Before The Harker School there was Harker Academy. And before Harker Academy, there was Mother Butler, the school that preceded Harker on this site.
On the site of the present upper school, Mother Butler Memorial High School educated high school-aged girls through the 1950s, ‘60s and until 1972, when they vacated and Harker moved in. Founded and operated by the order Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, Mother Butler began much the same way Harker’s upper school did – with a few teachers and a freshmen class. One principal, two teachers and a class of about 70, to be exact. Those two teachers, Mother Benedict and Mother Lawrence, were among a small group of former Mother Butler educators who visited campus on April 26.
No longer teachers, the nuns use their given names now, Sister Eileen Tuohy and Sister Laura Siebert. They, Sister Theresa Cunningham and Sister Gabriel McCauley came up from Southern California for a reunion of that first class of freshmen – the class of 1963 – an impressive 50 or so of whom attended the reunion. Proximity to their old stomping grounds prompted a visit to Harker. They were joined by Philomena Lynch, who lived at Mother Butler while she taught at nearby St. Martin’s and Queen of Apostles schools. Lynch still lives locally and taught at Palo Alto Military Academy and The Harker School for 26 years (she was Miss Killarney to her students then), thus linking the schools together in more than just location.
Walking through the Office of Communication sparked many memories for the teachers, who lived in that very hallway while they taught at the school. A trip into the Bistro Café, which used to be their chapel, invited a wonderful piece of trivia. The two electrical outlets over the kitchen doorway held the lights to the confessional, one to signal vacancy on the priest’s side, and one for the penitent’s. Sister Eileen also pointed out that highway 280 didn’t exist, and the entrance to the school was on Moorpark Ave., allowing the girls to pick fruit from the orchards that surrounded the campus.
School archivist Terry Walsh produced three albums of Mother Butler photos, which she presented to the group. The sisters recollected wearing full habits at the school until Vatican II relaxed their dress code, and Sister Eileen most fondly remembered the song contest held annually, when the students wrote and performed songs for judges.
Harker shares more than just the site in Mother Butler’s history. The school had a proud academic tradition, and Sister Eileen commented that their classes gave their students “a great foundation” for college. Lynch concurred, saying they left “so well prepared” for further study. The sisters themselves all hold advanced degrees from various schools, including USC and Loyola Marymount, making it no surprise that their pupils were so well taught.
Sister Eileen was struck by how befitting it was to celebrate their reunion the week of the 70th anniversary of Mother Butler’s death. Those who met the teachers on their visit were likewise struck that even though the schools do not directly share a history, a shared love of learning and intellectual values has been taking place on these grounds for decades.
The Harker Innovation Team has been selected as one of three semifinalists for their dashboard for the car of the future. It was entered in the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize DASH+ contest, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. The Grand Prize winner is being judged now and a popular vote will be taken into account for the final decision.
DASH+ challenged students to consider increasing energy efficency in the ever-changing automotive landscape. The goal? To design a dashboard that helps drivers maximize fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact by incorporating vehicle information and real-time feedback. HIT’s plan includes a graphic design, a technical plan and a video pitch for their design, the Enviro-HEART – Environment Helping Essential Adaptive Response Technology.
The dashboard panel, a result of extensive research, takes instantaneous feedback and displays the collected and interpreted data in a visually enhanced console. It offers the driver alternative transportation possibilities, information about regenerative braking and visual cues about the vehicle’s overall efficiency. The project was truly a mark of teamwork: “From when we built CARE in December 2009, we developed a good sense of the various talents and skills each team member excelled at so we were each able to contribute in significant ways,” Isaac Madan, Gr. 11, said.
For their efforts, all semifinalist teams will receive Flip video cameras. However, HIT members need your votes to win the grand prize: a VIP trip to Detroit to pitch their ideas to automotive industry representatives and receive valuable mentoring from leaders in advanced vehicle development. On May 11, a DASH+ film crew stopped by the Saratoga campus to film the students at work on their project and interview them for an upcoming promotional video.
Voting will open May 1 and last until May 30. For more information, please visit the contest’s website.
On April 13, Namrata Anand, Gr. 12, was presented with a county commendation from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. She was honored for being a national finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Anand traveled to Washington, D.C., to compete against 39 other students from around the country. The commendation mentioned the coverage of her achievement in the San Jose Mercury News.
To get to the finals, Anand reached conclusions about the Andromeda galaxy that could help scientists locate areas with a high likelihood of containing extraterrestrial life.
The commendation was presented by Ken Yeager, president of the board of supervisors, to R.K. Anand, Namrata’s father. He accepted on his daughter’s behalf, as she was busy rehearsing for the upper school production of “Les Miserables.”
Students, faculty and Harker family members arrived en masse at the Blackford campus on April 26 for the fourth annual Harker Cancer Walk. This year’s event was another success, bringing in $5,500 in one day alone, with donations still being received at Harker News Online press time. The well-attended outing once again raised funds for Camp Okizu, a program that provides fun activities and quality care for young cancer patients. Children at Camp Okizu enjoy outdoor pastimes such as swimming, boating, archery and a ropes course, in addition to social events such as a dance and a barbecue dinner. The money raised at the Cancer Walk will be used to purchase equipment to allow Camp Okizu to provide these services to the children.
Tables sold bracelets, water bottles and baked goods to the attendees, who enjoyed walking, talking, meeting and greeting in the refreshing spring weather.
In the week leading up to the Cancer Walk, special posters were made to be displayed during the event, and people also made flags containing slogans honoring cancer survivors and those who passed away from the illness. These flags were then placed along the walk as the event took place.
“The weather was perfect. The baked goods, divine! T-shirts, bracelets and water bottles made everyone true fashion icons!” said Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, who organized the event with middle school computer science teacher Michael Schmidt. Schmidt began organizing the Cancer Walk in 2007 following the passing of his mother due to cancer in 2006.
Donations are still being accepted at this time. Checks or cash can be brought to the Blackford campus front office. Checks can be made out to either Camp Okizu or Harker.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2010 Harker Quarterly.
“If you build it…” The oft-quoted line from the movie “Field of Dreams” has been echoing in the halls of The Harker School the last few years. Nichols Hall, which opened to great celebration in the fall of 2008, has proven to be a spectacular home for science classes, competitive research students, music concerts and lecture series. Davis Field and the Singh Aquatic Center have taken the sports department to new levels of athletic achievement. And the buzz continues. Next on the plan: a performing and visual arts center (PVAC).
Harker’s six-phase capital improvements plan is currently completing phase 3, which was the building of the two new sports venues and Nichols Hall. (Previous phases improved the Bucknall campus and built Shah Hall.) Phase 4 is the long-anticipated PVAC, which will transform the 16-acre Saratoga campus yet again.
The groundwork for this next phase began in the fall of 2008 with a series of Head of School Gatherings, casual socials at the homes of Harker parents. At those events, Chris Nikoloff led discussions with interested parents about the future of the school, not only sharing information but gathering feedback about what parents wanted most for their campuses.
In 2009 focus groups were convened to discuss the master site plan in more detail, focusing on the gym and student union (phases 5 and 6). A third focus group narrowed the view on the PVAC. Families, students, alumni, faculty and administrators were invited to complete an online survey, which asked for very detailed opinions about the current performing arts and visual arts facilities, as well as the respondents’ wishes for the future. This information was crucial to the administration and architectural team, and “uncovered all sorts of valuable ideas and highlighted several issues that [David Takamoto, our architect,] has been able to address so that once completed everything works very well from parking, to campus flow to beauty,” said Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, of the survey.
Head of School Gatherings continued in the fall of 2009, when Nikoloff presented parents with a draft of the master site plan, incorporating all the ideas culled from families, alumni and employees from the past year. The next step will be spearheaded by former head of school and current trustee Diana Nichols, who will host a series of meetings in the spring of 2010 to get further input on the developing project and unveil the conceptual design of the master site plan.
All of these gatherings and drawings are leading up to the submission by Takamoto of a conceptual design to the San Jose City Planning Commission. Currently Harker is zoned for residential occupancy; the administration wants to convert that zoning to planned development use, which would maximize the use of buildings on campus and greatly minimize the red tape involved as permits are sought for each new building. Another major benefit of the rezoning is that campus buildings will be permitted to reach 50 feet instead of the current 35, allowing for three-story buildings and a theater with room to install a fly system for moving props and scenery vertically on and off stage.
Other designated areas within the building will include a third floor dedicated to visual arts, allowing for natural lighting and separate rooms for stone carving, painting and ceramics; two theaters – a black box and a full-size space with orchestra pit; costume, prop and set building spaces; music and art classrooms and libraries; practice rooms; gallery space; and dressing rooms and lounge areas.
The visual and performing art staff is understandably excited about the project. Laura Lang-Ree, K-Gr. 12 performing arts chair, points out that, “We are the only high school in a 40-mile radius that does not have a theater. Our lack of facilities is dramatic when contrasted with the level of education we provide and the sheer interest in the program and volume of children that we educate. Both students and teachers deal with this subpar facility issue daily.”
Visual arts chair Jaap Bongers concurs: “Our current space does not allow our students to develop their artistic talents to their fullest extent, partly because they can’t spread out and are working in storage and drying areas. The new building will give us separate spaces for storing completed works, works in progress and active studio space. And a separate gallery will mean we can adequately highlight student and faculty art.
” Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facility manager, who has overseen each of the large construction efforts on all of Harker’s campuses, speaks for many families and teachers who are eager for a space that can match the talents of our students: “The new center will greatly enhance an already well-recognized Harker program. With new, state-of-the- art facilities, the possibilities only become that much greater. We know our programs are great, but a contemporary facility will serve as a picture frame to display that level of perfection for many, many people in the community to enjoy.” Rosenthal wants parents of all grades to “ensure that the legacy of excellence passes to the next generation of Harker students,” and that we “invest in programs that make a difference in the world.”
A small group of parents and faculty are already contributing to the $30-35 million that will be needed to build the PVAC. The architectural and rezoning fees are being paid for by the very generous contributions of a group of current and alumni parents whom Rosenthal calls “seed investors.” These kind donors will be recognized and thanked at this year’s Head of School Reception on April 30.
So will they come “if you build it?” Perhaps a project of this size needs a better tagline than one from a Hollywood film. Virginia Woolf once said that all that women needed to write fiction was money and a room of their own. Artists, too, need financial support and their own space to play, create, dream and exhibit. That space will be coming soon for all to enjoy!
Three Harker alumni were featured speakers at the April 10 research symposium, “Technology for Life,” in Nichols Hall. Jennifer Ong ‘07, a junior at the University of California, San Diego, is pursuing biology and communications majors. She also volunteers with The Triple Helix. Richard Kwant ’07 is studying chemistry and physics at Harvard University. Brian Ma ’08 is a bioengineering major at the California Institute of Technology.
Ong spoke about her new role as chief operations officer for The Triple Helix (TTH). Founded by Harker graduate Kevin Hwang ’03, The Triple Helix is a nonprofit, student-run organization that publishes undergraduate articles in print and electronically. “Our mission,” said Ong, “is to allow students the opportunity to voice ideas about the interdisciplinary nature of science, society and law.”
TTH currently has 27 chapters and 800 student writers at colleges across the globe. Chapters publish more than 30,000 printed journals annually and the website gets hits from 16 countries. During her visit, Ong announced that Harker will be the founding school for the establishment of TTH in high schools, and encouraged students to become involved. “Writing for TTH teaches skills like research, writing and critical thinking that you can apply in real life,” she said. “Our style of writing is not an academic style. It is ultimately to open up a forum that the general public can become interested in.”
TTH also partners with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and sometimes can open doors for its writers. “Our outgoing CEO, Julia Piper, got an internship at UC Davis through an article in TTH,” said Ong. “That has been happening more frequently, and we want to institutionalize it.”
Speaking via teleconference, Richard Kwant presented his work at the Harvard Whitesides Lab, on protein structures and interactions. Using the effective but difficult process of crystallization, he was able to create crystalline structures of the protein human carbonic anhydrase II. These structures provide researchers with an atomic level view of what is happening in the protein. “This research will be helpful for biology and medicine in understanding how proteins work and how human biology works,” Kwant said.
He also told the students, “When I came to college I can’t say I really liked proteins. As a freshman I wanted some experience working in a lab. Do as many things as you possibly can. Get exposure to many subjects, and if you see something you are interested in, go with it.”
Begun as a summer research project at CalTech, Ma’s work seeks to unravel the mystery of how plants, unlike animals, can regenerate. Specifically, Ma screened epigenetic-related genes – those that do not change the basic DNA sequence – to determine if they are involved in the regeneration process.
Working with 48 mutant lines of seeds, he found at least six epigenetic-related genes that are likely to be involved in the process. Further research will be required to determine the exact pathways of interactions.
With a bit of serendipity, Ma has combined his experience in engineering and producing radio-controlled cars with a long-held interest in biology. “I find that I enjoy the theoretical and practical challenges of biological engineering,” he said. Ma thinks his lab research has given him a rewarding taste of life after college.
“You just want results, and that I was able to get results from my project was very rewarding, because it actually is new knowledge, and you get to be the one to find out first,” he said. “That’s definitely one allure of going into the research field, whether as an undergraduate or afterward.”
The 2010 “Technology for Life” research symposium, held Saturday, April 10, in Nichols Center, featured two prominent keynote speakers who have propelled their scientific backgrounds into careers with global impact:
Dr. William McClure, a noted plastic surgeon and humanitarian, is a partner at Napa Valley Plastic Surgery, Inc. A graduate of the University of California-San Diego medical school and Stanford University in plastic and general surgical training, McClure has served as chief of surgery at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa. McClure’s presentation, however, focused on his volunteer work with the group Interplast, doing reconstructive surgery on children in developing countries.
Over 25 years and through 55 missions in 14 countries, McClure has repaired cleft lips and palates, neurofibromas and burn scars. Such deformities often doom a child to a life of shame or debilitating impairment. Referring to the cultural superstitions around cleft lips, a deformity in one out of 100 births, McClure said, “The sad part is it takes only 30 to 45 minutes to repair the deformity and change this child’s life.”
McClure told his audience, “I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in high school.” But then a math teacher with a burn scar on one side of his head stirred “my first interest in plastic surgery.” During residency, he was assigned to a plastic surgery rotation with the opportunity to take care of children in Mexico. “Something clicked. That changed my life,” said McClure, who saw how a handful of instruments and 35 minutes could change the life of a child with a cleft lip.
The longer-term solution to surgical needs, however, is training physicians and nurses in developing countries to do the operations themselves. “Surgery is a skill,” said McClure. “You learn it by doing it and we teach by doing. If each trip I can train a physician, we get tremendous leverage.”
McClure, who has already traveled to Laos this year and has a trip to Mexico planned, has received several awards for his philanthropic work, and in 2005 met the Dalai Lama. His “life’s journey” advice to students considering medical careers is threefold: Look to the future while living in the moment, be willing to change course, and plant seeds today. He also encouraged everyone to get involved. “It doesn’t take wealth, academic standing or special skills to make a difference. They secret key is compassion,” he noted. “The Dalai Lama says that if we want to be happy in our life, we have to practice compassion.”
.
Dr. Christopher Gilbert is the vice president of science and technology at Keystone Dental, Inc. A graduate of the University of California-Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University in materials science, Gilbert has worked with McKinsey & Company, consulting with global biopharmaceutical clients on acquisitions and commercial strategy, and with Hologic, Inc.
Gilbert credited his early career inspiration to his father’s interest in bad science fiction, where fantastical micro-surgical tools and bionic eyes were part of the stories. Some of those medical devices, such as surgical robots and ocular implants, are now reality. Speaking about high-tech therapeutic devices such as pacemakers and small equipment like intravenous pumps, Gilbert said, “Medical technology has revolutionized health care since the 1960s. Discoveries improve lives; they change lives.”
With Hologic, Inc., Gilbert led the U.S. approval and launch of the Adiana permanent contraceptive device. A $210 billion industry with an expected growth rate of 6.5 percent, the medical device market comprises 25 percent of U.S. health care expenditures. Competitive and constantly changing, the highly regulated field interweaves the complexities of business, government, patients, physicians and advocacy groups. Gilbert encouraged students to take a variety of courses and take advantage of biomedical and business departments in college. “You need to interface with a wide range of people,” Gilbert advised.
Gilbert’s career began when a random application to a consulting firm ultimately led to his current position. “Believe in the extreme importance of serendipity in your career,” he said. “What kind of skills do you develop to take advantage of things that fall in your lap?” Gilbert said that the Bay Area economy encourages risks and accepts failure, out of which comes opportunity. “Failure will happen. It takes 10 to 12 years to take a product to market, and many of these fail.”
Noting the interdisciplinary nature of the field, Gilbert counseled, “Many of the skills you are now developing in science will serve you in the future. Many of the problem-solving skills I developed in the sciences have served me well in the business world.”
Nichols Hall on the Saratoga campus hummed with energy on April 10 during Harker’s fifth annual research symposium, “Technology for Life.” Begun in 2005 by upper school biology teacher and science department chair Anita Chetty, the student-led event is modeled after professional symposia that encourage the sharing of ideas in a non-competitive setting.
More than 300 people and 69 student presenters attended the increasingly popular event. “Each year sets a new standard and because of the nature of our community, we simply use that standard to grow from,” said Chetty. Three alumni also presented their current university research, and two keynote speakers linked science backgrounds to careers.
The day included breakout sessions led by 19 upper school students and poster presentations by an additional 16 students. Senior Anjali Menon formally presented her work with IBM’s Almaden facility, on using computers to replace human subjects in simulating the action of drug molecules. Her mother, Indira Somanathan, is enthusiastic about Harker’s research program. “Here you have your own facilities and technology. I’m really happy with Nichols Hall,” she said.
Amy Zhou, sponsor coordinator for the symposium and mother of Jason Young, Gr. 11, thinks Nichols Hall plays a big part in the excitement that middle school students have for science. “The level of science is getting better and better every year,” she said. “The teachers are encouraging and give you time to work in the lab, and the research class allows you to learn more skills like writing and presentation.” Young presented his work with epigenetic regulation of gene expression, which he will continue at the University of California, San Diego this summer.
The Chemistry Club presented demonstrations, and at a “Harker Hospital” workshop, middle school students, under the guidance of upper school students, ran EKGs, took blood pressure readings and analyzed simulated blood samples. “This was a great opportunity for us to not only showcase some of our sophisticated data acquisition tools, it was also a chance for our upper school students to mentor and inspire younger Harker students,” said Chetty.
Divya Kalidindi and Namita Ravi, both Gr. 8, were two of 34 middle school students on hand to discuss their poster presentations. By studying the effect of caffeine on the regeneration of body parts in planaria, they found that caffeine could halve the time required for planaria to grow a new head. Looking forward to working in Nichols Hall next year, Kalidindi said, “The center seems more professional. It is going to be really fun.” Ravi added, “The topics are really good here.”
Inspired by his Gr. 8 study of respiration to research the effect of phosphate on algae blooms in aquatic ecosystems, Josh Batra said, “It was fun to see my experiment in action.” Batra is looking forward to more exposure to biology and physics in the upper school.
Event sponsors offered hands-on technology demonstrations and career advice for students and parents. Brendon Yu, Gr. 8, stood in line to try out Autosuture, by Covidien Surgical. Taking a turn at the hand instruments for suturing, Yu said, “This helps you get inside the body and sew delicate arteries. It requires a lot of practice.”
The day closed with a workshop titled “Research Internships, Technical Writing and Research Competitions,” led by a panel of seniors. “These articulate and talented students gave such an informative talk that parents wanted to hear it again,” Chetty said. The videotaped presentation will be linked off of the research website. “The prospect of approaching a university researcher can be daunting. Seeing that their Harker peers have been successful in doing so is highly encouraging,” Chetty continued. “Presentations such as this one continue to assist in moving forward the mandate of the symposium, which is that it is a student-led research conference for students.”
Join us on Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m. in the Nichols Hall auditorium at the Saratoga campus for an evening with acclaimed entrepreneur and visionary Matt Flannery, as he shares his motivation, challenges and experiences in creating one of the most innovative modern tools in the campaign against world poverty, Kiva.org.
Kiva brings the global reach and power of the Internet to the exciting and fast-developing world of microfinance. By creating a global electronic marketplace, Kiva encourages and empowers individuals to connect with small entrepreneurs around the world and easily, efficiently and transparently lend modest sums of money for worthwhile business enterprises.
The numbers speak for themselves. As of November 2009, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in loans, helping over 300,000 entrepreneurs in over 100 countries. Kiva works because it matches the natural generosity and good business sense of contributors with the strong entrepreneurial spirit of people in developing areas who need access to often surprisingly small amounts of capital to fulfill their dreams of creating a better life for themselves and their families.
Kiva further shows that connecting people can also create relationships that extend well beyond financial transactions, building a global community that facilitates the support and encouragement of one another.
So join us on Friday, May 7 for your chance to meet, speak with and hear Matt Flannery as he describes one of the most exciting intersections of high technology and sustainable finance and development. Your outlook and hope for the world’s poor will likely never be the same. If you plan to attend this event, please RSVP by e-mailing HSSRSVP@harker.org.
About Matt Flannery
Matt Flannery began developing Kiva in late 2004 as a side project with while working as a computer programmer at TiVo, Inc. In December 2005 Flannery left his job to devote himself to Kiva full time. As CEO, Flannery has led Kiva’s growth from a pilot project to an established online service with partnerships across the globe and millions in dollars loaned to low income entrepreneurs. He is a Draper Richards Fellow, Skoll Awardee and Ashoka Fellow. He graduated with a B.S. in symbolic systems and a master’s degree in philosophy, both from Stanford University.
About the Harker Speaker Series
Launched in 2007, the Harker Speaker Series (HSS) invites leaders and visionaries from a variety of fields to share ideas and experiences with Harker parents, faculty and students as well as the greater community.
Some of Harker’s most unique offerings are those of the global education department. While the many exchange programs are well-known, they are just the tip of the iceberg, explains Jennifer Abraham, director of global education.
The program has, especially in recent years, begun a transition to much more of an academic focus. In addition to student and teacher exchanges, the department sponsors cultural and curricular exchanges. “Through the variety of exchange programs, Harker students will become better world citizens,” said Abraham. The global education department hopes that “by nurturing these meaningful relationships between young people across various continents, we have the ability to create lasting understanding between the future leaders of the world,” she added.
There are exchanges on all three campuses for students in all grade levels. Harker has sister schools in Japan, China, Russia, India, Australia, Costa Rica, Spain, Thailand, Ethiopia, Switzerland, France and Saudi Arabia.
Programs for the lower school focus on teaching students about the similarities and differences between students around the world. Through a variety of activities students learn from each other about their respective countries and cultures. Kindergarten, second and third grade students work with students at the Tamagawa Gakuen School in Tokyo to learn more about each other before the exchange program that occurs in Gr. 6.
Second graders work with students from Saudi Arabia and Australia in the Mascot Project. The schools exchange stuffed animal mascots, and throughout the year communicate with one another about the adventures of the visiting mascots as they travel with students around the Bay Area and beyond. For example, the Harker eagle that traveled to Saudi Arabia had many adventures “including making tea, dressing in traditional Saudi clothing and attending school,” says Abraham.
Students at the middle school participate in email exchanges, forum discussion groups, and video conferencing with schools in Tokyo, Shanghai, Costa Rica, France and Australia. Regan Heslop, Gr. 6, participated in this year’s video conferences with Shanghai students. “We talked about the environment and global warming,” she said. “It was cool to be able to ask them questions about school and life in Shanghai.”
One of the longest running – over 15 years – and most popular middle school programs is the student exchange with sister school Tamagawa in Tokyo. The students collaborate across the world on environmental and computer science projects in e-mail exchanges and video conferences. Each year a group of students from each school crosses the ocean to spend 10 days in the others’ country, including a four-night stay with a host family. Many of the students renew friendships in Gr. 8 when groups from both schools meet in Washington, D.C.
Those students who are enrolled in advanced French language classes exchange letters and packages with students from
Institution Sevigne, Harker’s sister school in France. These packages often include items such as “yearbooks, school newspapers and teen magazines,” said Abraham.
Students in advanced art do a landscape project and post pictures of their work to an online gallery. Students then are able to view photos of their peers’ art and leave comments. Programs such as these help students to learn more about the people of another country than textbooks can ever teach.
During February, middle school students video conference with peers from around the world. Since 2003, Gr. 8 students have video-conferenced with their counterparts from the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai. Topics of their conversations include population growth and its impact on the environment. These talks culminate in an exchange program, which according to Abraham was the “first of its kind between a U.S. middle school and the People’s Republic of China, garnering significant international media attention.”
Upper school students continue the relationship with sister school Tamagawa through exchanges and foreign language work. Last summer seven upper school students traveled to Japan to learn more about that country’s culture. As part of the trip they visited with buddies from Tamagawa and stayed with their families for the weekend. David Wu, Gr. 11, said that he viewed the trip as a huge learning experience and that he “learned a lot about myself, Japanese culture and Japanese girls.”
Last summer, 10 seniors were also on a trip to Costa Rica. Students worked with endangered sea turtles in an effort to learn more about their reproductive habits. “The objective of the trip was to immerse students in field research so they could experience first-hand the excitement of discovery with the challenges of conducting research in the wilderness,” said Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair.
After experiencing some difficulties with her research project, Adrienne Wong, Gr. 12, said the trip “taught me that not everything always goes your way and the solution is not to give up but to find another way to achieve your goals.”
The trip focused on a variety of educational areas including biology, Spanish and computer science. In addition to offerings for students, there also exist programs for Harker’s teachers. These exchange programs provide our educators a means to learn about teaching techniques and styles from throughout the world. This includes exchange programs with schools in Switzerland, Japan and Australia.
Upper school psychology teacher Naomi Schatz traveled to Saint Stephen’s College, Harker’s sister school in Australia. At one point she gave a lecture about sport psychology which she said touched on “performance anxiety, overcoming adversity, fear of injury, goal setting, confidence and self-talk.”
She hopes that students will take these lessons and apply them in the classroom as well. Around the same time Sue Muir, a math teacher from Saint Stephen’s, visited Harker and, in addition to observing several upper school math classes, did some team teaching with math teacher Gabriele Stahl.
Overall, the programs offered by the global education department offer our students unparalleled access to their peers around the world. This exposure plays a huge role in the school’s goal of creating well-rounded global citizens. Rather than teaching our students about foreign cultures only through textbooks, Harker is committed to providing an interesting, dynamic and first-hand set of experiences that are invaluable as our students grow into world citizens.