Andrew Semenza ‘18 and Millie Lin ‘18, at the behest of brother Jason Lin, grade 10, performed at a benefit concert on Aug. 19 along with friend Kevin Zhu, a Bay Area native and world-renown violinist. All proceeds went to the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit committed to serving as many immigrant women and girls fleeing violence as possible.
Jason Lin was the primary organizer of the event. “After debating immigration issues at debate camp, I went to a talk by the Tahirih Justice Center about their work regarding asylum seekers, and was moved by their message,” he said. “Although the TJC has a 99 percent success rate, they can only help one in 10 clients! Like many others at the talk, I was motivated to take action. Since my friend Kevin, a fantastic violinist, was about to come over to the Bay Area, and since Andy Semenza was also available, I decided to organize a benefit concert. My friends helped me get the show on the road.”
Millie Lin also had attended the talk. “We wanted to help the organization and the people it supports, especially at a time when the family separation issue at the U.S.-Mexico border was so critical … so we partnered with the Tahirih Justice Center to organize the concert,” she said.
“Five weeks later, after Jason’s frantic daily communications with Tahirih, volunteers and performers to organize the event, the concert was wonderfully successful. We far surpassed our fundraising goal of $15,000, reaching about $31,000 from numerous small donations. In addition to organizational help from Tahirih, the majority of the effort was truly youth-led, as Jason, performers and volunteers were all around high school age,” Millie added.
Jason noted the success was a group effort. “Spreading word of the concert was a challenge,” he said. “Everyone is constantly being bombarded with news and notifications, so it was difficult to let everyone know. However, the Tahirih Justice Center helped us contact a few local news organizations, and I assembled a small team of volunteers to help advertise. About nine fellow Harker student volunteers sold tickets with me. Some went door to door, some posted notices at farmers markets or libraries, some posted on social media – and with the support of the community, seats quickly sold out.
“Seeing the entire community come together for the concert and the enthusiasm of the group of volunteers in selling tickets and ushering guests made the whole effort worth it for me. It was immensely fulfilling to see our efforts come together for the concert. Thanks to the avid support of the community, the event was a huge success! None of this would have been possible without the volunteers, the performers or the community,” said Jason.
“Personally,” said Millie, “due to the great results and warm support, this event reinvigorated my belief in our local community’s potential to reach out and help others. As a bystander to much of the organizational process, I watched the wonderful enthusiasm of Jason and his fellow volunteers and friends in putting this all together, and I’m especially hopeful for the potential for those younger than me to accomplish great and good things in the future.”
Have you ever felt dismay about the increasing quantity of litter along our freeways, including our own Saratoga Avenue exits? If so, you may take heart when you see white “Adopt-a-Highway” bags along the road! Several years ago, former upper school history teacher Carol Zink noticed the bags along our Saratoga Avenue exits, and decided to find out just who was responsible for taking on the eyesore of trashy freeways. She met former public school teacher Loui Tucker and her partner, Sabine Zappe, a math teacher at Del Mar High, who had adopted the section of highway between Meridian and Saratoga avenues 12 years ago.
Said Tucker, “I clearly remember becoming obsessed with an enormous piece of plastic (it could have wrapped a car!) on the off-ramp from 280 southbound up to San Jose City College. I snarled at it every time I drove past it. Finally, late one night, I stopped on the off-ramp, jumped out, grabbed the plastic, stuffed it in my car, got back in and drove off. I felt great! I contacted the Adopt-A-Highway program in Northern California and, after a couple of delays and false starts, got my first five-year permit. I suppose I could have asked for any section, but it made sense to clean an area that I would be able to easily keep an eye on during the month.”
Since then, the pair have faithfully coordinated groups of volunteers one Saturday each month, and this past July reached a milestone 5,000th bag of trash. After contacting the group, Zink put out an email to the Harker faculty, encouraging other members of our community to join the efforts, and since then several faculty members – including Diana Moss, Shaun Jashaun, Agnes Pommier and Brian Yager – students and parents have also volunteered. Kristin Carlson, administrative assistant to Jennifer Gargano, has even pitched in several times to buy lunch for the group, as Tucker and Zappe take the volunteers to lunch after each cleanup.
After each cleanup, Tucker sends amusing reports to participants chronicling the unusual discoveries along the freeways and on- and off-ramps. She said, “We have returned dozens of items to their owners. Many of them were obvious items like backpacks, wallets, purses, credit cards and drivers licenses. There was a chest X-ray that we dropped off at Good Samaritan Hospital. We returned an envelope full of very crisp new $5 bills, found along with a calendar that identified the owner, to the owner of a Chinese restaurant who had planned to give the $5 as Chinese New Year’s gifts to his employees. We found a wallet and called the woman who owned it. Initially she said to toss it because she’d replaced it – until we mentioned that tucked inside was a love note from someone named Dave. She gasped, said she’d be right over. She brought a bottle of wine.”
They are always looking for more volunteers to help, and high school students may fulfill community service hours for pitching in. Tucker explained, “You have to be 18 to work on the highway with us without permission of a parent. If you’re 16 or 17, you can work with parental permission. I try to give high school students who want to participate a relatively safe area to work – like Southwest Expressway – rather than the freeway shoulders. For those under 16, I have made bags available and sent them out to clean city streets or a neighborhood park instead.” If you would like to support this effort, you may contact Loui Tucker at loui@louitucker.com and ask to be included on the email list that she sends to each month.
We are grateful to Tucker and her group for helping pick up in our own neighborhood!
The Harker community pulled together last week to help those affected by the fires in the North Bay, and had the surprise help of an alumna working in disaster relief.
Following the cancellation of the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic in mid-October, the school decided to donate picnic ticket sales receipts to relief efforts in Sonoma County. It was a welcome surprise to find that one of the organizers helping direct donations, Carol Beattie ’65, is a Harker Day School alumna.
Beattie is board vice chair at HealdsburgForever.org, a 14-year-old organization that helps fund various nonprofits in the Healdsburg area, which is assisting the Sonoma County Resilience Fund.
Once the decision was made to donate picnic receipts, the community stepped up the program and mounted a full-on effort to collect needed supplies for the stricken area. Along with $8,500 in picnic receipts, community members chipped in another $1,500 in cash to total about $10,000 in donations that went to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund. The Salvation Army received $2,800 in gift cards and the Redwood Empire Food Bank was the glad recipient of 150 bags and boxes of non-perishable food and pet food.
The donations are all thanks to a concerted effort by a variety of community members including members of Harker’s advancement department who coordinated the efforts.
Students and parents from the lower, middle and upper schools all contributed labor to the effort, with volunteers accepting donations to “stuff the bus” at a drop-off station at the upper school during Friday night’s football game, as well as at the middle and lower schools. In addition, lower school students wrote letters of encouragement to go with the more material contributions.
“I just want to thank everyone at Harker for the amazing job you did,” said Capt. Rio Ray, corps commanding officer, Salvation Army. “You are impacting lives. There are people that have lost everything and now have something because of you. So, thank you, continue to strive to serve others, you are making a difference and making the world a better place. Thank you.”
Redwood Empire Food Bank has served about 85 families a day over the last 12 days and was grateful for the Harker delivery. “Everybody has disasters; sometimes its medical, sometimes is the loss of a job, sometimes it’s just a disruption in your family,” said David Goodman, chief executive officer, Redwood Empire Food Bank. “In this particular case, the Sonoma complex fire has impacted thousands of people who never expected to need food assistance and here they are today. The food that you have given, your generosity, will improve lives and change lives and help people get back on their feet,” he said.
San Jose city councilman Chappie Jones was on hand yesterday morning to thank Harker’s freshman class effort of trail preservation at the Coyote Open Space Preserve. Jones reminded the team of 200 students and their advisors of the recent natural disasters, referencing the North Bay fires as well as the hurricanes that ravaged the Caribbean, Texas and Florida last month. “We see how important our environment is. We have to protect it,” urged the councilman. “You are part of that protecting our environment.”
Also on hand was Marc Landgraf, external affairs manager of the Open Space Authority of Santa Clara Valley. “You guys are contributing to 50,000 people a year enjoying this preserve and that’s a big deal to us,” he said. “We really appreciate your being here.”
Soon after hearing Jones’ words of encouragement, Harker freshman broke into three teams led by park employees to widen and clear the four-mile Arrowhead Loop Trail and remove invasive, non-native plants from an adjacent meadow. The work was overseen by Dana Litwin, volunteer programs administrator of the Open Space Authority. Litwin garnered the help of a dozen employees and volunteers to train and shepherd the students’ labor. Litwin pointed out that “in one day, the students did what would take our staff hundreds of hours!”
The annual freshman service trip was coordinated by Harker’s upper school Green Committee, led by Spanish teacher Diana Moss. One of the primary goals of the committee, according to Moss, is “to see our students develop a greater appreciation for and deeper connection with the natural habitats that surround us here in the Bay Area. Our hope is that many of them choose to become stewards for the environment who can make a positive difference on the planet at a time when climate change threatens our future.”
The freshman service trip happens annually on PSAT Wednesday, when sophomores and juniors are taking the exam and seniors use the day to work on college applications. Traditionally, freshman advisors join their students in a daylong effort to help the newest members of the upper school enjoy the fulfillment of volunteer work and jumpstart their community service requirement. Students who participated will receive credit for five of the annual required 10 hours of community service.
Seeing an opportunity to mix environmental protection with volunteer work, the Green Committee took on the coordination of this year’s event. Both the Green Committee and the Open Space Authority planned this event to become an annual pilgrimage by Harker freshman.
Freshman Sarah Raymond embraced that mission. “I think that’s really cool for our school to make an impact, to be known as the ones to clean the trail here,” she said.
Classmate Aniket Kriplani agreed, noting that being part of a large team lessens the load. “It makes you feel like you are getting a lot more done. When you look around and you see a lot of people. Work gets done fast,” he said. “If you’re doing this alone, it wouldn’t be as fun.”
The Green Committee also worked with Harker kitchen staff to plan a reduced waste lunch. Trays of lunchmeat and veggies displaced individually wrapped sandwiches to minimize the need for plastic wrap. Students and advisors brought reusable water bottles from home thereby eliminating the consumption of single-use plastic bottles. Even the location, about 20 minutes from Harker’s upper school campus, reduced the emissions of a longer bus trip and kept students efforts close to home where they might return to appreciate their work in the future.
Jones echoed this sentiment. “Nature is part of our DNA as human beings,” said Jones. “Nature is that outlet where you can go and just breathe, relax and just enjoy the outdoors.”
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
Harker celebrated Earth Day 2016 in a big way on April 22, with activities across many grade levels, highlighting Harker’s schoolwide dedication to sustainability.
At the upper school, Earth Day celebrations began as early as the previous week, as students, faculty and staff engaged in the Green Challenge. Using an app called SJEnvironment, participants made note of and “buzzed” each act of sustainability they performed over a weeklong period. Simple actions such as refilling water bottles, minimizing shower time, turning off lights and appliances, and taking public transit could all be recorded in the app for points that were later tallied. Participants were awarded with prizes from Starbucks, Sports Basement, Summer Winds Nursery, Aqui Restaurant and other businesses.
“Our hope is that through participating in the Green Challenge, everyone learned how many simple actions we can each take every day to help promote sustainability and reduce our carbon footprint,” said upper school Spanish teacher Diana Moss, who is also the upper school representative for the Harker Green Committee.
Upper school biology teacher and Green Committee member Kate Schafer added that it “challenged our students to think about their actions and modify those actions and learn about why it’s important to modify those actions.”
The upper school campus was also the location of the final Eagle Buddies event of the year, in which grades 3 and 10 teamed up to make special flags with imprints of leaves and other objects found in nature.
Lower school students celebrated at special Earth Day-themed stations set up by BEST staff. Students in grades 4 and 5 gathered at a table to make crafts from recycled materials, while second graders made potted plants from plastic bottles and string. Kindergartners dressed up as “Earth Jedis” and trekked about the lower school campus picking up trash and recyclables.
The preschool campus was the center of much activity, despite rainy weather consigning it to the indoors. Grade 8 students visited their preschool friends in the Eco Buddies program. In a number of cottages, the middle schoolers set up stations to demonstrate various ecological concepts. One station demonstrated the concept of solar power by having a solar-power operated toy car move around when light was shone on it. At another station, eighth graders used a sock puppet (a stand-in for a worm) to explain Harker’s “wet/dry” waste disposal program: anything that the worm ate would go into the “wet” bin, while anything the worm rejected was headed to the “dry” bin. Other students cobbled together bird houses, made water filters and cut out makeshift helicopters that twirled to the ground when dropped.
“I thought that this was a really cool buddy program, especially since we don’t do very many at middle school,” said Tasha Moorjani, grade 8. “I liked it a lot, for the most part, and my favorite bit was when I realized that the kids were genuinely interested, because it made me really excited to teach them.”
For the ninth year in a row, young cancer patients attending Camp Okizu will benefit from the annual Harker Cancer Walk.
On March 24, students, parents, family members, faculty and staff from Harker’s four campuses united at the middle school field for the walk, which has become a beloved annual tradition.
Cindy Ellis, middle school head, was thrilled to report that “between the baked goods, smoothies, shirts and donations, we raised over $10,000!”
Located in the Berry Creek area of the Sierra foothills and mirroring a residential camp experience, Camp Okizu provides a safe place for children with cancer to enjoy regular summer camp activities and social events.
The name Okizu (oak-eye-zoo) comes from the Sioux language and means “unity.” Camp Okizu is free of charge to all attendees, but it costs $700 to $1,000 to provide a week-long camp experience for one child. Therefore, the camp relies on donations, making fundraising efforts such as the Harker Cancer Walk incredibly important.
“There’s always a moment at each Cancer Walk when I stop and look around at everything that’s going on. People are smiling, laughing and talking. There’s hustle and bustle in front of various tables. And even though the event can be a reminder of something sad, it also can be a reminder of those wonderful days gone by,” recalled Michael Schmidt, middle school computer science teacher and department chair, who had the idea for the fundraiser following the passing of his own mother due to cancer.
Today, he said, he no longer views the Cancer Walk as just a tribute to his mother “as much as I think of it as a tribute to the people and relationships I’ve experienced at Harker. Thank you all for sharing that with me.”
Prior to walk, students engaged in activities to learn about different forms of cancer and cancer prevention strategies. In a further show of support for the fundraising effort, many teachers displayed door decorations with themes designed to promote cancer awareness.
On Friday, March 6, students and staff at the lower school had a blast jumping rope and shooting hoops during Jump Rope for Heart, an annual effort to raise money for the American Heart Association.
The event, which raised $6,300, took place throughout the day in the Bucknall gym, as well as on the grades 4-5 blacktop for those who wished to participate in Hoops for Heart instead of – or in addition to – jumping. Staff and students of all grades got in on the action, showing of their double dutch rope moves or hoop skills in support of a worthy cause.
“Holding this event not only engages students in physical activity while empowering them to improve their own health and help others with heart-health issues, but it also raises awareness of heart disease and stroke,” said Jim McGovern, who works in the lower school’s PE department and helped organize the event.
Among the day’s fun happenings were all kinds of jumping rope (short ropes, long roping, Chinese jump ropes), shooting baskets, and playing lightning and other basketball games. At the conclusion of each period, T-shirts, jump ropes and other gifts were raffled off to about a half dozen students. Participants also signed their names on a special heart table to show their support for those afflicted with heart disease.
This article was first printed in the Summer 2014 Harker Quarterly
The San José City Council honored The Harker School at the Dec. 9, 2014 council meeting for “dedication to environmental stewardship and successful implementation of the wet/dry collection program.” Chris Nikoloff, head of school, along with the teachers who spearheaded the new wet/dry initiative – Katherine Schafer, Diana Moss, Gerry-louise Robinson, Enni Chen and Margaret Huntley – accepted the recognition on behalf of the school. The real payoff is that, thanks to the entire school’s efforts, Republic Services reports that Harker’s diversion of waste from landfill has gone from 15 percent to 70 percent. To read more about Harker’s wet/dry program see Harker Quarterly, Summer 2014, page 16.