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.
It’s not easy being a new parent. So discovered grade 8 students who, after spending a week caring for five-pound flour sack “babies,” better understood the demands of having a newborn.
For a week in early February, as part of their health education curriculum, eighth graders were responsible for the well-being of their babies at all times, taking them to and from school, bringing them to classes and arranging for childcare when needed.
Ensuring the safety of their sack babies enabled the students to earn points for both science and health education. However, they lost points due to any abuse or neglect of their babies.
The project, while fun, was taken seriously, complete with day care centers set up for “parents” participating in after-school activities. Students also took turns serving as babysitters for each other.
“The purpose of the project was to give the students an idea of what it is like to have a baby and be responsible for it while at school for an entire week,” said Harker P.E. specialist Chrissy Chang, who annually spearheads the middle school project.
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.
After being diagnosed as a freshman with hypothyroidism – a disorder in which the thyroid gland fails to produce sufficient thyroid hormone, causing fatigue, lack of focus and other symptoms – Samantha Madala, now grade 11, became determined to help prevent health problems from interfering with children’s education.
To that end, Madala founded Healthy Scholars last year to raise awareness of health issues that could stymie education. In December, Madala and her team trekked to Varni, India, to perform screenings for medical problems that could be obstacles to learning. Healthy Scholars worked with organizations in India, including the Lions Club, NICE Hospital and LEAD Foundation, to offer blood pressure tests, individual medical consultations, dental exams, vision and hearing tests and more to nearly 600 schoolchildren.
“Students who exhibited symptoms such as intense fatigue, inability to concentrate, memory loss, weight gain, cold intolerance, irregular menstrual cycles and dry skin were referred to bloodwork,” Madala said. “During the screening process, I also interviewed and helped identify girls who were suffering from hypothyroidism, like me, and had yet to be diagnosed.” Healthy Scholars paid for the necessary blood tests with funds provided by donors and other charitable organizations.
Those with impacted hearing were treated to ear cleanings with an ear wax removal device provided by Clear Ear, whose president Lily Truong is also on the Healthy Scholars team. The Meghna Institute of Dental Sciences offered free dental cleanings to students with dental problems. “Ultimately, students received thorough physical examinations, with emphasis on symptoms that can impact learning, and were connected to affordable or free treatment options. For many of these students, our screening was the first physical health exam they had ever received,” Madala recalled.
That same month, Healthy Scholars kicked off a fundraising effort, raising nearly $4,000 via fundraising website Crowdrise. An additional $25,000 donation enabled Health Scholars to stage more screenings. Madala is planning another trip to Varni in early June. Stateside efforts are also on the agenda. “We also aim to hold a similar health screening camp for at-risk Native American youth in Montana.”
Healthy Scholars also is looking into the possibility of partnering with Stanford University’s Medical Scholars Research Program, which would provide the opportunity to conduct medical research at screenings. An iPhone app designed to help maintain ear, nose and throat health – with a focus on ear and thyroid problems – is also in the works.
More information about Healthy Scholars and its current activities can be found at its website. Healthy Scholars is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization, so all donations to the organization are tax-deductible.
They call themselves members of the CIA, although their work is anything but secretive. “They” are Harker’s tech-savvy grade 5 Computer Instruction Assistants (aka CIAs) who, in early March, gave a well-received presentation at the Silicon Valley Computer Using Educators (SVCUE) conference.
Seven group members (Andrew Chavez, Nikhil Gargeya, Jason Lin, John Lynch, Akshay Manglik, Russell Yang and Bowen Yin) spoke about their work as CIAs during SVCUE’s Teach Through Technology event, which was held at the upper school and attracted more than 400 attendees.
SVCUE is the local affiliate for San Mateo and Santa Clara counties of Computer-Using Educators Inc. of California (CUE). CUE and SVCUE are committed to networking, resources and the integration of all forms of technology throughout the curriculum.
“The 2014 Teach Through Technology event was a huge success!” enthused Lisa Diffenderfer, assistant director of instructional technology, adding that the conference included a variety of presenters and workshops designed to help teachers enhance the classroom experience by integrating technology. “The students did a great job representing the school and the wonderful work they are performing as a member of the CIA team.”
The CIA group comprises 18 grade 5 students. Both teachers and students can take advantage of the CIA website, which is hosted on the Harker server. Through it, classmates can submit requests for tech help, especially regarding ongoing issues. Also available on the site are helpful hints/tutorials for online programs, printable documents, FAQs, videos and other relevant applications.
To become a voluntary student tech helper, fifth graders must be nominated by a teacher, tech savvy and doing well academically. During CIA meetings, which are held during lunch, group members go over agenda items, such as establishing new networks and email protocol.
The main purpose of the group is to help other students troubleshoot minor issues while using their Chromebooks in class (major problems are directed to their teachers in computer lab). When a tech request form is submitted to the CIA, all members of the group can view it.
During the SVCUE conference, CIA members spoke passionately about their role as student tech helpers at Harker. “One audience member suggested that I pay these students for their services!” said Diffenderfer. “I’m going to start paying them in dessert at our lunch meetings. Another audience member from a local high school was very impressed with the students’ enthusiasm for assisting their fellow classmates and teachers.”
Faculty members at Harker’s lower school can’t speak highly enough of Helping Hands, a BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team) program created to provide K-5 teachers with an extra pair of hands while working on a special or labor-intensive project.
Helping Hands began in the 2010-11 school year as an attempt to bridge academics with BEST, explained Kim Cali, director of the program. “We all had the common goal of providing the best experience for the children; however, teachers and BEST staff didn’t know much about each other,” she recalled.
Cali said another driving force behind the Helping Hands program was that many BEST staffers are young adults who want to forge careers in education. “What better way to get some hands-on experience than to learn and work with the best (teachers, that is)?” she added, noting that she also viewed the program as a way for students to see teachers and BEST staff working together toward a common goal.
Lower school teachers, however, credit Helping Hands with being a lifesaver at times. For example, grade 3 teacher Elise Robichaud reported that Helping Hands staff jumped right in to help her homeroom accomplish an extraordinary amount of holiday crafting in just two short periods. “I would not have been able to do any of it without their help. I truly appreciate their amazing efforts!” said Robichaud.
Another teacher, Eileen Schick, said that without assistance from Helping Hands her kindergarten polyhedron ornament project would not have been possible. “Many hands were required to help the students cut, fold, tape and decorate their ornaments. The patience, guidance and encouraging words from the BEST staff made this project successful and a special memory for our kindergarteners!” she said.
This year the BEST staff has put at least 50 hours into the Helping Hands program, according to Cali, “and they are always eager to do more!”
BEST staff member Ali Bo said, “It’s awesome being able to work hands on with the children in a classroom setting, as well as getting to know the teachers across different grade levels. The best part about Helping Hands, from my perspective, is that everyone involved benefits. Not only are the teachers able to accomplish more, but while working in the classrooms, I’m also able to learn from the teachers how to better manage and direct students. It’s a nice treat to the BEST staff when a teacher does need help, because it’s something new and different and opens our eyes to a variety of ways to be involved at Harker!”
“It’s incredible what time in a classroom can teach you about a kid you’ve known for five years. I can’t overstate the significance of getting to know our children as students,” added fellow BEST staffer Troy Townzen ’08.
The Helping Hands program operates quietly and without fanfare, leading many lower school teachers to speculate that it may, indeed, be one of Harker’s BEST kept secrets.
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.”
Grade 7 Student Victorious in National Chess Tournament
Shafieen Ibrahim, grade 7, participated in the March 29 national playoffs of the 2014 US Amateur Team West Chess Tournament. His NorCal House Team emerged as the champions for the second year in a row. Ibrahim will be featured in an article in the April issue of Chess Life Magazine and is slated to appear on its May cover. To read more about the chess win: http://www.uschess.org/content/view/12598/757/.
Grade 5 Student Wins PayPal San Francisco Junior Squash Tournament
Avid squash player Vivek Sunkam, grade 5, recently participated in the PayPal San Francisco Junior Silver tournament. Participants included ranked players, such as top-seeded Mario Reifschneider (ranked 63rd by US Squash in the Boys Under 13 category). Sunkam, ranked 85th by US Squash in the Boys Under 13 category, was the second seed going into this tournament.
In the final, Sunkam was paired against Reifschneider for the championship in a best of five games set. Sunkam narrowly lost the first two with scores of 9-11 and 11-13. Then he started fighting back, winning the next two games convincingly with scores of 11-7 and 11-7. The deciding game was tense, with both players under pressure and tired. Both Sunkam and Reifschneider saved quite a few match points as they drew even at 10-10, 11-11 and 12-12. Ultimately Sunkam prevailed with a score of 14-12. The last game was definitely championship quality! Congrats, Vivek, on your first Boys Under 13 (BU13) squash tournament win!
Middle Schooler Has Solid Performance at Regional Spelling Bee
Katherine Zhang, grade 7, represented Harker in the CBS Bay Area Spelling Bee oral final competition on March 15 in San Francisco. Zhang breezed through the first six rounds, correctly spelling “praline,” “cedilla,” “sagacity,” “cheka,” “pennyroyal” and “herpetology,” but in the seventh round misspelled “embayment” as “enbayment”.
A total of 49 students from the Bay Area participated in this final round, after successfully emerging from 132 students who, as winners of the spelling contests at their respective schools in December, took the written semifinal round in February. Students vied for the opportunity to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which takes place in Washington, D.C., in May.
Although Zhang did not qualify, she found the experience to be very rewarding. “First, I have greatly expanded my vocabulary. I learned a lot of words from other languages, and I now know the roots of a lot of words,” she said. “Secondly, the experience further teaches me that hard work pays off. I had thought that I worked hard enough, but apparently someone else worked much harder. The winner practiced hours per day by getting up as early as 5 a.m.!”
A half-hour documentary on the regional spelling bee aired on March 29 at 7 p.m. on CBS Channel 5. It will re-air on April 12 at 7:30 p.m. CBS has created a promo video for the documentary.