook with many of them, and it’s great to see their success.”
Kailash said she thinks about the trip frequently and has stayed interested in economics and politics because of the trip. “We were so excited and thrilled to be so near to the G8 summit. We got to meet Laura Bush, and Kavitha sat with George Bush in a meeting, which was really exciting.” After college, Kailash worked in India for a year with a nonprofit that provided services to urban slums. She is currently at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy completing a Master of Public Policy.
Rachel Peterson
Rachel Peterson noted she has some vibrant memories of the trip. “After the meetings, we had the opportunity to socialize with our fellow participants from across the world,” she said.
“Between the serious conversations and dance parties, I remember being incredibly impressed with their maturity and humor. My second memory was watching Kavitha Narra present to the G8. I remember being incredibly nervous before her presentation. My fears were unnecessary, as she was fantastic.
“I think about the trip when I am reminiscing about high school. It was one of the highlights of my time at Harker. One of my most important, though clichéd takeaways, is that you should take risks as you never know which opportunities will pan out.”
Peterson also delved into public service following her J8 experience. “During college, I interned with Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein, focusing on public policy. I graduated Berkeley with a double major in economics and history. After spending a few years at an economic consulting firm, now work for Square in San Francisco.”
David Kastelman
“The trip definitely deepened my interest in development economics,” said David Kastelman, “a topic I took some time to study in more depth in college. While at college, I decided to look more domestically than internationally for work. I was quite interested in combining an interest in economics and an interest in public service. My first job out of college was at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal government’s newest federal agency, which focuses on making sure consumer financial products – things like student loans and mortgages – have sensible regulation. To this day, I definitely still have an interest in social impact, though at the moment, I’m investigating how that might occur through the efficiency and scale that occurs at a technology company.” Kastelman is a product analyst for DoorDash.
Kastelman noted he had many great memories from the trip, but “if I had to pick a single memory, it would probably be the chance to work on a written communiqué, the Wismar Declaration, with several other J8 members. It is a written summary of the thoughts of 74 youths, from 18 different countries, on some of the things the J8 could do to ensure more justice in the world. I remember being really pleased with how the document came together. Kavitha and other students had chance to share that written document with the assembled heads of state – and I remember thinking that was really cool.”
Aarathi Minisandram
One of Aarathi Minisandram’s key memories of the trip “was hearing from Ishmael Beah, author of ‘A Long Way Gone’ and former child soldier from Sierra Leone,” she said. “His speech to us about how youth can change the world was incredibly inspirational.
“I was humbled especially by the individual youth representatives from Third World countries around the globe. My main takeaway from the trip was the importance of education and youth empowerment, so I aimed to get the best education I could and give back to those who grew up less privileged than I.
“The trip heavily influenced my decision to join Teach For America after graduating college. I taught high school math in a New York City public school for two years before pursuing my ultimate career path. In those two years, I worked with incredible students whose backgrounds were vastly different from my own with a goal of instilling my passion for education and youth empowerment onto them.
“One of my AP Calculus students went on to college and pursued a degree in nursing to help improve the health care system. J8 inspired me to continue working with youth throughout my life, and I am very grateful to have had the means and opportunity to participate in the summit,” Minisandram said.
Rohit Nalamasu
Rohit Nalamasu is in his first year of residency on his path to becoming a doctor. His strongest memory of J8 is of “sharing life on a boat [the group was housed on a Polish Navy vessel!] and meeting people from all different backgrounds and cultures,” he said.
“It was fascinating interacting with people who thought differently from ourselves, and truly interacting with them within the framework and close quarters that J8 provided allowed me to grow as a person and consider different trains of thought to the issues we came to solve.”
The trip “absolutely” had an impact on Nalamasu during his college years. “Going on that trip and meeting youth from Tanzania and India, as well as the G8 countries, made me realize how fortunate we are here. Specifically a project I worked closely on was educating myself on the AIDS epidemic in Africa. I was shocked to find the simple things, like accessible condoms that we have here, were missing in large parts of Africa. It … made me realize how different health care here is from there.
“This led me to bioengineering as an undergrad major, to try to create cost-effective health care options for the Third World. In turn, I pursued medicine … in an effort to bring easy-to-create, cost-effective prosthetics and rehab care to the Third World. I’m hoping to get involved in some 3-D printing prosthetics projects coming up!”
He thinks of the trip all the time, he said. “The friendships I made on that trip were lifelong. Currently, one of the other members and I live together while they are in medical school and I am a resident nearby. I think that trip was a once-in-a lifetime experience, and I thank my lucky stars I was blessed to go; I don’t think I would be who I am today without it.”
Kelly O’Reilly
Kelly O’Reilly’s life choices also were affected by her J8 experience. “After J8, I was really interested in the work UNICEF was doing,” she said, “so I got an internship with UNICEF my freshman year of college at Columbia. That was probably the most direct effect of J8 on my college experience. I do think that the experience helped me practice skills that became useful later. We learned to have productive discussions about difficult topics, present ideas clearly, etc.
“The most memorable part of the trip for me was the people,” she continued. “I know we had sessions on current events and issues, but I remember less the details of what we discussed and more the people we had these discussions with. It was really an incredible opportunity to meet and interact with students from all around the world.
“I’m still friends with my fellow teammates, and I remain in touch with some of the people we met. Looking back, I don’t think it hit me until later what a unique opportunity it really was – although I do remember we were in shock when we [were selected to attend]!”
O’Reilly recently completed a Ph.D. in history at Vanderbilt University on the history of community health centers during the War on Poverty, and is now in her first year at Yale Law School.
Kavitha Narra
Kavitha Narra, now in clinical rotations in her third year of medical school, was profoundly influenced by her participation in the summit. “I always found my heart in community work, but since J8 I have been even more invigorated to pursue policy change in my service. In the past few years of medical school, this has taken the shape of expanding our Pomona Community Health Action Team services in my term as [its] president to include free sports physicals to our Pomona Unified School District’s students, many of whom are undocumented community members and have limited access to other health services.”
Narra noted a turning point in her life was caring for a ninth grade boy with cerebral palsy. “In our time together, he would teach me to treat him as Joe, the charmer and social butterfly who loved to chat up the ladies, rather than as a young man living with cerebral palsy,” she said.
“I began to understand his personal strength and capacity to endure as we worked through his pain together, as partners. Through his courage and understanding, Joe sparked my earliest interest in direct patient care.
“With each patient I see, I am reminded that though I am not currently active in international policy change, the strength of our personal connections in life – in this case listening to my patient’s story and learning how to safeguard his or her health – is a meaningful way to create impactful change in the lives of those around me. Health policy may find its way into my life in the future, but for now I am enjoying learning about the human body and translating that into a strong patient-physician bond.
“I was incredibly fortunate to be blessed with the experience of our J8/G8 Summit, with each moment that led up to it and each one that followed,” she said. “I gained a new strength and confidence in our ability to impact change by first creating sincere connections and true friendships with those across our world. Truly, those are the relationships that have inspired my passions in life.”
Editor’s note: You can find the text of the 2007 Wismar Declaration here: https://www.unicef.org/media/files/J8.pdf
The speech and debate team wrapped up its season with some nice results! Haris Hosseini, rising senior, made it to the final round of original oratory at the National Speech & Debate Association championship and ended up taking a righteous third place. Jennifer Achten, Harker debate chair, noted Hosseini’s “nine-minute speech is a powerful critique of toxic masculinity.”
Rising junior Avi Gulati made the semifinals of original oratory with a speech about the pitfalls of mimicry and the value of being your own person, Achten noted. Gulati finished in seventh place, giving Harker two of the top 10 spots in the nation! These results put Harker in the top 10 overall in speech event sweepstakes. “Coach Scott Odekirk has done a wonderful job guiding their speeches and we are all very proud of the whole crew,” said Achten.
Each year, a number of Harker teachers apply for and are awarded grants to further their teaching skills thanks to the Raju and Bala Vegesna Foundation’s Teacher Excellence Program at Harker. The program began in 2015 and has sent a score of educators to seminars, study abroad programs and other educational opportunities. Grants are awarded to individuals and to groups, and are used for entry fees and travel expenses.
The gift from the Vegesnas, parents of Ramanand and Srivani, both rising juniors, enables Harker to support various new opportunities, explained Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement. “The mission of the teacher program is to enhance and further teachers’ abilities in a manner that has a direct and demonstrable impact on student learning,” he said.
This year’s awardees have chosen a wide variety of learning opportunities. Ann Smitherman, lower school English teacher, will be attending the Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Institute; lower school teachers Kate Shanahan, Heather Russell, Andi Bo and Mike Delfino, along with Mary Holaday, lower school dean of students, will all attend the 2018 National Forum on Character in Washington, D.C.; Rebecca Williams, middle school English teacher, will attend the Mariposa Foundation Volunteer Institute; Smriti Koodanjeri, upper school chemistry teacher, will attend the Academic Life Coaching Program; and upper school English teacher Charles Shuttleworth has constructed a special learning plan he will follow titled the “Jack Kerouac Experience” that will enrich his students’ understanding and appreciation of Beat literature and Kerouac’s writing in particular.
To read about all the great activities in which teachers have participated, just search for Vegesna Grant in Harker News.
Sriram Bhimaraju, who will enter grade 7 in the fall, was today named a finalist in the Discovery Education 3M 2018 Young Scientist Challenge! Every year, students in grades 5-8 submit videos for the competition, in which they detail a scientific solution they have devised to an existing problem. Bhimaraju developed a smartphone app that helps archers improve their aim with the aid of a Bluetooth sensor. In his video, Bhimaraju explains how he used Hooke’s Law and several formulas to calculate how various factors affect an arrow’s trajectory when shot from a bow, and how he utilized the smartphone’s gyroscope and accelerometer to help archers reach the optimal form. The final stage of the competition is set to take place Oct. 15-16 at 3M’s headquarters in Maplewood, Minn.
Gauss Surgical of Los Altos, founded by Siddarth Satish ’06, was just selected as a winner of the Apple Design Award at the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). The Apple Design Award reflects the best in design, innovation and technology on Apple’s platforms and, Satish noted, “we are extremely humbled and honored to be recognized for this accomplishment.”
The award was for Triton Sponge, an innovative iPad app used in medical operating rooms to quickly calculate and keep track of blood loss collected by surgical sponges and suction canisters. The app uses iOS technologies including Core Image and camera Depth Map to detect sponges, as well as Core ML and machine learning to perform complex blood loss calculations to improve patient care.
Satish noted, “We are well aware that we share this award with all of our collaborators that make the full functioning of our product possible. That starts with the members of our world-class technical team and extends to our amazing users – our hospital partners! We have thousands of nurses and physicians who entrust Gauss to help improve the essential care they give to their patients.”
The company has grown rapidly in the last 18 months and the app is now in use in 40 hospitals, but Satish has not lost sight of the real beneficiaries of the company’s technology. “We know that behind every sponge scanned there is a patient who needs the best that Gauss can offer, he said. “Usually, our patients never know that Triton is there supporting their clinical team, but it’s these patients for whom we dedicate our time and attention to make our product great.”
Satish also was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list this year in the health care category. Forbes noted, “Using the iPad’s built-in camera and computer vision algorithms, Siddarth Satish has developed an FDA-cleared app to monitor blood loss in the OR. It’s been used for thousands of patients to make childbirth safer. The company has raised $24.6 million.”
Eighth graders Rohan Thakur, Shahzeb Lakhani, Daniel Wu and Kailash Ranganathan had a successful run at last week’s Future Problem Solving Program International Conference, where the team took first place in the Presentation of Action Plan event. Teams in this event put together an impromptu four-minute presentation using provided guidelines and resources. Congratulations!
It was an amazing 2017-18 season for Harker athletics, and it recently got even better. Boys cross country, boys golf and baseball were named California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Academic Team Champions. The three teams had the highest collective GPAs in their respective sports, from throughout the entire state of California. Boys cross country was tops with a 3.94 GPA, boys golf with a 3.87 and baseball with a 3.87. Congratulations to our awesome student athletes. Go Eagles!
On June 4, grade 3 English teacher Elise Robichaud’s students held a small ceremony for their Third Grade Veterans Tree, which was planted in the spring as “a living tribute to all veterans – something permanent that the children could enjoy for years to come,” Robichaud said. The tree was a gift from World War II veteran Edward Smith, the great grandfather of third grader Kamala Smith. Earlier this year, the class sent cards to Smith in appreciation of his service in WWII. He responded with a letter of appreciation and a check for $50, which was used to plant the tree.
“My hope is that [the students’] love and gratitude for others will continue to blossom just as their tree continues to grow,” Robichaud said.