ON THE COVER: The upper school tug-of-war spirit contest has evolved into a Homecoming tradition. Each class fields a team of 30 warriors, half male, half female. Prior to the game, classes compete against each other to decide finalists – seniors against freshmen, juniors against sophomores. The final match is at halftime and the prize is a perpetual trophy with the winning class listed on it. This photo shows the sophomore team in full tug in the semifinals, with advisors Gary Blickenstaff and Jeffrey Draper fore and aft cheering the team on. See page 26 for the full story. From the Photographer: It was really dark at Homecoming but I wanted to make sure I got some great facial expressions, so I steadied myself to make sure their faces were in focus but you could see some movement with the pulling of the rope. It was most fun to watch how invested the teachers were with their students and how they cheered them on throughout each event! ~Ashley Batz
Harker QUARTERLY
W I N T E R 2 010 / V o lU M E 2 · N U M B E R 2 Pam Dickinson Director William Cracraft Editor Catherine Snider Sally Wing Copy Editors Ashley Batz Photo Editor
AboutHarker F
rom its early beginnings in 1893 — when Stanford University leaders assisted in
Emily Chow ‘08 Kelly Espinosa Zach Jones Casey Near ’06 Catherine Snider Lynette Stapleton Mark Tantrum Terry Walsh David Woolsey ‘06 Winged Post / Talon Contributors Desiree Mitchell Distribution Blue Heron Design Group Triple J Design Rebecca McCartney Design Diamond Quality Printing Printing
its establishment — to its reputation today as a leading preparatory school with
students attending prestigious universities worldwide, Harker’s mission has remained constant: to create an environment that promotes academic excellence, inspires intellectual curiosity, expects personal accountability and forever instills a genuine passion for learning. Whether striving for academic achievement, raising funds for global concerns, performing on stage or scoring a goal, Harker students encourage and support one another and celebrate each other’s efforts and successes, at Harker and beyond. Harker is a dynamic, supportive, fun and nurturing community where kids and their families make friends for life.
Printed on 100% recycled paper
The Harker School is a K-12 independent, coed, college-prep school. K-Grade 5: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose, CA 95130 Grade 6-8: 3800 Blackford Ave., San Jose, CA 95117 Grade 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129
A Harker First Varun Sivaram ’07, a senior at Stanford majoring in Photo supplied by Varun Sivaram
engineering, physics and international relations, has been
Published four times a year, the Harker Quarterly showcases some of the top news, leading programs, inspiring people and visionary plans of the greater Harker community. Produced by the Harker Office of Communication 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 communications@harker.org · 408.345.9273
named a Rhodes Scholar for 2010. Only 32 scholarships are awarded in the U.S. each year out of about 80 worldwide. Sivaram, 21, who attended Harker through grade 8, is a
Next Edition: March 2011
Truman Scholar and has won Stanford prizes for excellence in humanities, political science and engineering. The Monte Sereno resident is also chair of the undergraduate senate and the undergraduate representative to the board of trustees. He has done research in Germany and at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, and has two patents pending relating to solar energy design. Along with academic interests, he is captain of the Indian dance team. He plans to earn a doctorate in solar energy materials at Oxford. Sivaram will receive all expenses for up to three years of study. The award requires literary and scholastic attainment, athletic success, truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship. Additional criteria are moral force of character, leadership skills and taking an interest in one’s fellow beings.
2
H A R K E R Q U A R T E R LY
W I N T E R 2 010
Harker News Online (HNO) was launched in April 2009 and reports timely news on the activities, programs and accomplishments of The Harker School and its students, faculty and alumni. You can subscribe to HNO via RSS feeds or a daily digest e-mail alert. Visit http://news.harker.org/.
Find, Friend & Follow Us!
Join us for tweets, videos, announcements, photosharing and more! http://www.facebook.com/harkerschool http://www.youtube.com/harkerschool http://twitter.com/harkerschool http://www.flickr.com/groups/harkerschool