Upper school students had a blast at the 2015 spirit kickoff on Aug. 28. Students enjoyed a variety of games, including dodgeball, a relay race and a life-size version of Hungry Hungry Hippos, took turns on a Slip’N Slide and feasted on a Mexican food buffet.
Tags: Student Life Upper SchoolThis story originally appeared in the spring 2014 Harker Quarterly.
After hitting the ground running in the fall, the business and entrepreneurship department and DECA chapter have hardly stopped to take a breath. The B.E. department is launching a slate of ambitious programs in the spring and the DECA chapter has been traveling and competing as conference season comes into its own.
The B.E. department is set to launch CareerConnect in the spring. The program will unify three separate pillars under one umbrella – mentorship, professionalism and panels – with the goal of preparing Harker students to excel in the workplace.
The first of the three pillars of CareerConnect is the mentorship program that will pair more than 100 sophomores and juniors with mentors in their desired fields to receive career advice. Over the course of the school year, they will meet with these mentors multiple times to learn about their mentors’ career paths and how they can begin shaping their own.
The second of the three pillars, professionalism, involves attending and networking at exclusive conferences and events in various venues across the valley, including the Stanford Venture Lab and Computer History Museum. This will also include the hosting of a series of professional workshops where students will learn interview tips, networking skills and how to construct engaging resumes and LinkedIn profiles to help them jump to the top of the stack when applying for positions. Sarah Bean, grade 11, says, “Contacting and confirming the … speakers on our fast-approaching deadline has been the most challenging aspect [of starting the program].”
Addressing the final pillar of CareerConnect is the career panel series that kicked off in March. The series will bring professionals from the law, medical, business, computer science and engineering disciplines to Harker to present on their fields and entertain students’ questions as they decide which fields to pursue. Bean says she and the other five students coordinating the CareerConnect program are “working hard to assure our career panel month is a success.”
The B.E. department sent nine students and department chair Juston Glass to the Stanford Venture Lab in January to hear from five entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who are running successful companies. Chirag Aswani, grade 11, said, “I was able to get … strong insight on the process of starting … a company, including the risks. Out of all the events I [have] attended [this year], the Stanford event is by far the best.” Before and after the panel and Q&A, the students were given time to network and meet with other aspiring entrepreneurs at the event.
The Harker DECA chapter, which started the year with community outreach and exciting new programs, has continued its rapid pace as the year is hitting its halfway point. The Stock Market Game, run by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), has concluded with impressive results. Three student teams finished in the top 25 in the nation. The game included a friendly competition between students and faculty teams which, as Glass relates, the students “dominated.” The combined virtual earnings of all three of these teams approached nearly $100,000 in three months.
SIFMA also hosts the national essay competition InvestWrite. Thousands of students analyzed an investment opportunity and submitted portfolio allocation plans for short- and long-term returns. Manthra Panchapakesan, grade 11, was ranked first in the state of California and third in the country for grades 9-12.
DECA
DECA students engaged in a different kind of competition this year when they took part in the Virtual Business Challenge. The challenge required students to pick one of four business categories (sports, restaurants, retail or personal finance) and run a virtual business in that industry. Once the students picked their industry, they were challenged to run their virtual business over the course of a simulated year, with the goal of maximizing their profits. Competing in the restaurant category, David Zhu and Peter Wu, both grade 9, placed first in the Western region and third in the nation. When asked about the event, Zhu said, “Restaurant appealed to me most since it was more small-scaled and feasible.” When asked if he was considering translating his talents into becoming a young restaurateur, he replied, “[It] is always a possibility, but I believe the simulation gave me a preview on running all sorts of businesses.”
The chapter continued its busy year when Glass and 90 students made the trek to Anaheim to attend the California DECA conference. Along with nearly 2,000 other students, the Harker chapter competed in 35 events over the course of three
long days. Of the 35 events in which Harker students competed, 32 competitors finished in the top 10 and 13 resulted in top four finishes, thereby qualifying for the international conference competition. These accomplishments proved strong enough to make Harker No. 1 among all schools in California with enrollment under 2,000, fourth overall, out of 70 schools that participate in California DECA.
While the chapter as a whole performed extremely well, chapter president Monica Thukral, grade 12, was singled out as California DECA’s student of the year from more than 4,500 members. While her achievements as a part of DECA are numerous, she says she is “most proud of how I have contributed to the chapter’s growth at Harker and within Silicon Valley,” and that “DECA has made me a much more confident and responsible person.”
The DECA organization as a whole challenged each individual chapter to grow by completing campaigns across multiple categories: DECA promotion, community service, global entrepreneurship week and recruiting. Glass said he was “extremely proud” of the DECA chapter for being the only chapter in California to complete all four campaigns and receive recognition from the international DECA organization.
While the winter has not brought California enough rain, it has brought more than enough conferences, activities and new programs to keep the students of the business and entrepreneurship department and DECA chapter busy. This trend will continue to the end of the year and through the summer as monthly podcasts continue, CareerConnect kicks off, Harker hosts the TEDx conference and sponsors a Wharton/ Harker summer business program, and the DECA chapter continues to travel and compete at the international conference.
Ninja Innovation and Start Up Culture Conference Outlines Strategies
In mid-February, seven business and entrepreneurship department students traveled to the Ninja Innovation and Startup Culture Conference at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to hear Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, discuss his book “Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses.”
The evening began with refreshments, where students networked with business professionals.
During the program, Robert Scoble, a tech evangelist, moderated the discussion with Shapiro, who spoke about his experiences with the Consumer Electronics Show and in the business world, focusing on disruption, determination, discipline and passion. Shapiro shared his knowledge and described key emerging trends that are helping direct startup “ninja innovation” in this competitive landscape.
“Gary was great, very casual. He was very open about his opinions and not as political in his words as you might expect,” noted Glenn Reddy, grade 11.
“The Computer History Museum is a great location and, thanks to the Silicon Valley Bank, there was a huge spread of food for all attendees,” added Reddy. “It was great to see Harker’s B.E. students in action; I saw students controlling conversations with various executives around the room. Harker students left an impression at the event and made a great showing.”
This report provided by Shannon Hong, grade 10, director of PR for Harker DECA
Students Attend ‘Dress for Success’ Presentation by Men’s Wearhouse
As February wrapped up, business-oriented student groups brought representatives from Men’s Wearhouse to the upper school to discuss how students should dress in professional environments.
“The presentation was informational, entertaining and useful, because I now know what to wear to an interview,” said Kevina Xiao, grade 10.
Sponsored by Harker DECA, Career Connect, and the business and entrepreneurship department, more than 60 students attended, receiving valuable tips and guidelines to follow when dressing for job interviews and other formal events. They also learned how to tie ties and other necessary wardrobe skills.
“It helped me decide what to wear for interviews and how a simple blazer can be used for various events,” said Chirag Aswani, grade 11.
The Men’s Wearhouse representatives not only instructed the attending students how to dress well but also gave advice on how to network and converse in formal settings. In addition, they talked about other valuable life skills that would help students to become more professionally responsible.
This report provided by Sophia Luo, grade 10, intern to director of PR for Harker DECA
Tags: Student Life Upper SchoolThis article prepared from a DECA press release by Shannon Hong, grade 10, director of public relations for Harker DECA
In early February more than 100 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim to attend the California State Career Development Conference (CDC). The three-day event featured workshops with renowned speakers, tough competition and experiences for a lifetime. Harker performed admirably with 26 finalists in the top eight; of those, 16 advanced to the top four, qualifying for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC). In addition, Harker will send eight students to ICDC to participate either in The Stock Market game or the Virtual Business Challenge.
After school on Feb. 5, 103 students took charter buses from Harker to Anaheim, stopping only for refreshments at In-and-Out Burger. The following morning, Harker hosted a chapter breakfast at Denny’s and “Officer Hours,” during which students could get last-minute advice and tips. That afternoon, students took their written examinations and then headed to the opening session. During the opening session, Sandip Nirmel, grade 9, spoke to the crowd, urging them to elect him president of the 64th California DECA Team. Although Nirmel did not win, he did a great job and was recognized by many of his peers as a rising star.
“For me, this year’s state CDC can be summed up in four words: Talk about awesome, possum!” said Nirmel. “Leading up to the conference, I really didn’t know what to expect. The highlight of my conference definitely was speaking to a crowd of around 2,000 people on why they should elect me president. Standing on stage as the audience cheered and my school’s DECA chapter chanted, “Sandip! Sandip! Sandip!” made me smile, and it still makes me smile today, just a week later. As it turned out, standing at my booth for nearly five hours allowed me to meet so many charismatic and friendly people that I had never met before. This is what DECA is really about, in my opinion.”
Next, attendants gathered for their role-play events. After the competition, Harker DECA took the students to Disneyland to relax after a challenging, but rewarding day.
The next day students competing in written events had their time to shine. Afterward, at the Recognition and Mini-Awards Session, Harker was honored for its wonderful performance as a chapter. Harker was the only California school to complete every campaign: Membership, Global Entrepreneurship, Promotional and Community Service. For this achievement, Harker earned six extra stops to the ICDC Thrive Academy. In addition, out of a total of six California teams to qualify for the international conference in the Stock Market Game, Harker sent three.
“This was my first state conference as a freshman,” said Haley Tran, grade 9. “I had so much fun meeting new people and seeing how wonderful and how big California DECA is. I used this conference more of as a learning experience to test out the waters for future year; I can’t wait for the next time.”
Harker DECA president Monica Thukral, grade 12, was named California DECA student of the year. Her passion is one of the main reasons the business and entrepreneurship program is so successful. “Being student of the year was really amazing,” said Thukral. “I got called back to the stage during the awards ceremony and afterwards people came up to me and congratulated me. I’m so grateful to [adviser] Mr. [Juston] Glass, to my officer team, and to a remarkable chapter I’m proud to be a part of.”
“This conference is also my last states conference,” added Thukral. “It was definitely bittersweet. I’m so glad that we were so successful this year as a chapter. I’ve invested a lot of time into DECA with late nights and early mornings. But I’ve really enjoyed all of it, especially working with other students and helping them prepare. I’ll miss it so much. DECA gave me so much in terms of how I’ve grown as a person; I’m definitely more confident and self-assured than I was before. Go Harker DECA!”
The day ended with a conference dance, at which students let loose and had fun after a full day of competing and learning about business.
Throughout the weekend, workshops were held to complement the competition. Topics included communication, manufacturing, technology, start-ups, financial planning and networking. Students found them entertaining and helpful, and came home eager to begin implementing some of the tips in their daily lives.
“In our free time, we went to workshops, which covered topics about everything from understanding relationships between people to healthy business practices. It was really awesome to talk to the business professionals!” said Tong Wu, grade 10.
In addition, protégé events (examinations based on specialized skill sets) included green business, event planning, finance and investing, real estate and emerging leaders. Harker competed and finished top eight in every event. Two students placed among top three; Shannon Hong, grade 10 earned first place in emerging leaders, Mabel Luo, grade 12, took third place in event planning.
The finale was the Grand Awards Ceremony, at which Harker took a record number of wins (see results below) and left as one of the most-respected schools. The International Career Development Conference will be May 2-7. More than 20 Harker students are expected to represent us. Go Eagles!
First Place: Simran Singh, grade 11, Entrepreneurship Written Plan.
Second Place: Julia Fink, grade 12, Apparel and Accessories Marketing; Raymond Xu, grade 9, Principles of Finance; Riya Chandra and Alexis Gauba, both grade 9, Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; Emily Lin and Allison Sun, both grade 12, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research Event.
Third Place: Ankur Karwal and Mehul Khetrapal, both grade 10, Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; Leo Yu, grade 11, and Sophia Luo, grade 10, Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research Event; Simran Singh and Manthra Panchapakesan, both grade 11, Marketing Communications Team Decision Making Event; Alexander Mo, grade 9, Professional Selling Event.
Fourth Place: Sachin Vadodaria, grade 12, Director of Individual Series Events and Business Finance Individual Series Event; Raymond Xu, grade 9, Principles of Finance.
Fifth Place: Shannon Hong, grade 10, Restaurant and Food Service Management Individual Series Event; Monica Thukral, grade 12, Food Marketing Individual Series Event.
Sixth Place: Arben Gutierrez-Bujari, grade 9, Professional Selling Event; Jonathan Lee, grade 11, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research Event.
Seventh Place: Sapna Suresh, grade 12, Entrepreneurship Participating – Franchising; Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Glenn Reddy, both grade 11, Marketing Communications TDM; Sandip Nirmel, grade 9, Principles of Finance.
Eighth Place: Mabel Luo, grade 12, Business Services Marketing Individual Series Event; Ria Gandhi, grade 9, Entrepreneurship Participating – Independent.
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 to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
Tags: Featured Story, Student Life Upper School, topbedecaThe annual Pajama Day assembly on Jan. 17 was special for the Eagle Buddies of grades 3 and 10, who met at the lower school gym and shared some of their favorite books with one another. It was also a special day for Rishi Narain, grade 10, who started Harker’s pajama program while he was a student at the lower school. The program collects and distributes pajamas, books and other goods to underprivileged children all around the world.
Per Eagle Buddies tradition, Butch Keller, upper school head, donned a robe, took his seat at a rocking chair located on the stage and read a story to the audience. This year’s story, fittingly enough, was “Pajama Day” by Lynn Plourde. After the reading, the third graders and their sophomore buddies chatted and read to each other from the books they had brought. They later headed to the lawn for a special pizza lunch. “It’s good to have a friend that you know you can trust,” said Brooke Baker, grade 3, who added that she looks forward to having more fun with her Eagle Buddies in the upcoming months.
Kevin Kim, grade 10, said being involved in the Eagle Buddies program is “really fun. It’s good to meet little kids and have fun with them.” The Eagle Buddies program was started during the 2010-11 school year as a means of establishing a bond between the students of the lower and upper schools. The program matches up grade 3 students with grade 10 students, who then meet periodically until the sophomores graduate and the third graders move on to the middle school.
Tags: Featured Story, Student Life, Student Life Lower School, Student Life Upper SchoolThis story was prepared from a press release provided by Shannon Hong, grade 10, director of Public Relations for Harker DECA; photos also provided by Harker DECA.
The students of Harker’s DECA chapter, nearly 100 in total, spent the weekend of Jan. 3 at the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference in San Jose. During the conference, the students participated in a number of activities and competitions designed to build their leadership and business skills.
Harker students performed admirably in the competitions, with 21 students ending up in the top three. Placing first were Harker DECA president Monica Thukral, grade 12, in the Food Marketing Individual Series Roleplay; Ray Xu, grade 9, in Principles of Finance; Freshman Srivatsav Pyda and senior Arthur Shau in Business Team Decision Making; and Safia Khouja and Sabrina Sidhu, both grade 11, in Hospitality Team Decision Making.
Second place finishers were the team of sophomores Shannon Hong, Michael Zhao and Annie Zhou for Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan; Aathira Menon and Natasha Santhanam, both grade 10, for International Business Plan; juniors Glenn Reddy and Felix Wu for Business Operations Research Written Plan; Julia Fink, grade 12, in Apparel and Accessories Marketing; Mabel Luo, grade 12, in Business Service Marketing; Shannon Hong in Restaurant and Food Service Management; Victoria Ding, grade 10, and Sapna Suresh, grade 12, in Marketing Team Decision Making; and seniors Adithram Rengaramchandran and Rohan Kapatkar, grade 12, in Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making.
Taking third place was the team of seniors Gaurav Kumar and Adarsh Battu in Business Team Decision Making.
“At SVCDC, we were able to not only present our projects that we had worked so long on but also meet old friends and make new ones. I never expected to make it to the stage, so when they called my name I was already in shock,” said Zhao. “Winning second place together with my friends was the best part; all of our work was worth that moment of pride when we stood together on stage.”
Aside from the many competitions they entered, Shannon Hong, Sophia Luo, grade 10, and Haley Tran, grade 9, were elected to the next Silicon Valley District Action Team.
“SVCDC was an exhilarating experience. I learned new skills as a competitor and a candidate, meeting different people from all over the Silicon Valley and being a part of this wonderful community of intellectually curious and business minded high school students,” Hong said. “Standing on stage, twice, was thrilling; I hope to do even better during States.”
Tags: Featured Story, Student Life Upper SchoolThis article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Lower, middle and upper school instrumentalists displayed their talents for an evening audience at the Spring Concert, held April 12 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose. Several groups performed orchestral music from a wide selection of styles and time periods.
The Lower School String Ensemble kicked off the evening with a medley of American songs, and the Lower School Orchestra followed with Beethoven’s famous “Ode to Joy” and “Aragonaise” by Georges Bizet.
The Middle School Orchestra then introduced themselves to the show by teaming up with the Lower School Orchestra for a performance of a segment of Mozart’s Symphony No. 25. Harker Winds, the grade 6 wind ensemble, performed “You Are My Sunshine.”
After a brief intermission the Harker Orchestra took the stage, performing, among other pieces, “The Moldau” from Bedrich Smetana’s “Ma Vlast,” Max Bruch’s “Romanze for Viola and Orchestra,” featuring Nayeon Kim, grade 12, and the final piece of the night, “Huapango” by Jose Pablo Moncayo.
Tags: Performing Arts, Student Life, Student Life Lower School, Student Life Middle School, Student Life Upper SchoolHarker’s eighth annual Research Symposium drew more than 400 attendees, who marveled at the many exhibits, student presentations, breakout sessions and guest speakers that have made the symposium into one of the school’s signature events, unique for being organized largely by the student-run WiSTEM, chemistry, research and Sci Fy clubs.
The upper school campus was abuzz with activity as early as 8 a.m., when the symposium officially began. One of the busiest areas for the entire day was the Nichols Hall atrium and rotunda, where exhibitors such as Google, Ericsson and Symmetricom offered demonstrations of their products and talked with attendees, in addition to providing a mere glimpse at the wealth of career opportunities available to students of the sciences.
One of the more impressive pieces of technology on display was Anatomage’s “virtual cadaver,” a 3-D rendering of a human body that could be examined in amazing detail via a large touch screen, enabling classrooms without access to a real cadaver to study the human body up close.
Elsewhere in the atrium, SeaLife Aquarium Maintenance presented various sea creatures for visitors to view and handle. East Bay Cardiovascular and Thoracic Associates, represented by Harker parent Murali Duran (Rohan, grade 9; Lea, grade 11; Roshan, grade 12), had a heart station set up where visitors could learn how to perform sutures using store-bought pig hearts.
A large portion of the event was devoted to formal talks, also known as breakout sessions, delivered by Harker students. In these talks, students gave presentations on scientific research projects that they had done, many of which earned the students finalist or semifinalist placings in the Siemens Competition and the Intel Science Talent Search. In addition to demonstrating the high level of research being conducted by the students, these sessions also offered students the chance to show their research to (and take questions from) members of the greater scientific community.
The breakout sessions covered a wide variety of topics. Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 12, presented an analysis of surreal numbers, for which he was named an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist and a Siemens Competition regional finalist. At another session, senior Rohan Chandra, another Siemens regional finalist, discussed the brain’s reaction to various features of Beethoven’s famous fifth symphony. Meanwhile, Siemens semifinalists Anika Gupta and Saachi Jain, both grade 11, presented their research on how an uncharacterized gene may have a hand in lowering the risk of ulcers and gastric cancer.
Middle school students also had their chance to shine, showing the results of their work with the many impressive poster presentations set up in the gym. The enthusiasm of these students was evident as they explained their projects and their implications to the fascinated passersby.
As always, the lunchtime chemistry magic show was a treat for the midday audience, who oohed and aahed at brilliant flames, exploding eggs, liquid-carbon-frozen bananas and other wonders of chemistry, as they enjoyed food freshly prepared by Harker’s kitchen staff.
Also during lunch was a special talk by Nikita Sinha ’09, currently in her senior year at the California Institute of Technology, who discussed the research she was conducting for her senior thesis, as well as the life experiences that led her to choose medical research as a career.
The first of the keynote speakers at the symposium was Dr. Kristian Hargadon, assistant professor of biology at Hampden-Sydney College. Hargadon took the morning audience on a journey through his progression from a young student athlete with dreams of being an NBA star to becoming a decorated cancer researcher, in addition to discussing some of his current work.
Surbhi Sarna ’03, this year’s alumni speaker, shared her story with the early afternoon audience. After suffering from an ovarian cyst in her early teens, Sarna became determined to create better conditions in the field of female health. Toward this end, she founded the venture-backed nVision Medical in 2009 to develop technology that will help gynecologists more quickly detect ovarian cancer.
This year’s featured speaker was Nobel Prize-winning biologist Dr. David Baltimore, whose work at the California Institute at Technology has recently yielded a method for preventing the spread of HIV. Baltimore provided an overview of how his process of injecting a harmless virus containing antibodies into the muscles of mice prevented HIV infection. Baltimore and his team are currently preparing to test this process in humans.
Another highlight of the event was a special panel of notable women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), which included such inspirational figures as Barbara Jones, project manager at the IBM Almaden Research Center; Monica Kumar, senior director of product marketing at Oracle; Tian Zhang, senior software engineer at IBM; and alumna Sinha.
The panel discussed the increasingly important role of women in the sciences, offering their insights into their respective fields as well as advice to the audience of young attendees on how to transform their love of science into successful careers.
The symposium closed with a panel of students and teachers providing students and parents with information on Harker’s research program and the various opportunities available, such as the Siemens and Intel contests, internships and research classes.
Tags: Featured Story, Research, Research Symposium, Science, Student Life, Student Life Upper School, topresearch, topscienceAt least 100 locally-based hospital patients desperately in need of blood will be helped, thanks to the annual Harker Blood Drive held at the upper school campus in March.
This year’s successful drive resulted in the collection of 44 total pints, which will benefit the Blood Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit organization that supplies blood to Northern California hospitals, doctors and patients.
The center’s current patients include a six-month-old baby girl suffering from a congenital heart defect, a 16-year-old girl fighting bone cancer, a 21-month-old baby boy with a new leukemia diagnosis and a 24-year-old man who has colon and liver cancer.
“Because whole blood can be separated into several different components, the drive can help up to 102 patients in need in the Bay Area!” reported Preeya Mehta, a senior and president of the Red Cross Club at Harker.
Thirty-nine Harker students, faculty and staff members gave blood at the drive, which was organized by the Red Cross Club, with five people donating double red cells.
According to Red Cross officials, the Harker drive averages about 50 units each year, roughly twice the amount of other community blood drives, which is good news for Bay Area hospitals currently faced with major shortages in blood. Within 72 hours, all the blood donated goes to a local hospital, and every donated unit can save up to three lives.
Tags: Outreach, Student Life, Student Life Upper SchoolThe Global Empowerment and Outreach (GEO) student club held its annual GEO week in mid-March, raising nearly $1,000 for Pencils of Promise, an organization that works to build educational programs in poor areas of the world. Some of Pencils of Promise’s efforts include building schools, training teachers and providing supplies. The organization has already completed construction on 110 schools, and 14 are in construction with plans for at least four more.
GEO raised funds this year by selling merchandise during lunch and after school. “As a school ourselves, I thought it would be meaningful for students to be able to help out a fellow student somewhere else in the world,” said Amie Chien, grade 12, who serves as GEO president. “Given the opportunities we are blessed to have at Harker, I wanted the chance to be able to ‘pay it forward’ in a sense, passing on the chance at a good education for someone else, too.”
According to Chien, the cost to provide a year’s worth of education for a child in one of these areas is just $25. “A pair of jeans from Express is easily $25, a week’s worth of Starbucks every morning, about the same. If we were to give up a little luxury for a week, we could easily find a $25 lying around,” she said.
Tags: Featured Story, Outreach, Student Life, Student Life Upper School, topoutreachHarker Future Problem Solving (FPS) teams, middle and upper school, took home multiple championships at the international finals (11 countries, 40 states) held in Indiana in June. Chris Nikoloff, head of school, said it all in a word: “Outstanding.” A complete listing of awards is at the end of the article, but Cyrus Merrill, FPS coach, tells the story below.
By Cyrus Merrill
Our amazing success is a direct result of the legacy of so many talented FPSers who have been part of our program, which is now a little more than a decade old and which has now earned over 10 world championships.
The topic at the international finals was pharmaceuticals and the scenario this year involved challenges and complications surrounding international regulatory acceptance of a new personalized (to your own DNA) medical pill being produced in Brazil.
Harker is now one of the single most successful programs around the world. For the first time ever Harker finished in first place in more than one age division and category. Harker was in the prestigious top 10 in the written booklet competition – in both the middle and senior divisions.
We finished fourth in the middle team division and we were the overall champions in the incredibly tough and competitive senior/high school team booklet division. We also returned to our strong, proud tradition of being the presentation of action plan (skit) international champion (middle division) for the sixth time in the past seven years.
There is a link below to watch these amazing eighth and ninth graders in their final skit, which they were asked to reprise in front of thousands of people at the awards ceremony. Multiple coaches from several countries all came up to me and asked, “When is California (implying Harker) presenting its action plan skit?” because we have become so well known for our success in that area.
It is a big deal to be in the top 10 in any portion of the competition and we finished with six teams or individuals in the top five and two overall team championships – not bad, especially when you consider that this was out of six categories total.
Finally, I am also especially proud that two of the international finalists in the junior division were from other California schools where our own Harker students had helped to mentor and train those very student competitors and their coach this year.
We are now the only school (and state or foreign country for that matter) to have been awarded a first place in more than one age group and in all of the categories of problem solving: 2012 – team and Plan of Action (several years); 2011 – Alternates (also in 2008 as part of an international group of students from different countries); 2009 – Individual.
The only problem solving category we have not had an overall champion in remains the adult and coaches division, however, I joked with the kids that I promise to eventually pull my own weight, having finished third this year and second several years ago.
I could not be more proud of our wonderful young students than I am at this moment. I want to thank all of them for their amazing efforts and late nights spent reviewing and brainstorming about the topics this year. I want to thank all of the parents for their support of the program as well.
I look forward to next year, when Harker will host the state bowl in April, and to continuing our remarkable success in an amazing program where kids have to work to research topics and analyze future crises all on their own. I love the FPS process and its motto, “Teaching kids how to think, not what to think,” but I would personally add “and then getting out of the way to let them do it on their own.”
RESULTS:
First Places:
International champions, beating out powerhouse teams from New Zealand, Great Britain (actually coached by a former coach at the Nueva School in California ) and Singapore! Remember, Kentucky teams go to FPS camp in the summer for several weeks and meet daily to prepare for the competition, and FPS is a statewide program in Texas and in several other states. Some schools spend more than 10 hours a week working on just FPS! Harker students, on the other hand, completed their school finals and then hopped on a plane the very next day so we were certainly at an apparent “disadvantage” with regard to our ability to prepare for or focus on the international finals topic.
Senior division – booklet competition: rising seniors Ria Desai, Sonia Gupta, Pooja Shah; rising junior Nikhil Dilip.
Middle division – presentation of action plan: rising sophomores Tiara Bhatacharya, Juhi Muthal, Madhu Nori, Sindhu Ravuri, Ankita Pannu, and rising freshman Michael Zhao. An amazing video of this group’s skit/action plan presentation is available. Go to 28:54 to listen to their action plan and 30:40-35:37 to watch their amazing skit being performed in front of nearly 3,000 people in the theater and a live Web audience as well. They wrote this skit and designed it in a mere couple of hours.
Second Place:
Senior division – alternate competition joining competitors from other countries to form a team – Andy Wang, rising junior
Third Place:
Adult division – booklet competition (Cyrus Merrill)
Fourth Place:
Middle division – booklet competition: rising sophomores Tiara Bhatacharya, Juhi Muthal, Madhu Nori, Sindhu Ravuri
Fifth Place:
Senior division – scenario writing (first ever top five placement by someone from California). Shelby Rorabaugh, rising senior. Because of her finish she is now a published writer as the top five are published and sold.
We also had a second middle division team of rising eighth graders Evani Radiya-Dixit, Sneha Bhetanabhotla, Angela Kim, Priyanka Taneja, Swetha Tummala and Neymika Jain, who finished tied for second place in the preliminary round (and the top two teams out of 11 from each preliminary round advance). They lost out in essentially a coin flip/tie breaker or they would have been finalists as seventh graders in a division ranging from grades 7-9, so the future of our program looks good, too! Our one other international competitor was rising senior Joy Li who missed out on a top three position this year, but was “merely” the first place alternate champion last year as a sophomore.
Go Harker FPSers!
Tags: Featured Story, Student Life, Student Life Middle School, Student Life Upper School