Once again Harker held a schoolwide Howard Nichols Cookie Day in honor of the late former head of school’s birthday on Oct. 10.
That day, the preschool, lower and middle schools all held special assemblies and handed out chocolate chip cookies in his memory. The upper school followed suit the following Monday.
The annual tradition celebrates Nichols’ inspirational values that continue to drive the spirit and growth of The Harker School. All four campuses celebrated by having trays of cookies located in various places around school. Nichols, who was known for his sweet tooth, regularly kept a full jar of cookies and other confections in his office that were a hit with visitors.
Nichols was the president of Harker from 1973 until his retirement in 2005. He attended the Palo Alto Military Academy, which was run by his father, Major Donald Nichols. Eventually the Palo Alto Military Academy merged with Miss Harker’s School for Girls and became The Harker School. A memorial to him can be found in the quad on the upper school campus.
It was Howard Nichols and his wife, Diana, whose vision saw the founding of the upper school and the acquisition of the Blackford and Bucknall campuses.
“We honor his warm heart and loving spirit by enjoying chocolate chip cookies each year on that day,” recalled Alana Butler, middle school dean.
It was easy to understand the “Sky’s the Limit” theme of this year’s Night on the Town gala, held May 9 on the top of a hill with spectacular views of the mid-Peninsula, at the home of Susan and Scott McNealy (Scout, grade 8; Colt, grade 10; Dakota, grade 11; Maverick ’13).
The 300 attendees moved throughout the home visiting areas including the champagne patio, “view of the valley” swing spot, theater, casino and silent auction table. Guests enjoyed dinner under a beautiful sunset, and performances by several of Harker’s dance, show choir and instrumental ensembles.
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement, capped the dinner portion of the evening with the announcement that an additional $7 million had been pledged to the new gym and theater buildings from an anonymous donor who had already pledged $3 million during the initial Rothschild Challenge phase of the campaign. (Look for full coverage on the new gym and theater buildings in the advancement section of the summer issue of the Harker Quarterly.)
This summer at Harker featured some exciting first-time offerings for students, both local and from around the globe.
At the youngest level, history was made with the addition of a new preschool summer program. Meanwhile, the popular English Language Institute (ELI) launched an optional summer VIP tour, which was a huge hit with international students at both the lower and upper schools.
Each summer Harker opens its doors to the public, extending its offerings to local students. Noteworthy this year was skyrocketing attendance for all of Harker’s summer programs, particularly at the lower school’s Camp+ and upper school’s Summer Institute (SI).
In addition to the new preschool, ELI, Camp+ and SI, Harker also offered a large and varied summer sports camp, as well as a swim school.
“Once again, we enjoyed a successful summer … and were thrilled to be able to offer exciting new programming!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of Harker’s summer programs.
Below is a look back at Harker Summer 2014:
Harker Preschool Launches New Summer Program
This year marked the first time Harker Preschool, which opened last fall, has operated a summer camp at its Union Avenue campus. The preschool now joins the larger Harker community’s long-running tradition of offering programs after the regular school year ends.
The preschool’s successful inaugural summer camp featured two sessions, which began with a fun beach theme and ended with an action-packed wilderness motif. Session one, called “Down by the Shore,” ran from June 23-July 18 with 55 enthusiastic “beachgoers” filling the preschool’s sunny cottages, play yards and specialty classrooms (STEM, music and movement, and art.) Session two ran from July 21-Aug. 8 with the theme “Little Cabin in the Woods.” For the second session, children happily grabbed their backpacks and headed off to the (imaginary) forest.
Highlights of the first session included water play on “Splash Days,” as well as explorations of both sand and water. Four-year-old camper Luca Chan especially enjoyed the many ocean-themed books introduced and discussed during group times.
Classmate Miley Liu, also 4, said she liked “making a beach in a box,” an activity in which students filled plastic containers with sand, shells and other items you would see at a beach.
Meanwhile, in music and movement class, students made drums that sounded like the ocean, explained teacher Mara Beckerman. Then, in her aftercare class, they explored surfing to the upbeat music of “Wipe Out.”
In art class the children enjoyed sea foam watercolor painting, sand sculpture, sea life printmaking, lobster claw still life and shell weaving, among other activities. “We also discussed where pearls come from and what they look like at a bead-making table,” recalled art instructor Alexandria Kerekez.
The first summer session was filled with surf, sand and sun as the children “soaked in” all there was to see and do around this well-loved theme, noted Andrea Hart, director of Harker Preschool. “Together we explored sea life and play through sand and water, singing silly songs and reading stories about friends who live and play on the salty shore. All were inspired by our new pet hermit crab. There were also some excellent sandcastles that the children made themselves by manually grinding rocks into sand!” she enthused.
During the second session Hart recalled that the children had a great time meeting new forest animal friends, building with logs, digging in the dirt, pitching tents, creating with found objects, exploring common outdoorsy tools, and enjoying everything nature had to offer. “It was all the fun of a camping adventure without the worries of bears or mosquito bites!” she said.
Summer Camp+ Enjoyed Record-Breaking Attendance
Harker’s Summer Camp+ filled up at record speed, attracting some 774 (K-6) campers to the lower school campus. This year’s program had a fun-filled afternoon circus theme, called “Under the Big Top.”
Once again, Camp+ provided morning learning experiences followed by age-appropriate afternoon electives. Grade 5 Harker student and Camp+ enthusiast Jack Hayashi said his favorite thing about the program was playing ball hockey and going to the archery range. He also liked that there was plenty of time for simply “clowning around.”
Meanwhile, first-time Camp+ participant Rhiannon Sikand, a grade 3 Harker student, said she enjoyed the camp’s climbing wall and had a lot of fun going on a field trip to the Oakland Zoo. “I liked seeing all the animals … especially the turtles,” she said.
Camp+ students in grades 1-6 had the option of enrolling in one of two academic morning programs: Core Focus or Learning Opportunities in Literature (LOL). Core Focus was a more traditional learning environment with language arts, math and academic electives for each grade level. LOL featured academic courses designed around literary subject matter; this year, LOL focused on the work of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss.
Both Core Focus and LOL shared the same afternoon options, including arts and crafts, dance, water play, wall climbing, archery and array of other field sports – and of course, plenty of circus arts!
The Summer Camp+ program kicked off and ended with Color Clash, a fun event held in the lower school’s gymnasium. Groups of campers on yellow, red, green and blue teams participated in an array of silly games cheered on by captains (aka camp counselors) wearing color-coordinated outfits that ran the gamut from superhero costumes to hula skirts and fun hats. This year’s Color Clash finals showcased a video highlighting happenings from previous events.
Other on-site happenings included a water carnival, sleepover for older campers, presentation for parents and a birthday celebration for the camp mascot, “Ray,” according to Joe Chung, program director of Summer Camp+ and Harker’s elementary computer science teacher. Campers also enjoyed numerous field trips.
“I would recommend Camp+ to anyone!” said Hayashi.
The Harker School has offered extensive summer programs for more than 50 years. The Summer Camp+ program is accredited nationally by the American Camping Association.
Summer Institute Offers Variety of Programs for Middle and Upper School Students
Harker’s Summer Institute (SI) was a tremendous success, attracting a total of 1,088 middle and upper school students, an increase of 242 over last summer.
The program, which began in mid-June and ran until mid-August, gave students in grades 6-12 the chance to earn credits, learn new skills and pursue individual interests.
The program was available to both Harker students and others, and offered two tracks – one for middle schoolers and another for high schoolers, explained SI middle school director Keith Hirota and SI principal for the upper school students Evan Barth.
The academic portion of the day consisted of rigorous for-credit courses including algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth including creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course was available for students ages 15 and up.
For middle schoolers (grades 6-8), SI’s afternoon activity program included many specialty classes and recreational activities; students in grade 9 were also invited to sign up for the afternoon activities. Specialty classes included backyard games, volleyball boot camp and cooking. Other classes include art, jewelry-making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts. There were also off-campus field trips every couple of weeks to places such as Shoreline Aquatics Center and Capitola.
This summer, a group of business-savvy students attending an SI finance class organized and ran a lemonade stand on the upper school campus. The students raised $228, which was divided among three local organizations (Abode Services, the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Foundation) as part of a lesson on charitable giving. The stand was one of two culminating projects for a course called “Finance & Investing for Teens” (F.I.T., for short). For the other culminating project, students successfully designed their own mutual fund.
To run the lemonade stand, students were tasked to come up with a custom flavor, build a business plan, design a marketing strategy and staff the business with start-up money fronted by their instructor.
F.I.T. participant and stand worker Emily Zhou, a grade 7 student at the Challenger School, said that this was her first time attending SI. Previously, she had attended Harker’s Camp+ program, held at the lower school.
Zhou explained that to offset costs, such as cups and ingredients, drinks were sold for $1 for regular flavor and $1.50 for specialty flavors like mango or strawberry. “But we passed out coupons for 25 cents off to attract customers,” she said, noting that refills also went for 25 cents off.
Zhou’s F.I.T. classmate, grade 9 Harker student Eric Tran, said he was surprised at how much money the lemonade stand netted, noting that, “We made $85 in just the first half hour of its opening.” In addition to passing out coupons to help attract customers, Tran said that a lot of marketing was done “word of mouth” and by “putting up signs around campus.”
However, customer Grace Cao, a grade 11 Harker student, said that she simply happened upon the stand on her way to an SI class. Of the lemonade she ordered, she said, “It tasted great!”
New VIP Tour Took Learning on the Road for ELI Participants
This summer 57 upper school students and 42 lower school children came to Harker from countries around the globe to attend the increasingly popular English Language Institute (ELI).
Adding an international flair to summer at Harker, ELI provides overseas students with an opportunity to learn and practice their English skills. Many participants go on to attend top American and international schools.
First-time ELI student Hui-Hsuan (Maggie) Cheng, a grade 6 student from Taiwan, fondly recalled going on an outing to visit the tide pools. Cheng said that in a lesson prior to the field trip, her teacher had explained the importance of gently handling the tide pool animals.
New to ELI this summer was an optional “Very Interesting Places” (VIP) tour. Available to all ELI students (ages 6-16), the six-day VIP tour took place at the conclusion of the program’s regular five-week academic session. The trip, held in mid-August with 21 participants, took the students to local theme parks, museums, various school campuses and tourist attractions, culminating with an overnight stay in Yosemite National Park.
Destinations were carefully chosen to elevate historical and cultural awareness; allow students to create closer relationships with their peers and teachers; and provide enormous opportunity for continued English language development, according to ELI director Anthony Wood. Additionally, older students interested in attending American boarding schools or universities had the opportunity to visit and meet with staff at some of the area’s best schools.
Highlights of the VIP trip included whale watching in Monterey, a Jelly Belly factory tour, educational visits to UC Berkeley and Stanford University, a Giants (versus Chicago White Sox) game, a scavenger hunt at Huddart Park and a day of fun at Great America theme park.
In Yosemite National Park, ELI students viewed the majestic Yosemite Falls and visited the area’s museum and cultural center, with educational activities led by a park ranger. A short hike to the lower falls provided inspiration for a writing assignment and picture journal.
“A specially designed instructional component made each day’s adventure a learning experience catered to individual proficiency levels. Students wrote, spoke and read about their destinations, learned new vocabulary related to each new site, and had daily challenges involving English interaction in real-life situations. A travel journal was kept to document their learning … and of course all the fun!” recalled Wood.
Sports Camps and Swim School Keep Students Fit and Focused
Harker’s variety of summer sports offerings afforded students the chance to learn a new activity, improve as athletes or simply work on their overall fitness. Led by experienced and caring coaches, students gained new skills in a fun and nurturing environment.
Sport choices this summer included: wrestling, water polo, basketball, soccer, volleyball, football and a TRX (suspension) training program that was introduced last summer. In addition to the sports camps, Harker’s summer swim school offered individual instruction to swimmers of all ages looking to improve on their aquatic abilities.
Highlights of this year’s sports camps included a special guest visit to the wrestling camp by Anthony Robles, who won the 2010-11 NCAA championship in the 125-pound weight class despite being born with just one leg.
Directing this year’s basketball camp was Harker varsity basketball coach Mark Collins, who spent 10 years in Denmark as a professional player, being named an All-Star player five times. He also directed the Golden State Warriors training camp for six years.
The football camp was again led by Harker head football coach Ron Forbes, a 15-year collegiate Division 1 veteran. His career includes successful stints at the University of Florida and Stanford University, coaching more than 60 future NFL draftees.
Meanwhile, Harker’s water polo camp enjoyed two sessions this summer, due to its popularity in the past. “Last year a lot of the parents asked us to do two sessions, so this year we answered,” said water polo coach and camp co-director Allie Lamb, a 15-year veteran of the sport, who ran the camp with coach Ted Ujifusa, head coach of the Harker boys’ water polo team.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Fundraiser Lets Dancers Shine
Grade 6 students Aarzu Gupta and Radhika Jain took first place for one of their dances in the Bollywood category at a fundraising competition held at Chabot College in Hayward. The competition was sponsored by the Charitable Care Foundation (CCF).
Founded in October 1991, the CCF aims to help needy people become healthy, productive and self-reliant. Their efforts and resources are focused on local and international needs, particularly in the Bay Area and India.
The girls regularly attend a Bollywood dance class together in San Jose.
Canned Food Drive Helps Ease Hunger
The middle school’s annual canned food drive took place in mid- November. The drive was hosted by Harker’s advisories in conjunction with the Second Harvest Food Bank. Many canned and non-perishable food items were collected in containers, which were located in classrooms throughout the campus.
Last year, almost 50 million Americans lived in homes without enough food to eat. Harker is proud to have collected 2,632 pounds of food in this year’s drive.
DECA Chapter and Red Cross Club Sponsor Event
In early November, Harker’s DECA chapter and Red Cross Club hosted a lunchtime community service event in front of Nichols Hall. Students placed granola bars, batteries, Band-Aids, hand sanitizers and toothbrushes into kits that may be sent to disaster victims overseas. They also made cards for Veterans Day.
The event was run in accordance with the community-oriented pillar of the national DECA organization. Creating disaster kits for those who can’t afford them illustrated “the type of community involvement crucial to building a foundation for community-oriented entrepreneurs,” according to California DECA’s press release.
Hot Chocolate Sale to Aid Typhoon Haiyan Victims
The week after Thanksgiving break, the lower school’s student council sponsored a hot chocolate sale to raise money for relief efforts in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan.
The funds raised by the hot chocolate sale were then combined with funds collected by the middle school for donation to Habitat for Humanity, which will help typhoon victims rebuild their homes. Faculty and staff also pitched in by donating money to offset the cost of supplies. The hot chocolate was sold for $1 a cup.
Colorful Painted Pumpkins Delivered to Neighbors
In a show of neighborly good will, this past fall grade 2 students painted and hand delivered pumpkins to residents living near the lower school campus.
The annual outreach and community service project took place in late October, just in time for Halloween.
After decorating the pumpkins and allowing them to dry, the students walked around the neighborhood leaving them on porches, along with cards.
“This was their annual service project to say ‘thank you’ to the local residents for being such good neighbors,” reported art teacher Gerry-louise Robinson, who facilitated the painting portion of the activity. Students painted in her room during their health education classes (one class at a time) with members of the BEST staff on hand to assist in the effort.
For student Kabir Ramzan, the biggest challenge was to “make the pumpkins really colorful.” Working in small groups, he and his classmates succeeded by painting in various hues of blue, green, yellow and red. They also gave each pumpkin its own special smile.
“It was action-packed and nonstop. … Utilizing the art room helped to make the event more meaningful and fun!” said Robinson, adding that the students really embraced drawing faces on the pumpkins; the facial expressions and details made each one a unique gift.
“It was marvelous how the children carefully chose colors and applied them,” she added. “The pumpkins all lined up ready to be delivered looked very charming indeed.”
“This is a really good project. I think it’s something the neighbors will like!” enthused student Aeliya Grover.
Club Plans Coastal Cleanup
In the fall, grades 4 and 5 held their first Spirit/Service Club meeting of the year, playing fun activities in advance of the Harker Harvest Festival.
“Our first club meeting was great. We had over a dozen fourth and fifth graders sign up. Fun was had by all!” reported Mel Robinson, a grade 5 P.E. teacher who helps coordinate the club.
In addition to playing spirited games, the Spirit/Service Club implements important outreach activities. For example, the club aids California coastal cleanup efforts and has a Green Committee charged with decreasing food waste in the lunchroom.
Students Donate to Emergency Shelter
Prior to her retirement, former middle school history teacher Pat White passed along her advisory project, which involves collecting toiletries for women and children at a local emergency shelter. Middle school math instructor Leah Moll took over the project, which benefits the Georgia Travis Center in San Jose.
“This year my seventh grade advisory, along with Kathy Pazirandeh’s advisory, have made and donated 85 personal kits to the center,” reported Moll.
The shelter is sponsored by the Inn-Vision Shelter Network, one of the leading shelter/housing and supportive service providers in Northern California. It aids more than 20,000 homeless men, women and children each year.
Middle School Holiday Drive Helps Fulfill Wish Lists
In an effort to serve people in need during the holiday season, Harker’s middle school community took on a project to help fulfill the “wish lists” of people living in low-income neighborhoods. After obtaining the names and wishes of individuals from an organization called Family Giving Tree, middle school families, faculty and staff set to work on fulfilling as many wishes as possible. Nearly 500 holiday wishes were granted to children, the elderly and physically disabled individuals in need, with gifts averaging about $20-$30.
Gift of Song, Carriage Rides and Wreath to Local Communities When the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce put out a call for wreaths to help decorate Blaney Plaza for the holiday season, the Awasthi family (Shivani, grade 9; Mohan, grade 6; and parents Anupam and Aarti) generously offered to create and donate one on behalf of Harker. The beautiful wreath, illuminated by LED lights, was clearly a labor of love.
And in a show of support for the Los Gatos community, Harker also helped sponsor carriage rides in the downtown area. For more than 30 years, the stately horse-drawn carriages, which meander through downtown, have attracted thousands of residents and visitors during the holiday season.
The upper school’s show choir, Downbeat, added to the cheer by caroling one night in downtown Los Gatos.
Upper School Holiday Volunteering at Harvest Food Bank
Kerry Enzensperger, the upper school’s director of community service and activities, reported that her advisory volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank the first night of Thanksgiving break. “We did a food sort at the Cypress Center in San Jose. Along with other volunteers we sorted carrots into boxes that weighed 25 pounds. By the end of our shift we had sorted 770 boxes of carrots equaling nine tons! We had a great time working together,” she said.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
In 2008, grade 5 students Glenn Reddy, Jeremy Binkley and Nicholas Sancen were in search of a way to serve their community. “We didn’t want to just do a bake sale, because everyone does a bake sale,” said Reddy, who is now a junior. Instead, the lower school students collected various household items donated by the Harker community to sell at a garage sale.
The resulting club, PEACE2PEACE, held its first garage sale that year, raising $1,500 for AIDS Orphan Education Trust (AOET), which provides child welfare, medical care and other services to African children orphaned by the HIV/ AIDS crisis. It was a big enough feat to catch the attention of Google, which donated 100 laptops to AOET.
Since then, the club, now known as Students for Charitable Causes (SFCC), has held garage sales every year, benefiting a different cause each time. Members have continued to work together even as they moved from middle school to upper school, which is rare among student clubs.
“Normally what happens is when you go to the school, whatever campus you’re at, the program is already established and you’re a part of that program, and then when you go to the next campus, there’s the equivalent but for older kids,” said Reddy. “For us, the program didn’t exist. So we started the program in fifth grade and went to sixth grade and said, ‘We’re on a different campus now, why should we stop? We still want to help people; we still have the same goals.’”
Because its membership has been relatively consistent over the years, Reddy noted, the club has been able to operate more independently each subsequent year, “because we knew more about it than our club advisors did.”
“It really helped that by now everyone knows what the process is. We’re able to set a date, set a location, get everything working very early on,” said club vice president Sophia Shatas, grade 11, who joined as a middle school student.
The consistency also has enabled the club to learn from its past missteps, such as the 2010 garage sale, which raised about $800, far below expectations. “We didn’t think it through that much,” Reddy acknowledged.
Each sale since then, however, has raised more than the previous year’s sale. Earlier this year, Reddy and Shatas delivered a check for $3,200 – the highest amount yet raised – to Alejandra Villalobos, director of development for Embrace Global, which produces low-cost warmers for infants in developing countries.
“I think the club definitely matured with the leaders, so we’re a lot more organized now than in middle school,” said Shatas.
Reddy said that adding more organizational structure and delegation of responsibilities has been a big reason for the club’s success in recent years. “Having people directly responsible for these different components and actually breaking it down and having more or less an organization chart that says who’s responsible for what and who really gets the veto here or there, it helps a lot,” he said.
The club also shifted its focus to benefiting organizations based in the Bay Area, which allowed members to have more direct interaction and gain a better idea of how the money they raised was being used.
When the members of PEACE2PEACE entered the upper school, they changed the organization’s name to Students for Charitable Causes, which more closely matches the efforts they have taken on in addition to the annual garage sale. Since the 2011-12 school year, for example, the club has managed the annual upper school food drive, which delivers goods to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Members also participate in community service days, volunteering at places such as senior living homes and Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT), a nonprofit organization dedicated to hands-on learning.
In addition to giving the students more service opportunities, these outings also help complete the community service hours required by SFCC’s grade 9 members, who were recruited this year as its leaders approach graduation. “I feel that we didn’t leave enough of a legacy behind, setting the groundwork for the club to continue after we leave campus, which is something that we’re working really hard to do now,” Reddy said. To bolster the number of younger students in the organization, SFCC made sure to have a much larger presence at this year’s club fair and is looking to increase its presence on Harker’s other campuses. Already the club has engaged the middle school’s service club to assist with the drive to collect goods for the garage sale. “My dream, especially by senior year, would be to actually collect on the lower school campus as well and then work through the campuses’ respective service clubs,” Reddy said.
The club’s younger members are already starting to have a significant impact. When the club met to decide the beneficiary of the spring garage sale, freshman Arjun Subramaniam’s suggestion of Free the Children, which works to improve the lives of children in developing countries through a variety of means, was chosen. “I think that Free the Children is a wonderful organization working to combat child labor and abuse around the world, and I hope to continue supporting it and getting involved through my high school years,” Subramaniam said. Upon seeing SFCC’s display at the club fair, Subramaniam was “immediately captivated. It’s a great initiative and I definitely want to get involved and make a difference through social service.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Come spring, the entire Harker community celebrates and admires the artistic talent of our students – from the youngest child at Harker Preschool to the oldest student at the upper school. Various art shows are held each spring highlighting works as unique as their creators. This year, creativity flourished in a range of artistic media on exhibit at all four campuses. Join us in this year-end reflection, as we look back at the very best of art at Harker!
AP Art Studio Classes Exhibit Works
by Zach Jones
Advanced art students showcased their work at the AP Studio Art Exhibit in late February. The show featured both 2-D and 3-D works, with each piece accompanied by a written statement summarizing the theme.
Senior Manon Audebert’s series of sculptures explored the concept of tension and how it interacts with various materials, providing a visual metaphor for the conflicts experienced in everyday life. One such piece had lengths of string and wooden sticks poking through holes of paper, which appeared coiled, as though ready to pounce or strike. Another of Audebert’s works showed strings tugging at pieces of cloth, threatening to tear them at any moment.
Elsewhere, senior Kianna Bisla’s series of photographs underscored the beauty of scenes normally taken for granted, capturing haunting images she discovered while traversing the Bay Area, including alleyways, suburban decay and creative works left on the public landscape by self-styled artists. One of her more evocative photos showed a boarded-up building, tagged by passersby and slowly succumbing to the elements, with cameras drawn in graffiti along with the message “Thank you!” as though anticipating Bisla’s arrival and offering gratitude in advance.
The AP Studio Art Exhibit is held every year to highlight the works of the high-level AP Studio Art classes taught by 3-D art teacher Jaap Bongers and 2-D art teacher Pilar Agüero- Esparza. The event was held in the spacious Nichols Hall atrium, where attendees enjoyed snacks and refreshments while viewing the artwork, enjoying an atmosphere much like a professional gallery show. Bongers’ birthday fell on the day of the exhibition, so students sang “Happy Birthday” and brought out a cake to commemorate the occasion.
Eclectic Middle School Art Show Opens at Upper School, Moves to Blackford Campus
by Debbie Cohen
Harker’s middle school spring art exhibit went on display in the upper school’s main lobby gallery after an opening reception on April 3. The show, which ran until April 23, also spilled over to the Nichols Hall atrium.
Sponsored by Harker’s middle school visual arts program, the exhibit featured select works from the school year, including colorful paintings, sketches, ceramics and wire sculptures.
Students in grades 7-8 showcased clay and glass works called “African Granary Doors.” Whimsical wire sculpture figures with accessories such as umbrellas, golf sticks and building blocks also filled the shelves. Grade 6 ceramics students displayed work done during the fall semester titled “Art Shoes,” which took the form of dinosaurs, rabbits, dragons and more. And drawings of bikes, colorful landscapes, and assorted fruits and vegetables adorned the walls.
Encased in a glass display were several sculptures that had won regional Scholastic Art Awards earlier this year. Eight Harker middle school students won the prestigious awards for their outstanding artwork. Two received the coveted gold and silver key awards, while six others were lauded with honorable mentions. All of the winners’ work was featured in the exhibit.
Meanwhile, a series of drawings called “Renaissance Self-Portraits” was on display in Nichols Hall. For this project, second-year middle school art students were asked to do a self-portrait of what they will look like at age 50, and at the same time put themselves in the time of the Renaissance.
To accomplish this feat, they studied Rembrandt’s self-portraits and followed that period and style as closely as possible.
“Scrolling through photos of Renaissance poses and portraits, I found a picture of a man with flowing, curly hair very interesting. Incorporating my cheerful countenance into the body of a royal ancient figure was extremely difficult, but weeks of sketching self-portraits eventually paid off to help accomplish this piece,” recalled art student Darren Gu, grade 8.
Kaitlin Hsu, also grade 8, said that for her Renaissance portrait, she chose to draw herself as a young maiden who “probably lived the life of a servant.” Drawing this portrait, she noted, was fun and interesting since the clothing, accessories, and style at the time were very unique and distinct. “Using various materials to finish this portrait was fun,” she added.
Also in the atrium were drawings from first-year art students, including illustrations of Audubon birds and sketches of rocking chairs. The drawings were done in the Italian artistic style of chiaroscuro, which utilizes strong contrasts between light and dark (similar effects in cinema and photography also are called chiaroscuro).
The middle school art show was unique in that it hosted its opening reception at the upper school. After a brief run there, the exhibit was relocated to the middle school multipurpose room where it joined the middle school’s end-of-the-year art exhibit. The middle school campus’ exhibit was all-inclusive, ran for about a month, and had its own opening reception.
Lower School Art Show Celebrates Creative Work of Entire Campus
by Debbie Cohen
Hanging paper lanterns blew gently in the breeze as the lower school’s gymnasium doors swung open on April 28, kicking off the campus’ much-anticipated art show. The annual exhibition, which began that afternoon with a well-attended reception in the gym’s foyer, ran until May 21. It featured selected academic and after-school works of K-5 students.
Refreshments were served in the main gallery (the gym lobby) as exhibiting students once again demonstrated an impressive range of artistic abilities. Artwork on display included monochromatic pencil drawings, watercolor paintings, collages and ceramics.
There was an interactive feel to this year’s show, which wound its way from the lobby into the gym, up the stairs and all the way to the top-floor classrooms – even extending into the kitchens and art rooms. Parents, faculty members and students slowly meandered through the event, viewing the wonderfully artistic and often whimsical pieces, which were arranged by theme and grade level.
“The art show was a great success. We had many parents and students come by not only to find their own personal pieces, but to also view the wide selection on show. We even had a family who had gone home to get ‘dressed up’ for the event; it was very sweet,” recalled Gerry-louise Robinson, Harker’s lower school art teacher.
“The highlight for me was the vibrancy and color that was in the displays, with first grade work displayed comfortably next to fifth grade work. We also had a wonderful display highlighting the Japanese wood coasters which were made during a visit from Maruko, the Japanese exchange teacher from Tamagawa this year,” she continued.
Back in the winter, Maruko Ishigami, an art teacher from Tamagawa Academy (K-12) School & University – Harker’s sister school in Tokyo, Japan – helped teach art classes for grades 2-5, showing the second and third graders how to make traditional Japanese wood coasters and instructing the fourth and fifth graders in various painting techniques used in her country.
Grade 2 students Emi Fujimura, Shayla He and Shareen Chahal agreed that the best thing about making the wood coasters was “building it” from scratch, noting that the process reminded them of putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Classmate Vivek Nayyar said he especially enjoyed having a “visiting teacher” come to the classroom.
Another highlight of the art showw was the collection of winter-themed illustrations, with pictures of trees drawn in black against a sky-blue backdrop, amid delicately falling white snowflakes. Among the various drawings were “Winter Trees,” from the after-school art program, using watercolor and white pencil; “Worm View Winter Trees,” made by students in grade 5 using construction paper and tempura paint; and “Camouflage Winter Scene,” by grade 4 students working with colored pencils.
The colors of many other illustrations took on a decidedly playful theme, such as the charming, colorful penguins clad in scarves called “Chilly Penguins” made by kindergartners. These were made of construction paper collage. Brightly drawn fall pumpkin scenes were also a big hit with various grade levels, including kindergartners, and first and third graders.
Particularly unique to the show was an exhibit called “Perched Owls” from the kindergartners, which comprised glazed ceramic owls sitting in rows perched atop the branches of a tree made out of construction paper. Meanwhile, at a display table nearby, grade 4 students showcased pencil drawings titled “Monochromatic Castles” as well as sculpted versions (made out of ceramic, glaze and mixed media) simply called “Castles.”
According to Anoushka Khatri, grade 4, the best thing about the art show was the chance it gives you to not only see your work represented, but all your friends’ work, too.”
Nathan Wang, grade 5, agreed. “Everybody has at least one thing in the art show,” he added.
Wang’s classmate, Alex Baeckler, said she had actually made an art piece that was intended to be a surprise for her dad on Father’s Day, but had to let the cat out of the bag when he happened upon it during the art show. “He was still really surprised and happy to see it … and I’m still going to give it to him after the show!” she said, smiling proudly.
“The students really demonstrated their talents and creativity. What amazing students we have!” enthused Robinson.
Upper School Artwork Featured, Appraised at Art Show
by Zach Jones
The upper school art show featured student works from all parts of the upper school arts program, many of them winners in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. The juror for this year’s show was Stephanie Metz, an accomplished Bay Area-based artist who has held exhibitions at both the San Francisco and New York branches of the Hosfelt Gallery, as well as the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.
Nephele Troullinos, grade 11, was awarded best in show for her printmaking piece “Tahoe Color,” which Metz said was “balanced and iconic, but also uses the medium and techniques of printmaking to the best advantage.”
First place in painting/printmaking went to Doreene Kang, grade 10, for her painting “Workroom,” which depicts a fashion designer in his studio. Winning second place in this category was Anna Kendall, grade 12, whose striking acrylic painting prompted Metz to describe it as “gestural but controlled – the colors fight and also play well together.”
Archana Podury, grade 11, won first place in drawing/mixed media for her ballpoint pen drawing, a vortex of spring-like objects fittingly titled “Coiled.” Second place went to senior Jerry Shen’s thoughtprovoking “Tree of Knowledge,” which featured a man in a suit with a box on his head upon which a tree has taken root.
In the sculpture category, Manon Audebert, grade 12, was awarded first place for a piece exploring the concept of tension by showing strings suspending a cloth by pulling it in opposite directions. Another Audebert piece, a separate study in tension showing sheets of metal bent to various degrees, took second place in this category.
Junior Madelyn Wang’s moody photograph of trees and buildings taken through a window covered in condensation earned her first place in the photography category, while Melina Nakos, grade 10, took second place for her photograph of a ballerina, which Metz praised for its “lonely composition and sense of motion.”
Eric Wang, grade 11, was a two-time winner in ceramics: “Birdhouse,” in which a scaly green cube clasped by a mouth-like appendage won first place, and “Abstraction Exercise,” an intriguing interaction of sharp edges, colors and black, won second.
Finally, Chloe van den Dries, grade 10, and Megan Prakash, grade 12, won first and second, respectively, in the graphic arts/digital category.
Harker Preschool Holds Inaugural Art Show on Grandparents’ Day
by Debbie Cohen
The students at Harker Preschool used Grandparents’ Day as a special occasion to hold their very first art show. Along with works made in the art studio throughout the school year, grandparents were the first to view a collection of canvas paintings that the preschoolers completed as part of an end-of-the-year art concepts review.
Grandparents’ Day, held each May, is already a long-standing tradition at Harker’s lower school. Now, preschoolers have joined in the tradition, welcoming their grandparents, special adult friends or “adoptive” grandparents-for-the-day to visit the school for a morning of exploration and play, including a captivating stop at the art exhibit.
“Grandparents’ Day was a huge hit! The event served as an opportunity for our fabulous teachers and specialists to showcase their work from this year and the strong bonds that they have developed with the preschoolers,” said Alexandria Kerekez, Harker Preschool’s art specialist.
Kerekez added that near the event’s gallery, which was “filled to the brim with artwork,” there was a table reserved for children to join her in sharing bead-making techniques with their grandparents. Participants also had the opportunity to join the preschool’s music and movement teacher in a song. Meanwhile, the school’s STEM specialist opened up the farm for the children to enjoy delicious edible plants and play with snuggly bunnies.
According to Kerekez, preschoolers of all ages are regularly invited into the art studio to paint, work with clay, hone their pencil skills and learn to observe the world around them while working in a variety of media. The school’s outdoor art area allows for further creative expression, where everyday things such as the sun, water and leaves can become part of a project.
Making ceramics is a favorite art activity for 4-year-old Ameera Ramzan, who, earlier in the year, had worked on making a “pinch pot.” Sounding very much like an art teacher herself, she proudly explained that to create the pot you “first roll the ball … and then you pinch it!”
Back in January and February, Kerekez hung a more informal exhibit in a room just off the preschool lobby called “The Faces of Harker Preschool.” Included in that self-portrait display were works by all of the preschool’s children – from the Pebble, Clover, Acorn and Feather cottages to the transitional kindergarten crew.
That exhibit and the Grandparents’ Day art show were so successful that Kerekez said she hopes to make them annual events.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Harker singers from the lower, middle and upper schools gathered at San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater on April 1 for this year’s United Voices concert. Kellie Binney-Smart led the Bucknall Choir in the night’s opening performance of W.B. Yeats’ “The Sally Gardens,” set to music by Benjamin Britten, before moving on to Bret McKenzie’s “Life’s a Happy Song” from “The Muppets.”
Dazzling performances by the middle school groups followed, with highlights including Dynamics’ rendition of Kirby Shaw’s “Happiness Is …,” led by Mary Ellen Agnew-Place; a performance of Duke Ellington and Don George’s “Hit Me With a Hot Note” by the grades 7-8 show choir Harmonics, directed by Agnew-Place and Monica Colletti; and Vivace’s version of the Phillip Phillips hit “Home,” directed by Dave Hart.
Meanwhile, upper school introductory choir Bel Canto, directed by Jennifer Sandusky, delighted the audience with a medley of Brazilian folk songs and the Susan Nace-directed intermediate vocal ensemble Camerata sang “Dirait-on” from “Les Chansons de Roses.” Female vocal group Cantilena, also directed by Nace, displayed its multicultural talents with versions of Debussy’s “Nuits d’étoiles” and “Dravidian Dithyramb” by Victor Paranjoti. Soon after, Downbeat, codirected by Sandusky and Laura Lang-Ree, showed up to bring the house down, concluding with the Jason Mraz hit “I’m Yours/Over the Rainbow.”
As has become tradition, the show ended with all of the night’s singers assembled onstage for a special closing number, singing “O Sifuni Mungu” by David Maddux.