The annual middle school trip to Japan in mid-May took 23 grade 6 students across the Pacific to meet with their buddies at Tamagawa Academy, and see many of the country’s cultural and geographic landmarks. After arriving in Tokyo on May 11, the students spent a couple of days exploring the city. They visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Sumo Museum and the Anime Museum, where they learned about the process of making an animated film.
Tamagawa Academy gave Harker a warm welcome on May 13, despite less-than-savory weather conditions. “Despite the heavy rain, we were greeted with excitement, big smiles, and hugs from Tamagawa buddies, parents and teachers,” reported Alana Butler, middle school dean of students, who served as a chaperone on the trip. Both Tamagawa and Harker students gave speeches, and Tamagawa’s middle school headmaster welcomed the Harker representatives and offered his appreciation for the 21-year relationship between the two schools. Following the ceremony, Harker students left with their homestays for the remainder of the weekend.
The Harker students spent much of their first full day at Tamagawa attending classes with their buddies, including English, math, science and foreign languages. During a stop at Tamgawa’s agricultural department, “We learned that the university is producing lettuce, selected herbs and fruit using specific LED lights and light combinations,” said Butler. “It was an amazing sight to see!”
The next day started with a brief welcome meeting with Tamagawa head of school Yoshiaki Obara, after which the group headed to the school’s planetarium. “As Keiko of the planetarium program explained, it is rare that a planetarium is attached to a school,” Butler wrote. “Therefore, having one at Tamagawa is truly special.” Later that day, the students attended a special assembly that included performances of karate, ballet, fencing and comedy. Harker students Ashley Ruan, Arissa Huda and Aria Jain performed as well.
The final day of Harker’s visit to Tamagawa began with students participating in the Tamagawa lower school’s morning assembly and daily exercise routine. “As Harker guests, we joined in and brought smiles to many faces,” wrote Butler. They later attended English and music classes at the lower school. “Since the students are very young and at the beginning stages of learning English, lessons involved students walking around and introducing themselves to their new Harker friends,” Butler said.
The students spent the rest of the day with their Tamagawa buddies, attending classes and enjoying lunch before emotional farewells were exchanged. “Hugs, smiles and tears were all present as our Harker students said goodbye to their Tamagawa buddies,” Butler wrote. “Feeling like most parents saying goodbye to their children, the Tamagawa moms and dads were just as sad to see their Harker guest children leave.”
Upon arriving in Kyoto the next day, the group set out to explore the former Japanese capital with their tour guide, Akira. “As we drove around, Akira pointed out foliage, statues and other things that were specific to the area,” wrote Butler. The students and chaperones had a great time watching a kimono fashion show at the Nishijin Textile Center and seeing the Fushimi Shinto shrine. Once the large crowds had subsided, they also walked through Kiyomizu Temple.
On May 19, the group spent their final full day in Japan in Hiroshima, where they toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Local guides Mito and Michiko provided historical facts and personal stories regarding the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. The students presented 1,000 paper cranes that they had folded, which were left at the Children’s Peace Monument in memory of the wish of Sadako Sasaki, who fell ill following the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and folded origami cranes in the hopes that she would be granted a wish upon folding 1,000 of them, in accordance with an ancient legend.
Their final cultural stop on the trip was at Miyajima Island, where they walked with deer and viewed the Itsukushima Shrine, built more than 1,400 years ago.
The preschool welcomed a special visitor Monday, as Harker parent and NASA employee Rochelle Ribeiro (Zachary Mascarenhas, kindergarten) joined the transitional kindergarten students in the STEM lab to teach them about space travel. She brought in models of the spaceships; fruit flies that astronauts will be taking to space to study (they are really tiny!); and an astronaut suit, including gloves and helmet that the children were able to try on. The kids had lots of fun on a sunny spring day!
Congratulations to the boys golf team for reaching the CIF State Championship for the second year in a row. More than 1,500 California schools compete every year in boys golf, and Harker ended the season fifth in the state. The top scorer for Harker was Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11, shooting a 2-under-par 69 at Poppy Hills Golf Course. Congratulations on another great year!
Spring League and CCS Awards
Spring season All-League teams and CCS Scholastic Championship Teams were recently announced, and Harker was well represented!
The state finalist boys golf team once again produced the WBAL MVP, this year with Daulet Tuleubayev, grade 11. Seniors Avi Khemani and Ryan Vaughan earned first team honors, while Shaan Gagneja, Jin Kim, Victor Shin, all grade 11, and Sandip Nirmel, grade 12, earned second team awards.
The lacrosse team had an impressive season and it showed with their postseason accolades. In the classroom, the team was a Top 5 Scholastic Champion with a team GPA of 3.6358. On the field, Elise Mayer, grade 10, and Alayna Richmond, grade 12, were named to the first team, while Mahlet Demissachew and Aditi Maheshwari, both grade 12, were named to the second team. Jordan Thompson, grade 12, earned an honorable mention.
The softball team narrowly missed the playoffs this season, but many Eagles were honored for their notable individual years. Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, and Anika Rajamani, grade 10, each earned first team honors, with Marti Sutton, grade 12, and Cameron Zell, grade 10, being named to the second team, and Grace Park, grade 12, getting an honorable mention.
The Harker swim team swept the MVP category as Ethan Hu, grade 9, and Vivian Wang, grade 11, (co-MVPs) each took home top honors. Michael Auld, grade 12, was named to the first team, with Justin Culpepper, grade 12, Alex Yu, grade 10, Angela Li, grade 10, all being named to the second team, and Yannick Bohbot-Dridi, grade 11, earning an honorable mention. Also, both the boys and girls swim teams were Top 5 Scholastic Champions, with the boys finishing with a 3.6977 GPA and the girls finishing with a 3.8286 GPA.
The boys tennis team set a Harker record for wins in a season this year, and that was thanks to many impressive individual seasons, including Edward Tischler, grade 12, and David Wen, grade 11, each taking home first team honors, with Rishi Dange, grade 9, Mihir Sharma, grade 9, and Randy Zhao, grade 11, earning second team, and Ramanand Vegesna, grade 9, receiving an honorable mention. In addition, the Eagles were also a Top 5 Scholastic Champion with a 3.7536 GPA.
On girls track and field, Niki Iyer, grade 12, was named to the WBAL first team, and Grace Koonmen, grade 11, earning an honorable mention. For the boys track and field team, Davis Dunaway, grade 12, was named to the first team, Davis Howard, grade 12, Anthony Contreras, grade 11, and the members of the boys 4×100 relay team – Dunaway, Contreras, Mitchell Granados, grade 10, and Angel Cervantes, grade 11 – received honorable mentions. The boys track and field team was also a Top 5 Scholastic Champion with a GPA of 3.6598.
The boys volleyball team was a Top 5 Scholastic Champion with a team GPA of 3.5172. In addition, SCVAL De Anza Division All-League honors went to Jonathan Schwartz, grade 12, who was named to the second team, and Jeffrey Kwan who was named co-Freshman of the Year.
Finally, the Eagle baseball team earned Peninsula Lake All-League honors with Varun Haltore, grade 12, and Tanay Kamat, grade 11, each being named to the first team, Matthew Kennedy and Dominic Cea, both grade 11, being named to the second team, and Max Lee, grade 9, earning an honorable mention. The boys also performed well in the classroom with a team GPA of 3.5275, earning it recognition as a Top 5 Scholastic Championship.
Awards Banquet
The Upper School Athletic Awards Ceremony for the 2016-17 season was held last week with many Eagles receiving recognition for amazing seasons and careers.
The Super Eagle Award is given to the athletes who have participated in three competitive sports at Harker during one school year. Earning the award were Lily Wancewicz, Alycia Cary, Lilia Gonzales, Marcus Tymous, Cameron Zell, all grade 10, and Haley Arena, grade 9. Earning the Drew Goldstein Commitment Award for playing three sports per year for all four years of high school was Davis Howard, grade 12.
The Eagle Award is given to an athlete in each sport who displays enthusiasm at all times, supports the team and individuals throughout the season, hustles in every task, shows positive role modeling and has a selfless giving approach to the program. This award is voted on by the team members of each sport. Receiving this award were Stephanie Xiao, grade 10, in cheerleading; Peter Connors, grade 11, in boys cross country; Gloria Guo, grade 11, in girls cross country; Will Park, grade 12, in football; Vienna Wang, grade 12, in girls golf; Connie Miao, grade 12, in girls tennis; Lindsey Trinh, grade 12, in girls volleyball; Arnav Tandon, grade 12, in boys water polo; Sarah de Vegvar, grade 12, in girls water polo; Justin Jia, grade 12, in boys basketball; Satchi Thockchom, grade 11, in girls basketball; Joseph Krackeler, grade 12, in boys soccer; Maile Chung, grade 12, in girls soccer; Shikhar Solanki, grade 11, in wrestling; Varun Haltore, grade 12, in baseball; Avi Khemani, grade 12 in boys golf; Alayna Richmond, grade 12, in lacrosse; Kristin LeBlanc, grade 11, in softball; Jack Farnham, grade 12, in boys swimming; Clarissa Wang, grade 10, in girls swimming; Ed Tischler, grade 12, in boys tennis; Angel Cervantes, grade 11, in boys track and field; Grace Koonmen, grade 11, in girls track and field; and Jonathan Schwartz, grade 12, in boys volleyball
The Iron Eagle Award is awarded to the male and female athletes who demonstrate the highest level of commitment to their school, teammates and their sport(s) throughout the entire year, including off-season, preseason, and in-season. Winners were Jordan Thompson and Will Park, both grade 12.
The Athletic Commitment Award is given to seniors who have played four years of at least one sport at Harker and exhibited characteristics such as commitment, positive leadership, good sportsmanship and a strong work ethic. Earning this award were Chelsie Alexander, Steven Cao, Anthony Crook, Justin Culpepper, Sarah de Vegvar, Mahlet Demissachew, Alexis Gauba, Jordan Goheen, Sarah Gonzalez, Kedar Gupta, Taylor Iantosca, Justin Jia, Joseph Krackeler, Nina Levy, Aditi Maheshwari, Connie Miao, Anuva Mittal, Rishabh Nijhawan, Grace Park, Parth Pendurkar, Andrew Rule, Marti Sutton, Priyanka Taneja, Lindsey Trinh, Michael Tseitlin, Abhay Varmaraja and Melinda Wisdom.
The League Achievement Award is given to seniors who played four years of athletics at Harker, achieved first team All-League honors, and exhibited characteristics such as commitment, positive leadership, good sportsmanship and a strong work ethic. This year’s winners were Michael Auld, Maile Chung, Kailee Gifford, Saketh Gurram, Varun Haltore, Avi Khemani, Lyndsey Mitchell, Sandip Nirmel, Jonathan Schwartz, Will Park, Daniel Reidenbach and Davis Howard.
The Director’s Award is given to seniors who played four years of Harker athletics and achieved at least one of the following: was awarded first team All-League, was recognized at the state or section level, or achieved league MVP honors. Recipients also much have exhibited characteristics such as commitment, positive leadership, good sportsmanship and a strong work ethic. This year the award was given to Ryan Vaughan, Joelle Anderson, Rachel Cheng, Davis Dunaway, Jack Farnham, Arben Gutierrez-Bujari, Misha Ivkov, Niki Iyer, Alayna Richmond, Arnav Tandon, Jordan Thompson and Edward Tischler.
Congratulations to all the amazing Harker athletes!
Alumni
Check out this article on Izzy Connell ’13, who is still working hard on the track and in the classroom:
At the National Economics Challenge finals in New York City, Harker’s team took fourth place overall in the Adam Smith division, narrowly missing the top two and a chance to appear on CNBC. Nevertheless, the students performed admirably to place in the top four nationwide. Congratulations!
Update May 1, 2017:
Harker’s National Economics Challenge team received word on Friday that it had qualified for the 2017 National Finals, set to take place in New York City May 20-22. The team – made up of Arindam Ghosh, Sumer Kohli, Adriano Hernandez and Praveen Batra, all grade 11 — previously won the state-level competition, placing it among the top four teams in the country. More than 10,500 students participate in the competition each year.
The final competition will consist of three multiple choice exam rounds, a case study presentation and a quiz bowl round.
April 4, 2017
Harker has qualified two teams for the national semifinals of the 2017 National Economics Challenge, which tests students’ knowledge of economics using real-world scenarios. Following qualification, competitions are held at the state, national semifinal and national final levels for high school students in two divisions: the Adam Smith Division for advanced placement, international baccalaureate and honors students; and the David Ricardo Division for semester general economics students. Harker competes in the Adam Smith Division.
After qualifying the maximum of two teams per school via the initial online test, both Harker teams qualified at state finals for the next round, the national semifinals. Harker teams finished first and second at state finals, held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco on April 3. The first place teamcomprised Praveen Batra, Adriano Hernandez and Sumer Kohli. Arindam Ghosh is also on the team but missed this round due to the flu. All are grade 11.
The second place team is Alex Lam, grade 12; and Eric Jeong, Derek Kuo and Alex Wang, all grade 11. The national semifinals are a proctored exam held at each team’s school on April 25. Scores will be tallied nationwide and the four top-scoring teams will then meet in New York City on an all-expenses-paid trip to compete for the championship.
The second part of this year’s exchange with the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy kicked off in late March. Thirteen middle school students – accompanied by global education director Jennifer Walrod, lower school English teacher Kate Shanahan and technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga – traveled to China to visit with their SWFLA buddies and experience some of the country’s rich history, culture and geographic landmarks.
Upon arriving on March 28, the Harker students met up with their SWFLA buddies and families who would be their homestays for the following few days. The students received a very warm welcome on their first day at SWFLA, where they were treated to a flag raising ceremony and introduced themselves to the school in Mandarin. “Apparently … on our drive back from the airport, the SWFLA buddies were busy teaching our kids how to introduce themselves in Mandarin,” said Walrod. Later, the Harker students attended a class on Shanghai history and participated in an art class. The students spent the afternoon learning how to make dumplings and spring rolls,” Walrod said. “Luckily, they did a good job as that is what we ate for dinner.”
Harker students embarked on a field trip the next day to the town of Zhujiajiao, often called the “Venice of China” because of its large network of canals. The visit started with a boat ride to the Fangsheng Bridge. “Once we arrived, everyone bought bags of fish and turtles to set free in order to give them a second life,” said Erica Cai, grade 7. “We then strolled down the many streets and shops of Zhujiajiao, bargaining with the merchants there. All of the vendors were kind and willing to lower prices for us.”
April 1 was the final day for Harker students to spend time on campus with their SWFLA buddies. The day started with morning exercises and a martial arts class, followed by a class on Tibetan-style dance. In music class, the students learned about movements from the Peking opera and Chinese instruments such as the pipa and guzheng. At the end of the day, the Harker guests were treated to a farewell ceremony that included performances by both Harker and SWFLA students.
Harker students spent the next few days with their homestays before departing for Beijing on April 5. Their first stop in China’s massive capital city was the Temple of Heaven, where they learned of the temple’s history as a symbol of the relationship between heaven and earth. After a brief tai chi lesson on the temple grounds, the group headed for the Hutongs, a network of narrow streets and alleyways, where they visited a traditional home known as a “siheyuan,” which consists of a group of small dwellings situated around a courtyard. They also whipped through the alleyways on rickshaws, which Saumi Mehta, grade 7, described as “less bumpy than expected, but fast!”
The next day in Beijing started with a stroll through Tiananmen Square, where they learned about the Monument to People’s Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. Later, they visited the Forbidden City, one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which contains 9,000 rooms in 800 buildings. They later visited the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, which features a corridor that stretches for more than 700 meters.
The students’ final day in China was a full one, starting with a trip to the Spirit Walkway of the Ming Tombs, which serves as the resting place for 13 Chinese emperors. “We wandered down the pathway, taking numerous photos of opposing pairs of animal and human statues lining the way,” said Walrod. Later, the group headed to the Great Wall of China, walking along the world-famous fortification, taking photos and marveling at the massive structure. “As we descended from the wall, we basked in the fact that we had just seen one of the wonders of the world!” recalled Emma Andrews, grade 8.
At dinner that evening, the students enjoyed Peking duck while viewing a shadow puppet show, and went shopping one last time before leaving the next day.
Congratulations to Vivian Wang, grade 11, and Ethan Hu, grade 9, each of whom placed fourth at the CIF State Swimming Championships. Wang competed in the 100 breaststroke and Hu in the 100 butterfly. Congratulations!
Boys Tennis
Harker sent two doubles teams to compete in CCS last week. Ed Tischler, grade 12, and Ram Vegesna, grade 9, defeated Monterey in the first round before falling to Cupertino in the second round. Juniors Neil Bai and Randy Zhao lost their first round matchup with Pioneer. Congrats on a great season!
Track and Field
Over the weekend, Davis Dunaway, grade 12, represented Harker at the CCS track prelims in the pole vault. Although Dunaway did not make it to the finals, he had a great season!
Alumni Golf
On Monday, Maverick McNealy ’13 made his third trip to the Ben Hogan Award ceremony, and this time he was named the top men’s collegiate golfer. McNealy is one of only two golfers in the award’s history to be a finalist three times, and he is currently one of only two golfers to be ranked in the top 10 in all four major college and amateur ranking systems. Check out the full story and video from the event:
Lower and middle school results provided by Theresa “Smitty” Smith.
VA (Grades 7-8) Baseball: The Varsity A team, coached by Jeff Paull, Matt Arensberg and Richard Amarillas, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 5-0. This is the first lower or middle school baseball team to win a league title since the league started back in 2008! Team awards went to Marcus Anderson, grade 8, and Nicholas Coulter, grade 8 (co-MVPs), Levi Sutton, grade 8 (Eagle) and George Wehner, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 4-6) Baseball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Tim Hopkins and Jeff Martarano, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Drew Diffenderfer, grade 4 (MVP), Jack Ledford, grade 5 (Eagle) and Wyatt Cote, grade 6 (Coaches).
Intramural (Grades 4-5) Baseball: Team awards went to Nathan Wilcox, grade 4 (Eagle) and Anderson Chung, grade 4, and Advay Monga, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen, Tobias Wade and Justin Sullivan.
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Theresa Smith and Stephanie Coleman, and assisted by Lindsey Trinh, grade 12, and Lauren Napier, grade 11, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 5-3. Team awards went to Julia Yusupov, grade 8 (MVP), Emma Dionne, grade 8 (Eagle), and Shreya Srinivasan, grade 8, and Anvitha Tummala, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B team, coached by Xiaofeng Foret, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 7-0. The team did not lose a single set all season! Team awards went to Catherine Feng, grade 7 (MVP), Alivia Li, grade 7 (Eagle) and Brooklyn Cicero, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Josh Miller, finished tied for third place in the WBAL with a record of 5-2. Team awards went to Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 8 (MVP), Sarah Leafstrand, grade 7 (Eagle) and Lucy Ge, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Sara Pawloski, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-4. Team awards went to Allison Zhu (MVP), Sonya He (Eagle) and Austina Xu (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Belle Carley, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4. Team awards went to Riya Gupta and Amruta Dharmapurikar (Eagle) and Shea Bryden (Coaches).
JVB1 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Michelle Wei (Eagle) and Alice Tao (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Sydney Voss, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Ava Pakravan (MVP), Emily Kwan (Eagle) and Claire Bauschlicher (Coaches).
Intramural (Grade 4) Girls Volleyball: Team awards went to Saira Ramakrishnan (MVP), Angelina Burrows (Eagle) and Menaka Aron (Coaches). The team was coached by Allison Pereira.
VA (Grades 7-8) Boys Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. The team went 7-2 overall. Team awards went to Marcus Page, grade 7 (MVP), Avery Young, grade 8 (Eagle) and David Gong, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 6-7) Boys Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Julie Meline, finished in third place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. Team awards went to Sam Boucher, grade 7, and Sujith Pakala, grade 7 (Co-MVP), Jack Lyon, grade 6 (Eagle) and Carlo Banzon, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Water Polo: The Varsity A water polo team, coached by Ted Ujifusa and Allie Lamb, finished the season with a league tournament. Although the team went 0-2 in that tournament, the scores were very close and the team improved tremendously over the course of the season. Team awards went to Bayden Yazalina, grade 8 (MVP), Elizabeth Fields, grade 8, and Daniel Fields, grade 7 (Eagle) and Anna Arnaudova, grade 8 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity A tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished in second place in the WBAL at 3-1 and third place in the MTP at 3-1. The team finished the MTP tournament in third place and had an overall season record of 8-3. Team awards went to Santoshi Tirumala, grade 8, and Gowtham Irrinki, grade 8 (Co-MVP), Dhruv Saoji, grade 7, and Sachi Bajaj, grade 8 (Eagle) and Dawson Chen, grade 7, and Tuhin Chatterjee, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity B tennis team, coached by JP Fruttero, John Fruttero and Mike Nguyen, finished tied for first place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1. Team awards went to Anishka Raina, grade 7 (MVP), Madeleine Hansen, grade 7, and Victoria Han, grade 7 (Eagle), and Samuel Jonker, grade 6, and Kailash Ranganathan, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Golf: The Varsity A golf team, coached by Ie-Chen Cheng, took first place in the WBAL spring tournament, held at a tough Crystal Springs Golf Course. The team shot a 164 on the front nine. They beat the rest of the field by 21 strokes! The top four golfers were Natalie Vo, grade 8 (39), Aditya Tadimeti, grade 8 (39), Bowen Yin, grade 8 (42) and Marcus Page, grade 7 (44).
LS (Grades 4-5) Boys Track: The lower school boys team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. The top fifth grade performance was turned in by Veyd Patil (second place in the 800). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Vyom Vidyarthi (first place in the 400 and 800 and second place in the 200), Ori Muramatsu (second place in the 800), Robert Fields (second place in the 400) and Oskar Baumgarte (second place in the long jump).
LS (Grades 4-5) Girls Track: The lower school girls team took second place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top fifth grade performances were turned in by Katherine Fields (second place in the 800) and Mira Goodwin (second place in the 400). Top fourth grade performances were turned in by Chiling Han (first place in the 800), Claire Anderson (second place in the softball throw) and the 4×100 relay team (third place with Claire Anderson, Chiling Han, Genieve Malinen and Sidak Sanghari)
MS (Grades 6-8) Boys Track: The middle school boys track team took first place overall at the WBAL track meet for the first time ever! Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anton Novikov (first place in the 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Bayden Yazalina, McCoy Buchsteiner and Rosh Roy) and Arya Maheshwari (first place in the 1200). Top seventh grade performances were turned in by Justin Fung (first place in the 50, 100 and 200 and anchored the first place 4×100 relay team with Ishaan Mantripragada, Muthiah Panchanatham and Harsh Deep) and Harsh Deep (first place in the 400). Top sixth grade performances were turned in by Rigo Gonzales (first place in the 100, 200 and 400) and Siddharth Selvakumar (first place in the softball throw).
MS (Grades 6-8) Girls Track: The middle school girls track team took fifth place overall at the WBAL track meet. Top eighth grade performances were turned in by Anna Vazhaeparambil (first place in the long jump) and Anna Weirich (second place in the 800 and 1,200). The top seventh grade performance was turned in Ashley Barth (third place in the long jump).
Harker’s middle school speech and debate team, coached by Christopher Thiele, had a successful trip to the Middle School Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend. Harker students earned numerous awards at the event, in which 33 schools representing 145 of the best middle school debate/speech entries across 15 states participated.
Policy: First place, Deven Shah, grade 7, and Julia Biswas, grade 8; second place, Andy Lee and Jason Lin, both grade 8; third place, Akshay Manglik and Aditya Tadimeti, both grade 8; and fifth place, Helen Li and Deven Parikh, both grade 8. Manglik got eighth speaker, Lee got fourth speaker, Biswas got third speaker and Shah got first speaker.
Lincoln-Douglas: Akhilesh Chegu and Rishi Jain, both grade 7, and Aditi Vinod, grade 8, all placed fifth. Chegu got eighth speaker, Jain got seventh speaker and Krishay Mukhija, grade 8, got fourth speaker.
Public Forum: Second place, Anshul Reddy and Sascha Pakravan, both grade 7; Reddy got fifth speaker.
Congress: Third place, Andrew Sun, grade 8.
Dramatic Interpretation: First place, Rhea Nanavati; second place, Arusha Patil, both grade 8.
Original Oratory: Fourth place, Arusha Patil, grade 8.
Harker Preschool is piloting a new program, Wee Engineering, that will help preschool students break down problems in an understandable way. “Wee Engineer simplified the design thinking process into three hands-on segments of inquiry-based, experiential learning,” noted teacher Robyn Stone. First, students explore the materials, second they create to try an idea and third they try to improve it. The program was developed by the Museum of Science in Boston to help early childhood educators develop an understandable process for helping very young children understand engineering concepts.
The approach uses the Stanford University d.school design thinking process, which involves five steps: empathize with the person with a problem, define the problem, ideate potential ways to solve the problem, prototype with materials and test prototypes.
The preschoolers use puppets to help them understand these concepts. “By using a puppet to share a problem,” said Stone, “Wee Engineer has combined the first three design thinking steps. Students engage in dialogue directly with a puppet with whom they empathize, define her problem and ideate potential ways to solve it. Thus, during the investigation, the children spend the bulk of their time in material exploration and iteration – prototyping, testing and improving their prototypes.”
Stone was awarded the pilot program in early spring. “The most interesting part of the program for me, as an educator, is watching the discoveries children make about the properties of materials,” said Stone.
“For example, during the exploration of potential materials with which to make a wrecking ball, students were drawn to testing out brightly colored, fuzzy pom-poms. They were surprised when a wrecking ball full of pom-poms was not powerful enough to knock down a block structure.
“Some students systematically tested the materials by type, while others tested combinations of materials. There was a lot of discussion and collaboration between students as they soon discovered how a wrecking ball filled with heavier materials, such as erasers and marbles, was powerful enough to knock down block structures.
“Once they improved the wrecking ball, a few students creatively attempted to build larger and more complex block structures on which to test their powerful wrecking balls! As a group, the students drew conclusions and shared information with the puppet about what materials worked best.
“The children demonstrated tremendous interest in all segments of the investigation – dialoging with the puppet and exploring materials, creating prototypes and improving their prototypes,” Stone said.
Along with knowledge of how a wrecking ball works, “the students gained developmentally appropriate vocabulary with which to describe the engineering practices in which they engage every day – whether in the STEM Lab, in their home cottage or out in the play yard,” said Stone. “Also, the students gained a richer, deeper understanding of what it means to be an engineer.”
Last week, middle school tinkerers enjoyed a variety of creative activities at a special Mini-Maker Faire organized by middle school learning, innovation and design director Scott Kley-Contini. Harker students designed the activities, which emphasized creativity and ingenuity. The “Airplane Miniature Golf” station, designed by sixth graders Dominick Piscione and Sam Jonker, challenged students to make their own paper airplanes and fly them through six holes, while keeping score on their efforts.
Students also worked on an activity – developed by Andrew Fox, grade 6, with help from Aydin Tiritoglu, grade 8 – involving the creation of simple LED circuits using switches and resistors.
Tanay Sharma, grade 6, and George Wehner, grade 8, developed a special Minecraft coding station where students could use their laptops to tackle coding challenges in the popular computer game.
At the Augmented Reality Gallery, created by Kley-Contini and Harper Brada, grade 6, students used cell phones and tablets to interact with student-made augmented reality content, created using an app called Aurasma.
Congratulations to senior Meilan Steimle, who has been named a 2017 Presidential Scholar of the Arts! As one of just 161 scholars nationwide, she is now eligible to attend an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in June, where this year’s scholars will be honored. Scholars who attend this event will have the chance to meet with leading educators, scientists and authors, as well make new friends among their peers.
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April 21, 2017:
Earlier this week, seniors Manan Shah and Meilan Steimle were named semifinalists in the 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Their applications will be reviewed by the Commission on Presidential Scholars to determine this year’s Presidential Scholars.
Congratulations and good luck!
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Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced this year’s candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, and 19 Harker seniors were among them. Mission San Jose topped the local charts with 31. As many as 161 of the more than 5,000 candidates will be chosen as scholars.
The Presidential Scholars Program, launched in 1964, recognizes high school seniors of distinguished achievement in a variety of disciplines. It is recognized as one of the highest honors awarded to high school students.
Harker’s Presidential Scholar candidates for 2017 are:
Kai-Siang Ang
Steven Cao
Aditya Dhar
Davis Dunaway
Ria Gandhi
Andrew Gu
Zhuoying Huang
Lauren Liu
Sanjana Marce
Sandip Nirmel
Evani Radiya-Dixit
Divya Rajasekharan
Andrew Rule
Venkat Sankar
Manan Shah
Meilan Steimle
Arjun Subramaniam
Andrew Tierno
Michael Tseitlin
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Harker has the highest number of candidates from a school in California. Mission San Jose High School has 31 presidential scholar candidates, making it the California school with the most candidates. We apologize for the error.