More than a score of students from Harker’s DECA team toured the Fremont Tesla factory in late February and had an amazing time. The factory, the largest manufacturing facility in California, is the size of 92 NFL football fields or 55 Costco warehouses, the group was told.
“I was amazed by all of the difference components that they are able to manufacture under one building. The robots, the presses, and the overall process is just so impressive,” said Alexa Lowe, grade 9.
It takes about five days to make a Tesla and they make about 1,000 per day. All of the robots are named after comic book characters, such as those from X-Men, Game of Thrones, etc. “I had never been to a factory before and it was cool to see how the overall process is so unified, especially considering all of the different systems and parts that are involved,” said Suraj Pakala, grade 12.
Juston Glass, DECA advisor, noted “We had to sign a [nondisclosure agreement] and we couldn’t take any photos inside, but we got to see the whole process from start to finish!”
The visit impressed Andrea Thia, grade 9, philosophically. “It was inspiring to see how such a small dream could turn into such a large business!” she said.
Starting this fall Harker will expand its student bus service to include picking up and dropping off middle and upper school students at the Santa Clara Caltrain station. A van will meet the northbound train at 7:24 a.m. and the southbound train at 7:36 a.m., then transport students to the upper school campus and then to the middle school campus. The afternoon schedule will be determined as ridership needs are assessed. There will be a nominal per-ride charge. Contact Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs, for more information: greg.lawson@harker.org, 408-345-9600.
Last month, upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss’ classroom was visited by author D’Anne Burwell, who discussed her book, “Saving Jake.” Moss organized the visit as part of Harker’s ReCreate Reading program, which encourages students to read independently for their own pleasure.
“Saving Jake” deals with Burwell’s son Jake’s addiction to OxyContin, which began during his first year at college. “During the Recreate Reading talk with Harker students, she shared about how Jake, though now successfully finishing college and having received great job offers, will live with his addiction for the rest of his life,” Moss said. “Educating about addiction has become D’Anne’s life work and the experience has profoundly altered the relationships between all members of their family.”