Kindergartner Aiden Young recently served as the lower school’s “principal for a day,” thanks to an auction item he won at the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic.
Going by the name Principal Aiden, he took his seat behind the principal’s desk on the morning of March 23. His first order of business was canceling a faculty meeting to allow lower school teachers more time to prepare for conferences.
“The teachers were just overwhelmingly supportive in emailing him back with words of gratitude, each of which brought a smile to his face,” recalled Sarah Leonard, primary division head.
Leonard recalled that Principal Aiden passed up an opportunity to have lunch at a restaurant of his choice in favor of eating on campus. There, Chef David prepared him lunch that consisted of his requested grilled cheese sandwich, tomato soup and water. While dipping half sandwiches into the soup, he rated the lunch as “very delicious,” said Leonard.
Later on in the day, Principal Aiden met one-on-one with Chris Nikoloff, head of school, followed by a meeting with the operational team of administrators, who each offered a summary of their respective roles at Harker.
At the end of the day, Principal Aiden directed a craft activity in his homeroom. Under his instruction, his peers made bunny ear headbands. Their determined work was rewarded with small packets of gummy bunny treats that Principal Aiden happily passed out at dismissal time.
On a warm, sunny day in mid-March, students, parents, family members, faculty and staff from all four campuses gathered at the middle school field for the 10th annual Harker Cancer Walk.
Funds raised from the walk benefit young cancer patients attending Camp Okizu. Thanks to monetary donations and funds raised from the sale of baked goods and other items, more than $14,000 will go to the camp this year, reported Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra foothills, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for children with cancer to enjoy regular summer camp activities and social events.
“This time was a bit more special as it was our 10th anniversary celebration walk!” said Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher and department chair. Schmidt had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his own mother due to cancer.
“This is an event that Harker was kind enough to let me start in 2007 in honor of loved ones inflicted with cancer,” he continued. “Since then, it has been used as a moment for our entire community to come together and celebrate the lives of those we love and those we’ve lost. It is a symbolic walk that is measured not by the miles covered, but by the love and understanding between us all.”
Prior to the walk, students engaged in various activities to learn about different forms of cancer and cancer prevention strategies. In a further show of support, many teachers displayed door decorations with themes designed to promote cancer awareness. And during the walk, Honor Flags – honoring someone who is fighting or has fought cancer – were placed in the ground along the inner edge of the field’s walking path.
The latest Harker Longform goes in-depth about the Harker Research Symposium, which in the last decade has become an important piece of Harker’s research program. Click to continue!
The recent 20th Annual Ogre Awards, with its timely election year theme, marked two decades of entertaining performances by the grade 2 Ogre Academy.
“The Ogres are over, and the results of the election are in. The winner is grade 2!” said Danny Dunn, who serves as the show’s writer and director, as well as technical director of the Bucknall Theater.
Sponsored by the lower school library department, this year’s ceremony took place on “Super Thursday,” the afternoon of March 17, in the Bucknall gym. The second graders enthusiastically portrayed an array of colorful characters, including enchanted royalty, witches, fools, tricksters, heroines, villains and magical objects, based on the folklore of cultures from around the world.
Before the lights dimmed, audience members scanned their programs in eager anticipation of the production. They read about how, in the enchanted kingdom of Harker, a general election would be held, with one story elected to the highest office in the land – and subsequently named Best Story. “Candidates from 21 folk and fairy tales have thrown their hats into the ring in the hopes of securing the vote. It looks like a tight race!” stated the program.
The road to the Oval Library began with primary elections, whereby candidates lobbied for their literary party’s nomination. Once they had chosen their candidate, they faced off in the general election. There, 88 delegates of the 2016 Second Grade Ogre Electoral College decided who won the Best Story of 2016.
Lower school librarian Kathy Clark served as the storyteller and mistress of ceremonies for the show, which was created in 1996 by former library director Enid Davis, who retired four years ago.
“I have been lucky enough to be part of The Ogre Awards from the start, when Enid Davis first put the idea forward of a comparative folklore curriculum for the second graders. From the very beginning, we felt that this particular age was still eager to listen to stories and be old enough to have opinions about the archetypical characters,” said Clark.
Clark added that past Ogre Academy participants often reminisce fondly about the stories they represented and their roles. All participants receive a mini Ogre Award for their participation. “I know that many still have theirs, including Harker alumni!” she said.
The Ogre Awards show originally began as an evening performance. A few years later, it expanded to four shows (one per homeroom) until the production evolved to its current format.
There were plenty of election references at this year’s show, including talk of secret ballots, campaign headquarters, town hall meetings and mudslinging ads. According to Dunn, the clever idea of having characters campaigning for their awards had been in the works for a long time, “but of course we wanted to save it for an election year.” Elections seemed to work very well as a theme, she said, because it gave the characters a chance to explain why and how their stories were winners and best represented their categories.
Each year all but one of The Ogre Awards are bestowed upon fairy tale characters. A special Ogre Award is given to a member of the Harker community who provides exceptional service or support to the Harker libraries.
This year that honor went to Diann Chung, who became the lower school admission director in 2015. She came to Harker as a grade 1 teacher in 1995 and went on to teach grade 2 and serve as the K-2 department chair. More recently, she also took on the role of academic principal for the Camp+ summer program.
Chung said she was thrilled to receive The Ogre Award for Lifetime Achievement. While accepting the award, she shared that one of the things she misses most about being a teacher is story time. “Keep reading!” she urged the students. “Books are a wonderful magical transport.”
As the show came to an end, and the polls came to a close, it was time to announce the winner for the new term in office for Best Story. The much-anticipated Best Folk or Fairy Tale Award went to “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship,” a book illustrated by Uri Shulevitz that retells a Russian fairy tale of the same name. The win was especially notable given the fact that this is the first year the book has been a part of The Ogres.
Before concluding the awards show, Clark informed the cheering audience that The Ogres were made possible by a dedicated team of faculty, staff and parent volunteers.
“I am very proud to be part of a long tradition of Ogres!” said Dunn.
Physical education took on new meaning for lower school students on March 4, thanks to the annual Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser held during regular P.E. for K-5 students.
“No one had to be an experienced jumper to join in. It was good fun for a good cause!” recalled Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s P.E. department and spearheaded the event, which raised $9,589 for the American Heart Association.
Students were able to participate in a concurrent Hoops for Heart effort on the outdoor basketball courts during the first six periods, until rain forced everyone indoors, McGovern noted.
Some staff and faculty members also got in on the action, jumping rope in the Bucknall gym. Students and grown-ups alike had a blast showing off their double dutch moves in support of a worthy cause.
They also had fun playing with hula hoops and participating in a raffle for T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.
For the past few weeks, the lower school – under the leadership of the grade 1 students – has been collecting toys, collars, kitty litter, food, blankets and monetary donations for the animals at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley.
On March 21, the first graders helped carry the donations, which had been stored in the Bucknall gym, out to a car for delivery to the Humane Society.
“We had a lot of donated items. Some of the first graders did extra chores at home to earn money to donate. The total monetary contribution to the animal shelter was $486.86,” reported Rita Stone, grade 1 teacher.
Right before the service project began, the first graders took a field trip to the 80-year-old nonprofit animal shelter. There they enjoyed a tour of the facility and learned what the organization does, as well as how best to care for their own pets.
Photographer, explorer, author and filmmaker Denis Belliveau visited Harker on March 22 as the final guest of the 2015-16 Harker Speaker Series season. Using photographs and his unique storytelling ability, he gave the audience a 40-minute summary of his two-year journey to retrace the legendary travels of explorer Marco Polo. This story was told in the 2008 documentary “In the Footsteps of Marco Polo” and later in a book by the same name.
Before explaining why he decided to traverse the path Marco Polo traveled more than 700 years ago, Belliveau briefly discussed Polo’s life. Polo was the son and nephew of Venetian merchants who left Venice for Asia before he was born. Upon returning to Venice, the two merchants met the teenage Marco for the first time and set off again for Asia, this time with Marco in tow.
Polo’s stories of his travels would later become what Belliveau called “the first travel book.” He explained that Marco Polo was the first to leave behind a detailed account of his time in Asia, inspiring many later explorers, including Christopher Columbus. “His personal story reads like a fairy tale,” Belliveau remarked.
In 1992, which marked the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to North America, Belliveau and fellow traveler Francis O’Donnell observed that many were retracing Columbus’ journey, which they dismissed as boring. “You spend six weeks at sea and then you’re in the Caribbean,” he said.
They realized that 1995 would be the 700th anniversary of Marco Polo’s return to Venice, and began discussing the prospect of retracing his 15,000-mile trek through Asia and back. It turned out that many attempts at a similar journey had been made in the last several decades, but none had been successful.
Belliveau recapped the journey through select photographs he took while traveling. In one slide, he showed the audience a woodcut of Marco Polo returning to his home in Venice, saying he’d hoped to find this same place in his travels. The next slide showed a photograph of the home, with many features still preserved, including the cross above the archway that formed the front door.
While in Israel, Belliveau and O’Donnell visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which Marco Polo journeyed to at the request of Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan. There, Belliveau gained entrance by consulting the family in charge of opening the main gate. The same family has maintained this arrangement for eight centuries, he explained.
To get across Afghanistan safely, the two travelers had to make arrangements with the Mujahideen, the guerilla military outfits that fought against the Soviet Union. Their group was ambushed the Hazaras and they were held for several hours before being allowed to travel again. Eventually they made their way to the famous Wakhan Corridor en route to China.
Following his talk, Belliveau answered questions from the audience and signed copies of the book that accompanied his film, which can be viewed in its entirety at www.thestepsofpolo.org.
Harker middle and upper school debate students had outstanding success at the Western JV and Novice National Championship, held March 12-13 at San Francisco State University.
Cindy Wang and Clarissa Wang, both grade 9 were the tournament champions in second year public forum. Kelly Shen, grade 9, was the tournament champion in novice Lincoln-Douglas debate.
In addition, Esha Deokar, grade 9, and Deven Shah, grade 6, were in the semifinals of novice policy and Meghna Phalke and Alycia Cary, both grade 9, reached the octofinals of novice policy. Anusha Kuppahally, grade 9, and Jacob Ohana, grade 10, were in octos of second year policy.
Raymond Banke, grade 9, Floyd Gordon, grade 10, and Aimee Wang and Alina Yuan, both grade 6, were double octofinalists in novice public forum. Sascha Pakravan and Anshul Reddy, both grade 6, were in the quarters of novice public forum. In second year public forum, Betsy Tian, grade 7, and Shomrik Mondal, grade 8, were in octos. In second year Lincoln-Douglas, Akshay Manglik, grade 7, Cat Zhao, grade 8, Avi Gulati, grade 8 and Satvik Narashimhan, grade 9 were octofinalists.
Also in second year Lincoln-Douglas, Neha Tallapragada, grade 9, and Annie Ma, grade 8, were in quarters. In novice Lincoln-Douglas, Karoun Kaushik, grade 6, and Aditya Tadimeti, grade 7, were double octofinalists. Rishi Jain, grade 6, was in quarters of novice Lincoln-Douglas. Juniors Molly Wancewicz, Emmie Malyugina and Rahul Shukla and seniors Zarek Drozda and Karen Qi spent the weekend judging and coaching. Their help proved invaluable.
Sam Boucher, grade 6, and his teammates on the Santa Clara Blackhawks 12 and under travel ice hockey team finished first in their regular season. This earned the team a spot in the NORCAL playoffs, held in San Jose in mid-March. After struggling in the first game, the Blackhawks rallied to win four straight games, including beating the Santa Rosa Flyers twice, to claim first place. The Blackhawks are now one of four teams that will go on to play in the statewide California Amateur Hockey Association championships in early April.
On Monday, the boys golf team competed in the Marin Catholic Wildcat Invitational, which featured 23 of the Bay Area’s best high school golf teams.
Harker proved it had become one of the elite teams in Northern California by finishing third, trailing only powerhouses De La Salle and Campolindo. Dakota McNealy, grade 12, and brother Colt, grade 11, led the way for the Eagles, shooting a team-best 74 and 75, respectively, on the par 71 course.
“We fought through a very cold, rainy and windy day. We were all exhausted by end of a 12-hour plus day,” said coach Ie-Chen Cheng. “We’re trying to put them through every test possible to get them ready for the postseason. I’m proud of these kids.” No rest for the team though, as it travels to Poplar Creek Golf Course in San Mateo to take on Crystal Springs Uplands today.