By Melinda Gonzales
Tandy Aye, parent of Emmett Chung, grade 1, put on a Chinese New Year party for Rita Stone’s homeroom in mid-January. The celebration included decorations, crafts, stories explaining the traditions of Chinese New Year and Chinese snacks including Clementines representing good luck and long life, pineapple cake and sesame crunch. The children also each received a traditional hongbao, or red envelope, containing chocolate coins and candy at the end of the party. “It was perfect, start to finish, and definitely enjoyed by all, including me!” said Stone.
Harker’s annual fashion show is nearly here and one of San Francisco’s top designers is bringing his latest fashions fresh from New York to the runway.
Of the 11 fashion designers being featured at this year’s event – a list that includes Tommy Bahama, Oakley and Eli Thomas – “the highlight might be the young San Francisco designer, Ken Chen, who’ll be providing some very edgy clothes for our senior girls to model,” said Sue Prutton, director of upper school volunteer activities and fashion show liaison. “Just two weeks before our event he will be showing at Fashion Week in New York and will be bringing his designs back for our students to wear on our runway!”
“It certainly is an exciting time for us,” Chen said. “We have had an amazing year presenting our first collection and we hope this new collection will bring about even more possibilities for us and our clients. New York Fashion Week has been a dream of ours from the start so we are pressing ourselves to make it amazing. Luckily, all the prep we’re doing for New York will also make the Harker fashion show an extravagant display as well!”
Chen believes editing a collection is one of the most crucial elements of the show, and at Harker, is looking forward to showing the highlights of the collection. Chen wants the audience to “see the range of different shapes and contours we design. We also want to convey how wearable our line is while retaining boldness and luxury.”
The collection is a combination of Chen’s interest in modern technology and architecture, and how they relate to the natural world. “This collection is an exploration of geometric, minimalist design with touches of luxury and extravagance. We continue to use cashmere/wool blends and leather for structured pieces, but now we’ve added lighter fabrics as well for fluidity and draping. These graceful moments expand our range and complement our signature structural motif,” he said.
Harker’s fashion show also allows Chen a chance to pursue another one of his passions: reaching out to the local fashion community. “We love the Bay Area,” he said. “We were very flattered and honored to be invited to such an exclusive event! We jumped on board knowing we’d have a whole new collection to show.”
Shawn Huda ’06 said he first discovered Let’s Get Ready (LGR) during his sophomore year at Tufts University. “As a product of a minority, single parent household, I was immediately drawn to the nonprofit’s mission: to help break the cycle of poverty by empowering students to attend college,” said Huda.
After graduating from Tufts in 2010, Huda went on to work as a program associate in LGR’s Boston office, overseeing multiple programs. He was given the unique role of managing their campaign for the American Giving Awards Competition. The contest’s final round, which ran through early December, was the culmination of a selective two-round competition. Just by qualifying for the finals, LGR was guaranteed at least $125,000, funding that would go a long way towards helping fuel the organization’s aggressive expansion goals. Under Huda’s management, LGR took second place, a ranking determined via the campaign’s Facebook voting drive, and won $500,000. Since winning, the organization has said, “Let’s Get Ready will utilize the $500,000 to expand programs and serve more students.”
“Let’s Get Ready works off a unique model that allows for maximum participation from high school and college students, while allowing the program to be completely free for the participants,” Huda said. LGR does not just supply SAT preparation, but also college application assistance, giving students guidance through every step of the process.
Huda truly epitomized Harker’s commitment to community outreach by working a semester as a verbal coach at LGR and three semesters as the director of the Tufts program. “I discovered major benefits of the model that mirrored tenets of the Harker experience: classes were kept small (five students, on average) to ensure individualized attention and guidance; students both at the high school and college levels were empowered to take greater responsibility and ownership inside the classroom and out; and rather than focusing solely on one aspect, the SAT, the program took a holistic approach to preparing students for the college application process,” Huda said.
The Harker Orchestra, the upper school’s largest musical ensemble, returned from London earlier this month, after having performed during that city’s New Year celebration. They performed at the famous Cadogan Hall, and received a very enthusiastic response. “We had amazing energy that night as that was our first performance of the year, and to do so in Cadogan Hall was amazing,” said Chris Florio, director of the orchestra. “The audience’s spontaneous reaction was one of the highlights of my musical life because it was so genuine. They hadto stand up right away. I’ve never experienced that as a conductor.”
The students also had the opportunity to march in the London New Year’s Day parade, carrying the flags of the countries participating in this year’s summer Olympic games, which will take place in London. “Since we are not a marching band, this was an option for us, so I graciously accepted,” Florio said.
Students weren’t the only ones who considered the performances a highlight. Many Harker parents were also in attendance, and were ecstatic at how well the concerts went. “Almost immediately after the performances, parents started emailing each other, expressing how moved, proud and stunned they were at how well we performed,” said Florio. “Many audience members were brought to tears when our program was finished.”
The orchestra’s performances can now be viewed online through Cadogan Hall’s website. Their Dec. 29 performance begins at approximately one hour and three minutes into the video. The Dec. 31 performance begins at the 57-minute mark.
In mid-December, The Harker School’s lower school completed a service project that resulted in presents under the trees of many families who would not have otherwise been able to afford them. Joe Connolly, the dean of students K-5, said that while the massive toy drive at the lower school was a grade 4 service project, most of the lower school families donated a toy.
Grade 4 students went above and beyond by not only donating toys, but also counting the toys and loading them up for delivery. At the end of the project, 809 toys were delivered to Sacred Heart Community Services (SHCS) in San Jose.
As Connolly said in an email to lower school families, “The volunteers at SHCS were thrilled with the donation. Your donations went a long way towards helping them reach their goal of making sure that every child has a toy to enjoy.” Including Harker’s donation, more than 16,000 toys were donated, then set up and organized like a toy store for parents of children in need to choose from, resulting in a very merry Christmas day.
In December, The Harker School learned that executive chef Steve Martin and his team were being recognized by Ledyard Foods, Inc. for the outstanding food service program they run here at the school.
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, made the announcement to the school via email, noting that at a recognition dinner in Martin’s honor, Steve Rebottaro, Ledyard Foods, Inc.’s president, said Harker was very lucky to have one of the best food service directors and teams that he and his company have ever been associated with. In addition to the award, Martin was presented with a check to Harker in the amount of $1,600.
According to Rosenthal, the money is to be used to sponsor a student program. Rosenthal ended the email with a sentiment the entire Harker community echoes: “Congratulations, Chef Steve and team for all you do for our students and staff.”
As we reach the end of the holiday season, we look back at the highlights of it, and of our favorite holiday traditions here at The Harker School; not least of those is Downbeat’s annual holiday tour. Downbeat is a group of theatrically gifted sophomores, juniors, and seniors who incorporate dance and vocal interpretations into jazz and pop songs. In early December, Downbeat departed Harker at 8:45am for their tour day – a day when they perform festive, fun, and beautiful music all over the Bay Area. “We’ve gone to same places for several years now,” said Cathy Snider, one of Downbeats directors. It starts at the Lucile Packard Children’s hospital, where students sing throughout oncology wards, as well as bedside for childhood cancer patients. From there, they travel to Filoli Gardens, where they sing at a historical home that opens to the public during the holidays. Then the students hop back on the bus, and travel up to Pier 39 in San Francisco, where they perform right under the big Christmas tree, a stop on the tour that was added “just a few years ago so we could get them up to the City,” Snider said. After a quick stop for sundaes in Ghiradelli Square, the students are off once more, this time to The Forum, Assisted Living, where students perform both bedside and in the hallways for Alzheimer’s patients. It’s a quick jump from there to The Forum, a retirement community where residents live on their own and love to join in the singing. Finally, the group goes to The Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. “This is the most important part of the tradition for the families, because all the parents, and some teachers/admin take over the lounge and cheer us on!” Snider said.
Snider’s favorite part of the tour is not any one stop, though. “My favorite part of the day is watching the group really fuse as an ensemble,” she said. “Touring can be stressful, with the need for constant good cheer and adaptability, and on this tour they really become a unit, all while giving so freely of their compassion and energy.”
Harker’s upper school orchestra has just returned from London, where they performed during the New Year’s celebration and participated in the city’s New Year’s Day Parade. During their performance at Cadogan Hall on Dec. 31, the orchestra, directed by upper school music teacher Chris Florio, performed “Overture to Candide” by Leonard Bernstein, “Norfolk Rhapsody No. 1” by Ralph Vaughan Williams and the famous “Overture to William Tell” by Gioachino Rossini. During their stay, the students also had the opportunity to see many of England’s most famous locations and landmarks, including the Tower of London, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, Stratford-upon-Avon and the City University of Oxford.
Watch this space for more information and photos in the near future!
Harker will once again hold a series of Cookies and Kindergarten events in January, where prospective parents will have the opportunity to tour the lower school campus, meet with admissions staff and view a kindergarten class session while enjoying warm cookies. The dates for these events are as follows (all tours start at 9 a.m.): Jan. 6, Jan. 10, Jan. 19 and Jan. 24. An RSVP is required for those planning to attend.
Alexander Wang MS ’98 was recently named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30” in the Art & Design category. Now a major figure in the fashion world, Wang, who turns 28 later this month, has built a $25 million business and earlier this year opened a store for his brand in the SoHo district of New York City. He has appeared regularly in publications such as The New York Times, Vogue and In Style. In September, he teamed up with designers Sophie Theallet and Billy Reid to design T-shirts celebrating the 40th anniversary of Starbucks Coffee.