This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
When someone asks for a volunteer, Roshni Mehra ’06 is often the first person to raise her hand. Her journey from finance to philanthropy was a result of her decision to pursue her passion and willingness to be open to every opportunity that came her way.
Whether it was in Cheryl Cavanaugh’s English class at Harker, where she learned how the power of someone’s passion can ignite your own, or working with disadvantaged students through PIMCO Foundation’s Tools for Tomorrow program, Mehra wasn’t afraid to follow her heart to find what’s right. Mehra attended Harker’s upper school and then went on to the University of California, Irvine, to pursue business economics and international studies. While she was in college, she interned at Merrill Lynch for two years and then joined asset management firm PIMCO upon graduation.
Being the youngest person ever hired and the only woman on the team, she was hungry to learn, working from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day on the trade floor. While she harnessed many skills while working in finance, it was never her passion. The problem was, she didn’t know what her passion actually was – that is, until she got involved in PIMCO’s Women’s Leadership Network and the PIMCO Foundation.
“Due to my early work hours and the late evening afterschool programs I was volunteering with, I started to stretch myself too thin,” Mehra said. “I soon realized that my favorite part of my job was taking place after work. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”
She took the bold step to quit her job at PIMCO and do a year of service and exploration. As a part of this soulsearching mission, she had two goals for the year: first, to build an educational foundation in the nonprofit world, and second, to get as much experiential knowledge as possible doing pro bono work.
She took classes through Stanford University and Coursera.Being on campus, Mehra soon became involved with Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS), which develops and shares knowledge to improve philanthropy, strengthen civil society and effect social change. “I said yes to every opportunity that came my way,” said Mehra with a bright smile on her face.
But she didn’t stop there. She also volunteered for a locally based, internationally aimed nonprofit called Home of Hope, which advances education for girls in India. In typical Mehra fashion, she joined its board of directors, became the executive director of the English Empowerment Program and director of the Youth Chapter, and even launched a social venture called Mentors Without Borders, which was featured on NBC Bay Area.
“I discovered I was most passionate about creating a lasting impact and igniting empowerment through mentorship and education,” she said. “I knew I needed to be a part of an impact-driven organization.” She’s doing just that at Stanford Graduate School of Business as the associate director of development marketing and communications, where her job doesn’t feel like work because it is so aligned with her passion and desire to have a positive impact in the world.
In addition to creating meaningful impact reports for donors, Mehra also volunteers as a pre-major advisor for Stanford undergraduate students, serving as a mentor and life coach for a cohort of 15-plus freshman and sophomore students as they navigate the transition from high school to college. But that’s not the only way she gives back. She volunteers with a group that brings therapy dogs to campus every month for students, faculty and staff to de-stress.
“Having hired Roshni 4 1/2 years ago, I subsequently promoted her into several other positions. Her capacity to take on increased responsibility has grown consistently,” said Susan Chung, director of development marketing and communications at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “What I appreciate most about Roshni is her approach to getting things done. Whether that be within our immediate team or across departments, her positive impact is grounded in seeking to understand issues and opportunities from multiple perspectives.”
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Harker’s incubator program, after one full year, has turned out some solid successes, awarding cash grants to students who developed business plans and successfully pitched to a panel. Now, starting year two, the benefits to students – far beyond money – are becoming apparent.
The program launched with a single class in summer 2017. That first class, a no-credit offering, brought students three of the critical ingredients for entrepreneurial success: strategic advice and mentorship, a dedicated support team and seed funding. A couple of pretty interesting ventures arose from that class, which was so well-received that the department developed the curriculum for a regular school-year program of two for credit classes to start a year later, in fall 2018. (See links in box on page 49 for more.)
The for-credit classes, Honors 2, ran all year. By May 2019, about $20,000 in venture funds were handed out to eight companies developed by 11 students. In Incubator 1, students created and commercialized their own product or service.“Teams are led through the lean startup processes of developing hypotheses about a business concept, testing those hypotheses, adapting and continually iterating,” said Michael Acheatel, business & entrepreneurship teacher.
Incubator 2 is geared toward students who have already launched a company and are focused on growing their business. “Students are led through three-week long ‘sprints’ where students identify their individual goals and tasks at the beginning of the sprint and present a demo of their accomplishments at the end of the sprint,” said Acheatel.
Students in each of the courses receive coaching and mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and business experts, and a key element in the 2018-19 classes was provided by Next47, a venture capital firm, which donated $10,000 in venture funds.
Now, year two of the for-credit incubator classes has started and the Incubator 1 students are in the midst of the vetting processes, while the new Incubator 2 students are using their funding to develop their ventures to bring them to the next level – a functional organization with a product.
The goal, however, is not to create million dollar companies in high school, though in Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial atmosphere, that is not beyond reach. The real goal is to teach students to think critically when developing ideas, to use resources, like mentors, to advance their knowledge and network, and to help the students gain confidence that careful, hard work will bring concrete results at some level.
“The goal of the course is to provide students with experiences that teach values and practices that are not traditionally taught in the classroom but are hugely important in life/ work,” said Acheatel.
“We want to inculcate soft skills such as resiliency, problem-solving, creative thinking, public speaking and networking. These skills are built into the lean methodology of controlled failure, of seeking failure early as a means of improving. Furthermore, they learn these skills by working with mentors and pitching investors,” he said.
“Additionally, they learn technical skills that they’ll use in the workplace like financial modeling, conducting competitive and market research, executing marketing campaigns, creating and delivering pitches, developing investor reports, etc. These are skills that they will use in almost any job they take, yet they are not taught in traditional school environments,” Acheatel noted.
Nerine Uyanik and Arun Sundaresan, both grade 12, are in the Incubator 1 class, exploring the skills needed for serious entrepreneurship for the first time. Their company is designing electronic flashcards that address shortcomings in existing digital flashcards.
“Most digital flashcards have a two-sided format that inherently limits the content that can be asked,” said Uyanik. “To study certain concepts, such as vocabulary, would require either making many flashcards with closely related but still separate information or making a single flashcard that contains all the related information. One is inefficient, and the other is ineffective, potentially coming at the cost of the student’s own learning,” she said.
The pair is working on a multisided flashcard that suits a student’s needs better. For example, when studying a molecule, to learn its name, formula, molecular geometry and structure would require a program in which students can input all the information and determine how they review that info.”Nothing of the sort exists,” said Uyanik, “so I decided to take this incubator class to develop such an application.”
Partner Sundaresan came in with more background and is really looking for an opportunity to grow as an entrepreneur. “I’ve had a lot of exposure to business and entrepreneurship before, both academically and in extracurricular pursuits,” he said. “I feel like taking the incubator class was a natural progression in my explorations of business, as I will launch a for-profit company.”
The first lesson the pair learned was that although each came to class with independent ideas, there was enough crossover that they could grow their ideas together. “At first, we hesitated to work together since we envisioned pursuing completely different paths,” said Uyanik, “but Mr. Acheatel pointed out that we both were trying to address problems with existing study tools, just with different solutions in mind … so he encouraged us to work together at least during the early stages, where having more ideas on the table wouldn’t hurt. We then delved into the market research and analyzed our ideas realistically.” That’s when the real growth began.
“Arun realized that my proposition seemed more feasible to achieve through this class, so he decided to let go of pursuing his vision to focus on mine,” said Uyanik. “I realize how difficult it was for him to make such a decision, for we both had strong ideas and intentions when deciding to take this class. As he has come to understand my idea, though, I am grateful that he is now also convinced of its potential and confident in his work. Arun’s expertise in coding and technology makes up for my lack of experience in that area when addressing the specifics of product development, and my deeper understanding of the product helps drive the vision of the company. Through this class, I have come to value working with someone with a complementary set of skills and perspectives.”
“Since the first day,” noted Sundaresan, “when we were figuring out problems that our businesses would solve, we had to think creatively and in terms of how to solve existing problems. Presentation skills are also vital for this, because we create our own elevator pitches that are regularly revised and presented. Nerine and I have definitely used this class to expand our networks,” he said. “It’s a class, but it’s all real,” said Uyanik. “Everything we learn and do ties into making practical progress. The pitches we now refine in class will eventually be delivered to investors. Our homework – completing market analyses and conducting customer interviews, for example – reflects the work that businesses must do to grow. We learn to do, and we do to learn.”
Anay Karwal, grade 12, an Incubator 1 student, is developing Persona, an app that automatically recommends outfits to high school and college students, and to business professionals, based on their existing wardrobe and their fashion preferences. He is already seeing the kind of life-growth that Acheatel noted. “I joined the incubator class because I really wanted to attain an experiential perspective with a business,” said Karwal. “I’ve participated in DECA since my freshman year, and I wanted to utilize all the skills that I learned in order to create something tangible. By the end of the year, I want to have a working prototype to take into college.”
Karwal is seeing the building blocks to his goal emerge from the course. “From working at this startup alone, I’ve now realized that collaboration is extremely crucial in life, because it provides you a new perspective and is much more effective,” he said.
It is clear that Incubator 1 students are acquiring skills essential to developing a product, and that personal growth is part of that learning, including how to be flexible, how to work with others on complex tasks and, in Sundaresan’s case, how to switch gears when necessary to build out a successful product. But beyond the incubator program, the students are finding their advancing skills eminently useful in other classes and in life.
“With my experiences in DECA and this class, I refined my public speaking abilities and I constantly apply that to all my classes. The problem-solving skills I learned from this class help in my math and economics classes,” Karwal said, adding that he now appreciates learning from others. “The best thing I’ve gotten out of the class is my mentor, as he consistently provides me with help and guidance,” Karwal concluded.
Nanoseed is a Harker student-developed nonprofit that organizes student and business loans and grants to underserved regions in China. Graduating seniors pass down leadership of the company each year, and this year Andrew Sun, grade 11, heads up the venture and is “franchising” the fundraising program at other schools. “We’re interested in helping those who have been abandoned by traditional lending organizations in China,” Sun said.
For Sun, the rewards transcend grades and personal accomplishments. “I am passionate about effecting change beyond myself,” Sun said. “I’ve realized through heading Nanoseed that it’s incredibly gratifying to do something that will directly impact someone else’s life. It’s helped me realize that there is much more to life than grades and homework assignments, which is a balance I have definitely struggled with in the past. For example, Nanoseed’s benefit concert last year [to reduce poverty in rural China] really opened my perspective.
“The summer reading for the class also introduced us to a systematic approach to finding solutions to problems by testing one feature/aspect at a time, similar to isolating one variable in an experiment,” Sun noted. “This approach helped me also with improving my speeches in congressional debate, another activity I’m involved in. I’ve found applications of that systematic approach by changing one thing about a speech every iteration and seeing if that achieved the improvement I wanted it to achieve.”
For Sun, like Karwal, the biggest advantage to the class is networking and being able to interact with the other people in the class. “They’ve given me so many ideas for fundraisers, operations, etc., and have also been wonderful about offering help when I need it,” said Sun.
“The collaborative aspect of the class is really rewarding and I’m most grateful I took the class for this reason.” Claire Luo, grade 11, now in Incubator 2, formed a company last year called GetTime, whose mission is to decrease stress and increase productivity among teenage students through an engaging and efficient time management app. The current version of the app consists of three core features – a dashboard for tracking progress and tasks, a prioritized to-do list and a timing function to keep students on track throughout their study period. “What differentiates my app is that it combines task and time management on one platform and specifically targets high school students, which helps make the experience more streamlined and effective,” she said.
Luo, too, has gained wider perspective through her work in the incubator program. “One overarching truth I have learned is that flexibility and adaptability are key, for me as a person and for my company,” she said. “Whether this means continually soliciting feedback and revising features or altering my goals to fit new circumstances, I have learned to be more open to change. In particular, going out and talking to potential customers and mentors has encouraged me to embrace pivoting some aspects of my app.”
The payoff is there in the learning, even if the product never gets to market. “I have definitely been able to apply these skills, both in creating my company and in my own life,” said Luo. “For instance, designing the app and then asking for potential customer feedback was a new experience for me and required me to break down the tasks and keep going at it resiliently. The ability to have a clear project end goal and then executing each task one at a time has applied to any other large group project in other classes.
“In addition, presenting and pitching to investors has improved my presenting skills. In my other classes (and activities like DECA), I am more comfortable with speaking in front of larger groups and with using business terms. Also, I learned how to create more effective visuals that are clear and concise, which has been incredibly helpful in other classes.”
No surprise, Luo has also embraced the collaborative value of networking. “Networking is also an invaluable skill, since I am now more aware of the importance of going out and connecting with others in order to expand my network. The type of creative and entrepreneurial thinking cultivated in this class has improved my analysis skills, for example, by allowing me to better evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of certain things.” Luo feels the class has given her the tools to set and reach ambitious milestones.
“As starting a company is a very individualized process, setting goals is often up to what I want to accomplish, not what someone else tells me,” she said. “This class has inspired me to be proactive in adapting to changes and staying on top of my work, and has provided me the resources I need to achieve my goals.”
Kelsey Wu ’19 has scored big in her first semester at Harvard. Her paper, written at Harker as a John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund scholar, was published in the fall issue of The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal.
The paper, “The Loneliness Disease: Challenges of First-Generation Chinese-American Parents of Autistic Children” was selected by The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ) not only for publication, but also as the recipient of the Best Manuscript Award with a $700 stipend. The article is featured on the cover of the magazine as well.
A biannual publication, THURJ showcases peer-reviewed undergraduate research from all academic disciplines. Manuscripts are rigorously reviewed by the peer review board, and the selected manuscripts are further reviewed by Harvard graduate students, postdocs and professors. “In my case,” said Wu, “I received very detailed comments from two professors and one post-doc on criteria such as importance, novelty, logical flow, rigor of methods, strength of results, and style. I then made edits based on their suggestions and returned the paper to the peer review board for the next round of review.
“I’m endlessly grateful for the Near-Mitra program for providing me such a unique opportunity to engage in college-level humanities research in high school. It has laid a solid foundation for my research and academic writing skills in the social sciences, which are definitely conducive to my pursuit in college.” Here is a link to Wu’s original paper at Harker. We will post the link to the updated THURJ article when the magazine is uploaded.
Wu is working as a research assistant at Harvard Law School, is involved in Harvard Open Data Project, and sings for an a cappella group. She noted she has, “met a lot of interesting and inspirational people here and have made lots of really supportive friends” at Harvard. Go, Kelsey!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Siddarth Satish ’06 found his passion when he won his first debate round in high school. Satish, who later became captain of the debate team, treasured his time learning and growing with his classmates. He qualified and represented Harker at the national circuit debate’s Tournament of Champions. “I can picture his smiling, enthusiastic face with ease,” said Tony Silk, upper school mathematics department chair. “I recall him easily connecting with his classmates, jumping into group work and always ready to help a friend out.” After graduating from Harker, Satish’s educational and entrepreneurial journey led him to become the founder and CEO of Gauss Surgical.
Satish always wanted to be an engineer, so he applied to the University of California, Berkeley’s chemical engineering program, which was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. During his time at Berkeley, he worked on computer-aided molecular modeling and fluid dynamics research and had several articles published in journals by his senior year.
After he completed his undergraduate work, a professor convinced him to join a graduate program – the UCSF/UC Berkeley Joint Ph.D. Program in Bioengineering – that would allow him to explore his passion for fluid mechanics within a more applied context: medical technology. “It dawned on me that the work I was doing was unlikely to have an immediate impact in the real world. The prospect of designing medical devices, translating them to clinical use and concretely improving health outcomes was hugely enticing to me – it was real,” remembered Satish. “My graduate project was initially focused on robotic surgery but after spending a lot of time in operating rooms at Stanford, I realized that diagnosing surgical bleeding was an unsolved category, simply because the technology didn’t exist.”
This led Satish to develop a novel method of estimating hemoglobin mass from a photo of blood-soaked gauze. The algorithm could be delivered through a software on a camera-enabled mobile device – an iPhone app.
Of course, this was not a simple matter, but after developing a complex application of computer vision and machine learning algorithms and tackling the regulatory pathway for market access, Gauss Surgical was born.
Gauss has raised roughly $50 million in funding since its founding in 2011 and its app, Triton, is being used in more than 250,000 surgeries a year at medical centers including Mount Sinai Hospital, Duke University Medical Center and Northwestern Medicine. Satish is a named inventor on more than 50 issued or pending patents, was named to Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 list and spoke at a TedMed conference.
Satish’s passion is ever-evolving from that first spark on the debate team. His passion was further ignited when he walked into an operating room in graduate school, when he negotiated his first round of funding for Gauss and when he made a presentation to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“I’ve been fortunate to rediscover and redefine my passions over time through these formative experiences and to let them evolve,” said Satish, who was raised by two engineer-entrepreneurs from India, where he was born. He immigrated to the United States when he was 7 years old, and he and his sister, Anita ’10, are both Harker graduates. Another Harker graduate is Satish’s wife, Alisha Tolani ’06, who is a resident physician specializing in obstetrics/gynecology at Stanford.
“I’ve also re-discovered my passion for the water, and Alisha and I have been on hundreds of dives all over the planet,” said Satish. “It’s been a rewarding experience since you get to see the world with such a different perspective.”
Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
The fall season is an especially eventful time for two groups in our community: the seniors, who are working eagerly to find the next destination in their educational journey, and, conversely, the group of prospective students and families who are visiting Harker with the hopes that they can join the Harker community.
It is a time of excitement, anticipation, and – as all seniors and their parents know – no small amount of anxiety. While understandable, we know that this last emotion fades quickly at the conclusion of the college admissions process, as all of our students will end up at institutions where they will thrive and grow. Year after year, our young alumni return to school with stories of gratitude for their Harker experience and the preparation they had here, and they affirm our efforts to meet our mission’s call to “prepare our students for success in college – and beyond.”
For both our seniors and our prospective families, this admissions season is a period of assessment, both internal and external.
Last year, all of us in the Harker community engaged in a process that had many parallels to the admissions process: our accreditation review by CAIS/ WASC (the California Association of Independent Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges). The experience, which involved every staff member and a host of parent and student volunteers, and which was overseen with incredible aplomb by Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, started in spring 2017 as groups were formed to begin our self-study. Our yearlong self-review resulted in a document of more than 150 pages in length, which we presented to CAIS/WASC in fall 2018.
The purpose of the self-study was for us to assess everything about ourselves, and, in so doing, to identify how well we are or are not meeting our goals, and the efficacy of the processes we are employing.
In March 2019, a visiting team of educators from CAIS member schools spent four days at Harker. They made sure that we are meeting the expectations o CAIS member schools, and they explored how well we had identified our own strengths, challenges and opportunities.
At the end of the visit, the team was tasked with penning its own report to present to the board of directors of CAIS/WASC. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to providing commendations and recommendations to member schools. Though they are instructed to provide no more than 15-20 commendations to a school, they gave Harker 38.
The ideal outcome of the process is that a school receives a reaccreditation status valid for seven years, and that the report from the visiting committee affirms the work of the self-study, in that both the commendations and recommendations are aligned with our own analysis. To a remarkable degree, and thanks entirely to the engaged and earnest effort of the Harker community, we experienced an ideal outcome from this reaccreditation process, and have, as expected, been granted another seven years accreditation status.
In addition to providing numerous commendations and minor recommendations, the visiting committee is tasked with producing a smaller number of major recommendations that reflect items it deems of significant importance to the school, and which we are required to address and report on during the course of the next seven years. It was affirming that each of these followed from our own assessment, and were consistent with our expectations entering the reaccreditation process.
These five recommendations will serve as focal points for our efforts in the coming years. Not surprisingly, one of the recommendations focused on our upcoming middle school move. It reads:
“The Visiting Team recommends that the school remain strongly focused on preparing, coordinating, communicating about, and effecting the move of the middle school program onto the Union Avenue campus, giving particular attention to the preschool faculty who remain so professionally and selflessly focused on delivering one of the finest preschool educations in the city.”
In addition to the team’s acknowledgement of the importance of this effort to move the middle school, it was especially noteworthy that they embedded a much-deserved mention of support and praise for the amazing educators who have overseen our preschool program.
Two other major recommendations focused on aspects of our existing efforts to provide an impactful educational environment in the arena of wellness and in our efforts related to diversity, equity and inclusion. These have been areas of focus since the previous accreditation, and the visiting committee encouraged us to sustain our efforts.
The visiting team’s fourth recommendation is hat we look to data to help us assess our efficacy and opportunities “to inform areas of growth, measure the effectiveness of change initiatives, and validate the delivery of the mission.”
We are grateful for our membership in and accreditation by CAIS/WASC, and as is true of any good growth processes, the reaccreditation cycle required us to reflect deeply and work hard. Yet, the resulting benefits to our community and our educational program will be long-lasting and significant. The final element of the process is for us to create a strategic plan that incorporates the major recommendations. Our work to make this plan a productive and forward-looking one is well underway, with various groups already refining themes and initiatives. The plan should take its final form this spring, and we will present it to the community then, just around the same time our seniors are deciding which colleges they will attend, and when our new families will be welcomed into the Harker community.
In this year’s National Young Composers Challenge, junior Anika Fuloria was named a finalist in the full orchestra category for her piece, titled “Worker 21486 – Life and Death in the Hive,” which received high praise from the competition’s judges. “This is quite a remarkable piece,” said Keith Lay, who teaches in the composition program at Full Sail University. “It’s unlike any other submission that we’ve received this year.”
A prolific composer, Fuloria has written music for Harker’s 2018 and 2019 fall plays and composed “The Final March” as a tribute to the senior class of 2019, which was performed at the upper school’s spring concert in May. She also performs in the bass section of the upper school orchestra, and this past weekend performed at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with the CODA (California Orchestra Directors Association) String Orchestra, leading the bass section after placing first in the seating audition.
Sophomore Spencer Cha recently won the Southwest division of the Music Teachers National Association’s Composition Competition and will head to Chicago in March as a national finalist. Cha, who has studied piano for more than 12 years and has studied composition for three years, also will perform with the Golden State Youth Orchestra in May.
Cha also has won numerous piano competitions, including the California Association of Professional Music Teachers State Honors Competition, the San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists and the Marilyn Mindell Piano Competition, in addition to being a soloist with the Palo Alto Philharmonic and performing at Carnegie Hall. He currently performs with the upper school orchestra as an oboist.
Harker journalism students spent Nov. 19-23 in Washington, D.C., attending the Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association’s Fall High School Journalism Convention, where the Winged Post newspaper received an NSPA Pacemaker award.
The upper school’s Winged Post newspaper was awarded the Pacemaker for the 2018-19 school year, which was the third Pacemaker in journalism department history, following a 2016 win for the upper school news website, Aquila, and the Winged Post’s first Pacemaker win in 2008. The Winged Post was one of just 19 school publications chosen from among 220 finalists. Aquila was awarded sixth place in Best of Show in the Website category.
Individual awards included an honorable mention for Social Justice Reporting for senior Mahika Halepete’s story on the refugee crisis, and another honorable mention in Local Climate Change Reporting for a story covering the Green New Deal by juniors Arya Maheshwari, Varsha Rammohan and Michael Eng, and sophomore Lucy Ge.
Honorable mentions were also won for 2019 Digital Story of the Year for coverage of the California Democratic Convention by seniors Eric Fang and Kathy Fang, and juniors Arushi Saxena and Anna Vazhaeparambil, and a story by Kathy Fang and senior Jessie Wang on biology teacher Thomas Artiss’ beekeeping hobby.
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, DECA director of communications
Over 50 students traveled to Anaheim in early November for California DECA’s first Fall Leadership Development Conference (FLDC), giving new members a closer look at three DECA industry clusters in a noncompetitive environment. As the students’ first official DECA conference, they learned the basics of the various tracks offered: leadership, hospitality and entrepreneurship, and had the opportunity to listen to leaders in the business world reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“FLDC’s various tracks provided a pathway for students to become familiar with some of DECA’s clusters and demonstrate growth as leaders,” said Bryan Zhang, grade 11, DECA’s director of written events. “With the conference being the students’ first experience pitching their ideas to fellow competitors, FLDC allowed them to master their presentation skills while networking with people across California. Furthermore, the variety of keynote speakers taught the attendees about resilience and personal development through engaging activities and meaningful anecdotes. Overall, I think FLDC was an enriching experience for both seasoned veterans and novices of DECA.”
At the opening session, students were introduced to the conference theme, “Leadership Wins Championships,” and heard keynote speaker Jake Kelfer, author of the bestseller “Elevate Beyond,” discuss his career journey and life lessons.
“FLDC was very well run and gave me many new opportunities to learn from mentors and speakers,” said Lexi Nishimura, grade 9. “During the conference, I also got to bond with my chapter and make new friends in my track group.”
Later, students assembled with their respective tracks for a testing session and an introduction to the field. Through teamwork activities, members met other California DECA members and laid the groundwork for their final presentation with their groups.
On Saturday morning, attendees gathered for the morning session, where speaker Scott Mathie, founder of Nix Your Limits, talked about Walt Disney’s leadership and creative problem-solving skills. Then, the students transferred into their track groups to learn key concepts for their respective clusters and begin working on their final presentations.
The entrepreneurship track brainstormed ideas for a business proposal, while the leadership and hospitality tracks learned basic terminologies and leadership styles. Students then went out to lunch in Anaheim before reconvening in the afternoon to polish and practice their presentations.
“As the first conference of the year, FLDC was an incredible experience for kids to learn about DECA,” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, co-chief executive officer of Harker DECA. “The conference provided students a great introduction to the different clusters, especially as each track was based on a competitive event that DECA offers. Our members’ creative presentations impressed me and showed how many highly skilled future DECA competitors and emerging leaders are within our chapter.
“The keynote speakers were also some of the best I’ve seen so far and gave attendees invaluable advice on leadership and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the conference allowed our members to bond with each other, and I think the balance between fun and learning created an amazing first DECA experience for our chapter,” Kolla added.
On Friday, RHYTHM – a youth outreach organization formed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus – visited Harker’s middle and upper school campuses, where it performed at a pair of assemblies, joined by middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey. The 50-man chorus sang a variety of songs from its repertoire, including George Michael’s “Freedom” and “If You Were Gay” from the musical Avenue Q. In between songs, members of the chorus shared their personal stories about growing up feeling different because of their orientation, providing valuable lessons about love, acceptance and building a more inclusive community.
RHYTHM coordinator Mitch Galli visited Harker the previous week to work with middle and upper school vocal groups as well as each campus’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Each assembly included a special performance of The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge,” featuring Harker singers and students reading aloud hopes, written anonymously, for greater inclusivity in schools and communities.