Last week, senior Ishaan Mantripragada was named the Central Coast Section Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The four-year soccer player was named WBAL All-League and WBAL Forward of the Year and was a valued member of the 2020 CCS championship team. He was also recognized for volunteering for Kicks Against Cancer, participating in the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship and receiving a 2020 President’s Gold Volunteer Service Award, all while maintaining strong academic performance. Mantripragada was one of several athletes honored at a special luncheon on Tuesday.
In other CCS news, six Harker athletics teams were named winners of 2021-22 Spring Season Scholastic Championship Team Awards last week. These awards recognize the top five varsity teams from each sport that have maintained the highest collective GPA in their respect sports during the spring athletic season. The boys baseball, boys volleyball, girls swimming, boys tennis, boys track and field and girls track and field teams were all selected to receive this award.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association named Jarrett Anderson ’19, who currently plays for Springfield College, their NCAA Division III Men’s National Player of the Year last week. A first-team NVA/AVCA All-American for three straight seasons, Anderson was a major factor in Springfield’s appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championship semifinals this year. This season he recorded 264 kills, 107 digs, 78 aces and 46 blocks.
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.
Earlier this month, the Harker Research Club hosted a panel with Vikas Bhetanabhotla ‘14, Cynthia Chen ‘20, Anastasiya Grebin ‘18 and Ruhi Sayana ‘19, who spoke about their post-high school careers and offered advice on how to find research opportunities.
The panelists each shared what they had done after graduating from Harker and how the research they conducted as Harker students helped shape their current work. At Harker, Sayana, who currently works in a lab at Stanford University studying neurodegenerative diseases, had a significant interest in pediatric oncology before becoming interested in genetics. “When I was applying to labs at Stanford, I was trying to look at something at the intersection of pediatric disease and genetics, and that’s how I ended up at the lab that I am now,” she said. “So [my work at Harker] definitely informed it.”
Bhetanabhotla, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 and now works at Palo Alto Networks, was heavily interested in machine learning. “My research was the intersection of cosmology with machine learning, so that research experience with machine learning really guided my interests through college,” he said. This carried through to his post-college career, as machine learning is now a part of his work at Palo Alto Networks
“In high school pretty much all of my research was wet lab, and I jumped around a lot,” said Grebin. “I did some plant science. I did some data set analysis for cancer mutations.” As a sophomore, she participated in a directed evolution project that “didn’t pan out,” but she now attends CalTech, “which is the place where directed evolution was essentially invented,” and her work now incorporates directed evolution to create viral constructs.
Most of Chen’s projects at Harker were in bioinformatics, which incorporated biology and computer science. Her work in that area earned her a spot as a finalist in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search. She is now attending Harvard University and works in a lab at MIT, doing research to learn how to better explain how artificial intelligence models work. “I think the projects [I worked on at Harker] gave me a good starting point for figuring out what I wanted to explore further in college,” she said.
The panelists also offered advice on how to find research opportunities in high school. “It’s all about casting a wide net,” Bhetanabhotla said. “I knew I was interested in the astronomy area a little bit but I was also interested in biology potentially so I just emailed a lot of different professors.”
Sayana agreed. “You’re in high school,” she said. “This is the time to explore as much as you can, and if you’re reaching out to labs there’s a very high chance that a lot of people won’t respond to you, so the wider out you go, the better chance you’re going to have at getting a response.”
Chen recommended the approach of emailing research labs that seemed potentially interesting or open to taking on high school students, “because I didn’t really know specifically what I wanted to do in terms of research in high school because you’re exposed to so many different subjects.”
Grebin did much of her research in high school at Harker after school. “I kind of advocate for that path for at least the first couple of years before you decide to move on to working in a lab and doing slightly more in-depth research,” she said. “Simply because you have so much more ability to pick what you want to do. I miss being able to pick the project that I want to work on as an undergraduate.”
Last weekend, upper school economics teacher Sam Lepler caught up with several Harker alumni during a trip to Philadelphia. While visiting family in Pennsylvania, Lepler put out a call to alumni in the area to see if they would like to meet. Within hours, he was sitting down to dinner with Megan Cardosi ’18, David Feng ’20, Ria Ghandi ’17, Rashmi Iyer ’20, Kelly Shen ’19, Kevin Xu ’18 and Shaya Zarkesh ’18. “I just stepped out for a bit and they all came to meet,” said Lepler. “It was super fun seeing them all.”
The group chatted about life at the University of Pennsylvania and how it has changed a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. “They told me that it’s awesome to be on campus from January – last semester was fully remote – and that even though the classes remain virtual, they are enjoying life in the dorms or off-campus housing, joining the ski club, and diving into life at Penn,” said Lepler. “It was truly awesome to see alums from all of the last four years, and I was genuinely honored that so many came out on such short notice.”
On Feb. 18, a special panel on fashion was held with Arjun Kilaru ‘19, Jill Milan founder Jill Fraser, and upper school English teachers Nicholas Manjoine and Pauline Paskali. Each shared what initially intrigued them about fashion and, in the cases of Kilaru and Fraser, how they got involved in the industry.
Kilaru, who currently studies at the University of Chicago, where he curated a collection of his own designs, called his foray into fashion a “really big leap. It was challenging but I always felt like I had enough resources,” he said, recognizing the support and feedback he received from people back home. “I made a lot of mistakes and I will never stop advocating for trial and error.”
He said fashion offered him an avenue for self-expression. “I make new statements with how I look and what I hear,” he said, adding that in college, “you’re always in an environment where you can share ideas with your peers.”
Kilaru also started a podcast, affiliated with the university’s fashion magazine, which explores various fashion topics. “This quarter we’ve been really active with posting an episode every Friday,” he said.
Fraser, who is vegan, was working at a startup in 2009 when she decided that the fashion industry needed more ethical brands. Jill Milan was founded in 2011 with the mission of creating an animal-friendly fashion brand. “I hired a very good young designer and we began working in Italy. Mostly it was sort of making a lot of friends.” The designs were well-liked and have been worn at red carpet events by high-profile celebrities including Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria.
Her advice to people hoping to break into the industry was to treat people respectfully. “Be very nice,” she said. “There’s always someone around you who could hurt you or help you a lot.” She also recommended seeking opportunities with Fashion Incubator San Francisco, a firm that offers mentorship to designers new to the industry.
Manjoine said he was initially hesitant to make clothes for himself, even though “for most of human history, people have made their own clothes. This is sort of a special moment in history where we rely on other people,” he said, recalling the time he spent in 4H learning how to knit and sew. He also showed off one of the sweaters he made for himself.
For people who find enjoying fashion difficult, Paskali said, “I think it’s really important to wear both what you think is really fun and what feels good on you, what makes you feel strong, cheerful, playful. Clothes should make you happy too.”
“The social convention is that we all wear clothes, so you might as well have fun with it,” Manjoine said. “We might as well make [fashion choices] that present our best selves. Don’t be afraid to mix colors or put on shapes that make you feel like you.”
Members of the classes of 2018 and 2019 have organized a fundraiser for Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project and Campaign Zero. Their statement, including details on how to donate and provide additional support, is as follows:
Hello Harker students, alumni, faculty and family,
In light of explicit police brutality and racial injustice, we are starting a fundraiser to support Black solidarity organizations. Donations will be split equally between Black Lives Matter, The Bail Project and Campaign Zero. Black Lives Matter drives the cultural movement for Black justice, The Bail Project combats mass incarceration and Campaign Zero researches policy solutions to end police brutality. To donate, Venmo @HarkerBLM or go directly through harkerblm.org.
Please give if you can and consider transforming your allyship into effective action. The goal is to help these organizations do important work long after the social media incentives fade.
Here are more educational resources to help you learn, protest and use your voice to help others do the same: https://bit.ly/harkerblm.
Earlier today, Krish Kapadia ’19 was named among the last round of 2019 National Merit scholarship winners, with a college-sponsored scholarship from Boston University. This win brings the total number of winners from Harker to 11. Congratulations to all who were recognized!
July 5, 2019:
Last month, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the first round of 2019 college-sponsored National Merit scholarships. Recent graduates Nishka Ayyar, Joshua Broweleit and Amelia Huchley were named as winners in this round, and each will receive between $500 and $2,000 for as many as four years at the undergraduate level from the universities they plan to attend. Another round of college-sponsored scholarships will be announced on July 15.
May 9, 2019:
Seniors Ayush Alag, Enya Lu, Rithvik Panchapakesan, Akshay Ravoor, Katherine Tian, Alex Yu and Katherine Zhang were among the second round of winners announced in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program yesterday. Each student won a $2,500 scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Program. The next two rounds of winners will be announced in June and July. Congratulations!
Sept. 25, 2018:
In mid-September, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation identified 68 Harker seniors as Commended Students in the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Competition. This designation places them among the 50,000 highest-scoring students (about 3 percent) from the 1.6 million who took the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Qualifying Test. Combined with the 43 seniors recently named semifinalists, this news brings the total number of seniors recognized by National Merit to 111, or 57 percent of the Class of 2019.
Harker’s 2019 National Merit Commended Students are:
Ryan Adolf, Hasan Awais, Sumantra Banerjee, Raymond Banke, Sayon Biswas, Donna Boucher, Alycia Cary, Nicole Chen, Ishani Cheshire, Shreya Dasari, Rithika Devarakonda, Nikhil Dharmaraj, Elizaveta Egorova, Aryana Far, Sukrit Ganesh, Carl Gross, Karan Gupta, Ria Gupta, Riya Gupta, Zachary Hoffman, Constance Horng, Jason Huang, Shafieen Ibrahim, Cameron Jones, Abhinav Joshi, Damini Kaushik, Arjun Kilaru, Prameela Kottapalli, Hannah Lak, Taylor Lam, Christopher Leafstrand, Angela Li, Katrina Liou, Erin Liu, Katrina Liu, Adrian Ma, Mathew Mammen, Ihita Mandal, David Melisso, Sara Min, Sonal Muthal, Suraj Pakala, Brian Park, Nishant Ravi, Alexander Rule, Viveka Saraiya, Karli Sharp, Kelly Shen, Andrea Simonian, Sian Smith, Alexander Teplov, Alyson Wang, Anna Wang, Catherine Wang, Cindy Wang, Clarissa Wang, Eric Wang, Gene Wang, Johnny Wang, Michael Wang, Richard Wang, Shania Wang, Henry Wong, Tiffany Wong, Zachary Wong, Kelsey Wu, Laura Wu and Tiffany Zhao.
The Class of 2019’s final hours as Harker students were memorable ones, as Thursday’s graduation ceremony brought together families, friends and faculty to celebrate a major milestone in the seniors’ lives.
Cheers went up from the crowd at the Mountain Winery as the seniors arrived to take their seats during the processional to the familiar swell of Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” performed by the Harker Chamber Orchestra.
Following a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by the 2019 Graduation Chorus and a welcome message from Upper Division Head Butch Keller, Kaushik Shivakumar ’19 took the podium to deliver the valedictorian speech to his fellow graduates. Shivakumar implored his classmates to use the intellectual curiosity they gained at Harker. “If there’s one thing we should take away from our high school years, it wouldn’t be what we’ve learned,” he said. “Instead, it would be the desire to learn more, which manifests itself as curiosity. In order to thrive within the world we find ourselves, we have to ask questions. Lots of them. And in particular, we must never ever hesitate to ask the question, ‘Why?'”
Shivakumar’s speech received enthusiastic applause and was followed by another performance from the 2019 Graduation Chorus, this time of “I Shall Pass This Way But Once,” written by conductor Susan Nace with lyrics by Etienne De Grellet.
The Hon. John B. Owens ’85 was this year’s keynote speaker. Owens’ said his memories of Harker have had a profound impact on him, as evidenced by the many teachers he remembered and thanked, including longtime math teacher Pat Walsh and the late beloved history teacher John Near. Owens noted that while many schools offer a good education, Harker set itself apart by also teaching him to be a good member of society. “What Harker taught me at the end of the day are things you don’t really learn in books,” he said. “[Harker] taught me how to be a good citizen.”
The 2019 Graduation Chorus then gave its final performance of the evening, singing “The Harker School Song,” before Head of School Brian Yager gave his farewell address.
Yager gave the audience a brief retelling of the journeys of Richard Henry Dana Jr., who in the 1800s explored the sparsely populated area that would later become known as California. Dana’s portrait of California was very different from the populous state known today, and with growth has come many problems waiting to be solved by the next generation. Like California, he said, Harker has also experienced massive changes in the 125 years since it was founded. “Its journey, like the journey of the state in which we live, has been a remarkable one,” he said. “It has also been one built on hope … the hope that our efforts to educate you will enable you to appreciate the world of yesterday, love the world of tomorrow, and that your fantasy will be to stand in a world 50, 60, 70 – maybe even 125 – years from now that is one you can say with pride and joy that you helped make happen.”
The graduates then received their diplomas one at a time as their loved ones cheered from the stands. Once all members of the class were seated, they symbolically moved their caps’ tassels from the right to the left and cheered loudly as they flung their caps into the air. The ceremony officially ended with the traditional releasing of doves, eliciting shouts of awe as the beautiful birds flew overhead.
On the eve of this year’s graduation exercises, juniors, seniors and senior parents gathered at the upper school quad for the annual baccalaureate ceremony, during which members of the Class of 2020 graciously accepted their responsibility as leaders in the coming 2019-20 school year. The audience was treated to performances by Cantilena and the The Harker String Orchestra before upper school math chair Anthony Silk, chosen by the Class of 2019 as this year’s faculty speaker, took the podium.
Silk shared some of the wisdom he learned from his father, whom he remembered as a voracious reader with a steel trap-like memory. From his father, Silk learned to become an enthusiastic learner, as well as the importance of not choosing a career based on income. He also told the seniors that not knowing what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives was no reason for panic, particularly in a rapidly changing world. “The path that brings you the most happiness may not have even been invented yet,” he said. “You may have to be the one to invent it.”
Upper Division Head Butch Keller introduced senior Haris Hosseini, this year’s student farewell speaker, whose humor-laced speech elicited many laughs from his peers. Hosseini recalled being named this year’s speaker three weeks prior. “So as I began writing it on the bus ride back from Laguna yesterday,” he quipped, “I was having a little bit of trouble. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to say.” He then related a story about how faced an immense fear looming over him as his senior year approached: how to secure 1.5 required PE credits in one year. The experience was valuable to him, as it gave him “a lot of time to reflect on my senior year here at Harker and what it meant to me,” which afforded a newfound appreciation for his time at the school.
Yesterday, parents of the Class of 2019 attended a pair of events to reflect on their years as Harker parents, share their most memorable moments and celebrate Harker’s impact on their children’s lives. At the annual Senior Moms Luncheon, mothers of this year’s graduates gathered at the upper school campus quad where they socialized and enjoyed delicious food. In the evening, the fathers of soon-to-be graduates enjoyed dinner at the Dads of Grads event at the auxiliary gym.
This tradition extends back to 2004, when it began as a potluck for senior mothers. Senior fathers were included starting in 2012, and in 2016 it was split into separate events. Parents of students in grades 9-11 plan and serve the meals, and the senior collages – made by the members of the graduating class to commemorate their time at Harker – are displayed so parents can reminisce.