This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Earlier this year, a contingent of upper school students traveled to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival. Putting on a pared-down version of “Urinetown,” the 2019 upper school spring musical, the show was set up, performed and torn down in just 90 minutes, a daunting task for any theater troupe, much less a group of high school students performing in a venue very different from their usual environs. Nevertheless, the productions went smoothly and received praise from local media, such as EdinburghGuide, which raved, “This particular ensemble from the award-winning high school conservatory The Harker School blows you away with their character work and synchronicity, a display well beyond their years.” But while the performances garner most of the attention-grabbing pull quotes, there’s no show to be had without the crew, whose skills at running a show on time and glitch-free were learned in Harker’s technical theater program.
As a discipline, technical theater comprises a massive range of theatrical aspects essential for a successful show. “Technical theater supports the productions we do at Harker,” said upper school technical theater teacher, and the school’s production manager, Brian Larsen. “So kids involved in technical theater work on stage crew, move things around, construct, paint and install scenery, operate the lights, soundboard and follow spots, help with costuming, putting things together.”
Such a broad scope naturally attracts students with diverse interests, but Larsen noted that it is rare that students enter the upper school program knowing exactly what they want to do. “If a student comes in and is very focused on being a sound technician, we want to try and help them with that track as much as possible,” he said. Far more common are students who discover their interests on their own after some experimentation. “What we’ve discovered is kids come here and they try a couple of things and go, ‘ooh that’s interesting,’ and they get a little more involved in that component,” Larsen said. “But we don’t tend to get a lot of kids who come through the door and say, ‘I’m a lighting designer.’ We’ve had those students, we’ve had those kids who did lighting outside of our organization … which is tremendous, but on the whole, we try to have the kids have as many opportunities as possible.”
In order to help students better find these opportunities and discover the aspects of technical theater they want to pursue, the performing arts department soon will offer a class on the study of technical theater, which recently received UC approval. “The study-of class will be very broad-based,” said Larsen, who also noted that the Rothschild Performing Arts Center provides a suitable space for experimentation. “The kids will have a lot of opportunities to try all manner of things. [Rothschild] is a large lab, so we’ll have a lot of opportunity for them to get immersed in things and try things out.”
The beginnings of Harker’s technical theater program date back to 1996 when Larsen joined the middle school faculty to teach theater production. With the start of the upper school and the opening of what is now the lower school campus two short years later, the challenge of teaching two classes on separate campuses compelled Larsen to seek another teacher for the grade 6 class. Danny Dunn was then brought on to teach grade 6 while Larsen taught at the middle and upper schools. When the middle school campus opened in 2005, Dunn moved her class to Blackford. Under her direction, more hands-on elements were added and her students began working shows, the first of which was a major task for a group of young students. “The very first show that the sixth grade students ever crewed was one of the great big huge shows that we put on to welcome the Tamagawa visitors,” Dunn said. Though there was some concern that such a young and inexperienced crew could take on the task, “Sure enough, the kids did a great job,” Dunn remembers.
The move to Blackford left Dunn with no tech theater students at the lower school to work on that campus’ productions. “So I started the fifth grade program because I’d lost all my tech kids at the lower school.” Dunn’s classes began as a primer on theater production: “how a theater works, jobs in the theater and whatnot,” she recalled.
She later began inviting students to help build sets on the weekends. “Parents would drop their kids off and we would just have a great time and build sets,” she said. “That became very popular and still is to this day.” True to Dunn’s vision, students in grade 5 perform a great deal of hands-on work, building props, sets and occasionally costumes. “If we’re doing the picnic show here with middle school actors, we might need 100-plus Robin Hood hats,” Dunn said.
Tools of the trade are also learned early on in the program, including the use of (and safety precautions with) power tools used to create the sets as well as soundboard and light board operation, and even special effects makeup and stage combat. “My goal is to have them not just help the grown-ups do it but for them to take ownership of an aspect of the performance,” Dunn said.
At the middle school, technical theater is offered as a series of electives, starting with a grade 6 design class that teaches the fundamentals of creating a scene using elements of scenery, lighting and sound. One exercise has students design a scene from the stage adaptation of the famous children’s novel “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Every aspect of the scene, including props, lighting, costumes and special effects, is conceptualized and critiqued.
Middle school students who wish to continue their studies have the option of taking an elective in theater production and design for grades 7 and 8, taught by Paul Vallerga, the middle school technical director, who has also been Harker’s primary set designer for 17 years. It is here that students begin working on elements that are used in major middle school productions. “The first day of class, one of the things I try to tell them is that, besides just the tech theater aspect, what I want them to learn from the class is that any time they’re watching anything – a TV show or movie – realize that everything you see is on purpose,” said Vallerga said. “Even if the decision was just, this where I’m going to put the camera to shoot those trees, somebody decided that’s what they want the audience to see.” Vallerga, who also spent 20 years with the now-defunct California Theatre Center, has students practice designing sets using William Gibson’s “The Miracle Worker” as a basis. “I try to teach them a few things about traffic patterns,” he said, noting the times he has had to coach students against “making a doorway that’s a foot wide.”
Further bolstering the middle school tech theater offerings is the afterschool technical theater class open to all middle school students, which includes weekly workshops in a variety of disciplines, including prop-making, makeup, costume construction and fight scene choreography.
By the time she arrived at the upper school, junior Geneva Devlin had spent considerable time in the technical theater programs at other campuses. Although she didn’t feel as enthusiastic about the craft as she once had in middle school, she nevertheless signed up to be a member of the crew for “42nd Street,” the first spring musical to be produced at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center. “It was my first time doing tech for an actual show and I loved it,” she said. “Being able to bond with my fellow techies and dance along backstage was so much fun, I didn’t want it to end.” She later joined the Harker Conservatory’s certificate program for technical theater and has since been joining the crew for shows whenever possible.
The upper school fortunately provides students with a wide range of learningopportunities, given the ambitious size and complexity that the productions often achieve. Certificate candidates are also prioritized when it comes time to decide which positions on the crew will be filled, especially “if there is something in particular they either are really interested in or haven’t done yet,” said Larsen. “So we make that available to them first and then we open it up to the other students to sign up for positions that interest them.”
Similar to how certificate candidates in other disciplines are required to act as crew members, so too must technical theater students perform in a show as part of their track in order to see how these different elements of crafting a show are affected by and complement one another. “You have to do both sides so you can see what that experience is,” Larsen said. “So you understand what a performer going through rehearsal is experiencing.”
Shanna Polzin ’10, who is now working as a production manager and stage manager in New York City (the Bryant Park Tree Lighting is her favorite event to work each year), first became fascinated the inner workings of the shows she performed in as a sixth grader, when a few of her friends began working on the crew. “In high school, I was part of the Conservatory program as a dancer, and we had a requirement of two technical positions,” she said. “That was my first experience with being a backstage crew member, as well as a follow spot operator.”
Though she spent most of her time at Harker as a performer, the program taught Polzin to appreciate just how much the crew works to make a show possible. “From a very young age, Mr. Larsen taught me the importance of tech theater and how no show can happen without the crew,” she said. “So while I was predominantly a performer, I was always taught to notice, appreciate and respect the tech side of things.”=
Although Polzin did not receive her certificate in technical theater, she cites the experience she gained at Harker as a factor in helping her find her current career, “from being aware of all the parts that go into putting on a show, to the work ethic, attention to detail and time management skills that get developed in all Harker students, to the general love of performing and making an audience happy,” she said.
“Ideally, if a student starts in fifth grade then takes the sixthgrade design elective, then works with Paul in the seventh and eighth grade and then does the Conservatory program with Brian, by the time they leave they should be able to get a job in theater no problem, if that’s what they want to do,” said Dunn. “But even kids who only take part of the program still enjoy it. They like being part of a show without having to act.”
Dunn also has noticed that technical theater provides a way for students who are reticent or less enthusiastic about acting to enjoy the process of putting on a show, which occasionally leads them to discovering an appreciation for performing they were previously unaware of. “I notice in middle school there’s a whole lot of being too embarrassed to perform,” she noted, “so students who are not comfortable being in the spotlight or putting themselves out there can dress all in black and blend into the scenery but still be completely part of the show, part of a cast or crew, part of the experience.”
The opening of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center presents a number of exciting opportunities for the technical theater program, which is already set to grow with the addition of the Study of Technical Theater class next year.
“It’s done two huge things, and neither of them can be understated,” Larsen said. The first is the presence of a fully equipped facility located on the same campus where upper school technical theater students spend most of their days, which removes the disruption of having to travel to a different campus to work. “The kids know right after school, they can come to the building, they can rehearse, they can build, they can do all the things that are inherent in being on the campus,” Larsen said.
The second major change is how the facility further connects the upper school’s performing arts department to the culture of the campus. “It’s not that much of a big deal now if students catch a ball game, grab a bite to eat and come see our show,” Larsen said. “It’s all contained within the culture of the upper school; it’s right here.”
It’s also had benefits for the middle school, which for the time being has a space entirely its own that it no longer has to share with another campus. “We don’t have to kick the drama teachers out of their rooms for a week, and say ‘hey, these are our [upper school cast’s] dressing rooms now,’” Vallerga said. For his part, Vallerga also looks forward to using the facilities at Rothschild to create props and scenery for middle school productions, as well as bringing middle school students to the upper school to work on the elements of their shows.
Whatever potential the new building holds for the program, there are students who remain in love with the process and its people above all. “I enjoy getting to learn something new each time I crew. I further my knowledge and gain more experience,” said Devlin. “I also really love bonding with all of the actors. Being able to interact and learn from the professional tech community that works at Harker is like a dream.”
In early December, eighth graders Ashwin Kuppahally, Adrian Liu, Vivek Nayyar, Kabir Ramzan and Om Tandon competed the VEX IQ Challenge robotics tournament in Los Altos, where they earned the Excellence Award, the competition’s highest honor. This award is given to teams who excel in criteria such as event challenges, teamwork and robot design. At a previous competition, the team qualified for the state championship and the US Open Robotics World event after being recognized for the top robot design. They will compete the VEX State Championships in March and the CREATE U.S. Open Robotics Championship the following month.
The middle school and upper school speech and debate teams held their annual retreat Aug. 23-25 in Milpitas. Seventy students attended the retreat and got a head start preparing new topics and speeches for the 2019-20 season. They also won prizes at the team bonding event at Dave & Busters! Check out the photos!
By Jenny Achten, Speech and Debate Department Chair, Grades 6-12
The middle school speech and debate team had an outstanding weekend at the Middle School Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky on May 11-12.
The team won first place in overall sweepstakes for the best performance at the tournament by any school. Shoring up this award were the top speaker in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Ansh Sheth, grade 7, and top speaker in policy debate, Deeya Viradia, grade 8. Arjun Krishna, grade 7, Krishna Mysoor, grade 7, and Mir Bahri, grade 8, also won debate speaker awards.
Harker had a three-way closeout of the final round in Lincoln-Douglas debate with Alexander Lan, grade 8, Kabir Buch, grade 7, and Mysoor sharing the championship. Joe Li, grade 7, and Sheth also cleared in Lincoln-Douglas. The policy team of Bahri and Viradia made it to semifinals. Additionally, Arissa Huda, grade 8, was in the final round of extemporaneous speaking.
The coaches are all thrilled with the results of our students’ hard work! A special thanks to Shania Hunt, middle school debate teacher, who did a fabulous job of organizing this large and complicated trip. The students were not only well prepared, but were safe and had fun.
The Harker speech and debate team had excellent results in all four divisions it entered at the Western JV and Novice National Championship this past weekend. The tournament, hosted by San Francisco State University on March 9-10, attracted 32 schools from three states.
In JV Lincoln-Douglas debate, Harker students set a record! Harker was the first school in the history of the tournament to have the top six finishers in any event.
Deven Shah, Akhilesh Chegu, Karoun Kaushik and Arnav Dani, all grade 9, along with Krish Mysoor and Ansh Sheth, both grade 7, closed out two quarterfinals and all of the semifinals, making them co-champions. Shah was also the top speaker in the division.
Angela Gao, grade 9, was the champion of the novice Lincoln-Douglas debate. Freshmen Ayan Nath and Dhruv Saoji were in the finals of JV public forum debate, where they lost on a close 2-3 decision. Aimee Wang and Alina Yuan, also both grade 9, were in the quarterfinals of JV public forum. As the higher seeded Harker team, they were walked over Arjun Gurjar and Kabir Buch, both grade 7. In novice public forum, Caden Lin and Vedant Kenkare, both grade 9, made it to semifinals. The tournament was also special because so many upperclassmen attended as mentors and judges. The middle school and upper school coaches were very proud of the extraordinary work of all of the students!
Grade 7 students spent last week visiting America’s scenic and historic national parks, viewing their many natural wonders. Early in the trip, the students ventured to the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most breathtaking sights. “The students and teachers who have never seen the Grand Canyon before experienced a blind trust walk to a scenic spot,” said assistant middle school division head Patricia Burrows, who accompanied the students on the trip. “When they took off their blindfolds, the gasps of delight, wonder and marvel were so satisfying.”
The next day the students moved on to Monument Valley, situated on the Arizona-Utah border. Highlights included driving to Honeymoon Arch for a climbing challenge and to hear a Navajo elder share some of the tribe’s values and traditions. At lunchtime the students enjoyed an outdoor barbecue near the Three Sisters monument where their guide, Daryl, shared more about the Navajo culture. “He distributed to them healing rocks, which he encouraged them to keep in their pocket,” said Burrows. “The one he has in his pocket is 15 years old.”
On their last day in Monument Valley, students started their trip to Bryce Canyon, a journey which included stops at the Glen Canyon Dam and Pink Coral Sand Dunes. Playing among the dunes was a highlight for many students.
The students’ first sight of Bryce Canyon the next day elicited many awed gasps. “The vibrant colors of orange, white, green as well as the blended colors in between transported us to a world we do not experience in Silicon Valley,” Burrows said. “This is why this is such a special trip for our students.” Each bus group spent the day hiking around the canyon and preparing for skits they would later perform.
Before heading home, the students went on a short hike in Zion National Park, which was a favorite part of the trip for some students, who enjoyed “the wide variety of environments,” Burrows said.
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!
Starting this fall Harker will expand its student bus service to include picking up and dropping off middle and upper school students at the Santa Clara Caltrain station. A van will meet the northbound train at 7:24 a.m. and the southbound train at 7:36 a.m., then transport students to the upper school campus and then to the middle school campus. The afternoon schedule will be determined as ridership needs are assessed. There will be a nominal per-ride charge. Contact Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs, for more information: greg.lawson@harker.org, 408-345-9600.
This past July, students Mahi Gurram, Connie Xu, Donna Boucher, Lilly Anderson, all grade 10, and Sam Boucher, grade 7, traveled to Tibet, China for a cultural exchange program with the Maizhokunggar County School.
After landing in Lhasa, the group stayed in Tibet for a total of 11 days, in which they exchanged cultures with Tibetan children, grades 3 through 6. The Tibetan children, who had had very little, if any, contact with foreigners, listened to short stories in English and practiced their conversation skills through fun games that the Harker students had brought with them. The Harker students shared photos of California and other major cities and states in the U.S. with the curious Tibetan children. The children teamed up to played soccer and catch on the school’s field, and Harker girls braided some of the Tibetan girls’ hair with colorful ribbons.
In exchange, Tibetan children performed a few Chinese jump rope routines and taught the Harker students several Tibetan phrases and authentic games. Harker students were invited to eat lunch in the teachers’ lounge and talked to several teachers who had also never seen foreigners. The teachers were mesmerized by Donna Boucher’s green eyes, Anderson’s curly hair, Xu’s ability to speak both Mandarin and English fluently, Gurram’s darker complexion and photos of Sam Boucher playing hockey. Both parties seemed to have gained an immense understanding of the other. Overall, the five Harker students participated in one of the most eye-opening and thrilling experiences of their lives.
Grade 8 students spent the week of Oct. 24-28 traveling through the Washington, D.C., area, getting an up-close look at many of the United States’ most historic sites. Assistant head of school Jennifer Gargano chronicled the daily travels of the students, and we updated this story as they came in.
Day 5: The Capitol, Library of Congress, National Archives and Supreme Court
We began the day taking a group photo in front of the Capitol building, an eighth grade trip tradition. We then took part in an informative, guided tour of the Capitol building. We saw the two statues, that of Ronald Reagan and Saint (Father) Junipero Serra, donated by the State of California to the National Statuary Hall Collection. I was with bus three for this visit and their Capitol gallery tour guide was part comedian, part guide. As such, the students were engaged, learning and laughing, as they heard about the history and architecture of the Capitol.
We then sat in the gallery of the House of Representatives while our Academic Expeditions bus guide explained how a House session and vote usually proceeds. After, we participated in a self-guided tour of the Library of Congress. Some of our avid readers were excited to visit the largest library in the world and were surprised to hear that there was a librarian of congress. Since there is a “flame of knowledge” atop the Library of Congress, the students on some of the buses suggested we sing “The Harker School Song” during our bus ride. It was wonderful to hear those lyrics on the bus.
Later, during our quick visit to the National Archives, the students were able to view the original copies of the three main formative documents of the U.S. government: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
While at the Supreme Court, a docent gave us a very thorough presentation about the judicial branch. Many students commented how odd it was to only see eight seats at the Supreme Court. Our students were wonderful about answering the various questions the docent posed about all three branches of government.
The students of course enjoyed the dinner and dance cruise at the end of the day. Having all of the eighth graders together, singing and dancing was a great way to spend our last evening of the trip. My favorite part was seeing all of the eighth graders singing and motioning to YMCA, a song all the students are familiar with.
It has been a wonderful week. During this week, we learned that some students had personal connections to the various sites we visited. While some of the stories, such as those related to a relative’s involvement in a war, could be sad at times, the visits gave the students an opportunity to speak to their families about the connection and then share those connections and stories with their peers. It provided even more learning opportunities.
Our Academic Expedition guides – Tracy (bus one), Terry (bus two), Daniel (bus three) and Isaiah (bus four) – mentioned this evening how much they enjoyed the time with our students and can’t believe the week is already over. They too had bonded with our students. Tomorrow, students will see the White House, the new African-American museum, and the Smithsonian Museums their bus group did not yet get a chance to visit.
Day 4: Ford’s Theatre, Newseum and Holocaust Memorial Museum
Today, we visited Ford’s Theatre where President Lincoln was shot. As with all the locations we visit, our Academic Expeditions guides provided the students with the history and information needed to contextualize what they saw. We also walked through the Petersen House, the house across the street from Ford’s Theatre where President Lincoln died after being shot the previous evening. The students asked particularly thoughtful questions of our AE guides. We were lucky to have Nurse Nott there to add some texture to the medical-related questions students asked about President Lincoln’s death.
The students also visited the Newseum. The Newseum is an interactive museum of news and journalism that also highlights the evolving role media has played in our history and how it has affected many world events. They have an educational movie call “I-Witness: A 4-D Time Travel Adventure,” recreating a variety of significant events in journalism history. It is in 3-D and contains fourth-dimension special effects that helps take the students on a journalistic trip through time. I spoke to a number of students about the Newseum and they seemed to particularly enjoy the 4-D movie, the Pulitzer Prize Photographs Gallery, the compilation of 9/11 news coverage and the exhibit “First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Pets.”
We also explored the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was impressed by how the students approached this very serious and informative memorial museum. I accompanied bus four for this stop and one student asked to address her peers on the bus after the museum visit. She spoke about how impressed she was with her peers. She was proud to be a part of a school where the students gave the respect necessary for this type of memorial museum. She was also proud of how they approached the experience with a desire to learn. She then spoke to the students about what she read about in the Holocaust museum regarding the hope one survivor had in the midst of his very difficult experience. She urged her fellow students to not only have hope but to have the courage to change injustice in the world since there is always hope for change. The chaperones could not have been prouder at that moment. I observed all buses exhibiting high levels of respect and a great desire to learn. Having the opportunity to spend time with students so informed, kind and respectful reminds the chaperones of how lucky we are to work with Harker students.
After dinner, the students explored the memorials their bus groups did not visit yet. I continue to be impressed by the quality of the presentations the students are giving about the site they researched. They often share a fact about a given site that the AE guides and the chaperones were previously unaware of.
Day 3: Arlington National Cemetery, Alexandria and Mount Vernon
We have had really wonderful weather in Washington, D.C., thus far. Today was no exception. It has been fairly warm for D.C. We began our day in a very solemn way, visiting the Arlington National Cemetery where we saw the eternal flame of the Kennedy grave site and a few significant headstones. The highlight, of course, was watching the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, followed by the laying of the wreath ceremony. We were very proud of Jason, Elizabeth, Arusha and Arjun, our student council officers, for laying a wreath inscribed with “The Harker School” at the tomb during this ceremony. After, all of the buses went to the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial.
We visited Old Town Alexandria for lunch. We then proceeded to Mount Vernon, the home and plantation of George and Martha Washington. We visited the mansion, the residence that George Washington’s father built in 1735 and George Washington expanded to its current 21-room size with bright wall colors and intricate architectural details. We also saw Washington’s tomb and toured the education center that traces Washington’s life story through art gallery displays and videos. Most notably, the education center features a multimedia 15-minute video detailing George Washington’s life as a general. To illustrate the cold winters during some battles, it actually lightly snows for a brief period. The 4-D aspects of that movie was a surprise and treat for our students.
After dinner at Buca di Beppo, we watched “Sheer Madness” at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the busiest performing arts center in the United States. “Sheer Madness” is an interactive comical play with improvisational aspects where the audience is given an opportunity to solve a crime. Since the audience is involved, a unique performance is delivered each night. The students found it quite humorous to say the least.
Day Two: Pamplin Park and a very special meeting
What a first day in D.C.! We learned so much and met some amazing individuals.
We began our day at Pamplin Park, one of America’s best-preserved battlefields. The students first went to a Civil War museum on the Pamplin Park grounds, where they learned, via an audio guided tour, about the living conditions of soldiers as well as about the lives of a few specific soldiers who fought in the Civil War. We then visited Tutor plantation, the house that was home to the Boisseau family, ancestors of the Pamplins, and during the Civil War was used as the headquarters of a Confederate general. The plantation features a reconstructed working kitchen and slave quarters; learning more about the lives of the slaves on this plantation proved to be a wonderful way to further and solidify what the students learned last evening at the African-American music program. Students ended their time at Pamplin Park by participating in military drills and visiting the park’s recreated military encampment, where students were able to experience elements of a common soldier’s life.
Once we departed from Pamplin Park, we visited the National Museum of the Marine Corps on our way to D.C. The museum contains many Marine artifacts including the second American flag raised over Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi.
I accompanied bus one today and was able to hear many student presentations on the bus. As many of you may know, the eighth grade history teachers had each of the students briefly research one of the sites we will visit. Prior to each visit, a student reports on that site. I have spoken to many students who are excited about visiting the specific site they researched.
The highlight of the day for many students was our dinner at the Capitol Hill Club. After dinner, we celebrated our three birthdays. We brought Emma-Leigh Stoll, Karina Chen and Chance Hewitt to the front of the room, sang each a birthday song, and presented them with a dessert with candle so they could make a wish. It was a fun way as an eighth grade class to end our dinner. We then had the privilege of hearing presentations from Dr. DJ Patil, the United States’ first chief data scientist at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Maheen Kaleem ’03, human rights advocate and Harker alumnus. While both speakers do very different things, their themes were similar: Use the skills and knowledge you gain from your Harker education to positively impact the world. Both spoke about service to others and having the courage to do what is right.
Eighth grader Anna Arnaudova introduced Ms. Kaleem. Ms. Kaleem, a lawyer and social advocate, currently has a position at the Human Rights Project for Girls, where she is working with federal policy related to improving the juvenile justice system’s treatment and response to girls, with a specific focus on domestic minor trafficking. She also co-founded Pennsylvania Lawyers for Youth. Ms. Kaleem encouraged the students to respectfully stand up for what they believe and to explore their goals and values. She told the students that what will take them far in life is being the kind of person others trust, who follows through on promises and works hard, and who is believed to be generally good. While the skills she learned at Harker and the universities she attended allowed her to become a lawyer, it was those personal qualities that she believes led her to her specific path of helping so many young girls and woman. The students then had an opportunity to ask Maheen questions. Many students asked her about her work as well as about her experiences at Harker.
Eighth grader Rosh Roy then introduced Dr. Patil. Dr. Patil spoke about what he does in his role as chief data scientist. Like Maheen, he also gave our students many important messages that I know students will be reflecting on during the trip and hopefully throughout their lives. He spoke about having the courage to do what is right and to serve others. Dr. Patil emphasized that these students will be the next leaders and it will be important for them to be educated, to embrace the future, and positively impact the lives of all people. He admitted that is not always easy to do, but it is important work. Dr. Patil was extremely generous with his time and allowed the students to ask many questions. Our students asked many thoughtful questions about Dr. Patil’s role and in some cases, asked him to expand upon the topics and ideas he spoke about during his opening remarks. His stories about his work at the White House captivated the students and his message about the importance of public service was well-received.
After hearing the presentations at the Capitol Hill Club, the bus groups began a visit of the memorials. While at the World War II memorial, the students of bus four were able to meet, interview and thank a 90-year old WW II veteran. That was quite a treat for them.
Day 1: Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, the College of William & Mary
In good health and good spirits, the students were eager to begin the activities of the trip. The students were interested in learning about Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. After viewing an educational video at their museum center, specialized guides showed us what it was like to live in Jamestown in the early 1600s. We were able to see how settlers prepared their food, how they made their clothes and the types of living quarters they had.
We then traveled to Colonial Williamsburg, an interpretation of a colonial American city. Highlights included visiting the capitol, the court and the governor’s palace. Students also visited a variety of shops such as the wig maker and the apothecary. At Colonial Williamsburg, students enjoyed a variety of colonial games they were able to play. I was with bus two most of the day and was able to play trap-ball with them. As we did, I saw other groups playing hoop and stick, a game where you try to roll a hoop with the use of a stick in lieu of one’s hands, to a given point on a field faster than anyone else.
While at Colonial Williamsburg, we also ate lunch at the King’s Arms Tavern at Colonial Williamsburg, a re-creation of a restaurant once considered one of the town’s most refined establishments. We were greeted and served by a variety of individuals dressed in the fashion of the 18th century.
We ate dinner at the College of William & Mary, one of oldest universities in the country and alma mater to three of our presidents. After dinner, we attended an interactive African-American music program. We were able to experience the diverse nature of African-American musical culture in colonial Virginia. Not only were the students able to learn about the importance of music at this time, but they also actively sang and danced with the family during this program. I accompanied buses two and three and was impressed by the level of participation in the dancing and singing we all did in one large circle. We danced a lot and we sang a lot. It was a great way to finish our first full day.