This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
The upper school student body gathered at the gym on May 22 to bid farewell to the Class of 2014, who graduated just days later. Entertainment was provided by performing arts, debate, student council and athletics. The Harker Jazz Band, Downbeat and Varsity Dance Troupe performed. The inclusion of several large programs allowed students from all classes, including seniors, to enjoy a final recap of the impact they’ve had on campus.
Harker forensics students staged a hilarious mock debate about whether the Class of 2014 would be missed, with both sides citing “research” from debate seniors as a way to work their names and the colleges they will attend into the skit.
In addition, the gathering provided the opportunity to recognize the year’s stand-out senior athletes and introduce the students who would serve on the Student Council for the upcoming school year.
History teacher Samuel Lepler was a driving force behind this new event, and according to Butch Keller, upper school head, the seniors enjoyed putting their “personal stamp” on it.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Members of the Class of 2014 and their parents gathered at Graduates’ Grove on the upper school campus in late May for the annual brick ceremony, where 49 graduates placed bricks in the walkway to commemorate their years at Harker.
This Harker tradition was started by the parents of the very first class of upper school graduates in 2002. It has since become a way for graduating students to preserve the memories of their time at Harker and provide a reminder of their legacy for future graduates.
Placing bricks in the grove at this year’s ceremony were: Manon Audebert, Adarsh Battu, Wei Wei Buchsteiner, Regina Chen, Raymond Cheng, Varun Cherukuri, Will Deng, Nathan Dhablania, Callie Ding, Darian Edvalson, Kevin Duraiswamy, Julia Fink, Jeffrey Hanke, Ben Huchley, John Hughes, Alexander Johnson, Divya Kalidindi, Varun Kamat, Sean Knudsen, Arjun Kumar, Gaurav Kumar, Connie Li, Kimberly Ma, Maya Madhavan, Kevin Moss, Sebi Nakos, Anisha Padwekar, Sean Pan, Stephan Pellissier, Sravan Rajathilak, Ian Richardson, Isaac Rothschild, Vikram Sundar, Brian Tuan, Leslie Tzeng, Nihal Uppugunduri, Namrata Vakkalagadda, Nithya Vemireddy, Sameer Vij, Andrew Wang, Christina Wong, Sandra Yin, Sean Youn, Justin Young, Christopher Zhang, Kenny Zhang, Albert Zhao, Ziren Zhou and Andrew Zhu.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Each year, graduating seniors who have attended Harker since kindergarten – known as “lifers” – gather for a special dinner at Head of School Chris Nikoloff’s home to celebrate their lives as Harker students. Following the baccalaureate ceremony, the 25 lifers boarded a bus bound for the special event, where they reminisced by looking at their Harker application photos, enjoyed a cake emblazoned with these photos and even took photos in their original kindergarten advisory groups.
This year’s lifers are Manon Audebert, Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Kianna Bisla, Lauren Cali, Allen Cheng, Darian Edvalson, Urvi Gupta, Helena Huang, John Hughes, Saachi Jain, Zina Jawadi, Silpa Karipineni, Anna Kendall, Michael Kling, Sean Knudsen, Gaurav Kumar, Anna Levine, Kevin Mohanram, Kevin Moss, Stephan Pellissier, Ariana Shulman, Vikram Sundar, Laura Thacker, Brian Tuan and Andrew Zhu.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Days before the 2014 graduation ceremony, the classes of 2014 and 2015 gathered at the upper school quad for this year’s baccalaureate ceremony. This traditional event bid the seniors a bittersweet farewell and welcomed grade 11 students into their upcoming roles as Harker seniors.
After an introduction by Upper School Head Butch Keller, Anthony Silk, upper school math teacher and this year’s faculty speaker, took his spot at the podium.
Silk asked the students in the audience to close their eyes and envision what success looks like for them and how they might achieve it.
First on Silk’s list of steps was learning how to take risks. He recalled a story in which he tried skydiving for the first time during college, an experience that forced him out of his comfort zone but helped him learn a valuable lesson. “Taking a risk doesn’t mean doing something risky, something you’re completely unprepared for. It means doing something where the outcome is unknown. But that’s OK.”
Silk also discussed failure, and why it isn’t actually failing. After losing a job that he had mentioned in an earlier anecdote, he ended up working on a cruise ship, which he enjoyed because it gave him the opportunity to be out at sea and working with people. His next challenge was to find something that combined this newfound enthusiasm for helping people with his love for mathematics. It was then that his best friend advised him to become a teacher, which led him to Harker. “Remember, when you can’t see your future, find someone who can,” he said.
Next up was Efrey Noten, grade 12, this year’s student baccalaureate speaker. Noten’s speech emphasized a quality that he felt many people forget after leaving college and entering the work force: compassion. Referencing a graduation speech given by author David Foster Wallace, he retold a parable about two young fish who encounter another, older fish, who greets them and asks how the water is. One of the younger fish then looks at the other and asks, “What the hell is water?”
“Mr. Wallace clarified by saying that the fish story shows us that the stuff most obvious and common to us is the stuff we have the most trouble perceiving or conceptualizing,” Noten said, adding that graduates would find themselves getting up every day to work a challenging job, come home tired, eat and retire to bed. “The so-called rat race I’ve just described often causes us to react to minor inconveniences with irrational, internalized rage,” Noten said.
“I just ask that if you find yourself repeating the same ceremony day in and day out, that you become actively aware and compassionate of the people around you,” he said. “Do not let yourself forget, as the two young fish did, what water is.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Days before the 2014 graduation ceremony, the classes of 2014 and 2015 gathered at the upper school quad for this year’s baccalaureate ceremony. This traditional event bid the seniors a bittersweet farewell and welcomed grade 11 students into their upcoming roles as Harker seniors.
After an introduction by Upper School Head Butch Keller, Anthony Silk, upper school math teacher and this year’s faculty speaker, took his spot at the podium.
Silk asked the students in the audience to close their eyes and envision what success looks like for them and how they might achieve it.
First on Silk’s list of steps was learning how to take risks. He recalled a story in which he tried skydiving for the first time during college, an experience that forced him out of his comfort zone but helped him learn a valuable lesson. “Taking a risk doesn’t mean doing something risky, something you’re completely unprepared for. It means doing something where the outcome is unknown. But that’s OK.”
Silk also discussed failure, and why it isn’t actually failing. After losing a job that he had mentioned in an earlier anecdote, he ended up working on a cruise ship, which he enjoyed because it gave him the opportunity to be out at sea and working with people. His next challenge was to find something that combined this newfound enthusiasm for helping people with his love for mathematics. It was then that his best friend advised him to become a teacher, which led him to Harker. “Remember, when you can’t see your future, find someone who can,” he said.
Next up was Efrey Noten, grade 12, this year’s student baccalaureate speaker. Noten’s speech emphasized a quality that he felt many people forget after leaving college and entering the work force: compassion. Referencing a graduation speech given by author David Foster Wallace, he retold a parable about two young fish who encounter another, older fish, who greets them and asks how the water is. One of the younger fish then looks at the other and asks, “What the hell is water?”
“Mr. Wallace clarified by saying that the fish story shows us that the stuff most obvious and common to us is the stuff we have the most trouble perceiving or conceptualizing,” Noten said, adding that graduates would find themselves getting up every day to work a challenging job, come home tired, eat and retire to bed. “The so-called rat race I’ve just described often causes us to react to minor inconveniences with irrational, internalized rage,” Noten said.
“I just ask that if you find yourself repeating the same ceremony day in and day out, that you become actively aware and compassionate of the people around you,” he said. “Do not let yourself forget, as the two young fish did, what water is.”
This article originally appeared in the summer 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Days before the 2014 graduation ceremony, the classes of 2014 and 2015 gathered at the upper school quad for this year’s baccalaureate ceremony. This traditional event bid the seniors a bittersweet farewell and welcomed grade 11 students into their upcoming roles as Harker seniors.
After an introduction by Upper School Head Butch Keller, Anthony Silk, upper school math teacher and this year’s faculty speaker, took his spot at the podium.
Silk asked the students in the audience to close their eyes and envision what success looks like for them and how they might achieve it.
First on Silk’s list of steps was learning how to take risks. He recalled a story in which he tried skydiving for the first time during college, an experience that forced him out of his comfort zone but helped him learn a valuable lesson. “Taking a risk doesn’t mean doing something risky, something you’re completely unprepared for. It means doing something where the outcome is unknown. But that’s OK.”
Silk also discussed failure, and why it isn’t actually failing. After losing a job that he had mentioned in an earlier anecdote, he ended up working on a cruise ship, which he enjoyed because it gave him the opportunity to be out at sea and working with people. His next challenge was to find something that combined this newfound enthusiasm for helping people with his love for mathematics. It was then that his best friend advised him to become a teacher, which led him to Harker. “Remember, when you can’t see your future, find someone who can,” he said.
Next up was Efrey Noten, grade 12, this year’s student baccalaureate speaker. Noten’s speech emphasized a quality that he felt many people forget after leaving college and entering the work force: compassion. Referencing a graduation speech given by author David Foster Wallace, he retold a parable about two young fish who encounter another, older fish, who greets them and asks how the water is. One of the younger fish then looks at the other and asks, “What the hell is water?”
“Mr. Wallace clarified by saying that the fish story shows us that the stuff most obvious and common to us is the stuff we have the most trouble perceiving or conceptualizing,” Noten said, adding that graduates would find themselves getting up every day to work a challenging job, come home tired, eat and retire to bed. “The so-called rat race I’ve just described often causes us to react to minor inconveniences with irrational, internalized rage,” Noten said.
“I just ask that if you find yourself repeating the same ceremony day in and day out, that you become actively aware and compassionate of the people around you,” he said. “Do not let yourself forget, as the two young fish did, what water is.”