Congrats to three Harker seniors for receiving recognition in the National YoungArts Foundation competition! Apoorva Rangan was awarded an honorable mention for her flute playing and Sindhu Ravuri received an honorable mention for writing/creative nonfiction. Cindy Liu, who has received many past accolades for her photos, received a merit award in the photography category.
This year, YoungArts named 787 winners out of more than 11,000 applications from students in 47 states. Submissions were judged through a multi-tiered, blind adjudication process and evaluated by celebrated masters in their artistic fields.
The National YoungArts Foundation was established in 1981 to identify and support the next generation of visual, literary, design and performing artists; assist them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development; and raise appreciation for the arts in America. Each year, YoungArts receives about 11,000 applications from 15-18 year old artists (grades 10-12). From these, about 800 winners are selected. At the request of the Commission on Presidential Scholars, which is appointed by the president, YoungArts is the exclusive path to the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts Awards.
Harker’s summer water polo camp is the perfect opportunity for students in grades 4-8 to learn about one of the most popular and longstanding aquatic sports. Offered for both beginning and intermediate players, the camp will teach water polo history, rules and terminology, eggbeater kicking, shooting, passing and ball handling. Players will participate in scrimmages and game play, and learn how to condition for moving quickly through the water. Students who wish to participate in the camp must be able to swim 25 yards.
Harker water polo coaches Allie Lamb and Ted Ujifusa will direct the camp. Lamb has played for some of water polo’s most distinguished coaches, including Rich Corso and Ricardo Azevedo, and was team captain of the 2009 Santa Clara University water polo team. She served as a volunteer assistant coach at Santa Clara University and has coached at Harker for the past two seasons.
A water polo veteran of more than 50 years, Ujifusa was a member of the University of California at Berkeley water polo team that won its first championship in 1974. In his coaching career, he has won CCS championships at both Leland High School and Cupertino High School, making him the only coach ever to win championships at two different high schools. He also has coached at De Anza College, UC Berkeley and San Jose State University.
The Harker water polo camp will take place at the Singh Aquatic Center, located at The Harker School’s upper school campus at 500 Saratoga Ave. in San Jose. The beginners camp runs from June 22-27 from 9-11 a.m., and the intermediate camp runs from July 13-17 from 9-11 a.m. For more information on this and other Harker summer sports camps, including pricing, visit the Harker Summer website.
Nikash Shankar, grade 12, who qualified as a regional semifinalist in the Biotechnology Institute’s BioGENEius Challenge, presented his research in San Francisco last week.
“Out of a field of nearly 50 students, Nikash was selected to compete as a finalist at the challenge,” said Gabriella Arroyo, executive assistant at BayBio, Northern California’s life sciences association. “While he did not place, the competition was very strong this year and he should be proud to have participated in the challenge.”
Shankar’s project is titled “Insulin and Metformin: A Therapeutic Approach for the Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease after Type II Diabetes Mellitus Using a Novel In-Vitro Cell Model.”
Here is Shankar’s description of his project:
“In recent years, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been considered to be in part a neuroendocrine disorder, even referred to by some as type III diabetes. AD is characterized by a paucity of insulin and insulin resistance, which results in accumulation of β-amyloid peptides to form plaques in the brain leading to neuronal degeneration. Epidemiological evidence suggests a link between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and AD.
“The present study investigates the effect of insulin and metformin, an insulin sensitizer, on the production of β-amyloid by using a novel in-vitro neuronal cell model. The findings demonstrated that when neuronal cells, transfected to produce endogenous β-amyloid, were exposed to high glucose conditions [50 mM], they exhibited high cellular toxicity and increased β-amyloid generation. Metformin, at a dose of 10 mM, and insulin, at a dose of 1μM, were effective in lowering the production of β-amyloid. However, tyrophostin, a known inhibitor of the insulin-signaling pathway, did not modulate the effect of metformin on β-amyloid. Hence, the effect of metformin on β-amyloid is probably mediated through mechanisms other than insulin signaling pathway. These findings suggest a possible role of insulin sensitizers in reducing the risk of AD in T2DM.”
Shankar originally submitted a poster, which, after being viewed by a number of judges, was selected, allowing him to compete in the 2015 Amgen Bay Bio Area BioGENEius Challenge, the local qualifier to the next level.
Harker students participated in the 2015 National French Contest, which tests listening and reading comprehension, vocabulary and grammar, with résultats joyeuses! “
Honorable Mentions: Shreya Neogi, grade 10; Alexandra Dellar, Zarek Drozda, Shannon Hong, Emma Sayiner and Esther Wang, all grade 11.
Bronze Medals: Michael Tseitlin, grade 10; Richard Yi, grade 11.
Silver Medals: Hazal Gurcan, Anika Jain, Pooja Kini, all grade 10; Victoria Ding, Selin Ozcelik and Samali Sahoo, all grade 11.
Gold Medals: Lavinia Ding, Divya Rajasekharan, Andrew Rule, Andrew Tierno, Tiffany Zhu, all grade 10; Daphne Yang grade 11.
“Students were placed in different categories according to their level and exposure to the language,” explained Galina Tchourilova, upper school French teacher. Allez les aigles Français!
Harker’s team returned home after a very respectable showing at the Harvard Pre-Collegiate Economics Challenge! Ameek Singh, grade 11, placed second in individual testing out of 120 students, while the team made the final eight out of more than 30 teams, said advisor Sam Lepler. Following the competition, the team adjourned for Thai food near Harvard Square, where they were joined by four alumni, Olivia Zhu ’11, Vikram Sundar ’14, Angela Ma ’14 and Ashvin Swaminathan ’13, with Ramya Rangan ’12 enroute.
Now in its third year, the summer TRX training camp offers students in grades 6-12 the opportunity to prepare for an upcoming athletic season or simply get fit. The Navy SEAL-developed TRX suspension training system utilizes the user’s body weight to grant them access to a wide variety of exercises that can strengthen core, improve endurance and increase overall athletic performance. This unique system also puts the user in control of how much they want to challenge themselves by adjusting resistance settings and body positions to best suit their fitness goals.
This camp will be directed by Harker athletics coach Karriem Stinson, a certified TRX Group Instructor and wrestling coach, who also runs the Harker summer wrestling camp and coaches middle and upper school wrestling. To date he has coached three members of the California national wrestling team and multiple CCS placers.
The TRX training camp will take place Mondays and Wednesdays from June 22-July 22, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Sessions will be held at The Harker School’s middle school campus, located at 3800 Blackford Ave. in San Jose. For more information on this and other sports camps, including pricing, please visit the Harker Summer website.
Harker’s volleyball camp is a great opportunity for players of all levels to learn new skills or hone the ones they have already acquired. Coached by veteran Harker coach Vonda Reid – whose teams have qualified for the USA Youth National Championships – the camp open to students in grade 4-9, from those new to the sport to experienced competitors. It will feature a variety of drills and stations designed to build key volleyball skills, including passing, setting, hitting and serving. Campers also will explore strategy and play team games. To help foster their abilities, campers will receive valuable feedback as both individuals and team members.
Each day of camp begins with a dynamic warm-up session and a half-hour of ball control drills, followed by rotations between individual skill stations. Team-based concepts also are explored and practiced, and each day ends with team play.
Reid has spent 12 of her 15 years at Harker as a club director for the Stingray Volleyball Club, and is CAP II certified through the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Her past experience includes playing college volleyball at Brigham Young University and head varsity coach at Valley Christian High School.
This camp will take place July 20-24 at Harker’s middle school campus at 3800 Blackford Ave. in San Jose. Grades 4-6 will attend the camp from 9 a.m.-noon and the grades 7-9 session will be from 1-4 p.m. Please visit the Harker Summer website for further information on this and other summer camps.
The Hurrikeynes are going to New York! The team, comprising seniors Aaron Huang, Ashwath Thirumalai, Leo Yu, Rohith Kuditipudi and Steven Wang, was named one of the top four teams in the nation in the National Economics Challenge, administered by the Council for Economic Education. This is the most prestigious high school economics competition, with more than 10,000 students participating nationwide, said Sam Lepler, economics teacher and the team’s coach. Harker won the Northern California finals on April 7; our championship team, the “Hurrikeynes,” then competed against all the other state winners in an exam on April 14. The Hurrikeynes are one of just four top U.S. teams moving on to the National Championships in New York. The team earned an all-expense paid trip to NYC to compete for the No. 1 spot! “I am so incredibly proud of them and so excited for the finals!” said Lepler. “Yay!!”
For the ninth year in a row, young cancer patients attending Camp Okizu will benefit from the annual Harker Cancer Walk.
On March 24, students, parents, family members, faculty and staff from Harker’s four campuses united at the middle school field for the walk, which has become a beloved annual tradition.
Cindy Ellis, middle school head, was thrilled to report that “between the baked goods, smoothies, shirts and donations, we raised over $10,000!”
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra foothills and mirroring a residential camp experience, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for children with cancer to enjoy regular summer camp activities and social events.
The name Okizu (oak-eye-zoo) comes from the Sioux language and means “unity.” Camp Okizu is free of charge to all attendees, but it costs $700 to $1,000 to provide a week-long camp experience for one child. Therefore, the camp relies on donations, making fundraising efforts such as the Harker Cancer Walk incredibly important.
“There’s always a moment at each Cancer Walk when I stop and look around at everything that’s going on. People are smiling, laughing and talking. There’s hustle and bustle in front of various tables. And even though the event can be a reminder of something sad, it also can be a reminder of those wonderful days gone by,” recalled Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher and department chair, who had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his own mother due to cancer.
Today, he said, he no longer views the Cancer Walk as just a tribute to his mother “as much as I think of it as a tribute to the people and relationships I’ve experienced at Harker. Thank you all for sharing that with me.”
Prior to walk, students engaged in activities to learn about different forms of cancer and cancer prevention strategies. In a further show of support for the fundraising effort, many teachers displayed door decorations with themes designed to promote cancer awareness.
Harker’s middle school students won numerous awards for their scores on The National Latin Exam, which was taken this year by more than 153,000 Latin students from the United States and 20 other countries.
The exam is sponsored by the U.S.-based American Classical League and the National Junior Classical League. The test covers general knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, mythology, Roman culture, derivatives, and translation abilities.
The National Latin Exam prides itself on providing every Latin student the opportunity to experience a sense of personal accomplishment and success in his or her study of the Latin language and culture. The exam is a 40-question, multiple-choice test with a 45-minute time limit.
According to middle school Latin teacher Lisa Masoni, Harker students earned the following awards, which they will be receiving at a special ceremony in May:
The Introduction to Latin Exam (all grade 6 unless noted):
Achievement: Roberto Salgado, Shalini Rohra, Saloni Shah, Sriya Prathuri (7), Angela Cai, John Lynch, Maria Vazhaeparambil, Betsy Tian
Outstanding Achievement: Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Akshay Manglik, Blake Richmond, Linus Zheng, Anna Vazhaeparambil
Perfect Paper: Arohee Bhoja, Jeffrey Fung (7)
The Latin 1 Exam (all grade 7 unless noted):
Cum Laude: Anvi Banga, Kashov Sharma, Jedd Hui
Magna Cum Laude: Henry Wiese, Rachel Abellera
Maxima Cum Laude (Silver Medal): Fiona Wiesner, Mahika Halepete, Vedanth Sundaram, Matthew Jin, Catherine Zhao, Zachary Wong (8), Angele Yang, Lauren Fu, Cynthia Chen, Katelyn Chen
Summa Cum Laude (Gold Medal): Jasmine Wiese, Kyle Li, Kalyan Narayanan, Jatin Kohli, Angela Chen, Ashley Duraiswamy, Andrew Cheplyansky, Montek Kalsi, Jai Bahri, Allison Jia, Jack Hansen, Alyssa Huang, Jin Tuan, Eileen Li, Avi Gulati
Perfect Paper: George Wehner (6)
The Latin 2 Exam (all grade 8):
Cum Laude: Ashwin Reddy, Sophia Angus
Magna Cum Laude: Sahana Narayan
Maxima Cum Laude (Silver Medal): Ally Wang, Timmy Chang, Tiffany Zhao, Heidi Zhang, Ayush Pancholy, Taylor Lam, Jacob Kim, Sara Min, Nicole Selvaggio, Nikhil Dharmaraj, Allison Cartee, Tiffany Wong
Summa Cum Laude (Gold Medal): Bobby Bloomquist, Alexander Young, Kaushik Shivakumar
Perfect Paper: Mathew Mammen, Akshay Ravoor, Clarissa Wang