A handful of Harker swimmers competed at the CCS finals over the weekend. Vivian Wang, grade 10, took second place in both the women’s 200 IM and the women’s 100 free and will compete this weekend at the CIF state championships in Fresno. Wang’s CCS success helped lead the Harker women’s team to a 21st place CCS finish. The top men’s swimmer was Michael Auld, grade 11, who finished 18th in the men’s 500 free.
Track and Field
Five track and field athletes will be competing at the CCS championships next Saturday. Harker competed at the WBAL finals last week and the top two finishers in each event stamped their ticket to CCS. Davis Dunaway, grade 11, took first in the pole vault and second in the 300m hurdles; Demonte Aleem, grade 9, won the shot put; Kevin Wang, grade 12, took second in the discus; Anthony Contreras, grade 10, finished second in the 400m and 200m; and Niki Iyer, grade 11, won both the 1600m and 3200m races, setting a new meet record in the latter. Good luck at CCS!
Boys Golf
The boys golf team kicked off its CCS journey last week as six golfers represented Harker in the regional tournament. The Eagles placed second in the regional tournament and tied for third overall, sending them to the CCS finals to be played on Tuesday. Avi Khemani, grade 11, and Scout McNealy, grade 9, were the top Harker golfers, each shooting a 73 and tying for ninth. If the Eagles place in the top three of the final eight teams, they will play in the state tournament.
Boys Tennis
The season came to an end for the boys tennis team last week. After a first round CCS victory over Santa Cruz, the Eagles lost 5-2 to No. 8 seeded Gunn High School. Congrats on a great season!
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team’s season came to end last week as the Eagles lost to Notre Dame San Jose on Senior Day 19-9. The team went 2-18 on the year.
Boys Volleyball
The boys volleyball team rode an undefeated league record into CCS, where they were given home court in their first-round match against Westmont. The Eagles fought hard and took the Warriors to the limit, but eventually lost in five games. Congrats on a great season!
Baseball
The varsity baseball team finished off its season last week with a win over San Jose and a loss to Jefferson in the season finale. Taking on San Jose High in their final home game of the season, the Eagles came away with the 9-2 win. Jefferson defeated the Eagles 10-2 to close out the season for the Eagles, who finished 9-13 on the year.
Softball
The softball team played its last two games of the season last week. In a 12-11 loss to Notre Dame San Jose, Taylor Lam, grade 9, had a huge game with two hits, including a grand slam, and seven RBIs. On Senior Day, the Eagles dropped another close game, this time to The King’s Academy, 9-8. The Eagles were 6-10 on the year.
Upper school vocal groups Bel Canto, Camerata, Guys’ Gig, Cantilena, Acoustics and Downbeat took the stage at the Nichols Hall auditorium on April 29 for the final upper school choral concert of the year.
Titled “¡Yo le Canto!” the concert featured several songs sung in Spanish, from composers including Juan Ponce, Josquin des Prez and Carlos Benavides. The performers’ repertoire also included a number of popular modern songs, including Seal’s “Kiss From a Rose” (performed by Downbeat, with accompaniment from senior Gurutam Thockchom on guitar and freshman Neil Ramasawamy on drums), Queen’s “You’re My Best Friend” (performed by Guys’ Gig) and the finale, a performance of Billy Joel’s “River of Dreams” by Downbeat and Bel Canto. What a great show to wrap up the choral performance year!
The lower school Spring Music Concert on May 5 brought parents and family members together to hear the results of many hours of practice by their children and siblings!
The show featured the talents of the Bucknall Choir (directed by Kellie Binney-Smart and Carena Montany), the Lower School Jazz Ensemble (directed by Louis Hoffman), the First Year String Group (directed by Natachia Li and Pierre Dazin), the Lower School Orchestra (directed by Hoffman), the Guitar Group (directed by Christopher Motter and Owen Stewart-Robertson), the Lower School String Ensemble (directed by Toni Woodruff) and the Preparatory String Ensemble (directed by Woodruff).
The students performed a wide variety of pieces, ranging from John Williams’ theme from “Star Wars” to selections from jazz greats Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane to traditional American folk tunes such as “Land of the Silver Birch” and “The Water is Wide.”
Last Saturday, the Grades 7-8 Orchestra participated in the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Music Festival at Independence High School and, for the first time ever, received a Unanimous Superior Rating. The orchestra performed about 20 minutes of prepared music for three judges and was evaluated on sight reading as well. About 40 students participated.
“This is the highest possible rating an ensemble can receive at CMEA,” said Dave Hart, orchestra director, “and it just shows all the hard work they put in individually and as a group! There were wonderful displays of team work throughout the entire festival. Please join me in congratulating the students!”
Congratulations to the entire Grades 7-8 Orchestra and director Dave Hart!
Donna Gilbert, history and social science chair, opened the event with remarks about each of the grant programs. She remembered beloved history teacher John Near, who passed away in 2009, saying, “He inspired in his students a love for the excitement of historical exploration, which lives on in this special program.” Gilbert also had kind words for the Mitra family, “whose vision and kindness extended the scholars program to allow students opportunities to study topics in the broader disciplines of the humanities and social sciences.”
This year’s John Near scholars are seniors Jasmine Liu (“A House Divided: Residential Segregation in Santa Clara County”), Sadhika Malladi (“Graphic Soldiers: Popular Sentiment as Reflected in Captain America and Spider-Man”), Zarek Drozda (“Learned Lessons: Financial Innovation and the Panic of 1873”) and Sahana Narayanan (“’Bee-Boppa-Doe’: The Sounds of Musical Revolution”).
The 2016 Mitra scholars are seniors Elisabeth Siegel (“Ideology Through Subliminal Propaganda: A Critique of Portrayals of Palestine and Palestinians in Israeli and Western Online News Media during Operation Protective Edge”), Kaitlyn Gee (“Pretty in Punk: An Examination of European Female Punk Rock of the 70s and 80s Through a Feminist Lens”), Natalie Simonian (“Whispers in Russia: The Influence of the Rumors Surrounding Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on the Russian Revolution and Their Role in the German Effort to Overthrow the Tsarist Regime”) and Kavya Ramakrishnan (“The Eggleston Effect: Color Photography as Fine Art”).
“These eight seniors conducted “hundreds of hours of research that led … to scholarly analysis of musical scores, journals, maps, images, song lyrics, interviews and on and on,” said library director Sue Smith.
All of the scholars took the stage to share their thoughts on their research and thank their mentors for their invaluable guidance. Malladi, who shared heartfelt thanks to mentors Katy Rees, upper school history teacher, and upper school librarian Lauri Vaughan, also thanked her parents “for almost believing me when I said I was reading comic books for research.
“Being a Near scholar has been an incredible experience,” she continued. Although she found the research initially “more passive” than the kind of work she had become accustomed to, “I realized it was my responsibility to think critically about what I read.”
Gee also had kind words for her mentors, upper school English teacher Ruth Meyer (who wore Doc Martens in keeping with the theme of Gee’s work) and Sue Smith: “Their encouraging, patient and accommodating nature is beyond compare.”
She also expressed her gratitude to Harker “for providing me with 13 years of outstanding education.” A video of the entire reception is now available for viewing.
In late April, 20 students from Harker’s DECA chapter attended the 2016 International Career Development Conference (ICDC) at the Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., with great results!
“The four-day business conference featured competitions with tough opponents, skill-building leadership academies and unforgettable experiences,” said Shania Wang, grade 9, director of communications for DECA.
Two Harker teams finished in the top 20 during preliminary competitions, earning them the chance to compete in the final round and, for the first time in Harker DECA history, a student from the chapter received first place in a role-play event at ICDC. Enya Lu, grade 9, took top honors in the principles of finance category, while teammates Dolan Dworak, Brandon Mo and Michael Sikand, all grade 10, were finalists in the independent business plan category.
The group began its trip with a DECA-sponsored 5K run in nearby Shelby Park to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Afterward, competitors attended a competition preparation session with rest of California DECA and received their registration packets, including California bucket hats and state trading pins.
The day ended with the grand opening session, where Harker joined nearly 18,000 high school DECA members from all over the world. The official start to ICDC, this session featured a fashion show by the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), keynotes from Marriott executives and a performance by country singer Lauren Alaina.
The next day, Sunday, students took written examinations and attended event briefings. Aside from the 15 students competing, five members began their Emerging Leader Series, with four in the Thrive division and one in Ignite. Afterward, the chapter enjoyed a fun night on the beautiful Cumberland River aboard the General Jackson Showboat.
Monday consisted of all preliminary competitive events, as well as the finale of the Emerging Leader Series. Harker DECA members attended the Nashville Sounds vs. New Orleans Zephyrs minor league baseball game.
On Sunday and Monday, students could go to the Exhibit Hall throughout the day. The career exhibits featured colleges, companies and organizations, and gave students the chance to network and meet new people. These booths allowed members to learn about business opportunities beyond high school. Campaign booths were also available to learn more about those running for next year’s DECA executive positions.
“It was a great opportunity to learn about how business works in a culture like that of Nashville and get feedback from local business owners about how to appeal to a non-Bay Area market,” said Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 10, Harker DECA vice president of competitions and strategy and a competitor in the finance operations research category.
Spirits ran high on Tuesday, the last official day of ICDC. That morning, students attended the achievement awards session, when they learned whether they would be one of the 20 teams to advance to the final round of competition in their events.
Harker advanced two teams into the final round of competitions: Lu and the team of Dworak, Mo and Sikand. While those students competed, the rest of the chapter explored the downtown area and got a taste of Nashville at Rippy’s Bar & Grill. Later that evening, all California DECA members came together for a group photo before heading over to the grand awards session.
After applauding for the new national executive team, many scholarship recipients and numerous finalists, Harker DECA exploded in cheers as Lu was named a top 10 finalist. Within minutes, it was announced that Lu won first place in her event, principles of finance – the first time in chapter history that a Harker member received first in role-play at ICDC.
“It felt amazing,” said Lu. “I was very surprised and I was kind of scared when I went up. I was really excited and I thought that I did well already, but I really wasn’t expecting it. When they announced third and second, I thought that I wouldn’t get it, but then I did, and it was amazing.”
Everybody was beaming with smiles as they finished their last night at ICDC with the state dinner with rest of California DECA, noted Wang.
“This year’s ICDC was an amazing experience for students who were able to connect professionally, serve their community, and develop further as future business professionals and emerging leaders,” added Juston Glass, Harker DECA advisor.
On Wednesday, Harker DECA took a chapter photo before heading to the airport. “ICDC was the last conference of the year and definitely an unforgettable experience for all those that attended,” said Wang. “Harker DECA is proud of another successful competitive season and looks forward to next year.”
Today, Harker took a historic step toward building the new athletic center and performing arts center as students, faculty, staff, donors and the board of trustees broke ground at a special afternoon ceremony on Rosenthal Field, site of the new facilities.
Head of School Chris Nikoloff made some opening remarks to the crowd before introducing Diana Nichols, chair of the Harker board of trustees and former head of school. She began by thanking the donors who were present at the ceremony for their vision and generosity. “I can’t say enough about the board of directors, who have worked quietly and in the background on every detail of this project, and without whose effort it could not have come to fruition,” she said.
Addressing the students, she said, “you are the very heart of this project. Everything we have done and are doing is for you, and I thank you for being the kind of student body that inspires the adults in your life to want to do good things for you.”
She also brought to the podium construction manager Dave Albert, architects Kevin Hart and Bill Bondi, and Devcon Construction’s Gary Filizetti and Andy Schatzman, who were all recognized as key figures in bringing the new facilities from conception to reality.
“We were fortunate enough to have true leaders in the personas of Jeffrey and Marieke Rothschild,” Nichols announced. The Rothschilds’ $10 million matching gift was crucial to making the project possible and “inspired others to rise to the challenge,” Nichols said. Shortly after, the Harker Eaglets presented flowers to the Rothschilds.
Several groups of people were then given the honor of breaking ground with gold-painted shovels. Members of the board of trustees, donors, Harker faculty and staff, the construction team, performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree, athletic director Dan Molin and student council representatives of every grade level all took turns digging.
To celebrate the historic and symbolic gesture, all attendees gathered at the center of the field for a drone fly-by and a celebratory blast of (biodegradable) confetti.
Beginning in June 2016 Harker launched two new state-of-the art building projects on the upper school campus, the result of a $45M capital campaign. The 33,000 square-foot athletic center, opening August 2017, features a 12,000 sq.-ft. gym, athletic training room with advanced hydrotherapy unit, and spacious team rooms. The Rothschild Performing Arts Center, opening spring of 2018, features a 450-seat theater with fly loft and hydraulic orchestra pit, a state of the art scene shop, vocal, instrumental, theater/musical theater classrooms and dressing rooms. For more information visit the news and video links below or contact communications@harker.org
Harker juniors Manan Shah and Tiffany Zhu, accompanied by computer science chair Eric Nelson, attended the Critical Issues Forum in mid-April, where they presented and viewed presentations by other high school students on issues related to nuclear nonproliferation.
The topic of the conference – which was held at Santa Catalina School in Monterey and sponsored by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) – was the likelihood of a nuclear detonation. Shah and Zhu crafted and delivered a presentation on several narrowly averted nuclear disasters, “which were caused by a combination of technical errors and human negligence,” said Shah. “We hope to learn from past encounters and recognize that significant changes must occur in the implementation of nuclear policy as well as the modernization of nuclear technology.”
The presentation was based on a 20-page paper composed by a team of 11 Harker students – Enya Lu, grade 9, and juniors Aashish Jain, Nikhil Manglik, Parth Pendurkar, Rahul Shukla, Arjun Subramaniam, Misha Tseitlin, Raymond Xu and Alex Youn, in addition to Shah and Zhu – “describing the urgency of reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world, identifying reasons that the world remained vulnerable to nuclear detonations and proposing measures for countries to achieve that goal,” Zhu said.
It was viewed by a number of key figures at the conference, among them former United States Secretary of Defense William Perry, who described the presentation as “excellent.” Other students in attendance also gave positive feedback on Shah and Zhu’s presentation, which inspired many questions about their proposal for disarmament as well as their insights on the today’s most dangerous nuclear threats.
Both Shah and Zhu described visiting and presenting at the Critical Issues Forum as a highly rewarding experience. For Shah, the highlight of the event was meeting and conversing with Perry, whom Shah described as “an amazing speaker who, having worked most of his career with nuclear weapons, is now working tirelessly to eliminate the weapons, which he considers a grave and dangerous threat to civilization.”
“I’m extremely grateful to have been able to partake in CIF,” Zhu said. “I gained my first taste of the arduous, but critical and ultimately rewarding task of proposing solutions to a wide-reaching problem, and without initially intending to, at the conference, I caught a glimpse of how diplomats and policymakers interact in real life.”
The boys volleyball hot streak continued last week as the Eagles defeated Eastside College Prep and Santa Clara, each in three games. Over the weekend, the Eagles went 4-2 in the Harbor High Tournament, taking the silver division championship. They are now 15-11 on the season and still undefeated in league. This Wednesday is Senior Night as the Eagles face King’s Academy at Blackford at 5:45 p.m. to determine the league champion!
Swimming
Seniors Karen Tu, Grace Guan, Angela Huang, Justan Su and Philip Krause were honored at their final home meet last week as the swim team took on King’s Academy. Alex Yu, grade 9, took first in the 500 free and qualified for CCS. The 200m relay team of Guan, Huang, Taylor Kohlmann, grade 10, and Vivian Wang, grade 10, also qualified for CCS with their first place time. Other event winners included Guan in the 100 fly, 100 back and 400 free relay, Huang in the 100 free and 400 free relay, Ihita Mandal, grade 9, in the 500 free, and 400 free relay, Kohlmann in the 400 free relay, and Angela Li, grade 9, in the 400 free relay. The Eagles travel to Sacred heart Prep for the WBAL trials this Friday and Saturday.
Boys Tennis
After a 7-0 loss to undefeated Menlo early last week, the boys tennis team headed into the WBAL tournament looking to regain some momentum heading into CCS. The Eagles did just that, as six of the seven Harker participants advanced to the round of 16. Also showing well at the tournament was the doubles team of Randy Zhao, grade 10, and Anjay Saklecha, grade 9, who eventually ended with a third place finish. The Eagles now await their seeding fate as CCS begins later this week.
Softball
Tong Wu, grade 12, had two hits and two RBIs as the softball team dropped a 15-5 game to Castilleja early last week. However, later in the week the Eagles defeated Pinewood 7-6 in dramatic fashion as Anika Rajamani, grade 9, came through in the clutch with a two out, two run, bases loaded, walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning. Check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FepIOFW8iFo
On Tuesday the Eagles travel to Mercy Burlingame and are home on Friday versus King’s Academy for Senior Day.
Baseball
The baseball team picked up two wins against Westmoor last week. In a 10-4 victory early in the week, Dominic Cea, grade 10, had three hits and two RBIs. Later in the week, the Eagles defeated the Rams 12-6. Tanay Kamat, grade 10, and Miles DeWitt, grade 12, each drove in two runs, and Nate Kelly, grade 10, added three hits. The Eagles host Pinewood on Tuesday a 4 p.m., and then travel to Pinewood on Thursday and Menlo on Friday.
Track and Field
It was another big day for the Harker track and field team last week, as 25 season bests were produced at the meet at King’s Academy. Anthony Contreras, grade 10, continued his impressive season as he won the 200m and 400m and anchored the winning 1600m relay. Demonte Aleem, grade 9, took first in the shot put with a throw of 41’0”. Kevin Wang and Jason Lee, both grade 12, took second and fourth, respectively, in the shot put. Wang also placed second in the discus, with Jonathan Hochberg, grade 12, placing third. Finishing fourth in their respective races were Gloria Guo, grade 10, in the 800m, Sara Min, grade 9, in the girls 200m, and Bill Liang, grade 11, in the boys 200m. Jonathan Dai, grade 12 , sprinted to a third place finish in the 100. Finally, Arthur Ye, grade 12, and Davis Howard, grade 11, took first and second in the JV shot put. This weekend, the Eagles travel to Palo Alto high school for the WBAL League Championships.
Boys Golf
Last week the boys golf team picked up a win by forefeit, but still enjoyed Senior Day as Dakota McNealy and Zarek Drozda, both grade 12, were honored. The Eagles travel to Half Moon Bay today to defend their league title, followed by the start of CCS next week.
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team dropped a 12-9 matchup with Mercy Burlingame and an 11-10 game against Carlmont last week. In the tight matchup with Carlmont, the Eagles fell in the final minute, but Elise Mayer, grade 9, scored 5 goals in the loss. This week, the Eagles host Aragon on Wednesday and travel to Woodside on Friday.
Last month, The Harker School Orchestra traveled to Sonoma State University to perform at the fourth annual Sonoma Invitational Wind Band & Orchestra Festival. They performed a selection of pieces from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” as well as the finale from Howard Hanson’s second symphony. Director Chris Florio reported that the performances were well-received by Sonoma State faculty.
Florio nearly missed the concert due to the birth of his son the previous day. Luckily, a family friend who is a pilot graciously flew him to a nearby airport so that he could conduct the performances.