Seventh grade cellist Rachel Broweleit has accomplished so much in such a short time.
Broweleit’s interest in orchestral music began to surface at The Harker School at the tender age of six, when Louis Hoffman, after-school instrumental program director, who studied alongside legendary television and film composer Henry Mancini, encouraged her to try her hand at various instruments. After taking Hoffman’s advice, Broweleit settled on the cello, participating in both the lower school orchestra and after-school music lessons. In time, her accomplishments on her instrument of choice became perfectly suited for solos, chamber music ensembles, and string and symphony orchestras.
Broweleit went on to join the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO), an award-winning youth orchestra for regional string musicians of high school age and younger. She is now in her second year as co-principal cellist in PACO’s Sinfonia ensemble, which rehearses once a week at Cubberley Community Center. Most recently, she became a part of California Music Preparatory Academy’s chamber music program for musicians.
At just 13 years of age, Broweleit already has won several major international competitions, including first place at both the American Fine Arts Festival – where she gave a solo performance at Carnegie Hall on Valentine’s Day 2015 – and the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. She then returned to Carnegie Hall for an encore performance on Easter Sunday 2015. She also was named the grand prize winner at this year’s United States Open Music Competition.
Now a proud participant in the middle school orchestra, conducted by David Hart, Broweleit says her early success is due in large part to her educational experience – and the dedicated, caring faculty – at Harker: “Dr. Hart has been a great encouragement, providing a really exciting atmosphere and creating opportunities for me and my classmates to explore our interests in music.”
What’s next for the bright young star? Later this year, Broweleit will perform “Kol Nidrei,” a composition for cello and orchestra written by German composer and conductor Max Bruch, at PACO’s Annual Concerto Competition, where she will be accompanied by her fellow Sinfonia members.
It was easy to understand the “Sky’s the Limit” theme of this year’s Night on the Town gala, held May 9 on the top of a hill with spectacular views of the mid-Peninsula, at the home of Susan and Scott McNealy (Scout, grade 8; Colt, grade 10; Dakota, grade 11; Maverick ’13).
The 300 attendees moved throughout the home visiting areas including the champagne patio, “view of the valley” swing spot, theater, casino and silent auction table. Guests enjoyed dinner under a beautiful sunset, and performances by several of Harker’s dance, show choir and instrumental ensembles.
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, capped the dinner portion of the evening with the announcement that an additional $7 million had been pledged to the new gym and theater buildings from an anonymous donor who had already pledged $3 million during the initial Rothschild Challenge phase of the campaign. (Look for full coverage on the new gym and theater buildings in the advancement section of the summer issue of the Harker Quarterly.)
Varsity-A Boys volleyball beat Jordan this afternoon in the ADAL Championship at Blackford Gym, finishing in first place, the most recent triumph for middle and lower school athletes!
Varsity-A tennis defeated Hillview 7-2 in the WBAL championship match this week. The team went undefeated for the fourth year in a row in the WBAL with a 5-0 record, and then won both their semifinal match vs. Sacred Heart 7-2 and their championship match vs. Hillview 7-2 to take the league title.
Varsity-B (grades 7 and 8) girls volleyball, coached by Sarah Prudencio, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL South.
Junior Varsity-A (grade 6) girls volleyball, coached by Vonda Reid, finished undefeated at 7-0, taking first place in the WBAL Gold Division.
Junior Varsity-B1 (grade 5) girls volleyball, coached by Ellie Pereira, finished 5-1, tying with Sacred Heart for first place in the WBAL.
Varsity-A (grade 7 and 8) boys volleyball, coached by Pete Anderson, went 10-0 in league and 11-0 overall, taking first place and the tournament championship in the ADAL.
Co-ed water polo (grades 6-8), coached by Ted Ujifusa and Peter Blume, went 4-0 at the WBAL championships.
Lower school track (grades 4 and 5), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 4 boys relay (Rohan Gorti, Andrew Fu, Lorenzo Martinelli and Rigo Gonzales) and first in the the 100, 200 and 400 (Rigo Gonzales).
Middle school track (grades 6-8), coached by Allison Burzio, Margaret Huntley, Kelcie Lai and Karriem Stinson, took first place at the WBAL track meet in the 4 X 100 grade 8 girls relay (Alex Janssen, Sara Min, Alycia Cary and Julia Amick) and the 400 and 800 (Julia Amick) and the long jump (Alex Janssen).
Great news! “Into the Woods” competed in the California High School Musical Honors program and the results are in! The Harker School is a finalist in the following categories: *Best Show *Outstanding Lead Actor: Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 12 (Baker) *Outstanding Lead Actress: Madi Lang-Ree, grade 12 (Baker’s Wife) *Outstanding Supporting Actor: Emre Ezer, grade 10 (Wolf) *Outstanding Supporting Actress: Helen Woodruff, grade 11 (Rapunzel) http://www.cmtsj.org/content/california-honors
The show will compete in the final round June 1 at 7 p.m. at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets will be available soon.
This show is going to Scotland in August to perform in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, so the cast is especially excited about this additional honor!
This report provided by DECA press officer Vanessa Tyagi, grade 9
From April 24-29, 28 students from The Harker School DECA chapter traveled to the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla. During the four event-filled days, the 18 students who qualified at California’s State Career Development Conference competed, while the remaining students attended the Emerging Leader Series.
Of our 10 teams that competed, four placed in the top 20 and qualified for the final round of competition. The finalists are as follows:
Alexis Gauba, grade 10, Business Service Management Individual Series
Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari and Glenn Reddy, both grade 12, Marketing Communications Team Decision Making
Ankur Karwal, Sanil Rajput and Ameek Singh, all grade 11, Stock Market Game.
Vanessa Tyagi and Rahul Mehta, both grade 9, Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 11, Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making (finalists for the written exam)
The first major event of the conference was the Finish Line/DECA Dash 5K Run/Walk on Saturday morning, in which our entire chapter participated. Students spent Saturday at Universal Studios and most of Tuesday at Disney World, after the final round of competition.
Testing took place on Sunday morning, and Monday was competition day. Following full days of testing, competition and leadership academies, students attended DECA parties at Disney World and Universal Studios on Sunday and Monday evenings. The final round of competition took place on Tuesday. The four qualifying teams found out they had advanced to the final round on Tuesday morning, at the mini awards session.
Students who applied and were accepted for leadership academies attended the Emerging Leader Series all day on Sunday and Monday. Harker had students in Thrive, Elevate and Ignite, three of the five offered academies. By attending these programs students were inspired and empowered to take leadership in DECA and also had the chance to network with DECA members from all around the world.
At the Grand Award Ceremony, Karwal, Singh and Rajput were called up on stage and recognized for placing in the top 10 in the Stock Market Game. Additionally, Reddy and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, were recognized as the National Finish Line Challenge winners.
“It was an amazing feeling, seeing all of the hard work of the past few months coming to fruition. I was thinking about how everything came together and then started focusing on mentally preparing myself for the finals as I had my final presentation 15 minutes after I found out, said Gauba who was in the Top 20 in Business Service Management Individual Series.
Sarah Gonzalez, grade 10, and her teammates were chosen as Silicon Valley FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List Award winners, earning them an invitation to attend the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis, Mo.
Gonzalez won the award with her team, “The Subatomic Smarticles” (Team No. 5677), an independent team comprising students from several high schools. The Dean’s List Award began in 2010 to celebrate outstanding student leaders with exemplary passion for and effectiveness at attaining FIRST ideals. Nominees, finalists and winners are recognized as examples of student leaders who have increased awareness of FIRST and its mission, while achieving personal technical expertise and accomplishment.
Over the last weekend in March, Harker Latin students headed to Miramonte High School in Orinda to attend the 60th annual Junior Classical League (JCL) State Convention.
This year’s convention theme was “Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito” (“Yield not to misfortunes, but advance all the more boldly against them.” – Vergil Aeneid VI.95). At the convention, students enjoyed workshops, fellowship with Latin students from all over the state, and competitions involving many aspects of classical knowledge.
During the weekend, grade 12 student Maya Nandakumar earned the most points of anyone, with seven first place wins for a total of 17 awards. Counted among those were the individual overall awards for arts and academics, garnering her the greatest number of points in each of those single categories as well.
“This convention was really the culmination of my long journey as a classicist here at Harker. When I started back in the sixth grade, I remember being enamored with the attitude and passion of the attendees, and that really sparked my curiosity for Latin. Since then, pretty much every activity I’ve been a part of has, in one way or another, been a branch of my zeal for the ancient world,” recalled Nandakumar.
“I knew that for my final convention, I wanted to leave this organization with no regrets, and for me that manifested in entering nearly every competition I could. There were so many contests that I’d always wanted to try and never had the courage to. Knowing that this was my last chance pushed me to my limits during the two days of convention. Overall, the experience was incredibly bittersweet, but the perfect way to finish my time here,” she added.
Reddy’s winning debate was on the topic of minimum wage and whether it should be substantially increased. The senior successfully affirmed the proposal.
Reddy won two national titles in April – the NDCA National Championships and the Tournament of Champions.
“His achievements are truly historic,” said Greg Achten, Harker’s Lincoln-Douglas team coach. “Winning one national championship tournament takes hard work, incredible intellectual range and exceptional speaking skills. To win three national titles over the course of two years is simply an unheard of accomplishment. In the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate, no student from any school has ever achieved this level of success.”
Reddy entered the 2014-15 debate season as the No. 1-ranked Lincoln-Douglas debater in the nation. He lived up to that ranking with a pair of winning premier national championship tournaments.
This recent success follows a successful 2013-14 season in which Reddy became the first Harker Lincoln-Douglas debater to win the prestigious NDCA National Championships. Reddy built on this success his senior year, being named the top speaker at five of the first six tournaments he attended and winning the Glenbrooks tournament in November, the largest tournament of the fall semester.
Along with these, Reddy also won the Harvard Westlake tournament in January and entered the championship season as the only student to win two majors in the regular season. He is the first student ever to win this tournament twice. Reddy is also only the second student in the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate to win the NDCA National Championships and the Tournament of Champions in the same year.
Joining him in his debating success, the Harker speech and debate team also had an amazing showing at the Tournament of Champions. The event, hosted by the University of Kentucky April 24-27, is one of the premier national championships and included students from more than 200 different schools and 30 states.
Harker was awarded the first-place sweepstakes award after successfully finishing all four of the debate divisions and the individual events category, making the Harker team the most successful overall squad to attend the tournament.
The policy debate duo of Panny Shan, grade 11, and Ayush Midha, grade 12, made it to the octofinal debate round. Public forum debaters Nikhil Kishore, grade 12, Vamsi Gadiraju, grade 12, Abhinav Ketineni, grade 11, and Jasmine Liu, grade 11, were in double octofinals and the team of Alexander Lam, grade 10, and David Jin, grade 11, were in the octofinals. Aditya Dhar, grade 10, made it to the semifinals of congressional debate and Arjun Narayan, grade 11, was a quarterfinalist in extemporaneous speaking. Reddy, Midha and Lam also were recognized with outstanding individual speaker awards.
In the 44-year history of the event, no other school has ever had students reach elimination rounds in more than three of the events. Harker had students excel in all five.
Congratulations to the boys, who qualified for CCS and then won their first round match-up against Carlmont 6-1. The Eagles are now 16-3 overall. They travel to eighth-seed Westmont, just around the corner from the Bucknall campus, for their second-round matchup at 3 p.m. today. Come on out and cheer them to victory! A win today equals CCS quarterfinals and Harker history!
Big news! Coach Scott Chisam was named the CCS honor coach for boys track and field and will be honored at the CCS Championships on May 29 at San Jose City College! As CCS’s assistant commissioner Duane Morgan wrote, “We all know that quality programs are attained by quality players and quality coaches; [Scott’s] accomplishments in track and field reach far beyond the ‘W’s’ and ‘L’s’ and reach the ultimate in coaching.” Congratulations, Scott!
Golf
The boys squad is among the section’s elite; it qualified for the CCS finals with a fourth-place finish at CCS regional No. 2 and is now one of the final eight teams. Sophomore Ryan Vaughan and senior Shrish Dwivedi led the Eagles with 73s. The finals are this Tuesday in Carmel; the top three teams will advance to the NorCals.
For more information on the results, you can follow this link:
The Eagles triumphed 10-9 over Pinewood on Tuesday in a PAL league game. Freshman Dominic Cea had four hits and drove in five runs, including the game-winning single in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Eagle offensive attack. Sophomore Varun Haltore pitched solidly into the fifth inning, allowing only two earned runs, while freshman Nate Kelly picked up the win in relief.
Christopher Hildum, grade 12, was named one of three dance finalists for the 2015 Steve Silver Foundation and Beach Blanket Babylon “Scholarship for the Arts.” Hildum has trained for many years in dance and it is an honor just to make to the final round of the scholarship awards. Finalists will perform live in front of panel of judges on June 1 and one winner in each category will be presented with a check for $10,000 toward their college education. Read all about it, here!