2003 June Harker News

JUNE/End of Year 2003 (VOL. 9, NO. 9)

M O N T H L Y

Once Upon AP icnic

There's no time like…

OCTOBER! There’s no place like Harker in October, so the annual Family & Alumni Picnic has been moved to its original October roots and will be

Homecoming Weekend!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND WATCH FOR MORE DETAILS!

Sunday, October 19, 2003 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

SARATOGA CAMPUS

top stories Bucknall Dream trip to Japan for 28 6th graders .......................... 8

Middle School FPS team invited to Internationals ..................... 14

Upper School Outstanding results on national language exams ................. 18

important dates Mon., Aug. 25 First day of school, Gr. 7-12 (special schedule)

Thurs., Aug. 28 First day of school, Gr. K-6 Check the Parent Home Page for detailed calendar information and fall updates, and watch for your back to school mailing in early July!

N E W S L E T T E R

F R O M

T H E

H A R K E R

S C H O O L

Extraordinary Math! Harker Junior Wins First Place in Harker achieved outstanding results Congressional Arts Competition in the California Mathematics League contest this year, and we congratulate all of our students for their great achievements!

•Our 6th grade mathematicians placed first in the county and state out of 134 participating 6th grade schools. Thomas Wang and Joseph Swernofsky were two of only 12 students in the state and five in Santa Clara County with a score of 40/40.

•Our 7th grade also came in first in the county and state •Our 8th grade came in first in the county and second in the state •Our US mathemeticians also placed first in the state out of a field of 201 California high schools, including 17 from Santa Clara County. The following students were also commended by the league for being top performers: Felix Lee, Gr. 12, Ozan Demirlioglu and Karthik Kailash, Gr. 11, Justin Wu, Gr. 10, and Yi Sun, Gr. 9.

“The overall results were remarkable,” said Cindy Kerr, teacher and dept. chair for K-8 math. We extend special thanks to all of our Harker math teachers in the lower and middle school who are responsible for preparing our students for such outstanding success in the upper grades, and to our US math teachers for continually challenging the minds of our students. Final league results can be reviewed at http://www.mathleague.com/ reports/2002_03/CA6.HTM AMC names Harker one of top 5 in state: Harker received special commendation from the AMC organizers for being one of the top five schools in Region 9 (California).

USAMO news: Two Harker students, Yi Sun, Gr. 9, and Mason Weiyi Liang, Gr. 10, joined only 250 total students nationwide as they qualified for the 2003 USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) held in April. “USAMO is considered to be the best mathematics continued on pg. 10

Rep. Mike Honda of the 15th district recently announced that Harker junior Wendy Tsai has won the 23rd Annual Congressional Arts Competition. One of her paintings will be on display in Washington, D.C. at the capitol along with other winning student artwork from across the country. Congress will be flying Wendy and her mother to D.C. for the June 24 opening of the art showcase where they will attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Cannon Tunnel, where the work will be on display. (Her winning entry is in D.C., and the example shown at left is one of many of her recent works).

We’re extremely proud of Wendy, and we congratulate her for this outstanding honor!

Since Kindergarten - Lots of Harker Memories Ten graduates of the Class of ’03 have been at Harker since junior kindergarten or kindergarten, and we posed them together one last time for this photo at graduation. In spite of the fact that these grads are all grown up, many of our Bucknall teachers will recognize these smiles from their elementary grade years. Congratulations to these special Class of ’03 graduates: At Harker since Jr. K Victor Huang and Kari Saltzman. At Harker since kindergarten - Brian Chow, Jessica Cu, Nicole Gaknoki, Maheen Kaleem, Vivian Nguyen, Peter Noonan, Jigish Patel and Alexandra Stanek.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Finals are over, grad caps and dance costumes are packed away and another year of great successes and memories is behind us (feel free to check out the photo galleries on the Parent Home Page if you want to relive some of the memories!)

Now it’s time to savor the summer — enjoy, and I'm certain we'll have some great stories to share in the fall!

—Pam Dickinson, Director, Office of Communications (pamd@harker.org) Remember to check the Parent Home Page for detailed calendars and additional updates between editions of the Harker News!

Mark Tantrum

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est. 1893 • K-12 college prep

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President’s Reception

Mark Tantrum: all photos

Close to 100 students, parents, friends, faculty and staff attended the annual President’s Reception held on Fri., May 2. The event, which was originally to be held at the Reddy family home, was moved to the Edge on the Saratoga campus due to rain. Entertainment for the evening included a celebration slideshow and an outstanding student musical performance by Downbeat! (formerly Show Choir) with hilarious special guest appearances by Howard Nichols, Joe Gill and Brian Larson. In addition, US student artwork was showcased for guests to view throughout the evening. We extend a special thanks to the Reddys, C.N., Elsa and their 7th grade son Raven, who had offered to host the event and brought their hospitality to Harker by providing flower arrangements and delicious homemade chocolate cakes for the evening. Many thanks to you all for your continued commitment to, and support of, student programs. —Advancement Office

Annual Family and Alumni Picnic a Sunny, Smashing Success!

The rain clouds cleared away just in time on Sun., April 27, and the Land of Oz was bathed in sunshine for Harker’s 52nd Annual Picnic, attended by over 3,000 Harker alumni, families and friends. The picnic layout had been reconfigured the week prior in case of inclement weather. However, the yellow brick roads, colorful signs and festive balloons easily led the way to all of the games, food, activities, silent auction and entertainment.

Hardworking volunteers found their booths in new locations, and everyone was enthusiastic about the new plan!

dance ensemble, comprised of 4th6th grade dancers performing “Ease On Down The Road,” choreographed by Gail Palmer. The US dance troupe performed “Home,” and the MS dance troupe performed “He’s The Wiz” with both numbers from “The Wiz” and choreographed by Laura Rae and Amberlin Wu. Bel Canto sang “Everybody Rejoice” from “The “Wiz,” under the direction of Cathy Snyder, and the entire 4th grade sang “We’re Off to See the Wizard,” “There’s No Place Like Home” and “Up, Up and Away” under the direction of Michael Pease. Thanks to all of this year’s performers!

This year’s beloved student show had the “Oz” theme and was directed by Jeffrey Draper, MS/US drama teacher. The show featured a MS drama class skit about a bumbling community theater from Podunk Kansas presenting their touring production of “The Wizard of Oz.” Other highlights included performances by the Bucknall

The raffle ticket sales totaled over $34, 700 with Michelle Ritter, Gr. 3, being the top seller with 2,380 tickets sold. Melissa Chen, Gr. 7, came in 2nd and Jason Martin, Gr. 8, came in 3rd for ticket sales. The class competition for the most tickets sold ended with Gr. 7 in 1st place for the MS with 3,283 tickets sold and Gr. 10 in 1st place for the

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US with 903 tickets sold. Several Harker staff sold over 100 tickets, and Lori Villareal, assistant to the president, sold 500 tickets earning her a reserved employee parking spot for the year.

In a creative twist to raffle ticket selling, kindergarten student Sophia Shatas set up a music stand one Friday night in downtown Saratoga, accompanied by her parents, Meiying and Steven, and played violin. “Within 30 minutes we sold all 30 tickets,” laughed her

three-night trip to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (sold by Ian Hoffman, Gr. 6); Henri & Dianne Pellissier are the proud owners of the Toshiba DVD Player (sold by Christophe Pellissier, Gr. 3); Hector Mehta won the Apple iPodPC (sold by Varun Kamat, Gr. 1); and Michael & Susan Eckhardt brought home the Newtime Folding Bike (sold by Stefan Eckhardt, Gr. 5). Congratulations one and all!

We would like to extend special thanks to our talented, dedicated

…the Land of Oz was bathed in sunshine for Harker’s 52nd Annual Picnic, attended by over 3,000 Harker alumni, families and friends. mom. “People loved to see a 5 1/2 year old playing violin,” she added.

Sounds like there was no place like Saratoga on that Friday night.

Congratulations, Sophia, for coming up with such a great idea!

The final Grand Prize Drawing brought ever yone into the gym to listen for their names to be drawn.

The lucky Yu Family won the $10,000 first prize (sold by Kelly Yu, Gr. 5); Ken Fong will enjoy a

and very flexible Harker Picnic Committee, who worked around the clock during a very stormy week and to our generous sponsors and donors and the hundreds of parent, student and staff volunteers. We especially thank our tireless and devoted picnic organizers, Lynette Stapleton and Kelly Espinosa, for another great event. There was no place like Harker on the day of the picnic!

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PASSION Mark Tantrum: all photos

LIGHTS

Save the Date for Harker’s Spectacular First Fashion Show Fundraiser at the Fairmont Rod Stewart once sang, “You need passion, we need passion, Can’t live without passion”…and we’re gearing up for some Harker passion!

So mark your calendars now and plan to attend Harker’s first fashion show fundraiser, “Lights, Camera, PASSION!” to be held in the elegant Imperial Ballroom at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose on Friday, Feb. 6, 2004.

Two spectacular student shows!

In two spectacular fashion shows that day, a luncheon and a black-tie optional gala dinner/dance and live auction, Harker students from grades K to 12 will strut their stuff down the runway, joined by Harker faculty and administration and some surprise guests - in this professionally choreographed show sure to bring down the house. Our talented performing arts students will provide additional entertainment for both shows, and each event will feature fabulous themed showcases and grand prize donation drawings.

The place to be – show your passion!

Our passion is for the entire Harker community – families, friends, alumni, business associates and relatives - to join in on the fun of this exciting début event to show our support for the wonderful education our children receive at Harker and our passion for education (and fun!). Mark your calendar and plan to buy your tickets (or a table or two) to cheer on your students, parents and faculty. Watch for ticket ordering information soon.

Think passion for Valentine’s Day! The Fairmont will be offering special room rates for those attending, so you can plan to make this your Pre -Valentine’s Day getaway and enjoy a luxurious night at this premiere hotel to top off this special gala evening!

Modeling audition Try-outs – Nov. 3, 2003 Students and faculty who have a passion for fashion and want to strut their stuff on the runway will be auditioned on Nov. 3, 2003 – watch for more details in the newsletter and on the Web site.

Passionate? Join us!

Many committees are in place and we continue to welcome those interested in getting involved behind the scenes. Volunteers are particularly needed in the areas of sponsorship, underwriting, auctions, raffle tickets sales and program advertising. If you’re passionate (or even just interested!) in joining a committee, contact Ellen Harris at 408.867.2733 or email nickellen@aol.com for Volunteer Profile Form.

General Meeting Dates (Faculty Dining Room, STG) July 16, 6:30 to 900 p.m. - Potluck Aug. 6, 6:30 to 900 p.m. - Potluck Sept. 10, 8:00 to 10:30 a.m. - Coffee* *This meeting agenda will start around 8:30 after coffee and socializing to allow time for our Bucknall parents to arrive!

Questions?

Contact the passionate event chairs listed below, and plan on showing your PASSION for Harker, Silicon Valley’s premier independent school by attending this spectacular event!

—Event Chairs: Christine Davis - ctdavis@tmfcinc.com; Ellen Harris nickellen@aol.com; Marcia Riedel - mriedel@netmagic.net

Special Spring Events Honor Harker Volunteers and Senior Moms

Mark Tantrum

who have provided invaluable support in the areas of Bucknall after-school art, library, golf tournament, Destination Imagination, spring pictures, Harker cookbook project, Bucknall uniform exchange, per forming arts and the annual picnic.

Many thanks to the many parents who show their support in these ways!

■ Parent Susan Lee, assisted by parents Eva Hsu, Cherrie Blair, Violet Boyle, Jeannine Hammersley and

Reeta Gupta, organized a lunch on the Edge patio Mon., May 19 that paid tribute to 18 senior moms. A group of about 10 junior moms prepared three different quiches (recipes will appear in the Harker Cookbook which debuts next fall to benefit the Speech and Debate program) in the Harker kitchen on Sunday and a wide variety of other dishes for the event. At the lunch each senior mom was introduced and given gifts made by Harker MS art students. Many moms lingered until close to 3 p.m. “We look Mark Tantrum

■ Over 60 parent volunteers attended a recent breakfast in the last of a series of thank-you events held this year to thank and honor our wonderful volunteers. This May event recognized those volunteers

forward to this usMOMS event becoming a Harker tradition and hope that the junior moms who had such a hand in this first one will be celebrated royally next year when they are seniors,” laughed Nancy Reiley, community relations director.

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Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Picnic Prep Volunteers Alex Alonzo Kim Alonzo Tamra Amick Louis Ammatuna Pam Araki Gia Audebert Ken Azebu Maitree Banerjee Sylvia Beals Bob Benge Sandy Bergland Violet Boyle Stephanie Casner Sheila Chatterjee Betsy Chung Carl Claunch Courtney Claunch Nancy Claunch Karen Coates Becky Cox Christine Davis John Davis Doug Emery Catherine Frye Jill Getzan Chitra Ghooray Miya Glasauer Mark Green Marsha Gupta Jeannine Hammersley Karen Hansen Ellen Harris Marcia Hir tenstein Dee Hospoder Takako Khojasteh Lana Kipnis Geetha Krishnamurthy Jane Kwant Jean Laws Kitty Leung Amanda Lundie Susan Mandell Diane Martin Lisa Mata Roopal Mayor Harris Meyers Ruth Mohanram Mary Ann Montrym Alicia Moore Rekha Nandakumar Jim Newton Kalpana Parulkar Kaushik Patel Nayana Patel Pajeshavari Patel Robyn Peetz Jeannette Perez-Triant Steve Polzin Harshada Pothula Sue Prutton continued on pg. 5

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There’s No Place Like Harker!

Many thanks to all of our parent volunteers who helped make our 52nd annual picnic such a success! And thanks to all of our students and families for attending!

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Annual Family & Alumni Picnic Picnic Prep Volunteers, cont.

Nalina Ramalakshmi Marcia Riedel Mary Rorabaugh Archana Sathaye Lillian Schmidt Bob Schwartz Stacey Steele Joyce Sum Shankari Sundar Marilyn Tearse Myintmyint Thein Trish Tobin Jane Villadsen Yongqi Wang Helen Wei Theresa Weisbloom Stephanie Woolsey Jason Yang Xiaoyu Yang Students Matthew Azebu Megan Azebu Casey Blair Emily Carr Lisa Kimura Arjun Kohli Jeff Liu Sahil Patel Shaina Patel Amanda Polzin Shanna Polzin Tommy Polzin Amy Rorabaugh Erin Schwartz Mackenzie Schwartz Gareth Scheerder

Mark Tantrum, Pam Dickinson, Chris Daren, Spencer Lin, Neil Gupta, Anik Debnath

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Oz-some Picnic Committee Chairs Sherry Ammatuna Cherrie Blair Candy Carr Fred Carr Linda Emery Fumiko Kimura Sandhya Jagadeesh Marilyn March Melody Moyer Leslie Nielsen Dede Ogami Chidori Okubo Smita Patel Kim Pellissier Kathy Polzin Alice Schwartz Janet Smith Judy Stapleton

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Fourth Graders Relive the Gold Rush in Action-Packed Outing “Recently, 99 beautifully behaved children and 15 energetic and spirited staff ventured off to Coloma for the 11th annual Gr. 4

Mark Tantrum: All Coloma photos

trip,” said Sarah Leonard, primary school division head. She explained that the trip offers the children an opportunity to tie together all that they have learned in their social studies classes this year in reference to the Gold Rush era. The three days were filled with lots of activities. The students worked in tribes to relive the gold rush, built shelters and made cornbread over an open fire in a Dutch oven. They also enjoyed gold panning, hiking, campfire stories and a hoedown with live music and dancing. “While reading the students’ thank-you cards, I realized they really enjoyed all of the activities, but the all-day hike seems to be the unanimous favorite,” said teacher Keith Hirotoa.

■ The Bucknall Gender Equity Committee recently held an assembly entitled “Bay Area Women Who Made A Difference.”

Simone Alexander, a local comedian and expert on local history, gave a presentation about famous women from this region such as Diane Feinstein, Isadora Duncan, Alma deBrettville Spreckels and Maya Angelou. “With humor and much knowledge of her area of expertise, Ms. Alexander was able to impart many wonderful facts and figures, and she kept her audience inspired for a very enjoyable hour,” said Janice Snyder, event organizer and Bucknall Gender Equity Committee chair. In conjunction with the assembly, which included a power point presentation about the distinctive contributions of these women, a resource packet of information was given to teachers for classroom use. A trivia contest with questions about the nine featured women was held for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders, and an essay contest where the students were asked to write about one of these women was held for the 5th and 6th graders. The following trivia contest winners received $5 gift cer tificates from Barnes & Noble: Gr. 2 - Lorraine Wong, Alex Trudeau, Aditi Sharma, Piyush Prasad, Nikhil Bardawaj, Joseph Wang and Matthew Hong; Gr. 3 Alisha Mayor, Katie Siegel, Shivani Bigler and Akshay Srinivasan; Gr. 4 - Timothy Lin. These essay contest winners received $25 gift certificates from Barnes & Noble: Gr. 5 Monisha Dilip and Victor Chen.

Many thanks to teacher and committee member Colin Goodwin for designing these two contests and to all the other Gender Equity Committee members, Rita Stone, James Hamilton, Georgene Ferrera, Rick Ferrera, Leah Moll and Heidi Qua, for helping gather information for the teacher packets. “We all came away from this event feeling more informed and proud to be living in the Bay Area where these ladies pioneered for equality,” said Snyder. Snyder also wanted to thank Enid Davis. “She helped our committee whenever there was a need, with enthusiasm and great interest.”

■ After reading the story “Lost Lake” by author Allen Say, Gr. 1 students in Cindy Proctor’s and Diann Chung’s language arts

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classes went camping on the front lawn! Parent Ruth Mohanram (Kevin, Gr. 1) set up four tents for the group, and the children packed their backpacks with supplies and hiked to the campsite. “Once we were there, we ate S’mores granola bars, took turns reading and writing in the tent and sitting around our pretend campfire,” laughed Proctor. Photos are on Proctor’s Web site – take a look!

Marcie Gilbert

■ Students in Marcie Gilbert’s Gr. 4 G++ language arts class wrote skits related to the novel they were reading in late April, “By the Great

Horn Spoon.” The context of the book directly related to the Gr.4 Coloma trip. “The skits were performed in front of Gr. 4 students the day before heading off for Coloma, and it was a fun sendoff for the students,” said Gilbert.

■ Bucknall’s Environmental Committee had lots going on the week of April 21 for this year’s Earth Day celebration. Jason Oncay’s class created a Web site gallery of poems, stories, collages and drawings submitted by K-6 students, all revolving around the Earth Day theme. This year the committee joined forces with the staff and students in reducing the amount of paper cups used on campus and asked students to pledge to use a reusable water bottle for two weeks. Over 100 students met the pledge, and their names are posted on Oncay’s site.

Jeff Gatlin worked with many homeroom teachers and Nob Hill Foods to promote Earth Day by collecting bags from the store, decorating them with Earth Day pictures and slogans, and then returning them to the store to be distributed on Earth Day. The project was very successful with over a hundred bags decorated.

Pete Anderson and Jim McGovern created informational signs that

bucknall have been posted all around the campus teaching students about ecology and recycling, and Keith Hirota worked with the maintenance staff to organize the placement of recycling bins on campus. Congratulations to our Bucknall faculty and students for their commitment to the environment, and to the Environmental Committee members, who are already planning for next year’s projects!

■ Linda Alexander’s and Carol Ostensen’s language arts classes recently read “Thunder Cake,” a story by Patricia Polacco about a little girl who is afraid of thunder. She and her grandmother make a cake during a storm and gathering the ingredients and making the cake help the little girl to get over being afraid of thunder.

Teacher’s aide Ches Pickering followed the recipe in the story and made a wonderful Thunder Cake for the classes to enjoy. “She even added the special ingredients - strawberries and over-ripe tomatoes!” laughed Alexander. During the party everyone had a slice of the cake.

“It was scrumptious, but no one could taste the tomatoes,” added Alexander. Each child got a copy of the recipe and may try to bake his or her own Thunder Cake at home, so watch out!

■ Out of 112 entries in her division, Katherine Paseman, Gr. 1, placed 4th in the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators contest with her story, “Charlie’s Adventure.”

This KTEH contest gives children in kindergarten - 3rd grade a chance to create and illustrate their own story and encourages creative expression through reading and writing. Katherine’s mom, Marguerite, said, “We have to thank Ms. Lisa Hackwood for giving them good guidelines to write the adventure story and Mrs. Chung for encouraging them to write and teaching them to write well.” Katherine attended a ceremony held at KTEH and received a certificate signed by LeVar Burton, actor and host of “Reading Rainbow,” awarding her the title of a “Young Writer and Illustrator,” a book called “Hanging Out with Mom” by Sonia W. Black and a $50 savings bond. Congratulations, Katherine!

■ The 23rd annual Kiddie Carnival was held the last week of school on the Bucknall campus. “This was a fun-filled event for all K-3rd graders,” said Kim Coulter, recreation director. “Apple bobbing, the Fun Jump House and face painting were among the favorite attractions!”

Special thanks to Coulter and the rest of the Bucknall rec staff who not only put on another wonderful Kiddie Carnival for our children, but who work hard all year long: Miss Diana Aguilar-Sands, Miss Vanessa Bullman , Coach Nick Gassman, Coach Donnie Hackett, Miss Lisa Hackwood, Miss Shannon Hickey, Miss Alex Inzer, Miss Lynn Lakia,

Miss Gina Lopez, Miss Lana Morrison, Coach Milton Mui, Miss Mo Olsen, Miss Tracy O’Maley, Miss Lupe Ramirez, Miss Heidi Rosa, Miss Davinia Savy, Coach Zak Shafer and Miss Emilie Tonn.

■ Students in Gr. 1 recently enjoyed a field trip to Filoli Gardens in Woodside. “The weather was per fect, and the kids and adults had a wonder ful time hiking and enjoying nature,” said teacher Rita Stone. The highlights of the trip for Emma Lewis, Gr. 1, were the Banana Slugs and the Forget Me Not flowers. “Banana Slugs are my favorite color (yellow) and the name of the flowers sounded funny,” said Lewis.

Grade 6 Promotion Ceremony On Tues., June 3 families and friends gathered in the Bucknall gym for the 2nd annual Gr. 6 Promotion Ceremony, which honors the time when Harker 6th graders move into middle school and onto the Saratoga campus. The ceremony also included the 2nd semester awards as well as annual awards. “The students have matured as scholars, performers, athletes and members of our community, and we can’t wait to see what they do in middle school,” commented Christy Vail, elementary division head. ”They are well loved by everyone at Bucknall, so it is with joy and a bit of sorrow that we send them off to new adventures,” she added. Good luck to our 6th graders. We look forward to seeing you all on the Saratoga campus in the fall!

Mark Tantrum

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Vandana Kadam: All Tamagawa photos

Harker Students Fulfill Dream and Visit Tamagawa Buddies

World issues posed a challenge to this year’s group of Harker Tamagawa exchange students.

However, their yearlong dream of visiting their buddies in Japan was realized as 28 students and six chaperones finally boarded their plane on May 7 for an adventure of a lifetime.

After joyously reuniting with their Tamagawa buddies on a train in Tokyo, the group hiked at Hakone National Forest near Mt. Fuji and then joined their Tamagawa buddies the next day at their homes where the families warmly greeted them to begin a four-night home stay. The students then ventured off for a day of sightseeing and activities with their host families, which included Joe Hospodor and his host family visiting the restaurant of Food Network’s Iron Chef Sakai, and Patricia Yen and Katie Comee being treated to a day at a Japanese amusement park and a roller coaster ride they said they will not soon forget!

Harker students attended classes at Tamagawa for three days, and during the school visit Sabina Sood, Sammy Levine, Amaresh Shukla and Alison Palmintere each presented environmental reports to their Japanese homeroom classes.

The group concluded their visit to Tamagawa with a special dance and vocal music presentation for their Japanese hosts. After a tearful goodbye, the Harker entourage continued their adventure with visits to Kyoto, Hiroshima and Osaka, which included an offering of 1,000 origami cranes made by the entire Harker 6th grade at the Peace Memorial in Hiroshima.

Holding onto dreams was important to this particular group of Harker students, and we’re delighted that their dreams were realized. Congratulations to each and every one of our Harker Tamagawa exchange students this year for their fine representation of our school. May the memories last a lifetime!

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■ Harker’s kindergarten students recently presented their production of “Fractured Fairy Tale Follies” in two shows on May 7 and 8 to the delight of parents and students alike.

Each class sang one song and performed two fairy tales, with a full-class opening and closing number and a performance by the after-school dancers. The mini plays were traditional fairy tales with a humorous twist, such as “Goldilocks and the Three Bullfrogs,” “Rafunzel” and “The Three Little Elephants,” all adapted from the book, “12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays,” by Justin McCory Martin. “Our student audiences were gracious and receptive, very supportive of the efforts of the youngest members of our school community,” commented Sarah Leonard, primary division head. The program ended with acknowledgements from Howard Nichols and a reception in each homeroom where faculty presented each parent with a memory book of their child’s artwork, writing and photos as a permanent memory of each child’s first year at Harker.

Mark Tantrum: All K-Show photos

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Sarah Lougheed directed the show of 66 students with strong support from kindergarten teachers Nancy Curran, Tara McFarland and Jeannette Bhatia and their aides Heidi Rosa, Tracey Clifford and Zak Shaffer. Bucknall dance teacher Gail Palmer choreographed the dance number. Congratulations to all of our kindergarten students, faculty and staff for their hard work and wonderful show!

■ Gr. 6 tech elective students were the tech crew for the kindergarten show in May. “Tech students dressed as worker ants and had a lot of fun getting the job done,” said Danny Dunn, Bucknall technical director.

Nice work to our worker ant crew of Elizabeth Case, Jimmy Wu, Thomas Wang, Diana Beck, Adela Chang and Jeffrey Mandell.

Danny Dunn

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Mark Tantrum: All photos

The 2nd annual Bucknall Dance Concert, “Fads and Fashions,� raised the roof again this year with over 200 Bucknall dancers taking us all for a strut, pivot and a leap down memory lane. Spirited performances, nostalgic costumes, lively music and vibrant sets and lighting helped bring back some great (and not so great!) memories and showcase our incredibly talented students. Many thanks to Bucknall dance teachers Gail Palmer and Wendy Huber and to Bucknall technical director Danny Dunn for their devotion, creativity and hard work. And, of course, our dancers were totally groovy!

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continued from Pg. 1 problem solving competition in the country and it is by invitation only,” explained US math teacher, Misael Fisico. These outstanding students are considered to be in the top 250 math students (0.006% of the 50,000 examinees) in the nation.

Of those 250 select students, Yi Sun was ranked in the top 30 and will move on to the Summer Math Olympiad.

Misael Fisico

Harker wins grand prize at CSU Fresno Math Day: Harker finished first overall and took the highest number of awards at the 2003 Mathematics Field Day for High School held in April and sponsored by the Mathematics Department of CSU, Fresno. Thirty students from the Harker MS and US participated in the event of 460 students and 16 schools. Congratulations to all

of these fine students who participated: UPPER SCHOOL Ozan Demirlioglu, Karthik Kailash, Andrew Zhang, Felix Lee, Manu Srivastava, Kevin Park, Justin Wu, Shethal Bearelly, Gregory Finkelstein, Joel Wright, Jasper Shau, Samantha Fang, Elizabeth Burstein, Teddy Lee, Hailey Lam, Eric Tzeng, Christine Hsueh, Michael Kim, Jerry Hong,Weiyi Mason Liang, Yi Sun, Siddarth Satish, Suhaas Prasad and Igor Dulkin. MIDDLE SCHOOL - Justin Chin, Jessie Li, Harry Tseng, Mark Hsu and Jay Han. LOWER SCHOOL Thomas Wang.

Other math news: A Harker team placed third recently in the 14th Annual High School Math Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s NNSA Livermore Site Office, Las Positas College and Edward Teller Education Center.

Congratulations to the team of Ozan Demirlioglu, Gr. 11, Kevin

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wide Park, Gr. 10, and Yi Sun, Gr. 9, and to all of our participants in this event: Manu Srivastava, Gr. 11; Daniel Hung, Joel Wright and Gregory Finkelstein, Gr. 10; Erik Tzeng, Siddarth Satish, Hailey Lam and Teddy Lee, Gr. 9. Joanne Mason, US math dept. chair and coordinator of Harker’s Wolfram grant project, repor ted that each of our seniors this year received a boxed and fully licensed Mathematica software package as a graduation gift to take to college as part of our ongoing grant project with Wolfram. Many thanks to Wolfram!

■ Chess players on both campuses received recognition recently at the CalChess State Scholastic Championships held in April at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

Over 1,300 children from the state participated in this weekend tournament. Each division had between 100 and 200 participants, and trophies went to the top 25 individuals in each division.

Chess at Harker is comprised of the Success Chess afterschool classes offered at Bucknall for the first time this year and the MS and US Chess Clubs on the Saratoga campus.

Congratulations to the following Harker students who earned recognition at this event: INDIVIDUAL TROPHIES – KINDERGARTEN: Jonathan Friedland tied for 2nd and Craig Neubieser and Srivinay Irrinki tied for 20th.

PRIMARY UNRATED DIVISION: Benjamin Yang, Gr. 3, tied for 4th.

PRIMARY (Gr. 1-3) PREMIER: Nikhil Narayan, Nathan Sowards and Rasta Musick, all Gr. 3, all tied for 7th and Daniel Mao, Gr. 3, tied for 18th. PRIMARY CHAMPIONSHIP: Rahul Desirazu, Gr.2, tied for 4th and Albert Wu, Daryl Neubieser and Brynmor Saunders, all Gr. 3, all tied for 22nd. ELEMENTARY (Gr. 4-6) UNRATED: Harrison Schwartz, Gr. 6, and Max Elisman, Gr. 4, tied for 3rd. ELEMENTARY PREMIER: Arjun Mody, Gr. 5, tied for 4th and Neal Bhasin, Gr. 4, tied for 19th.

ELEMENTARY CHAMPIONSHIP: Brian Chao, Gr. 6, tied for 17th.

Vanessa Bullman

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JUNIOR HIGH (Gr. 7-8) CHAMPIONSHIP: Kevin Hwa, Gr. 7, placed 9th and was named to the CalChess All State team.

Harker teams also had a fantastic showing at the tournament.

PRIMARY UNRATED: Team of Benjamin Yang, Akhil Prakash, Dylan Qian, Ravi Tadinada, Tyler Yeats and Nikhil Dilip tied for 2nd.

PRIMARY PREMIER DIVISION: Team of Daniel Mao, Nikhil Narayen, Nathan Sowards and Rasta Musick took 1st place. PRIMARY CHAMPIONSHIP: Team of Rahul

Desirazu, Albert Wu, Daryl Neubieser and Brynmor Saunders took 3rd. ELEMENTARY UNRATED: Team of Harrison Schwartz, Max Elisman, Joseph Hospodor and Richi Ravui took a third.

ELEMENTARY PREMIER: Team of Arjun Mody, Neil Bhasin, Kunal Modi and Alex Chen tied for 6th. JUNIOR HIGH PREMIER: Team of Lucas Motro, Jason Lau and Raymond Paseman won 8th.

Special thanks to parent Mark Neubieser (Daryl, Gr. 3, & Craig, Gr. K) and the Success with Chess instructors, Neil Peters, Lori Stevens and Chris Torres, for Bucknall’s outstanding chess program, as well as Harker teachers and Chess Club advisors, Raji Swmainathan and Marc Micek, for their involvement in the Saratoga programs.

Latin Students Excel in Recent Competitions In April Latin students took the National Myth Exam (NME), a test for 3rd to 9th graders run by the Excellence through Classics for Elementary/Middle Levels of the American Classical League.The goal of the test is to motivate students to learn about classical mythology and literature, and the test sections include general Greek mythology, the “Iliad” and Native American and African mythology. Not all students take all sections, depending on age and interest. Scores of 90-95% earn a special recognition (silver) certificate, and scores of 96-99% earn a gold medal.

Congratulations to these Harker students who received prizes: GOLD MEDAL: Gr. 9 - Jonny Jenq (one question away from a perfect score); SPECIAL RECOGNITION CERTIFICATE/SILVER: Gr. 7 - Rachel Fong, Eugenia Sorotokin, Ankur Sharma, Thomas Roxlo and Ruchi Srivastava. Guest participants were Andrew Cutler, Gr. 4, and Elizabeth Cutler, Gr. 6.

Harker also competed for its 4th year in the Medusa Mythology Exam, a nation-wide test of knowledge in Greek and Roman Mythology open to students in grades 9-12. Harker rose to 2nd out of over 300 schools ranked in the competition. Congratulations to all of our Latin students and to teacher and JCL advisor, John Hawley.

Following are the Medusa awards won by Harker students: GOLD MEDALS: LOWER (1st and 2nd year students) - Jonathan Jenq, Michael Kim, Colleen Lee. UPPER (3rd year and above) - Sridhar Chadalavada (perfect score), Catherine Kim (one short of a perfect score) and Allison Kwong. SILVER MEDAL: Anita Mazloom. BRONZE MEDAL: Cristina Figueroa. CORONA OLIVA: Daphne Karpel.

At press time, Hawley also reported that out of the 6,000+ participants in the national Medusa Mythology Exam, only nine earned perfect papers, and Harker junior Sridhar Chadalavada earned one of those nine. Congratulations, Sridhar!

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arts

Student Art Showcased on Both Campuses in Spring Shows Upper School Art Show The annual US Art Show was held April 25 - May 30 in the Dobbins Gallery. “New display panels were built for the show that greatly enhanced the presentation,” said Don Maxwell, US art teacher. Over 45 two dimensional pieces (paintings,drawings and collages) and 15 three dimensional works of stone, plaster, foam core constructions and cast bronzes by our US art students were on display from our painting, drawing, visual arts and sculpture classes. We congratulate our superb artists and thank our outstanding US art teachers, Jaap Bongers (dept. chair), Don Maxwell and Margaret McGovern. A special opening for students, parents and faculty is in the works for next year's show, so we'll keep you posted!

Lisa Nakano, Gr. 11

Vincent Yen, Gr. 11

Nickisa Hodgson, Gr. 11

Bucknall Art Show The 21st annual Gr. K-6 Bucknall May Art Show was held May 6-24 with over 1,200 works of art from student art classes and the After-School Art Program on display around the campus. The work included, ceramic boxes, Egyptian and Retablo wood panel paintings, figure drawings and circus paintings. “The diversity and caliber of the artwork was truly amazing,” said Tara McFarland, kindergarten teacher. Special thanks to Bucknall art teachers Eric Hoffman and Pilar Aguero-Esparza, art assistant Janie Fung and after-school instructors Sylvia Beals and Dana Lurie.

Niti Shahi, Gr. 5

Sarah Howells, Gr. 3

Nicholas Kehriotis, Gr. 4

Middle School Art Show The main academic building and Shah Hall were brightened during the month of May with the annual MS art show. The art show displayed at least one piece from every art student and included pencil drawings, colored pencil images, block prints, ceramic pieces, acrylic paintings and oil pastel drawings. “The theme for the first semester assignments was ‘Symbols in Art Across Cultures’ and for the second semester it was ‘Time’,” said Margaret McGovern, MS art teacher. An artist’s reception was held one evening for artists and their parents in conjunction with the MS art show, “The reception was for the artists who have taken MS art this year, to show them that we appreciate the hard work and creativity they have put into their work,” added McGovern.

Natalie Tobin, Gr. 8

Peter McCarthy, Gr. 8

Young Byun, Gr. 8

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■ Two MS students, Rahul Komati (pictured below) and Jessica Lee, recently agreed to a weekend test of a new simulation program, Real Care Baby Experience, that Simon

Mark Tantrum

Twenty-nine middle school students waved a finger and wiggled a toe during the spring musical production of “The Boy Friend,” a rollicking musical set in the 1920s on the French Riviera. Under the direction of Monica MacKinnon and Susan Nace, the 29 members of the Harmonics and 11 additional chorus members presented a hilariously dramatic performance full of vocal delights and infectious dance steps.

Supported by Technical Director Brian Larsen and his crew, the production was an enjoyable experience for cast and audiences alike. Many thanks to all of our performers!

■ Kindness, respect and honesty are three qualities outlined in Harker’s mission statement, and at a recent assembly faculty and students discussed ways that kindness, respect and integrity can be exhibited every day at Harker.

Joe Gill, non-academic asst. head, read the mission statement and spoke about it in a humorous yet meaningful way, and student council and faculty members presented skits and shared personal anecdotes exploring the tenets.

Keilty, K-8 science dept. chair, said is being considered for sex education to replace the flour sack baby program next year. The lifelike “baby” required specific care throughout the weekend including riding in a car seat, diaper changing, feeding and trying to figure out just why the baby was cr ying! Many thanks to each of these students (and their families) for giving up a weekend to be trial parents – we think they’ve caught up on their sleep now!

Mark Tantrum: All Boy Friend photos

■ MS French students in Carol Parris’s classes wrapped up the school year with a trip to Crêpe Daniel Restaurant where students watched the art of traditional French crêpe making and enjoyed a delicious lunch. “A few students were even brave enough to try the escargots,” laughed Parris.

The French classes have enjoyed several other holiday celebrations and food tasting throughout the year. During multicultural week they began a Mardi Gras classroom theme which included a food tasting, Kings’ Cake, viewing the “carnaval” celebration in Nice, and collecting Mardi Gras beads and

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Harker’s Future Problem Solving (FPS) team competed recently in the state finals in Burbank and earned the right to represent California at the international FPS finals. Harker is one of four teams statewide selected for this honor.

Congratulations to the winning team of Harker 8th graders: Siobhan Stevensen, Maya Ziv, Adam Creasman, and Ashley Morishige.

“Out of 200,000 participants in FPS, far fewer than one percent ever achieve the distinction both of being state champions and of qualifying for the international finals,” said MS teacher and FPS advisor, Cyrus Merrill. Though the team voted not to attend the international competition since it was on the same day as 8th grade graduation, we are proud of the prestigious honor bestowed upon Harker and upon these talented young thinkers and writers.

■ MS students celebrated Spirit Week in early May, with teacherorganized theme dress-up days of

Vandana Kadam

Valedictorian Jessie Li, on behalf of this year’s 8th grade class, presented a plaque to Howard and Diana Nichols to be placed on a 6 ft. park bench that will be installed near the front entrance to Shah Hall, matching the bench gifted to the school by last year’s graduating 8th graders.

Many thanks to this year’s 8th graders for this generous and lasting rememberance!

show - Dr. Osaka with his smooth swagger or Mr. Hazard with dance moves that made us nostalgic for the eighties,” laughed Margaret McGovern, MS art teacher. “Overall the entire week was a huge success, but the effort that the students put into their lip sync acts was evident, and it was great to see the whole MS come together to support each other and have a good time,” added McGovern. The Gr. 7 Spirit Week winners were Margaret McGovern’s homeroom, and the Gr. 8 winners were Simon Keilty’s homeroom.

Special thanks to event organizer Mark Gelineau, all MS homeroom teachers and the rec staff for all the additional work put into this fun week.

College Logo Day, Pajama Day, Twin Day and Dress in Black Day. Lunchtime activities included a sleeping bag race, cramming students into chalk outlines of VW Bugs, a three-legged race and a lip sync contest, which was the highlight of the week. Homerooms performed songs which included “Billie Jean” by Jacob Hazard’s homeroom and “The Monster Mash” by Pat White’s homeroom.

“It was a tossup on who stole the

Class Gift Presentation

■ Each year Johns Hopkins conducts a talent search to identify highly talented math students. In order to qualify students must have received a 97th percentile or higher on either their math ERB or their English ERB. This year 81% of Harker 7th and 8th graders were identified as scholars. Of these students, 75% (84 students) received a 516, which is the average score for college-bound high school seniors.

Seventy-two percent (60 students) qualified for the state awards by

Mark Tantrum

coins. As their last Mardi Gras multicultural experience, they broke open the Mardi Gras mask piñata which had been decorating their classroom. “Even though the French lost the battle with the Mexicans on Cinco de Mayo, students were happy to use a French version of the piñata to celebrate the end of school and graduation,” added Parris.

Harker proudly presented diplomas to our 8th graders in a June 5 ceremony in the Bucknall gym.

Inspiring speeches were given by Jessie Li, class valedictorian, Elise Trinh, student body president, and Diana Nichols, head of school. The evening included musical numbers by the graduates and the Harmonics. Congratulations to the following students who received special recognition: General Excellence - Sharon Huang, Danyal Kothari and Aseem Shukla; Ser vice Awards (for outstanding participation and leadership in the Harker community for three years or more) - Rupan Bose, Adam Creasman, Annelise Han, Julia Havard, Swapanthi Nagulpally, Natasha Sarin, Aseem Shukla, Varun Sivaram, Elyse Trinh and Matthew Wong. Our ver y best wishes to all of our MS graduates!

earning scores of 600+ (7th grade) or 650+ (8th grade), and 20% of the state award winners (12 students) scored 700 +. One Harker student, Rachel Fong, Gr. 7, had a perfect 800 in math. These are remarkable achievements for 7th and 8th grade students – congratulations!

problem on a poster board. “The students were very creative in making their models and did a fantastic job on the poster boards,” said Kadam. “Their common comment was ‘Trigonometry is so much fun!! NOW, I understand how the problem works,’” she laughed.

■ The students in Vandana Kadam’s Algebra 2/Trig Honors classes recently had on display in Shah Hall a trigonometry extra credit project they did to help them better understand the use of math in “real life.” The students, in teams of three or four, were required to choose a word problem from the trigonometry section of the book, then make a three dimensional model of the problem, putting the solution to the

Vandana Kadam

Mark Tantrum

FPS Invited to Internationals

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Anne-Marie McReynolds, Mark Tantrum and Thomas MacMahon

HARKER

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graduation

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Harker’s Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) varsity team has been ranked number one in the country in their division in the 2003 Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS).

Varsity team members are Brian Biskeborn, Julia Gitis, Charles Hung, Ranjitha Kumar, Sanby Lee, Alan Malek, Justin Wu and Tiffany Yun. Harker’s junior varsity team ranked first statewide and placed third nationally. The junior varsity team members are Jerry Hong, Mason Liang, Pia Pal, Greg Perkins, Alex Segal, Yi Sun and Joel Wright. Harker was the only California school whose teams placed in the top three nationally.

Other varsity divisions in public and private schools earning this distinction were from the states of Missouri, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Ohio and Illinois. This year the California teams took a rigorous one-day exam at Stanford University, where they solved college-level engineering problems. Congratulations to our JETS teams for earning this outstanding national distinction and many thanks to their advisor, US math teacher Judy James.

■ A Harker team, consisting of Vivek Bansal, Peter Combs, Mason Liang, Lev Pisarsky and Yi Sun, traveled to Concord in May and placed first in the Bay Area Quiz Bowl tournament with five wins and only one loss. The questions range from mathematics to literature to history to composers. Congratulations to these students for their remarkable performance!

■ The Harker Upper School had one entry in the 2003 Synopsis Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship held at the San Jose Convention Center this spring. Juniors Payom Pirahesh and Nikhil Deshmukh entered a project from US science teacher Tim Woods’ Honors Biology course entitled Alternative Farming in the 21st Century. The duo won a very impressive “Honorable Mention” award for their efforts.

Along with their award, Payom and Nikhil won five tickets to Paramount’s Great America amusement park. Congratulations to both of you!

■ Harker students earned a tie for first place in the advanced division of the 2003 National Physics Bowl sponsored by the American

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one point and outscoring the third place team by sixteen points. In addition, they earned the top score in their division and one of the top scores of all the teams participating in the programming section.

Association of Physics Teachers.

Competing with 2,238 students in this division from throughout the U.S., the school score was based on the combined score of the top four students (two of our students tied). The average score on this test was 16.8, and the average Harker score was 27. Congratulations to Justin Wu, Aleksandr Segal, Akash Shah, Greg Perkins and Alan Malek. Special congratulations to Justin Wu for earning the second highest individual score in the Western Region!

“This is only the second year that Harker has participated in the ACSL and the first time Harker has been invited to attend the All-Star Tournament - our students did quite well,” noted a modest Robb Cutler, US computer teacher who traveled with the team for the competition. Congratulations to Ozan, Akash and Matt for their superb accomplishment!

■ In May a team of Harker students participated in the invitation-only American Computer Science League (ACSL) All-Star Tournament held in L.A. where teams from the U.S. and abroad were invited to compete based on their performance in the four ACSL exams given during the academic year. Competing against 13 other teams in the Three-Person Senior Division, the Harker team of Ozan Demirlioglu, Akash Shah and Matt Jones earned a second place finish, missing first place by only

SENIOR

Duong, Jennifer Lin, Grant Getzan and faculty member J Gaston won Tuesday. “The winning teams will be engraved on the Junior Class Cup which will be on display for bragging rights next year,” laughed Williamson.

■ Twelve teams participated in the annual Junior Regatta held May 19 and 20 at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor. “The race was very close, and teamwork was key in making the proper ‘tack’ and ‘jibe’ transitions,” said Kevin Williamson, dean of students. In the end, the Harmony crew of Deepa Matthew, Wesley Wu, Jennifer Shangkuan, Rachel Warecki and Khan Tran won Monday’s race, and the Coup de Vent crew of Andrew Chen, Leann

Jerry Patrick: both photos

Upper School

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showcase

David Hsu ’03

medical career, but I feel the gratification will definitely be worth it. Of course, medicine is not the only way I can help people, but it is a very direct and personal way of achieving this goal.”

Editor’s Note: This year we asked some of our graduating seniors to share their summer internships, interests and college advice. Here’s the final one - enjoy!

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Harker senior David Hsu’s father was a doctor, which he said had a great impact on his vocational goal of helping other people. “I was able to see firsthand various aspects of medicine and learn about a doctor’s life,” said David, who will be entering premed at Stanford this fall. “It has been discouraging at times to think about pursuing a

While the decision was very difficult, David said that he chose Stanford over his other college acceptances, which included Dartmouth, Georgetown and Berkeley, so he could remain closer to his mother and sister who now both live in this area. David’s father passed away last year, and he spent most of the last two summers in Taiwan to be with his family. “My experience of tending to my father helped me realize the enormous impact having a cancer patient can have in a family. I also gained a deeper appreciation of my mother who endured most of the responsibility by herself while my sister and I were gone,” he said.

David is also thinking about majoring in economics with a minor in philosophy or sociology to broaden his perspective on the world. “Economics quantifies the

world and explains its phenomena empirically,” David explained. “It helps explain the interactions among nations, social classes and even different species in evolution...economics is a good background to have no matter what I do because it will help me to relate myself to the world and to understand social and ethical issues more concretely.”

He also plans to study philosophy and sociology because he thinks it is important for someone in the health profession to understand social issues and people’s problems in general. “After all,” David says, “a doctor is not only helping a person to recover from an illness, but also tr ying to lead the person to live a happy, healthy life.”

His advice? “First, find and pursue your passion since it is the only way you will enjoy working hard for long hours. Second, involve yourself in the community and be positive in everything you do. And third, be honest with the colleges and to yourself about who you are and what you want to achieve.”

students be awarded the OCD,” explained John Hawley, US Latin teacher and JCL advisor. We congratulate these fine students for this outstanding honor!

■ Students in Hem Navangul’s astronomy class and Gary Heinrich from the Tech Dept. set up a couple of telescopes on the Saratoga Campus to watch the total lunar eclipse of May 15.

■ Congratulations to senior Aditi Iyer who was recently presented with the Outstanding Student in Psychology Award by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Students are selected for this award based on their exemplary achievement and efforts in the study of psychology.

■ The list of US summer reading texts is now posted on the Harker library Web site, and a hard copy will be arriving in the mail with your end-of-year packet. Watch for it!

■ What happened before you were born? Where would you go to find out? On Tues., May 20 Ms. Meyer’s freshmen world history classes were engaged in trying to answer these fundamental questions that lie at the heart of any historical research. Guest speakers were two historians, Dr. Karl Meyer and his wife Shareen Brysac. They were visiting Ms. Meyer to promote Karl’s new book, “The Dust of Empire,” and were delighted to

Harker Debaters Reach New National Milestones

■ Congratulations to Alex Iftimie who earned the designation of First Place Speaker at Northwestern University’s National Debate Tournament in April in Evanston, Illinois. Northwestern University is noted nationally in debate for its stellar debate program, and Alex’s win represented a milestone for Harker’s debate program. Alex and Catherine Kim reached another milestone in the development of our debate team as a nationally recognized program by becoming the first Harker team to advance into the field of 16 teams that earned the right to

have the opportunity to meet with Harker students as Karl’s own mother was a teacher in New York.

“After forty-five minutes of discussion Karl told me that he was most impressed with the ‘sharp young minds’ of Harker students,” said Ms. Meyer.

■ US teacher and FBLA advisor Danae Romrell reported that in May ten students from Harker’s Future Business Leaders of America Club competed in a statewide competition at their State Leadership Conference. Congratulations to the following students for their outstanding achievements: Manu Srivastava - 1st place Programming in Java; Wendy Tsai and Sanby Lee - 2nd place Emerging Business Issues; Sridar Chadalavada - 10th place International Business; Linda Mohammadian -10th place Public Speaking I; Lekha Challa - 10th place Public Speaking II. Other competitors were Sridar

participate at the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Kentucky. Cathy and Alex were seeded number 10 as a team after seven preliminary rounds of competition, and Alex also earned Second Place Speaker Award from the entire field of 136 speakers. These fine showings are the result of years of hard work and championship attitude displayed throughout their four years of debate at Harker.

We wish them well as they graduate. Their representation of Harker at the Tournament of Champions was without precedent and worthy of our admiration.

■ For the second year in a row, Harker debate students earned first place in the novice roundrobin policy debate tournament held in early May on the campus of St. Mark’s School of Texas. Debate students Arjun Naskar and Rahul Jaswa defeated teams from Bishop

Chadalavada - Programming in C++; Andrew Lee and Eric Lee Website Development; Alfred See. In addition to the competitions, Lekha Challa, Sanby Lee and Alfred See each conducted outstanding campaigns for state and regional offices. Calvin Yu served as Lekha's campaign manager and gave a speech to introduce her at the event. Congratulations to Sanby Lee - Bay Section President/State Vice President; Alfred See - Bay Section Reporter. “The Harker Chapter was also recognized for the third largest percentage increase in membership for our 169% increase in membership since last year,” Romrell added.

Guer tin in both the semifinal and final rounds.

■ Harker held its annual speech and debate awards ceremony on April 29 in the Bucknall Gym with administrators and parents gathered to honor members of the squad who par ticipated in speech and debate competitions during the current academic year. A special presentation was made to Alex Iftimie on behalf of the National Forensic League for achieving All American status for excellence, both in academics as well as forensics. Howard and Diana Nichols were also presented a collage of the graduating seniors and group photos of team members from various tournament competitions.

■ US Speech and Debate Parent Reminder: Clear your calendars for the 4th Annual Harker Debate Invitational on Sat. and Sun., Sept. 27-28 on the Saratoga campus. We look for ward to another fantastic showing of support from our parent volunteers.

—Matt Brandstetter, US Speech and Debate Advisor

authentic tea ceremony at the Hakone Tea Garden in Saratoga to learn the history of tea ceremonies, what the guests are expected to do and the significance of the ceremonies. “When you are at the tea ceremony, everybody is equal.

No social status or ranking will matter,” explained Keiko Irino, Japanese teacher. “They also enjoyed Japanese sweets and didn’t mind sitting on tatami mats for more than 30 minutes,” she laughed.

■ Recently US Japanese students experienced an

Keiko Irino

Mark Tantrum

■ Four Harker seniors, Brian Biskeborn, Cathy Kim, Sheena Reddy (not pictured) and Anita Mazloom, have been awarded the Oxford Classical Dictionaries award from the National Junior Classical League Exam Committee for having earned gold medals for four straight years on the National Latin Exam.

“I’ve been teaching for 23 years and have had students taking the National Latin Exam tests for at least 17 of those years, and this is the first time I have had any

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Donna Brandstetter

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College Acceptances Update - Go Seniors!

In a recent e-mail to all parents from Howard Nichols, president, and Diana Nichols, head of school, the following college acceptances were reported for the 107 outstanding graduates in the Class of ’03. All students were admitted to multiple colleges, and this year’s graduating class members received 751 offers of admission from 129 colleges nationwide and were awarded over $1 million in scholarship funds. “Harker’s seniors experienced outstanding results despite the fact that most universities received a record number of applications and admitted fewer applicants overall,” commented a proud Diana Nichols. Listed below are the impressive colleges where students were admitted. The number of students admitted to each college is indicated in parentheses.

California Public Colleges UC Berkeley (32), UC Davis (66), UC Irvine (55), UCLA (28), UC Riverside (49), UC San Diego (45), UC Santa Barbara (47), UC Santa Cruz (57), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (7), Cal Poly Pomona (1), CSU Long Beach (2), CSU Los Angeles (1), San Diego State (2), San Francisco State (1), San Jose State (7), Sonoma State (1).

California Private Colleges Caltech (1), Chapman (1), Claremont McKenna (4), Dominican (2), Harvey Mudd (3), Loyola Marymount (8), Occidental (4), Pepperdine (1), Pitzer (8), Pomona (1), Santa Clara (18), Scripps (4), St. Mary’s College (9), Stanford (9), University of LaVerne (2), University of the Pacific (10), University of Redlands (3), University of San Diego (1), University of San Francisco (6), USC (22), Whitman (1), Whittier (1).

Other Western Colleges Arizona State (2), Lewis and Clark (3), Pacific University (1), University of Arizona (5), University of Colorado (2), University of Denver (3), University of Oregon (7), University of Puget Sound (3), Willamette (1).

Eastern Colleges American (2), Babson (1), Bard (2), Bates (1), Bennington (1), Bentley (1), Boston College (3), Boston University (14), Brandeis (2), Brown (3), Bryn Mawr (1), Bucknell (3), Carnegie Mellon (9), Clark (1), Colby (1), Colgate (1), Columbia (3), Cornell (10), Dartmouth (3), Drew (1), Emerson (1), Fordham (3), Franklin and Marshall (1), George Washington (9), Georgetown (4), Harvard (2), Ithaca (1), Johns Hopkins (6), Lehigh (2), Long Island University (1), Marymount Manhattan (1), MIT (4), NYU (5), Princeton (4), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (6), Seton Hall (1), Skidmore (1), Smith (1), Swarthmore (2), Syracuse (4), Trinity College (1), Tufts (3), University of Pennsylvania (4), University of Rochester (2), Vassar (4), Wellesley (12), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (3), Yale (2).

Midwestern Colleges Case Western Reserve (4), Denison (1), DePaul (2), Indiana University (1), Kenyon (1), Montana State (1), Northwestern (7), Oberlin (2), Purdue (3), University of Chicago (3), University of Illinois (3), University of Michigan (4), University of Missouri (1), University of Wisconsin (1), Wheaton College IL (1).

Southern Colleges Baylor (1), Clemson (1), College of William and Mary (1), Duke (1), Emory (4), Florida Institute of Technology (1), Georgia Institute of Technology (4), Rice (3), Rollins (1), Southern Methodist University (1), Texas Wesleyan (1), Trinity University (1), Tulane (3), University of Miami (1), Vanderbilt (1).

Specialized Colleges Albany College of Pharmacy (1), San Francisco Academy of Art (1), San Francisco Conservatory of Music (1), United States Air Force Academy (2).

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Good News in Foreign Languages FRENCH The following students have distinguished themselves on the Northern California Chapter of the 2003 National French Exam. To be ranked, they must have received a minimum of 71/80. The nationally ranked placement group of each is in parenthesis after his or her name. Congratulations to all our students and to Harker French teachers Antoinette Gathy, Nicholoas Manjoine and Françoise Thompson.

LEVEL I (22,607 students) - Christiana Rattazzi (2nd), Siddarth Satish (6th), Janine Carpenter (7th), Rushikesh Sheth (7th), Christine Vu (9th), Ariane Vartanian (10th).

LEVEL II (22,770 students) – Yi Sun (2nd), Samantha Fang (4th), Elizabeth Burstein (5th), Abhishek Belani (8th), Meghana Komati (8th), Gail Nakano, 8th), Shilpa Vadodaria (8th), and Lynette Tsai (9th).

LEVEL III (18,900 students) - Jacqueline Laine (2nd), Hermanjit Bajwa (4th), Mariah Bush (4th), Aleksander Segal (4th), Rachel Newman (5th), Peter Obara (5th), Irine Tyutereva (5th), Andrew Chen (6th), Cristina Figueroa (6th), Tanuj Thaplival (6th), Rohini Venkatraman (6th), Alexandra Garr-Shultz (7th), Parama Pal (8th), Margaret Chen (9th), Samantha Levinson (9th), Liat Loten (9th), Whitney Graves (10th), Sneha Krishna (10th), Payom Pirahesh (10th), Pramodh Ramnath (10th), Ariana Vergara (10th) and Jessica Wu (10th).

LEVEL IV (11,766 students) - Jeremy Schneider (6th), Farhad Darbandi (7th), Joshua Kwan (7th), and Alfred See (10th).

LEVEL V (5,349 students) - Allison Kwong (6th), Ranjitha Kumar (8th) and Jonathan Chung (9th)

SPANISH Congratulations to the following students who scored exceptionally well on the National Spanish Exam taken this spring by 105 of our US Spanish students. Our region consists of 13 high schools, which are mostly private, though it includes some public schools, such as Gunn and Palo Alto High. In our region 1,750 students took the exam.

Of special note, Suman Sundaresh (Spanish 2), Jaya Iyer (Spanish 3) and Stephanie Chun (Spanish 4) each scored 1st place in our region and 3rd place in the nation.

Other regional scores: SPANISH 1 - Edward Hejtmanek and Laena Keyashian each scored a 3rd place.

SPANISH 2 - Karun Amar , Emily Hsi and Tanu Shenoy tied for 2nd and Subha Gollakota and Linda Mohammadian scored 3rd.

SPANISH 3 - Kathy Peng and John Tepperman tied for 2nd and Michael Hammersley and Sharon Her each scored 3rd.

SPANISH 4 - Vivek Saraswat scored 2nd and Meghan Desale scored 3rd.

SEE PG. 10 FOR LATIN NEWS! NATIONAL LANGUAGE HONOR SOCIETIES Harker’s Modern and Classical Languages department held a ceremony in May to induct a total of 118 students into Harker’s newly established chapters of the French National Honor Society (32 students), the Japanese National Honor Society (18 students), the Latin National Honor Society (21 students) and the Spanish National Honor Society (47 students). “Each society has its own specific criteria set by the national office, but, in general, all induct a very select group of students with high averages in their language courses,” explained Abel Olivas, US Spanish teacher and dept. head. Congratulations to all of our new honor society students!

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Over 240 students attended this year’s Jr./Sr. Prom, which was moved from the Hotel Valencia due to a delay in the opening of this Santana Row hotel.

“Moving to The 4th street Garage ballroom turned out to be a phenomenal experience.” said Chris Daren, US activities coordinator and yearbook advisor. “There were plenty of parking spots and a great time was had by all!”

Pam Dickinson & mystery student

JUNIOR/SENIOR PROM

Jonathan Louie

Student-elected faculty speakers Rand Harrington and Lisa Radice, salutatorians Alexandra Stanek and Tiffany Yun, and Howard Nichols, president, addressed US students, friends and families, followed by a senior-hosted buffet and premiere showing of the student-created Harker Video Yearbook.

SENIOR TRIP Seniors Dav Yendler, Deborah Tu, Mallika Bhandarkar and Michael Vu created this striking mural in the US Sledge as this year's senior gift from the Class of ’03.

Chris Daren

SENIOR GIFT

Chris Daren

The four classes competed against faculty in the 1st annual Duct Tape and Cardboard Regatta - it was a fun, raucous - and very wet - event, with the Class of '03 winning this inaugural event with their boat navigated by sailors Jon Louie, Peter Noonan, Vaihali Bhardwaj and Kristen Kaiser.

BACCALAUREATE In the final spirit competition of the year the class deans and presidents of the freshmen and senior classes competed for the title of Most Spirited Class. For the 4th consecutive year, the senior class earned the title - congrats to the Class of '03!

Thomas McMahon, Talon staff

SPIRIT COMPETITION

Chris Daren

1ST ANNUAL DUCT TAPE AND CARDBOARD REGATTA

US Spring Calendar Jam-Packed With Activities!

The entire senior class enjoyed surfing, biking, beach volleyball and just relaxing on the annual senior trip at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego May 18 and 19.

Michael Leonard

POWDER PUFF FOOTBALL GAME Harker held its first Powder Puff game on Wed., April 30 in front of a cheering crowd of over 100, with color commentary by the “voice of the Eagles” and US athletic director, Jack Bither. The senior/ frosh Green Team and the junior/ soph White Team competed, and both teams came out ready to play, exhibiting the best in sportsmanship while giving the fans a great game. The Green team was victorious with a score of 21 - 0. Congratulations to all the girls and coaches who gave up their time to run practices - they have started what should be a great new tradition here at Harker.

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AROUND

saratoga

The Harker Conservatory hosted the 2nd annual Senior Showcase in April at Le Petite Trianon in San Jose to graduate 15 seniors from our elite certificate program. “Each of them has spent the last four years ‘majoring’ in one field in the

performing arts,” explained Laura Lang-Ree, per forming arts director.

While enrolled in the program, students not only developed a deep proficiency in their chosen field of Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, Dance, Theater, Musical Theater

and Technical Theater, but they also were guided through a series of focused requirements in all of the other fields to help them stretch and become more well-rounded performers. As seniors they are required to present their portfolio to their advisees, who selected their best work to perform at the showcase. Advisees Laura LangRee, Jeff Draper, Brian O’Sullivan, Brian Larsen, Cathy Snider and Laura Rae presented the following students with their certificates after the performance. Congratulations to all! Sophia WangInstrumental Music; Dav YendlerTheater; Tiffany Day-Instrumental Music; Mike Vu-Theater; Vivian Nguyen-Musical Theater; Anjana Sundaram-Instrumental Music; Brendan Boland-Musical Theater; Jessica Cu-Instrumental Music;

Mark Tantrum: all Orchestra photos

Fourth Annual Orchestra Concert a Huge Hit! The 4th annual Orchestra Concert was held in April, director Robert Scannell once again invited accomplished musicians among our faculty, staff, administration, alumni, parents, grandparents and siblings to join in on a few numbers. “Anyone who can learn the music in a couple of rehearsals!,” Scannell laughed. Guest musicians joined in for three numbers, which included a full symphonic jazz version of “Harlem Nocturne.” We thank Scannell and our talented students and musical guests for providing the community with such a thoroughly delightful evening. Scannell will be relocating to Utah next year where his family has been for some time (he’s been commuting all year). “I have worked long and hard to establish an instrumental program at Harker and it has been a labor of love. It’s been a joy to work with so much talent.” Harker now has a fully established instrumental program with a full symphony, a string program, a jazz program, the pep band and the original Bucknall orchestra. We thank Scannell for contributing his talent, enthusiasm and hard work to build this program. We wish you the best and know our students will go on to make us all proud!

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Mark Tantrum: all Senior Showcase photos

Fifteen Seniors Awarded Conservatory Certificates

Rick Hayashi-Musical Theater; Kalpana Sundaram-Theater; Gabrielle De Mers-Vocal Music and Theater; Jessica Travis-Instrumental Music; Maheen Kaleem-Musical Theater; Shilpa Thakur-Theater; Claudia Ruegg-Dance.

Four Harker Students Recognized in Recent AMT Competition Congratulations to juniors Kevin Busch, supporting actor, and Whitney Graves, supporting actress, and seniors Rick Hayahsi, best actor, and Maheen Kaleem, best actress, who were all nominated as finalists in the outstanding performer categories in this year’s American Musical Theatre High School Competition for their per formances in the US Conservatory’s recent production of “Into the Woods.”

Further congratulations to Hayashi and Kaleem who were subsequently each named as one of the six finalists in their categories, and to Hayashi who won the Outstanding Critique award for his review of another high school production. “This is especially exciting news for Rick as he prepares to leave for NYU and a career in arts management and directing,” said Laura Lang-Ree, per forming arts director. And a hearty congratulations again to ALL of the performers in this year’s spring production!

Lower/Middle School MS boys’ volleyball did a fantastic job this season, coached by Pete Anderson, Aaron Firth and Jeremiah Brewer. The team recently took 2nd place in the Mt. Madonna Tournament in Santa Cruz and 2nd place in the 6-team Harker Tournament, which was one of the best boys’ MS volleyball tournaments this year with incredibly balanced competition! The team is led by Luke Grunbaum and Matt Wong.

LS boys’ volleyball played their first match ever against St. Christopher’s. Coached by Rebecca Esquivel, Lisa Bowman and Heidi Qua, they nearly won a three-set match! The final score of the last game was 15-13. The team is led

by Matt Gehm and Eugene Huang.

MS swim, coached by Joshua Torres and Airto Smith, competed

in our first-ever MS swim meet against St. Lawrence! Harker took first in a couple of events and came in close in several others. Special recognition goes to the entire team for their amazing accomplishments this season. The team is led by Excel Que, Kimberly Wong and Jessie Li. MS tennis players, coached by Charles King and Priya Vedyamutha, are now competing in the MTP tennis league playoffs after a very successful 3-3 season.

Although they lost in the first round of playoffs, they took the Consolation Championship. The team is led

by Rohan Narayen and Eric Trinh.

MS softball, coached by Mike Saltzman and Anthony Wood, played an exciting game against St. Christopher’s. Gar Yun Ho led the team with both a triple and a homerun, and Tanya Schmidt pitched a great game, with stellar defense behind her.

briefs MS baseball, coached by Justin Sullivan and Bryan Enos, has been traveling to the Blackford campus daily and will soon be practicing on the main field. The coaches have been emphasizing fundamentals and are pleased with the boys’ progress so far. They have seen marked improvement in the boys’ hitting skills. The team is led by Danyal and Ammar Kothari.

LS girls’ flag football, coached by Dave Qua (4th), Cyrus Merrill (5th) and Dan Pringle (6th), played an exciting, inter-squad scrimmage recently with cheerleaders, officials and fans. The girls played a competitive first half to a 6-6 tie.

Both teams gave the crowd a great game to watch! Key players in the game were Priyanka Hardikar, Kacie Kaneyuki, Kristina Bither and Andrea Thomas.

MS girls’ flag football, coached by Karriem Stinson, has been working hard learning advanced plays. They have been playing competitive, inter-squad scrimmages in which the girls have been calling their own plays and running their own defenses. The girls’ team also played the Video Rec. Club, comprised of both boys and girls, and won 210!! The team is led by Faustine Liao, Sharon Huang, Jackie Morris and Ekeeti Amanam.

See you all in the fall!

—Reported by Theresa “Smitty” Smith, Gr. 4-8 Athletic Director

Upper School Teams competed in seven different sports this spring, and a highlight of the spring season found Scholar/Athlete Award winner David Hsu winning the PSAL long jump championship with a jump of 20' 1". Congratulations to David for winning the coveted award that goes to the top male and female athletes who make the most significant contributions on the courts and fields while earning the highest grades off the field. The female winner this year was Rebecca Chang, All-League volleyball player and three-time team MVP. In addition, Rebecca was leading the WBAL in scoring in soccer before she went down with

Chris Daren

SPORTS

decided to step away from high school coaching to devote more time to his sons’ teams, which he also coaches. We would like to express a huge thank-you to C.J. for creating and building a varsity program from the ground up, laying a foundation that will be here for years to come. Congrats to you, Coach Cali!

Tennis and volleyball each ended their seasons strong, both finishing in Seniors David Hsu and Rebecca Chang receive third place in PSAL action.

Scholar Athlete awards from Jack Bither, US The volleyball team finished athletic director. in a flurry, winning five of their final seven matches, an ACL injury. We are happy to defeating both teams that finished report that she is currently doing ahead of them in the standings in well and will be continuing her late season matches. The tennis volleyball career at Penn in the fall. team also finished strong, narrowly missing postseason play and In addition to David winning the sending their doubles team of league title in the long jump, Harker Wesley Wu and Eric Liu to the sophomore John Ollila also won the PSAL league championship match.

League championship in the pole They had to advance from a round vault with a personal best jump of of 16 teams to get to the finals and 12' 7". Both athletes earned the came up one match short of right to advance to the CCS finals. winning the title.

However, David will be busy with graduation that day! The entire team finished third in the nineteam league championship and is to be commended.

Another first for Harker athletics was the first ever CCS qualifications for our girls' swim team! Led by sophomores Lynn Chang and Beth Low and juniors Nickisa Hodgson and Vivian Leung, the 200 yard medley relay team swam a time of 2:03 to qualify for the section finals. A job well done girls!

Not to be outdone, the golf team went into their final league match looking for a victory and a three-way tie for first place in the league.

They did fall short but finished the season with only two losses. The team was led by freshman Jon Jenq, who also played varsity soccer and junior varsity basketball this year.

Softball and baseball have finished their seasons as well. While each team struggled with wins and losses, they both showed considerable progress throughout the season. Both teams are very young, losing only two seniors each, so with many young players returning, the teams hope to challenge the top teams next year.

Special recognition goes to Coach C.J. Cali, who after five years of heading the baseball program has

As we look forward to the fall, Harker is very excited to announce the hiring of our new varsity football and varsity soccer coaches.

Football is up and running guided by new Coach Fred Barnes. Fred has coached at the high school and collegiate level for many years and is incredibly well respected in the coaching community. He runs his own camps and has done many coaching clinics, teaching other coaches the finer points of the game. We are incredibly lucky to have him at Harker and are very excited about the upcoming season. Soccer has also added a dynamic and successful coach, Dave Gold. Dave has coached and played at the professional level, putting in many years as an assistant with the San Jose pro soccer teams over the last 20 years. His wealth of talent, success and experience will be a great addition to the Harker sports program. We welcome both of these outstanding gentlemen to the Harker community - come say hello at a game next fall!

Finally, look for an athletic department mailing in mid-June with tons of information about fall sports, physicals, Booster Club info and more—see you at the games!

—Jack Bither, US Athletic Director

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■ US students finished the school year by continuing to serve our community in a variety of ways.

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•Twenty-seven US students devoted their time after school decorating the bears for Calvin Yu’s Teddy Bear Decorating Project.

•A group of US students assisted with Hidden Villa’s annual Earth Day Celebration festival.

•US students helped baby-sit preschool children while their parents attended a fundraising event for the East Hills Preschool.

•A service trip to a creek cleanup in East Palo Alto/Menlo Park creek

■ Over for ty boxes of documents, artifacts, memorabilia and framed photographs found a new home on the Bucknall campus with the official move of the Harker archives to the Bucknall library in April.

The Harker Archives Project began in the summer of 2002, but quickly outgrew the small space in the Saratoga Library office. Now located in the office area in the Bucknall Librar y, archivist Sue Smith continues to collect and organize items from the school’s past, as well as to write Finding Aids, the scholarly documents created to describe an archive's holdings. Smith notes, “We have some wonder ful treasures in the Harker Archives. Our holdings are unique, and many are irreplaceable.

They are truly our windows into our past.”

In addition to compiling school history, the Archives catalogs the documents and memorabilia and produces articles for the Harker News and the histor y section of the Harker Web site. Smith asks that If you are willing to part with a piece of (or copy of!) your personal “Harker history,” the Archives would appreciate your yearbooks, uniforms, photos, student work or other memorabilia from Palo Alto Military Academy, Miss Harker’s School, The Harker Day School and Harker Academy. Contact Sue Smith, Harker archivist, at susans@harker.org to discuss sharing your treasures!

STAFF was organized for National River Day in May. •Students volunteered at the Hands On the Arts celebration in

Sunnyvale helping children create visual projects and restocking supplies at this festival.

•Volunteers were at Boogie On the Bayou festival in Campbell. Students helped monitor and entertain children at an activity booth.

In addition to the above, Key Club members took on some extra hours. Mickey Selbo-Bruns and Subha Gollakota volunteered at the Harker Annual Giving ThankYou Reception, and Janine Carpenter, Meghana Desal, Sharran Deora, Sneha Krishna, Kathy Peng and Ariane Vartanian assisted the athletes at a track and field competition at Special Olympics. Special thanks to Jaja Hsuan for the effort and time she put into organizing these community service projects.

the archives

Harker Archives Moves to Bucknall Campus

update

■ The Library Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Maureen Lennon to the position of library assistant at the Bucknall campus library. Lennon has been a Harker art and ESL teacher and a substitute for almost a decade, and her teaching background will help our ever-expanding librar y program continue to grow and serve the school community. Welcome, Maureen!

■ Harker Family First on Scene at Teacher Biking Accident Jim McGovern, a lower school PE teacher, was riding his bike in the Los Gatos Hills when he veered out of the way of a car, crashed into the curb and flew over the handlebars losing consciousness momentarily. Seconds after the accident, a Harker family, the Fandriantos (Anthony, Gr. 4, Alex, Gr. 7 & Andrew, Gr. 8), were driving by. One of the children recognized McGovern as a Harker teacher, stopped and helped him regain consciousness and quickly called 911, staying by his side until the ambulance arrived. McGovern suffered a broken clavicle, a large gash on his head and multiple bruises and scrapes. He was wearing his helmet, which he said saved his life, not to mention the quick and compassionate response of the Fandriantos. Harker’s Sunshine Committee sent flowers to McGovern, and a Harker emergency flashlight to the Fandriatos so they are even more prepared for their next act of kindness!

■ Misael Fisico, US math teacher, has won the Edyth May Sliffe award for outstanding high school mathematics teaching. The award, administered by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), recognizes teachers responsible for the success of the highest scoring teams in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC 12).

Each year approximately 20 teachers receive this honor, made possible by a generous bequest from Edyth May Sliffe, a high school mathematics teacher in Emeryville who established the award in 1994 to ensure that teachers help students rise to the top in the American High School Mathematics Examination (AHSME). Other Harker teachers who have won this award are Cindy Kerr and Vandana Kadam. Congratulations to Fisico for this outstanding recognition!

Eugene Louie

■ Several students were honored for their community service hours at the US awards ceremony on May 22. Akash Shah, Gr. 11, and Shilpa Thakur, Gr. 12, received the Presidential Freedom Scholarship for contributing the highest number of service hours. Akash accumulated 438 hours just this year and Shilpa had 390! They both will receive up to a $1000 scholarship for the college of their choice.

Students who accumulated a minimum of 100 hours within 12 months received the President’s Student Ser vice Award. This award went to: Gregory Perkins, Alexandr Segal, Pranab Barman, Ana Maheshwari, Akash Shah, Joycelin Tsai, Cathleen Chuang, Sharran Deora, Kalpana Sundaram, Shilpa Thakur, Calvin Yu and Andrew Zhang.

•US students planted, weeded and learned about ecology on a service trip with Magic, Inc., a nonprofit service group at Stanford.

FROM

Simon Kielty

■ As the national student cocoordinator of the Digital Clubhouse Network Stories Project, Greg Perkins, Gr. 10, made a presentation at a recent Veteran’s Affairs Voluntary Service (VAVS) meeting held in Indianapolis. A number of Harker students have been involved in the project, which originated in Silicon Valley in 1998 and was developed by the nonprofit Digital Clubhouse Network (DCN) in Sunnyvale in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Library of Congress Veterans History Project to record, preser ve and share the stories of the men and women who have served their country during times of war. The oral history interviews that form the basis of the digital stories are sent to the Library of Congress, and the completed stories are placed on the Stories of Service Project web site (www.stories-ofservice.org). At a Memorial Day ceremony in San Jose this year Rep. Zoe Lofgren announced that the project will become a national initiative this summer with eight new cities joining San Jose and New York, and they are seeking youth and adult volunteers to participate. “We are providing monthly training to interested participants and want to make our community the model for others to emulate as the project evolves in the next 2-3 years,” said Lofgren.

For more information, visit www.digiclub.org.

update

Jaja Hsuan

SERVICE

100%

participation

Thanks to YOU We Have Increased Participation in This Year’s Fundraising Effort One of the goals for this year’s annual giving campaign was to increase the percent of participation from our families in our community. We’ve made noteworthy strides in comparison to last year’s campaign: ■ Overall parent participation has increased 9%

Hats off to Grade 5 parents for taking top honors with the highest participation!

’02-’03 Campaign Totals

■ Grade 5 led the way with 91% parent participation

’01-’02 Campaign Totals

■ 10 out of 13 grade levels increased participation

Dedication Ceremonies Unveil Three Special Harker Areas At the annual Picnic, special dedication ceremonies were held unveiling Graduates’ Grove, the Patil Performing Arts Wing, and the Class of 2002 Senior Bench gift.

■ GRADUATES’ GROVE Harker family and friends gathered at Graduates’ Grove between Manzanita and Dobbins Hall for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Some Class of 2002 alumni parents were on hand to celebrate the groundbreaking event. Last year senior parents started the tradition to honor their graduates with a special inscribed brick and built the foundation for Graduates’ Grove. For more information contact Joe Rosenthal at 408.345.9266.

■ SENIOR BENCH Alumni Ed Williams and family were also recognized for the exquisite Senior Bench, a gift from the class of 2002 designed and built by Ed (see photo, pg. 26.)

■ PATIL PERFORMING ARTS WING The newly remodeled Patil Performing Arts Wing was also unveiled in honor of Suhas, Jayashree and Teja Patil ‘02 and their passion for supporting Performing Arts. Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts and department chair, was enthusiastic in her support: “This facility has given us the space needed to create our programs - and nice, big spaces are essential to the arts programs. We are so grateful!” The wing houses our new Orchestra, Choir and Drama rooms.

We invite you to visit the Advancement Web page for more information about any of our donor programs! Best wishes for a wonderful summer and see you next year.

— Bran-Dee Torres, Donor Relations Manager, brandeet@harker.org

A Heartfelt Message of Appreciation “Parent support is so crucial to the success of the overall campaign. As parents, we can truly appreciate the value of a solid Harker education because we see the results with our children. Parent participation is a win-win situation. Your support directly benefits our children by providing the resources and programs that make Harker such a wonder ful school. Your participation in this year’s campaign speaks highly of your commitment to your child or children – thanks for making the difference.”

We salute all parents, faculty, staff, alumni and friends for your generosity and commitment to building a strong, positive community!

—from DC Co-chairs Christine Davis and Shyamoli Banerjee

— GOOD NEWS! — Since we want to make the experience of pledging your charitable support to Harker more enjoyable and rewarding, there will be a special incentive “drawing” for families who match or beat this year’s pledge at the Annual Family & Alumni Picnic on Sun., Oct 19.

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ALUMNI

update

Welcome, Alumni Readers!

Great news! Harker’s new alumni program has reconnected with 152 more alumni this year who have been added to our database! There have also been lots of address updates and e-mail address additions.

While reconnecting is a slow process, the ease of the Internet and the fun of personal contact with alumni keep the leads steadily coming in.

One alumnus did a Google search and located a classmate from 3rd grade who had moved out of the state! We love to hear stories of getting reconnected and help our alumni find each other. Please encourage any alumni you are in contact with to register on Harker’s alumni website: www.harkeralumni.org In other news, there were 29 alumni who attended this year’s family picnic in April and connected with friends and former teachers.

Winners of the alumni drawings of Harker logo items were Akhsar Kharebov ’02 for the “under 21” gift bag that included a Harker umbrella, mug and luggage lock, and Calvin Gee ’82 who won the “over 21 years” gift bag that included Harker beer glasses and a wine opener. A special thanks goes to the alumni who helped out in the first ever Alumni Sausage Sandwich Booth. Matt Walsh ’97 took on the barbequing of the Italian sausage, and Keil Albert ’82, Liz Robertson ’82 and Kevin Walsh ‘01 spent hours making and wrapping the Italian sausage sandwiches. It was a lot of fun and a great place to visit with all those who stopped by – the most popular booth at the picnic!

This summer, the alumni office will undertake the huge project of sifting through boxes of archive photos, sorting them by year and eventually having alumni come and help identify photos. If you’re interested in helping out with this project this summer, contact us!

Save the Date! Annual Harker Family & Alumni Picnic & Homecoming!

Fri., Oct. 17: Homecoming activities and evening game Sun., Oct. 19: 2003 Picnic, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The picnic is returning to its original month of October, and will tie into the Homecoming festivities. Watch the Web site and the fall newsletter for more details and have a great summer!

Terry Walsh, Alumni Programs Director 408.345.9205 • terryw@harker.org

PA Jeff Carnes is the fire chief for the City of Sun Valley. He would like to hear from any PAMA classmates.

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PA William Thompson, now known as Bill Dudley, is a radio personality on KTWV “The Wave” in Manhattan Beach, CA. His memories include Trevor Moran and Eugene Renaghan, and he would like to hear from anyone in the class of 1965!

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HD Steve Bitker has been a help to the alumni office since we tracked him down last September. He keeps in contact and sends information he comes across about former alumni of the Harker Day School. Steve is the sports reporter for KCBS, announces Oakland A’s games on KFRC and

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has written a book, “The Original San Francisco Giants: The Giants of ’58.”

HD Michele Willson, now known as Teya Walkker, sent wonder ful notes about her memories of Harker Day School. She was able to name almost ever yone in her class! She remembers these names: Susan Hockey, Toni Hunter, Susan Perkins, Tina Raymond, Kathy Kramer, Corky Bach, Trevor Vonk, Eric Lee, Paul Bunnamen, John Clement and David Rogers. “We did a fair amount of per forming.

My favorite show was created totally by the class for the talent show. The boys dressed up as rock stars—instruments, long hair and all—and the girls dressed as go-go dancers. I remember I wore a white pleated miniskir t and go-go

’67

boots. We must have looked so funny - I wish I had pictures from that one. We also had folk dancing and music and singing, which were so great. And I loved the maypole dance each year, too. However, the best feature at Harker was the small class size that made such a difference in getting attention and knowing each other. The 6th grade graduation party was at my house.

We each gave our own speech at graduation, which I think is amazing.” Walkker would love to hear from anyone in her class, and particularly Toni Hunter and Susan Hockey.

HA Alan Stevens has very nice memories of Harker.

“What can I say? I had the greatest time at Harker. I started in 1967 when the school was PAMA, and if I were to name special Harker memories I would need to write a book. All I can say is, Harker is the best! Integrity, pride and selfconfidence are just a few qualities I took with me for the rest of my life.” He is still in touch with Jay Russio and John De Lucchi.

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PA Nick Banfe still resides in Palo Alto. He attended PAMA until sixth grade in 1971. He remembers Major Nichols with his riding crop, Capt. Torcellini for his support and Mister Hatch, the social studies teacher, for stories of growing up in Africa. “ I really benefited from the discipline,” he said. He would like to know the whereabouts of Harry Matthews, Art Fichter, Don Eby, Jeff McGowan and Peter Lameraner.

HARKER HISTORICAL LEGEND MN Manzanita Hall 1893-1919 MH Miss Harker School 1904-1959 PA

Palo Alto Military Academy 1919-1972

HD Harker Day School 1959-1972 HA Harker Academy 1973-1992 HS The Harker School 1993-Present

HA Lola Pena Ruzzo attended Harker until seventh grade. She attended Chico State College and resides in Sugar Land, TX. HA Leslie Karner Calloway checks in from Florida. She is married to a Navy man “and has moved all over.” They have two boys, Zachary, 10, and Isaac, 5. Leslie is homeschooling her boys and writes; “I owe a lot of my study habits, discipline and desire for learning to the teachers at Harker who made it fun to learn…especially the way Mrs. Olson (Nichols) made science so much fun and so interesting.”

Leslie also worked summers at Harker alongside Mrs. Carley. “I will never forget her work habits and the love and joy she felt for each and every student.” She is occasionally in touch with Mona Harris and Lisa Allen.

HA Gordon N. Meacham II is living in San Mateo and writes, “I’ll never forget Dan Gelineau - ever. The Palo Alto Militar y Academy taught me about life, good or bad, how it is. I grew up there. The greatest gift I received from my parents was an education. PAMA was a big part of that - I am forever grateful.”

HA Ken Hunt checked in after receiving an e-mail from the alumni program.

He is currently CEO at Anawah, Inc. in Seattle. He remembers working at summer camp for many summers and mentions the Bagliettos, Kevin Cracraft and Louis Lai.

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A recent photo of Leslie Karner Calloway with husband Sid and sons, Zachary and Isaac.

HA Akiko Murphy resides in Brentwood, CA, and is in management with Hollywood Entertainment. Her memories include favorite staff members Mrs. Dominguez, Mr. Near, Miss Kelly, Mrs. Carley and Coach Walsh, and she said she “enjoyed meeting interesting people at Harker.”

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HA Jerry Keller lives in Los Altos and is currently a senior property manager with Archstone-Smith.

HA John Marlow received his BS from Santa Clara University. He is currently working for Conxion Corporation.

HA Eric Butler made a surprise visit to Harker. As part of National Engineers Week, 5th grade teacher Pat Walsh arranged for two IBM employees to visit his class and was pleased to discover that one of the visiting engineers, Eric Butler, was a former student! Butler and another engineer gave the students a hands-on demo of what is taking place when they use their computers to access information on the Internet.

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HA Luis Vildosola, a former ESL student, writes from Mexico where he is teaching and doing research for Universidad Autonoma de Baja California. He writes, “Harker was of great benefit in more ways than I can recognize. It’s where I learned English, learned to swim, camped in the woods for the first time and experienced encouragement for constructive expression.”

HA Greg Schramm sends word from Oregon. He received his BS from UC Davis in environmental resource sciences and is currently working as a marketing manager for IBM. He recalls teachers Mr. Walsh and Mr. Near and has fond memories of Madame Feldmen (Parris). He noted, “I also enjoyed spending quality time with the headmaster, Mr. Nichols, and dean of boys, Mr. Gelineau!” Of his experiences he wrote: “Harker taught me the fundamentals, which allowed me to be successful throughout my academic career. I also learned proper rules of etiquette and respect for other individuals.” Greg has had “serendipitous” meetings with Kyle Mulligan, Micheal Kuzurian and Claire Tinsley. He would like to know what Shannon Otis, Peter

update Fischer and Kinmun Lee are up to.

ALUMNI FACULTY NEWS

HA Cythina Brader Camerieri is a homemaker living in Georgia. She attended Loyola Marymount University and Georgia State University. She remembers Pat Walsh as her favorite 6th grade teacher.

■ Sue Rigler Palmer, who taught at Harker from 1979 to 1994, sent a recent update to the alumni office. Mme. Rigler is most remembered as a French teacher, but said, “Did you know I was originally hired to teach archer y? I progressed on to houseparent, lifeguard and lower school French teacher. Then the last 8 years I taught 6-8th French, squeezing in Summer School ESL and English a few times.” Sue, married and living in the Sacramento area, is the proud mother of Matthew and enjoying her time on a different level in the classroom—as the room mother for Matthew’s 1st grade class. She is also on the Ripon College Alumni Board of Directors and works for their admissions department.

HA Julie Doll McFate attended the Class of’ ’82 reunion held last June and enjoyed meeting up with all the classmates and teachers who attended. She credits her math skills to Colonel Tuttle and felt that Harker defined “well rounded.” Julie said, “My school discipline and advanced learning enabled me to excel in high school and attend my college of choice with a scholarship.”

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HA Paul Primrose spent six years in U.S. Navy Electronics training and is currently a senior support engineer/manager with Qualcomm.

His fond memories include Yosemite, the fun dances in the gym, swimming after school in the pool, the picnics, corn nuts in the dorm area, archery, friends and Study Skills Class. He writes that Harker helped him to be more organized. “Harker helped me to be detailed, complete, honest, and sincere in most everything I do.”

HA Alta Rebero Chadbourne received her BS from Woodbur y University. She especially remembers living on campus in the dorms with her friends and said that Harker helped her to become a better student. She would like to hear from Brooke Harry, Edith Maples, Darren Atherton and John McManus.

HA Samuel Lu received his BS and BA from Stanford and his JD from Columbia.

He is currently an attorney in Venice, CA.

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HA Ayesha Mattu attended through seventh grade and has fond memories of Harker. She attended OPF College for Girls, Pakistan, and Clark University in Massachusetts.

She is currently working for The Global Fund for Women in San Francisco. Her memories include “amazing teachers” Mr. Saltzman and Mrs. Dicker and “having personal development sessions in seventh grade with the Headmaster Mr. Nichols.” She enjoyed

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■ Former Harker employees Phyliss Carley, Marla Vallone, Harriet Skapinsky, Sue Fillmore, Alice Nichols, Betty Koski and Mena Lynch recently gathered for a dinner. Current Harker teachers, all who have been at Harker for over 20 years, Dottie Hickey, Margaret Peterson, Howard Saltzman and Pat Walsh, joined them.

Koski remarked, “I had forgotten how good the chemistry was between all of us. Haven’t laughed so much in ages. It was so good to see everyone in a relaxed setting.”

Terry Walsh

ALUMNI

developing close friendships and consistently being challenged in class. Ayesha said, “The emphasis on excellence, competitive sports and challenging academics served me well in later life.” She remembers Lark Pien from fifth grade and would like to hear from Erica Edmonds and Elizabeth Longo.

HA Cheryl Held updates us from Missouri where she is an orthodontist and is currently opening her own orthodontic practice. She recalls Harker “offered an incredible education and presented her with her first chapter in the lifetime lesson of learning how to learn.” She said, “Mr. Near’s history class taught me how to take organized, outline-form notes in real-time, a lesson I used throughout college, dental school and ortho school. I received an excellent foundation in both academics and athletics. Mrs. Offerman gave me outstanding

grammar lessons, some of which I even used while writing my master’s thesis in orthodontics.

Mrs. Nielsen’s lessons are ones that I used often as I evolved in my academic career. Just recently, I had to use the basic I=PRT formula I learned in her class to set up amortization schedules for loans.

My memories of Coach Paula Bither in soccer are warm ones ... having to learn how to be coached without arguing. It has given me perspective when I have young people argue with me. Everything I have ever learned has helped me to get to this point ... thank you, Harker, for starting me on this journey of achievement so many years ago!”

HA Dawn Wiley Thrall attended through sixth grade and has fond memories of her years at Harker.

She received her BS in economics and BA in international relations from UC Davis. Dawn is currently a

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ALUMNI

update what Amanda Mathias and Nikki Noonan are up to.

HA Michael Ku attended San Jose State and is an emergency medical technician. He said of Harker, “ It really got me off on the right foot.”

He remembers friends, Todd Bowers and Chris Yamashita.

Saltzman (“big reason he is now a die-hard SF Giants fan,” he says), Mrs. Alice Nichols, Mrs. Hatfield, Mrs. Harp and Mrs. Nielsen.

Among other things he credits the Harker experience for “learning how to work hard and the importance of excellence and trying to maximize my potential.” Akhi has seen Alex Wong, Jennifer Kuhn and Billy Capogeannis recently. He attended college with Steven Lin and Pooneet Goel.

HA Jessica Robles Cambra only attended Harker until fourth grade but has wonder ful memories. She writes from Sonora: “My favorite teacher was Mrs. Size, and my favorite

HA Ashley Anderson graduated in English from UCLA. She recently revisited the campus. “I walked around recollecting all of the fun memories and great people that molded the experience for me. I

HS Monika Pataye graduated in Art history and English from UC Santa Barbara.

Beach Shakespeare Company’s production of “King Lear.”

mom and a business owner. She remembered the activities that she participated in and the wonderful teachers that mentored her. “I hope to send my daughter there when she is old enough to attend school,” wrote Dawn. She would like to get in touch with Cheryl Held, Bobbie Page and Tom Vision.

HA Kyle Pearsall graduated from UC Berkeley and is currently working for Canon Development Americas in Southern California.

HA Harsha Vittal sends word from Reno, NV. He is currently a physician for the University of Nevada.

HA Edward Wang attended UC Berkeley and NY Institute of Technology. He is living in New York and is a teacher at Thurgood Marshall Academy.

’91

’85

HA John Williams attended San Diego State University. He is currently living in Mammoth Lakes and is a “land surveyor/ski bum!”

HA Manny Ferreira Jr. received his BS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his MD & PhD from Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is currently a neurosurgical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital. He fondly remembers Sylvia Harp, his English teacher. Of his Harker experience he wrote, “for the first time in my life I was exposed to young individuals who were motivated to succeed academically.

The academic environment at Harker has had much to do with my current success.”

’90

HARKER HISTORICAL LEGEND MN Manzanita Hall 1893-1919 MH Miss Harker School 1904-1959 PA

Palo Alto Military Academy 1919-1972

HD Harker Day School 1959-1972 HA Harker Academy 1973-1992 HS The Harker School 1993-Present

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HS Ashis Roy is currently living in Texas and working in finance and accounting for Carbonyx, Inc.

HS Young Lee is currently living in Korea, working through the military for an Internet technology company.

He would love to be in touch with classmates from the class of 1993.

HS Tomoe Hayashi is currently working on a master’s degree in music at the University of Houston.

She graduated with a BA in music from UC Santa Barbara, and is still in contact with Yuka Abe.

’88

HA Elaine Capogeannis writes from Los Angeles where she is currently an actor in the Knightsbridge Theatre Company. She recently played Cordelia and The Fool in the Long

HS Matt Sampson is an investment banker with Wellfleet Partners. He is in the process of organizing a reunion for the class of 1993. He wants to open the time capsule that was buried near the tennis courts!

’93

Mark Tantrum

Margrit Lent writes from Lexington, Kentucky. She is sorry to be missing the class of 1993 reunion, but her job as a tech at an equine veterinary hospital is keeping her away. She plans to move to Colorado soon.

Ed Williams ’02, senior class president, returned to Harker along with family and friends for the Annual Family Picnic and the opening of Graduates’ Grove. Ed, who built and donated a bench to be installed in honor of his class, had the honor of unveiling it at the entrance to the new Graduates’ Grove. The bench has a plaque that reads, “Class of 2002, Gift, Designed and Constructed by Ed Williams, Class President.”

friend was Loring Robba.” She would like to know the whereabouts of Loring Robba, Blain Hammon, Mike Mortensen and Dennis Sosnowski.

was a boarder so while I was at Harker my whole life pretty much revolved around that campus and its people…good times,” said Ashley.

HA Jennifer Kuhn sends word from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, where she is currently working on her PhD. She received a BA in biology and psychology from Har vard. She is in touch with Sarah Shenfield, and the alumni office is in the process of connecting her with Marianne Bell.

HA Diana Eurich updates us from Germany where she is currently an ESL teacher. She recalls being thrown in the pool by Coach Marshall, playing “buzz-bang,” a “silent ball” game involving a math twist, with Mr. Walsh, and the “insanity of the summer baseball trips.” Of her experience at Harker she said, “It gave me the foundation for my appreciation and love of the fine arts.” She is in touch with Melissa Bauman and would like to know

HA Akhi Sista received his BS in chemistry from Stanford and is currently a medical student at Johns Hopkins Medical School. His memories include Howard

’92

HS Lance Tate checks in from Arizona. He attended the University of the Pacific and is currently a broker with Interstate Investments.

Lance wrote of some great memories, citing Mr. Bither and Mr. Ippolito as two of his favorite teachers. “Mr. Bither made learning enjoyable, while Mr. Ippolito simply wouldn’t accept anything short of your best, both personally and academically. I still remember how ner vous I would be when approaching him those first months of sixth grade.” He credits Harker with teaching him good time management skills that have aided in his successes. He has been in contact with Ashis Roy, Tom Wilson, Mike Chang and Tala Banatao and would love to find out what Matt Sampson, Julio Carta, Doug Lum and Kelly Sloan are up to.

HS Steve Kuzmic attended Santa Clara University. His teacher memories include Mr. Muller, Mrs. Harp, Mr. Bither, Mr. Near and Donna Morse. Steve wrote of some of his specific memories, such as

ALUMNI Save the Date!

Annual Harker Family & Alumni Picnic & Homecoming!

update from North Hollywood and remembers her favorite teachers, Mr. Z and Mrs. Harp. She would like to hear from Kalista Green.

Fri., Oct. 17: Homecoming activities and evening game

HS Krishna Sampath is a student at UC Berkeley.

Sun., Oct. 19: 2003 Picnic, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

HS Natalie Noce sends an update that she is currently a lifeguard and said that her dorm experience “taught her to be more independent.” She would like to hear from Jon Starrett.

The picnic is returning to its original month of October, and will tie into the Homecoming festivities. Watch the Web site and the fall newsletter for more details!

Historical Alumni Connections The Archives learned of two noteworthy Miss Harker alumnae as a result of inquiries from researchers!

’96

HS Mindy Warner Anderson is living in Utah and was married in March.

She wrote, “I came across many people who made a difference in my life. I made great friends that I will always remember. She is especially thankful to Joe Rosenthal because “he loved and

starting center on the “lowly ‘B’ basketball team and fouling out in nearly every game,” Harker’s “West Side Story” theatre production, being Captain Hook, the Traveling Ensemble, Mr. Zetterquist’s sound

Harker Archives

’97

Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher In January an Illinois professor writing a biography of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, Miss Harker Class of 1926, contacted us to confirm details of MFK Fisher’s schooling at Miss Harker’s. MFK Fisher (19081994) authored over 30 books about food and was a colleague of Julia Child’s. Harker archivist Sue Smith located Frances’ transcripts, information about her younger sister who also attended Miss Harker’s, and general information about the curriculum at the time. In return, we received an 8x10 photo of Mary Frances (center student in photo above) with her graduating class taken on the lawn of The Miss Harker School, which will be hung, along with a growing number of other historic photos, in the main conference room on the Saratoga campus.

Mindy Warner Anderson ’97 and her husband Chad head off after their recent wedding. machine “used every time we said ‘um’ and ‘like’ in our daily current events announcements” and the Yosemite trip.

HS Yuka Abe is attending the Academy of Entertainment and Technology in Santa Monica, studying computer animation.

’94

HS Elizabeth Werba received a BS in finance from the University of New Mexico where she currently resides. She has been in touch with Nikki Pogue, Phil Parker and Akilah Ponds.

’95

HS Jennifer Warner Waite is married and living in Arizona. She is a senior account representative with Target Corporation. She wrote, “Once you’ve been at Harker, it will always be with you.”

HS Nicolette Anderson checks in

cared about each and every one of us, and it takes a great man to be able to do that!” Mindy would like to hear from Daniela Obregon, Alana Krause, Sean Maas and Svetlana Bakanov.

HS Nikki Reyes is attending Brown University and is in contact with Maria Theresa Lambino.

HS Alyssa Thurston was named a College Scholar for academic excellence during the 2002 fall term at Middlebury College. A College Scholar represents the highest level of academic achievement at the liberal arts institution in Vermont.

Congratulations, Alyssa!

HS Jennifer Picazo, now known as Elena Picazo, is currently a student at Philadelphia University. She is in contact with Courtney Payne and would like to know what Erik Johnson is up to.

’99

Margaret Robertson Sperry In February another inquir y came in a most unusual way.

Marcie Gilbert’s fourth grade class completed a Web-based project on Armstrong Sperry, winning Newbery author (“Call it Courage,” 1941). His granddaughter, Margo Burns, who lives in Manchester, NH, manages Sperr y’s Web site.

She noticed the “hits” from the Harker class and remembered that her grandmother, Margaret Robertson Sperry (Class of 1917), had attended Miss Harker School in California. She immediately went to our Web site and upon contacting the archives department, was thrilled that they could provide her with her grandmother’s transcripts and copies of the school brochures from that era. In return, the Archives received a digital photo of Robertson and Sperr y, together in Hawaii in the late 1920s.

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SUMMER

notes BASEBALL!

Belated Appreciation - and Our Apologies!

San Jose Giants vs. Visalia Oaks

We missed a few names in last month’s volunteer thank-you’s. Many thanks to these parents for their support in the classroom and at parties.

Classroom & Teacher Support Ann Brandewie Marshall Clifford Ravi Chalaka Ken Manaster Elaine Mathews Tim Mathews

Amena Patel Ernie Porter Anita ReddyRaj Reddy Jessica Shen Gomathi Subramaniam Yongqi Wang

Saturday, July 26 at 5 p.m.

Join Harker faculty, staff, family and friends at the San Jose Municipal Stadium for a day at the Ballpark!

Tickets $5 in advance through the Harker ticket office at tickets@harker.org.

For the Whole Family Harker tennis programs are in full swing at the Oakwood Tennis Center. Check out the variety of opportunities for the whole family!

Summer Tennis Camp - All the info on our week-long tennis camps for kids is on the Harker Web site! It's a great way to introduce the sport to your child or continue to develop their tennis skills.

Adult and Student Clinics Offered evenings and weekends for players of all levels. Harker families and friends welcome!

Private lessons - Available evenings and weekends for both adults and students.

For more information please call Charles King or Craig Pasqua at Oakwood Tennis Center at 408.983.5888

There is limited space available for the 2003-04 school year for students who wish to take the parent-organized school bus from Fremont to both of the Harker campuses. This convenient service has been running for the past eight years, and you can reserve a space by contacting parent Dilu Valliani at 510.368.5653 or dilu@valliani.net.

US Summer Service Opportunities Students can get a jumpstart on fulfilling their service requirement for next year by volunteering over the summer. A ser vice verification form can be downloaded from: http:// users.harker.org/hs/JajaH/ servicehourform.doc.

Correction The ExploraVision article on page 16 in the May edition listed the honorable mention winners in error. The correct winners were Thomas Roxlo and Neelaysh Vukkadala for their Memory Metals project and Stephanie Herh, Charisma Kaushik, Nina Duong and Anjali Naskar for Vision Technology. Please accept our apologies for this error, and our congratulations to these fine students!

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US Summer Soccer Scrimmages

Fremont Shuttle

Pick-up soccer scrimmages for all current and incoming US soccer players will be held this summer every Mon. from June 16-July 28 from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on the Dobbins field. No charge and faculty are also welcome!

“Dracula” Now on Conservatory DVD The Blood is the Life! The Harker Conservatory's fall adaptation and performance of Bram Stoker's “Dracula” is now available on DVD and VHS. The play was written and performed by Jeffrey Draper and the Harker Conservatory. The video has been in the works since November and is produced by Harker student Marc Leglise ('03) in time for graduation. To order your copy, go to http://www.drelmo.net/dracula

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 Web site at www.harker.org.

Editor: Pam Dickinson Asst. Editor: Terry Walsh Photo Editor: Chris Daren

Design: Blue Heron Design Printing & Mailing: Communicart Mailing Coordinator: Bran-Dee Torres Photographer: Mark Tantrum

The Harker School does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics or other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or non-job-related handicap.