Last week, the girls volleyball team dropped a four-game match to Menlo. This week, the Eagles host Sacred Heart Prep on Tuesday, before traveling to Notre Dame San Jose on Friday.
Football
The Eagle football team keeps on rolling as it took care of visiting Tamalpais 38-0 on Friday night to set a school record for most wins to start the season. Nate Kelly, grade 12, threw five TD passes, two each to Floyd Gordon, grade 12, and Anthony Contreras, grade 12, and one to Jared Anderson, grade 11. James Pauli, grade 12, led the defense with eight tackles, and Anderson added an interception. This week, the 7-0 Eagles host Stellar Prep at 7 p.m.
Also last week, Jadan McDermott, grade 12, was named Super Lineman of the Week, and Aaron Smith, grade 11, was named Game Changer by Get Sports Focus. Check out the tweets:
The girls water polo team picked up two big wins last week. In a 5-2 victory over Lynbrook, the goals were evenly distributed between Meghana Karinthi, grade 12, Alicia Xu, grade 10, Claudia Opris, grade 11, Cas Ruedy, grade 10, and Samantha Yanovsky, grade 11. Later in the week, the Eagles took care of Cupertino 11-2, with five goals from Abigail Wisdom, grade 11, two goals each from Arushi Madan, grade 10, and Xu, and one goal each from Anika Tiwari, grade 10, and Ruedy. This week, the girls host Monta Vista on Monday at 5:45 p.m. and Fremont on Tuesday at 6:15 p.m., then travel to Monta Vista on Thursday.
Cross Country
The cross country team traveled to the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course last week to compete in its first league race of the season. Gloria Guo, grade 12, and Lilia Gonzales, grade 11, both finished in the top 40, while Anna Weirich, grade 9, placed sixth in her first varsity league cross country meet. Over the weekend, the Eagles competed at the Artichoke Invitational at Half Moon Bay High. Ryan Adolf, grade 11, and Henry Wong, grade 11, led the boy’s varsity squad, while Weirich placed seventh in her first varsity invitational and had the 10th best girls time among the 552 runners. Also, new Harker coach Annie Tomlinson took first place in the coache’s race. Next up for the Eagle runners is another WBAL meet, this time at Baylands Park on Oct. 19.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team split two matches last week. The Eagles defeated Evergreen Valley High 4-3 before falling to Menlo 1-6. This week, the girls take on Scotts Valley on Monday, Crystal Springs Uplands on Tuesday and Castilleja on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team dropped two matches last week. Early in the week, the Eagles fell to Lynbrook 5-9, then were defeated 15-11 by Homestead. This week, The Eagles host Palo Alto at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, then travel to Monta Vista on Thursday.
Girls Golf
This week, the girls golf team has matchups with Castilleja on Wednesday and Sacred Heart Prep on Thursday. Currently, the Eagles are tied for first place in the WBAL with a 7-1 record.
On Friday morning, lower school students were treated to a visit by members of San Jose Taiko. Formed in 1973, San Jose Taiko is recognized as one of the worldâs top ensembles in “taiko” (drum) performance, an art form with roots dating back to sixth century Japan. During the latter half of the 20th century, taiko performers introduced elements of other genres such as jazz and samba.
The musicians performed a selection of pieces from their repertoire and introduced students to some of the basic concepts they incorporate into their performances, including “ki,” spiritual energy that is often expelled through shouts known as “ki-ai.” San Jose Taikoâs Yurika Chiba demonstrated this by having the students yell âSa!â in unison, to the delight of the SJT performers. They also demonstrated the different sounds they shout during performances to communicate the types of beats to be played.
Several students were offered the opportunity to play the taiko themselves, which they gladly accepted. Fellow students and faculty in attendance cheered enthusiastically at the studentsâ drum rolls!
Last weekend, 29 upper school students made the trip to Ashland, Ore., to visit the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The long-running repertory theater, founded in 1935, is an annual destination for upper school English teacher Pauline Paskaliâs students, who gain a deeper understanding of Shakespeareâs works by seeing them interpreted in a live setting by professional actors. Paskali first made the trip with four of her students in 2009.
This year, the group enjoyed performances of Shakespeareâs âThe Merry Wives of Windsorâ and âHenry IV,â as well as a production of the 2014 play âShakespeare in Love,â one of several contemporary works that OSF produces each year. Students also attended a workshop in which they learned about some of the narrative elements of Shakespeareâs plays.
In the summer of 2014, Bay Area high school students Luyi Zhang, Emily Li and Lucas Xin saw an opportunity to alleviate poverty while visiting the rural village of Dagouyan in Chinaâs Ningxia region. The areaâs cows, it turned out, were in demand in Chinese coastal cities because of Ningxiaâs cleaner atmosphere. âHowever, most farmers in the village were unable to scrape up the tens of thousands in capital that are required to grow them,â said Jason Huang, a Harker junior. âAs a result, the students raised several hundred thousand yuan and formed a cow collective.â
The students later formed Nanoseed, which Huang now leads as president, a nonprofit organization whose current main objective is to provide greater economic mobility for Dagouyanâs poor. “While it boasts several thousand in population, there only exists one factory that employs roughly two dozen workers depending upon the number of orders at the time, 27 workers max, while the remaining population survive by seeking temporary employment at larger cities or depending upon farming,â Huang said.
To date, most of Nanoseedâs work has gone into developing and supporting a âcow cooperativeâ that was started with the cooperation of several families in Dagouyan. Nanoseed raised funds for the operation and negotiated arrangements with a local butcher and a transportation agency.
Nanoseed employs the services of branches at other Bay Area schools for fundraising efforts, while the leadership resides at Harker. Funds raised by these branches are being funneled into a program that offers student loans to children in financially unstable situations. Funding also comes from donations and interest charged on loans they have made. âLoans are charged at a 6.6 percent interest rate. The rate is quite low when compared to the end fee of bank loans, which are usually not offered to the people we serve but often run over 20 to 30 percent in interest for others after accounting for corruption payments and other expenses,â Huang said.
Over the summer, Nanoseed helped found two online businesses in Dagouyan, a handmade shoe seller and a store for organic produce. Both businesses were started using the Chinese social media app WeChat, which includes platforms for instant messaging, networking and commerce.
âThe shoe store specifically hires women from needy families to make their handcrafted products, while the organic produce store depends upon the only factory in the town,â Huang explained. âSpecifically, this factory buys their ingredients at above market rates from farmers in the town, hires almost half of its production line workforce from needy families, and also donates supplies to the town school and organic fertilizer to farmers for their produce.â
Nanoseed leaders visit Ningxia periodically to work in person with the people involved in the businesses they help set up. Their future plans include improving the efficiency of the work done during these trips. âCurrent trips consist of a lot of impromptu actions and decisions by student leaders, with simple plans created in just a few days,â Huang said. âWe want to create a comprehensive list of necessary actions for groups going to China to ensure steady progress, and also finalize business ideas and research before implementation in Ningxia.â During the school year, they plan to help expand the online businesses through marketing campaigns.
Huang hopes that Nanoseedâs example can spur others into action to help their communities: âJust like how small seeds grow into large trees, we hope our actions can encourage others to serve their community.â
The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, due to open in February 2018, is designed to present a wide variety of wonderful shows to a comfortable audience, and there are a thousand elements, literally behind the scenes, that will enhance that experience. Here is a look at a few of the bigger elements that will make this center an outstanding performance venue for the Harker community for decades to come.
Architects for both the performing arts and athletic centers are Studio Bondy Architecture and Kevin Hart Architecture, which joined forces to design the gym and the theater, including the interiors and the site development, said Kevin Hart.
âAs with any project of similar size, there is a large team of in-house architects and designers, consultants and sub-consultants,â he said, âin addition to the general contractor and subcontractors, who have important roles in the design and execution.â Of these many critical subcontractors, two play key roles in the development of the theater technology.
âThe theater experts, The Shalleck Collaborative, worked as consultants to the architects to inform the design of the auditorium itself, the stage, rigging, theatrical lighting, orchestra pit, movable orchestra shell, control room, dressing rooms, and many other details,â noted Hart. âThey also provided design of A/V systems, including the LED wall in the lobby.
âThe acoustical experts, Charles M. Salter Associates, worked as consultants to the architects to design the acoustical qualities of the auditorium, which is adjustable for different uses. They also provided guidance for the acoustics in the rehearsal rooms and designed many of the wall and ceiling assemblies to prevent noise intrusion from outside and improve sound control between rooms.â
Display Wall
The most noticeable item attendees will see is the 34.5-foot-wide, 15-foot-high color LED display wall in the lobby. The display will showcase professional and student work. Once inside the building, the magic of technical theater wonât be as visible, but will provide for a remarkable audience experience.
Orchestra Pit Lift
One of the biggest and coolest pieces of equipment in the new facility is the custom-made, electromechanical orchestra pit lift. The lift is capable of raising and lowering the 48-foot-wide by 10-foot-deep elliptical segment of floor, 332 square feet in all, fully loaded. The segment can be used as a stage extension, for additional seating or as an orchestra pit.
Hart noted the lift platform is a steel superstructure with two interconnected heavy-duty motors which raise the platform on four âSpiraliftâ columns, Model #ND9, by Gala Systems.
These columns, fascinating pieces of machinery, are created anew each time the lift is used. Motors turn the column bases and a vertical steel band is locked into a spiraling horizontal steel band (picture a giant, high tech slinky) so the column âgrowsâ as it goes up and is disassembled as it comes down, eliminating the need for a deep pit beneath the lift to house the column when in the down position.
Gala Systems noted the system is highly stable vertically and laterally, very quiet, nearly lubricant-free to eliminate any smell and should last the life of the facility with very little maintenance. The system is used in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and 55 countries around the world. Check out this video on how the system works: http://bit.ly/2yrGTEF. The lift will also be used to move the Bosendorfer concert grand piano from its stage-level closet to underneath the stage if needed. More about this wonderful piano in a future article!
Professional Fly Tower
Another of the major components is the fly tower, containing 35 counterweighted rigging battens for moving scenery, lighting and special effects, and the top of the movable concert orchestra shell. Each batten can be used to raise an item, or they can be used together to raise larger items.
There are three battens for moving the top of the orchestra shell (the back and side pieces roll into place), five battens dedicated to stage lighting and 27 scenery battens, said Jedd de Lucia, a principal at The Shalleck Collaborative. The eight battens that control the orchestra shell and the lighting racks are motorized and can lift up to 2,800 pounds each, while the remaining 27 battens, capable of lifting 1,500 pounds each, are controlled by hand – the counterweights make it possible to move the relatively lightweight scenery up and down by hand. The rigging and lighting equipment is accessed via a series of perforated metal catwalks that run the width of the fly.
Sound and Acoustic Tuning
The main audio control console will be a Yamaha QL5 mixing board, said deLucia. This state-of-the-art soundboard was chosen for its versatility, ease of use and compact size. These soundboards are in use in many venues worldwide.
âThe speaker system has a left and a right line array for the main PA speakers as well as supplemental ‘fill’ speakers at the front row as well as below and above the balcony,â noted de Lucia. The system uses the ARCS series of speakers from LâAcoustics, a French manufacturer of loudspeakers, amplifiers and signal processing devices, include ARCS-Series Wide and Focus speakers for main left and right speakers; SB18i subwoofers; X8 balcony fill speakers and 5Xt speakers for under-balcony and front fill speakers. The system is driven via 4-channel LA4X amplifiers. Full specifications can be found at http://www.l-acoustics.com/products-catalog-75.html
The center will have a custom-built, moveable orchestra shell enclosure to create a fuller, more directed sound, said Hart. âThe shell consists of overhead ceiling reflectors and rolling wall towers, which will provide an excellent acoustic environment for music performances,â he said. âThe theater will also have an audio-visual system to support amplified music and musical theater as well as a projection system for media presentations, including movies.
âFurther, the acoustics of the hall can be adjusted for different kinds of performances, like acoustic music, amplified media and spoken word. The mechanism for this adjustability is made up of four banks of curtains, located out of sight above the ceiling, which can be pulled open or drawn closed to change the sound of the hall,â Hart noted.
Lighting, Trap and Curtain
The stageâs production lighting system uses LED stage lighting fixtures, without dimmers, on 96 relay-controlled circuits, and is capable of millions of colors at the touch of a button. The system will be run from the Electronic Theater Control Ion Lighting Console with a 2 x 20 fader wing, said de Lucia. Each batten is capable of carrying up to 50 lights, with a light about every foot along the lighting racks.
The trap, mid-stage, âis 12 removable pieces of the stage floor, which opens access to a room below the stage,â said Hart. âThere is no elevator or lift; it will be up to the technical directors to build whatever device makes sense for each production. It could be as simple as a stepladder, or something more elaborate, but the main thing is to enable this special, magical capability to emerge from or disappear into the floor.â
The main curtain of the auditorium, with fabric from one supplier, sewn by a second and hung by a third, from is made of red velour, sewn with fullness. Curtains with fullness have extra fabric across the width or height of the drape. This gives the drape a richer look while increasing depth of field, and the heavy curtain provides more light and sound absorption.
That stage curtain is only a few months from swinging open for the first time. Watch for further updates each month as the Rothschild Performing Arts Center nears completion in February.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellisâ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the schoolâs boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harkerâs math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle schoolâs division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellisâ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellisâ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the schoolâs boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harkerâs math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle schoolâs division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellisâ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellisâ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the schoolâs boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harkerâs math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle schoolâs division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellisâ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
Harker chess players had a very successful weekend at the U.S. National Game/30 and Game/60 Championships in Santa Clara. In the main Game/60 event (where games are set for a maximum length of 60 minutes), Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, claimed first place in the 1200-1399 rating category, winning all four rounds.
Harker students also competed in a scholastic side event held that same weekend, in which Kyle Chang, grade 7, placed first in the Game/60 competitionâs 400-599 category, and fourth grader Mihir Kotabgi earned a respectable seventh in the 800-999 category. Together with the points earned by seventh grader Max Pflaging, Harker was the first-place Under 1000 team with a total score of 8.5.
In the Game/30 scholastic event, where games are played with a 30-minute time limit, Kotbagiâs second-place performance in the 800-999 category and the points earned by Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, in the 400-599 category helped put Harker in a solid fifth place in the school team standing.
It was an exciting Homecoming night on Saturday as the Eagle football team improved to 5-0 after a 33-13 win over visiting Rio Vista. Nate Kelly, grade 12, threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, two to Jared Anderson, grade 11, and another to Angel Cervantes, grade 12. Anderson ended the game with seven receptions for 132 yards. Marcus Tymous, grade 11, also added a rushing TD. On the defensive side, Jadan McDermott, grade 12, led the team with six tackles and three sacks. This Friday, the Eagles face off with Marina High at Monterey Peninsula College.
Cross Country
The cross country team traveled to Stockton over the weekend to compete at the Pacific Invitational. Ryan Adolf, grade 11, and Gloria Guo, grade 12, led the varsity teams, and Aditya Singhvi, grade 9, placed in the top 25 in the frosh/soph boys competition, but the story of the day was freshman Anna Weirich. Anna beat out 125 runners to win the 2-mile frosh/soph race in the small-school division, but her time of 11:54 would also have beaten the 250 runners in the frosh/soph large school race! The team next competes at the first WBAL meet on Oct. 5.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team narrowly defeated Castilleja 196-194 last week, marking the first time in at least eight years a Harker girls golf team has defeated the Gators on our home course. Leading the Eagles were Katherine Zhu, grade 12, and Natalie Vo, grade 9, each shooting 36. Today, the girls face off with Notre Dame San Jose, followed by a match with Menlo on Tuesday.
Girls Tennis
Last week, the girls tennis team opened its league season with a 7-0 win over Crystal Springs Uplands. This week, the Eagles travel to Pinewood on Tuesday before hosting Sacred Heart Prep on Thursday.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo team opened up last week with a 9-5 loss to Fremont, getting two goals from Cas Ruedy, grade 10, and one goal from Claudia Opris, grade 11, Samantha Yanovsky, grade 11, and Alicia Xu, grade 10. Over the weekend, the girls finished third out of 12 teams at the Watsonville Tournament. The Eagles opened the tourney with an exciting 8-7 sudden death win over Pioneer. Abigail Wisdom, grade 11, led the way with four goals. In its second game, Harker defeated Mercy Burlingame 10-4 behind another four-goal effort from Wisdom. In the semifinals, the Eagles lost to Turlock 10-4, with Wisdom scoring three more goals. Finally, the Eagles defeated Santa Cruz in the third-place game, with three more goals from Wisdom. This week, the Eagles travel to Wilcox on Tuesday and host Milpitas on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team went 1-1 in league play last week. The Eagles fell to Palo Alto 9-5 before defeating Monta Vista 14-6. This week, the boys travel to Los Altos on Tuesday and host Gunn on Thursday.
Volleyball
The girls volleyball team defeated Notre Dame San Jose in three games last week, led by 10 kills from Lauren Napier, grade 12, and 14 assists from Emily Cheng, grade 10. Later in the week, the Eagles fell to Mercy Burlingame in three games. The 6-7 Eagles host Notre Dame Belmont on Tuesday and travel to Mercy San Francisco on Thursday.
Alumni
Congratulations to Joelle Anderson ’17 who notched her first collegiate assist and goal in Pepperdine’s 4-1 win over UC Davis last week. It didn’t take much time for Anderson to strike again as she scored the lone goal in a 1-0 win over UC Santa Barbara a few days later. Check out the stories and highlights here: