Harker’s middle school DECA Idea Challenge team is a global finalist!
The team, named Insulator Warrior Inc., is a finalist in the elementary/middle school category. Members of the team are Markus Zhang, Rohan Bhowmik, Arjun Barrett and Gordon Chen, all grade 7.
The annual Idea Challenge, held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, invites students to pitch an innovative new product that uses a mystery item. This year’s item was a rubber band; teams had to generate a new use for this traditional product. Check out their video showing a really innovative use of the humble rubber band! There were 2,255 submissions from teams around the world. Other finalist teams are from Bermuda, Canada, The United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The global winners will be announced Jan. 23.
This week, grades 1-3 staged their annual holiday shows at the Bucknall Theater to celebrate the season as the community headed into the winter break. Attendees were delighted to hear the voices of grade 1 students singing odes to the holiday season at Tuesday’s Grade 1 Holiday Show, where the homeroom students of teachers Imelda Cantu, Cindy Proctor, Larissa Weaver and Grace Wallace performed an assortment of tunes. In keeping with the show’s title, “All I Want This Holiday,” students sang several songs about holiday wishes, including “I Want to Be an Elf,” “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” and “That’s What I Want for Christmas.” Other songs performed that afternoon included “My Favorite Time of Year,” “Spin a Little Dreidl” and “A Gift for Santa.”
On Thursday, grades 2 and 3 teamed up for their holiday show, “This Joyous Holiday,” where they performed holiday staples such as “Jingle Bell Rock,” “Feliz Navidad,” “Winter Wonderland” and “O Chanukah, O Chanukah.” During grade 3’s rendition of “Auld Lang Syne,” they were joined by classmate instrumentalists Lucas Lum, Vera Sorotokin, Annabel Huang and Billy Liang on violin and Ayden Grover on cello. Other special guests included grade 2 teachers Andi Bo, Hillaray Carroll, Sejal Mehta and Ayesha Tahir, who recited the famous poem “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
Middle schoolers worked hard to fulfill holiday wishes for families in need during the campus’ Family Giving Tree drive, which ended on Monday. In late November, students were given wishes to fulfill and in the subsequent weeks set out to acquire the gifts described in the wishes. In all, more than 400 gifts were donated to help local families have a happy holiday season!
The American Mathematical Society today announced that Ashvin Swaminathan ’13 was awarded the 2018 AMS-MAA-SIAM Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student! Swaminathan received the award for exceptional research in algebraic geometry, number theory and combinatorics. His work has appeared in numerous well-regarded professional level journals.
Swaminathan also has been awarded Princeton’s Centennial Fellowship, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the David B. Mumford Prize (for most promising mathematics concentrator at Harvard). Some of his research has been in the University of Minnesota Duluth Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and the Emory University REU program.
For more information on this award and Swaminathan, see the AMS press release.
The last fittings are being bolted into place in the new Rothschild Performing Arts Center; in a few short weeks, it will debut. All the hardware, all the sound gear, the plush curtain and the 450 seats in the Patil Theater will be brought into motion by students, parents, faculty and staff on Feb. 2. The building will go live in the finest sense of the term.
From the basement to the fly and with the stage in between, the theater will be busy (for more on the behind-the-scenes and classroom features see news.harker.org. In the basement, students will be prepping in the dressing rooms, those comforting havens where performers can stash their stuff, get into their performance outfits, get their ‘faces’ on and have a last calming sip of water before turning to the audience; and to whence they can return, energized and exhausted, after performing.
The dressing rooms include spacious restrooms and each dressing room will feature counters around three sides, said Kevin Hart, of Kevin Hart Architecture, which co-designed the building with Studio Bondy Architecture. There will be continuous mirrors above the counters, as well as continuous lights above. Outlets are at counter height for hair dryers, razors, curling irons, etc., and those outlets are all switched off at the door, for safety. The rooms are carpeted and the wall and ceiling assemblies are noise-reductive due to their proximity to the stage and auditorium, Hart added.
While downstairs the dressing rooms teem with preparations, upstairs, the audience, up to 450 strong, will have found their way past an intimate plaza featuring one of the oak trees carefully preserved during construction and now replanted in front of the center, perhaps picked up tickets from the will-call window in the tasteful, airy lobby, waved to friends on the lobby balcony and stopped to enjoy a unique art installation: a 34.5-foot-wide, 15-foot-high color LED display.
As performers finish preparing, stage crew members put the final touches on sets and musicians rustle sheet music into place, the audience will be settling into comfy seats by Series Seating. Series has provided seating for many performing arts venues worldwide, including Her Majesty’s Theater in Adelaide, Australia and the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.
Series provided several alternatives to choose from, and sent mockups of final options so school officials and the design team could actually sit in the chairs and check out the fabric. Seat trim will match the maple in the wall trim and ceiling sound reflectors, and the seat coverings will match the stage curtain. Seats are of a few slightly different widths and staggered so that the view from every seat is between the heads of the row right in front, noted Hart.
Audience seating is in three sections – orchestra, parterre and balcony – and each is at a different angle to optimize views of the stage, noted Hart. “The floor of the orchestra section is sloped, while the parterre and balcony are stepped,” he said. “All three sections are curved to focus on the stage, creating a bowl-like floor. There are also two special rows in the balcony which are a few steps down from the second floor, closer to the stage. The room is extraordinarily intimate: every one of the 450 seats will seem quite close to the action on stage.”
One of the stars of the theater is a Bösendorfer concert grand piano. Bösendorfers are considered one of, if not the, top concert pianos in the world and Harker’s will be stored just off stage in a special closet. The grand opening program has not been set, but perhaps those attending the opening will get a special treat if the Bösendorfer is played as these pianos are in the finest concert halls in the world. The Harker Bösendorfer will provide an unparalleled instrument on which students can refine their skills. In addition, the piano will be a significant draw in attracting top level performers to Harker for master classes and performances. It is a game changer in the world of concert pianists.
The piano that will grace Harker’s Patil Theater stage is a model 214VC CS. VC stands for Vienna Concert and CS stands for Conservatory Series. “The piano is actually a bit of a rarity; CS plus VC is not common and we are lucky we got it,” said Chris Florio, instrumental music teacher and orchestra director.
The model 214VC is seven feet long and the Vienna Concert features are “characterized by projecting an unheard array of colours and optimized mechanical interplay of all action components,” according to the Bösendorfer website. What does that translate to in English? The VC was released in January 2017 and Yamaha’s literature notes the VC has
New action and keyboard scaling design for perfect control and direct touch and feeling,
Optimized placement of string section and bridges at the soundboard for even string load, supporting the flexibility and effectiveness of the soundboard assembly resulting in improved sustain, projection and dynamics.
New innovative soundboard design for a stable three-dimensional soundboard crown leading to enhanced resonance, dynamic spectrum and sustain.
An outer rim that maintains the traditional Bösendorfer resonance case principle with a spruce core for obtaining a maximum range of rich tonal colors.
Conservatory Series pianos come with a distinctive satin finish and simplified cabinet features, practical attributes for piano in a learning environment.
Harker’s Bösendorfer has one final customization that provides a subtle, but important, feature. “We have had large stage casters installed on the piano,” said Florio, “the same casters that are usually on the (Bösendorfer) 280 and 290 concert grands. The piano does not come with stage casters and the use of a grand piano dolly, like we have in Nichols Auditorium, raises the height of the piano. This was a modification to the piano we worked out with Bösendorfer through our vendor.”
Florio noted it was nip and tuck to get the desired piano in the timeframe and within budget.
“Susan Nace (vocal music teacher and director of three Harker choirs) and I tried out pianos last spring,” said Florio. “We collectively decided that the seven-foot Bösendorfer was the best piano for the theater, and one we hoped would fit our budget. It turned out that our budget was not quite enough but, luckily, Yamaha, who owns Bösendorfer, came back with an additional 10 percent off of the sale price.”
Then, a turn for the worse: in the interim, the chosen piano had been sold. It can take up to six years for a piano to be finished; Bösendorfer offers nine models and several special editions, and produces fewer than 300 pianos each year, so getting another 214VC CS by the Feb. 2 grand opening of the RPAC was looking dodgy.
Nonetheless, the muses smiled on Harker and it only took a couple of weeks for another 214 VC CS to come out of production. That was good, but it was July: Florio was away on vacation and the 30-day window to complete the purchase was closing. That was bad, and there was another hitch. “As the sales tax on the piano brought the final cost over our budget, we needed the approval of both Brian Yager [new head of school starting that week] and Diana [Nichols, chair of the board of trustees] to move ahead with the purchase.
“I was in Tahoe when the 30 days was coming up,” said Florio, “and I got in contact with the manager of the dealership to see if we could finalize the deal while I was gone. As luck would have it, Joe Rosenthal [executive director of advancement] was working back in San Jose and Brian was just in for his first week of work.”
Everyone signed off on the deal, “with the understanding that Joe would find a donor to cover the over-budget,” said Florio. “So, in good faith, Joe went ahead and processed the payment for the piano while I ironed out the contract details while on vacation in Tahoe. We had a donor cover the extra cost by the end of summer. It was a hectic week but we got the deal done and got the piano we wanted!”
The “Bösey,” as one Harker pianist referred to it, is currently being stored and will be delivered to the stage in late January. It will be professionally “voiced” for the space but it will likely take a good amount of time for the piano to completely acclimate to the theater. “It’s going to be such a perfect piano for the space,” said Florio.
And that piano will be played. All the equipment in the performing arts world will not breathe life into the building the way the performers will and that is what Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts chair, can’t wait to see. “It’s really not about the details, but rather the overall impact for the audience and kids,” she said.
“Students and audience will be thrilled and overwhelmed each time they walk into the space and realize it’s theirs,” she noted. “We’ve never had anything like it before and it’s state-of-the-art, across the board. We are not just stepping up, we are transforming both in the classroom and onstage by virtue of the building itself. It is the entire impact of an actual building designed for performing arts that is the feature!”
Four Harker students qualified for the American Choral Directors Association California All-State Choir, which will perform in San Jose Feb. 15-18. To be selected for the All-State Choir, the students had to audition, qualify and attend the ACDA Regional Honor Choir. Their regional audition scores were used to determine their eligibility for All-State. Musicians will be placed in mixed, men’s, or women’s choruses with approximately 120 singers in each ensemble. Please congratulate Joel Morel, grade 10, tenor, Camerata; Vaishnavi Murari, grade 9, alto, Bel Canto; Karli Sharp, grade 11, soprano, Cantilena; and Meilin Yen, grade 9, soprano, Bel Canto, when you see them!
Harker’s upper school math club sent a team to the Princeton University Mathematics Competition, a tier one competition. Overall, our team finished in fifth place out of 60-plus teams – an excellent performance! In the individual subcategory, Swapnil Garg, grade 12, finished in a very impressive second place out of 300-plus students. Go math Eagles!
Last week, fifth graders headed up to the Marin Headlands for the annual class trip, during which they took in the breathtaking views offered by the hilly destination, located just across the Golden Gate Bridge.
The students, separated into hiking groups, headed off to various locations around the area. At the Marine Mammal Center, students visited local animals that were being treated for illness. Other students hiked down to the beach for an up-close look at the ocean, while another group enjoyed the indoor touch pools set up by the environmental education organization NatureBridge.
During their afternoon free time, students socialized at their dormitories and played sports such as basketball, soccer and volleyball. Students also braved the wind and rain for an evening hike, in which they traveled to the beach to view the noctiluca, a bioluminescent species of dinoflagellates. Other stops during the trip were Hawk Hill and a local lighthouse. Students also went on a series of hikes around the area, which presented ample opportunities to experience the Marin Headlands’ natural wonders.
The speech and debate team is off to an amazing start this season. The team has competed at 15 tournaments this season locally and in Texas, Florida, Iowa and Southern California. Already the team has proven to be nationally competitive across all of the events we participate in, with multiple students winning awards at national competitions. When asked about the keys to the team’s success, coach Greg Achten explained, “I have been very impressed with how hard our students have worked this year. In all of the events, we lost very talented seniors to graduation, but our returning students have really stepped up this year and demonstrated tremendous leadership.”
In policy debate, we have had standout performances by Jacob Ohana and Alan Hughes, both grade 12, who did so well at the prestigious St. Mark’s tournament that they are partly qualified for the Tournament of Champions. Maddie Huynh, grade 10, and Andy Lee, grade 9, made it to the final round of a sophomore round robin. Megan Huynh, grade 12, Anusha Kuppahally, grade 11, Esha Deokar, grade 11, Deven Parikh, grade 9, Jason Lin, grade 9 and Jai Bahri, grade 10, also have all won awards in policy. The year-long topic in policy debate is about federal education reform. Our students advocate that the Supreme Court needs to guarantee unauthorized migrants a right to education.
The individual events competitors also have had an outstanding season. Avi Gulati, grade 10 and Haris Hosseini, grade 11, have each won first place in original oratory and made it to the final round multiple times. Gulati also has made it to the final round of extemporaneous speaking, along with David Feng, grade 10. Nikhil Dharmaraj, grade 11, qualified for finals in original oratory. Nikki Solanki, grade 10, has made multiple final-round appearances in dramatic interpretation and programmed oral interpretation.
In Lincoln-Douglas debate, Serena Lu, grade 12, was invited to compete in an elite round robin at Presentation High School. Karoun Kaushik, grade 8, had a remarkable performance in the junior varsity division of the Presentation tournament, where he took first place! Harker also had a fabulous showing at the Harvard-Westlake tournament. Lauren Fu, Sachin Shah and Quentin Clark, all grade 10, Akshay Manglik and Aditya Tadimeti, both grade 9, and Anshul Reddy, grade 8, all made it to elimination rounds. The Lincoln-Douglas debaters are researching and arguing about whether wealthy nations are morally obligated to provide poorer countries with development assistance.
In public forum debate, Amanda Cheung and Annie Ma, both grade 10, have reached elimination rounds. The grade 11 duo of Clarissa Wang and Cindy Wang have been invited to two exclusive round robins and have represented the school in elimination rounds across the country. The public forum community is debating the very timely topic of universal background checks for gun sales.
In congressional debate, Andrew Sun, grade 9, and David Feng, grade 10, performed well enough at the University of Florida to earn their first bids to the Tournament of Champions. Jason Huang, grade 11, already has had such a great season that he is fully qualified to the Tournament of Champions. Congressional debaters argue about a wide variety of topics and must be very tuned into current events to be successful.
The coaches also have been incredibly proud of how well the students have operated as a cohesive team. There have been many instances where students who were eliminated from a competition immediately turned around to coach teammates who advanced. More experienced students have also done a great job of mentoring newer students before tournaments. Coach Scott Odekirk noted, “The friendly and supportive atmosphere of the team is on display at tournament. Nobody is eliminated until everyone is eliminated. We cheer each other on and lift each other when we are down. Honestly, it is quite inspiring.”
The Harker football team made history twice last Saturday as it both hosted and won the first ever football playoff game with a 56-0 thrashing of visiting Sonoma Valley High. Marcus Tymous, grade 11, scored three rushing TDs; Aaron Smith, grade 11, added two TDs; Devin Keller, grade 10, added a rushing score; and Jared Anderson, grade 11, caught a 56-yard TD pass from Nate Kelly, grade 12, and later returned a punt 79 yards for a score. Once again, the Eagle D was ferocious all night, pitching another shutout. The Eagles will host the Piedmont Highlanders this Friday at 7 p.m.
Cross Country
Harker was represented by five runners at the CCS Cross Country Finals this past Saturday. The boys were represented by Ryan Adolf, grade 11, Arya Maheshwari, grade 9, and Aditya Singhvi, grade 9, who finished off their fine seasons. The top two finishes of the day belonged to the girls, as Lilia Gonzales, grade 11, finished 56 out of 96 D4 runners, and Anna Weirich, grade 9, took home a seventh place finish in D4, qualifying her for the state finals on Nov. 25 in Fresno.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team won its opening CCS matchup with Stevenson 5-2 last week. However, the team’s season came to an end the next day as its second-round opponent, Monta Vista, got the best of the Eagles with the 6-1 win. But this Tuesday, Sachi Bajaj, grade 9, and the doubles team of Gina Partridge, grade 10, and Rachel Broweleit, grade 10, begin their CCS journey at Bay Club Courtside in Los Gatos.
CCS Honors
Congratulations to the Harker boys cross country and boys water polo teams as they were recently honored as CCS Fall Scholastic Championship Teams. Of all the CCS teams in their respective sports, boys cross country had the highest team GPA at 3.9430 and boys water polo was second in their sport with a 3.8150. Great job giving it your all in your sport and in the classroom! Go Eagles!