In early March, 89 Harker students traveled to sunny San Diego to compete with over 2,000 other California DECA members at the State Career Development Conference.
The results are as follows:
First Place
Alexander Mo, grade 11, Business Growth Plan
Natasha Maniar and Kelsey Wu, both grade 9, Innovation Plan
Enya Lu, grade 9, Financial Consulting Event
Neelesh Ramachandran, grade 10, Personal Financial Literacy
Enya Lu, grade 9, Principles of Finance
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 12, Travel and Tourism Marketing Team Decision Making Event
Second Place
Mona Lee, grade 10, Apparel and Accessories Marketing Series
Alexis Gauba, grade 11, Business Services Marketing Series
Third Place
Brandon Mo, grade 10, Independent Business Plan
Sanil Rajput, grade 12, Financial Literacy Promotion Plan
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, Shaan Gagneja and Neelesh Ramachandran, all grade 10, Finance Operations Research Event
Vignesh Panchanatham, grade 10, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling
Fourth Place
Erin Liu, grade 9, Business Growth Plan
Shannon Hong and Sophia Luo, both grade 12, and Lucas Wang, grade 11, International Business Plan
Alexander Wang, grade 10, Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series
Fifth Place
Lucas Wang, grade 11, Business Finance Series
Shreyas Chandrashekaran, grade 10, Marketing Management Series
Rahul Mehta and Vanessa Tyagi both grade 10, Sports and Entertainment Team Decision Making Event
Seventh Place
Shivani Awasthi and Ankita Uppugunduri, grade 11, Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making Event
Emaad Raghib, grade 11, Principles of Finance
Eighth Place
Shea Tuli, grade 10, Personal Financial Literacy
10th Place
Helen Yang, grade 9, Advertising Campaign Event
Amitej Mehta and Vignesh Panchanatham, both grade 10, Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making Event
Ananya Krishnan, grade 10, Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event
Ezra Bekele, grade 11, Personal Financial Literacy
Michael Sikand and Dolan Dworak, both grade 10, Travel and Tourism Team Decision Making Event
Additionally, 15 Harker teams qualified for the International Career Development Conference, which will be held in Nashville, Tenn., in late April.
This article originally appeared in the summer 2015 Harker Quarterly.
It comes as no surprise that the business and entrepreneurship and DECA programs have garnered kudos galore for individual and team efforts this year. Here are the final achievements of the school year.
TEDxHarkerSchool 2015 – March 21
TEDxHarkerSchool, which this year drew more than 100 attendees, is one of the TEDx events held around the globe led solely by students for students. TEDxHarkerSchool operates in the spirit of TED by focusing on “Ideas Worth Spreading.” To the TEDxHarkerSchool team, it is just as critical to get these ideas out to youth as to adults.
In addition to inspirational adult speakers, one student each year takes the TEDxHarkerSchool stage to share what inspires them. TEDxHarkerSchool also hosts a mentorship luncheon, which gives attendees the opportunity to network with dozens of professionals in the technology, entertainment and design fields, among others.
TEDxHarkerSchool 2015 featured five speakers: Ajay Shah, founder and manager of Technology Solutions Business of Solectron and former CEO of Smart Modular Technologies; Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo; Deborah Perry Piscione, author of “Secrets of Silicon Valley”; David Gross, partner at Faegre Baker Daniels law firm; and Harker student Samantha Madala, grade 12, founder of Healthy Scholars, which raises awareness of education-stunting health issues.
In addition, there were five exhibitors: Toms Shoes, NAACP, Arista Networks, Acton (RocketSkates) and Songabby.
DECA Faculty and Staff Appreciation Get-Together
Harker’s DECA chapter hosted a faculty and staff appreciation party in April with desserts and coffee to thank those who make sure students have the wherewithal to attend DECA events. Eric Kallbrier, assistant to the B.E. director, was named “Staff of the Year.”
Mentorship Banquet
CareerConnect hosted its second- annual mentorship banquet in April, an opening event for the mentorship program in which Harker students are paired with industry professionals. For example, students interested in business are paired with executives from Yahoo, Google, Facebook and the like.
International Career Development Conference
In late April, 28 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla. During four event-filled days, the 18 students who qualified at California’s State Career Development Conference competed, while the remaining students attended the Emerging Leader Series. Of 10 Harker teams competing, four placed in the top 20 and qualified for the final round of competition. Students attended leadership seminars, a run/walk event and networked with other DECA members from around the world.
At the Grand Awards Session, Harker students were called up on stage to recognize their top 10 finish in The Stock Market Game and as national Finish Line Challenge winners. Full details on this conference, The Stock Market Game and Finish Line Challenge winners are available at news.harker.org; just search on DECA.
Feb. 23, 2015 Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, are in Indianapolis to make a presentation to the CEO and executive management team of Finish Line Inc. They were accompanied by Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program. Reddy and Drazovich are one of three finalist teams nationwide competing as part of the DECA Finish Line Challenge. The students will advise the executives on how the company can best utilize and improve upon their omni-channel retailing strategy and company branding. Here’s an article describing the event and the video Reddy and Drazovich submitted as part of the competition. Go DECA Eagles! http://www.decadirect.org/January-2015/DECA-Announces-Finalists-in-2014-2015-Finish-Line-Challenge/
DECA has been busy! A Harker team was named the middle school global winner in the DECA Idea Challenge 2014! A featured event of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the DECA Idea Challenge 2014 dared elementary through college students to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable new use for newspaper in just eight days.
Teams of three to four students pitched their invention in YouTube videos demonstrating creativity, innovation and critical-thinking skills in repurposing newspaper. They also were judged on their ability to work effectively as a team and to effectively communicate results. Ethan Choi, Ajay Madala and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, designed a pencil pouch, which they enthusiastically demonstrated in their video
Competition was tight, with more than 1,700 entries this year from Canada, South Korea, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. A global win is a huge feather in the cap of Harker’s middle school team!
Finish Line Challenge Finalists
There is even more good news. Harker also has a team in the finals of the DECA 2014-2015 Finish Line Challenge. Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, are one of only three teams in the finals of this real-world challenge.
Participants assisted Finish Line, a retail shoe chain, by analyzing the company’s strategies for marketing across mobile technology, the Internet, social media, offline media and in-store experiences.
Participants developed recommendations and created a video to present their findings. Finish Line executives reviewed participants’ videos and named the three finalists. Here is the Harker finalist entry.
Reddy and Drazovich will travel to Finish Line’s corporate headquarters in Indianapolis in late February or early March, where they will present their research and recommendations for improving current strategies to Finish Line executives.
The winning team will be awarded an all expense-paid trip to DECA’s International Career Development Conference in Orlando, Fla., in April.
“We are excited for Glenn and Logan to be traveling in the coming weeks to present their research to the Finish Line executive management team,” said Juston Glass, director of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program.
Go Harker DECA Eagles!
Harker DECA is an International Competitive Business Organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. Our DECA chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition in order to prepare the next generation to be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.
A Harker middle school DECA team earned first place in the United States in a global business competition and other Harker DECA teams distinguished themselves recently at the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference.
The middle school DECA team, which ranked No. 1 among elementary and middle school teams nationwide, will represent America in the global finals of DECA’s Idea Challenge. More than 1,700 teams submitted entrees.
In the Idea Challenge, teams have only eight days to complete a business project. This year the students had to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable use for old newspapers. The teams of three or four students then presented their idea in a one- to three-minute YouTube video.
Ajay Madala, Ethan Choi and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, fashioned a pencil pouch out of newspapers and created a persuasive sales video. The budding Harker entrepreneurs will compete with a team from the United Arab Emirates for global idea domination.
DECA is a worldwide organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance and hospitality management. Harker has a robust DECA program and Harker students shine consistently in the many DECA competitions and activities.
Harker DECA students returned triumphantly from the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference, with 42 students making it into competition finals and 20 of those students finishing the competition in the money.
Three Harker students were also elected to regional leadership positions. Shannon Hong, grade 11, was elected executive vice president, Sophia Luo, grade 11, vice president of communication, and Haley Tran, grade 10, vice president of operations.
Out of 28 events in which Harker students participated, they garnered seven first-place finishes, three second-place finishes and three third-place finishes. Those wins were by 42 of the 90-plus Harker students who attended, so it was a real team effort! Harker had the fourth-most wins among the more than 1,100 students from nearly 20 Silicon Valley schools who participated.
Almost half of Harker’s wins were in the top three in their categories. Members placing in the top three were as follows:
First-Place Winners
International Business Plan: Shannon Hong, grade 11; Sophia Luo, grade 11; Leo Yu, grade 12
Travel & Tourism Team Decision Making (TDM): Hong, Luo
Entrepreneurship Written Alexis Gauba and Riya Chandra, both grade 10
Business Service Marketing: Gauba
Personal Financial Literacy: Ray Xu, grade 10
Marketing Communications TDM: Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari and Glenn Reddy, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan: Peter Wu and Arnav Tandon, both grade 10
Second-Place Winners
Marketing Communications TDM: Manthra Panchapakesan and Simran Singh, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Written: Lucas Wang and Ria Gandhi, both grade 10
International Business Plan: Aathira Menon and Natasha Santhanam, both grade 11
Third-Place Winners
Principles of Marketing: Mona Lee, grade 9
Apparels & Accessories Marketing Individual Series Event: Felix Wu, grade 12
Advertising Campaign: Rahul Mehta, grade 9
The team stayed at the Marriott Hotel. The conference kicked off Friday night with opening remarks, followed by a talent show called the SV Factor emceed by Harker’s Luo. The winners of the talent show were offered the opportunity to “pie” the officers of SV DECA, and Harker’s Shannon Hong and Haley Tran took the cream pies in the face.
The 1,100 students gathered Saturday morning for their competitive events, followed by elections for the next Silicon Valley District Action Team. Harker had three candidates in the running and all were elected – Hong, Luo and Tran. Saturday culminated in a dance where students relaxed after the full day of competing and learning.
Awards were handed out over breakfast on Sunday.
The experience was a great one for DECA members. “Silicon Valley DECA is a great event for new members, especially because it introduces our members to the DECA experiences and gets everyone pumped for States and ICDC,” said Gauba, Harker DECA Director of Technology.
“I loved networking and meeting new friends from all over the Silicon Valley,” said Jessica Skinner, grade 9. “SVCDC was an amazing event, and I felt like I was finally where I was meant to be.”
There was a note of nostalgia among seniors, for whom this was the last local event. “I can’t believe that this was my last SVCDC!” said Savi Joshi, grade 12, CEO of Harker DECA. “It felt like it went by so quickly, and I finally understand how much DECA means to me and how much it’s given me. I’m going to miss this next year.”
The state DECA Conference takes place Feb. 26-Mar. 1 in Santa Clara. Harker students will compete there with thousands of their peers from all over California.
A Harker middle school DECA team earned first place in the United States in a global business competition and other Harker DECA teams distinguished themselves recently at the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference.
The middle school DECA team, which ranked No. 1 among elementary and middle school teams nationwide, will represent America in the global finals of DECA’s Idea Challenge. More than 1,700 teams submitted entrees.
In the Idea Challenge, teams have only eight days to complete a business project. This year the students had to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable use for old newspapers. The teams of three or four students then presented their idea in a one- to three-minute YouTube video.
Ajay Madala, Ethan Choi and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, fashioned a pencil pouch out of newspapers and created a persuasive sales video. The budding Harker entrepreneurs will compete with a team from the United Arab Emirates for global idea domination.
DECA is a worldwide organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance and hospitality management. Harker has a robust DECA program and Harker students shine consistently in the many DECA competitions and activities.
Harker DECA students returned triumphantly from the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference, with 42 students making it into competition finals and 20 of those students finishing the competition in the money.
Three Harker students were also elected to regional leadership positions. Shannon Hong, grade 11, was elected executive vice president, Sophia Luo, grade 11, vice president of communication, and Haley Tran, grade 10, vice president of operations.
Out of 28 events in which Harker students participated, they garnered seven first-place finishes, three second-place finishes and three third-place finishes. Those wins were by 42 of the 90-plus Harker students who attended, so it was a real team effort! Harker had the fourth-most wins among the more than 1,100 students from nearly 20 Silicon Valley schools who participated.
Almost half of Harker’s wins were in the top three in their categories. Members placing in the top three were as follows:
First-Place Winners
International Business Plan: Shannon Hong, grade 11; Sophia Luo, grade 11; Leo Yu, grade 12
Travel & Tourism Team Decision Making (TDM): Hong, Luo
Entrepreneurship Written Alexis Gauba and Riya Chandra, both grade 10
Business Service Marketing: Gauba
Personal Financial Literacy: Ray Xu, grade 10
Marketing Communications TDM: Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari and Glenn Reddy, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan: Peter Wu and Arnav Tandon, both grade 10
Second-Place Winners
Marketing Communications TDM: Manthra Panchapakesan and Simran Singh, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Written: Lucas Wang and Ria Gandhi, both grade 10
International Business Plan: Aathira Menon and Natasha Santhanam, both grade 11
Third-Place Winners
Principles of Marketing: Mona Lee, grade 9
Apparels & Accessories Marketing Individual Series Event: Felix Wu, grade 12
Advertising Campaign: Rahul Mehta, grade 9
The team stayed at the Marriott Hotel. The conference kicked off Friday night with opening remarks, followed by a talent show called the SV Factor emceed by Harker’s Luo. The winners of the talent show were offered the opportunity to “pie” the officers of SV DECA, and Harker’s Shannon Hong and Haley Tran took the cream pies in the face.
The 1,100 students gathered Saturday morning for their competitive events, followed by elections for the next Silicon Valley District Action Team. Harker had three candidates in the running and all were elected – Hong, Luo and Tran. Saturday culminated in a dance where students relaxed after the full day of competing and learning.
Awards were handed out over breakfast on Sunday.
The experience was a great one for DECA members. “Silicon Valley DECA is a great event for new members, especially because it introduces our members to the DECA experiences and gets everyone pumped for States and ICDC,” said Gauba, Harker DECA Director of Technology.
“I loved networking and meeting new friends from all over the Silicon Valley,” said Jessica Skinner, grade 9. “SVCDC was an amazing event, and I felt like I was finally where I was meant to be.”
There was a note of nostalgia among seniors, for whom this was the last local event. “I can’t believe that this was my last SVCDC!” said Savi Joshi, grade 12, CEO of Harker DECA. “It felt like it went by so quickly, and I finally understand how much DECA means to me and how much it’s given me. I’m going to miss this next year.”
The state DECA Conference takes place Feb. 26-Mar. 1 in Santa Clara. Harker students will compete there with thousands of their peers from all over California.
A Harker middle school DECA team earned first place in the United States in a global business competition and other Harker DECA teams distinguished themselves recently at the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference.
The middle school DECA team, which ranked No. 1 among elementary and middle school teams nationwide, will represent America in the global finals of DECA’s Idea Challenge. More than 1,700 teams submitted entrees.
In the Idea Challenge, teams have only eight days to complete a business project. This year the students had to find an innovative, feasible and sustainable use for old newspapers. The teams of three or four students then presented their idea in a one- to three-minute YouTube video.
Ajay Madala, Ethan Choi and Andrew Chavez, all grade 6, fashioned a pencil pouch out of newspapers and created a persuasive sales video. The budding Harker entrepreneurs will compete with a team from the United Arab Emirates for global idea domination.
DECA is a worldwide organization that prepares students for careers in marketing, finance and hospitality management. Harker has a robust DECA program and Harker students shine consistently in the many DECA competitions and activities.
Harker DECA students returned triumphantly from the Silicon Valley Career Development Conference, with 42 students making it into competition finals and 20 of those students finishing the competition in the money.
Three Harker students were also elected to regional leadership positions. Shannon Hong, grade 11, was elected executive vice president, Sophia Luo, grade 11, vice president of communication, and Haley Tran, grade 10, vice president of operations.
Out of 28 events in which Harker students participated, they garnered seven first-place finishes, three second-place finishes and three third-place finishes. Those wins were by 42 of the 90-plus Harker students who attended, so it was a real team effort! Harker had the fourth-most wins among the more than 1,100 students from nearly 20 Silicon Valley schools who participated.
Almost half of Harker’s wins were in the top three in their categories. Members placing in the top three were as follows:
First-Place Winners
International Business Plan: Shannon Hong, grade 11; Sophia Luo, grade 11; Leo Yu, grade 12
Travel & Tourism Team Decision Making (TDM): Hong, Luo
Entrepreneurship Written Alexis Gauba and Riya Chandra, both grade 10
Business Service Marketing: Gauba
Personal Financial Literacy: Ray Xu, grade 10
Marketing Communications TDM: Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari and Glenn Reddy, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan: Peter Wu and Arnav Tandon, both grade 10
Second-Place Winners
Marketing Communications TDM: Manthra Panchapakesan and Simran Singh, both grade 12
Entrepreneurship Written: Lucas Wang and Ria Gandhi, both grade 10
International Business Plan: Aathira Menon and Natasha Santhanam, both grade 11
Third-Place Winners
Principles of Marketing: Mona Lee, grade 9
Apparels & Accessories Marketing Individual Series Event: Felix Wu, grade 12
Advertising Campaign: Rahul Mehta, grade 9
The team stayed at the Marriott Hotel. The conference kicked off Friday night with opening remarks, followed by a talent show called the SV Factor emceed by Harker’s Luo. The winners of the talent show were offered the opportunity to “pie” the officers of SV DECA, and Harker’s Shannon Hong and Haley Tran took the cream pies in the face.
The 1,100 students gathered Saturday morning for their competitive events, followed by elections for the next Silicon Valley District Action Team. Harker had three candidates in the running and all were elected – Hong, Luo and Tran. Saturday culminated in a dance where students relaxed after the full day of competing and learning.
Awards were handed out over breakfast on Sunday.
The experience was a great one for DECA members. “Silicon Valley DECA is a great event for new members, especially because it introduces our members to the DECA experiences and gets everyone pumped for States and ICDC,” said Gauba, Harker DECA Director of Technology.
“I loved networking and meeting new friends from all over the Silicon Valley,” said Jessica Skinner, grade 9. “SVCDC was an amazing event, and I felt like I was finally where I was meant to be.”
There was a note of nostalgia among seniors, for whom this was the last local event. “I can’t believe that this was my last SVCDC!” said Savi Joshi, grade 12, CEO of Harker DECA. “It felt like it went by so quickly, and I finally understand how much DECA means to me and how much it’s given me. I’m going to miss this next year.”
The state DECA Conference takes place Feb. 26-Mar. 1 in Santa Clara. Harker students will compete there with thousands of their peers from all over California.
This article originally appeared in the winter 2014 Harker Quarterly.
Numerous fall events sponsored by Harker’s DECA chapter and business and entrepreneurship department set the tone for an exciting year. Activities included the kickoff of the annual Stock Market Game (in which Harker is the reigning champion), DECA Month and the ambitious BEcon2014.
DECA started the year with a flurry of events designed to introduce the student body to its mission and goals, while also preparing for competition season. In November, the chapter coordinated numerous on-campus events in conjunction with DECA Month, an international DECA celebration.
An ice cream social, hosted by the DECA chapter in early November, gave students the chance to ask officers about the upcoming DECA year while enjoying a mouth-watering treat.
In mid-November, more than 60 Harker students attended Silicon Valley DECA’s Leadership and Competitive Excellence (LACE) Conference. This three-day event was targeted at underclassmen with limited experience in competitive DECA events. The keynotes were delivered by motivational speaker Scott Greenberg and Jennifer Aaker, a social psychologist and marketing professor at Stanford University’s School of Business. Events were created to be informative and welcoming, with hands-on workshops in the fields of hospitality, investment banking, fashion and venture capitalism. Sophia Luo, grade 11, said, “In my opinion, the best part of attending LACE is the networking opportunities that it provides. Students from all over the Silicon Valley who have the same interests in business congregate and exchange stories, memories and knowledge.”
DECA gives back
A large part of DECA’s charter focuses on giving back to community. During DECA Month, the chapter hosted events to raise money for and aware- ness of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Red Cross and organizations dedicated to ending world hunger.
The first of these events was the Nov. 12 Hoops and Scoops basketball game, which raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The game pitted faculty against students on the court, while DECA members sold ice cream on the sidelines. The raucous crowd watched as the faculty battled the freshmen in the first quarter, followed by the sophomores and the juniors. The faculty finally fell to the seniors in the final quarter, with a score of 72-59.
Then on Nov. 15, DECA members gathered to assemble more than 100 Red Cross disaster kits for families who homes were damaged by natural disasters.
The DECA chapter then paired with Students for Charitable Causes to organize a movie night to raise awareness of world hunger. The groups sold more than 60 tickets to the Nov. 21 premier of “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1,” with proceeds from the event going to Second Harvest Food Bank.
Playing the market, staying connected
The 2014 season of The Stock Market Game is also in full swing, with Harker students and faculty working to create portfolios to outperform the S&P index. The national competition pits teams and individuals against each other, both at Harker and across the country. For the first 10 weeks of the competition, Harker had two to four teams in the top 25 in the Western region. Last year, three Harker teams finished in the top 25 in the Western region, a high standard that current competitors hope to match.
This year, the B.E. podcast series picks up where it left off last year by “gather[ing] influential people from the Harker community and beyond to share their experiences with students, parents and even the public,” explained Glenn Reddy, grade 12, founder of the series.
“The podcast team has been working to expand outside of the B.E. department” and recently put out a series of weekly podcasts leading up to the midterm elections, Reddy explained. The series included a number of thoughtful interviews with high-ranking officials, including U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (California’s 19th district) and U.S. Rep. Mike Honda (California’s 17th district). The final interview, released Nov. 17, featured Mike Wasserman, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Stay tuned, as the team plans to expand into more areas this year.
One of B.E.’s biggest returning programs is Career Connect, which includes a mentorship program, career panels and a professionalism program. Career Connect aims to prepare students not only land the careers they want once they graduate, but also to excel in them. To this end, the B.E. department organized a resume workshop led by Michelle Vitus, founder of Slate Advisers, a company dedicated to helping professionals manage career transitions. Laya Indukuri, grade 12, who helped organize the event, said she thought “hearing a professional talk about major do’s and don’ts really helped to give [the students] a big picture of what a resume should look like.”
Students, Speakers Shine at Inaugural BEcon2014
BEcon2014, the B.E. department’s largest event to date, was a daylong conference comprising multiple keynotes, student presentations and guided activities that explained the principles of business and economics. It was “essentially a research symposium [that] explored the marriage of economics and business,” summarized Juston Glass, head of the B.E. department.
The event gave B.E. students the ability to showcase their classroom efforts. The students worked early in the year to create advertising campaigns for products and companies of their choice, which were showcased during the first BEcon session.
Ran Abramitzky, associate professor of economics at Stanford, opened the day’s events in earnest. His keynote address focused on the economics of education. Abramitzky’s talk was based on his research, which emphasized the importance of education on economic situations for immigrants. Samuel Lepler, Harker economics teacher, praised Abramitzky’s discussion for being “both a great introduction to the economic way of thinking as well as an interesting investigation into a topic that most people take for granted. Namely, whether college is actually a good investment. It was both informative and inspirational!”
The mentor luncheon provided an informal atmosphere in which students could meet with their mentors to discuss their future careers as well as their mentors’ career accomplishments.
Perhaps the best-received session of the day was the sHarker Tank event, which paired the ingenuity of Harker’s students with the format of the popular TV show Shark Tank. Teams presented business proposals to a panel of judges. The winning product, a laser-guided device to provide superior feedback to blind users (a virtual “red cane”) was both philanthropic and entrepreneurial in nature.
Jeremy King, CTO of global e-commerce for Walmart Labs, closed out the day with his keynote, focused on his success in increasing Walmart’s global footprint. He used the success of Walmart Labs to highlight the overall industry themes involving the movement away from traditional brick and mortar stores to e-commerce.
In the first few months of the school year, the DECA chapter continued its work at Harker, while maintaining its national reputation as a top performer at competitions and conventions. Meanwhile the B.E. department put its best foot forward with the ambitious BEcon2014 event. In the coming months, Harker’s entrepreneurs surely will have more in store to keep students, teachers and parents engaged and active in the community.
The Harker business and entrepreneurship department held its inaugural Harker BEcon2014. This business, economics and entrepreneurship conference introduced Harker students, non-Harker students and the Harker community at large to professionals in a variety of fields, including sales, venture capital and economics. The program comprised keynotes and roundtables in business and economics, workshops taught by professionals, student business venture competitions and student presentations.
The daylong event began with a poster session, in which students presented projects they developed during an entrepreneurship course taught by Juston Glass, director of the B.E. department. The adult attendees were very interested in and impressed by the facets of the projects, which ranged from business plans for innovative products to marketing proposals for companies.
Debbie Tranowski, parent of Logan Drazovich, grade 11, commented, “I want to thank you and the students for organizing a very interesting BEcon inaugural event yesterday. Logan, as well as my husband and I, enjoyed the entire event. It was very well organized. We are lucky to have access to so much parent talent within the Harker community. I hope this will be one of many such events in the future.”
Following student presentations, Stanford professor Ran Abramitzky gave a keynote about the economics of education and its effect on decision‐making in secondary education. The auditorium was filled with students eager to learn more about economics and its application to real-life scenarios. Claudia Medina, parent of Adriano Hernandez, grade 9, wrote to the team, “Noya Abramitzky, professor Ran Abramitzky’s wife, stopped by my office [at Stanford University] and told me that Ran was very impressed by the event, the level of service and the Harker school. He told her the event was organized and delivered at ‘Stanford level.’ I wanted to share this kudos with you and your team of students, who did such a wonderful job.”
Students then attended the economics roundtable, sHarker Tank or the resume/interview workshop. The economics roundtable was a Q&A with San Jose State University economics professor Tom Means; Lawrence Wu, president of NERA Economic Consulting; and Jordan Goheen, senior examiner at the Federal Reserve Bank. By far the biggest hit at the conference, sHarker Tank, based on the popular TV show Shark Tank, was designed to give students a mock opportunity to pitch their business ideas to authentic venture capitalists. The highest scoring participants out of 10 prequalified teams advanced to the second round, which involved a sales pitch of an undisclosed product. Neil Movva, grade 12, won the competition with his product, Pathfinder, which aids the blind by utilizing an infrared laser to provide feedback while out in public. Movva was awarded an exclusive mentor luncheon with successful entrepreneur Ashok Krishnamurthi, who participated in the conference. Coming in second place was Yash Narayan, grade 5, with BullyWatch, a product that helps deal with bullying in schools. Third place was given to the team of Vineet Kosaraju, grade 11, Andrew Jin, grade 12, and Rishabh Jain, grade 12, who created a product called InMaps to help large facilities cater to their guests by providing interactive maps of the interiors of their buildings. During the resume/interview workshop, successful businessmen and businesswomen involved in the CareerConnect mentorship and professionalism programs offered demonstrations on powerful interviews and resumes.
“The event was very well-organized and the speakers were great. I personally enjoyed the sHarker Tank the most,” Medina added.
A key aspect of the conference was the mentoring lunch. Attendees enjoyed a wonderful lunch with some of Silicon Valley’s finest. This was a great opportunity for attendees to hear inspirational stories of both success and failure from business professionals.
After lunch, there was a business roundtable with Ashok Krishnamurthi, co-founder of Xsigo Systems and Juniper Networks; Sanjay Sharma, CEO of Roambee Corp.; and Angie Krackeler, program manager at IBM. The participants discussed their paths to success, as well as their points of view on controversial topics in business today. In addition, students participated in economics games including Golden Balls, in which participants engaged in a battle of wits to develop game-theory strategies and defeat opponents, akin to a popular British game show by the same name. Also, students challenged their economics knowledge in a fun and interactive competition to determine the economic king on campus. The conference also featured a Startup 101 workshop, where Pradeep Aswani, founder of Securematics, discussed what it takes to launch a startup; a personal finance workshop, where Amanda Mathias, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent, discussed wealth management; and a sales workshop featuring Freddie Engineer, a regional sales manager for a large company, who taught the most effective methods to move the product from the seller to the consumer.
Jeremy King, CTO of global e-commerce for WalmartLabs, gave the final keynote. He has led the engineering and product aspects as well as the Web operation teams charged with developing Walmart Labs’ online business on a global scale. He talked about his job and his path to becoming an executive at one of the biggest companies on the planet.
Overall, the conference was a success, with nearly 200 attendees, and inspiring speakers and competitions. The BEcon2014 team looks forward to continuing the tradition and making annual improvements.
March 2, 2014
Harker’s Business and Entrepreneurial Podcast Series posted its fourth interview, this weekend, featuring Adam Draper. Draper is the CEO and founder of Boost, an organization that accelerates startup companies. His online biography notes he has invested in companies, started companies and daydreamed at different times in his life, and adds, “my life’s ambition is to assist in the creation of an Iron Man suit.”
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Feb. 3, 2014: The third episode of the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series, which features entrepreneur and author Deborah Piscione, is now available for viewing and download in video and audio formats from the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series website, as well as iTunes. Piscione speaks with student Glenn Reddy, grade 11, about her entrepreneurial history in Silicon Valley, her upcoming book and her insights into the future of Silicon Valley business culture.
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On Dec. 31, the latest episode of the Business & Entrepreneurship Podcast Series went live, featuring an interview with Scott McNealy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and Harker parent (Maverick ’13; Dakota, grade 10; Colt, grade 9; and Scout, grade 7). During the episode McNealy discusses his most recent venture, the social media service Wayin. The previous episode featured Satish Dharmaraj, a partner at Redpoint Ventures and Harker parent of Nikhil, grade 7, and Nila, grade 2. Dharmaraj grew his previous company, Zimbra, to $20 million in subscription sales.
The podcast series was started by host Glenn Reddy, grade 11, who approached business and entrepreneurship teacher Juston Glass at the start of the school year about taking on a new project. “After some brainstorming, we decided to make a podcast/videocast series featuring prominent Silicon Valley leaders,” Reddy said.
Episodes are recorded in the multimedia studio at the upper school campus and edited by John Jerney, grade 10. “Right now, the series is sponsored by Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department, but I hope to expand it to include miniseries hosted by other Harker clubs and programs,” said Reddy, adding that the plan is to have new episodes every month, each ranging from about 20 to 30 minutes in length.