In April, rising sophomores Catherine Zhao, Ronit Gagneja, Jeffrey Yang, and Michelle Kwan took second place at the Cupertino Hackathon, held at the city’s Qianlan Community Center. During the event, they created an app that helps students organize bike rides, carpools and meetups. Their work was presented to the Cupertino city council, and they as well as the other teams in the top five were presented with an award by Cupertino mayor Savita Vaidhyanathan.

About 20 teams competed at the Cupertino Hackathon, during which they spent 13 hours creating projects intended to improve public safety and promote community togetherness. The event also offered many learning opportunities, including workshops on women’s contributions to computer science and leveraging software used by several large tech companies.

During the spring 2017 semester, lower school English teacher Heather Russell got 32 lower school girls involved with the national Girls on the Run program. “I’m a runner and I thought this would be a great thing for girls [because] many of them don’t think of themselves as runners,” Russell said. “But it’s really a lot more than that because it’s an incredible curriculum that focuses on self-esteem and positive self-talk and self-image.”

The girls had been training for a 5K event in late May, in which they participated with 5,000 other runners. Each meeting of the group starts with a brief classroom activity based on the theme chosen for that week. Themes included bullying, gossip and qualities that make good friends. Students also learn about healthy life habits and nutrition. The runners then do warm-up exercises and go on practice runs, which are integrated with various activities, including a scavenger hunt one day that had students locate scraps of paper that provided helpful tips on how to be a good friend, such as learning how to say something positive about someone else. Parents of Girls on the Run participants are also sent summaries of the topics so that the discussion can continue at home.

“I thought this would be a great way to meet new people, make great friends and grow emotionally,” said Tricia Iyer. “It’s a great way to talk about all these topics that everyone has trouble with but never really wants to share.”

Russell noted that even with increased efforts to encourage young girls to enter careers they are interested in, they still often feel insecure, something she hopes to improve with Girls on the Run: “What is exciting for me is just to see them discover the beautiful qualities of themselves.”

At the World Chess Federation’s 28th Panamerican Youth  Championship, held June 30 to July 7 in Costa Rica, student Omya Vidyarthi, a rising grade 2 student, took first place among girls under age 8. Vidyarthi was one of four gold medalists to represent the United States at the competition, and her win helped make the U.S. the highest-placing country. She also received the title of Woman Candidate Master, which is awarded to female players who have at one point achieved a rating of 2,000, and she placed first in her age group for blitz chess, a variation of speed chess.

Following its regional Quiz Bowl win in April, Harker’s A-team of Nikhil Mangily ’17, rising senior Edgar Lin and rising sophomores Rohan Cherukuri and Jeffrey Fung, traveled to Atlanta for the national championship. The team had a respectable finish, taking 25th in a competition with more than 300 teams. Rising sophomore Kyle Li, a member of the Harker B-team, ranked No. 2 among freshmen nationwide and was named a Freshman Rising Star. Li also was ranked 45 overall among the 1,500 participants.

More than 30 middle school students posted medal-winning scores in this year’s National Myth Exam, which took place during the spring semester. The annual exam, taken by all middle school Latin students, includes questions on Greek and Roman myths.

Silver medals, awarded to students who scored between 95 and 99 percent, were awarded to rising seventh graders Hita Thota, Jeremy Ko, Alan Jiang, Jasmine Li, Andrew Fu and Andrew Pluzhnikov; rising eighth graders Nicole Tian, Anoushka Khatri, Arnav Jain, Brandon Park, Jacqueline Hu, Angela Jia, Aaron Lo and Alex Zhang; and rising ninth graders Betsy Tian, Angela Cai and Akshay Manglik.

Bronze medal winners, who scored between 90 and 94 percent, were rising seventh graders Atri Banerjee, Anthony Tong, Linette Hoffman, Nicholas Wei and Isaac Yang; rising eighth graders Ishaan Parate, Aaron Tran, Prakrit Jain, Thresia Vazhaeparambil, Ysabel Chen and Akhilesh Chegu; and rising ninth graders Sidra Xu, Jason Lin, Anna Vazhaeparambil, Shalini Rohra and Maria Vazhaeparambil.

These students were presented with their medals and certificates in May at the California Junior Classical League’s state convention.

Harker 2017 graduates Steven Cao, Divya Rajasekharan, Sandip Nirmel, Angela Kim, Andrew Rule, Kai-Siang Ang, David Zhu, Anuva Mittal, Amrita Singh and Albert Xu were named 2017 National Merit Scholarship Winners. Cao, Rajasekharan, Nirmel, Kim, Rule, Ang and Zhu were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, a one-time prize that can be put toward their studies at any accredited U.S. college or university. Mittal, Singh and Xu received college-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which provide an annual amount of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years.

In September 2016, 45 Harker seniors were named National Merit Semifinalists and 65 were recognized as Commended Students.

Harker had a solid showing in the 2017 Physics Bowl, organized by the American Association of Physics Teachers. Rising seniors Swapnil Garg, Jimmy Lin and Neelesh Ramachandran, and rising junior Cindy Wang were among the top 100 scorers in Division 2 (comprising second-year physics students). Out of a possible 40 points, Garg scored 28, Lin and Neelesh each scored 25, and Wang scored 23. The average score for Division 2 participants was 13.1.

With a team total of 122 points, Harker took third place in Division 2, tying with Virginia’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, who placed second due to having the highest-scoring student.

The Physics Bowl, which this year included more than 7,100 students from around the world, is a 45-minute, multiple-choice exam consisting of 40 questions on topics commonly covered in high school physics courses.

The grandparents of preschool and lower school students visited their grandchildren’s respective campuses in early May, touring the grounds and enjoying special activities. See the accompanying slideshow for a look at the fun!

Harker middle school students performed extremely well in California Mathematics League contests during the 2016-17 school year, according to a report published by the organization. Harker was the third highest-placing school in the league and placed first in the region at the grade 6 level, with Riya Gupta, Ashley Hu, Connie Jiang, Sally Zhu and Tiffany Chang all placing among the top 35 sixth grade competitors.

At the grade 7 level, Harker was the top-placing school in the league and the region, with students Alexander Hu, Rishab Parthasarathy, Akhilesh Chegu, Kevin Wang and William Zhao named among the top 49 performers.

Harker tied with Saratoga’s Redwood Middle School for second place in the grade 8 category. Among the top 34 students were Utkarsh Priyam, Eric Zhu, Vivian Jin and Sidra Xu.

Over a two-week period in late July and early August, 16 middle school students traveled to Costa Rica for the annual summer Spanish immersion trip. After arriving in the Costa Rican capital city of San José, the students visited Nuevo Milenio, a private school, where they enjoyed dance performances and student poetry recitals. Over the next several days, they learned how to make local cuisine in Grecia, volunteered at a school located in the neighborhood of La Carpio (made up primarily of poor Nicaraguan refugees), gazed at the country’s native flora and fauna, went ziplining over the lush forestry and participated in a day-long scavenger hunt through downtown Grecia. The memorable journey was capped off with a hearty dinner at a local eatery, where the travelers were entertained by local musicians and costumed dancers, known as máscaradas.

Most eyes may have been on Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry during last weekend’s Ellie Mae Classic golf tournament, but Harker community members likely noticed another familiar name among the many competitors: recent graduate Colt McNealy.

McNealy, who will begin studies at Stanford in the fall, qualified for the event in late June at a Junior Tour of Northern California tournament, sneaking past three other players who were in contention for the spot. One of them was JTNC Player of the Year Thomas Hutchison.

The Ellie Mae Classic, held at TPC Stonebrae in Hayward, is a charity event that features professional and amateur golfers as well as star athletes from other sports. Colt’s brother, Maverick ’13, competed at last year’s Ellie Mae Classic but was unable to attend this year, as he was competing at the The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in England.

Last month, rising senior Millie Lin was named a member of the All-National Honor Ensembles by the National Association for Music Education. Lin will perform in late November as a member of the Mixed Choir at the Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

According to the NAfME website, the All-National Honor Ensembles are made up of “the top performing high school musicians in the United States.” Students audition for ensembles by creating unedited videos of an unaccompanied performance. Lin’s dedication to music will extend to her senior year, as she is slated to be a section leader for the Cantilena women’s choir during the 2017-18 school year. 

More than 600 Harker community members attended the opening celebration of the Harker Athletic Center on Friday evening. The celebration included heartfelt thanks from Harker faculty and administrators to all who made possible the construction of the new building, as well a special dedication to longtime head of school Howard Nichols, for whom the facility’s 12,000-square-foot gym court is named. See the embedded slide show for more photos from the event, and view the accompanying video for a look at the massive construction effort and the reactions from the first student athletes to set foot in the Athletic Center. 

In June and July, rising senior Lizzy Schick went on a 25-day European tennis trip with 12 other high school students from across the United States and three coaches from around the world. The 13 high schoolers were scheduled to play in five tournaments in three cities (Amsterdam, Barcelona and Prague) and train for two to six hours each day on clay courts.  

The group started its journey just outside of Amsterdam in a small town called Hilversum, where they learned to play on clay courts (a first for most of the players). In the Tulip Open, the team’s first tournament, Schick competed in both singles and doubles, and won the doubles tournament with her partner, Katie Wolber, a senior from Michigan. While in Amsterdam, the team was fortunate to view the beautiful canals, and visit both the Rijksmuseum art and history museum and Anne Frank’s house.

After the first week in Amsterdam, the team traveled to Barcelona, where Schick competed in her first professional tournament, held at a Spanish national training center. While in Barcelona the players visited the famous market and La Sagrada Familia, a large church that has been under construction since 1882.

During the last week and a half of the trip, the team traveled from Barcelona to Prague where it competed in three tournaments in eight days. Schick was a doubles finalist in the first tournament, and both a singles and doubles finalist in the last tournament. The castle in Prague, John Lennon’s wall, the Charles Bridge, and the Jewish Quarter were among the sights the players toured before leaving the city.

This trip was an exceptional training and learning experience both on and off the court, and helped teach Schick many life skills necessary for her not-so-distant college life. An added bonus of the trip was the special insight Schick received about Amsterdam and Prague, prior to starting her senior year elective history and literature courses.

The grand opening of Harker’s new athletic center drew more than 600 people Friday evening, as members of the Harker community and local media arrived to get an early look at the feature-rich facility.

Many at the event were new visitors, getting a first-time look at the 33,000-square-foot facility’s spectacular gym floor. Measuring 12,000 square feet, the floor is designed to allow two games to be played simultaneously and is situated 14 feet below ground to facilitate temperature control and reduce the building’s profile. The building’s HydroWorx underwater treadmill – the same kind used by orthopedic hospitals and NFL teams – is the first at any U.S. high school. It is situated alongside a HydroWorx 300 therapy pool and Grimm Scientific cryotherm pool.

“It’s the best of everything. It’s gorgeous, the lockers, the training room facilities, top of the line,” said Joe Cea, father of Dominic Cea, grade 12, adding that he “can’t wait to watch the games.”

In addition to its many benefits for Harker athletes and athletic faculty, the building also provides an ideal venue for assemblies and contains a large screen for streaming events. The spectator experience was also crucial to its design, with bleachers situated to enable a great line of sight to the action on the gym floor, a spacious promenade and an easily accessible snack bar. In keeping with Harker’s energy-conscious approach to designing and constructing new facilities, 25 percent of the electricity to both the athletic center and the Rothschild Performing Arts Center (opening in 2018) will be provided by a 140-kilowatt solar array.

“You really see the effort and the vision behind the whole gym,” said Simar Mangat ’13, one of many alumni in attendance. “To see the whole community here, I think there’s a lot of spirit that’s both in the walls of the building and in the people that are here.”

Attendees showed up in the early evening and enjoyed pizza and hot dogs while waiting for the gym to open to visitors. When the time came to open the building at about 7 p.m., ribbons at the entrance were cut by Harker’s Board of Trustees, along with the leaders of the construction effort, and the captains of the boys and girls basketball and volleyball teams. Throngs of people then walked through the entrance and eventually took their seats at the bleachers. Board of Trustees chair and former head of school Diana Nichols then joined faculty, donors and administrators on the gym floor, offering them many thanks for their hard work that made construction of the building possible.

Theresa “Smitty” Smith, longtime volleyball coach and lower and middle school athletic director, later stood on the court, flanked by members of the Nichols family and the upper school girls volleyball team. After Smith delivered a heartfelt dedication to former president Howard Nichols, the members of the volleyball team revealed that the 12,000-square-foot court had been named in Howard’s honor. The Nichols’ grandchildren then had the honor of being the first to dribble basketballs across the length of the court.

Harker facility director Mike Bassoni also had the chance to speak, giving the many in attendance a brief breakdown of the gym’s features while the girls volleyball team set up on the court. The team then played a practice game to the crowd’s delight.

“It is truly amazing, and I’m so glad that we came out as alumni,” said Sumit Minocha ’13. “Everybody seems so happy, I can really just sense the Harker spirit skyrocketing.”

Every summer, Harker’s learning, innovation and design department offers career development opportunities to Harker teachers looking to broaden their teaching methods and areas of expertise, often by incorporating the use of new or emerging technologies.

Lower school math teacher Mira Vojvodic used her LID grant to look into expanding the use of games in her classroom to “make difficult math concepts a bit more approachable to the kids,” she said. Working with a group of math teachers from other campuses, Vojvodic was excited to discover how many different ways there are to learn. “Even when it’s only a game, a lot of things are happening,” she said. Although she already had been using games provided by BreakoutEDU, Vojvodic found that “creating [games such as] treasure hunts, Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit are great ways to make the introduction of new concepts or chapter reviews more fun. I will definitely try to implement as many of these games as possible in my classroom.” Having observed that students become more engaged with math problems when they are made into games, Vojvodic said “this LID grant gave me inspiration and ideas to create and implement more games in my classroom.”

Andy Gersh, a middle school math teacher who was in the group with Vojvodic, also has been interested in furthering his use of games to instruct his students. Specifically, he looked into various ways that board games can illustrate how to solve math problems. “I think a lot students struggle with math because they try to memorize methods rather than take problems as opportunities to explore new ways of thinking,” he said. “Once you’ve memorized how to win a board game, it quickly becomes boring. Good board games require you constantly evaluate your next move, seek familiar patterns, discuss your methodology (sometimes), play and problem solve within a confined set of rules.” Noting the many similarities in the strategies used to solve math problems and win at board games, Gersh hopes to use board games to “get students out of the habit of thinking of a math problem as a procedure and instead as an opportunity where creative thinking will be rewarded with newfound insights.”

Intrigued by a virtual reality demo put on by Google at the lower school last year, grade 2 teacher Sejal Mehta used her LID grant to explore ways VR could be implemented in her social studies and language arts classes. “Students learn five U.S. regions and U.S. landmarks as a part of the second grade social studies curriculum. [With VR] students will have an opportunity to visit the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Liberty Bell, the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial, etc.,” she said. Using cost-effective technology that incorporates smartphones, Mehta said, “students will be able to learn geography and visit historical sites, historical monuments and historical events. They will observe and explore these places while in their own classroom.”

Upper school students welcomed the 2017-18 school year on Friday morning with the annual matriculation ceremony. Students filled the upper school quad, which was renovated over the summer. As with previous ceremonies, grade 9 students arrived last, greeted by the enthusiastic applause of students in grades 10-12.

Shortly after members of the Class of 2021 took their seats, new Head of School Brian Yager gave his historic first opening remarks at a Harker matriculation ceremony. He welcomed this year’s seniors into their new roles as student leaders, noting the opportunity “for you to make the most of your own journey while also inspiring and preparing those who will follow you to do the same.” He advised the incoming ninth graders to “enjoy and embrace the process, and look to the students in the grades above you for guidance and inspiration.”

Per tradition, upper school division head Butch Keller also spoke, delivering one of his favorite adages: “It’s not the situation that’s important. It’s the reaction that’s everything.” To illustrate his point, he offered examples of people he had read about over the summer. The first was Jay Williams, a promising former NBA player who suffered a career-ending injury and subsequent drug addiction but eventually maneuvered into a career as an analyst at ESPN. Another was Craig Sager, the legendary sportscaster who chose to fight leukemia rather than succumb to it. Even though Sager’s illness returned, resulting in his death in 2016, his decision to persevere left Keller “humbled.” These stories, Keller felt, also demonstrated virtues of kindness, compassion and empathy he hoped the students would carry with them through the coming year.

ASB president Jimmy Lin, grade 12, welcomed the seniors with a lesson on learning how to get comfortable with trying new things. To illustrate, he shared a story about a visit to Google with his friends. While there, he recalled, the discussion turned to grabbing a few bikes that Google makes available to its employees and riding them to get lunch. It was then that Lin made a confession to his friends: He had never learned to ride a bike. Deciding it was time to learn, “I finally had to swallow my pride and ask my friends to teach me.” After spending time practicing in the Google employee parking lot, Lin finally was able to make the two-block ride to the local eatery. “It was a learning moment that came from trusting my friends to help me embrace this hurdle,” Lin said. “Even though it came 10 years late.” He hoped his story would encourage the incoming freshmen to embrace new challenges, knowing they had their fellow students to help them.

As always, entertainment was a key part of the ceremony, which featured performances by the upper school women’s choir Cantilena, directed by Susan Nace, and The Harker String Quartet, directed by Chris Florio. The ceremonies concluded with the annual “Freshman 101” series of comedy skits, put on by the Student Council and Honor Council, which introduced the grade 9 students to various aspects of school life in a fun and light-hearted manner.

Last week, upper school technical theater teacher Brian Larsen and his Re-Create Reading group received a visit from Harker alumnus Andrew Shvarts ’03, who visited to discuss his latest work, “The Royal Bastards.” “Andrew was a great speaker. We discussed themes within the book, character development, the business of getting published as an author and what may lie ahead in his series,” Larsen said. “The kids definitely enjoyed the book and shared their favorite characters and parts of the story.”

Earlier this year Shvarts was the subject of a Harker News story noting the release of his book: http://news.harker.org/alumnus-first-book-aimed-at-teens-and-young-adults-on-amazon/

and a Harker Magazine profile in the Summer 2017 issue. Here’s a link to that article. Enjoy!
https://issuu.com/theharkerschool/docs/harker_magazine_summer_2017/50

Arusha Patil and Alexander Kumar, both grade 9, were recently honored in the 2017 Promising Young Writers Program, organized by the National Council of Teachers of English. Patil was awarded a certificate of recognition and Kumar received a certificate of participation. Each year, the Promising Young Writers Program recognizes grade 8 students nominated by their schools for their writing abilities; Patil and Kumar were eighth graders when they were nominated by middle school English teacher Patricia Burrows. Of the 163 students nominated in this year’s program, 67 received certificates of recognition. The remaining 96 were awarded certifications of participation.

On Sept. 5 middle school students participated in what division head Cindy Ellis called an “empathy developing experience” inspired by recent Hurricane Harvey-related events in Texas. Students were each given a card representing a group of people affected by the disaster. Students given red cards played the role of evacuees, while those with blue cards represented those who stayed in their homes and could not leave due to flooding. Students with green cards represented people who were not in immediate danger but were concerned for their loved ones and wanted to help.

Facilitators led discussions with each group based on detailed scenarios that contained questions for the students. Red card holders posing as evacuees, for instance, imagined that their family had been forced to move temporarily to a much smaller living space than what they had grown accustomed to. As their scenario played out, they were asked questions about what they would leave behind, knowing that belongings left at home could be destroyed, and what a 12-hour drive to Austin might be like in a packed vehicle with bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Later in the week, middle school advisories discussed what they had learned during the exercise. These discussions will be used to formulate ideas on how to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey. “We are trying to make this as student-driven as we can with this age group,” Ellis said.