On Monday, Harker journalism students spoke via Zoom with Jon Elswick, the Associated Press photo editor based in Washington, D.C., whose team covered the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 of last year and received a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the murder of George Floyd and the national reaction it received.
Elswick briefly surveyed his career as a photojournalist, which began in Chicago, where he mainly covered sports teams such as the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls, and later moved to Washington. When the George Floyd protests erupted in the summer of 2020, Elswick worked in Washington, receiving and editing photos submitted to him by AP photojournalists from across the country, including the images that won his team the Pulitzer. “We had photographers from really all over the country,” he said. “Two of our photographers in Washington took photos that were part of those entries, and I happened to be editing both of them.”
On the day of the Jan. 6 riots, Elswick was one of three AP photo editors in Washington, D.C, “which doesn’t seem like very many, and it’s not very many,” he said. “Up until about a year and a half ago, there were only two of us here in Washington.” Elswick said his team didn’t predict there would be violence, but nevertheless made sure to have the right people in place. Two photographers specializing in protest and riot coverage – one of which was Julio Cortez, who recorded one of the George Floyd protests’ most famous images – were in Washington to cover the rally that led to the riot at the U.S. Capitol. “We didn’t know what was going to happen, but those photographers that specialize in this, we provide them vests, helmets, masks, just things to keep them safe,” said Elswick, who emphasized that photographers are not sent alone to events that may become violent. “They’re always paired up, because while they’re both shooting, they can both watch each other’s back.”
AP also had photographer Evan Vucci in the “tight pool” of media crew who followed former President Donald Trump to the rally, and “back stand” photographer Jacqueline Martin at the site of the rally. “This is pretty typical coverage for what AP does with any big campaign event,” Elswick explained. “The back stand photographer gets there and … they’re on the back stand further away from the stage.”
Elswick recalled that AP had a pair of photographers each at the site of the rally and at a place near where the rally took place. A last-minute decision was made to send another staff photographer with a freelancer, who were given the task of heading to the Capitol after Trump was heard saying a protest would be taking place there.
When he noticed that crowds outside the Capitol Building were becoming violent, Elswick began contacting the photographers placed in building, one of which was Andy Harnack. “I said, ‘Hey, get to a window where you can see something. What’s going on outside?’” he recalled. It was hard to keep up with what was going on, but I had the other photographer, Manny Ceneta, in the Statuary Hall.” Elswick instructed Ceneta to make his way to the north end of the building. “And almost immediately when he got over there, he started encountering protestors, smoke, smoke bombs, pepper spray,” Elswick said.
Elswick, who was working from home at the time, recalled telling his wife as the event unfolded, “You’re not going to believe the pictures I am just seeing.” While it was common for photographers and photo editors in Washington to see Secret Service members and response teams carrying weapons, “We don’t see these police officers drawing their weapons, and these were all pretty much plainclothes capitol police security, whether they would be security for the House leadership or just regular undercover or plainclothes officers. They all had their firearms out and pointed to the door.”
As soon as they were able, the photo editors confirmed the safety of the photographers, one of whom, Scott Applewhite, had been locked in the Senate chamber. Despite the chaos of that day, the team never lost sight of their objective. “We just knew what we needed to do was to get the pictures out, and let the pictures tell the story and get them linked to the stories that the reporters are doing,” Elswick said. “Finally, the photographers got back into the capitol and the business of certifying the election continued and finished at three in the morning.”
Michelle Wei, grade 10, and Helen Gu, grade 8, recently won Silver Awards for their submissions to the 2021 Ocean Awareness Contest. The competition was held by Bow Seat Ocean Programs, an organization that promotes ocean conservation efforts through a variety of initiatives that engage middle and high school students.
The Ocean Awareness Contest is held annually and invites students to submit creations across a wide range of media, including art, creative writing, music and film. Wei submitted a short story called “Water Monster” about a mother and son living in an area with very limited access to clean water, and Gu’s submission was an elegiac poem titled “see her fall,” about the ongoing harm being done to the world’s oceans. They received support from middle school English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine.
The contest received had nearly 6,000 participants, and winners in every category have been featured in a special ocean advocacy gallery.
Harker speech and debate has had a wonderful first semester. Across 16 tournaments, students in all of the events have earned prestigious awards. Speech and debate is unique in that there are not just regional competitions, nor are schools put into divisions by size. Nearly all tournaments are open for national entries, and Harker attends the toughest events in the country. The coaches have been very proud of the resilience of and hard work put in by the students. The tournaments were still online, but the students have usually been able compete on campus.
Harker had a large number of students reach the final rounds of various tournaments with several championships. In Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate, seniors Anshul Reddy and Deven Shah, as well as junior Rahul Mulpuri, have reached varsity final rounds, with Reddy and Shah being declared tournament champions. Their wins were especially impressive because each won an elite round robin for the top LD debaters in the nation. Additionally, Valerie Li, grade 9, won a novice tournament, and juniors Muzzi Khan, Annmaria Antony and Deeya Viradia, sophomores Ansh Sheth, Kabir Buch and Gordy Sun, and ninth graders Aarush Vailaya and Stefan Maxim have reached varsity elimination rounds. In junior varsity, Sahngwie Yim, grade 9, made it to elimination rounds. They debated on topics ranging from pharmaceutical patents to labor relations.
In the speech events, Harker had several outstanding performances. Sophomores Alex Fu and Ella Lan were in final rounds for informative speaking. In original oratory, juniors Dyllan Han and Zubin Khera reached the finals, as did sophomores Fiona Yan and Spencer Mak. Junior Michelle Jin impressed audiences in the finals with her extemporaneous speaking and impromptu skills. Juniors Jessica Zhou and Claire Jin, as well as freshman Kasish Priyam appeared in an impromptu final round. Senior William Chien also qualified for elimination rounds in extemporaneous speaking, as did juniors Sara Wan and Austina Xu in original oratory.
In public forum debate, seniors Vedant Kenkare and Caden Lin, junior Carol Wininger and sophomore Max Xing were in varsity elimination rounds. In junior varsity, sophomores Mariana Rai, Diya Mukherjee and Daphne Avkarogullari, and freshman Valerie Li also won awards. They debated about NATO protection for the Baltics and cryptocurrency regulation.
Finally, in Congressional debate, junior Arissa Huda represented the team in elimination rounds. She had to prepare against a wide variety of current events proposals. This semester, debate is looking forward to traveling to competitions in Berkeley, Nashville and Lexington, Ky., in addition to competing in more online events.
On Dec. 4, a group of Harker students led by Harker sophomore Nathan Liu partnered with students from other Bay Area high schools to hold the second “Tribute to Fallen Heroes” concert, a special benefit concert supporting the California Fire Foundation.
Held at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, the event raised $18,000 for the foundation, which provides aid to the families of California firefighters who died while battling the many blazes that have occurred across the state. Last year’s event raised $13,000.
Performers at the event included violinist Ray Iwazumi of the Juilliard School, pianist and University of Utah professor Koji Attwood, pianist Nina Yen and cellist Jennifer Chou. Harker students were on the bill as well, including cellist Lucas Chen, grade 12, and guitarist Vardaan Ghai, singer Shayla He, rhythmic gymnast Anna Lee and dancer Ella Yee, all grade 10 .
As part of the organizers’ sustainability goals, the concert went paperless, holding ticket sales via Eventbrite and enabling ticketholders to receive updates on the concert by scanning a QR code.
Last month, Amelia Huchley ’19 was featured in a story by The Student Life, the newspaper of the Claremont Colleges, which covered her recent win in the Claremont Concert Orchestra’s Concerto Competition. She is the first vocalist in more than a decade to win.
Huchley, who graduated from the Harker Conservatory with a musical theater certificate and now attends Scripps College, told The Student Life about pursuing a career in music and the difficulty of making a living as a professional singer.
“At a lot of turns, I do get a lot of people saying to me, ‘You know how hard it is to make this work, right?’ And I do,” she said. “But on the other hand, I feel like I’m learning, and I’m making progress with my voice, and obviously some people do become professional opera singers. It’s not like it’s never going to happen. … I know it’s going to be really difficult. I do feel like I owe it to myself to try it and see if I can do it.”
She also discussed her love of singing and why she finds performing live so fulfilling.
“Even if you get up and do the exact same performance the next day, even if the performance that you did was recorded, it’s never going to happen exactly that way again, and that is really freeing.”
See the full story for more of Huchley’s thoughts on music and performance.
Harker upper school singers were recently named to three honor choirs. Seniors Teresa Cai and Anya Warrier, juniors Alan Jiang and Aniket Singh, and sophomores Anya Chauhan and Miki Mitarai will represent Harker in the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) National Honor Choir. They will perform in a virtual concert to be held Jan. 22-24.
Mitarai, Jiang and junior Aria Jain also will be members of the American Choral Directors Association Western division’s honor choir, which is slated to perform in Long Beach in March, at the ACDA Western region’s regional conference.
The California All-State Choir, selected by the California Choral Directors Association, will feature Cai, Jain, Jiang, Mitarai and Singh, as well as juniors Ava Arasan, Kris Estrada and Anika Pandey, sophomores Shayla He and Katelyn Hsu, and Varun Bhupathi, grade 9. According upper school music teacher Susan Nace, Harker has a higher percentage of students participating in the All-State Choir than any high school, and the highest rate of acceptance among independent schools.
“The directors of all the honor choirs are highly respected composers and conductors from throughout the United States,” Nace said. “Although we require our Certificate Candidates to audition every year, any of our choral musicians may audition. The audition is rigorous and includes sight-reading, vocal technique evaluations, and vocal quality evaluations.”
Nace added that Harker’s rate of acceptance this year was the school’s highest yet.
On Dec. 2, Shikha Mittal ’05 spoke to middle school students via Zoom about her path to becoming a lawyer. Starting out as a finance major at Santa Clara University, she decided to lean into her love of debate and negotiation and go into law. “I realized pretty early on in my college years that law was an area that might be a good career fit for me.” She ended up in the tech industry as an in-house lawyer at a Bay Area startup, and currently works at Databricks, an enterprise software company.
While discussing the rigors of law school, she recalled long study sessions for exams and preparing for the bar exam, which she described as “one of the hardest exams you’ll ever take in your life.” However, she advised that those factors shouldn’t dissuade students from seeking a career in law. “If you feel like you are interested in law and you want that to be your career, I wouldn’t say law school should be a detractor,” she said.
Mittal also talked about the differences between being an outside counsel lawyer, who works at a firm that is hired by companies, and an in-house lawyer, who is an employee of the company. She said that she has enjoyed the work-life balance as an in-house lawyer, as well as other perks of being an employee where she works.
In late October, seventh grader Ivanya Sadana traveled to Houston to compete at the Houston Squash Club Junior Gold tournament, where she won bronze in her division. The tournament featured 176 competitors from across the country. Sadana is currently ranked fourth in California in the girls under 13 division. Great work!
Last month, Harker’s DECA chapter hosted its first fall conference, during which 50 grade 9 DECA members from the Silicon Valley district prepared for the upcoming DECA competitive season.
Attendees enjoyed a light breakfast before activities began in Nichols Hall. Following some introductory presentations and icebreaker activities, the students took part in a testing exercise modeled after tests given at DECA conferences. “I was excited that a lot of our first-year members got to experience this before their first competitive conference,” said junior Anika Muddu, Harker DECA’s vice president of competitions.
After lunch, students learned about DECA roleplay tournaments and developed responses to a prompt about ethics in the hotel industry. After presenting their responses to volunteer judges, the students received feedback on how to improve. “The roleplay tournament was a great first introduction to what the roleplay experience would be in a real conference. It’s definitely a different feeling when you know that you want to do well and place,” said Gabe Li, grade 9.
Later, the students had the opportunity to take part in workshops on a variety of topics. Stanford lecturer Matt Abrahams hosted a workshop on persuasive speaking, while entrepreneur and angel investor Suneela Muddu presented on how to pitch a business. Other workshops included “Investing 101” by Cisco engineer Yuri Mitnick and “Social Media Marketing,” delivered by Chegg social media manager Daisy Zhang.
During the closing ceremony, awards for the day’s competitions were doled out. Awardees were as follows:
Testing:
First Place: Cindy Yu
Second Place: Emily Mitnick, Gia Emelie, Gary Jin
Third Place: Shiven Balaji, Valerie Li, Ruhan Sahasi
Roleplay Tournament:
First Place: Sam Parupudi
Second Place: Tiana Salvi
Third Place: Saahira Dayal
Top 10 (Listed Alphabetically): Maya Affaki, Saahira Dayal, Ariana Gauba, Gabe Li, Valerie Li, Lauren Lin, Sam Parupudi, Tiana Salvi, Shaila Tandon, Caleb Tang
More than 200 members of the Harker community headed to the upper school’s Rothschild Performing Arts Center on Nov. 20 for this year’s TEDxHarker School, organized each year by students in Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program.
The impressive lineup of speakers assembled for this year’s event included chef, author and restaurateur Alice Waters, who appeared via Zoom to speak on school-supported agriculture and its effects on climate change and social inequality. She also advocated for the procurement of school foods directly from farmers, and touched on her work with the Edible Schoolyard Project and the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education, which has partnered with the University of California.
Author Dan Roam spoke on the power of visual storytelling, as detailed in his book, “The Back of the Napkin: How Visual Storytelling Works.” Roam, who has worked with leadership at companies such as Google, Microsoft and Boeing, presented on how simple illustrations can help leaders make sense of complex situations.
Hetal Vasavada, a contestant on the sixth season of the competitive cooking show MasterChef, talked about how she pursued a career outside of the STEM fields pursued by many Indian-Americans. Originally on the path to a career in the sciences, Vasavada discussed her pivot to the food industry and how she convinced her family (as well as herself) that it was the right choice.
This year’s TEDxHarker School student speaker was senior Aaron Tran, whose passions include bioinformatics and scientific ethics and philosophy. Spurred by the worrying amount of misinformation that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tran talked about solutions to the concerning lack of information literacy and the growing mistrust people have of one another.
In addition to the speakers, attendees also enjoyed perusing the exhibitor area, where they played with robotic toys made by Petoi, tried out slime samples from Dots N Stripes and got an up-close look at the Vinci electric bike.
At lunch, students had the chance to sit down with local business mentors to ask questions and receive advice.
Videos of this year’s TEDxHarker speakers are expected to be uploaded to the TEDx YouTube channel in the coming months.