Ranjita Raghavan ’08 had a fascinating break from her studies: After three years of medical school, she took a year off to work as a medical producer for “The Dr. Oz Show” in season nine.
“I was able to bring my knowledge of medicine to the world of writing and producing,” Raghavan said. “It was a rewarding job, because I learned firsthand how to produce a daily talk show, made tougher when you embed medical content in it.
“My job entailed working with the segment producers to write show scripts that convey complex medical concepts to the audience in an accurate and compelling way. This included the development of demonstrations and animations, along with their talking points that helped visualize these concepts. We also orchestrated lab testing and experiments and would brief Dr. Oz and medical experts on all show days about show content. I am heading back to USC to finish off my medical degree in a few weeks, but was lucky enough to cap off the experience by witnessing our show’s Emmy win for Best Informative Talk Show.”
Raghavan noted the medical producers are on the show now and then, and she gets to be the “expert” on the last segment of the show, airing on May 21, so be sure to tune in to see her on the show!
At the MathCounts state competition on March 31 at Stanford University, the Harker middle school team of grade 8 students Alexander Hu, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao and seventh grader Sally Zhu won the state MathCounts championship in a field of 35 teams and 175 students. It was the fourth win for Harker at the state level, following wins in 2008, 2011 and 2014. Among individual competitors, Parthasarathy placed second overall after a tie-breaker, and Zhu placed fourth. Alexander Hu also turned in a great performance, placing 10th. Other standouts were Zhao, who finished in 25th, and Mark Hu, grade 8, placing 29th.
Another state-level competition was held concurrently for Southern California students, and the four highest-scoring students in the state qualified for the team that will represent California at the MathCounts National Competition this weekend in Washington, D.C. Parthasarathy placed among the top four statewide to qualify for the National Competition. Zhu missed qualifying by the narrowest of margins, earning just a single point less than the student who made the California team.
“Most of these students have been with the MathCounts program for two years and the title of California state champions is well-deserved for each one of them,” said middle school math chair Vandana Kadam. “This is an incredible achievement for the students and for the school.”
In April, eighth graders David Dai, Harsh Deep, Shounak Ghosh, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao received certificates of commendation from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, who represents California’s 18th Congressional District. Eshoo graciously issued the certificates to congratulate the students on reaching the finals of the National Science Bowl, which took place April 26-30 in Washington, D.C. The team reached the final double-elimination bracket after winning a tough round robin, where in one match it scored an unusually high 204.
“The scoring judge even said that they do not see scores so high in the national competition and offered to give us the score sheet as a souvenir,” said middle school mathematics chair Vandana Kadam, who accompanied the team to the event. Harker received $1,000 for the team’s success in the round robin portion of the event.
Miya Jones, high school representative from the Art Institute of San Francisco, came to Harker in late April as part of the CareerConnect program to educate students on various employment paths in the commercial art field. She presented student portfolios from the institute, along with works ranging from caricatures to advertisement videos.
Jones talked about potential job fields that require art skills, including culinary arts, graphic design, drawing, animation, 3-D design, photography and video game graphics. Students viewed examples of works by college students, and learned how to create a resume and display one’s works. Billy Fan, grade 9, said, “The speaker did a good job of explaining all of the features at the art institutes and gave me insight on different career paths.”
Jones also spoke to what the Art Institute provides in terms of advancing one’s career in the humanities. Maria Teplova, grade 9 noted, “(She) gave me an idea about potential college choices and whether the art institute would be good for me or not, and gave me an idea of different art major options.”
Jones stressed the importance of networking and going to college in an area that offers jobs in students’ field of interest. She ended the talk by answering students’ questions and offering them an opportunity to connect with the San Francisco Arts Institute.
The lacrosse team had a historic week as it defeated Aragon 10-6 and Sacred Heart Cathedral 9-4 to complete a 9-0 league season (14-2 overall) to earn the first lacrosse league championship in school history. The Eagles host the first round of the WBAL-Skyline Tournament this Tuesday at 5 p.m. against Mercy-Burlingame.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team fell to Homestead 0-3 last week on Senior Night, but bounced back to defeat Los Gatos 3-0 later in the week. After an impressive 21-5 season, the Eagles earned the No. 3 seed in the CCS D3 playoffs and will square off with Sacred Heart Cathedral Tuesday at 7 p.m. at home.
Track and Field
At the WBAL prelims over the weekend, the track and field team recorded 36 personal bests and four new school records. Kismet Singh, grade 10, set new school records in the 100-meter and 300-meter hurdles; Grace Koonmen, grade 12, broke her own school record in the long jump; and Tiffany Shou, grade 12, broke her own school record in the discuss by 5 feet. Eleven boys and nine girls advanced to the league championship meet this Friday at Palo Alto High.
Boys Tennis
After earning a first round bye in the CCS team brackets, the Harker tennis team lost to Mitty 1-6 in the second round of the playoffs. Congratulations on a fine season! David Wen, grade 12, begins his individual CCS journey on May 15. Good luck David!
Swim
The Harker swim team competed at, and had one of its best, WBAL league finals in recent memory. The boys team finished second in league, while the girls finished third. Among the highlights, Vivian Wang, grade 12, won the 50 free and the 100 backstroke, breaking both school records; Ethan Hu, grade 10, won the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly, in which he set the school record; Jason Kwok, grade 9, took the 100 breaststroke; the 400 free relay team of Angela Li, grade 11, Alyssa Huang, grade 10, Taylor Kohlmann, grade 12, and Wang, took third place; the boys medley relay team of Rhys Edwards, grade 9, Kwok, Alex Yu, grade 11, and Andrew Lu, grade 9, placed second; the 200 free relay team of Matthew Chung, grade 9, Edwards, Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 12, and Hu also took second; and the 400 free relay team of Chung, Yu, Bohbot-Dridi and Hu also took second. CCS begins this Friday at the Santa Clara International Swim Center.
Boys Golf
The boys golf team defeated Nueva 188-270 early last week to clinch its fifth consecutive league championship. Later in the week, at the WBAL Tournament, the boys took second with Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 12, and Jaimin Bhagat, grade 10, taking co-medalist with Menlo’s Max Ting as all three shot a 1-under-par 71. The Eagles head down to Laguna Seca Golf Ranch to compete at the CCS Regionals on Tuesday.
Baseball
The baseball team went 1-2 last week as it lost 3-6 to Mills, defeated Crystal Springs Uplands 6-1 and lost to Silver Creek 1-13. This week, the Eagles travel to Jefferson on Wednesday before hosting Westmoor for the final game of the season on Thursday for Senior Day.
Softball
The softball team dropped three games last week as it fell 1-11 to Notre Dame Belmont, 4-7 to Castilleja and 9-10 to Cupertino in eight innings. The girls finish up their season at Pinewood on Tuesday.
Today’s upper school spirit rally was a special one for the students, faculty and staff who either watched or participated in the many memorable moments that transpired at the Athletic Center. Onlookers were gleefully surprised at the flash mob formed by faculty and staff, who danced to loud cheers from the audience. Each class performed an energetic and thrilling dance routine, but it was the sophomores who stole the show with their “Star Wars”-themed spectacular, which featured a surprise appearance as Darth Vader by middle school history teacher Keith Hirota, whose son, Vance, is the grade 10 spirit coordinator.
A number of thrilling games finished off the competition for spirit points. Classes played a version of tic-tac-toe in which competitors had to race toward a makeshift game board made of hula-hoops and toss bags into the appropriate spaces. The “drag race” was a nail-biter that had students ride blankets as their classmates pulled them across the floor of the Zhang Gymnasium. The juniors ended up the eventual spirit winners, narrowly beating the seniors by 50 points. The sophomores and freshmen placed third and fourth, respectively.
Toward the end of the rally, upper school academic dean Evan Barth was recognized for his many contributions to the upper school community, which he has served since 2000. Barth is currently transitioning into his role as the middle school division head, which he will fully assume by the start of the 2018-19 school year.
Last month, Harker’s upper school robotics team traveled to Houston for the FIRST Championship, an international competition with representation from more than 60 countries. It was the team’s first appearance at the championships since 2005, and signs were good early on, as the team cleared the quarterfinals of its group “by a wide margin,” said upper school computer science chair Eric Nelson, who oversees the robotics program. The team’s success continued as it won the Roebling Division (for the first time in the team’s history) and proceeded to the elimination rounds, where the winners of each division faced off. Harker and its alliance finished fourth overall, ending a great run for the team!
Upper school students flocked to the campus quad yesterday to see their schoolmates perform at the second Quadchella, which featured a wide assortment of singers, dancers, instrumentalists and comedians. Many acts on the bill performed their own renditions of their favorite songs. Sophomores Katelyn Chen, Smriti Vaidyanathan and Max Lee’s cover of “Rise Up” by Andra Day and a solo performance of Vance Joy’s “Riptide” by Nash Melisso, grade 10, incited an enthusiastic audience sing-along.
Computer science teacher Anu Datar and Sejal Krishnan, grade 10, teamed up for a Bollywood-inspired dance routine, one of two dance performances on the bill, the other featuring sophomores Haley Arena, Sara Lynn Sullivan and Kaidi Dai, and seniors Gloria Guo and Grace Koonmen in a tribute to several of their favorite Korean pop songs. Datar wasn’t the only faculty member to perform at the show, as longtime performing arts production manager Brian Larsen arrived to perform a solo acoustic version of the Blues Traveler hit “Runaround.”
An instrumental jazz group featuring saxophonist Bobby Schick, grade 12, guitarist Josh Valluru, grade 10, drummer and percussionist Neil Ramaswamy, grade 11, and bassist Thomas Rainow and pianist William Rainow, both grade 10, closed out the show.
In mid-April, middle school French teacher Carol Parris and her French 2M students visited the Left Bank restaurant at Santana Row for a taste of French food and culture. “We had a leisurely meal in the les Amis room, a lovely private dining room,” Parris said. Students enjoyed appetizers of French bread and fries while waiting for their orders to arrive. “I believe that the most popular luncheon was the croque monsieur, a French grilled ham and cheese sandwich, served with a salad, but the chicken and vegetarian pasta received a thumbs up as well,” Parris said. Not surprisingly, the dessert of two profiteroles (pastry shells with a vanilla ice cream filling and chocolate sauce topping) proved to be the most popular menu item among students.
Multiple media outlets, April 30, 2018: Two Harker students hit the media jackpot when the story of their prom dress rental app was featured in the San Jose Mercury News. KPIX/CBS and KRON4 both came to the campus to interview the girls for the news that evening. The story was then picked up by other news outlets, including SiliconValley.com. The team also earned third place at the Baylor 2018 Youth Entrepreneur Awards.
FOX affiliate WFLX, April 29, 2018: Harker lower schoolers had a great outing at the 31st annual Tech Challenge, taking first in their category. The story was picked up by Florida FOX affiliate WFLX.
BusinessWire, April 27, 2018: The California Life Sciences Institute awarded an honorable mention to Harker student Arnav Joshi, grade 10, in the Amgen Bay Area BioGENEius Challenge.
Tech Blog Writer, April 23, 2018: Great post about a father/son team, Shaya Zarkesh, grade 11, and his dad, developing a new platform for mathematics.
Silicon Valley Business Journal, April 17, 2018: Earlier in the month, Harker readers were delighted to read that alumna Surbhi Sarna sold her company, nVison Medical, for $275 million. Forbes broke the story, which was quickly picked up by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. CBS/KPIX also did a great live story.
U.S. Chess Federation, April 13, 2018: Harker’s chess team continues to impress, and the U.S. Chess Federation posted an article noting the team’s winning efforts.
San Jose Mercury News, April 2, 2018: A story on ACT scores mentions that Harker had 12 perfect ACT scores this year.