This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
The fall season is an especially eventful time for two groups in our community: the seniors, who are working eagerly to find the next destination in their educational journey, and, conversely, the group of prospective students and families who are visiting Harker with the hopes that they can join the Harker community.
It is a time of excitement, anticipation, and – as all seniors and their parents know – no small amount of anxiety. While understandable, we know that this last emotion fades quickly at the conclusion of the college admissions process, as all of our students will end up at institutions where they will thrive and grow. Year after year, our young alumni return to school with stories of gratitude for their Harker experience and the preparation they had here, and they affirm our efforts to meet our mission’s call to “prepare our students for success in college – and beyond.”
For both our seniors and our prospective families, this admissions season is a period of assessment, both internal and external.
Last year, all of us in the Harker community engaged in a process that had many parallels to the admissions process: our accreditation review by CAIS/ WASC (the California Association of Independent Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges). The experience, which involved every staff member and a host of parent and student volunteers, and which was overseen with incredible aplomb by Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, started in spring 2017 as groups were formed to begin our self-study. Our yearlong self-review resulted in a document of more than 150 pages in length, which we presented to CAIS/WASC in fall 2018.
The purpose of the self-study was for us to assess everything about ourselves, and, in so doing, to identify how well we are or are not meeting our goals, and the efficacy of the processes we are employing.
In March 2019, a visiting team of educators from CAIS member schools spent four days at Harker. They made sure that we are meeting the expectations o CAIS member schools, and they explored how well we had identified our own strengths, challenges and opportunities.
At the end of the visit, the team was tasked with penning its own report to present to the board of directors of CAIS/WASC. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to providing commendations and recommendations to member schools. Though they are instructed to provide no more than 15-20 commendations to a school, they gave Harker 38.
The ideal outcome of the process is that a school receives a reaccreditation status valid for seven years, and that the report from the visiting committee affirms the work of the self-study, in that both the commendations and recommendations are aligned with our own analysis. To a remarkable degree, and thanks entirely to the engaged and earnest effort of the Harker community, we experienced an ideal outcome from this reaccreditation process, and have, as expected, been granted another seven years accreditation status.
In addition to providing numerous commendations and minor recommendations, the visiting committee is tasked with producing a smaller number of major recommendations that reflect items it deems of significant importance to the school, and which we are required to address and report on during the course of the next seven years. It was affirming that each of these followed from our own assessment, and were consistent with our expectations entering the reaccreditation process.
These five recommendations will serve as focal points for our efforts in the coming years. Not surprisingly, one of the recommendations focused on our upcoming middle school move. It reads:
“The Visiting Team recommends that the school remain strongly focused on preparing, coordinating, communicating about, and effecting the move of the middle school program onto the Union Avenue campus, giving particular attention to the preschool faculty who remain so professionally and selflessly focused on delivering one of the finest preschool educations in the city.”
In addition to the team’s acknowledgement of the importance of this effort to move the middle school, it was especially noteworthy that they embedded a much-deserved mention of support and praise for the amazing educators who have overseen our preschool program.
Two other major recommendations focused on aspects of our existing efforts to provide an impactful educational environment in the arena of wellness and in our efforts related to diversity, equity and inclusion. These have been areas of focus since the previous accreditation, and the visiting committee encouraged us to sustain our efforts.
The visiting team’s fourth recommendation is hat we look to data to help us assess our efficacy and opportunities “to inform areas of growth, measure the effectiveness of change initiatives, and validate the delivery of the mission.”
We are grateful for our membership in and accreditation by CAIS/WASC, and as is true of any good growth processes, the reaccreditation cycle required us to reflect deeply and work hard. Yet, the resulting benefits to our community and our educational program will be long-lasting and significant. The final element of the process is for us to create a strategic plan that incorporates the major recommendations. Our work to make this plan a productive and forward-looking one is well underway, with various groups already refining themes and initiatives. The plan should take its final form this spring, and we will present it to the community then, just around the same time our seniors are deciding which colleges they will attend, and when our new families will be welcomed into the Harker community.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Junior Tessa Muhle is passionate about languages. A student of both Spanish and Latin, she has taken full advantage of Harker’s comprehensive language programs since enrolling in the school as a sophomore. She said she “foolishly” thought Spanish would be easy to learn when she was younger, but has now developed a love for travel and culture that demands more nuanced comprehension.
“Learning Spanish allows me to broaden my view of the world and thoroughly immerse myself in a different culture,” said Muhle, who is currently taking Level 3 Honors Spanish. Last April, she was part of the Harker Spanish program’s delegation to Andalusia in southern Spain and, in August, she volunteered with the nonprofit organization Amigos de las Americas in Panama, where she helped with turtle conservation efforts and immersed herself in the local culture.
“Both trips stretched my speaking ability and made me infinitely more confident,” she said. Muhle also is enrolled in Level 3 Honors Latin, which perfectly complements her Spanish study because of Latin’s influence on other languages, she said. “I can use Latin words to figure out what Spanish words mean. For example, the Spanish verb ‘morir,’ which means ‘to die,’ derives from the Latin verb ‘mori,’ which means the same thing.”
By requiring its students to study language – fully embedded in a deeper examination of culture – Harker is helping them develop a facility for language not often se n at the middle and high school levels. Students also grow to understand the interconnectedness of the world in which they live, which is increasingly multilingual and multicultural. They learn to shed prejudices and stereotypes and gain new perspectives through lenses and cultural norms different from their own.
“Language learning is a window into cultures, people and practices,” said Abel Olivas, upper school Spanish teacher and modern and classical languages department chair. “It’s also an excellent mental exercise because it stretches students’ brains by teaching them to integrate new structures in communication while developing their ear for unfamiliar sounds.”
Intensive Programs
Harker provides every student with a strong foundation in one of five foreign languages –French, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin and Spanish – by requiring the completion of Level 3, which most students attain during grade 9. Spanish alone is offered for Harker’s youngest students beginning in grade 1, when they start to explore the panish language and culture to help them understand their own culture and language by comparison. In grades 4 and 5, Spanish students learn the language’s basic structures and continue to develop their vocabulary skills in preparation for daily practice in middle school.
When all students begin taking formal classes in grade 6 in the language of their choice, they work on developing the basic skills necessary to study a foreign language successfully, including listening, reading, speaking and writing. “Our focus in middle school is on communication,” said Carol Parris, modern and classical languages department chair for grades 1 through 8 who has taught French at Harker since 1976. “We give them the tools they need to understand how language is constructed. When they learn something in French, for example, they can compare it to what they know about English, and why one language might make more sense than the other. What students learn in a foreign language helps them in their English classes, both in grammar and composition.”
Tanay Sharma, a ninth grader currently taking Level 3 Honors French, said that is indeed the case. “We take timed writing tests in French and this has helped me become a better writer in English. I’ve learned to use the time given to formulate a proper essay successfully.”
In an era when most schools have eliminated the study of Latin, Harker’s Latin students flourish in their knowledge of the underpinnings of all language, said Lisa Masoni, middle school Latin teacher. In Latin courses, the emphasis is on developing strong reading and writing skills.
“We see a lot of value in Latin, in that it provides the roots of the English language and other modern languages, and it still influences many of our cultural ideas,” Masoni said. “In general, language study teaches students to read carefully, analyze critically and understand different viewpoints.” Students of Latin study the social and political history of ancient cultures and improve their comprehension skills through the reading and analyzing of classical prose and poetry.
Trisha Variyar, a ninth grader in her third year of Latin, finds her knowledge of Latin has enhanced skills she can draw on in other coursework and activities. “I have seen an overall improvement in my vocabulary because I can analyze the roots of words and connect them to the English meaning,” she said.
Many upper school students continue to progress with their chosen language by taking honors and AP courses as they develop an understanding of the more complex structures of language. Harker is one of only a few schools in the Bay Are that offers five languages through the AP level and it’s not uncommon for students to earn the top score of 5 on AP language exams and scores in the 800s on the SAT’s language subject tests, given the strong foundation in languages they’ve acquired in seven years of instruction at Harker. Options for post-AP study include courses focused on such topics as literature, contemporary global issues and the arts. Many students go on to study foreign languages in college, take advantage of study abroad programs to further develop their skills and find employment that requires bilingualism.
Engaging Classrooms
Harker’s excellent language teachers bring to bear their own diverse life experiences in engaging students in creative learning that expands their knowledge. Each department, with the exception of Latin, includes teachers who are native speakers and often ones who have lived outside the United States. Language learning at Harker is student centered and immersive, as students and teachers speak the target language as much as possible, even in interactions outside of class.
“Hearing my teacher’s greeting of ‘Bonjour, Félicie’ transports me to a different world,” said AP French student Farah Hosseini, grade 11, referring to her chosen classroom name. “Speaking French in class is challenging, but also refreshing and rewarding, as it’s a change of pace from my other classes.”
Seventh grader Neil Krishnan, after only one year of French, has begun to recognize French terms and inferences all around him. “In English, I read Steinbeck’s ‘The Affair at 7, Rue de M,’” he said. “I had a deeper understanding of the book than those who didn’t have any French knowledge.” Krishnan’s classmate, Saanvi Bhargava, has had a similar experience in Concert Choir. “We are singing a French song and I am able to interpret the lyrics, which enhances my understanding of the song,” she said.
Mandarin teacher Xiuyu Gao has taught at Harker for seven years, having previously taught in her native China and the United Kingdom. She shares teaching duties with Shaun Jahshan, who holds a Ph.D. in Chinese literature from Stanford. “It’s interesting for our students to have both of our perspectives,” said Gao, who noted that she enjoys sharing her personal experiences of living in China for 35 years. “Harker students benefit from my deep understanding of the culture and its education system, which is much more rigid than the American system.” By comparison, she described Harker’s way o teaching as “loving, caring and encouraging.”
French teacher Agnès Pommier agreed that Harker’s nurturing environment is ideal for language students. “We require speaking French all the time, so students do make mistakes, but we teach our students to respect each other and encourage them to master their own learning process and to do their best each day,” she said.
Harker’s language teachers keep abreast of the latest teaching methodologies by pursuing professional development opportunities locally and in their target language countries, enabling them to engage students with differing learning styles, including kinesthetic, visual, auditory and tactile. Activities such as games, films, music, dramatic presentations, and paired and small group hands-on projects are all a regular part of language classrooms. Students’ strengths and interests are emphasized, fostering opportunities for students to shine by using their talents in music, fine arts, cooking, dance and drama to bring a language to life. Festival celebrations like El Día de los Muertos, Mardi Gras, Setsubun (the day before the beginning of spring in Japan), King’s Day, the Chinese Moon Festival and Chinese New Year (during which students create dragons for a parade) encourage learning about different cultures’ customs, cuisines and histories.
Technology like Kahoot and Quizlet – simple and effective online learning tools that assist students in mastering vocabulary – is often employed in the classroom, Olivas said. “We use these tools not just for the sake of using technology, but because they give our students practice in a way that’s engaging, energetic and fun. The idea is to expose students to different learning tools so they can determine what works best for them.”
Sixth grader Tom Campisi, in his first year of learning Mandarin, appreciates that his teachers understand that it can be jarring to learn a new language. “We have fun by using rhymes and poems in Chinese to help with tones and pronunciation,” he said. Senior Rani Sheth, who began taking Spanish in sixth grade, recalled building stories in class. “We’d sit in a circle and each person would write a sentence and pass it on to the next person to continue,” she said. “It resulted in really hilarious stories and great conversation.”
Both Yumiko Aridomi and Keiko Irino, who teach Japanese at the upper school, are natives of Japan and are skilled in Japanese pedagogy. Because Japanese is a difficult language to learn, they regularly enrich classroom learning by encouraging students’ interests in Japanese anime, food and games.
“The teachers really love what they do and it shows through their enthusiasm for teaching us,” said sophomore Kailash Ranganathan, who is currently taking Level 4 Honors Japanese. “They’re experts in the field and they understand how we learn best, encouraging friendly competition through activities that motivate everyone to do their best.”
Upper school French teacher Galina Tchourilova, who first studied French language and culture as a university student in her native Russia, noted that language study offers many opportunities to challenge students’ worldviews, deepen their cultural knowledge and learn how other societies approach complex issues. “For example, in my AP classes, we consider many topics from a French perspective, such as scientific discoveries, global health issues, music and sports. We have wonderful discussions. Students are able to make comparisons given their own life experiences.”
Hosseini agreed that classroom discussions are lively. She noted that breaking down themes such as identity or contemporary family life has helped her expand her vocabulary and drastically improve her pronunciation. “I’ve noticed that I’m able to form complex sentences more easily without having to think twice about it,” she said.
Through the study of Chinese, senior Sana Pandey has developed an appreciation for the interplay of perspectives across all subjects. “The intersection of history, culture and language in Mandarin has helped me view concepts in other classes through multifaceted lenses,” said Pandey, who has studied Mandarin since sixth grade and hopes to major in linguistics in college.
Outside the Classroom
Language learning doesn’t stop at the end of the school day at Harker. Many students participate in activities that extend their learning beyond the classroom, including dining at local restaurants, visiting San Francisco’s Chinatown or a local Japanese garden for a tea ceremony, and attending cultural fairs, festivals and museum exhibits around the Bay Area, like a Spanish class field trip to the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Students also prepare for and participate in national language contests that test reading, writing and speaking comprehension.
Each language offered at Harker has a complementary student honor society, through which members organize and enjoy cultural activities, including target language cultural nights at Harker. Other examples include students in the Japanese National Honor Society volunteering at local Japanese-Amer can museums and a Buddhist temple. Those in the Spanish National Honor Society publish Pórtico, an online publication of articles on current events, culture, trips and people of interest.
“Many of our students also do community service in local clinics and schools,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss. “These are enriching experiences for them, all the more so when they can use their language skills in practical settings, which reinforces what they’re learning in the classroom.”
Harker’s global education program offers language students the opportunity to travel to countries in which they can immerse themselves in the culture while practicing their speaking and comprehension skills. Students have enjoyed intercultural exchanges and immersion trips to several of Harker’s sister schools, including Tamagawa Academy in Tokyo, Japan; Nuevo Milenio in Grecia, Costa Rica; the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai, China; and the Collège de Gambach in Fribourg, Switzerland, to which French students have traveled in the past. Last winter, French students visited Quebec City in Canada during its Winter Carnival.
“When they travel, students realize how much more dynamic their interactions are when they can speak the language of the country they’re visiting,” Moss said.
Visiting historic sites and delving into Japanese culture firsthand during Harker’s trip to Tokyo and Sapporo last summer was “incredibly fun,” said sophomore Erica Cai, who is now enrolled in Level 4 Honors Japanese. “The trip helped me tremendously, as I experienced using Japanese in real-world situations,” she said. “You can only learn so much from a textbook, no matter how good your teachers are.” Masoni directs Harker’s Junior Classical League, or Latin Club, which helps students prepare for Latin competitions at the local, state and national levels. Students have a choice of academic tests in areas such as vocabulary, reading comprehension, mythology or Roman history, and then complete projects based on the ancient world, such as building a model of an aqueduct. They also can compete in an athletic Olympiad.
“The competition is a chance for our students to meet other students learning Latin,” Masoni said. “It’s a lot of fun and students can bond over everyone asking them why they’re taking a dead language!”
With a dynamic and intensive curriculum taught by dedicated teachers, wide ranging cultural experiences and travel to foreign countries that allow for full immersion, students in Harker’s language programs develop as knowledgeable global citizens who see the value in learning about the world from other perspectives.
Sheth and fellow senior Jeffrey Yang are currently taking the post-AP course on Spanish literature and film – focused on the novel “Como Agua Para Chocolate” (“Like Water for Chocolate”) – and have performed together on cello at Harker’s Spanish Culture Night. That experience was a “super fun way to explore the artistic side of the language,” Sheth said. Yang agreed, noting that in studying another language “we learn not only to speak and write the language, but also to embody its culture and ideology.”
Marla Holt is a freelance writer based in Minnesota.
In this year’s National Young Composers Challenge, junior Anika Fuloria was named a finalist in the full orchestra category for her piece, titled “Worker 21486 – Life and Death in the Hive,” which received high praise from the competition’s judges. “This is quite a remarkable piece,” said Keith Lay, who teaches in the composition program at Full Sail University. “It’s unlike any other submission that we’ve received this year.”
A prolific composer, Fuloria has written music for Harker’s 2018 and 2019 fall plays and composed “The Final March” as a tribute to the senior class of 2019, which was performed at the upper school’s spring concert in May. She also performs in the bass section of the upper school orchestra, and this past weekend performed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with the CODA (California Orchestra Directors Association) String Orchestra, leading the bass section after placing first in the seating audition.
Mary Liu ’14, who currently works in the office of Congressman Ro Khanna, has been awarded a Schwarzman Scholarship. The program is “designed to prepare its graduates to build stronger relationships between China and a rapidly changing world and to address the most pressing challenges of the 21st century,” according to its website.
Liu’s bio notes she is a Gilman Scholar, studied applied mathematics at Columbia University, and dedicated a year in service to rural communities in China and Thailand where she volunteered as a community organizer, teacher and website developer. She is passionate about increasing economic opportunity in rural communities. Huge congratulations!
In early December, CareerConnect held a professional speaker event featuring Mariette Wharton, renowned social and business entrepreneur. She shared a variety of valuable insights on her experience creating and investing in startups and had a wonderful discussion with students about applying business knowledge. During her presentation, Wharton discussed her journey as an entrepreneur and gave valuable advice to the students on overcoming adversity and building individual branding. Additionally, she spoke about her motivation for founding her company, Nimble, and gaining a competitive advantage. Rohan Arora, grade 12, said, “It was really interesting to hear about the experiences of being able to bootstrap many companies. I can draw a lot of lessons from that for my own nonprofit.”
Wharton’s insightful slideshow provided good advice to students that transcended business and can be applied to daily life. Andrew Sun, grade 11, noted the importance of her advice on branding: “I think the advice is very applicable not just in business but beyond life in general because people can think of what’s positively associated with you.”
Notably, Wharton pointed out the transformative process of good ideas and how to pivot daily inspirations to new opportunities. Overall, the event was a great success with students learning a lot from her presentation, which has greatly enhanced their business knowledge.
Harker journalism students spent Nov. 19-23 in Washington, D.C., attending the Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association’s Fall High School Journalism Convention, where the Winged Post newspaper received an NSPA Pacemaker award.
The upper school’s Winged Post newspaper was awarded the Pacemaker for the 2018-19 school year, which was the third Pacemaker in journalism department history, following a 2016 win for the upper school news website, Aquila, and the Winged Post’s first Pacemaker win in 2008. The Winged Post was one of just 19 school publications chosen from among 220 finalists. Aquila was awarded sixth place in Best of Show in the Website category.
Individual awards included an honorable mention for Social Justice Reporting for senior Mahika Halepete’s story on the refugee crisis, and another honorable mention in Local Climate Change Reporting for a story covering the Green New Deal by juniors Arya Maheshwari, Varsha Rammohan and Michael Eng, and sophomore Lucy Ge.
Honorable mentions were also won for 2019 Digital Story of the Year for coverage of the California Democratic Convention by seniors Eric Fang and Kathy Fang, and juniors Arushi Saxena and Anna Vazhaeparambil, and a story by Kathy Fang and senior Jessie Wang on biology teacher Thomas Artiss’ beekeeping hobby.
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, DECA director of communications
Over 50 students traveled to Anaheim in early November for California DECA’s first Fall Leadership Development Conference (FLDC), giving new members a closer look at three DECA industry clusters in a noncompetitive environment. As the students’ first official DECA conference, they learned the basics of the various tracks offered: leadership, hospitality and entrepreneurship, and had the opportunity to listen to leaders in the business world reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“FLDC’s various tracks provided a pathway for students to become familiar with some of DECA’s clusters and demonstrate growth as leaders,” said Bryan Zhang, grade 11, DECA’s director of written events. “With the conference being the students’ first experience pitching their ideas to fellow competitors, FLDC allowed them to master their presentation skills while networking with people across California. Furthermore, the variety of keynote speakers taught the attendees about resilience and personal development through engaging activities and meaningful anecdotes. Overall, I think FLDC was an enriching experience for both seasoned veterans and novices of DECA.”
At the opening session, students were introduced to the conference theme, “Leadership Wins Championships,” and heard keynote speaker Jake Kelfer, author of the bestseller “Elevate Beyond,” discuss his career journey and life lessons.
“FLDC was very well run and gave me many new opportunities to learn from mentors and speakers,” said Lexi Nishimura, grade 9. “During the conference, I also got to bond with my chapter and make new friends in my track group.”
Later, students assembled with their respective tracks for a testing session and an introduction to the field. Through teamwork activities, members met other California DECA members and laid the groundwork for their final presentation with their groups.
On Saturday morning, attendees gathered for the morning session, where speaker Scott Mathie, founder of Nix Your Limits, talked about Walt Disney’s leadership and creative problem-solving skills. Then, the students transferred into their track groups to learn key concepts for their respective clusters and begin working on their final presentations.
The entrepreneurship track brainstormed ideas for a business proposal, while the leadership and hospitality tracks learned basic terminologies and leadership styles. Students then went out to lunch in Anaheim before reconvening in the afternoon to polish and practice their presentations.
“As the first conference of the year, FLDC was an incredible experience for kids to learn about DECA,” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, co-chief executive officer of Harker DECA. “The conference provided students a great introduction to the different clusters, especially as each track was based on a competitive event that DECA offers. Our members’ creative presentations impressed me and showed how many highly skilled future DECA competitors and emerging leaders are within our chapter.
“The keynote speakers were also some of the best I’ve seen so far and gave attendees invaluable advice on leadership and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the conference allowed our members to bond with each other, and I think the balance between fun and learning created an amazing first DECA experience for our chapter,” Kolla added.
On Friday, RHYTHM – a youth outreach organization formed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus – visited Harker’s middle and upper school campuses, where it performed at a pair of assemblies, joined by middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey. The 50-man chorus sang a variety of songs from its repertoire, including George Michael’s “Freedom” and “If You Were Gay” from the musical Avenue Q. In between songs, members of the chorus shared their personal stories about growing up feeling different because of their orientation, providing valuable lessons about love, acceptance and building a more inclusive community.
RHYTHM coordinator Mitch Galli visited Harker the previous week to work with middle and upper school vocal groups as well as each campus’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Each assembly included a special performance of The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge,” featuring Harker singers and students reading aloud hopes, written anonymously, for greater inclusivity in schools and communities.
Acorn Cottage at Harker Preschool had a pajama day last week, and everyone got comfortable! It was a nice day of service, said Yogeshree Marathe, an Acorn teacher along with Schenelle Henry, Swagata Chatterjee and Sara Bayati. “As part of our lesson about being thankful and giving, we had a pajama drive,” Marathe noted. “The children brought in new child-size pajamas with a new book or new toy to donate.” The donations will be combined with the lower school’s annual pajama drive. They all look very cozy!