Showstoppers, the grades 7-8 girls dance team, was asked to perform at the 2015 Red Cross Innovation Celebration, which took place on Oct. 24. Showstoppers performed a great vampire-themed routine, despite having little time to prepare for this unexpected performance, as the girls were out for a week on the middle school class trips. Regardless of having little recovery time from their trips, the students were honored to have this opportunity and delivered a fabulous performance.
The Red Cross Innovation Celebration is the American Red Cross of the Silicon Valley’s annual fundraising event that benefits local emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts for Silicon Valley’s 2 million residents. Go Showstoppers!
Festive classroom parties and trick-or-treating around the schoolyards marked Harker Preschool’s third annual Halloween celebration, held in the late afternoon on Oct.29.
“Parents were encouraged to attend and participate,” shared Andrea Hart, director of Harker Preschool, adding that treats (non-food items) were passed out by Harker staff members.
Volunteer parents coordinated classroom parties and costumes were worn by nearly all of the students and teachers. “Everyone had a really good time!” recalled Hart.
A spooktacular time was had by all at this year’s lower school Halloween parade, which featured superheroes, ghosts, goblins, witches, fairy princesses and more! To the delight of onlookers, each grade level circled the parade’s pathway a couple of times.
Several hundred parents attended the 18th annual event, which was held on the afternoon of Oct. 30 and sponsored by Harker’s BEST staff. There were chairs set up, as well as plenty of standing room, along the route. Students could opt to wear their costumes to school or bring them along to put on before the parade, but most wore their costumes all day.
This is always an exciting day for the students, staff and parents– last year the parade had to be moved indoors due to rain, but this year the sun shone brightly as students in grades K-5 showed off their Halloween finest.
Harker has garnered three top awards from the well-known MarCom Awards in its 2015 international competition, which recognizes outstanding creative achievement by marketing and communication professionals. The winning work was produced by Harker’s Office of Communication.
Harker’s just-launched website earned a Platinum Award in the Educational Institution category; Harker Quarterly, mailed to all community members four times per year, also earned a Platinum Award in the Educational Institution category; and Harker’s Guide to Philanthropy, produced in conjunction with the school’s advancement department, earned a Gold Award in the Fund Raising category.
There were over 6,500 entries from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers throughout the United States, Canada and 15 other countries.
Winners range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies, including national public relations organizations. MarCom Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Judges are “industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry,” according to accompanying literature.
Winners were selected from over 200 categories in seven forms of media and communication efforts: marketing, publications, marketing/promotion, public service/pro bono, creativity and electronic/interactive. A complete list of Platinum and Gold Winners can be found on the MarCom Awards website at www.marcomawards.com.
Harker publications, websites, videos and campaigns have earned more than a score of awards from Marcom Awards, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) and AVA Awards (digital communication) over the years.
Once again Harker held a schoolwide Howard Nichols Cookie Day in honor of the late former head of school’s birthday on Oct. 10.
That day, the preschool, lower and middle schools all held special assemblies and handed out chocolate chip cookies in his memory. The upper school followed suit the following Monday.
The annual tradition celebrates Nichols’ inspirational values that continue to drive the spirit and growth of The Harker School. All four campuses celebrated by having trays of cookies located in various places around school. Nichols, who was known for his sweet tooth, regularly kept a full jar of cookies and other confections in his office that were a hit with visitors.
Nichols was the president of Harker from 1973 until his retirement in 2005. He attended the Palo Alto Military Academy, which was run by his father, Major Donald Nichols. Eventually the Palo Alto Military Academy merged with Miss Harker’s School for Girls and became The Harker School. A memorial to him can be found in the quad on the upper school campus.
It was Howard Nichols and his wife, Diana, whose vision saw the founding of the upper school and the acquisition of the Blackford and Bucknall campuses.
“We honor his warm heart and loving spirit by enjoying chocolate chip cookies each year on that day,” recalled Alana Butler, middle school dean.
For many years, educator-storyteller Jim Cogan has made special appearances as a guest speaker at the lower school, enthralling audiences with his engaging tales of courage and compassion. In early October, he returned to campus to share his stories during two assemblies.
Students in grades K-3 heard Cogan speak during his first morning appearance, which was immediately followed by a talk for grades 4-5. Both groups were delighted by his folktales.
Cogan is nationally recognized for his ability to combine storytelling with history and literacy education. He has worked with the National Storytelling Congress, the American Library Association, the National Council of Social Studies, the National Park Service and a variety of educational organizations.
Last week, grade 11 student Riya Chandra appeared on a Girls Who Code panel at the Intel Education Visionaries Conference. Chandra participated in the Intel-sponsored seven-week Girls Who Code immersion program and was subsequently invited to be on the panel.
“As part of their conference, they wanted to put together a student panel to help give insight to educators. Intel asked Girls Who Code to choose two people to invite to speak, and I received an email with an invitation,” said Chandra.
During the panel, Chandra shared her background in computer science and discussed some of her projects. “It was great being able to receive so many amazing questions from these educators, because it showed how much they cared for their students,” she said. Harker computer science teacher Susan King was also in attendance, which Chandra appreciated. “It was truly special as she really made an impact in my life,” she said.
Chandra believes the panel benefited educators by giving them real insight into student experiences. “We gave them honest answers about how we like to learn and gave them advice,” she said. “I think this panel will benefit students in the future as these educators will take back what they learned from the panel and apply it to their teaching.”
Each year grade 9 students participate in the annual Freshman Community Service Day as an introduction to community service. This year marked the first time that the entire class performed its initial service day at one location: the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy in San Jose.
Some 196 freshman participated in the service learning project, which included a trail cleanup and nature walk, as well as an educational component. The outing kicked off what promises to be a meaningful year of local outreach work for the ninth graders. Throughout the school year, the students will have the opportunity to fulfill a variety community service jobs at a number of organizations.
The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy provides community leadership for the development and active use of the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens through education, advocacy and stewardship programs.
According to conservancy representatives, who welcomed the visit from the upper school, the learning portion of the student’s day included activities at three stations: “macroinvertebrates, dichotomous key for tree identification and a bio blitz.” The service experience, which immediately followed, focused on litter pick up.
UPDATE: Two students, Evani Radiya-Dixit and David Zhu, both grade 11, have advanced as regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology! Of the 17 California finalists, 10 are from the Bay Area, while seven are from Southern California. Only two other schools in the state had two finalists. New York State also had 17 finalists, followed by Texas with 11.
The full list of regional finalists can be found here. The Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology is considered the nation’s premier research competition for high school students. A total of 97 regional finalists from throughout the U.S. now advance to one of six regional competitions held over three consecutive weekends in November at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Nov. 6-7); Georgia Institute of Technology (Nov. 6-7); University of Notre Dame (Nov. 13-14); University of Texas at Austin (Nov. 13-14); California Institute of Technology (Nov. 20-21); and Carnegie Mellon University (Nov. 20-21).
Winners of the regional events advance to the National Finals at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Dec. 6-8, where $500,000 in scholarships will be awarded, including two top prizes of $100,000.
The competition awards a $1,000 scholarship to each regional finalist, in addition to one $3,000 prize to an individual winner and a $6,000 prize to a team winner at each regional competition.
A complete list of finalists and their projects is available at www.siemens-foundation.org preceding each regional event.
Oct. 16, 2015 The Siemens Foundation announced today that 13 Harker upper school students had been named semifinalists in this year’s Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Harker had the most semifinalists of any California school.
This year’s semifinalists are:
Vivek Bharadwaj, Rishabh Chandra, Anthony Luo and Jonathan Ma, grade 12; Rishab Gargeya, Shasvat Jawahar, Alex Mo, Evani Radiya-Dixit, Venkat Sankar, Manan Shah, Arjun Subramaniam and David Zhu, grade 11; and Brandon Mo, grade 10.
A total of 466 semifinalists were chosen from the 1,700 submissions received by Siemens. These students are now eligible to become regional finalists and travel to Washington, D.C., for the finals in December.
Vivek Sunkam, grade 7, put in an inspired performance at the Frank Millet Massachusetts Junior Championship Tour (JCT) squash tournament, held at Harvard University Sept. 18-20. Sunkam was seed 14 at this strong JCT tournament, composed mainly of the top 32 players in the country in the BU13 age division. Sunkam won handily in the first round and won a thrilling five-game match in the second, winning a huge upset. Sunkam’s third-round win put him in semis, and he would go on to place fourth overall.
After this tournament performance, Sunkam moved up the ranks to crack the top 10 nationwide. He is currently ranked ninth in the country in the BU13 category.