Rising ninth grader and chess enthusiast Mihir Kotbagi tied for first place and placed second after tie breaks at the 122nd U.S. Open’s Scholastic Championship section for high school students, held in Palm Springs from July 30-Aug. 7. Kotbagi and the other top scorer both had 3.5 out of 4 points after their respective games before ELO rules for tie breaks were applied. Congratulations!
Tags: Chess, eweekly, kudosIn late July, eight Harker students joined the California delegation to the 2022 National Junior Classical League Convention, the first in-person JCL event since 2019. Several more attended remotely as long-distance delegates. The California delegates endured quite an odyssey — overcoming plane delays and cancellations, daily thunderstorms and an alligator swamp in the middle of the University of Louisiana, Lafayette campus — to enjoy a week of competitions, workshops and opportunities to bond with Latin students from the state and all over the country.
“A highlight for many was joining forces with [New Hampshire] and [New Jersey] for a spirit battle against the Texas behemoth,” said Lisa Masoni. “In the opinion of the national second VP, the consortium of small-state delegations was definitely more spirited! “
One of the most important events at the convention is the election of national officers to lead the organization for the 2022-23 school year. Senior Rupert Chen was elected first vice president. Harker’s last national officer, Maya Nandakumar ’15, held the same office in her senior year. Chen, fresh off a stint digging at the archaeological site of Vindolanda on Hadrian’s Wall, will be responsible for promoting membership and publicity during his term of office.
Below are the top 10 awards earned by Harker delegates:
Trisha Iyer, grade 11
Academics
Reading Comprehension: Prose IV: 3rd (6 pts.)
Latin Literature IV: 8th
Latin Vocabulary 2+ IV: 8th
Mythology IV: 10th
Creative Arts
Latin Oratory Level IV+: 2nd
Sight Latin – Prose Purple: 2nd
Modern Myth: 7th
Overall Creative Arts: 5th
Chelsea Xie, grade 8
Academics
Reading Comprehension 1/2 and 1: 8th
Creative Arts
DI Levels 1/2 & I Passage 1: 5th
Graphic Arts
Impromptu Art 6-9: 6th
Lucas Yuan, grade 7 (a long-distance delegate)
Academics
LDD Mythology ½: 1st
Creative Arts
Essay – 6th-9th Grade Prompt 3: 5th
Demi Zheng, grade 8
Academics
Reading Comprehension 1/2 and 1: 10th
Tags: eweekly, express, Junior Classical League, Languages, LatinAfter winning the 2022 National Economics Challenge in June, Class of 2022 members Zach Clark, Harsh Deep, Shahzeb Lakhani and Rohan Thakur collected another major win at the International Economics Olympiad, held remotely last week. Their win in June earned them the opportunity to represent the United States at IEO. Deep and Thakur each won gold medals, ranking them top 20 in the world, while Clark and Lakhani each earned a silver, landing them both in the top 50. Another gold medal was won by Sam Lieman, a member of their team from Mt. Hebron High School. The team edged out three-time IEO champions Brazil by less than half a point.
Tags: Class of 2022, economics, eweekly, International Economics Olympiad, National Economics ChallengeThe team of Alex Hu ’22 and rising seniors Rohan Bhowmik, Anthony Tong and team captain Sabrina Zhu performed admirably at the finals of the 2022 Tests of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) competition, which took place in late June in Dallas. In this annual competition, students form teams to solve real-world engineering problems. Their roller coaster project won them third place in Presentation, fourth place in Design/Build and fifth place on the exam portion. Just 25 of the 625 teams who participated this year were invited to compete in the national event.
Tags: alumni-express, eweekly, express, TEAMS competition, topscienceIn October, three outstanding alumni — Alex Abarca ’09, Amanda (Polzin) Sullivan ’06 and Daniza Rodriguez ’13 — will be inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame, along with the entire roster of the 2007-08 girls varsity volleyball team, one of Harker Athletics’ greatest success stories. All of these athletes will be honored for their stellar athletic performance as well as their dedication to becoming well-rounded student athletes. The induction ceremony will be part of the annual Harker Day celebration, which will also include the Homecoming football game and the Family & Alumni Picnic.
Tags: Athletic Hall of Fame, athletics, eweekly, express, Harker DayThe National Merit Scholarship Corporation issued its final list of 2022 National Merit winners today, identifying 2022 graduates Kate Olsen, Vienna Parnell and Bodhisatta Saha as winners of college-sponsored scholarships. Congratulations to all 13 of Harker’s 2022 National Merit scholarship winners!
June 2, 2022:
Catherine He ’22 was named a winner of a National Merit Scholarship yesterday in the third round of winners in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program, becoming the 10th winner from the Class of 2022. The scholarships awarded in this round were financed by US colleges and universities and awarded by officials from the sponsor colleges to finalists who plan to attend the institution providing the scholarship. He’s scholarship was provided by the University of Southern California. The next and final round of National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced July 11.
May 11, 2022:
Today, seniors Alice Feng, Arnav Gupta, Victoria Han, Rishab Parthasarathy, Sasvath Ramachandran and William Zhao were named winners of $2,500 scholarships in the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program. These awards were granted to finalists who, according to NMSC, possessed “the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”
The next winners announcement is scheduled for June.
Apr. 27, 2022
Seniors Cady Chen, Irene Yuan and Emily Zhou were among the first round of 2022 National Merit Scholars announced today. All 1,000 winners in this round, selected from those who reached the finalist level in this year’s competition, received corporate-sponsored scholarships. All three of the Harker winners were awarded scholarships sponsored by Nvidia Corporation.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will announce more winners over the next few months until the final list of winners is revealed in July. This story will be updated as additional Harker winners are announced.
Tags: alumni-express, Class of 2022, eweekly, express, National MeritEarlier today, the Harker team of recent graduates Zach Clark, Harsh Deep, Shahzeb Lakhani and Rohan Thakur won the 2022 National Economics Challenge, held in New York City, becoming the first team in school history to do so. They later defeated China in an online match to become International Economics Champions. The final round of the national competition consisted of a two-hour quiz bowl between the top four teams. The full broadcast of the Quiz Bowl, hosted by CNBC, is available on YouTube.
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May 25, 2022
Harker’s National Economics Challenge team has reached the finals! Zach Clark, Harsh Deep, Shahzeb Lakhani and Rohan Thakur will trek to New York City in June for the final stage of this year’s competition as one of the final four teams. This same team took first place in April at the California Economics Challenge. Each stage of the competition tests students’ understanding of micro- and macroeconomics as well as knowledge of current world economies. The competition started at the state level, which was followed by a national 45-question quiz. Teams that moved on to the semifinals then created a case study to determine the final four teams.
Tags: economics, eweekly, National Economics ChallengeThe upper school and middle school speech and debate teams have had great second-semester results at major end-of-year championships.
At the elite Upper School Tournament of Champions, Harker experienced success in a number of events. Students have to place highly at regular season tournaments to even qualify to compete. Recent graduate Anshul Reddy was a finalist in Lincoln-Douglas debate, making him second overall in the nation! Carol Wininger, grade 11, and Max Xing, grade 10, were in the finals of the public forum debate silver division. Michelle Jin, grade 11, was second in extemporaneous speaking. Rahul Mulpuri, grade 11, finished in the semis of Lincoln-Douglas, as did Class of 2022 member William Chien in extemporaneous and Dyllan Han, grade 11, in original oratory. Arissa Huda, grade 11, and Ariav Misra, grade 10, advanced in congressional debate.
The middle school team also shined at their division of the Tournament of Champions. Joy Hu, grade 8, was the national champion in extemporaneous speaking and Sofia Shah, grade 8, was the Lincoln-Douglas debate champion! Pavitra Kasthuri, grade 8, was in the finals of both extemporaneous speaking and impromptu. Hu was also in the finals of impromptu. Shloka Chawla, grade 8, and seventh graders Ameera Ramzan, Phoebe Lee and Tarush Gupta were also in impromptu elimination rounds. Evan Yuan, grade 7, was in congressional debate elimination rounds. Danielle Steinbach, grade 8, and Sanjith Senthil, grade 7, advanced in Lincoln-Douglas, as did the eighth grade public forum duo of Kairui Sun and Roshan Amurthur.
The upper school also had good results at the California State Speech tournament. As with all speech and debate tournaments, State is not divided by school classification, so it is one large pool for all those who participate. Sara Wan, grade 11, was second in impromptu speaking, Zubin Khera, grade 11, was fifth in original oratory and William Chien ’22 was in finals of extemporaneous speaking. Austina Xu, grade 11, was in the semifinals of oratorical interpretation and Dyllan Han was also in semifinals of original oratory.
There is one last event for the upper school speech and congressional debaters, as well as the middle school team, this June at the National Speech & Debate Association Championships. The only result that has been released ahead of time is that William Chien was named the California Coast District Student of the Year for his excellent performances and positive impact on the larger speech and debate community. The coaches are very proud of the hard work put in by all of the students.
Tags: alumni-express, eweekly, express, Speech and DebateRecently, Adi Parige ’11, now working as a filmmaker in New Zealand, was interviewed for a documentary on the diversity of the city of Wellington’s film industry. Parige was a cast member of the 2011 upper school spring musical, “Pippin,” whose cast and crew performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that year. In the interview, he discusses his current projects, growing up in the Bay Area and his connection to diasporic Indian communities.
Tags: alumni-express, Class of 2011, eweeklyHarker had 56 medalists, including two perfect scores — by eight graders Joy Hu and Ananya Pradhan — in the 2022 National French Contest. More than 100 Harker middle and upper school students took part in the contest, which is held each year by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF). The contest consists of a written exam taken at various levels. Students and teachers held a special awards ceremony to mark the occasion.
Tags: eweekly, French, Languages, National French Contest