Following an extensive multiyear effort across the Harker community, The Harker School has now been recognized by as a Certified Green Business by the Bay Area Green Business Program. In addition to being a major sustainability goal, fulfilling the requirements for certification also is expected to reduce costs in a variety of ways.
“Aside from the primary goals of being a more environmentally sustainable institution and meeting Harker’s standard of modeling and teaching sustainability through our actions, CGB provides a report card,” said Jeff Sutton, Harker science teacher and a member of Harker’s Green Committee. “This report card provides positive feedback as to how much savings, both fiscal and in the reduction of our impact on the environment, the actions are generating. These numbers are estimates but still provide encouragement for continuance in the program.”
The effort to become a Certified Green Business began in late 2012, when the newly formed Green Committee was searching for a way to advance Harker’s sustainability goals. “[Harker head of school] Chris Nikoloff began the search for a tool to implement to gain better understanding of sustainability at Harker, including knowing what Harker was doing to be stewards of resources and looking for ways to improve the overall sustainability of the operation of the school,” Sutton said. “The CGB application provided an excellent framework because it was so comprehensive and very objective in the tasks needed to achieve CGB status.”
Preparation for the application process began in 2013 and lasted through the year. Applications for all four of Harker’s campuses were submitted in May 2014, and inspectors from Santa Clara County visited in June and noted what needed to be done to qualify for the certification.
The schoolwide effort to become certified lasted for the next two years, with key projects and initiatives occurring on all campuses. Shipping/receiving manager Bob Benge and business manager Clif Wilcox devised a more sustainable policy for school purchases. Stephen Martin, executive director of food services, worked with the Harker kitchen staff to acquire food products that had been sustainably produced, in addition to using more environmentally friendly paper products and discontinuing the use of polystyrene. Thanks to transportation supervisor Heather Armada, all of Harker’s vehicles now use recycled oil. Other projects included spearheading the use of Energy Star-rated electronics, using recycled paper for photocopying, examining the use of LED lighting and much more.
Harker’s Green Business certification is up for renewal in three years, and Sutton is confident that the school will maintain its dedication to sustainability. “As an institution of education, it is awesome to see Harker modeling ways to improve its sustainability in its relationship with the environment,” he said.
Thanks to a nationwide effort co-sponsored by Harvest Snaps and Table for Two (TFT), Harker’s middle school students were able to help combat hunger simply by enjoying free samples of Harvest Snaps snacks handed out by members of the Academic and Cultural/Cuisine Exchange (ACE Club).
The ACE Club, co-led by Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, and middle school math teacher Kathy Pazirandeh, coordinated the arrival and distribution of the snack donations. They were handed out to students during lunchtime last month.
For each snack handed out, Harvest Snaps donated 25 cents to TFT to provide healthy school meals for children in East Africa, as well as in low-income communities in the U.S. ACE Club members raised $250 by distributing 1,000 bags of Harvest Snaps, reported Walrod.
By participating, Harker students had the opportunity to learn about healthy eating habits while providing nutritional school meals for malnourished children. The goal of the program was to elevate awareness on both childhood hunger and obesity around the world.
Through their partnership, Harvest Snaps and TFT raised enough money nationwide to provide more than 100,000 school meals to African children in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, as well as in the U.S. In Africa, 25 cents funds one school meal for a child, and in the U.S. it enables school meal upgrades for healthier options in low-income neighborhoods.
“It was fun – and easy!” recalled Walrod, sharing that ACE Club members had created a PowerPoint about the project, which they presented at a schoolwide meeting in advance of the effort.
ACE Club members Jackie Hu, Ritika Rajamani and Niecey Atwood, all grade 6, called the project a great way to have fun while helping others.
“It’s a creative way to not only advertise their project but to raise awareness of the needs of good school lunches. We have good lunches but other schools do not,” said Rajamani.
“It’s something where you can be social and raise awareness of a good cause,” added Atwood.
According to TFT statistics, of the more than 7 billion people in the world, 1 billion suffer from hunger and malnutrition, while 2 billion are overweight or obese.
Grade 2 students had the honor of creating the table centerpiece art for the recent 2016 Silicon Valley Go Red for Women Luncheon, a fundraiser benefiting the American Heart Association. The centerpieces consisted of clay hearts on long sticks, which were inserted into beautiful flower arrangements.
Go Red for Women is the American Heart Association’s national movement to end heart disease and stroke in women. Harker is an annual sponsor of the local luncheon, held this year on May 5 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Harker regularly donates a basket of summer goodies, which includes a coupon for $500 off a summer camp at the school, to the event.
Attendees, who were all clad in red, enjoyed an engaging talk by keynote speaker Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of Women’s Heart Health at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Dr. Steinbaum is a national spokesperson for the Go Red for Women campaign and chairperson of Go Red for Women in New York City.
Steinbaum informed the audience that heart disease and stroke cause one in three deaths among women each year – more than all cancers combined. Fortunately, 80 percent of cardiac events can be prevented with education and lifestyle changes, she noted.
Go Red For Women inspires women to make lifestyle changes, mobilize communities and shape policies to save lives. For more information about the cause: https://www.goredforwomen.org/.
Shortly before the school year came to a close, middle school math teacher Kathy Pazirandeh and her advisees delivered toiletries they had collected to LifeMoves (formerly known as InnVision Shelter Network), a local shelter for homeless women and children.
“As an advisory, we collect toiletries all through the year and make care packets and donate them to the shelter at the end of the school year. This year we made 210 care packets, which we sorted, packed and delivered,” reported Pazirandeh.
According to the LifeMoves website, the nonprofit’s recent name change captures its mission and expectation that its clients will break their cycle of homelessness. Last year, 97 percent of families and 82 percent of individuals in interim housing who completed the LifeMoves program successfully returned to stable housing and self-sufficiency, according to the site.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2016 Harker Quarterly.
A lower school dress drive brought smiles to the faces of at-risk and underprivileged youth at the Starbird Youth Center in San Jose. The clothes were part of a larger donation of more than 500 gifts collected for clients of the center.
“There were about seven bags of boys and girls party clothing donated,” recalled Teré Aceves, Harker’s director of event fundraising.
The gently used clothing was collected during a holiday cookie-decorating event. About 60 parents heeded the call for such items.
Harker parent Erin Vokey (Miles, grade 1) is the youth activities supervisor at the Starbird Youth Center and is in charge of the center’s day-to-day activities, as well as its literacy programs.
“We are an after-school program that works with at-risk and under-privileged youth. We help them by providing food, homework help and a safe place to go after school. We also do a program called The Good Choices, which is a basic moral guide that teaches them the right choices to make to lead a better life,” she said.
Around the time of the dress drive, the center also had partnered with the Family Giving Tree to distribute gifts to clients and their families, Vokey explained. “We set up a room where children picked out clothing from the dress drive. This is the second year we have had the dresses there and it was a huge success. Fellow Harker parent Julie Carr (Aiden Harshman, grade 1) and her family volunteered to hand out all of the dresses to the youth in our community. It was an extremely heartwarming event,” recalled Vokey.
Another Harker parent, Stephanie Black (Chloe, grade 1), is the program director at the Starbird Youth Center. “Without her none of this would have been possible,” added Vokey.
Carr and her son agreed that it was wonderful to see the joy on the kids’ faces when they got a beautiful dress, jacket or new shirt. “Stephanie, Erin and the entire staff at the center made it so easy for us to come in and volunteer. We are very grateful for the work they do and proud that we got to represent Harker’s philanthropy,” said Carr.
Of his experience volunteering, Carr’s son, Aiden, reported that it was “really cool.” He said that there were lots of games to play with at the center and that he enjoyed seeing the kids get toys. “It made me feel good in my heart.”
Harker students initiate and participate in outreach activities all year round. Visit Harker News and search “outreach,” or go to https://staging.news.harker.org/tag/outreach, for all the Greater Good stories!
Once again, the middle school Wildlife SOS Club created watercolor cards and origami spinning toys, which they then sold to parents during the recent parent-teacher conferences, to raise money for animals in need.
The group, made up of students in grades 6 and 7, raised a record-breaking $135 for Wildlife SOS, an organization that rescues and cares for abused elephants and other animals.
“By selling our toys and cards, we contribute in a way that makes us feel proud for helping elephants while convening weekly with friends,” said club member Vienna Parnell, grade 6.
Science teacher Raji Swaminathan and Japanese teacher Kumi Matsui (who came up with the idea to make the origami toys) are the club’s mentors. They said working with the club members is incredibly rewarding.
“Every card and toy is very special, since it takes several club periods for a child to finish one,” said Swaminathan. “Club members have done this [fundraiser] in the past. Each time, they made about $70 to $80, which provides for the food of an elephant for a month. It is a small financial contribution from the students, but a lot of work and love go behind it.”
Meanwhile, club members said the benefits of being in Wildlife SOS Club include working together as a team, learning craft making skills, and relaxing together while raising money for wildlife in distress.
“These cards are better than Hallmark’s!” said grade 6 student Alysa Su, proudly.
Each year grade 10 students sojourn to the Bucknall campus to meet up with their grade 3 Eagle Buddies at the lower school’s annual Pajama Day Assembly.
The event, held in the gym, celebrates a grade 3 service project in which students collect items for the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
Over the past nine years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated thousands of items to the program, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive is primarily a grade 3 effort, all lower school families are invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urges parents to encourage their children to help the less fortunate by donating a new pair pajamas or book to the program.
This year’s assembly occurred on a special-dress pajama day a couple of months ago, when all students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. Butch Keller, upper school head, kicked off the assembly by reading the book “Courage,” a story about bravery by author and illustrator Bernard Waber.
Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller in his robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read a book with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who also had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for lunch, socializing and field games.
“Being an Eagle Buddy is a lot of fun!” said Ellen Minkin, grade 10. “Today we’ve had a really nice time reading together, having lunch and just chilling out on the field.”
Her grade 3 pal, Bahar Sodeifi, said that she really likes the Eagle Buddies program and always looks forward to having the “big kids” come over for a visit.
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
The pajama and book drive originally began at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, grade 12, who got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Narain was motivated to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive.
Sophomore Divija Bhimaraju recently received a certificate of excellence in this year’s Prudential Spirit of Community Awards for her efforts to help blind people. She also received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for the amount of time she has dedicated to her volunteer work.
Bhimaraju felt prompted to help the blind when she attended a conference by the Sankara Eye Foundation in 2011. “These glimpses that changed my life came in the form of a few short, minute-long videos of pre-surgery and post-surgery blind children,” she said. “I think it was the gratitude and wonder on those small faces that inspired me to initiate change on that day, and it’s what motivates me now.”
She later founded Donum Visi to help grant disadvantaged people the gift of sight by spreading awareness and sponsoring surgeries. She also devoted time to local community service.
“With careful planning, advertising and management, I hosted free seminars for young children in which I created PowerPoints and pamphlets about the eye and different ailments,” she said. She also designed hands-on projects for the students, including color-coding, telescope building and optical illusions. In addition, Bhimaraju mentored a robotics team and taught basic science and English to children, for which she received donations.
“This fusion of my passions, teaching and service, served a double purpose: not only did I interactively teach and foster interest in academic subjects for young children, but I earned nearly twice the money I intended through voluntary donations by inspired students,” Bhimaraju said.
She has been able to sponsor 179 cataract surgeries. “I have changed 179 real, tangible lives, and I’ve seen videos of children who’ve undergone treatment through my efforts.”
Recently, Bhimaraju has been gathering eyeglasses and distributing them to those in need. Already she has donated more than 50 pairs to grant children in India the chance to see better. She also is seeking volunteer opportunities at schools for the blind and has contacted vision centers geared toward the homeless to distribute more glasses locally.
In December, Bhimaraju traveled to southern India and lived with the president of Sodhana, a leading community service organization. “I played with and taught children in Sodhana’s straw-roofed schools, and interacted with poor women who were surpassing traditional village hierarchies by taking part in self-help groups,” she recalled.
Overall, Bhimaraju sees her charitable efforts as a journey of self-discovery. “The one central question that has driven philosophers mad, that has sparked revolutions, that tears at the insides of every teenagers, is ‘Who am I?’ And I think that’s the biggest gift that I have received from volunteer work. Donum Visi has given me purpose: I have a vision for the world, a plan to make it happen, and a place for myself in it.”
On a warm, sunny day in mid-March, students, parents, family members, faculty and staff from all four campuses gathered at the middle school field for the 10th annual Harker Cancer Walk.
Funds raised from the walk benefit young cancer patients attending Camp Okizu. Thanks to monetary donations and funds raised from the sale of baked goods and other items, more than $14,000 will go to the camp this year, reported Cindy Ellis, middle school head.
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra foothills, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for children with cancer to enjoy regular summer camp activities and social events.
“This time was a bit more special as it was our 10th anniversary celebration walk!” said Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher and department chair. Schmidt had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his own mother due to cancer.
“This is an event that Harker was kind enough to let me start in 2007 in honor of loved ones inflicted with cancer,” he continued. “Since then, it has been used as a moment for our entire community to come together and celebrate the lives of those we love and those we’ve lost. It is a symbolic walk that is measured not by the miles covered, but by the love and understanding between us all.”
Prior to the walk, students engaged in various activities to learn about different forms of cancer and cancer prevention strategies. In a further show of support, many teachers displayed door decorations with themes designed to promote cancer awareness. And during the walk, Honor Flags – honoring someone who is fighting or has fought cancer – were placed in the ground along the inner edge of the field’s walking path.
Physical education took on new meaning for lower school students on March 4, thanks to the annual Jump Rope for Heart fundraiser held during regular P.E. for K-5 students.
“No one had to be an experienced jumper to join in. It was good fun for a good cause!” recalled Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s P.E. department and spearheaded the event, which raised $9,589 for the American Heart Association.
Students were able to participate in a concurrent Hoops for Heart effort on the outdoor basketball courts during the first six periods, until rain forced everyone indoors, McGovern noted.
Some staff and faculty members also got in on the action, jumping rope in the Bucknall gym. Students and grown-ups alike had a blast showing off their double dutch moves in support of a worthy cause.
They also had fun playing with hula hoops and participating in a raffle for T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.