In early March, Judge John Owens ’85 came to campus to speak to upper school students at a morning assembly on “Honors and Ethics,” sponsored by the Honor Council.
Owens said that his time at Harker remains “the most significant professional and personal influence on me.” He went on to say that Harker provided him with the study skills necessary to succeed in school, and more important, the ethics and values to succeed in life.
Owens started out as a Harker student in 1979, graduated from grade 8 in 1985, and worked as a summer camp counselor/coach at the school from 1985 until 1991. Today, he remains active with the school in his capacity as a member of Harker’s distinguished board of fellows.
He was previously featured in Harker News when he was appointed to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, the nation’s largest appeals court.
Prior to his talk at the upper school, Owens had returned to Harker’s lower school to talk with third graders about his life as a judge.
This article originally appeared in the spring 2016 Harker Quarterly.
Each fall upper school students flock to the gymnasium for the Harker Club Fair to see the huge offering of clubs catering to a wide variety of interests. Although they are not part of Harker’s academic programs, student clubs offer a wealth of opportunities for personal growth.
“Joining a club will give you some life skills that you may not be able to get in other areas,” said clubs coordinator Eric Kallbrier, “like working as a group outside of an academic setting, being organized and developing leadership skills. Clubs give you an opportunity to find out more about your personal interests and your personal strengths. I think it’s really important, especially for high schoolers as they develop into adult citizens, to better understand how they can use their talents and interests to serve themselves, each other and their greater community.”
Tutoring Club
One club dedicated to helping students reach their academic potential is the Tutoring Club, which currently boasts 121 student tutors and assists students in every subject and from all grade levels at Harker. It is unique in its operation, as it forgoes club meetings and functions primarily via email. “Mostly, student tutors meet individually with their tutees and discuss the material the student is struggling with,” said Sanjana Marcé, grade 11, who serves as a club officer along with seniors Sohil Patel and Shivali Minocha. “As officers of the organization, we coordinate the pairing of students with available and capable peer tutors.”
Marcé says tutoring is rewarding because it benefits both the tutors and the students they support. “Through one-on-one tutoring, you develop a personal interaction with your peers,” she said, “and see yourself directly involved in helping students learn and understand difficult concepts. The club gives student tutors a chance to go beyond simply absorbing material in class, instead giving the opportunity to teach and educate their peers.”
Anime Club
Other clubs are designed to help students further their interest in fun activities or explore new ones. Sophomores Wendy Wang and Aadi Ghildiyal organized the Harker Anime Club, now in its second year, to give students who love Japanese animation a place to meet and make new friends. “I talked to Aadi, and then we decided the basic direction of the club,” said Wang, who serves as club president. “Then we found [upper school Japanese teacher] Ms. [Keiko] Irino, and told her about the reason we are creating the club, and what we are going to do.” Irino signed on as advisor and the club was founded with 10 members. It has since grown to 40. “I think I need to know more people at Harker who love anime, who love this kind of culture,” Wang said.
The club meets monthly in Irino’s classroom. At the first meeting of the year, members vote on which anime series they will watch together. Most of the members discovered the club at the Harker Club Fair, and anyone with an interest in Japanese animation is welcome to join. “Our club is just for fun,” Wang said. “For me, I want to make the club into a space for students to relax, to make more friends, to follow their interests.”
Archery Club
Other clubs focus on outdoor activities. One such club is Harker’s Archery Club, which meets twice a week. It was founded last year by students who thought the sport, which is part of the Olympics, was interesting for various reasons. “I started participating in archery for the reason a lot of people tell you not to start archery: I’m really into fantasy and adventure books,” said club treasurer Gwyneth Chen, grade 10, “and I thought characters like Legolas in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Will in ‘Ranger’s Apprentice’ were cool and exciting.” She began archery in earnest during a lower school Harker summer program and has since become “more appreciative of the elegance and fun in the sport itself,” she added.
The club’s ve members meet on Saturdays to shoot at a range in San Jose that is managed by the Black Mountain Bowmen Archery Club. All the basic equipment is provided by the club, as is instruction for beginning shooters. No prior experience with archery is necessary to be a member of the club, although members must sign a health waiver before they are allowed to attend the weekend meetings. The club also meets during the week on the upper school campus to go over safety practices and gear usage as well as work on physical conditioning.
Although the club is small, its members find it a great way to “to get outside, take a break from work, and exercise a few muscles you may not have known you had,” said Chen, who noted that “the club atmosphere is very friendly and relaxed.”
JSA
For students interested in politics and current events, Harker’s Junior State of America chapter has long been a primary destination. “The goal of the JSA is to facilitate political discussion,” said club president Kedar Gupta, grade 11. “We achieve this through club events and meetings mainly, which consist largely of open-ended discussions about current events.”
As 2016 is an election year, JSA has been particularly active in the past few months, hosting Pizza and Politics events, where students can watch the presidential debates while discussing the policies and campaigns of the candidates. The club also travels to three conventions each year, at which they convene with representatives from more than 30 Northern California schools. “These are awesome events for meeting new people who share an interest in politics,” said Gupta. In fact, attending a convention in Sacramento is what prompted Gupta to become a member. “I really enjoyed that weekend and all the lively discussions, so I continued to attend JSA events,” he said.
Although JSA is geared toward students interested in politics, Gupta says it allows students to participate in discussions even if they are not sure of their level of interest. “JSA is friendly toward all members, since it allows them to engage in politics without being too hardcore,” he said. “Debates at conventions are always pretty funny, which is definitely helpful for those who aren’t too familiar with the issues at hand.”
WiSTEM
Another large club at Harker is WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). The club, which has existed for more than a decade, has been an instrumental part of Harker’s science program, due to its involvement with the Harker Research Symposium and its efforts to attract guest lecturers, organize women-led activities and encourage women to be mentors to girls interested in STEM.
Current president Anika Mohindra, grade 12, has been involved with WiSTEM since her freshman year. When asked why she joined the club, she said, “I primarily loved being around so many girls as interested in STEM as I was, especially since I had previously been to math camps where the gender ratio was hugely skewed.”
WiSTEM members deeply value their role in advancing the involvement of women in STEM fields, and in addition to their on-campus efforts, also devote considerable time to community outreach. Each semester, the STEM Buddies program sends WiSTEM members on visits to the preschool, where they engage and guide the preschool students with age- appropriate science experiments.
“Each visit has a different scientific theme,” Mohindra said. “For example, during the chemistry-focused day, WiSTEM members and upper school chemistry teachers put on a chemistry magic show and ran activity stations such as color mixing.”
During WiSTEM’s club week, members raise money for organizations that benefit various causes related to the club’s mission. This year, they raised more than $2,000 for WISER, which will go toward health care and education for young girls in Kenya. “Our donations will provide a safe place for 25 girls to live (including furniture and mosquito nets) and will provide school supplies for 25 girls for a year,” said Mohindra.
Every year, the club devotes a huge amount of time to the Harker Research Symposium, including tasks such as taking inventory, preparing badges and finalizing the schedule. “We also work with all the students giving talks and make sure they have properly prepared and rehearsed their presentations,” said Mohindra. “Of course, we are in charge of publicizing the event on campus and encouraging students to participate and attend.”
And More!
Other clubs include the Red Cross Club, which sponsors a blood drive every year, the Programming Club, which organizes the annual Harker Programming Invitational, and the Philosophy Club, which recently organized the Harker Philosophy Conference.
Students who wish to start a club must first fill out a club starter form, which every student receives at the beginning of the year. To complete the form, the club founders must have a faculty advisor, a committed group of initial members and a mission statement.
Recently, Kallbrier has been devising more ways for students to find and join clubs that interest them. He is currently working on an online list of clubs that contains each club’s contact information and mission statement. Once finished, students will be able to find this list on the Harker website’s student portal. “That’s what I’m most excited about right now,” said Kallbrier.
For now, students can attend the Harker Club Fair, which typically takes place in September. “We have all the clubs go to the gym, they have booths set up, and they get to talk to other students about what their club does,“ said Kallbrier, “and those students can then figure out if that’s a good match for them and sign up on the spot.”
Students can also find a club by looking at the club board in the upper school’s main building, which lists every club and their advisors. Some clubs, such as WiSTEM, also have club weeks during which they stage special events and encourage students to join. “That’s a great time for clubs to promote what they stand for and what they do as an organization,” Kallbrier said.
He added the clubs present an opportunity for students to “better develop themselves and gain an understanding of who they are before they move off into college. Because you never know what you might experience at one of these clubs that can change your future.”
Each year grade 10 students sojourn to the Bucknall campus to meet up with their grade 3 Eagle Buddies at the lower school’s annual Pajama Day Assembly.
The event, held in the gym, celebrates a grade 3 service project in which students collect items for the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.
Over the past nine years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated thousands of items to the program, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.
Although the drive is primarily a grade 3 effort, all lower school families are invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby. Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urges parents to encourage their children to help the less fortunate by donating a new pair pajamas or book to the program.
This year’s assembly occurred on a special-dress pajama day a couple of months ago, when all students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school. Butch Keller, upper school head, kicked off the assembly by reading the book “Courage,” a story about bravery by author and illustrator Bernard Waber.
Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller in his robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read a book with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who also had been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.
Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for lunch, socializing and field games.
“Being an Eagle Buddy is a lot of fun!” said Ellen Minkin, grade 10. “Today we’ve had a really nice time reading together, having lunch and just chilling out on the field.”
Her grade 3 pal, Bahar Sodeifi, said that she really likes the Eagle Buddies program and always looks forward to having the “big kids” come over for a visit.
Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide. The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.
The pajama and book drive originally began at the suggestion of Rishi Narain, grade 12, who got the idea for the project when he was in grade 3, after watching the “Oprah” show. The show’s guest that day was Genevieve Piturro, founder of the Pajama Program. Narain was motivated to bring the cause to Harker, where he helped organize the inaugural donation drive.
Although the upper school soccer teams lost this year’s Kicks Against Cancer games to Menlo High School, the real winner was Camp Okizu. The nonprofit organization allows children with cancer to “just be a kid for a week” through camp experiences they otherwise would not be able to have.
The seventh-annual soccer match took place on Feb. 5, with the junior varsity boys, varsity girls, and varsity boys playing against their respective Menlo High School teams. The junior varsity boys lost 0-2, the varsity girls lost 0-3 and the varsity boys lost 1-4.
Sparsh Chauhan, grade 10, scored the only goal for Harker during the last game of the night. After the junior varsity boys finished their game, the varsity girls team presented a check for $1,500 to four visiting Camp Okizu families.
Grade 11 student Maile Chung, who helped organize the event, said, “Every year we host these games in order to raise money and awareness for cancer. All the proceeds that we gain are donated to families in order for them to send their child to Camp Okizu.”
Camp Okizu offers a free weeklong summer camp that gives cancer patients and their families a sense of normalcy and stability. To help raise money for the camp, Kicks Against Cancer onlookers had the opportunity to buy T-shirts and wristbands, make monetary donations and purchase yummy treats at a bake sale.
During halftime of the last game, spectators were given a chance to play “Butts Up” with some faculty members lined up on the goal line. Cheerleaders, meanwhile, performed a special routine.
The Florio String Quartet was formed by a group of upper school students (seniors Jason Lee, Luke Wu and Kevin Kim, and junior Cuebeom Choi) in hopes of reaching out with music and serving the less-privileged “with the joys of pop and classical music.”
In August the quartet hosted a fundraising concert benefiting Lucile Packard, featuring classical pieces by Haydn as well as contemporary favorites by artists such as Coldplay and The Rolling Stones.
“The members of the Florio Quartet care as much about sharing their music with the community as they do about the music itself. As a teacher this makes me very proud,” said upper school music teacher and the group’s namesake, Chris Florio, in the Lucile Packard blog post.
In lieu of an entry fee, The Florio String Quartet collected donations, raising more than $2,000 for patients and their families.
In December the lower school hosted a festive and fun holiday cookie decorating event for parents. Coffee and a light breakfast was served. Parents had been asked to bring in gently used children’s clothing for donation to the lower school’s dress drive, to help make the holidays more special for kids in need in the community. The middle and upper schools held their cookie decorating events together at the upper school campus, with both parents and students invited to attend. An unexpected side benefit of the activity was that it proved to be a great stress reliever for the high school students, who were able to relax in between taking their finals. In fact, it was so effective that talks are already in the works to bring it back next year during finals!
Whenever Logan Bhamidipaty, grade 9, has some spare time, he puts it to good use by volunteering at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, the largest food bank in the country. He has racked up well over 270 hours of community service at the food bank and raised $2,500 for the organization during September’s Hunger Action Month, a nationwide campaign to promote hunger awareness.
According to representatives at the food bank, the Bay Area has one of the highest national statistics of residents facing hunger. To help raise funds for the food bank, Bhamidipaty undertook such activities as pet sitting, recycling, and asking friends and family members for donations.
“Even after coming to the food bank for over a year and a half, I am still amazed that one box of food or even one pound of rice can feed a family. Facts like these really motivated me to come back. By the end of the day, even if I only made a small difference, I still know that I made someone’s day a little better,” said Bhamidipaty.
In November, local television reporter Spencer Christian interviewed Bhamidipaty about his contribution as part of a “Give Where You Live: ABC-7 Thanksgiving Food Drive” campaign to support Bay Area food banks. ABC-7 reported that Bhamidipaty’s donation resulted in 7,500 meals for residents in San Francisco and Marin counties.
Paul Ash, executive director of the SF-Marin Food Bank, called Bhamidipaty an outstanding volunteer and a wonderful example of how a young person’s determination can make a big difference in the world.
“His donations of time and money have helped thousands of families receive the food they need. There are opportunities all around us to give back, and Logan’s actions are a great example of that. The food bank believes that together we can end hunger, and Logan embodies that spirit,” noted Ash.
Each year grade 9 students participate in the annual Freshman Community Service Day as an introduction to community service. This year marked the first time that the entire class performed its initial service day at one location: the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy in San Jose.
Some 196 freshman participated in the service learning project, which included a trail cleanup and nature walk, as well as an educational component. The outing kicked off what promises to be a meaningful year of local outreach work for the ninth graders. Throughout the school year, the students will have the opportunity to fulfill a variety community service jobs at a number of organizations.
The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy provides community leadership for the development and active use of the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens through education, advocacy and stewardship programs.
According to conservancy representatives, who welcomed the visit from the upper school, the learning portion of the student’s day included activities at three stations: “macroinvertebrates, dichotomous key for tree identification and a bio blitz.” The service experience, which immediately followed, focused on litter pick up.
A group of five seniors, with special interests in the performing arts, journalism or outreach work, recently joined more than 1,000 attendees at the YWCA of Silicon Valley’s annual fall fundraiser.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of the popular event, called the Inspire Luncheon, which featured two keynote speakers: World YWCA General Secretary Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda and Oscar-winning actress and filmmaker Helen Hunt. Both spoke to the theme of empowering women and eliminating racism, key tenets of the YWCA’s mission.
Gumbonzvanda joined the World YWCA in 2007 after a decade working with the United Nations in Africa. At the end of her speech, she received the organization’s inaugural Empowerment Award. Hunt, meanwhile, is best known for her roles in movies, such as “As Good As It Gets,” and the TV show “Mad About You.” These days she is also heavily involved in youth and environmental causes.
Harker regularly hosts a table for upper school students with a special passion for the year’s topic. Attending this year’s event were seniors Melina Nakos, Naomi Molin, Helen Woodruff, Adele Li, and Ashi Gautam. Joining them were Emma Hawley ’04 and Aisha Khan ’03. Before the luncheon, the Harker contingent had the opportunity to meet with the event’s speakers.
The annual luncheon features guest speakers who serve as role models for women and girls. Held every October at the Santa Clara Convention Center, event proceeds help support the group’s much-lauded services.
Each year, more than 40 companies and hundreds of individuals sponsor the YWCA’s luncheon. The mission of the YWCA is to empower women, children and families, and to eliminate racism, hatred and prejudice. The organization provides programs in the areas of sexual assault intervention and prevention, counseling services, domestic violence, child care, youth programs, family services, and social and racial justice.
The YWCA of Silicon Valley serves nearly 18,000 Santa Clara County residents each year, and has provided countywide services for more than 100 years. More information can be found at www.ywca-sv.org.
Senior Shay Lari-Hosain feels fortunate to be able to spend his summers in Pakistan, performing meaningful outreach work under the direction of a recipient of a United Nations recognition award for the promotion of culture and peace. Especially since the recipient happens to be his grandmother.
Every year, shortly after school lets out, Lari-Hosain heads off to work at the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan (HFP), a humanitarian organization co-founded by his grandmother, Yasmeen Lari. He speaks with pride of Lari, who made history as Pakistan’s first woman architect. Most recently, she was one of a few architects featured in an Architectural Digest article.
In 2000, Lari retired from corporate practice and turned her attention to humanitarian work/poverty alleviation, Lari-Hosain explains. “That shift requires completely different types of architecture. Starting early on in her life, she was designing glass and metal corporate buildings and urban housing in Karachi … and now [she] designs environmentally sustainable, small housing units for completely different, rural settings,” he said.
Lari co-founded the HFP in 1980 with her husband, noted historian Suhail Zaheer Lari. Her profile has been included among 60 women from around the world who have contributed the most toward the objectives of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Last year, the Hilal-i-Imtiaz (The Crescent of Distinction) award was conferred on her by the government of Pakistan.
“I’ve been working at her foundation since I was an elementary school kid,” said Lari-Hosain, who most recently has done extensive marketing work for HFP’s Karachi office.
Lari-Hosain currently keeps busy as editor-in-chief of Wingspan, the upper school’s long-form magazine. Last February he brought his grandmother to Harker as a guest speaker, sharing her experiences with upper school journalists. She spoke about her work with education awareness programs, including women’s empowerment. She also shared stories about time spent training former militants, putting them on a different path to be more productive in rural society.
“My grandmother also has spoken on multiple occasions in Geneva (at the UN). In the past, she taught seminars at MIT and Harvard on architecture,” noted Lari-Hosain.
Lari-Hosain also worked to bring Al-Jazeera America’s “The Stream” co-host and Harker alumnus Wajahat Ali (MS ’94) to the upper school. Ali discussed his life as a Muslim-American during an assembly held on Sept. 19 in the gym. Lari-Hosain had the pleasure of introducing Ali during that assembly.
Last spring Lari-Hosain interviewed Ali for a Wingspan story regarding issues that Muslim-Americans face. That article got picked up by a Pakistani paper called DAWN, the leading English newspaper in Pakistan. Lari-Hosain’s article is linked here online.
Lari-Hosain said he was thrilled that Ali’s visit was such a success, and still generating continued conversation among upper school students and faculty alike. (Stay tuned for further coverage of Ali’s visit to Harker in the alumni section of the upcoming Winter 2015 issue of Harker Quarterly.)