A team of Harker upper school students has won a grant of $9,110 to build an electric generator that will use solar power without the costly, cumbersome panels. The team consists of Prag Batra, Sachin Jain and Jay Reddy, all grade 12, Ramakrishnan Menon, Wilbur Yang and Shantanu Joshi, all grade 11, and grade 10 students Nikhil Dilip and Pranav Batra.
The team’s invention is intended to be an alternative for individuals or businesses who seek a cheaper solution for using green energy. “By capturing solar energy, converting it to heat and then harnessing this heat to generate electricity over a body of water – lake, ocean, even swimming pool – we can generate electricity at a lower cost than with conventional solar panels,” Batra said.
Earlier this year, the team, coached by math teacher Anthony Silk, proposed their project for this year’s InvenTeam outreach initiative, run by the Lemelson-MIT Program, which awards grants to teams of high school students wishing to see their inventions become reality. The team also received help from adviser and physics teacher Mark Brada, mentor Eric Toberer, assistant professor of physics at the Colorado School of Mines, and mentor Jeff Snyder, faculty associate in applied physics and materials science from the California Institute of Technology.
Possible applications for the generator are numerous. “For instance, the device could be used on almost any body of water and could be incorporated into future boats to provide renewable, portable power at sea,” Batra said. “In the process, the device would help reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources such as fossil fuels and provide clean energy without negative environmental impacts such as air or water pollution.”
They plan to use the grant money to purchase materials for the generator, and plan to seek additional funds to cover travel costs for a trip to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Eurekafest in June, where they will showcase their invention. “We intend to have the device completed by early- to mid-June in time for Eurekafest,” Batra said. “If possible, we hope to demo the device for the school before the end of the school year.”
The Harker School’s very own Susan Nace, who directs Cantilena and advises Guys’ Gig at Harker, has been chosen as a mentor for the San Francisco Symphony Community of Music Makers’ upcoming choral event and workshop this November. Launched for the San Francisco Symphony’s centennial season to “serve amateur adult musicians” and “promote active participation in music-making and life-long learning,” the Community of Music Makers consists of an amateur orchestra, an amateur chorus and a chamber music program, and features workshop events during which participants are treated to mentorship from musicians and artistic staff of the San Francisco Symphony.
On Nov. 20, from 6:30-9:30 p.m., the Community of Music Makers will host their second-ever event, a choral workshop hosted by San Francisco Symphony Chorus director Ragnar Bohlin on stage at Davies Symphony Hall. The event will present and workshop Heinrich Issac’s “Innsbruck, I Must Leave You,” Brahms’ “Wie Lieblich” from “A German Requiem,” and Handel’s “Zadok the Priest: Coronation Anthem.” The event is a follow-up to the Community’s inaugural workshop on June 28.
Nace shared in a Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2010 for her part in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus’ live recording of a “Symphony of a Thousand,” a selection from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major. That same recording was also recognized for Best Classical Album and Best Engineered Classical Album awards.
Video of this event is available on The Harker School’s YouTube channel: Part 1, Part 2
Right on the heels of astronaut Greg Chamitoff’s appearance, the Harker Speaker Series hosted another fascinating space-themed talk by Dr. Jill Tarter, director of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View. A well-known figure in the search for life on other worlds, Tarter’s research formed the basis for Jodie Foster’s character in the popular science fiction film “Contact.”
After introductions by Chris Nikoloff, head of school, and Harker student Govi Dasu, grade 12, an astrophysics enthusiast, Tarter jumped right into her presentation, titled, “Citizen Science and the Search for E.T.”
She explained that she and her team use radio telescopes to search for evidence of extraterrestrial (ET) intelligence, juxtaposing a photo of herself at a computer with a photo of Jodie Foster in “Contact” listening for signals with a pair of headphones. “I’m the one that doesn’t wear headphones,” Tarter quipped.
Tarter’s entire career as a scientist has been spent on SETI research, having served as a SETI project scientist with NASA, and then becoming the first employee at SETI when it incorporated in 1984. “I’ve only actually had two jobs in my life,” she said. Her current project is being the self-described “chief cheerleader” of setiQuest, an effort to engage the open community in SETI’s mission.
“We’re all transitioning,” said Tarter
. “At my ripe old age, I’m trying to learn how to do my business in a different way.” She used the language of the open-source computing community in saying that SETI was “moving away from the cathedral” of doing research on their own using large instruments, and moving toward “the bazaar,” a rich source of ideas and innovation.
“But it’s a little bit rough and tumble, too,” she explained. “You’ve got to have some sharp elbows and a thick skin to do well in this environment, and that’s what we’re trying to learn how to do, because we realize that not all smart people who are interested and passionate about SETI actually work for the SETI Institute, and they can help us to improve the search.”
Tarter then moved on to the greater topic of SETI research. “There are answers to questions about what is, what ought to be, who are we, why are we, and of course, who else might be out there,” she began. “Along that journey, we’ve discovered that our universe is vast, that our sun is one of 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy.” As massive as that sounds, the Milky Way is only one of 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, which itself only makes up four percent of the universe’s mass energy density. The rest she said, is made up of “dark matter, dark energy. ‘Dark’ is just an astronomical word for ‘we don’t know.’”
She pointed out that SETI research hasn’t set out to prove the assumed existence of sentient extraterrestrial life. “We just note the possibility, probably even the probability, given the size and the uniformity of the universe we find ourselves in,” she said.
Since 1995, about 550 planets have been found by watching stars that wobble as their planets orbit around them. The Kepler spacecraft, launched in 2009, has been searching for Earth-sized planets in orbit around stars similar to the sun, which may be the right temperature to contain liquid water necessary for life. Using its 95-megapixel camera to detect dips in the brightness of stars caused by their planets’ orbits, Kepler identified 1,235 exoplanet (the term for planets existing outside the solar system) candidates by staring at a tiny patch of the Milky Way between the Cygnus and Lyra constellations. Of those, Tarter said, 60 may be situated in the so-called “Goldilocks zone,” orbiting just the right distance from their stars to house the right temperature for liquid water.
That data, released in February, was followed up in September by another large set of data, which doubled the number of exoplanet candidates. One of Kepler’s most fascinating discoveries from that set was Kepler 16b, the first planet known to orbit two stars.
Although Kepler 16b is likely too cold to be habitable, “it shows us that it’s possible to have planets in stable orbits around binary stars, and since most stars out there are binaries, this is a whole lot more real estate that we know is out there, and some of it might be habitable,” Tarter said. Using statistical math, Tarter estimated that “maybe 500 million” planets in our galaxy are habitable.
In addition to people who search for life, Tarter said the SETI institute also employs astrobiologists who study the “origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.” In order to understand what types of planets may be able to sustain life, they study life forms that are able to withstand extreme conditions here on Earth. “My colleagues are trying to find the answer to the question of what constitutes a biosignature,” she said. The presence of methane in our atmosphere caused by everything from termites to what Tarter termed “bovine flatulence,” for example, is one clue of the biological happenings on the surface. “Biology is leaving an imprint on our atmosphere, and perhaps we can find something like that in the atmospheres of other planets, but it’s very tricky to be able to say with absolute confidence that that particular chemical signature cannot be produced abiotically,” she said.
The presence of technology on other worlds is also a concern for SETI research, which also looks for so-called “technosignatures” from extrasolar planets. While earthly technologies could be detected by an advanced civilization, receiving their communications is another matter. “Our own technologies are in fact visible at interstellar distances by an advanced technology,” Tarter said, “and perhaps their technology could be detected by us at radio or optical or some other wavelength, if we only had a determined search to systematically look for it.”
SETI’s success is not only dependent upon whether or not other civilizations exist, but also whether or not their technology lasts long enough on a cosmic time scale. “We are a very young technology, 100 years, in a very old galaxy, whose age is 10 billion years,” she said. “Can we become an old technology? Is technology on average a stabilizing influence, and do technologies last for a long time?”
Tarter wrapped up her presentation with a summary of how the SETI Institute has been trying to build a worldwide community to assist in their research. Their primary audience, she said, is college students. “They’re going to be responsible for our technological longevity. They’re going to solve the technical challenges that we’ve presented to them from technologies we’ve previously produced and not used wisely.” One way they have engaged this audience is to publish their code as open source so that it can be improved.
To involve the community beyond universities, SETI Institute is working on a “citizen science” application that will hopefully enable people to find what SETI researchers may have missed by “allowing humans to do what they do best, which is pattern recognition,” Tarter said.
In building the setiQuest community, the institute has also received help from Google, Dell, Intel and Amazon. The setiQuest explorer application is now available as a Web browser app and is also available for free on Android smartphones and tablets. Tarter admitted that the application needs improvement. However, the data they are receiving from the application will eventually allow them to start a new citizen science project with the help of Galaxy Zoo, an organization that allows website visitors to help classify galaxies. This project will feed users data from telescopes in real time to help SETI researchers sift through particularly crowded bands, “where there are so many signals and we can’t figure out where they are,” Tarter said.
During a brief question and answer session following the presentation, Tarter answered a question from an audience member that dealt with what to do in the event of being contacted by another world. In such a scenario, she explained, the first step would be to tell the world what has happened. There is also a piece known as Article 8, which states that Earth will not respond to the message until a global consensus is reached on what the response will be.
She said she was confident, however, that any such correspondence would not be hostile, as any civilization advanced enough to send a message over such a great length, would probably have been around long enough to be peaceful. “I’m a bit of a Polyanna,” she joked.
The Bollywood and Bangles evening held in September was a great kickoff to fashion show preparations. Hosts Raj Bahri and Kavita Tankha, parents of Aliesa, grade 6, Jai, grade 4 and Mir, grade 2, welcomed guests into their spacious hillside home in Los Altos on a warm, starlit Saturday evening.
“Kudos to Kavita and Rajat for hosting one great party,” said attendee Anil Gulati (Avi, grade 4; Aaditya, grade 2), who was accompanied by his wife, Anjali. “From the smallest detail of decorations to the scrumptious food, drinks and the dancing – everything went off so well! We had a ball dancing to the favorite Bollywood tunes and the gals with the henna done all over looked really festive!”
After dropping cars with the hosted valet service, guests were greeted at the door with a smile and handshake from their hosts, then passed through the house to the beautifully landscaped garden surrounded by stretches of lawn. The whole garden was spotted with upholstered lounges and glowing white tables, tall and short, to make snacking on the delicious hors d’oeuvres and sipping the notable mojitos a most enjoyable experience.
The garden sported two bars and a half-dozen or more servers passed through the crowd of nearly 200 guests. Since the theme was Bollywood (after the Mumbai film making industry’s home) and Bangles, the women, especially, were dressed in everything from full Indian evening dress – sari and wrap – to western dress accented with colorful shawls. Men mostly stuck to dress slacks and shirts, but a number wore traditional dress, as well.
As the evening progressed, gas heaters were lit and the DJ changed the music from traditional and modern Indian music to well-known modern dance tunes with a beat and bass that carried throughout the party setting.
Along with the always-ready mojitos, the bar had a great variety of beverages, and hors d’oeuvres included curry chicken and breaded cauliflower. Around 9 p.m. a buffet opened on the lower level and guests fueled up for the rest of the evening on traditional Indian dishes.
Around 9:30, the music warmed up and couples hit the dance floor. Partiers were in full swing well into the evening and all left filled with delicious food, tasty beverages and the sense of having been to a wonderfully well-arranged event that also helped the Harker Fashion Show kick off its fundraising in style.
Harker’s advancement team was impressed by the donor’s efforts on behalf of the school. “An event of this nature takes many hours and a tremendous amount of effort to pull together so beautifully,” said Sue Prutton, fashion show liaison for the team. “We’re indebted to Kavita and Raj for their gracious support of the fashion show and of the school.”
Students in Cyrus Merrill’s grade 8 United States history class got a real-life example of how the constitution, the Bill of Rights, and especially the fourth amendment, applies to them.
It started with a police officer in early October. Rob Millard, a San Jose Police officer and Harker parent, came in to talk to the class about Fourth Amendment procedures and the Bill of Rights in practical reality.
“The police officer talked to us about many things I never would have thought I’d actually understand,” said Selin Ozcelik, a student in the class. “From appellate jurisdictions to catching criminals hiding under shadows for years, I started to really see what went on in our country. My dad turns on news radio channel every morning, and every word mentioned on that program seemed to be a more sophisticated language apart from the one I knew and spoke everyday. So, even the radio ended up making more sense.”
Later in the period, Millard asked Ozcelik if he could search her backpack. “I said yes, not sure where exactly he was going with that example. I later learned that without my approval, the police officer had no right although he had probable cause.”
The next visitors were two law students from Santa Clara University—Christopher Creech and Shikha Mittal ‘05—and they coincidentally also picked her backpack to search. “I confidently said no as the class around me laughed,” Ozcelik said.
Merrill says that Mittal—a student of his 11 years ago—mentioned that she and other law school students had an activity and community service goal of going out and teaching about the Constitution in the schools. She organized the speakers from among students at the law school.
This gave the students a chance to contrast “the police officer who spoke previously with the position of a lawyer discussing limitations on the police when arguing in court,” Merrill said.
Creech and Mittal were also able to help prepare the class for their final activity—a mock trial before a mock Supreme Court. For the first 10 minutes, they worked with the kids directly, brainstorming how to argue before the Supreme Court. Sahana Narayanan says this was her favorite part of their visit. “They gave us invaluable tips and pointers on our statements, and even explained to us how the judge would react in real life!” Then the law students got into hands-on examples.
They started by defining what the Fourth Amendment is—it guards against unreasonable search and seizure and requires a judicially sanctioned warrant that is supported by probable cause—and who and what it protects. It protects your person and your clothes, Creech said, “but why is it not illegal to just look you up and down?”
“Because then police officers would have to walk around with their eyes closed,” a student offered.
“Exactly!” Creech said. “It’d be ridiculous! That’s why it protects against unreasonable search.”
“Do people disagree about what’s unreasonable?” Merrill asked.
“All the time,” Creech said. “But if you can go before a judge and successfully argue what is and isn’t reasonable, then that becomes the law.”
Creech then took out a shoebox, which he gave to a student in the class. “Now let’s say I’m a policeman,” he said. “I’m looking for a stolen Ferrari, and I want to search your shoebox and see if it’s in there. Can I look in your shoebox?”
“Sure,” the student said, offering it back to him.
“But would it be reasonable?”
“No,” the student said. “But I said it was okay.”
“So now I can search it,” Creech said.
Finally, it was time for the students to become lawyers themselves. The law students came back to act as judges (along with Merrill), and Merrill’s class had researched, prepared, and were ready to present. “To think like a lawyer during the mock arguments was hard, but very fulfilling at the end,” said Narayanan. “I was defending a school that prohibited the wearing of armbands during the Vietnam War. This case (Tinker v. Des Moines) eventually lost in the Supreme Court! So I had to study arguments that would support my case as well as the cases that our opposing side would be using against us. That was the first step,” she said. “The second step was to actually tie those into the mindset of how people were thinking during the 1960’s. I had to make it relevant not to 2011, but to 1969 itself.”
Michael Zhao, another presenter in the mock trial, said, “The mock arguments allowed us students to truly grasp the idea and concept of how real arguments are presented in the Supreme Court.”
“Our debates combined all of the previous activities and made us analyze the information we received from each of the people who visited our classroom,” said Karen Tu, a student in Merrill’s class. “It was also hands-on and gave us a taste of what would happen in a ‘real-world’ scenario.”
It wasn’t just the material that the students learned—they also came away with a better understanding of why learning about the Fourth Amendment and about the Bill of Rights as a whole is important.
“As students, we often overlook the Bill of Rights as something that we need to learn for a test. Because of this, one often learns and forgets the material. By going through these interactive lessons however, I think that we will not only have a greater understanding of the concept, but also remember of the Fourth Amendment itself, as these lessons had a lasting impact on us,” Zhao said.
“We need to know what our rights are and what we or other people can or can’t do. By learning about them, we can protect ourselves and others with our knowledge,” Tu said.
Ozcelik added that, “understanding the base of our country helps students see where our modern society evolved from and the struggles it had to overcome to get here.”
Merrill said one of his goals in bringing in various speakers and organizing a mock argument was to give the students “the real feel that while the Constitution may not change, the interpretations of it might. Post 9/11, for instance, the courts have been much more permissive of invasions of privacy as the public and courts have moved towards prioritizing order and security over liberty and freedom.”
Narayanan said, “Ultimately, the whole act of listening to people of the law, whether they were police officers or lawyers, culminated to a very enriching learning experience that I will never forget!”
At today’s upper school meeting, biology teacher Kate Schafer announced that The Harker School would be participating in a study on influenza with Dr. Marcel Salathe, assistant professor of biology at Penn State University and head of the Salathe Group, a start-up research group based at the university.
During the 2009-10 school year, Salathe conducted a study at Harker on how infectious diseases transfer between high school students. Salathe’s work was published in “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” (PNAS) the official journals of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He received a $1.4 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the upcoming study, which is expected to last between one to one and a half years. The previous study enjoyed a 95% participation rate from the student population, a primary reason Salathe chose Harker again for his research.
“This time around a core group of students will have the opportunity to work directly with Dr. Salathe on ground-breaking research that has the potential to guide the way we understand and manage disease outbreaks,” Schafer said at the meeting. “Students will be working on a variety of different projects, such as investigating the accuracy of rapid influenza tests and looking for bacterial and viral hot spots.”
The process to find students to participate in the project is slated to begin as soon as Oct. 18. Anita Chetty, science department chair, said at the meeting that the entire project will consist of five studies, each led by a lead investigator from grade 11. Under each lead investigator will be a team of students from grades 9-12. Due to the length of the project, only juniors are eligible to be lead investigators, as the seniors will have graduated before the study is complete. Chetty said that more information on the application process for lead investigators would be divulged in Tuesday’s class meetings, and information on the application process for each lead investigator’s team would be available in the coming weeks.
Chetty estimated that the study would begin in earnest in November, “just in time for flu season.”
“We’re very excited about this opportunity and think it reflects the true research community we continue to build here at Harker,” Schafer said.
The Harker School’s Global Empowerment Organization (GEO) begins its annual awareness and fundraising week on Oct. 17, with a kickoff assembly on Oct. 14. This year, all efforts are geared toward helping the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) save the lives of children in developing countries.
Each year, GEO tackles a Millennium Development Goal (or MDG)—this is a world problem that has been identified by the United Nations as an international concern. Usually, GEO lets its members chose one MDG to focus on, and then narrows it down to specific causes and organizations. However, because GEO Week got moved forward this year, the officers of the club had to make the choice as to which foundation they would support before the school year began.
Katie Siegel, grade 12, the GEO president, had the initial idea to support GAVI. “I came up with the idea of working with a nonprofit that distributes vaccines to impoverished nations through a two week summer intensive on foreign policy. Our group’s topic was vaccine distribution. My research there made me realize the importance of the cause, so I thought it would be great if GEO worked with GAVI, the main nonprofit that controls international vaccine distribution.” Siegel says.
The club’s Public Relations Officer, Cherry Xie, grade 12, agreed it would be an eye-opening experience. “We often hear about raising the standards of life to alleviate poverty around the globe, but we don’t usually think about the possibility of preventative measures, like giving vaccinations as a way to better someone’s life. It is much less costly than having to treat someone for a certain disease, and it can prevent families from becoming trapped in the poverty cycle—children live, and therefore can work to bring in income for the family,” Xie said.
On Oct. 14, Tim Nielander, who initially served as General Counsel for GAVI and later as Managing Director of Corporate Services, will speak to students about the GAVI Alliance, what the organization does, and why the cause is so important.
Then the week’s fundraising and awareness officially starts Oct. 17. Throughout the week, students will take vows of silence. Students who take the vow will get pledges from friends and family in exchange for maintaining complete silence for 24-hours. One raffle ticket will be given for every 20 dollars raised, which will be entered to win microbe plushies. The students will represent the children of the world who have no voice because they were not immunized and succumbed to disease.
In addition to the pledges, GEO will be selling wristbands and sport bags at lunch and after school. Candy grams (or as they’ll be called, GAVI grams) will also be available to send to friends on Halloween.
Finally, on Thursday, Oct. 20th, there will be a school-wide simulation game in which students are given lists of people they are supposed “infect.” As Xie explains, “Five GEO members in each grade will start as initial infectors. The idea is to see how many students become ‘infected’ by the end of the day. This is designed to educate students about what could happen if they were not given immunizations in childhood and understand more personally the cause we are supporting.”
“Are we ready to get some jumping jacks done?” Chrissy Chang asked the 590 middle school students and staff who had gathered at the Blackford quad. A rousing cheer went up as the middle school prepared to join National Geographic Kids and United States First Lady Michelle Obama in Let’s Jump!, an attempt to break the world record for the most people doing jumping jacks at the same time.
Chang, the K-8 physical education department chair, said that in addition to Let’s Jump! being a great physical activity for everyone to participate in, the White House’s sponsorship influenced her decision to get the middle school involved. “I think it’s great that the First Lady is promoting the importance of physical activity and healthy eating with her Let’s Move campaign. At Harker, we are fortunate to have a phenomenal physical education program. By participating in Let’s Jump!, our students can say that they played a role in setting the record, and can help increase health awareness,” Chang said.
The students were enthusiastic, as well. “It’s really cool!” said Alexandra Michael, grade 6, about the First Lady’s world-record breaking idea.
To set a new record, more than 20,425 people across the globe will need to perform jumping jacks for one minute during the 24-hour time period between 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 11 and 3 p.m. ET on Oct. 12.
Chang led the students and staff in the minute of jumping jacks on the morning of Oct. 12, playing music to get everyone pumped up and excited, and leading a countdown during the last 10 seconds.
Jerrica Liao, grade 6, said it was “really exciting” to be part of the record-breaking attempt. She, Chang and all the other students and staff at the middle school will be waiting anxiously to hear if the record was broken.
Let’s Jump! is part of National Geographic Kids’ movement to get kids outdoors and living active, healthy lives.
For everything to be official, Harker recruited friends of parents and neighbors who were all needed as neutral observers of the jump to verify it to the Guinness Book of World Records. Special thanks to those individuals: Nancy Morgan, Mack Johansen, Helen Azbill, Michael Canziani (Prestige Potraits), Nahla Nijmeh (Diamond Quality Printing), April Medina (Diamond Quality Printing), Judy Crow, Laura Parker (Jostens), Jayson Rocha, Kay Rooney, Steve Malik (California Sport Design), Bella Mahoney (Our Lady of Fatima Villa, Saratoga), Denis Hoye, Jeanette Murphy, Armando DeGraca, Andrea Taylor and Steve Tedesco (former SJ Chamber director, and Campbell Union School District board member).
“It was awesome. Unbelievable. It’s great to be able to see our entire school participate,” Chang said after the event.
In early October, The Harker School had 18 middle school students and three upper school students attend the Jack Howe Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament at California State University, Long Beach. The tournament has been running for 16 years, and attracts students from all over California and Nevada. This year’s tournament included a student congress, all 11 California High School Speech Association individual events and three styles of debate. The students competed in policy debate, congressional debate and original oratory.
In JV policy debate, four middle school students competed on two teams: Panny Shan, grade 8, and Steven Cao, grade 7, along with Ananya Krishnaswamy, grade 8, and Shivani Gohil, grade 8. Not only did Shan and Cao advance to the quarterfinals in this category, but the students were also recognized individually for their exceptional speaking skills. Shan received the second place speaker award, Cao received the eighth and Gohil received the 17th.
In congressional debate, Misha Tseitlin, Emaad Raghib and Aditya Dhar, all grade 7, competed in the varsity division, with Dhar advancing to the finals. In the novice division, Arjun Mehta and Arjun Goyal, both grade 10 students who were competing for the first time, advanced to the finals.
For original oratory, Carissa Chen, grade 7, competed in the novice division. She wrote and memorized a 10-minute speech for which she received second place. Finally, in varsity original oratory, sophomore Zina Jawadi advanced to the semifinals, placing her in the top 12 contestants.
Hats off to the 61st annual Harker Family & Alumni Picnic! The epic adventure began at 10 a.m. and the last picnic-goers reluctantly departed at 4 p.m.; in between, many strange and interesting hats bobbed between the games, stage, chocolate fountain, dunk tank and silent auction, to mention just a few of the destinations at the event.
Organizers Kelly Espinosa and Lynette Stapleton, on behalf of all Harker, send their thanks to all who attended. “We hope you had a hat-tastic day at the family picnic; we sure did,” Espinosa said. “Thanks to everyone who supported the day through donations, volunteer hours, time away from home, ticket selling, ticket buying, bidding, ring tossing, sandwich eating, etc. This truly is an event that couldn’t happen without the support of our whole community!”
Head of School Chris Nikoloff added his thanks. “The Family & Alumni Picnic is a special day and a cherished tradition at Harker,” he noted. “After 61 years, the picnic still delivers old-fashioned, homemade fun, straight from the heart! A special thanks to the picnic committee, all of our parent volunteers, picnic sponsors, and the Harker staff and faculty who combine their efforts to create a magical day for the children and families. Last but not least, a big Harker thank you goes to our picnic chairs, Kelly Espinosa and Lynette Stapleton, whose creativity, heart and vision take the picnic to new heights every year. Hats off to Harker!
Thu Ka had a very special day as the lucky winner of first prize, $10,000, in the grand prize drawing She was sold her winning ticket by daughter Kendall Ka. “Ticket sales were up this year, so, ‘yeah’ to everyone who sold and bought tickets!” said Espinosa.
Harker’s performers again dazzled attendees with a variety of acts, with the performing arts department’s annual extravaganza opening the show on the Sunbonnet Stage at 11 a.m. That show included the not-to-be-missed repartee between assistant heads Jennifer Gargano and Greg Lawson, this year as hat-friendly Lady Gaga and a policeman.
They gave way to students – members of the middle school show choir Harmonics – who, using the picnic’s hat theme and a box of hats, joked their way into introducing the JV Dance Troupe. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, then took the stage under the mistaken impression the theme was rats, not hats, but was quickly put to rights by the student hosts. It was a tough act to follow, but the vocal efforts of the Grade 6 Choir carried the audience with their energetic and subtle style.
Next up was the ShowStoppers dance troupe performing to “Country Girl.” The Grade 4 Choir then took the stage for a baseball medley, followed by Downbeat, the upper school’s show choir, singing the Fats Waller classic “The Joint is Jumpin’.” The Bucknall Choir followed and were then joined in song by Bel Canto, another upper school choir, doing a pair of south-of-the-border tunes before giving way to the grade 7 High Voltage dancers.
Next up was Harmonics, a grade 7-8 group, singing “One” from “A Chorus Line,” followed by Dance Fusion, grade 4-6 dancers, working hard to the tune “Working for the Weekend,” by Loverboy.
Jazz took the stage following the extravaganza, leading with the upper school Jazz Band playing with their usual energy and style. Next Mr. Horsefeathers, a magician, wowed the credulous in the audience with the incredible, followed by the lower school Jazz Band with a trio of tunes including “St. Thomas” by Sonny Rollins.
Then, for the first time, the lower and middle school jazz bands combined, playing Miles Davis’ “Blues By Five.” The middle school then continued with their set, performing a Duke Ellington transcription of “Big Shoe,” and concluded their concert with the Beatles tune “Day Tripper,” arranged by the students in the band, said Dave Hart, their director.
Laura Lang-Ree, performing arts department chair K-12, summed up the day’s performances. “We had over 300 kids, ensembles from every division in the show. Highlights were the Bucknall, grade 4 and grade 6 choirs and other groups singing and dancing alongside the upper school acts. As guest artists, Chris, Jennifer and Greg really bring the show to the audience. This is one of our most prized events of the year as students from all three divisions bond wonderfully during the all-day rehearsal the Friday previous as we put the show together; and, of course, the big performance Sunday is a thrill for all participating!”
Harker alumni gathered in a shady glade for a barbecue from 12-1 p.m.. Diana Nichols, board chair and lifetime trustee, spoke about several of the new initiatives for alumni with regard to admissions. Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, and Jeremy Pomer ’91 tended the grill. “We had lots of young families, and many alumni had an opportunity to see each others’ children,” said Christina Yan ’93, director of alumni relations. A number of administrators and faculty stopped by or hung out to see former students and enjoy the ambiance, including Nikoloff, Butch and Jane Keller, upper school head and math teacher, respectively; Cindy Ellis middle school head; Pat Walsh, grade 5 math teacher; Evan Barth, dean of studies; Andrew Irvine, upper school chemistry teacher; Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology K-12; Eric Nelson, computer science department chair; and many, many more.
About 3 p.m. tables began closing at the silent auctions, with bidders standing by to collect their winnings by the armload, or calendar them, as some of the most popular items, the Bucknall Pajama Party and middle school All-Night Party, drew hordes signing up for those popular events.
There were some stellar silent auction items this year, including a pair of Hawaiian vacations, architectural design services, a stay at the Silverado Country Club and a pair of Dell laptops. Items included an extravaganza of sports tickets and memorabilia and, as in the past, parents could bid on premier seating for a limited number of seats at their child’s promotion or graduation ceremony, or at any of the top-flight plays, concerts and other performances put on by the performing arts department throughout the year.
One of the biggest innovations this year was the addition of gourmet catering trucks. A trio of trucks and one bicycle brought delicious meals from Thai to Cajun to those for whom tasty hamburgers, classic pizza and the other picnic delicacies were not enough. The trucks were stationed hard by the dunk tank, and a new eating area with umbrella-shaded picnic tables was laid out, so entertainment, food and a place to relax were all in one convenient package.
Speaking of the dunk tank, it continued to be a favorite, with those bravely dangling over the water being announced on the public address system so students could come by for a little harmless revenge. Lunchtime dunkee Jared Ramsey, grade 5 social studies teacher, was seen taking the drop at least a couple of times during his half hour, attesting to his popularity around the lower school campus.
Another innovation was the meeting of Eagle Buddies at the picnic. The Eagle Buddies program started last year with grade 3 and 10 students meeting at various events, and this year those buddies are still getting together, while the new tenth and third graders have paired up with their own buddies. These yearlong pals had identifying shirts and all met up at the Eagle Buddies booth staffed by the 2012 and 2013 class deans Jeff Draper and Victor Adler. The pairs were given carnival tickets and went off to some of the game booths together. Some of the pairs ate together and hung out for a while, enjoying the picnic. “Our older buddies were so generous, sometimes buying extra tickets for their little buddies. What great students we have!” said Draper.
Espinosa and Stapleton will soon be hard at work planning next year’s picnic, but the memories from this one will surely last a long, long time!