NanoSeed, a student-run nonprofit organization dedicated to helping impoverished areas of rural China, will present a special benefit concert on Saturday, April 20, at the upper school’s Rothschild Performing Arts Center.
Featured performers at the event will be pianist Nina Zhou and trumpeter Dylan Girard of the San Francisco Symphony, and harpist Anna Maria Mendieta of the Sacramento Symphony. In addition to these accomplished performers, the concert will feature performances by a wide variety of students singers, instrumentalists and dancers.
NanoSeed, founded in 2014 by students at Harker and other Bay Area schools, provides low-interest loans so that students can further their education and entrepreneurs can found businesses. Proceeds from the concert will be put toward these loans to help bolster the economies of developing regions of China.
The concert will start at 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at http://tiny.cc/nsbc. Refreshments will be served prior to the concert. Direct donations to NanoSeed can be made at http://tiny.cc/nsdonate.
NanoSeed, a student-run nonprofit organization dedicated to helping impoverished areas of rural China, will present a special benefit concert on Saturday, April 20, at the upper school’s Rothschild Performing Arts Center.
Featured performers at the event will be pianist Nina Zhou and trumpeter Dylan Girard of the San Francisco Symphony, and harpist Anna Maria Mendieta of the Sacramento Symphony. In addition to these accomplished performers, the concert will feature performances by a wide variety of students singers, instrumentalists and dancers.
NanoSeed, founded in 2014 by students at Harker and other Bay Area schools, provides low-interest loans so that students can further their education and entrepreneurs can found businesses. Proceeds from the concert will be put toward these loans to help bolster the economies of developing regions of China.
The concert will start at 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased at http://tiny.cc/nsbc. Refreshments will be served prior to the concert. Direct donations to NanoSeed can be made at http://tiny.cc/nsdonate.
Over the weekend of Feb. 22-24, Harker Green Team officers Anvi Banga, Alex Shing and Anthony Shing, all grade 11, and Natasha Yen, grade 10, attended the 2019 Plastic Ocean Pollution Solutions International Youth Summit at the Algalita Ocean Institute in Dana Point, along with their advisors, science teacher Kate Schafer and Spanish teacher Diana Moss.
The Harker team was selected on the basis of its proposal, titled “Buy Better Boba.” The students’ plan addresses the excessive amount of plastic produced by sales of boba milk tea, a popular drink often sold by Harker student clubs to raise funds. The students acquired reusable glass straws with brush cleaners, repurposed glass jars and designed a sticker to create a cup alternative to the single-use plastic cup, lid, straw and wrapper that comes with each purchase of boba tea.
Team members also have been in contact with local boba shops to encourage the use of their cups and to provide bulk dispensers for clubs that use their cups for their fundraisers. They will launch the sale of their repurposed cups during Earth Week in April, which is also their club week.
The conference was attended by 125 students from various parts of the U.S., as well as from countries including Kenya, Tunisia, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Mexico. Students had the opportunity to learn about each other’s projects, to hear from experts in the field of ocean pollution and to engage in team building activities. Additionally, mentors worked with each team to help them hone the details of their projects and envision ways to extend their projects into the greater community to have a more powerful impact.
“The best part of the conference for me was meeting other students from around the world and hearing about their projects,” said Banga. Added Yen, “Seeing all this creative energy working towards a common goal was inspiring.”
The team also enjoyed being right on the beach at the Algalita Ocean Institute and took a short cruise on the ocean with Captain Charles Moore, author of “Plastic Ocean,” who first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Harker team was one of three teams selected to present about their project before the entire assembly on the final day of the conference.
Five Harker upper school students’ poems were recently selected to be made into pieces of public art as part of the city of San Jose’s “Litter-ature” project. Ishani Cheshire and Annabelle Perng, both grade 12, and Sophia Gottfried, Katerina Fenner and Nathan Ohana, all grade 10, submitted poems highlighting environmental issues that have been used to make art pieces that in March will decorate 500 public litter cans in San Jose. The students’ poems and accompanying artwork can be viewed at the city of San Jose’s website.
At Monday’s pajama assembly, grade 3 students received a visit from their grade 10 Eagle Buddies to mark the conclusion of another successful pajama and book drive. The annual effort collects pajamas and books to donate to the Pajama Program, which distributes them to children living in shelters, temporary housing or otherwise unstable conditions. This year’s drive collected 272 pajamas and 489 books.
Students arrived dressed in their preferred sleepwear and the third graders each brought a book to read with their buddies. Continuing with tradition, upper school division head Butch Keller was a hit with the students gathered at the gym, as he arrived in his pajamas and delivered a delightful bedtime story from his rocking chair.
Last week, students in Rebecca Williams’ grade 7 English classes participated in an activity modeled after the popular TV show “Shark Tank.” Students created pitches to convince a panel of “Sharks” – middle school division head Evan Barth, assistant middle school division head Patricia Lai-Burrows, global education director Jennifer Walrod, English teacher Marjorie Hazeltine and middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey – to award money to charitable organizations chosen by the students.
Pitches were created by several students from each grade 7 English class, and each class voted to see who would face the panel in the final round. Williams came up with the idea for the activity both as a persuasive writing exercise and as a means of helping students “realize the privilege that we have.”
Harker parents raised the $700 in prize money, which was distributed among the finalists based on the judges’ evaluation of their pitches. Ritu Belani’s pitch took first place, earning $480 for the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund. Lera Vaisburd’s second-place pitch netted $90 for the American Cancer Society. In third place were Meishin Yen and Mira Goodwin, who donated $70 to the Best Friends Animal Society. Jason Monaghan won $40 for Doctors Without Borders, and Alice Tao and Reshma Kosaraju secured $20 for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“We really wanted the kids to have to consider their audience,” Williams noted. “I was just truly blown away by their preparedness, poise, confidence and passion.”
Last week, middle school students concluded their annual gift drive for Family Giving Tree, delivering more than 650 gifts to benefit families in need this holiday season. Advisors received the families’ wishes in late November, and students spent the following weeks collecting the gifts. This year’s donation far surpassed last year’s donation and nearly doubled the number of gifts collected in 2016. The effort was part of Family Giving Tree’s Holiday Wish Drive, which has provided more than 1 million Bay Area children from low-income households with holiday gifts since 1990.
Lower school service efforts were in full swing this month as the annual grade 4 toy drive delivered 550 toys to St. Justin Community Ministry in Santa Clara, which every year offers underprivileged families the opportunity to “shop” for toys to give to their children. Although the collection effort is led by grade 4 students, all lower school families were encouraged to participate. The 10-day toy drive coincided with hot chocolate sales on Dec. 7 and Dec. 13, organized by the grades 4 and 5 student council, which raised more than $1,000 for schools affected by the devastating November Camp Fire.
Students at Harker Preschool brought in pajamas that will be added to the grade 3 pajama drive at the lower school. It was great to see Harker’s youngest students smiling as they made their donations!
Earlier this month, the middle school concluded its yearly food drive, which began Oct. 26 and ended Nov. 15. A total of 2,465 food items were collected for delivery to the Second Harvest Food Bank, which each month serves more than 257,000 people in need in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. This drive is one of several annual community service projects carried out by the middle school during the holiday season. Others include Suits2Empower, which donates business attire to young people whose families cannot afford it, and the Family Giving Tree, which provides holiday gifts to impoverished families in the Bay Area.