Following the first-ever Harker triumph at the Harvard Pre-Collegiate Economics Challenge (HPEC) over the weekend, Harker Eaglenomics students scored another win on Monday.
Last weekend, for the first time in Harker history, our team of Raymond Xu, grade 11; Rahul Shukla, grade 11; Ameek Singh, grade 12; and Jonathan Ma, grade 12, won the HPEC championship.
Then hot on the heels of that victory, Harker competed and took top honors in the state finals of the National Economics Challenge on Monday.
That contest took place at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Harker had three of the top five qualifying teams from the Northern California region (San Luis Obispo to the Oregon Border). The Harker teams were “In High Demand,” comprising juniors Emaad Raghib, Taylor Iantosca, Joyce Huang and Priyanka Taneja; “The Visible Hands” comprising seniors Michael Zhao, Samali Sahoo, Daphne Yang and Alice Wu; and “Team Harker 13” (aka “the team formerly known as Anikaswagmoney”), comprising seniors Abhinav Ketineni, Jasmine Liu, Grace Guan and Adele Li.
Two teams were eliminated, but one went on to take top honors. Coach Sam Lepler filled in the details: “In a great event, the team formerly known as Anikaswagmoney emerged victorious in a tight, hard-fought battle.
“After three rounds of testing in microeconomics, macroeconomics, international economics and current events, the aforementioned team held a slim 10-point (1,200 to 1,190) lead on a strong team from Dougherty Valley and just a 60-point lead on a another solid squad from BASIS Independent Silicon Valley. However, a strong quiz bowl effort, which included several questions well beyond the AP curriculum, helped them pull away and cruise to a solid victory.
“The team is now into the national semifinals with all of the other state winners, and will take a proctored exam on April 26. The top four scores among all the state winners on that test will get an all-expense paid trip to NYC to compete for the national championship. The competition is harder and tighter every year with more and more participating schools, so it’s awesome to have Harker emerge again!” Lepler finished.
Each year grade 10 students sojourn to the Bucknall campus to meet up with their grade 3 Eagle Buddies at the lower school’s annual Pajama Day Assembly.
The event, held in the gym, celebrates a grade 3 service project in which students collect items for the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
Over the past nine years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated thousands of items to the program, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive is primarily a grade 3 effort, all lower school families are invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urges parents to encourage their children to help the less fortunate by donating a new pair pajamas or book to the program.
This year’s assembly occurred on a special-dress pajama day a couple of months ago, when all students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. Butch Keller, upper school head, kicked off the assembly by reading the book “Courage,” a story about bravery by author and illustrator Bernard Waber.
Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller in his robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read a book with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who also had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for lunch, socializing and field games.
“Being an Eagle Buddy is a lot of fun!” said Ellen Minkin, grade 10. “Today we’ve had a really nice time reading together, having lunch and just chilling out on the field.”
Her grade 3 pal, Bahar Sodeifi, said that she really likes the Eagle Buddies program and always looks forward to having the “big kids” come over for a visit.
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
The pajama and book drive originally began at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, grade 12, who got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Narain was motivated to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive.
Harker chess players won big at the US Chess Federation’s National High School Championship in Atlanta this past weekend. Sophomore Vignesh Panchanatham took first place in the K-12 Championship individual competition, while the team of Panchanatham, freshmen Michael Wang and Shaunak Maruvada, and senior Richard Yi won the team event.
Evan Lohn, grade 12, and Richard Wang, grade 9, took first and second, respectively, in the unrated portion of the K-12 Championship. Other standout individual performances were by Michael Wang, who placed 10th in the K-12 Championship and Yi, who placed 20th in the same category, out of nearly 300 competitors. In all, more than 1,400 players participated in the event.
The story was covered in fpawn, a chess news site:
March has been very good for a pair of athletic Harker alumnae! Ashley Del Alto ’13 is currently the starting left fielder for the Briar Cliff University Chargers and last week was named the GPAC/Hauff Mid-America Sports softball player-of-the-week. The Chargers went 4-0 on the week, thanks in large part to Del Alto, who went 8-15 with seven RBIs in the four victories. Del Alto is currently leading Briar Cliff with a .338 batting average.
A little closer to home, Izzy Connell ’13 has been tearing up the track and the record books at Pepperdine University. This past weekend, Connell broke her own school records in the women’s 100m (12.13 seconds) and 200m (24.96 seconds), placing fifth and sixth, respectively, at the Bruins Legends Invitational held at UCLA. She also holds the school record in the 400m. Go, Harker alumni!
MS Wrestling – The wrestling team, coached by Karriem Stinson, Charlie Ward and Jeff Paull, participated in the Maverick’s Invitational in Santa Cruz. The following team members placed: Eric Bollar, grade 6, first place; Dezi Johnsen, grade 6, second place; Rohan Arora, grade 8, second place; Max MacKinnon, grade 8, fourth place; and Eric Fang, grade 8, fourth place.
Team awards went to Eric Fang, grade 8, (Eagle), and Henry Cunningham, grade 8, and Ava Lett, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 7/8) Girls Basketball – The Varsity A team, coached by Josh Miller and Dan Pringle, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 6-1 record and went 8-2 overall. Team awards went to Courtni Thompson, grade 7 (MVP), Hunter Hernandez, grade 7 (Eagle) and Haley Arena, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7/8) Girls Basketball – The Varsity B team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in a three-way tie for second place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record. Team awards went to Mariamma Vazhaeparambil, grade 7 (MVP), Renee Page, grade 7 (Eagle) and Reina Joseph, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grade 7) Girls Basketball – The Varsity B2 team, coached by Richard Amarillas and Raul Rios, finished in seventh place in the WBAL with a 1-6 record. Team awards went to Shalini Rohra (MVP), Aditi Vinod (Eagle) and Anna Weirich (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Brittney Moseley, finished in third place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record. Team awards went to Jacqueline Hu (MVP), Ashley Barth (Eagle), and Priya Rohra and Anya Warrier (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Lisa Lubke, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-4 record. Team awards went to Amrita Pasupathy (MVP), Avery Olson (Eagle) and Alexis Nishimura (Coaches).
JVC (Grade 4) Girls Basketball – The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Maria Maldonado, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 2-4 record. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Maya Kelly (Eagle) and Harshini Chaturvedula (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Basketball – Team awards went to Jasleen Hansra, grade 5 (MVP), Alena Su, grade 4 (Eagle) and Emily McCartney, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Ken Allen and Kristian Tiopo.
VA (Grades 7/8) Boys Soccer – The Varsity A team, coached by Chris Salcido and Matt Arensberg, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-5. Team awards went to Andrew Cheplyansky, grade 8 (MVP), Ryan Tobin, grade 7 (Eagle) and Arya Maheshwari, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB (Grade 7) Boys Soccer – The Varsity B team, coached by Brighid Wood, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-3 record. Team awards went to Anton Novikov (MVP), Rosh Roy (Eagle) and James Pflaging and Marcos Acero (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Boys Soccer – The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Cyrus Merrill and Dan Williams, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-2-3. Team awards went to Ishaan Mantripragada (MVP), Sasvath Ramachandran (Eagle) and Dhruv Saoji (Coaches).
JVB (Grade 5) Boys Soccer – The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Jared Ramsey and Tobias Wade, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 2-1-1 and went 3-1-2 overall. Team awards went to Rodrigo Gonzales (MVP), Pranav Mullappalli (Eagle) and Michael Pflaging (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Soccer – Team awards went to Neel Handa, grade 4 (Eagle), and Andrew Au and Matthew Goetting, both grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Randy Le Gris and Jim McGovern.
For the third year in a row, the Arts LIVE for Three to FIVE! Harker Preschool Concert Series has brought talented middle and upper school performing arts students to the preschool to conduct music and dance programs.
This year’s concert series kicked off in January with an interactive program called The Human Voice, at which preschool students learned all about voice ranges, thanks to a visit by members of the upper school choir. The choir, along with their instructor Susan Nace, upper school performing arts teacher, performed vocal selections and demonstrated the differences between high and low voices in boys and girls, as well as what is meant by loud and quiet voices.
Then in February, the preschool students enjoyed their first dance performance when upper school dance teacher Rachelle Haun and her junior varsity dance team visited. Looking ahead, toward the end of May, the preschoolers will be visited by the middle’s school’s chamber music ensemble group, directed by Dave Hart.
Mara Beckerman, the preschool’s music and movement specialist, recalled that several years ago, Hart was the first teacher to accept her invitation to visit the preschool with some of his students. Beckerman came up with the idea for the concert series when the preschool opened its doors in fall 2013. Since then the concert series has grown each year.
During Hart’s first visit, the preschool students were enthralled to hear and touch a French horn, saxophone, harp, flute, violin and an enormous tuba, Beckerman recalled. “The student musicians each spoke about their instruments and played lovely selections for us that morning. The performance ended with a short ‘instrument petting zoo,’ where our 3- to 5-year-olds were guided by the student musicians and allowed to touch each instrument,” she said.
The students and staff could not stop talking about this concert for weeks, added Beckerman. “The students all shared which instrument they were going to play someday. The most petite girl in the school was very definitely going to play the tuba!”
Last year the grade 6 choir came for a concert, at which they sang a story and led the children in some movement activities. Another time, when Beckerman discovered that the father of one of her students sang with an a cappella group called Hookslide, she invited the group to perform at the preschool. “That day we heard some truly amazing harmonies and even learned to beat box,” she said.
Throughout the years, the preschool students have responded enthusiastically to the various concerts, repeatedly telling Beckerman that they look forward to having “the big kids” come out to perform. “They love it!” she said.
On March 20, the Harker Programming Club hosted the annual Harker Programming Invitational. Schools from all over the Bay Area competed in a programming contest that “put their algorithmic programming skills to the test in a competitive yet encouraging environment,” said Sadhika Malladi, grade 12, a club officer.
Offered at novice and advanced levels, “We host a two-hour competition followed by a 30-minute challenge round that allowed teams to improve on their scores,” Malladi said. Between rounds, students attended talks from sponsors and university representatives, who discussed ways students could pursue their interest in computer science after graduating from high school.
Sponsors included Pebble, Carnegie Mellon University, Star League, Make School, A-Star and ACEprep.
Taking first place in the advanced-level competition was Aragon High School, followed by Nueva High School in second and Monta Vista High School in third. Saint Francis took first place in the novice competition, where Diablo Vista took second and Dougherty took third. Harker students are not allowed to place in the competition.
On March 17, the Harker performing arts department held its United Voices concert at the Blackford Theater. This annual event brings together vocal groups from the lower, middle and upper school campuses for a memorable night of melody and harmony.
The lower school was represented by the Bucknall Choir, featuring singers in grades 4-5. Middle school groups included the grade 6 choir Dynamics, the upbeat grade 7-8 musical theater group Harmonics and the grade 7-8 concert choir Vivace. From the upper school were Bel Canto, vocal jazz group Acoustics, Camerata, the advanced women’s choir Cantilena and the Downbeat show choir.
For the finale, all of the evening’s performers gathered onstage for a massive ensemble performance of Karl Jenkins’ “Adiemus.”
During spring break, more changes were made to the upper school campus to prepare for the athletic and performing arts center construction project. First, the large oak tree in the campus quad, deemed unsalvageable, was cut down piece by piece before its massive trunk was removed.
The hundreds of ants and other bugs living in the tree were sent scurrying by the commotion. Finally, what remained of the stump was whittled down. On the following day, the three large boxed trees on Rosenthal Field were loaded onto a large flatbed truck by way of a 100-ton crane and relocated to a space just outside Nichols Hall.
Arborists had previously dug out and crated these Coast Love Oak trees and over break they were moved to a holding spot prior to final re-planting on the Saratoga campus . Stay tuned for more updates on upcoming construction projects!
Middle and upper school jazz musicians came together in mid-March for the 2016 Evening of Jazz at the Blackford Theater. The show featured the talents of the Grade 6 Jazz Band, Grades 7-8 Jazz Band and the upper school’s Lab Band, all directed by Dave Hart, as well as The Harker School Jazz Band, directed by Chris Florio.
The folks in attendance were treated to works by the likes Thad Jones, Horace Silver, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. For the final number, all of the evening’s musicians appeared on stage to perform a rendition of Pee Wee Ellis’ “The Chicken.”