In mid-August, inmates transformed San Mateo Women’s Correctional Center’s kitchen into a bustling culinary scene reminiscent of Iron Chef.
In the timed cooking contest, four teams of former and current inmates, JobTrain students and celebrity chefs whipped up delectable dishes for a panel of judges, including Harker’s very own chef Danae McLaughlin.
To give back to the community and provide skills that can aid offenders after release, chef Elihu Kittell, who runs the kitchen at the jail, started the program in 2006 with chef Adam Weiner. Weiner works for JobTrain, a nonprofit educational and training institution that helps communities break out of poverty, crime and drugs by providing courses, job training and additional assistance for all ages.
McLaughlin, who has competed and received medals from the American Culinary Federation, initially became involved with JobTrain after meeting Weiner at a competition geared towards youth leadership and career development. Impressed by JobTrain’s mission and various programs, McLaughlin and Steve Martin, Harker’s executive chef, judged one of JobTrain’s competitions and then began hiring JobTrain students as interns in the Harker kitchen.
McLaughlin served as a kitchen judge and tasting judge, commenting on the teamwork and also on the salads, salmon, jambalaya and pecan pie placed before her. She also had the opportunity to chat with the inmates about her experiences as a woman in a kitchen and becoming a Certified Executive Chef.
McLaughlin joined a galaxy of public officials including judges Sheriff Greg Munks, Supervisor Adrienne Tissier and Assistant Sheriff Trisha Sanchez, in congratulating everyone for their effort and awarding Team No. 4 – Amilia Otis, Laura Engman and Captain Quinlan – for winning the competition.
“It was really a great feeling that I could actually be a role model for them!” McLaughlin said. “This event gave all these women something to look forward to and something to work towards. In the end, it was the look of accomplishment and empowerment that I saw on all their faces that was the best thing about being involved.”
To view broadcasts of the event, visit KTVU, CBS5 or ABC7.
The response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti tops the list of Harker’s recent outreach efforts. Students, teachers and parents joined forces at all three campuses to fund ongoing efforts to provide food, medical supplies and shelter to the victims of the January temblor in Port au Prince, the tiny country’s densely populated capitol.
The Bucknall Student Council and the Gr. 4-5 Spirit and Service Club helped organize a hot chocolate and donuthole drive in January, earning over $3,000. Several lower school teachers and staff donated funds to offset the costs of food and drink to further enhance profit margin.
“Our student body truly outdid itself with its generosity and concern displayed throughout our fundraising effort,” said Kristin Giammona, elementary division head Gr. 4-5. “It is heartwarming to witness and be a part of such an outpouring of care and monetary support.”
Similarly, middle school students participated in Coin Wars, a friendly grade-level competition to make a difference. The organizers asked students to donate pennies and nickels for Haitian relief. The class with the largest number of one- and five-cent coins in their collection earned the most points. The effort, won by the class of 2015, raised a total of $3,100 in ten days.
Although they planned their fundraising and blood drive months in advance, members of the upper school Red Cross Club adapted their efforts to benefit Haitian relief. The annual blood drive collected over 80 donations from eligible students, faculty, staff and parents. While donations will likely be used locally, the collection helps offset blood donations elsewhere that will be sent to Port au Prince.
In another Red Cross effort, students emptied their pockets of change in a competition to slime the class dean and class presidents at the weekly school meeting, prompting generous contributions. The mounting piles of coin attracted daily attention in Manzanita Hall, and playful challenges by the deans and presidents to stuff the jars of their competitors added spice to the contest.
In the end, the sophomores were victorious, resulting in class dean Matt Harley and class president Revanth Kosaraju suffering a sliming worth $1,137. In total, the slime contest earned $1,983, an amount complemented by bake sales and pretzel-grams which earned $274 for a total of $2,267.
“We thought that it would be great to offer the Harker community an opportunity to assist Red Cross Haiti relief efforts during our week,” said Red Cross Club president Alex Han, Gr. 12. “We put our best efforts into raising awareness for the cause and making our fundraisers original and exciting, whether through selling handmade pretzel-grams or having a dean and class president get slimed.”
In late February 18 upper school students spent half a day removing non-native plants from the Arastradero Preserve as part of a project by Acterra, an environmental nonprofit in Palo Alto. “The weather held and everyone enjoyed working together; we got a lot done,” said Kerry Enzensperger, director of upper school community service. Harker students were involved in a variety of other activates geared toward helping the community as well.
Gr. 3 students collected new pajamas and books for needy children in the U.S. and elsewhere. Over 330 pairs of pajamas and 677 books were collected. “All of the third graders were encouraged to participate by bringing in books or pajamas,” said Joe Connolly, dean of students K-Gr. 5. “We had two third graders present the donations to Pallie Zambrano, co-president of the Northern California Chapter of The Pajama Program.”
On Martin Luther King Day, an official Congressional Day of Service, Colin Goodwin, Gr. 4 English teacher, organized a group of about 30 Gr. 4-5 students and parents to work with Save the Bay, planting native trees and grasses at the Eden Landing Ecological Preserve in Hayward. “On our day of service we planted something like 300 plants,” said Goodwin. “This was my first year organizing this project, and I hope to do the project again next year .”
Upper school Key Club members organized a drive for denim in January, collecting lightly-used jeans for homeless teenagers worldwide.
The class of 2011 held its annual toiletries drive, collecting hundreds of personal hygiene items for distribution at local homeless shelters. Similar efforts are mounted by lower school English teacher Pat Walsh and middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey on their campuses.
Lower school students authored and sent valentines to U.S. marines serving in Afghanistan.
Members of the middle school Peace2Peace Club will transform donations of lightly used toys, electronics and games into funds for daycare in India via a garage sale over spring break. The program allows older siblings who would otherwise be forced to stay home, to attend school regularly.
Upper school girls and boys soccer teams raised over $3,000 through T-shirt sales and donations for cancer research at their January doubleheader.
The middle school Service Club gathered new and gently used winter coats to benefit the local organization InnVision (www.innvision.org), which helps Bay Area families and individuals who are homeless or struggling financially.
Math instructor Peggy Crisler challenged middle school advisories to provide Christmas gifts for families through Kidango, a Bay Area nonprofit child development agency.
Kristin Giammona, elementary division head, recently volunteered at the Children’s Discovery Museum as a guest activity leader at Family Science Night in the Museum. Giammona was recommended to the event by a Harker parent who felt she would do an excellent job.
Family Science Night provides an opportunity for students to experience science in a fun and hands-on way. The theme of the night was “Toy Box Physics,” one of the museum’s more popular themes. It included an examination of simple machines and how they are present in the toys kids use everyday.
An article at Examiner.com reports that Shreya Indukuri, Gr. 10, gave a presentation at the Tech Titans of Tomorrow: Teens Plugged In 2010 conference, hosted by SDForum in Mountain View. The conference drew students who helped improve the environmental standards of their schools through forward-thinking initiatives.
In her presentation, Indukuri discussed how more efficient energy usage could be leveraged by schools to reduce costs, which could prove quite valuable in a time of budgetary crisis. She used Harker as an example, showing that the school was able to save money by monitoring and controlling energy consumption at the lower school campus.
Indukuri and classmate Daniela Lapidous, Gr. 10, were to present at the Bay Area Schools Environmental Conference on May 1 at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose. Indukuri will also speak on a youth panel for the San Francisco Commonwealth Club on May 4, at the club’s office at 595 Market St. in San Francisco.
Monisha Dilip, Gr. 12, received the 2009 National Young Women of Distinction Award in late February, given every year to the top ten Girl Scouts in the country. A Gold Award Girl Scout, Dilip received the high honor for her extraordinary leadership and commitment to service. For her community action project, she established a free learning center for the visually impaired in Chennai, India.
The center is the first of its kind in India. Dilip discovered that less than five percent of reading materials are in an accessible format and that visually impaired people are the most persecuted in poor countries. At the learning center, visually impaired people can use assistive technologies to browse the Internet, access educational and informational materials and keep in touch with friends and family. Girl Scouts of the USA said that Dilip’s “compassion for children with disabilities was the motivation for the Indian Disability Center.”
Cash has been flowing toward charities supporting vital water projects of late, thanks to some liquid measures promoted by Harker’s Global Empowerment and Outreach (GEO) club.
Selling water bottles, gaining sponsorship for coffee-eschewing teachers, and topping it all off with a group dunking of campus adults, GEO’s diverse efforts generated sums far beyond initial expectations for charity:water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. The funds will help dig a pair of wells to provide clean water in places where that crucial commodity has hitherto been inaccessible.
GEO members were inspired by the Harker Speaker Series talk by activist Rick Smolan, who expressed enthusiasm for the lengths to which GEO members took his ideas and ran with them,
“One of the things that disturbed me so much as I worked on The Blue Planet Run book was how little attention the world was paying to something so important to every person on the planet. To be able to positively affect the lives of others at such a young age is something I don’t think any of the Harker students will ever forget and I am thrilled to think my lecture touched your students on such a deep level,” Smolan said. “Please extend my congratulations to all the students involved in this amazing effort.”
GEO’s efforts began in October, when students began raising money by selling water bottles and foot bands: rubber bands that students wore around one of their feet to symbolize the distances people in poor areas must walk to obtain dirty and often contaminated water. Teachers also gave up their favorite drinks for a week, and several students carried around jugs of dirty water to remind others of the reality of those less fortunate. The GEO fall week also included an appearance by charity:water representative Lane Wood and a special relay race among all the upper school grade levels that was won by the class of 2011.
All the deprivation, exertion and solemn remembrance of others’ difficulty gave way to some celebrating after the unexpectedly large fundraising totals were announced at a special meeting on Davis Field Nov. 9. Students were directed to the Singh Aquatic Center, where they were treated to their reward for raising more than $10,000: witnessing several of the school’s faculty and staff leap into the pool, fully clothed. The intrepid squadron of educators gathered at pool’s edge as a youthful chorus counted down “5…..4…..3….2….1!” At the appointed moment, into the drink they leapt, followed by good-natured frolicking. The Wet Ones: history teachers Julie Wheeler, Dan Hudkins, Ramsay Westgate, language instructors John Hawley, Diana Moss, performing arts teacher Jeffrey Draper, computer scientist Fred Triefenbach, college counselor Kevin Lum Lung, journalism teacher Chris Daren as well as alumni director Christina Yan and athletic director Dan Molin.
A bracing dip might have been just the ticket for another set of educators participating in the water-improvement campaign. Many of those who gave up or cut back on their favorite beverages ended up reducing their caffeine intake. The abstainers included science teachers Matthew Harley, Mala Raghavan, Eric Nelson and Gary Blickenstaff; math teachers Rama Sethia, Tony Silk and Jeannette Fernandez; history teachers Ramsay Westgate, Carol Zink, Julie Wheeler, Dan Hudkins, Donna Gilbert and Nicole Jensen; foreign language teachers Shawn Jahshan and Nicholas Manjoine; Naomi Schatz (psychology), Adam Nelson (debate), Jeff Draper (theater), Susan King (computer science) and Greg Lawson, the assistant head of school for student affairs .
After the week, participating teachers reported the challenge had been refreshing and less daunting than expected. Blickenstaff, well known for his dependence on a cup of joe during lectures, claimed that the prospect of living on half of his coffee dose was tolerable, and that he would give it up again if necessary. Raghavan even called the coffee cutback “fun”, declaring, “I was happy to have made it with just one cup a day for the whole week. I actually slept better.”
Together with the Lug-a-Jug fundraiser, Cups-for-a-Well donations and merchandise sales, the GEO-led effort brought in $10,918, allowing for a contribution of $10,118 after deductions to cover costs. Prospective users of the wells were not alone in benefiting from the project. Said GEO secretary Rashmi Sharma Gr. 12: “Pursuing outreach through GEO has helped me foster my passion about learning about international issues and how I can help solve them by empowering others.”
It all started with author/photographer Rick Smolan’s visit as part of the Harker Speaker Series. That visit spurred the founding of the MS Blue Planet Group and culminated with the visit of Scott Harrison, founder of charity: water.
Eighth grade science teacher Lorna Claerbout and many of her students went to hear Smolan speak. “Smolan’s talk opened my eyes to the need for clean water worldwide,” said group member Emily Wang, Gr.8.
Varun Gudapti, Gr. 8, added “he gave me the knowledge to make others aware of the impact of water.” Classmate Sondra Costa suggested the group could raise money to support one of Smolan’s “water heroes,” Scott Harrison, whose charity charity: water uses 100 percent of donations to build wells to get potable water to people in need.
Thus was born the Blue Planet Group. “About 45 people showed up to our first meeting,” said Lori Berenberg, Gr. 8. “Since then, we have focused on getting organized into committees that have their own focus in educating and fundraising to achieve our goal of funding a well,” she said. The group managed to raise $5,000, enough for the building of a new well in Africa, and doubling their original goal of $2,500.
Harrison heard about the Harker effort and offered to visit while on a visit at the end of May to speak at Apple, Google and Twitter. Harrison came first to the MS campus, then to the US campus to address student assemblies.
Just before the assembly began, Harrison tweeted, “about to talk to kids in San Jose about water. I used to hate first period!” After the assemblies he tweeted about “awesome kids at Harker.” In fact, he was so impressed with the original educational posters created by the Blue Planet Group that he took a photo of one and put it on posted a tweet of it, noted Claerbout.
Harrison’s impact was felt immediately and Berenberg posted comments to the club’s forum right after the visit: ”Well, the big day has come and gone. Scott Harrison gave his speech, and personally, I think it was a great success. I know a lot of my friends who weren’t really into it before are now so excited to help and realize that the clean water crisis is a real issue. That is really what we were trying to achieve here and we got it! I’m so proud of everyone because if it weren’t for each and every one of us, he wouldn’t have come and we would be nowhere near where we are today.”
Students have used a variety of efforts to educate and raise funds, including a school meeting presentation, a bake sale, a photo booth, and a water-themed school dance. “We decided it would be great if we could make it water-themed so people … understand what they are donating to if they gave money to the Blue Planet Group,” said Berenberg.
“The middle school students have been passionately working on the issue since Smolan’s presentation, so it was a fantastic way for the students to not only wrap up their current fundraising project, but help them continue their momentum when they start at our upper school next year. A partnership between middle and high school students has been proposed and is the works for next year,” said Claerbout.
In addition to the student club, water is the focus of a number of class projects. Angela Neff, Assistant Director of Instructional Technology at the Middle School and computer science teacher, noted her Population Studies classes have been “focusing their research on the international water crisis all year as a part of our Global 20/20 program sponsored by NAIS,” she said, further noting, “Tim (Culbertson’s) (computer science) classes are doing infectious diseases which are deeply exacerbated by water: too much, too little, or too dirty.”
Finally, Spanish teacher Susan Moling said her Unit 5 in Spanish class is all about conservation. “My students just made some amazing mini-posters about conservation including water, culminating in video public service announcements created in Spanish. I think the cross-curricular application is wonderful and gives the kids a real sense of pride knowing that everyone is working on such a critical issue,” she said.
For next year, Jennifer Abraham, global education director, is working with interested eighth grade teachers on a water project in collaboration with the Bayn Garden School in Saudi Arabia. Locally the focus will be to learn more about our own watershed and water issues here in California.
Alex Han, Gr. 11 has been named one of the top runners-up in the 2009 Prudential Spirit of Community Awards in California, and, as a Distinguished Finalist, will receive an engraved medallion to commemorate the award at an assembly in March. Han also qualifies for the President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizing Americans of all ages who have volunteered for at least 100 hours of community service. Han spent two summers volunteering in Seoul, South Korea, assisting adults afflicted with Downs Syndrome and autism. Han helped with cooking and cleaning and assissted individuals to participate in sports, music, language and art classes.
There were only 234 finalists named out of over 5,000 local honorees, nationwide. “The recipients of these awards vividly demonstrate that young people across America are making remarkable contributions to the health and vitality of their communities, said John R. Strangerfeld, chairman and CEO of Prudential Financial. “They truly deserve all of the praise and encouragement we can give them.” The Presidents Award is via the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. More details on the Prudential award can be found on their Web site.
Over the summer, the World Awareness Committee (WAC), which recently became Global Empowerment and Outreach (GEO), donated a grand total of $7,400 to the Aid to Children Without Parents (ACWP) charity. The money will be put toward a new school for disadvantaged children in Cambodia.
Neha Sabharwal, Gr. 12, who served as WAC co-vice president last year, said the organization chose to donate to ACWP “not only because it was like the ‘underdog’ group but also because its mission and aims are so fundamentally concrete. This program is all about making lasting, tangible solutions.”
“We were really moved by the ACWP cause,” said Niti Shah, Gr. 11, who was WAC co-vice president last year, and currently serves as vice president of GEO. The organization sprang into action after watching an NBC news special on child sex trafficking. “Many of us didn’t know that it was going on and scarring the lives of girls by the thousands.”
The ACWP purchased the future school’s property, formerly the location of a brothel. When finished, it will provide a basic education to children residing in nearby villages. “[The ACWP was] extremely grateful for the donation,” said Shah.
To raise the money, WAC held a number of events, such as visits by ACWP representatives, a benefit concert, a dance and a student auction. Throughout the year, WAC also sold buttons, T-shirts and CDs containing music made by Harker students. WAC managed to raise about $6,000 on their own, and the amount was bumped to $7,400 after a number of anonymous donations.
GEO will hold its first fundraising and education week Nov. 10-14. The theme for the week will be the hunger and extreme poverty, which is first on the list of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. GEO will also begin fundraising for Free the Children, an organization based on youth empowerment and providing alternative sources of income for individuals worldwide.
The Harker Environmental and Animal Rights Team (HEART) was awarded a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition May 18 as winners of Rep. Mike Honda’s Go Green Contest.
The competition, sponsored by Honda’s Student Advisory Council and engaged area high schools, prompted students to reduce their school’s carbon footprint. At Harker, this was “the PSI effort”: a team of students checked and corrected the tire pressure of about 50 vehicles on the Harker campuses. HEART estimates the effort offset 3,232.83 kg of carbon entering the atmosphere – equivalent to having planted 147 trees. Representative Honda called the initiative “truly groundbreaking and innovative.”