This article originally appeared in the spring 2016 Harker Quarterly.
1996
Jeremy Kerr and his wife, Jennifer, had a baby. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
1997
In January Will Jarvis was featured in an article in the Napa Valley Register about Jarvis Estate winery, which he runs with his father in the Napa Valley. To view the article: http://bit.ly/1oXw48Y. 2003 Amit Saxena got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2003
Amit Saxena got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2004
Neil Bhalerao is getting married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2005
Kristen (Hulberg) Hunsbedt got married last May. “My husband (Mark) and I got married in the Santa Cruz Mountains near our home. I also got my M.A. in counselor education in 2014 from San Jose State, and I’m working as a college and career counselor at Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville,” she said.
Liat Noten started an abstract art and photography business, using digital photography to create art that she said is full of heart, energy, vibrancy and wonder. “I’m interested in abstract and conceptual photography because it allows me to play and imagine even before I’ve picked up my camera. I’m always on the lookout for new ways to create digitally,” she said. Check out her website at: http://www.artislifeitself.com/.
The Class of 2005 held its reunion on Dec. 22, 2015 at The Old Pro in Palo Alto. Classmates enjoyed catching up over a nice dinner.
2006
Amit Mukherjee, a senior associate at New Enterprise As- sociates (NEA), was included on Forbes magazine’s prestigious “30 Under 30” list of of the 2016 young movers and shakers in the venture capital category. Amit has worked at NEA since 2012, overseeing more than $500 million of invested capital. A leading source for reliable business news and financial information, Forbes is well known for its annual lists and rankings. The “30 Under 30” list prides itself on predicting the brightest and most ambitious young adults to watch in the coming year. Congratulations, Amit!
In the winter 2015 issue of Harker Quarterly, we ran a note about Steve Boyle designing and directing a show called “Matthew Briar and the Age of Resurrection.”
Steve is a graduate of Harker’s Conservatory program and has produced several shows recently. In early March he returned to the upper school to speak with performing arts students about his career and life in the arts.
Rohini Venkatraman began working as a business designer at the award-winning global design and consulting firm IDEO last year. She recently helped arrange a visit to Harker’s middle school by IDEO representatives who were interested in observing classrooms there. For more information on the IDEO visit to Harker, see page 28 for a feature story on the middle school’s new “moveable classrooms.”
Michael Hammersly, a materials and processing engineer at SpaceX, was the official announcer for the SpaceX launch! Check out the webcast at http://bit.ly/1Ph7CXS. The video was streamed live on Dec. 21. SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. With this mission, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket delivered 11 satellites to low-Earth orbit.
Arvind Ravinutala and Nirav Chitkara stopped by the alumni relations office to say hello while visiting with former teachers on the upper school campus.
2009
Anu Ramachandran was one of two Johns Hopkins University students selected to spend next year pursuing a graduate degree in the United Kingdom after winning the highly competitive Marshall Scholarship. A third-year Hopkins medical student, Anu will study public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was among 32 U.S. students selected as Marshall Scholars out of 916 applicants this year. Funded by the British government, the prestigious scholarship allows high-achieving scholars to undertake postgraduate studies in the U.K. program of their choice, with the goal of nurturing future leaders and strengthening British-American collaborations.
2010
The Class of 2010 held its reunion on the evening of Dec. 26 at BJ’s Restaurant in Cupertino. A great time was had by all!
2011
Harker Conservatory graduate James Seifert appeared in a Stanford University play. Seifert was also active in speech and debate, sang in the All-National Honor Choir in Washington, D.C., in 2011, and earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Obama in 2011.
To read an article about him that appeared in the Palo Alto Weekly: http://bit.ly/21E3kTM.
The Class of 2011 held its five-year reunion on Dec. 26 at Tied House in Mountain View. The evening was filled with fun filled memories and delicious food.
2012
Govi Dasu started a consultancy (abhigoviconsulting.com) that helps entrepreneurs build Web and mobile applications for their early startup ideas. “It’s pretty amazing how Harker has a business department now. At Harker, I didn’t really understand the value of the Harker network, but after Stanford, I realize how powerful both schools’ networks are. Harker is actually more powerful because it so tightly knit,” said Govi, who is offering a 5 percent commission on all project referrals. So far, several of his clients have come from the Harker community!
2013
Joe Wang is studying real estate finance at New York University and also raising funding for a food curation startup on the East Coast. Joe recently moved and is now living in Brooklyn. He is in touch with Caroline Lai, who also attends NYU. Joe stopped by to visit the alumni relations office and volunteered to become an alumni mentor for seniors interested in learning more about NYU and New York.
Lorraine Wong, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joined other women representatives from the private research university to talk to local middle school girls about engineering. They discussed examining DNA from a strawberry that clumped and separated from an extraction process, among other topics.
Maverick McNealy is a regular in Harker Quarterly for his breaking golf news. In January the Stanford golfer made a guest appearance at a mandatory upper school spring sports meeting for parents and athletes. He spoke to them about his athletic experience and the lessons he has learned from playing sports.
Molly Wolfe was a White House intern last summer and is now at the London School of Economics for her junior year at Vanderbilt University.
A number of alumni from the Class of 2013 had a great time playing an informal pickup game during one of Harker’s varsity soccer team’s practices over the holiday break. Joining in the fun were several other alums from the classes of 2012, 2014 and 2015.
2015
Corey Gonzales took a gap year to travel around South America by motorcycle. While home for the holidays, Corey returned to Harker to present to an upper school Spanish 4 class. Corey plans to attend Harvard in the fall.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2015 Harker Quarterly.
1992
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, recently ran into Ravi Kapur and his mother. Ravi shared that he just got married and owns TV stations in San Jose, Chicago and North Dakota. Ravi also offered to serve as an alumni mentor to a current Harker student.
Toku Chen had a baby. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
1995
Lisa Kai Klosterman is an orthodontist living with her family in Austin, Texas. Lisa is one of six Kai children who graduated from Harker. Following Harker, she went on to Exeter for high school, Santa Clara University for undergraduate, University of Pacific Dental School in San Francisco, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for orthodontic residency. She is married to Kelby Klosterman, and they have a son, Theodore (Theo), born Oct. 7, 2013, and a daughter, Camille, born Aug. 26 of this year.
1996
Frank Lee got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2002
Samana Khan had a baby! Please see the Celebrations section for details.
Jerry Chi is changing jobs from Google to Supercell, the developer behind the game Clash of Clans. He’ll be doing marketing analysis and strategy work covering the Asian Pacific region. Still based in Tokyo, Jerry will be visiting the San Francisco office every few months.
Sean Gabriel (MS ’98) recently returned to the Bay Area after having spent much of 2015 abroad in Accra, Ghana, working with an organization called MEST, a combination tech entrepreneurship school and startup incubator in the region that has recently expanded into Kenya and Nigeria. During Sean’s stay in Accra, he came on board the incubator team as a tech fellow, mentoring resident startups. Sean has written about the experience at http://meltwater.org/scrum-tips-from-west-african-incubator-mest/.
2003
Peter Noonan got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2004
Alfred See completed his undergraduate studies and medical school at Johns Hopkins, and is currently in neurosurgery residency at Harvard, with four years to go. Alfred is interviewing for fellowship spots in 2019-20. He is in touch with classmates Geetanjali Vajapey, Maggie Chen, Joycelin Tsai and Stephanie Chun. After med school he ran a marathon with Wesley Wu, followed by a cross-country drive. Alfred stopped by the alumni office to visit and says he has fond memories of cross country, his classmates and teachers. Alfred has also stepped up to be an alumni mentor for students interested in neurosurgery, and last fall visited Anita Chetty’s grade 12 Human Anatomy and Physiology class to lead a workshop, using the school’s anatomy table to illustrate two recent stroke cases he had worked on.
Emma Hawley is volunteering at the upper school, leading relaxation sessions as part of Harker’s wellness program. Emma spent a year living at an ashram in India and is now back in the Bay Area and delighted to be sharing her meditative skills. The weekly class is open to all upper school students.
2005
Greg Kastelman has served as director of concert booking and business development for Cadenza Artists. There he is responsible for directing agency-wide booking initiatives, talent scouting, developing strategic partnerships, initiating new programs for revenue generation developing and initiating branding and promotional strategies.
2006
Amanda Polzin got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
Steve Boyle designed and directed a show called “Matthew Briar and the Age of Resurrection.” The epic, immersive show played on Oct.16-18 at History San Jose, a park full of historical buildings including an old hotel, bank, firehouse, a gorgeous light tower and old homes. Steve is a graduate of Harker’s Conservatory program and has produced several other productions recently. For this unique experience, he divided the park up into three smaller mini-immersive zones: a 1907 World’s Fair, the 1920s, and a Depression-era camp. The production had a very successful run. A fun side note, shared Steve, is that “Aseem Shukla ’07 was in the show!”
2007
Jake Bongers, a fourth year Ph.D. student at the University of California, Los Angeles, was featured in both a video and local newspaper article discussing his role as the consulting guest curator of an exhibition on mummies now on display at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
Jason Martin has been playing professional baseball for the past four years. He was just traded to the Joplin Blasters in Missouri, and is working toward a master’s degree in sports psychology at Fresno State. He is also coaching baseball at Clovis West High School. Jason married Nicole Duquette in October 2014.
2008
Troy Townzen got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details.
2009
Gloria Ye has been working at Groupon, where she participated in her first hackathon, winning first place locally and placing second and third globally in two different categories as voted by Groupon’s technical panel. Her picture will be featured at Groupon’s headquarters on the honor wall just outside of the CEO’s ofice, honoring her as one of the company’s most dedicated employees.
After graduating from Harker, Dominique Dabija earned her B.S. in bioengineering and M.S. in engineering from Stanford. She spent the next year doing research on medical devices, traveling throughout Japan and Europe, and working on a scuba diving boat around the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea in Australia. She is now attending Vanderbilt Medical School, so let her know if you ever find yourself in Nashville!
In the fall issue of Harker Quarterly, Harker Conservatory graduate DJ Blickenstaff showed off his acting chops in a Subway commercial. Now he’s added another notch to his acting belt: he will be in several episodes of a series called “The Colony,” which will begin airing in January on the USA network. He is playing a character named Vasquez. He also recently filmed another commercial, this one for AT&T.
2010
Andy Fang, co-founder of the Palo Alto-based, on-demand food delivery startup DoorDash, shared the secrets to his success during a seminar hosted by the Asian American Parent Association on Oct. 15. Two days later he spoke at TEDxHarker-School, a student-run, kid-only event.
2011
Harker classmates Rani Mukherjee and Alice Loofbourrow are in school together once again, completing a one-year post-baccalaureate premedical program at Goucher College in preparation for a career in health care.
Some interesting work updates from various alumni: Shreya Nathan is working for an education startup in Buenos Aires until January. Christina Li is working for Scary Little Girls, a feminist matrifocal production/theatre company based in England. Howard Lio is having a great time working for Box in Mountain View. Ari Parige is freelancing as a filmmaker. And Daisy Mohrman had her first performance as a professional dancer with Sean Greene’s Shield Wall in Los Angeles.
The Class of 2011 will have its five-year reunion on Dec. 26! Likely topics include reminiscing about the good old days and talking about transitioning into “real” adulthood. Stay tuned for more information!
2012
Neel Salukhe, who plays football for the University of Washington Huskies, was recently interviewed for the Huskies’ athletic newsletter as well as for an article that appeared in The Seattle Times. Neel is making a name for himself at the university as both a dedicated and talented football player, and a serious and respected student of microbiology.
2013
Vladimir Feinberg has been awarded the B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize at Princeton University! He also received the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence while at Princeton. He is concentrating in computer science and is pursuing a certificate in statistics and machine learning; he’s also a member of the Princeton Association for Computing Machinery and plays club volleyball. This past summer Vladimir was a software engineering intern at Google.
Mav McNealy continues to make breaking golf news. Back in November the Stanford junior capped a sensational fall season by earning medalist honors for the third time in four events at the Gifford Collegiate Championship.
Back in August, former upper school history teacher Ray Fowler, who retired at the end of last year, met up with Alison Rugar at Cornell. Mr. Fowler was riding his motorcycle coast to coast, and Alison was getting ready to help out with freshmen orientation before returning to her engineering and physics studies. She is on schedule to graduate in 2017.
Upper school math teacher Victor Adler recently visited with some Harker alumni attending Princeton University. Pictured here with him are Joy Li, Vladimir Feinberg and Sonia Hashim, as well as Kiran Vodrahalli ’11, Abhinav Khanna ’12 and Avi Nayak ’14.
2015
At the 62nd National Junior Classical League Convention, held at Trinity University in Texas, Maya Nandakumar received the Jessie Chambers NJCL Scholarship. A current Harker student, Elisabeth Siegel, grade 12, was part of a multischool advanced competitive Certamen team that took third place. The achievement earned them nice mentions in Nuntius Californiensis, the official newsletter of the California Junior Classical League. Congrats to both women!
This article originally appeared in the fall 2015 Harker Quarterly.
1992
Sasha Nikki Noonan ’92 had a beautiful wedding in gorgeous Sayulita, Mexico, back in May. Here she is pictured with Harker friends Liz Williams (matron of honor), Stacey Noonan (maid of honor and twin sister) and Amanda Bonomi (bridesmaid).
1995
Upper school Latin instructor John Hawley shared that he teamed up with Tom Garvey to play the World Series of Certamen (classical quiz bowl) at the National Junior Classical League Convention at Trinity University. Tom teaches Latin at The Meadows School in Las Vegas.
2002
In the summer issue of Harker Quarterly, we noted that Alexander Wang MS ’98 had been named as one of top 100 influential people by Time magazine. Madonna seems to agree, as she recently featured him in a video!
2005
Erika Gudmundson will take over as the new spokeswoman for the Clinton Foundation after the Clinton Global Initiative next month! To read more about it: http://nyti.ms/1hEKSVy.
2006
Tara Chandra (stage name Tara Priya) made Time Out London’s list of five rising musical acts to follow! Of Tara the publication says, “San Franciscan Tara Priya makes a mix of jazz, soul, and ’90s hip-hop. Her chilled vocals are made for sunny weekends and lazy evenings. Watching her charm London crowds with a beautiful voice is bliss.”
Bernie Lee dropped by the alumni relations office for lunch and a campus visit over the summer. He is working for DuPont Industrial Biosciences in Palo Alto. Bernie stepped up to serve as an alumni mentor to current seniors interested in working in his field. He still enjoys playing basketball, and spending time with old Harker friends, including former classmate Wilson Haung.
Mina Lee is having an incredible time working as chief of staff for Xiaomi in Southeast Asia. Check out this great article about her work: http://bit.ly/1LONiLU
Lauren Harries had a busy spring and summer in collaborations with The Philadelphia Theatre Company Tribe of Fools. In the early spring, she traveled to Georgia with Tribe of Fools to compete on TruTV’s second season of “Fake Off” (they made it to the finals), and for the summer Lauren was cast in their original Fringe Festival show “Zombies … with Guns.” In the middle of all this, she also got married on June 13 to Jeff Moorhead (they met at stage combat camp), and Casey Blair was her Best Ninja (aka Maid of Honor).
Abhishek Belani MS ’02 married Sara Kendall this summer in San Francisco in a festive, two day-long celebration. Here he is shown with fellow Harker friends Naushad Godrej ’06 and Casey Near ’06 (maid of honor).
2007
Emily Isaacs graduated from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Emily is going to be practicing as a vet in Vallejo. Congratulations, Emily!
2009
Harker Conservatory graduate DJ Blickenstaff shows off his acting chops in this Subway commercial, which just started airing nationally. Check it out at http://bit.ly/1KMPwws
Upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl had the opportunity to meet up with Ben Pibulsonggram in Bangkok. “I had a pretty amazing experience having brunch with Ben there. He was my student for several years. He works now in Bangkok and goes to N.Y. for his master’s next month,” said Ms. Stahl.
Sean Mandell told the alumni office that he has been living in San Francisco for two years and working in economic consulting. “I recently joined a nighttime soccer league where I’m teaming up with fellow ’09ers Jeff Mandell, David Kastelman, Kevin Laymoun and Barrett Glasauer,” he shared.
2013
Maverick McNealy has added yet another notch to his driver grip! He was named to the 2015 United States Walker Cup Team in early August. He is one of 10 team members who will compete in the 45th match against Great Britain and Ireland in one of the game’s most prestigious and watched golf matches. Mav was selected to the United States Palmer Cup team and received several other accolades for his golf this summer. Mav was also recently featured on the cover of Golfweek magazine’s college preview issue! Shrish Dwivedi (’15 and a Duke-bound golfer) went to Illinois to watch Maverick play at the Palmer Cup over the summer.
Michael Amick is on the “soccer Heisman” award watch list! The MAC Hermann Trophy is the most prestigious individual award in college soccer presented annually to one male and one female athlete. Read more about it: http://bit.ly/1gKvoj4
Aneesh Chona helped his sister Eesha, a Harker senior, launch a nonprofit organization called Association of Teens Against Cancer (ATAC). To read more about their work, see page 24 and http://bayareane.ws/1IN91yZ.
2015
Matthew Ho recently paid a visit to an upper school Study of Visual Arts class. He currently attends the Rhode Island School of Design.
Over the summer class agents Katy Sanchez and Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari stopped by the alumni office to roll up their sleeves and help out with some volunteer work.
Maya Nandakumar, current National Junior Classical League first vice president, presented awards for a promotional video contest at the 2015 National Junior Classical Convention at Trinity University in San Antonio. She was awarded the organization’s Jessie Chambers Scholarship, established upon the retirement of Chambers, who served for many years as Federations Chairman of the Committee on the National Junior Classical League.
Eric Holt is currently pursuing a degree in chemistry at Oberlin College. He was a four-year varsity basketball player at Harker, where he amassed 962 points and 657 rebounds over a 90-game career, among other honors. He also played four years of varsity water polo and gained first-team honors his senior season.
Leeza Kuo and Hannah Bollar so enjoyed their time and experiences together at Harker that they embarked on a unique video project. Each day of their senior year, they had a photo taken of themselves holding up the date with their fingers. The video is on their YouTube channel, Kuo Bo.
Fourteen members of the Class of 2015 received National Merit Scholarship Awards! Read all about it: http://bit.ly/1XlKU5H
Over the summer CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) hosted 11 young students who won the CERN Special Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. These winners were selected from the 1,700 high school students who participated in the competition. Among them was Nitya Mani. “Seeing the accelerators was really cool. It was great to have the chance to get so close,” she is quoted as saying in this article: http://bit.ly/1JBXwMt
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
2002
Congratulations to Alexander Wang (MS ’98) who was named one of “The 100 Most Influential People” by Time Magazine. The magazine recently released its annual list and Alex was one of the few fashion designers among the elite to make the cut.
2003
Maheen Kaleem is a recent Georgetown University Law Center graduate. She was featured (with both a quote and photo) in a thought-provoking front-page article in The Washington Post on the future value of a legal degree. In the piece, she shared that she wants to practice public interest law, but said she didn’t enter law school with “blinders on about the job market.” To read the full piece: http://wapo.st/1J4ESAO.
Jigish Patel and Charitha Reddy got engaged at Harker’s upper school campus. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2006
Steve Boyle has been getting rave reviews for his work directing the play “Exit, Pursued by a Bear,” which had a successful run with the City Lights Theater Company, ending mid-June.
Of the play, critic John Orr at Regarding Arts said, “Director Steve M. Boyle has this cast and show ticking like a fine Swiss watch.” Steve worked with the Santa Cruz Shakespeare performing arts theater last summer and, during his senior year at Harker, was a student director in the Conservatory. Look for a full profile on Steve and his performing arts work in the fall issue of Harker Quarterly!
Lauren Harries recently traveled to Georgia on a secret project with a lo- cal theater company to compete against a diverse pool of entertainment groups in a reality variety show called “Fake Off.” The first episode aired on May 6. “Episodes air at 10 p.m. (Eastern time) on the TruTV network every Wednesday through June 10 (the finale). If you don’t have the network in your cable package, episodes may be watched through the network’s website the morning after the air date,” reported Lauren. Check out the show’s main webpage: http://www.trutv.com/ shows/fake-off/index.html.
Sharon Her recently graduated with her M.A. in education with an emphasis on child life in hospitals and is currently working as a certified child life specialist (CCLS) at Sutter Children‘s Center in Sacramento. She helps support the psychosocial well-being of all the kids and families there through procedural preparation and support, education and play.
After three years of working from 3 a.m.-4 p.m. on the trade floor of the world’s largest asset management company, Roshni Mehra left her job in finance to pursue her passion in philanthropy. Most recently, Roshni started working at Stanford University‘s Graduate School of Business in the external relations and development office, and is a freelance writer for the health and nutrition section of India.com. Roshni also sent in a photo taken at an impromptu ’06 mini-reunion in Ghirardelli Square. Shown, from left, are: Shilpika Lahri ’07 and ’06 alums Priya Takiar, Roshni, Amulya Mandava and Jaya Pareek.
Sasha Stepanenko got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2008
Alex Underwood has returned to Harker – to work! Alex recently joined the Harker staff as a theater technician in the performing arts department at the upper school campus. Welcome back to Harker, Alex!
Catherine Chiu, now in medical school at UCSF, returned to the upper school with fellow former classmate Neelaysh Vukkadala (also a UCSF medical student) to lead an engaging suturing workshop for advanced science students at the end of April.
2011
In mid-March, upper school math teacher Victor Adler met up with 19 Harker alumni at Gather restaurant in Berkeley. The alumni in attendance were from the classes of 2011 and 2014.
2012
Rachelle Koch co- authored a research pa- per about a University of Chicago study in which participants were taught to identify piano notes by sound alone, demonstrating that absolute pitch can be a learned skill.
This new study was published by the scientific journal “Cognition.” See more at: http://news.uchicago. edu/article/2015/05/28/ acquiring-perfect-pitch- may-be-possible-some- adults#sthash.6I39ZNdx. a0eF7fet.dpuf.
2013
Maverick McNealy is getting serious attention for his golf game, though he says he’ll probably still go into business (sooner or later) after college! Recently there was a great KTVU (http://bit.ly/1J6zTjr) piece on him, and here are a couple of articles, both from the Wall Street Journal, on his plans and how his presence could affect the game. And, in breaking news as Harker Quarterly was about to go to press, Maverick won the Haskins Award for his stellar performance on the links as part of the Stanford golf team! This prestigious award is given to the top college player in golf. Read all about it: http://bit. ly/1Fq9shp. http://www.wsj.com/ articles/the-golfing- upstart-of-silicon- valley-1431125032 http://www.wsj.com/ articles/what-golf-needs-a- rival-for-rory-1428506420
Over spring break, some 2013 alums – Curran Shah, Kevin Susai, Rags Selvaraj, Neel Bhoopalam and Tiphaine Delepine – met up at USC. They had a blast catching up and meeting each other‘s new friends. Not pictured: Nick Chuang, Ragini Bhattacharya, Raghav Sehtia, Michael Amick and Adithram Rengaramchandran.
Cecilia Lang-Ree was named national champion in late May for Individual Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter at the national finals of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in Springfield, Mass. She competed as an individual, representing Stanford University, where she’s a sophomore.
Drew Goldstein is now sporting an NCAA Championship ring following Duke University’s successful basketball season. Drew is team manager and helps throughout the season with game videos, sideline needs and equipment wrangling, all of which contributed to the team’s success. “It was great to watch him during and after a game,” said Butch Keller, upper school head. “We had a couple of text exchanges and he is so excited – as he should be!” Take a look at Drew’s sportscenter’s Instagram account; he is the red-haired guy on top of the pile! https://instagram. com/p/1KLr9GH_qZ/?taken- by=sportscenter.
Indu Seeni and Shreya Vemuri recently dropped by the alumni relations office for a visit. Indu is attending St. Bonaventure University in upstate New York, and Shreya is enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University. Both were home for spring break. Indu had just enjoyed lunch with classmate Jenny Chen. Shreya and Indu were friends from Harker’s middle school, and still keep in touch.
2014
Zina Jawadi was elected president of the Hearing Loss Association of America, California State Association (HLAA-CA). She has been HLAA-CA webmaster since July 2013 and served as HLAA-CA Facebook moderator from 2013 to 2014. Zina has interned at the UCSF Otology and Cochlear Implant Center and at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Zina is a three-time recipient of the United States President’s Volunteer Service Award, is the recipient of the 2014 HLAA Outstanding Young Adult Award, and was the founder of the Disability Awareness Program at Harker. Zina attends Stanford University.
2015
The Class of 2015 is already making news. Four of the 20 featured in Business In- sider’s story of the most impressive high school grads are from Harker! The Harker students included in the article are Samantha Madala, Rohith Kuditipudi, Andrew Jin and Daniela Lee. To see the full story: http://www.businessinsider. com/most-impressive-kids- graduating-from-high- school-2015-5?op=1.
Congratulations to the Class of 2015 on your graduation and welcome to the Alumni Association! We look forward to hearing updates from you!
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
2002
In July, Akhsar Kharebov‘s startup, Infometers, was acquired by Validic of Durham, N.C. Validic is the health care industry’s leading technology platform for easy data access to a world of mobile health and in-home devices, wearables and patient health care applications. Located in Mountain View, Infometers has become Validic’s West Coast office. The Infometers team will continue to work on the companies’ joint vision of connecting monitoring device data to the health care system.
Across the Atlantic, Tiffany Duong ran with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, as part of her “#30×30” – the 30 things she did to celebrate turning 30! She describes the experience as scary and intense, but awesome.
In September, Sean Haq visited Seoul, Korea, to attend Jerry Chi‘s wedding. For significant events like weddings, traveling in style is a must! Photos of the friends enjoying the occasion are included in the Celebrations section.
Isabella Liu is a second-year MBA student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Prior to Tuck, she lived for six years in the heart of New York City, where she got a master’s in Chinese history and later worked in finance. Naturally, moving to the woods of New Hampshire for school was a huge culture and lifestyle shift. This past summer, Isabella was able to return home when she interned with the business planning and innovation team at Intel. Now back at Dartmouth to finish her MBA, she has finally come to love the beauty and serenity of the Upper Valley. At Tuck, Isabella has been focused on entrepreneurship, technology, strategy and leadership. While there is a lot to enjoy about business school, her favorite part is playing bass in the Tuck (pop rock) band. After school, Isabella plans to move back to the Bay Area to work on her ecommerce search engine startup.
2003
Peter Noonan has a new baby girl! Please see the Cel- ebrations section for details.
2004
Mickey Selbo-Bruns married Caitlin Burgess in Vermont this past July. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2005
Kim Wong was thrilled to appear in the short movie “Text Amy,” which screened at the Miami Short Film Festival Dec. 5-12 (check out the trailer: http://www.textamyshortfilm.com/). Kim is a musical theater certificate graduate of the Harker Conservatory and actor/ director living in New York. She previously appeared on the TV show Blue Bloods (http://www.cbs.com/shows/blue_bloods/) on CBS, as a schoolgirl, about two-thirds of the way through the show. “This past summer I worked at Triad Stage in Greensboro, N.C., playing Helena in ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’ I also appeared in the re-enactments on the Animal Planet show ‘Monsters Inside Me.’ (Beware, this show is a bit graphic! It’s all about parasites.) I’m filming a lead in a new Web series called ‘Working Title’ that will be produced next year,” reported Kim.
Sara Laymoun had a baby girl. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
Shaun Mohan passed on the good news that he matched for a surgery residency at Stanford. “It is the postgraduate training which follows medical school. The process is a bit different than college/med school applications in that you and the program each create a rank list, and on Match Day you find out the results of where you will be continuing your training. Residency training differs in length for different specialties, but allows for obtaining your medical license after your first year, and becoming a board- certified physician at the end of your last year of training,” Shaun explained.
2006
After three years living in Kazakhstan, Lauren Gutstein has returned to the East Coast to work at the Wilmington Friends School in Delaware. She describes the school as “Harker-like with a Quaker flair.”
In September, Neil Chao and Heidi Wang ’08 celebrated their marriage at the Los Altos History Museum. Several Hark- er alums joined in the festivities. Please see the Celebrations section for more details!
A group of ’06 grads had a fun mini reunion in Boston, when Meghana Dhar moved over the summer to start school. “I moved to Boston in August and found that a lot of Harker alumni were in the area, so I coordinated a couple get-to-gethers,” she recalled. Shown in this picture with her are pals Kat Hudkins, Hann Yew, Amira Valliani, Avanti Deshpande, Ira Patnaik, Amulya Mandava and Yi Sun.
2009
The Harker Class of 2009 held its five-year reunion at the Sonoma Chicken Coop in San Pedro Square on Nov. 29. A good time was had by all!
2011
Ziad Jawadi reports that he is now a senior at Georgetown University studying Middle Eastern studies. “My professional interests lie in financial services and public policy. This summer, as a strategy consulting intern at Deloitte in Abu Dhabi, I advised clients on strategies to achieve institutional objectives through quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the past, I worked with the National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-UAE Business Council, as a research assistant to a leading professor at Georgetown and the Republican Governors Association. My internships developed my analytical skills and quantitative reasoning while creatively problem-solving with teams,” he said. Ziad further shared that he has a passion for business and trade relations between America and the Middle East with skills blending the two fields. “I am of Arab heritage and have an solid background in the Middle East. As an Arab-American, I feel a sense of moral duty to return to the Arab world post-graduation and help develop it,” he added.
2012
Nicole Dalal and Govi Dasu ’12 both happened to be in Delhi working on research projects and decided to have an impromptu meet-up. They enjoyed lunch at Khan Market and then took the metro over to the famous Jama Masjid, where this picture was taken.
2013
In mid-September, Maverick McNealy, who is on the Stanford University golf team, won his second golf tournament of the season at The Illini Invitational, held at the famed Olympia Fields in Chicago, site of several major championships. The final results show Maverick picking up his second win in as many outings by claiming top honors at the invitational. Maverick, who collected the first win of his collegiate career at the Southwestern Intercollegiate, fired three consecutive rounds of 71 to finish 3-over-par 70 at Olympia Fields Country Club. To read more about it: http://smgstories.blogspot.com/2014/09/cardinal-play-at-famed-olympia-fields.html.
Michelle Douglas, Tara Rezvani, Neel Bhoopalam and Patricia Huang had a blast hanging out together in Lake Tahoe this past summer. Here they are shown getting ready to enjoy a fun afternoon of water sports.
2014
Katie Gu is a freshman at Stanford University and a former member of the Santa Clara Aquamaids synchronized swimming club. She represented the United States at the 2011 Comen Cup as a member of the U.S. 13/15 national team and at the 2014 Junior Pan American Championships as a member of the U.S. junior national team. To read more about her: http://www.gostanford.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=30600&ATCLID=209694416
In mid-November upper school math teacher Victor Adler had a reunion dinner with 12 alumni from the Class of 2014 – all Stanford students who went to Harker when Adler served as dean of their class. They met for a delicious dinner at Thaiphoon in Palo Alto, where they enjoyed catching up with one another.
Liz Williams Itterly has been busy at work making the “top 10” agents list in her office at Alain Pinel Realtors in Saratoga. In December, she sold a new home to classmate Alfred Viola and his wife, Erica. Liz and her husband welcomed their second son, Loukas, in January.
1995
Heather (Kelly) Wright reports that she recently took a new job as director of merchandising at Fabletics, a new activewear brand that’s quickly growing. She has been living in El Segundo with her new husband, Ethan, and their dog, Jenna, for the past five years with “no plans to leave in the foreseeable future.” For information about her wedding, please see the Celebrations section!
Michael Berger said he is living it up in Seattle, working in construction as an engineer/project manager for Sellen Construction (currently working on Tacoma General Hospital). “My son is now 6 and he keeps me busy! When I’m not preoccupied with him, I’m checking out the sites/ challenges around the Puget Sound, i.e., climbing Mount Rainier last summer, doing the Seattle-to-Portland bike ride, hitting the slopes,” he said.
Danielle Holquin had a baby. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
Kate Stober had a baby. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
1996
Jerome Keene bought a house in Fresno, where he was hired as a senior planner for a land-use and engineering firm, Quad Knopf. He is finishing up his master’s in community development with an emphasis in building economic capacity from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Worldwide Campus program, which he will complete this fall.
Andrea Nott got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
Ashley Sukovez Franke had a baby. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
1998
This spring, Alexander Wang will be appearing as a guest lecturer at the Stanford Arts Institute. He will be welcomed to the CEMEX stage on April 10, and will be discussing design and Balenciaga. Alexander was also recently featured in the February issue of Vogue, which included details and a photo of a beanie he designed as a statement of solidarity for gay rights. The black knit hat spells out “P6,” shorthand for Principle 6 of the Olympic charter, and it speaks to a strategy by gay rights advocates to get spectators and athletes in Sochi to register their opposition to repressive anti-gay laws in Russia. Alexander was also featured in the December issue of the Connecticut Cottages & Gardens holiday gift guide, which included a yoga mat he designed.
2004
Anjali Vaidya reports that in late 2013, she left Google’s NYC office to take a senior role on Yahoo’s growing mobile products team. “At Yahoo I’m learning the language of product and that is fun. The spirit in the Yahoo NYC office is lively and young – most mobile product managers came from acquisitions, so it’s a collection of startups all under the same roof. I’m super excited to join a scrappy and impactful team at a company leading a mobile software renaissance,” she said.
2006
Mina Lee recently took a social impact year away from her job at BCG Singapore and spent six months with the World Bank in Washington, D.C., working on a crowd-funding platform and seed fund for entrepreneurs in the Caribbean. With the remaining time she traveled throughout Peru, Shanghai and Japan.
Amira Valliani is running the Boston marathon this April! On top of training to run 26.2 miles, she’s also raising $10,000 for the Aga Khan Foundation, one of the world’s largest international development organizations and one that’s taking an incredibly innovative approach to alleviating global poverty. Training has been a tough journey so far, especially since she’s been training on the East Coast in the middle of the polar vortex, but it’s taught her a lot about the power of perseverance combined with a killer playlist.
2007
Laura Sanchez (Hartzell) Murillo has joined the Taipei American School as a Spanish teacher.
2008
D.J. Blickenstaff graduated from USC with a BFA in acting last spring and is now working in Los Angeles pursuing an acting career. He made his television debut with a small role on the NBC sitcom “Sean Saves the World,” as a delivery person. Last year he was featured in an article in the Harker Quarterly about his role as Elliot Grey in the parody musical production of the bestselling novel “Fifty Shades of Grey,” which opened in an off-Broadway theater in New York.
2010
Vivian Huang and Christine Hsu are both in the second of a three-year program at the University of the Pacific’s Thomas J. Long School of Phar- macy and Health Sciences. As student pharmacists, they have been given the opportunity through various introductory internships to serve patients in many different settings including free health fairs, community pharmacies, hospitals and assisted-living facilities. These internships have given them experience with administering vaccines, consulting patients on proper therapy, and communicating with physicians to provide advice on optimal drug treatment plans. They are looking forward to returning to the Bay Area for advanced rotations at the end of this year and will be graduating in May 2015.
Ryan Cali enjoys playing basketball for Linfield College, a private undergraduate institution located in the Pacific Northwest. He credits his father, his brother and his coach as his basketball mentors.
Daisy Lin reports that she recently acquired, and is intent on learning to solve, a Skewb (a combination of a puzzle and a mechanical puzzle in the style of a Rubik’s Cube).
Sumeet Sharma is looking forward to beginning a master’s in computer science starting in September.
Mark-Phillip Pebworth will be graduating in June with two bachelor of science degrees, one in bioengineering with a minor in French, and the second in biochemistry with a minor in biotechnology. “For graduate school, I’ve been interviewing at UCSF, Stanford and MIT in medical engineering or stem cell biology,” he said.
Esther Belogolovsky enjoyed traveling to Europe during winter break. “I went to Dub- lin, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Vienna, Budapest and Prague in two weeks!” she recalled.
Victor Chen writes that he graduated early from Caltech and is now in his first year of medical school at the UCSD School of Medicine, along with fellow Harker Class of 2010 members Yash Khandwala and Ashish Mittal, both of whom graduated early from undergrad at UCSD. “Another first-year medical student classmate of ours is Jayasree Sundaram ’05,” he said.
Kelsey Chung is keeping busy creating some paintings for her senior show at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. She is also working at a local art museum.
Srikrishna Seeni shared that his Bollywood dance team, SLU Shakti, began its journey on the road to Bollywood America (the nationals equivalent for Bolly- wood/fusion style dance teams). “As a second-year team, we have taken what we learned last year in the circuit and took the stage by storm on Feb. 1 in Atlanta when we took third place at a competition there. While not enough to qualify for nationals yet, Shakti is poised to strike at our next competition, and I hope that the team can bring me home: BA will be held in the Bay Area this year. On a related note, a special congratulatory shout-out to Class of 2012 students Neha Kumar and Piku Mody. They are a part of Anubhav, the Northwestern University team that took first place in Atlanta. They’ll be coming home for BA for sure,” he said.
Andrea Lincoln is preparing a paper for publication in May on adaptivity research. She is graduating in May with a double major in math and computer science.
Sarah Newton started her own crochet fashion line called Puzzled Heart Designs (PhD for short). The line features custom crochet hats, scarves and pillows, all handmade by Sarah. You can check out her line at puzzledheartdesigns. com and order your own piece from her Etsy store!
Vinay Kumar is going to be moving to New York City after graduation and rooming with Sean Morgan. “Actually there are a ton of us working at Goldman Sachs together in New York next year,” he said.
Jeremy Chung is working as a research assistant in the sleep lab at Santa Clara University, preparing a lit review and presentation for the Association for Psychological Science conference, which is the flagship organization for psychology.
Adriee Wong, along with Molly Ellenberg ’13, are members of Finesse Dance Company, a student-run contemporary dance organization at UC San Diego. They are currently working on choreography for their annual showcase in late May and are having a blast continuing to dance in college.
Alex Creasman studied abroad in Budapest and met up with Kacie Kaneyuki, who was studying abroad in Italy and Hungary last semester. He will be working full time at Oracle starting in September. Kacie noted that she traveled a lot during weekends in Rome and that “Alex was a great tour guide.”
Guadalupe Briseno is part of the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting. “I’m the Seattle University branch treasurer of ALPFA. I work part-time as the assistant accountant at Pacific Northwest Diabetes Research Institute,” he said.
Johnny Lau shared that he is continuing to breakdance and that he is the president of his breakdancing club at UC Davis. “We won first place in our annual Davis dance competition in the spring of 2013 and are currently preparing for the next one,” he said.
Ally Axelrad just got a job as a writing teacher and college counselor in Bangkok, Thailand, for the next two years. The company is called Top Scholars and is a full-time college prep program for high school students.
2013
Neeraj Baid has launched his fourth app, called “Take Me Away.” This app lets you travel the world through the eyes of Instagram.
Mariposa Brant is excited to be directing her first 5k/10k in the city of Chicago. With more than 500 expected participants and hundreds of additional spectators, the fundraiser and post-race festival promise to be spectacular! “If you will be in the Chicagoland area on May 18, 2014, consider showing your support by running the race. Not a runner? Not a problem! Visit OPSEF. com for sponsorship and advertising opportunities,” she said.
Andrea Nott is engaged. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
2004
Anjali Vaidya wrote an article for the Huffington Post’s Business blog titled, “The Demise of Sisterhood: Female Friendship in the Workplace.” The piece was about the trade-offs women make to reach the top of their fields, the worst among them being the loss of female friendships in the workplace. “I had previously contributed an article to the Huffington Post and then they invited me to be a regular contributor!” she said.
2005
Liat Noten spent September in France. During her first three weeks there, she volunteered to restore an old country house. She got to sample the local cognac, pineau (sweet wine fortified with cognac) and sunflower honey, and practiced her French with the locals. During her last week, she indulged her love of Gothic architecture and took a trip to visit the famous 900-year-old Gothic cathedrals in Chartres and Bourges. She reported that it was exciting to personally see the cathedrals that she had first studied in her AP Art History class at Harker.
2006
Nandini Datta reports that she just started graduate school at Duke University, where she is getting her Ph.D. in clinical psychology, specializing in the “neural correlates and endophenotypes” of eating disorders.
Nirav Chitkara will soon be working as a consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in San Jose, as well as graduating with his master’s from Santa Clara University in December.
Katherin Hudkins is now in her fourth year of supporting new families at Isis Parenting, where she is the assistant center manager of the Needham parenting center. She also teaches classes for new parents. When not helping people parent, she enjoys hanging out and cooking at home in Jamaica Plain, Boston, with her adopted stray cat, Abbie.
Amira Valliani (along with David Kastelman ’09; see his separate class note for more information on his work in D.C.) spoke about her college (Yale University) and work experiences with a contingent of Harker’s grade 8 students who were visiting Washington, D.C., for their middle school class trip. Amira is the senior advisor to the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications at the White House.
Lauren Harries is engaged. Please see the Celebrations section for details!
Amanda Polzin, Casey Blair, Casey near, Lauren Gutstein, Mariah Bush and Shivani Bhargava went on a whirlwind reunion trip to Vancouver in August, where they gallivanted around the city and ate as much as possible.
2008
Tanya Schmidt is having a great time living in Europe where she is playing professional volleyball. She is playing for Volleyball Club Offenburg in southwest Germany, and invites everyone to follow her blog where she is sharing stories of her time abroad. Check it out at: http://tanyakschmidt.wordpress.com/.
2009
David Kastelman (along with Amira valliani ’06; see her separate class note for more information on her work in D.C.) spoke about his college (Yale University) and work experiences with a contingent of Harker’s grade 8 students who were visiting Washington, D.C., for their middle school class trip. David works at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent federal agency in Washington, D.C.
2011
Benjamin Tien, a chemical and biological engineering major at Princeton University, provided an update on his work with the organization Engineers Without Borders. “I’m currently the technical team leader for the Peru team, and I traveled to Peru last summer to implement a water system for the people of La Pitajaya, a small village. It was very rewarding to see how our engineering calculations directly led to access to clean water for the Pitajayans, and the trip impacted me so much that I am strongly considering international development as a career. We will be returning this summer to build another water system for the other half of the village, and hopefully we will complete the entire project,” he said.
Nidhi Gandhi was the curator of an exhibit called “Resonant Minds: Abstraction and Perception” at the Pomona College Museum of Art, where she worked as a Benton Summer Undergraduate Research Program research assistant last summer. The artworks she selected included lithography, paintings, woodcuts, computer prints and photograms. All of the pieces utilized illusion, shadow and light, color sensitivity and more, demonstrating ways in which our minds process perceptions biologically, psychologically and evolutionarily.
Isaac Madan has co- founded a VC-funded startup called Chalky, an online mentorship platform for advice seekers looking to connect with people who’ve been in their shoes. “Currently, it’s for high school students to connect with college students and alumni to help them apply to colleges successfully,” explained Madan. He is also on Stanford’s varsity fencing team.
2012
Akshay Jagadeesh (along with Pranav Sharma ’13) helped coach Harker’s Public Forum (PF) debate team, which kicked off November by winning the overall team sweepstakes award and taking home the tournament championship at the Minneapple Debate Tournament, held Nov. 1-2 at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota.
2013
Drew Goldstein and Matt Giammona are both recent alums who have been named as basketball managers at their respective North Carolina colleges. Drew, a three-sport athlete at Harker all four years (including basketball), is the basketball manager at Duke University. Matt, who served as Harker’s varsity basketball manager last year, is at Wake Forest University. At Duke, Drew said, “I’m beyond lucky to be a part of it. Of course, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for learning the important role that our managers played,” said Drew. “Harker prepared me for basketball, and college in general.”
Izzy Connell is enjoying her time at Pepperdine University, running cross country and getting ready for track and field. In her bio, she says, “The reason I came to Pepperdine is for the academics, the athletics and the views!” Meanwhile, Sumit Minocha began his track workouts at Stanford (where he loves going to school). He met with a strength coach to build up and after one month the coach was amazed that he had not gained a pound!
Andy Perez will represent his college, the University of California, Santa Barbara, at the 2013 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s soccer tournament, to be held this winter. Andy is an alumnus of The San Jose Earthquakes Academy, who featured the fact that he will be playing in the tournament in their recent newsletter. Good luck, Andy!
In November, Neeraj Baid became Boy Scout Troop 264’s 80th Eagle Scout, earning the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America, as decided by his Eagle Board of Review. Requirements included earning at least 21 skill-based merit badges and demonstrating scout spirit through the Boy Scout Oath and law, service and leadership. For Neeraj, getting to the Eagle rank has been “a journey from kindergarten to college freshman year, doing a multitude of community service projects, troop leadership roles, fun trips and skill-based badges.” Neeraj’s primary Eagle project was dedicated to helping the San Jose Family Supportive Housing relocate to a new facility. He led a project to build a bookshelf for their library and two large display boards for showcasing housing and job opportunities for resident families. Neeraj worked all summer to earn enough money to self-fund this project.
After a decade working in acting and graphic design in Los Angeles, Emma Hawley has relocated to Chennai, India, for the second half of 2014. She now resides in the ashram headquarters for Sahaj Marg, a spiritual practice in natural path meditation (www.sahajmarg.org). Recruited to take over as an editor for the mission’s quarterly English publication, she has volunteered to help revamp the magazine for the new year. She said she is thrilled at this opportunity to deepen her skill sets and the practice that has begun to satiate her internal quest. Feel free to email Emma at hawley.emma@gmail.com.
2005
Alan Malek is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his master’s degree in statistics last year; previously, he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. Alan and his long-time girlfriend, Yuanyuan (Yuni) Pao ’07, met at Harker’s Robotics Club when he was a junior and she was a freshman. They’ve been together more than 10 years now! Yuni graduated from MIT in 2011 and received a master’s degree from Stanford last year. She now works in the data-driven marketing field in Cupertino.
2007
Adam Creasman has accepted an exciting new position to help expand Facebook’s presence in the U.K. Currently in the process of moving to London, where he will remain for the next oneto two years, Adam said he is “looking forward to this next adventure.” Look for further coverage about his new international role with Facebook in the winter Harker Quarterly, which will feature a story about alumni living abroad.
Congratulations to Tiffany Chang, who was recently named as a recipient of the inaugural Tracy T. Lefteroff Fund Awards for her work with the Fogarty Institute for Innovation. Located on the campus of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, the institute is an educational nonprofit dedicated to medical technology innovation. Tiffany received her award through the Lefteroff intern program. “The award has allowed me to learn from and work with inspiring professionals in the medical device industry,” she enthused. To learn more: http://www.fogartyinstitute.org/news-20140716.html
2012
Sachin Jain Pranav Bheda and Debanshi Bheda ’07 traveled to Brazil to cheer on the U.S. and enjoy the World Cup.
2013
Michael Amick was named a starter for the UCLA varsity soccer team!
When Maverick McNealy qualified for the U.S. Open (making him the first alumnus known to do so) the Harker community was filled with excitement. There was also a flurry of local media activity singing his praises. While Maverick, who is on the Stanford University golf team, did not make the final cut, he performed brilliantly, coming in at a strong 145, which means that he missed the cut by just five strokes. In fact, he was still in the running right up until the last two holes, where he shot four over. Congratulations, Maverick!
The Class of 2013 left its legacy by gifting the school with water-filling stations, as well as an outdoor classroom. The final touches were put on the classroom this summer, and it is now being used by students and faculty! The classroom, located adjacent to Graduates’ Grove, features benches and a podium for teaching.
2014
Regina Chen was chosen by Cornell University as one of six fencers to join the squad for the 2014-15 season. Regina is a member of the Cardinal Fencing Club, where she has participated in multiple national and international events. She placed 13th at the 2013 Junior Olympic Championships and seventh at the 2011 NAC. She also earned a bronze medal at the 2012 Hong Kong Fencing Association U17 Championship, while finishing seventh overallat the 2012 Hong Kong Fencing Association U20 Championship.
Aaron Lee is among four local high school students who won $2,000 scholarships from the Auxiliary of Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose for their volunteer service and health-care career goals. Aaron, who currently attends Cornell University, said he was a volunteer at Good Samaritan Hospital from January 2012 to June 2014. “I applied for the scholarship as I do intend to go on a pre-med track in college and the scholarship was for students who want to enter the medical field. Looking back, the scholarship probably also feels great knowing that it came from a community I found in high school. [Good Samaritan] was a great place that supported me while I volunteered and also learned to be a leader,” he said.
This past spring, Zina Jawadi was the subject of an ABC (channel 7) news story about her efforts to help hearing-impaired students. Over the summer she went on to receive an award from the Silicon Valley chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America. Zina was one of three such scholarship recipients this year. An honorary potluck luncheon was held for Zina and the other award winners in June, where they also received certificates of merit from Santa Clara County. Jawadi is the first of the association’s scholarship recipients to have attended Harker.
Renu Singh debuted as the sole performer in “Bharatanatyam Arangetram,” a show presented by the Kala Vandana Dance Company. The successful show was held at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in San Jose at the end of June. Congratulations, Renu!
Amira Valliani recently wrapped up her duties as senior adviser to the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications at the White House, where she worked on a range of foreign policy, press and public diplomacy issues. Before that, she worked in the office of the Secretary of State under Hillary Clinton, where she was special assistant to the State Department’s deputy chief of staff and wrote speeches for Secretary Clinton. She recently packed up her apartment in Washington, D.C., and backpacked around Myanmar with Mina Lee and will continue traveling around Southeast Asia and Europe for the summer. She’ll be attending graduate school at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government to get her MPA/MBA this fall and said she is excited to join the Harker-in-Boston crew! In spring, she ran in the Boston Marathon in an effort to raise money for the Aga Khan Foundation, one of the world’s largest international development organizations. “Our team of three runners successfully raised over $60,000 … and Amanda Polzin came out to watch!” she reported.
Meghana Dhar graduated with high honors from UC Berkeley in 2010 and has been living in San Francisco since then. “I’ve been working in strategy and marketing and analysis, first at Visa, and now at eBay. I’m very in touch with Harker, from staying connected with the debate team, to currently living with two of my best friends from Harker High! I will be leaving the city in the fall and attending Harvard Business School,” she said.
Singer Tara Chandra recently released a limited 7″ vinyl edition of a single she released last summer called “Who You Do.” We look forward to more updates on her singing career!
Akhil Mehta helped teach a class for Harker’s middle school science research program. He recently finished his master’s program at UC Berkeley and is in the process of applying to medical school.
2007
While chaperoning the grade 8 students on an outing to Great America, Harker’s middle school Latin teacher, Lisa Masoni, ran into former student Elizabeth Cutler. “She is now teaching English and history at the Cornerstore Academy in San Francisco and was at the park chaperoning her own seventh and eighth grade students,” said Masoni.
2009
Daniel Kim was awarded a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans of up to $90,000 toward the study of medicine at Yale University. He was one of 30 winners in a national competition that attracted more than 1,200 applicants. These awards are of special note because they honor and support young New Americans: immigrants and children of immigrants. To read more on this, please see the full story at: http://news.harker. org/?p=22865
2010
Arthi Padmanabhan wrote in with a tennis update from Pomona College.
“We’ve had a really exciting year! We recently jumped to number six in the national rankings after a few frighteningly close wins during spring break. Individually, I’m captaining and playing singles and doubles for the most part. In doubles, my partner, Mae Coyiuto, and I reached the semifinal of the ITA Regional Championship in the fall and later, The Ojai Tennis Tournament,” she reported.
2012
Sachin Jain was recently in town and met with Harker upper school math teacher Gabriele Stahl for dinner.
Neel Salukhe was recognized by his coach for maintaining a high GPA while excelling at football at the University of Washington.
2013
Drew Goldstein, Michelle Douglas and JP Doherty had a blast cheering on their hometown and new college town teams in Boston for the A’s/Red Sox series.
Maverick McNealy qualified for the 2014 U.S Open, the first Harker grad known to do so, and he has been garnering all kinds of attention! Stories have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, the San Jose Mercury News and Golf Week. His whole family – mom Susan; Dakota, grade 10; Colt, grade 9; and Scout, grade 7 – will be in the stands and dad, Scott, will be caddying for him. The Open started as Harker Quarterly went to press, so we weren’t able to report on how he did, but our pride in having him there is unrelated to his score! We’ll report more in the fall issue!
2014
Congratulations to the Class of 2014 on your graduation and welcome to the Alumni Association! We look forward to hearing updates from you!