In early November, 126 grade 5 students (accompanied by 10 Harker faculty members) headed off for the annual three-day class trip to the Marin Headlands.
“Scientific study of various ecosystems and an 8-mile round trip hike that resulted in amazing views were among the highlights of the trip,” recalled Kristin Giammona, elementary division head, noting that the contingent spent two nights in a former army barracks at Fort Cronkhite.
“The fifth graders enjoyed breakfasts and dinners together in the dining hall and lunch out on the trails. On our last night, students and teachers participated in campfire skits and singing to culminate the experience. Some of the students were able to see a sea lion being released back into the ocean after a two-month stay at the Marine Mammal Center due to an injury caused by a net,” added Giammona.
The Marin Headlands has been called one of the most unique areas in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Along with its historical attractions, the area also boasts varied hiking trails, a dog-friendly beach, and astonishing views of the coast and San Francisco.
In early December the lower school’s entire grade 3 class enjoyed a very special visit from Harker alumnus John Owens ‘85, who last year made the news when he was appointed to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor in room 110, the third graders, who will soon be studying about the government at the local, state and federal levels, were enthralled by Judge Owen’s informative and entertaining talk about serving on the nation’s largest appeals court, which shapes federal law from districts in California and eight other Western states.
But long before he became a judge, Owens got his start at Harker in 1979, when he transferred from an East Bay public school as a grade 3 student himself. Many of the students at his talk were surprised to learn that his own third grade teacher was none other than Sarah Leonard, the lower school’s primary division head, who began her career at Harker as a lower school teacher.
“To this day I have vivid memories of John as one of my own former students. He is a role model in regards to what can happen when a strong work ethic and a determined, can-do attitude are at play,” recalled Leonard.
Owens noted how lucky they were to be attending the lower school. He then gave them a behind-the-scenes look at being a judge – a job he explained he is able to keep for life, should he so choose.
After his talk, he allowed plenty of time for questions and answers. Students asked such questions as, “What if the government picks a bad jury?” (answer: there might be a new trial) and “What if someone found innocent is actually guilty?” (answer: they cannot be tried again). The kids also had many questions about lie detectors.
“It was awesome! I learned a lot about being a judge and the government and how everything works,” said student Sohum Arora.
His mom, Shubhangi Kapatkar, said she was grateful to Harker for giving the third graders the opportunity to receive a visit from Judge Owens. “Sohum was so excited to tell me all about it, he just kept talking about him until he went to sleep. He seemed to be really pumped up seeing a real judge in his real life. … He never usually tells me about what happens in school, so this was a special day for him.”
Indeed, life for Owens, a former lawyer, has changed significantly ever since President Barack Obama nominated him to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals. Drawing a map of the states for the students on the whiteboard, Owens explained that judges on the 9th Circuit review the decisions of federal trial courts in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and certain islands in the Pacific.
Owens has served as a law clerk for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. Prior to that Owens was a federal prosecutor and served as chief of the criminal division in the San Diego U.S. attorney’s office. At the age of 19, he worked in the publicity department of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. He and his wife, Marjorie, have two daughters and live in San Diego.
While working with Ginsberg in 1998, Owens helped set up a visit to the Supreme Court for a group of grade 8 Harker students who were in Washington, D.C., on their class trip. “Justice Ginsburg addressed the students in the courtroom, and answered their questions. I was very proud of my fellow Harker Eagles that day,” he recalled.
Of his time at Harker, he stressed that the school remains “the most significant professional and personal influence on me.” Harker, he said, provided him with the study skills necessary to succeed in school, and more important, the ethics and values to succeed in life. Owens started out as a Harker student in 1979, graduated from grade 8 in 1985, and worked as a summer camp counselor/coach at the school from 1985 until 1991. Today, he remains active with the school as a member of Harker’s distinguished board of fellows.
When asked to offer parting words of wisdom to the students, Owens stressed how important it is to be kind to others and that reaching goals takes really hard work. “So,” he advised, “work hard at whatever it is you want to do.”
“It was heartwarming to see the connection he was able to make with the children. Almost effortlessly, he was able to establish and maintain a lively but meaningful rapport with them. With the perfect mix of knowledge, humor and crowd management skills, he left the children with a memorable experience that I hope they carry with them for a long time to come,” noted Leonard.
Several Harker students have been spending their free time teaching children at various locations in the San Jose area. Seniors Arun Shriram and Natalie Simonian, co-presidents of the Harker Science for Youth club, give monthly presentations at the West Valley Branch Library, the Rose Garden Branch Library and Grant Elementary School. “We teach various topics in science with several fun, hands-on activities that kids can participate in,” Shriram said. “Our activities include physics, chemistry, astronomy, rainforests, oceans, human anatomy, nutrition, psychology and others.”
Shriram said his experience teaching kids at California Academy of Sciences and The Tech Museum helped him realize how much he enjoys teaching science to younger students. “I realized that I loved teaching my favorite subjects to children and simplifying it for them,” he said. “Afterward, I became excited to teach kids.”
Another class, titled Kidz Kode, is taught by juniors Kedar Gupta, Varun Baldwa and Parth Pendurkar and specializes in Java programming. “The three of us manage two classes right now — one at the West Valley Library, with 20 kids, and another at the Bascom Library, with 14,” said Gupta. “We’ve already completed a Kidz Kode session, so that’s about 50 children total.”
The three Harker students first became interested in teaching while taking computer science classes at school and finding out that they all wished they’d started coding sooner. “We wanted to create a way for kids to get their feet wet in the field, and that’s how we came up with the idea for Kidz Kode,” Gupta said.
The students who teach the classes said they have found the experience of teaching to be highly rewarding. “The most enjoyable part of educating kids is the glows of joy that I notice when children understand something or relate new material to previous experiences,” said Shriram. “That means that I’ve inspired someone else to possibly choose a life of science or at least be interested in a subject they previously never knew about.”
Gupta said he enjoys seeing the progress students make after attending the Kidz Kode sessions. “Watching a child grow from not knowing how to open files all the way to writing complete Java programs is an awesome feeling, since we know that we as teachers led them on that path,” he said.
Harker’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) club held its fundraising week in mid-November, earning more than $2,000 for WISER (Womens Institute of Secondary Education & Research), “an organization that provides health care and education to young girls who would otherwise be traded for cattle to support impoverished families,” said May Gao, grade 11, a WiSTEM officer. “Based on the amount we raised, we can provide textbooks, clean water and a safe place to live for multiple girls in Kenya.”
To raise funds, students sold pearl milk tea, cake pops and brownies made by Sadhika Malladi, grade 12. The week also included fun activities, such as Name the Scientist, in which people were challenged to identify female scientists based on portraits and biographical information.
Final notes on the fall season, in which we had some great finishes!
Cross Country
Congratulations to junior Niki Iyer on her fifth place finish at the state cross country meet, held over the Thanksgiving break. Iyer competed with 191 other runners in the Division 4 championships held in Fresno, and shaved 30 seconds off last year’s fifth place finish. She will race next at the Footlocker High School West Regional on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.
Girls Tennis
Lizzie Schick, grade 10, and Pam Duke, grade 9, were the last Harker team alive in the fall playoffs as they took the court on Tuesday at the Bay Club Courtside to face the duo from Menlo-Atherton High School. They won a highly contested three games, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, to become the first Harker doubles tennis team in school history to make the CCS finals. Lizzie and Pam fought hard, but lost to a very strong Los Altos duo. Congratulations on an amazing season!
Last weekend, grade 5 student Rahul Mulpuri and his team won the Project Award at the First Lego League (FLL) Northern California qualifying tournament held at Intel headquarters. The award recognizes innovative solutions, research and presentation skills. His team was one of 16 that participated in the tournament. His teammates hailed from Pinewood, Khan Lab and Stratford. “It was an amazing collaboration between these kids from different schools working together towards a common goal with great team spirit,” said Rohini Malpuri, Rahul’s mother.
Lorenzo Martinelli, grade 5, was recently named Pacific Swimming’s 2015 Outstanding Short Course Swimmer in the age 10 and under category. Pacific Swimming comprises 120 swim clubs and 16,000 swimmers, making it the third largest of USA Swimming’s 59 regional associations. Martinelli was selected from among thousands of male swimmers in his age group.
“I am so excited to receive this award! Swimming is my passion and I love to win. It is fun to be recognized for winning!” he said.
Martinelli was honored at the 2015 PacSwim Awards banquet, which took place on Oct. 10 at the Embassy Suites Milpitas-Silicon Valley. Attending swimmers, their families and coaches enjoyed dinner, awards and a special visit from three-time Olympic swimming champion Natalie Coughlin.
Hearty congratulations to Natasha Rajaram, grade 4, who in mid-October won the “Little Mo” National Tennis Championship for girls age 9! The “Little Mo” tournaments are fun and provide good competition for tennis players age 8-12. Rajaram worked her way through sectionals and regionals to qualify for the championship, held in Austin, Texas. She also was one of just a few girls to be nominated for the sportsmanship award, although she did not win it.
“There are usually about four or five girls nominated for the award,” said Carol Weyman, a spokesperson for the event. “Just to be nominated is a great honor.”
Last week, the Arrive Alive Tour hit the upper school campus to teach students about the dangers of distracted driving, namely driving while sending text messages. Using a VR simulator, students sat behind the wheel of an SUV and attempted to send text messages while driving down a busy road. Students would almost immediately find themselves swerving to maintain their course, rarely remaining able to drive for more than a few seconds without crashing in the simulator.
Although there was also a simulator that mimicked the effects of alcohol on drivers’ motor skills, texting and driving was a more pressing concern for Harker students. “I think most young people today have a pretty good grasp of the fact that drinking and driving is illegal and dangerous, but not a lot of people in general I think take cell phone use behind the wheel of a car seriously,” said Patrick Sheehy, one of the Arrive Alive representatives visiting the campus. “If you look around on the road, people are texting and driving everywhere you look.”
Arrive Alive is a project of Unite Corp., a health and wellness organization based in Grand Rapids, Mich., which holds events at college and high school campuses across the country.
“It seems easy, but then you end up doing it and it’s actually not,” said participant Tiffany Shou, grade 10. “I didn’t even get to pull up Snapchat.” Shou hoped that this experience would help her to convince a friend to stop texting while driving.
“Statistically, for every alcohol-related accident on the road you’re now looking at about four texting and driving accidents,” said Sheehy, who had a piece of simple advice for young drivers: “Keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.”
“I Dream a World,” this year’s upper school fall vocal concert, brought the campus’s five choral groups together for a night that largely celebrated the music of North America and its multicultural traditions.
Bel Canto, directed by Jennifer Sandusky and accompanied by Vedaad Shakib, grade 11, started things off with the American folk tune “Down in the Valley,” followed by sprightly Canadian folk song “Rattle on the Stovepipe.” Bel Canto was then joined by the singers of Camerata and Acoustics to perform the concert’s namesake, Andre Thomas’ “I Dream a World.”
Susan Nace then directed Camerata in a stirring rendition of the American folk song “Shenandoah,” and Acoustics, co-directed by Ashwin Rao, grade 11, performed the Billie Holiday classic “God Bless the Child.”
The always-entertaining boys choir Guys’ Gig took the stage for a cappella performances of the Kelly Clarkson smash “Since U Been Gone” followed by “Up on the Roof,” made famous by doo-wop legends The Drifters.
Closing the evening were Cantilena, the women’s vocal group directed by Susan Nace, who delivered a rousing five-song set that included the traditional “Run Children Run,” the Iroquois soundscape “Watane” and Sue Johnson’s “Sister My Sister,” which included solos and duets highlighting the talents of every member of the group.
In what has been one of the most competitive and exciting postseasons in Harker history, two sports will continue this week in hopes of CCS and state glory.
Girls Tennis
On Monday afternoon, the dynamic doubles team of Lizzie Schick, grade 10, and Pam Duke, grade 9, continued their impressive run at a CCS title as they advanced to the semifinals of the doubles bracket. Playing through the chilly weather at the Bay Club Courtside in Los Gatos, the girls opened their day with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over a tough Mountain View team. Later in the day, Schick and Duke defeated the Mitty duo 6-3, 6-3 on center court in the quarterfinals. Bad weather pushed the semifinal and championship round to Dec. 1, at noon, when the No. 2 seeded Harker doubles team will face off against the No. 3 seeded Menlo-Atherton team. Good luck, Lizzie and Pam!
Girls Volleyball
The girls volleyball season came to an end last Wednesday as the Eagles fell to league rival Menlo in four games in the semifinals of the CCS D4 Championship. Harker opened with a spirited 25-23 win in game one after trailing by as many as seven points. Menlo would then take the next three games, but not without a fight from the Eagles. Lauren Napier, grade 10, and Jackie Chen, grade 12, led the team with 12 kills each. Congrats on a great season!
Cross Country
Don’t forget, Niki Iyer, grade 11, will race this Saturday, Nov. 28, at Woodward Park in Fresno for her chance at a D4 state title. Last year as a sophomore, Niki finished in fifth place at the state meet. Good luck, Niki!
Eight students were part of the Mixed Choir: Krishna Bheda, grade 10; Karina Butani, grade 10; Mia Giammona, grade 11; Madhu Karra, grade 12; Ashwin Rao, grade 11; Gurutam Thockchom, grade 12; Sumi Wadhwa, grade 10; and Tiffany Zhu, grade 11. Three sang in the Women’s Choir: Anika Banga, grade 10; Morgan Douglas, grade 10; and Rithi Jayam, grade 9.
The students rehearsed all day and evening on Thursday and Friday, as well as Saturday morning, prior to the concert, which was held at First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto. They were prepped by Susan Nace and Jennifer Sandusky, Harker music teachers and choir directors.
“Susan really did a lot of prep work with the kids on the music prior to the Honor Choir rehearsals,” noted Sandusky.
Singers will advance to California All-State Honor Choirs, to be held Feb. 11-13 in San Jose, based on scores from their regional audition. In those auditions, “students were scored on vocal tone quality, intonation, sight-reading abilities and musicianship skills. Each sings an Italian Art Song, sings major, minor and chromatic scales a cappella, and completes a sight-singing exercise,” said Sandusky.