Downbeat, the upper school’s show choir, traveled to Portland, Ore., the weekend of Feb. 22-23, where it took third place at the West quarterfinal of the 2020 International Championship of High School A Cappella, hosted by Varsity Vocals. The group has qualified for the semi-final round of the competition. Their performance of Billie Eilish and Khalid’s “Lovely” was arranged by senior Max Lee, who received an award for outstanding arrangement, and choreographed by senior Kenya Aridomi.
Every year, Varsity Vocals holds a cappella competitions for high school and college students that attract thousands of singers worldwide. The collegiate-level competition was featured in the popular “Pitch Perfect” series of films.
This story was submitted by Harker speech and debate department chair Jenny Achten.
Harker placed first out of 191 schools for overall team performance at a tournament held by the University of California, Berkeley, Feb. 15-17. The tournament hosted 2,458 students from 22 states, as well as teams from Taiwan. It is an honor to do so well at such a large and prestigious event.
Contributing to the award were the elimination round performances by many students across the events. In varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, awards were won by seniors Sachin Shah and Maddie Huynh, juniors Andy Lee and Akshay Manglik, sophomores Rohan Thakur and Deven Shah, and grade 8 students Krish Mysoor and Ansh Sheth. Senior Avi Gulati and freshman Michelle Jin were in elimination rounds in impromptu speaking. In congressional debate, seniors Annie Ma, David Feng, Nakul Bajaj and Tiffany Zhao, as well as juniors Jason Lin, Nathan Ohana, Helen Li and Andrew Sun, won trophies. In junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas, freshman Annmaria Antony and grade 7 debaters Stefan Maxim and Aarush Vailaya were award winners. In original oratory, Gulati and freshmen Austina Xu and Dyllan Han took home honors. In program oral interpretation, senior Nikki Solanki won a top award. In public forum debate, seniors Amanda Cheung and Ellen Guo placed in elimination rounds. Finally, Gulati and Jin placed in extemporaneous speaking. The coaches had a great time celebrating with the whole team!
The boys soccer team finished off its regular season with a 3-2 win over The King’s Academy before earning a No. 3 seed in the D3 CCS playoffs. In the first round, the Eagles defeated Evergreen Valley High 1-0 and will travel to Sequoia on Wednesday night for the semifinals. With a win, the boys would play in the finals on Saturday.
Boys Basketball
Last week, the boys basketball team ended the regular season with a 53-62 loss to The King’s Academy with Arjun Virmani, grade 11, leading the way with 18 points. The Eagles earned a No. 9 seed in the D4 CCS playoffs and in the first round defeated Design Tech 71-48 with Eric Zhu, grade 11, leading all scorers with 18 points. Unfortunately, the Eagles’ season came to an end with a tight 42-48 loss to Scotts Valley in the second round; Naveen Mirapuri, grade 12, led the way with 10 points. Congrats on a great season!
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team ended the regular season last week with a 35-48 loss to Castilleja, but still earned a No. 9 seed in the D4 CCS playoffs. However, the Eagles fell to Carmel High 42-49 to end their season with an 11-14 record. Great job ladies!
Girls Soccer
Last week, the girls soccer team ended its season with a 0-3 loss to Mercy Burlingame in a WBAL playoff. The Eagles narrowly missed out on making CCS, even with a league title and an impressive 13-2-3 record. Congrats on a great season!
Boys Golf
Boys golf opens its season this Thursday against Valley Christian.
Baseball
Baseball opens up at home against Overfelt on Tuesday before traveling to Rancho San Juan on Friday.
Boys Tennis
Boys tennis opens its season by hosting The King’s Academy on Tuesday and Nueva on Friday.
Lacrosse
Lacrosse hosts Willow Glen on Tuesday.
Boys Volleyball
Boys volleyball opens its season on Wednesday at Wilcox before the home opener on Friday against Homestead.
Swim
The swim team opens at the Spring Kickoff at Palo Alto High on Friday.
Track and Field
The track and field team travels to Bellarmine on Saturday for the Bellarmine Invitational.
Softball
Softball travels to Gunn High on March 3 to kick off the season.
Yesterday, the lower school held its annual pajama assembly to commemorate the end of another successful pajama and book drive. Every year, third graders coordinate the collection of pajamas and books to be donated to the Pajama Program, which then delivers the items to children living in shelters and temporary housing. The drive was established in 2007 when Rishi Narain ’16, then in the third grade, was inspired by seeing the Pajama Program promoted by Oprah Winfrey. This year’s drive collected 213 pairs of pajamas and 377 books.
Students celebrated by wearing their pajamas to school and gathering in the gym with their favorite books. Third graders in attendance were joined by their grade 10 Eagle Buddies, who also brought books to share with their younger friends. After some appreciative words from the Pajama Program’s Bay Area chapter president, Pallie Zambrano, upper school division head Butch Keller took his place on the stage to read a pair of children’s books to the audience.
Three Harker students were recently selected to be members of 2020 California All-State ensembles that will perform at the California All-State Music Education Conference in Fresno on Feb. 21. Varun Fuloria, grade 8, was selected to be the drummer for the Junior High School Jazz Band. Violinist April Zhang, grade 10, successfully auditioned for the High School Symphony Orchestra, and freshman violinist Sawyer Lai will join the High School String Orchestra. All students went through a rigorous audition process, which involved submitting recordings to judges for evaluation.
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, director of communications for Harker DECA
In mid-January, more than 110 students from Harker’s DECA chapter attended the 2020 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference (SVCDC) at the Santa Clara Marriott. Harker performed admirably, with 73 overall finalists and 30 top three winners.
“This conference was an amazing experience for all our students!” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, Harker DECA’s co-chief executive officer. “With record high attendance, more students had an opportunity to present the business plans they had spent months working on and demonstrate their business knowledge in our cluster tests. I think it was especially exciting for our students who staged and got to see their work over the past few months come to fruition.”
Members placing in the top three are as follows:
First Place
Rishi Dange and Evan Cheng, both grade 12, and Aditya Singhvi, grade 11, Integrated Marketing Campaign – Service
Elaine Zhai, grade 11, Professional Selling
Andrea Thia, grade 10, Business Growth Plan
Anvitha Tummala and Fonda Hu, both grade 11, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
Rishi Dange, grad 12, Accounting Applications Series
Jason Hoang, grade 11, Business Services Marketing Series
Victoria Han, grade 10, Entrepreneurship Series
N Wang, grade 11, Hotel and Lodging Management Series
Allison Jia and Aditi Ghalsasi, both grade 12, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Luisa Pan, grade 11, Personal Financial Literacy
On day one, the California DECA officer team kicked off the opening ceremony by welcoming all of the SVCDC competitors with the SV factor, the annual talent show, and an impromptu speaking exercise involving all chapter presidents. Campaigns for DECA vice president of Silicon Valley also began during the session, and Claire Luo, grade 11, Harker DECA’s VP of operations, gave her election speech and continued her campaign throughout the weekend.
On the second day, attendees competed in their events, utilizing time before and between the events to practice with their teams and mentors. Luo and the rest of the Harker DECA officer team set up a booth for Luo’s election campaign to help spread her vision for Silicon Valley DECA and encourage people to vote.
“It was really cool to meet people from different chapters around Silicon Valley,” said Luo, “and I was given the opportunity to speak to chapter presidents as well as new members who told me what changes they wanted to see from Silicon Valley DECA. I think it was a really valuable experience and I learned a lot about speaking to people, making a speech, and campaigning your ideas. I really appreciated the chapter’s support; all of the members, from the freshmen to the seniors, were extremely supportive when I gave my speech, and cheered me on throughout the weekend.”
“Being able to compete with my friends in my event was really fun, and I learned a lot about presenting professionally in a team,” said Zeke Weng, grade 9. “We had been working on this plan for a long time, and to see our work pay off and stage was an incredible experience.”
After finishing their competitions, members were free to relax for the rest of the day and visit the Game Night that Silicon Valley DECA hosted to meet students from other school’s chapters.
“The conference was a really great opportunity for testing the waters before an even bigger conference like SCDC,” said Leisha Devisetti, grade 9, “and I was able to receive great feedback from judges on everything from my soft skills to the business ideas I presented. I think SVCDC and DECA in general has helped me prepare for my future because the role plays help with thinking on the spot and all of the competitions build my presentation skills.”
Early on day three, Sunday morning, the chapter reconvened in the ballroom to attend the award ceremony, where Harker proudly sent 73 teams to the top 10 during the Mini Awards.
“For me, personally, SVCDC was not so much about the results but rather the experience and skills I learned from being able to present to professionals,” said Robert Zhang, grade 9. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, but it’s all about what you gained from your experience and using that knowledge to be even better next time.”
After Mini Awards wrapped up, students enjoyed a buffet breakfast before the Grand Awards session, where Harker DECA members continued to receive recognition. In total, Harker DECA saw 30 teams win top three during Grand Awards.
“Although competing was overwhelming at times, knowing the entire Harker DECA chapter was rooting for each other gave me confidence,” said Andrea Thia, grade 10. “The loud cheers from each member every time ‘Harker DECA’ was announced made me laugh and cheer louder.”
Overall, the 2019-20 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference was an extremely successful event for our chapter and an inspiring experience for all Harker DECA competitors. All of the members enjoyed the first competitive conference of the season, gaining useful skills and feedback for the upcoming States competition, and left feeling motivated to continue with their DECA journey.
“This year’s SVCDC was an amazing start to the competitive season, and just a glimpse of what our chapter members can do,” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA’s chapter advisor. “I’m extremely proud of all of the attendees’ dedication in preparing for their events and am looking forward to seeing the students’ progress during states and beyond.”
Every Friday in the weeks leading up to SVCDC, Harker DECA hosted weekly study sessions in the Innovation Center for students to practice their role-plays in front of an officer, receive live feedback for their written events and take mock exams. In preparation for the California State Career Development Conference, DECA suggests that all members attend these weekly study sessions. Go Eagles!
About Harker 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.
Last Friday, middle school students made special pouches for Australian wildlife orphaned in the bushfires that have been ravaging the country. Students used cut-out patterns to sew the pouches, which were sent to the Oakland Zoo to be delivered to Australia. “The middle school’s Student Leadership Council did a presentation on the Australian fires at a school meeting, and [Assistant Head of School] Patricia Lai Burrows asked me to talk as I had just returned from Australia,” said math teacher Margaret Huntley, who is originally from Australia. “We were brainstorming about what we could do in response and I had seen this in the news.”
Fabric for the pouches was donated by the faculty, and some students have continued cutting fabric for more pouches, which Huntley hopes to send very soon.
On Friday, 10 lower school students were featured at the California Kindergarten Association’s Young Children’s Art Exhibit, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara. First graders Brayden Ching, Violet Santana, Jane Tang, Ethan Wang, Angela Zhang and Emily Zhao, and kindergartners Serena Du, Caroline Liu, Khushi Monga and Katy Wang had artwork on display at the event, which has showcased the works of Pre-K, kindergarten and grade 1 students since 1989.
The boys soccer team started last week with a 2-2 draw against Leland before dominating Woodside Priory 6-1 on Kicks Against Cancer night. This week, the 6-1-1 Eagles travel to Crystal Springs Uplands on Wednesday and host Eastside College Prep on Saturday.
Girls Soccer
Last week, the girls soccer team defeated Eastside College Prep 8-0 before a 2-2 draw against Notre Dame San Jose for the Kicks Against Cancer game on Friday night. This week, the Eagles hope to improve their 4-0-3 record as they travel to Crystal Springs Uplands on Tuesday and Pinewood on Thursday before hosting Mercy San Francisco on Friday.
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team went 2-1 last week to improve its season record to 6-7. The Eagles defeated Mercy Burlingame 58-46 and Crystal Springs Uplands 67-38 before falling to The King’s Academy 38-49. This week, the girls travel to Mercy San Francisco on Tuesday and host Notre Dame San Jose on Thursday.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team dropped all three of its games last week, falling to 6-7 on the year. In a 41-52 loss to Pinewood, Jack Connors, grade 12, led the team with 13 points and six steals. Then in a 45-79 loss to Sacred Heart Prep, Arjun Virmani, grade 11, led the scoring with 13 points. Finally, the Eagles finished the week with a 37-47 loss to Crystal Springs Uplands with Giovanni Rofa, grade 12, leading the offense with 10 points. This week, the boys travel to Woodside Priory on Tuesday before hosting Eastside College Prep on Thursday.