Having her letter to the editor on the importance of making higher education accessible for all published in the San Jose Mercury News gave grade 8 student Mahika Halepete a heightened appreciation for the power of the written word.
Halepete wrote the letter in response to an assignment in Cyrus Merrill’s grade 8 U.S. History class. “This was a part of an activity where students identify modern 2016 issues (human trafficking, gender inequality, education reform, etc.) that reflect the same issues they researched in 1850 (slavery, women’s suffrage, education reform, temperance),” Merrill explained. “They then write a letter to the editor of any paper(s) they want, as well as convert it into a letter to their state legislator, since many of these are actually state issues. They have to make connections from the past to the present in both letters.”
Halepete said she was surprised to learn that her letter got picked up by the local newspaper. “To be honest, I didn’t even consider the possibility of being published. I was incredibly excited, since I never expected this to happen!” She added that she does not believe many students are fully aware of the startling reality of how few people have the opportunity to attend college.
“We should never take for granted the blessings we have, especially our ability to pursue an education. I hope that by writing, I can help others become aware of how lucky we are,” she said.
In addition to having her letter to the editor published, Halepete won first place in the district for an essay on “What Freedom Means To Me” in the Patriot’s Pen essay competition. Sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the annual contest attracts more than 125,000 student entries in grades 6-8.
Feeling fortunate for educational opportunities is also what prompted Halepete to write in the essay that “freedom means more than a red, white and blue flag waving in the breeze as fireworks fill the sky and the National Anthem is sung.”
She said after attending a talk by Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, she thought about how much her education really meant to her. “Around the world, over 60 million young girls are denied their education because of financial and societal barriers. Families, especially in developing countries, don’t believe that their daughters have potential. If the finances are tight and a choice must be made, it is the male sibling who gets to go to school. Often times, governments encourage discrimination against young girls, simply because of their gender,” she noted.
Halepete is passionate about human rights and social justice issues, often using her writing skills to advocate for her beliefs. Last year, she wrote and sang an original song called “Walked Away” after leading a student assembly on social justice and researching undocumented immigrant families separated by deportation. Her song was inspired by those stories.
She also set up a jewelry business on Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade goods, to raise money for World Vision, a humanitarian organization that works with communities worldwide to fight poverty and injustice. Halepete, who wrote the marketing copy on her site, was a finalist in a teen entrepreneur competition organized by Girls Life Magazine/Nickelodeon and was featured in the October/November 2015 issue.
“My life’s goal is to change the lives of other people for the better. I do believe that writing is a very powerful tool, and, if utilized properly, can make a significant difference in the world,” she said.
In December the lower school hosted a festive and fun holiday cookie decorating event for parents. Coffee and a light breakfast was served. Parents had been asked to bring in gently used children’s clothing for donation to the lower school’s dress drive, to help make the holidays more special for kids in need in the community. The middle and upper schools held their cookie decorating events together at the upper school campus, with both parents and students invited to attend. An unexpected side benefit of the activity was that it proved to be a great stress reliever for the high school students, who were able to relax in between taking their finals. In fact, it was so effective that talks are already in the works to bring it back next year during finals!
Each fall, middle school students embark on various weeklong class trips, opening up a world of learning outside the classroom. The annual adventures are a highlight for middle schoolers. This year, grade 6 students visited the Santa Cruz Mountains; grade 7 toured national parks around the Southwest; and grade 8 sojourned to Washington, D.C.
Grade 6 Students Bond at Mt. Cross
The Santa Cruz Mountains set the scene for grade 6 students to actively bond during their class trip to Mt. Cross. A camping and retreat site located in the redwood forest, Mt. Cross provided plenty of opportunities for kayaking, bird watching, completing a ropes course, swimming, and enjoying the area’s gorgeous weather and scenic beauty.
A highlight of the trip was a visit to Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, one of 28 such reserves established nationwide as field laboratories for scientific research and estuarine education. Following the reserve visit was an excursion to nearby Moss Landing, a quaint, historic fishing village known for its shopping, fresh seafood, fine art studios, and bird and whale watching.
“The skies were blue, the temperatures warm … and the excitement palpable!” recalled Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, of the trip.
Grade 7 Students Enjoy Southwestern Adventures
Grade 7 students were amazed by the Southwest’s scenic and historic national parks. In Arizona they enjoyed a jeep tour of Sedona, famous for its red rock formations and wildlife. In the Grand Canyon’s south rim, students participated in an organized trust walk (listening to directions while walking with eyes closed) as they headed toward the rim of the canyon.
They also toured Monument Valley, known to many as “the eighth wonder of the world.” Monument Valley has been a significant place for centuries, and houses ruins that some believe belong to the mysterious Anasazi people who disappeared from the area hundreds of years ago. Another highlight was traveling to Zion National Park to hike the Emerald Pools, Whistling Rock and several other well-known trails.
“It was a week of learning, adventure and fun!” recalled Alana Butler, middle school dean, adding that it was also “amazing to see everyone come together as a community.”
Grade 8 Students Take in Historic Nation’s Capital
History came alive for grade 8 students visiting the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C. Accompanied by Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs, the group’s tour began with a visit to the Jamestown Settlement, the first permanent English settlement in North America, and Colonial Williamsburg, an interpretation of a colonial American city.
“Specialized guides showed us what it was like to live in Jamestown in the early 1600s. We were able to see how settlers prepared their food, how they made their clothes and the types of living quarters they had. The guides were impressed with our students’ knowledge of Jamestown,” reported Gargano.
On a more somber note, the group visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps Memorial and Arlington Cemetery.
During a visit to Ford’s Theatre, students learned about what occurred on the day of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination and were able to view the balcony where he was shot. The trip concluded with visits to the Capitol building, and tours of the House of Representatives, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court.
In early November the middle school participated in its first Wellness Day of the school year, featuring a special bell schedule to allow time for yoga and meditation activities. Prior to the event, students and faculty had been instructed to wear comfortable clothes and bring a water bottle, yoga mat and towel to school that day. Wellness activities occur across all four campuses to help students keep stress down and practice healthy activities.
In early December, middle school families were treated to a special after-school teen panel discussion on social media and the digital age with a representative from Common Sense Media.
Harker hosted the panel, which was held in the campus’ multipurpose room, for a handful of independent schools in the South Bay, explained Scott Kley Contini, the middle school’s director of learning, innovation and design.
“This panel took the form of a live discussion of social media and teen use with a representative from Common Sense Media and the seventh and eighth grade students from the participating schools,” recalled Kley Contini. He noted that parents of students from the participating schools, as well as Harker’s entire middle school faculty, were also invited to attend.
“This was a great opportunity to catch a glimpse of the real digital lives of our students,” said Kley Contini.
Showstoppers, the grades 7-8 girls dance team, was asked to perform at the 2015 Red Cross Innovation Celebration, which took place on Oct. 24. Showstoppers performed a great vampire-themed routine, despite having little time to prepare for this unexpected performance, as the girls were out for a week on the middle school class trips. Regardless of having little recovery time from their trips, the students were honored to have this opportunity and delivered a fabulous performance.
The Red Cross Innovation Celebration is the American Red Cross of the Silicon Valley’s annual fundraising event that benefits local emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts for Silicon Valley’s 2 million residents. Go Showstoppers!
This year’s Summer Institute (SI) was marked by numerous exciting, first-time happenings. Highlights of the increasingly popular program included an inaugural summer science research class, a visit from a coding expert during a new computer course and a bake sale that raised money for the Humane Society.
Held on the upper school campus from June 15-Aug.7, SI was open to both Harker students and those from area schools in grades 6-12. SI allowed participants to get a jump start on the coming school year, as well as enrich their learning on topics of interest.
SI has two tracks: one designed for middle schoolers and another for high schoolers. Many students combined a morning academic program with afternoon activities. Falling under the academic umbrella was a new course called “Summer Science Research Society.” Taught by middle school science teacher Kathy Peng, the offering gave participants in grades 6-8 the opportunity to explore and research real world topics of individual interest.
Meanwhile, a chocolate chip cookie baking project and sale, sponsored by a new SI math class, raised $283.53 for the Humane Society of Silicon Valley (https://staging.news.harker.org/summer-institute-math-class-raises-money-for-humane-society). “Lots of math was used to calculate how many cookies we could bake within our limited class time and oven constraints. In addition, the students had to determine the shopping list and recalculate a recipe based on that,” reported Eileen Schick, who taught the three-week summer school course called “The Eagle Project: Math!”
Another new offering for grades 6-8 was “Beginning Python,” taught by Mike Schmidt, Harker’s middle school computer science department chair. Python is a widely used general-purpose, high-level programming language. Harker alumnus Abhinav Mathur, who graduated from the middle school in 2004, designed the instructional software Schmidt used in the class. Mathur, a former student of Schmidt’s, came to campus in June to speak to the 17 students enrolled in the course.
Mathur created a website called Pythonroom.com, an online learning environment for the Python programming language. He and another young entrepreneur, Keshav Saharia, founded a company called HulaLoop, which provides educational platforms on the web for various programming systems of which Pythonroom is currently their main focus.
“I had been using their product for my newly created Python programming course to teach middle schoolers the world of text-based programming. The kids were crazy about it and absorbed all the lessons like sponges!” recalled Schmidt. Pythonroom provides a solid foundation to the world of Python programming by allowing students to move forward at their own pace, he added.
“I think Pythonroom is great for beginners and it is really fun,” agreed Angela Cai, a rising grade 7 Harker student who attended the class.
“Abhi was a great (guest) teacher, and he gave great advice on finding easier ways to do certain problems,” added Stephen Yang, a rising grade 8 student at Miller Middle School.
Noting how excited he was to be back at Harker, Mathur said he was glad to give back to the school that provided him with so much. “We (at HulaLoop) are passionate about spreading coding knowledge to all students, and progressive schools like Harker make this goal achievable,” he said.
After the morning academic sessions, many SI students stayed on for the afternoon activity program, which included an array of specialty classes and recreational activities. Some students in grade 9 also signed up for the afternoon activities.
“We had a wide variety of weekly fun classes that the students signed up for, which this year included a field trip to the Oakland Zoo, an Ice Age Carnival, a Red, White and Blue Bash, and a visit to Golfland,” recalled K-8 history department chair Keith Hirota, who was in charge of SI academics and activity programming for the middle school students.
Although they were not eligible for the afternoon activity program, students in grades 10-12 were welcome to stay on campus to swim, study, shoot hoops and socialize. While the majority of the older students were primarily concerned with earing credits, many took time out for some summertime fun.
“The Summer Institute continues to grow and this year we had more than 1,300 students signed up for classes on the Saratoga campus!” reported Kelly Espinosa, director of summer and preschool programs.
Since launching the Capri Sun Recycling Program in March 2014, the middle and upper school campuses have collected and shipped a combined total of about 70,000 Capri Sun containers for recycling.
The middle school’s Green Club began the program to keep Capri Sun drink containers out of landfills by using a service called TerraCycle, which collects and recycles materials that are difficult to recycle. The money generated from the effort was donated to environmental programs.
Points earned through the program by the middle school campus were used to make donations totaling nearly $1,000 to help fund 360 miles of trails built in national and state parks, eight acres of wildlife land adopted, 8 tons of carbon removed from the atmosphere and various green school initiatives, according to middle school mathematics teacher Margaret Huntley.
“We still have a bit left to donate,” she said. “Or we can use this money to further fund our own school-based green initiatives if we wish.”
Meanwhile, at the upper school, members of the Student Council took on Capri Sun recycling efforts. Council representatives reported that collections during the last school year had been going well, with at least several hundred dollars’ worth of funds now slated for future green efforts at Harker.
The Capri Sun Recycling Program is part of Harker’s recent overall schoolwide effort to “go green.”
In May some 29 grade 6 students boarded a Tokyo-bound plane for the much-anticipated annual trip to Japan. There, the students reunited with their buddies from Harker’s sister school, Tamagawa Academy.
“This was one of the biggest groups yet! The trip went really well and all the students had such a wonderful time in their homestays,” recalled Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
Joining this year’s trip as a chaperone was Gayle Calkins, the middle school’s assistant to the counseling and global education departments. “After working on sending students and chaperones to Japan over the last nine years, it was great to actually experience the welcoming and friendly students and staff of our sister school Tamagawa! Japan and all its sites, people and experiences will be something I will cherish always,” said Calkins.
The Harker contingent first headed to Tokyo’s oldest temple, the Asakusa Sensoji Temple. Legend has it that two brothers, while out fishing one day, caught a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Although they put the statue back in the water, it continued to return to them, so the temple was built nearby in her honor.
Next up was a scenic drive was to Kamakura, a coastal town an hour south of Tokyo. The group’s first stop was at the Kotokuin (Great Buddha) Temple to see an enormous bronze statue of Buddha. From there, they drove to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shinto Shrine.
The following day, the group arrived at Tamagawa Academy, where they were greeted by their buddies and host families, who waved signs and cheered while the school band played in the background. “After the students were introduced to their homestay parents and siblings, we were ushered into the auditorium for the morning’s entertainment, an energetic Taiko drum performance by their upper school students. The kids loved this! A group of sixth grade students then sang before our kids performed their speeches in Japanese. They did a great job!” recalled Walrod.
The Harker students accompanied their Tamagawa buddies to a number of classes, including math, Japanese, science and P.E. They also had an opportunity to venture over to the lower school, where they did some activities with the younger students. Later, they met with Yoshiaki Obara, president of Tamagawa, to share their experiences so far during the trip.
A highlight of their time at Tamagawa was visiting the Future Sci Tech Lab. Here the kids learned about Tamagawa’s research into developing horticulture technologies to provide food in outer space without soil or natural lights.
When it was finally time to say goodbye, the Harker group was led out to the bus by the Tamagawa students, teachers and parents. Their farewell was filled with hugs, photos and tears. As they departed, they passed many students lining the sidewalk waving goodbye.
On their last full day in Japan, the group visited Hiroshima. Their first destination was the Peace Memorial Park, where they visited the Atomic Bomb Dome, which marks the spot where the first atomic bomb landed in Japan. The ruins at the site (also known as “ground zero”) are dedicated to those who died at the site.
Continuing through the park, the group stopped briefly at the Flame of Peace, which has burned continuously since 1964. “This flame continues to burn as a symbol of the Japanese anti-nuclear resolve to burn the flame until all nuclear weapons are gone from this earth,” said Walrod.
“The students took time to read personal stories of survivors and take some photos. We then walked along the river to the Children’s Peace Monument built to commemorate all the children who had died. We stood in a circle and talked about peace and what we personally could do to make the world a better place,” remembered Walrod.
They also had the opportunity to hear from the daughter of a woman who had survived the bombing. She talked to the students about the lead up to the fateful day and then shared her mother’s story. This marked the first time Harker students had an opportunity to listen to such a personal story in Hiroshima.
The group then headed off to the scenic Arashiyama monkey park, a popular tourist spot located just outside of Kyoto. At the top of the mountain, the students fed Japanese snow monkeys by going onto a special cage and giving them chestnuts through wired windows. Shortly after, everyone headed back to the airport for the long flight home, which gave them plenty of time to reflect and reminisce on all they had seen and done in Japan.
In an effort to educate the middle school community about the importance of “wellness,” the campus held its first Wellness Week just before spring break.
From March 23-25 (a short week that included parent-teacher conferences), the students learned about health and wellness, and participated in the annual cancer walk, held on the middle school campus. Prior to the walk, the students engaged in various activities to learn about different forms of cancer and cancer prevention strategies, such as learning about “cancer-fighting foods.”
The wellness initiative also focused on reducing stress through meditation and yoga, as well as the importance of diet and exercise to both physical and emotional well-being. The students enjoyed participating in yoga and meditation workshops. They were also given free-dress days and encouraged to wear clothing that allowed for freedom of movement.
“The student council president and vice president brought the idea (of relieving stress) to the school after attending a Challenge Success conference. We then expanded that idea to also include community wellness, and acceptance and appreciation of diversity and empathy,” noted Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
To that end, the students held lunch “mixers” around such topics. At the end of the day, parents were invited to come early to participate in their own activities around the same communal outreach themes.
The Wellness Week was unique in that it incorporated both physical wellness and outreach-oriented facets. Many middle school teachers and staff assisted in the week by supervising, participating in or leading various activities. Wellness Week proved so successful that it is now slated to become an annual tradition.