MAY 2002 (VOL. 8, NO. 12)
M O N T H L Y
N E W S L E T T E R
HARKER
F R O M
T H E
H A R K E R
S C H O O L
headlines
Harker Team Wins Tech Challenge and Grand Prize Four Harker US teams competed in this year’s Tech Challenge 2002, sponsored by the Tech Museum and held recently at the San Jose Civic Auditorium. The challenge was to move a simulated torch from one platform to another platform located 11 feet away. Team “APOL” won the high school award for Best Team Spirit, and Team “Pyrrhic Victory” earned the Grand Prize in the high school division! Team APOL: Aaron Kleinsteiber, Peter Combs, Ozan Demirlioglu and Leann Duong.
top stories Bucknall Annual “Ogre Awards” win hearts ................................ 5
Saratoga - MS Future Problem Solving teams heading to state finals ........ 8
Saratoga - US Latin students sweep California JCL Convention ................. 11
important dates Due to the volume of important dates in May and early June, please refer to your division calendars for date information. We also remind you that the key dates for next year are currently posted on the Parent Home Page!
Team Phyrrhic Victory: Adrik McIlroy, Greg Perkins, Alex Segal, Pia Pal, Alan Malek and Mason Liang. Rand Harrington, Harker’s US physics dept. chair, has been involved with this event for the past three years and shared some funny anecdotes and interesting facts about this annual event: The APOL team have been competing for at least three years. They won the Middle School division two years ago when they were 8th graders and the High School division last year as freshmen, also being honored with a plaque from the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors. The APOL team was “dethroned” from their first place title this year by the Pyrrhic team, though they still won the award for Most Spirited Team. We had two different teams of sophomores competing this year, and one team almost won the most spectacular failure award when their propeller driven device, suspended by a cable between the platforms, cut through one of the supporting strings. At that point, two members
Diane Reese
A
est. 1893 • K-12 college prep
of the team fell off the platform into the crowd—quite a spectacular event (a QT movie is posted on the web site for all to see). We also had a team of juniors this year who didn’t make it to the final competition due to mechanical failures (their motors burned up 1 hour before this year’s competition!) The Pyrrhic team did a phenomenal job—their design was totally unique and no other team came close to their design. After they finished the competition, they set up their device and gave demonstrations throughout the rest of the evening, much to the delight of the crowd. One of the team members, Adrik McIlroy, was even interviewed on TV by a news team from Channel 14. All the Harker teams are very
supportive of each other. Although there is some secrecy building up to the day of the event, everyone cheers the other teams on during the competition. The teams that win plan ahead and work hard to test their device before the day of the competition, and the winning entries are usually “clever and simple.” The parents of the team members should also be recognized for their support transporting team members and devices (Team Pyrrhic had to rent a U-Haul to move their device!), donating materials and allowing students to take over several garages. —Rand Harrington You can view movie clips on Harrington’s web site and see the project in action…as well as the enthusiastic response of the audience. Go to http:// users.harker.org/hs/randalh/ techchallenge/ and enjoy the show! Big congratulations to all of our teams for competing in this challenging event—we honor your hard work and ingenuity! At press time, the winning Harker team was invited to a special dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose honoring Tech Museum donors.
Editor’s Note: The month of May is full of “passages” of all sorts as our children rise to their next challenge. It’s also a time when thoughts turn to summer vacation. We wish you joy—and patience!— as we bring to a close another busy year at Harker! The next newsletter will be mailed in mid-June so we can include photos and news of all the exciting end-of-the-year activities, including the K-6 Dance Production, the Gr. 6 Promotion Ceremony, the Gr. 8 Graduation and the historic occasion of the first graduation in our new Upper School! —Pam Dickinson, Director of Communications Remember to check the Parent Home Page for detailed calendars, updates and additional news between editions of the Harker News!
Head of School, Diana Nichols, has been asked by the University of California Office of the President to serve as one of 15 regional experts on a team to advise schools on the course approval process. This regional professional network of experts will support the university’s efforts to develop UC-acceptable coursework in the areas of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. “We have been impressed with Harker School’s comprehensive approach to and success at navigating the UC ‘a-g’ course approval process over the past couple of years,” noted Roman Stearns, University of California spokesperson. Mrs. Nichols has invited Heather Blair, registrar and dean of students, to serve on this committee with her.
spirit
alive
Last Month to Keep the Spirit Alive! Harker is closing in on the end of the fiscal year, and 100 100 we hope to count on your participation before May 90 90 31st. Since our last update, we have reached 80 80 86% of our goal. We are 70 70 truly indebted to the Harker community for 60 60 providing essential student program support through 50 50 its participation. The community’s generosity 40 40 and commitment to Harker 30 30 are invaluable to our students. For those Harker 20 20 families who have yet to participate, you can get us 10 10 to 100%. Help us raise only 14% more for the 00 K students!
recap
Harker Golf Tourney Biggest Ever! It was a beautiful spring day for the 3rd annual Harker Golf Tournament held at the Sunol Valley Golf Club on April 13th. Forty-nine golfers joined in the fun—a 45% increase in participation from last year! A “Scramble” format was used with foursomes competing as a team for prizes and fame. Competition was very tight with only one stroke separating the first three places, and three foursomes tied for third—by far the closest competition yet. And the winners were... First place went to Phil Hall, Kyle Hall and Dave Mendoza (playing as a threesome) who shot a 6 under par. Second place was locked up at 5 under par by a Harker faculty team incuding Lee Carter, John Near, Jack Bither, Jeremiah Brewer and Richard Hertzell. Third place was taken by Howard Nichols, Ting Herh, Cris LaBruna and Doug Tobin, with fourth place prizes won by Joe Rosenthal, Kannan Ayyar, Sean Johnson and Gordon Smith. Harker student Jonathan Jenq took Closest-to-the-Pin honors, and Richard Hertzell won the Longest Drive competition. After the golf was complete, players enjoyed a buffet lunch and awards ceremony in the club house. It was a great day, and we hope to see you all again next year!
Percent of Participation by Grade Level
—Nancy Hartsoch, Harker US parent and Tournament Chair Editors Note: Many, many thanks to Nancy for her inspiration and organization of this great annual event. And we appreciate all who participated as we continue to build this into another great Harker tradition!
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As for the $25,000 Matching Challenge Grant contributed by a Harker family, we have successfully matched 97% of this grant. The grant matches dollar-for-dollar gifts received from returning families who did not participate in the 2000-01 Million for the Millennium Annual Giving Campaign. If you qualify for this grant, help us get to $25,000…we have only 3% to go! It is a magnificent way to double your contribution and, ultimately, double the support of our students. For more information and/or questions about the Campaign, please contact Amalia Keyashian, Director of Annual Giving at amaliak@harker.org or go to www.harker.org and click on ADVANCEMENT & ALUMNI. Thank you! —-Kelly S. Parker, Development Director
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EVENT
Nancy Hartsoch - both golf photos
headlines
briefs
The 4-6th grade girls’ flag football and boys’ volleyball and 7-8th grade girls’ flag football, girls’ softball and boys’ baseball all started April 29th. “The teams are looking great!” said Teresa Smith, MS Athletic Director. Spring Sports Awards will be on Fri., May 24th for 4-6th girls flag football and boys volleyball and 7-8th girls flag football, girls softball, boys volleyball, boys baseball, as well as swimming and tennis. Annual Athletic Awards for 4-8th is invitation only, and will be held Tues., May 28th. The boys’ varsity tennis team finished the league season in second place, defeating both Sacred Heart Prep and Pinewood Schools twice on their way to second place. It is our best finish ever in the Private School Athletic League. Congratulations to Coach Carter and players Vikram Kumar, Wesley Wu, Tim Chem, Victor Huang, Michael Kwong, Jigish Patel, Kanishka Pothula, Amit Saxena, Khanh Tran and Ed Peng. Sports physicals for all US athletes will be held on Fri., May 17th from 3:00 - 5:30 at the Center for Sports Medicine. Cost is $20. Signups due May 10th to Jack Bither at jackb@harker.org. Bus transportation from Harker will be available to those who sign up.
Eugene Louie
Harker
■ Volunteers are being sought to assist Ms. Kim Coulter and the Rec staff at the annual Bucknall campus Kiddie Carnival after school Mon., June 3rd to help run game booths, sell treats and more. Contact Kim at kimc@harker.org.
volunteer committee members and the Leadership Councils are streamlining the process, so watch for details in May. If you are interested in getting involved, contact Nancy Reiley at nancyr@harker.org.
■ Grade level coordinator Joan Havard and her crew of 7th grade room parents will be transforming the gym into a sunny beachfront with their “Surfin’ USA” theme for the end-of-the-year MS dance, and they could use some assistance on
■ Each year it gives us enormous pleasure to recognize and thank our most dedicated volunteers at the Volunteer Recognition Luncheon. Invitations to this event will be mailed soon for the luncheon, to be held on Thurs., May 16 from 11:30 until 1:30 in the Bucknall gym.
the afternoon of Fri., May 31. To lend a hand, contact Joan at havardfamily@hotmail.com. ■ Special thanks to Bucknall coordinator Kim Hall and Saratoga coordinator Cherrie Blair and all the parent volunteers for their help each year to ensure children are looking their best on Spring Picture Day! ■ The committee for the Gr. 8 parent-sponsored graduation party, led by grade level coordinator Cherrie Blair, announced that this year’s party has almost 100% participation. About 32 parents have been meeting since Sept. to organize this event for the 8th graders, which will be held at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel immediately following the Gr. 8 graduation ceremony on June 6th. Students will be receiving their offficial invitations soon, and parents can watch for reminder details toward the end of May. ■ We have facilitated a Used Book Exchange with the help of US parent volunteers, who are now working to extend this opportunity to MS families. Individual families sell and buy used textbooks among themselves via personal check, and the school provides the facilities and organizational support to make these sale days possible. The key to past successes has been the parent volunteers who prepare for, and supervise on, sale days. The
■ This year many grade level families enjoyed opportunities to get together socially apart from our school-sponsored activities, and a special word of thanks goes to all of our hardworking K-8 grade level coordinators who have been the instigators and planners. Presley Troyer, Gr. K coordinator, repor ted that kindergar ten families recently enjoyed a “safari” to El Paseo’s Jungle and are planning a family picnic in Los Gatos’ Vasona Lake Park on Sun., June 2. ■ Gr. 6 volunteers Brenda Davis, Jackie Boberg, Melody Moyer, Lynn Roberts, Joyce Sum, Barbara Shapiro, Stacey Steele and Kelly Sheahan are working with the Half Moon Bay Dune and Bluff Restoration Project and Save Our Shores to stage a beach cleanup and picnic at Francis and Venice beaches for Gr. 6 families on Sun., May 5. Cleanup efforts and habitat restoration work will begin at 9 a.m., and families are advised to bring work gloves, sunscreen, lunch entrée and picnicware (plus a salad, snack or other nibblie to be shared) and beach games and toys to be enjoyed after the work is done! For more information, e-mail Barbara Shapiro at BLShap@pacbell.net. ■ Our most recent tally of hours (which does NOT include hours spent at the Picnic on Apr. 28) records the service of 461 volunteers during this academic year for a total of almost 5000 hours! To each and every one of our wonderful volunteers, a heartfelt “thank you!” —Nancy Reiley Community Relations Director
STUDENT ■ Activities Coordinator Chris Daren reported that Spring Spirit Week was a great success. Among
activities
■ US teacher Marc Micek and MS teacher Raji Swaminathan have teamed up to host an Intramural Chess Tournament on the Saratoga Campus with the two Chess Clubs. The 5-round tournament runs each Monday through May 20th, and each game lasts about 1/2 hr. with players using Chess Clocks and recording the games using chess notation. There are 16 participants, including US Computer Science teacher Robb Cutler. “The US and MS students are very enthusiastic about it, and we are seeing some really good games being played,” said co-organizer
the activities for the week, the Spirit Club members handed out snacks to everyone to say “thanks” for supporting school spirit, there was a Twin Day, a Pajama Day, Clash Day, a pieeating contest and Little Kid Day (shown above!) where students played games from their childhood, such as Tag and Duck Duck Goose. The class of 2002 won the week! ■ John Hawley, US Latin teacher and adviser for the US Coffee Houses, repor ted that the last Coffee House/Improv Comedy night of the school year was held recently, and the event was a great success with over 50 students and faculty in attendance. A number of students from area high schools came to participate and to watch the performances. Performers included Gabby DeMers, who hosted the Coffee House, Jon Caswell, Ryan Alley, Alex Combs, John Collins, a former Harker Middle Schooler, Nikhil Desmukh, Marc Leglise and his brother and four students from Saratoga High. The Improv team included Dav Yendler, Andrew Shvarts, Michael Vu, Brendan Boland, Gabby DeMers, Teja Patil, Sean McKenzie, John Tepperman, John Collins and Samantha Levinson.
Raji Swaminathan - both chess photos
involved
Chris Daren
BEING
Raji Swaminathan. The player with the maximum number of points at the end of the 5 rounds will be the Harker Chess Champion—watch for the results in the next newsletter! MS players: Nicholas Tan, Jay Sohn, Vikram Srinivasan, Andrew Hospodor, Lucas Motro, Shyam Srinivasan, Daniel Chung, Alex Nikolaeff and Akaash Bhalla. US players: David Anderson, Etahn Karpel, Ozan D, Jeff Shih, Albert Wu and Liz Paterson.
Students are looking forward to next year’s coffee houses—watch for the dates in our web calendar!
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bucknall parents at press time, so watch for them. We'll share photos and anecdotes from this wonderful trip in the June newsletter!
Bucknall Art Reminders • See details on Bucknall Art Show in Art News, pg. 6
■ Harker's Destination Imagination teams proudly returned from the state tournament recently held in Sacramento. As reported in last month's newsletter, both these teams won 1st place in their division competition in March,
• See notes on Bucknall Dance Concert in Performing Arts section on pg. 6
■ Harker 6th graders participated with 7th graders in a Future Problem Solving Competition. See Around Saratoga, pg. 8.
The 45 Falcons, made up of both 4th and 5th graders, took 4th place in their division and are pictured here at the awards ceremony. Congratulations to 4th graders Brandon Araki, Andy Fang, Sean Morgan and Priyanka Hardikar, and to 5th graders Sachin Rangarajan, Vikram Shenoy and Alison Palmintere, along with parent advisers Ping Lee and Pam Araki.
Gr. 5, was selected as this month’s mystery writing winner at the popular web site www.candlelightstories.com/ mysteries. “His story was selected from over 300 entries, so he should feel very proud,” said. Mr. Gatlin. He will receive three mystery books, and his story will be published online for one year. Congratulations, Brian! ■ A few weeks ago there was a “Teacher Exchange” on campus, and while librarian Kathy Clark spent time reading to a 5th and 6th grade audience of Harker students in the classrooms, Gr. 5
Pam Araki
■ The 6th graders participating in our annual Tamagawa exchange will be leaving May 8th for 10 action-packed, exciting days with our sister school in Japan. Harker students will be staying with the families of their Tamagawa buddies, whose visit in April was featured last month. We look forward to all their wonderful stories and photos—watch our web site and next month’s newsletter for a wrapup of their trip!
division for the “Instant Challenge” event. Congratulations to Jacqueline Scharre, Joanna Melbourne, Monisha Dilip, Claire Bredenoord, Alex Creasman, Ketul Patel and Vickram Nilakantan, and their parent advisers Lenore Dowling, Liz Melbourne and Viji Dilip.
Christina Vail
AROUND
■ The campus was a-flutter with “Picnic in Paris” spirit over the past month. Classroom door decorations, parties and assemblies, “Curbside Crazies” and more got everyone in the mood for this year's big event. Watch for picnic photos in future publications!
earning the right to go on to this state tournament. The first-time team of 4th graders, DITR, took 10th overall in their division and placed 9th in their
DI adviser and teacher Kate Shanahan said, “Both teams deserve much praise for venturing to States and performing well!” We agree—congratulations to all! ■ Creative Writing teacher Jeff Gatlin announced that Brian Chao,
math teacher Pat Walsh took her place in the library and read stories to Cindy Proctor’s Gr. 1 students!
Wilbur Yang, Gr. 1, and Megan Cronce, Gr. K, show off their prizes above in a recent weekly picnic raffle ticket drawing. ■ Harker 4th graders are off to the Gold Country from May 1st through 3rd for this 9th annual Coloma academic field trip where students learn first-hand about gold rush history as part of their social studies curriculum. K-3 Division Head, Sarah Leonard, said that final details were being sent to
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Gr. 3 teacher Howard Saltzman recently arranged a field trip for the 3rd graders to visit The San Jose Historical Society. “This trip enhanced our study of the Santa Clara Valley during the period from 1850 to about 1920,” said teacher Kathleen Ferretti. She added that the students have been reading about all the fruit trees that grew in this valley, and they were able to see photograghs and paintings of this, as well as buildings and artifacts from that time period.
Kathleen Ferretti - all field trip photos
Christina Vail
San Jose Historical Society Offers Glimpse of the Past
FEATURE
Colin Goodwin - all Black Histor y photos
■ In honor of Black History Month, Colin Goodwin's Gr. 5 language arts class recently wrote research papers on famous black Americans as a joint project for both history and language arts. Goodwin's students gave a 3-5 minute oral presentation dressed as their famous American telling the class about their life and accomplishments. Some of the famous black Americans who came
ogres
Sixth Annual Ogre Awards Honor Fairy Tale and Faculty Heroes ■ Our 2nd graders, under the creative and loving direction of our Library Director, Enid Davis, hosted the 6th annual Ogre Awards recently, an annual event that pays tribute to the fairy tale characters whose adventures are shared in the library. During library classes, the 2nd graders, also known as The Ogre Academy, listen to, sing, act out and discuss twentyfour stories from around the world. Each week, they vote for their favorite character, favorite song, and, finally, for their favorite story. “The winners reflect the children's top choices, but every second grader takes home a mini-ogre in honor of their story character,” said Davis.
In addition, there was a special “Awarding Our Heroes” segment of the shows this year to honor three Harker employees who enhance the lives of the students in two areas: empathy and safety. Listed below are the honorees and the text of the Ogres presentation:
Assisted by librarian Kathy Clark, along with a host of faculty and staff who help make this delightful event happen every year, Davis explained that the event provides the children an opportunity to honor their favorite characters. “The voting for favorite characters takes
Ms. Gargano, US math teacher, was selected for her work as the US community services coordinator. “She opens the eyes of our students to the various needs of others. No fairy tale character succeeds without this ability. No real human does either.”
place before any parts are selected, so the votes are cast for the story characters, not the classmates who end up portraying them,” she explained. There are three different shows, one put on by each 2nd grade class, and since each class votes separately for their favorites, the end results differ in many cases.
Mr. Gelineau, head of school for non-academic affairs, was selected because of his work in organizing procedures for emergencies for both campuses after the September 11th attack. “Fairy tale heroes who can protect the people in their realm ensure happy endings.” Mr. Pickett, member of our maintenance department, was selected because he works hard to keep the students and employees on the Bucknall campus safe. “He is a ‘Jack of all trades.’ Without Mr. Pickett, our classrooms would not be as functional and fun, and our castle in the Harker Kingdom would be lacking."
to “visit” the class were Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aarons, Nat King Cole and Jesse Owens.
Pam Araki and Eugene Louie - all Ogre Award photos
■ Gr. 6 teachers Heidi Qua and Betty Wernersbach held their annual Anne Frank Annex Day recently, an activity designed to help students understand what it was like for the Frank family during World War II when they were in hiding from the Nazis for 25 months. Students “go into hiding” during the beginning of each period, and Harker faculty and staff volunteers come by the rooms, pound on the doors and shout orders to come out. “Some of the staff actually come into the room and shine a flashlight around,” said Wernersbach. “It is very suspenseful for the kids hiding under desks,” she added.
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arts
Music That Moves Us Fri., May 31st and Sat, June 1st • 7:00 p.m. in the Bucknall Gym Tickets $5.00 adults, $3.00 students and seniors (Tickets will be sold after school from 3:45 - 6:00 beginning May 23rd) Get ready to tap your feet and enjoy the Bucknall Dance Concert in May! Gail Palmer, show director, says the dancers are, “dedicated, enthusiastic and ready to make the music come to life through dance!” Featuring 1st - 6th grade dancers, dance styles include Boys Street Jazz, Girls Hip Hop, Ballet, Tap, Modern, Lyrical and Jazz. Surprise guest dancers will also be making their stage debut, and the entire campus got involved as all K-6th grade students voted on one of three songs to be used for the finale. Students are also being invited to submit drawings depicting the theme of “Music That Moves Us,” some of which will be used for the program cover. Don’t miss it! Questions? Contact Gail Palmer at (408) 871-4680 or GailP@Harker.org.
■ Members of The Harker US Conservatory participated in the recent Ohlone Theater Arts Festival and “took it by storm!” laughed Laura Lang-Ree, per forming arts dept. chair. “We attended with the intent of presenting what the students were working on in class and taking a look at what this festival was all about,” Lang-Ree said. Over 2,000 students participated in this event from all over the Bay Area, and “there were schools the size of Mars there with over 150 students representing their theater department alone.” She added that Harker was referred to as, “the itty, bitty school.” Much to the delight and pride of the 13 Harker students participating, and their instructors Lang-Ree, Jeffrey Draper and Brian O'Sullivan, our students did a lot more than observe the competition. All received great overall scores, almost half of our students went to finals, and half of that group won a trophy. Congratulations to these students for their incredible successes in the following categories:
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MINI MUSICAL (2 to 10 performers): Finalist, overall Superior rating and 2nd place trophy winner! Rick Hayashi and Dav Yendler HUMOROUS ENSEMBLE: Finalist, overall Superior rating and 3rd place trophy winner! Andrew Shvartz and Leslie Hernandez DRAMATIC ENSEMBLE: Finalist, overall Excellent rating, Dav Yendler, Leena Bhalerao and Andrew Shvartz MALE HUMOROUS MONOLOGUE: Finalist, overall Excellent rating, Mike Vu FEMALE MONOLOGUE (dramatic): Overall Excellent rating, Emma Hawley DRAMATIC ENSEMBLE: Overall Good rating, Elnora Hawley, Erika Banuelos and Vivian Nguyen MALE MONOLOGUE (dramatic): Overall Good rating, Ivan Oskine FEMALE MONOLOGUE (comedy): Overall Good rating, Daphne Karpel FEMALE MONOLOGUE (comedy): Overall Good rating, Jackie Laine ■ The first-ever Conservatory CD has been released featuring
per formances by our US students! It includes highlights from Oklahoma, Bel Canto, Show Choir, Jazz Band and Orchestra, as well as some soloists from the Conservatory concert. To obtain a copy, e-mail US Music Instructor Cathy Snider at cathys@harker.org.
Liu (R. Schumann), Superior; Kalpana Sundaram (Gluck), Superior/Command Performance.
■ Cathy Snider, US music instructor, reported that Harker had a great showing at the California Music Educators’ Association (CMEA) Solo/Ensemble Festival held recently at San Jose State. Judges award students a rank of Superior, Excellent, Good, Fair or Needs Improvement and may give the rarely awarded Command Performance where students are invited to perform again at an ongoing concert for the entire Festival. “Tiffany Day and Sophia Wang were singled out by the judge for their excellent musicianship and synchronization,” she said, explaining that most students are accompanied by their teachers or are assigned an adult accompanist by the festival, so it’s rare to have a student accompany another student as well as Sophia did. “In addition, they played a modern soundtrack piece which was unusual. It was a risk, but the judge loved it,” she added. Congratulations to all of these talented Harker performers!
■ Instrumental Music teacher Bob Scannell reported that Harker’s Woodwinds Master Class played with members of the San Jose Symphony at a recent assembly. Harker musicians per forming were Leo Liu, Justin Chin, Twisha Bush, Michael Lee (Gr. 7), Meghan Desale, Nicole Hendricks, Beth Low, Jessica Travis and Rashmi Sanbhadti.
VOCALISTS: Whitney Graves (Brahms), Excellent; Mickey Selbo Bruns, accompanied by Kathryn Lee (Copland), Superior; Isabella
For tickets and more information, contact one of the performers, or email the show director Brian O'Sullivan at briano@harker.org
VIOLIN: Anjana Sundaram (de Beriot), Excellent; Tiffany Day, accompanied by Sophia Wang (John Williams), Superior/ Command Performance.
■ This month, the MS performing arts group, The Harmonics, will be presenting “Cinderella,” another great production by the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein. This fun and unusual version of this all-time classic will be a delight for the entire family to see!
Fri., May 17
and Sat., May 18
7:30 p.m., Saratoga Gym Tickets $5 each
Visual Art News ■ The Bucknall Art Show begins on May 2nd and runs through May 22nd. Make sure to drop by and view the extraordinary art produced by our children! ■ There will also be a Middle School Art Show in Shah Hall May 6th 17th, with works on display from the entire year from both our classroom and after-school art students. Selections will include watercolors, acrylic paintings, block prints, drawings in colored pencil and marker, wire sculpture and both handbuilt and pottery wheel ceramics. All students, parents and teachers are invited to a special reception on Wed., May 15th from 3:30 - 5 p.m. to enjoy refreshments and especially honor our talented students. ■ Eagle Art Chosen The selection panel for the annual Eagle Art contest reported that Mackenzie Schwartz’s eagle art was the winning entry. Mackenzie will paint her image on a special panel that will be hung in the gym for all to admire for years to come. Congratulations, Mackenzie!
Chris Daren
Chris Daren
PERFORMING
conservatory
A talented cast and crew of over 50 US students presented a barn raising, spirited production of “Oklahoma!” in April. Over 1,300 people attended the four-show run, and the Sat. night performance was also preceded by a special fundraising BBQ attended by over 100 enthusiastic fans of the show, and of Harker’s growing performing arts program. This lively, all-American show had audience members laughing, tapping their feet and humming along to such time-honored tunes as “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top,” “Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and the overwhelming crowd pleaser and title tune, “Oklahoma!” A rousing “Yee Ha!” to all the students, faculty and staff involved in this year's successful production, including our fully student-run backstage crew. And a special “hats off!” to Director Laura Lang-Ree and the Harker faculty who were so instrumental in this year’s production: Catherine Snider, Curtis Greenwood, Laura Rae and Brian Larsen. Visit the Parent Home Page to view and purchase photos of the show!
Chris Daren - all photos
US
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AROUND
saratoga
Middle School
Cyrus Merrill, social studies teacher and adviser for the group, explains, “Harker is the two time defending state champ in the final part of the process which is acting out a skit to demonstrate the implementation of the problem.” Last year Harker finished 1st and 2nd in the state in the skit part of the competition. Congratulations to these teams and individuals for making it to the finals, and we wish you the best at the competition! ■ This year some of the MS students proposed a student Multicultural Club, and math teacher Vandana Kadam enthusiastically became their adviser. The purpose of the club, which meets once a week, is to get students involved in the issues relating to ethnic diversity at school. In addition to helping organize
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Incoming Harker freshmen recently attended the Grade 9 Course Selection Night with their parents in the Saratoga gym. 7th GRADE: Adnan Haque, Rupan Bose, Aneesha Nilakantan, Jason Lee, Natasha Sarin, Julia Havard, Emily Issacs, David Linder and Anshuman Gupta.
Multicultural Week in Feb., they decorate the Multicultural Bulletin Board for upcoming holidays, feature a “Country of the Week” and a “Yiddish Word of the Day,” etc. “The entire group is highly
■ In April, the Intermediate Spanish classes saw the critically acclaimed Alejandrina Dondines Dancers of the Americas perform at the Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose. In this performance, students saw authentic music and dance from South America and the Caribbean performed by dancers from Argentina. MS Spanish teacher Julie Pinzás reported that students were also involved actively in singing renditions of Cielito Lindo, Guantanamera, and La Bamba, “and some actually danced on stage at the Fiesta Aymara reflecting the har vest dance of the Andes region of South America!” she said. Pinzás felt that the highlight of the show was the Malambo which displayed “the fiery
Vandana Kadam - both photos
■ Harker has two teams heading to state finals on April 27th in the Future Problem Solving Competition! The 6th grade team members are Whitney Huang, Melissa Chen, Chris Tai and Michael Kang. Our 8th grade team is the first Harker middle school group ever to compete, and they qualified in their first year. Those team members are Amira Valliani, Sean Turner, Sameer Chopra and Jonathan Chien. Individual members who will also be competing at the event will be 6th graders Palash Agarwal and Shelby Golan, and 7th graders Alexandra Nicholaeff and Siobhan Stevenson.
Chris Daren
■ The 7th graders had just begun their Sacramento & Berkeley week-long trip at press time, so we’ll have details for you in the June newsletter. Highlights of the trip are visits to the State Capitol (including a tour of Old Town Sacramento and a dinner cruise on the “Spirit of Sacramento” riverboat), Columbia State Park in the Gold Country and workshops at Lawrence Hall of Science.
enthusiastic about multicultural issues and working with them is ‘absolute fun’ for me,” said Ms. Kadam. Members of this year’s Club are: 8th GRADE: Amira Valliani, Onur Erbilgin, Rohini Venkatraman, Lauren Gutstein, Casey Near, Abhishek Belani, Meghana Dhar and Vijay Umapathy.
footwork” of the gauchos, Argentine cowboys, as they twirled the bolas to the rousing beat of the bombos drums. She added that, ”All were left with an unforgettable impression of the intensity and exhilaration of Latin America’s musical heritage.” ■ Congratulations to the following MS students who have been selected to be in Harmonics for the 2002-03 school year: 6th GRADERS: Taylor Alexander, Lauren Ammatuna, Alix Briggs, David Kuo, Marvin Ho, Andrew Law, Kriti Lodha, Josh Pinzas and Max Rohrer. 7th GRADERS: Debanshi Bheda, Matt Emery, Zack Green, Amith Gupta, Molly Newman, Julia PriceMadison, Vani Pyda, Natsha Sarin, Aseem Shukla, Varun Sivaram, Siobhan Stevenson, Sarah Syrette and Elyse Trinh.
Math Update ■ K-8 Math Dept. Chair, Cindy Kerr, repor ted that the 7th and 8th graders did ver y well overall in the California Mathematics League Contest: 7th GRADE: Out of 132 schools, Harker's 7th grade team score of 184/200 points was the third highest score in the state. Justin Chin placed 1st in the state while Jessie Li's score was the third highest. In the county, the 7th grade team placed third while Justin Chin placed first individually. 8th GRADE: Out of 140 schools, Harker’s 8th grade team score of 192/200 points was the third highest score in the state. Yi Sun placed 1st in the state while Neil Chao's score was the 2nd highest. In the county, the 8th grade team placed 1st while Yi Sun placed 1st individually and Neil Chao placed 2nd.
ACADEMIC
trip
Annual Outing to Washington D.C. Brings History to Life for Harker MS Students
They spent their first two days in Williamsburg, visiting the Jamestown Settlement, having dinner at the College of William and Mary and enjoying an evening tour of Williamsburg. “Our guide was really cool,” said student Keir Myers. “...and Jamestown was very interesting.” On their way by bus to D.C., they stopped at the Yorktown battlefield, a new addition to the annual itinerary that teacher Pat White said, “puts our visit to the Yorktown museum and encampment that follows it in better context.” The group went on to Monticello and a
traditional lunch stop at the Historic Michie Tavern. During the day in D.C., students experienced the Smithsonian Complex, the National Gallery, Arlington National Cemetery, a Capital Hill Hour and the Holocaust Museum. “My favorite things were the monuments because they had power ful and moving quotes,” said student Avanti Deshpande. Lauren Harriman added, “The American Histor y Museum was awesome, really cool. I wish we could have had more time there, although they did give us several hours.” Mrs. White noted that Gr. 8 English teacher Stephen Hewitt made some power ful remarks to the students from a small hill in Arlington that overlooked the Pentagon. “We looked squarely into the area where the airliner hit, and it is now under repair and construction and heavily guarded,” Mrs. White said. “Mr. Hewitt's reflections reminded everyone of what a profound change we have experienced in our lives.”
The evenings included a night view of all the presidential monuments and memorials, a night view of the Kennedy Center and War Memorials and a per formance of “The Hot Mikado” at the Ford Theater. “The play was funny, I really liked the play,” laughed student Young Jo Kim. And, of course, many of our students enjoyed the souvenir shops and just being away from home. “The National Gallery souvenir shop was my favorite!”—Aaron Nemetz “Being with your friends away from school was fun” —Jessica Luo “The hotel room in Williamsburg was really nice with lots of room” — Daniel Chung Thanks to the following chaperones from the faculty and administration for making this annual trip such a valuable and meaningful educational experience for our students:
Chris Nikoloff, Pat White, John Buckley, Steven Hewitt, Steve Wood, Eric Siemens, Julie Pinzas, Jacob Hazard, Cyrus Merrill, Simon Keilty and Vandana Kadam.
Simon Kielty - all D.C. photos
Since 1994, Harker 8th graders have been going to Washington, D.C., as a part of their U.S. history curriculum, and this year’s group included 114 students and 11 chaperones.
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AROUND
saratoga
Upper School
The National Honor Society (NHS), founded in 1921, is an organization that recognizes and encourages academic achievements of students while developing other characteristics essential to citizenship. The NHS ideals for its students are scholarship, character, service and leadership, which remain as relevant today as they were in 1921. Combined with the National Junior Honor Society, it currently has nearly 20,000 chapters in U.S. schools at home and abroad. The Harker School was granted a chapter just last year and currently has nearly 100 students as its permanent members. "The Harker chapter allows students with a cumulative GPA of 3.7 or higher to apply for entrance into this very prestigious society," said Hem Navengul, NHS faculty adviser.
Chris Daren - both photos
■ The Harker chapter of the National Honor Society recently elected its new officers for next year. They are as follows: Rick Hayashi, President; Anjali Vaidya, Vice President; Deepa Mathews, Secretary; Kevin Hwang/Karan Lodha, Treasurer; and Jessica Cu, Community Coordinator.
Head of School, Diana Nichols, demonstrated tassel moving protocol when the Class of 2002 recently received their caps and gowns. ■ Harker recently hosted the 19th Annual Spanish Declamation Contest, where students memorize and deliver a poem in Spanish and a panel of judges determines the top three winners in each level based on poise, memorization, delivery, pronunciation and diction. All Santa Clara schools were invited to participate in this annual contest
The SEM Has Landed!
Brian Biskeborn
Harker’s SEM project flew on the 17th flight of the NASA space shuttle Endeavor for an 11-day mission in space in December, and US Physics teacher Phil Becker flew to NASA over spring break to personally bring the project home to Harker. “With the new security measures, it was quite an adventure,” he laughed, and extended a huge thanks to America West Airlines for their cooperation in helping him transport the project safely back to the students without getting arrested.
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“Right now, Harker SEM project students are engaged in the postflight analysis portion of the project,” said Becker. “They will be making various measurements, performing tests and doing comparisons of the test springs in the SEM unit with the experimental controls. Digital photos and video will be taken of the entire process and posted on a special NASA-SEM website.” Becker explained that this experiment allowed the students to test for the effects of a microgravity environment on a shape-memory alloy and added that the student analysis information will also be available on the Harker web site some time in late May.
for Level I through V Spanish students, and Harker won the event for the second year in a row! Congratulations to all of the students, as well as our fabulous US Spanish teachers Susana Hartzell, Abel Olivas and Diana Moss. Winning Harker students: SPANISH I: Suman Sundaresh (Gr. 9) 1st and Sam Singh (Gr. 9) tied for 3rd
Destination” Book Project, inspired by author Dan Eldon's book of the same name. The books were on display for several weeks in the Saratoga library. “These books are beautiful, and some have movies and CDs created to accompany the book itself,” said Hufnagl. "The project was a reinforcement enrichment activity about how literature reflects our life’s journey.”
■ The following students have been selected as Key Club officers for the 2002-03 school year: President, Anjana Sundaram; Vice President, Kalpana Sundaram; Secretary, Kathy Peng; and Treasurer, Emily Hsi. Many thanks to US teacher and Key Club adviser Jennifer Gargano and to all the Key Club members for their many, many hours of community service.
■ Dr. Valerie Barr, associate professor of computer science and associate chair of the computer science department at Hofstra University, recently gave a formal presentation to about 50 US students and faculty on her research interest in natural language processing in the computer science field entitled "Adventures in Verification of Natural Language Processing Software." While visiting, Dr. Barr participated in a roundtable discussion with faculty and students on the topic of women in computer science. Dr. Barr, who went to graduate school twice— once in the late ’70s and again in the late ’80s—in addition to working in the industry between those times, had valuable and varied insights to share with our students about the changing perspectives on women in this field.
■ Marc Hufnagl's English II and Honors English II students recently created books illustrating a passage of time in their lives as part of his “The Journey Is The
■ Harker students participated recently in the Santa Clara Valley Math Association (SCVMA) Math Field Day held at San Jose State University. “Yi Sun, an 8th grader,
SPANISH 2: Surbhi Mahendru (Gr. 10) 1st and Anshu Das (Gr. 9) 2nd SPANISH 3: Anita Gupta (Gr. 10) 2nd and Sumana Rao (Gr. 10) 3rd SPANISH 4: Christiana Rattazzi (Gr. 11) 1st and Leann Duong (Gr. 10) 2nd LEVEL 5: Leena Bhalerao (Gr. 12) 1st and Aditi Iyer (Gr. 11) 3rd. NATIVE SPEAKER CATEGORY: Ariana Vergara (Gr. 9) 2nd
surprised everyone by bagging 1st in the Open (Precalculus) competition that is meant for high school students,” reported Misael Fisico, US math teacher. Justin Wu (Gr. 9), Charles Hung (Gr. 11) and Ozan Demirlioglu (Gr. 10) placed in various events, and the following other students participated: Andrew Zhang, Gregory Finkelstein and Jerry Hong.
Harker JETS First in Statewide Competition Harker was recently informed that both our Varsity and Junior Varsity JETS teams (Junior Engineering Technical Society) ranked first in our division statewide. Both teams finished first in the regionals at Stanford University in Feb., and this new state ranking is a huge accomplishment and distinction for our teams. Due to their success at the state level, our scores have been advanced to the National Level, and we will find out the results of this by the next newsletter. JETS adviser Jennifer Gargano said, “What is most impressive about our students is the fact that our varsity score—73 out of 100—is well above any other varsity score among all the divisions in the state.” There were 22 teams from the state competing, including Pinewood, Cupertino High School, The York School in Monterey, JHF Polytechnic in Sun Valley and Claremont High School. Gargano said that our junior varsity score of 66 is, “WELL above any junior varsity score,” and added that if our JV team were to be compared to varsity team scores, we would have scored third among all divisions in the state. Congratulations to all of our outstanding JETS team members! VARSITY TEAM: Matt Wong, Jerry Chi, Felix Lee, Charles Hung, George Chen, Tiffany Yun, Ben Janofsky and Justin Wu JUNIOR VARSITY TEAM: Brian Biskeborn, Julia Gitis, Alan Malek, Gregory Perkins, Sanby Lee and Alex Segal
saratoga Harker Tops at CJCL Convention! On Friday and Saturday, March 22 and 23, twenty-two students in the Harker Junior Classical League chapter made a tremendous showing at the 48th annual California JCL Convention. There were 1600 students from 45 chapters all over California. All the Harker JCLers in attendance contributed to our award-winning per formance that culminated in the 1st place Sweepstakes Award in the Medium Size school division. The head scorer at the convention commented that he had never seen so many points garnered by so few participants. Two Harker students were the best at their respective levels in the whole convention. Catherine Kim, a junior in the AP Latin: Vergil class, earned first place in the Academic Contests and the first place Overall Combined in the Advanced level. The same honors went to sophomore student Ivan Osokine at the First Year level. Catherine was also elected CJCL Northern Representative to the CJCL Board. As such, she will head up Harker's hosting of the annual Ludi Novembres, which will be held Saturday, November 2, 2002. Parent and teacher volunteers will be needed for this event! These students won top honors in the various tests and other events: Catherine Kim: 1st Place, Roman Daily Life HS Adv; 2nd Place, Mythology, HS Adv; 2nd place, Dramatic Interp. Poetry HS Adv; 1st place, Sight Reading, Poetry HS Adv; 2nd Place, Sight Reading Prose, Adv; 1st Place, Advanced Certamen Team (Latin Quiz Bowl) Ivan Osokine: 2nd Place, Mottoes, Abbrev. and Quotes HS1; 1st Place Dramatic Interpretation, HS1; 2nd Place, Latin Oratory, HS1; 2nd Place, Posters, Maps, and Charts H Vivek Bansal: 1st Place, Roman Daily Life; 2nd Place, Certamen, HS
2, 4th Place, Roman History, HS2 Sheena Reddy: 1st Place, Roman Daily Life, HS3; 2nd Place, Certamen Team HS3 Brian Biskeborn: 1st Place, Latin Grammar; 1st Place Reading Comprehension HS Adv; 1st Place, Advanced Certamen Team Chris Keller (Our only Middle Schooler in attendance): 3rd Place, Roman History, MS1; 3rd Place, Certamen Team (only member!), MS1; 5th Place, Mythology, MS1 Allison Kwong: 2nd Place, Mythology, HS3; 1st Place, Academic Pentathlon, HS3; 3rd Place, Dramatic Interpretation Prose, HS Adv; 2nd Place Certamen Team, HS3; 5th Place, Sight Reading Prose, HS Adv Sridhar Chadalavada: 1st Place, Mythology, HS2; 1st Place, Academic Pentathlon; 2nd Place Team, Certamen, HS2 Anita Mazloom: 1st Place, Mythology, HS3; 1st Place, Reading Comprehension, HS3; 2nd Place, Dramatic Interpretation, Prose HS Adv; 2nd Place Certamen Team, HS3 Ethan Karpel: 2nd Place, Mottoes, Abbrev. and Quotes, HS 3; 2nd Place, Certamen Team, HS3
Elnora Hawley: 2nd Place, Mottoes, Abbrev. and Quotes, HS Adv Sarada Pyda: 1st Place, Reading Comprehension, HS2 Roberta Wolfson: 2nd Place, Dramatic Interpretation, HS1 Utsab Saha: 1st Place, Latin Grammar, HS2 Daphne Karpel: 1st Place Certamen Team, HS Adv Gabrielle DeMers: 2nd Place, Vocal, H Ben Shapiro: 2nd Place, Pottery, H Harker's Certamen teams were in the semi-finals in all 5 of the 6 divisions for which we had teams. In the finals, Harker students won 1st Place in HS Advanced, 2nd Place in HS3 and HS2, and 3rd Place in MS1, with Chris Keller competing as a one-man team. Vivek Bansal ran a spirited campaign for CJCL Parliamentarian, but lost to a former Harker student. Harker earned a third place in the Publicity contest and a third place in the Spirit Contest, ably directed by Harker cheerleader Elnora Hawley with the help of all the spirited members of our chapter including Sean Weinstock, Alex Hsu and Shivani Tomar. Congratulations to our entire Harker JCL team. —John Hawley, US Latin teacher and JCL Adviser
Shaun Mohan: 1st Place, Latin Oratory, HS1; 5th Place, Sight Reading, HS1; 4th Place Roman Daily Life, HS1
John Hawley - all JCL photos
AROUND
Jennifer Shangkuan: 2nd Place Certamen Team, HS2; 4th Place Large Models, H
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■ Harker nurses Kathleen Harrington and Debra Nott, who are training for the huge Wildflower Triathalon, extend many thanks to all the generous folks who have pledged. “Debra and I have met— and surpassed—our minimum fundraising requirement of $5600 benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!” reported Harrington. The big race is May 5th at Lake San Antonio for anyone who wants to turn out to cheer them on!
Harker faculty members, and we congratulate them! Special honors went to US Choral Instructor Cathy Snider who won the Bay Area Theater Critics Circle award (BATCC) for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Direction for “Show Boat” at Foothill Music Theater, Summer 2001.
Snider wins prestigious theater award
■ “I forgot socks when I went home to get my suit, and all I had were my white athletic socks. I quickly spied a pair of dark green soccer socks in my office so I was sporting knee high soccer socks underneath said snazzy suit. Just goes to show ya, you can take the boy out of the country but… — ”Country Boy” Jack Bither, our US athletic director after being complimented on the “snazzy” suit he wore at the recent 9th grade Course Selection Night.
the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The equivalent of the “Bay Area Tonys” for professional and semi-professional theater companies, including AMT, ACT and Theatreworks, this is a huge honor for both of these outstanding
■ Gr. 2 Dept. Chair James Hamilton recently played clarinet in the orchestra for the Sunnyvale Community Theatre production of “Oklahoma!” Last year, Hamilton played for the theatre group’s production of “Crazy for You.”
Pam Dickinson
■ Two of our own Harker Conservatory teachers were honored at the recent Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle awards this past month at
In addition, Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts K-12 and dept. chair, was honored for her work as Rapunzel in “Into the Woods” at Foothill Theatre Company. The entire cast was nominated for Bay Area Theater Critics circle award for Best Ensemble.
Mallard Motel
FROM
the archives
Gloria Brown, 1945 Graduate of Miss Harker’s I had the honor of interviewing Gloria Brown on Saturday evening, March 23, at the gala event at the Harker School (see Harker Extra in this issue). Gloria Brown, a Palo Alto resident, graduated from Miss Harker’s School as a high school senior in 1945. The interview was held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Miss Harker’s School in 1902. The stage setting was perfect. Two large burgundy arm chairs, book shelves stocked with texts from Miss Harker’s School and the Palo Alto Militar y Academy (both of our founding schools), and an iron coat rack that displayed two dresses once belonging to Sara Harker set the scene. I asked Mrs. Brown questions concerning life in the Palo Alto boarding school during World War II. She described how Miss Sara went shopping armed with over 50 ration Gloria with her 1945 graduation photo books. There was little help in the kitchen and on the grounds, but the small, devoted staff worked very hard to make life comfor table for the students. We learned about the war effor ts of Miss Sara and the students. I read a letter sent to Miss Harker by General Douglas MacArthur thanking the headmistress for her efforts to improve the life for underprivileged children of Japanese leper parents. Gloria went on to describe the delightful Sunday dinners and the parties with boys from schools approved by Miss Sara. She spoke about her admiration for Sara Harker, calling her the “most influential person” in her life. This, in spite of her near expulsion for tossing her Latin book out of the bus window as she left for summer vacation. Unluckily for Gloria, the book had been recovered by Miss Sara. Mrs. Brown closed the interview with an explanation of the school's motto: “To serve, not to be ser ved,” and the recital of the school’s anthem. She also told the appreciative audience that she “will always be a Harker girl.”
Chris Daren - duck photos
—Enid Davis, Library Director According to the memory of one of our Harker “historians,” Mike Bassoni, who’s been with the school for over 20 years, we have quite a history with these feathered friends who arrived on our Saratoga campus in mid-April. “My best scenario on this occurrence is that we first had a pair of Mallards land in the pool about 15 years ago in the month of March. They would hang around for about 3 weeks and then vanish. After appearing on campus every year in late March to early April, about 12 years ago we had our first batch of ducklings wandering around campus with mom and dad duck. That pair returned at the same time every year thereafter to procreate, lay eggs and hatch little ones. But this hasn’t happened in recent years. I believe that the hen and ducklings here now are probably children and grandchildren of the original pair that first visited us 15 years ago. Harker must be a quiet out-of-the-way motel for Mallard ducks…!"
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Corrections: The printed program for the recent US Conservatory production of “Oklahoma!” contained an omission and an error. Omitted from the ensemble listing was US student Mindy van Rietschote. Also, Harker dance teacher Laura Rae was not credited for her choreography of the wonderful “Many a New Day” number in the show. Our apologies to both of these talented contributors. Corrected programs are being reprinted and sent to each of them, and the corrected version will also be used in our files and archives.
The Harker News is published monthly by the Harker Office of Communications. Current and archived issues are also available on the Parent Home Page on the website at www.harker.org Editor: Pam Dickinson Design: Blue Heron Design Reporter: Terry Walsh Bucknall Photographer: Pam Araki Photo Editor: Chris Daren Printing: Communicart
Enid Davis
update
Steve Castillo
STAFF
MAY 2002
Sharing the Commitment to Excellence Harker hosted a special black-tie event, “Sharing the Commitment to Excellence,”on March 23rd in the Bucknall gym for over 300 invited guests. “This was a special opportunity to share Harker’s continued commitment to excellence and honor those individuals who have shared in this commitment,” said Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement and organizer of the event. Among the guests were members of the Board, Development Council, Capital Campaign Friendship Circle (and above), Annual Giving Campaign President’s Circle (and above), Leadership Council, Capital Campaign co-chairs and National Merit Finalist students and their parents. “The advancement depar tment worked together to create a ver y special ambience for guests at this event,” said Kelly Parker, development director.
Prior to dinner, students and faculty from grades K-12 demonstrated classroom projects and activities for our honored guests, throughout the classrooms in the Bucknall gym building, as well as in a large tent adjacent to the gym set up for this purpose. Students proudly demonstrated their acumen and shared their knowledge in a variety of areas and subject matters, including astronomy, physics, robotics, potter y, printmaking, web site development and multi-media. Amalia Keyashian, parent and annual giving director, said, “Guests entered the Bucknall gym lobby on a candle-lit red carpet to music performed by the Upper School Conser vator y, where they enjoyed champagne and hors d'oeuvres. For dinner the gym was tranformed into a magical starr y night.”
Highlights of the dinner program included an interview with special alumni guest Gloria Brown, a graduate of Miss Harker’s School for Girls; a slide show of Harker’s past, performances by the Show
Choir, National Merit Finalist presentations, recognition of Annual Giving and Capital Campaign volunteers and donors, and the unveiling of the new Bucknall campus donor wall. The program ended with ”The Campaign for the Cornerstones of Success” video, launching the second phase of Harker's capital campaign in support of the Technology, Science and Math Complex.
“It truly was an evening to commemorate our past, honor our present and celebrate our future.”
“It continues to be a very exciting time in Harker's history,” said Howard Nichols, president. “On the eve of our 110th anniversary, we wanted to reflect on how far we’ve come and thank those who have shared our vision.” Nichols added, “It truly was an evening to commemorate our past, honor our present and celebrate our future.”
Three cheers and a huge “thank you!” to the faculty and students for the outstanding demonstrations:
FACULTY MEMBERS: Bill Barnes, Anita Chetty, Diann Chung, Joe Chung, Robb Cutler, Kathleen Ferretti, Brigid Flanagan, Lisa Radice, J. Gaston, Robbie Korin, Joanne Mason, Steve Earth, Tara McFarland, Marc Micek, Rob Morrill, Hem Navangul, David Qua, Michael Schmidt, Kate Shanahan, Janice Snyder, Pat Walsh, Jennifer Fields, Jaap Bongers, Eric Hoffman, and Don Maxwell
STUDENTS: Andrew Chang, Sharran Deora, Vijayta Chetty, Christina Rattazzi, Thomas Busch, Andrew Herbert, Molly Wolfe, Siobhan Cox, Randall Riedel, Harrison Schwartz, Brandon Araki, Neha Sabharwal, Peter Combs, Julia Gitis, Gautam Krishnamurthi, Sarah Normoyle, Brianna Tran, Kunal Kothari, Shaan Patel, Adrik McIlroy, Alexandra Stanek, Alan Malek, David Yendler, Kaileen Yen, Jason Shangkuan, Andrew Zhang, Sophia Wang, Charitha Reddy, Jackie Laine, Ana Maheshwari, Brian Bither, Alyssa Jones, Katherine Paseman, Joshua Zloof, Reeti Desai, Diana Chang, Shalini Mohan, Nokolai Pawlowski, Justin Chin, Philip Perkins, Brian Chao, Liz Liu, Shreya Nathan, Ambrish Amaranthan, Monisha Appalaraju, Callie Medin, Lexie Ross, Thomas Wang, Alan Liu, Chris Keyashian, Payom Pirahesh, Kristen Santora, Tanya Schmidt, Christine Trinh, Jenny Fung, Tiffany Chen and Ed Williams
PHOTOS BY STEVE CASTILLO
