The Siemens Foundation announced earlier today that grade 11 students Andrew Jin and Steven Wang have won a $40,000 team scholarship in this year’s Siemens Competition, making them the first Harker students to win a scholarship at the national finals since Harker students began entering the competition during the 2005-06 school year. The prize will be split evenly between the two students.
Another student from California, Eric Chen of San Diego, was this year’s individual grand prize winner of a $100,000 scholarship.
Congratulations to all!
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Andrew Jin and Steven Wang, both grade 11, won the team portion of the regional finals of this year’s Siemens Competition, held at the California Institute of Technology last weekend, netting them a shared scholarship of $6,000. They are now headed to the national finals, held Dec. 6-10 in Washington, D.C., where they will compete for as much as $100,000 in scholarships.
This marks Harker’s first appearance in the national finals since Harker students began entering the competition in 2005. Jin and Wang were thankful to their teachers – Anita Chetty, Gary Blickenstaff, Michael Pistacchi, Mala Raghavan and Chris Spenner – for their guidance and feedback on their project, which explored the use of computer modeling and biological experiments to more quickly find anti-cancer drug treatments.
“During the days before the competition, we made a ton of changes based on your feedback, and we were able to improve the presentation significantly,” Jin said in an email. “We couldn’t have made it this far without all your help!”
When the “Secrets of Silicon Valley: What Everyone Else Can Learn from the Innovation Capital of the World” hit the bookshelves earlier this year, The Harker School was honored to be included in a chapter about the competitive advantage of being raised in the area.
Written by locally based entrepreneur and author Deborah Perry Piscione, the now national bestseller (published on April 2 by Palgrave-Macmillan) offers an inside look at Silicon Valley’s history and uniquely innovative culture, exploring how the region may hold the key to revitalizing global prosperity.
Harker is profiled in the book, along with the some of the area’s leading companies, tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The school’s section appears in chapter 12, which is titled “The Bench,” and includes quotes from interviews with both Jennifer Gargano, Harker’s assistant head of school for academic affairs, and Anita Chetty, an upper school biology teacher and science department chair.
In her book, Perry Piscione noted that Harker was labeled as “The It School for the Next Einsteins” by the San Jose Mercury News,partly based on the number of science winners the school can claim. Indeed, Harker consistently produces semifinalists and finalists in the Siemens Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition.
Gargano and Chetty attributed the “special sauce” behind Harker’s success to its student body, who they called uniquely motivated to learn and help improve the world. Harker News Online recently caught up with Perry Piscione at Litquake, a local literary event featuring more than 40 popular and upcoming authors. Piscione had just returned from a European book tour and was one of several Litquake speakers asked to appear at special “In Conversation” salons for in-depth discussions during the event, held at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto. The other two noted authors included Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, and Jane Smiley.
During her talk, she explained that in Silicon Valley there is not “one way” of doing things. “Overseas and on the East Coast there is a hunger for knowledge about this place,” said Perry Piscione, who, even before writing her book, was known for her work as a media commentator and public speaker. Perry Piscione is also the co-founder and CEO of Desha Productions, Inc., a multimedia company that owns and operates Alley to the Valley (a networking site for influential career women) and BettyConfidential (an online women’s magazine). Additionally, she is co-founder of Chump Genius, an educational gaming company for kids, whose two main characters are modeled after her twin sons. Moreover, she is the co-author of the book “Unfinished Business: The 10 Most Important Issues Women Face Today.” Before moving to Silicon Valley, Perry Piscione called Washington, D.C. – where she served as a staffer in the U.S. Congress and the White House – home.
While there, she also worked as a media commentator for CNN, MSNBC and FOX News, and as a guest lecturer at American University. The East Coast transplant said she relocated to the Los Altos Hills for a job opportunity her husband, Dino, had as a retail executive.
She conceded that at first she felt somewhat lost upon her arrival here, yet soon settled in and discovered that “there’s something in the air” that brings people in Silicon Valley together. “It matters only if you are smart; it’s not about where you came from. It’s like Oz out here; there is an openness and collaborative feeling,” she explained. Still, she conceded, Silicon Valley is not a perfect place: women are still not found in as strong positions as men, and there is also a dearth of African-American and Hispanic individuals. Meanwhile, elderly people living in the high tech area often feel alienated, and that they have nothing to contribute.
“We have a long way to go,” she said, “but there are organizations working to help change the conversation.” Jane Ganahl, Litquake co-founder, said of choosing Perry Piscione to talk at the literary event: “I was looking for someone with a newish book who could speak to both the present and past of Silicon Valley, and Deborah seemed perfect for that. Her book was a big bestseller, and she is highly thought of in the nonfiction world.” Among the audience applauding Perry Piscione following her discussion were her husband and three children, twin boys Drake and Dominick, and daughter Dayne Alexandria.
The children are now all students at Harker, as after researching the school for her book Perry Piscione decided to enroll them at the lower school. The twins attend grade 3 and their sister is in kindergarten. “We’ve heard her talk a lot of times!” enthused Drake, adding that he is really enjoying being a student at Harker. According to Perry Piscione, transitioning her children to Harker was seamless and made easier by “a like-minded parent community, who are engaged in their children’s lives on many levels.” She added that it was spending time at Singularity University, a learning institution located inside the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, that helped fully persuade her to become a part of the Harker community.
“Singularity University brings together the world’s leading scientists, technologists and entrepreneurs, and explores the future of science and technology. As I learned more about where the future lies, particularly as we will see a great shift in a 21st century workforce, I thought about my children and how we were going to best prepare them,” she said.
Perry Piscione said her next book will focus on risk management, the key to innovation. According to her, while America as a country has become more risk adverse, Silicon Valley has not followed suit. “Out here no idea is crazy … Anything is possible … You can dream big and find someone to back you … Nobody does risk better than Silicon Valley!” she said.
The College Board recently announced that The Harker School earned the distinction this year of having the largest number of perfect scores of any school in the world. Harker had 10 students who earned perfect scores on their AP exams in spring 2013, but they earned a total of 11 perfect scores, as one student had perfect scores on two tests.
That is more than 10 percent of the total worldwide. “This is a tribute to the dedicated teachers and hardworking students at The Harker School,” said Deborah Davis, director of college readiness communications at The College Board. Samuel Lepler was the AP Economics teacher, last year, who guided these students through their studies.
The following students received perfect scores on the AP Microeconomics exam in 2013: Jennifer Dai, Kevin Duraiswamy Angela Ma, Vikram Naidu, Anisha Padwekar, Rahul Sridhar, Brandon Yang, all now seniors; Aaron Huang, Savi Joshi, now juniors; and Ashvin Swaminathan, who graduated in 2013.
Swaminathan received perfect scores on both the AP Macroeconomics and AP Microeconomics exams, the only student in the world to do so; it also makes him one of only four students in the world to earn a perfect score on two AP exams in 2013.
“We started our ‘Perfect Scorer’ campaign last fall,” said Davis, “with the students who earned perfect scores on AP exams in 2012 – with letters to each student (and) their high school principals.”
This year, a total of 109 students worldwide earned a perfect score on an AP exam in 2013. Here is the worldwide breakdown by subject: Calculus AB – 8; Calculus BC – 11; Chemistry –1; Computer Science A – 19; Microeconomics – 33; Macroeconomics – 12; Physics C: Mechanics – 15; Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism – 8; Psychology – 2; Statistics– 2; United States Government and Politics – 2.
Harker staff writer Zach Jones contributed to this story.
A beautiful fall day provided the perfect backdrop for the 2013 Harker Harvest Festival, the school’s 63rd annual Family & Alumni Picnic.
As in previous years, the event was held on the middle school campus, but faithful picnic-goers surely noticed the fresh and fun changes to this family-oriented day. The multipurpose room held extravagant silent auction packages, offering art, outings with teachers, gift baskets and more. The cafetorium was kept wide open for laser tag, and lower school children were spotted ducking behind blinds scattered through the room as they tried to catch each other with light beams.
The blacktop was, as always, the site of carnival game booths. Here families tried their luck at skill games, trying to knock down, hit, fill, pop or ring objects for prize tickets. The Pig Pong Toss was a wall of cute painted piggies with actual boxes for noses, which kids tried to fill with Ping-Pong balls. At another popular booth kids threw paint on Frisbees as they spun around, resulting in fun and swirly souvenirs.
Around the edges of the blacktop were many fun activities to tempt kids of all ages. A petting zoo with goats and ducks, pony rides, bounce slides, a dunk tank and more all gathered crowds; and, new this year, old-fashioned tricycle and sack races kept both kids and adults giggling. Katie Florio, kindergarten teacher, was enjoying the trike races: “It’s great to see all the kids out having fun with their families and getting to play with all their teachers.”
As Florio alluded to, the structure of the day was changed to allow teachers more time to hang out with their students, and intense games of foosball, Ping-Pong and basketball throws were played out in the gym. Lower school math teacher Diane Plauck laughed, “I started my day having a Ping-Pong match with one of [my students]. He beat me, but still it was fun.”
“It’s probably really great for the lower school and middle school kids to have a chance to play Ping-Pong or foosball with teachers and stuff like that, to really change up the dynamic of how they interact with one another,” said upper school science teacher Gary Blickenstaff.
Aside from the opportunity to bond with their teachers, students also enjoyed meeting up with their friends in a welcoming and fun environment. “I like that most of my friends come here and we just have fun. It’s basically a huge carnival,” said student volunteer Calvin Kocienda, grade 10, who worked the laser tag area with his friends in the robotics club.
Classmate Alyssa Crawford liked that the Harvest Festival “brings all the different grades together.”
Parent volunteers also had a big impact on the event’s success, running game booths, selling tickets and serving food to the hundreds of attendees. “I just think it’s a great opportunity to help the children and help the school,” said parent Tracy Baeckler (Alexandra, grade 5), who has volunteered since her daughter was a kindergartner.
Themed around a fictional Harker Thanksgiving Parade, the student show was a huge hit, highlighting dozens of kids from nine performing arts troupes. Mallika Vashist, grade 6, who performed with the choir group Dynamics, enjoyed that Harvest Festival offered her the chance to perform in front of a large audience. “Performing in front of a bunch of people is really fun for me,” she said.
Making cameos were Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, as Cookie Monster, Head of School Chris Nikoloff as a giant turkey, and Butch Keller, upper school head, as a big SpongeBob SquarePants “float.” Other administrators as well as the IT and facility departments also walked the stage in the “parade,” to a warm and appreciative round of applause from spectators.
Alumni gathered at their shady grove to reunite and chat, and they had new neighbors this year: the preschool was a welcome presence at this long Harker tradition, with teachers and the newest Eagles having fun in a pumpkin patch. Preschool teacher Tanya Burrell, enjoying her first family picnic, said that not only was it “exciting to see [the preschoolers] outside of the school setting, we’re seeing them explore some of the other booths. It’s nice that they’re part of the larger Harker community.”
Indeed, this event truly captured the community spirit that is so much a part of Harker.
Editor’s note: DECA used to be an acronym, but is now the organization’s name.
As the school year begins in earnest, the Harker DECA leadership team traveled to San Francisco’s Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing to learn from other chapters at this year’s Northern California DECA University.
DECA hones the skills of emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in finance, hospitality, management and marketing. The leadership team, including heads of public relations, treasury and membership, attended the Sept. 7 conference, which centered on teaching leadership teams critical skills needed to excel in the upcoming year.
Harker group advisor and mentor Juston Glass, director of business & entrepreneurial programs, said one important feature was for the group to see firsthand how businesses are using technologies to direct their teams. IBM, the ubiquitous technology company, and Uber, a four-year-old taxi service startup based in San Francisco, led the headlining discussions.
Shannon Hong, grade 10, public relations officer for DECA freshmen and sophomores, said she learned a great deal from her fellow DECA PR leaders, specifically “ways to make DECA the most prominent club in the school by utilizing social media properly.” She has used what she learned at the conference to plan a strong social media campaign for the club.
Gaurav Kumar, grade 12, director of PR for juniors and seniors, intends to use what he learned at the sessions to ensure the club has a top-notch relationship with the Harker community. “Making community outreach a more prominent part of our chapter’s endeavors,” is a key theme for him now, he said.
Club president Monica Thukral, grade 12, used the conference to work on her ability to manage the group as a whole. She learned “how other chapter presidents and vice presidents are better able to get everyone involved … to meet deadlines and collaborate more effectively,” she said. An overriding theme of the conference was goal setting and planning, something Thukral and her fellow leaders will be able to leverage for each of their teams.
After a long day of networking and learning, the leadership team bonded over shared excitement at a Giants game, unfortunately a 2-1 loss to the rival Arizona Diamondbacks. “When DECA activity gets crazy, these events will help keep the team together,” said Glass.
On Sept. 11, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced that 55 Harker seniors have been named semifinalists in the 2014 National Merit Scholarship Program. This is the second-highest number of semifinalists from Harker since the school began participating during the 2004-05 school year.
The students, listed in alphabetical order by last name, are:
Aditya Batra, Adarsh Battu, Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Kilian Burke, Shivani Chandrashekaran, Allen Chen, Rebecca Chen, Stephanie Chen, Meena Chetty, Zareen Choudhury, Albert Chu, Jennifer Dai, Kevin Duraiswamy, Shenel Ekici-Moling, Christopher Fu, Nikkan Ghosh, Apurva Gorti, Katie Gu, Divyahans Gupta, Helena Huang, Benjamin Huchley, Shazdeh Hussain, Saachi Jain, Gaurav Kumar, Monica Kumaran, Connie Li, Emily Lin, Mabel Luo, Angela Ma, Kimberly Ma, Maya Madhavan, Richard Min, Sreyas Misra, Varun Mohan, Nishaant Murali, Vikram Naidu, Anisha Padwekar, Daniel Pak, Zoe Papakipos, Alexander Pei, Preethi Periyakoil, Megan Prakash, Namita Ravi, Isaac Rothschild, Arthur Shau, Rahul Sridhar, Vikram Sundar, Brian Tuan, Leslie Tzeng, Nihal Uppugunduri, Sachin Vadodaria, Brandon Yang, Albert Zhao, Andrew Zhu and Kevin Zhu.
About 1.5 million students are entered into this contest every year by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Qualifying Test as grade 11 students. Approximately 16,000 of these students are named semifinalists, and are required to maintain an exemplary academic record, receive an endorsement from a school official, submit an essay and receive SAT scores consistent with their scores on the PSAT/NMSQT in order to become finalists.
New Class of 2013 alumni Kenny Zhang, Anuj Sharmaand Aneesh Chona were defending national champions in the public debate forum sponsored by the National Forensic League (NFL), which held its first tournament in 1931. Sharma and Chona made history as the first team to repeat a final round appearance in a debate event as a partnership. Although they lost in finals in a close decision, they had gone undefeated through 15 rounds of competition. Zhang won second place in the dramatic interpretation event, marking the highest honor a Harker student has won at a speech national championship. There were some 4,000 people watching the debate live and thousands more watched it stream online. Go Forensic Eagles!
This past summer 11 biology students, three journalism students and four chaperones made Harker history by embarking on an educational first for the school: a trip to Tanzania. Armed with a “world as their classroom” mentality, the group set off for the 10-day groundbreaking trip, called “One Health in Tanzania,” on July 24.
The Tanzanian adventure was the brainchild of upper school science department chair Anita Chetty, who had spent years planning and researching the trip. Head of School Chris Nikoloff joined Chetty in supervising the group of students.
Also serving as chaperones were Dr. Murali Daran and Dr. Alexandra Kamins. Daran (Lea, grade 12; Rohan, grade 10) is a cardiologist and has done extensive medical charitable work in places like the Dominican Republic. Besides serving as the group’s “doctor-on-call,” he inspired the students with a talk on his charitable work. Kamins is a recent graduate from the University of Cambridge whose doctoral work was in Ghana. She has also been on several study programs in Africa; her experiences provided essential support when collaborating on the curriculum with Chetty.
“I designed the trip as though it were a short, college-level type course,” said Chetty, explaining that the trip, while filled with great sights, was not primarily about sightseeing. “The focus was on the educational curriculum … and I was so impressed at how the students rose to that challenge.”
In fact, every aspect of the trip was infused with an opportunity for learning, from game-drives filled with biology lessons to visiting reserves and meeting with health professionals. One highlight was learning firsthand about the current AIDS epidemic in Tanzania. The situation became real to students as they met with health professionals, including a gynecologist and nurse at an AIDS clinic.
Another trip highlight was visiting with the Maasai tribe, when the students had the opportunity to personally donate toys to a local village school. It was an eye-opening experience for journalism student Jonathan Dai, grade 10.
“The tribe treated us like family and welcomed us into their homes and daily lives. We played games with their kids, herded goats and cattle, and even played a soccer game against the adult male tribe members,” he recalled.
While visiting with the Maasai, students set up an eye clinic, testing tribe members’ eyes and handing out prescription eye glasses they had brought over with them for that purpose.
“One of the most influential moments for me was visiting the Maasai. On a walk to and from the lake they tried to teach us some of their native language. For example, they taught us how to count and some basic phrases. Regardless of the fact that neither of us spoke the others’ languages we managed to communicate and bonded really quickly, which was an amazing experience,” recalled Alyssa Amick, grade 11.
Namrata Vakkalagadda, grade 12, said that a very personal memory for her was learning beading from a village tribe healer. “Even though we had an obvious language barrier, the connection between us was almost immediate. She welcomed my curiosity with open arms and continued to patiently guide my hands and hand me beads, until I created a bracelet which I was able to keep for myself. This memento of mine I think might be one that is dearest to me, because I created it with a member of the Maasai community and it was a connection that was personal between the two of us.”
The Tanzania trip was such a success that plans are already in the works for another one next summer. In addition to giving the gift of sight by providing eyeglasses, Chetty is also collecting money to buy and bring desperately needed textbooks to the Tanzanian public schools.
“There is nothing like learning that is directly experienced, whether educational or philanthropic,” said Chetty.
Ryan Moreland ’98 spent a great deal of time in his parent’s vineyard growing up in St. Helena. Among his favorite memories is sharing a glass of wine with family and friends seated around an old redwood plank table, surrounded by a canopy of trees. It was the good times he had in this spot, he said, that impacted his decision to become a winemaker.
While his family originally planted their vineyard as a hobby, Moreland turned it into a career and has made every single vintage from their vineyard since it first began producing fruit in 2007. He started Corvalle Winery the following year, when he was just 25 years old, after attending college at the University of California, San Diego, and obtaining a degree in environmental chemistry. Success followed soon after, and Corvalle today is a known competitor in the wine market.
“My parents had planted an acre of sauvignon blanc. I immediately was hooked, walking up and down the rows pruning the young vines as they stretched out onto the trellises,” recalled Moreland, who went on to work entry level positions at nearby wineries before deciding to focus solely on developing his own label.
The name Corvalle is derived from Latin, meaning “Soul of the Valley,” and is intended as a tribute to the community of Napa and its legacy of farming.
“I learned so many valuable skills that have helped me both as an entrepreneur and in my professional life. When I look back on my time at Harker, the first thing that comes to mind is my strong belief that, given adequate drive, an individual can accomplish any goal he or she dreams up. This belief is a product of the culture at Harker,” he said.
Moreland also believes in giving back. In addition to generously donating wine to Harker’s advancement events, he also is a supporter of the Danville D’Elegance foundation supporting Alzheimer’s research and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.
Moreland has recently relocated to attend the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania while simultaneously expanding his business to the East Coast market. Having just begun pre-term events at Wharton, Moreland is enjoying getting to know his fellow classmates.
“I feel genuinely lucky to be able to participate in such an amazing program surrounded by this caliber of staff and fellow students. As one could imagine, my background is a bit unique here,” said Moreland, adding that he is also enjoying sharing his love for wine in his new community and regularly returns to Napa to oversee winemaking activities at Corvalle.
Working on developing sales in both New York and Pennsylvania has proven a much different endeavor than in California due to the states’ specific legal framework regarding wine importation and distribution, but Moreland said he likes the challenge and opportunity to engage with so many eager and curious wine consumers outside of the Bay Area.
Moreland advices other alumni not to be afraid to follow their own interests. “If something sounds enjoyable and gets you excited then take the time to learn more about your passion!” he said.
Summertime fun kicked into high gear at Harker, this year, as enrollment for camps and other seasonal programming skyrocketed across all three campuses, resulting in a record-breaking number of participants.
Shortly after school let out, Harker opened its doors to the public, becoming a one-stop-summer-program-shop by extending its huge variety of offerings to K-12 students both locally and from around the globe.
According to Harker’s summer programs office, attendance at all summer happenings totaled some 2,740 participants. On the Harker summer menu were a camp for young kids, an institute for middle and high school-aged students, a program for foreigners to learn English, a large and varied sports camp, and a swim school that even adults could attend.
“We were thrilled and delighted at the incredible turnout for Harker summer this year!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of summer programs. She noted that Harker has been providing outstanding summer programming for more than half a century.
In addition to the larger number in overall enrollment, there were exciting new happenings in both the English Language Institute (ELI) and Summer Institute (SI) programs. At the lower school ELI saw a huge jump in enrollment specific to elementary school students. Meanwhile, at the upper school, SI successfully added specialty classes to its afternoon activity program.
“Harker summer had everything a camp consumer could want,” said Espinosa, adding that she was also pleased to see how many non-Harker students chose to spend their summer at the school.
Below is an overview of the record-breaking Harker Summer 2013:
Summer Camp+ Wows K-6 at the Lower School
It truly was “the summer of wow!” over at the lower school’s Summer Camp+ program, where 763 children in K-6 enjoyed a wide array of summertime activities designed to delight and amaze them.
According to Joe Chung, program director of Camp+, Harker’s youngest students were happily occupied with such on site highlights as a patriotic games bash, water carnival, sleepover for older campers, presentation for parents, and birthday celebration for camp mascot “Ray.” Campers also partook in numerous offsite field trips, from local outings for bowling and miniature golf to farther trips out to the Oakland Zoo and Coyote Point.
Students had the choice of enrolling in either CoreFocus or LOL (Learning Opportunities in Literature) for the academic portion of the day. Core Focus was a three- or four-week math and language-arts-focused program. LOL was a two-week integrated curriculum centered around a literary theme. Both programs left room for the optional added afternoon activity program.
Afternoon activities were grouped by ages and weeks, with kindergartners attending kindercamp. First and second graders were in the owls group, third and fourth graders were called condors, and fifth and sixth graders were referred to as eagles. The first session of camp included such weekly themes as wow, whamo, wipe out, and work out. The second session featured weeks called wisdom of wizards, waiting on winter and wonders of wildlife.
“This was my third time at Camp+, and I really recommend it!” enthused grade 3 student Alexis Nishimura. To her, the best part about camp was “hanging out with friends,” followed by “all the fun activities and outings.”
Summer Institute Offers Individualized Programs for Students, Grades 6-12
From backyard games held on the upper school field to volleyball boot camp and a cooking corner in the gym and kitchen, Summer Institute (SI) students this year enjoyed brand new specialty class period offerings.
Open to both Harker students and the general public in grades 6-12, the institute got underway mid-June and ran until early August. SI had two separate tracks, one designed for middle schoolers and another geared towards high school students. SI participants typically combined a morning academic program with afternoon activities, allowing them to earn credits and learn new skills with plenty of time leftover for summertime fun.
The unique specialty classes were made available via SI’s afternoon activity program where many middle school students (and some high school freshmen) signed up for courses which changed weekly and included off-campus field trips. Rotating course options included art, cooking, outdoor games, volleyball, jewelry making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts.
Proudly displaying a plate she had been working on in ceramics class, Anjali Ravella, a soon-to-be grade 6 student at the new Summit Denali charter school in Santa Clara, said it was her favorite special activity so far. A first-time participant to SI, she noted that she also enjoyed learning from podcasts in her earlier academic class on “super study skills.”
The institute’s academic portion offered rigorous for-credit courses such as algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth like creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course was available for students aged 15 and up.
Grade 9 students had the option to either participate in Activity Program (AP) or join the older high school students who had no organized afternoon activity program but enjoyed free drop-in access to the library, pool, art room, Ping-Pong table, basketball courts and study spaces. For all grades, an on-site prepared lunch was included.
According to Keith Hirota, summer middle school director, a total of 920 middle and upper school students were enrolled in this summer’s overall SI program, of which 550 participants were non-Harker students.
Ten-year-old Richard Hsieh is non-Harker student who met his new Harker pal Nakul Bajaj, age 11, in SI. Although the two took different morning academic tracks, they said they enjoyed hanging out together for many of the afternoon activities – and now hope to continue their newfound friendship during the regular school year.
English Language Institute Attracts Participants, Aged 6-16, From Across the Globe
Summer at Harker brought with it its own special international flavor, as students at both the lower and upper schools got to meet and interact with peers from all over the world.
Thanks to the school’s renowned English Language Institute (ELI) program, more than 100 international students – from elementary through high school – come to Harker to increase their chances of admission to primarily English speaking educational institutions.
According to Anthony Wood, ELI director, this year’s program saw a notable increase in enrollment at the beginner level, requiring a total of four classes, with at least 55 youngsters enrolled in the primary division. Older students (middle and high school aged) attended ELI on the Saratoga campus.
At the lower school program, 9-year-old ELI student Helen Kozak recalled that going on a recent field trip to the beach at Santa Cruz reminded her of being back home in Ukraine, where she lives near the sea. “I like the ocean very much,” she said in remarkably good English, adding “I swim all day long.” In addition to swimming, her favorite things about ELI were archery, circus arts and computer lab. “I like it all,” said Kozak, who has been to the United States several times but never before in the ELI program.
“My favorite thing about ELI was recess … which we are in right now!” added 11-year-old Aaron Guo of China. The first time ELI participant said that his second favorite activity was basketball. He also liked all the “fun outings” to places like the Golden Gate Bridge and tide pools at the ocean.
At the Saratoga campus older ELI students worked on special projects tailored to their needs, including SAT preparation. They were assisted by mentors (called buddies or conversation partners) who are Harker juniors, seniors or recent graduates. At the end of their time at Harker, ELI students, upon full completion of either a three- or seven-week course, received a certificate and recommendation from their teachers.
On field trip days ELI students of all ages could be seen sporting green Harker T-shirts as they headed out for cultural adventures to diverse Bay Area tourist attractions. Upon their return, their travel experiences were strategically incorporated into their learning curriculum.
Sports Camps Cater to All Skill Levels of Students, Aged 9-16
The middle and upper school campuses set the scene for Harker’s wide variety of on-site, first-rate sports camps, where 518 athletes learned a new sport or worked on improving skills in a sport they had already taken up. This year Harker offered softball, basketball, football, soccer, TRX (suspension body training), wrestling, volleyball and water polo camps.
Wrestling camp was new to this year’s summer sports program. Designed to motivate the novice wrestler and challenge the more advanced, the camp was open to students in grades 6-12. Serena Olmos, a senior at Lincoln High School, said she enjoyed the new camp offering because it helped students focus on their weakness as wrestlers, “and not just on what you’re good at.”
It was just last year that water polo was added to the sports camp choices. All of Harker’s summer sports camps are designed to be a positive, skill-focused environment where highly experienced coaches provide training in a well-structured, character driven atmosphere. Young athletes were encouraged to improve skills, develop teamwork and, most of all, have fun!
Swim School Offers Beginner to Advanced Lessons for Participants, Ages 3-Adult
The Harker Swim School provided both children and adults the opportunity to learn, refine and extend their swimming abilities in a noncompetitive, positive environment. Held at the upper school’s beautiful Singh Aquatic Center, it offered swim lessons for all skill levels, as well as a junior swim team for students in grades 2-8. The swim school is not part of Harker’s regular sports camp programming (for example, the water polo camp is not taught through the swim school).
For more information on Harker’s varied summer offerings visit summer.harker.org.