It is officially the Week of the Young Child, and Harker Preschool celebrated Tasty Tuesday by teaching about eating healthy and promoting physical fitness. On Tuesday afternoon, the students enjoyed activities and games, including Tug of War, bubble play, big blue blocks, parachute play and many races. Wednesday, students had the best of times with the simplest of toys: cardboard tubes and boxes! It’s great to be a young child at Harker Preschool!
Preschool students continue to revel in Week of the Young Child! On Thursday, the young ones had and art extravaganza that included sidewalk chalk drawing, finger painting, painting with brushes and spray bottles, and more.
The next day, Friday, grade 8 students from Harker’s Middle School Ecology Club came by for an Eco Buddies day. Among other activities, the students sang together, designed wind-powered helicopters, planted and germinated seeds, butyl bird feeders and learned about composting. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time!
Week of the Young Child is an annual celebration hosted by the National Association for the Education of Young Children to celebrate early learning, young children, teachers and families.
Last week, grade 4 students made their annual trek to Coloma, gaining insight into the lives of Gold Rush-era miners as they “made cornbread, did some old-fashioned laundry, made shelters and bartered at the general store,” reported Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. Naturally, the students also learned how to pan for gold, and some even managed to turn up gold flakes. Students finished the bulk of their first day activities in time to find cover from the rain and enjoy a brief hoedown and campfire chat. Coloma’s abundance of wonderful scenery was a real treat for the students, who hiked the Monroe Ridge and learned about the history of the area and how mining affected its environment and native population.
Huge congratulations to Suchita Nety ’13 and Angela Ma ’14 for being awarded 2018 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans!
This unique program honors 30 outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing graduate degrees in the United States. Each of the recipients, selected from more than 1,700 applicants, was chosen for his or her potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture or his or her academic field. Recipients receive up to $90,000 in funding toward their education over two years.
Nety’s and Ma’s complete bios are on the website, but here is a quick summary of what these women have been doing since leaving Harker.
Ma’s award will support her in her pursuit of a Ph.D. in business economics at Harvard University. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard, has been editor-in-chief of the Harvard Economics Review and is a John Harvard Scholar. Ma was an avid ballet dancer while at Harker, and she danced, choreographed and was treasurer for the Harvard Ballet Company. She plans to become an economics professor and is interested in financial crisis management.
Nety will use the award to continue her work on a Ph.D. in biological engineering at MIT and an M.D. at Harvard. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from CalTech and spent four years working with protein-based reporters for ultrasound imaging, and earned a number of accolades including the 2016 George W. Housner Prize for Academic Excellence and Original Research, the Arie J. Haagen-Smit Memorial Award and the Hallett Smith Prize for Essay Devoted to Shakespeare. Along with her academic efforts, Nety has volunteered at a literacy nonprofit, attained professional status in Bharatanatyam, a style of Indian classical dance, and choreographs hip-hop. Her goal is to work with patients as an oncologist and develop molecular tools to assist in cell-based therapies.
The 13th annual Harker Research Symposium, held Saturday at the upper school campus, drew more than 700 people from the Harker community to learn more about “The Artificial Intelligence Revolution” – this year’s theme – and see the work of Harker student researchers.
Jeff Dean, a Google senior fellow with Google’s Brain Team and this year’s morning keynote speaker, attracted a large crowd to the Athletic Center for his talk on machine learning and how his team’s research has been applied to Google products. He also spoke about the ways machine learning will change how we live in the future, covering urban renewal through self-driving cars and better healthcare through improved informatics.
Attendees later made their way to the Nichols Hall atrium, where they perused the many exhibitors, including Microsoft, Nvidia, Roku and Solvvy, trying out virtual reality and holographic technology, as well as learning about advancements in video streaming and AI-driven customer self-service.
At the auxiliary gym, the middle and upper school poster presentations proved once again to be a popular attraction, as students gave detailed breakdowns of their research and findings to curious visitors. Breakout sessions also were held, during which Harker upper school students gave presentations on research projects they had conducted.
With artificial intelligence experiencing rapid growth, the symposium aimed to prepare future generations to enter (and perhaps have a hand in creating) a future of intelligent machines through a series of workshops for lower, middle and upper school students. In the upper school workshop, Harker parent and LodgIQ CTO Somnath Banerjee (Sumantra, grade 11, and Nila ’14) learned how to train neural networks and create a machine-learned image. Wayne Liu, general manager and vice president of business development at Perfect Corp., gave middle schoolers an introductory lesson on AI and how it is used in the real world, and got them started on an AI project of their own. Lower school students received a primer on AI and played games that taught key concepts in two separate workshops, one conducted by junior Natasha Maniar and sophomore Cynthia Chen, and another led by sophomores Joshua Valluru, Eileen Li and Vani Mohindra.
During lunch, attendees once again flocked to the quad to see chemistry teachers Andrew Irvine and David Casso (very safely) create balls of fire and spectacular plumes at the chemistry magic show, after which the crowd returned to the Athletic Center for the afternoon keynote address, delivered by Andrew Beck, co-founder and CEO of PathAI. In his talk, Beck detailed the work he is doing with PathAI, which aims to develop image recognition technology for use in pathology, including improving accuracy in the diagnosis and prediction of cancer. He also shared the impact he expects this technology will have on the medical field in the coming decades.
Alumna speaker Ramya Rangan ’12 delivered a talk on molecular machines to a packed Nichols Hall auditorium, detailing how discoveries about the inner workings of proteins and other macromolecules will lead to the design of human-made molecular machines, and the questions such advancements will bring.
Afternoon events also included talks by finalists from this year’s Siemens Competition and Regeneron Science Talent Search, with presentations given by senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian, whose team project took them to national finals of the Siemens Competition, and seniors Justin Xie and Rajiv Movva, who were finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search.
The event closed with a panel discussion on the various research opportunities available to Harker students, delivered by upper school science teachers Anita Chetty and Chris Spenner, Harker parent Prasad Movva (Rajiv, grade 12, and Neil ’15), seniors Nastya Grebin, Amy Jin, Rajiv Movva and Justin Xie, and junior Katherine Tian.
Alexis Gauba ’17, now attending the University of California, Berkeley, is part of a team awarded $10,250 for in-depth research on blockchain protocols specifically focusing on alternative consensus. Blockchain is a method of secure storage originally developed for cryptocurrency and now under development for a variety of uses.
The Blockchain Lab at the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology (SCET) at Berkeley posted the news yesterday. Gauba is one of seven members of the team that will investigate blockchain use and development. The team’s grant application was titled “Framework for Cryptoeconomic Incentives in Proof of Stake (PoS) Systems.” Three other teams also received awards, for a total of $50,000.
In its announcement the Blockchain Lab noted, “We are awarding each of these teams to help to support applied and fundamental research that will reduce barriers in the adoption of blockchain and its inclusion in an increasingly digital world with new possibilities for fairness, transparency and efficiency in both financial transactions and information sharing.”
Gauba, who is working on a combined degree in electrical engineering and computer science, is taking the initiative to organize what is expected to be the largest conference to date for women in blockchain. Blockchain at Berkeley is hosting She256: Women in Blockchain Conference on April 23.
Gauba noted, “We want to highlight and connect communities within the blockchain industry that strive for inclusion, equality and professionalism, and are partnering with all similarly committed individuals and organizations in this objective.
“We have designed a program that will explore the groundbreaking research, protocols and specific applications of blockchain, especially in projects led by women in the space. We want to foster collaborations between researchers, professionals and students to help women get access to the right resources and enter the industry with confidence, while also highlighting the achievements of prominent strong women already established in the space. No prior experience in technology, blockchain or computer science is required. We encourage everyone to come, regardless of major or experience level. Celebrate and learn with us!” she added.
Last month’s Jump Rope for Heart effort raised more than $17,000 for the American Heart Association, the largest amount since 2002. This annual event brings students together to jump rope, shoot hoops and participate in other fun activities to raise funds and highlight healthy lifestyle habits that reduce the risk of heart disease and failure. Harker has raised nearly $200,000 through the event since it began in 2000.
The annual Ogre Awards, held yesterday at the Bucknall gym, saw 88 second graders in costume as literary archetypes from various cultures. In the months leading up to the show, students had been reading and discussing stories from many different countries, including Indonesia, Ecuador and Russia. Each year the Ogre Awards celebrate these stories by giving awards in a number of categories to the students’ favorite characters.
This year’s version of the long-running Harker tradition told the story of folktale characters leaping from the pages of an open book and discovering what it would be like to exist in other characters’ stories. The show also recognized longtime delivery driver Rick Samble for his nearly 20 years of service to the Harker libraries, and featured a guest appearance by Head of School Brian Yager, who played the part of Melvil Dewey, inventor of the Dewey Decimal System!
Harker middle and upper school students competed at three tournaments in March, all against high school students.
San Francisco State University
From March 10-11, 31 schools across two states representing 157 entries competed in debate events. Fifty-one Harker middle and upper school students competed.
Junior Varsity Policy
10th – Helen Li, grade 9, and Mir Bahri, grade 7, 3-2 record
On March 21, about 50 Harker middle schools students competed in three distinct events.
Speech (Impromptu & Memorized Interpretation)
1st – Zubin Khera, grade 7
2nd – Madeleine Hansen, grade 8
Public Forum
1st – Krish Mysoor and Ansh Sheth, both grade 6
2nd – Joe Li and Ramit Goyal, both grade 6
Public Forum Speaker Awards
1st – Krishna Mysoor, grade 6
2nd – Ansh Sheth, grade 6
3rd – Deeya Viradia, grade 7
4th – Sathvik Chundru, grade 6
5th – Carol Wininger, grade 7
6th – Lexi Nishimura, grade 7
7th – Joe Li, grade 6
8th – Aniketh Tummala, grade 6
Lincoln-Douglas
1st – Krish Maniar, grade 7
Santa Clara University No. 2
From March 23-25, 87 schools across two states, representing 1,012 entries, competed in speech and debate events. About 75 Harker middle school students competed.
Novice Duo Interpretation
3rd – Nikhil Devireddy and Zubin Khera, both grade 7, finalist
The 10th annual Stellar Waitstaff Luncheon was, as usual, a great success! Even though the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic was unfortunately cancelled, Harker parents rallied with the silent auction offerings, and sixth grader Kyle Johnson’s parents won him the prize of being served lunch by Harker’s top administrators.
Johnson invited friends and classmates Kuga Pence, Kieran Figueroa, Jackson Lara, Sebastian Dionne and Dominic Ortiz to join his birthday celebration on Tuesday. With Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school, and Brian Yager, head of school, as waitstaff, the service was stellar. The pair dished out root beer floats, Greek salads, fruit cups, make-your-own tacos and hamburgers. The students rounded out the feast with make-your-own ice cream sundaes and chocolate-covered strawberries.
After being canceled last year due to ongoing construction, the annual upper school Hoscars variety show made its Rothschild Performing Arts Center debut on Friday, featuring dozens of students putting their many talents on display, be they musical, comedic or terpsichorean. Several students performed modified versions of popular songs, such as the duo of pianist Annabelle Perng and violinist Susan He, both juniors, who played a medley they put together in an experiment to see how many songs they could fit into three minutes. The show also featured energetic dance performances, as well as a comedic monologue by Andrew Semenza, grade 12, offering a feverish interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” recreated faithfully by Harker students posing as the famous painting’s subjects.
Because of limited capacity in the Patil Theater, this year’s Hoscars consisted of two shows to give as many students as possible the chance to attend. Audiences at both shows were very enthusiastic, relishing the opportunity to be among the first to cheer for Hoscars performers at the new venue, which is especially suited for live performances.