Society for Science announced Wednesday that Paulomi Bhattacharya, grade 12, has been named one of 40 finalists in this year’s Intel Science Talent Search, becoming the first Harker student to be named an Intel STS finalist and a Siemens contest finalist in the same year. Bhattacharya, who was also a Siemens finalist last year, “is a classic example of a student who has gone through our whole research program,” said science department chair Anita Chetty.
Bhattacharya found the inspiration for her project, titled “A Novel AAA-ATPase p97/VCP Inhibitor Lead for Multiple Myeloma by Fragment-Based Drug Design: A Computational Binding Model and NMR/SPR-Based Validation,” while interviewing for a position at the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences at Univeristy of California, San Francisco, last year. “As I discussed possible projects with my professor, he mentioned a post-doctoral research group in the department that was working on a National Cancer Institute-funded project,” she said. “But the target protein was proving to be very difficult, and even after a year they had few significant results.”
Eager to help and seeking a new experience, Bhattacharya joined the team and began working on one of three unexplored drug target regions. “I designed an independent project and worked separately from the group throughout the summer, reading background literature, learning the molecular modeling techniques, using NMR/SPR spectroscopies, and learning the underlying theories of physics and chemistry,” she said.
In choosing the project, Bhattacharya expressed her desire to add to the field of cancer research. “I know far too many who have fought cancer without success,” she said. “Consequently, I jumped at the opportunity to pursue a cure for multiple myeloma. The cause that I was fighting for strengthened my resolve to creatively make an impact by scientific advancement.”
In addition to her success in these contests, Bhattacharya has also been an active member of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WiSTEM) and other clubs, written for the Triple Helix Online and presented at the Harker Research Symposium on multiple occasions. “She represents a student who has taken advantage of not only the clubs, but of internships, research classes and the many other opportunities available to her in the research program,” Chetty said.
Bhattacharya has expressed her thanks to the many Harker teachers in various programs and disciplines who have supported and mentored her since she started at Harker in grade 5, including lower school history teacher Pat Walsh, middle school math teacher Vandana Kadam, middle school biology teacher Lorna Claerbout, middle school history teacher Cyrus Merrill, upper school science department teachers Chetty, Mala Raghavan, Chris Spenner, Robbie Korin and Richard Page and math teacher Victor Adler.
She also mentioned her sincere gratitude to her professor at UCSF, Dr. Matthew Jacobs, “for giving me the opportunity to work with him in this emerging field,” and her post-doctoral mentor at UCSF, Dr. Michael Chimenti, for offering his guidance to her throughout the project.
Fall sports are still in action as teams go into playoffs or wrap up their seasons. The big news today is the Harker varsity girls volleyball team took the CCS championship last night. Watch for the update as details become available!
Football The Fremont Firebirds and Harker Eagles lit up the scoreboard last Friday night in a football game that featured 21 touchdowns as Fremont defeated Harker 90-56. Harker led 50-49 at halftime and finished the game with 571 yards of total offense, led by senior quarterback Spenser Quash’s aerial assault on the Firebird defense. Quash completed 28 of 47 passes for 422 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. Kevin Moss, grade 11, and Robert Deng, grade 12, each caught two touchdowns, and Christian Williams, grade 11, caught the fifth. Quash also ran for three touchdowns. Harker plays its final game of the season at Homecoming tonight night versus Lynbrook.
Water Polo
The boys’ water polo team placed fourth at the Homestead Tournament over the weekend, defeating Half Moon Bay but losing to Carlmont and Burlingame. Against Half Moon Bay, Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, netted four goals, with Ryan Hume, grade 12, scoring three. Eric Holt, grade 10, Gilad Nilo, grade 12, and Jeremy Binkley, grade 10, all added a goal apiece. For his efforts, Das-Grande was named first team all-tournament. The boys play in the league tournament starting this Thursday evening against Lynbrook.
The #1-seeded girls water polo team earned their first ever league championship yesterday by defeating Mountain View 9-5 in the semifinal match of the league tournament and improve to 20-5 overall. The league championship qualifies them for the CCS tournament which begins next week. Congratulations, ladies, on your accomplishments and for making Harker history!
Golf
Patricia Huang, grade 12, and Kristine Lin, grade 11, each played in the CCS golf championships this week in Carmel. Huang ended her Harker golf career on a high note, shooting an 82 to finish 30th place at Rancho Canada. It was a record-breaking week for her, as she became the first Harker golfer to qualify for CCS as an individual all four years of her career. Her score of 82 represents the lowest score ever carded by a Harker girls golfer at CCS. In Carmel, Lin followed up with an 85, placing 38 out of 90 participants, and this week became the first female Harker golfer to win the regular season individual title. To cap it off, she won the league championships with an impressive score of 73 at Poplar Creek.
Tennis
Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, and Katia Mironova, grade 11, defeated Crystal Springs Tuesday in straight sets to win the WBAL doubles championship. With the win, the duo will represent Harker at the CCS Individual Tournament Nov. 19-20 at Courtside Club in Los Gatos. Dora Tzeng, grade 11, also played well, but lost to #1 seed Menlo in the semifinals. Tzeng won the first set, lost the second set in a close tiebreaker, and lost 6-4 in the third set. Tzeng, seeded #3, nearly pulled off the upset despite serving underhand.
Volleyball
Varsity girls volleyball won the league championship, defeating Mercy-Burlingame 25-21, 25-20, 25-15. The team needed the victory to become league tri-champions with a 20-6 overall record and 10-2 in league. By virtue of the league tie-breaking system, Harker receives the first seed from our league into the CCS tournament, which starts next week.
Cross Country The teams did not qualify for the CCS championships, but four individuals did qualify for the Nov. 10 sectional championships at Toro Park in Salinas. Ragini Bhattacharya, grade 12 (19:24, third) and Claudia Tischler, grade 11 (19:41, sixth place and cracked the top 10 in the league for the first time) ran their personal bests on the 2.95-mile course. The girls team missed qualifying by .3 seconds. Bhattacharya’s time of 19:24 is a new school record.
On the boys’ side, sophomore Corey Gonzales (second) and senior Tyler Yeats (25th) will run in the CCS meet. Gonzales’ time of 16:12 is a new school record.
This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s middle school speech and debate team capped another strong season on June 18, earning one of only three all-around school of excellence awards at the National Junior Forensic League (NJFL) National Championships in Indianapolis. This honor recognizes the combined accomplishment of the 26 students who competed. The team also extended their streak as one of the five recipients of the school of excellence in debate award to three consecutive years.
Aditya Dhar, now grade 8, earned an individual national championship – Harker’s third straight. He was joined in the final round of congress by teammate Alexander Lam, grade 8, who earned second place.
Harker also enjoyed its best performance to date at nationals in policy debate by advancing all three teams it entered. Numerous public forum debate teams advanced to elimination competition as well.
The all-around school of excellence award was made possible by a breakthrough for Harker’s forensics program, as the school entered a significant number of students in the speech events for the first time. Though the middle school speech program is new, several students excelled at the tournament.
Harker’s growing accomplishments at NJFL Nationals have occurred under the leadership of Karina Momary, the director of middle school forensics. This year the school also welcomed new assistant coach Marjorie Hazeltine, who has ably coached the fledgling group of speech competitors. The returning middle school students look forward to continuing their tradition of success next season in preparation for the 2013 NJFL Nationals in Birmingham, Ala.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently announced this year’s semifinalists in the 2013 National Merit Scholarship Competition, and 46 Harker students are among those listed, all of whom took the exam last year when they were juniors. They are:
Erik Andersen, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Joshua Bollar, Albert Chen, Jenny Chen, Amie Chien, Emily Chu, Ria Desai, Desirazu Rahul, Rebecca Fang, Drew Goldstein, David Grossman, Varun Gudapati, Jacob Hoffman, Samantha Hoffman, Andre Jia, Nayeon Kim, Cecilia Lang-Ree, Joy Li, Victoria Lin, Rebecca Liu, Meera Madhavan, Simar Mangat, Preeya Mehta, Ramakrishnan Menon, Payal Modi, Suchita Nety, Laura Pedrotti, Kyle Roter, Pooja Shah, Pranav Sharma, Wendy Shwe, Sonia Sidhu, Christopher Sund, Indica Sur, Ashvin Swaminathan, Ravi Tadinada, Apurva Tandon, Lunda Tang, Emily Wang, Jacqueline Wang, Lorraine Wong, Wilbur Yang, Robert Yeats, Michelle Zhang and Warren Zhang.
This contest is entered by more the than one million high school juniors nationwide who take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Exam. Students must maintain exceptional academic performance, receive a recommendation from a school administrator, compose an essay and receive SAT scores consistent with their performance on the PSAT to become finalists.
In May, Youth Journalism International announced the winners of its yearly contest, and Harker came up big. Class of 2012 graduates Sanjana Baldwa, Michelle Lo, Priyanka Mody, Jennie Xu, Laura Yau and grade 12 student Samantha Hoffman took second place in team reporting in a news story for their article, “Harpa Symbolizes a Turning Point for Icelandic Culture: A Monumental Resurrection.”
Harker won three awards in the team reporting feature story category, taking first place for a story by Michelle Deng ’12 and Allison Kiang, grade 9, titled, “Celebrating Survivors: Tales of Two Women and Their Victories Against Breast Cancer,” and second place for the story “Great White at Monterey Bay Aquarium” by Alisha Mayor ’12 and Samar Malik, grade 10. Priyanka Mody and Meena Chetty, grade 10, won an honorable mention for their story, “Self-Acceptance: Conquering an Eating Disorder.”
In the profile category, Shilpa Nataraj ’12 earned an honorable mention for “Japanese Musician Shares Traditional Instruments and Music.” First place in the first-person essay category went to Nayeon Kim, who wrote “Musicality, The Beauty of Chamber Music.”
Harker journalism’s photo squad also took home several awards, including first place in sports photo, for a water polo photo titled “Desperate Save,” taken by Megan Prakash, grade 10. Class of 2012 graduates Devin Nguyen and Laura Yau tied for second place in sports photo, Nguyen for his “Varsity Football” photo and Yau for “Running the Ball,” also a football shot. Prakash also took second place in the news photo category for her shot, titled “Pull!”
Middle school Latin students took the National Latin Exam in March, and of the 52 Harker students who received awards, 18 won gold medals and four had perfect papers.
In the Introduction to Latin category, Praveen Batra, Edgar Lin, Andrew Semenza, Eric Tran, Jeffrey Ma, Derek Yen, Rahul Bhethanabotla, Justin Au, all grade 6, and Grace Park, Raymond Xu and Arnav Tandon, all grade 7, received outstanding achievement awards. Achievement awards went to grade 6 students Sanjana Avula, Joshua Broweleit, Michael Kwan, Olivia Long, Sameep Mangat, Grant Chen and Satchi Thockchom.
Grade 7 students Venkat Sankar, Austin Tuan, Aditya Dhar, Amrita Singh, Arjun Subramaniam, Alayna Richmond, James He, Albert Xu and Kshithija Mulam all won gold/summa cum laude awards in Latin I, with Sankar and Tuan each submitting perfect papers. Meanwhile, Alexis Gauba, Manan Shah, Alexander Lam, Peter Wu, Eric Pei, Karthik Sundaram, all grade 7, and Anthony Luo, grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards. Winning magna cum laude were Alex Youn, grade 7, and John Jerney, grade 8. Grade 7 students Brendan Tobin, Brandon Chow and Jackson Su all won cum laude awards.
In the Latin II category, Elisabeth Siegel, Allison Wang, Rishabh Chandra, Sadhika Malladi, Gurutam Thockchom and Michael Moncton, all grade 8, won gold/summa cum laude awards, and Siegel and Wang were recognized for having perfect papers. Arjun Narayan, Grace Guan, Malvika Khanna and Kaushik Sankar, all grade 8, won silver/maxima cum laude awards, and cum laude awards were won by eighth graders Jonathan Dai and Jonathan Yu.
Earlier this year, results for the National Classical Etymology Exam were also revealed, and Sadhika Malladi and Elisabeth Siegel, grade 8, and Venkat Sankar, grade 7 all received gold awards. Rishabh Chandra, Alison Wang, both grade 8, and Nikhil Manglik and Albert Xu, both grade 7, won silver, and grade 7 students Chris Finsterbusch and Alexander Lam won bronze.
Indianapolis – June 18, 2012 – Harker’s middle school speech and debate team capped another strong season last Friday, earning one of only three all-around school of excellence awards at the National Junior Forensic League (NJFL) National Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. This honor recognizes the combined accomplishment of the 26 speakers and debaters from Harker who competed. While this is the first all-around award Harker has earned, the team extended their streak of being recognized as one of the five recipients of the school of excellence in debate award to three consecutive years.
Aditya Dhar, grade 7, improved another of the team’s streaks to three straight years with at least one student earning an individual national championship. Debating topics ranging from abolishing the Electoral College to passing the DREAM Act, Dhar dominated competition in congressional debate. He was joined in the final round of congress by teammate Alexander Lam, grade 7, who earned second place, as well as teammates Sophia Luo, grade 8, and Misha Tseitlin, grade 7.
Harker also enjoyed its best performance to date at nationals in policy debate by advancing all three teams it entered. The team of Steven Cao, grade 7, and Panny Shan, grade 8, advanced to semifinals (top four) before falling to the eventual champions from the Kinkaid School in Texas. Lisa Liu and Sophia Luo, both grade 8, compiled an undefeated record in preliminary competition and proceeded to quarterfinals (top eight) before falling. Joining these others was the team of Shannon Hong, grade 8, and Rahul Shukla, grade 7, who reached octafinals (top 16). This year’s policy topic focused on whether the United States should significantly increase exploration of space.
Numerous public forum debate teams advanced to elimination competition as well. The team of Sorjo Banerjee and Suraj Jagadeesh, both grade 8, advanced to quarterfinals (top eight) while the team of Kevin Chen, grade 8, and Joyce Huang, grade 7, reached octafinals (top 16). In addition to their successes in congress, Dhar and Lam joined forces to reach octafinals (top 16) in public forum. Debaters in this event discussed whether stand your ground laws are a legitimate expansion of self-defense.
The all-around school of excellence award was made possible by a breakthrough for Harker’s forensics program, as the school entered a significant number of students in the speech events for the first time. Though the middle school speech program is new, that did not stop several students from excelling at the tournament. Complementing her award in policy debate, Lisa Liu may have been the hardest working student at the tournament, advancing to semifinals (top 14) in poetry reading and quarterfinals (top 24) in dramatic interpretation of literature. Quarterfinalists in speech (top 24) included Sana Aladin, grade 7, in storytelling; Carissa Chen, grade 7, in original oratory; and Divya Rajasekharan, grade 7, in dramatic interpretation of literature.
Harker’s growing accomplishments at NJFL Nationals have occurred under the leadership of Karina Momary, the director of middle school forensics. This year the school also welcomed new assistant coach Marjorie Hazeltine, who has ably coached the fledgling group of speech competitors. The returning middle school students look forward to continuing their tradition of success next season in preparation for the 2013 NJFL Nationals in Birmingham, Ala.
This story was originally published in the spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly.
Among 200,000 paintings, short stories, writing portfolios, poems, digital art pieces and other works submitted to the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, only the top seven to 10 percent of submitted works make it to the national level, where the pieces are juried by luminaries in the visual and literary arts. Five Harker students were awarded Gold Keys, which will move them on to the national judging level, which takes place this month.
Cindy Tay, Grade 12
Cindy Tay, grade 12, won the Gold Key for her creative writing portfolio. After keeping most of her work to herself and close friends and teachers, Tay decided to submit her portfolio to the Scholastic Art and Writing contest. “It was time for me to put myself out there and get some new eyes on my work,” said Tay.
The pieces Tay chose were a reflection of her personality and experiences: “Meditations on Frozen Vegetables,” a story about Tay’s inability to remain calm under all circumstances; “Rice Paper and Red Eyes,” written about the struggles of a first-semester senior; “Needlework,” a piece about the afterlife; and her favorite, “Soliloquy to the Lost Hour,” a tale of teenage sleep deficiency.
To Tay, writing is how she best expresses herself. “I can be a little shy and sometimes lost for words. On writing assignments, however, my pen becomes the sassy, sharp tongue I wish I could deploy physically.” To future students, Tay says to actively pursue feedback, even from those who may not have a creative writing background. She also has a bit of college application advice: “Keep all your pieces for senior year …. Many of my college essays were derived from personal memoirs I had written previously.”
Meilan Steimle, Grade 7
Meilan Steimle, grade 7, submitted nine of her works to the competition. Three won Silver Keys, one an Honorable Mention, but it was her short story, “Yosemite Grasslands,” that won the Gold Key. The story is about a trip to Yosemite and “a girl who is as kooky as her parents, but fails to recognize it until she is forced to room with ‘normal’ people.” Originally an English assignment in grade 6, Steimle revised it heavily and submitted it to Enlight’ning, the middle school’s literary magazine. After revising the piece again this year, Steimle submitted the piece to Scholastic. “A lot of my other stories are pretty dark, and most of my family prefer ‘Yosemite Grasslands’ because it is lighter and funnier,” said Steimle. “It wasn’t my personal favorite, but I guess it’s all subjective.
Echoing the feelings of many writers before her, Steimle recognized the most challenging part of creating her piece was returning to it and revising it. “I just felt like I had already been there and done that.” After all revisions were complete, however, the story had been changed for the better. For aspiring writers, Steimle says not to worry if a favorite piece receives no recognition, as writing is subjective. Ultimately, says Steimle, “Write because you want to. If you read something you wrote and it makes you laugh or cry or even smile, you’ve won, even if you didn’t get recognition. In the end, your most important audience is yourself.
Carissa Chen, Grade 7
Carissa Chen, grade 7, won a Gold Key for her self- portrait, shown at left. She entered the competition to receive feedback and improve, as well as for the opportunity to share her art with others. “One of the necessities in drawing is to understand what you are drawing and what you are trying to ‘say,’” says Chen. She chose her self-portrait because it felt like a journey; exploring every crevice and detail of her face was meticulous, but rewarding. “It helped me understand my physical image as well as incorporate little hints of my own personality into a drawing.”
Drawing is Chen’s preferred form of expression. “I’m actually a shy person and I tend to plaster and veil my own thoughts. Drawing helps me show my own ideas.” Though she loves to draw, Chen was worried about facing the possibility of rejection when entering the contest. “Because I put hours of work and my own ideas into my drawing, the idea of it being rejected would not only hurt my pride as an artist, but also what I believe in.”
To future students, Chen advises hard work, dedication and rejecting limiting beliefs like “you have to be born with it.” To Chen, being a good artist is about much more than having technical ability: “Artistic talent isn’t the ability to draw a perfect circle naturally or place the colors in the right order or way. Rather, it’s the ability to become vulnerable in each drawing and the desire to work hard.”
Max Maynard, Grade 12
Max Maynard, grade 12, won the Gold Key for his digital art piece, “Depression,” first created in his AP Studio Art class. Maynard enjoys creating digital art because of its ease of manipulation and the endless creative possibilities engendered by working on a computer. He likes that he needs nothing more than his computer to do the work, as well as the creative options available to him through digital art. “It is possible to perhaps create something by the combination of elements that aren’t always able to combine in other media,” says Maynard.
The greatest challenge for Maynard while producing his piece was making sure he followed the proper creative commons licenses when using others’ photos, an important consideration for any digital artist. For those interested in creating digital art, Maynard counsels, “Technical skill in art comes with experience, so don’t worry too much about that. Focus more on your vision for the work as an artist.”
Cherry Xie, Grade 12
Xinyi “Cherry” Xie, grade 12, won the Gold Key for her painting, “Balcony,” which also received the first place painting award in the upper school’s juried art exhibit in May. Of everything she has done in the past few years, it’s the piece with which she is most satisfied. What she likes most about the piece are the colors. “I love the greens and contrasting red-orange, the shades of brown and blue and the caramel-like tone on the side.” The way in which the colors were mixed played into Xie’s technical skills as a painter. “I think I’ve always been super-sensitive to colors and somewhat obsessed with balancing palettes.”
To future AP Studio Art students, Xie has some sage advice: “Listen to [your teacher] and submit your pieces! It’s worth the extra effort!” Xie says as the creator of a piece of art, it is difficult to judge it objectively, and hard to realize that what was created was in fact very special. “No matter how you feel about your works,” says Xie, “that should not prevent you from just taking a leap of faith and showing it to others or submitting it in contests, because you never know how special it might be for someone (or everyone) else. Believe in yourself.” Sage advice, indeed!
For more information on the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, visit www.artandwriting.org.
Rising seniors Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona were crowned national champions in public forum debate at the National Forensic League’s National Tournament on June 15. Recent graduates Akshay Jagadeesh and Aakash Jagadeesh (no relation) reached the top 30. The tournament featured more than 260 teams, and thousands of students across the country competed just to qualify for the tournament.
Harker also won a School of Excellence Award in the Debate category. These awards are given to schools with multiple successful teams.
Rising seniors Anuj Sharma and Aneesh Chona were crowned national champions in public forum debate at the National Forensic League’s National Tournament on June 15. Recent graduates Akshay Jagadeesh and Aakash Jagadeesh (no relation) reached the top 30. The tournament featured more than 260 teams, and thousands of students across the country competed just to qualify for the tournament.
Harker also won a School of Excellence Award in the Debate category. These awards are given to schools with multiple successful teams.