This semester, Julia Lambertz of Germany is not only attending Harker as a junior, she is playing on the girls volleyball team, too. Julia discovered Harker through the organization international Experience (iE), which coordinates exchanges between high schools.
Lambertz has been busy with her volleyball and class schedule (which includes Spanish, psychology, sculpture and U.S. history), plus there have been a number of outings with the family of her host student, Neda Ghaffarian, grade 11. So far, they have toured San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Cruz, with possible plans to visit Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and a vacation at Lake Tahoe during Christmas. Lambertz also visited kindergarten classes to give students a brief lesson on the German language and culture.
Since arriving at Harker, Lambertz has noticed several differences between the lifestyles of students in the U.S. and Germany. “There are no spirit events in my German school and the school is not like a big community there,” she said. In addition, high school students in Germany don’t take finals at the end of the semester. Instead, they take exams at the end of their high school careers that cover the previous 13 years of study. Students also favor biking, walking or public transit instead of driving.
A camera lost by a student from Tamagawa Gakuen during a trip to Korea was recently recovered thanks to a kind citizen who researched the Harker name.
During a trip to Japan in May, Spencer and Connor Powers met with their Tamagawa buddy Yusei Sakamoto, whose mother took many photos of the Powers’ visit. Later in the summer, Yusei and his mother were vacationing in South Korea, and the camera was unfortunately lost on a bus in Seoul.
Another bus rider, Heywon Chae, discovered the camera and began looking through the photos for clues as to whom it may have belonged. In it, she found the photos of Spencer and Connor wearing their Harker uniforms and did some quick research.
Chae soon found the Harker website and e-mailed Liat Noten at Harker’s Office of Communication, who forwarded the message to Jennifer Abraham, director of global education. After several more e-mails, the camera was finally sent back to its rightful owners in Tokyo, who were eternally grateful to Chae for her kindness and good will.
Abraham was pleased to find that the situation had come to a satisfying conclusion despite the long distances reached to resolve it, saying that it “really personifies the essence of what global education is all about!”
Traveling across international waters, 29 Gr. 6 students visited Harker’s sister school Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo during a weeklong trip to Japan led by English and math teacher Kathleen Ferretti.
After a warm welcome at Kodomono-kuni Park, Harker students got together with Tamagawa students for a morning of activities and puzzles. The groups competed with each other on a scavenger hunt in which Tamagawa teachers with instructions on tasks to complete were stationed around the park’s tunnels, bridges, trees and gardens. Tamagawa students then shared Japanese treats and food for lunch, and Harker students looked forward to starting their home stays.
President Yoshiaki Obara joined the school in welcoming our sixth graders with a student talent showcase, where Natalie Simonian, Gr. 6, had the opportunity to play piano and Andrew Kirjner, Gr. 6, the violin. The event closed with everyone singing the Harker school song.
The students were sad to end their time at Tamagawa, but had to move on to explore other parts of Japan. They took the bullet train to Kyoto and got a glimpse of Mt. Fuji from afar. They visited different temples and shrines, including the Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple famous for its waterfall. They continued to Hiroshima to visit the peace memorial park and museum, then proceeded to Miyajima.
“It is sure to be another memorable day,” Ferretti said in her an update. The days were packed full of activities and Ferretti’s e-mails to Jennifer Abraham, director of global education, highlighted the students’ enthusiasm and curiosity.
Students in Shelby Guarino’s Gr. 5 English class recently became interested in the homework assignments of students around the world. In order to facilitate this curiosity the students volunteered to share their completed homework assignments with Harker’s sister schools. Sample homework assignments were swapped with students from schools in Japan, Australia, Ethiopia, France and Saudi Arabia.
Harker students sent assignments from Valentine’s Day and Halloween that highlighted their work in grammar and vocabulary. In return they received a variety of different homework assignments from all over the world. Students from the Institution Sévigné in France sent articles from their school newspaper including a poem titled “Night Poem,” which the students really enjoyed.
From the students of St. Stephen’s College in Coomera, Australia, our students received a variety of projects based on the novel “Convict Boy.” These assignments included a model convict ship and letters written by the students as if they were convicts trapped on the ship.
The Australian students also sent our students information on a program they participate in to learn about indigenous cultures. Students are treated to a presentation on these cultures by the indigenous people themselves. They are instructed in traditional dances and told tribal stories in an effort to give them a better perspective on the people and their heritage.
This homework exchange was a great opportunity for the students to learn about the education styles of other countries. Guarino stated that she “believe[d] it opened up their minds to start thinking more personally about more countries other than the U.S., Asia and India.” The goal of the program was to give our students a more worldly perspective and Guarino remarked that “interacting with our sister schools through giving and receiving real-life assignments makes [cultural education] all the more real.”
“Mr. Goodwin, is everything good in Japan?” a student asked English teacher Colin Goodwin as he surveyed posters and Japanese treats. It was a beautiful, sunny day and Bucknall students were welcoming spring with a display from Goodwin’s recent educational exchange.
In celebration of the change of seasons, and inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” Goodwin thought it would be fun for his Gr. 4 class to share American spring traditions with fourth graders in Harker’s sister school Tamagawa Gakuen. With the help of Jennifer Abraham, Harker’s director of global education, Goodwin organized an educational poster exchange. He sent a descriptive essay and posters illustrating the first strawberries of spring, Easter, spring break and the start of baseball season to Tamagawa. In return, he received posters illustrating Japanese spring traditions. “They were fascinated that school starts in April in Japan and that Japanese kids only have several weeks off between fourth and fifth grade,” Goodwin said of his students. He also noted their interest in Girl’s Day (Hina Matsuri) and Children’s Day (Kodomo-no-hi).
The project challenged students to consider what spring symbolizes and introduced global education into Goodwin’s class. The students were impressed by Tamagawa students’ displays and the beautiful packaging of the sweets (wagashi) served at the party.
In an effort to expand the project, Abraham and Goodwin also sent posters to schools in France, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Ethiopia. They have received posters from Institution Sévigné in Compiègne, France.
“Overall, I think this project taught the kids that they have a lot in common with Japanese kids,” Goodwin said. “However, the kids realize that there are some distinct differences between Japanese culture and American culture that help make the world a more interesting place.”
Bridging the gap between cultures, visual arts teacher Elizabeth Saltos recently went to one of Harker’s sister schools, Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School SWFLMS), for two weeks to teach and tour the country.
In a reflection written on WFLMS’ website, she said the school was impressive: “It’s no wonder this school is a sister school to Harker. The programs seem parallel in academic quality rigor.”
Outside of classes, Saltos toured the water town Zhujiajiao, visited museums with fellow teachers and attended a tomb sweeping festival, which is a traditional Chinese holiday where families honor ancestors. She was enamored by the architecture and appreciated the downtime she spent in the gardens and parks sketching.
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.
In January, Manami Iso, a teacher from Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo, visited Harker for a chance to see and experience the school first-hand. She observed several classes during her stay, including those taught by Eric Leonard, Katherine Molin, Colin Goodwin and Kathleen Ferretti.
Iso also got to do some teaching of her own. She showed several classes how to make carp kites (koinobori), which are flown in Japan to celebrate Children’s Day. She also taught fourth graders about the Setsubun springfestival, celebrated Feb. 3 of each year. During the holiday, a member of the household dons an oni (“demon”) mask while other members of the family toss roasted soybeans at them. This practice is said to purify the household and protect it from demons and bad luck. To demonstrate, Gr. 4 English teacher Goodwin put on the mask and played the part of oni while the students pretended to ward him off.
While staying at Ferretti’s home for the duration of her visit, Manami also got to see a number of California landmarks, such as Muir Woods National Monument and its famous giant redwoods, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
In November, Harker seventh graders made a special “make-up” trip to Japan that was originally scheduled to take place last May, but which was canceled due to fears caused by the H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic. “The kids waited nearly 500 days from the time they first applied for this trip in fifth grade to actually going in seventh grade!” said Jennifer Abraham, director of global education.
Chaperones during the trip were Abraham, middle school teacher Vandana Kadam, lower school teachers Eric Leonard, Mary Holaday and Grace Wallace and upper school teacher Adam Nelson.
Upon their arrival in Tokyo, the group stayed in a hotel, and the next morning went to Harker’s sister school, Tamagawa Gakuen, where they received a warm welcome. “We were greeted by a group of cheering kids, happy to see their Harker buddies after nearly a year apart, and their families,” Abraham reported. “Our kids did a great job with their Japanese speeches at the welcome.”
Since the group arrived in Japan during a three-day weekend, they went sightseeing around Tokyo, climbed the Tokyo tower, went shopping and visited Mt. Fuji. “Tuesday was our one and only day at the school,” Abraham said. Morning was spent in classes, and in the afternoon the kids took a tour of the beautiful, wooded, 130-acre Tamagawa campus. Kids collected Japanese maple leaves, which they used to make imprints onto special paper they made into cards. They also attended a calligraphy class where the students wrote their names and other symbols.
“Wednesday we all met up again at the Yokohama Arena to spend the day together sightseeing at the Yokohama Museum and Sankei-en Japanese garden,” recalled Abraham. The students got the chance to see a Japanese green tea ceremony. That evening, the students spent time with their host families and chaperones at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. The next day, they had the wonderful opportunity to witness Tamagawa’s 80th anniversary celebration at the Yokohama Arena. Performances were by students in Tamgawa’s first through graduate grade levels. Advancement director Joe Rosenthal and his wife, Blanca, traveled from the U.S. to witness this special occasion. The spectacular show was watched by more than 12,000 people.
Thursday night – through many tears from Harker kids, their Tamagawa buddies and the host families – the students said their good-byes. Friday, the group set off by bullet train to Kyoto. “The weather was beautiful, trees bright yellow,” Abraham said. “We visited Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), where we were met by a man who had attended Tamagawa from grades K-12. He had close ties to the GP so gave us a special tour not available to regular tourists.”
On Saturday, everyone took another bullet train to Hiroshima, and took a ferry out to the Itsukushima shrine, a Shinto landmark. “When the tide is in, the main gate of the shrine appears to be floating on the water,” Abraham recalled. “We arrived when the tide was out so were able to walk right out to the base of the gate.” Later, at the Peace Memorial Museum, the travelers had a moment of silence before entering the museum in honor of those who were killed by the atomic bomb. The museum contained many vivid displays of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. When asked what she thought of the museum, Agata Sorotokin said, “It makes me want to make the world a more peaceful place.”
In the morning of their last day in Japan, the students visited Himeji Castle, situated on top of a high hill. Some last-minute shopping was done before everyone set off for the airport for their flight home.
In late July, 10 US students along with US science department chair Anita Chetty embarked on an eye-opening journey to scenic Costa Rica. Accompanied by US physics teacher Chris Spenner, the group spent approximately two weeks performing research, conservation work and keeping tabs on the country’s wildlife.
Students on the trip were Amy Rorabaugh, Noriko Ishisoko, Miriam Lee, Adrienne Wong, Tiffany Kyi, Erica Hansen, Carina Fernandes, Alex Creasman, Brittany Chu and Melanie Herscher, all currently Gr. 12.
After arriving in Costa Rica with five large tubs of research equipment, the team embarked on a lengthy bus and boat trek to Tortuguero National Park the following day. On Sunday morning, the students performed a beach clean-up to prepare for tagging sea turtles for the Caribbean Conservation League that evening.
Creasman nearly became “the first Harker student whose turtle built a nest and for all intents and purposes, was on target to deposit eggs,” Chetty said. Just as Creasman was about to start counting, however, the turtle had a change of heart and decided not to lay eggs after all!
A highlight of the trip to Tortuguero was the opportunity to work with Costa Rican school children in educating the locals about electricity use and carbon load. “The local people tend to leave their lights on throughout the night as a safety and security measure,” Chetty said. “Our students worked with local school children to create posters advertising the advantages of using compact fluorescent light bulbs instead of regular incandescent bulbs. They then walked through the town distributing bulbs that we purchased in San Jose. The local shopkeepers were very enthusiastic about putting up the posters in their shops and the people were very grateful to receive the bulbs, which are very expensive in Costa Rica.” Chetty added, “This was a great chance to practice Spanish as well.”
After two days of turtle tagging and egg counting (Chu was the record holder at 92 eggs counted), students headed back to the hotel to begin research projects in the conference-room-turned-research-lab. “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,” Chetty said. “Unlike a controlled laboratory setting, the field presents many unpredictable variables such as sudden weather changes, bugs and just simply the unpredictability of animal behavior.”
It was a great opportunity for the young scientists to display their problem-solving and troubleshooting skills. Ishisoko discovered a long PVC pipe in a remote hardware store and used it to connect to her microphone. The long pipe allowed her to record frog calls at a safe distance so that the frog behavior was not affected by her presence.
Spenner’s skills in computer programming came in handy when he helped Chu and Creasman predict the behavior of leaf cutter ants. A program he created predicted how long it would take a disturbed leaf cutter ant to reorient itself back to its original path. Chu and Creasman then conducted studies to determine how long it actually took the ants to find their old path and compared it to the predicted value.
Lee and Kyi spent many hours collecting ants that gathered around flowering plants. Their prediction was that ants were unlikely pollinators of plants. Carrying their digital microscopes all over Costa Rica, Kyi and Lee collected and stained ants and the pollen that collected on their bodies, taking digital images to show that pollen that collects on ants does not germinate.
Hansen examined soils in banana and coffee plantations to determine whether the overuse of fertilizers might be impacting the nitrate levels in water that leeches out of the soils. She was fortunate to culminate her research in Monteverde under the mentorship of a soil scientist. Herscher reconstructed hummingbird feeders trying to examine how the presence of feeders affects those birds’ social behavior, while Wong examined butterfly diversity in forests and plantations. Rorabaugh and Fernandes conducted a water quality assessment using digital monitoring equipment.
At Monteverde Institute (MVI), the students worked many hours refining and writing up their research findings. They presented their findings at the institute and are expected to present at Harker’s own research symposium in March. “The mentors at MVI became so attached to our students that the director of the program shed tears as we were leaving,” Chetty said. “She ordinarily works with UC students and told me that she had never met such talented and motivated students.”
The next stage of the trip took place back at the MVI, where the students continued their work alongside research assistants. They did more field work, examining Costa Rica’s abundance of varied wildlife, although the elements nearly stymied their efforts. “It rained hard last night and we are waiting for things to dry up so they can observe their leaf cutter ants,” Chetty wrote in one of her frequent updates back to Harker. Students caught some notable lectures, one given by Dr. Alan Pounds, whose papers in the journal “Nature” have shed light upon the relationship between climate change and the extinction of the golden toad. They also attended a talk by world-renowned bat specialist Dr. Richard LaVal.
Days of field work, research, observation and preparation at last culminated toward the end of the trip when the students presented their results at the Monteverde Institute.
At various points during the trip, the student researchers also managed to get away for some fun, spending some time whitewater rafting, swimming and even salsa dancing. They also went zipline riding and visited a cacao plantation, where they learned how the “drink of the gods” was made for the Mayan kings. “Grinding roasted cocoa beans and making hot chocolate and chocolate bars was a highlight,” Chetty said.
Chetty said next year’s trip to Costa Rica will occur over the same time period. She explained that there will be some changes made to the itinerary and that a new collaboration with the University of Georgia will expand the research component of the trip.