Upper school science teacher Kate Schafer recently began a two-week survey in the Gulf of Mexico, where she and other scientists are “studying shark and red snapper populations in locations around the gulf,” she said. Schafer is aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) ship Oregon II as part of NOAA’s Teacher at Sea program. Throughout the survey, she will be posting updates and photos at a blog set up for her by the program.
Founded in 1970, NOAA incorporates the work of 6,773 scientists to monitor and understand the planet’s changing climate conditions and share their findings. This year, NOAA received nearly 250 applications for the Teacher at Sea program, and 30 were selected to participate.
Over a period of three weeks in September, middle school students attended a series of talks by Erika Leonard, the California program director for the international nonprofit organization KidPower. For the past 27 years, Leonard said, KidPower has been “teaching social safety skills to people of all ages, abilities and identities.”
Topics of the talks included setting boundaries, online bullying, mindfulness about online activity (for example, sharing photos of friends without his or her permission), and techniques for identifying and dealing with hurtful words and phrases.
Though the subject matter varied with each grade, Leonard said the lessons learned could be applied to all. “Each of those groups focuses on some core skills that are actually the same at each grade level,” she said. “So for example, if you were to watch the sixth grade sessions, seventh grade sessions and the eighth grade sessions, you would notice that every student practiced setting boundaries, every student practiced some form of getting help.”
Since her first visit to Harker in 2012, Leonard has taken notice of Harker’s proactive expansion of the KidPower workshops to more grade levels. Lower school workshops began last school year, and this year grade 8 students attended the sessions for the first time. Leonard plans to return to Harker in January to give talks to each of the lower school grade levels.
“Harker is really taking the impressive lead of making safety a priority by setting up sessions at different grade levels,” Leonard said. KidPower has subsequently taken measures to reinforce what students learn while keeping the sessions fresh and up-to-date.
“There is nothing essentially in the sixth grade class that wouldn’t be valuable for the eighth graders. There’s nothing in the seventh grade class that the sixth graders couldn’t also do,” said Leonard. “It’s just that by planning it this way, they get a broader experience reinforcing the same concepts using new examples over time.”
KidPower also has offered to provide professional development opportunities for Harker faculty and staff, who hope to incorporate these concepts into their everyday work.
“Somebody doing something as simple as saying, ‘thank you for speaking up,’ or ‘let’s act aware, we’re out in public,’ somebody doing something that simple is actually reinforcing safety,” Leonard said. “You could have lots of teachers doing those little things. They’re like drops of water that make a big difference.”
Last week, Harker’s upper school student newspaper, the Winged Post, became one of 49 student newspapers identified as finalists in the National Scholastic Press Association’s 2017 Pacemaker competition. A total of 275 student publications were in the running for this year’s Pacemaker award, which NSPA executive director called the organization’s “pre-eminent award.” Of these 49 finalists, 26 will be awarded Pacemakers. According to upper school journalism teacher Ellen Austin, this is the first time the Winged Post has been a finalist in the Pacemaker competition since the 2007-08 school year. Winners will be announced at the National High School Journalism Convention, held mid-November in Dallas.
Last week, Nidhya Shivakumar, grade 7, was named one of the top 300 students nationwide from the 2,499 middle school students nominated for this year’s Broadcom MASTERS science competition. Her project, titled “Halophytes: A Potential Solution for the Remediation of Soil in Saline Wastelands,” was selected by a panel of science and engineering professionals, who evaluated projects based on originality, creativity, analysis of data and other criteria.
If named one the 30 national finalists, Shivakumar will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the final stage of the competition in October, where more than $100,000 in awards will be distributed. Best of luck!
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced today that 46 Harker seniors, about 25 percent of the Class of 2018, were named semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program. Of the 1.6 million high school students who entered the program last year by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, about 16,000 – or just 1 percent – became semifinalists.
Congratulations to this year’s semifinalists, who are as follows:
Akhil Arun, Anika Banga, Praveen Batra, Divija Bhimaraju, Megan Cardosi, Emily Chen, Gwyneth Chen, Jerry Chen, Kathleen Cheng, Adrian Chu, Peter Connors, Morgan Douglas, Amy Dunphy, Shaan Gagneja, Swapnil Garg, Anastasiya Grebin, Jacqueline He, Adrian Hernandez, Kaitlin Hsu, Charlotte Huang, Julia Huang, Megan Huynh, Seunghoon Jeong, Amy Jin, Sumer Kohli, Maya Kumar, Matthew Lee, Linus Li, Edgar Lin, Millie Lin, Serena Lu, Rahul Mehta, Alexandra Michael, Jacob Ohana, Vignesh Panchanatham, Neelesh Ramachandran, Andrew Semenza, Anooshree Sengupta, Sahana Srinivasan, Megan Tjandrasuwita, Eric Tran, Alexander Wang, David Wen, Derek Yen, Shaya Zarkesh and Patrick Zhong.
Over Labor Day weekend, chess players Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, Kyle Chang, grade 7, Mihir Kotbagi, grade 4, and third graders Lucas Lum and Ayden Grover, competed in the 2017 Labor Day Kids Championship in Santa Clara. Their combined victories resulted in Harker taking second place overall as a team, with Bhargava and Chang each winning four of the five games they played. Great work!
Sept. 8 was a special day for Heather Russell’s grade 3 morning language arts students, who became the first at Harker to use virtual reality (VR) technology as a teaching tool in the classroom. Students wore headsets equipped with smartphones that displayed special YouTube videos, giving them a full 360-degree view of the area shown in the videos.
The students used the technology to take a virtual trip to Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, one of Japan’s busiest rail stations. Russell instructed them to be on the lookout for the statue of Hachiko, an Akita dog famous in Japan for waiting at Shibuya Station every day for nearly a decade for his deceased owner to return. Hachiko’s perseverance made him a national symbol of loyalty.
Russell’s students, who had been reading a story about Hachiko, watched two videos with the use of the headsets and wrote out their reactions to each video, describing how they might feel if they had to travel that way to school each day and how they might feel if they were Hachiko himself.
This press release was prepared by Radhika Jain, grade 10, DECA director of communications.
From Aug. 21-22 more than 50 students attended Harker DECA’s fourth annual DECA Launch, a program designed to introduce students to DECA and Harker’s business and entrepreneurship programs and to prepare potential members for the upcoming DECA year. This two-day event consisted of various challenges, presentations, guest speakers and workshops hosted by the Harker DECA officer team.
“DECA Launch is an event that introduces students to not only the business and entrepreneurship program but also the upper school as a whole since most attendees are incoming freshmen or new students,” said Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 12, Harker DECA’s co-CEO. “This event is a great way to give these students a head start on their first year at this campus.”
The first day began early in the morning in Nichols Hall atrium, where students mingled with the chapter advisors, guest speakers and officers while enjoying fresh bagels from Noah’s. Everyone then went into the auditorium where co-CEOs Ashna Chandra, grade 12, and Chandrashekaran began the Opening Ceremony with a brief introduction to DECA.
Then the first two speakers were announced. The first was past Harker DECA co-CEO Riya Chandra ’17, who shared her DECA journey through high school; afterward, former California DECA president Moksh Jawa spoke about the impact of DECA in his own life and how he will carry that into college.
Afterward, the officers led a fun icebreaker to get everyone excited for the activities they would participate in during the next couple of days. The Introduction to Events lecture followed, with each member of the competitions team presenting on their respective positions: role-play, examinations and written event. Students also got to see a live role-play performed by sophomore Phil Han, director of role-play events.
Then everyone went to the Innovation Center to learn and begin the Idea Challenge, in which students grouped up in teams of six to come up with an innovative idea using popsicle sticks. Students received 100 DECA Dollars to buy supplies to build their product. An additional part of the challenge was to create a presentation to pitch to a panel of judges at the closing ceremony.
“Seeing the students share their ideas with their teams was very surprising since not a lot of freshmen show this kind of teamwork and all the groups ended up combining their ideas and interests into a product they were all passionate about,” said Shania Wang, grade 11, Harker DECA’s vice president of public relations.
After getting started on their projects, everyone enjoyed Chipotle burritos for lunch. The Scavenger Hunt was next, in which students were to find the Harker DECA officers who were spread out around the campus. When found, each officer asked the students a question about DECA to educate them more about the chapter. This also gave participants a chance to explore the campus and learn more about the officer team. The students then attended lectures on the different clusters: business management and administration, hospitality and tourism, marketing and finance.
At the end of the day, students had another chance to work on their Idea Challenge products before they went home.
The next day, students arrived early in the morning to attend the DECA Debrief, a presentation about conferences and leadership in DECA. Everyone then learned more about written events with by rotating through six different lectures. Afterward, student entrepreneurs, including Mahi Kolla, grade 10, of The Minty Boutique and Nirban Singh, grade 12, from Xpress Chef presented their own experiences as a high school entrepreneurs (Read more about these two entrepreneurs here).
After having lunch from Pizza My Heart, participants were given more time to work in their Idea Challenge groups. “It was really interesting to see all the officers talk to us, educate us and ensure all the freshmen were understanding the material and having a great time,” said attendee Ashley Gauba, grade 9. “Their hard work really paid off.”
One of the last events of DECA Launch was the Role-play Tournament. Officers and associate mentors worked with small groups of students to help prepare them for role-plays. Then, they paired up and prepared case studies before presenting to a judge.
Following this, the students received some time to finish up their products and presentations for the Idea Challenge. Parents arrived to watch their children present their projects, have dinner and recap the conference in the Closing Ceremony. Students presented their Idea Challenge final products and were judged on innovation, sustainability, and teamwork and presentation. As the judges calculated the scores, parents and students were shown a Launch recap video highlighting the main events of the conference.
Finally, the winners of the Role-play Tournament and Idea Challenge were announced. Chandra, Chandrashekaran and chapter advisor Juston Glass gave closing remarks, concluding the event.
“This was an amazing experience. We came all the way here from another state, and DECA was the first event that we attended at Harker,” said Sid Biswas, parent to attendee Sayon Biswas, grade 11. “It was great to see this organization and event that the school put together, and all the students really did well.”
Harker DECA is thrilled to welcome all the new and recurring members and looks forward to another successful year as a community and chapter.
“Seeing what they have accomplished in the last two days, just imagine what these students will accomplish throughout the year. They truly are #limitless,” said Glass.
Students that won awards are as follows:
WWW.HARKERDECA.ORG
Role-play Tournament:
First place: Karan Bhasin (9), Billy Fan, both grade 9
Second place: Andrew Sun (9), Aditya Singhvi (9)
Third place: Benjamin Gicqueau (9), Sayon Biswas (11)
Overall: Jacqueline Au (9), Luisa Pan (9), Michelle Si (9), Aditya Singhvi (9),
Andrew Sun (9), Bryan Zhang (9)
About The Harker School DECA
Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
The Eagle football team executed another dominating performance Friday as it defeated visiting Cupertino 35-0 in front of a packed Davis Field crowd. Dominic Cea, grade 12, connected on two field goals and hit his three extra points; Nate Kelly, grade 12, rushed for a touchdown and passed another to Floyd Gordon, grade 12; Aaron Smith, grade 11, rushed for 160 yards and two touchdowns; and the Harker defense once again played huge! Check out highlights from 49ers Cal-Hi Sports starting at 3:58: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NOhVhkPss
Next up for the 2-0 Eagles is a trip to Santa Clara High this Friday.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team opened its season last week with a 64-stroke win over Notre Dame San Jose. Katherine Zhu, grade 12, led all golfers with a 35, followed closely by Katelyn Vo, grade 10, and Natalie Vo, grade 9. The Eagles travel to San Mateo on Tuesday to compete in the Helen Lengfeld Memorial Tournament, followed by a date with Menlo on Wednesday.
Last month, Zhu traveled to China where she competed in the China LPGA Beijing Heritage Tournament. This was Zhu’s first professional golf tournament as an amateur and she was the only American golfer in the field. After shooting 72-76-74 over the three-day event, Zhu ended in a tie for 41st out of 65 golfers. Congrats, Katherine!
Cross Country
The cross country team took on runners from St. Francis, Palo Alto and Gunn last week, in runs by class. The top Harker runners were seniors Gloria Guo and Peter Connors; juniors Ryan Adolf and Lilia Gonzales; sophomores Rishi Dange and Annabelle Ju; and freshmen Anna Weirich and Arya Maheshwari, with Weirich finishing first overall among freshman. The runners travel to San Francisco this Saturday for the Lowell Invitational.
Girls Volleyball
Last week, the girls volleyball team defeated Lynbrook in four games, led by a 10-kill performance from Lauren Napier, grade 12. Later in the week, Harker defeated Westmont in three games to bring its season record to 4-4. Check out highlights from the Lynbrook game on 49ers Cal-Hi Sports starting at 34:16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5NOhVhkPss
Next up, the Eagles travel to Saratoga on Tuesday and host Valley Christian on Thursday.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo team opens its season on Tuesday as it hosts Santa Clara before traveling to Milpitas on Thursday.
Boys Water Polo
The boys water polo team hosts Los Gatos Tuesday at the Singh Aquatic Center and travels to Gunn High on Thursday.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team opens up its 2017 season this weekend in the Central Valley by competing in the prestigious California Tennis Classic.
Harker Recognized by CCS
CCS recently recognized The Harker School Athletic program with a Sportsmanship Citation for having zero sportsmanship infractions for the 2016-17 school year. Way to go Eagles!
Gargeya is one of only 20 students nationwide to recieve the award; he will use it toward his education at Stanford University. Gargeya earned several awards for the development while at Harker, including a first prize in the RRI physical science and engineering category at the 2016 Synopsys Championships. He was a semifinalist in the 2016 Siemens Competition and a regional finalist in the international Google Science Fair 2016. Here is an article about that accomplishment from the Merc: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/10/saratoga-harker-senior-a-google-science-fair-finalist/)
In his official bio, Gargeya had some nice things to say about his time at Harker:
“Rishab attributes his time at The Harker School for having given him an amazing opportunity to push himself in a highly academic environment. Rishab has been fortunate to have worked with many intellectually driven people throughout his high school career, including his science teacher Mr. Chris Spenner, who has been very influential in shaping his research.”
Read Gargeya’s full bio here: http://www.davidsongifted.org/Fellows-Scholarship/2017-Davidson-Fellows/Rishab-Gargeya