Harker recently instituted a new schoolwide waste program that separates waste into “wet” and “dry” categories. The initiative coincides with a system rolled out by the city of San Jose and Republic Services, which manages waste for commercial users in the area.
Labeled cans have popped up on every campus, along with signs indicating what kinds of waste go in each can. “Wet” waste includes food waste and used paper goods, such as napkins, tissues and paper food trays. “Dry” waste includes drink containers, clean paper and cardboard, and non-compostable food containers.
In addition to compliance with the city of San Jose and Republic Services, this initiative will help “divert as much of our trash toward recycling as possible,” said Diana Moss, upper school Spanish teacher and a member of Harker’s Green Committee. Making this a schoolwide effort will help ensure that students graduating from one campus to the next will be familiar with Harker’s trash procedures, she added.
“This contributes in a significant way to our green efforts,” said Kate Schafer, upper school science teacher and Green Committee member. “First, we’re making it possible for Republic Services to do their job of diverting material from the landfill, but it also gives us the possibility of assessing our production of waste and reducing it in the future through various efforts such as on-site composting, reduction in use of non-recyclable containers, etc.”
The labeled cans were set up during spring break in classrooms and strategic spots on each campus. Green Committee members have been working to get the word out. Lower school students were informed about the rollout during educational assemblies, and on April 22 – celebrated around the world as Earth Day – faculty and staff wore green and blue to show their support of the wet/dry program. Meanwhile, middle school students have taken quizzes about the wet and dry classifications during their advisories. Upper school students were informed of the new procedures at the April 14 morning school meeting with a special video and presentation. A bulletin board display in the lunch area, featuring amusing photos of costumed students, also reminds students of the proper way to dispose of their trash.
Spring break was an opportune time for The Harker School Orchestra, which traveled to Chicago to perform at the Chicago International Music Festival. Earlier this year, the orchestra was chosen to premiere a new piece by composer Jeremy Van Buskirk. The piece, titled “… such as I am you will be,” was one of three performed by the orchestra at the festival, along with Arturo Marquez’s “Danzon No. 2” and the fourth movement of “Symphony No. 5” by Dmitri Shostacovich.
The orchestra’s performance won a Gold Award and high praise from Deborah Gibbs, president and CEO of World Projects, the production company behind the festival, who declared The Harker Orchestra was the best high school orchestra she had ever heard. Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and director of the orchestra, was similarly enthused. “We have been preparing all year long for this event and I could not be more proud of how our students performed,” he said.
“The whole orchestra prepared by rehearsing every day in class since January, and as concertmaster, I feel very proud to lead and be part of such a hard-working and talented group,” said violinist Helen Wu, grade 11. “Every day without fail, regardless of whatever else we have going on, we always came together during first period to work and refine our music.”
Sahithya Prakash, grade 12, who plays bassoon, noticed changes in the orchestra’s practices as the concert neared. “As we got closer to our performance, our focus and intensity kept rising,” she said. “I felt really exhausted after each practice because I had put my 100% into playing, and I felt that the entire orchestra did too.”
Although Van Buskirk did not have a hand in selecting the orchestra that played his piece he was “extremely grateful they were chosen.” Premiering a new piece, he said, is a unique challenge for both the composer and an orchestra. “It’s a challenge to bring a new piece of art into the world for the first time,” he said. “As a composer, I can not do it by myself. I need willing and enthusiastic performers. Chris Florio and The Harker School Orchestra did an amazing job.”
While writing and refining his piece, Van Buskirk sent unfinished versions of it to the orchestra, who recorded their renditions and sent them back. He and Florio then discussed how the piece could be written to best fit the orchestra. “The students work hard and they are very musical,” Van Buskirk said. “It’s rare for a composer to have this level of access to a orchestra while writing a new piece. They met the challenge head on.”
Wu felt honored to premiere “…such as I am you will be,” calling it “remarkable musically and ideologically. Dr. Van Buskirk was a pleasure to work with, very involved in the creation of his piece and enthusiastic about rehearsing with us.”
For Prakash, being selected to premiere the piece served as validation for the positive feedback the orchestra receives from its director. “Mr. Florio keeps emphasizing how special the Harker Orchestra is and how talented we all are,” said Prakash, “and I think being chosen to premiere this piece made me realize that we really are a talented group of individuals.”
On a windy and cold afternoon at Boulder Ridge Country Club, the boys golf team outdueled four time defending league champion Menlo by one stroke 208-209 to win its first ever title. After the first two pairings, the Eagles were up by seven strokes. On the last hole, Menlo’s William Hsieh, playing on this home course, lips out the par 4 9th. Then Knight senior and medalist Jordan Stone, who sunk 10-15 footers all day long, lips out another putt, finishing with a remarkable 11 putts for the round. Not to be outdone, in front of the gallery, our own Mr. Clutch, Freshman Avi Khemani calmly sank an eight footer for the one shot victory. Freshman Sandip Nirmel, who is playing his best golf of late, led the Eagles with a 3 over par 39. Nirmel earned his first Harker medalist honors last week at Shoreline against Pinewood. Junior Shrish Dwivedi chipped in with a 40, followed by Khemani’s 41, Ryan Vaughan’s 42 and Jonathan Lee’s 46 to assist in the victory. After hitting a ball out of bounds on his first tee shot on the par 4 fourth hole, Jonathan stuck a 220 yard, blind shot, into the middle of the green to save a remarkable double. The Eagles secure first place in the WBAL with a 9-1 record. This is a culmination of 15 weeks of tremendous amount of hard work, time, and effort by all eight of these gentlemen. Please congratulate Shrish Dwivedi, Dakota McNealy, Nikhil Reddy, Ryan Vaughan, Sandip Nirmel, Avi Khemani, Zarek Drozda and Jonathan Lee on this championship run! Each and every one of them played their role in making this dream a reality and absolutely gave it their all. We can’t be more proud. The team’s next competition will be at League Finals next Wednesday. Go Eagles!!!!
April 22, 2014 Golf
The Eagles are off to their best start ever, even after dropping a contest to rival Sacred Heart Prep by just three shots, 186-189. The Eagles are tied for first place in the WBAL with an 8-1 record. In the close loss, sophomore Dakota McNealy led all other golfers with an even par 33.
At the Champions Invitational in Palm Springs earlier this month, the team placed 22nd out of 40 schools in a crowded field that included teams from Texas, Nevada, Washington and Canada. They have a huge showdown with Menlo today!
Track and Field
The Eagles competed in their second league meet, with seniorshot putter Nithya Vemireddy setting a school record. The day also was filled with personal bests. In addition to Vemireddy’s new record, junior shot putter Julia Wang and sophomore Mehul Khetrapal set personal bests in the 400m. Senior Ravi Bhandia, junior Matt Bloch, sophomore Jonathan Hochberg, freshman Davis Howard and senior Rohan Kapatkar had personal bests in throws. The boys went 1-2-3-4 in the high-jump, led by senior Wei Wei Buchsteiner with a school record of 5’2″!
Senior Claudia Tischler and sophomore Alex Dellar ran 1-2 in the 800m, both with season bests, and junior Allen Huang’s personal best in the 100m was the best Eagle mark on of the year! Freshman Niki Iyer placed second in the 3200m run, breaking her old school record at the CCS Top 8 Invitational with a time of 10:57.39 and edging out the third-place finisher in the final 100m. Then, at the San Mateo Bearcat Invitational, Vemireddy and Wang took fifth and sixth place in the discus, with Vemireddy’s personal best throw just 8 inches shy of the school record set last year by Wang. Vemireddy also took sixth in the shot put, while seniors Sean Nachnani, Arjun Kumar, Krish Sanghi and Nishaant Murali set personal bests in the discus. Kumar equaled his personal best 39’9” to take eighth place in the shot put.
Lacrosse
The varsity lacrosse team roared back against Sacred Heart Prep but ultimately fell short, losing 12-9 despite four goals from juniorHannah Bollar, three goals from senior Mary Liu, two goals from seniorMabel Luo and 17 saves from seniorgoalie Christine Lee. The girls bounced back by trouncing York School 14-3 behind four goals from freshmanSarah Baz, three from Liu, two from Luo and one apiece from sophomores Shreya Sunkara and Natasha Mayor, Bollar, freshman Taylor Iantosca and Lee. The girls are now 4-9 overall, and will celebrate their senior day on May 6 when they bid farewell to seniors Alicia Clark, Nikkan Ghosh, Lee, Liu, Luo, Maya Madhavan and Brinda Perumal.
Tennis
The boys varsity squad beat Pinewood and Crystal Springs last week. Their match against Crystal Springs was a tense and heated fight for second place, and the boys prevailed 4-3. This week is a busy one for the team, with four matches! The team will send off senior Kevin Xue at senior day on April 25.
Baseball
The boys crushed Pescadero 11-1 over the break for their second victory of the year. FreshmanNic Bean went 4-4 with a two-run homerun. SophomoreDalton Forbeshad two hits with a triple and an RBI. FreshmanKedar Gupta had two hits, a triple and two RBIs. Senior Varun Kamat pitched a complete game, allowing just one run and three hits while striking out 13 across four innings. The boys play three times this week and host a senior day for Kamat on May 8.
Softball
The Eagles lost to Mercy-Burlingame last week despite hits from juniors Alisa Wakita and Vivian Isenberg. They’ll be back in action today at Blackford against Castilleja.
Volleyball
The boys won the bronze bracket at the Bellarmine Tournament after defeating Cathedral of LA and Nevada Union. They went 3-3 overall at the tournament. Against their league competitors Homestead, they boys fell, dropping their record to 13-7 overall and 4-3 in league. Tonight, they head to Blackford at 6:45 p.m. for a game against Los Gatos. The boys’ senior day is on May 9, where they will send off seniors Samir Chaudhry, Will Deng, Gaurav Kumar, Huck Vaughan, Jithin Vellian, Sean Youn and Andrew Zhu.
Swimming
You can catch the swim team’s senior day on Wednesday at 4 p.m. against rival Sacred Heart Prep. Say goodbye to seniors Brian Tuan, Kenneth Zhang, Manon Audebert and Kimberly Ma.
Harker alumnus and current member of the third-ranked Stanford golf team, Maverick McNealy ’13, joined his parents Scott and Susan McNealy at the annual Harker Golf Classic. The event, held April 14 at the Stanford University Golf Course, raised $28,000 for Harker’s General Endowment Fund.
Harker was extremely fortunate to be able to host the 2014 Golf Classic at Stanford, as there is a long waitlist of organizations wishing to host their golf outings at the coveted course, which is consistently rated one of the finest university courses in the world.
First-place winners were Greg Lawson, Meurig Morgan and Allen Beede. Second-place winners were Scott and Susan McNealy, and Andrea and Chris Umdenstock. Longest drive went to Erik Verbeek (men) and Susan McNealy (women). Closest to pin was achieved by Evan Barth (men) and Dorothy Scarpace (women).
After the final round, golfers were joined by spouses and guests at the McNealy’s home for a fabulous wine reception. Participating wineries were Corvalle and Left Bend, as well as distributor Joseph George Fine Wines.
The Stanford golf course, designed in 1930 by renowned golf course architects William Bell and George C. Thomas, is located in the foothills above the Stanford University campus. In 2009 Stanford was rated the nation’s third-best college course by golf coaches.
After the event, the advancement department gave special thanks to the day’s presenting sponsors: Sarvajna and Seema Dwivedi, Shi An Liu and Ping Xu, Ram and Indira Reddy and Wayin. Further sponsorship was provided by Big Valley Ford Lincoln for donating a car for the hole-in-one contest. Golfsmith provided the longest-drive contest prizes and Golftec provided swing analysis sessions to the second-place winners. Additionally, C. Denise Brodersen, CFP, Wealth Advisor with UBS Financial Services, was a hole sponsor and Harry and Lovelee Singh sponsored a cart.
At the end of the day, beyond enjoying a good game of golf, all the participants left secure in the knowledge they had helped raise funds for Harker’s General Endowment, which will help benefit generations of students to come.
This report provided by Jenny Heidt The Harker Forensics team had a record-setting weekend at the National Debate Coaches Association Championship at Weber State University April 11-14. The speech and debate team won national championships in three out of the four events at the tournament! Eight students went home with titles in three categories: Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and Congress. Pranav Reddy, grade 11, won first place in Lincoln-Douglas debate; Misha Tseitlin, grade 9, placed first in Congressional debate; and Jasmine Liu, grade 10, and Kevin Duraiswamy, Arjun Kumar, Stephanie Lu, Sreyas Misra, and Sebi Nakos, all grade 12, were co-champions in Public Forum debate.
“We’ve had different parts of the program win a title before, but we’ve never had this much overall strength all at once,” said Jenny Heidt, debate coach.
Nakos added, “I don’t think it was as much of an individual effort as much as it was a team effort. As a team everyone put in their part and did their part and everyone put the work they needed to do well as a team.”
More than 300 students from states throughout the nation participated in the tournament. Harker sent 26 upper school students to compete. To qualify for the national tournament, students had to do well at various debate tournaments throughout the invitational season.
Debaters grapple with very complicated issues of public policy and philosophy. The Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas topics were about potential conflicts between economic development and environmental protection in poorer nations. The Congressional debaters covered a wide range of issues, including assistance to the Ukraine in maintaining its independence from Russia and whether or not various groups or nations ought to be removed from the U.S. State Department list of terrorist organizations. Coach Greg Achten said, “It is not possible to achieve the level of success in an activity as challenging as debate without a tremendous amount of hard work. Succeeding in debate not only requires incredible intellectual acumen, it also requires a very strong work ethic.”
This year’s debate team set a new precedent for the future success of the school’s speech and debate program. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s the single most successful weekend in the history of Harker speech and debate,” Heidt said. Coach Carol Green summed it up nicely by saying, “We are really proud of all of the students and the work they have done in addition to the successes they achieved.”
The team has several more important tournaments coming up at the end of the 2013-2014 season, including travel to Kentucky, Illinois, Kansas and Texas.
Harker’s Middle School Spring Art Exhibit went on display in the upper school’s main lobby gallery after an opening reception on April 3. The show, which will run until April 23, also spilled over to the Nichols Hall atrium.
Sponsored by Harker’s middle school visual arts program, the exhibit features select works from the 2013-14 school year, including colorful paintings, sketches, ceramics, figurines and wire sculptures.
This year’s exhibit included an impressive array of ceramics, such as tea pots, plates, boxes and figurines. Students in grades 7-8 showcased clay and glass works called “African Granary Doors.” Whimsical wire sculpture figures with accessories such as umbrellas, golf sticks and building blocks also filled the shelves. Grade 6 ceramics students displayed work done during the fall semester titled “Art Shoes,” which took the form of dinosaurs, rabbits, dragons and more. And, adorning the walls, were drawings of bikes, colorful landscapes, and assorted fruits and vegetables.
Encased in a glass display were several sculptures that won regional Scholastic Art Awards earlier this year. Eight Harker middle school students won the prestigious awards for their outstanding artwork. Two received the coveted gold and silver key awards, while six others were lauded with honorable mentions. All of the winners’ work was featured in the exhibit. (To read another HNO story about the art award winners: http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/eight-middle-school-students-win-scholastic-art-awards/).
Meanwhile, a series of drawings called “Renaissance Self-Portraits” was on display in Nichols Hall. For this project, second-year middle school art students were asked to do a self-portrait of what they will look like at age 50, and at the same time put themselves in the time of the renaissance. To accomplish this feat, they studied Rembrandt’s self-portraits and followed that period and style as closely as possible.
“Scrolling through photos of Renaissance poses and portraits, I found a picture of a man with flowing, curly hair very interesting. Incorporating my cheerful countenance into the body of a royal ancient figure was extremely difficult, but weeks of sketching self-portraits eventually paid off to help accomplish this piece,” recalled art student Darren Gu, grade 8.
Classmate Kaitlin Hsu, also grade 8, said that for her Renaissance portrait she chose to draw herself as a young maiden who “probably lived the life of a servant.” Drawing this portrait, she noted, was fun and interesting since the clothing, accessories, and style at the time were very unique and distinct. “Using various materials to finish this portrait was fun,” she added.
Also in the atrium were drawings from first-year art students, including illustrations of Audubon birds and sketches of rocking chairs. The drawings were done in the Italian artistic style of chiaroscuro, which utilizes strong contrasts between light and dark (similar effects in cinema and photography also are called chiaroscuro).
The middle school art show is unique in that it hosts its opening reception at the upper school. After the exhibit’s run there, it will be relocated to the middle school multipurpose room where it will join the middle school’s end-of-the-year exhibit.
Each spring, each of Harker’s campuses hold art shows, giving students age-appropriate venues in which to display the special works they have completed throughout the year.
The lower school gym was magically transformed into “the enchanted kingdom of Harker” when, in early April, it was taken over by a live television crew from WOLF TV, Channel 18.
So began the library department’s 18th annual Ogre Awards. In a new twist this year, an imaginary TV network covered the “star-studded literary awards show,” which it deemed the highest-rated program in Fairyland.
Late breaking news threatened to interrupt the much-anticipated broadcast, as the wolves discover that the Ogre Awards do not have a “Best Wolf” category. The distraught wolves begin howling about the injustice. They even threaten to “huff and puff and blow the house down.”
Starring all grade 2 students (otherwise known as the Ogre Academy), the awards show was dedicated to the characters of 21 classic folk and fairy tales, as well as the storytellers who created them. The beloved production was created by former library director Enid Davis. Since her retirement two years ago, the library department has proudly carried on the tradition of hosting the Ogres with Danny Dunn, lower school technical director, serving as director.
The idea behind this year’s Ogre Awards, which was emceed by lower school librarian Kathy Clark, was to take stories that have been around for in many cases centuries and to show them holding their own against television, explained Dunn. “We wanted to compare books and stories to television – the point being that whatever you might enjoy about television, there is always a book or story that could fill that entertainment need. Books are just as relevant and entertaining as TV – in fact, we would argue more so!” she said.
“In the future, we plan to continue this trend of looking at the classic stories through the lens of something current and relatable,” Dunn elaborated. “Each year will have a different hook.”
The second graders enthusiastically portrayed characters and creatures from the folklore of cultures worldwide (including enchanted royalty and objects, fools, witches, heroines, villains, tricksters and, of course, wolves), which they had learned about during the school year. Folk stories and fairytales featured in this year’s awards ceremony came from such well-known, endearing stories as The Frog Princess, Snow White, The Water of Life, Butterball, Peder and the Water Sprite and more.
During the show, a whole host of special guests from the faculty and staff presented the awards, which took many forms such as the “publisher’s fairyhouse” sweepstakes check, and a plaque in the sports hall of fame.
All but one of the Ogre Awards are bestowed upon fairytale characters, with a special honor going to a real person who provides exceptional service or support to the Harker libraries. This year the honor went to lower school library assistant Moureen Lennon, who oversees library volunteers and champions the Fifth Grade Reads project.
In her acceptance speech, Lennon said she was thrilled to receive the 2014 Special Ogre Award for Lifetime Achievement. She then recalled the explosive growth of the lower school library, which she said began primarily as a center for storytelling and has since become a “full-fledged literary service.” She also praised the library’s dedicated group of parent volunteers, many of whom have stayed on even after their children matriculated to higher campuses.
Toward the end of the show, all of the student wolves took to the stage in protest of their perceived exclusion in the Ogre Awards. Holding picket signs, they chanted their outrage until special guest Sarah Leonard, primary school head, observed that there were more wolves on stage than in any other year’s awards show – at which point they promptly stopped complaining and apologized in unison.
Concluding the Ogre Awards was the much-anticipated Best Folk or Fairy Tale award, which this year went to the Norwegian fairytale “Butterball.” Leonard then approached the podium to thank the dedicated team (of volunteer faculty and parents), both on hand and behind the scenes, who generously helped out with technical direction, music, costumes, videography and choreography.
Although the audience undoubtedly recognized many familiar tales, several of the stories told were new to the Ogres this year. This year also saw the introduction of a new category expanded to include all villains (in addition to witches, which have their own category). “We are happy to report you can expect wolves to continue to make an appearance in future years along with other audience-eating villains,” said Dunn.
The latest installment of TEDxHarkerSchool was held March 22 at the upper school campus. Launched in fall 2011, the student-organized series of events gives high school students interested in entrepreneurship the chance to hear inspiring speakers and meet with mentors from many different fields.
Organizers put together another impressive lineup of speakers for this year’s event. Among them was Harker student Arjun Mehta, grade 12, who has received much attention for his most recent endeavor, a conferencing app known as Stoodle, which already boasts thousands of users since its launch in December 2012. With the assistance of his father, Karl, Mehta’s previous business idea grew into PlaySpan, which sold for $200 million.
Mehta detailed what he believed were key steps for young entrepreneurs. He advised students to look for “pain points” in their everyday lives, seeking solutions to problems they regularly encounter. In response to the differences he noticed between Harker and his previous school, Mehta founded Stoodle to help give students at other schools a chance to collaborate and share their knowledge with one another. Mehta also encouraged future entrepreneurs to work in familiar spaces. Because Mehta was a high school student, he and his Stoodle collaborators were treated as “experts in the room” when meeting with older, more experienced entrepreneurs.
Mehta also offered advice on how to reconcile the busy life of a young entrepreneur with the obligations of a high school student. He cited a “willingness to be misunderstood” due to not having as much time for friends and extracurricular activities.
During the Q&A session that followed his talk, Mehta demonstrated his 30-second elevator pitch to the audience. He added that he plans to continue working on Stoodle while in college and keep it free to all.
A morning break allowed students to converse with the speakers and mentors in attendance. Students also got the chance to sit down with various entrepreneurs during lunch, gaining knowledge and sharing ideas.
“I find the mentor luncheon to be the most unique aspect of TEDxHarkerSchool, as it gives attendees an opportunity to interact with professionals on a more personal level,” said Glenn Reddy, grade 11, who helped organize and run the event.
New this year, various companies showed their products in the Nichols Hall atrium. This year’s exhibitors were GoPro, Master Images, Stoodle, Fuhu and Lighting for Literacy. “The attendees jumped at the chance to check out the booths in the atrium, and they were one of the most popular parts of the day,” Reddy said.
Antoine Delcayre, a grade 10 student at Branham High School who also attended last year’s TEDxHarker event, found the speakers helpful and “really enjoyed the knowledge they shared.”
Fellow Branham student Saumya Bhatia, grade 10, said attending TEDxHarker the previous year helped inspire her and her friends to start a DECA chapter at their school. She particularly enjoyed the talk from Stanford University lecturer Rashmi Menon, who said that it was good for people to admit to needing help. “I think that’s really important because I feel like a lot of times I don’t admit to not knowing things and I sort of want to be the expert in everything,” Bhatia said. “But I feel like she really clarified that it’s OK to ask for help and that in the end it’s for your own benefit.”
One of the more popular afternoon speakers was Dr. Ronda Beaman, chief creative officer at PEAK Learning and clinical professor at Cal Poly’s Orfalea College of Business. Known for her infectious speaking style and stage presence, Beaman started her talk by leading the audience in the Hokey Pokey. Beaman told the audience about the importance of neoteny, which is the ability for people to keep their “childlike qualities” – such as curiosity, creativity and an inclination toward experimentation – through their adult lives. The “neotenous mind” is what allows for the creative entrepreneurship that leads to exciting ideas such as phones that converse with their owners, and microfinance organizations such as Kiva, she said.
“Most of us are right-answered, brown-desked, tested right out of our original selves,” she said, lamenting the loss of creativity that occurs as children grow up. Beaman suggested that to help themselves retain the adventurousness of childhood, students could carry around a picture of their much younger selves as a reminder of the qualities they had at that age. She also suggested carrying around a crayon to smell, which greatly amused the audience. “The scent brings you back to kindergarten, before you knew ‘no,’ before you were told to sit down, before you were told to be quiet,” she said. “It just takes you back to possibility and color, and I hope you colored outside the lines.”
UPDATE: Videos of the keynote speakers, breakout sessions and the panel discussion from this year’s Research Symposium are now available on YouTube.
Science enthusiasts from across the Harker community gathered at the upper school campus on March 29 for this year’s Harker Research Symposium. In the nearly 10 years since its founding, the research symposium has provided lovers of scientific research with an eventful day in which students, parents, faculty and staff meet to share their enthusiasm, see the results of student research and hear from notable members of the scientific community.
The Nichols Hall atrium was once again the epicenter of activity for the event, with exhibitors from companies such as Google, NVidia and the South Asian Heart Center providing information to passersby and holding tech demos. SeaLife Aquarium Maintenance, stationed in front of the atrium’s aquarium, gave attendees the opportunity to observe and touch starfish and other forms of aquatic life. Tesla Motors also had a presence, giving people a chance to test drive one of their award-winning electric cars. Over at the rotunda, Brian Tuan, grade 12, demonstrated a 3-D printer to a steady stream of onlookers as it constructed such objects as a toy car and a plastic model of Batman’s head.
Nichols Hall auditorium and classrooms hosted formal talks by Harker students known as breakout sessions, where students gave detailed presentations on their research projects. Some of these, such as senior Vikas Bhetanabhotla’s project on the identification of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxys and Zareen Choudhury’s investigation of the chemical makeup of stars, earned recognition in prestigious contests such as the Siemens Competition and Intel Science Talent Search. At the gym, middle and upper school students had poster presentations set up showing the results of research they had performed. Students were on hand to answer questions about their research projects, impressing those in attendance with both the depth of the research and their presentation skills.
Morning keynote speaker Claire Max, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at University of California, Santa Cruz, shared her work on adaptive optics with a capacity crowd in the auditorium. Using informative photos and videos, Max showed how turbulence in space can obscure telescopes’ view of the stars. Adaptive optics corrects this distortion using mirrors and laser technology. This technology, she explained, can be used to enhance images of planets and find out where black holes ended up as galaxies collided. It has also been used to enhance images of the human eye, which she demonstrated with close-up videos of blood cells traveling through capillaries.
Two alumni were featured as speakers at this year’s symposium. The first, Ilya Sukhar ’03, shared some of the lessons he learned (including some misconceptions he had during his years as a Harker student) in entrepreneurship as the founder and CEO of Parse, which was acquired by Facebook in 2013. Parse, which still operates independently, enables developers to more easily create mobile apps for multiple platforms. Nikhil Parthasarathy ’11, speaking during a special lunchtime event at Manzanita Hall, discussed his current exploits as an undergraduate at Stanford University, which included exciting work in artificial intelligence. He addressed Harker’s current students, telling them they may end up taking many paths, arriving somewhere they might not have anticipated.
Khan Academy founder Salman Khan was the star of the afternoon, packing both the auditorium and the gym, where all of the keynote addresses were simulcast. Khan talked about how what began as a hobby in 2004 – tutoring his cousin in math – turned into one of the world’s most popular online learning resources, used by more than six million unique visitors each month. During the extended question-and-answer session, Khan was kind enough to move from Nichols Hall to the gym for those who were unable to view his talk in person.
The day ended with a panel discussion featuring upper school science department chair Anita Chetty, science teacher Chris Spenner, Harker parent Manish Gupta (Aarzu, grade 6; Anika, grade 12), junior Jason Chu and seniors Bhetanabhotla, Stephanie Chen, Choudhury, Anika Gupta, Sreyas Misra and Vikram Sundar. The panel discussed the various options offered by Harker’s research program and included student testimonials on their experiences conducting research at Harker.
Along with wrestling, Harker has other great sports camps for boys and girls, including water polo, swimming, football, basketball, TRX training and our always popular soccer camp–see the photos for a view of last year’s camps! To register for summer camps, click here.
After a successful first year, Harker’s summer wrestling camp will have students in grades 4-12 taking to the mat once again to brush up on both beginning and advanced techniques. Among this year’s special guests is Anthony Robles, who won the 2010-11 NCAA championship in the 125-pound weight class despite being born with just one leg. He will be visiting the camp during its final two days.
The wrestling camp caters to a wide range of skill levels. Students will work on takedowns, reversals and other important skills. Students also will train on the TRX system, and work on managing weight, setting goals and being mentally prepared. In addition, students will have the opportunity to learn from college coaches and wrestlers who will visit the camp.
“One of the new things about camp this year is we have more coaches to help,” said camp director Karriem Stinson. “I went out and got some of the best coaches in [the Central Coast Section]. Two of them have been CCS honor coaches of the year and one has been named Mercury News coach of the year.”
Stinson is Harker’s middle school assistant athletic director and the middle and upper school wrestling coach. During his time at Harker, he has coached three members of the California national wrestling team and many other wrestlers who have gone on to placements in CCS.
Stinson will be joined by Shawn Henebry, a three-time CCS winner and former captain of the wrestling team at California State University, Fullerton, where he later was assistant coach. Henebry finished in first place in the 85kg category at the 2012 Veterans U.S. National Championships and his coaching successes include a CCS champion and several state qualifiers.
The camp will take place July 28-Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. For more information on all the sports camps, please visit the Harker summer website.