Harker sent a number of budding scientists to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held May 8-13 in Phoenix, and four came home with significant awards.
Jonathan Ma, grade 12, an Intel Science Talent Search finalist this year, received a First Award of $1,500 from the American Statistical Association at Intel ISEF for his project, “Genomics-Based Cancer Drug Response Prediction Through the Adaptive Elastic Net.”
Amy Dunphy, grade 10, was awarded $1,200 by the China Association for Science and Technology for her project, “Preventing Urushiol (Poison Oak) Induced Dermatitis by Deactivating the Allergen.”
The team of Rishab Gargeya and Manan Ajay Shah, both grade 11, won a Third Award of $1,000 for their project, “Automated Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy Severity in Color Fundus Images Using a Novel Synthesis of Biological and Data Driven Approaches.”
Last week, four Harker middle school students were chosen to be members of statewide ensembles that will perform in February at the California All-State Music Education Conference. French hornist Kai-Ming Ang, clarinetist Jenny Shaw and flutist Anika Tiwari, all grade 8, were selected for the California Band Directors Association’s All-State Junior High School Concert Band. Trumpeter Leland Rossi, grade 7, was selected to play with the CBDA’s All-State Junior High School Jazz Band, making him the first Harker student to play for an all-state jazz band. Together, these four students represent the largest group of Harker middle school students ever selected to play for all-state ensembles.
“The audition is rigorous and requires great preparation and focus as they have to turn in a recording of scales and etudes,” said middle school music teacher Dave Hart. “These students were selected out of auditions from any seventh or eighth grader in the state of California, so it is quite an honor and opportunity.”
Harker’s journalism department recently received 10 Gold Circle Awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, which also named the Winged Post a finalist for the Crown Award, the winners of which will be announced in March.
Gold Circle winners were: Elisabeth Siegel, grade 12, third place in Newspaper News Features; Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 12, third place in Newspaper Art/Illustration: Portfolio of Work, first place in Newspaper Typography: Overall Look, second place in Newspaper Typography: Look of One Page and second place in Digital Media Personal Opinion; Kacey Fang ’15, second place in Newspaper Informational Graphics and Newspaper Photo Layout: Full Page; Kathryn Duan, grade 11, and Alex Jang ’15, third place in Digital Media Humor; Jessica Chang ’15 and Priscilla Pan ’15, first and third place in Digital Media Video Feature Package.
Certificates of Merit went to juniors Ria Gandhi and Alex Youn in Newspaper Sports Features; Shay Lari-Hosain, Kshithija Mulam, grade 11, and Meilan Steimle, grade 11, in Newspaper Photo Story; Shay Lari-Hosain in Newspaper Photo Illustration; and Kacey Fang in Newspaper Informational Graphics. Go Journalism Eagles!
Sophomore golfer Katherine Zhu shot a 69 en route to a third place overall finish at the CCS Girls Golf Championships – qualifying her for the NorCal tournament for the second year in a row. The girls team placed a very respectable eighth overall. Congratulations to the team on a great season, and let’s wish Katherine well as she competes against the best golfers in Northern California next week in Salinas.
The WBAL girls tennis tournament finals were held yesterday, with outstanding results. For only the second time in school history, we have league champions in doubles. Sophomore Lizzie Schick and freshman Pam Duke teamed up to place first overall in the doubles bracket! Freshman Liza Egorova placed third in singles, and the team of Gloria Guo, grade 10, and Izzy Gross, grade 12, placed fourth in doubles. Schick and Duke will represent Harker and the WBAL in the CCS individual tournament later this month.
UPDATE: Two students, Evani Radiya-Dixit and David Zhu, both grade 11, have advanced as regional finalists in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology! Of the 17 California finalists, 10 are from the Bay Area, while seven are from Southern California. Only two other schools in the state had two finalists. New York State also had 17 finalists, followed by Texas with 11.
The full list of regional finalists can be found here. The Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology is considered the nation’s premier research competition for high school students. A total of 97 regional finalists from throughout the U.S. now advance to one of six regional competitions held over three consecutive weekends in November at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Nov. 6-7); Georgia Institute of Technology (Nov. 6-7); University of Notre Dame (Nov. 13-14); University of Texas at Austin (Nov. 13-14); California Institute of Technology (Nov. 20-21); and Carnegie Mellon University (Nov. 20-21).
Winners of the regional events advance to the National Finals at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Dec. 6-8, where $500,000 in scholarships will be awarded, including two top prizes of $100,000.
The competition awards a $1,000 scholarship to each regional finalist, in addition to one $3,000 prize to an individual winner and a $6,000 prize to a team winner at each regional competition.
A complete list of finalists and their projects is available at www.siemens-foundation.org preceding each regional event.
Oct. 16, 2015 The Siemens Foundation announced today that 13 Harker upper school students had been named semifinalists in this year’s Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Harker had the most semifinalists of any California school.
This year’s semifinalists are:
Vivek Bharadwaj, Rishabh Chandra, Anthony Luo and Jonathan Ma, grade 12; Rishab Gargeya, Shasvat Jawahar, Alex Mo, Evani Radiya-Dixit, Venkat Sankar, Manan Shah, Arjun Subramaniam and David Zhu, grade 11; and Brandon Mo, grade 10.
A total of 466 semifinalists were chosen from the 1,700 submissions received by Siemens. These students are now eligible to become regional finalists and travel to Washington, D.C., for the finals in December.
A blustery early autumn evening set the stage for Harker’s 2015 Homecoming celebration, and the football team turned it into a great night with a 23-13 hard-fought win. This year’s Homecoming saw people from across the Harker community gather at the upper school campus to cheer on the Harker Eagles football squad as it faced off against Santa Cruz at Davis Field. In addition to the game, Homecoming offered a chance for Harker community members – be they students, parents, alumni, faculty or staff – to enjoy a fun evening of socializing and reminiscing.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the whole community to get together,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. “From preschool to the high school, everyone can come together as one community, to support our students in the game, but also in the various ways that they’re participating, whether it’s musically or through cheer or selling pizza.”
Attendees began arriving in droves as early as two hours before the 7 p.m. kickoff, enjoying a variety of foods from Ms. Carley’s Café and a delicious array prepared by the Harker kitchens – the staff had been at work since 7 a.m. preparing for the big event – alongside pizza and candy sold by Harker students. Lower, middle and upper school campuses had tables filled with confections and chips for parents and students to snack on, while Harker Alumni had a special area with white linen and great food, which enjoyed a steady stream of visitors. “It’s really exciting, and everyone’s having fun,” said Elizabeth Yang, grade 9, who was selling candy to raise funds for her class.
Prior to the game, the early arrivals enjoyed special performances by Harker’s junior cheerleaders and the time-honored Eaglets Fly-By. Just before the game, several of Harker’s vocal groups, directed by lower school performing arts teacher Carena Montany, sang “The Harker School Song” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The Harker School Orchestra supplied its usual accompaniment and the varsity cheerleaders maintained a steady blast of cheerful encouragement from the sidelines.
The first half of the game was hotly contested, with Santa Cruz reaching the endzone early, followed by a strong answer from Harker, which scored a safety and a touchdown to take a 9-6 lead at halftime.
During the halftime, Harker’s cheer squad and varsity dancers gave energetic, crowd-pleasing performances. Shortly after, this year’s homecoming court took the field, with seniors Edward Sheu and Stephanie Huang named the 2015 Homecoming King and Queen.
In the second half, both teams pushed hard. Santa Cruz took back the lead to make it 13-9. Push literally came to shove in the fourth quarter as each team pushed their luck on fourth-down situations trying to hang on to the ball to get a drive going. Finally, with 10:40 remaining in the game, Harker marched up the field and added 7 to make it 16-13. For the next eight minutes the crowd was on the edge of their seats knowing if Santa Cruz found the right gap the score would reverse, again.
Indeed, the ball changed hands several times, but neither team was able to capitalize until very late in the fourth quarter when Harker put paid to the match with a great run to make it 23-13 with less than two minutes left. Harker D was fired up and bottled up Santa Cruz, nailing the lid on the win. Great night out with a big, lively crowd! Check Facebook and Instagram for photos and video clips from the game, and search on #harkerhomecoming in both sites for a gallery of photos and clips. (Feel free to hashtag your own homecoming photos to add to the gallery!) This story will be updated with a photo gallery as well on Monday. Huge congrats to the football team including coaching, training and other support staff for a great, well-fought game! Go Eagles!
Football Varsity football defeated Gunn High School 56-0 under the lights of Davis Field Friday to improve to 3-1 overall. Highlights included three touchdowns from Angel Cervantes, grade 10; two from Demonte Aleem, grade 9; one from Nate Kelly, grade 10; and a receiving touchdown by Anthony Contreras, grade 10. Contreras also led defensively with seven tackles. Nikhil Ramgiri and Miles DeWitt, both grade 12, each had interceptions, and kicker Oisin Coveney, grade 12, was a perfect 8-for-8 on extra points. Come on out Saturday night for Homecoming vs. Santa Cruz!
Cross Country Niki Iyer, grade 11, placed ninth out of 215 runners in the elite 5K varsity girls race at Stanford on Saturday. She posted the third-fastest time of all Central Coast Section athletes among the 1,200 female runners from throughout the Western United States.
Anika Rajamani and Lilia Gonzales, both grade 9, led the frosh-soph girls team to a fifth-place team finish at the Ram Invitational at Westmoor. This is the second fifth-place team finish for these young runners in two weeks. Alycia Cary and Aneesha Kumar, both grade 9, and Akshaya Vemuri, grade 10, rounded out the scoring team.
Peter Connors, grade 10, ran the fastest Eagle time of the day in the sophomore boys race, placing 19th out of 240 runners. He improved by one and a half minutes from his race there a year ago. Connor O’Neill and Jack Rothschild, both grade 12, placed 56th and 59th in the varsity boys run, O’Neill with a two-minute improvement over last year’s race.
Volleyball Girls volleyball continues to play the best teams in our section in close matches. Last week the girls fought hard in losses to very strong Presentation and Valley Christian teams in four games to drop to 5-6 overall.
Water Polo Boys water polo lost to Homestead last week 13-10 but responded with a 15-6 victory over Cupertino Thursday to improve to 3-4 overall.
The girls water polo team earned its first victory of the season with a 7-6 win over Salinas at the Watsonville Tournament Saturday. Highlights included goalie Helena Dworak, grade 12, scoring her first half-court goal, and Abby Wisdom and Samantha Yanovsky, both grade 9, scoring their first high school goals.
Golf Girls golf lost by just three strokes to Menlo last week but rebounded the next day with a 23-stroke victory over Notre Dame-San Jose. The team has been led by Katherine Zhu, grade 10, Daphne Liang, grade 12, and Ashley Zhong, grade 12.
Football The varsity football team earned its first victory of the season with a 28-18 win over Del Mar Friday night, avenging a loss to the Dons last year. Demonte Aleem, grade 9, scored two touchdowns with Will Park, grade 11, and Johnathon Keller, grade 12, scoring the others. Angel Cervantes, grade 10, led defensively with six tackles. School spirit was outstanding again! The boys travel to California School for the Deaf Friday night for their league opener.
Cross Country Harker cross country teams ran in Golden Gate Park Saturday and did very well in their season debut. Anika Rajamani and Lilia Gonzales, both grade 9, led the frosh/soph girls team to a sixth place finish out of 20 teams and 250 runners. Rajamani placed 13th, Gonzales placed 18th. Peter Connors, grade 10, led the frosh/soph boys with his 30th place finish and top Eagles boys time of the day. Niki Iyer, grade 11, placed fourth in a loaded varsity girls run, finishing as the top Central Coast Section performer in the meet. Connor O’Neill, grade 12, was the leading varsity boys finisher. The teams compete again on Sept. 26.
Volleyball Junior varsity girls volleyball placed eighth out of 32 teams Saturday at the Milpitas Spikefest with victories over Burlingame and Los Gatos. The girls teams opened at home Tuesday vs. St. Francis and gave No. 1 ranked St. Francis all they could handle at Blackford, pushing them to the limit in a five-game loss 19-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-27, 9-15. Our girls never stopped battling against the much taller Lancers, who were increasingly discouraged with the stellar Harker defense and loud supportive Eagles crowd. Harker’s players and coaches should be proud of their strong efforts against one of the top teams in the state. Come watch them again Friday at Blackford against Westmont High, JV at 4:30 p.m., varsity at 5:45 p.m.
Water Polo Boys water polo defeated visiting Fremont High 22-4 yesterday in their home and league opener. The girls team lost 14-6 while the JV boys won 10-5. Boys travel to Saratoga High tomorrow while the girls head to Monta Vista. Go Eagles!
Business Insider’s list of the year’s 20 most impressive high school graduates is hot off the press – and it includes four Harker alums.
In the case of our recent grads, their continued academic success – resulting in acceptances to some of the nation’s top research universities – is matched only by their commitment to furthering the future of health care. With a deeply ingrained foundation of community service, civic engagement and social justice, the high-flying foursome is giving back in a big way.
A freshman-year battle with hypothyroidism and a passion for mitigating global health inequalities led National High School Journal of Science peer reviewer Samantha Madala to establish the Healthy Scholars Foundation, a nonprofit that removes health-related barriers to education around the world through screening, treatment, awareness and research. Since its founding in 2013, Healthy Scholars has received a $250,000 multiyear grant from The Hans Foundation, raised more than $200,000 and provided free health screenings to nearly 10,000 schoolchildren in India.
Accepted into the University of California San Diego Medical Scholars Program for a combined B.S./M.D., Madala’s professional experience includes internships in neurobiology, immunology and health policy at Stanford University’s School of Medicine as well as the co-authoring of an abstract for the world-renowned Endocrine Society. She is a member of the National Honor Society and the recipient of Harker’s Love of Learning Award and Mission of the School Award.
Harvard University-bound (computer science and biology) Andrew Jin created a machine-learning algorithm that could help researchers better understand human evolution and potentially develop new gene therapies, vaccines and treatments for disorders like schizophrenia, earning him the first place Medal of Distinction for Global Good and a cash prize of $150,000 at the Intel Science Talent Search 2015, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science and math competition and a program of Society for Science & the Public.
No newcomer to the awards circuit, Jin previously won second place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the largest pre-college scientific research event in the world, and third place in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, the flagship initiative of the Siemens Foundation. He has secured a summer machine-learning internship at Facebook, based in Menlo Park, where he will assist the online social networking service’s search team.
Like Jin, Rohith Kuditipudi was named a finalist at this year’s Intel Science Talent Search based on his scientific research and overall potential as a future leader of the scientific community. His project, “Network-Based Integration of High-Throughput Gene Expression and Methylation Data Reveals New Insights into NAFLD Progression,” involved collaborating with researchers at the University of California San Diego to examine the evolution of fatty liver disease and analyze valuable data linking the disease to more serious afflictions such as liver cancer. He was also recognized among the top 10 competitors in both the Harvard Pre-Collegiate Economics Challenge and the Stanford Math Tournament.
Kuditipudi co-founded the India Literacy Project and volunteers at Breakthrough Silicon Valley, where he tutors underprivileged children in math. This fall, he will enter Duke University as one of just 15 Angier B. Duke Scholars, studying a combination of his three favorite disciplines: mathematics, economics and computer science.
Yale University-bound (pre-med) Daniela Lee and her 2014 Google Science Fair project partner, Sadhika Malladi, grade 11, developed a noninvasive imaging system for predicting test results in triple-negative breast cancer patients, leading to their standing as one of the top 15 global finalists representing the United States, Australia, Canada, England, France, India, Ireland, Russia and Ukraine.
A research intern at Stanford University’s School of Medicine for the past two years, Lee presented additional findings that could help to decrease treatment time and increase patient comfort at the 2014 Focused Ultrasound Symposium, where she was recognized by Vice President Joe Biden as the only high school student speaker.
Business Insider editors solicited nominees for this list via a post and sought out notable students for consideration via news searches, said Melissa Stanger, associate editor of lists for Business Insider. “We were also surprised by the incredible range of talent at The Harker School,” Stanger said. “I think this is the first year we’ve had more than two high school graduates from the same school appear on our list!” Stanger noted those listed were “chosen for their above-average accomplishments in a number of fields,” and in finalizing the list, they strove to diversify the selections to include those “doing impressive things in science, the arts, philanthropy, tech, etc.”
Reddy’s winning debate was on the topic of minimum wage and whether it should be substantially increased. The senior successfully affirmed the proposal.
Reddy won two national titles in April – the NDCA National Championships and the Tournament of Champions.
“His achievements are truly historic,” said Greg Achten, Harker’s Lincoln-Douglas team coach. “Winning one national championship tournament takes hard work, incredible intellectual range and exceptional speaking skills. To win three national titles over the course of two years is simply an unheard of accomplishment. In the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate, no student from any school has ever achieved this level of success.”
Reddy entered the 2014-15 debate season as the No. 1-ranked Lincoln-Douglas debater in the nation. He lived up to that ranking with a pair of winning premier national championship tournaments.
This recent success follows a successful 2013-14 season in which Reddy became the first Harker Lincoln-Douglas debater to win the prestigious NDCA National Championships. Reddy built on this success his senior year, being named the top speaker at five of the first six tournaments he attended and winning the Glenbrooks tournament in November, the largest tournament of the fall semester.
Along with these, Reddy also won the Harvard Westlake tournament in January and entered the championship season as the only student to win two majors in the regular season. He is the first student ever to win this tournament twice. Reddy is also only the second student in the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate to win the NDCA National Championships and the Tournament of Champions in the same year.
Joining him in his debating success, the Harker speech and debate team also had an amazing showing at the Tournament of Champions. The event, hosted by the University of Kentucky April 24-27, is one of the premier national championships and included students from more than 200 different schools and 30 states.
Harker was awarded the first-place sweepstakes award after successfully finishing all four of the debate divisions and the individual events category, making the Harker team the most successful overall squad to attend the tournament.
The policy debate duo of Panny Shan, grade 11, and Ayush Midha, grade 12, made it to the octofinal debate round. Public forum debaters Nikhil Kishore, grade 12, Vamsi Gadiraju, grade 12, Abhinav Ketineni, grade 11, and Jasmine Liu, grade 11, were in double octofinals and the team of Alexander Lam, grade 10, and David Jin, grade 11, were in the octofinals. Aditya Dhar, grade 10, made it to the semifinals of congressional debate and Arjun Narayan, grade 11, was a quarterfinalist in extemporaneous speaking. Reddy, Midha and Lam also were recognized with outstanding individual speaker awards.
In the 44-year history of the event, no other school has ever had students reach elimination rounds in more than three of the events. Harker had students excel in all five.