In mid-January, CareerConnect held a workshop on interview tips and mock interviews. Michael Acheatel, business and entrepreneurship teacher, started the event with a presentation in which he gave advice on how to handle interviews and the characteristics that interviewers are seeking.
One-on-one mock interviews were then conducted with industry professionals, allowing students to implement Acheatel’s advice. The students were asked common interview questions by the professionals and responded. In the end, students received personalized feedback from their interviewers to help them improve for the future.
As this workshop was an opportunity to get valuable advice from industry professionals, students learned a lot from the event. “I definitely think it was a very beneficial experience,” said Trisha Variyar, grade 9, “I’ve never done an interview before so having some sort of way to test it out before the real one was very helpful.”
In all, the interview tips and mock interview workshop was a great success and helped students develop their professional skills as they start applying for opportunities such as club officer positions, summer programs, jobs and internships.
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, director of communications for Harker DECA
In mid-January, more than 110 students from Harker’s DECA chapter attended the 2020 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference (SVCDC) at the Santa Clara Marriott. Harker performed admirably, with 73 overall finalists and 30 top three winners.
“This conference was an amazing experience for all our students!” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, Harker DECA’s co-chief executive officer. “With record high attendance, more students had an opportunity to present the business plans they had spent months working on and demonstrate their business knowledge in our cluster tests. I think it was especially exciting for our students who staged and got to see their work over the past few months come to fruition.”
Members placing in the top three are as follows:
First Place
Rishi Dange and Evan Cheng, both grade 12, and Aditya Singhvi, grade 11, Integrated Marketing Campaign – Service
Elaine Zhai, grade 11, Professional Selling
Andrea Thia, grade 10, Business Growth Plan
Anvitha Tummala and Fonda Hu, both grade 11, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
Rishi Dange, grad 12, Accounting Applications Series
Jason Hoang, grade 11, Business Services Marketing Series
Victoria Han, grade 10, Entrepreneurship Series
N Wang, grade 11, Hotel and Lodging Management Series
Allison Jia and Aditi Ghalsasi, both grade 12, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making
Luisa Pan, grade 11, Personal Financial Literacy
On day one, the California DECA officer team kicked off the opening ceremony by welcoming all of the SVCDC competitors with the SV factor, the annual talent show, and an impromptu speaking exercise involving all chapter presidents. Campaigns for DECA vice president of Silicon Valley also began during the session, and Claire Luo, grade 11, Harker DECA’s VP of operations, gave her election speech and continued her campaign throughout the weekend.
On the second day, attendees competed in their events, utilizing time before and between the events to practice with their teams and mentors. Luo and the rest of the Harker DECA officer team set up a booth for Luo’s election campaign to help spread her vision for Silicon Valley DECA and encourage people to vote.
“It was really cool to meet people from different chapters around Silicon Valley,” said Luo, “and I was given the opportunity to speak to chapter presidents as well as new members who told me what changes they wanted to see from Silicon Valley DECA. I think it was a really valuable experience and I learned a lot about speaking to people, making a speech, and campaigning your ideas. I really appreciated the chapter’s support; all of the members, from the freshmen to the seniors, were extremely supportive when I gave my speech, and cheered me on throughout the weekend.”
“Being able to compete with my friends in my event was really fun, and I learned a lot about presenting professionally in a team,” said Zeke Weng, grade 9. “We had been working on this plan for a long time, and to see our work pay off and stage was an incredible experience.”
After finishing their competitions, members were free to relax for the rest of the day and visit the Game Night that Silicon Valley DECA hosted to meet students from other school’s chapters.
“The conference was a really great opportunity for testing the waters before an even bigger conference like SCDC,” said Leisha Devisetti, grade 9, “and I was able to receive great feedback from judges on everything from my soft skills to the business ideas I presented. I think SVCDC and DECA in general has helped me prepare for my future because the role plays help with thinking on the spot and all of the competitions build my presentation skills.”
Early on day three, Sunday morning, the chapter reconvened in the ballroom to attend the award ceremony, where Harker proudly sent 73 teams to the top 10 during the Mini Awards.
“For me, personally, SVCDC was not so much about the results but rather the experience and skills I learned from being able to present to professionals,” said Robert Zhang, grade 9. “Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t, but it’s all about what you gained from your experience and using that knowledge to be even better next time.”
After Mini Awards wrapped up, students enjoyed a buffet breakfast before the Grand Awards session, where Harker DECA members continued to receive recognition. In total, Harker DECA saw 30 teams win top three during Grand Awards.
“Although competing was overwhelming at times, knowing the entire Harker DECA chapter was rooting for each other gave me confidence,” said Andrea Thia, grade 10. “The loud cheers from each member every time ‘Harker DECA’ was announced made me laugh and cheer louder.”
Overall, the 2019-20 Silicon Valley Career Development Conference was an extremely successful event for our chapter and an inspiring experience for all Harker DECA competitors. All of the members enjoyed the first competitive conference of the season, gaining useful skills and feedback for the upcoming States competition, and left feeling motivated to continue with their DECA journey.
“This year’s SVCDC was an amazing start to the competitive season, and just a glimpse of what our chapter members can do,” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA’s chapter advisor. “I’m extremely proud of all of the attendees’ dedication in preparing for their events and am looking forward to seeing the students’ progress during states and beyond.”
Every Friday in the weeks leading up to SVCDC, Harker DECA hosted weekly study sessions in the Innovation Center for students to practice their role-plays in front of an officer, receive live feedback for their written events and take mock exams. In preparation for the California State Career Development Conference, DECA suggests that all members attend these weekly study sessions. Go Eagles!
About Harker DECA
Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
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.”
This article originally appeared in the winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Harker’s incubator program, after one full year, has turned out some solid successes, awarding cash grants to students who developed business plans and successfully pitched to a panel. Now, starting year two, the benefits to students – far beyond money – are becoming apparent.
The program launched with a single class in summer 2017. That first class, a no-credit offering, brought students three of the critical ingredients for entrepreneurial success: strategic advice and mentorship, a dedicated support team and seed funding. A couple of pretty interesting ventures arose from that class, which was so well-received that the department developed the curriculum for a regular school-year program of two for credit classes to start a year later, in fall 2018. (See links in box on page 49 for more.)
The for-credit classes, Honors 2, ran all year. By May 2019, about $20,000 in venture funds were handed out to eight companies developed by 11 students. In Incubator 1, students created and commercialized their own product or service.“Teams are led through the lean startup processes of developing hypotheses about a business concept, testing those hypotheses, adapting and continually iterating,” said Michael Acheatel, business & entrepreneurship teacher.
Incubator 2 is geared toward students who have already launched a company and are focused on growing their business. “Students are led through three-week long ‘sprints’ where students identify their individual goals and tasks at the beginning of the sprint and present a demo of their accomplishments at the end of the sprint,” said Acheatel.
Students in each of the courses receive coaching and mentorship from entrepreneurs, investors and business experts, and a key element in the 2018-19 classes was provided by Next47, a venture capital firm, which donated $10,000 in venture funds.
Now, year two of the for-credit incubator classes has started and the Incubator 1 students are in the midst of the vetting processes, while the new Incubator 2 students are using their funding to develop their ventures to bring them to the next level – a functional organization with a product.
The goal, however, is not to create million dollar companies in high school, though in Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial atmosphere, that is not beyond reach. The real goal is to teach students to think critically when developing ideas, to use resources, like mentors, to advance their knowledge and network, and to help the students gain confidence that careful, hard work will bring concrete results at some level.
“The goal of the course is to provide students with experiences that teach values and practices that are not traditionally taught in the classroom but are hugely important in life/ work,” said Acheatel.
“We want to inculcate soft skills such as resiliency, problem-solving, creative thinking, public speaking and networking. These skills are built into the lean methodology of controlled failure, of seeking failure early as a means of improving. Furthermore, they learn these skills by working with mentors and pitching investors,” he said.
“Additionally, they learn technical skills that they’ll use in the workplace like financial modeling, conducting competitive and market research, executing marketing campaigns, creating and delivering pitches, developing investor reports, etc. These are skills that they will use in almost any job they take, yet they are not taught in traditional school environments,” Acheatel noted.
Nerine Uyanik and Arun Sundaresan, both grade 12, are in the Incubator 1 class, exploring the skills needed for serious entrepreneurship for the first time. Their company is designing electronic flashcards that address shortcomings in existing digital flashcards.
“Most digital flashcards have a two-sided format that inherently limits the content that can be asked,” said Uyanik. “To study certain concepts, such as vocabulary, would require either making many flashcards with closely related but still separate information or making a single flashcard that contains all the related information. One is inefficient, and the other is ineffective, potentially coming at the cost of the student’s own learning,” she said.
The pair is working on a multisided flashcard that suits a student’s needs better. For example, when studying a molecule, to learn its name, formula, molecular geometry and structure would require a program in which students can input all the information and determine how they review that info.”Nothing of the sort exists,” said Uyanik, “so I decided to take this incubator class to develop such an application.”
Partner Sundaresan came in with more background and is really looking for an opportunity to grow as an entrepreneur. “I’ve had a lot of exposure to business and entrepreneurship before, both academically and in extracurricular pursuits,” he said. “I feel like taking the incubator class was a natural progression in my explorations of business, as I will launch a for-profit company.”
The first lesson the pair learned was that although each came to class with independent ideas, there was enough crossover that they could grow their ideas together. “At first, we hesitated to work together since we envisioned pursuing completely different paths,” said Uyanik, “but Mr. Acheatel pointed out that we both were trying to address problems with existing study tools, just with different solutions in mind … so he encouraged us to work together at least during the early stages, where having more ideas on the table wouldn’t hurt. We then delved into the market research and analyzed our ideas realistically.” That’s when the real growth began.
“Arun realized that my proposition seemed more feasible to achieve through this class, so he decided to let go of pursuing his vision to focus on mine,” said Uyanik. “I realize how difficult it was for him to make such a decision, for we both had strong ideas and intentions when deciding to take this class. As he has come to understand my idea, though, I am grateful that he is now also convinced of its potential and confident in his work. Arun’s expertise in coding and technology makes up for my lack of experience in that area when addressing the specifics of product development, and my deeper understanding of the product helps drive the vision of the company. Through this class, I have come to value working with someone with a complementary set of skills and perspectives.”
“Since the first day,” noted Sundaresan, “when we were figuring out problems that our businesses would solve, we had to think creatively and in terms of how to solve existing problems. Presentation skills are also vital for this, because we create our own elevator pitches that are regularly revised and presented. Nerine and I have definitely used this class to expand our networks,” he said. “It’s a class, but it’s all real,” said Uyanik. “Everything we learn and do ties into making practical progress. The pitches we now refine in class will eventually be delivered to investors. Our homework – completing market analyses and conducting customer interviews, for example – reflects the work that businesses must do to grow. We learn to do, and we do to learn.”
Anay Karwal, grade 12, an Incubator 1 student, is developing Persona, an app that automatically recommends outfits to high school and college students, and to business professionals, based on their existing wardrobe and their fashion preferences. He is already seeing the kind of life-growth that Acheatel noted. “I joined the incubator class because I really wanted to attain an experiential perspective with a business,” said Karwal. “I’ve participated in DECA since my freshman year, and I wanted to utilize all the skills that I learned in order to create something tangible. By the end of the year, I want to have a working prototype to take into college.”
Karwal is seeing the building blocks to his goal emerge from the course. “From working at this startup alone, I’ve now realized that collaboration is extremely crucial in life, because it provides you a new perspective and is much more effective,” he said.
It is clear that Incubator 1 students are acquiring skills essential to developing a product, and that personal growth is part of that learning, including how to be flexible, how to work with others on complex tasks and, in Sundaresan’s case, how to switch gears when necessary to build out a successful product. But beyond the incubator program, the students are finding their advancing skills eminently useful in other classes and in life.
“With my experiences in DECA and this class, I refined my public speaking abilities and I constantly apply that to all my classes. The problem-solving skills I learned from this class help in my math and economics classes,” Karwal said, adding that he now appreciates learning from others. “The best thing I’ve gotten out of the class is my mentor, as he consistently provides me with help and guidance,” Karwal concluded.
Nanoseed is a Harker student-developed nonprofit that organizes student and business loans and grants to underserved regions in China. Graduating seniors pass down leadership of the company each year, and this year Andrew Sun, grade 11, heads up the venture and is “franchising” the fundraising program at other schools. “We’re interested in helping those who have been abandoned by traditional lending organizations in China,” Sun said.
For Sun, the rewards transcend grades and personal accomplishments. “I am passionate about effecting change beyond myself,” Sun said. “I’ve realized through heading Nanoseed that it’s incredibly gratifying to do something that will directly impact someone else’s life. It’s helped me realize that there is much more to life than grades and homework assignments, which is a balance I have definitely struggled with in the past. For example, Nanoseed’s benefit concert last year [to reduce poverty in rural China] really opened my perspective.
“The summer reading for the class also introduced us to a systematic approach to finding solutions to problems by testing one feature/aspect at a time, similar to isolating one variable in an experiment,” Sun noted. “This approach helped me also with improving my speeches in congressional debate, another activity I’m involved in. I’ve found applications of that systematic approach by changing one thing about a speech every iteration and seeing if that achieved the improvement I wanted it to achieve.”
For Sun, like Karwal, the biggest advantage to the class is networking and being able to interact with the other people in the class. “They’ve given me so many ideas for fundraisers, operations, etc., and have also been wonderful about offering help when I need it,” said Sun.
“The collaborative aspect of the class is really rewarding and I’m most grateful I took the class for this reason.” Claire Luo, grade 11, now in Incubator 2, formed a company last year called GetTime, whose mission is to decrease stress and increase productivity among teenage students through an engaging and efficient time management app. The current version of the app consists of three core features – a dashboard for tracking progress and tasks, a prioritized to-do list and a timing function to keep students on track throughout their study period. “What differentiates my app is that it combines task and time management on one platform and specifically targets high school students, which helps make the experience more streamlined and effective,” she said.
Luo, too, has gained wider perspective through her work in the incubator program. “One overarching truth I have learned is that flexibility and adaptability are key, for me as a person and for my company,” she said. “Whether this means continually soliciting feedback and revising features or altering my goals to fit new circumstances, I have learned to be more open to change. In particular, going out and talking to potential customers and mentors has encouraged me to embrace pivoting some aspects of my app.”
The payoff is there in the learning, even if the product never gets to market. “I have definitely been able to apply these skills, both in creating my company and in my own life,” said Luo. “For instance, designing the app and then asking for potential customer feedback was a new experience for me and required me to break down the tasks and keep going at it resiliently. The ability to have a clear project end goal and then executing each task one at a time has applied to any other large group project in other classes.
“In addition, presenting and pitching to investors has improved my presenting skills. In my other classes (and activities like DECA), I am more comfortable with speaking in front of larger groups and with using business terms. Also, I learned how to create more effective visuals that are clear and concise, which has been incredibly helpful in other classes.”
No surprise, Luo has also embraced the collaborative value of networking. “Networking is also an invaluable skill, since I am now more aware of the importance of going out and connecting with others in order to expand my network. The type of creative and entrepreneurial thinking cultivated in this class has improved my analysis skills, for example, by allowing me to better evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of certain things.” Luo feels the class has given her the tools to set and reach ambitious milestones.
“As starting a company is a very individualized process, setting goals is often up to what I want to accomplish, not what someone else tells me,” she said. “This class has inspired me to be proactive in adapting to changes and staying on top of my work, and has provided me the resources I need to achieve my goals.”
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, DECA director of communications
Over 50 students traveled to Anaheim in early November for California DECA’s first Fall Leadership Development Conference (FLDC), giving new members a closer look at three DECA industry clusters in a noncompetitive environment. As the students’ first official DECA conference, they learned the basics of the various tracks offered: leadership, hospitality and entrepreneurship, and had the opportunity to listen to leaders in the business world reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“FLDC’s various tracks provided a pathway for students to become familiar with some of DECA’s clusters and demonstrate growth as leaders,” said Bryan Zhang, grade 11, DECA’s director of written events. “With the conference being the students’ first experience pitching their ideas to fellow competitors, FLDC allowed them to master their presentation skills while networking with people across California. Furthermore, the variety of keynote speakers taught the attendees about resilience and personal development through engaging activities and meaningful anecdotes. Overall, I think FLDC was an enriching experience for both seasoned veterans and novices of DECA.”
At the opening session, students were introduced to the conference theme, “Leadership Wins Championships,” and heard keynote speaker Jake Kelfer, author of the bestseller “Elevate Beyond,” discuss his career journey and life lessons.
“FLDC was very well run and gave me many new opportunities to learn from mentors and speakers,” said Lexi Nishimura, grade 9. “During the conference, I also got to bond with my chapter and make new friends in my track group.”
Later, students assembled with their respective tracks for a testing session and an introduction to the field. Through teamwork activities, members met other California DECA members and laid the groundwork for their final presentation with their groups.
On Saturday morning, attendees gathered for the morning session, where speaker Scott Mathie, founder of Nix Your Limits, talked about Walt Disney’s leadership and creative problem-solving skills. Then, the students transferred into their track groups to learn key concepts for their respective clusters and begin working on their final presentations.
The entrepreneurship track brainstormed ideas for a business proposal, while the leadership and hospitality tracks learned basic terminologies and leadership styles. Students then went out to lunch in Anaheim before reconvening in the afternoon to polish and practice their presentations.
“As the first conference of the year, FLDC was an incredible experience for kids to learn about DECA,” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, co-chief executive officer of Harker DECA. “The conference provided students a great introduction to the different clusters, especially as each track was based on a competitive event that DECA offers. Our members’ creative presentations impressed me and showed how many highly skilled future DECA competitors and emerging leaders are within our chapter.
“The keynote speakers were also some of the best I’ve seen so far and gave attendees invaluable advice on leadership and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the conference allowed our members to bond with each other, and I think the balance between fun and learning created an amazing first DECA experience for our chapter,” Kolla added.
Krish Mysoor, grade 8, had a record-setting weekend in debate, placing first at the Damus Hollywood Invitational, hosted by the Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame schools in Los Angeles, Nov. 2-4.
Mysoor is the only eighth grader in memory to take first place at a varsity national qualifier to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). TOC-designated tournaments are considered to be the most challenging debate tournaments because they attract the most competitive schools from multiple states. The topic for the event was whether or not the United States ought to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
Students who reach a certain level of elimination-round success at two of those events are invited to compete at the most elite varsity championship at the end of the year. It is extremely rare for a middle school student to even reach early elimination rounds at TOC tournaments, let alone to have a perfect preliminary record and then go on to win five elimination rounds in a row. The team is very proud of his outstanding accomplishment.
Lincoln Garrett, the head debate coach of the University of Kentucky, which hosts the Tournament of Champions, noted of Mysoor’s accomplishment, “That is incredible. To go from learning the activity a short while ago to winning a competitive tournament is remarkable.”
Mysoor is known for his hard work and being a great teammate. His remarkable success has attracted quite a bit of attention from the national debate community. Go Harker speech and debate!
As part of the business and entrepreneurship department’s CareerConnect program, and thanks to the generous support of the Constellation Research organization, four upper school Harker students attended the annual Constellation Research Conference on Tuesday at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
The event is a three-day innovation summit and executive retreat with one-on-one interviews with marketing visionaries, “executive exchanges, fireside chats and disruptive technology demos,” according to its website. Attendees included leaders from Arby’s Restaurant Group, CBRE Group, Estée Lauder, Spotify, Symmons Industries, The University of Texas System and the U.S. government.
Students had the opportunity to hear from amazing panelists and speakers including the “Father of the Internet,” Vint Cerf, among others, on the topic “Inside Exponential Business Models – From Post Digital Divide to Winner Takes All Networks.” Cerf spoke at Harker in 2013; read about it in Harker News.
There also was a great social luncheon where students were able to network with thought leaders around the world (see pictures attached), noted Juston Glass, teacher in the BE program, “and it was overall an amazing experience for the students to take part in this exclusive, leading-edge, professional experience/conference.”
Yesterday, representatives from 65 upper school student clubs and organizations gathered at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center for the annual Club Fair. Students perused the tables set up by the clubs, whose members and officers provided information and answered questions. The wide range of interests on offer included languages, community service, robotics, activism and academic disciplines, such as math and science.
In addition to offering students a huge variety of club options, it also gave newer and smaller clubs the opportunity to grow their membership. The Harker Esports Club, in its first year, is working on raising funds and recruiting players to participate in competitions for games such as “Overwatch” and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
“We participate in the High School Esports League,” said Anish Pai, grade 10. “This is our first year, but we’re trying to play league matches.”
Other clubs catered more specific interests, such as the Friendship Bracelet Club. “We’re going to teach people how to make friendship bracelets and then give them to children in need,” said club member Emily Cheng, grade 12, who added that the club also will provide students a space to relax and be creative by devising new designs.
Amid the growing number of music-oriented clubs is the Contemporary Hip Hop Club, which is geared toward fans of up-and-coming innovators as well as aspiring hip-hop artists. “We’re interested in the new wave of hip-hop and discussing, listening to and making our own music, and just having a space to hang out, eat snacks and have some fun,” said club member Nathaniel Melisso, grade 12.
Yesterday, representatives from 65 upper school student clubs and organizations gathered at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center for the annual Club Fair. Students perused the tables set up by the clubs, whose members and officers provided information and answered questions. The wide range of interests on offer included languages, community service, robotics, activism and academic disciplines, such as math and science.
In addition to offering students a huge variety of club options, it also gave newer and smaller clubs the opportunity to grow their membership. The Harker Esports Club, in its first year, is working on raising funds and recruiting players to participate in competitions for games such as “Overwatch” and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
“We participate in the High School Esports League,” said Anish Pai, grade 10. “This is our first year, but we’re trying to play league matches.”
Other clubs catered more specific interests, such as the Friendship Bracelet Club. “We’re going to teach people how to make friendship bracelets and then give them to children in need,” said club member Emily Cheng, grade 12, who added that the club also will provide students a space to relax and be creative by devising new designs.
Amid the growing number of music-oriented clubs is the Contemporary Hip Hop Club, which is geared toward fans of up-and-coming innovators as well as aspiring hip-hop artists. “We’re interested in the new wave of hip-hop and discussing, listening to and making our own music, and just having a space to hang out, eat snacks and have some fun,” said club member Nathaniel Melisso, grade 12.
Yesterday, representatives from 65 upper school student clubs and organizations gathered at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center for the annual Club Fair. Students perused the tables set up by the clubs, whose members and officers provided information and answered questions. The wide range of interests on offer included languages, community service, robotics, activism and academic disciplines, such as math and science.
In addition to offering students a huge variety of club options, it also gave newer and smaller clubs the opportunity to grow their membership. The Harker Esports Club, in its first year, is working on raising funds and recruiting players to participate in competitions for games such as “Overwatch” and “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.”
“We participate in the High School Esports League,” said Anish Pai, grade 10. “This is our first year, but we’re trying to play league matches.”
Other clubs catered more specific interests, such as the Friendship Bracelet Club. “We’re going to teach people how to make friendship bracelets and then give them to children in need,” said club member Emily Cheng, grade 12, who added that the club also will provide students a space to relax and be creative by devising new designs.
Amid the growing number of music-oriented clubs is the Contemporary Hip Hop Club, which is geared toward fans of up-and-coming innovators as well as aspiring hip-hop artists. “We’re interested in the new wave of hip-hop and discussing, listening to and making our own music, and just having a space to hang out, eat snacks and have some fun,” said club member Nathaniel Melisso, grade 12.