Ten members of the new-last-year Technology Student Association (TSA) club traveled to Bakersfield for the TSA State Conference and came home with plenty to talk about!
At the conference, students competed in a variety of individual and team events, all incorporating future technology. The competitive event topics range from essay writing to architecture and fashion design to teaching. This year, despite being the smallest group attending – one school brought 60 students – Harker students were awarded five first-place medals, two second-place medals and two third-place medals. Some students competed in more than one event.
In the end, every student came home with at least one medal, and club president, Sophia Luo, grade 11, earned multiple first place awards. In addition, Karen Qi, grade 11, was elected as a state officer.
This is especially impressive because until now, the founding California TSA school (Diamond Bar High School near Los Angeles) had held all state positions. “All in all, a remarkable achievement,” said advisor and upper school math teacher Tony Silk. “Last year we cracked open the TSA door; this year, we have it wide open.”
Based on their achievements, all 10 students qualified for the National TSA Conference, which takes place this summer in Dallas. If you see any of these students, be sure to congratulate them! Participants were Eric Cheung, Craig Neubieser, Eric Wang, all grade 12; Cynthia Hao, Kevin Ke, Sophia Luo, Karen Qi, Belinda Yan, all grade 11; Adrian Chu, Randy Zhao, both grade 9.
Update April 14, 2015 Patrick Lin finished between 9th-12th, qualifying as an alternate!
March 11, 2015 Eight Harker students are among 169 qualifiers in the invitational round of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad! That round will take place this Thursday, March 12 and the top performers will go on to represent the United States at the International Linguistics Olympiad in Bulgaria in late July. Please congratulate Swapnil Garg, grade 9; David Zhu, grade 10; Emily Pan, grade 11; and Matthew Huang, Rahul Jayaraman, Patrick Lin, Sachin Peddada and Madelyn Wang, all grade 12. For more information: http://www.nacloweb.org/about.php. We’ll update this story as results come in!
Harker was a big winner in this year’s Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with students collecting more than 30 Regional Gold Key awards.
These works are under consideration for national medals. National medal winners are invited to attend a special event in New York City and also have the opportunity to have their works exhibited and published nationally.
This year’s Regional Gold Key winners, and the categories in which they won, are:
Kaity Gee, grade 11, four awards for her entries in Personal Essay/Memoir, Poetry and Flash Fiction
Shannon Hong, grade 11, three awards for her entries in Photography and Personal Essay/Memoir
Jeffrey Hsu, grade 12, one award for his entry in Design
Doreene Kang, grade 11, one award for her entry in Drawing and Illustration
Kevin Ke, grade 11, two awards for his entries in Drawing and Illustration
Johnathon Keller, grade 11, two awards for his entries in Photography
Safia Khouja, grade 12, one award for her entry in Photography
Sarisha Kurup, grade 10, two awards for her entries in Short Story and Flash Fiction
Suzy Lou, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Poetry
Maya Nandakumar, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Flash Fiction and Personal Essay/Memoir
Sahana Narayanan, grade 11, one award for her entry in Poetry
Archana Podury, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Drawing and Illustration
Andrew Rule, grade 10, two awards for his entries in Short Story
Ravuri Sindhu, grade 12, one award for her entry in Journalism
Meilan Steimle, grade 10, one award for her entry in Digital Art
Catherine Wang, grade 8, one award for her entry in Drawing and Illustration
Kelly Wang, grade 12, three awards for her entries in Digital Art and Drawing and Illustration
Madelyn Wang, grade 12, one award for her entry in Photography
Jessica Yang, grade 12, two awards for her entries in Digital Art
In addition, many students earned Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions for their submissions.
Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in Writing were awarded to:
Tiara Bhatacharya, grade 12, Silver Key in Poetry, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Arushee Bhoja, grade 8, Silver Key in Science Fiction/Fantasy, Honorable Mention in Flash Fiction
Hannah Bollar, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Gwyneth Chen, grade 9, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Kaity Gee, grade 11, Silver Key in Flash Fiction, four Honorable Mentions for entries in Critical Essay, Poetry and Journalism
Alexa Gross, grade 10, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Shannon Hong, grade 11, Silver Key in Poetry, Honorable Mention in Critical Essay
Vineet Kosaraju, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Sarisha Kurup, grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story
Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11, even Honorable Mentions for entries in Journalism, Personal Essay/Memoir and Poetry
Lauren Liu, grade 10, Honorable Mention in Science Fiction/Fantasy
Suzy Lou, grade 12, two Silver Keys for entries in Poetry and Critical Essay, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Sophia Luo, grade 11, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Humor and Poetry
Ethan Ma, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Maya Nandakumar, grade 12, three Silver Keys for entries in Personal Essay/Memoir and Poetry, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Critical Essay and Short Story
Sahana Narayanan, grade 11, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir
Evani Radiya-Dixit, grade 10, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Sindhu Ravuri, grade 12, Silver Key in Journalism
Sophia Shatas, grade 12, Silver Key in Poetry, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Elisabeth Siegel, grade 11, two Silver Keys for entries in Poetry and Critical Essay, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Poetry
Meilan Steimle, grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story, Honorable Mention in Flash Fiction
Mariam Sulakian, grade 12, Silver Key in Personal Essay/Memoir
Alice Wu, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Personal Essay/Memoir
Menghua Wu, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Poetry
Daphne Yang, grade 11, Silver Key in Poetry
Tiffany Zhu, Grade 10, Silver Key in Short Story
Silver Keys and Honorable Mentions in Visual Arts were awarded to:
Avni Barman, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Painting
Hannah Bollar, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Eric Cheung, grade 12, three Silver Keys for entries in Architecture
Emma Doherty, grade 11, Silver Key in Photography
Alexa Gross, grade 10, three Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Photography and Drawing
Vance Hirota, grade 7, Honorable Mention
Matthew Ho, grade 12, Silver Key in Drawing
Jeffrey Hsu, grade 12, two Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Painting and Drawing
Ramzi Jahshan, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Digital Art
Doreene Kang, grade 11, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing
Kevin Ke, grade 11, four Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing and Printmaking
Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11, two Silver Keys and one Honorable Mention for entries in Photography
Cindy Liu, grade 12, two Silver Keys and three Honorable Mentions for entries in Photgraphy and Drawing
Cheryl Liu, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Sophia Luo, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Archana Podury, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Neha Sunil, grade 12, Silver Key and Honorable Mention for entries in Photography
Kelly Wang, grade 12, Silver Key and Honorable Mention for entries in Drawing and Art Portfolio
Madelyn Wang, grade 12, three Honorable Mentions for entries in Photography
Menghua Wu, grade 12, two Honorable Mentions for entries in Drawing and Printmaking
Kevina Xiao, grade 11, Honorable Mention in Drawing
Jessica Yang, grade 12, Honorable Mention in Digital Art
This past weekend six Harker students participated in the ninth United States Invitational Young Physicists Tournament held at the Woodberry Forest School in Woodberry Forest, Va., and finished first, ahead of eight other teams from three continents.
The competition is the culmination of yearlong research into four problems spanning many aspects of classical physics including mechanics, fluid dynamics, experimental measurement, optics, wave behavior, magnetism, electrical circuits, etc.
The problems for the 2015 tournament were: 1) measure the Avogadro constant as precisely and accurately as possible; 2) build, analyze and optimize a Gauss rifle; 3) investigate and analyze the problem of the parametric resonance of a mass oscillating on the end of a spring; and 4) investigate and analyze the problem of the “teapot effect,” in which water clings to the underside of a surface as the water flows across the surface.
The tournament this year was the largest in its short history, with nine schools from three continents competing, including two schools from China, one school from Tunisia, and six schools from the United States.
The team from The Harker School came out on top, earning their third victory at the competition in the past five years. The members of the team were Vivek Bharadwaj, grade 11; Nitya Mani, grade 12; Elina Sendonaris, grade 11; Manan Shah, grade 10; Tong Wu, grade 11; and Jessica Zhu, grade 11. These students were supported by Alice Wu and Naman Jindal, both grade 11, in their research efforts leading up to the tournament. Dr. Mark Brada helped prepare the team and accompanied them on the trip.
Today Society for Science & the Public announced that Harker seniors Andrew Jin, Rohith Kuditipudi and Steven Wang were named finalists in the 2015 Intel Science Talent Search (STS), making Harker the only school in the country with three finalists. This also breaks Harker’s previous record of two finalists, set in 2011. Harker has now produced a total of nine finalists since it began participating in the Intel STS during the 2005-06 school year, when Yi Sun ’06 took second place nationally.
Jin, Kuditipudi and Wang were among 15 semifinalists from Harker – the most of any school in the nation – who were named earlier this month. They now join 40 other high school students from across the United States who will travel to Washington, D.C., in March for the final stage of the competition, where more than $1 million in cash prizes will be awarded.
While in Washington, the finalists will have the opportunity to demonstrate their research to key figures in the scientific community and national leadership. Winners will be announced at a special invitation-only gala at the National Building Museum on March 10.
Harker rocked the Southwest Championship tournament at Arizona State this weekend!
Lisa Liu, grade 11, took second overall in humorous interpretation and third overall in impromptu speaking. Misha Tseitlin, grade 10, breezed through semifinals to end his Congressional Debate run in finals. Arjun Narayan, grade 11, welcomed in 2015 by earning a spot in the semifinals of extemporaneous speaking.
In public forum debate, all 10 teams were 3-2 or better going into round six and eight teams advanced to elimination rounds. Sorjo Banerjee, grade 11, and Emaad Raghib, grade 10, were in the final round where they ended up in second place out of 124 public forum teams. Nikhil Kishore and Vamsi Gadiraju, both grade 12, advanced to the Elite Eight where they met Banerjee and Raghib, ending their run as quarterfinalists. David Jin, grade 11, and Alexander Lam, grade 10, were also quarterfinalists. Both Kishore/Gadiraju and Jin/Lam complete their qualifications to the Tournament of Champions.
Ending their run in the Sweet Sixteen were Jasmine Liu and Abhinav Ketineni, both grade 11, who met Jin and Lam in the octofinal round, also know as “the bid round.” Also earning bids to the Tournament of Champions were Samali Sahoo and Anthony Luo, both grade 11, as well as Aumesh Misra, grade 11, and Ashwath Thirumalai, grade 12, who advanced to double-octofinals but met Harker teams in the round of 32 and were thus awarded ghost bids. Avik Wadhwa and Aadyot Bhatnagar, both grade 12, as well as seniors Andrew Jin and David Lin also advanced through triples to end their run in double-octofinals.
Special recognition goes out to alumni coaches Kiran Arimilli ’13, Anuj Sharma ’13 and Andy Wang ’14 for their coaching in Arizona.
Congratulations to all 23 Harker speech and debate Eagles for rocking The Grand Canyon State!
Ten Harker students earned high marks in the 2014 National Assessment & Testing Ciphering Time Trials, making Harker the top-ranking high school in the country to participate in the contest.
Swapnil Garg took first place in the grade 9 division, with classmates Shaya Zarkesh and Joanna Lin placing 12th and 15th, respectively. In the grade 10 division, David Zhu and Kai-Siang Ang tied for second place, while Misha Ivkov placed ninth. Placing first in the grade 11 division was Richard Yi, with Allison Wang taking fourth. Patrick Lin and Ashwath Thirumalai placed second and fourth, respectively, in the grade 12 division.
Each participant completed 10 rounds of testing, each of which contained three problems of varying difficulty that had to be solved in within three minutes. National Assessment & Testing administers math contests by email every year, which are then conducted by the teachers at the participating schools.
Three stock-picking teams from Harker qualified to participate in The Stock Market Game at the international DECA conference in May and Harker students grabbed three of 25 top spots in the Western region, beating out more than 1,200 other Western teams.
Teams with the highest portfolio returns compared to the S&P 500 stock index made it into this elite group.
Harker’s David Lin, grade 12, earned first place in the Western region and third in the nation. His portfolio totaled a whopping $179,388, or nearly 80 percent over the S&P 500 stock index.
Steven Wang, Aaron Huang and Leo Yu, all grade 12, placed 14th. Their portfolio totaled $116,549 for a return of 16.8 percent above the S&P 500. The team of Alex Tuharsky and Ashwath Thirumalai, both grade 12, placed 18th with a 15.3 percent return and a closing portfolio of $115,078.
These three teams are eligible to defend their investment decisions in The Stock Market Game at DECA’s international conference in Georgia in May. DECA prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
“We are very proud of these students,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program. “We are sending the No. 1 ranked finalist to represent the Western region and defending our international title from last year.
“There’s a lot of competition,” Glass added. “We posted the Top 10 Harker investors every week for the whole school to see and have fun with. It was cool to see who moved up and down in the rankings each week.”
The Stock Market Game requires students to select stocks and manage a virtual investment portfolio. The teams start with $100,000 of make-believe money on Sept. 8 and manage their portfolios until “the sound of the bell” on Dec. 12.
Students can invest in instruments other than common stock. “You can invest in mutual funds, exchange traded funds and bonds, as well as stocks. Thus, many of my holdings in the game were not stocks,” Tuharsky says.
“I’m a value investor, meaning that I pick stocks that I think are undervalued (their true value is larger than the value dictated by their market price) and buy these stocks,” Thirumalai explained. “I determine value primarily based on growth trends and corporate financials.”
The Tuharsky-Thirumalai team hit a mother lode with JDST. It is a stock fund “equivalent to a leveraged short position on gold miners,” Tuharsky says. It was the team’s best performer.
The Stock Market Game “teaches participants to stay up-to-date on their business news, and generally creates more interest in the stock market,” Tuharsky said. Although students learned various methods of analysis and scoured the financials, Thirumalai says he also learned that luck plays a role in picking stocks.
Seven Harker faculty members also participated in the game, but didn’t quite match the students’ returns. Art teacher Josh Martinez ended 9 percent above the S&P, earning him second place in the Western Region teacher group.
The Stock Market Game is just one of dozens of competitive events DECA sponsors for high school and college students. About 200,000 high school students participate in 3,500 high school DECA chapters nationwide. More than 5,000 teams participate in The Stock Market Game nationwide.
Tuharsky said he was already interested in a career in finance or economics and the thrill of “The Stock Market Game has pushed me further in that direction.” Win or lose, Thirumalai said the experience was “a ton of fun.”
Three stock-picking teams from Harker qualified to participate in The Stock Market Game at the international DECA conference in May and Harker students grabbed three of 25 top spots in the Western region, beating out more than 1,200 other Western teams.
Teams with the highest portfolio returns compared to the S&P 500 stock index made it into this elite group.
Harker’s David Lin, grade 12, earned first place in the Western region and third in the nation. His portfolio totaled a whopping $179,388, or nearly 80 percent over the S&P 500 stock index.
Steven Wang, Aaron Huang and Leo Yu, all grade 12, placed 14th. Their portfolio totaled $116,549 for a return of 16.8 percent above the S&P 500. The team of Alex Tuharsky and Ashwath Thirumalai, both grade 12, placed 18th with a 15.3 percent return and a closing portfolio of $115,078.
These three teams are eligible to defend their investment decisions in The Stock Market Game at DECA’s international conference in Georgia in May. DECA prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
“We are very proud of these students,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program. “We are sending the No. 1 ranked finalist to represent the Western region and defending our international title from last year.
“There’s a lot of competition,” Glass added. “We posted the Top 10 Harker investors every week for the whole school to see and have fun with. It was cool to see who moved up and down in the rankings each week.”
The Stock Market Game requires students to select stocks and manage a virtual investment portfolio. The teams start with $100,000 of make-believe money on Sept. 8 and manage their portfolios until “the sound of the bell” on Dec. 12.
Students can invest in instruments other than common stock. “You can invest in mutual funds, exchange traded funds and bonds, as well as stocks. Thus, many of my holdings in the game were not stocks,” Tuharsky says.
“I’m a value investor, meaning that I pick stocks that I think are undervalued (their true value is larger than the value dictated by their market price) and buy these stocks,” Thirumalai explained. “I determine value primarily based on growth trends and corporate financials.”
The Tuharsky-Thirumalai team hit a mother lode with JDST. It is a stock fund “equivalent to a leveraged short position on gold miners,” Tuharsky says. It was the team’s best performer.
The Stock Market Game “teaches participants to stay up-to-date on their business news, and generally creates more interest in the stock market,” Tuharsky said. Although students learned various methods of analysis and scoured the financials, Thirumalai says he also learned that luck plays a role in picking stocks.
Seven Harker faculty members also participated in the game, but didn’t quite match the students’ returns. Art teacher Josh Martinez ended 9 percent above the S&P, earning him second place in the Western Region teacher group.
The Stock Market Game is just one of dozens of competitive events DECA sponsors for high school and college students. About 200,000 high school students participate in 3,500 high school DECA chapters nationwide. More than 5,000 teams participate in The Stock Market Game nationwide.
Tuharsky said he was already interested in a career in finance or economics and the thrill of “The Stock Market Game has pushed me further in that direction.” Win or lose, Thirumalai said the experience was “a ton of fun.”
Three stock-picking teams from Harker qualified to participate in The Stock Market Game at the international DECA conference in May and Harker students grabbed three of 25 top spots in the Western region, beating out more than 1,200 other Western teams.
Teams with the highest portfolio returns compared to the S&P 500 stock index made it into this elite group.
Harker’s David Lin, grade 12, earned first place in the Western region and third in the nation. His portfolio totaled a whopping $179,388, or nearly 80 percent over the S&P 500 stock index.
Steven Wang, Aaron Huang and Leo Yu, all grade 12, placed 14th. Their portfolio totaled $116,549 for a return of 16.8 percent above the S&P 500. The team of Alex Tuharsky and Ashwath Thirumalai, both grade 12, placed 18th with a 15.3 percent return and a closing portfolio of $115,078.
These three teams are eligible to defend their investment decisions in The Stock Market Game at DECA’s international conference in Georgia in May. DECA prepares students for careers in marketing, finance, hospitality and management.
“We are very proud of these students,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program. “We are sending the No. 1 ranked finalist to represent the Western region and defending our international title from last year.
“There’s a lot of competition,” Glass added. “We posted the Top 10 Harker investors every week for the whole school to see and have fun with. It was cool to see who moved up and down in the rankings each week.”
The Stock Market Game requires students to select stocks and manage a virtual investment portfolio. The teams start with $100,000 of make-believe money on Sept. 8 and manage their portfolios until “the sound of the bell” on Dec. 12.
Students can invest in instruments other than common stock. “You can invest in mutual funds, exchange traded funds and bonds, as well as stocks. Thus, many of my holdings in the game were not stocks,” Tuharsky says.
“I’m a value investor, meaning that I pick stocks that I think are undervalued (their true value is larger than the value dictated by their market price) and buy these stocks,” Thirumalai explained. “I determine value primarily based on growth trends and corporate financials.”
The Tuharsky-Thirumalai team hit a mother lode with JDST. It is a stock fund “equivalent to a leveraged short position on gold miners,” Tuharsky says. It was the team’s best performer.
The Stock Market Game “teaches participants to stay up-to-date on their business news, and generally creates more interest in the stock market,” Tuharsky said. Although students learned various methods of analysis and scoured the financials, Thirumalai says he also learned that luck plays a role in picking stocks.
Seven Harker faculty members also participated in the game, but didn’t quite match the students’ returns. Art teacher Josh Martinez ended 9 percent above the S&P, earning him second place in the Western Region teacher group.
The Stock Market Game is just one of dozens of competitive events DECA sponsors for high school and college students. About 200,000 high school students participate in 3,500 high school DECA chapters nationwide. More than 5,000 teams participate in The Stock Market Game nationwide.
Tuharsky said he was already interested in a career in finance or economics and the thrill of “The Stock Market Game has pushed me further in that direction.” Win or lose, Thirumalai said the experience was “a ton of fun.”