This summer, the Harker summer program will offer its first-ever softball camp for girls in grades 4-8. Open to players of all skill levels, the camp will cover offensive and defensive drills and simulate in-game situations to help players build confidence and improve their skills on the field.
The camp will also have students work on fundamental skills such as throwing, catching, fielding hitting and base-running, all in a fun, positive environment managed by trained and experienced coaches.
“This is the first year for our summer softball camp so we are excited and ready to get it going,” said softball coach Raul Rios, who led Harker’s upper school varsity softball team to its first CCS playoff appearance in 2011. “I am looking into getting some guest college players to help us with the program and also to speak to the girls about being student athletes at the college level.”
Harker’s summer softball camp will run June 24-28, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Harker’s middle school campus, located at 3800 Blackford Ave. in San Jose. Registration for the camp is at the The Harker Summer Sports Camps website.
Ethan Ma won his wrestling match last Thursday night against his Cupertino HIgh opponent. The wrestling team will compete in the league championships at Homestead this Saturday.
Basketball
Girls basketball earned victories over ICA and Mercy-Burlingame last week to improve their sterling record to 16-4 overall and 6-2 in league play. Against Mercy, Nithya Vemireddy, grade 11, scored 14 points and added 10 rebounds while Daniza Rodriguez, grade 12, netted 10 points. Wednesday evening marks a huge occasion for the girls: not only is it Senior Night, but the girls are fighting for a share of the league championship. They play Notre Dame in the crucial contest, with JV playing at 6 p.m. varsity playing at 7:30 p.m., and senior recognition just preceding the JV game.
Boys basketball went undefeated last week with victories over Crystal Springs and Pinewood, improving to 16-4 overall and 8-2 in league play. Nikhil Panu, grade 12, and Eric Holt, grade 10, led the way against Pinewood as each scored 17 points. The boys travel to Priory Wednesday and host King’s Academy on Friday. Senior night for the boys will be next Tuesday against Sacred Heart Prep.
Soccer
Girls soccer lost to Pinewood last week before rebounding with an impressive 5-4 victory over Mercy-San Francisco Thursday in a tightly-fought game. Sondra Leal Da Costa, grade 12, Safia Khouja, grade 10, and Wendy Shwe, grade 12 all added goals while sophomore Alyssa Amick’s two goals led the team. The girls’ record now stands at an impressive 6-3-1 in league. The girls hosted Latino College Prep today and then have their Senior Day on Thursday at 3:30 against ICA.
Boys soccer dropped a game to Priory last Friday, 2-1, then played well in a 0-0 tie against Menlo this past week. Omar Hamade, grade 9, scored in the loss against Priory. The boys host Crystal Springs today for their Senior Day; seniors will be recognized in a special celebration at halftime. The boys’ next game after Senior Day will be at home against Sacred Heart Prep on Friday.
Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 12, was recently named one of two national winners in the 2012 Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement. Each year, this award is given to one male and one female student in the U.S. for exhibiting excellence in AP math and science. On the eight exams used to determine winners of the awards, Swaminathan had the highest number of scores of 5 in the entire country for a male student. For his effort, Swaminathan has been awarded a $5,000 scholarship from the Siemens Foundation.
The senior said he was “happy but humbled” to received the award, and credits his steadfast work ethic and well-maintained sleep schedule to his success. “I don’t postpone work, and in fact, I have managed to stay ahead of the lectures in every course that I have taken at Harker,” he said. “I am firm about getting eight hours of sleep no matter how demanding a course is.”
Swaminathan, the son of middle school science teacher Raji Swaminathan, was also very thankful to his teachers, parents and grandparents for their mentoring and support over the years. “I thank my wonderful teachers at Harker for their help and encouragement all the way through,” he said. “None of my accomplishments would have been possible without the unconditional support of my parents and grandparents.”
In December, Pavitra Rengarajan ’12 earned one of two State AP Scholar Awards for her extraordinary performance on the 2012 Advanced Placement exams. She is one of 108 students nationwide to receive this honor. “I didn’t go into the exams with the goal of receiving any special distinction, so I’m not sure that I had any expectations to begin with. In fact, I only realized I had earned this distinction when Ms. [Jennifer] Gargano [assistant head of school for academic affairs] sent me a congratulatory email!” reported Rengarajan, adding that the majority of the exams she took corresponded to her AP classes at Harker.
Rengarajan, now a freshman at Stanford University, said that her college major will likely be computer science. She noted that Harker has “certainly prepared me well for the academic rigor of Stanford. Courses here seem like a natural progression from Harker. I am starting to realize how fortunate I was to have taken advanced topics classes.”
Last year, Ramya Rangan and Albert Wu, both now graduates, became the first pair of national winners from the same school.
For many children bedtime means snuggling up in cozy pajamas and reading a favorite bedtime story. Yet for youngsters in need, even something as basic as curling up with a good book in comfy jammies can be wishful thinking.
For the past six years, to make life a bit better for children living in shelters locally, Harker’s lower school has held donation drives for the Pajama Program, a nationally run nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new pajamas and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
The school recently donated hundreds of pairs of pajamas and five boxes of books to the program which this year ran from Jan. 7-18. While the exact final numbers are still being counted, Pallie Zambrano, co-president of the Pajama Program’s Northern and Central California chapter, reported that this year’s drive brings Harker’s total donations to more than 2,000 pairs of pajamas and 2,400 books.
The Bucknall campus pajama and book drive is held during the heart of winter, when needy children especially want to keep warm. This year, Harker students donated a range of books and pajamas (with the tags still on) in sizes ranging from toddler through young adult. Although the drive was primarily a grade 3 service project, all elementary school families were invited to participate by dropping off donated items in a designated area in the gym’s lobby.
Meanwhile, the students’ homeroom teachers explained how much their donations would benefit children who are less fortunate. Parents were also encouraged to help their children become involved in the project by taking them to the store to pick out donation items themselves.
The much beloved program began six years ago at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, a former lower school student and current freshman at the upper school. He got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Watching her discuss it motivated Narain to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive, which went on to become an annual occurrence.
Kathy Ferretti, a grade 3 teacher who has been involved with the program since its inception, called the project a wonderful example of how one student has the power to make a difference. In fact, she noted that Sarah Leonard, primary school head, still has the original letter that Narain wrote with his suggestion to collect donations for the Pajama Program.
“This was the sixth year in a row that Harker has held a drive and we are so grateful for the continued support. We love working with children to help other children!” enthused Zambrano.
“Our third graders love to read and be read to, especially at bedtime. It’s something they look forward to with pleasure. They hope that by participating in the pajama and book drive more children will be able to enjoy this experience, too,” added Ferretti.
To learn more about about the Pajama Program, visit their website at www.pajamaprogram.org.
Many thanks to Karina Momary and Sue Prutton, who both contributed to this story.
Over the weekend of Jan. 26, 25 middle school forensics students traveled to Sacramento to compete at the National Catholic Forensics League National Tournament Qualifier. While the NCFL National Tournament is traditionally for high school students, Harker’s middle school students were still able to compete at the qualifier tournament with the understanding that they would not qualify to the tournament.
“Had our students been in high school we would have had two students qualify automatically given their records and three compete in an additional round to determine if they could qualify,” said middle school debate teacher Karina Momary. “This is an amazing accomplishment and shows the significant growth of our program in the past year as we did not have this same success at the tournament last year.”
On Jan. 11-12 the middle school forensics team traveled to Phoenix, Ariz., to compete at the Arizona State University Southwest Championship. Aditya Dhar and Alexander Lam, both grade 8, participated in Congressional Debate as the only middle school students among the 109 entrants. Lam finished in the top four in his group of 12, while Dhar finished in the top two and advanced to the Congress Finals where he received 11th place. The duo also competed in Public Forum debate together and were the only middle school team to advance to the top 32.
At a debate tournament held at College Preparatory School in Oakland on Dec 21-22, Raymond Xu, grade 11, advanced to the double octofinal round, finishing in the top 32 out of 104 students. Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, and Srikar Pyda, grade 11, made it to the quarterfinals, finishing in the top eight.
During the Jan. 18 pajama day assembly, sophomore Eagle Buddies took the opportunity to personally tell their grade 3 pals how proud they were of them for collecting books and pajamas on behalf of children in need.
The upper school students had traveled to the lower school campus as part of the Eagle Buddies program, and to participate in the assembly, which celebrated the grade 3 service project collecting items to donate to the Pajama Program, a nationally run nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted (for the full story on the drive, see the HNO article.)
The assembly was held in the gym on the Bucknall campus, with participants wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and snuggly knit hats. Pink robes were all the rage for the grade 3 girls, many of whom sported ponytails and pigtails, while a large number of boys wore jammies showing off their favorite super heroes.
Although wearing sleepwear was optional, almost all of the younger students were dressed in their pajamas, and some of the upper school students wore them as well. Those who didn’t had on Eagle Buddies polo shirts instead. And, to the delight of students, most of the grade 3 faculty showed off their favorite nightwear, adding to the fun, festive atmosphere of the assembly.
Before the assembly officially began, the eager third graders connected with their older Eagle Buddies for a short period of mingling and socializing. The sophomores had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program, which is one of the lower school’s supported charities.
Grade 3 student Alyssa Tomberg said she recommends other schools get involved in the Pajama Program, as well as have an Eagle Buddies program of their own. Her classmate, Antonio Mele, echoed her sentiments, calling the Eagle Buddies program “pretty cool.”
Mele added that the most fun he’s had with his two buddies so far was playing soccer and getting to know each other at the first Eagle Buddies event of the school year. He added that he hopes one day, when he’s older, he can be an Eagle Buddy to a younger student.
Meanwhile, Angeline Kiang, another young Eagle Buddy, said she is used to hanging around with older kids as she has a teenage sibling. Her favorite thing to do with her buddies is simply to hang out. “I love talking with them.”
As the assembly officially got under way, Ken Allen, the lower school’s dean of students, reminded the audience that this is Harker’s sixth year of running the pajama and book drive for children who often come to shelters with “just the clothes on their backs.”
Following his talk, Pallie Zambrano, a spokesperson for the Pajama Program, took to the podium to thank Harker students for supporting the drive and enabling hundreds of children to have new pajamas and books.
Butch Keller, upper school head, then approached the stage wearing a dark robe and slippers. He sat down in a rocking chair and read a book called “Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook” to the children in his warm, distinctive voice, as the lights in the gym were slowly dimmed to set the mood of a bedtime story.
Keller, who received a big round of applause, originally came up with the idea for the Eagle Buddies program in an effort to help bridge the campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
Concluding the assembly, the Eagle Buddies teamed up to read a book together, which the students selected from a big blue bin holding popular, age-appropriate, scholastic chapter books. Soon after, the pals headed off for a special lunch together before the older students returned via buses to resume their day at the upper school.
Eagle Buddies activities continued the next week, as on Jan. 24 there were two more events, one for juniors and fourth graders and another for seniors and their grade 5 buddies.
Clad in their Eagle Buddies shirts, the juniors hosted their fourth grade friends for “clown day” at the upper school. After eating lunch in the gym together, the students watched a performance by professional clowns, and then were given the opportunity to try a few clown tricks themselves.
That same day the seniors went off to the lower school during their eighth period to watch a special showing of the grade 5 play, “The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley, Jr.,” in which all of their Eagle Buddies performed. The sneak preview was held in the gym, where the actual show occurred the following evening. The play, based on the beloved children’s book by Jeff Brown, was free of charge.
“I think Eagle Buddies is a really great concept. For the older buddy the experience is a way to return to a place where school is just really exciting and fun, filled with new experiences,” observed 15-year-old Tiara Bhatacharya, a sophomore Eagle Buddy who has attended Harker since kindergarten.
“Hanging out with your Eagle Buddy is also great because they’re so energetic, hilarious and willing to share as much of their lives with you as possible,” she added.
To Kendricks “Ken” Allen, Harker’s new dean of lower school students, there is nothing like the sound of children at play. And, from where he sits in his office – located adjacent to the gymnasium and across from Rincon Field – students are never very far away.
“I like being where the action is!” enthused Allen, whose office is adorned with diplomas and pictures with the motivating words “respect,” “integrity” and “success.”
Allen has long enjoyed working with youngsters, having previously been an elementary school teacher at Fort Worth County Day School in Texas, where he also served as head track and field coach, assistant varsity football coach and assistant head coach for varsity girls basketball.
A native of Illinois, he was raised in Colorado, where his family still resides. He comes to Harker with an undergraduate degree in exercise and sports science from Colorado State University along with a master’s in education administration from Texas Christian University.
This past July Allen got married and relocated here from Texas. With so many exciting yet major life changes he credits fellow administrators, staff and colleagues with enabling him to quickly settle in and feel confident in his new role at Harker.
Allen has been working hard at getting to know many of the 596 students who attend the lower school. To that end, he employed a unique method of having students with locker troubles come to his office for help at the start of the school year.
“That way I was able to immediately start getting to know them individually,” said Allen, who is steadily learning the Harker community of students, parents, faculty and staff members. In fact, this first year one of his priorities will be simply to listen and observe.
“Harker is a very special community, and I’m proud to be a part of it,” he said, adding, “I love my job!”
Wrestler Danny Wang, grade 12, went 3-2 at the Overfelt Tournament on Saturday, earning his three victories by pinning his opponents. This Thursday is the wrestling team’s final home match of the regular season, which means that it’s also Senior Night for Wang, Harker’s lone senior wrestler. Come support him in his final Harker home match at Blackford this Thursday at 5:30 p.m.!
Soccer
Girls soccer had two wins and one loss last week to even up their record overall at 6-6-1 and improve their league record to a sterling 5-2-1. The girls capped off their week with a 6-0 win against Eastside College Prep in the annual Kicks Against Cancer fundraiser game. Sondra Leal Da Costa, grade 12, led the way with three goals. Safia Khouja, grade 10, added a pair, and Alyssa Amick, grade 10, scored one, while Indica Sur, grade 12, made two clutch saves in goal. The girls have now won four of their past five games after blowing out Latino College Prep 9-0, blanking Immaculate Conception Academy 5-0, defeating Summit Preparatory High 4-2, dropping to Mercy High School – Burlingame 6-2, and then finishing their run off 6-0 against ECP. That means they have also won those four out of five in spectacular fashion, walking away with shutouts in three of them. The girls travel to Pinewood today and host Mercy – San Francisco this Thursday on Davis Field.
The boys dropped their last game 4-1 against ECP, bringing their record to 6-4-1 overall and 4-3-1 in league play. The boys did win their Kicks Against Cancer fundraiser game the day before, blanking Pinewood 3-0 with seniors Denis Celik, Maverick McNealy and Simar Mangat all scoring goals. In the week leading up to the Kicks Against Cancer game, the boys had defeated Crystal Springs 2-1, dropped a 3-0 game to rival Sacred Heart Prep, and tied King’s Academy 1-1. The boys host Menlo on Wednesday and travel to Priory this Friday.
Basketball
Girls basketball defeated Crystal Springs on Tuesday, 56-36, but struggled in their away game against King’s Academy on Friday, losing 46-27. In the Crystal Springs victory, Nithya Vemireddy, grade 11, led the way with 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Shreya Vemuri, grade 12, added 11 points. The girls are now 14-4 overall and 4-2 in league play as they prepare to host ICA tonight at Blackford.
Boys basketball lost a heartbreakingly close game against Sacred Heart, 56-54, for their first league loss, but responded well with dominant victories against Crystal Springs Uplands, Eastside College Prep, and King’s Academy before dropping a game to Menlo on Saturday afternoon. The boys’ victory against Crystal Springs was a 75-41 drubbing, and they defeated Eastside College Prep to the tune of 59-32, while their win against King’s Academy was a closer but still comfortable 75-59. Against King’s Academy, sophomore Eric Holt had a team-high 25 points to add to his 15 rebounds. The boys travel to Crystal Springs today and host Pinewood on Friday as they try to improve upon their 6-2 league record.
Society for Science announced Wednesday that Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 12, has been named one of 40 finalists in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, becoming the first Harker student to be named an Intel STS finalist and a Siemens contest finalist in the same year. Bhattacharya, who was also a Siemens finalist last year, “is a classic example of a student who has gone through our whole research program,” said science department chair Anita Chetty.
Bhattacharya found the inspiration for her project, titled “A Novel AAA-ATPase p97/VCP Inhibitor Lead for Multiple Myeloma by Fragment-Based Drug Design: A Computational Binding Model and NMR/SPR-Based Validation,” while interviewing for a position at the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences at Univeristy of California, San Francisco, last year. “As I discussed possible projects with my professor, he mentioned a post-doctoral research group in the department that was working on a National Cancer Institute-funded project,” she said. “But the target protein was proving to be very difficult, and even after a year they had few significant results.”
Eager to help and seeking a new experience, Bhattacharya joined the team and began working on one of three unexplored drug target regions. “I designed an independent project and worked separately from the group throughout the summer, reading background literature, learning the molecular modeling techniques, using NMR/SPR spectroscopies, and learning the underlying theories of physics and chemistry,” she said.
In choosing the project, Bhattacharya expressed her desire to add to the field of cancer research. “I know far too many who have fought cancer without success,” she said. “Consequently, I jumped at the opportunity to pursue a cure for multiple myeloma. The cause that I was fighting for strengthened my resolve to creatively make an impact by scientific advancement.”
In addition to her success in these contests, Bhattacharya has also been an active member of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) and other clubs, written for the Triple Helix Online and presented at the Harker Research Symposium on multiple occasions. “She represents a student who has taken advantage of not only the clubs, but of internships, research classes and the many other opportunities available to her in the research program,” Chetty said.
Bhattacharya has expressed her thanks to the many Harker teachers in various programs and disciplines who have supported and mentored her since she started at Harker in grade 5, including lower school history teacher Pat Walsh, middle school math teacher Vandana Kadam, middle school biology teacher Lorna Claerbout, middle school history teacher Cyrus Merrill, upper school science department teachers Chetty, Mala Raghavan, Chris Spenner, Robbie Korin and Richard Page and math teacher Victor Adler.
She also mentioned her sincere gratitude to her professor at UCSF, Dr. Matthew Jacobs, “for giving me the opportunity to work with him in this emerging field,” and her post-doctoral mentor at UCSF, Dr. Michael Chimenti, for offering his guidance to her throughout the project.
What began as a holiday seasonal community project has evolved into a larger, new schoolwide outreach program called HarKare (Harker Cares).
HarKare launched with its first project, making ornaments to accompany Christmas trees already slated to be donated from the lower, middle and upper school campuses to underprivileged families. During the holiday season Harker has Christmas trees or wreaths in nearly all of its 200 classrooms. This year, some 45 teachers volunteered to preserve their trees so they could be given out as part of the donation program.
To that end, about 40 Harker parents and children of varying ages took time out on a Sunday in December to gather for the ornament-making event, which had been earlier promoted by grade level coordinators. Using recycled paper, students in Pat Walsh’s grade 5 math class also contributed to the HarKare project by making paper hut ornaments.
“HarKare will create opportunities for kids and whole families to participate in all sorts of community projects going on all year, not just during the holiday season,” enthused Tere Aceves, lower school volunteer program director at Harker.
“This is not going to be another drive at our school but is going to be an ongoing program,” she elaborated, adding that the goal of HarKare is to create family involvement for community service projects, teach kids the value of giving and helping others and “use our creativity, elbow grease and spirits to make a difference.”
Already, HarKare members have tossed around a number of ideas for future projects including collecting clothes and household goods for those in need, preparing meals for the homeless, and helping local neighborhoods in a myriad of other ways.
“These are all very easy and really rewarding projects,” noted Aceves. “We are striving to involve our kids and teach them values coming from the heart.”
In February there will be two HarKare initiatives running nearly simultaneously: a book exchange on Feb. 8 and a volunteer effort with the organization Sea Scavenger the following day.
“Not only will Harker students give back to their community by cleaning up local waterways, but they will give back to the world by preventing plastic pollution from reaching the oceans,” said Aceves, adding that students may subsequently take on leadership roles to help create such awareness, shifting cultural values away from a disposable plastic society.
Sea Scavenger has been named the official shoreline restoration and clean-up partner of the 34th annual America’s Cup, which takes place in San Francisco this year. Together, with Sea Scavenger volunteers, HarKare participants will work collaboratively with sailors and staff from the America’s Cup teams in support of marine ecosystems.
Those interested in becoming involved with the upcoming book exchange, shoreline clean-up, and other future activities of the new HarKare program are urged to contact Aceves at terea@harker.org for more information.