Toward the end of the 2009-10 school year, the first recipients of the John Near Scholar Grant were announced. Students Tyler Koteskey, Justine Liu and Olivia Zhu, all grade 12, have been spending the last few months preparing for their projects and are excited to start in earnest.
With the help of mentors, the students chose a specific topic to research with the aid of the grant. Koteskey is examining how the Confederacy incorporated diplomacy, intelligence gathering, military force and economic and political powers into its strategy during the Civil War. Specifically, he will use the Gettysburg campaign as an example of how all of these factors worked in unison to create a military strategy. “The Civil War has been a fascination of mine almost as long as history itself,” he said. “I clearly remember dressing up as a Union cavalry officer for Halloween in second grade.”
Koteskey says the grant money enabled him to travel to Pennsylvania over the summer, where he interviewed professors at the U.S. Army War College and at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. He also visited such landmarks as Antietam National Battlefield and Gettysburg National Military Park.
Liu’s project will investigate the evolving economic relationship between China and the United States, from President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. “I started exploring some of the current challenges facing U.S.-China economic ties last year in Mr. Itokazu’s AP Macroeconomics class for our final paper and for prior debate topics,” Liu said. “I became more curious about how a relationship that has such an impact on U.S. foreign policy today has only developed in the past couple of decades, especially after analyzing the Cold War relations between China and the United States in Mr. Westgate’s AP U.S. History class last year.”
Liu plans to use the grant money to visit the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., to look further into his presidency and find out more about his 1972 visit to China.
Zhu plans to study how the military dealt with insubordination during the Vietnam War. “I’ll be analyzing how it was tested and what the response of the military was to acts of disobedience,” she said. “I think insubordination is kind of a cool topic, since there’s always been a sense of pushing the frontier and individualism throughout American history.” The Vietnam War, she added, was also an important moment in American history because of the changing public opinion on war. “It was the first time the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) was really tested, so it serves as an important setting for this theme of insubordination.”
For her project, Zhu is considering doing some research at the Presidio in San Francisco, which was once a prison for AWOL soldiers and also a site of major protests conducted by soldiers against the Vietnam War. “If I get the chance, it would also be really great to be able to interview some veterans and hear their side of the story.”
On April 21, a group of Gr. 3 students traveled to Mission San Juan Bautista to learn about the early history of California. Refusing to let the cold, wet weather stand in the way of a fun and educational outing, the students toured the historic location and discovered what daily life was like during the time when the Spanish missions were at their most influential in this state.
Later, the group visited the Tops A Rock Shop just down the street from the mission for a lesson on sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. The session proved to be timely, as the students had just finished learning about rocks in their science classes. As a bonus, the presenter gave each student four types of rocks to keep.
To complete the excursion, the group went to Margot’s Ice Cream Parlor for treats. “The ice cream parlor was the hit of the day for the kids,” said Heidi Gough, lower school California history teacher. “No surprise there!”
On Jan. 29, Gr. 3 social studies teacher Heidi Gough held Dress for History Day for her students, in which everyone (teachers included, such as Gr. 3 English and study skills teacher Elise Schwartz, pictured) dressed up in outfits representing various peoples from bygone eras. Cowboys, cowgirls, gold miners, Native Americans and more familiar figures from California history were represented in the wide variety of costumes that students wore throughout the day.
Freshmen honors history students stepped into the past in a recent class, performing skits on the ancient rivalry between Athens and Sparta. Students created a commercial for their respective city-state proving which one was best to live in, and why. Creativity was blended with rhetoric and gastronomy: students made their own costumes, militaristic Spartans fought and artistic Athenians devoured grapes and quaffed “wine.”
Harker has received its first endowment, The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, in memory of the 31-year veteran of Harker’s teaching staff, John Near, who passed away in late September.
Donors of the $300,000 endowment are James and Patricia Near, John’s parents, and in John’s own words, the proceeds will be used “to help develop the history department, both through the acquisition of resources and providing growth opportunities for both faculty and students.”
John Near had much to do with the endowment’s establishment. “I wanted him to be the lead guy in this and I wanted him to set it up the way he wanted it done,” said James Near.
“I first approached John when we knew what was going to happen and said we wanted to do something in his name for the school, and that we wanted his input as to how he would like to see (the donation) established,” said Near. “Although we had some conversations about it, the main one was when he said, ‘Dad, after discussing it with Joe (Rosenthal), I think the thing that would be most meaningful to me would be something for the history department.’”
“We are grateful and honored with the news of the endowed gift in John’s memory,” said history department chair Donna Gilbert. One idea for use of the fund is to create a history resource center. “We hope this space will be just the kind of space that honors John and where his memory lives on,” Gilbert said.
Gilbert noted funds will be used for enduring programs with a special emphasis on things Near valued including a passion for history and politics, building collegiality among history teachers, nurturing the development of student skills geared especially for history and social science, encouraging creativity and integrity in the classroom and giving students who love history and politics resources that complement their studies.
Head of School Chris Nikoloff expressed his thanks for the gift and noted the value to establishing Harker’s endowment program. “John Near has always been committed to pedagogical excellence and student scholarship in history education at The Harker School,” said Nikoloff. “This endowment helps ensure that Harker’s history department will meet these two goals for generations to come.
“As we look to the future, the establishment of an endowment at Harker will increasingly become central to the long-term sustainability of critical programs and services. We are thrilled that the first material endowment gift to the school is in memory of John Near, whose extraordinary example set the bar for educational excellence and care for students,” said Nikoloff.
Those wishing to contribute to this endowed fund, or create their own, should contact Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, at joer@harker.org. To create an endowed fund at Harker, a donor would make a gift, or series of gifts, that make up a principle amount and that principle is permanently restricted and will only be used to generate interest income. Then a pre-set amount of the annual interest is used each year to support the purpose for which the endowed fund was established. Endowed funds can continue to grow over time if the interest earned on the principal exceeds the set amount used for the annual payout, and the excess is added the principal. The pre-set interest on endowed funds will support the purpose for which they are created year after year in perpetuity.
Universities have long used endowments to enhance funding to programs – Harvard has several thousand endowed funds – and private schools are finding them one of the best tools to ensure academic standards and facilities are well-funded.
Harker eighth graders arrived in the Washington, D.C., area over the weekend and have been greatly enjoying their trek through the nation’s capital and environs. The students landed in Williamsburg, Va., on Oct. 24 and spent the following day exploring the city. “The day was highly educational,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “Through our tour of the Jamestown settlement and visit to colonial Williamsburg, the students learned a lot about our first permanent English settlement.”
Before touring the Jamestown settlement, students Kevin Moss, Anisha Padwekar and Regina Chen gave an informative presentation to their bus groups about the importance of the area. Students Vikram Naidu, Arjun Goyal and Vikram Sundar gave their own presentations on the historic city of Williamsburg.
“The highlight for the students was the colonial games we played at one of our stops in Colonial Williamsburg,” Gargano said. “Groups of students participated in a relay to see which team could roll a barrel hoop the fastest.”
The group began the following day by finishing up their tour of Williamsburg. Cyrus Merrill, middle school history teacher,got in spirit by dressing in colonial attire for the occasion. “I believe the highlight of the day was our visit to The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier after lunch at Pamplin Park,” Gargano recalled. “The students felt a part of history knowing that they were standing on the site of the Breakthrough Battlefield of April 2, 1865, where Union forces broke through Petersburg’s defense lines.”
The students also toured the museum wearing headsets that provided audio of the life of a particular soldier, which, Gargano said, “was quite interesting and moving for many students.”
Before the tour began, students Darian Edvalson and Arman Mortazavi gave presentations on the historical importance of Pamplin Park.
Later that day, the group arrived in the District, where they visited the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Many photos were taken there, with the iconic statue of FDR seated in his wheelchair being a favorite subject. Presentations by Sean Youn, Nathan Dhablania and Kiran Kothuri told of the history of Roosevelt and provided information about his memorial.
The trip will continue through the week with visits to Arlington Cemetery and Gettysburg National Military Park.
Anand Natarajan, Gr. 12, recently won an individual silver medal and helped his team take the silver prize at the sixth International Olympiad in Linguistics (IOL) in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria in early August.
Natarajan was included in one of two teams representing the United States at the event. He was the only Harker student to make U.S. Team 1, taking fourth place in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), out of an original pool of nearly 800 participants. He is also a member of Harker’s World Language Club, in which students solve linguistic problems all year-round.
In addition to the U.S., 15 other teams from 10 countries took part in the IOL, including Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, South Korea, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia and Sweden.
Geared specifically to high-school students, IOL contestants solve problems related to a wide variety of languages. This year’s contest had students solve problems dealing with Micmac (spoken by Native Americans in Canada), Old Norse, New Caledonia’s Drehu and Cemi languages, southern Mexico’s Copainala Zoque, and Inuktikut (the language of the Canadian Inuit people). A final team exercise dealt with various Chinese dialects. For this contest, students used the same skills utilized by linguistics researchers and scholars.
Awards were given for the best solutions to a single problem, the highest total of the combined scores to each solution, and to the team scoring the most points in the contest. Natarajan received a silver medal for the total accumulation of his scores, and his team’s total score netted them a silver award.
In addition to winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the team and individual contests, the U.S. also received the highest cumulative score. The U.S. won 11 of the 33 awards given at the Olympiad, including two gold medals.
On Aug. 25 over 350 students, parents, alumni and faculty gathered for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony of the science and technology building, Nichols Hall.
Preceding the ribbon-cutting, science teachers shared their favorite aspects of the building including the new collaborative space, robotics room, special projects room and, in the atrium, a large-screen monitor displaying energy savings from the solar array on the green roof.
Anita Chetty, US science department chair, noted, “As Harker teachers, we get to play everyday. We get to think. We get to create. And now in this incredible facility, we get to do it as anyone would dream of doing.”
Lon Allan, chairman of Harker’s Board of Trustees, recognized the contributions of lifetime trustees Howard and Diana Nichols for their “extraordinary vision, dedication and leadership at The Harker School for more than four decades,” by announcing the Board’s unanimous decision to name the new building Nichols Hall.
MS history teacher Patricia White admired the building, pointing out the beautiful aesthetics. “I think we really needed the space for students and this brings us up to being a world-class prep school,” White said. She thinks that the LEED certification will “put us on the map as a very progressive school. We’re known for our science. We’re known for our math…We are putting our priorities in the right order and we are actually fulfilling what we preach.”
After the Nichols’ cut the ribbon, attendees poured into the new building, exploring the new classrooms and teaching space. “I wish I was a high school student right now,” Anshu Das ’05 said, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked at the Foucault pendulum in the rotunda. “I think it is starting to set a standard. Any building made from here on out only has to be better than the last.” Neil Shah ’08 added, “I have never seen anything of such caliber. It certainly changes the way you look not only at this campus, but of course at science and technology.”
Howard Nichols addressed the guests and discussed the 20-year planning process and the hard work of all who were involved in the project. “Our vision has always been to build the best school in the world,” he said. “I don’t know if anyone can claim that distinction but we certainly know we are one of the best, and we are only going to get better.” Diana Nichols added, “It pleases me to think that, in this building, the next generation of scientists will start forming ideas that will fuel the future.
In addition to the fashion show, which began in 2004, Harker has had a number of different fundraising events through the decades.
In the 1970s, along with the annual family picnic, the Harker Father’s and Mother’s Clubs sponsored spaghetti dinners, holiday dances, boutiques and candy and bake sales to support the costs of building the sports and recreation center. The spaghetti dinners were completely prepared and served by parents, organized by Marty and Dorothy Scarpace, parents of Marty ’76 and Kristin Giammona ’81, and Earl and Margarita Parsons, parents of Jon ’76. The evening included a raffle with prizes such as a 10-speed bike, a Sony battery-operated TV and signed footballs and basketballs. Live entertainment was provided by then dean of students Dan Gelineau on accordion and former boarding director Jeff Haugaard on banjo. Through the combined efforts of Harker parents, these fundraising projects helped provide students with a first-class facility.
The Harker Academy’s Gala Spring Auction began in April 1984 with elaborate, fun items and adventures that were put up for bid by an auctioneer. Prizes included the opportunity to ride shotgun with the county sheriff for a day, a ride in a 1949 Dodge Coronet Coupe, a private plane ride to The Nut Tree in Vacaville for lunch and a 1986 49’ers football signed by Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. These were just some of the creative items offered during the 1980s at the Harker Academy auctions. With themes like New York, New York (1986) and Jukebox Saturday Night (1987), the staff who worked the events usually dressed for the theme of the evening, and these events brought the entire Harker community together for the cause.
Current picnic coordinator and board member Lynette Stapleton was a parent at Harker when the first Gala Spring Auction was held in 1984. Tony and Becky Morici, parents of David Hare ’82, Tony ’89 and Alexia ’90, made Italian food, and the Harker staff were waiters in the gym. Stapleton laughed, “I remember the Morici kitchen lined with over a dozen pans of pasta.” The Parent Guild assembled hundreds of items, and each classroom made homeroom packages that were themed for both a silent and live auction. “Each year the gala became grander until it finally moved off campus in 1986,” said Kelly Espinosa, summer programs director.
The annual auctions were part of a long tradition of having fun and raising money for the school. Proceeds went to a specific project each year. They included the scholarship fund in 1984, the fine arts program in 1986 and the computer science facility in 1987 and 1988. The auctions were sometimes held as a stand-alone event or coupled with a wine tasting, as in 1985, and they eventually became an important part of the annual family picnic celebrations in 1989.
In 2004, Harker introduced the fashion show as its main fundraiser, featuring students, faculty and staff as its models and incorporating an auction into its festivities. Each year the event features a different theme.
The Harker Family and Alumni Picnic is a tradition stretching back nearly 60 years. Today, it is one of the most popular events for Harker families and other members of the community.
• 1950s
The family picnic began in the 1950s when Palo Alto Military Academy held the annual family picnic in October at the end of the first full month of school. The Father’s Club sponsored the event, and proceeds funded the cost of monthly awards and trophies. Fried chicken was the traditional fare in the early days, and the picnic included a father-son softball game, the mothers’ 50-yard dash, an egg toss and a tug-of-war. The bike drills were a memorable part of the picnic, as each cadet decorated his bicycle for the event.
During this time, Miss Harker’s School had a May Festival and French Fete. The girls performed French songs, danced the Virginia Reel, and participated in a baton-twirling exhibition, followed by an “aquacade” performed in the school swimming pool.
• 1960s – 1970s
In the ’60s the tradition continued at the PAMA parade grounds, and the 1968 program advertises the $2.50 admission fee, adding, “Children under 5 and over 80 will be admitted free!” In the 1970s, the two schools merged and moved to San Jose as Harker Academy. The Father’s Club still planned the event, and in 1975 the picnic proceeds provided a major source of funding for the new swimming pool, which was completed in 1976. The raffle began in 1978, with a family donating a trip to Hawaii for two.
• 1980s
The 1980s brought the picnic to new heights, with rides and live entertainment, and it became the primary fundraiser for the school. During the ’80s, the picnic also began the tradition of having a new theme each year. The picnic featured a circus theme in 1985, a bicentennial theme in 1987, and a harvest theme in both 1988 and 1989.
• 1990s
As the school became The Harker School in the 1990s, the picnic changed as well. The now-famous Grand Auction from the annual black-tie dinner was combined with the picnic, and a silent auction was added. In 1997 and ’98, the picnic took place in the spring instead of the usual fall. Themes included Blast from the Past, The Beach Party and Starship Harker.
• 2000s
Harker’s expansion continued with the addition of two more campuses, and the picnic followed suit. In 2001, Harker celebrated the picnic’s 50th anniversary by donating all the proceeds from the event to the Harker Teacher’s Fund, which helped them offset the rising high cost of Bay Area housing. The 2006 “Picnic Down Under” allowed visitors to pet both a kangaroo and an alligator. A big change for the picnic came in 2007 when the event location changed from the Saratoga Avenue campus to Harker’s new middle school campus on Blackford Avenue, largely to accommodate the capital expansion project underway on the upper school campus. Appropriately themed “Blackford or Bust!” the wagon-wheeled, way out west theme – and the new, spacious location – was a huge hit, and it has remained on that campus ever since.