Harker was a big winner in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with students collecting more than 30 Regional Gold Key awards.
These works are under consideration for national medals. National medal winners are invited to attend a special event in New York City and also have the opportunity to have their works exhibited and published nationally.
This year’s Regional Gold Key winners, and the categories in which they won, are:
Kaity Gee, grade 11, four awards for her entries in Personal Essay/Memoir, Poetry and Flash Fiction
Shannon Hong, grade 11, three awards for her entries in Photography and Personal Essay/Memoir
Jeffrey Hsu, grade 12, one award for his entry in Design
Doreene Kang, grade 11, one award for her entry in Drawing and Illustration
Kevin Ke, grade 11, two awards for his entries in Drawing and Illustration
Johnathon Keller, grade 11, two awards for his entries in Photography
Safia Khouja, grade 12, one award for her entry in Photography
Sarisha Kurup, grade 10, two awards for her entries in Short Story and Flash Fiction
Suzy Lou, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Poetry
Maya Nandakumar, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Flash Fiction and Personal Essay/Memoir
Sahana Narayanan, grade 11, one award for her entry in Poetry
Archana Podury, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Drawing and Illustration
Andrew Rule, grade 10, two awards for his entries in Short Story
Ravuri Sindhu, grade 12, one award for her entry in Journalism
Meilan Steimle, grade 10, one award for her entry in Digital Art
Catherine Wang, grade 8, one award for her entry in Drawing and Illustration
Kelly Wang, grade 12, three awards for her entries in Digital Art and Drawing and Illustration
Madelyn Wang, grade 12, one award for her entry in Photography
Jessica Yang, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Digital Art
In addition, many students earned Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions for their submissions.
Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in Writing were awarded to:
Tiara Bhatacharya, grade 12, Silver Key in Poetry, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Arushee Bhoja, grade 8, Silver Key in Science Fiction/Fantasy, Honorable Mention in Flash Fiction
Hannah Bollar, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Gwyneth Chen, grade 9, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Kaity Gee, grade 11, Silver Key in Flash Fiction, four Honorable Mentions for entries in Critical Essay, Poetry and Journalism
Alexa Gross, grade 10, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Shannon Hong, grade 11, Silver Key in Poetry, Honorable Mention in Critical Essay
Vineet Kosaraju, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Sarisha Kurup, grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story
Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11, even Honorable Mentions for entries in Journalism, Personal Essay/Memoir and Poetry
Lauren Liu, grade 10, Honorable Mention in Science Fiction/Fantasy
Suzy Lou, grade 12, two Silver Keys for entries in Poetry and Critical Essay, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Sophia Luo, grade 11, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Humor and Poetry
Ethan Ma, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Maya Nandakumar, grade 12, three Silver Keys for entries in Personal Essay/Memoir and Poetry, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Critical Essay and Short Story
Sahana Narayanan, grade 11, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir
Evani Radiya-Dixit, grade 10, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Sindhu Ravuri, grade 12, Silver Key in Journalism
Sophia Shatas, grade 12, Silver Key in Poetry, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Elisabeth Siegel, grade 11, two Silver Keys for entries in Poetry and Critical Essay, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Meilan Steimle, grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story, Honorable Mention in Flash Fiction
Mariam Sulakian, grade 12, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir
Alice Wu, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Menghua Wu, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Daphne Yang, grade 11, Silver Key in Poetry
Tiffany Zhu, Grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story
Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in Visual Arts were awarded to:
Avni Barman, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Painting
Hannah Bollar, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Eric Cheung, grade 12, three Silver Keys for entries in Architecture
Emma Doherty, grade 11, Silver Key in Photography
Alexa Gross, grade 10, three Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Photography and Drawing
Vance Hirota, grade 7, Honorable Mention
Matthew Ho, grade 12, Silver Key in Drawing
Jeffrey Hsu, grade 12, two Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Painting and Drawing
Ramzi Jahshan, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Digital Art
Doreene Kang, grade 11, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing
Kevin Ke, grade 11, four Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing and Printmaking
Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11, two Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Photography
Cindy Liu, grade 12, two Silver Keys and three Honorable Mentions for entries in Photgraphy and Drawing
Cheryl Liu, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Sophia Luo, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Archana Podury, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Neha Sunil, grade 12, Silver Key and Honorable Mention for entries in Photography
Kelly Wang, grade 12, Silver Key and Honorable Mention for entries in Drawing and Art Portfolio
Madelyn Wang, grade 12, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Photography
Menghua Wu, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing and Printmaking
Kevina Xiao, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Jessica Yang, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Digital Art
The wrestlers head to the league championship, while both the boys and girls soccer teams get ready to celebrate Senior Day! Let’s get to the scores!
Wrestling:
Senior Ryan Palmer went 2-0 last week, winning by pin against Homestead on his Senior Night and then winning by pin against Lynbrook on their Senior Night! Senior Anni Ankola went 1-1 last week, winning by pin versus Lynbrook as well. The wrestlers will compete in the league championship Feb. 13-14 at Milpitas High.
Soccer:
The girls are 6-5-1 overall despite losses last week to King’s Academy and Menlo. Sophomores Joelle Anderson and Kailee Gifford each scored for Harker. The Eagles celebrate Senior Day on Thursday with a game against Priory! The boys have their Senior Day on Wednesday on Davis Field, where they’ll look to defeat Menlo.
Last week, Anderson was also recognized by the San Jose Mercury News in its sports highlight reel of top performances for her five goals and two assists in an 8-3 win over Priory the week before.
Basketball:
The boys lost a heartbreaker to Menlo, falling short by a single point, but rebounded by beating Crystal Springs to bump their record up to 11-7 overall and 4-4 in league play. Senior Eric Holt racked up 28 points against Crystal, while Senior Sriv Irrinki netted 16 against Menlo. The boys will hit the road to play King’s Academy and Sacred Heart this week.
The girls, meanwhile, lost to two strong teams last week, dropping their games against Mercy and King’s Academy. In the game against King’s, sophomore Jordan Thompson scored 20 points and freshman Satchi Thockchom grabbed six rebounds. The team will look to rebound against Priory this Friday at Blackford.
The College Board recently announced that Albert Zhao ‘14 was one of only 15 students world wide who got perfect scores on their AP Microeconomics exams, taken in spring 2014. AP Exams are graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the top score, but Zhao went a step further, earning every point possible on the examination, answering every multiple choice question correctly and earning full points on the free-response section of the exam.
The notification letter from the College Board, which administers the tests, noted that only 285 students worldwide received perfect scores across all AP exams and applauded Harker’s ability to engage students and enable them to thrive while studying at a college level.
Last year Harker had an unprecedented 11 perfect scores by 10 students (one had perfect scores on two exams!). We’re proud to see Zhao on this year’s list of perfect scores. Go Academic Eagles!
DECA has been busy! A Harker team was named the middle school global winner in the DECA Idea Challenge 2014! A featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the DECA Idea Challenge 2014 dared elementary through college students to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable new use for newspaper in just eight days.
Teams of three to four students pitched their invention in YouTube videos demonstrating creativity, innovation and critical-thinking skills in repurposing newspaper. They also were judged on their ability to work effectively as a team and to effectively communicate results. Ethan Choi, Ajay Madala and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, designed a pencil pouch, which they enthusiastically demonstrated in their video
Competition was tight, with more than 1,700 entries this year from Canada, South Korea, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. A global win is a huge feather in the cap of Harker’s middle school team!
Finish Line Challenge Finalists
There is even more good news. Harker also has a team in the finals of the DECA 2014-2015 Finish Line Challenge. Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, are one of only three teams in the finals of this real-world challenge.
Participants assisted Finish Line, a retail shoe chain, by analyzing the company’s strategies for marketing across mobile technology, the Internet, social media, offline media and in-store experiences.
Participants developed recommendations and created a video to present their findings. Finish Line executives reviewed participants’ videos and named the three finalists. Here is the Harker finalist entry.
Reddy and Drazovich will travel to Finish Line’s corporate headquarters in Indianapolis in late February or early March, where they will present their research and recommendations for improving current strategies to Finish Line executives.
The winning team will be awarded an all expense-paid trip to DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla., in April.
“We are excited for Glenn and Logan to be traveling in the coming weeks to present their research to the Finish Line executive management team,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program.
Go Harker DECA Eagles!
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Each fall, grade 7 students enjoy a fun-filled Southwestern adventure on the middle school’s annual national parks trip.
This school year was no exception. From viewing the unique red rock formations in Utah and Arizona to experiencing the incredible hiking trails of the Grand Canyon, the students learned firsthand about the American Southwest.
The first stop on the trip was Montzuma Castle National Monument, located 50 miles south of Flagstaff, Ariz., reported Lana Morrison, middle school dean of students. While there, students and chaperones listened to a Navajo presentation before heading to nearby Sedona for some hiking.
The next day’s adventure began with a visit to Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim, where students participated in an organized trust walk (listening to directions while walking with eyes closed). “Students were blindfolded while they walked from the parking lot to the rim,” Morrison recalled. “With one hand on the backpack in front of them and the other on a rope, Harker chaperones provided step-by-step and turn-by-turn directions. Upon arriving at the rim, Harker chaperones counted to three for students to take off their blindfolds and see the Grand Canyon together as a group. I noticed many of the foreign tourists watching us seemed more amazed by this activity than the majestic Grand Canyon!”
Another trip highlight was a tour of Monument Valley, known to many as “the eighth wonder of the world.” Monument Valley, located in Southeast Utah, has been a significant place for centuries, and houses ruins that some believe to belong to the mysterious Anasazi people who disappeared from the area hundreds of years ago. The area is also notable for the fact that it is not a national park, but rather a Navajo park.
Monument Valley became an icon in the late 1930s, thanks to valley resident Henry Goulding (owner and founder of Goulding’s Lodge), Morrison explained. Goulding heard about a new Western movie being made in Hollywood and decided that the valley should be the location. Acclaimed film director John Ford agreed, and the film “Stagecoach,” starring John Wayne, showed the majesty of Monument Valley to the world. The iconic buttes and open sky continued to be emblematic of the American Southwest, and can been seen in movies such as “Forrest Gump,” “Cars,” “The Lone Ranger” and “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”
After leaving Monument Valley, the contingent drove to nearby Moonlight Springs Ranch, which is owned by the Holiday family. Members of the Holiday family taught the group about “The Navajo Way,” as part of a special program for Harker students.
“During our stay, we learned how to make delicious tasting fry bread and created sand paintings. Members of the Holiday family also sang traditional Navajo songs and danced with some of our students and chaperones. At the end of the ceremony, the eldest member of the family chanted a blessing for the rest of our trip and travel back to San Jose,” recalled Morrison.
On the final day of the trip, the seventh graders spent time in Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, where students and chaperones alike marveled at the world-famous Hoodoos (pillars of rock formed by erosion).
The trip ended with the now close-knit group traveling to Zion National Park before packing up for their return flight back home. The grade 7 visit to the national parks of the Southwest was one of several weeklong middle school class trips held during the fall. Grade 6 went to the Santa Cruz Mountains and grade 8 traveled to Washington, D.C.
A group of Harker’s upper school performing arts and journalism students attended a local YWCA luncheon, where academy award-winning actress Geena Davis gave the keynote address to an audience of over a thousand.
Davis is one of Hollywood’s most-respected actors. She earned the 2006 Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actress in a television series – breaking ground in her portrayal of the first female president of the United States in ABC’s hit show “Commander in Chief.”
The YWCA of Silicon Valley’s annual luncheon features guest speakers who serve as role models for women and girls. Held every October at the Santa Clara Convention Center, event proceeds help support the group’s much-lauded services.
Harker regularly hosts a table for upper school students who have a special passion for that year’s topic. The Harker group who attended this year’s event, all seniors, were performing arts students Ishanya Anthapur, Caroline Howells, Juhi Muthal, Madi Lang-Ree and Zoe Woehrmann, along with journalism students Jessica Chang and Riya Godbole. Accompanying them was upper school performing arts teacher Laura Lang-Ree.
Each year, more than 40 companies and hundreds of individuals sponsor the YWCA’s luncheon. The mission of the YWCA is to empower women, children and families, and to eliminate racism, hatred and prejudice. The organization provides programs in the areas of sexual assault intervention and prevention, counseling services, domestic violence, child care, youth programs, family services, and social and racial justice.
The YWCA of Silicon Valley serves nearly 18,000 Santa Clara County residents each year, and has provided countywide services for more than 100 years. More information can be found at www.ywca-sv.org.
Harker rocked the Southwest Championship tournament at Arizona State this weekend!
Lisa Liu, grade 11, took second overall in humorous interpretation and third overall in impromptu speaking. Misha Tseitlin, grade 10, breezed through semifinals to end his Congressional Debate run in finals. Arjun Narayan, grade 11, welcomed in 2015 by earning a spot in the semifinals of extemporaneous speaking.
In public forum debate, all 10 teams were 3-2 or better going into round six and eight teams advanced to elimination rounds. Sorjo Banerjee, grade 11, and Emaad Raghib, grade 10, were in the final round where they ended up in second place out of 124 public forum teams. Nikhil Kishore and Vamsi Gadiraju, both grade 12, advanced to the Elite Eight where they met Banerjee and Raghib, ending their run as quarterfinalists. David Jin, grade 11, and Alexander Lam, grade 10, were also quarterfinalists. Both Kishore/Gadiraju and Jin/Lam complete their qualifications to the Tournament of Champions.
Ending their run in the Sweet Sixteen were Jasmine Liu and Abhinav Ketineni, both grade 11, who met Jin and Lam in the octofinal round, also know as “the bid round.” Also earning bids to the Tournament of Champions were Samali Sahoo and Anthony Luo, both grade 11, as well as Aumesh Misra, grade 11, and Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 12, who advanced to double-octofinals but met Harker teams in the round of 32 and were thus awarded ghost bids. Avik Wadhwa and Aadyot Bhatnagar, both grade 12, as well as seniors Andrew Jin and David Lin also advanced through triples to end their run in double-octofinals.
Special recognition goes out to alumni coaches Kiran Arimilli ’13, Anuj Sharma ’13 and Andy Wang ’14 for their coaching in Arizona.
Congratulations to all 23 Harker speech and debate Eagles for rocking The Grand Canyon State!
Last week was a big week for Harker sports! The girls varsity basketball team won the Pescadero tournament, thanks to an amazing comeback victory, while three fall athletes were honored for their tremendous seasons.
Basketball
The girls won the Pescadero High School Hoop Dreams Small Schools Invitational basketball tournament last week, defeating Pescadero and Alma Heights before roaring back for a come-from-behind 45-42 victory over Stevenson School in the championship game. Sophomore Jordan Thompson was named to the All-Tournament Team, thanks to her 16-point, eight-rebound performance. Freshman Elizabeth Beamish scored 14 points in the final game against Stevenson. The girls will celebrate their victory with two home games this week, hosting Oceana on Friday and James Lick Saturday.
The boys varsity squad, meanwhile, went 2-1 at the James Lick Invitational Tournament, coming away with a third-place finish. Their only loss was a nail-biter in double-overtime to Wilcox High School. The team bounced back from that heartbreaker with a 62-36 win over North Monterey County High on Friday night, thanks to 16 points from junior Rohan Desikan and 14 from senior Dylan Patel. Senior Sriv Irrinki also scored a massive 35 points in the victory over Andrew Hill. The boys play in the Lynbrook Tournament this week.
Soccer
The girls played a tie and a loss last week, matching Lynbrook 2-2 and then dropping their match to Fremont 4-3 despite goals from sophomores Joelle Anderson and Kailee Gifford. The Eagles play home games all week, hosting Redwood Christian on Tuesday and Terra Nova on Thursday.
The boys tied Saratoga High last week 2-2 thanks to goals from juniors Omar Hamade and Kevin Hu. They travel to Terra Nova Wednesday before returning home to host San Mateo on Friday.
Golf
Freshman golfer Katherine Zhu was recognized as an All Mercury News athlete by the San Jose Mercury News, an honor bestowed upon the top eight golfers in the entire section. The award was well merited: Zhu won the WBAL Individual Championship this year and reached the Northern California Championships, the furthest of any golfer in Harker history.
For the second year in a row, senior water polo player Billy Bloomquist was recognized as All-CCS Division II by a group of section coaches.
Football
Senior Keanu Forbes was featured in the San Jose Mercury News’ Highlight Reel for his outstanding football performance in last month’s Senior Night game. In that game, a 48-15 win over St. Francis CCC, Forbes carried the ball 14 times for 223 yards and had 91 yards on two kick returns.
In mid-November, Harker’s WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Club held a Diabetes Awareness Week on the upper school campus. The goal was to raise awareness about diabetes and the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.
WiSTEM’s mission is to foster female students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to provide role models and mentors in those fields, and to educate the community about gender issues in the sciences.
Under the direction of advisor Anita Chetty, upper school biology teacher and science department chair, the club sponsors guest lecturers, holds technical workshops for the Harker community led by female scientists, and creates a network of female mentors – including Harker alumni –working in STEM fields.
Adele Li, a grade 11 student and WiSTEM member who helped plan Diabetes Awareness Week, reported that the effort was a success. During the week, representatives from the American Diabetes Association were on hand to talk to students about diabetes; Bay Club instructors led a kickboxing class and a Bollywood hip-hop class during lunch; and faculty members led tai-chi and yoga classes.
“We also sold KIND bars, Hint water and Enlightened ice cream bars (yes, healthy ice cream!) during lunch and after school to fundraise for the American Diabetes Association. Additionally, we had a diabetes-friendly option for lunch every single day of the week,” said Li.
The WiSTEM Club also made posters with infographics highlighting diabetes facts, such as that one in 10 Americans has diabetes and 208,000 American children and teenagers have diabetes (with that number growing). Every 17 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with diabetes, according to Diabetes.org.
In other upper school outreach news, in early to mid-December, holiday gifts for children and families in need were collected and delivered by the outreach department to causes including Adopt-a-Family, the Family Giving Tree and Sunday Friends.
This article first appeared on the Web log for the American Association of School Librarians. It is reprinted here by the kind permission of the author, Diane Main, director of learning, innovation and design at Harker.
When I work on family history research, whether it’s for my own tree or a friend’s, I often find I lose track of time, get totally “in the zone,” and sometimes even forget to eat and sleep enough. That combination of little successes and new challenges that pushes me to the edge of my abilities is something that is referred to as “flow.” If you spend a lot of time with kids, you will have seen it when they are playing video games and can’t seem to put them down. For others, it’s reading books or engaging in some hands-on hobby. Flow is the apex of engagement and motivation.
Mihály Csíkszentmihályi pioneered the research into this phenomenon. He was looking into happiness, creativity and motivation, and developed what we now refer to as flow. Flow is doing what you love and what you’re good at, but still being challenged by the activity. We see this in education as well, but sadly we perhaps don’t see it often enough. It is generally thought that the integration of technology into learning environments tends to instantly increase learner motivation and engagement. While this may be true for a short time, unless the use of technology tools builds skills while also presenting appropriate challenges, it loses its motivational value.
As seen in this image from Wikipedia, flow exists at the intersection of high skill level and high challenge level. The emotions that exist in the other regions of the chart are not really what we’re aiming for in learning situations. This can be where games can swoop in to the rescue, as long as their introduction is meaningful and their use well thought-out. Sometimes, it’s great to just have gaming breaks, using games of all kinds, to “reset” the brain and ignite motivation. A quick round of charades or five minutes with Zombie Drop can be a great way to get kids to transition from one activity in class to another.
But there are some games that are becoming the platform for the learning itself, and that are being used for entire class periods over days or even weeks. One such example is MinecraftEDU. Most parents and educators have at least heard of Minecraft. The educational version MinecraftEDU is only available to schools, and it is quickly becoming THE destination for teachers and students who want to maximize learner creativity and engagement in subjects from history and literature to math and science. I teach a computer science course that functions as a survey of the field of computer science without focusing exclusively on programming. We use MinecraftEDU to explore concepts in computer science (such as subroutines, abstraction, conditional statements, loops and algorithms), to engage in the design thinking process by building homes for one another, and to explore introductory level programming with in-game robots called turtles. Instead of learning about our content, my students get the chance to be immersed in a virtual world they can manipulate and learn from.
An unexpected benefit, the first few times I used MinecraftEDU with my high school students, was the community building that seemed to occur instantly when we began to use the game in class. Students who had formerly kept to themselves and not spoken much in class suddenly appeared comfortable with me and the rest of their peers when they started interacting within the game environment. And since most of them had never played Minecraft before, they had a lot to learn, which they did by figuring things out and then teaching each other. Before long, my hesitant high schoolers were losing hours in the game world, building and communicating in ways none of us thought possible. I had stumbled upon a way to bring them to a place of flow. And now I’m hooked too.