Preschoolers had a great Earth Day last week! Parent volunteers were key to making the day special: one parent volunteer talked about climate change and read “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss to the class. Other parent volunteers stood by to demonstrate various ecological investigations for our students to explore: solar, wind and water energy stations, a water filtration station and germination station. It was a great week for students, parents and teachers!
Freshmen David Dai and Rishab Parthasarathy were recently selected to be two of 20 high school students on the 2019 U.S. Physics Team. Each year, the American Association of Physics Teachers selects team members from the top scorers on the USA Physics Exam, who are then invited to a boot camp at the University of Maryland, College Park. Five of these students will then be chosen for the traveling team for the International Physics Olympiad in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The 2019 middle school Green Team – sixth graders Summer Adler, Natalie Liu, Genieve Malinen and Claire Zhao – has been hard at work this year advocating for the end of single-use plastics and an increase in recycling of all plastic waste. Because much of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean, the team is concerned with the effects on marine life, from sea birds filling their stomachs – and those of their babies – with indigestible plastic and dying of malnutrition, to fish who mistake tiny bits of colored microplastics as their natural food source, to sea turtles and whales becoming entangled in plastic waste. The team has worked hard to learn about and share with their friends the effects of human activity on the planet’s ecosystems.
In addition to creating inspirational posters and displaying them at the middle school campus, the team participated in the nationwide Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, collecting and recycling more than 300 pounds of plastic film during the five-month challenge. The Green Team managed to increase the middle school community’s recycling of a material difficult to process by waste haulers and recyclers, and effectively communicated the importance of recycling to their fellow students, families, faculty and staff – who all participated in the team’s plastic film collection.
With Earth Day in mind, the Green Team learned more about Earth’s marine environments and the important role that healthy coral plays in maintaining these ecosystems. With a healthy coral reef being the backbone of a thriving ocean, they further discovered the surprising impact that sunscreen has had on the planet’s oceans and that the toxic ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate have adversely affected coral reefs by poisoning fish, sea urchins, shrimp and baby corals. Widespread coral distress and reef bleaching has been a significant global consequence.
The team shared this information about sunscreen and its effects at the 2019 Earth Day celebration on April 19. The entire student body also participated in an extended advisory meeting that focused on protecting coral reefs globally. They took part in a letter writing campaign that petitioned the FDA to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate in sunscreens nationwide. They further learned that switching to reef-safe sunscreen has a huge impact on coral reef health and were given free reef-safe clear zinc sunscreen sticks at the Green Team’s Earth Day booth, generously donated by Babo Botanicals.
The inspirational story behind Babo Botanicals’ founder is evidenced by her passion for healthy marine ecosystems, beekeeping, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and teaching. A graduate of Harvard, Kate Solomon developed Babo Botanicals with children and families in mind. We are very grateful for the company’s sunscreen donation and the opportunity has provided to share the importance of using reef-safe sunscreens with students and families.
Green Team members have shown their passion for a healthy planet and truly gotten their hands dirty by learning about and maintaining a compost bin on campus, growing vegetables from seeds and replanting the beautiful Harker “H” garden by the school entrance. Maintaining both the flower garden and vegetable patch will be the team’s focus for the remainder of the school year, while continuing to campaign against single-use plastics.
Harker preschoolers had a more-than-just-Earth Day moment as they enjoyed the world of beanstalks today. STEM specialist Robyn Stone expounded on the beanstalk they have grown in the preschool farm, while Sara Mccloskey, preschool librarian, created a beanstalk to go with her storytelling. The students made giants and Jacks and other items to hang on the beanstalk. Too much fun!
Nine Harker students were presented with National Speech & Debate Association Academic All American awards this month. Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 12; Avi Gulati, grade 11 Anusha Kuppahally, grade 12; Annie Ma, grade 11; Sachin Shah, grade 11; Kelly Shen, grade 12; Nikki Solanki, grade 11; Clarissa Wang, grade 12; and Cindy Wang, grade 12 were honored for their “academic rigor, competitive speech and debate success and personal excellence.”
Fewer than 1,000 students are awarded out of more than 141,000 student members of the National Speech& Debate Association, which puts these ten students in the top one percent of all student members, nationwide.
To earn the award, students must have completed at least five semesters of high school, earned the degree of Superior Distinction in the organization’s Honor Society, achieved a certain level of GPA, and demonstrated outstanding character and leadership. Watch for the full story of this year’s speech and debate team in the summer issue of Harker Magazine. It’s been a great ride!
Top notch news from the National Debate Coaches Association National Championship! Held at Glenbrook South High School near Chicago, the tournament comprised 188 debate teams from 64 schools from across the nation, and Harker teams finished in the top five in both policy debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate.
In policy debate, Anusha Kuppahally, grade 12 and Maddie Huynh, grade 11, were quarterfinalists. This was Kuppahally’s last debate tournament, and it was the second year in a row that she finished in the top five at this championship. In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Sachin Shah and Quentin Clark, both grade 11, reached elimination rounds, finishing in the top 20 in the nation. Akshay Manglik, grade 10, was named the 10th overall speaker at the tournament and reached the semifinals, finishing in the top three in the nation, an impressive feat for a sophomore. Overall the trip was a great success and the coaches are very proud of the students and all of their hard work. Watch for the summer issue of Harker Magazine, which will include an article on this year’s speech and debate activity!
Agata Sorotokin ’15 has been named a 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow for her drive, creativity, intellectual spirit and commitment to the values at the heart of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans support outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing a graduate education in the United States. The organization selects 30 individuals a year, and each receives up to $90,000 toward his or her graduate education. This year’s fellows, 20 of whom are women, were selected from a pool of 1,767 applicants from across the country. Sorotokin will use her fellowship to pursue a master’s degree in music at SUNY Stony Brook. Read her bio, here.
Past fellows include former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy; California Surgeon General Nadine Burke Harris; Stanford artificial intelligence leader Fei-Fei Li; Lieutenant Governor of Washington Cyrus Habib; composer Paola Prestini; computational biologist Pardis Sabeti; award-winning writer Kao Kalia Yang; and more than 600 other New American leaders. The list also includes several other Harker alumni: Suchita Nety ’13 and Angela Ma ’14 in 2018,Ashvin Swaminathan ’13 in 2017 and Daniel Kim ’09 in 2014.
Mishi Vachev ’15 is featured in a nice article from Eckerd College, as she was one of 25 students worldwide chosen as a 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Conviron Scholar. Benefits include a one-year membership to the ASPB, a hands-on virtual learning program, virtual mentoring with a plant science professional, and the opportunity to present a poster at the next ASPB meeting and to submit an article to the ASPB blog for publication.
“She’s been doing excellent work here at Eckerd in our greenhouse,” said Jacob Browne, director of admission. Vachev credits Harker with helping her find her way.
The article notes, “A biotechnology class in high school combined her passions in a real way. When choosing a college, she already knew what she was looking for.” And she’s not done yet.
Vachev will receive a bachelor’s degree this spring and said, “I hope to pursue a Ph.D. in plant breeding and to specifically work on breeding crops for third world countries or populations in need of improved agriculture.”
Earlier this month, the lower school hosted the Kids Heart Challenge to raise money for the American Heart Association as well as increase awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Formerly known as Jump Rope for Heart, the event raised $13,067 as students jumped rope and hula-hooped to show their enthusiasm for the fun and healthy benefits of exercise. Schools across the country hold their own Kids Heart Challenge events every year, and Harker’s involvement stretches back to 2000, when it was brought to the lower school by P.E. teacher Jim McGovern. To date, Harker has raised more than $200,000 for the American Heart Association.
Usua Amanam MS ’05, an energy resources engineering Ph.D. candidate at Stanford, was named a 2019 Siebel Scholar in October 2018. Amanam attended Harker from pre-kindergarten thorough grade 8. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes nearly 100 exceptional students from the world’s leading graduate schools of business, computer science, energy science and bioengineering. Read more about Amanam’s incredible journey at Stanford Earth.