On July 3, beloved former upper school English teacher Marc Hufnagl passed away at his home in Switzerland following a brave battle with prostate cancer. He had been living in Switzerland with his husband, Juerg, after his retirement in 2016. He was accompanied by Juerg, his sister, Jan, and his dog, Nico, at the time of his death. “We are heartbroken from the loss of our beloved Marc, but we know he will live on in the hearts and minds of all those who knew and loved him,” Jan said.
Hufnagl joined Harker in 2001 and taught English at the upper school for 15 years. An avid musician and songwriter, he released multiple albums of original music, and in 2014 performed a selection of his own songs for students. He was a big fan of Joni Mitchell, as evidenced by the poster of the cover art from her album, “Hejira,” that he had hanging in his classroom. After his diagnosis, he contacted upper school English teacher Charles Shuttleworth to request that it be shipped back to him, which Shuttleworth graciously did.
“He was a great, great person,” said Shuttleworth.
During his time at Harker, Hufnagl commuted to his job from Oakland each day, just one example of his remarkable dedication to teaching. “In one of my last conversations with him, he said that he felt great pride in being part of this institution and in seeing the students excel the way they do while at Harker and after Harker,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “Knowing that he even had a small part in the students’ success filled him with great pride.”
A Caring Bridge page has been set up for people to leave dedications, and several Harker alumni have posted remembrances of their former teacher. “As a former student, he filled my heart with love for a subject I never thought I could love,” said Edward Sheul ’16.
Sahana Narayanan ’16, who is studying at the New England Conservatory for her master’s in jazz voice, said, “In my formative years, you modeled a contemplative life of endless artistic and spiritual self-inquiry. Thank you for your kindness and time.”
Those wishing to make a donation in Hufnagl’s honor have been asked to support Cancer Support San Francisco Bay Area and the Swiss Cancer League. A celebration of Hufnagl’s life is planned for Friday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. at the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar and Grill, located at 1520 Lakeside Dr. in Oakland. As space is limited, attendees are encouraged to RSVP by emailing juero@att.net.
It’s been a busy several days for Harker alumni athletes. Golfer Maverick McNealy ’13, pursuing his first PGA win, took second place at the Fortinet Championship over the weekend with a score of -18, just behind winner Max Homa. Current Harker golfer Allison Yang, grade 9, met McNealy before competition on Sunday. “She wished him good luck and [told him] to play Harker smart,” said Harker golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng. “Allison was stoked that Maverick took the time out to talk to her.”
Meanwhile, Emily Cheng ’20 helped MIT women’s volleyball win the MIT Invitational on Sept. 11. Also playing in that event was Ashley Jezbec ’20, who played for Bowdoin College. Cheng was named the MVP event with 47 assists and 14 digs.
Middle school mathematics department chair Vandana Kadam recently won the Edyth May Sliffe Award, which is awarded to middle and high school math teachers who have shown dedication to teaching by motivating students to participate in the American Mathematics Competitions. Kadam last won the award in 2018. Candidates for this award are nominated by colleagues, students, parents and administrators, and winners are chosen based on criteria such as demonstrated improvement in AMC scores over multiple years, increased participation in the competitions and increased participation in invitational events such as the American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME) and the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO).
Today, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced that 52 Harker seniors, more than 25 percent of the Class of 2022, were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of high school students who took the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Qualifying Test as juniors. They become finalists by submitting a scholarship application that includes their academic record, a summary of participation in school activities and awards they’ve received.
This year’s semifinalists are:
Malar Bala, Laszlo Bollyky, Erica Cai, Teresa Cai, Cady Chen, Charles Ding, Alice Feng, Adheet Ganesh, Yvan Grinspan, Arnav Gupta, Elvis Han, Victoria Han, Catherine He, Mark Hu, Angelina Yuzifovich, Sinaya Joshi, Vishnu Kannan, Saahas Kohli , Anirudh Kotamraju, Aidan Lincke, Alex Liou, Michelle Liu, Aaron Lo, Kavita Murthy, Kate Olsen, Sujith Pakala, Muthu Panchanatham, Vienna Parnell, Rishab Parthasarathy, Anishka Raina, Sasvath Ramachandran, Bodhi Saha, Dhruv Saoji, Yejin Song, Cindy Su, Aditya Tagore, Emily Tan, Keshiv Tandon, Zeel Thakkar, Rohan Thakur, Nicole Tian, Michael Tran, Pranav Varmaraja, Austin Wang, Daniel Wu, Esther Wu, Alina Yuan, Irene Yuan, April Zhang, William Zhao, Emily Zhou and Gloria Zhu.
On Tuesday, upper school jazz band members attended an impromptu master class by pianist Dalton Ridenhour in the Patil Theater. A specialist in stride piano, the style that developed from ragtime, Ridenhour talked about the history of ragtime, which was influenced largely by classical and folk music, and its influence on jazz piano. Ragtime became popular with people who played the piano in their homes and purchased sheet music of ragtime pieces to perform for their families and friends. In New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, Ridenhour explained, residents would host “rent parties,” where musicians were hired to perform and attendees would pay admission in order to help tenants pay their rent. James P. Johnson, an early notable stride pianist, was a frequent performer at such parties. Ridenhour performed pieces by both Johnson and influential ragtime composer Scott Joplin to demonstrate both the differences and similarities between the two styles.
Upper school students flocked to the annual Club Fair on Wednesday to find out more about the dozens of opportunities available to students in a huge variety of fields and interests. Nearly 80 tables were set up at the event, each staffed by club members who offered information to students and answered their questions.
Groups such as the Art Club advertised their activities with creative posters. “We host very exciting events and there’s no art experience necessary,” said senior Michelle Liu, an officer with the Art Club. “We host workshops and speaker events and we’ve also been doing some murals lately.” The club is also planning life drawing sessions that are free for anyone to attend.
The Dungeons and Dragons Club was one of several clubs at the event organized around specific hobbies. “We provide game masters to run D&D games for anyone who wants to play, if they’re experienced, or if they’ve never played before or if they just want to try it out,” said Bauer Muhle, grade 11. “We offer a space and people who all run the game for them.” The club, which started last year, plans to hold workshops for people to learn the game and help them develop their in-game characters.
STEM fields were a significant presence at the Club Fair, including the Psychology Club. “We host meetings throughout the year to talk about different psych topics that would be interesting to people,” said junior Athena Wu, a representative with the Psychology Club. Some of the events the club has planned are focused on lectures, while others involve discussion among attendees. “We’re very excited to be back in person and do much more interactive activities,” said club member Defne Avkarogullari, grade 10.
Sixth grader and chess enthusiast Omya Vidyarthi won a gold medal at last month’s 17th Annual North American Youth Chess Championship, which hosted more than 400 entrants from the Canada, Mexico and the United States. Vidyarthi competed in the U12 Girls category and won with a score of 8.5 points out of a possible 9. She is now eligible to earn the Woman FIDE Master title from the International Chess Federation. As a bonus, Vidyarthi also took second place in the blitz chess side event!
Harker football won its season opener against San Jose High in a thriller that went into overtime. The Eagles were down by 8 in the third quarter before tying the score at 14, sending the game into overtime, where senior Aaditya Gulati kicked the game-winning field goal. Harker will meet Lynnbrook at Davis Field this Friday.
Girls golf fell to a strong Palo Alto team in non-league play on Thursday, but rebounded to win its league opener against Notre Dame-San Jose the following day.
In its Thursday season opener, girls volleyball lost to Branham High and had a 2-3 record in Saturday’s Spikefest Tournament, defeating Silver Creek and Christopher. The team faces Harbor at home on Tuesday and will host Santa Cruz on Friday.
Several Harker teams have upcoming season openers. Boys water polo will open its season in a Wednesday away game at Valley Christian, while girls water polo starts its season Sept. 7 against Los Altos High. Opening its season that same day will be girls tennis, which will face Monta Vista. Cross country is hard at work preparing for its Sept. 11 start at the Lowell Invitational, held at Golden Gate Park.
On Aug. 14 and 15, the Harker DECA chapter hosted its eighth annual Harker DECA Launch event. A total of 70 incoming freshmen from the Class of 2025 attended the event, which introduced them to Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department and the DECA experience as a whole. The weekend consisted of alumni speakers, workshops, mock competitions and informative lectures.
On Saturday morning, the attendees socialized after a year of virtual learning while enjoying a breakfast of Noah’s Bagels. They then attended the opening ceremony inside Nichols Auditorium, where students were first introduced to the DECA experience through presentations and by listening to the experiences of alumni Bryan Zhang ‘21, former Harker DECA vice president of competitions, and current DECA member Ada Praun-Petrovic, grade 11.
Next, students participated in an icebreaker challenge led by director of membership Chloe Lee, grade 10, in order to get to know each other in preparation for the weekend. The innovation challenge teams, groups of five to six attendees and led by a Harker DECA officer, worked together to build the tallest free-standing structure using marshmallows, raw spaghetti and string. Following the icebreaker activity, attendees were brought into the Innovation Center, the home base of the B.E. department, where they learned more about DECA, from the competitive experience to the business clusters available in competitions. To further immerse the attendees in the competitive clusters, officers were stationed at five locations around the IC to speak about the five clusters that the students rotated through: business management and administration, hospitality and tourism, marketing, entrepreneurship and finance.
After lunch from Pizza My Heart, the 12 innovation challenge teams participated in a scavenger hunt activity where they searched for officers located in various parts of the upper school campus and performed different tasks such as winning a game of rock, paper, scissors or making a secret handshake.
“The Scavenger Hunt was really enjoyable because the challenges were designed to help us get to know our teammates better. It helped me learn the ins and outs of my teammates, which definitely helped us during the innovation challenge,” said Daniel Chen, grade 9.
After reconvening back at the IC, the competitions subteam, consisting of vice president of competitions and strategy Anika Muddu, grade 11, director of written events Kaitlyn Wang, grade 10, and director of roleplays Cynthia Wang, grade 10, introduced the innovation challenge. For the rest of the afternoon, the students worked in their teams to come up with a new idea that would fit under the umbrella of social entrepreneurship,” the theme for the 2021 DECA Launch Innovation Challenge.
“As one of the first in-person events to introduce freshmen to the Harker upper school, and for some, to the Harker community as a whole, I think DECA launch attendees were welcomed into the school in an exciting way. Through the innovation challenge, students became more familiar with DECA and the Harker B.E. department’s offerings. The other officers and I were so impressed by their work in the Innovation Challenge and are proud to welcome them all into the community,” said senior Gigi Chan, co-CEO.
The following day, chapter advisor Juston Glass gave an overview of the business and entrepreneurship department and the programs it includes. In fact, seniors Camilla Lindh, Ishaan Parate and Simren Kochhar were brought in to present their own business, H2OOT, which they had developed through the incubator class at Harker.
The officers conducted a deeper dive on the competitive experience of DECA through three main facets: the mentorship program, roleplay events and written events. The students watched a live roleplay and were guided through the various written event selection choices. They then participated in a game of Kahoot to simulate the business administration core exam with questions selected from past years’ tests.
“First-year members are usually a bit intimidated by roleplays, so I hope my live roleplay gave them more confidence in their abilities,” said Cynthia Wang.
Next, vice president of public relations Catherine He, grade 12, director of communications Claire Luo, grade 10, and director of technology Shreeya Merchia, grade 10, held a Graphic Design Workshop to aid the attendees in the creation of their Innovation Challenge slide decks and executive summaries.
After having lunch, the students were taught the tricks and tips of preparing and presenting a roleplay through the Roleplay Immersion Session hosted by the DECA mentors, leading into a roleplay tournament. The groups spent the rest of the afternoon finishing and polishing presentations and designing various materials before they pitched their final product.
“I remember coming to DECA Launch as a shy, confused freshman, so it was very exciting to watch them catch on quickly and contribute great ideas while running through a roleplay and giving them advice,” said mentor Victoria Han, grade 12.
In the evening, parents and attendees first listened to a panel consisting of alumni, including Haley Tran ‘17, Lucas Wang ‘17, Shania Wang ‘19, Evan Cheng ‘20, Rishi Dange ‘20 and Elaine Zhai ‘21, about their DECA experiences. Later, each of the 12 groups presented their innovative products in detail, including integral business components such as marketing plans, cost structures and financial analysis.
“I thought presenting the innovation challenge was a fun way to learn, and the feedback we received from the multiple experienced alumni was really helpful. It was really fulfilling to present what we’d worked on for the weekend. DECA launch was the perfect start to my high school experience,” said Sophia Liu, grade 9.
DECA launch was concluded with the awards ceremony, which recognized the top ten roleplay teams as well as the awards for the innovation challenge.
“I was so impressed by every single one of the attendees; their energy and enthusiasm made the event fun and exciting for everyone. I can’t wait for the school year to maximize our momentum and see what they all achieve!” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows (all grade 9):
Roleplay Tournament::
1st Place: Hanyang Shang, Vedant Yadav
2nd Place: Daniel Chen, Alex Zhong
3rd Place: Veer Sahasi, Ruhan Sahasi
Innovation Challenge:
Most Feasible: Khanlinh Tran, Young Min, Andrew Liang, Shreyas Chakravarty, Ruhan Sahasi, Veer Sahasi
Best Presentation: Daniel Chen, Alex Zhong, Anika Pallapothu, Norah Mehanna, Navya Samuel, Tiana Salvi
Most Creative: Andre Lu, Gabriel Li, Rithika Yamasani, Cindy Yu, Rahul Yalla, Gary Jin
Best Overall: Daniel Dorfman, Charlize Wang, Claire Cheng, Nikhil Pesati, Maya Affaki, Sanaa Bhorkar
The classes of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 gathered at Davis Field on Aug. 20 for the 2021 matriculation ceremony, which was held in-person after the COVID-19 pandemic forced last year’s matriculation to be held online.
The juniors and seniors were seated before the freshmen, who received enthusiastic applause as they approached to take their seats. Brian Yager, head of school, was the first of the morning’s speakers and remarked about the resilience shown by the Harker community during the pandemic. “It was a tough year, but we bore it, and in amazing fashion many of you thrived,” he said, later commenting on the confidence he had in the community to face the coming year. “Given the host of challenges we all faced last year, we are in the position to have a wonderful rebound year this year, and the ability to benefit from and enjoy this year lies squarely with you, our students.” Yager then introduced the upper school vocal group Cantilena, which performed “Rise Up” by Cassandra Batie and Jennifer Decilveo.
Per tradition, upper school head Butch Keller also took the podium to address the students. He first praised the student leadership who stopped to help out the maintenance staff who were drying off the moisture that had collected on the seats overnight. “That’s what I call a community,” he said. “That’s what I was proud of.”
Keller spoke to grade 9 on how they should define success during their upper school careers. “I hope that what you’re chasing looks more like earning a spot in the fall play, being a good teammate on the volleyball team or the football team,” he said. “Or maybe it looks like being an integral part of the speech and debate team being led by those great coaches.
“I hope what you’re chasing looks more like making lifelong friends,” he continued. “I hope what you’re chasing, whatever that is, is sincere. I hope it means that you’re going to be the best that you can possibly be.”
Dawson Chen, a senior and the Associated Student Body president, then offered the freshmen some key points of advice on how to make the most of their time as upper school students, which he livened with humor, such as when he told them what a proper parenthetical citation looks like. He also encouraged students to make use of the upper school’s incredible resources and to practice open-mindedness. “Be open to perhaps extraordinary or unfamiliar perspectives,” he said, “whether it’s in an English class discussion or a debate with a friend at lunch.” In closing, he implored the freshmen not to “spend four years trying to fulfill other people’s expectations of you,” and to “find friends who are like family.”
Chen then introduced the members of Harker’s Student Diversity Coalition – seniors Uma Iyer and Brooklyn Cicero, juniors KJ Williams and Mir Bahri, and sophomore Dina Ande – who spoke to their fellow students about SDC’s mission. Bahri explained that the SDC is a student organization that is “designed to foster an inclusive environment for all members of our community.” Part of their mission is to provide safe spaces for students and staff to discuss topics related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The establishment of the Black Student Union and the Latinx Affinity Group last year were crucial to this goal.
Cicero told the audience that Harker’s first affinity group was founded in the wake of the June 2020 protests that erupted across the world after the murder of George Floyd. “We wanted to stop being complacent with the microaggressions and biases that we were receiving on and off campus,” she said. The members went on to summarize the SDC’s activities over the previous year – such as the talks by Leon, a Holocaust survivor and Bettina Love – and promoted the open meetings that all Harker community members are invited to attend. Once a director of diversity, equity and inclusion has been hired, the SDC plans to establish more affinity groups to make Harker more inclusive and welcoming.
Following the speeches, all students in attendance recited the matriculation oath, and the grade 9 students each took their turns signing the matriculation book, while The Harker String Quartet, directed by Dave Hart, performed Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.”
As is custom, the ceremony ended with “Freshman 101,” a series of skits designed to inform the Class of 2025 of many key aspects of upper school life, including the honor code, the many clubs on offer and the spirit competition. Students donned costumes inspired by famous characters from “The Avengers,” the “Harry Potter” franchise, Disney’s “Frozen” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”