Harker is pleased to announce that Dr. Teja Patil ’02 is the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient.
The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes and honors a prominent alumna or alumnus who exemplifies the very best of Harker, whose contributions have led to extraordinary advances that benefit the greater good, who gives back to his or her community and to Harker, and who inspires others by his or her professional leadership and commitment.
Patil embodies the Harker philosophy through her lifelong passion for learning, and commitment to civic responsibility in her work at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration (PAVA) and overseas. Her commitment to these tenets has created a highly individualized path in her quest, showing both compassion and leadership in her work. Harker honors her individuality, her leadership and her commitment to the human race to make the world a better place. She is truly a global citizen.
Patil was born in India, moved to the U.S. when she was 5 and began attending Harker in grade 5. Her passions at Harker were all things theater, French and biology.
In 2006, Patil earned a B.S. in biochemistry and cell biology (cum laude) from the University of California, San Diego, and also studied political science at the American University in Paris. Upon returning from France, she was not convinced that medicine was her calling. “I worried that being a physician was too narrow and would not satisfy my interest in the humanities and social sciences,” she said. Instead of medical school, she went to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to pursue a master’s in epidemiology and better understand the social determinants of health.
Patil was particularly interested in the interplay of genetics and environment in chronic disease. Her major works while at UM focused on the genetics of heart disease in the old order Amish as well as glaucoma in Peru. Her capstone project in Lima led to the discovery of a novel mutation in the myocilin gene, a previously unknown cause of hereditary glaucoma in indigenous populations.
Although she enjoyed public health research, the long hours of data analysis and paper writing did not feel quite right. “I knew I was making an impact but it felt very far removed. I boomeranged back to my original vision of becoming a physician. It’s ironic – I thought my ‘humanities’ side would not be adequately fed in the medical field; it turns out being a doctor, focusing on the individual patient, is what gave me the satisfaction I needed – that desire to feel more connected to the people around me.”
She received her M.D. with a concentration in global health from the University of California, San Francisco, in 2012. During that time, she spent a summer at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Mfangano, Kenya, and then went on to research the effects of malaria in pregnancy. She remained at UCSF for her internal medicine residency.
“UCSF is known as the birthplace of hospital medicine; I had so many inspirational, brilliant and kind mentors there and I learned that I did not have to be a subspecialist to be an excellent or expert physician. Working in Saipan, an island in the South Pacific with little access to subspecialty care, also cemented my decision to be a jack of all trades and remain in general internal medicine. However, I was aware that this can be a taxing occupation with high rates of burnout due to the pace and severity of illness. Therefore, I chose to combine my practice in hospital medicine with teaching, in order to build in a buffer to burnout. Having students makes it hard to lose your sense of wonder,” she said.
In 2015, Patil became an attending physician doing hospital medicine at the PAVA hospital and a clinical instructor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. “Medicine is an apprenticeship model,” she noted. “Whenever I work in the hospital, I never take care of patients alone, it is always in conjunction with medical students, interns and residents.”
Her particular areas of focus at PAVA have been improving resident experience and the educational value of nighttime clinical rotations. Her current interest is how to prevent physician burnout by building self-reflective practice and emotional resilience. “I love geriatrics and end-of-life care because it is the perfect intersection of complex decision-making and building therapeutic alliance. I am so grateful to work at the VA where both my brain and my heart feel that they are challenged and growing.”
The Patil family is truly a Harker family. Brother DJ Patil has two children at Harker, Veyd, grade 7, and Samaara, grade 4, and Teja’s parents Suhas and Jayashree have been deeply involved with Harker. The Patil Theater in the new Rothschild Performing Arts Center bears their name.
Harker’s new Rothschild Performing Arts Center (RPAC) and its 450-seat Patil Theater, along with the athletic center that opened last summer, were named winners in the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Structure Awards in the Education Project category.
The athletic center, which comprises 33,000 square feet and is a LEED Gold certified building, opened in August 2017, while the RPAC, boasting 53,000 square feet and on track for LEED Gold, opened in February 2018.
Harker is pleased to announce its 2018-19 endowment awardees. Each student will receive a grant to help him or her write a research paper on a humanities subject. The scholars, all seniors, work throughout the year to define, research and write on a topic of their choosing, and papers are presented at a reception in the spring.
The two endowments, the John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, established in 2009, and the Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, established in 2011, provide funding each year for eight or nine seniors to pursue topics of their choice in depth. Previous papers can be found on the Harker website.
The awardees are:
2019 John Near Scholars: Logan Bhamidipaty, mentored by Byron Stevens and Lauri Vaughan; Prameela Kottapalli, mentored by Mark Janda and Sue Smith; Leon Lu, mentored by Carol Green, Susan Nace and Meredith Cranston; Kelsey Wu, mentored by Kelly Horan and Sue Smith.
2019 Mitra Family Scholars: Nikhil Dharmaraj, mentored by Clifford Hull and Meredith Cranston; Rose Guan, mentored by Ruth Meyer and Meredith Cranston; Haris Hosseini, mentored by Andrea Milius, Josh Martinez and Sue Smith; Constance Horng, mentored by Roxana Pianko, Susan Nace and Lauri Vaughan; Katherine Tian, mentored by Damon Halback, Chris Spenner and Lauri Vaughan.
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.
The 10th annual Stellar Waitstaff Luncheon was, as usual, a great success! Even though the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic was unfortunately cancelled, Harker parents rallied with the silent auction offerings, and sixth grader Kyle Johnson’s parents won him the prize of being served lunch by Harker’s top administrators.
Johnson invited friends and classmates Kuga Pence, Kieran Figueroa, Jackson Lara, Sebastian Dionne and Dominic Ortiz to join his birthday celebration on Tuesday. With Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school, and Brian Yager, head of school, as waitstaff, the service was stellar. The pair dished out root beer floats, Greek salads, fruit cups, make-your-own tacos and hamburgers. The students rounded out the feast with make-your-own ice cream sundaes and chocolate-covered strawberries.
Harker celebrated its major donors at the Head of School’s Circle Celebration on March 17. The group, over 400 strong, met in the early evening for hors d’oeuvres and champagne in the Zhang Gymnasium in the athletic center, which opened this past August.
Guests then migrated to the Rothschild Performing Arts Center, which opened Feb. 2, where they enjoyed performances in the Patil Theater by Harker musicians, along with several dance groups and choirs, and received a quartet of heartfelt thank you speeches from senior athletes and performers. The evening ended in the Zhang Gymnasium with dinner, socializing and music by a jazz ensemble of Harker teachers and students.
Clifford Hull, upper school Latin and history teacher, spoke to fellow faculty members recently about his six-week summer experience at the American Academy in Rome, made possible by a Vegesna Teacher Excellence Endowment grant. Hull noted how the experience has informed his teaching, and how he will share his experiences so other Latin and history teachers and classes can benefit.
In 2015 Harker parents Raju and Bala Vegesna founded the Teacher Excellence Program to “enhance and further teachers’ abilities in a manner that has a direct and demonstrable impact on student learning.”
Hull attended the Classical Summer School program at the American Academy in Rome from June 14-28, participating in weekly classes, including From Prehistory to the Early Republic, ca. 1000-500 BCE in week one, through the centuries, to the week-six class, Late Antique & Early Christian Rome, 312-500 CE.
Classes included lectures, Latin reading groups and a number of field trips, including one to Pompeii to observe the relics from the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 A.D. Hull noted, among other statistics, that he walked 246 miles exploring ruins and Rome, and took more than 8,500 photographs.
“The program also helped me to gain further evidence to support the influence of Roman culture in our contemporary society,” Hull said. “This will further help me develop a greater appreciation and sense of relevance of the study of Latin, and that of the ancient Romans, in my students who live in the 21st century.”
Hull noted he created an extensive visual library of Latin inscriptions and other realia to help him develop a curriculum to disseminate the information on different knowledge and interest levels. He plans to present to seventh and eighth graders in Lisa Masoni’s Latin classes and has a standing offer to speak in any class covering related topics.
He added that he has been invited by the California Junior Classical League to offer two workshops for students and teachers at its annual State Conference held in Palo Alto in April 2018.
Harker faculty apply for the grant by submitting an application detailing the enrichment project they would like to complete. Teachers have studied in groups, by themselves, in the United States and abroad, and each has returned with a fresh perspective on his or her subject and lots of stories to tell! Harker provides several ways for returning grant recipients to share their knowledge with their colleagues, so it is not just the students who benefit from the learning that the teachers bring home.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2017 issue of Harker Magazine.
On Aug. 18, 2017, Harker history was made as the new athletic center opened its doors to the public. The 33,000-square-foot facility boasts a 12,000-square-foot gym floor that allows two games to be played side-by-side simultaneously. The court, named after former school president Howard Nichols, will host volleyball and basketball games, as well as meetings and other school events. The facility seats 900 spectators, which is the required minimum to host a Division 4 CCS event, and also is big enough to hold the entire upper school student body.
When asked what the most impressive aspect of the new building is, Mike Bassoni, facilities director, stated, “The ease and flexibility of gym usage. The bleachers can be retracted completely or be extended just enough to meet the needs of a smaller competition. The volleyball and basketball standards that drop from the ceiling make for quick transition from student meetings to competitive matches. Very well thought out.” Dan Molin, upper school athletic director, concurred, and added, “What I’m most excited about is the increased sense of community.”
Overlooking the gym floor is a 1,400-square-foot multipurpose room, which gives the cheer team a much-needed practice space, but also allows an area for other clubs and teams to work out. The sliding barn door mirror also allows for a unique view of the action below.
The athletic teams now have state-of-the-art locker rooms complete with name placards for varsity athletes, customized Harker benches and projectors for film review. It’s a far cry from the bathrooms and old storage shed the teams had been using. “My favorite part of the building is the team locker room,” said volleyball player Lauren Napier, grade 12. “Being able to take showers after practice is really nice and our varsity lockers have so much space for everything we need.”
The hidden jewel of the new athletic center might be the training room. In addition to brand new Harker-emblazoned equipment, the training room boasts a HydroWorx 300 underwater treadmill, normally used by NFL teams and orthopedic hospitals; it is a first at any high school in the country. Athletes can also use the Grimm Scientific cryotherm pool to help heal injuries.
The athletic center definitely has made a positive impact on those in and out of the Harker community. Parents, visiting teams and admission open house attendees have delighted in the beauty of our new building. “There has not been a single person who has walked into the athletic center thus far who hasn’t been completely amazed,” exclaimed Theresa “Smitty” Smith, varsity volleyball coach, and lower and middle school athletic director. “The ‘wow factor’ is huge!”
Molin noted, “We recently had an alumni basketball game, and some of the players haven’t been on campus since they graduated in 2006. They were absolutely blown away by our athletic transformation.”
The girls volleyball team broke in the new facility with a scrimmage against St. Francis High School early on Aug. 18, before the community grand opening. Since then, the center has become a welcome part of the Saratoga campus landscape. “Even though it is brand new, it was awesome to already fill the new facility with so many memories,” said Napier.
The grand opening of Harker’s new athletic center drew more than 600 people Friday evening, as members of the Harker community and local media arrived to get an early look at the feature-rich facility.
Many at the event were new visitors, getting a first-time look at the 33,000-square-foot facility’s spectacular gym floor. Measuring 12,000 square feet, the floor is designed to allow two games to be played simultaneously and is situated 14 feet below ground to facilitate temperature control and reduce the building’s profile. The building’s HydroWorx underwater treadmill – the same kind used by orthopedic hospitals and NFL teams – is the first at any U.S. high school. It is situated alongside a HydroWorx 300 therapy pool and Grimm Scientific cryotherm pool.
“It’s the best of everything. It’s gorgeous, the lockers, the training room facilities, top of the line,” said Joe Cea, father of Dominic Cea, grade 12, adding that he “can’t wait to watch the games.”
In addition to its many benefits for Harker athletes and athletic faculty, the building also provides an ideal venue for assemblies and contains a large screen for streaming events. The spectator experience was also crucial to its design, with bleachers situated to enable a great line of sight to the action on the gym floor, a spacious promenade and an easily accessible snack bar. In keeping with Harker’s energy-conscious approach to designing and constructing new facilities, 25 percent of the electricity to both the athletic center and the Rothschild Performing Arts Center (opening in 2018) will be provided by a 140-kilowatt solar array.
“You really see the effort and the vision behind the whole gym,” said Simar Mangat ’13, one of many alumni in attendance. “To see the whole community here, I think there’s a lot of spirit that’s both in the walls of the building and in the people that are here.”
Attendees showed up in the early evening and enjoyed pizza and hot dogs while waiting for the gym to open to visitors. When the time came to open the building at about 7 p.m., ribbons at the entrance were cut by Harker’s Board of Trustees, along with the leaders of the construction effort, and the captains of the boys and girls basketball and volleyball teams. Throngs of people then walked through the entrance and eventually took their seats at the bleachers. Board of Trustees chair and former head of school Diana Nichols then joined faculty, donors and administrators on the gym floor, offering them many thanks for their hard work that made construction of the building possible.
Theresa “Smitty” Smith, longtime volleyball coach and lower and middle school athletic director, later stood on the court, flanked by members of the Nichols family and the upper school girls volleyball team. After Smith delivered a heartfelt dedication to former president Howard Nichols, the members of the volleyball team revealed that the 12,000-square-foot court had been named in Howard’s honor. The Nichols’ grandchildren then had the honor of being the first to dribble basketballs across the length of the court.
Harker facility director Mike Bassoni also had the chance to speak, giving the many in attendance a brief breakdown of the gym’s features while the girls volleyball team set up on the court. The team then played a practice game to the crowd’s delight.
“It is truly amazing, and I’m so glad that we came out as alumni,” said Sumit Minocha ’13. “Everybody seems so happy, I can really just sense the Harker spirit skyrocketing.”
The first basketball hoops are in place in the new athletic center as final assembly has begun. “Our wood guy will be out next week to check flatness of the floor and do a moisture test on the concrete,” said Matt McKinley, senior project engineer for Devcon. From the ground up, a gym is emerging.
A vapor barrier will be installed between the concrete and the wood floor, but the concrete must first cure sufficiently so that the wood won’t be affected. Harker has opted to install a floor that will take a heavier load than normal so it can keep a power lift in the gym to service lights and the athletic equipment if necessary, McKinley noted.
First things first: final sealing of the building is underway. The “leave-out bay,” the huge opening in the south wall used to bring in big fixtures and take out heavy construction equipment, has already been framed over. “We are closing that out so we can get the whole exterior tuned up and done,” said McKinley. Devcon will leave one of the four lifts still in use for Harker and remove the remaining lifts using a temporary overhead crane, an interesting feat of engineering.
The entire gym has been drywalled, and drywall is going up in all the offices on the gym level, as well as the training and locker rooms on both levels. Tectum acoustic panels are stacked and awaiting installation on the gym walls (for more on how the athletic center interior components are tailored to function throughout, see Harker News). The large images of athletes that will adorn the south wall have been chosen and are in production.
Moving up the walls, the east viewing area, located off of the second floor workout room near the performing arts center, is framed in and ready to be finished. It will protrude a bit from the wall, making the whole gym visible. The north viewing area, nearest the administration building, is also ready to be completed. This platform will be reserved for those in wheelchairs or otherwise needing easy access, with the elevator nearby to allow access to the gym floor level. This viewing area will have some nice features, with wood ceiling panels. “It is basically an acoustical ceiling,” said McKinley. “It does have acoustical values for limiting sound transfer.”
The north viewing area also will feature “maple panels on the facades,” McKinley said, pointing to the vertical surfaces, “here and on the returns,” around the sides. The rough angle-iron and steel cable rails now keeping workers safe will be replaced by stainless steel rails with glass guard rails.
Continuing on up, the basketball hoops are just the first of the fixtures going on the ceiling. Nets and other equipment also will rise for storage near the ceiling after use, and there will be a dividing curtain to split the gym for multiple uses. That work is taking place the first week of May.
The following week, the electric curtains for the long banks of windows will be installed, said McKinley. All wiring for the athletic equipment, curtain and shades is in, ready to be hooked up. The control panels for all the equipment will be located near the coaches’ offices.
Finally, way up at the top, off to the sides along the walls, will be the ventilation ducts. The huge tube sections, 3 feet in diameter and 20 feet long, lay about the gym floor, having been painted earlier in the week. The straps that will hold the ducts in place already hang from the ceiling. It’s fun to think these great tubes will hang, unnoticed for the most part, along the walls for many years, as they quietly add to the ambiance created by the activity and shouts of athletes and the cheers of spectators in the new athletic center.