Last week, Natasha Sarin ‘07 was featured in a piece by The New York Times, which focused on her work in President Joe Biden’s administration to track down and claim the revenue owed by tax cheats (also known as the tax gap), and how it figures into the president’s infrastructure plan.
According to the story, Sarin’s appointment indicated the importance of tax code compliance in the administration. Trained at Harvard and formerly a professor of law and finance at the University of Pennsylvania, she was hired in March by Janet Yellen, U.S. secretary of the treasury, and worked with economist (and former treasury deputy secretary during the Clinton administration) Larry Summers at Harvard to devise a way to reduce the tax gap. Their research, published in 2019, stated that the tax gap could be reduced by 15 percent by empowering the Internal Revenue Service to increase audits of the wealthy and instituting more thorough reporting requirements.
The piece also touches on Sarin’s other notable collaborations, including her work with Congressman Ro Khanna, as well as her activities and achievements as a Harker student, such as captaining the varsity basketball team and her involvement in hiring rapper Snoop Dogg for an event on youth violence.
Every year, Harker employees who have been with the school for five years receive a special pin as thanks for their years of service to the community. A new diamond is set into these pins every five years to signify the employees’ continued dedication. This year, 70 employees were honored by receiving new pins or having new diamonds placed.
They are:
45 Years
Carol Parris, Modern and Classical Languages Department Chair, Grades 1-8
40 Years
Mike Bassoni, Facilities Director
30 Years
Pete Anderson, Physical Education Department, Grades 6-8
Pam Dickinson, Director, Office of Communication
Georgie Maddams, Corporate Receptionist and Administrative Associate
Steve Martin, Executive Director of Food Service
25 Years
Heather Armada, Director of Transportation
Joe Chung, Director of ELI and LS Summer Activity Program
Brian Larsen, K-12 Production Manager and Upper School Technical Theater Teacher
Diana Moss, Spanish Teacher, Upper School,
Dan Rohrer, Facilities Manager, Lower School
Karriem Stinson, Assistant Athletic Director, Lower and Middle School
Larry Washington, Security Officer
20 Years
Anita Chetty, Science Department Chair, Grades 9-12
Beverley Manning, English Teacher, Upper School
Lisa Masoni, Latin Teacher, Middle School
Brigid Miller, English Teacher, Upper School
Raul Rios, Shipping and Receiving Associate, Upper School
15 Years
Victor Adler, Mathematics Teacher, Upper School
Melinda Gonzales, Academic Counselor
Patricia Andrews, Admission Associate, Middle School
Gayle Calkins, Assistant to Academic Counselors and MS Director of Global Education
Jeannette Fernandez, Mathematics Teacher, Upper School
Colin Goodwin, Grade 4 Teacher
Shelby Guarino, Grade 5 English Teacher
Matthew Harley, Biology Teacher, Upper School
Louis Hoffman, Instrumental Music Teacher, Lower School
Sandra Ignacio, Accounts Payable Specialist
Beatriz Justo, Kitchen Aide ll
Desiree Mitchell, Marketing Manager, Office of Communication
Jaron Olson, Director of Sports Medicine and Sports Performance
Alejandro Osorio, Tech Services Manager
Gustavo Parra Rivera, Catering Manager, Food Service
Pauline Paskali, English Department Chair
Jared Ramsey, Grade 5 U.S. History Teacher
Kate Schafer, Biology Teacher, Upper School
Troy Thiele, Director, Standardized Testing and Scheduling
Lauri Vaughan, Campus Librarian, Upper School
10 Years
Kellie Binney, Vocal Music Teacher Lower School
Imelda Cantu, Grade 1 Teacher
Katherine Chi, Kindergarten Teacher
Arabelle Chow, English Department Chair, Middle School
Chrissy Drummer, HR Generalist and Recruiting Specialist
Jennifer Hargreaves, Admission Director, Upper School
Marjorie Hazeltine, English Teacher, Middle School
Lorena Martinez, Director Enrichment and Supervision, Middle School
Rebecca McCartney, Senior Graphic Designer
Sejal Mehta, Grade 2 Teacher
Kristin Morgensen, Biology Teacher, Middle School
Lola Muldrew, Mathematics Teacher, Upper School
Charlie Ward, Cook ll, Food Service
Tor Warmdahl, Director of Security
Larissa Weaver, Grade 1 Teacher
Five Years
Michael Acheatel, Business and Entrepreneurship Teacher, Upper School
Rupa Banerjee, Kitchen Aide, Food Service
Andrea Bo, Grade 3 English Teacher
Peter Vaqueros, Custodian, Facilities Department
Paul Duran, Dishwasher, Food Service
Fred Nae, Bus Driver, Transportation Department
Isaiah Ornelas, Kitchen Aide, Food Service
Pamela Paredes, Teacher Aide, Lower School
Sara Pawloski, History and Social Science Teacher, Middle School
Kevin Reduta, Assistant Director Enrichment and Supervision, Middle School
Harker’s sports successes continued on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the boys and girls golf teams both became CCS champions. The boys team scored 388 to defeat Mitty (393) and Bellarmine (394), while the girls scored 386 to put away Valley Christian (400) and St. Francis (427). Natalie Vo ’21, who committed to play golf for the University of Colorado Boulder, shot a 71 and was named the CCS girls golf individual champion.
Girls basketball made history with its narrow 54-53 win over Carmel High on Tuesday, advancing to the CCS semifinals, the furthest the team has gone in the history of the program. They will play top-seeded Half Moon Bay High School on Thursday.
At Thursday’s grade 8 promotion ceremony, the Class of 2025 formally concluded its journey as middle schoolers and began preparing to transition to the upper school. Middle school division head Evan Barth welcomed leadership council officers Aaron Bao and Sam Parupudi to speak to the departing eighth graders.
Parupudi thanked her classmates for helping her grow as a person during her time in the middle school. “You all have encouraged me to make so many decisions that I wouldn’t have even considered had I not been through these experiences with you,” she said. “You all have made more of an impact on my life than you or even I will ever know of, and I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you for that.”
Bao expressed confidence that he and his fellow soon-to-be ninth graders would meet the challenges ahead and thanked teachers and parents for their guidance and support. “Our teachers are the ones who have laid the foundation of our learning and the ones who have supported us in our endeavors. Our parents have supported us throughout our entire lives in everything we have done,” he said. “Thank you to all who have had the patience to help us pursue our goals.”
Following the Middle School String Quartet’s performance of Handel’s “La Rejouissance,” Rebecca Williams, middle school English teacher and Class of 2025 dean, delivered her farewell address. Williams summarized the students’ many extraordinary accomplishments over the past year, particularly their ability to adapt to unprecedented circumstances, which made clear the importance of finding new solutions to new problems. “We in fact need to do things differently because the new normal is no longer the normal that we left behind,” she said. “So as you enter high school and you start kicking around that question, ‘what are you going to do?’ Maybe you do something differently, because you’ve proven you can. And in doing it differently, maybe you show that it can be done better.”
The Middle School Jazz Band then performed Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” and rising senior Dawson Chen, who is also the 2021-22 upper school ASB president, took the podium to deliver a welcome address to the incoming freshman class. Chen shared a pair of stories about the lessons he learned at middle school, one in which the results of an algebra test taught him the value of studying and hard work. “The experience of middle school math classes has instilled in me a notion of working hard and taking no shortcuts,” he said. The second story involved a movie night with his friends, where after witnessing them devour the treats he had helped prepare, he “couldn’t help but marvel at the cheerful, cozy atmosphere that we managed to create together with the power of community.” He called up on the Class of 2025 to reflect on their fondest memories as middle schoolers, “whether it’s cramming your expository writing essays, winning in an epic sports game or going to your first dance, and share those memories with the friends, teachers, coaches and family that you experienced them with.”
Students then each received their promotion certificates from Head of School Brian Yager. Barth then offered his closing remarks, saying, “The status quo can work, but I encourage you to be observant and seek out changes that will make you happy and happier. I am confident that is an effective strategy for you to get the most out of high school and beyond, and I hope you will embrace it.”
Yesterday, fifth graders celebrated their final day as lower school students at the grade 5 promotion ceremony. Due to COVID-19 safety restrictions, only students were permitted to attend in person. Families of the students viewed the ceremony from home via a livestream.
“It has been a pleasure being your principal for the last two years,” said Kristin Giammona, grades 4-5 division head. “I know you’re going to love your new campus and represent The Harker School well in the future in all of your endeavors.”
Kate Shanahan, grade 5 English teacher, was chosen by students to deliver some farewell remarks to the Class of 2028. Shanahan congratulated the students on completing their journey through the lower school and completing an entire school year remotely. “Your next chapter includes having the honor of being the first sixth graders to step foot on a brand new middle school campus with teachers and students who can’t wait for you to arrive,” she said. “All of us here at Bucknall look forward to seeing what you do.”
The newly minted middle schoolers then stepped up to receive their certificates one by one, each handed to them by Brian Yager, head of school.
Rising eighth graders Ananya Pradhan and Luke Wu then spoke to the incoming sixth graders to give them a preview of what awaits them in their future lives as middle school students, including advisories, extracurricular activities and new electives. “We welcome you and we hope that you are equally thrilled to be coming up here,” said Pradhan.
Harker students took top spots in the 2021 TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) competition, in which teams of students collaborate to solve real-world engineering problems. This year, TEAMS dispensed with a national finals event and issued scores based on state-level results.
Harker’s 11/12A team – juniors Harsh Deep, Alex Hu, Sasvath Ramachandran and Kailash Ranganathan – placed third nationally after taking first in California. Meanwhile, team 9/10A – sophomores Brian Chen, Riya Gupta, Stephen Xia and Sally Zhu – placed sixth in the nation overall.
Harker middle school math students had a series of successes this past spring. Angela Liu, grade 8, placed in the top 20 at the national Mathcounts competition, held May 8-10. Liu competed as one of four representatives from California, considered the most competitive state. California placed second overall in the competition. Liu was one of three Harker middle school students to reach the state finals, along with eighth graders Jacqueline Huang and Jonny Xue. Harker’s Mathcounts students were coached by Vandana Kadam, middle school math department chair, who was California team coach in 2020.
Mathcounts also hosts a video contest, in which Harker was a top four finalist. Eighth graders Jacqueline Huang, Juliana Li, Kashish Priyam and Sophia Zhu’s video, “Banking on Math,” was the first video Harker had ever submitted for the competition.
Earlier in spring, the 20th annual Diana Nichols Harker Math Invitational for grades 6-8, held March 21, was a highly successful event with 17 schools and about 432 contestants taking part in the individual and team contests. There were 79 competing and 15 non-competing teams for the team contest.
In individual competition at the sixth grade level, Haofang Zhu took first place, Claire Tian placed third and Sylvia Chen placed fourth. At the eighth grade level, Julian Li placed third and Aarush Vailaya, Agastya Ravuri and Jeremy Peng tied for fourth.
In team competition, Harker teams took the top three spots at the sixth grade level, with team 6A (Sylvia Chen, Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Raeanne Li, Iona Liu, Aaron Luo and Claire Tian) placing first, 6C (Nyssa Kansal, Brandon Labio, Lucas Lum, Lily Peng, Sanjith Senthil, Sri Srinavasan and Graham Zhang) placing second and 6B (Audrey Hu, Shamik Khowala, Ridhan Randheri, Axel Szolusha, Nathan Yee, Haofang Zhu and Ellie Zhou) placing third. At the grade 7 level, Harker team 7A (Jaden Fu, Jessica Hu, Brenna Ren, Caden Ruan, Lily Shi, Kallie Wang and Tiffany Zhu) took third place. At the grade 8 level Harker Team 8A (Audrey Cheng, Neil Krishnan, Juliana Li, Kashish Priyam, Aarush Vailaya, Jessica Wang and Alex Zhong) placed second, while team 8A (Ainslie Chen, Tiffany Gu, Katerina Matta, Jeremy Peng, Agastya Ravuri, Max Zhai and Sophia Zhu) placed third.
Junior Mark Hu gave an incredible, history-making performance on the mound on Tuesday, pitching Harker baseball’s first-ever perfect game in a 15-0 victory against Priory. Striking out 18 of 21 batters, Hu denied Priory even a single base hit and did not walk any hitters, only twice allowing the ball-count to reach three. In their reporting on the game, the Mercury News noted that Hu’s 18 strikeouts match the Central Coast Section record set by Valley Christian’s Patrick Wicklander in 2018.
The win brought Harker to 9-0 in league play and 11-4 overall. Coach Mike Delfino called Hu “absolutely dominant” and noted that the junior accomplished the feat in just 86 pitches. He also delivered at the plate, contributing three hits and a two-run homerun. The Eagles will face Priory again on Thursday.
Last week, the Student Diversity Coalition and the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center hosted a special appearance by Leon, a Holocaust survivor who related his incredible story to the Harker community. Included in his presentation were drawings he had made from his the vivid memories of his experience.
Born in the then-Romanian city of Czernowitz in 1931, Leon was interested in soccer as a child, recalling that he had played the sport since he was first able to walk. In the 1930s, Romania had a policy of tolerance toward Jewish people, which changed when Hitler rose to power. Michael I, Romania’s last king, followed his mother in opposing the Hitler-allied Romanian prime minister’s persecution of Romanian Jews, for which Leon said the king’s entire family was threatened.
Leon was eight years old when Hitler began expanding his control across Europe. He remembered refugees crossing into Romania, for whom his mother made “big, big pots of soup.” In December 1941, all Romanian Jews were ordered to be transported to ghettos. “There was no community outcry like today,” he said. “There was no community protest like today. We left in silence.”
He was separated from his parents and placed into a train car with the other children for a long trek to where they would be held. The very limited water supply had to be rationed and watched closely. “People were ready to give up on life,” Leon recalled. “We lost all shame and self-esteem.”
Upon departing the train, Leon’s family and the other Romanian families were marched to concentration camps. Leon’s mother bribed one of the guards watching over the procession, who looked the other way while the family escaped. They spent three weeks begging for food at a nearby farmers market, and eventually were sent to a ghetto to work and live in a one-room hut. Food was scarce and water was collected by melting snow in a small pot.
At one point, both Leon and his mother contracted typhus, and the staff at the nearby hospital believed he had only hours left to live. He was placed in a crib in the hospital’s morgue, where he lay unconscious for five days. When he woke up, he spotted his father on the way to visit his mother and called out to him. He carried Leon home and nursed him back to health, and his mother eventually came home as well.
“In my 90 years, the five days I spent in the morgue was the only time I lost control of my life,” he said.
The ghetto was eventually liberated, and Leon and his family returned to Czernowitz. Upon returning, Leon went over to a garbage can where he had stashed some family photos as they were being moved into the ghettos. All the photos remained intact.
Later in life, Leon immigrated to the United States and joined the U.S. Army, serving in the Korean War. He also met his wife, Eva, to whom he has been married for 60 years.
He advised the students in the assembly to treasure their education (“I was robbed of my education, and life was very hard”) and to reject hate (“It just begets more hate, nothing else”).
On Sunday, representatives from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe visited the upper school campus for the unveiling of a monument recognizing the land Harker’s campuses rest on as the ancestral home of Thámien Ohlone-speaking people, who are the Muwekma Ohlone’s direct ancestors.
The Harker Student Diversity Coalition (SDC) and members of Harker’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee were in attendance to mark the occasion and show their support for building a partnership with the Tribe. The idea to create a plaque for the land acknowledgment was inspired in part by what students learned while attending diversity conferences where land recognition statements were regularly made. “In these statements, they emphasized the importance of recognizing the ancestral heritage of the land and sharing appreciation for the land we reside on,” said senior Natasha Yen, an SDC officer. The monument was one of many initiatives the SDC proposed to administrators last spring. “After we established the Student Diversity Coalition, we decided to make our proposal a reality and began working with the administration to create the plaque,” said Yen.
SDC members researched the history of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe in the Bay Area and reached out to representatives and “shared our idea of the land recognition plaque and our hope to begin building a relationship between the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and the Harker School. The leaders of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe made suggestions to and approved the plaque message and we invited them to the unveiling of the plaque,” said Yen.
The plaque contains Harker’s stated commitment to “uplifting the voices, experiences, histories and heritage of the Indigenous people of this land and beyond.” To this end, Yen said, a curriculum review will be conducted to ensure the accurate teaching of Indigenous people’s histories. The tribal guests, Yen said, were appreciative of the recognition of the Bay Area’s Indigenous people and are looking forward to working with Harker to teach Indigenous history. SDC students were presented with a tribal flag as a show of the Muwekma Ohlone’s appreciation. Additional monuments will be placed at Harker’s other campuses in the fall.