Last week, third graders held a fundraiser for the Epilepsy Foundation’s Lemonade for Livy program, raising more than $2,000. The students had read the novel “The Lemonade War” by Jacqueline Davies in their summer classes, and lessons and activities also were designed with a lemonade theme. Fittingly, students also participated in a lemonade-themed service project, creating a virtual lemonade stand and promoting their effort by passing out lemonade.
Students also enjoyed interacting via Zoom with Olivia “Livy” Scheinman, for whom the program is named, and her family, and speaking to Maile Chung ’17, who was diagnosed with epilepsy during her freshman year. “It has been wonderful working with the summer school third graders on this,” said Kathy Ferretti, grade 3 English teacher. “They learned a lot and had fun doing it.”
In the latest construction update video, viewable below, Harker facility manager Mike Bassoni details the complex process of laying the concrete foundations at the Union Campus.
In the final winner announcement of the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, 2020 graduate Zara Vakath was named a winner of college-sponsored scholarship from Claremont McKenna College. The final total of Harker scholarship winners stands at 23. Congratulations to all this year’s winners!
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June 3, 2020:
On Wednesday, recent graduates Quentin Clark, Eric Fang, Lila Gorman, Phillip Han, Nathan Sudeep and Anthony Xu were named winners of college-sponsored scholarships in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, bringing the total number of Harker scholarship winners to 22. Another round of winners is set to be announced in July.
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May 13, 2020:
Today, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the second round of winners in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, and 11 Harker seniors are among them. They are: Kathy Fang, David Feng, Jeffrey Fung, Alyssa Huang, Sahil Jain, Allison Jia, Eileen Li, Kyle Li, Jack Pearce, Thomas Rainow and Bryan Wang. These students are among 2,500 high school seniors chosen to receive National Merit $2,500 Scholarships. More winners are set to be announced in June and July.
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April 28, 2020:
Last week, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the first round of winners of 2020 National Merit scholarships, and seniors Rohan Cherukuri, Mahika Halepete, Madison Huynh, Jessica Jiang and Nellie Tonev were named winners of corporate-sponsored scholarships. Each of the students had reached the finalist portion of the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Competition. The next three rounds of winners will be announced in May, June and July.
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Sept. 24, 2019:
Earlier this month, 63 seniors were named semifinalists in the 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program, placing them among the 16,000 high school students who make up less than 1 percent of the more than 1.5 million students who entered the contest as juniors last year. Students enter each year by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). This year’s National Merit semifinalists are:
Prerana Acharyya, Jai Bahri, Nakul Bajaj, Martin Bourdy, Katelyn Chen, Evan Cheng, Andrew Cheplyansky, Rohan Cherukrui, Quentin Clark, Rishi Dange, Eric Fang, Kathy Fang, David Feng, Finn Frankis, Lauren Fu, Jeffrey Fung, Lila Gorman, Ellen Guo, Mahika Halepete, Phillip Han, Alyysa Huang, Madison Huynh, Rashmi Iyer, Sahil Jain, Allison Jia, Jessica Jiang, Matthew Jin, Annebelle Ju, Montek Kalsi, Naviya Kapadia, Jatin Kohli, Jeffrey Kwan, Shyl Lamba, Max Lee, Eileen Li, Kyle Li, Emily Liu, Carolyn Lu, Vani Mohindra, Kalyan Narayanan, Rakesh Nori, Sana Pandey, Jack Pearce, Thomas Rainow, Sanjay Rajasekharan, Amla Rashingkar, Chaitanya Ravuri, Sachin Shah, Nikhil Sharma, Rohan Sonecha, Nathan Sudeep, Christine Tang, Michael Tang, Anika Tiwari, Nellie Tonev, Jin Tuan, Nerine Uyanik, Zara Vakath, Bryan Wang, Nathan Wang, Anthony Xu, Jacqueline Yang and Jeffrey Yang.
Additionally, 72 seniors were named commended students for their outstanding performance on the PSAT/NMSQT:
Arjun Akkiraju, Kai Ming Ang, Kenya Aridomi, Ekdatha Arramreddy, Vibha Arramreddy, Anvi Banga, Ryan Brown, Darshan Chahal, Gabriel Chai, Eva Chang, Cynthia Chen, Emily Chen, Kevin Chen, Emily Cheng, Henry Cuningham, Kaitlyn Dai, Reiya Das, Jeremy Ding, Mihir Dixit, Sidharth Dudyala, Roni Gagneja, Nina Gee, Anna Gert, Aditi Ghalsasi, Avi Gulati, Aarzu Gupta, Grace Hajjar, Jack Hansen, Richard Hu, Grace Huang, Jedd Hui, Vishnu Jaisim, Arnav Joshi, Nikhita Karra, Mahi Kolla, Sejal Krishnan, Asmit Kumar, Allison Lee, Emma Li, Bennett Liu, Jeffrey Liu, Annie Ma, Grant Miner, Naveen Mirapuri, Shomrik Mondal, Natashad Moorajani, Arushi Nety, Karthik Nukala, Jason Pan, Gina Partridge, Sriya Prathfuri, William Rainow, Ahsna Reddy, Riva Saksena, Anu Selvaraj, Mihir Sharma, Anjali Sheth, Rani Sheth, Alexander Shing, Anthony Shing, Neal Sidhu, Arun Sundaresan, Larissa Tyagi, Smriti Vaidyanathan, Joshua Valluru, Ramanand Vegesna, Katelyn Vo, Jessie Wang, Henry Wiese, Alicia Xu, Catherine Zhao and Joshua Zhou.
Altogether, Harker’s National Merit semifinalists and commended students comprise 68% of the Class of 2020!
Today the Society for Science & the Public announced that final events for this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search will take place virtually later this month after being postponed from their original date in March. Senior Cynthia Chen’s project, titled “Decoding Neural Networks: Discovery of Anti-Tumor B Cell Receptor Motifs Using a Novel Sequence-Based Computational Framework,” will be one of the 40 finalist projects featured in the virtual Public Exhibition of Projects, held Sat., July 25. This year’s winners will be announced during the Winners Award Ceremony, which takes place July 29.
Jan. 22, 2020:
The Society for Science & the Public this morning named senior Cynthia Chen one of the top 40 finalists in the 2020 Regeneration Science Talent Search! As a finalist, Chen is now eligible to attend the final portion of the competition, held in Washington, D.C. from March 5-11. Each finalist receives a minimum of $25,000 with chance to win one of 10 cash prizes, ranging from $40,000 to $250,000. During their stay, finalist projects will undergo a thorough judging process, and finalists will also have the opportunity to meet notable scientists and members of Congress.
Jan. 8, 2020:
Today, seniors Cynthia Chen and Joshua Zhou were named two of the nation’s top 300 scholars in the 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search. These 300 high school students were chosen from nearly 2,000 entries. Each scholar and his or her school will receive a prize of $2,000. The top 40 finalists will be announced on Jan. 22 and invited to participate in the last stage of the competition, scheduled for March 5-11 in Washington, D.C. Congratulations and good luck!
Over the weekend, the upper school’s Science Bowl team competed in the national championship of the US DOE Science Bowl, in which 64 teams from across the country participated. Harker reached the top 16 in the event — held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic — narrowly missing the top 8 after a toss-up question and a bonus answer. William Zhao also participated in a national math contest and as such was unable to compete in the final two rounds of the Science Bowl.
Feb. 12, 2020:
On Saturday, a team of Harker students won the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Science Bowl, held at Stanford University’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It was Harker’s third victory in four years. The team – made up of sophomores David Dai, Harsh Deep, Rishab Parthasarathy and William Zhao and senior Emily Liu – went undefeated the entire day, at one point rallying back from an 18 to 72 deficit in a match against Saratoga High to win 118 to 76. Upper school chemistry teacher Robbie Korin called it the “most impressive comeback I have seen since I started doing this in 1991.” The team will go on to represent the Bay Area in April at the national championship in Washington, D.C.
Another team of Harker students – freshmen Rohan Bhowmik and Nicholas Wei, juniors Michael Eng and Russell Yang and senior Kyle Li – also performed well, reaching the elimination round before tying for seventh place over all out of 28 teams.
At the end of each school year, Harker recognizes longtime employees with the presentation of gold pins for five-year full-time employees and a diamond inset for every five years thereafter. This year’s 67 recipients, honored at a ceremony on Thursday, are:
Five years Adam Albers – Pastry Chef, Food Service
Johnny Castro – Custodian ll, Facilities
Anuradha Datar – Computer Science Teacher, Upper School
Miran Eldeeb – Mathematics Teacher, Middle School
Christopher Hurshman – English Teacher, Upper School
Abigail Joseph – LID Director, Middle School
Mark Kocina – Photographer, Office of Communications
Christine Larita – Kitchen Aide, Food Service
Patty Marsette – Academic Counselor, Lower School
Sheva Momenian – Mathematics Teacher, Upper School
RaeAnn Prado – Assistant to College Counseling, Upper School
Erik Ruiz – Custodian, Facilities
Ronald Spitalere – Kitchen Aide ll, Food Service
Byron Stevens – History Teacher, Upper School
Mira Vojvodic – Mathematics Teacher, Lower School
10 years Tere Aceves – Director of Endowment Funding, Advancement
Greg Achten – Speech and Debate Teacher, Middle and Upper School
Meredith Cranston – Campus Librarian, Upper School
Nicole Hall – Administrative Services Manager
David Hart – Instrumental Music Teacher, Upper School
Samantha Hipol – Cook ll, Food Service
Kelly Horan – Academic Dean, Upper School
Mark Janda – History Teacher, Upper School
Sam Lepler, Business and Entrepreneurship Teacher, Upper School
Corey Newton – Internet Technology Services and Support Coordinator, Tech Department
Heather Russell – Grade 3 English Teacher, Lower School
Amira Townzen– Asst. Director Enrichment and Supervision, Lower School
15 years Miguel Aguilar – Custodian ll, Facilities Dept.
Mark Brada – Physics Teacher, Upper School
Enni Chen – Science Teacher, Lower School
Carlos Rojas Esquivel – Lead Groundskeeper, Facilities Department
Walid Fahmy – Physical Education Teacher, Lower School
Irene Gary – Payroll Specialist, Business Office
Melinda Gonzales – Director of the Annual Fund, Advancemenet
Maria Guadalupe Gonzales – Food Service
Carol Green – History Teacher, Upper School
Danielle Holquin – Director of Admission
Shaun Kelly Jahshan – Mandarin Teacher, Upper School
Lori Kohan – Academic Counselor, Upper School
Kevin Lum Lung – College Counselor, Upper School
Carlos Madrigal – Cook, Food Service
Dan Molin – Athletics Director, Upper School
Rodolfo Molina – Custodian, Facilities Dept.
Aarthi Ragupathy – Corporate Budget Manager ERP Administrator, Finance
Kimberly Sandoval – Kindergarten Teacher, Lower School
Jennifer Sandusky – Vocal Music Teacher, Upper School
Eileen Schick – Mathematics Lab Teacher, Lower School
Preeti Sharan – Information Systems Lead, Tech Department
Grace Wallace – Teacher and Grades 1-2 Department Chair, Lower School
20 years Evan Barth – Division Head, Middle School
Bob Benge – Copy Center Manager
Jeremiah Brewer – Physical Education Teacher, Middle School
Jeffrey Draper – Theater Teacher, Upper School
Danny Dunn – K-5 Technical Director
Kerry Enzensperger – Director of Community Service, Upper School
Jesse Lara – Director, Information Technology, PK-12
Marissa Lucketti – Human Resources Manager
Maria Parry – Security Officer
Bradley Stoll – Mathematics Teacher, Upper School
Jeff Sutton- Biology Teacher, Upper School
Kevin Williamson – Dean of Students, Upper School
25 years Darrin Cassidy – Assistant Director, Food Service
Diann Chung – Admission Director Lower School
Kathy Clark – Campus Librarian Lower School
Laura Lang-Ree – Director, Performing Arts, K-12
30 years Pete Anderson – Physical Education Department Chair, Grades 6-8
Gail Palmer – Dance Director, K-8 Lead Performing Arts Teacher
Theresa “Smitty” Smith – Athletic Director, Grades 4-8
Students in Susan Nace’s Study of Music class composed original pieces during the shelter-in-place as part of their studies. These pieces were later recorded using a variety of methods and posted online for analysis. Students also commented on their pieces, detailing their inspirations, processes and the tools they used to create their music.
“I enjoyed working on my composition once I got an idea to go off of,” said Kyra Hawk, grade 9, whose piece was written for her father and brother, both French horn players. “I was impressed by what I could compose, because I never thought of myself a composer of any sort.”
Freshman Anthony Zhao found that working from home afforded him a more flexible schedule, and he used Apple’s GarageBand software to compose his piece. “Some challenges I have faced are learning to compose in a new software and creating effective beat drops,” he said. “When I began, I barely had an idea of how to use GarageBand, but now I am able to compose music in GarageBand.”
For her piece, written for violin and cello, Katelyn Abellera, grade 9, enlisted the help of violinist Sawyer Lai and cellist Abby Tcheng, both grade 9. “First, I came up with the main melody. Then I came the bass part, where I took into consideration harmonies, parallel, similar, contrary and oblique motion that we learned about in theory,” she said.
For those who wish to see and hear these pieces, the students’ works have been uploaded to a public folder accessible by all.
In April, lower school science teacher Shital Ashar made the most of the distance learning format by teaching from various spaces at her home via Zoom. For a lesson on seed anatomy, she had students dissect a bean seed to learn about its various parts. She then demonstrated how seeds could be used to make a delicious salad while students made their own. “Kids were super excited and prepared with ingredients that I had listed on the group space,” Ashar said.
Some days later, Ashar took advantage of the favorable weather to teach another unit on plants, this time dipping a stick of celery in colored water to show students how water moves through plant tissue. “We then learned about types of roots, with examples,” she said. “Students also illustrated roots and examples in their science lab notebook.”
Earlier this month, brothers Hassaan and Senan Ebrahim – graduates of the classes of 2011 and 2008, respectively – were featured in The Harvard Gazette for their work in helping Syrian refugees via software their organization developed specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hassaan and Senan founded the 501(c)(3) Hikma Health in 2018 to create software organizations can use to provide better health care to refugees. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers needed a way to evaluate symptoms and risk factors. Hikma developed a tool workers could use to screen patients without the need for internet access, which is often lacking or nonexistent in the areas in which they work.
According to the article, the Ebrahim brothers are exploring ways to help spread the tool to more refugee camps. For the time being, they have released it for free to all organizations via GitHub.
Harker is proud to announce the nine student athletes from the Class of 2020 who have signed commitments to play collegiate sports next year. Ethan Hu committed in the fall to swim at Stanford in the coming year, with the following eight students recently making their decisions public: Katelyn Vo will golf at Pomona College; Jeffrey Kwan will play volleyball at Harvard; Carolyn Lu will play volleyball at Caltech; Cassandra Ruedy will play water polo at Harvey Mudd; Shomrik Mondal will play football at Macalester College; Ashley Jazbec will play volleyball at Bowdoin College; Arushi Madan will play water polo at the University of Toronto; and Emily Cheng will play volleyball at MIT. Congrats to all these amazing athletes! Go Eagles!
Check out all the students along with their “thank yous” here: