In late September, CareerConnect held a lunch-and-learn session, featuring Harker alumnus Ethan Agarwal ’03, founder and CEO of Aaptiv, a provider of digital fitness content. During his presentation, Agarwal discussed his journey as an entrepreneur and gave valuable advice to the students. Furthermore, he talked about how his years at Harker influenced his choices in college and career. In particular, he mentioned how valuable his relationships in high school became in his career and advised students to create meaningful connections.
Additionally, Agarwal spoke about his motivation for founding Aaptiv and what helped him overcome challenges along the way. Wanting to improve his lifestyle and make fitness available to anyone, Agarwal decided to start his company. Despite obstacles encountered, he kept pursuing his goal and remained dedicated to his mission.
Students learned a lot from Agarwal’s presentation and appreciated the experiences and pieces of wisdom that he shared. “It was really inspiring to see someone who was in the same position as us 16 years ago,” said Riya Arora, grade 10. “I found it most helpful that he related everything back to when he was in high school and how he gave us advice.”
Additionally, students appreciated Agarwal’s candidness as he talked about the ups and downs of starting a company. “He was really realistic about the process. … He also highlighted what it means to be a Harker student and face all those challenges,” remarked Amrita Pasupathy, grade 9.
In all, the event was a great success and helped students learn about the entrepreneurial experience.
On Monday, author Kelly Yang spoke to fourth and fifth graders about her book, “Front Desk,” inspired by her childhood experiences living as an immigrant to the United States. The book has won wide praise and numerous awards, including the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature and a Parents’ Choice Gold Medal Fiction award.
Yang shared some of her own story of being a very young new immigrant who struggled with speaking English, as well as someone who began college at age 13. She also spoke about writing and gave students advice on why and how they should approach the process. Reasons she gave for taking up writing included the fun involved in creating worlds that the creator can control and the importance of good writing in the students’ future academic and professional lives. To become a good writer, she said, students should make an effort to write every day, spend lots of time reading, and learn to analyze books and movies. During the Q&A session, Yang revealed that Scholastic was the only publisher who accepted her book, and that even as a published writer, she experiences self-doubt. “Everyone does!” she said. “But the answer is to write for yourself and not others.”
“Front Desk” is one of the books that students are reading for the Tournament of Books, in which students vote on various books placed in a bracket to determine the winner at the end of the year.
This past spring, Harker received an endorsement from the Global Education Benchmark Group, a nonprofit organization that “researches and establishes best practices in the field of global education and supports member schools to prepare students to thrive in increasingly interconnected world systems,” according to its website. Endorsements are awarded to GEBG member schools that exemplify the high standards established by the organization.
GEBG representatives visited Harker last winter and met with administrators, students, parents, department chairs, teachers and other people in the Harker community who were involved with the Global Education program. The committee’s report commended many aspects of the program, including the level of support from school administration, the availability of professional development opportunities (such as the Vegesna Foundation’s Teacher Excellence Program) and the school’s capacity for creating global citizens who are knowledgeable and empathetic.
“Over the past many years, I’ve observed students and teachers embark on life-changing international experiences, participate in hands-on global projects that enhanced their classroom experiences and met talented educators from across the world,” said Global Education director Jennifer Walrod. “I’m thrilled that we received this endorsement and look forward to our continued growth as I work towards implementing all the committee’s constructive feedback.”
Brian Chen is headed to Washington, D.C.! Today, the freshman was named as a finalist in the 2019 Broadcom MASTERS competition. He and the other finalists will spend Oct. 25-30 in the nation’s capital, competing in the final stage of the competition, as well as meeting government officials and displaying their projects to the public. Winners will be announced on Oct. 29. Best of luck!
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Seven students were named to the Top 300 in the 2019 Broadcom MASTERS competition! Arjun Barrett, Rohan Bhowmik, Gordon Chen, Brian Chen, Jacob Huang and Nicholas Wei, all grade 9, and Reshma Kosaraju, grade 8, were selected from more than 2,300 applicants for this year’s competition. The students were selected for projects they entered in science fairs last year, when they were in middle school.
On Sept. 18, 30 of the Top 300 will be announced as finalists and will travel to Washington, D.C., in October to compete for awards and prizes totaling more than $100,000. Each year, the Society for Science & the Public selects the top 10 percent of middle school science projects submitted to society-affiliated science fairs to enter the Broadcom MASTERS competition.
Deven Parikh, grade 11, joined his mother, Dev Parikh, ACS vice president of Go to Market for Oracle, at a communication debate workshop at Oracle in late July to help sixth grade girls learn the basics of speech and debate. Parikh has been in the Harker speech and debate program for five years, and expressed a desire to teach others the skills he has gained in the program.
At the workshop, Deven Parikh presented a 20-minute lecture on public speaking. “Prior to the actual workshop, I spent ample time communicating with a representative from Apple to obtain donated Apple iPads,” he said. “Many of the children we would be working with did not have electronics at home, so by providing them with iPads, they were able to research a topic to debate. At the end of the workshop, they were able to keep the iPads.”
Parikh helped both sides prepare their arguments for a debate on the U.S. policy on immigration. “During the actual debate, I was the moderator and provided tips at the end to help them improve their public speaking and research skills,” he added.
“It was great helping out the other children who are not as lucky as we are. Going to Harker, everyone has an iPhone, AirPods and an updated MacBook, yet others are not as lucky as we are. It felt great to help the community,” he finished.
Loren Powers, Harker’s new head football and strength and conditioning coach, introduced the Volt app to the Harker campus, bringing about a new way to get into and stay in shape. He wants all students at Harker to take health and fitness to the next level, and this technology will help.
“Volt will plan your workout and, using performance training AI, will adapt and evolve each workout in real time based on your feedback,” said Powers. The app effectively becomes each user’s personal trainer, keeping track of workout dates, what machines or lifts should be utilized at what weights, and so forth, thus taking the guesswork out of workouts.
“I always want to do workouts, but I don’t know what to do,” stated Leisha Devisetti, grade 9, “so Volt gives me the exercises that I should be doing.”
Research shows that workouts are more effective when part of a long-term, structured plan, the Volt website notes. Powers hopes the whole Harker community will benefit from the program, not just athletes.
“At the moment Volt is for Harker student athletes,” said Powers. “However, it could be utilized for physical education and health and wellness sessions.”
The Volt system is popular with students working hard to attain personal fitness goals or train for their sports. “I really like it,” said Jack Connors, grade 12. “It keeps you diligent with your work and on the same track over time, so you’re not skipping a workout or doing the wrong weight when lifting.” The popularity is evident as the weight room quickly fills up as school ends.
Although the app has only been in use at Harker for a few months, Powers said, “We have already seen huge strides in body control and strength gains in the individuals who have been the most consistent with their routine.” Only time will tell how effective this program will be for our student athletes, but the excitement around the app and Coach Powers has created quite a buzz in the weight room. “A lot of people are encouraged with Coach Powers’ motivation and confidence in us,” exclaimed Connors. “That energy is really important to the weight room.”
With over a million users across America, including big-time collegiate athletic programs, including Michigan State University, Clemson University and USC, Volt is the No. 1 AI workout app in the Apple App Store. By joining these powerhouses, the Eagles are showing WBAL and CCS teams – and beyond – that Harker is ready to compete with the best. Go Eagles!
On Monday morning, the upper school hosted a special assembly featuring cultural commentator Jay Smooth, who runs the popular video blog Ill Doctrine and also founded Underground Railroad, the longest-running hip-hop radio program in New York City.
Smooth referenced the history of hip-hop as an example of how communities can make each other better. Just as rappers, DJs, dancers and other members of New York’s hip-hop communities challenged one another to become better artists and people, so too should other communities make sure that its members are conscious of their own privileges of race, gender, class or ability, and show a willingness to receive criticism. “We need to change how we receive these critiques,” he said, “by fundamentally changing how we think about what being racist is, or sexist or ableist.”
Many people, Smooth said, have treated racism like having their tonsils removed, when it is “more like the plaque that builds up on your teeth every day,” something that must be addressed diligently throughout one’s life. “We are all naturally susceptible to implicit bias,” he said, “and we are all a part of systems we can contribute to, without being conscious of it.”
When being criticized by someone, Smooth advised to “listen with humility, and consider that they’re speaking from an experience we’ve never had.”
The Common Ground Speaker Series has some great speakers lined up to help parents better understand their children’s challenges. On Sept. 17, a mental health panel titled “Navigating the Tides of Adolescence” will be held at Junipero Serra High School, in partnership with local nonprofit StarVista.
On Oct. 3, Paul Tough will speak at Menlo School in Atherton on the topic “The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us.”
On Oct. 15, Lynn Lyons will speak at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Saratoga and at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School in San Mateo on the subject of “Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: Interrupting the Worry Cycle.”
On Oct. 22, a screening of “The Like Movie” will be followed by a moderated teen panel at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose on “The Impact of Social Media on Our Lives.”
Nov. 4, Michael Robb, PhD, will speak at Woodside Elementary on “The New Normal: Parents, Teens, Screens and Sleep.”
“Late Bloomers: Patience for Alternative Paths” will be the topic of a talk by Rich Karlgaard at Menlo School in Atherton on Nov. 12.
Lisa Damour, PhD, will speak on the topic of “Under Pressure: Confronting Stress and Anxiety in Girls” at the Nueva School in San Mateo and Sacred Hearth Preparatory in Atherton on Dec. 10.
Starting off 2020, Jennifer Eberhardt, PhD, will be in conversation with Julie Lythcott-Haims on “Biased: How Unconscious Bias Shapes Behavior” at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton on Jan. 15.
“Changing the Game: Giving Youth Sports Back to Our Kids” is the title of John O’Sullivan’s talk, which will take place Jan. 27 at Crystal Springs Uplands middle school campus in Belmont, and on Jan. 28 at St. Andrew’s School in Saratoga and Woodside Priory School in Portola Valley.
On Feb. 12, there will be a Children’s Health Council panel discussion at Menlo School on the topic of “Is it LD/ADHD, Anxiety or Both?”
Wrapping up February, Jackson Katz will speak on “Modern Masculinity: Raising a Stand-Up Guy Not a Stand-By Guy” at Junipero Serra on Feb. 25 and St. Francis High School on Feb. 26.
On March 4, Michael Reichert, PhD, will speak on “How to Raise a Boy: Nurturing the Emotional Lives of Our Sons” at both Harker’s middle school campus and Trinity School in Menlo Park.
The season closes on March 24 with “We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations that Matter,” with Celeste Headlee at Nueva School’s Bay Meadows Campus and the Bowman School in Palo Alto.
Please note all Common Ground Speaker Series events are free of charge to all community members , including parents, of member schools. Since The Harker School is a member school,parents need only come to the event and identify themselves as Harker parents. No RSVP is necessary. Non-member guests are welcome to attend for $20 at the door. Light refreshments are available 30 minutes prior to each event. Speakers’ books, if applicable, are available for purchase in cooperation with Books Inc.
The Harker Preschool STEM lab got a makeover, and the young ones are having a ball in the updated facility with teacher Amanda Crook! “The transitional kindergartners were excited to explore all the new stations,” said Caren Drezner, preschool director. “They have STEM journals now to document their discoveries, record observations and draw pictures of their creations.
“Amanda’s vision for the new STEM program is to provide thought-provoking settings for the children to explore,” continued Drezner. “She wants the space to spark curiosity and inquiry as the children grapple with concepts from all areas of the sciences and math strands, as well as incorporate elements of technology and engineering. The new Makerspace and Loose Parts allow the children to design and test out ideas, while Amanda is at the ready to scaffold their learning and challenge their thinking.” Just check out the photos – too much fun!
Two Harker alumni were given Dean’s Awards for Academic Excellence by Wharton/University of Pennsylvania School of Undergraduates this spring. Savi Joshi and Vedant Thyagaraj, who both graduated from Harker in 2015, received the awards.
Joshi was awarded for service to the University of Pennsylvania and/or the greater Philadelphia community. “Savi was recognized with this award for her tremendous efforts in teaching over 150 people about healthy eating in the greater Philadelphia community,” said Lee Kramer, director of student life at Wharton.
“She worked with our Netter Center and the Vetri Community Partnership to create a program that allows undergraduates to learn healthy eating with accessible produce so that they in turn can then teach the local community and younger students about healthier eating,” he added. “During her time at Penn, Savi also served as the co-chair of the Wharton Alumni Relations Council and as a facilitator of the Wharton Roundtables, a peer-to-peer discussion group.
Thyagaraj, who graduated from Wharton’s life science management dual-degree program in May, was presented with the Dean’s Award for Innovation for his remarkable career at the school. His many achievements at Wharton included strong academic performance, serving as president of the Penn Undergraduate Biotechnology Society and acting as a research assistant for the Wharton Global Family Alliance. Along with fellow Penn/Wharton alumni, Thyagaraj also founded Ride-Health, a transportation technology company that provides low-income, elderly and disabled patients with transportation to medical care by integrating with ridesharing providers such as Uber and Lyft and other modes of transport. Ride-Health currently has 12 full-time employees and operates in 25 states.
“We are very proud of both Savi and Vedant!” said Kramer. “They have both accomplished so much here at Wharton and Penn and they leave a great legacy here. In addition to all of their accomplishments, they were amazing students and I really enjoyed working with both of them during their four years at Wharton.”