Last week, upper school students headed to San Francisco for a field trip organized by English teachers Charles Shuttleworth and Jen Siraganian. At the legendary City Lights bookstore, the students received a tour courtesy of event programmer Peter Maravelis. Students also visited The Beat Museum, dedicated to the work of Beat Generation authors such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. There they were given a tour by Jerry Cimino, who co-founded the museum with his wife, Estelle. Students in Shuttleworth’s class on Kerouac and the Beat Generation also met with Dennis McNally, author of the Kerouac biography “Desolate Angel.” Meanwhile, students in Siraganian’s “Art of Poetry and Fiction” class visited with the directors of the Litquake Foundation, which organizes Litquake, a yearly 10-day literary festival that spans much of San Francisco.
“I knew that many values we have today (gender equality, environmental awareness, etc.) spread during the hippie movement and originated from the Beat movement, but I didn’t truly understand to what extent the cultural shifts of the mid-1900s influenced our society until we talked to Mr. McNally,” said Sophia Angus, grade 12.
“I was fascinated by City Lights bookstore and its dedication to its origins,” said senior Katrina Liu. “In the tours, the guides at both the museum and the bookstore emphasized the Beats’ contributions to the counterculture and hippie movements of the ’60s, and City Lights bookstore has faithfully remained true to their roots. For example, the basement level of the store is filled with books primarily concerned with global and local social and political issues, helping to raise awareness and expand readers’ world views.”
Last week, upper school students headed to San Francisco for a field trip organized by English teachers Charles Shuttleworth and Jen Siraganian. At the legendary City Lights bookstore, the students received a tour courtesy of event programmer Peter Maravelis. Students also visited The Beat Museum, dedicated to the work of Beat Generation authors such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. There they were given a tour by Jerry Cimino, who co-founded the museum with his wife, Estelle. Students in Shuttleworth’s class on Kerouac and the Beat Generation also met with Dennis McNally, author of the Kerouac biography “Desolate Angel.” Meanwhile, students in Siraganian’s “Art of Poetry and Fiction” class visited with the directors of the Litquake Foundation, which organizes Litquake, a yearly 10-day literary festival that spans much of San Francisco.
“I knew that many values we have today (gender equality, environmental awareness, etc.) spread during the hippie movement and originated from the Beat movement, but I didn’t truly understand to what extent the cultural shifts of the mid-1900s influenced our society until we talked to Mr. McNally,” said Sophia Angus, grade 12.
“I was fascinated by City Lights bookstore and its dedication to its origins,” said senior Katrina Liu. “In the tours, the guides at both the museum and the bookstore emphasized the Beats’ contributions to the counterculture and hippie movements of the ’60s, and City Lights bookstore has faithfully remained true to their roots. For example, the basement level of the store is filled with books primarily concerned with global and local social and political issues, helping to raise awareness and expand readers’ world views.”
Last week, upper school students headed to San Francisco for a field trip organized by English teachers Charles Shuttleworth and Jen Siraganian. At the legendary City Lights bookstore, the students received a tour courtesy of event programmer Peter Maravelis. Students also visited The Beat Museum, dedicated to the work of Beat Generation authors such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. There they were given a tour by Jerry Cimino, who co-founded the museum with his wife, Estelle. Students in Shuttleworth’s class on Kerouac and the Beat Generation also met with Dennis McNally, author of the Kerouac biography “Desolate Angel.” Meanwhile, students in Siraganian’s “Art of Poetry and Fiction” class visited with the directors of the Litquake Foundation, which organizes Litquake, a yearly 10-day literary festival that spans much of San Francisco.
“I knew that many values we have today (gender equality, environmental awareness, etc.) spread during the hippie movement and originated from the Beat movement, but I didn’t truly understand to what extent the cultural shifts of the mid-1900s influenced our society until we talked to Mr. McNally,” said Sophia Angus, grade 12.
“I was fascinated by City Lights bookstore and its dedication to its origins,” said senior Katrina Liu. “In the tours, the guides at both the museum and the bookstore emphasized the Beats’ contributions to the counterculture and hippie movements of the ’60s, and City Lights bookstore has faithfully remained true to their roots. For example, the basement level of the store is filled with books primarily concerned with global and local social and political issues, helping to raise awareness and expand readers’ world views.”
Over a score of upper school girls from the Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) club traveled to Harker Preschool to do science activities with the littlest Harker students.
The visitors, 23 upper school students and 15 preschool parent volunteers, worked with 75 preschoolers on a variety of fun tasks, including exploring milk paint, which involves using soap to move color through milk. Other activities included generating static electricity with wool and plastic rods to attract paper bits; using a microscope and digital imager to look at leaf structures; using filter paper and marker ink to separate colors; making giant bubbles; and looking at preserved octopi, bats, birds, snakes, insects, sea shells and a sea star. The students also collaborated in a Lego Engineering math game. “The children had a great time,” noted Robyn Stone, STEM specialist for the preschool. “Preschool parents were very impressed by the Women in STEM’s passion for science and their ability to communicate with our young scientists,” she added.
Acorn Cottage students at Harker Preschool got to work last week painting beautiful designs on Christmas tree ornaments, and they came out great! The ornaments will be on their class tree at Christmas in the Park this holiday season. If you happen to visit, look for Acorn Cottage’s tree sign, “Harker Preschool Acorn Cottage 2018/2019”. The photos tell the story – too much fun!
Last month, Alice Feng, grade 9, and Sriram Bhimaraju, grade 7, were announced as winners in this year’s Broadcom MASTERS competition. Feng won a STEM Award in the engineering category for her project, “The Effect of Mushroom Species and Substrates on the Properties of a Novel Biodegradable Material: Mycelium,” which earned her an iPad and $3,500 to attend a STEM summer camp of her choice. Bhimaraju’s project, “Low-Cost Archery Assistant with an Interface for the Visually Impaired,” won the Rising Star Award, which netted him a trip to Phoenix to attend the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in May of next year as a Broadcom MASTERS International Official Observer. In recognition of their hard work and achievements, each student also received a certificate of recognition from U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris.
Last month, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) announced that two 2017-18 Harker journalism publications would receive Crown awards, the organization’s highest honor. The Winged Post was named a finalist in the High School Print News category, and the Talon yearbook was announced as a finalist later in the month. In March, the finalists will find out which level of Crown award they’ve received: gold or silver.
Upper school journalism teacher Ellen Austin noted that this will be “the first time that Harker journalism will receive multiple Crowns from CSPA in the same year, and it’s the first time that I, as an advisor, will have two publications that I advise getting Crowns at the same time.”
By Jenny Achten, speech and debate department chair, 6-12
The speech and debate team has had some great results thus far in the season. Students have won awards in both local and national events in all five major events (policy debate, speech, Lincoln-Douglas debate, public forum debate and Congress).
The team of Anusha Kuppahally, grade 12, and Maddie Huynh, grade 11, made it to elimination rounds at both the Valley Invitational in Iowa and the St. Mark’s tournament in Texas. Andy Lee, grade 10, and Deven Shah, grade 9, were also in elimination rounds in Iowa. In policy debate, the yearlong topic is about whether the United States should ease restrictions on immigration. Harker’s advocated for the United States to accept more refugees from Syria.
The speech students are also off to a great start with Alycia Cary, grade 12, winning an award at the Yale Invitational in original oratory. Nikki Solanki, grade 11, took second place in both programmed oral interpretation and dramatic interpretation at the Florida Blue Key tournament. Solanki also won first place in dramatic performance at the Florida Blue Key round robin. Jay Menon, grade 12, also reached elimination rounds in Florida with his oratory. The team is also proud of Brian Pinkston and Ellis Goldman, both grade 10; Andrea Thia, grade 9; and Brandon Lin, grade 11, for making the final rounds of a local league tournament.
A number of the Lincoln-Douglas students also have represented Harker extremely well. Kelly Shen, grade 12; Akshay Manglik, grade 10; and Quentin Clark, grade 11, all qualified for elimination rounds at the Valley tournament in Iowa. Manglik also made it to elimination rounds at the Presentation tournament in San Jose, along with Aditya Tadimeti, grade 10; Sachin Shah, grade 11; and Anshul Reddy, grade 9. Manglik, Tadimeti and Reddy also cleared at the St. Mark’s tournament in Texas. They have debated topics ranging from the rights of reporters to protect confidential sources to privacy concerns for candidates for public office.
In public forum, the duo of Annie Ma and Amanda Cheung, both grade 11, as well as Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 12, and the pairing of Datha Arramreddy, grade 11, and Raymond Banke, grade 12, were in elimination rounds of the Milpitas Invitational. Naveen Mirapuri and Chandan Aggarwal, both grade 11, also won awards at the St. Francis tournament. Their current topic is about whether or not the federal government should impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry.
Finally, in Congressional debate, Jason Lin, grade 10; Jason Huang, grade 12; and Andrew Sun, grade 10, earned bids to nationals at the Yale Invitational. Sun and Nakul Bajaj, grade 11, both placed second at a league event. Lin, Sun, Riyaa Randhawa, grade 9, and David Feng, grade 11, earned bids to nationals at the Florida Blue Key Invitational.
The coaches are very proud of the success students have enjoyed across the team. This semester, the team will also travel to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Chicago, and Oakland in addition to attending some local events in San Jose and Santa Clara.
Coach Greg Achten noted, “I am really proud of our students’ success but even more proud of the way they have come together this year and worked as a team. The level of support the students show one another and work to help their teammates both in class and at tournaments tells me a lot about how inclusive and caring our students are.”
Grade 7 students spent last week visiting America’s scenic and historic national parks, viewing their many natural wonders. Early in the trip, the students ventured to the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most breathtaking sights. “The students and teachers who have never seen the Grand Canyon before experienced a blind trust walk to a scenic spot,” said assistant middle school division head Patricia Burrows, who accompanied the students on the trip. “When they took off their blindfolds, the gasps of delight, wonder and marvel were so satisfying.”
The next day the students moved on to Monument Valley, situated on the Arizona-Utah border. Highlights included driving to Honeymoon Arch for a climbing challenge and to hear a Navajo elder share some of the tribe’s values and traditions. At lunchtime the students enjoyed an outdoor barbecue near the Three Sisters monument where their guide, Daryl, shared more about the Navajo culture. “He distributed to them healing rocks, which he encouraged them to keep in their pocket,” said Burrows. “The one he has in his pocket is 15 years old.”
On their last day in Monument Valley, students started their trip to Bryce Canyon, a journey which included stops at the Glen Canyon Dam and Pink Coral Sand Dunes. Playing among the dunes was a highlight for many students.
The students’ first sight of Bryce Canyon the next day elicited many awed gasps. “The vibrant colors of orange, white, green as well as the blended colors in between transported us to a world we do not experience in Silicon Valley,” Burrows said. “This is why this is such a special trip for our students.” Each bus group spent the day hiking around the canyon and preparing for skits they would later perform.
Before heading home, the students went on a short hike in Zion National Park, which was a favorite part of the trip for some students, who enjoyed “the wide variety of environments,” Burrows said.
Harker Preschool held its annual Halloween Parade and the cuteness would not stop! There were many, many smiles from superheroes, fuzzy animals, fancy ladies and others in the parade. There is a full gallery in the Harker Parent Portal.