Huge news out of Harker softball this week! In the bottom of the seventh and final inning of a 1-1 tie game against King’s Academy with two outs and the league championship on the line, freshman Tong Wu singled to knock in sophomore Briana Liang from second base, delivering Harker a walk-off victory and our first-ever league championship!
Liang set up the scoring rally with a double after King’s Academy had retired Harker’s first two hitters. When Wu’s hit brought Liang around to score, the home crowd went wild. Harker has one more league game this week, then awaits its CCS opponent the following week.
Congratulations to all of Harker’s softball players: Ashley Del Alto, Alison Rugar, both grade 12; Alana Shamlou, Laura Thacker, Nithya Vemireddy, all grade 11; Sarah Bean, Vivian Isenberg, Briana Liang, Nitya Mani, Sonali Netke, Michaela Vachev, Serena Wang, all grade 10; Marita Del Alto, Alisa Wakita, Tong Wu, all grade 9. And a big congratulations to all of Harker’s coaches: Raul Rios, Dan Hudkins, Ray Fowler and Kacie Kaneyuki.
Volleyball
Boys volleyball will return to the CCS tournament as the #6 seed in Division 2. The boys host a first-round match-up on Tuesday against Valley Christian at Blackford. For CCS tournament games, tickets are $8 for adults and $3 for students with IDs. Come support the team!
Exciting note! Harker freshman Shannon Richardson, who plays for Harker’s girls volleyball team, and her partner Chanti Holroyd, placed first in the Huntington Beach Volleyball Tournament May 5, in the 16U division! With the win, the two qualified to compete in the AAU Junior Olympic Games this July in Southern California, as well as the AAU’s Best of the Beach Tournament this August. Good luck to her!
Golf
The boys play at the CCS tournament today in Carmel.
Baseball
The boys play their Senior Day this Wednesday at Blackford at 4 p.m. against Sacred Heart Prep. Congratulations to this year’s seniors.
Swimming
CCS swimmers compete this Friday and Saturday at the Santa Clara International Swim Center.
For this year’s spring musical, the Harker Conservatory returned to a familiar favorite, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” directed by Laura Lang-Ree.
Set in pre-statehood Oklahoma in the summer of 1906, the production centers around the love triangle between Laurey Williams (Cecilia Lang-Ree, grade 12), niece of the respected community figure Aunt Eller (Cristina Jerney, grade 12), lovesick cowboy Curly McLain (Ian Richardson, grade 11) and the mysterious and dark farmhand Jud Fry (Justin Gerard, grade 12).
Meanwhile, the flirtatious Ado Annie Carnes, played by junior Shenel Ekici, reaches a crisis of conscience when she realizes her attraction to the Persian merchant Ali Hakim (Rohan Chandra, grade 12), despite her engagement to the good-hearted but fiscally irresponsible Will Parker (Kevin Moss, grade 11).
Drama and comedy naturally ensue, as conflict grows between Curly and Jud over who will win Laurey’s favor, and Ali Hakim tries to undo the situation involving himself and Ado Annie.
The huge upper school cast included several grade 5 students, all of whom gave splendid performances. Musical director Catherine Snider led the “Oklahoma!” band, whose interpretation of the beloved score was both accurate and inspired, providing the perfect backing for the student singers.
In order to ensure the best performance possible by the students, Lang-Ree enlisted the services of dialect coach Kimily Conkle, who instructed the cast in how to effectively convey the time and place of the musical with the right pronunciations and inflections. Fight choreographer Dexter Fidler was also brought in to direct the fight scenes, most notably during the iconic 15-minute dream ballet that closes Act I.
Crucial to all Harker musical productions is the set design, and longtime designer Paul Vallerga came through with a set that remarkably evoked the plains of the early 1900s. Harker students, as always, did a terrific job as the show’s crew, managing the stage, working the light board, assisting with wardrobe and attending to all the other important tasks required to execute a production of this caliber. Meanwhile, sound engineer Brian Larsen, lighting designer Natti Pierce-Thomson and costume designer Caela Fujii were again indispensable.
Just shy of her 19th birthday, Jessica Lin ‘12 received word that her dream of becoming a published writer by the age of 18 had come true. Her short science fiction story titled “Mortar Flowers” was officially accepted for publication by Nature Journal, one of the world’s most cited interdisciplinary scientific periodicals.
It marked the first time Lin had ever sold a story, which was recently featured in the prestigious magazine’s special section for science fiction short stories called “Futures.” Started in 1999, “Futures” has today become an award-winning series. Publication in Nature Journal can lead to attention from the mainstream media.
“I still feel like I’m dreaming,” she said of the story acceptance, the best birthday present any young writer could ask for. “I can officially say I got published at the age of 18!” enthused Lin, who is double majoring in comparative literature and psychology at University of California, Berkeley.
Lin said she got the idea for the short story several years ago when she went on a “Wikipedia tangent” and discovered Sarajevo roses, which are deformations in the concrete caused by mortar shell explosions that are later filled with red resin as a memorial to the dead.
“As the concrete is being replaced in Sarajevo, these roses are disappearing. When I read that, I was immediately struck by the enigma of how they came to be, and I thought it was a terrible loss that they were being wiped out by construction. Three years later, I still hadn’t forgotten about them! It occurred to me that I could weave these two ideas together. Immediately, I had this vision of a flower boy in a fantastical war-torn city,” she said.
Despite having endured her share of literary rejections before landing a contract with Nature Journal, Lin has already sold another story called “Dark, Beautiful Force” (about love, disillusionment and doughnut holes) for publication at Daily Science Fiction.
Ever since her days at Harker, Lin’s writing career has been on a fast track to success. Back in 2011 and 2012, she was recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers when she won two annual Scholastic Art and Writing Awards (both national silver medals) in the novel writing category. She accepted the second award at Carnegie Hall in New York City last June.
Lin recalled that during the awards ceremony, “Whoopi Goldberg and Meryl Streep gave very inspiring presentations about the importance of art and its impact on society. I will always remember something Meryl Streep said which was that the gift of writers is to express the things that we all feel, but are unable to put into words.”
“I’ve no doubt this is not the first the literary world will hear from Jessica!” said Lauri Vaughan, Harker’s upper school campus librarian, who served as Lin’s adviser before she graduated last year. Vaughan praised Lin for her magazine publication as well as for her remarkable previous accomplishments, winning the Scholastic silver medal two years in a row.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have an impressive legacy dating back to 1923, with past winners including such notables as Andy Warhol, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Richard Avedon, Robert Redford and Joyce Carol Oates. And, of course, Harker’s very own alumna, Jessica Lin!
The Harker chapter of the Spanish National Honor Society (known in Spanish as La Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica, Capítulo Isabel Allende) took a trip to the local Mexican eatery Mexico Lindo on April 10 to induct the new Spanish NHS members. The group enjoyed a delicious buffet, after which the new members received certificates for their induction, which was followed by a recitation of the Spanish NHS oath.
Students must be enrolled in honors or advanced placement Spanish and receive at least an A- in their classes the previous semester, as well as finish three semesters of high school-level Spanish, in order to qualify for induction into the Spanish NHS.
This year’s inductees are: Manon Audebert, Juergen Buchsteiner and Ariana Shulman, all grade 11; Stacey Chao, Nathan Dalal, Shreya Dixit, Riya Godbole, Corey Gonzales, Juhi Gupta, Matthew Huang, Vivian Isenberg, Rahul Jayaraman, Andrew Jin, Allison Kiang, Daniela Lee, David Lin, Cindy Liu, Samantha Madala, Juhi Muthal, Nicholas Nguyen, Sachin Peddada, Archana Podury, Karnika Pombra, Apoorva Rangan, Sindhu Ravuri, Nikhil Reddy, Anokhi Saklecha, Vedant Thyagaraj, Helen Wu, Menghua Wu and Samyukta Yagati, all grade 10.
Alex Pei, grade 11, and Lawrence Li, grade 9, are two of only 24 finalists in the 2013 USA Computing Olympiad (USACO). The pair will now attend training camp at Clemson University, May 23 – June 1, hoping to qualify for the final team that the United States will send to the International Olympiad in Infomatics (IOI) in Brisbane, Australia.
The USACO (usaco.org) is one of a small number of national high-school Olympiads in mathematics and the sciences that are tasked with identifying and training the very best students in the country in their respective disciplines. Harker has finalists in various Olympiads each year, but having two in the same discipline is unusual.
During the academic year, the USACO hosts a series of challenging on-line programming contests – many of these are notoriously difficult, since they require high proficiency in both programming and algorithmic problem-solving, said Brian Dean, director of the USA Computing Olympiad and associate professor of computer science, Clemson University. “My graduate students usually cannot solve the problems in these contests,” he added.
“Based on their performance on these contests, Alex and Lawrence were selected as part of a group of 24 finalists – the very best in the USA – to attend a rigorous academic summer training camp where they have the opportunity to learn advanced concepts and hear about cutting-edge challenges in modern computer science,” said Dean. “This camp is a unique and unforgettable experience, and helps to bring participants to the point where they are truly world-class in terms of their talent. Many of our alums have gone on to make impressive contributions in academia and industry, and the most highly-selective universities know well that our finalists are indeed the best in the world as prospective applicants.
“Selection as a finalist in any Olympiad is one of the most significant honors a high-school student can earn in any discipline of study. The fact that the Harker School has two USACO finalists this year speaks volumes about the quality of your computing programs, and reflects very highly upon your school. As director of the USACO, I’m looking forward to working with Alex and Lawrence in a few weeks when they attend our summer program,” said Dean.
This report compiled from information provided by Dan Molin, athletic director.
Harker athletes have had a great spring!
Golf
Harker linksman Kyle Roter, grade 12, has received a REACH (Recognizing Excellence, Adversity, Courage and Hard Work) scholarship of $1,500 this week. The REACH Youth Scholarship Program has provided college funds to high school students over the past 17 years who have overcome adversity to excel in academics and sports. Roter suffered from Chiari malformation, a condition in which brain tissue protrudes into the spinal canal. He underwent an operation to correct the problem after headaches became intolerable. His story is told in a video by CalHi Sports: http://bit.ly/132vurc. Roter received the scholarship Wednesday morning at the REACH awards breakfast, chaired by former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott, at the San Jose Marriott. All nominees must be high school seniors, maintain a 2.5 GPA, participate in at least one sanctioned high school athletic activity, demonstrate community involvement, and show the ability to overcome adversity or obstacles to reach his or her goals. Nominees also must submit an essay based on his or her experiences.
Senior golfer and Stanford-bound Maverick McNealy once again won the WBAL individual title yesterday, shooting a 71 at the league finals at Half Moon Bay Golf Course. Shrish Dwivedi, grade 10, tied for fourth with a 76. Both McNealy and Dwivedi have qualified for the CCS tournament next week. The team as a whole awaits to see if their at-large application will qualify. The week before, boys golf came in sixth place out of 16 teams in the 40th annual Aptos High Tournament. Dwivedi shot a 74 and McNealy shot a 75 at Seascape Country Club.
Lacrosse
Girls lacrosse’s historic run for a league championship came to a halt Tuesday with a 17-14 loss to Notre Dame. This year, the girls recorded a Harker record for the most victories in a season with 12. With heart and determination and senior leadership, the girls finished the season yesterday by defeating rival Mercy Burlingame 18-8. This win was a sweet one, especially after having fallen just shy in their bid to capture a league title. After several years of seeming futility, the lacrosse program now finds itself carrying consecutive winning seasons forward.
There is thrilling news for the girls, however, and for the Harker community. Two of Harker lacrosse players, Christine Lee, grade 11, and Hannah Bollar, grade 10, have been named to the regional team for the national tournament.
On April 21, female high school varsity players from all throughout the Bay Area came together to compete for spots on the two Sub-Regional Pacific NorCal teams. The teams will compete in the 2013 U.S. Lacrosse National Tournament in May. 2013 marks the 81st anniversary of the event. It is one of the largest women’s lacrosse events in the nation. The 2013 tournament highlights include division championships, a U.S. team exhibition, and a premier recruiting opportunity for high school players.
In team news last week, the girls went 1-1 with a narrow loss to Mercy Burlingame on Tuesday and a thundering win against Woodside on Friday. Against Woodside, Bollar, seniors Tiphaine Delephine, Michelle Douglas, Wendy Shwe and Apricot Tang, junior Mabel Luo, and Aishu Murari, grade 9, all scored for Harker.
Congratulations to the team on a record-breaking season, and congratulations to Lee and Bollar on their personal achievements!
Track and Field
Track and field took the next step in their outstanding, record-breaking season last week by sending their top runner to the CCS Top 8 meet at San Jose City College last Friday night. With only the best athletes in the CCS competing, Harker had six representatives. Sumit Minocha, grade 12, finished third in the 100m race and then second in the 200m with a 21.65. That mark was the sixth best time in the state this year. Izzy Connell, grade 12, set two new school records, running 57.98 in the 400m and 25.12 in the 200m. She then joined Claudia Tischler, grade 11, Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12, and freshman Nadia Palte on the mile relay team, where the foursome posted yet another record with a time of 4:13.75. Tischler ran eighth in her 1,600m run with a season-best time of 5:31.65. Corey Gonzales, grade 10, set his third 3,200m school record of the year, moving the mark this time to 9:30.98. At the San Mateo Invitational a day later, Matt Giammona, grade 12, and Arjun Kumar, grade 11, placed second and fourth out of 40 in the shot put with each tossing a personal best. The track and field league trials are this Saturday at Gunn High School and finals next Saturday. Wish them well!
Swimming
Thanks to everyone who came out to support Harker’s senior swimmers! And a big congratulations to seniors Amie Chien, Keri Clifford and Rachel Yanovsky for leading the girls team to victory against Menlo 86-73. In the 100m freestyle, Chien and Anika Mohindra, grade 9, tied for third with a time of 58.81. Grace Guan, grade 9, tied for first place in the 100m backstroke. The JV girls defeated Menlo as well, 66-13. Behind Karen Tu and Yasemin Narin, both grade 9, the girls took first and second in the 50m freestyle.
The varsity boys lost to Menlo, but had some impressive swims along the way. Allen Cheng, grade 11, and Joshua Hung, grade 9, improved their times in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle, respectively. Aaron Huang, grade 10, dominated the 100m breaststroke, winning by nearly 11 seconds!
Last Wednesday, both the girls varsity and JV teams defeated King’s Academy. The varsity girls swept the 50 freestyle placing first through fourth, with Chien, Mohindra, Sandhana Kannan, grade 9, and Jackelyn Shen, grade 10. The JV girls won both relays, with Narin, Tu, Elisabeth Siegel, grade 9, and Sanjana Kaundinya, grade 10. For the boys, the JV won and the varsity lost in a close meet. On the varsity side, Ryan Palmer won the 200m IM, and Aaron Huang and Craig Neubieser went 1-2 in the 100m butterfly. JV’s Anni Ankola swam a season-best 50 freestyle. At her first-ever varsity meet, sophomore Stacey Chao placed 12th out of 35 divers, scoring enough points to qualify for CCS. Congratulations!
Wish our swimmers well in the league championships this Wednesday and Thursday at Sacred Heart!
Volleyball
Earlier this week, the Monta Vista boys volleyball team strutted into the Blackford gym, boasting a 27-4 and arguably one of the top teams in all of CCS.
In a thrilling upset, Harker’s boys defeated Monta Vista 27-25, 25-23, 22-25, 25-22. Harker is now 16-14 overall. Seniors Josh Tien, Bobby Kahlon and Andre Tran, juniors Andrew Zhu, Sean Youn and Will Deng, and sophomores Shiki Dixit and Matt Ho all had oustanding performances.
This past Friday was the boys’ Senior Night. They lost to Homestead, but had a solid victory against Lynbrook last week. In the win, Zhu had 26 kills, Deng added six and Dixit had two blocks.
The week before that, boys volleyball had to go the distance to defeat Harbor in Santa Cruz 15-12 in their fifth game of the season to improve to 14-13 on the year as the boys continue to play the top teams in the section. Zhu led the way with 26 kills.
The boys travel to King’s on Friday, then await their potential CCS assignment on Saturday morning.
Baseball
On Tuesday, baseball lost to Pinewood 8-3 to drop to 7-13-1 overall. Drew Goldstein, grade 12, had two hits in the loss, including a double and an RBI. Neil Sadhu and David Lin, grade 10, and Kevin Cali, grade 12, also recorded hits.
Last week, the boys dropped a game against King’s Academy, but got a great pitching performance out of Cali. On the mound, Cali pitched for 10 strikeouts; at the plate, he was two for three with a double and a run scored. Jacob Hoffman, grade 12, added a double and an RBI.
The Thursday before, the baseball team defeated Crystal Springs but dropped its game the following day to Sacred Heart. Against Crystal Springs, Hoffman was two for four with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Keanu Forbes, grade 10, added two hits and an RBI. In the Sacred Heart game, Cali went two for three and scored a run.
Softball
Softball continues to roll, defeating Castilleja yesterday 5-2 in an away game. The girls are now 9-1 in their league and in sole possession of first place with two games remaining. Against Castilleja, Alison Rugar, grade 12, pitched for 16 – count ’em, 16 – strikeouts and had two hits at the plate as well. Ashley Del Alto, grade 12, had a triple and two RBIs. Laura Thacker, grade 11, had two hits and Alisa Wakita, grade 9, and Sarah Bean, grade 10, added RBIs as well.
Last week, the girls went 2-0, beating Menlo 6-0 and Mercy-Burlingame 4-1. Once again, Rugar had 16 strikouts – this time in the Mercy game. Del Alto also had a three-run home run.
The girls have their Senior Day tomorrow at 4 p.m., where they’ll face off against King’s Academy. King’s Academy is the only team in the league to beat Harker this year, and won by just one run. See Harker get their revenge on Senior Day!
Tennis
Boys tennis awaits their fate to see if the team will qualify for the CCS tournament. Stay tuned!
In early March, students Isaac Rothschild and Nikhil Dilip, both grade 11, attended the Enterprise Leadership Conference in Asilomar, where they learned about the ins and outs of business by developing product ideas with other students at the conference and coming up with plans to market them. Harker was invited to the conference by the San Jose Rotary Club, and the students were nominated by the faculty to attend.
“In addition, prominent businessmen with experience in the entrepreneurship, management, finance, marketing sectors spoke to us about their careers and provided us with advice for our own projects,” Dilip said. “The majority of the time was spent fleshing out the details of our product, detailing the finances, and devising a way to market it to our consumers.”
In addition to providing valuable lessons about how to conduct business ventures, the conference also gave the students the chance to meet and exchange ideas with students from other high schools. “In just three days, we worked with seven people whom we had never met before to create a plan for developing, financing and marketing a product we made ourselves,” said Dilip. “I found that the ability of each team to develop a unique product in such a short amount of time was remarkable.”
The kindergarten classes of teachers Katherine Chi, Michelle Anderson, Kimberley Sandoval and Kelle Sloan delighted audiences during a series of shows that took place April 25-26 at the Bucknall Theater. Titled “Arf!” each of the four shows, directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, featured each kindergarten class performing canine-themed songs with hilarious skits in between, all the while wearing adorable dog costumes provided by Marylin Watts.
Students provided support behind the scenes, as Danny Dunn’s grade 5 technical theater students acted as the crew for the show. Sasha Pikiner, grade 6, also provided scenic elements to complement Whitney Pintello’s wonderful scenic artwork.
Nineteen enthusiastic grade 7 and 8 students recently returned from the annual middle school trip to China, where they spent time with their buddies at the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai.
Adding to the excitement of this year’s visit to Harker’s sister school in China, which ran from March 27 to April 7, was the addition of the seventh grade student participants, who joined the trip for the first time.
Originally based around the grade 8 computer science class’ global issues forum, the China trip will now also incorporate the grade 7 historical component of learning about ancient China. According to Harker’s global education department, including seventh graders on the trip proved to be such a success that it will be the norm going forward.
To be able to go on the China exchange trip was a dream come true for grade 7 student Raveena Panja, who said that in Shanghai, spending time with her buddy Jasmine (who attends WFLMS) taught her a lot about Chinese family values.
“My favorite memory with Jasmine was when she took me to an outdoor night market – it was so pretty with all the night lights and everyone I met was so sweet and welcoming. Beijing was also very beautiful, for it holds the historical and traditional side of China. The Great Wall was breathtaking! Traveling to China exposed me to a new culture, allowed me to make lifelong friends halfway across the world and made me realize I am a part of a bigger global community which is filled with wonderful people, regardless of where they are from,” recalled Panja.
Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs, who headed this year’s trip, said that the Harker group of student participants was accompanied by four faculty member chaperones. One of the chaperones, middle school computer science teacher Abigail Joseph, had preceded the group to spend some rewarding time working as an exchange teacher at WFLMS.
“I most enjoyed watching the students engage in round-table discussions with their buddies on various topics affecting youth from homework loads and family rituals to United States-China relations. They were very interested in learning about and sharing with one another. As a teacher it was really wonderful to see two different communities collide and sit down at the table to have real dialogues about personal matters. This made me know the future of dialogue and deliberation is in good hands,” observed Joseph.
Upon their arrival in China, the students were warmly welcomed at the Pudong International Airport by their pals from WFLMS. From there, they hopped on a bus for the short drive into the city to meet their host families.
“The variety of experiences they were extended by their host families gave them all a marvelous glimpse into life in Shanghai, and these were augmented by our further travels. The students also had a chance to make regional arts comparisons, attending both the Shanghai acrobats show and the Beijing ‘Legend of Kung Fu’ spectacle. As usual, a highlight for them was the trip to the Great Wall of China,” Lawson reported.
During their time at WFLMS, the Harker students enjoyed attending classes with their Chinese friends and taking part in special activities such as making dumplings and creating culturally-based art projects. In fact, Harker and WFLMS students grew so close that as their time together came to a close, there were numerous touching goodbyes, speeches, performances and heartfelt promises to stay in touch.
After spending time at WFLMS, the Harker contingent prepared to depart for the next phase of the trip: Beijing. Their first adventure in Beijing consisted of a rickshaw tour of the Hutong, or ancient alleyways that once covered the city.
Next on the itinerary was a visit to the Great Wall of China. Taking a ski lift to the top of the mountain, they entered onto the wall. Many photos were taken of the renowned structure, and the students were thrilled to take a toboggan ride back down the side of the mountain.
The group returned to Beijing the next day and visited Tiananmen Square, site of the 1989 protests and ensuing military action. They then headed to the Forbidden City, where they were guided through several of its 980 palatial buildings.
After enjoying lunch, they went to Silk Street Market, a famous shopping center, where they had fun haggling with its many vendors. From there, they enjoyed a final outing to the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, where they rode a dragon boat to the palace’s pavilion.
The grade 7 and 8 students arrived back home in early April, feeling bonded and eager to share their trip experiences with friends, family and fellow middle-schoolers. And this year, the good news for grade 7 students is that they will have a chance to repeat the wonderful experience of the China trip all over again in grade 8!
On March 16, Michelle Douglas, Cristina Jerney, Emily Wang, Amy Grace Wardenburg and Molly Wolfe, all grade 12, were honored by the Heritage Oaks Chapter of the National Charity League, Inc. NCL is a philanthropic organization that fosters mother-daughter relationships through community service, leadership development and cultural experiences. Over the past six years, the five seniors have logged hundreds of volunteer hours (often with their mothers) at many local organizations including the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity – Silicon Valley, Humane Society of Silicon Valley, InnVision, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and Sacred Heart Community Services.
The students have volunteered more than 2,000 hours combined, and they were honored each year with awards for working at eight or more philanthropies during the year for more than 50, 75 and 100 hours. Mothers and daughters are also honored for working more than 20 hours together. In addition to these awards, Wardenburg has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for volunteering over 100 hours in a calendar year for all six years she has been volunteering, and Wolfe and Jerney have also each received the award in the past. Wardenburg will also be receiving the Senior Service Award, which is given to the graduating senior with the highest cumulative philanthropic hours earned during her years at National Charity League.