On Friday, the lower school held its annual Kids Heart Challenge, which raised more than $20,000 for the American Heart Association while promoting active, healthy lifestyles. Taking place mainly in the lower school gym, students could be seen enthusiastically jumping rope and hula-hooping to show their appreciation for the benefits of physical activity. Donations are still being accepted until March 18.
Each year, schools across the country hold Kids Heart Challenge events of their own. Harker began participating more than 20 years ago when the event was known as Jump Rope for Heart.
Michelle Wei, grade 10, and Helen Gu, grade 8, recently won Silver Awards for their submissions to the 2021 Ocean Awareness Contest. The competition was held by Bow Seat Ocean Programs, an organization that promotes ocean conservation efforts through a variety of initiatives that engage middle and high school students.
The Ocean Awareness Contest is held annually and invites students to submit creations across a wide range of media, including art, creative writing, music and film. Wei submitted a short story called “Water Monster” about a mother and son living in an area with very limited access to clean water, and Gu’s submission was an elegiac poem titled “see her fall,” about the ongoing harm being done to the world’s oceans. They received support from middle school English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine.
The contest received had nearly 6,000 participants, and winners in every category have been featured in a special ocean advocacy gallery.
On Dec. 4, a group of Harker students led by Harker sophomore Nathan Liu partnered with students from other Bay Area high schools to hold the second “Tribute to Fallen Heroes” concert, a special benefit concert supporting the California Fire Foundation.
Held at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, the event raised $18,000 for the foundation, which provides aid to the families of California firefighters who died while battling the many blazes that have occurred across the state. Last year’s event raised $13,000.
Performers at the event included violinist Ray Iwazumi of the Juilliard School, pianist and University of Utah professor Koji Attwood, pianist Nina Yen and cellist Jennifer Chou. Harker students were on the bill as well, including cellist Lucas Chen, grade 12, and guitarist Vardaan Ghai, singer Shayla He, rhythmic gymnast Anna Lee and dancer Ella Yee, all grade 10 .
As part of the organizers’ sustainability goals, the concert went paperless, holding ticket sales via Eventbrite and enabling ticketholders to receive updates on the concert by scanning a QR code.
The annual Kicks Against Cancer fundraiser will return in early January to benefit Camp Okizu, the nonprofit organization that provides outdoor activities and programs to families with children battling cancer. In addition to being affected by the wave of closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Camp Okizu was also impacted by the North Complex fire that ravaged Northern California in fall 2020. Last week, Camp Okizu announced plans to host both in-person and virtual activities in 2022.
For this year’s Kicks Against Cancer fundraiser, the boys and girls varsity soccer teams partnered with Chipotle, located at 1645 Saratoga Ave., Ste. 10, San Jose, raising more than $800. Customers who visited the restaurant on Monday afternoon donated a portion of the cost of their purchases by mentioning to the cashier that they were participating in the Kicks Against Cancer fundraiser. A special promo code was used for online orders. Students are selling T-shirts and baked goods during the week of Jan. 4 and on the day of the Kicks Against Cancer soccer games on Jan. 7 at Davis Field, which will start at 3 p.m. as the JV boys soccer team takes on Menlo. Girls varsity will take the field at 4:30 p.m. to face Monte Vista Christian and boys varsity will play Menlo at 6:30 p.m.
Sophomore Arushi Sharma recently received her second consecutive President’s Volunteer Service Award, which is awarded to people who have a positive impact on their communities and inspire others to serve. Sharma works with Compassion for Seniors, an organization that stages musical performances for seniors living with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions. Sharma was instrumental in putting together a massive mask donation effort last year, at time when masks were in short supply at senior centers. By her own estimation, she sewed nearly 200 masks by hand.
The President’s Volunteer Service Award was created in 2003 by AmeriCorps, an independent U.S. government agency that coordinates service efforts across the country. Awards are given to eligible volunteers by certifying organizations, which can include nonprofits, schools and community-based organizations.
In August, the App Dev League, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Harker junior Krish Maniar, held its first Appathon for high school students. Participants created business pitch videos, proposals and prototypes of apps they wanted to develop. The event had more than 300 participants and offered $20,000 in prizes thanks to its 20 partners and sponsors. Speakers at the event included Brian Dean, founder of the USA Computing Olympiad, and entrepreneur Damian Musk.
The App Dev League’s leadership is made up of Maniar, Harker sophomore Kabir Ramzan and Saratoga High School juniors Shafin Haque and Ishir Lakhani. Since the organization’s founding in December 2019, it has hosted more than 15 computer science education events with the aim of increasing diversity in the tech industry. Attendees at these events have learned to develop web applications, games, mobile apps and more in a project-based program that is designed to be friendly to those new to development. An estimated 5,000 students have been helped via these events. In the future, the organization hopes to offer technology assistance to schools and create more international branches in addition to monthly events.
Last month, the Harker Key Club was named Organization of the Year in the city of Cupertino’s 2021 CREST (“Cupertino Recognizes Extra Steps Taken”) Awards. This annual award is given to Cupertino residents who’ve made positive impacts on their communities. In a statement, Cupertino Mayor Darcy Paul noted the effort shown by this year’s awardees, saying, “Giving back to your community is an honorable thing to do at any time, but continuing to do so during a pandemic shows incredible dedication and commitment.” On Monday, Harker Key Club officers (from left to right) Anishka Raina and Lucy Ge, grade 12, and Reshma Kosaraju and Olivia Xu, both grade 10, were filmed on campus by the city of Cupertino’s media team for a short film that will be shown at the Cupertino CREST Awards ceremony on Oct. 14.
Last week, Opportunity X, a nonprofit co-founded by Harker alumni, was awarded the $2,500 STEM Action Grant from the Society for Science, which organizes prestigious competitions such as the Regeneron Science Talent Search and Broadcom MASTERS.
“At Opportunity X, our mission is to bring cost-free science research opportunities to underrepresented and low-resource middle school students across the country via school enrichment programs, summer camps and science fairs,” said rising senior Alice Feng, a co-president of Opportunity X. The funds will be used to help further their efforts in bringing STEM education to underserved communities. The organization is currently staffed by 18 Harker student volunteers and seven Harker alumni as well as students from high schools around the Bay Area.
Opportunity X was founded in 2016 by Cynthia Chen ’20 and Adishree Ghatare, then a student at Saint Francis High School. Since then, the organization has held after-school programs at many area schools, including KIPP Heartwood Middle School, Morrill Middle School and River Glen School. Earlier this year, two programs were held at middle schools in Virginia. To date, the organization has held more than 850 research workshops in 18 schools. They now have branches in seven states, including Texas, Florida, Virginia and Alabama.
In 2019, Opportunity X held its first Science Fair at the Alum Rock Branch Library in San Jose, where students showcased their projects and received trophies for their work. Another Science Fair was held virtually in May of this year and included speakers from NASA, Google and Stanford University.
The STEM Action Grant program provides support to community nonprofit organizations that promotes STEM education to underrepresented communities. This year, Society for Science provided $165,000 in grants to 38 organizations across the country.
In late June, grade 3 students kicked off their Lemonade for Livy fundraiser to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation. The program is named for Olivia “Livy” Scheinman, who has been living with epilepsy since birth. During morning recess on July 28, the students will run lemonade stands to raise more funds. To promote the activity, students placed posters around the lower school campus containing a QR code for more information about the fundraising effort. Students also prepared by reading Jacqueline Davies’ “The Lemonade War,” in which two young entrepreneurs learn the key elements of the lemonade business. To learn more about living with epilepsy, students also spoke remotely with Maile Chung ’17, who was diagnosed with epilepsy during her freshman year at Harker. Students showed their gratitude for Chung’s insight by writing thank you messages to her following her appearance.
On Wednesday, the annual grade 3 pajama and book drive came to a close, with 156 pairs of pajamas and 406 books collected. The goods will be donated to the Pajama Program, an organization that will distribute them to children living in shelters and temporary housing.
The annual assembly celebrating the effort was held virtually this year, but key parts of the tradition remained, including students wearing pajamas and a special story reading by Butch Keller, upper school division head, who read Pat Zietlow Miller’s “Be Kind” to the students in attendance.