The Common Ground speaker program kicks off this year with Paul Stoltz, Ph.D., speaking on resilience and optimism; he will be appearing at Harker on Tues., Oct.4 a 7 p.m. in the Nichols Hall atrium on the upper school campus at 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose. Stoltz is founder and CEO of the PEAK Learning research and consulting firm and one of the nation’s top experts on human resilience. He created the AQ (Adversity Quotient) Method of measuring and fostering resilience, which is currently used by many Fortune 500 companies and leading business schools. In this back-to-school special, Stoltz explores how families may apply AQ techniques to encourage positive mindsets that promote greater learning, optimism, resilience and happiness. Stoltz’ best-selling books include “Put Your Mindset to Work” and “The Adversity Advantage: Turning Everyday Struggles into Everyday Greatness.”
Parents of students enrolled in Common Ground member schools may attend free of charge. Non-members may attend for a $20 admission fee.
Common Ground is a coalition of Bay Area schools that organizes events featuring experts in various fields to enhance parent education. Hosting of these events is rotated among the various schools throughout the year.
Dr. Paul Stoltz’ appearance schedule:
Tues., Oct. 4, 9 a.m.
The Nueva School
6565 Skyline Boulevard
Hillsborough
Tues., Oct. 4, 7 p.m.
The Harker Upper School
500 Saratoga Avenue
San Jose
Wed., Oct. 5, 7 p.m.
The Priory
302 Portola Road
Portola Valley
Raghav Sehtia, grade 11, was recently recognized for his efforts to fight hunger by being named a 2011 Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Regional Honoree. A short story on his achievement was published in the San Jose Mercury News on Aug. 22. He requested that the money be donated to charity. In March, Sehtia received the Platinum Award from the Second Harvest Food Bank for his work in organizing food drives for the past four years.
During the 2010 holiday season, Sehtia held a baked goods sale that raised approximately $1,800, which he then donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Sehtia calls volunteering a “passion” of his, and has volunteered at such places as the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple and the Good Samaritan Hospital. Kudos!
Siddarth Satish ’06 is part of a team at Stanford working on the USAIDS/Gates Foundation project Saving Lives at Birth. The group is one of 70 finalists in the competition for their project titled “Low-Cost Mobile Platform for Real-Time Monitoring of Blood Loss.” The team, co-advised by professors Michael Hsieh and Mark Gonzalgo of Stanford University and David Rempel from University of California, San Francisco, is in the final stage of the competition was asking readers to vote for their project at www.savinglivesatbirth.net. To read more, look under “finalists.” Satish sends greetings to the Harker community and his thanks for your support!
Description of Project Obstetric hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality in developing countries, with over 95 percent of the 350,000 worldwide annual deaths occurring in Africa and Asia. Real-time monitoring of maternal blood loss is crucial in allowing for preventive interventions within a critical time frame. Visual estimation of blood loss (EBL) by health workers is a widely adopted monitoring practice, but its accuracy is severely limited by human error and insufficient training and attention; health workers miss the onset of post-partum hemorrhage in over 80 percent of cases when visual estimation is used. Although spectrophotometry provides a gold standard for quantifying blood loss, it is unsuitable for real-time use and suffers from high resource costs. To address this gap, we are developing a low-cost mobile platform capable of accurate, real-time blood loss monitoring in obstetric point-of-care settings. The platform consists of a novel computer vision-based application installed on an inexpensive camera phone. Mounted to an overhead surface, the device captures a series of images of the patient table and calculates blood coverage, volume, and spread rate. Accounting for such factors as BMI and term of pregnancy, the application continuously tracks blood loss and alerts obstetric staff to the onset of hemorrhage. The advantages of the platform are (1) high accuracy at low cost, (2) automated monitoring in real-time, and (3) low barriers to staff education and adoption given high mobile device penetration in developing countries. This contributes an inexpensive, portable solution towards eliminating the most preventable yet most widespread cause of maternal mortality.
On June 15, Harker held its sixth annual Harker Teacher Institute to give educators around the Bay Area the chance to learn about how new instructional techniques and technologies can assist them in the classroom.
Various sessions were held at the upper school campus led by Harker faculty and staff members, who demonstrated various new technology tools available to teachers. In one session, Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher, showed off Scratch, a new open-source programming language that is designed to make programming a fun and engaging activity for children and teenagers. Paul Vallerga, a teacher and designer in Harker’s performing arts department, showed how teachers could use Google SketchUp, a free 3-D modeling tool, for student art projects, demonstrations and more.
Other classes showed how already popular tools could be leveraged in new and useful ways. Mark Gelineau, middle school English teacher, and Rebecca Williams, middle school writing teacher, held a session to show how teachers could greatly reduce the stress of grading papers by using macros in Microsoft Word. WolframAlpha, as upper school math teacher Bradley Stoll demonstrated, could be used as a statistical research resource as well as a mathematics tool.
Other classes focused on effective teaching techniques, such as upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss’ session on how poetry can be integrated into all levels of Spanish classes. Susan Nace, upper school music teacher, held a session to help teachers relax and reconnect “what you do with who you are,” using the arts and spirited conversation as a means to rejuvenate their passion for teaching.
This year’s Teacher Institute was once again sponsored by Silicon Valley Computer Using Educators (SVCUE), the local chapter of Computer Using Educators, a nonprofit corporation that aims to use technology to improve student achievement. It was organized and hosted by Dan Hudkins, instructional technology director, Fred Triefenbach, upper school assistant technology director, Lisa Diffenderfer, lower school assistant technology director and Angela Neff, middle school assistant technology director.
June 13, 2011
Harker’s peripatetic Green Girls made another trip to Washington, D.C., this weekend, and this morning, Mon., June 13, shared a podium with Steven Chu, the United States energy secretary.
The event was a meeting where White House and Congressional officials discussed Building the 21st Century Grid, a report on restructuring the United States’ electrical grid to facilitate growth through the 21st century. John Holden, director of the office of science and technology, opened the meeting and Nancy Sutley, chairperson of the White House council on environmental quality, introduced Shreya Indukuri and Daniela Lapidous, rising seniors, who shared their story of improving Harker’s energy analysis and consumption with 150-200 audience members. “There were government officials from every level, CEOs of clean tech companies, representatives of the Consumers Union and of private companies there,” said Lapidous.
The two climate crusaders were followed by Thomas James “Tom” Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, and Chu. After the meeting, the two girls attended a breakout session where policy was discussed. “At first it was difficult to understand,” said Lapidous, “but after we started listening it was pretty interesting. At other events they have had a lot of rhetoric; here they were actually being practical,” she continued. “They seemed much more willing to listen to young people,” added Indukuri.
The pair plans to ramp up their outreach this year to get more schools, including Castro Valley High School, Castelleja School and Bellermine College Preparatory, to agree to install smart meters or make other energy consumption changes. The pair is also working on a plan to get more Harker students involved in climate change to ensure a legacy of climate crusaders when they depart a year from now for college.
Lapidous and Indukuri began making a name for themselves as climate activists in their sophomore year. In September 2009 they were two of 25 climate youth leaders selected to attend the Governor’s Global Climate Summit co-hosted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; in February 2010 the girls spoke at Google’s offices in San Francisco at the annual Teens in Tech Conference; a year later the two spoke at Power Shift ’11 in Washington, D.C., to 8,000 attendees, then had a private meeting with Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer in the Obama administration, who blogged about the meeting later that week. For more about Indukuri and Lapidous’ activity, search on either name in Harker News Online
In early May a representative of the Shriners Hospitals for Children – Sacramento came to Harker’s middle school to accept a $1,200 check from the Peace2Peace club. The club’s eighth graders raised the money in their annual garage sale to help the Shriners. Glenn Reddy has been spearheading these efforts over the last three years and this year was assisted by Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Jeremy Binkley and Alex Thomas, backed up by Sophia Shatas, Hannah Baz and Christina Andrus.
The Shriners Hospitals for Children is a nonprofit network of 22 hospitals that gives aid to children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, cleft lips and palates. The specific hospital that Peace2Peace is supporting is located in Sacramento.
Advised by Steven Hewitt, the group solicited items to sell at their sale, asking for everything from toaster ovens to paintings on velvet in their creative announcement, stating, “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure” as their philosophy. They requested the donations be placed in special red bins spotted around the Blackford campus. In mid-April, aiming for a dry weekend, they collected all the goods, set up shop and ran the sale from Reddy’s home.
“Over the past few years, we have raised money for places in Uganda, Costa Rica and India,” Reddy said. “We sat down and realized this year that people need help locally and not just in other countries. Since I have been a patient at Shriners myself, I recommended the Shriners hospital as a group to donate to.”
The portents of rain weren’t enough to keep students, parents, faculty and staff from once again swarming the Blackford campus on April 13 for this year’s Cancer Walk. The cause raised more than $7,300 for Camp Okizu, which provides fun outdoor activities to cancer-stricken youths.
Money was raised through donations and sales of T-shirts, water bottles, baked goods and more. Some of the money was raised in advance through T-shirt sales.
Flags honoring cancer victims and survivors were staked along the walking path, which had a steady stream of pedestrians for the duration of the event. Attendees enjoyed the carnival-like atmosphere, enjoying cotton candy and blowing bubbles, as well as singing along to the music selection played by Mark Gelineau, middle school English teacher.
When the rain finally did start to pour, Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher and founder of the Cancer Walk, had just begun his yearly dance to conclude the event as The Isley Brothers’ “This Old Heart of Mine” rang across the field. Other attendees joined him before the rain became too heavy to bear.
“Dancing in the rain with the students and all my friends at Harker will make this one of the most memorable Cancer Walks,” Schmidt said.
Donations in the form of cash or check (made out to Camp Okizu or The Harker School) are still being accepted and can be brought to the front office of the Blackford campus.
The Harker Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) released the inaugural edition of its newsletter in early April. “The Rainbow Connection” contains a variety of interviews, personal submissions and articles related to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community. The newsletter features members of the Harker community including current students, alumni, a faculty member and a parent, and is available in print and online.
In his inaugural letter for the newsletter, Abel Olivas, GSA adviser and upper school Spanish teacher, said the newsletter is “an extension of the GSA’s objectives: to give a voice to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered members of our community and their families and allies.” Olivas said one of the newsletter’s goals is to provide support for LGBT folks, “facilitate their creating a space for themselves as LGBT people at our school and to promote understanding and respect for all of Harker’s diversity.”
April 29, 2011 Update: Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer, has written an extensive blog about his visit with Daniela Lapidous and Shreya Indukuri, both grade 11. Read the blog here. April 20, 2011 Two Harker students attending Power Shift ’11 in Washington, D.C., earlier this month had the ear of 8,000 attendees, then had a private meeting with Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer in the Obama administration. Shreya Indukuri and Daniela Lapidous, both grade 11, addressed the crowd of 8,000-plus at the conference then went on to meet with Chopra for about 30 minutes. The two students have been very active in advocating for reducing energy use through technology and other methods. A list of Harker News Online articles on their activities is at the end of this article. “The meeting [with Chopra] went really well,” said Indukuri. “He was very impressed with the opportunities for energy efficiency in schools and he wants to have Lisa Jackson, administrator of the EPA, and Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, write a letter to schools to launch a campaign for energy benchmarking. “He loved Harker’s new energy efficiency with the smart energy system and was very supportive of our efforts to take this to other schools; we already helped students implement this project successfully in the Los Gatos – Saratoga High School District,” she added. “We also met with staff members and the director of ARPA-E, (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy),” added Lapidous. “Their director is Arun Majumdar, and they basically invest in breakthrough clean energy technologies in hopes of finding the next big thing. “We made two presentations,” said Lapidous. “The first was more of an informal conversation while the second was a formal presentation including a segment of the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) presentation. The audience was a varying number of ARPA-E staff, who are all rather young and very nice.” Following the presentations, “Majumdar came to talk to us personally for about 30 minutes,” said Lapidous. “The post-doctoral fellow who organized the meeting for us, Karma Sawyer, said she couldn’t remember the last time she scheduled a 30-minute meeting for him – usually they are 10 minutes. He lives in the Bay Area when not working in D.C., and he knew exactly where Harker was. “Both he and Mr. Chopra said that this smart energy project was essentially a no-brainer with an obvious positive impact for schools. They both acknowledged the environmental importance but were understandably more interested in the 250 percent ROI our project turned over in about a year,” Lapidous said. “PowerShift, the meeting with Mr. Chopra, and the meeting with Mr. Majumdar were all very exciting and we are extremely inspired to work 10 times harder on SmartPowerEd and expand it to more schools in the Bay Area before the fall comes around,” she finished. http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/green-projects-featured-on-49ers-kids-program/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/energy-dashboard-goes-live/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/unicef-video-includes-activist-students-in-video/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/students-filmed-for-video-on-ace-grant-recipients/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/student-presents-at-tech-titans-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/harker-trio-gangs-up-on-global-warming/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/winged-post-reports-on-teen-tech-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/sophomores-report-on-l-a-climate-conference/http://skylark.harker.org/hno/backups/students-invited-to-climate-summit/
Several Harker students participated in a fundraising mixer for the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE). Jackie Jin and Jennie Xu, both grade 11, and Emily Chu, Isha Kawatra, Kevin Lin, Indu Seeni, Sarina Vij and Joseph Wang, all grade 10, are members of the PACE Youth Leadership Committee (YLC) that put on the event, which raised more than $8,000.
“The whole process of collaborating with other people who really care about autism and see so many of my friends from school come to the mixer was what made my experience at PACE thus far so rewarding,” said Wang, who was a project manager and co-chair for the mixer. Wang, whose cousin is autistic, first got involved with PACE last August and was a big reason for the event’s success. His responsibilities included booking the venue, hiring a DJ and promoting the event.
“He was definitely responsible for a large part of the success we had this year,” said Jin, who acted as marketing chair. “We had a fantastic first year with the mixer last year, but I guess the word got around and we had a huge rise in interest this year.”
Jin continued: “PACE is a really fantastic organization and it’s just an added bonus that raising awareness and funds for it as part of the YLC is so much fun.”