In late July, Harker junior Sumati Wadhwa was honored by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) and was offered membership to the organization. The NSHSS seeks out and recognizes high school students with exemplary records in academics, leadership and dedication to their communities. In a press release, NSHSS president James W. Lewis said the organization “aim[s] to help students like Sumati build on their academic success by connecting them with unique learning experiences and resources to help prepare them for college and meaningful careers.”
The NSHSS was founded in 2002 by Lewis and Claes Nobel, a member of the family for which the Nobel Prize is named. High-achieving high school students are offered membership into the society, which provides a variety of opportunities, including internships, scholarships and peer networks. It currently boasts more than 1 million members in 160 countries.
Michael Zhao, another 2016 graduate, was recently named a 2016 winner of a National Merit Scholarship, bringing the total number of winners to 13. Congratulations!
Update: June 9, 2016
Three more members of the Class of 2016 have won National Merit Scholarships, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced in early June. These college-sponsored scholarship winners are Stephanie Huang (Northwestern University), Joshua Hung (University of Southern California) and Jonathan Dai (Northwestern University).
This announcement brings the total number of National Merit Scholarship winners from the 2016 senior class to 12.
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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation just announced this year’s $2,500 National Merit Scholarship winners, and six Harker seniors are among them. Karen Qi, Evan Lohn, Vivek Bharadwaj, Victoria Ding, Anika Mohindra and Allison Wang were among 2,500 scholarship winners nationwide, who were chosen from more than 15,000 finalists.
Last month, seniors Emily Pan, Esther Wang and Vineet Kosaraju were among 1,000 students nationwide to receive corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.
College-sponsored Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in June and July.
More than 1.5 million high school students were entered into this year’s National Merit Scholarship Program after taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in October 2014. Less than 1 percent of these students went on to the semifinal round of the competition, and 15,000 of those were named finalists. To be eligible for a National Merit Scholarship, semifinalists must demonstrate good academic standing, be recommended by a school official and receive scores on their SAT exams consistent with their performance on the qualifying tests. They must also complete an application that details the awards they’ve received, their extracurricular activities and leadership positions they have held.
Harker’s Future Problem Solving Team – ninth graders Kelly Shen, Sara Min and Tiffany Wong, and seventh grader Elaine Zhai – has advanced to the Presentation of Action Plan finals at the international competition! A celebration was in order, and with temperatures on the rise, the destination seemed obvious. “We celebrated by hitting up the Michigan State University on-campus Dairy Store for some homemade ice cream!” reported upper school debate teacher and team advisor Carol Green. The team competes in the final around on June 4. Wish them luck!
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Future Problem Solvers Taylor Lam, Kelly Shen, Sara Min and Tiffany Wong, all grade 9, are headed to internationals! In their division, the team placed first in presentation of action plan and second in global issues problem solving at the recent California Future Problem Solving championship. They will compete as California representatives at the international competition, which will be held at Michigan State University in June.
In the MAGIC competition –in which students meet their teammates for the first time on the day of competition – Evani Radiya-Dixit, grade 11, took first place in the middle/senior division, while Elaine Zhai, grade 7, took second. Earlier this semester, eighth graders Vishnu Jaisim and Jack Hansen took second and third, respectively, in the FPS scenario writing competition.
The 2016 Physics Bowl wrapped up in May, and Harker placed second in its region in Division II (for second-year physics students) and was ranked 122 worldwide. Each year, about 10,000 students participate in the competition, which consists of a 40-question timed test. Harker students who tested for this year’s Physics Bowl were Akshay Ravoor, Ayush Pancholy, Cindy Wang, Enya Lu, Katherine Tian, Kaushik Shiavakumar, Mathew Mammen, Nishant Ravi and Rithvik Panchapakesan, all grade 9; Edgar Lin, Jimmy Lin, Neelesh Ramachandran, Shaya Zarkesh and Swapnil Garg, all grade 10; and David Zhu, Manan Shah, Misha Ivkov, Peter Wu and Steven Cao, all grade 11.
Swapnil Garg, grade 10, won a gold medal in this year’s U.S. Physics Olympiad, sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Although he did not make the team that will participate in this year’s International Physics Olympiad, Garg was one of only 35 students (out of about 400 who qualified to take the USA Physics Olympiad Exam) to earn a gold medal.
Peter Wu and David Zhu, both grade 11, received silver medals in the contest, while sophomore Jimmy Lin, and seniors Jonathan Ma and Michael Zhao received honorable mentions.
Earlier this month, Harker junior Angela Kim received the Best in Class award in the grades 9-12 video category in this year’s Growing Up Asian in America Awards. Kim earned the award for her short film, “Mother’s Love,” and was honored at a special ceremony held at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum. She and other winners were later featured on an NBC Bay Area segment about the contest. Each year, the Asian Pacific Fund holds the Growing Up Asian in America Awards to feature the creative work of young Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Nearly 1,000 students from around the Bay Area participate every year, submitting artwork, poetry, prose and video projects.
As if that wasn’t enough to get excited about, Kim also will participate in the eight-week Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program, starting in June.
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.”
Nearly 50 middle school speech and debate students pitched in to help earn Harker the first place sweepstakes award at the Glendale Community College Tournament. The award is given to the top performing school at the tournament. In addition to the team award, Harker students had great success in each event as detailed below, making history as they won seven first place titles and numerous top five awards, said Karina Momary, director of middle school speech and debate.
“I wish you could have seen the parents when we landed. They had balloons, signs and flowers and were all waiting at baggage claim cheering,” she said. “The cooperation and teamwork displayed by our students was the true key to success. I have never seen them work as a team as well as they did this weekend. Special shout out to [performing arts teacher] Monica Colletti for giving up her weekend to attend as a chaperone/coach!”
Debate
In Lincoln-Douglas, the students discussed democracy promotion in the Middle East. The tournament advanced the top eight teams to the quarterfinals. Harker provided six of those eight teams. The students who advanced were Akhilesh Chegu, grade 6, Cat Zhao, grade 8, Akshay Manglik, grade 7, Annie Ma, grade 8, Montek Kalsi, grade 8, and Sachin Shah, grade 8. Kalsi and Shah each faced non-Harker students in the quarterfinals. They both won their rounds, making them co-champions of the tournament.
In public forum, the students discussed the prioritization of public infrastructure over means tested welfare. The tournament advanced the top 16 teams to the octofinals. Harker was third out of 16. Anshul Reddy, grade 6, and Krishay Mukhija, grade 7, were octofinalists. Amanda Cheung with Jason Pan, and Kenneth Liou with Jeremy Ding, all grade 8, were quarterfinalists. In addition, Liou was named fifth speaker and Pan was named seventh speaker.
In congressional debate, the students discussed Uber regulations, violent video games and mandatory paid family leave. Three Harker students were among the top 10 finishers. Nakul Bajaj, grade 8, earned second place; Reiya Das, grade 8, received third; and Andrew Sun, grade 7, received sixth place.
In policy debate, the students discussed domestic surveillance. The tournament advanced the top four teams. All three of our teams advanced. Deven Shah, grade 6, with Quentin Clark, grade 8, and Deven Parikh, grade 7, with Jai Bahri, grade 8, were named semifinalists. Jason Lin, grade 7, with Andy Lee, grade 7, were tournament champions. In addition Lee was third speaker, Bahri was fourth speaker and Clark was fifth speaker.
Speech
In impromptu, Shyl Lamba, grade 8, Anna Vazhaeparambil, grade 7, and Avi Gulati, grade 8, were among the six students who advanced to the final round. They were given three quotes and had to prepare a five-minute speech in two minutes. Gulati took first, Vazhaeparambil took fourth and Lamba took fifth.
In oratory, the students created their own 10-minute speech calling the audience to action. Harker took first and second places, with Arusha Patil, grade 7, in first and Gulati in second.
In declamation, Nikki Solanki, grade 8, advanced to the finals with her interpretation of a commencement speech and took second.
In dramatic interpretation, the tournament advanced six teams, including three from Harker. Harker also swept the top slots with Solanki in first, Bryan Wang, grade 8, in second and Katelyn Chen, grade 8, in third.
In storytelling, Gulati took first with his interpretation of a Berenstain Bears book.
In humorous interpretation, Aaditya Gulati, grade 6, advanced to the final round and received sixth place with his interpretation of toys escaping from the toy chest.
In prose, Solanki advanced to the finals and took first.
The middle school golf team took first place this week at the WBAL Spring Golf Tournament, beating out six other teams. With a top four average of 37.25, the Harker golfers edged out second place Nueva by a 4-stroke margin. Marcus Page, grade 6, placed first among all golfers shooting a 2-under-par 32, winning by 2 strokes. Katelyn Vo, grade 8, Natalie Vo, grade 7, and Bowen Yin, grade 7, each shot 39 to tie for sixth place.
Harker had five of the top 13 golfers in the field of 48 middle schoolers. In addition, for the first time in Harker history, three girls made the team of eight. “I am extremely proud of this group,” said coach Ie-Chen Cheng. “You can see it in their eyes, they wanted to bring the trophy back to Harker. After close losses at the past couple tournaments, their hard work really has paid off.”
Varsity Takes League Title
The boys varsity golf team also had a good week as it clinched its third consecutive league title. It was also the team’s second straight undefeated season, stretching its league winning streak to 22 matches! It is an extremely deep team with different golfers often leading the way during match play. Harker’s quest for a CCS title starts on May 10.
Junior Venkat Sankar was recently named one of 20 national finalists in this year’s USA Biology Olympiad. He will attend a special training program to decide which finalist will represent the United States at International Biology Olympiad this summer in Hanoi, Vietnam.
“It feels great to be selected as a finalist,” Sankar said. “I’m excited about spending 12 days at the camp with other finalists who are very passionate about biology.”
The USABO begins with two rounds of exams. The first is a 50-minute series of multiple-choice questions, and the second contains multiple-choice questions with more than one possible correct answer and an essay portion. Sankar put considerable time into preparing for the exams. “The baseline preparation was to master Campbell Biology, the AP Biology textbook,” he said. “Beyond that, I also used a college level book on plant biology.” His 2015 summer internship also gave him additional advanced knowledge on biochemistry and molecular biology, “which turned out to be very useful as well.”
Sankar said he will be studying cell biology and reviewing wet lab techniques to prepare himself for the final stage of examinations, which take place in June. Good luck!