Staff members of the Talon and Winged Post visited New York City in late June and early July to attend a summer journalism camp by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Accompanied by US journalism advisor and activities director Chris Daren, the students got to take in the many sights and sounds of the City That Never Sleeps, including Central Park, Coney Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Harker journalists also did very well at the camp, winning several awards. The Talon staff earned the top honor in the Achievement in Theme category, while level one and level two layout awards were given to Isha Kawatra, Gr. 10 and Brianna Tran, Gr. 11, respectively. Design awards were received by junior Dawn Queen for Outstanding Headline Package and by the team of Queen and fellow junior Monisha Appalaraju for Outstanding Secondary Module (for example, a sidebar).
In Newspaper Awards, Shreya Nathan, Gr. 11, won for Best Personality Profile, Malika Mehrotra, Gr. 11, for Best Section Design and Mahum Jamal, Gr. 12, for Top All-Around Journalist.
Other highlights of the trip included an interview with Scott Harrison of charity:water, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attending a production of “Billy Elliot” on Broadway and catching an advance screening of the new CBS show “The Good Wife,” after which the group spotted the show’s star, Julianna Margulies, two rows ahead of them at a production of “Mary Stuart”! Not to mention enjoying the many storied food establishments located throughout the city.
In all, a trip that was just as rewarding academically as it was recreationally!
In the spring, Harker rising seniors Roslyn Li and Sarah Wang, along with Kevin Wang ’09 earned the top spots at the National Japan Bowl in Washington, D.C., in the Level IV category. For their accomplishment, the team and US Japanese teacher Masako Onakado was awarded a 13-day trip to Japan to see the country and meet Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado.
The group arrived in Japan on July 17 and the next day headed to Kawasaki City, where they visited the Toshiba Science Museum. “Toshiba was one of the sponsors of Japan Bowl, and they gave us a guided tour,” Onakado said. “We were fascinated to see their wide variety of cutting-edge technologies such as superconductivity, robotic technology and digital image processing.”
For the next few days, the group was given free time to explore Tokyo and its many wards. On July 21, they visited the historic town of Takayama, famous for its old houses and streets reminiscent of Japan’s Edo period. They also trekked to the Hida Folk Village, a window to the past marked by several buildings hundreds of years old.
After their stay at a traditional-style inn, it was off to Hiroshima on July 22 to visit the city’s government offices. “We visited the Hiroshima Prefectural Government Office and were greeted by Mr. Hashimoto, the division director of international affairs,” Onakado said. “He and his staff explained to us the general overview of Hiroshima as well as its communications with other states and provinces abroad.” One of the staff members was an American who studied Japanese in the U.S. and then traveled to Japan in the Japan Exchange and Teaching program.
“Since we tend to immediately associate Hiroshima with the atomic bomb, it was informative and interesting to learn about different sides of Hiroshima,” Onakado recalled.
Later, the students went to a small island known as Naoshima. Onakado made sure to visit this island because it was one of the subjects the students studied when practicing for the Japan Bowl. One side of the island contains two museums, while on the other side sits a village with several art displays. The group received a guided tour of the various art sites and “learned how beautifully their art, architecture, history and nature merge together,” Onakado said.
The next day the group went to Kyoto to meet a teacher and four students from Kobe’s Canadian Academy. “Canadian Academy is a school known as the best international college-prep school in the Osaka/Kobe area,” noted Onakado. The Harker and Canadian Academy students visited a series of UNESCO World Heritage sites and shared information about each other’s schools.
Next on the agenda was a visit to Tsushima, located just outside the major city of Nagoya. “The town is known for its summer festival, which is one of the three biggest river festivals and that has been held annually over the last 500 years,” Onakado said. They stayed at the house of a taiko drum maker and were treated to the festival, which lasted from the evening until the next morning. “The festival included floating boats decorated with hundreds of paper lanterns, traditional flute and taiko music, dynamic fireworks, a procession of feudal lords and Shinto rituals,” the teacher said. “At the festival, we enjoyed the fantastic scenes in the river as well as the traditional music and attires of warriors from the Edo period.” They concluded their stay in Tsushima with performance by a famous taiko performer.
With their trip almost over, the final two days were spent in Tokyo, where they visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and met the director of the General Public Diplomacy Department, who explained how Japan is promoting its culture to young overseas audiences. They then visited Mita High School, one of Tokyo’s most prestigious public college-prep schools, and attended a tea ceremony. The Harker students also wore yukatas (a summer kimono) and socialized with their new friends at Mita.
Soon after, it was time for the students to meet Princess Takamodo at the Imperial Palace. “We were very nervous about going to meet with an imperial family, but she was very friendly to us, spending almost two hours, sharing her episodes about her daily life and her three daughters who are currently college students,” recalled Onakado.
Onakado said the trip gave the students the “once-in-a-lifetime chance” to experience first-hand the things they had studied when preparing for the Japan Bowl. “It was also very valuable that we met with so many people who treated the students as ‘little ambassadors’ and gave them encouragement and advice for continuing to study Japanese.”
After their visit, Tokyo Embassy Deputy Chief Mission James P. Zumwalt wrote a blog entry about the students’ visit to the embassy, saying he found them to be “extremely impressive.” An error in the blog entry states that Wang will be attending Princeton in the fall. Wang will in fact be studying at Dartmouth.
Morning and afternoon on the Bucknall campus, Harker’s youngest summer campers are energetically enjoying toys, climbing on play equipment and getting to know each other. Little do they know that this playground interaction is also helping to prepare them for their first year of school –Harker or other– this fall.
Kindercamp is part of the Harker K-Gr. 8 summer program. All children have morning academic classes and afternoon activity groups; however, the youngest children do things a little differently than older campers. They have their own play area and they spend time practicing school routines like following directions, sitting in a chair, walking in a line and raising one’s hand before speaking.
The youngest campers participate in the same afternoon activities as the older ones, but some, like the “color clash,” the all-camp opening event of the afternoon program, are attended by Kindercampers just once a week. Harker Kindercampers participate in afternoon art, swimming, field games, circus arts, dance and archery.
One recent afternoon, the campers overwhelmingly voted swimming as their favorite activity; Andrei Yang also likes “playing archery,” and “I always like to do reading. And I like math and subtraction, addition, and writing and all those things.” He added, “Most of all my favorite thing is swimming!” Kaden Kapadia also enjoys camp, and says the best thing he’s done is “playing games in the gym.”
Teachers, aides and coaches in Harker’s Kindercamp are specially selected for this group for their understanding of this young group of campers. Harker kindergarten teachers Gerry-louise Robinson and Grace Wallace both taught in the morning academic session this summer; Matt Heinlein, one of Harker’s afternoon coaches, is back for his second year with the kindergartners.
Heinlein’s understanding of the needs of this group of children was demonstrated when he pointed out that, with the physical differences between first graders and kindergartners, “they don’t yet have the coordination or balance of older kids, or the ability to take in all the rules and follow them at one time. So if we were to do a relay race we would have to do just one thing at a time.” He takes this into consideration as he plans each afternoon activity. He really enjoys getting to know the kids. “They’re such sweethearts, and say the most adorable things ever.”
Clearly, Harker’s Kindercampers are in good hands!
Harker recently received a certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization committed to cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings, signifying that Nichols Hall has received a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Harker is the first school in Santa Clara County to achieve a gold ranking. Dan Geiger, executive director of the USGBC’s Northern California chapter, visited Harker Aug. 13 to deliver the certificate and congratulate those involved in its achievement.
Nichols Hall, Harker’s new science and technology center, opened in August 2008, and embodies the school’s long-held commitment to environmental issues, which influenced every decision in the construction. Originally expected to earn the Silver level of certification, Harker students did the work that pushed the building to Gold status, noted Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facilities manager.
He noted that recognition of the multiple displays on green living and green building construction developed by students in teacher Jeff Sutton’s class for the 2009 Harker Research Symposium were key to gaining the Gold rating. “The USGBC recognized these displays as ongoing educational material developed by the students and that gave us the final point needed to place us in the Gold category,” said Bassoni.
According to the USGBC Web site, “LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
There are a few other schools around the Bay Area with LEED-certified buildings, including Windrush School in El Cerrito, whose Platinum-rated library opened in 2008; Marin County Day School in Corte Madera has a Gold rating for its Step 1 project; and Nueva School in Hillsborough, San Mateo County, opened a Gold-rated learning complex in 2007. The LEED certification system, created by the USGBC, scores buildings in multiple categories and the total number of points determines level of certification: 40 or more points for Certified, 50 or more for Silver, 60 or more for Gold and 80 or more for Platinum.
Criteria for certification include the sustainability of the building site, how efficiently the building manages water, how it uses energy, its indoor air quality and its proximity to pre-existing infrastructure and public transit. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/YhRUk
Anand Natarajan, 2009 Harker graduate, earned a gold medal in Mexico at the 2009 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in mid-July. The five-person U.S team earned four golds and a silver, tying for second with India and Korea, and coming in behind the Chinese team, which earned five gold medals.
In May, when selected as one of the 19 final qualifiers for the Olympiad team, Natarajan (on far left in the team photo) was forced to choose between attending the team’s preparation camp and his own graduation, and chose the preparation camp. “It was a tough call to skip graduation, but I think it was worth it,” he said. “I really enjoyed my experience with the physics Olympiad, and I think it’s helped me realize that physics is the subject I’m most passionate about.”
Over 300 students from about 70 countries participated. Problems included questions on tidal friction in the Earth-Moon system, laser cooling and determining the minimum radius for a stable main sequence star.
“The toughest part of the examination was the first question on the experimental portion,” said Natarajan. “It was necessary to get a really good alignment of all the optical components we were using to be able to get good measurements and that took a lot of time. Also, the official IPhO-supplied calculator was somewhat difficult to use, which really slowed me down throughout the exam.”
Tidal friction aside, “The most fun thing about the competition was probably just the experience of being with other young people who share my interest in physics,” said Natarajan. “I also really enjoyed some of the excursions to the Mayan archeological sites that the Mexican organizers planned for us.”
Natarajan has one other activity before he starts at Stanford in the fall: three days after he returned from Mexico he left for the Linguistics Olympiad in Wrocław, Poland, held July 26-31.
Alumnae Jamie Trinh ’05, Melissa Chen ’08, Victoria Duong ’04, Tiffany Liou ’08, Jessica Liu ’04, Jacinda Mein ’04, Natasha Sarin ’07, Kavita Shah ’07, Elyse Trinh ’07 and Rachel Yuan ’08 will be participating in a Relay For Life event on August 15 and 16 at Palo Alto High School to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
The team has christened itself “Team Near,” in honor of AP U.S. History teacher John Near, a 30-year veteran of The Harker School and cancer patient who is currently recovering after suffering a bacterial infection in May that required surgery.
This past spring Harker hosted a series of receptions in Asia for Harker’s English Language Institute (ELI) and to reconnect with several alumni now residing there. The unique ELI program specializes in preparing international students for success at the nation’s premier boarding schools and English-speaking international schools.
“Harker has an outstanding reputation worldwide for this unique program,” said Joe Rosenthal, Harker’s executive director of advancement, who organizes the receptions each year and who directed Harker’s elementary boarding program for many years. “It is wonderful that so many of our former boarding students and their families are able to recommend their relatives, friends and business associates to our ELI summer program.”
In addition to recruiting students for the ELI program, Rosenthal visited with many boarding alumni during the trip. In Korea, a group of alumni gathered at the Outback Steak House on a Friday night before the ELI reception on Saturday, where Alex Lee ’97 agreed to head up the Korean alumni group. It was very impressive to have so many alumni attend the recruiting reception as well. The prospective families were impressed when Danny Yoo MS ’00, who was class president at Phillips Exeter, spoke about how Harker prepared him for his high school and his studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious school of business. “We had alumni who also attended Harker’s upper school, Choate Rosemary Hall, Woodside Priory, Stoney Brook and Mercersburg on hand to validate how well Harker prepares students for success at high school and beyond,” noted Rosenthal. Special thanks to Young Lee ’93 who once again served as the translator for our program and to the family of Chris ’03 and Harry MS ’08 Kim for hosting Harker’s visit in Korea.
Rosenthal then traveled to Beijing, where Harker parents Lucy Li and Allan Zhang (Bryan Zhang, K), hosted a very successful reception. Li and Zhang were proud to recommend Harker to the large crowd at the event. After the short trip to Beijing, Rosenthal headed to Shanghai to enjoy dinner with some parents of alumni, which was followed by another well-attended reception at the Renaissance Hotel. Then it was off to Hong Kong where boarding alumni Toku Chen ’92 and his wife, Candy, assisted him with the reception there. Chen also agreed to lead the effort in creating a Harker alumni group in Hong Kong.
The next ELI reception took place in Taipei, Taiwan, where alumni parents Ting and Angela Herh (Stephanie ’08) hosted the event, as they had done for past ELI programs. “In addition to having the alumni receptions and the recruiting receptions, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with and to thank and show the progress that has been made from several of our major benefactors to our Capital Campaign,” Rosenthal said. Rosenthal was also impressed by the people in Taiwan who recognized the Harker name and were familiar with its international reputation. “We had three different families that came up to us while we were waiting for our guests to arrive, who said, ‘My goodness! The Harker School! We know all about them!’” he recalled.
In Kyoto, Japan, Rosenthal met a family from Kobe who planned to send all four of their children to the ELI program for the summer. The trip concluded in Tokyo, where Rosenthal met with Keiichi Watase, head of the lower school at Harker’s sister-school Tamagawa Gakuen, who has served as Harker’s official translator for the past decade. Harker grandparent Zenichi Ogawa (Kei MS ’03) kindly hosted the final reception in Tokyo, which Rosenthal said was “unbelievably over-subscribed.” About 70 people attended the reception in a room set up to serve 30, Rosenthal estimated. Rosenthal said the three week-long trip resulted in an impressive 103 serious inquiries from families about the ELI program.
“It brings me great joy to visit with so many of our international alumni,” Rosenthal said. “It seems like only yesterday when these wonderful Harker students were 12 and 13 years old, living in our dorm. I am so proud to see them all grown up and leading successful and happy lives.”
In June US Spanish teacher Diana Moss, K-Gr. 5 dean of students Joe Connolly and several students headed to Switzerland to visit with the students from College de Gambach in Fribourg, who visited Harker during the spring semester, and to brush up on their French language skills. Not to mention immerse themselves in the country’s vast culture and beauty.
Students who embarked on the trip were incoming sophomores Shivani Bigler, Neda Ghaffarian, Neha Kumar, Daniela Lapidous, Jay Reddy and Shreya Indukuri; incoming juniors Michael Patland, Jason Young and Michelle Vu and incoming senior Kendra Moss.
The group had plenty to do once they touched down and met with their host families, with whom they stayed for the duration of the trip. Visiting the city of Lausanne by train, the group visited the Olympic Museum to view the vast archive of Olympic memorabilia and learn more about the history of the games. Then it was off on a boat ride across Lake Geneva to the Nestle Food Museum in Vevey, where the students attended a cooking class. Nestle was founded in the city more than 140 years ago and is headquartered there to this day. Following the visit, “you would think all we’ve done here is eat!” Diana Moss exclaimed. “Fortunately, we’ve had plenty of walking too!” The next day, the group went to a cheese factory in Gruyeres, a city so famous for its cheese that the food was named after it.
All the while, the Harker and Gambach students got better acquainted as they shared more and more about one another’s cultures. “All the Harker students and Swiss students are getting along so well,” Moss reported from Switzerland during the trip. “It makes me so proud of them!” Moss was also impressed at how well the students were able to communicate with one another. “Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of our trip has been watching our students interact with the Swiss students,” she said. “The Swiss are amazing linguists, moving between one language to the next with ease, but we are proud of the great efforts and growth our kids are making with their French.” While there, the group was even featured in a local newspaper covering their visit (see photo).
Before leaving, the Harker and Gambach students enjoyed a fondue party before the Harker students departed for the weekend. The whole group reunited and said their goodbyes in Zurich on Monday before majority of the Harker students flew back home. Moss and her daughter Kendra stayed behind to spend some more time exploring Europe. “It was a fabulous experience staying with a family that spoke very little English because it encouraged me to fully immerse myself in the French language,” Kendra said. “Switzerland was just as beautiful as one would imagine it to be.”
The faculty gathered one Saturday evening in early May to bid adieu to Howard Saltzman, who is retiring after 31 years of training young minds, adding levity to e-mail chains, his classes, faculty meetings, tough moments and bright moments alike. To say he will be missed is an understatement.
Attended by about 160 well-wishers, the party extraordinaire was moved to the Saratoga gym to accommodate the crowd. Friend Pat Walsh, LS teacher, ran the show and Brian Larsen of the performing arts department emceed the evening. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, spoke briefly to open the festivities and the parade of well-wishers and gifts, both gag and other, began.
“Howard himself was incredibly touched by the whole evening,” said fellow teacher Elise Schwartz, who helped organize the event. “He was just thrilled from the beginning to have everyone there together in one room. Then, he was overwhelmed by the speeches and the gifts. There were tears in his eyes at many points during the evening. His wife, Susan, was also enormously touched,” Schwartz said.
An amazing slideshow was created by colleague Lisa Diffenderfer. “She collected quite an array of pictures of Howard from over the years and had a running slideshow going along with music that he picked out,” Schwartz added. “There were hilarious pictures of Howard from the beginning of his career up to today. It was a beautiful slideshow and they even showed it again at the next faculty meeting.” No party is complete without food and, as usual, executive chef Steve Martin outdid himself. “Chef Steve, as always, put on an amazing spread,” said Schwartz. “Howard has nothing but high praise for him and is always amazed by Chef Steve and his crew.
“Great love for Howard was felt everywhere in the room. He was thankful to the school for hosting this event and for allowing not only his colleagues but also all of his family and close friends to attend as well. Howard’s roast was so funny and the presentation of the memorial urinal left everyone in hysterics!”’
Saltzman ended the evening with a gracious speech. His gratitude was apparent and he was overwhelmed by the love in the room.
Parent and former Harker employee Mary Jo Townzen sent this accolade: “I am fortunate to be able to say that Howard has taught all three of my children, Ryan MS ’02, Troy MS ’04 and Samantha, Gr. 3. Samantha has had the opportunity to have Mr. Saltzman as a homeroom teacher in this, his last year of teaching. Howard’s timing is impeccable. I choose to believe he waited until now to retire in order to make sure he personally shuttled all of the Townzen children through. Howard will always hold a place in my heart for all he’s done over the years for me and for my family and Samantha wants Howard to know, ‘He’s the best teacher ever!’”
Harker’s Future Problem Solvers had another great year, garnering honors at both the state and international levels in April and May.
At the Future Problem Solving (FPS) California state finals, held on the Saratoga campus in April, Harker emerged as the state champion in a remarkable nine of 12 categories, and won the junior division for the very first time. The junior (Madhu Nori, Juhi Muthal, Simran Singh and Tiara Bhatacharya, all Gr. 6), middle (Daniela Lapidous, Akshay Tangutur, Chaitanya Malladi and Laura Yau, all Gr. 9) and senior (Namrata Anand, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Monisha Dilip, all Gr. 11) teams advanced to the international finals in Michigan.
In a stroke of luck, the second place team of eighth graders Ria Desai, Emily Wang, Pooja Shah and Sonia Gupta was invited to the international finals when one team dropped out due to the swine flu scare.
Two other Harker teams earned high rankings. Ninth graders Jennie Xu, Daanish Jamal, Ananth Subramaniam and Jackie Jin took third, while eighth graders Karan Das Grande, Shelby Rorabaugh, Jacqueline Wang and Connie Cheng earned fourth.
Harker also had the top middle and senior scenario writer, Rorabaugh and Olivia Zhu, Gr. 10. Alex Han, Gr. 11, was the top senior individual contestant, and qualified for the international finals.
For action plan presentations, Harker won at all three levels. Senior presenters were Christopher Berglund, Dominique Dabija, Ananya Anand and Nikhil Raghuram, Gr. 12, and Tim Chou, Gr. 10. Harker’s middle division action plan team was joined by Brian Tuan, Gr. 7, while Allen Huang and Sahana Rangarajan, both Gr. 7, joined the junior team to present their action plan.
Additionally, Cyrus Merrill, MS history teacher, was re-elected to be the state president of the nonprofit organization that runs FPS in the state of California.
At the international finals Michigan, all four Harker teams finished in the top half of their categories. The junior team fell just short of entering the final round, finishing third.
First place wins went to individual competitor Alex Han and to the team of action plan presenters in the senior division: juniors Monisha Dilip, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Alex Han, and sophomores Isaac Madan and Olivia Zhu. Namrata Anand fell ill and was absent from the finals, but managed to contribute via speakerphone while the team was preparing.
Shelby Rorabaugh, meanwhile, took third place in scenario writing, while Ananth Subramaniam took third in the middle division alternates category.