Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Five teams of Harker fourth and fifth graders were winners at The Tech Challenge, held March 30-31 at The Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. The theme of the competition, “No Roads, No Problem,” challenged students to create a hovercraft that could traverse various terrains.
Get Teched – made up of fourth graders Risa Chokhawala, Rohan Goyal, Brandon Labio and Trisha Shivakumar – was one of three teams in the Grades 4-5 category to receive the Outstanding Overall award for best overall performance. Also winning Outstanding Overall was Donut Dogs, composed of fifth graders Janam Chahal, Sofia Shah, Brenna Ren and Ananya Pradhan, which also earned second place in the video contest.
Fourth graders Kamala Smith, Ameera Ramzan, Adrian Roufas and Nicholas Knauer – known collectively as Yes We KAAN – received the Outstanding Engineering Journal award, while Orange Duo, consisting of fourth graders Neel Kumar and Cole Uhlig, were presented with the Judges’ Inspiration Award. Best Teamwork went to the Hover Eagles, comprising fourth graders Orion Ghai, Samaara Patil, Nikhil Bawa and Aanya Mukherjee.
Yesterday, second graders held the annual Ogre Awards, in which 88 students celebrated the characters of their favorite folk tales from all over the world at a special ceremony. Students spent the previous months reading stories from various parts of the world, including China, India and Norway. Their favorite characters from each of these stories were then given special awards in a variety of categories at the show. Students from each grade 2 homeroom also dressed up as characters from the stories they’d read.
Each Ogre Awards also honors members of the Harker community. This year the show recognized grade 2 teachers Ali Bo, Ayesha Tahir, Kerri Clifford and Sejal Mehta.
San Jose Taiko returned to the lower school campus on Wednesday, treating students to a pair of entertaining and educational assemblies about this Japanese rhythmic art form that dates back to the sixth century. As its popularity grew in the 20th century, taiko artists began to incorporate styles such as jazz into their performances. San Jose Taiko was founded in 1973 and has since established itself as one of the world’s top taiko ensembles.
The visiting musicians performed selections from their repertoire and gave students a primer on taiko performance techniques and concepts, such as the use of shouts known as “ki-ai,” an expression of spiritual energy, or “ki.” These shouts often function as cues to other ensemble members of which beats to play. Students (as well as a few teachers) were later given the chance to perform on the drums, delighting their peers and faculty in attendance.
After Mikhil Kiran, grade 5, attended a children’s business fair in Burlingame, he decided to bring a similar event to the South Bay. He checked with Kristin Giammona, Harker’s elementary division head, who directed him to the upper school’s DECA program. After weeks of planning, the Santa Clara Children’s Business Fair took place in Santa Clara’s Live Oak Park last weekend, with more than 40 children’s businesses displaying products and several hundred attendees shopping.
The event was co-sponsored by the Harker DECA club as the event was created to promote and inspire student entrepreneurship and encourage children from ages 5-12 to pursue business.
Kiran had help from his father as the venture required fundraising, working with city officials on permits and marketing efforts to make it a reality. Kiran made a video to help raise money and he pitched the sponsorship to multiple retailers and corporations, successfully raising most of the money required, his father, Kiran Ganesh, noted.
Prior to the fair, Mahi Kolla, grade 11, executive vice president of Harker’s DECA club, gave a pep talk about her entrepreneurship journey building the Minty Boutique to help inspire the budding entrepreneurs. Following the event, the kids noted that Kolla’s pep talk was very motivating.
The displays at the fair featured innovative products and ideas including hand-drawn comic books, slippers made to slide on carpet, cosmetic products, handmade arts and crafts, and recycled papier-mache decor pieces.
For three hours, the kids pitched their products and made sales while customers visited booths. Ishaan Chandra, grade 11, Harker DECA’s vice president of operations, and DECA advisor Juston Glass, helped at the event and acted as judges. Representatives from Sand Hill Angels Investment Group also participated as judges.
“The event was a great success with over several hundred attendees shopping and interacting with the kids,” said Ganesh.
At the end of the event, certificates were awarded to the top three businesses in two categories, “Business Potential” and “Salesmanship,” in each age group. Two Harker teams won prizes. Bee the Key members Mikhil Kiran, Krish Nachnani and Sahil Jain, all grade 5, won second place in Best Salesmanship age 10 and above, while Slip-n-Slide members, Trisha Shivakumar and Risa Chokhawala, both grade 4, took first place for Best Salesmanship ages 10 and under.
Kathy Watanabe, vice mayor of Santa Clara, was a special guest at the event and spoke about the need to encourage student entrepreneurship and the importance of students in business. Students left with the experience of an amazing first step into the business world. Check out this great video of the event!
100 Mile Meals – a company that helps those who grow, prepare and deliver food reach a wider audience – has created a video about Harker’s great kitchens! The 100 Mile Meals show airs on YouTube, Roku, the company’s website and some Comcast channels. The company also has a PBS version of its show, which airs on 138 stations in 31 states, reaching 17.5 million homes. The production was spurred by one of Harker’s food suppliers to help showcase its products, but the video is all about why Harker food is legendary! Check it out!
Late last month, storyteller and frequent Harker guest Jim Cogan made an appearance at the lower school, regaling the students with his upbeat and animated performance style. Cogan told stories at two separate assemblies, one for students in grades K-3 and another for grades 4 and 5. As in years past, several of the tales he shared were from Native American and African cultures, including the Inuit yarn of a boy whose selfishness leads his community to go hungry, and a story from Ghana about a girl who teaches her adoptive family about the importance of compassion.
As always, the audience of students and faculty greatly enjoyed the performances and tales of kindness. “Jim is fantastic at tailoring his stories to the character trait that is the emphasis for all the students,” said lower school librarian Kathy Clark.
The lower school started the school year with a bang-up barbecue in early September, drawing parents from grades K-5, plus siblings, for a wonderful evening gathering. The food – carnitas with all the fixings, cheese quesadillas and churros for dessert – pleased both students and their parents, who didn’t have to cook on the warm Friday evening. As always, the atmosphere was informal, with parents chatting while students played tag, threw Frisbees, hula hooped and generally exhausted themselves. It was a great evening for lower school parents to get acquainted and for children to work off pent up energy and hang out with friends!
The first Eagle Buddies event of the year took place on Oct. 8, with the Class of 2015 and their grade 5 buddies meeting at Rosenthal Field at the upper school campus for pizza and conversation. Some seniors gave their lower school buddies a tour of the campus, while others made toys for animals at the Humane Society.
“I think it’s definitely really fun and it’s a great bonding experience with the elementary school kids,” said Agata Sorotokin, grade 12. “I was at the Harker elementary school too, so in a way I kind of go back in time, which is great.”
Sorotokin’s grade 5 buddy Esha Gohil enjoys seeing what upper school life is like. “I really enjoy listening to their stories about high school,” she said.
Meanwhile, students in grades 10 and 11 headed to the lower school to meet up with their buddies in grades 3 and 4, respectively.
Established during the 2010-11 school year, the purpose of the Eagle Buddies program is to help students at the lower and upper schools bond through letters and activities. The program starts when students in grades 3 and 10 are matched up. They maintain contact and meet periodically until the grade 10 students graduate and the third graders arrive at the middle school.