Strawberries dipped in chocolate mirrored the sweetness of newly formed friendships at a recent farewell dessert reception honoring nine visiting exchange students from the Collège de Gambach in Switzerland.
During the event, held in the upper school’s Bistro, both Harker students and their new Swiss buddies breathed a collective sigh of relief that it was not a goodbye party. Rather, the gathering was marked with the anticipation of being reunited at the end of the school year.
“I’m so excited that I get to see my buddy again,” explained Zoe Woehrmann, a Harker sophomore who, as part of the reciprocal student exchange program with the school in Switzerland, will have the opportunity to travel there this June.
During the farewell party, Woehrmann and her visiting Swiss pal, 17-year-old Fabienne Ghirardin, said they had really hit it off. The excited duo noted they have been having a great time hanging out both at home and Harker, as well as shopping and visiting tourist attractions.
“I think we were matched really well,” added Ghirardin. “We are very compatible!”
Ghirardin was one of nine girls and two chaperones from the collège whom Harker hosted from Feb. 2-12. The visitors stayed in homestays with Harker families and attended school with their American buddies daily.
Come June, a group of Harker students and chaperones will head to Switzerland in continuation of the exchange program. The upcoming adventure will afford the Harker contingent the opportunity to immerse themselves in Swiss culture, brush up on their language skills, and explore the country’s vast natural beauty.
The Collège de Gambach is a secondary school under the authority of the department of public education and cultural affairs in Fribourg, Switzerland. The school places a strong emphasis on the formation of character and stresses strong resolve, clear thinking, a sense of responsibility and an appreciation for thorough work habits.
In addition to the exchange program with the Swiss students, February saw visits from other international guests to Harker’s upper school as well.
From Feb. 6-March 2, two high school-age girls from Tamagawa Gakuen, Harker’s sister school in Japan, attended classes at the Saratoga campus and visited the elementary and middle schools. And, in January, a group of 15 cadets from the Canberra Grammar School in Australia paid a one-day visit to Harker to observe various computer science classes.
Congratulations to the boys basketball, girls basketball and boys soccer teams for being named as 2013 CCS winter scholastic championship teams for having one of the top grade point averages of all teams competing that season. Boys basketball was in the top five of their league while girls basketball and boys soccer led their leagues.
Softball defeated Menlo-Atherton 4-0 on Wednesday behind a solid performance from senior Alison Rugar. Rugar threw for 16 strikeouts on the mound and went 2-4 at the plate, knocking in three runs. Ashley Del Alto, grade 12, and Alana Shamlou, grade 11, also had hits in the victory.
Girls lacrosse beat Santa Catalina 16-9 under rainy skies last week. Wendy Shwe, Michelle Douglas, Tiphaine Delepine, all grade 12, and Hannah Bollar, grade 10, all had goals while Christine Lee, grade 11, had multiple saves.
Boys varsity tennis defeated Priory last week 5-2, then defeated King’s Academy yesterday 6-1 to improve to 4-1 overall. Jason Chu, grade 10, Kilian Burke, grade 11, and John Dobrota, grade 10, won their singles matches. The teams face Fremont and Crystal Springs this week.
Boys volleyball dropped their season opener to Leigh. Despite junior Andrew Zhu’s 14 kills, the boys lost 19-25, 23-25, 23-25; they lost again to Willow Glen in four sets, then, two games down against Westmont High School, stormed back with a dramatic 23-25, 22-25, 25-14, 25-20, 24-22 fifth-set victory to improve to 1-2 on the season. Zhu led the team in kills and senior setter Josh Tien led in assists. Support the varsity Wednesday night, 5:30 at Blackford, as they host King’s Academy.
Baseball lost to Fremont Christian Friday and Gunderson Monday to drop to 2-3 on the season. Senior Jacob Hoffman had a triple and scored a run against Gunderson. Neil Sadhu, grade 10, had two hits against Fremont Christian. The boys host University High Friday at Blackford.
In late January, the San Francisco-based wind quintet Frequency 49 held several master classes for Harker students. Made up entirely of working professional musicians, the group visited a number of classes at the middle and upper school campuses, starting with the grade 7-8 orchestra, led by Dave Hart. The musicians showed the students the sounds and various attributes of each instrument and played a special selection of pieces in a variety of styles.
“Since many of the students in orchestra have had experience performing in chamber ensembles throughout the year, they were able to ask questions about the process of rehearsing and performing music in a chamber setting,” Hart said.
Later, the group stopped by Hart’s grade 6 wind ensemble’s rehearsal. For this session, Hart rented duplicate instruments played by Frequency 49 so that students could try them out following a brief lesson on how they were played. “They spent the rest of the class with each member trying out those particular instruments. It was a blast and the kids were completely engaged!” Hart exclaimed.
Their final stop at the middle school was Hart’s grade 6 strings class. Students had been spending this semester separating into groups and learning a chamber music piece of their choosing. The students had the chance to play the pieces for Frequency 49, who later performed for them. “Hearing Frequency 49 provided the students an opportunity to see and hear a professional chamber music group perform the pieces the students have been working on the last two weeks,” Hart noted.
Lastly, the group visited the upper school for a workshop with Chris Florio’s class, demonstrating what could be done on their respective instruments. “For example, the flutist demonstrated how the flute can produce bird-like sounds,” said Victoria Ding, grade 9. Ding said communication was one of the important principles that the group taught the students. “Frequency 49 instructed us to sit in a certain arrangement such that each instrument’s sound carries well to the other players and the audience,” she said. “They also reminded us to maintain eye contact with each of the four other players and adjust to what we hear in order to maintain balance in the ensemble.”
“I found it to be really beneficial because I had just begun playing in a woodwind quintet this year and I wasn’t quite sure how to play so that each member could play together well as one ensemble,” said Aaron Lee, grade 11.
Thanks to Karina Momary, director of middle school forensics, for providing us with this story. Colin Rule (Alex, grade 6) visited Karina Momary’s seventh period public speaking class in late February to speak about the beneficial effects forensics had on his life; he also gave advice on how to give an effective impromptu speech.
Momary’s students were preparing for their own impromptu speech project, where they receive a topic, have two minutes to prepare and are expected to speak for three minutes. Rule focused on what he called the three3 Cs – clarity, confidence and connection. He also shared a few stories highlighting his best debate rounds and how he found some great evidence and was able to beat a team on the quality of the evidence.
Rule is a former debater from The Greenhill School in Texas (1989). He was one of their team captains as well as one of the best debaters in their history and their top debate award, given in September at the school’s annual debate tournament, is named after Rule. He is currently the CEO at Modria. http://www.modria.com/team/
Track and Field Saturday was a record-breaking day for Harker track and field, as Harker athletes posted three all-time school records at the Willow Glen Track & Field Invitational. First, Corey Gonzales, grade 10, led off with a 9:51:20 time on a 3,200-meter run, netting him fourth place and topping his personal best by 40 seconds. Then, Isabelle Connell, grade 12, won the 200m, breaking her own record with a 25:72. Finally, Michael Chen, grade 12, continued his strong season with a 42’ 5.5”, placing fifth and breaking his own school record in the shot put. Amanda Kalb, grade 12, Nadia Palte, grade 9, Cheryl Lium grade 10, and Calvin Kocienda, grade 9, each ran a personal best in their sprint hurdle races.
Tennis Varsity boys tennis lost to Sacred Heart last week, but roared back with a convincing 7-0 victory over King’s Academy and 6-1 win over Pinewood. In the loss, Harker’s number 1 singles player Jason Chu, grade 10, defeated Sacred Heart Prep’s number 1 in the third set. This week, varsity faces off against Pinewood and Priory. JV has also begun its season, winning three of their first four games. Capping the strong start was a resounding victory against Kehillah in which the boys routed their way to a 7-0 win. At third doubles, freshmen Nikita Kosolobov and Evan Lohn made their debut, efficiently beating their opponents. Vivek Sriram, grade 10, continued his early season excellence at third singles and is now 4-0 on the year. Kevin Ke, grade 9, and Nathan Dalal, grade 10, also won their second match of the season. The team is now 2-1 overall.
Lacrosse Girls lacrosse owns a 1-1 record after losing their opening game against Pioneer 9-7 and then rebounding to defeat Tamalpais 18-6. Thus far, Michelle Douglas, grade 12, Hannah Bollar, grade 10, and Wendy Shwe, grade 12, have led the team in scoring. The girls travel to Santa Catalina on Thursday.
Softball Softball opened its season with a 7-4 loss against Cupertino on Friday. Brianna Liang, grade 10, went 2-3 with a triple and an RBI. Laura Thacker, grade 11, drove in the rest of the runs, going 1-3 with a home run and three RBIs. On the mound, pitcher Allison Rugar, grade 12, struck out 10. After an away game on Wednesday, the girls return to Harker to host Notre Dame-Belmont on Friday.
Baseball After dropping their opener to Terra Nova on Friday, the boys defeated Pescadero in a 12-0 blowout to earn their first win of the year, then followed it up with a 10-6 victory over St. Lawrence. Against Pescadero, senior Kevin Cali got on base in each of his four trips to the plate, walking three times and homering while knocking in a game-high four RBIs and adding three steals in three attempts. Cali then topped that effort on the mound and at the plate in the St. Lawrence game, pitching seven innings, striking out 11 and going 4-4 with a triple and a grand slam. Freshman Arthur Goldstein also impressed in his first start for the Eagles, going 2-3. The boys are in the midst of a stretch of home games this week.
Golf The boys golf team kicked off the season with a 195-201 victory over Gunn at San Jose Country Club. In the first match of his Harker career, freshman Dakota McNealy took medalist honors with a one over par 34. Not far behind were senior Maverick McNealy with a 35 and sophomore Shrish Dwivedi with a 38. The Eagles play Pinewood next Monday in their league opener.
Volleyball The boys host Leigh on Wednesday and travel to Willow Glen on Friday.
The boys’ march through the playoffs has come to an end after a 53-46 loss against league-rival Menlo last Saturday at Menlo. The teams had rocketed into their quarterfinal showdown after splitting their two matchups during the regular season. The loss marks a tough end to a very strong run by the the team. The boys had advanced to the playoffs after earning a #6 seed with a 17-7 overall record and an 11-3 record in league play. Their sterling play earned the team a first-round bye as they waited to play the winner of a first-round matchup between Stevenson and Pacific Grove. Pacific Grove defeated Stevenson, setting into motion a second-round game between Pacific Grove and Harker last Thursday at Blackford. There, Harker muscled through to a 64-56 victory. Senior Nikhil Panu led the way with a team-high 21 points and sophomore Nic Nguyen played well on all sides of the ball, delivering 13 points, five assists, and seven steals. That win set up the final game of the season against Menlo. Thanks to all of the fans for their support, and congratulations to the boys on their season!
The girls dropped their second-round game against Monte Vista Christian, 53-35, to cap off a season that saw them go 17-6 overall and 7-3 in league play, good for a third-place finish in the WBAL. The girls won their postseason game against 11th-seeded Ocean High School 51-40, setting up the challenge against #6-seeded Monte Vista Christian. Please congratulate the girls for their strong play, especially graduating seniors Daniza Rodriguez, Priscilla Auyueng, Emily Chu, Shreya Vemuri and Rebecca Liu.
Lacrosse
Girls lacrosse had three victories in their jamboree on Saturday in Menlo and then won their home opener on Monday against Tamalpais High School at Davis Field, 18-6. Michelle Douglas, grade 12, led the team with six goals, while Hannah Bollar, grade 10, added five and Wendy Shwe, grade 12, scored four. Tiphaine Delepine and Sam Hoffman, both grade 12, also added scores, while Delepine, Allison Kiang, grade 10, and Adrienne Mendel, grade 12, tacked on assists. Christine Lee, grade 11, had 10 saves in net as the girls’ season got off to a strong start.
Track and Field
Track and field competed at the Bellarmine Meet this Saturday with solid performances from sophomores Julia Wang and Corey Gonzales and seniors Sumit Minocha and Michael Chen, among others. They compete at Mitty and Willow Glen this week.
Lower and Middle School Update
Girls basketball
Grade 8 Varsity A team: 5-2, currently in second place in the WBAL. Key performers are Joelle Anderson, Jordan Thompson and Lindsey Trinh.
Grade 7 Varsity B team: 5-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Satchi Thockchom and Tiffany Shou.
Grade 6 JV A team: 0-5, currently tied for eighth place in the WBAL.Key performers are Jennifer Hayashi and Deana Kajmakovic.
Grade 5 JV B team: 2-2, currently in third place in the WBAL. Key performers are Haley Arena and Grace Hajjar.
Grade 4 JV C team: 4-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Courtney Thompson and Sarah Raymond.
Boys soccer
Grade 8 Varsity A team: 0-3, currently tied for sixth place in the WBAL. Key performers are Joseph Krackeler, Zayne Khouja and Quentin Delepine.
Grade 7 Varsity B team: 2-0, currently tied for first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Rohit Shah, Vedant Shah and Neelesh Ramachandran.
Grade 6 JV A team: 2-1-1, currently in third place in the WBAL. Key performers are Jarrett Anderson, Edwin Su, Stephan Sokolov and Brandon Bien.
Grade 5 JV B team: 4-0, currently in first place in the WBAL. Key performers are Darshan Chahal, Andrew Cheplyansky and Asmit Kumar.
The lights dim and spies climb on the runway to gather in front of a dark screen. A hooded figure flickers to life on a video screen and, with a disguised voice, tells the agents to find the secret to Harker’s success. And the countdown begins …
The homage to “Mission: Impossible” set the tone for this year’s fashion show, Mission: Possible – Dare to Try, Harker’s 10th annual fundraising spectacular. The visionary behind the show was Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts chair K-12, who, with parent chair John Keller and producer Beverly Zeiss, created a plotline that ran throughout the show: could undercover agents find the secret to why Harker students had so much fun, did so well and enjoyed school so much?
Student, parent and staff models took to the runway in clothes from several generous fashion partners, and occasionally a secret agent would pop up to try to infiltrate. Dance Fusion, Varsity Dance Troupe, Downbeat, Showstoppers and High Voltage performed dance numbers throughout the show; and in a spectacular finale, live instrumentalists graced the fashion show for the first time as a chamber ensemble and the Grade 5 Choir joined Downbeat to perform while senior models showed off formal evening wear.
By the time Chris Nikoloff was revealed as the agent in disguise, the audience had enjoyed a live auction, a lobby casino and another phenomenal Harker event.
See the TalonWP website for the student journalists’ writeup of the show.
On March 10, Harker will host the 12th annual Diana Nichols Math Invitational at the middle school campus, open to all math students in grades 6-8. Students from schools all over the Bay Area as well as India and China will participate in the contest, which began in 2002 as the Harker Math Invitational before being renamed in 2011 to honor Diana Nichols, who was instrumental in the contest’s inception.
Middle school math teacher Vandana Kadam started the contest to foster the problem-solving skills of Bay Area middle school math students. “Given the competence of students from the Bay Area, I thought it would be good to have a contest that challenges their thinking and puts them in competition with students of similar caliber,” she said.
The first invitational featured six schools and 120 students. For its 10th anniversary, attendance was nearly triple that of the first contest, and for the first time international schools were invited to participate. A special test is designed for international students with the help of middle school math students in elective classes, who assist in making the problems more compatible with the foreign students’ curricula and integrating terminology they have become accustomed to in their classes. “Creating a separate contest for the international schools has definitely made it more exciting for the international students,” said Kadam.
The invitational has become a labor of love for the middle school’s math department, whose members work tirelessly each year to make it happen. “Right from making the contest to running the show on the day of the contest, every single member of the math department contributes in a big way towards the successful hosting of this huge event, which has grown tremendously in the last 12 years,” Kadam said.
Kadam has also made strides toward increasing the role of upper school student participation in running the contest. In past years, upper school students helped with registration, proctoring exams and grading. Recently they have assisted in designing problems for the participants. “Apart from a core group who work with me for several weeks to create the contest, a number of upper school volunteers help out on the day of the contest,” Kadam said. “They feel good about coming back to the middle school to make a difference.”
Cellist Sebastian Bäverstam, the 24-year-old former child prodigy who debuted at Carnegie Hall at age 14, brought the third season of the Harker Concert Series to a brilliant close on Feb. 8, performing a special collection of Russian music from Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff to a sold-out audience.
Partnered throughout the concert by accomplished pianist Pei-Shan Lee, Bäverstam began with Prokofiev’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Major, moving gracefully through its contemplative and somewhat somber first movement, trading phrases with Lee as though in conversation. The brisker second and third movements evoked a more upbeat style from the cellist, who swayed and bobbed through the faster sections as the call-and-response interplay with Lee continued. His physical expressiveness seemed to mirror his similarly impassioned interpretation of the material, taking deep breaths before long legato passages and moving vigorously during the galloping, more technically challenging sections, for which he was more than up to the task. Lee handled the piece with the right amounts of aggression and restraint.
Bäverstam and Lee briefly left the stage following the conclusion of the sonata, prompting some audience members to head to the lobby for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, believing the concert to be at an intermission. The two nevertheless returned a short time later to perform Shostakovich’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, but not before Bäverstam quipped, “Sorry. It’s not over yet.”
The shifting tensions and moods of Shostakovich’s sonata were brought out wonderfully by Bäverstam’s ability to interpret the varied themes with both subtlety and flair. The wide, ominous piano passages of the first movement were met by the disquieting melody provided by Bäverstam, whose splendid vibrato powerfully buoyed every note until the disturbing calm was broken by the second movement’s urgency and energy, driven by Bäverstam and Lee’s bombastic yet controlled approach, later contrasted by the desolation and sobriety of the “Largo” movement before being brought a crashing finish in the final movement, guided by the dexterous, emotive performance of the two players.
Following the (actual) intermission, the duo returned to the stage to perform the evening’s final piece, Rachmaninoff’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, whose challenging first movement, characterized by varying tempos and moods, was superbly handled. The sonata also gave ample opportunity for Lee to demonstrate her immense talents, nimbly maneuvering her way through the piece’s more challenging sections while simultaneously finding the array of emotion underneath. Despite an exhausting program, Bäverstam and Lee had no discernible trouble summoning the energy necessary for the final run of the Sonata’s Vivace.
Even with school closed for Presidents’ Day there was no relaxing for Harker’s grade 6 chess team, who spent the recent long weekend in Pleasanton bringing home the 30th National Annual U.S. Amateur Team Championship West title.
Nishant Ravi, Shafieen Ibrahim, Rini Vasan and Shaunak Maruvada, all grade 6, took home top player trophies by going undefeated (in the kids’ division event), with many perfect scores, on the chess boards.
In addition to the Harker group win in the kids’ category, Ibrahim and Maruvada also participated in the U.S. National Amateur Team Championship West’s adult division during the tournament weekend, winning the U1400 championship title. Playing with two other non-Harker players in order qualify as the required team of four, they were up against much higher rated players yet more than managed to hold their own over the course of several intense hours.
“We are very proud of what the kids did and how well they played. Some of the games were really tough and long but they persisted and prevailed,” noted Satish Maruvada, father of Shaunak. “It was a fantastic performance!”