Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-born best-selling author of “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” was the honored guest of the Harker Speaker Series on Nov. 30, speaking about the writing process, his experiences in Afghanistan and his humanitarian efforts with the Khaled Hosseini Foundation.
Hosseini also attended a pre-event reception for attendees who purchased special tickets to meet the author and receive a personalized copy of one of his novels. On this night Hosseini was joined onstage by ABC-7 anchor Cheryl Jennings, who conversed with him on a range of topics. Before the talk, a video of an ABC-7 report by Jennings was shown, briefing the audience of about 400 on the Khaled Hosseini Foundation and briefly mentioning Harker’s involvement. Founded in 2007, the organization raises money to build shelters and provide education, food and healthcare to women and children in Afghanistan, which is experiencing many humanitarian crises after decades of war. Hosseini’s wife, Roya, is also heavily involved, helping with a program that enables Afghan women to sell crafts to raise money for humanitarian aid. These goods were being sold at a table in the gym the night of Hosseini’s visit.
Jennings asked Hosseini about his 2003 and 2007 visits to Afghanistan, where he witnessed “a ton of people who had come back to Afghanistan from either Pakistan or Iran trying to resettle, restart their lives in their country and were really having a very, very hard time,” he said. “It shattered me.”
Although he watched much of the crises in Afghanistan unfold from outside the country, he nevertheless found that memories of his childhood in the country were helpful in writing “The Kite Runner.”
“It took me by surprise how vivid my memories were,” he said, recalling his time growing up with educated parents and living a somewhat “westernized” lifestyle.
While working on “Splendid Suns,” he took on the challenge of writing from a woman’s perspective, despite warnings from his literary agent at the time, the late Elaine Koster. “I have to admit I was a little smug about it,” he recalled. “And then, about three, four months later, I began to see what she meant.”
He overcame the difficulty by rendering them in a more universal sense. “I’m just going to concentrate on what motivates them; what do they want from life, what are they afraid of, what are their hopes, and so on,” he said. “It seems trite and simple enough, but all of the solutions in my writing life have always been simple, it’s just very hard to get to them.”
Hosseini said he was proud to have changed the perceptions people have of the Afghan people through his writing. “I’ve had letters from people who were really kind of toxic haters of people from that region. And yet, they read the book and they saw something of themselves in the experiences of these characters,” he said. “And they slowly changed. That to me is a tremendous gift as a writer. That’s going to outlive anything that I’ve ever done.”
Following his talk with Jennings, Hosseini stayed to take questions from the audience and sign books.
Angela Ma, grade 11, was cast in San Jose Youth Ballet’s (SJYB) 2012 Nutcracker production as Snow Queen and Arabian Coffee. She has performed in three shows already and will be in three more shows Dec. 8-10. Mahika Halepete, grade 5 also performs, and Sofia Fernandez, grade 4, is a lamb and soldier.
Christopher Hildum, grade 10, Lauren Luspo and Ashley Cook, both grade 7, are all performing in Ballet San Jose’s Nutcracker starting Dec. 8. Hildum is in the battle scenes Although both Luspo and Cook are veterans of the Nutcracker, this year marks an important turning point as the production changes from the original choreography of Dennis Nahat to the choreography of Karen Gabay, the principal ballerina.
Khaled Hosseini, author of best-selling novels “The Kite Runner” and “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” greeted more than 20 attendees who bought special tickets for a reception prior to Hosseini’s appearance at the Harker Speaker Series on Friday evening. In addition to being able to meet and chat with the author, the guests also received a personalized copy of one of Hosseini’s novels as well as admission to the main event.
Recipients of the annual Harker Alumni Awards were announced at halftime at Harker’s recent homecoming game. During the Nov. 2 game between Harker and Lynbrook High School’s varsity football teams, Chris Nikoloff, head of school, recognized several outstanding individuals.
Ken Hunt ’79 received the Distinguish Alumni Award “for his love of learning and his ability to lead, whether in a Fortune 200 or smaller company,” Nikoloff said. Community Service Award winner Tevis Howard ’98 was recognized for his efforts to help the people of Kenya. Additionally, Mark Muller ’75, recipient of the Phyllis Carley Award, was honored for his dedication to and positive impact on the Harker community.
All three alumni award recipients – who were also honored in a special presentation at the alumni reunion – have impressive backgrounds: Hunt serves as president of Produxs, a user experience software design firm. Tevis founded KOMAZA, a company working to get families out of poverty in East Africa. Muller works to develop communities in low socioeconomic areas.
Prior to the game, alumni had been warmly welcomed home during a family-friendly tailgate party held at the end zone of Davis Field. More than 75 alumni turned out for the tailgate, where they enjoyed dinner, mingled with former faculty and staff, and enjoyed watching the Eagles play. Former football players and cheerleaders received special T-shirts and were recognized prior to kickoff.
The well-attended tailgate set the stage for the alumni present to later form a gauntlet for the Eagles to run through as they took to the field. Throughout the evening, the special alumni area was filled with Harker graduates, including several who attended Harker’s predecessors, the Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA) and Harker Academy.
“It was gratifying to have so many alumni out in force to support their alma mater and reminisce with old friends and teachers. Seeing various generations returning to Harker really demonstrated the powerful impact Harker has had on alumni, and the strong feelings they have about ‘K through life,’” said MaryEllis Deacon, director of alumni relations.
“Our Home: Music of the United States” gave an evening audience exactly what was printed on the flier and then some on the evening of Nov. 15, as upper school vocal groups Cantilena, Camerata and Guys’ Gig, in addition to many talented soloists, paid tribute to the music of America, both modern and classic.
The concert, directed by Susan Nace, fittingly opened with all of the evening’s singers joining forces for a spectacular rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The upper school chamber ensemble Camerata then took the stage to perform a trio of joyous and heartfelt odes to America, starting with the famous “America the Beautiful,” and continuing with Oscar Peterson’s “A Hymn to Freedom.” Camerata finished their set with composer Abbie Betinis’ “Journey Home.”
Following Camerata, a slew of capable soloists appeared, singing a wide variety of pieces, from sophomore Shreya Basu’s performance of the traditional “Every Night When the Sun Goes In” to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Think of Me,” sung by Caroline Howells, grade 10. Although the concert showcased music from the United States, the show also made room for pieces by noted European composers such as Frederic Chopin, whose “Nocturne” in E-flat major was beautifully performed by pianist Pooja Shah, grade 12. Continuing with the evening’s classical selections were Wendy Shwe, grade 12, playing Beethoven’s “Sonata” in A major on piano and Rebecca Liu, grade 12, singing Christoph Willibald von Gluck’s “O, Del Mio Dolce Ardor.” The solo performances concluded with Nina Sabharwal, grade 12, singing a perfectly misty-eyed version of the jazz standard “Willow Weep for Me” by Ann Ronell.
Guys’ Gig, the all-male a cappella group, then gathered on stage for their first performance of the year. The boys performed an amusing skit in which they attempted to start a song sans a tenor section, at which point they called the freshmen to the stage from the audience to sing “Good Ol’ A Cappella” by Carter and Nevada. With the group now firing on all cylinders, they continued with the classic Motown tune “My Girl” and finished with a raucous version of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”
Harker’s all-female choral group Cantilena was the last of the groups to perform that evening prior to the finale. The singers were in fine form taking on a diverse selection, which included Brian Holmes’ “I Shall Keep Singing,” the traditional American song “He’s Gone Away” and Stephen Hatfield’s gospel treat “Run Children Run.” Rebecca Liu took the role of conductor on “Sing Me to Heaven” by Daniel Gawthorpe, before the group finished their set with their signature piece, “How Can I Keep from Singing,” by Robert Lowry.
The finale again reunited the vocalists for an exhilarating version of Ysaye Barnwell’s “We Are…,” for which the singers received a well-deserved extended ovation.
The middle school fall play production, “The Seussification of Romeo and Juliet,” took Shakespeare into whimsical and hilarious territory in late November.
Directed by Monica Colletti, the wacky retelling of the Bard’s famous tragedy moved the drama ahead several centuries into the late 1980s with dialogue inspired by another beloved composer of rhymes, Dr. Seuss, alluding to some of the author’s most famous stories, such as “The Sneeches” and “Green Eggs and Ham.” The plotting was mostly familiar territory, with Romeo of the cleverly renamed House Monotone (Aditya Dhar, grade 8) falling head over heels for Juliet of the rival House Capitulate (Zahra Budhwani, also grade 8). With both houses in disarray over the affair (and Juliet arranged to be wed to the unbearably narcissistic Paris), the two lovers concoct a plan involving a fake suicide that, as is now known to many, goes spectacularly awry. Along the way, the feuding of the two houses culminates in a sword fight that ends tragically.
This being no ordinary interpretation of Shakespeare, however, much of the material has been lightened up in accordance with the allegorical lessons of Dr. Seuss books. The “poisoned cracker” that Romeo consumes upon seeing apparently (but not actually) dead Juliet was switched for a normal cracker, instead, and the sword fight turned out to not be so deadly after all. In the end, the two families reconcile and, as the saying goes, live happily ever after.
But not before performing a sped-up and highly amusing redux of the entire story. Set designer Paul Vallerga and prop designer Carol Clever created an environment worthy of the humorously affectionate play. Clever also designed the cast’s often garish costumes, which were more than appropriately representative of the time period in which the play took place.
All the while, the student crew of Sneha Bhetanabhotla and Justin Culpepper, both grade 8, and Praveen Batra and Justin Su, both grade 7, made sure the show was smoothly run and free of technical hiccups.
Wednesday marked a momentous occasion for both star Harker golfer Maverick McNealy, grade 12, and the Harker athletics program, as McNealy signed a letter of intent to attend Stanford University and compete in its golf program.
Surrounded by family, friends and faculty at Nichols Hall, McNealy received enthusiastic cheers and applause after signing the agreement.
“I’m very excited and I’m very thankful for this opportunity,” McNealy said. “I’m thinking I might play professionally. It depends on how I play in college and where I stack up against the other best golfers in the country. But the great thing about going to Stanford is that I know I’m going to get a great education, and that’s always something to fall back on if professional golf isn’t what I want to do.”
“We’re so proud of Maverick,” said Harker golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng. “This is our first golf signing, and no less, it’s Stanford, which is a very prestigious golf program.”
McNealy, who in July reached the final eight at USGA’s Junior Amateur Championship, is looking forward to making golf an important part of his time at Stanford. “I’ve only been playing golf pretty much half the year, for basically my whole life,” he said. “When I go to college I will be playing year-round, and we’ll see where that takes me with that actual level of practice and playing, and hopefully I play really well.”
Later in the summer, he won the Silver Creek Valley Junior and narrowly missed the semifinals at the Northern California Golf Association’s Amateur Match Play Championship.
“He was for the most part under the radar, but he really excelled during the summer,” Cheng said, adding that the young but disciplined senior “never complains. When he has a bad day, he’s the type of player who will go back to practice, go back to the range and work on his game and figure it out.”
“There’s no doubt he’s a very, very talented golfer,” said Dan Molin, Harker athletics director. “I’ve embarrassed myself on the course with him. He was very patient with me and he’s a phenomenal kid.”
Tennis doubles team Katia Miranova, grade 11, and Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, compete in the CCS doubles tournament Monday and Tuesday. Runner Corey Gonzales, grade 10, runs in the state cross country meet on the Nov. 24.
The girls volleyball season came to a close Wednesday night at the CCS semifinals versus Harbor High School. The girls were able to take one game in the best of five match but ultimately lost against the #1 seed 25-18, 21-25, 25-18, 25-14. On behalf of the girls, thank you to everyone in attendance … it was a fun, supportive Eagle crowd, and congratulations to the ladies on an outstanding season.
A group of 12 Harker Public Forum debaters traveled to Apple Valley, Minn., during the first weekend of November to compete in the national invitational and Tournament of Champions octofinal qualifier. With 178 debaters vying for the title, Harker swept the top speaking awards in Public Forum debate and six students earned bids to the Tournament of Champions, to be held next May.
Aneesh Chona, grade 12, took top speaking honors, edging out junior Kevin Duraiswamy by a single adjusted point. Chona earned 118 out of 120 total adjusted points at the tournament and both Chona and Duraiswamy each dropped a mere five points total in the six preliminary rounds. Sreyas Misra, grade 11, rounded out the top three by taking third, only a half of an adjusted point behind Duraiswamy!
Harker had three more debaters place in the top 15 speakers with senior Reyhan Kader placing ninth, senior Anuj Sharma placing 12th and sophomore Aadyot Bhatnagar earning 13th overall speaker.
Three teams made it to elimination rounds, with senior Kiran Arimilli and junior Sebi Nakos being recognized by the tournament for narrowly missing the cut as 33rd seed. Duraiswamy and Kader as well as Misra and junior Neil Khemani won their first elimination round and were eliminated in the octofinal round of the tournament. Sharma and Chona won the first two elimination rounds before losing on a 2-1 decision in the quarterfinal round, finishing in the top eight teams at the tournament.
Two Harker alumni from the Class of 2012, Aakash Jagadeesh and Akshay Jagadeesh, traveled to Minnesota to help coach the team and judge rounds at the tournament.
At a forensics tournament in Las Vegas from Oct. 25-28, Srikar Pyda, grade 11, entered elimination rounds as the third overall seed at the tournament. He made it to the octofinals.
That same weekend, at the University of the Pacific, 12 Public Forum debaters traveled to Stockton to compete at the University of the Pacific tournament. More than 100 debaters competed in the varsity Public Forum division.
Seniors David Grossman and Nikhil Agarwal went undefeated in preliminary rounds and made it to the top four teams before being eliminated on a 2-1 decision in semifinals.
Sophomores Vamsi Gadiraju and Nikita Mittal as well as Eesha Chona and Aarti Kheskani, both grade 9, made it to the top eight before being eliminated in quarterfinals.
Maneesha Panja, Sebi Nakos and Jithin Vellian, all grade 11, and Nikhil Kishore, grade 10, were eliminated in the octofinal round. Sophomores Andrew Jin and David Lin missed elimination rounds by a mere 0.3 of a speaker point! Gadiraju was also named the overall second place Public Forum speaker at the tournament.
At the Saint Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational in Dallas held Oct. 18-22, Steven Wang, grade 10, reached the finals in United States Extemporaneous Speaking, taking sixth place overall. He also advanced to quarterfinals (top 23) in International Extemporaneous Speaking. With these results Wang is now ranked among the top few extempore in the country in several forensics websites’ ranking systems. Also at St. Mark’s, Saachi Jain, grade 11, reached Congress finals (top 13) against a very stout Texas field in her first tournament of the season.
Sophomores Leo Yu and Ayush Midha reached the final round of the St. Mark’s Sophomore Hoe-Down and lost on a 2-1 decision. Midha also participated in the Bush Institute Economics Debates, earning first place and a $2,000 scholarship.
On Oct. 21 at the League Congress tournament at Summit High School, four Harker students reached the final round (top 16): Arjun Goyal, grade 11, Nikhil Ramgiri, grade 9, Kathir Sundarraj, grade 12, and Warren Zhang, grade 12. Sundarraj went on to earn second place overall in the tournament with his finals performance, in addition to garnering a best presiding officer award in his preliminary house. Arjun Kumar, grade 11, also earned a best presiding officer award, and narrowly missed finals in part because of his willingness to serve his house in this role. Congratulations to all 13 students who competed in this tournament on an outstanding team effort. Harker tied Bellarmine for most awards with each school taking seven of the possible 23 trophies.
Twelve Harker Public Forum debaters flew to New York for the Bronx Round Robin and New York City Invitational from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21. Despite the red-eye, and going straight into a debate round the minute they arrived, Neil Khemani and Sreyas Misra, both grade 11, won seven out of 10 decisions in their pod at the Bronx Round Robin where they took second place in their pod and missed clearing the finals by a single ballot!
During the New York City Invitational, which boasts more than 230 Public Forum debaters competing in the division, Harker had two teams make it to the top 32 and clear into elimination rounds. Juniors Maneesha Panja and Sebi Nakos made it to the round of 32 before being defeated on a 2-1 decision. Khemani and Misra took down the first seed at the tournament in the round of 32 before being eliminated on a 2-1 decision in octofinals. Misra was also named the 17th overall speaker at the tournament.
This was the first national circuit tournament for many of the students in attendance. However, they all worked incredibly hard and left a positive impression on the debate community.
Harker’s former director of global education, Bill Bost, passed away in June and his friends at Harker are joining with Bost’s dear friend, Mike Kerbyson, in holding a memorial to celebrate his life. The memorial will be Sat., Nov. 17 at 2 p.m. in the Bucknall gym, followed by an informal gathering at Harry’s Hofbrau next to the Saratoga campus at 390 Saratoga Ave at 3:30 p.m. Bost’s children, Tanner and Klara, and their mother, Katrina Church, will be flying in from North Carolina. Bost started at Harker in 1993 as a grade 4 teacher and in 2001 became director of special projects in the advancement department.
A year later he took on the position of grant writer/director of international programs, which later became the global education program; Bost became director of that program in 2004. He also worked for many years as a summer program administrator. Kristin Giammona, elementary division head and long-time friend of Bost’s, said she hopes many will attend the memorial, “so Tanner and Klara can grasp how important and special Bill was to Harker and to his Harker friends.” If you have any photos you would like to include in the memorial’s slide show, please email them to Giammona at kristing@harker.org.
Upon request, Harker’s Advancement Department has established the Bill Bost Scholarship Fund. These funds will benefit the school’s general scholarship endowment fund. Those wishing to contribute to the Bill Bost Scholarship Fund may do so by making their checks payable to the Harker School and write in the memo Bill Bost Scholarship Endowment Fund. For those wishing to use their credit card to make the gift, please call Allison Vaughan, Donor Relations Director at 408-345-9629 or e-mail her at Allisonv@harker.org.