From Stanford to Harvard, there is a lot of new activity in the world of online education and digital resources, and Harker is joining in as a member of the Global Online Academy (GOA). Started in the 2010-11 school year by schools including Lakeside (Seattle), Catlin Gabel (Portland), Kings Academy (near Amman, Jordan), Head-Royce (Oakland), Punahou (Honolulu), Sidwell Friends (Washington, D.C.) and Dalton (New York), GOA is operated by a consortium of member independent schools.
Courses are taught by faculty of member schools exclusively to students of member schools. A teacher at Dalton might have a mix of students from Jordan, Seattle and Honolulu. Each student’s course and grade appear on his or her transcript from the home school and no more than three students from any one school may participate in any one course.
Harker has a long history of effective use of digital resources to support our teaching and learning including being the first high school to have a “Bring Your Own Laptop” program, but approached online learning initiatives carefully. GOA meets Harker’s standards of excellence and the upper school will pilot the program for the 2012-13 academic year.
Harker teams swept the TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science) National Finals for 2012 in both grades 9-10 and grades 11-12 categories. The 2012 challenge had students working on engineering problems involving health care and medicine. Harker’s grade 11-12 team accumulated 156 out of a possible 176 points, finishing just a few points ahead of the second, third and fourth place teams. In the Level 9-10 bracket, Harker edged the second place team by a single point with 138 points. Read more about the exciting April preliminary results.
TEAMS is an annual high school competition challenging students to work collaboratively, applying math and science knowledge in practical, creative ways to solve real engineering problems. Focused on a theme each year, original academic and innovative concepts are developed for the competition based on the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges. The challenges require job-readiness skills such as teamwork, analytical thinking and multidimensional problem-solving.
NMSC announced earlier this month that 2012 graduates Gerilyn Olsen, Aditi Ashok and Ryan Chang have all won college-sponsored Merit Scholarships. The number of Harker National Merit scholarship winners for this year now stands at 21.
May 23, 2012:
Today, NMSC announced four more college-sponsored scholarship winners, bringing the total number winners to 18. They are Cole Manaster, Rahul Madduluri, Andrew Lee and Elizabeth Wyleczuk-Stern.
May 16, 2012:
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) announced the winners of this year’s round of scholarships in April and May, and a total of 14 Harker students were among the recipients. In April, Pavitra Rengarajan and Revanth Kosaraju, both grade 12, were named winners of corporate-sponsored merit scholarships. These scholarships are awarded to students who’ve reached the finalist level in the National Merit Scholarship competition, and most range from $500 to $10,000 per year of undergraduate study. Others are single payments ranging from $2,500 to $5,000.
In May, seniors Nicole Dalal, Max Isenberg, Ramya Rangan, Melody Huang, Kathryn Siegel, Prag Batra, Govinda Dasu, Michelle Deng, Alexander Hsu, Jeffrey Kwong, Chaitanya Malladi and Lucy Xu received National Merit Scholarships of $2,500 each. These scholarships are awarded to finalists in each state whose accomplishments and skills are judged to be strong enough for success at the college level.
The competition began in October of 2010, when this year’s competitors, approximately 1.5 million students, took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). Those who scored highest on the test, less than one percent of high school seniors nationwide, were named semifinalists. Of those, 15,000 finalists were selected.
The history department is pleased to announce the 2012-13 recipients of the John Near and Mitra Family scholar grants, all rising seniors. 2012-13 John Near Scholars: Apricot Tang, Ashvin Swaminathan and Nina Sabharwal. 2012-13 Mitra Family Scholars: Apurva Tandon, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Warren Zhang, Joseph Wang and Shivani Mitra. “Congratulations to all students selected!” said Donna Gilbert, history and social sciences chair.
The $300,000 John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, in memory of the 31-year veteran of Harker’s teaching staff who passed away in 2009, was made by his parents James and Patricia Near, to, in John Near’s words, “help develop the history department, both through the acquisition of resources and providing growth opportunities for both faculty and students.” Each year, three students receive a grant to pursue an independent historical or social study.
In 2011, Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra established The Mitra Family Endowment for the Humanities which matches gifts to the annual giving campaign up to a total of $100,000.
Harker’s team of Albert Wu, Ramya Rangan, Max Isenberg, and Warren Zhang,. all seniors, made it all the way to the National Economics Challenge final round in New York City before going down in a tight, lightning quick buzzer round to a very worthy opponent from Belmont, Mass.
More than 5,700 students from 33 states participated in this competition, and the team had to win both California and place in the top four in a regional exam to make it to New York for the finals. Then, they finished in the top two of the first round to make it to the final day! At the national final, students completed rounds of testing, worked in teams to solve case problems, and participated in a quick-paced oral quiz bowl in order to compete for the title of national champions.
Advisor Samuel Lepler noted, “The team worked very hard, and it’s the first time Harker has been in the championship match! The kids were great and it was an amazing experience for everyone. First in California and second in all of America … not too shabby!”
Two Harker sprinters qualified for the CCS track and field finals this past Friday night at Gilroy High School. Junior Isabelle Connell qualified in the 400-meter run with a time of 58.53, placing eighth, and just missed qualifying in the 200-meter final, placing 12th with a time of 25.80.
Junior Sumit Minocha qualified in the 200-meter run placing fifth overall with a time of 22.13. Please congratulate these truly elite athletes on their accomplishments and come cheer them on this Friday night!
Also, congratulations to thrower Michael Chen and two-miler Tyler Yeats, both grade 11, for qualifying and participating in the semifinals Saturday. See complete results here.
Results from this year’s National Mythology Exam arrived recently, and several middle school students earned high marks. Gold medals, earned for scoring 100 percent on the exam, were awarded to Isabella Min, grade 6, Aditya Dhar and Nikhil Manglik, both grade 7 and Elisabeth Siegel and Alison Wang, both grade 8.
Grade 6 students Derek Yen and Rahul Bhethanabotla won silver medals, as did seventh graders Arjun Subramaniam, Manan Shah, Austin Tuan, Karthik Sundaram, Kshithija Mulam, Amrita Singh, Eric Pei, Raymond Xu, Christopher Finsterbusch, James He, Albert Xu and Peter Wu, as well as Kaushik Sankar and Michael Moncton, both grade 8.
Bronze medalists from grade 6 were Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Justin Su, Adrian Chu, Olivia Long and Rishi Iyer. Grade 7 bronze winners were Venkat Sankar, Alexander Lam, Brendan Tobin and Jackson Su, while Grace Guan, Rishabh Chandra, John Jerney, Anthony Luo, Arjun Narayan and Gurutam Thockchom won bronze in grade 8.
Harker grade 3 families enjoyed a special movie night in late January at Nichols Hall. Students enjoyed the movie and munched on food while parents socialized and enjoyed a night out with their children. Luckily, Harker events coordinator Tiffany Hurst was there to capture the evening in photos as it happened!
Following on the successful heels of the recent AP Studio Art exhibit, the upper school’s regular annual art exhibition is now on display in the Nichols Hall atrium. It features juried art selections and had an opening lunch time showing with DJ music sponsored by the Spirit Club.
This year’s exhibition juror was Teresa Cunniff, adjunct professor in the fine art department of San Jose State University, and a San Francisco-based mixed media installation artist and graphic designer.
There is an impressive array of advanced ceramics and sculptures on display at this, the upper school’s final art exhibit of the year, including a bust of Superman, number of female torsos (including that of a pregnant woman) and a Colgate toothpaste tube. Meanwhile, at a table nearby were the completed assignments of architecture students who had been charged with the daunting task of “creating a new possibility for mankind.”
Also on hand is a thought-provoking “What Matters” series of charcoal drawings depicting such controversial topics as technology, the societal concept of beauty, and hopes and worries for our global future. There are other drawings without such powerful messages but which could be equally appreciated for their simple beauty – such as a drawing showing white sugar cubes dropping down into a mug filled with dark coffee (realistic and tempting enough to make both coffee, and art lovers, return for a second look).
The Best of Show first place awards for the upper school’s juried art show went to: Seniors Derran Cheng for his drawing, concentration series; Tariq Jahshan for sculpture, concentration series; Rachelle Koch for her photography piece “Bibliophile”; Antonia Ipser for her solitude series; and Cherry Xie for her painting, “War”. Junior Simon Orr received first place in pop object, ceramics and freshman Shannon Su in graphic arts for her piece, “Jack and Jill.”
The Harker upper school received a special visit in March from 25 Tamagawa Gakuen high school students, who stopped by while visiting the United States on a tour of American colleges. Led by Fumito Kurematsu, head of Tamagawa’s international exchange program, the students met with Harker’s college counselors, observed and participated in classes and enjoyed lunch on campus before continuing on with their trip.