Kudos to the Harker Quiz Bowl Team, which won first place at the 2015 Bellarmine Middle School Invitational on May 24. The event was organized by National Academic Quiz Tournaments (NAQT).
Earlier in the year, the team had advanced to NAQT’s Middle School National Championship Tournament, held in Dallas on May 9. There, the team competed with 128 teams from all over the country, advancing to the elimination round and finishing 29th in the nation.
The Harker team comprised grade 8 students Nishka Ayyar and Jack Dawson, and grade 7 students Kyle Li, Arun Sundaresan and Jin Tuan.
Gail Palmer, lower school performing arts lead teacher, dubbed this year’s lower school dance concert, “Dancing at Disneyland,” “The Happiest Dance Show on Earth” – and anyone in attendance would be hard-pressed to disagree! For some audience members, the enchanted evening in late May provided a monumental trip down memory lane; for others, it was every bit as magical as a visit to their all-time favorite theme park.
“Mickey and Minnie Mouse greeted the audience upon arrival as Disney music played in the Bucknall Theater. Once the show began, they were transported on a journey to the original theme park that Walt Disney opened in 1955,” Palmer said.
Under the direction of Palmer, with assistance provided by Kimberly Teodoro and Jessalyn Espiritu, the concert featured 250 students in grades 1 through 5 dancing around a wonderland of fanciful props, sets and slides.
“The children performed with energy, enthusiasm and smiles that would have made Walt Disney proud,” Palmer noted. “A true Bucknall community event, 23 faculty and staff dancers were in three different routines. They rocked the stage as Disney tourist; Matterhorn Bobsled enthusiast, complete with the Abominable Snowman along for the ride; and some Grim Grinning Ghosts were found dancingly haunting the stage.”
Each performance was cleverly assigned the name of a popular Disneyland attraction, parade, ride, shop or show, with 11 of 29 lively numbers choreographed by Palmer herself, including the opening and closing routines set to the Academy Award-winning song “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the animated musical fantasy film “Pinocchio” and “Happy” by singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams.
Palmer said Disneyland is a special place and the theme made for a very special dance concert. The eight themed lands at Disneyland came to life through the dance routines, music, costumes, slides, props and set design. Mickey Mouse even high-kicked his way across the stage, making a featured appearance in the routine “Mickey” that paid homage to the mouse himself.
Palmer said it takes many people to create a show of this magnitude. She credits the choreographers, including Teodoro and Espiritu, as well as technical director Danny Dunn and the production staff for their inspired work.
Whether a princess or a pirate, a mouse or a Jedi Knight, there was something for everyone at the Harker stage otherwise known as the Magic Kingdom. The audience left the performance feeling that it truly was “The Happiest Dance Show on Earth.”
Brava to cellist Angeline Kiang, grade 5, on her first-place finish in this year’s United States International Music Competition! Kiang’s talent, diligence and appreciation of cross-cultural music earned her a cash prize of $300, a trophy, a certificate of recognition and a possible radio show interview.
Hosted by the Chinese Music Teachers’ Association of Northern California, the annual event features gifted young musicians – ages 22 and under – on the piano, violin, viola, cello, flute, clarinet, marimba and traditional Chinese musical instruments. The winners’ recital and awards ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 7 in Stanford University Department of Music’s Dinkelspiel Auditorium.
Having played the cello since the age of 5, 10-year-old Kiang now studies under San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty member Amos Yang, who serves as assistant principal cellist of the San Francisco Symphony. She was previously named a finalist at Berkeley’s 59th Annual Junior Bach Festival and came in second place in the Pacific Musical Society’s 2015 competition for instrumentalists, pianists and vocalists, where she performed Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme.”
Kiang soon will be charming the audience at a far more familiar venue, performing at the upcoming fifth grade promotion ceremony in the Bucknall Gymnasium.
As a cellist in the lower school orchestra, Kiang has received nurturing, guidance and support from Louis Hoffman, director of the after-school instrumental program, who in turn has benefited greatly from working with the virtuosic youngster.
“She has been a wonderful student, inspired her fellow musicians, been an active part of our program and a true example of a student who both loves to play and is willing to put in the hard work and time it takes to achieve excellence on a musical instrument,” Hoffman said. “I’m incredibly honored and blessed to have been one of her teachers.”
Sixth grader Srinath Somasundaram came in third place in the inaugural Zeidman Awards for his engineering research project titled “A Novel Design and Evaluation of an Air Cushioning Mechanism for Helmets to Minimize Impact Acceleration on the Head.”
The awards were created to recognize students for their advanced knowledge and outstanding achievement in the fields of electrical engineering and computer science. Engineer-scientist-entrepreneur Bob Zeidman, president and founder of Zeidman Consulting, a contract research and development firm based in Cupertino, presented six Bay Area middle school students with the awards during the Santa Clara Valley Science & Engineering Fair Association’s Synopsys Science & Technology Championship at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
The competition was stiff, with students from middle schools throughout the region presenting original solutions designed to address serious issues, including Alzheimer’s disease, autism, diabetes and visual impairment.Awards included cash prizes and signed copies of Zeidman’s latest book “Just Enough Electronics to Impress Your Friends and Colleagues,” based on his popular seminar “Electrical Engineering for Non-Electrical Engineers.” Hurrah to Srinath!
Niki Iyer, grade 10, saved her best kick for the most important race of her young career, running a fast last lap in the 3200 to move from fourth into third place, a CIF state meet qualifying spot. Having finished fifth last year, she took a strong determination to win to the track Friday night, said coach Scott Chisam. Iyer led all runners through the first mile, 5:14, was passed with two laps to go, but flew by the No. 3 runner with about 200 meters left in the race. She will run Saturday night at the CIF State Track & Field Championships in Clovis.
Honors! Harker coach Scott Chisam was named the 2015 CCS Honor Coach for boys track and field, and both the boys team and girls team received recognition as CCS Scholastic Championship Teams. Coaches Erica Kenworthy and Zach Wohlford accepted the award for the Eagles.
For a small group of students in the Class of 2015, Harker’s commencement exercises were their second graduation in as many days. Twenty-nine Harker Conservatory certificate students changed their status from candidates to graduates at the 14th annual Senior Showcase on May 22, held at the beautiful Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in San Jose.
These artists completed a four-year guided course through the upper school performing arts department – the Conservatory – mentored by teachers in all the disciplines, with particular emphasis in one: vocal music, instrumental music, dance, theater, musical theater or technical theater. Senior Showcase is a culmination of those years of study, with the seniors providing guests in the packed theater with snapshots from their accumulated portfolios.
Actors presented scenes ranging from the comedy of Neil Simon and Steve Martin to the heartwrenching drama of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.” Dancers raised the roof with resounding numbers they choreographed themselves, celebrating everything from an intimate pas de deux to hip-hop to Bollywood. Instrumental candidates mesmerized the audience with haunting renditions of “Theme from Schindler’s List,” Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen” and a Kodaly cello sonata, among others. Musical theater performers merged scene and song from shows across the decades, including “The Producers,” “Grand Hotel” and “Evita.” This year’s three technical theater candidates handled the stage management, scene changes, lighting and sound for the performance.
The evening ended with the formal presentation of their certificates by the performing arts faculty, and a final group bow, greeted with a well-deserved standing ovation by the many friends, family members, teachers and administrators who supported them on their journey through the program. Most group members intend to pursue this artistic passion in college, with a handful planning to major and pursue careers in the performing arts.
Congratulations to the Conservatory Certificate Programs’ Class of 2015:
Theater: Jai Ahuja, Juhi Muthal, Zoë Woehrmann; Dance: Noel Banerjee, Ashir Bansal, Darby Millard, Erika Olsen, Sindhu Ravuri, Jacqui Villarreal; Instrumental Music: Thyne Boonmark, Lekha Chirala, Eugene Gil, Juhi Gupta, Matthew Huang, Rishabh Jain, Sahana Rangarajan, Nikhil Singh, Julia Wang, Madelyn Wang, Helen Wu; Musical Theater: Ishanya Anthapur, Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Caroline Howells, Madi Lang-Ree, Glenn Reddy; Vocal Music: Shreya Maheshwari; Technical Theater: Jeremy Binkley, Delaney Martin, Alexander Thomas.
Parents, teachers, family and friends made their way into the Mountain Winery concert area Saturday, cameras and leis in hand, to witness the next leg of the Class of 2015’s journey into adulthood: graduation.
It was a beautiful Northern California day. Moving addresses were delivered by valedictorian Samyukta Yagati and keynote speaker Hannah Allam, foreign affairs correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.
Graduates marched down the steps into the amphitheater, a sea of black robes, caps bejeweled with the crests and names of their prospective schools, ushered in with a steady stream of congratulatory cheers. Watch for full graduation details in the next issue of Harker Quarterly, coming to mailboxes in the late June!
“This has been correctly labeled a journey,” said Butch Keller, upper school head. “Take a deep breath. Enjoy this moment. This is a class that has achieved so much.”
Sam Boucher, grade 5, and his hockey team, the Santa Clara Blackhawks, wrapped up a six-week “Summerhawks” program, which culminated in a Memorial Day Shootout in Anaheim hosted by the Junior Ducks. Boucher missed the first two games due to illness, but came back to help his PeeWee (12U) team secure second place with a 3-1 record, only losing to the undefeated California Golden Bears of Burbank. The Blackhawks faced the Bears again in the championship game, this time beating them 3-1 to take the title. A banner for the team will be hoisted at their home ice in Fremont. Boucher was also catcher for the Harker JVB baseball team this spring. Go Sam!
Nitya Mani, grade 12, earned first place in the Karl Menger Memorial Awards for the second year in a row! The award was presented by the American Math Society at the 2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in mid-May. Mani received the first-place award of $2,000 for her project, titled “Characterizing the Constructible N-Division Points of the Rational C-Hypocycloids through Straightedge and Compass Constructions.”
“In her project Nitya investigated the important question of constructibility of division points on plane curves and showed that, for any integer N, the N division points of any rational c-hypocycloid are constructible with an unmarked straightedge and compass, given a pre-drawn hypocycloid. She also characterized the constructibility of N division points of a tricuspoid in the absence of a pre-drawn hypocycloid. Nitya’s original and very impressive work uses many advanced results and techniques from several areas of mathematics, including Galois theory, abstract algebra and algebraic number theory,” said Menger awards chair Mihai Stoiciu. See more at: http://www.ams.org/news?news_id=2685 (Photo is also from that site.)
Heartiest congratulations to 12 students who have committed to playing their sports when they go on to college! At a lunchtime ceremony for the athletes, parents, coaches and others today, athletic director Dan Molin said, “These students have received admission to their college of choice because of their work ethic, athleticism and their ability to balance their training with the academics of Harker.”
“These are all outstanding student athletes. At high schools across the country, signing ceremonies such as this are performed to recognize these special young people. This group of seniors have represented Harker exceptionally well over the years and we want to thank them and wish them well as the represent their new schools,” Molin concluded.
Here are our 2015 committed athletes:
Jeremiah Anderson (Westmont College, soccer)
Aadyot Bhatnagar (California Institute of Technology, water polo)
Billy Bloomquist (California Institute of Technology, water polo)
Shreya Dixit (Yale University, volleyball)
Shrish Dwivedi (Duke University, golf)
Keanu Forbes (San Jose City College, football)
Aaron Huang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, swimming)