This story recently appeared in the winter 2012 edition of Harker Quarterly.
Harker hosted two exciting visits from exchange teachers in September, one from Japan and the other from China. Both Yu Sasaki of Japan and Zhang Tao of China came to Harker to absorb the culture and learn new teaching practices.
On Sept. 6 Sasaki, who lives in Sendai, Japan, visited the upper school campus to talk to students about her work with Save the Children, a leading nonprofit organization devoted to promoting children’s welfare. Sasaki is currently involved in Japan’s post-tsunami relief efforts and used her Harker visit as an opportunity to inform the upper school students about it.
“It was a wonderful experience to discuss our post-tsunami relief efforts with five Japanese classes at Harker. In each class, I got interesting questions from students and was happy to know that they still care about what happens on the other side of the earth. I was also amazed by the charity work some of the students did after the tsunami,” she said.
Zhang Tao (who goes by the name Ruth) visited in mid-September from the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS) in Shanghai, China. In recent years the WFLMS has added a high school, where Zhang teaches English to sophomores and juniors. During her time at Harker she observed and taught classes on all three campuses, spending the bulk of her time at the middle school. Highlights of her visit included teaching such subjects as Chinese poetry, Mandarin, calligraphy and tai chi.
The teacher exchange program is an example of Harker’s ongoing effort to build progressive academic and cultural partnerships between institutions around the world, providing meaningful experiences for students at all grade levels – preparing them to be true global citizens.
Harker’s Junior Classical League (JCL) got off to a great start with this year’s inaugural event, held Sept. 28 at Laser Quest in Mountain View.
The evening, which landed on the last Friday night of the month, provided an informal opportunity for participants to unite in a fun, casual atmosphere.
According to Lisa Masoni, a middle school Latin teacher who helped spearhead the event, students enjoyed relaxing together and ending their busy week by “accessing their inner warriors and enjoying a Roman dinner of pizza and soda!”
The JCL is part of a larger organization – the California Junior Classical League – which was founded in 1955 to provide a forum for Latin students to compete in a wide range of academic, art and athletic contests, both individually and by chapter.
To qualify for admittance to the JCL students must be enrolled in or have successfully completed a semester of a classical language course.
On Sept. 6, Yu Sasaki, a Japanese representative from Save the Children, visited Harker to talk to the students about her relief work in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March of 2011. “She was thrilled that the Harker kids helped fundraise for the relief efforts,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s global education director.
Sasaki visited several classes throughout the day, including Keiko Irino’s honors Japanese classes and Masako Onakado’s AP Japanese and contemporary Japan classes. “She stayed with us all day long, giving presentations to five classes,” Onakado said, adding that presentations were given in both English and Japanese. “Students asked some good questions, and they said that the presentation was very informative!”
Erik Andersen, grade 12, helped one of the United States teams win first place at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Andersen, who heads the Harker Language and Linguistics Club, also won a bronze medal for himself in the individual competition. Nearly 30 countries sent teams to the Olympiad, which had a total of 131 contestants.
Each team was required to translate the name of a country written in Lao, the official language of Laos. Contestants were also asked to guess how the countries’ Lao names would be pronounced. Competitors in the individual competitions solved problems that dealt with the Dyirbal, spoken by Australian Aborigines in northeast Queensland, the Umbu-Ungu and Teop languages of Papua New Guinea, Basque and the language of the Rotuman people of the Colony of Fiji.
Anderson qualified for the team after being one of the top 18 students to participate in this year’s North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad (NACLO), in which he received an award for having the best solution to a problem dealing with the Aboriginal Australian Wanyi language. Approximately 1,000 students participate in the NACLO each year.
Upper school Latin students attended the California Junior Classical League Convention in late March and took top spots in many of the convention’s events.
In the high school level 1 events, Serena Wang, grade 9, took first place in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes, second in reading comprehension and third in grammar. Tyler Yeats, grade 11, placed first in both reading comprehension and vocabulary.
At level 2 of the high school competitions, Annirudh Ankola, grade 9, placed second for boys costume, and William Bloomquist, also grade 9, finished second and third respectively in vocabulary and sight Latin reading. Richard Gu, grade 9, had first place finishes in both reading comprehension and vocabulary, and Mary Liu, grade 10, placed second in English oratory.
Harker had seven high placements at high school level 3, all from grade 9 students, with Maya Nandakumar taking second in history and third mythology, Aadyot Bhatnagar placing second in vocabulary and earning an honorable mention in reading comprehension, Sahana Rangarajan receiving an honorable mention in derivatives and Sophia Shatas taking third in dramatic interpretation.
The high school advanced level was Harker’s most successful category, with 12 students earning high placements. Sarika Bajaj, grade 10, took first in computer photography, second in multimedia and received an honorable mention in daily life. Nik Datuashvili, grade 11, had dual first-place finishes in ancient geography and derivatives. Sophomore Kevin Duraiswamy finished first in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes, second in grammar, third in reading comprehension and received in an honorable mention in sight Latin reading. Richard Fan, grade 11, placed second in ancient geography and received an honorable mention in history. Fellow junior Pranav Sharma placed third in vocabulary and received an honorable mention in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes. Another junior, Shannon Su, tied for third in sight Latin reading and received honorable mentions in both derivatives and vocabulary. Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 11, placed high in four events, earning first place in pentathlon, second place in both vocabulary and Latin oratory and third in grammar. Other students who placed well were grade 10’s Helena Huang, who took third in mythology, Zina Jawadi, also grade 10, taking second in sight Latin reading, recent graduate Jessica Lin winning first place in daily life, sophomore Brian Tuan earning an honorable mention in reading comprehension and Eric Zhang, grade 11, finishing third in ancient geography.
Harker Certamen (quiz bowl) competitors also performed well, with the team of Nik Datuashvili, Kevin Duraiswamy, Richard Fan and Jessica Lin taking second place in the high school advanced category. Serena Wang’s open certamen team took second in the high school level 1 open certamen contest, and Pranav Sharma’s high school advanced open certamen team finished second.
Harker was the number one high school overall in the medium-sized high schools category.
Middle school Latin students took the National Latin Exam in March, and of the 52 Harker students who received awards, 18 won gold medals and four had perfect papers.
In the Introduction to Latin category, Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Andrew Semenza, Eric Tran, Jeffrey Ma, Derek Yen, Rahul Bhethanabotla, Justin Au, all grade 6, and Grace Park, Raymond Xu and Arnav Tandon, all grade 7, received outstanding achievement awards. Achievement awards went to grade 6 students Sanjana Avula, Joshua Broweleit, Michael Kwan, Olivia Long, Sameep Mangat, Grant Chen and Satchi Thockchom.
Grade 7 students Venkat Sankar, Austin Tuan, Aditya Dhar, Amrita Singh, Arjun Subramaniam, Alayna Richmond, James He, Albert Xu and Kshithija Mulam all won gold/summa cum laude awards in Latin I, with Sankar and Tuan each submitting perfect papers. Meanwhile, Alexis Gauba, Manan Shah, Alexander Lam, Peter Wu, Eric Pei, Karthik Sundaram, all grade 7, and Anthony Luo, grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards. Winning magna cum laude were Alex Youn, grade 7, and John Jerney, grade 8. Grade 7 students Brendan Tobin, Brandon Chow and Jackson Su all won cum laude awards.
In the Latin II category, Elisabeth Siegel, Allison Wang, Rishabh Chandra, Sadhika Malladi, Gurutam Thockchom and Michael Moncton, all grade 8, won gold/summa cum laude awards, and Siegel and Wang were recognized for having perfect papers. Arjun Narayan, Grace Guan, Malvika Khanna and Kaushik Sankar, all grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards, and cum laude awards were won by eighth graders Jonathan Dai and Jonathan Yu.
Earlier this year, results for the National Classical Etymology Exam were also revealed, and Sadhika Malladi and Elisabeth Siegel, grade 8, and Venkat Sankar, grade 7 all received gold awards. Rishabh Chandra, Alison Wang, both grade 8, and Nikhil Manglik and Albert Xu, both grade 7, won silver, and grade 7 students Chris Finsterbusch and Alexander Lam won bronze.
Several middle school debate students headed to the Menlo School in late March for the State Latin Convention, where many of the students placed well in competition.
Several grade 6 students placed high in middle school level 1 contests, including Justin Au, who earned first place in grammar, dramatic interpretation and brass/winds, while placing second in reading comprehension and vocabulary. Praveen Batra took second in mythology and Latin Oratory. Classmate Michael Kwan took second in ancient geography, where Marcus Chen received an honorable mention. Adrian Chu took second place in Roman history, while Meena Gudapati won first in posters and second in greeting cards. In mottoes, quotes and abbreviations, Rishi Iyer received an honorable mention. Sunny Jayam took third in daily life, while Edgar Lin won first in mythology, third in derivatives and third in brass/winds. Jeffrey Ma finished third in both grammar and the 50-meter breaststroke. Andrew Semester earned first place in piano. Three grade 7 students also participated in the MS level 1 events. Grace Park earned first in black pencil and third in both dramatic interpretation and chalk/pastel. Arnav Tandon won first place in reading comprehension and second place in grammar. Finally, Raymond Xu was first in pentathlon, second in Roman history and third in vocabulary.
Grade 7 students competed in the MS level 2 events, in which Aditya Dhar took first in mythology and second in pentathlon and dramatic interpretation. Alexander Lam finished first in mottoes, quotes and abbreviations and received an honorable mention for his performance in pentathlon. Venkat Sankar earned first in both ancient geography and Latin oratory, as well as second in daily life and reading comprehension. Manan Shah was awarded an honorable mention for his performance in pentathlon. Arjun Subramaniam placed first in vocal music, second in mythology and the “That’s Entertainment” talent show (in which classmate Karthik Sundaram placed third) and third in derivatives. Austin Tuan placed second in ancient geography and grammar and also took third in pentathlon.
In the middle school advanced events, grade 8 students had many top placements. Rishabh Chandra won first place in reading comprehension, second in grammar and third in pentathlon. Sadhika Malladi took second in reading comprehension, while Kaushik Sankar took third in both mythology and dramatic interpretation and was given an honorable mention in reading comprehension. Elisabeth Siegel took first in grammar and second in mythology. Allison Wang earned high placements in a total of five categories, placing first in both mottoes, quotes and abbreviations and pentathlon, and second in mythology, dramatic interpretation and essay.
Harker took the Academic Sweepstakes prize for the middle school level, with Justin Au, Venkar Sankar and Allison Wang taking the top awards in the state.
Grade 8 students Shannon Hong and Natalie Simonian led a team that designed a banner to represent Harker at the event and won first prize. Grade 8 student Kevin Ke’s t-shirt design also took the top spot.
In Certamen (quiz bowl), the team of Justin Au, Adrian Chu, Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Andrew Semenza and Raymond Xu took first place statewide in the middle school level 1 category. Harker’s middle school level 2 Certamen team, made up of Aditya Dhar, Alexander Lam, Venkar Sankar, Manan Shah and Arjun Subramaniam, was named second in the state. The middle school advanced team of Rshabh Chandra, Kaushik Sankar, Elisabeth Siegel and Allison Wang took first in the state.
Thanks to the students’ splendid performances, Harker was the top middle school in the state at the convention.
Results from this year’s National Mythology Exam arrived recently, and several middle school students earned high marks. Gold medals, earned for scoring 100 percent on the exam, were awarded to Isabella Min, grade 6, Aditya Dhar and Nikhil Manglik, both grade 7 and Elisabeth Siegel and Alison Wang, both grade 8.
Grade 6 students Derek Yen and Rahul Bhethanabotla won silver medals, as did seventh graders Arjun Subramaniam, Manan Shah, Austin Tuan, Karthik Sundaram, Kshithija Mulam, Amrita Singh, Eric Pei, Raymond Xu, Christopher Finsterbusch, James He, Albert Xu and Peter Wu, as well as Kaushik Sankar and Michael Moncton, both grade 8.
Bronze medalists from grade 6 were Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Justin Su, Adrian Chu, Olivia Long and Rishi Iyer. Grade 7 bronze winners were Venkat Sankar, Alexander Lam, Brendan Tobin and Jackson Su, while Grace Guan, Rishabh Chandra, John Jerney, Anthony Luo, Arjun Narayan and Gurutam Thockchom won bronze in grade 8.
Middle school mathematics chair Vandana Kadam is currently on an exchange trip in Shanghai to visit and instruct at the World Foreign Language Middle School.
Kadam has been observing and teaching classes, including four sections of grade 6 classes. “The students have been extremely receptive and that curiosity I see in them makes it fun for me to teach,” said Kadam. Her classes include a mix of Chinese students fairly proficient in English and those newer to English. She also has a Chinese co-teacher to translate her lessons if needed.
The language barrier, however, is proving itself to be mostly a non-issue. “[The Chinese students] were comfortable interacting with me as I used some manipulatives and played games with them,” said Kadam.
Coming up, Kadam will be teaching grades 7-10, and has been making lesson plans based on what teachers and students requested would be most beneficial.
Noah Levy, grade 12, earned the rank of Eagle Scout in a recent ceremony at Harker’s Nichols Hall. Levy completed requirements for 23 badges, thoguh only 21 are required, in addition to rebuilding a dilapidated footbridge/horsebridge in Belgatos Park in Los Gatos, as part of his Eagle Service Requirement. Levy has played varsity baseball for Harker for four years, now starting as a center fielder. He is also proficient in Japanese, after taking the language for six years at Harker and spending a summer learning abroad in Tokyo and living with a host family. Levy begins his first year at Tufts University, his first choice, in Boston in the fall.
Anooshree Sengupta, grade 6, recently participated in “Dear Mr. Henshaw,” a play presented by the California Theater Center (CTC) in Sunnyvale. The play, written by Newberry Award-winning author Beverly Cleary (Henry Huggins, Ramona Quimby), is about an author, Mr. Henshaw, who encourages Leigh, his number one fan, to write a journal to help him come to terms with the challenges of growing up, his parents’ recent divorce, and with being the new kid in school. The plays at CTC are a mix of adult and child actors. Sengupta participated in 15 performances of the play.