The National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP),a nonprofit organization that honors the scholastic achievements of high school juniors, has announced the nation’s semifinalists in the 2010 competition from those students who took the PSAT in 2008.
More than 1.5 million juniors in nearly 22,000 U.S. high schools took the PSAT; semifinalists represent less than one percent of those who took the exam. Most high schools boast only a few, if any, students who earn this prestigious recognition. Congratulations to Harker’s 50 semifinalists (29 percent of the class), now seniors:
Namrata Anand, Brandon Araki, Patrick Campbell, Victor Chen, Virginia Chen, Jeanette Chin, Da-Yoon Chung, Alexander Creasman, Samir Datta, Stefan Eckhardt, Nathaniel Edwards, Thomas Enzminger, Ryan Fan, Andy Fang, James Feng, Alex Fotland, Michael Gendotti, Alex Han, Kelsey Hilbrich, Christine Hsu, Eugene Huang, Sonya Huang, Noriko Ishisoko, Vishesh Jain, Carissa Jansen, Curran Kaushik, Sohini Khan, Yash Khandwala, Tiffany Kyi, Ruozi Li, Daisy Lin, Andrea Lincoln, Connie Lu, Rachel Luo, Christina Ma, Anjali Menon, Arjun Mody, Arthi Padmanabhan, Adam Perelman, Govind Raghunath, Mark Roh, Srikrishna Seeni, Rashmi Sharma, Haran Sivakumar, Elaine Song, Jeffrey Tan, Sarah Teplitsky, Margaret Woods, Kevin Zhang, Andrew Zhou
Most of these semifinalists who continue their academic excellence into their senior year, and who are endorsed by their principals and earn high scores on their SATs, will advance to the finalist round, where they have opportunities to win one of three types of merit scholarships: $2,500 National Merit-sponsored scholarships awarded by state, approximately 1,000 scholarships sponsored by corporations and business organizations, and some 4,700 scholarships awarded by about 200 colleges and universities to students matriculating at those schools.
Staff members of the Talon and Winged Post visited New York City in late June and early July to attend a summer journalism camp by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Accompanied by US journalism advisor and activities director Chris Daren, the students got to take in the many sights and sounds of the City That Never Sleeps, including Central Park, Coney Island and the Statue of Liberty.
Harker journalists also did very well at the camp, winning several awards. The Talon staff earned the top honor in the Achievement in Theme category, while level one and level two layout awards were given to Isha Kawatra, Gr. 10 and Brianna Tran, Gr. 11, respectively. Design awards were received by junior Dawn Queen for Outstanding Headline Package and by the team of Queen and fellow junior Monisha Appalaraju for Outstanding Secondary Module (for example, a sidebar).
In Newspaper Awards, Shreya Nathan, Gr. 11, won for Best Personality Profile, Malika Mehrotra, Gr. 11, for Best Section Design and Mahum Jamal, Gr. 12, for Top All-Around Journalist.
Other highlights of the trip included an interview with Scott Harrison of charity:water, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attending a production of “Billy Elliot” on Broadway and catching an advance screening of the new CBS show “The Good Wife,” after which the group spotted the show’s star, Julianna Margulies, two rows ahead of them at a production of “Mary Stuart”! Not to mention enjoying the many storied food establishments located throughout the city.
In all, a trip that was just as rewarding academically as it was recreationally!
Harker’s Bacteria Busters eCybermission team flew to Washington D.C. for the eCybermission finals in late June where they participated in team-building workshops, lunched with Army brass and met with eCybermission judges. The group visited various D.C. sights and made a special trip to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds research labs. Although the team did not take top honors, each member received a $3,500 savings bond (in addition to the $3,000 bond awarded for their regional finish) and a medal for participating in the finals. In addition, this year, adviser Raji Swaminathan was awarded two plaques: one for being a founding participant and the second for being a five year participant.
Harker’s Future Problem Solvers had another great year, garnering honors at both the state and international levels in April and May.
At the Future Problem Solving (FPS) California state finals, held on the Saratoga campus in April, Harker emerged as the state champion in a remarkable nine of 12 categories, and won the junior division for the very first time. The junior (Madhu Nori, Juhi Muthal, Simran Singh and Tiara Bhatacharya, all Gr. 6), middle (Daniela Lapidous, Akshay Tangutur, Chaitanya Malladi and Laura Yau, all Gr. 9) and senior (Namrata Anand, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Monisha Dilip, all Gr. 11) teams advanced to the international finals in Michigan.
In a stroke of luck, the second place team of eighth graders Ria Desai, Emily Wang, Pooja Shah and Sonia Gupta was invited to the international finals when one team dropped out due to the swine flu scare.
Two other Harker teams earned high rankings. Ninth graders Jennie Xu, Daanish Jamal, Ananth Subramaniam and Jackie Jin took third, while eighth graders Karan Das Grande, Shelby Rorabaugh, Jacqueline Wang and Connie Cheng earned fourth.
Harker also had the top middle and senior scenario writer, Rorabaugh and Olivia Zhu, Gr. 10. Alex Han, Gr. 11, was the top senior individual contestant, and qualified for the international finals.
For action plan presentations, Harker won at all three levels. Senior presenters were Christopher Berglund, Dominique Dabija, Ananya Anand and Nikhil Raghuram, Gr. 12, and Tim Chou, Gr. 10. Harker’s middle division action plan team was joined by Brian Tuan, Gr. 7, while Allen Huang and Sahana Rangarajan, both Gr. 7, joined the junior team to present their action plan.
Additionally, Cyrus Merrill, MS history teacher, was re-elected to be the state president of the nonprofit organization that runs FPS in the state of California.
At the international finals Michigan, all four Harker teams finished in the top half of their categories. The junior team fell just short of entering the final round, finishing third.
First place wins went to individual competitor Alex Han and to the team of action plan presenters in the senior division: juniors Monisha Dilip, Sarah Wang, Jeanette Chin and Alex Han, and sophomores Isaac Madan and Olivia Zhu. Namrata Anand fell ill and was absent from the finals, but managed to contribute via speakerphone while the team was preparing.
Shelby Rorabaugh, meanwhile, took third place in scenario writing, while Ananth Subramaniam took third in the middle division alternates category.
Congratulations to Public Forum debaters Kelsey Hilbrich, Gr. 11 and Kaavya Gowda, Gr. 12, for their win at the National Tournament of Champions (TOC) held in May at the University of Kentucky. The TOC is considered to be one of the most prestigious tournaments in the nation. Students compete on the national circuit all year against some of the best teams in the country to earn qualifying legs to the TOC. For most students, just qualifying to the TOC is a high school dream. Once at the TOC, debaters are pitted against the best, since every team in the tournament had to make it to late eliminations at other elite national tournaments. This means that every preliminary round (there are seven) is essentially a semifinal or final round at a regular season tournament.
When the dust clears after seven preliminary rounds, the top 16 teams at the tournament are left to battle in the elimination rounds. Much like a sports tournament, the winning team in each debate advances except there is no best of three or five, it is a single elimination. Hilbrich and Gowda defeated a number of top-tier teams, round after round for three days straight. In their semifinal round, they defeated the National Debate Coaches Association champions, and in finals they went head to head with a team who had been in a number of national final rounds including the largest national high school invitation in the fall (the Glenbrooks).
The entire year for debate culminates in the three national championship title competitions, so this win was a perfect end to the school year. Carol Green, debate teacher and coach, was thrilled with the girls’ per formance and stressed the difficulty of this achievement. Green explained, “It is rare that a national championship in debate is brought to a high school considering the thousands of schools that compete for the oppor tunity each year. As a coach I can honestly say this may be one of the highlights of my career!”
Hilbrich and Gowda were presented with their trophies in late May, and they presented the school with a framed award to be displayed perpetually on campus. The girls were also featured on the front page of the National Forensics League Web site. Congratulations to both the coach and our national champions!
In other forensics news, the Harker policy team comprising juniors Arjun Mody and Adam Perelman had a good showing at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament in Albany, N.Y. The boys went 3-2 in prelims and made it to double-octofinals (top 32) in Policy Debate. This is the first time a Harker policy team has made it to elimination rounds at Grand Nationals. Nice work!
Meanwhile, David Kastelman, Gr. 12, made it to the four th level of competition in the Lions Club Speakers Contest, an annual speech competition for high school students. The topic for this year’s contest was “Water: Will California Be Left High and Dry?” Kastelman was defeated at the four th level after defeating Jyoti Narayanswami, Gr. 11, at the third level, and Kevin Kim, Gr. 12, at the second level. Kim had previously defeated Akshay Aggarwal, Gr. 10, at the first level. “This is the first time multiple Harker students have competed against each other at the various levels and we look forward to continuing this success in future years,” said Green.
Senior Daniel J. Kim has been named a 2009 Presidential Scholar, making him the third Harker Presidential Scholar since 2006. This marks the first year Harker has had two semifinalists in the Presidential Scholar selection process; Vikram Nathan, Gr. 12 was also a semifinalist.
Kim has been invited to Washington, D.C., where he and other scholars from around the country and abroad will be presented with a Presidential Scholar medallion during National Recognition Week in June.
Harker’s previous two Presidential Scholars were Senan Ebrahim ’08 and Samantha Fang ’06, who was named a Scholar of the Arts.
Each year the U.S. Department of Education names one male and one female Scholar, from each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In addition, two students are selected from families living abroad, 15 students are chosen at large and 20 are chosen who specialize in visual and performing arts.
About 3,000 academic candidates are eligible based on evaluation of their College Board SAT or ACT Assessment scores. Students interested in joining the arts portion of the Presidential Scholar program must register for youngARTS, a program by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, which then nominates students as Presidential Scholars.
Alyssa Donovan, Gr. 12, has her research paper, “Whaling in the International Whaling Commission: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Organization’s Failures,” selected for potential publication in The Concord Review, over the next year. The Review will notify Donovan a month before publication if selected. Donovan wrote the paper for Ramsey Westgate’s International Issues and Public Policy class, and it was presented earlier this spring at the Harker Research Symposium.
The paper deals with Donovan’s perception of the need to transform the IWC’s “bureaucratic and power structure to allow for enforcement of laws, re-evaluate its policy-making strategies to fairly and accurately portray both current scientific data as well as the nation-states affected, and …extend the reach of both its enforcement and political policy to non-state as well as state actors.” Concord Review founder Will Fitzhugh thanked Donovan for what he called a very good paper.
Donovan worked with several faculty members on the piece, including librarians Lauri Vaughan and Sue Smith. Smith noted the acceptance is a historic moment in Harker history and Anita Chetty, science department chair and organizer of the Harker Research Symposium said, “This is an incredible achievement,” and suggested the paper be made available for teaching purposes.
Founded in 1987, The Concord Review is a quarterly academic journal which publishes 10 or 11 papers per issue from around the world. It only publishes about seven percent of submissions and over 10 percent published authors attend Harvard, with many others attending Princeton, Stanford and Oxford
On Feb. 25, 35 MS students took the American Mathematics Competitions AMC-10B test. Some also participated in the AMC-10A contest held on Feb. 10. Sierra Lincoln, Pranav Sharma, Ashvin Swaminathan and Wilbur Yang, all Gr. 8, and Vikram Sundar and Alex Pei, both Gr. 7, each scored 120 or higher and were invited to take the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) which was held on March 17. Results of the AIME were not available at Harker News press time.
Angela Gu, Gr. 6, and seventh graders Travis Chen, Rahul Sridhar and Nathan Wong also had very high scores but missed the AIME qualification score by very few points.
MS students also participated in the annual Santa Clara Valley Math Association contest on March 21. Students were competing with high schoolers in the area for the Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Geometry contests. The team comprising Deniz Celik, Gr. 8 and Pei placed fourth in the Leap Frog contest. Wong placed fifth in the Algebra 2 contest and Chen placed twelfth in Geometry. Allison Wong, Gr. 5, placed 10th in the Algebra 1 contest. Harker MS placed third overall in this competition.
Three students have qualified for the United States Chemistry Olympiad in late April. Andrew Zhou, Gr. 11, scored 58 points out of 60 on a March 27 exam to earn a spot, while Kevin Xu, Gr. 12, scored 57. Because he moved beyond the national round in last year’s competition, Vikram Nathan, Gr. 12, will also compete for Harker, even though each school is typically allowed to enter only two students.
Harker students took five prizes in the 2009 Primary Math World Contest Team Tryouts. Cindy Liu, Gr. 6, David Zhu, Gr. 4 and Shaya Zarkesh, Gr. 3, all took first place in their grades; Aneesh Samineni, Gr. 4, took third place in his grade; and Rachel Wu, Gr. 6, took fourth place in her grade. Zhu, Wu and Liu all finished in the top 10 percent and have been invited to a 12-week training course to prepare them for the next level. “I especially would like to commend David Zhu who is the first fourth grader ever ranked in the top 10 (he was actually tied for first) in the history of this contest for the past five years,” said Ewa Garg of MathEdge, which hosted the event. “Given the highly competitive nature and difficulty of this contest, these students have my deepest congratulations!”