This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Aside from having one the school’s catchier acronyms, Harker’s learning, innovation and design (LID) department has for years been a key driver of much of the technology and methods that have made the school’s classroom experience continually exceptional. But there’s far more to LID’s process and philosophy than the latest device or app fashionable among teachers.
Harker has long been a tech-savvy school, partly owing to its roots in Silicon Valley. Student-built apps are in regular use on campus, and clubs host multiple programming competitions each year. Laptops see ubiquitous use by students and faculty for every kind of assignment, and teachers have made use of funds provided through the school’s LID Grant (formerly Tech Grant) program to explore new ways to integrate the latest technology into their instructional methods.
It wasn’t until relatively recently, however, that Harker took the crucial institutional step to decouple classroom innovation from the realm of information technology, a distinction that LID directors are hoping will become clearer in the future. “In the larger scope of education, innovation and educational technology, there was a significant shift away from associating what we do with the boxes and wires, the technical aspects of technology,” said Liz Brumbaugh, PS-12 LID director. “We provide the support for faculty to integrate whatever innovations, whatever creativity, whatever design pieces – whether that’s lesson design or their environmental design – and walk next to them in the development of whatever cool, great, inspiring new thing they want to try.”
Although these ideas may (and frequently do) incorporate a piece of technology, gadgets and software are no longer seen by LID as an essential piece of the puzzle. “Sometimes a crayon’s the best tool,” said Brumbaugh. Should a tech tool turn out to be more suitable than a crayon, LID takes steps to ensure that it’s a better fit for a teacher’s pedagogical approach, and that it is not being implemented for the sake of having a nice new toy to play with. “The technology that’s pervasive is another tool,” said Brumbaugh. “It’s an impactful tool, but you have to look at your lesson design. What’s your purpose? What’s your point in your lesson first? And then backwards plan and say, ‘Is technology the point of this?’”
Key to each LID director’s position is the requirement that they also have experience as classroom teachers, which offers unique insight into the day-to-day lives and activities of the educators they work with, in addition to familiarizing them with pedagogical theory.
“We have spent a lot of time teaching and being around teachers and learning about what makes good teaching even better,” said Diane Main, LID director at the upper school. “Many times when teachers have me come work with them or their students, or both, it’s not necessarily about technology, it’s about how we can do a better job of what we’re trying to do in that learning experience.”
To that end, teachers often see LID as a great source of feedback on their ideas, and have emerged from their discussions with LID inspired and invigorated. “The most important role that Lisa [Diffenderfer, lower school LID director,] plays for me is as a sounding board for helping me discern the best approach to designing lessons and activities,” said grade 5 English teacher Ann Smitherman. “She helps me determine what I really want to teach my students, and in turn, how I really want my students to show me what they’ve learned.”
Diffenderfer’s work has been instrumental in introducing virtual reality lessons to lower school classrooms, enabling students to, among other things, get detailed glimpses of far-off places relevant to their studies. She has been working with teachers to formulate ways to “take it a step further, helping teachers create their own virtual reality experiences for the students, more specific experiences that relate to the content of their classrooms,” she said.
When Smitherman wanted to use VR in her classroom as part of a unit on E.L. Konigsburg’s 1967 novel “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” Diffenderfer worked with her “to create a Google Slides ‘journey’ that helped students explore such old-timey landmarks as the automat and Grand Central Station,” she recalled. “Students were able to work at their own pace to complete the work, and it made the literature come to life.”
Another, less technology-focused project was spurred by Smitherman’s session at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University last year, aimed at developing reading and writing skills in young students by creating new methods for teaching and assessment. Smitherman returned from the two-week session with an idea for a new writing program that is currently being piloted among a self-selected group of teachers. Diffenderfer and Smitherman have worked closely to develop the pilot program “in a more organized and research-based fashion,” Diffenderfer said.
This particular project is one where Diffenderfer’s experience as a teacher has proved crucial. “Lisa has a great understanding of our curriculum, knows the ‘latest and greatest’ tools – not all of which require technology – to help me and our students reach our goals,” said Smitherman. “She asks really probing questions, forcing me to clarify the outcomes I seek.”
In addition to academics, LID also has applied its expertise to areas such as digital citizenship, student wellness and social justice. Earlier this year, middle school history teacher Cyrus Merrill and middle school LID director Abigail Joseph worked together to create a “social justice hackathon for students to take on real-world challenges and attempt to put together potential real-world solutions,” Merrill said. “I want to empower students to think they themselves can take on issues in the present, not just learn about them in the past.”
The result of that collaboration is the Get MAD (Make A Difference) design workshop and hackathon, which took place in November and saw students organize into groups to develop ideas to combat various social problems using their creativity and design thinking, a method of problem-solving that involves ascertaining a greater sense of who will be seeing and using the things they’ve made.
Joseph also worked with several teachers who attended the Institute for Social and Emotional Learning this past summer. “I helped them debrief to generate ideas for their actionable next steps,” Joseph said. “So I led them through a two-hour design thinking process, and at the end of that they came up with two concrete ideas that they wanted to bring back to staff and the parent community around introducing SEL at Harker.”
Design thinking is popular in the maker community, with which Joseph has spent considerable time at meetups and conferences. She runs and curates the middle school’s LID Hub, a maker and design thinking space which she hopes to see become “a space on campus where teachers and students can go and make their ideas take flight and test out things and try developing any ideas or thoughts that they have.”
Joseph one day would like to have students and teachers working together in the LID Hub, and to have the students become experienced enough to offer lessons of their own. “My big vision is to have the students teach the teachers,” she said.
In the meantime, teachers have spent a lot of time teaching one another during the LID Vision Days that are held each year, in which they share new methods or concepts they have integrated into their instruction, often as a result of the LID Grant program. Ostensibly an opportunity for teachers to find new ways to enhance their methods, LID Vision Days have also acted as forums for teachers to brainstorm and discuss a wide range of topics that affect learners.
“It’s really about the other people in the room getting a chance to learn and/or participate. It’s not always what we could call a sit-and-get kind of thing, where the teacher teaches and everybody just learns something,” said Main. “Often it’s hands on, it’s ‘Why don’t you bring your laptop and we’ll go through this together?’ or a conversation where the person facilitating is really just the one starting the conversation, and it doesn’t have to be that they’re leading it.”
One session took the form of a discussion on how to teach girls and how teachers often unknowingly carry gender-based biases with them into the classroom. “There’s a lot of implicit bias towards males in the classroom; there are certain behaviors that tend to be seen as more masculine that are seen as more favorable,” said Main.
In another session facilitated by Main and upper school Spanish teacher Abel Olivas, students from the Gender and Sexuality Alliance invited teachers to ask questions about the experiences of LGBTQ+ students, including topics such as gender-neutral restrooms, how to ask students about correct pronoun usage and avoiding the use of everyday gendered phrases such as “you guys.”
“Those conversations have been exciting to be a part of because they’re a part of our culture here and not just about our job,” Main said. “That’s what LID wants to be about, is helping transform the culture of the school so that everyone feels like it’s a very comfortable, safe, positive learning space.”
Earlier this year, Joseph spearheaded the effort to help make LID Vision Days even more student-focused with the first Student LID Vision. “I thought, well why don’t students have an opportunity to showcase all the cool learning that they do in and outside of the classroom, because they all do so much?” she recalled. The event showcased the engaging aspects of everything from debate to origami to yearbook signing, mirroring LID’s philosophy that learning can take many unlikely forms.
“Providing that space for our students to start having a little bit of voice and choice and to recognize that their learning can happen beyond their classroom is probably the thing I’m most proud of,” Joseph said. “I’m looking forward to making that bigger and better than last year and utilizing some faculty and students to help design what it looks like.”
To this end, Joseph is planning to form student and faculty LID councils that meet separately to discuss LID’s impact on the school community. Brumbaugh is also hoping to bring teachers who’ve worked with LID to conferences and co-present with them about ways they’ve applied learning, innovation and design principles in their teaching methods. Although Harker has hosted and invited teachers from outside the school to events such as the Harker Teacher Institute, such events have become extremely common.
“Conferences are a dime a dozen, especially in this area and especially as it relates to educational technology,” Brumbaugh said. “It’s almost impossible not to find some weekend throughout the entire year where people could go to a conference within 20 miles and get some educational technology training.” The addition of online resources such as YouTube channels and podcasts, she added, makes it more difficult for events such as the Harker Teacher Institute to set themselves apart.
As an alternative to overcrowding the selection of events, LID began requesting teachers to submit proposals last spring for presentations on how they’ve worked with LID to expand or strengthen their methods, which the LID directors plan to craft together with the teachers. For teachers more reticent about presenting on their achievements, LID directors have offered to present with them. “Teachers are notoriously humble, and because they’re notoriously humble, they don’t toot their own horns,” Brumbaugh said. “But if you can say there are people who need to learn a thing, they’ll be motivated by that.”
Meanwhile, the directors themselves are always seeking opportunities for new methods and technologies to bring to their colleagues. Next year, they plan to attend SXSW Edu, the educational arm of the world-famous SXSW culture festival in Austin. “We all go out to these different education innovation-rich conferences to keep up with the landscape of how people are innovating in education,” Joseph said.
According to Brumbaugh – who started in education as an English teacher and previously worked at the Santa Clara County Office of Education as instructional technology manager, serving more than 200,000 students – Harker is in a unique position to lead in a developing field. “The fact that we have the people in the first place sets us apart, but then that we have pretty high standards for what those people are going to be able to do once they’re in this position, is another level altogether,” she said. “So I think what sets us apart is the structure, which is representative of the philosophy, and the individual people. There’s such synchronicity, and it’s really beautiful when I stand back from being in the team and I’m like, this is good.”
This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Earlier this year, a contingent of upper school students traveled to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival. Putting on a pared-down version of “Urinetown,” the 2019 upper school spring musical, the show was set up, performed and torn down in just 90 minutes, a daunting task for any theater troupe, much less a group of high school students performing in a venue very different from their usual environs. Nevertheless, the productions went smoothly and received praise from local media, such as EdinburghGuide, which raved, “This particular ensemble from the award-winning high school conservatory The Harker School blows you away with their character work and synchronicity, a display well beyond their years.” But while the performances garner most of the attention-grabbing pull quotes, there’s no show to be had without the crew, whose skills at running a show on time and glitch-free were learned in Harker’s technical theater program.
As a discipline, technical theater comprises a massive range of theatrical aspects essential for a successful show. “Technical theater supports the productions we do at Harker,” said upper school technical theater teacher, and the school’s production manager, Brian Larsen. “So kids involved in technical theater work on stage crew, move things around, construct, paint and install scenery, operate the lights, soundboard and follow spots, help with costuming, putting things together.”
Such a broad scope naturally attracts students with diverse interests, but Larsen noted that it is rare that students enter the upper school program knowing exactly what they want to do. “If a student comes in and is very focused on being a sound technician, we want to try and help them with that track as much as possible,” he said. Far more common are students who discover their interests on their own after some experimentation. “What we’ve discovered is kids come here and they try a couple of things and go, ‘ooh that’s interesting,’ and they get a little more involved in that component,” Larsen said. “But we don’t tend to get a lot of kids who come through the door and say, ‘I’m a lighting designer.’ We’ve had those students, we’ve had those kids who did lighting outside of our organization … which is tremendous, but on the whole, we try to have the kids have as many opportunities as possible.”
In order to help students better find these opportunities and discover the aspects of technical theater they want to pursue, the performing arts department soon will offer a class on the study of technical theater, which recently received UC approval. “The study-of class will be very broad-based,” said Larsen, who also noted that the Rothschild Performing Arts Center provides a suitable space for experimentation. “The kids will have a lot of opportunities to try all manner of things. [Rothschild] is a large lab, so we’ll have a lot of opportunity for them to get immersed in things and try things out.”
The beginnings of Harker’s technical theater program date back to 1996 when Larsen joined the middle school faculty to teach theater production. With the start of the upper school and the opening of what is now the lower school campus two short years later, the challenge of teaching two classes on separate campuses compelled Larsen to seek another teacher for the grade 6 class. Danny Dunn was then brought on to teach grade 6 while Larsen taught at the middle and upper schools. When the middle school campus opened in 2005, Dunn moved her class to Blackford. Under her direction, more hands-on elements were added and her students began working shows, the first of which was a major task for a group of young students. “The very first show that the sixth grade students ever crewed was one of the great big huge shows that we put on to welcome the Tamagawa visitors,” Dunn said. Though there was some concern that such a young and inexperienced crew could take on the task, “Sure enough, the kids did a great job,” Dunn remembers.
The move to Blackford left Dunn with no tech theater students at the lower school to work on that campus’ productions. “So I started the fifth grade program because I’d lost all my tech kids at the lower school.” Dunn’s classes began as a primer on theater production: “how a theater works, jobs in the theater and whatnot,” she recalled.
She later began inviting students to help build sets on the weekends. “Parents would drop their kids off and we would just have a great time and build sets,” she said. “That became very popular and still is to this day.” True to Dunn’s vision, students in grade 5 perform a great deal of hands-on work, building props, sets and occasionally costumes. “If we’re doing the picnic show here with middle school actors, we might need 100-plus Robin Hood hats,” Dunn said.
Tools of the trade are also learned early on in the program, including the use of (and safety precautions with) power tools used to create the sets as well as soundboard and light board operation, and even special effects makeup and stage combat. “My goal is to have them not just help the grown-ups do it but for them to take ownership of an aspect of the performance,” Dunn said.
At the middle school, technical theater is offered as a series of electives, starting with a grade 6 design class that teaches the fundamentals of creating a scene using elements of scenery, lighting and sound. One exercise has students design a scene from the stage adaptation of the famous children’s novel “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Every aspect of the scene, including props, lighting, costumes and special effects, is conceptualized and critiqued.
Middle school students who wish to continue their studies have the option of taking an elective in theater production and design for grades 7 and 8, taught by Paul Vallerga, the middle school technical director, who has also been Harker’s primary set designer for 17 years. It is here that students begin working on elements that are used in major middle school productions. “The first day of class, one of the things I try to tell them is that, besides just the tech theater aspect, what I want them to learn from the class is that any time they’re watching anything – a TV show or movie – realize that everything you see is on purpose,” said Vallerga said. “Even if the decision was just, this where I’m going to put the camera to shoot those trees, somebody decided that’s what they want the audience to see.” Vallerga, who also spent 20 years with the now-defunct California Theatre Center, has students practice designing sets using William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” as a basis. “I try to teach them a few things about traffic patterns,” he said, noting the times he has had to coach students against “making a doorway that’s a foot wide.”
Further bolstering the middle school tech theater offerings is the afterschool technical theater class open to all middle school students, which includes weekly workshops in a variety of disciplines, including prop-making, makeup, costume construction and fight scene choreography.
By the time she arrived at the upper school, junior Geneva Devlin had spent considerable time in the technical theater programs at other campuses. Although she didn’t feel as enthusiastic about the craft as she once had in middle school, she nevertheless signed up to be a member of the crew for “42nd Street,” the first spring musical to be produced at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center. “It was my first time doing tech for an actual show and I loved it,” she said. “Being able to bond with my fellow techies and dance along backstage was so much fun, I didn’t want it to end.” She later joined the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program for technical theater and has since been joining the crew for shows whenever possible.
The upper school fortunately provides students with a wide range of learningopportunities, given the ambitious size and complexity that the productions often achieve. Certificate candidates are also prioritized when it comes time to decide which positions on the crew will be filled, especially “if there is something in particular they either are really interested in or haven’t done yet,” said Larsen. “So we make that available to them first and then we open it up to the other students to sign up for positions that interest them.”
Similar to how certificate candidates in other disciplines are required to act as crew members, so too must technical theater students perform in a show as part of their track in order to see how these different elements of crafting a show are affected by and complement one another. “You have to do both sides so you can see what that experience is,” Larsen said. “So you understand what a performer going through rehearsal is experiencing.”
Shanna Polzin ’10, who is now working as a production manager and stage manager in New York City (the Bryant Park Tree Lighting is her favorite event to work each year), first became fascinated the inner workings of the shows she performed in as a sixth grader, when a few of her friends began working on the crew. “In high school, I was part of the Conservatory program as a dancer, and we had a requirement of two technical positions,” she said. “That was my first experience with being a backstage crew member, as well as a follow spot operator.”
Though she spent most of her time at Harker as a performer, the program taught Polzin to appreciate just how much the crew works to make a show possible. “From a very young age, Mr. Larsen taught me the importance of tech theater and how no show can happen without the crew,” she said. “So while I was predominantly a performer, I was always taught to notice, appreciate and respect the tech side of things.”=
Although Polzin did not receive her certificate in technical theater, she cites the experience she gained at Harker as a factor in helping her find her current career, “from being aware of all the parts that go into putting on a show, to the work ethic, attention to detail and time management skills that get developed in all Harker students, to the general love of performing and making an audience happy,” she said.
“Ideally, if a student starts in fifth grade then takes the sixthgrade design elective, then works with Paul in the seventh and eighth grade and then does the Conservatory program with Brian, by the time they leave they should be able to get a job in theater no problem, if that’s what they want to do,” said Dunn. “But even kids who only take part of the program still enjoy it. They like being part of a show without having to act.”
Dunn also has noticed that technical theater provides a way for students who are reticent or less enthusiastic about acting to enjoy the process of putting on a show, which occasionally leads them to discovering an appreciation for performing they were previously unaware of. “I notice in middle school there’s a whole lot of being too embarrassed to perform,” she noted, “so students who are not comfortable being in the spotlight or putting themselves out there can dress all in black and blend into the scenery but still be completely part of the show, part of a cast or crew, part of the experience.”
The opening of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center presents a number of exciting opportunities for the technical theater program, which is already set to grow with the addition of the Study of Technical Theater class next year.
“It’s done two huge things, and neither of them can be understated,” Larsen said. The first is the presence of a fully equipped facility located on the same campus where upper school technical theater students spend most of their days, which removes the disruption of having to travel to a different campus to work. “The kids know right after school, they can come to the building, they can rehearse, they can build, they can do all the things that are inherent in being on the campus,” Larsen said.
The second major change is how the facility further connects the upper school’s performing arts department to the culture of the campus. “It’s not that much of a big deal now if students catch a ball game, grab a bite to eat and come see our show,” Larsen said. “It’s all contained within the culture of the upper school; it’s right here.”
It’s also had benefits for the middle school, which for the time being has a space entirely its own that it no longer has to share with another campus. “We don’t have to kick the drama teachers out of their rooms for a week, and say ‘hey, these are our [upper school cast’s] dressing rooms now,’” Vallerga said. For his part, Vallerga also looks forward to using the facilities at Rothschild to create props and scenery for middle school productions, as well as bringing middle school students to the upper school to work on the elements of their shows.
Whatever potential the new building holds for the program, there are students who remain in love with the process and its people above all. “I enjoy getting to learn something new each time I crew. I further my knowledge and gain more experience,” said Devlin. “I also really love bonding with all of the actors. Being able to interact and learn from the professional tech community that works at Harker is like a dream.”
This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
When someone asks for a volunteer, Roshni Mehra ’06 is often the first person to raise her hand. Her journey from finance to philanthropy was a result of her decision to pursue her passion and willingness to be open to every opportunity that came her way.
Whether it was in Cheryl Cavanaugh’s English class at Harker, where she learned how the power of someone’s passion can ignite your own, or working with disadvantaged students through PIMCO Foundation’s Tools for Tomorrow program, Mehra wasn’t afraid to follow her heart to find what’s right. Mehra attended Harker’s upper school and then went on to the University of California, Irvine, to pursue business economics and international studies. While she was in college, she interned at Merrill Lynch for two years and then joined asset management firm PIMCO upon graduation.
Being the youngest person ever hired and the only woman on the team, she was hungry to learn, working from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day on the trade floor. While she harnessed many skills while working in finance, it was never her passion. The problem was, she didn’t know what her passion actually was – that is, until she got involved in PIMCO’s Women’s Leadership Network and the PIMCO Foundation.
“Due to my early work hours and the late evening afterschool programs I was volunteering with, I started to stretch myself too thin,” Mehra said. “I soon realized that my favorite part of my job was taking place after work. That’s when I knew there was a problem.”
She took the bold step to quit her job at PIMCO and do a year of service and exploration. As a part of this soulsearching mission, she had two goals for the year: first, to build an educational foundation in the nonprofit world, and second, to get as much experiential knowledge as possible doing pro bono work.
She took classes through Stanford University and Coursera.Being on campus, Mehra soon became involved with Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS), which develops and shares knowledge to improve philanthropy, strengthen civil society and effect social change. “I said yes to every opportunity that came my way,” said Mehra with a bright smile on her face.
But she didn’t stop there. She also volunteered for a locally based, internationally aimed nonprofit called Home of Hope, which advances education for girls in India. In typical Mehra fashion, she joined its board of directors, became the executive director of the English Empowerment Program and director of the Youth Chapter, and even launched a social venture called Mentors Without Borders, which was featured on NBC Bay Area.
“I discovered I was most passionate about creating a lasting impact and igniting empowerment through mentorship and education,” she said. “I knew I needed to be a part of an impact-driven organization.” She’s doing just that at Stanford Graduate School of Business as the associate director of development marketing and communications, where her job doesn’t feel like work because it is so aligned with her passion and desire to have a positive impact in the world.
In addition to creating meaningful impact reports for donors, Mehra also volunteers as a pre-major advisor for Stanford undergraduate students, serving as a mentor and life coach for a cohort of 15-plus freshman and sophomore students as they navigate the transition from high school to college. But that’s not the only way she gives back. She volunteers with a group that brings therapy dogs to campus every month for students, faculty and staff to de-stress.
“Having hired Roshni 4 1/2 years ago, I subsequently promoted her into several other positions. Her capacity to take on increased responsibility has grown consistently,” said Susan Chung, director of development marketing and communications at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “What I appreciate most about Roshni is her approach to getting things done. Whether that be within our immediate team or across departments, her positive impact is grounded in seeking to understand issues and opportunities from multiple perspectives.”
This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
When Matthew Gehm ’09 was at the upper school, he didn’t know what career path he wanted to pursue – until a pivotal class his senior year. A Harker student since kindergarten, he was strong in math and science, but was also drawn to the arts.
“Matt was not a typical Harker math- and science-focused student, because his visual art classes were a lifeline for him,” said Pilar Agüero-Esparza, art teacher. “As a teen, he seemed to be going through a tough time and art was a way he could channel his creativity and inner self.”
His creativity and bent toward math led him to take an architecture class in the fall of his senior year – and that sealed the deal. His grandfather was an architect, so he had been exposed to the field, but everything clicked in the class, and he realized he wanted to pursue architecture in college.
So after high school, he set off to study architecture at the University of Southern California, which had a highly rated, five-year program. He had found his passion in architecture but also continued his digital artwork, which is focused around the misuse of digital tools used in architecture in pursuit of novel forms and complexity. After graduating from USC, he started Forester Gehm, a multidisciplinary design firm, which allowed him to balance the line between art and architecture by working on larger installation pieces.
He also worked for some architecture firms and then decided to attend graduate school, all while keeping Forester Gehm humming.
“Matt reached out to me after he graduated from USC, and I saw a laser focus and ambition light up in him about his life and career goals,” said Agüero-Esparza. “Soon after our meeting, I saw him reach for new heights, including entering his artwork in exhibitions and then applying to graduate school.”
Gehm decided to attend Harvard University to pursue a Master in Architecture II, a two-year program that extends the base of knowledge of the professional field with particular emphasis on design.
“If you asked me when I was graduating Harker if I ever thought I would go to Harvard, I would have said ‘no,’” Gehm said in his steady voice. “It felt out of reach, but then I found something I really cared about and something I was passionate about and it felt more real.”
One of Gehm’s projects at Harvard, “Tin Whiskers, or The Ghost in the Machine Part II” with Jonathan Gregurick, is a “conceptual hybrid of motion and stasis, which blurs the lines between control and chaos, structure and fenestration or machines and technics,” according to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design website.
The intellectual challenges of coursework combined with fascinating history courses and students from around the globe consumed Gehm for an amazing two years.
But when Gehm graduated in 2019, he knew he wanted to return to Los Angeles where his girlfriend lived and the beach beckoned. Instead of racing home, though, he spent a month traveling and camping across the United States. He’s an avid outdoorsman who enjoys hiking, camping and going to the beach.
Gehm is now a designer at Gehry Partners LLP, a full-service firm with broad international experience. He just started with Gehry and is involved in designing a skyscraper in Toronto. He plans to build his career in architecture but also continue his artwork.
“I realize that life is not a sprint but rather a series of opportunities,” said Gehm. “I’m lucky to have found my passion.”
This story originally appeared in the summer/spring 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Pauline Paskali teaches three courses at the upper school: regular and AP American Literature, and Genre Studies. Her love of language and literature are evident even in casual conversation, and she’s known not only for imparting that passion to her students, but for her warmth and kindness. But people may not know of her deep love for nature – “[its vastness] always challenges me and inspires me to carry on,” she says – or that she has two pet chickens, Clementine and Guinevere. Raised in Connecticut and Massachusetts, this East Coast transplant tells Harker Magazine a few more fun facts about herself.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten? Let go of what is beyond your control.
What are you good at? I often find myself in the role of backup photographer at weddings and gatherings of friends and family. The distance and intimacy created by my DSLR lens enables me to capture something essential about the people I love.
What do you love most about your life? Most people have to go to work every day, but I still get to go to school. Who doesn’t love being in an environment full of curious and kind people, young and old?
What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows? I spent my junior year of high school living with a French family in a country house outside of Rennes. I discovered there my passion for walking and for butter.
Where is the one place in the world that you like to escape to? Whenever I need a reboot, I return to the place I spent my summers as a child, a tiny village in the rugged Pindus Mountains of northern Greece.
What is your most treasured object and why? Recently we discovered a book containing a poem my father had written when he was in his early 20s. No one in my family knew about his writing. Reading his verse brought back to life the young man who long ago reluctantly immigrated to America to assuage the pangs of hunger.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Walid Fahmy is a busy man at the lower school! He teaches health and P.E., and coaches after-school football, basketball, soccer and baseball, in addition to being a grade 5 homeroom teacher and the Spirit & Service Club coordinator. This Oakland native’s favorite things in the world are his two young sons, Marino and Rocco, but he also gets a lot of satisfaction volunteering for youth programs at his church and escaping to the beach to swim or lay in the sun. He tells Harker Magazine about a few more of his favorite things.
What do you like to do when you finally have a block of free time? Travel, travel, travel! I have been to 15 countries and would like to add to that.
What makes you feel like a kid again? Going to Disneyland with my boys and enjoying the rides, wearing Mickey Mouse ears and eating sugar all day!
What is something one of your parents said that you will never forget? My dad told me, “God gave you two ears, one mouth; so listen twice as much as you talk.”
What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows? I eat raw meat. Completely raw. I season it and never cook it.
What is the best compliment someone can give you? I truly appreciate when someone compliments my loyalty. I feel that loyalty is a strong character trait – evident in the fact that I have been with Harker for 22 years now!
What is your most treasured memory? Delivering my firstborn son. Mine actually were the first hands to touch him. That makes me very happy!
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Ask a middle school student or colleague to sum up Cyrus Merrill in a few words and you might get “laughter,” “enthusiasm,” “energy” or, most likely, “Hawaiian shirts!” It may come as no surprise to learn he was his college’s mascot (a big blue sagehen). Merrillteaches grade 8 U.S. History and coordinates the grades 5-12 Future Problem Solving clubs, and is known for crafting engaging and humorous lessons. He says his 2-year-old daughter helps him remember that simple joys and laughter may be found in seemingly insignificant things. It’s clear from his chat with Harker Magazine that this enthusiasm for life and adventure runs through everything he does and shines on the students lucky enough to be in his classes.
What would constitute a perfect day for you? A day where my students were incredibly enthusiastic and took an idea I gave them to another level. I love the question, “Can I do this other thing instead … and here is why?”
What is an experience you’ve had that few others have experienced? I was once shipwrecked on a freighter off the coast of Madagascar.
For what are you most proud of yourself? I gave up a fellowship to Cambridge and instead somehow found the patience to sit for days on end sculpting rocks in Zimbabwe. I have the sculptures at home to remind me.
What is the best compliment someone can give you? “Thank you … you made me believe and convinced me something was possible.”
What is your most treasured memory? Finding dinosaur bones at age 10 with my geology professor father and his close paleontologist friend (who happened to make his biggest discovery – now on display – that very day).
This article originally appeared in the summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Every spring semester, two events bring the Harker community together to honor the lives of those afflicted with cancer as well as raise money for an organization working to improve the lives of children living with the disease. The middle school’s annual Cancer Walk and upper school’s Kicks Against Cancer – established in 2007 and 2010, respectively – have raised more than $100,000 for Camp Okizu, an organization that offers free camping activities to Northern California-based families whose children are fighting cancer.
All of the funds raised from both events are donated to the organization, currently in its 38th year of operation. “We serve more than 3,000 people each year by providing a place where they can escape the trials of pediatric cancer, find adventure and joy in a camp setting, and meet peers who truly understand what it’s like to be navigating a cancer diagnosis,” said Sarah Uldricks, Camp Okizu’s director of marketing and special events.
Located in the Sierra foothills, Camp Okizu’s facility comprises more than 500 acres of picturesque landscapes perfect for outdoor activities such as hiking, fishing, archery or simply walking and enjoying the scenery.
Harker and Camp Okizu first started collaborating in 2007, when former computer science teacher Michael Schmidt approached the organization after kicking off the Cancer Walk. Schmidt’s mother succumbed to cancer the previous year. “Since then, it has been used as a moment for our entire community to come together and celebrate the lives of those we love and those we’ve lost,” Schmidt told the Harker Quarterly (now Harker Magazine) in 2016. “It is a symbolic walk that is measured not by the miles covered, but by the love and understanding between us all.”
The Cancer Walk has since become a staple event for the Harker community, with hundreds of students, parents and faculty from all campuses participating each year by purchasing T-shirts, baked goods and other items before and at the event. With few exceptions, the sunny spring weather has proved very accommodating to the many who arrive to walk the field in honor of loved ones (or loved ones of loved ones) who have succumbed to or are currently battling cancer.
When Schmidt departed Harker in 2017, he handed the reins to middle school BEST director Lorena Martinez, who was happy to assume the role. “The responsibility is huge, but I love it,” she said. “I’m able to work with the parents, I’m able to work with student council, the teachers and the administration and we’ve all just been able to brainstorm some really cool ideas.”
After listening to suggestions from the Harker community, Martinez began adding carnival-like activities, such as games and face-painting, to help generate more funds and contribute more to the event’s festive atmosphere. It also resulted in more people eager to volunteer. “I’ve had parents for the last three years enjoy it so much that they tell me, ‘We’re going help you every year,’” she said. “What’s been really cool is seeing those parents excited to work booths again.”
In January 2010, the upper school girls soccer team began a fundraiser of its own, coinciding with a pair of upcoming home games. Students sold T-shirts and wristbands to promote the event, and the very first Kicks Against Cancer generated about $2,500 for the American Red Cross. The following year, organizers decided to donate funds to Camp Okizu.
In addition to rooting for the soccer teams, the Kicks Against Cancer event also includes halftime activities such as “Butts Up,” in which participants donate money to kick a soccer ball at a bent-over faculty member. Student groups also have put together pre-game tailgate gatherings and sold baked goods. Prior to the games, the athletes get to know the camp’s children by meeting with them at a special dinner event.
Senior Julia Amick, one of the organizers of this year’s Kicks Against Cancer, has been looking forward to being a part of the event since she began watching the games as a lower school student. “I have been going to the annual Kicks Against Cancer game ever since my brother and sister played in the games during their time in high school,” she recalled. “My sister also helped plan the event during her junior and senior years.”
Co-organizer Ria Gupta, also a senior, played in her first Kicks Against Cancer game in grade 9, and was similarly inspired to help put on the event. “After experiencing my first Kicks Against Cancer game, it became something I looked forward to every soccer season. I loved helping out in any way I could,” she said. The eagerness and enthusiasm shown by Harker students in benefiting Camp Okizu over the years has stood out to its staff. “We have noticed that the Harker students are always curious to learn, enthusiastic to help and are really connected to the importance of giving back,” said Uldricks. “The fact that every group of students continues to go above and beyond to support our campers and families shows that you have a tremendous group of future leaders in your midst.”
Amick particularly enjoys how her work with Kicks Against Cancer offers the opportunity to interact and bond with the people helped by Camp Okizu. “One part of the event I especially love is planning and attending the dinner. We set the date for the dinner and we ask all the teams (girls varsity, boys varsity and boys junior varsity) to attend and to bring stuff for the kids to play with,” she said. “It’s such an amazing part of the event because everyone gets to bond with the kids and we get to see for ourselves what a great cause we are raising money for.”
Stu Kaplan, who joined Camp Okizu as executive director in early 2019, already has noticed the dedication that sets the Harker community apart. “There really is something special about when kids are being generous in spirit and in effort for other kids,” he said, “and just understanding that there are kids who really benefit from their work and their effort is a super special thing.”
This story was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
A key tenet of Harker’s philosophy is enabling students to explore their interests and pursue their passions. One way the school accomplishes this is by encouraging its faculty to do the same. Many of Harker’s classes, especially its unique electives, exist because teachers are eager to share their passion for a subject with students.
Never content to rest on their laurels, Harker’s faculty and administration continually work to create new and exciting classes that pique students’ interest, while preparing them for college and beyond. This innovative approach enables Harker to recruit high-level teachers who are experts in their disciplines and have an infectious enthusiasm for the subjects they teach, said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. These teachers continually reevaluate and adjust curriculum to give students the skills they need to be successful, she added.
“Teachers know that we are not a static institution, which is exciting for many,” Gargano said. “We attract the type of teachers we seek – those who are entrepreneurial, hard-working and desirous of an evolving curriculum.”
A rich experience
In many ways, Harker’s upper school course list reads like a college catalog, with elective offerings including The Science of Food; Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation; and Advanced Stone Carving. These unique offerings even extend to physical education, where two semester-long courses in Kinesiology and Sports Medicine introduce students to topics including exercise physiology, biomechanics, and the prevention and care of athletic injuries.
Often these specialized classes aren’t offered at other schools. Take, for example, Sam Lepler ‘96’s post-AP class, titled Honors Advanced Topics in Economics: Game Theory, which is in the business and entrepreneurship department.
“The class examines strategic human interaction using primarily mathematical modeling,” Lepler explained. “It covers various game structures (like the famous prisoner’s dilemma, a common game theory example), as well as strategic moves like threats and promises, the economics of information asymmetry, voting, auctions, bargaining and more.”
Though it’s become a core course in university economics departments, Lepler said he doesn’t know of any other high school that offers an advanced course in game theory, “especially not withthe use of multivariate calculus that I include,” he added. “I knew the students would love it, learn a ton, be able to use what they learn outside the classroom, and be well prepared to explore further at the university level.”
And while the course sounds highly specialized, it draws a diverse group of students. Nearly one-third of the senior class takes the course, Lepler said. Some students enjoy the strategic decision-making, while others enjoy the applied math concepts or economics in general, he explained, adding that the diversity of students in the class makes it “dynamic and entertaining.” Tiffany Zhao, grade 12, became interested in game theory when she took AP Microeconomics as a junior. She took Lepler’s game theory class this past year and thoroughly enjoyed it. “The course material itself was fairly nuanced and complex, but extremely fascinating, covering strategies and applications that many business models use,” she explained. Zhao said the class prepared her well to continue studying game theory in college, adding that the concepts also are applicable to everyday life.
“As Mr. Lepler said on day one of the course, game theory is simply a strategic analysis of basic human interactions,” she said. “When I go off to college, I’ll meet more people and knowing more about the economic basis behind our interactions will deepen my relationships with my peers.”
Many of Harker’s courses reflect the college experience, commented English teacher Charles Shuttleworth. In college, for example, “literature courses are almost always genre studies or focused on a particular author. Students get the chance to develop a deeper understanding of a particular area of study that they’re interested in exploring, and to study with teachers who have a particular expertise and passion for the subject.” To bring that rich experience to his classroom, Shuttleworth developed a course titled Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. Shuttleworth first became interested in Beat writing in college and taught on the subject 25 years ago at Horace Mann School in New York, which Kerouac had attended. At that time, Shuttleworth interviewed more than 30 of Kerouac’s former classmates and presented his findings at a conference celebrating Kerouac’s life and work.
“I think [it’s] a very important and relevant topic, as it had a profound effect literarily and culturally,” Shuttleworth explained, adding that the class covers more than literature. It explores “the changes in America from the 1930s to the 1970s, from the Great Depression through the hippie and punk movements – the emergence of a counterculture focused on personal freedoms and personal expression, giving voice to ‘the unspeakable visions of the individual’ (Kerouac’s phrase).”
Shuttleworth said the opportunity to teach such specialized classes is what prompted him to leave his native New York to join the Harker faculty. Teaching on the Beat generation in Northern California – a major hub of the movement – also enables him to incorporate unique hands-on experiences, including an annual field trip to City Lights Bookstore and The Beat Museum in San Francisco. Over the years, students also have attended readings by Beat poets, toured a home that was a setting in a Kerouac novel, and met with two Kerouac biographers, as well as Jami Cassady Ratto, daughter of Beat poet Neal Cassady.
In an anonymous class evaluation, one student marveled at the depth of the class and Shuttleworth’s passion for the topic. “I am in awe at how mature a scholar you are and I think this experience taking your class is unparalleled,” the student said.
This past year, Shuttleworth applied for and received a grant from the Raju and Bala Vegesna Foundation’s Teacher Excellence Program at Harker. The grant enabled him to further his research on Kerouac, “in particular his experience as a fire lookout in Washington state, which was pivotal in his life and career,” Shuttleworth said, adding that during his research, he uncovered several important unpublished documents, and has been able to share his experience with his students. (For a fuller account of Shuttleworth’s work on Kerouac under the Vegesna grant, see news.harker.org and search for Shuttleworth).
Students first
Of course, no matter how passionate a teacher is about a topic, a class won’t be successful if it doesn’t appeal to students.
“The primary goal in developing a new course is to think about the needs and interests of our students,” said science teacher Kate Schafer, adding that since Harker already offers a wide variety of courses, new offerings should fulfill unmet needs.
Such was the case with The Science of Food, an elective Schafer developed several years ago. Students eat up the class – both literally and figuratively.
“It’s definitely the only science class where you get to eat the results of your experiments,” Schafer said, adding that labs regularly involve cooking and baking. For example, different groups might prepare slightly different recipes to explore the differences between leaveners, fats or temperature. “One of the things that really excited me about developing this course is that it had the potential to appeal to a wide swath of Harker students with varying academic interests. This definitely turned out to be the case.” In the class, students develop some kitchen skills while learning science, Schafer said, adding that there is also a nutritional component. “It’s important to have an understanding about how to make good choices in your diet and to be skeptical of the claims made about various diets and ‘health’ foods. It’s become clear that cooking for yourself means eating healthier, and I hope that my course helps students to have confidence in the kitchen and a curiosity about the science of why we prepare foods the way we do.”
When the class was introduced in spring 2016, students did their cooking and baking in the kitchen in the auxiliary gym complex. Though Schafer made it work with the support of Harker’s kitchen staff, it wasn’t ideal to have 16 students gathered around one stove, she explained. This year, Schafer’s classroom was outfitted with two stoves, a dishwasher and a refrigerator. “It’s allowed us to do so much more in the course than we could initially,” she said.
Even at the middle school, classes such as Innovation Lab and an extensive array of visual and performing arts electives give students a taste of the specialized courses offered at the upper school.
Innovation Lab, a sixth grade elective, teaches students to use a process called design thinking to develop solutions to unique problems and challenges. “The idea is to use a process that encourages designers to understand their customers well and to explore multiple design concepts before settling on one to prototype,” explained teacher Sam Linton. “I enjoy seeing all the surprising and amazing things that the students come up with.”
Standing out from the crowd
Before developing a new class, teachers must first get buy-in from the Harker administration. Once teachers get the green light, the process of developing the class and getting University of California approval as a class it will accept on a student’s transcript can take a year or more.
“I have found that the administration is open-minded to new courses if they foresee a strong demand. I had to sell the idea, but they were open to buying it,” said Lepler of his game theory class. Other teachers echoed this sentiment, adding that the administration is committed to providing a wide range of classes to meet student interest and set Harker apart from other schools.
“As a large school with a large faculty, we are able to offer many courses that speak to the interests of our students,” Gargano said. “Especially by the time students are juniors and seniors, they can create a specialized schedule based on their interests and/or the skills they desire to learn or enhance.”
When Jaap Bongers, just-retired visual arts department chair for K-12, started the art department at the upper school in 1998, then-president Howard Nichols asked him how he could help make Harker stand out.
“I answered him by saying we should allow art teachers to teach their strengths,” said Bongers, who had previously spent years carving marble sculptures in Italy. Stone carving isn’t a widespread skill and few high schools had facilities for such a class, Bongers said.
“Howard asked me what it would take. I explained to him that we needed a setup for pneumatic tools and small individual studios,” Bongers recalled. “You can imagine how surprised I was when I came back from summer break and found everything I had mentioned in place.” Bongers said stone carving is an activity that students either love or hate. “It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to work in stone, and that is not for everyone,” he explained. Unlike modern-day technology, which offers instant gratification, “this class forces the students to think long-term and develop the patience and ability to give things time, be creative and open to change all the way until the project has been completed.”
The love of learning
In his 40 years teaching high school Latin, Clifford Hull said Harker is the first school he has taught at that offers post-AP Latin classes. Hull teaches honors advanced Latin literature courses covering Roman epic, satire, history and love poetry. Post-AP Latin students must already have successfully completed the AP Latin course and received at least a three on the exam. Most have taken at least five years of Latin, and they all have a deep knowledge and love of the language. These students have spent many years studying Latin and the school administration recognizes that some students would love to continue on, Hull said.
When developing or tweaking courses, Hull said he considers how the course relates to students in the 21st century; whether students will enjoy the class and what they will get out of it; how the knowledge they gain will relate to other disciplines; and whether the course will increase their love for and interest in Latin. Senior Nikhil Dharmaraj, who began studying Latin in sixth grade, said Harker’s post-AP Latin classes instilled in him “a true, deep love for the subject.” Whereas lower level classes focus on grammar skills and translating sentences, and the AP class is geared toward the exam, post-AP classes are about “being a scholar, getting to read esoteric, incredible Latin works – not learning new grammar rules, but applying the ones we’ve already learned to uncover fascinating stories from the past,” he explained.
“The classics are inherently interdisciplinary,” he continued. “In studying Latin, I learn so much about religion/culture, mythology, history, philosophy and linguistics. And since Latin is the root of so many modern languages, it is also mind-blowing to start making those connections, seeing how words I use every day come from this civilization from so long ago.” As a 2018-19 Mitra Scholar, Dharmaraj wrote an extensive research paper on the influence of Roman poet Lucretius’ works – including his epic poem “De Rerum Natura” (“On the Nature of Things”) – on Charles Darwin and the ideas he presents in “On the Origin of Species.” He plans to study both computer science and classics at Harvard University in the fall.
Hull said he is pleased to see his students, like Dharmaraj, making connections between Latin and other disciplines. “My greatest rewards for teaching these courses are the ‘aha moments’ when students make it very clear with an audible ‘aha’ that have just learned something new, and to also see them decoding, analyzing and appreciating the intricate motifs interwoven in the texts,” he said.
Jennifer Maragoni is a freelance writer and editor based in Folsom.
This story originally appeared in the spring/summer 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Middle school math teacher Margaret Huntley moved to the U.S. eight years ago from her native Australia, leaving behind her parents and six siblings. Though she cites this as the biggest risk she’s ever taken, she has created a happy life here with her also-Australian husband and their 1-year-old daughter. Passionate about the outdoors, she loves cycling in the hills, going to the beach – “anywhere I can be totally by myself in nature.” Read on for more interesting facts Harker Magazine discovered about Huntley!
When did you first really feel like an adult? The first time I filled out a tax return.
What gives you a reason to smile? The little things: a sunrise walk, a picnic lunch, a blossom tree. There are so many reasons to smile if you look for them.
Brag about something. I can still do round-off back handsprings!
If you had $100 million in the bank, what would your day look like? Much like it does right now. I’d still be teaching at Harker. I think I’d fly business class when I travel, though!
What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up? Knowing that even things that seem insurmountable and unachievable are not the end of the world. If something really needs to get done, it will get done; if I don’t get it done, then I guess it wasn’t that important.
What does your inner child want? To cuddle up with a teddy bear.