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!
Tags: msdebate, Student Life Middle School, Student Life Upper SchoolBy Gianna Chan, grade 10
Last weekend, 55 students attended Harker DECA’s sixth annual Launch event, which introduced prospective members to DECA and the Harker School’s business and entrepreneurship department. Students were given an overview of the upcoming DECA competitive season through alumni panels, detailed lectures, guest speakers, mock competitions and interactive activities.
“In my opinion, the Innovation Challenge, which we revamped the last competitive season, now provides a perfect opportunity for our new members to become familiarized with the writing of an introductory business plan, which is one of the key aspects of competition at DECA conferences,” said Harker DECA co-CEO Phil Han, grade 12. “The biggest way in which DECA Launch improved from last year is definitely the increased amount of time that we are allocating towards the Innovation Challenge. I’m very excited to see what the new members will come up with this year!”
On Saturday morning, attendees met the chapter advisors and officers in the Nichols Hall atrium, while enjoying breakfast from Noah’s Bagels. They then went into the auditorium for the Student Opening Ceremony, where California DECA president Elisa Zhang and former Harker DECA vice president of public relations Riya Gupta ’19 shared how DECA impacted their high school experiences and sparked their passions for business and entrepreneurship.
Afterward, the officers held an ice-breaker game of competitive rock, paper, scissors before Bryan Zhang, grade 11, the director of written events, introduced the Innovation Challenge. Students divided themselves into teams of six, and throughout the weekend, each group, under the guidance of a mentor, brainstormed and developed a product or idea relating to this year’s theme of sustainability to present at the closing ceremony.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the whole mentoring process and the opportunity to bond with the grade below me. It was rewarding to be involved with the operations side of this event and be able to recreate the eye-opening experience that I had the year before for a whole new group of students,” said Alivia Li, grade 10, director of roleplays. “I think that Launch provides a unique setting for students to meet upperclassmen and gain exposure to the high school while still learning about DECA’s purpose. These students have a bright future ahead of them, and I’m excited to observe their growth during the next school year.”
Next, the attendees bonded with their Innovation Challenge teams through a Scavenger Hunt, in which they were asked to follow a list of riddles to find the Harker DECA officers, who were located around campus. The exercise allowed them to explore the upper school campus and strengthen their friendships with their teammates.
The students enjoyed pizza from Pizza My Heart for lunch while working on their innovation plans and, in the afternoon, officers gave short presentations introducing the different competitive clusters: business management and administration, marketing, hospitality and tourism, finance, and entrepreneurship.
On Sunday morning, the students briefly worked on their Innovation Challenge ideas. Then Harker student Mahi Kolla, grade 12, founder of The Minty Boutique and co-CEO of Harker DECA, shared her own experiences with creating her company through the Harker Incubator program. Afterward, Juston Glass, chapter advisor, presented on Harker’s various business, economics and entrepreneurship programs. After a live roleplay demonstration by Li, Zhang hosted a Kahoot! (a live game collaboration site) covering the business administration core exam topics. Next, the competitions team introduced the various competitive events, followed by a graphic design workshop by Kolla. Then, students practiced their Innovation Challenge presentations while enjoying burritos.
“DECA seems like an amazing opportunity to gain skills and knowledge which will help me in the future and, most importantly, in the real world,” said Grant Sims, grade 9.
One of the focal points of the launch was the roleplay tournament, which occurred on Sunday afternoon. Mentors acquainted students with the expectations and the process of competing in roleplays, and students then paired up and competed in their first competitive event by preparing and presenting a hospitality roleplay to the judges.
Following the roleplay tournament, attendees were given extra time to practice their presentations for the Innovation Challenge before parents arrived for dinner, the alumni panel and the closing ceremony. Students and parents had the opportunity to ask seven alumni, Chirag Aswani ’15, Riya Chandra ’17, Ankur Karwal ’16, Sidhart Krishnamurthi ’15, Gaurav Kumar ’14, Haley Tran ’17 and Lucas Wang ’17, questions about DECA’s impact on their high school and college experiences, as well as their current careers.
Next, teams pitched their Innovation Challenge ideas to the judges, who scored each team on feasibility, presentation, innovation and teamwork. While the judges discussed the final scores, the students and parents watched a recap video of the weekend. Finally, Launch ended with the announcement of the Roleplay Tournament and Innovation Challenge winners, as well as closing speeches from Glass, Han and Kolla.
“As a new student, DECA Launch really helped me make new friends and feel more welcome to the Harker community,” said attendee Sara Wan, grade 9.
Harker DECA is looking forward to welcoming all the new and returning members and is excited to begin the upcoming school year with an extraordinary community of future leaders.
“I was extremely impressed by this year’s Launch attendees and cannot wait to see them grow during the competitive season,” said Glass.
Results of the competition are below. All students named are grade 9.
Roleplay Tournament:
First Place: Rahul Mulpuri, Ethan Wong
Second Place: Zain Vakath, Rohan Gorti
Thirsd Place: Zeke Weng, Armaan Thakker
Innovation Challenge:
Most Feasible: Matthew Lau, Rohan Bhowmik , Kyle Chang, Raj Kalra, John Cracraft, Alex Lan
Best Presentation: BB Ajlouny, Jonathan Mo, Grant Sims, Robert Zhang, Smrithi Sambamurthy, Pelin Unsal
Best Innovation: Ada Praun-Petrovic, Natalie Gergov, Gary Ding, Richard Zhang, Anthony Zhao, Aneesha Asthana
Best Teamwork: Eileen Ma, Drake Piscione, Indigo Lee, Radha Mehta, Namrata Karra, Sukrit Kalsi
Best Overall: Rohan Kondapalli, Abhi Namala, Vishnu Veeravalli, Gwen-Zoe Yang, Sonya He, Amrita Pasupathy
About The Harker School 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
Gianna Chan is the communications director for Harker DECA.
Tags: Student Life Upper SchoolHarker’s DECA officers traveled to Santa Cruz last week for their annual retreat. The group focused on developing leadership skills, bonding with each other and preparing for the upcoming school year. Activities included solving an escape room, cooking within the sub-teams of executives, operations, competitions and public relations in an Iron Chef-like competition, some bonfire and beach time, as well as various leadership development activities throughout the days and evenings. Overall, the trip allowed officers the opportunity to get to know each other, grow together as a team, and prepare for DECA Launch and upcoming competitions during the school year.
Tags: Student Life Upper SchoolShahzeb Lakhani and Alivia Li, both grade 9, are Harker’s latest winners of the H&R Block Budget Challenge! The students each earned $20,000 by coming in second out of thousands of entries worldwide.
Students who participated in the challenge were given a virtual job, complete with a 401(k), credit card bills and student loans. They then had to successfully manage their paychecks for 10 weeks. Li and Lakhani were two of just 10 competitors nationwide to receive the $20,000 scholarship.
Harker has had winners in this contest for four years running. Last year, Luisa Pan, now grade 10, won. Roma Gandhi, grade 11, won in 2017, and Rithvik Panchapakesan, grade 12, won in 2016. Each semester, five awards are given out nationwide.
“I believe that the hardest part of managing my budget was definitely understanding all of the concepts,” said Lakhani. ”Since I planned out the entire challenge within the first month, I had to learn quickly what functions did what. I was able to understand these a lot better thanks to some help from last year’s winner, Luisa Pan.”
He did run into some speed bumps, and managing them made the project challenging. “I found that planning ahead and making adjustments when things went sideways was one of the most important keys to success,” Lakhani said. “Being organized and creating tools such as the machine learning application I applied to predict risk was equally important, because the tools allowed me to make more informed decisions.”
Lakhani gained a practical life lesson, too. “I learned that staying on top of things and checking in often aided in paying bills on time,” he said. “Even when you think all hope is lost and you have no chance of winning as I did, if you keep working hard, things might turn around for you.”
Li noted, “The hardest part of the challenge for me was mainly learning the basics of personal finance in general and how to plan and pay for living expenses. Once I got the hang of using the interface and knew what to check and where to do so, everything quickly became second nature.
“The most important thing I learned through this experience was definitely how to plan out future finances. Getting a good handle on keeping a spreadsheet and staying organized is undoubtedly the most valuable and practical skill I have acquired through the H&R Budget Challenge,” she finished.
Tags: Student Life Upper School, Top AchievementsPhoto: Kathy Fang, grade 11
At yesterday’s school meeting, Zachary Wong ’19 was presented with The Forgotten International’s 2019 Compassion Award for his work bringing water to impoverished regions of Nepal via the nonprofit organization Water In Nepal, which Wong founded and runs with other California high school students.
Founded in 2007, The Forgotten International works to alleviate extreme poverty around the world, especially for women and children, by supporting community organizations it believes will have the most impact.
Wong traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal, in December of last year to help construct a sedimentation tank for the village of Patlyachaap. The sedimentation tank filters out sludge that builds up in water sourced from a pond near the village and is expected to last up to 100 years.
After being presented with the award, Wong thanked his parents and teachers and reminded the students to “remain kind, remain compassionate, remain grounded.”
Tags: Student Life Upper School, Top Achievements, topoutreachThe business & entrepreneurship department launched two incubator courses this school year, and the young entrepreneurs have been going full tilt all year. Here is a quick look at the first year of these classes. Watch for a full length feature article on the classes in the winter issue of Harker Magazine in December 2019.
In summer 2017, Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department held an incubator class for high school entrepreneurs, one of the first in the nation. The class was an intensive, student-led and community-supported program in which student entrepreneurs received a seed grant, mentorship, academic curriculum and internal support from a student leadership team to help them develop and grow their startup companies. The class was so successful and well received it was converted into a full academic class for the 2018-19 school year. Read about the 2017 class here.
The two new academic incubator classes began in fall 2018: Honors Entrepreneurship: Startup Incubator 1 and Honors Entrepreneurship: Startup Incubator 2.
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. “Once students have validated their business concept hypothesis, they receive a seed grant to propel their business plan into reality, thereby learning business foundations in entrepreneurship, marketing, economics, finance and business operations firsthand. “
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 who visit the classes. Students also get out to visit with Bay Area startups and venture capitalists to experience entrepreneurship at the next level. “We had eight student companies complete the course this year and enrollment for next year is growing rapidly,” said Acheatel.
A key element in the classes was provided by Next47, a venture capital firm. The company supported the program as an essential part of education and donated $10,000 in venture funds. “We believe that entrepreneurial skills are life skills,” said Lak Ananth, CEO and managing partner of Next47. “Being passionate about an idea, taking the time to think through it, market it, and have the wherewithal to see it through – these are skills that are necessary to succeed in life. Exposing kids to this process is incredibly valuable. Even if these businesses don’t succeed, the process will inculcate in them the fire to keep getting better.”
Mentors are a critical element of the entire process and Phu Hoang has contributed his time to helping two of the ongoing ventures climb the ladder to success. He has been working with Mahi Kolla, grade 11, founder of The Minty Boutique, and Nishka Ayyar ’19 and Riya Gupta ’19, founders of of PromElle, to refine and channel their efforts as they expand their businesses.
“Mahi is an extraordinarily gifted young woman,” said Hoang. “She is hard-working, a very fast learner, and has tremendous passion for her company. It’s just so rare to see that at such a young age. What has been such a pleasure mentoring Mahi is that she can understand and soak in complex advice and suggestions and builds a plan to execute on them. I feel like my mentoring of Mahi is at the same level of strategic thinking and complexity as my mentoring of much older and more experienced founders of venture-backed companies.”
PromElle, Ayyar and Gupta’s venture, also has been around a couple of years. “PromElle is a more mature business than the Minty Boutique,” said Hoang, noting both women have now graduated. “They had done a lot of things right before I got involved. First of all, the idea of PromElle is brilliant and very needed. But they actually market-tested the concept by hosting a prom dress exchange at Harker when they were freshmen to test their idea. Most adult entrepreneurs don’t test their ideas that effectively. Once they got clear confirmation of the value that they can bring, they were able to get app development help at a very reasonable cost.”
Hoang, who holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley, and was an early engineer at Yahoo, noted he has been working in technology all his life. “I enjoy working with entrepreneurs to help them realize their vision, build their products and grow their businesses. My son joined Harker as a freshman in 2017, and I got to see how advanced and entrepreneurial the kids are, so I reached out to Michael at some point to offer to contribute.”
This year, Incubator 1 startups included Sero, started by Cameron Jones ’19, an intelligent bike assistant with anti-theft and fitness tracking capabilities; PeerCoco, by Sayon Biswas ’19 and Nemo Yang ‘19, which is a peer-to-peer college consulting network for international high school students; GetTime, started by Claire Luo, grade 10, a student-focused time-management app that allows users to input tasks, set timers and track progress in a gamified manner; and PolyForm, the brainchild of Nakul Bajaj, grade 11, who is developing a platform for voters to answer polls and discuss policy at the local, state, and national level in civilized manner.
At the beginning of the year, these students identified problems they and other students face in daily life or that they see in the world. “They begin to assess the problem from a business perspective by looking at how these problems are currently being solved (competitive analysis) and identifying who has these problems (market analysis),” said Acheatel. Students then conduct customer interviews to validate their assumptions, then begin the solution ideation process to conceptualize their proposed solution, noted Acheatel.
In February, students pulled their projects together and pitched to a panel of investors for funding to develop a prototype of their product, known as the minimum viable product (MVP). “All four [Incubator 1] companies successfully raised seed funding and have since developed their prototypes,” Acheatel noted. “Now that the entrepreneurs have had three months to develop their products, they will pitching to investors in late May for funding to fully launch their companies,” he said.
There were also four Incubator 2 companies. The Minty Boutique, a luxe stationery company that utilizes unique designs and functional products to cater to the #BOSS lifestyle; PromElle, the first peer-to-peer marketplace for teen fashion where teen girls can lend/rent or buy/sell formal, party and everyday wear; Nanoseed, developed by Jason Huang ’19 and Suraj Pakala ’19, a nonprofit organization in the field of microfinance that empowers rural Chinese farmers to form cooperatives and build sustainable businesses; and PillBot, being developed by Johnny Wang ’19 as an automated solution to medicine dispensary with a tamper-proof design and overdose protection.
Each Incubator 2 company pitched at sHarker Tank – BECon for $15K in prize money provided by venture firm Next47. Read all about that effort here.
PromElle took first place at sHarker Tank BEcon and presented at the Association for Corporate Growth Silicon Valley’s 2019 GROW awards. Officers are currently in communication with SharkTank about appearing on their show.
The Minty Boutique took second place at sHarker Tank BEcon and was written up in a blog post by Stukent. Kolla is excited about the year’s progress. “In August through September, we launched our first iteration of our academic planners which sold out within a week,” she said. “From there, we reached out Harker to become the new manufacturer of the Harker academic planners. We are currently working with the freshmen class dean and the Office of Communication to finalize this partnership.”
PillBot took third place at sHarker Tank BEcon and received funding and support from various nationwide competitions. Wang found the class valuable for his development needs. “The class provided a good framework for the students to build and grow their businesses,” he said. “The curriculum gives us enough flexibility so we can focus on individual business goals. The majority of instruction is not done by lecturing but one-on-one mentoring with both teachers within the B&E department and external mentors. By leveraging on the Harker alumni/parent network, we are able to learn much more than just listening to lectures.”
Nanoseed earned fourth place at sHarker Tank BEcon and has grown to more than 20 branches. It held a benefit concert that raised $9,000 to fund loans. “To me though, what was most memorable about the class was the variety of people we get to interact with,” said Huang, “from lawyers and mentors coming in to talk to us, helping us with legal or financial issues, to us being able to pitch directly to real investors who provided valuable feedback on how we could improve our organization.” Read this 2017 article on the company’s inception.
The students also pitched to Ananth and principals at Next47’s headquarters in Palo Alto and visited Tesla and Manticore Games.
The class continues in the fall with new and returning entrepreneurs. Watch for the comprehensive article in the winter issue of Harker Magazine, coming out in December!
Tags: Business and Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, eweekly, Student Life Upper School, Top AchievementsBy Claire Luo
In mid-April, CareerConnect hosted an Excel Workshop with Dean Lizardo, one of Harker’s statistics and economics teachers, who is well-versed in data analytical functions. During the lunch workshop, he discussed useful features of Excel and gave valuable tips to the students. Using sample problems and powerful formulas on spreadsheets, Lizardo showed attendees how to quickly and easily analyze information as well as create effective visuals.
During the workshop, students got to follow along on their own computers and practice what they learned on a provided spreadsheet. Throughout his presentation, Lizardo challenged students to use specific worksheet formulas to solve problems involving data analysis. As a result, students were able to apply the knowledge from the workshop and engage in interactive activities in order to develop their Excel skills further.
In addition, Lizardo explained to the students the advantages of using Excel and the real world applications, especially when presenting information to others. For example, he showed different types of graphs and gave tips and tricks to make efficient and attractive visuals for various purposes.
Students found the workshop to be very practical and helpful. “[The information] is really useful in analyzing data,” said Kevin Wang, grade 9. “It has good real-life applications, so I learned a lot from the workshop.”
Tags: Student Life Upper SchoolSenior Ellie Lang-Ree was recently named a finalist in the Steve Silver Foundation and Beach Blanket Babylon “Scholarship for the Arts” competition. This annual contest for Bay Area high school students awards winners in three categories – acting, dancing and singing – with a $15,000 scholarship to put toward their college education. Lang-Ree, a finalist in the singing category, will perform on June 3 at San Francisco’s Club Fugazi for a panel of judges, which includes Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, actor Will Durst and opera composer Jake Heggie. Congratulations and best of luck!
Tags: alumni-express, Performing Arts, Student Life, Student Life Upper School, Top AchievementsBy Elaine Zhai, Harker DECA Director of Communications
The Harker DECA chapter traveled to Orlando, Fla., in late April to attend the 2019 International Career Development Conference (ICDC), where participants faced competitors from all around the world. ICDC this year consisted of difficult competitions and memorable experiences, and Harker DECA performed exceptionally, with eight teams staging in their event during the preliminary round and six teams advancing as finalists. Three teams placed in the top 10, with one team taking first.
Finalists are as follows:
First Place
Top 10 Finalists
Top 20 Finalists
Roleplay Finalists
Upon arrival in Orlando, students had the opportunity to converse with members of DECA Japan during dinner at Maggiano’s Little Italy before returning to the hotel and relaxing after a long day of travel.
“It was really cool to meet with DECA Japan and learn about their perspective on DECA, especially with this being their first year competing at ICDC,” said Luo, Harker DECA vice president of operations and top 10 finalist in the Business Finance Series. “We talked about what we had in common, such as the books and the shows that we liked, and it was unique to be able to interact with them and share our experiences with each other.”
On Saturday, the chapter participated in the DECA 5K run at the West Concourse to raise money and awareness for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Participants had the opportunity to meet and network with other competitors from California. For the rest of the afternoon, some students enjoyed the attractions of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park while others relaxed and prepared for their competitive event. At night, Harker DECA attended the Grand Opening Session, joining over 22,000 other participants from around the world. Featured in this session was key-note speaker Ben Nemtin, producer and star of “The Buried Life” and author of “What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?”
“Just being able to witness 22,000 people in one room moving as a unit or like a colony of ants was awe-inspiring,” said Andrea Thia, grade 9. “Interacting with various countries such as Pakistan and Malaysia, and communicating with young entrepreneurs and industry professionals in the exhibit halls were once-in-a-lifetime experiences I will never forget.”
On Sunday, members attended their event briefing and took their written examinations throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Then students and chaperones were given the rest of the day to relax, prepare for the competitions ahead, and catch up on some homework. To end the day, Harker DECA assembled for a chapter dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.
Monday, students attended their competitive event preliminary competition. Throughout the day, all participants also had access to the exhibit hall booths, which included exhibits from various business colleges and corporations, serving as a great chance for Harker DECA to meet and network with other participants. Visitors received beneficial information about various professional opportunities and merchandise to keep as souvenirs. Additionally, those who were campaigning for a position on the 2019-20 Executive DECA team also set up booths and presentations. Afterward, students and chaperones spent the evening at Universal Studios.
With Tuesday being the last full day of ICDC, students and chaperones convened for the Achievement Awards Session to find out whether they had advanced to the final round of competitions, which would take place later that afternoon. After top participants for presentations, career cluster exams and overall performers were acknowledged and praised, the top 20 teams that would continue competing were announced for each event.
With eight teams recognized on stage and six teams headed to the final round, Harker DECA performed incredibly, supporting these finalists with pride. The rest of the chapter had the afternoon to themselves and had the option to finish some homework or visit the Epcot Theme Park. Later that evening, Harker DECA prepared for the Grand Awards Session and, as the top 10 finalists were called onto the stage, proudly sent three teams. With Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making being the last event that was announced, Harker DECA gathered in support of Han and Cheng, who won first place. Members celebrated with a quick chapter photo before heading off to meet California DECA for the State Dinner, where the top participants were again celebrated and recognized for their accomplishments at ICDC.
“These past three years, I’ve been searching for validation through DECA,” said Han, Harker DECA co-CEO. “Because it was my dream for so long, when it actually happened what I felt was almost indescribable. I was suddenly hit with a flurry of emotions, awe, overwhelming joy and pride. But most importantly was a resonating gratitude for everyone who supported me and of course, my partner, Evan.”
With many new experiences and opportunities, ICDC 2019 was definitely memorable for all of its participants and served as a fantastic way to close the 2018-19 competitive season.
“This year’s ICDC was a fantastic experience for students and chaperones and definitely helped the chapter become closer,” said Kolla, Harker DECA co-CEO. “Many members were able to stage for their event, which was a reflection of the dedication and hard work that they put into DECA from the very first study session all the way up until the final moments before their competition. It was absolutely amazing to see everyone so supportive of each other, and this ICDC served as a competitively shaping experience for the chapter.”
“I was extremely proud of how our students did this year at ICDC and throughout the 2018-19 competitive season,” said Juston Glass, Harker DECA advisor. “It was amazing seeing their growth from the beginning of the year, especially with all the underclassmen that we had. They really worked their hardest and never gave up, putting forth their best effort into their competitive events. I can’t wait to see them continue to develop professionally the next four years to become emerging leaders, and I’m so grateful to be their DECA advisor.”
About The Harker School 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.
Contact Information
To learn more about this story, please contact:
Elaine Zhai, Director of Communications
21elainez@students.harker.org
www.harkerdeca.org
Some of Harker’s Honors Entrepreneurship students got in front of some of Silicon Valley’s most important executives when they sat on a panel at the Association for Corporate Growth Silicon Valley (ACGSV) 2019 GROW Awards in mid-April. The organization bills itself as the premier organization for C-suite leaders in Silicon Valley. The GROW awards recognize the outstanding growth company and top emerging growth company in the area.
This year’s awards ceremony celebrated leadership and the role Silicon Valley plays as an international hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. Four young entrepreneurs from Harker formed a roundtable, moderated by ALOM CEO Hannah Kain. The four students were Riya Gupta and Nishka Ayyar, both grade 12, from PromElle, and Andrew Sun, grade 10 and Suraj Pakala, grade 12, from Nanoseed.
Tags: alumni-express, Student Life Upper School