Harker Magazine - Fall/Winter 2025 by The Harker School

HISTORIC HOMECOMING

FALL/WINTER 2025, VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1

Pam Dickinson Office of Communication

Director

Catherine Snider Managing Editor

Jennifer Maragoni Copy Editor

Sophie Ormond Photo Editor

Zach Jones

Rebecca McCartney Staff Contributors

Blue Heron Design Group Design

Diamond Quality Printing Printer

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Harker is a Bay Area Green Certified Business of Santa Clara County. As part of our many sustainability efforts, this Harker Magazine is printed on 30% recycled paper.

On the cover:

The girls volleyball team psyches up for their historic Homecoming match on Davis Field.

On this page: Ava Ding, grade 10, defies gravity at the sophomore spirit rally.

On the back:

Ellie Chew and Isabel Ng, grade 1, dance to a mariachi band during a lunctime visit.

All photos by Sophie Ormond.

Harker Day

A special photo essay captures the fun and history of our favorite tradition.

A Trust Earned

HarkerDev creates apps that simplify the daily lives of the school community.

Headlines

Brian Yager discusses two upcoming projects that will focus on the school’s future path. 2

Top Stories Highlights of significant stories from Harker News. 4

Gallery

Photo highlights from athletics, the Dickinson residency, visual arts, performing arts and alumni weekend. 12, 16, 22, 28, 34

Alum Focus

Alums following their dreams and making a difference in the world. 14, 24, 30

Face Time

A glimpse into the educational expertise and personalities of our teachers. 17, 32, 36

From the Archives

Beginning with this issue, we celebrate our history by uncovering hidden gems in the school’s extensive digital and physical archives. 26

Staff Kudos

Happenings in the professional lives of our faculty and staff. 33

About Harker

From its early beginnings in 1893 – when Stanford University leaders assisted in its establishment – to its reputation today as a leading preparatory school with graduates 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.

HARKER MAGAZINE

Harker Magazine is published biannually, in December and June, to showcase some of the top news, visionary programs and inspiring people of the greater Harker community. This magazine and its predecessor, the Harker Quarterly, have been recognized with CASE silver and bronze awards, and three gold and four platinum MarCom awards.

Subscribe to Harker News and get the latest daily updates. Visit news.harker.org.

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The Harker School is an independent, coed, college-prep school serving transitional kindergarten through grade 12.

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communications@harker.org · 408.345.9273

NEXT ISSUE: SPRING/SUMMER 2026

WORDS

BY BRIAN YAGER PHOTOGRAPH BY SOPHIE ORMOND

A Year for Self-Reflection:

Two Activities Focus on School’s

Future Path

There is a story, shared in similar forms among several cultures, of the proud woodcutter who, at a family celebration, takes out his axe and proudly proclaims, “This is grandfather’s axe. Father replaced the handle and I have replaced the blade, but it is grandfather’s axe.”

As we look at the history of Harker, it is clear that this institution has and will continue to evolve in ways that will result, like grandfather’s axe, in the eventual replacement of all aspects of who we are – the place, the people, the programs. Yet, our essence, our identity and our culture have endured and will, with our collective effort, continue to thrive.

These notions come to mind whenever two related questions are asked: What are the plans for Harker’s future, in general? And what, in particular, will be the impact of AI?

Our essence, our identity and our culture have endured and will, with our collective effort, continue to thrive.

This year we are engaged in two activities that direct us to explore both questions. The first is the creation of our next five-year strategic plan; the second is our self-study for our upcoming CAIS/WASC accreditation cycle (which occurs every seven years). Both processes ask us to reflect on what we have done well, and where we might have done things differently, and to set our direction for the future accordingly, with an eye towards building upon our strengths and understanding our challenges.

As we look thoughtfully at the Harker that exists today, one of the enduring aspects of our institutional culture is that we have constantly evolved, striving, individually and collectively, to provide our students with the best possible education given their capacity, our resources, and the opportunities that surround us. Much like grandfather’s axe, the school’s transformations over the years have involved continual replacement and updating, with every element renewed at various intervals. Yet the core values – and purpose – of our efforts remain the same.

Though still a work in progress, our self-study and our strategic plan will focus on reinforcing those things that have made us who we are: the quality of our staff, the provision of the best possible program and educational resources to our amazing students; and a commitment to facilities that not only facilitate learning, but that inspire it. The plan will also seek to meet the challenges and opportunities of the moment, which include focusing on connecting our increasingly accomplished and worldly

alumni and parent bodies with each other and with our students, and also serving our students’ mental health – an issue of increasing importance to all schools. Finally, we will continue to ask the question of how we can best meet and use the ever-changing technological landscape around us. This is where AI is a central point of discussion.

There is a range of sentiments regarding the way AI will impact both what we strive to do, and how we do it. From the perspective that AI will completely change everything we know and believe about education to the viewpoint that AI is a tool whose potential impact is, at least as of yet, over-stated, opinions vary widely. In the parlance of the metaphor of grandfather’s axe, it is unclear if AI will be a tool that will sharpen the blade or make the handle stronger, or if it will replace one or both of these things with a better version of itself, or if AI will convert education altogether, transitioning the current tool into something completely new – an axe to a saw.

At Harker, true to our cultural heritage, we are attempting to approach the advent of

the AI era with an open mind. To a certain extent, we are ahead of the curve, having offered courses in machine learning and neural networks for over a decade. However, the relatively rapid development and ubiquitous availability of large language models have resulted in AI emerging from its cocoon as an academic discipline into its first full wing strokes as a tool for broader use by anyone with internet access.

Under the leadership of Jennifer Gargano, our assistant head of school for academic affairs, along with our directors of learning, innovation and design (Lisa Diffenderfer, Diane Main, Liz Brumbaugh and Megan Madden), we have encouraged our teachers and staff to explore and experiment with ways that AI might enhance both what they do, and how they do it. We have partnered with two companies through which our teachers can try and share different AI uses: Flint and SchoolAI, both of which provide AI backed systems for educators within a safe-guarded architecture. Our goal is to be thoughtful and measured in our exploration and adoption of new processes. We do not intend to be on the cutting edge

of AI technologies, but, not surprisingly, many other schools are looking to us as an exemplar of how they, too, might approach the simultaneously exciting and sometimes disorienting potential of this emerging technology. Many years from now, we may look back on this era as one that fundamentally rewrote our trajectory as a school, or we may simply recognize that this new tool has – like the printing press, the calculator, the word processor, and the internet before it – allowed us to do more things more effectively. Whether revolutionary or evolutionary, our goal will be to use AI to make our axe – or whatever other tool(s) emerge around us – the best one(s) possible for the task at hand.

We will complete our self-study by fall 2026, with a visit from a CAIS accreditation team planned for spring 2027. We will simultaneously finalize our next five-year strategic plan, which will serve as our roadmap through the 2030 school year. I look forward to discovering and sharing with you how these self-reflection pursuits will contribute to the positive growth of our school’s ethos, well into the future.

Community Celebrates HARKER DAY

Our 75th Picnic and Historic Homecoming

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SOPHIE ORMOND, DEBORAH LORD AND KEITH THARP UNLESS NOTED

If you were one of the nearly 4,000 people who mingled on the upper school campus for Harker Day on Oct. 4, we hope these photos will remind you of the fun, sense of community and spirit that permeated the campus, from the moment the 75th annual Alumni & Family Picnic began until the day closed on the historic girls volleyball Homecoming game on Davis Field.

PhotobyNickGassmann

PhotobyMariaGong

Girls varsity volleyball was in the spotlight this fall for their historic Homecoming game on Davis Field at Harker Day, in which they defeated Branham in four sets in front of a large, raucous crowd. Football finished their season 3-1, thanks largely to strong play from seniors Jackson Powell (shown left), Henry Fradin and Siddharth Sundar. Girls tennis also had a standout season, boasting an 8-1 record at press time with a West Bay Athletic League co-championship well within reach. Both the boys and girls varsity water polo teams had strong seasons, each hoping to qualify for Central Coast Section playoff spots. At the other divisions, Varsity A flag football went 5-1 in league and 6-1 overall, ending up WBAL league champions. Annabelle Jia was the grade 6 girls WBAL cross country champion, and middle school golf shot a 154 at the fall golf tournament, earning WBAL league champion status. More photos from the fall 2025 athletic season can be seen in our online gallery at https://news.harker.org/ gallery-fall-2025-athletics/ .

Photo by Sophie Ormond

Photo by Pierre Whitsey

en pointe Dreams

With grit and gratitude, Anastasia Cheplyansky ’18 pursues her passion

When Anastasia Cheplyansky ’18 was 5 years old, she started ballet lessons. By 8, she had set her sights on a professional dance career. At 22, she’d earned a bachelor’s degree, performed with the Atlanta Ballet and realized her dream of joining the Dutch National Ballet.

“When I was invited to perform at the Petipa Awards Gala, I was jumping up and down with excitement because it was a chance to dance alongside my idols,” Cheplyansky recalled with her bright smile. “I used to watch Dutch National Ballet videos on YouTube as a child, but never in a million years did I imagine one day I would dance with my dream company. At that event, the company’s director, Ted Brandsen, was being honored with an award and that’s how we met, and ultimately how I received my contract. The entire experience felt surreal, and it truly made me believe that dreams do come true.”

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES MOK

PHOTOS BY NINA TONOLI UNLESS NOTED

Photo by Altin Kaftira

Although her dream was clear, her path wasn’t always straight.

Cheplyansky joined Harker in third grade and stayed through high school. While she didn’t dance regularly at school, she credits Harker with inspiring curiosity and helping her develop a strong work ethic. But perhaps the most important lesson was learning not to limit herself to just one path.

Cheplyansky studied ballet with Danish ballerina Lise la Cour and, at 14, joined the Bayer Ballet Academy, where she performed a range of lead roles in full-length ballets under the direction of founder Inna Bayer. Many aspiring ballerinas choose to homeschool during high school, as balancing rigorous academics with intense ballet training can be overwhelming. But Cheplyansky’s parents insisted she stay at Harker, which is a decision she’s deeply grateful for today.

“At Harker, we encourage students to pursue their unique interests and talents, and Anastasia is a wonderful example of doing just that,” said Kelly Horan, assistant upper school division head and Cheplyansky’s former psychology teacher.

“When her peers left for college, which was a path open to her as well, she chose an unconventional route and pursued ballet full time. She’s worked so hard, and it’s beautiful to see her dream becoming a reality.”

Horan’s psychology class sparked a lasting interest for Cheplyansky. After Harker, she pursued an online degree in psychology at the University of Florida, graduating cum laude while dancing full time with the Atlanta Ballet. Juggling school and dance wasn’t easy, but her passion for each kept her grounded, and she was grateful for the

“Ballet is a gift to the audience, an escape from reality where people can tap into different emotions and experiences to find greater purpose.”

- Anastasia Cheplyansky ‘18

chance to pursue them side by side.

She had always loved ballet, but its true impact became clear during a chance encounter in Atlanta. Around the holidays, she struck up a conversation with a woman at a small café and mentioned that she’d be performing in “The Nutcracker” that evening. The woman said she had always wanted to see it, so on a whim, Cheplyansky offered her a free ticket.

She didn’t think much of it until after the performance.

“The woman gave me the warmest hug and introduced me to her entire family,” Cheplyansky recalled, her voice softening at the memory. “She told me they had all bought their own tickets after she shared my invitation. Her husband had passed away just two weeks earlier, and this was the first time they had come together as a family, and the first time they had felt a reason to smile.”

The experience left a lasting impression.

“Of course, I dance for my own joy,” she said. “But that moment gave what I do so much more meaning. Ballet is a gift to the audience, an escape from reality where people can tap into different emotions and experiences to find greater purpose.”

Cheplyansky has worked diligently to achieve her success, but she remains grounded in gratitude for every person who has supported her along the way, from her Harker teachers to various ballet mentors who helped her pirouette toward her dream.

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

2021, Photo by Mark Kitaoka and Tracy Martin

UNLESS NOTED

Ana Teresa Fernández, the 2025-26 Dickinson Visual Arts Endowment artist-in-residence, kicked off her residency in October with workshops at the middle and upper schools, where she and students worked on a collaborative sculpture that was unveiled later in the semester. In December, the Mexican-born, San Francisco-based artist also delivered a lecture to students on her work, which has included themes of women’s rights, the struggles and ingenuity of immigrant workers and the implications of borders, explored through a variety of media, including performance art, painting and installation. Selections of her work are currently displayed at the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.

NINA TONOLI UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Photo

Kevin Reduta

Ask Sam Linton a few questions and you’ll get some surprising answers. The middle school computer science, engineering, robotics and Python teacher was born and grew up in Chunju, South Korea, where his parents were missionaries. He’s lived in five different states and now calls Sunnyvale home with his wife of over 40 years, Yvonne, who substitutes at Harker. They share two adult children and a cat. (“I am his least favorite person in the family, even though I am the one who bottle-fed him from birth.”) A motorcycle enthusiast, Linton also enjoys activities with his church and community organization in the Boulder Creek area, where his son lives.

What is the one thing in the world you would fix if you could wave a magic wand?

No more having to memorize passwords. I think this should be a priority for the world’s scientists.

What one piece of advice would you offer anyone who asks?

Indulge your curiosity.

What’s one aspect of your life you most strongly identify with?

As a former aerospace engineer, I enjoy wind-related sports. I have tried hang gliding, paragliding, sky diving, windsurfing and wing foiling.

What gives you a reason to smile?

When I hear a student in my class say, “Wow! That’s cool!” when they have gotten something to work.

What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows?

Three things: I never graduated from high school, but I have four degrees from five different colleges in three states. I once spent a week in North Korea. I used to work at NASA and knew a couple of astronauts.

What is your most treasured memory?

One of them: I went on a boat ride off Dana Point, and we were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Harker lunch when we have tater tots.

My students built remotecontrolled robots from scratch. Classroom In the Engineering

Sam Linton

Students in Harker’s software development club create apps that simplify daily lives of the school community

Once

upon a time, there was an app that didn’t work.

Unfortunately, it belonged to the Food Court at Harker’s upper school and was causing headaches for users and food service employees alike. The app, created by an outside company, was the first attempt to go from paper to digital. However, it required myriad steps, and any missed or incorrect step might result in a wrong order or an incorrect charge.

When Preeti Sharan, Harker’s information systems lead, expressed a desire to create a new app, she was directed to students involved in a fledgling club called HarkerDev, the school’s student software development organization.

Words by David Kiefer

Photographs by Sophie Ormond

“Most of us are very invested in coding, and a lot of it can be very nitty gritty coding.”

– Axel Szolusha, grade 11

She found students with an interest in coding who wanted to work together on projects that could benefit Harker as a whole but needed the experience of handson front- and back-end development. Though there were rough spots along the way, it opened the door for a studentadministration partnership that gives young programmers responsibilities rare in the world of secondary education.

In the eight years since, the Food Court app became one of the great success stories of HarkerDev.

“We went from something that was almost unusable to something that’s seamless,” said Eric Nelson, the club’s advisor and Harker’s computer science department chair.

“I gave them a task, and they were all willing to take it on,” Sharan said. “Software development in a professional environment is very different than high schoolers coding in a classroom. They rose above and beyond their level.”

The Food Court app, which continues to be upgraded and maintained by HarkerDev, has worked so well that Harker chef David Hendricks, whose work depends on the functionality of the app, said, “I’ll be honest with you, I only found out recently that it was our kids who developed this and are doing the support for it. It never even occurred to me that high school kids were doing it.”

HarkerDev creates apps for the bell schedule, activities, announcements and spirit, among others. The club has created a GPA calculator, a page to monitor the status

of apps that are temporarily offline, and is working on apps for parking, catering, and even a URL shortener. Students, staff and administrators have learned to depend on HarkerDev’s work.

When junior Elaine Zou earned a grant for a sustainability project from Silicon Valley Clean Energy in March 2024, HarkerDev stepped in to work with her in an effort to fulfill her vision of an app where students could exchange textbooks so they wouldn’t go to waste. Too many wound up unused in the homes of former students or took up space in landfills.

Zou connected with classmates Demi Zheng and Adrian Roufas, now HarkerDev co-presidents, and worked together to produce Swap & Share. The app allows users to list their books, earn coins for contributing, and use those coins to obtain books from other students. It saves students money and reduces waste.

To make Swap & Share work, “there were a lot of unknowns,” Roufas said – in establishing value, a trade system, storage, and connecting the front and back ends to create an inviting and simple final product.

“There were opinions from administration, opinions from the Office of Communication, opinions from the librarians, opinions from fellow students,” Zheng said. “I learned through all of this how to present my ideas in a very clear manner, and how to balance the opinions of a lot of people.”

“Figuring all of that out was probably one of the more difficult things we’ve done,” Roufas said. “But after all the thinking, we arrived at something that has been working. I’m proud of what we came up with.”

Zou and the Green Team were pleased as well.

“It made me really appreciate how much work and detail has to go into the creation of these sorts of projects,” said Diana Moss, the Green Team advisor who helped get the project underway. “The thing that most impressed me about Demi and Adrian was the way they addressed everything that could potentially go wrong before they even launched the app.”

Back in October 2016, when HarkerDev was created, student programmers had the same goals of solving schoolwide problems, but needed organization and oversight to create a club that could begin to build trust.

“The trust that the administration places in us is what allows us to keep doing these things to help the school,” Zheng said. “If we proved untrustworthy or something happened and we didn’t handle it with grace, we would not be able to do any of this.”

Former HarkerDev president Kabir Ramzan ’24, a sophomore majoring in computer

science and business at University of Texas in Austin, said HarkerDev is unique in the responsibilities it gives its students.

“Having the opportunity to build applications that can instantly be used by more than a thousand students, teachers and other staff members in a community is definitely special,” Ramzan said. “It’s a great opportunity to get exposure to computer science and practical programming.”

Zheng learned the basics of HTML from her dad in fifth grade, and by middle school was creating her own Wordle and Quizlet games. Roufas was introduced to Swift Playground, an iPad app that helps the user learn to code and build apps, when he was in third grade. He first applied for HarkerDev as an eighth grader – a year too early. His application was declined, but caught the attention of HarkerDev presidents, who assigned him to create a Google Chrome extension for Schoology for middle schoolers.

Axel Szolusha, a junior, was in third grade when he took a computer science class from Joe Chung and was introduced to block coding – a method that uses visual, drag-and-drop blocks instead of textbased code to create programs, and is an intuitive and beginner-friendly way to learn programming concepts.

At first, “I had no clue,” Szolusha said. “But I remember [Mr. Chung] going around and showing us different things one at a time and it kind of clicked in my head. All of a sudden, I had this ‘wow’ moment. I really get this. And if I wanted something to happen, I started to see how to do it with these blocks. It spurred the further exploration that I could do it on my own. What can I do? What can I not do?”

In middle school, a web design class taught by Sam Linton provided another influential step in his technical understanding.

“Once it turned from really basic lower school block stuff to actual written programming in middle school, the possibilities really opened up,” Szolusha said. “I felt I could basically do anything.”

Most recently, Szolusha, Roufas and junior Ava Zarkesh met with kitchen staff and information technology technicians to develop an app for ordering food and catering services for medium- to large-scale events. That app is aimed for release in the coming months.

“A lot of what I’ve done has been supplemented by Harker’s computer science, but the majority has been selftaught, me figuring stuff out and doing stuff on my own,” Szolusha said. “That translated

really well into HarkerDev. It’s not like a computer science class where you do this algorithm or there’s a super clear project. It’s more like [the school coming to us and saying], ‘The app we’re using for catering events doesn’t work super well and we were wondering if you guys could make an alternative.’”

While a majority of HarkerDev students envision careers in computers and tech, Zheng also has a great interest in humanities, particularly in Latin and Roman culture. Club members also have plenty of outside talents; Szolusha is one of the top cross-country runners in school history, and Roufas is a league-title contender in the pole vault. However, programming experience is a must for Harker Dev members, because they get thrown directly into projects.

In her leadership role with HarkerDev, Zheng screens applications and interviews finalists. It’s a competitive process, with 35 applicants this year and only nine spots in all, including returning members.

“We look for somebody who is passionate and has the potential to develop into somebody who will be able to sustain HarkerDev in the future,” Roufas said.

The four-round process begins with a simple online questionnaire that asks name, grade and computer science courses taken.

The second round separates the serious applicants, requesting descriptions of computer science experience and

“The trust that the administration places in us is what allows us to keep doing these things to help the school.”

– Demi Zheng, grade 11

programming language fluency. This step might reduce the applicants to about five.

The third round is the interview stage, “where you get a sense of this person’s personality and how they would work in a team setting,” Zheng said.

Those who reach the fourth round are designated as recruits. The final step is creating an app, with the same assignment for each recruit. If it’s fully functioning, meets all the requirements, and is approved by administrators, then the individual becomes a full-fledged member.

“I’d say, it’s basically a club of computer geeks,” said Szolusha. “Most of us are very invested in coding, and a lot of it can be very nitty gritty coding.”

The intensive nature of the screening process adds to the club’s credibility.

“They’re very responsive to administrative needs,” said Paul Barsky, upper school head. “They take ideas and they make them actionable. And that notion of creativity and taking chances is all about what Harker is. If the bell schedule was not accurate and not updated religiously then it would cause a big problem for kids, for teachers, for staff.”

Ideas are submitted through a design document template, and must face scrutiny, with questions such as: What is the abstract of the project? The design structure? The web flow? How many different pages? The answers must be submitted with full descriptions, and the ideas can come from anyone, even the members themselves. From there, it goes through Nelson and, eventually, administration.

Nelson’s role is mostly hands-off: “I handle budget management and communications and act as the liaison between the students and the administration,” Nelson said. “Everything’s got to go through me. I’m the filter. I look at it, figure it out, and then I figure out who needs to be brought into the conversation and I contact them.”

Barsky is among those who depend on HarkerDev’s work each day.

“I check out Harker Bell Schedule first thing in the morning, and then I check my own calendar to ensure that they align and are accurate,“ he said. “If there’s an inaccuracy for whatever reason on, say, an exam time, they have to fix that immediately because we have kids whose parents are dropping them off based upon what they’re seeing on Harker Bell Schedule.

That’s why the leadership and the coders of HarkerDev have to be at the highest level.”

There are plenty of other projects on the horizon, confined only to the limits of imagination. One lower school project being considered adds security to after-school pickup. License-plate scanning would match the plate with the scanned badge of a student before the child could get into the car. All this would be created and maintained by HarkerDev.

“A lot of kids at Harker really focus on programming in competitions, where they’re given distinct problems and a set of solutions,” Szolusha said. “But HarkerDev is about solving student problems and making life more convenient through actual applications, instead of theoretical stuff. “Actually building stuff that has purpose.” And thanks to HarkerDev, the school community is better for it.

David

Kiefer is a freelance writer and former journalist with the San Jose Mercury News.

gallery visual arts

Here are some of the many standout pieces from the fall classes of Peggy Lao, Gerry-louise Robinson, Sofie Siegmann, Brian Caponi, Joshua Martinez and Pilar Agüero-Esparza.

Ezra Hall kindergarten “Line Monster”

Vanessa Kang grade 6 “Charcoal Still Life”

Olivia Gu grade 5 “Frida Portrait”

Ayla Guvendik grade 2 “Grumpy Cat”

Nicole Fields grade 7 “Ceramic Cake”

Megan Lin grade 8

“Watermelon Carpet”

Topaz Lee grade 12 “Hybrid Vessels”

Duncan Marquardt grade 11 “Back”

Joyce Zhang grade 11 “Pillars”

Hall of Fame Inductees

Noted for Dedication,

Leadership

“I am really grateful for Harker athletics for giving me the grace and space and guidance to learn the values that really ended up mattering in sports.”

– Arthi Padmanabhan ‘10

On Oct. 4, just before Harker Day’s Homecoming volleyball game, four alums were inducted into the Harker Athletic Hall of Fame during a special ceremony held at the athletic center.

First to be introduced was Ethan Hu ’20, a standout swimmer who was a three-time state champion, six-time Central Coast Section champion and the first-ever state champion from Harker’s swim program. “I could immediately tell that he was special when I first saw him compete,” said athletic director Dan Molin. “It wasn’t even close. He dominated every single race. It was very fun to watch.”

Hu continued to post major achievements at Stanford University, ranking among the top 10 all-time 100-yard butterfly competitors there and being named All-American twice, as well as being selected for the Pac-12 honor roll three times.

After being presented with his induction award, Hu shared words of gratitude with the audience. “To my friends and to my family, thank you,” he said. “None of this would have happened without you. To Harker, thank you for including me in the legacy of such a storied institution.”

Arthi Padmanabhan ’10, who captained the girls varsity tennis team to the CCS quarterfinals in 2009, was recognized by Molin for her “leadership, perseverance and lifelong impact.” That 2009 run set the standard for a tennis program that has seen many landmark successes in subsequent years, including its first-ever CCS championship in 2021. She was also a doubles champion with Jenny Chen ’13 and won the singles title at the Santa Catalina Tennis Invitational.

“I am really grateful to Harker athletics for giving me the grace and space and guidance to learn the values that really ended up mattering in sports,” Padmanabhan said. “The friends, the collaborations, finding my balance as a student and an athlete

Words by Zach Jones Photographs by Sophie Ormond and from Harker Archives

and representing something bigger than myself.” She also expressed admiration and gratitude for her teachers: “Being in a community where your teachers come out and watch your sports game and encourage you in that realm, too, is just a pretty cool community to be in.”

Upper school golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng stepped up to the podium to introduce Shrish Dwivedi ’15, who she noted impressed future PGA Tour pro Maverick McNealy ’13 enough to make him remark, “I’m not going to let a freshman beat me.” She continued, calling Dwivedi “the guy who pushed Maverick to greatness in high school.”

Cheng highlighted Dwivedi’s leadership qualities, particularly the advice he gave to teammates. “All his advice was always on point,” she said. “When Shrish talks, everyone listens.” He also had his share of individual achievements, being among the top 10 ranked golfers in California (as well as 35th in the United States and among the top 100 in the world) in the 2015 recruiting class and the West Bay Athletic League’s Most Valuable Player in 2014.

In a prerecorded message, Dwivedi, who was unable to attend the ceremony, mentioned his time as a golfer as important in helping him learn how to take on various challenges. “In my four years on the team, coach Ie consistently fought for us to have the opportunity to travel and play in tournaments, enforced a strong team culture and ensured that, no matter the skill level, everyone left practice just a little bit better,” he said. “Her example is something I still think back to and try

to emulate to this day.” Dwivedi’s parents accepted his award on his behalf.

Longtime volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith took the podium to introduce the final inductee, Shreya Dixit ’15, noting how the volleyball star demonstrated “commitment to excellence, a dedication to her teammates, coaches and the program.” Adding a brief pause for emphasis, Smith then said, “And she was tall.”

A starter for four years and captain of the squad for three years, Dixit was also named First Team All League in the WBAL Skyline Division four times and led her team to become the second in school history to reach the CCS finals and NorCal semifinals. She later competed at the division I level at Yale.

“What I remember most about Shreya was her unbridled love for the program and her teammates,” Smith said. “As she would tell us a few years after her career at Harker, it wasn’t really about winning. It was more about not wanting the season to end because she loved being with her teammates so much.”

True to that remembrance, Dixit began her remarks by saying, “Volleyball is a team sport, so any accomplishment of mine really is a mix of my teammates, my parents and my coaches.” She thanked her parents for their willingness to drive her to practices, “and most importantly, you absorbed all my emotional highs and lows along the way,” as well as her coaches, “who poured all their energy into this program … and created a space where we could build something really meaningful together.”

from the archives

1979 Sports Awards Night

Stanford football legends speak at Harker athletic event

From behind a lectern and towering above the VIP table, Dennis Green fixes his eyes on the guests at Harker Academy’s annual Athletic Awards Night at Brooks Auditorium on May 31, 1979.

In a black-and-white glossy photo protected in a plastic sheet in a dark green binder in The Harker School archives, Green wears what appears to be a tan-colored suit, with a white buttoned shirt and a dark tie with designs emblazoned on it. His hands grip the sides of the lectern as headmaster Howard Nichols, seated to Green’s right, looks on.

An intriguing collection of photos remain from the evening, showcasing Green, who would become a successful and groundbreaking coach in college and pro football, and Darrin Nelson, Stanford’s star player of the time.

Each was a guest speaker during a ceremony honoring the accomplishments of 110 student-athletes from Harker teams at what was then a K-9 school. Green is pictured handing out trophies and Harker Block ‘H’ letters. He posed with boys wearing school-uniform sweaters with collared shirts and corduroy pants and with girls wearing plaid jumpers and knee socks.

“The evening began with all the staff taking a few minutes to review the highlights of the year and bring back memories of some of the more humorous incidents that occurred during the various seasons,” wrote Harker’s school paper, The Call of the Eagle.

Words by David Kiefer Photographs supplied by Michael Murray, Harker Archives

From the editor: We hope you enjoy our first “From the Archives,” which will be a place where we can share and reminisce about the people, events and places of Harker’s past, whose stories are hidden gems in our extensive digital and physical archives.

Nichols may have invited Green and Nelson because of their Stanford connections; Nichols was an alum. Green had just completed his second season as Stanford’s running backs coach under the legendary Bill Walsh. With protege Nelson leading the way at running back, Stanford completed the 1978 season by overcoming a 22-point deficit to beat Georgia, 25-22, in the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston’s Astrodome on Dec. 31.

Shortly after, Walsh was named head coach by the San Francisco 49ers, beginning a tenure with the franchise that would result in three Super Bowl victories and recognition as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history. Walsh’s first hire with the 49ers was Green, named special teams coach on Jan. 12, 1979.

Green became the second Black head football coach in NCAA Division 1-A history when he took over at Northwestern in 1981. He returned to Stanford in 1989 as its first Black head coach and began a 10-year stint as the Minnesota Vikings’ head coach in 1992, where he again coached Nelson, who was in the final season of a 13-year NFL career.

Green, who had a 113-94 record as an NFL head coach with the Vikings and Arizona Cardinals, passed away in 2016 at 67.

Nelson was one of the most exciting players in Stanford history and the first player in NCAA history to rush for more than 1,000 yards and catch more than 50 passes in a season, which he did multiple times. Nelson, a sophomore at the time of the Harker ceremony, would set school career records for rushing yards (4,033), receptions (214), and touchdowns (40), and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2024. However, at Harker’s awards night, Nelson was injured. He tore a tendon in the hamstring group behind the left knee while long-jumping in a track and field dual meet against UCLA on March 31, 1979, and underwent surgery a day later. He was in a cast until mid-May. But that didn’t keep him from joining Green in coming to Harker. Athletic director Dan Gelineau and coach/teacher John Near were among those who welcomed Green and Nelson and issued Athlete of the Year awards to Barbara Whitlock and Victor Cabrera to close out the evening – one recalled today more than 45 years later.

KAREN JIMENEZ UNLESS NOTED

Tperforming arts

he Harker Conservatory’s production of the hilarious whodunit “Clue,” inspired by the popular board game and cult favorite ensemble comedy film, opened the 2025-26 school year’s performing arts season with equal parts mystery and laughs. Two weeks later, the middle school produced its fall plays, “Ravi and Friends vs. The Phantoms of the X Dimension” (grades 7-8) and “The Cryptid Survival Guide” (grade 6), with the playwright of the former, Larry Pontius, in attendance for the premiere! Winter concerts by vocal and instrumental groups (one featuring Mindy Truong, grade 12, playing a Rachmaninoff concerto, shown left) and a visit from Downbeat and Capriccio to the TK also segued Harker into the holiday season. To see more photos, visit https://news.harker.org/ gallery-fall-2025-performing-arts/ .

Photo by AJ Tinio

Photo by Branden Keller

Photo by Sophie Ormond

Photo by Branden Keller

Sculpting a life without limits

Stephanie Tsao ’02 followed multiple passions to build something truly unique

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY STEPHANIE TSAO ’02 UNLESS NOTED

“My experiences as a lawyer, engineer, entrepreneur and artist all enrich each other. You don’t have to choose just one path. … Stay passionate and flexible and you can pursue multiple interests without giving up on your dreams.”

– Stephanie Tsao ’02

tephanie Tsao ’02 resists easy definition: a lawyer by training, software engineer by practice, artist by passion, entrepreneur at heart and lifelong learner. She navigates across disciplines and cultures to create meaningful impact.

“You can’t do everything at once,” Tsao said with a warm laugh. “But if you really want to do something, find a way to make it happen.”

And that’s exactly what she’s done.

Tsao was part of Harker’s first upper school class, a formative experience that let her start clubs and shape traditions. She fondly remembers her history class with Donna Gilbert, who inspired her to major in the subject. Now a parent of two Harker students, Tsao remains connected to the community that carved her path.

“Stephanie was a serious and earnest student with a natural instinct for historical analysis,” recalled Gilbert, chair of the history and social sciences department. “She was inquisitive, thoughtful and grew into a confident thinker with a strong voice who truly enjoyed learning.”

Tsao studied computer science before switching gears to pursue degrees in history and political science at the University of California, San Diego. After graduating from Boston University Law School, she spent more than 10 years at leading firms, managing high-stakes cases and leveraging analytical skills. She then completed a UC Santa Cruz programming certification and worked as a software engineer. Today, she combines her expertise as head of legal at an autonomous vehicle startup, pursuing an MBA from BU.

Programming spoke to the same part of her mind that enjoyed law. “Writing code is similar to writing legal agreements,” she explained. “You break issues into workable parts and create order out of uncertainty.” This insight reflects her systems thinking: seeing complex problems as interconnected pieces that can be methodically organized.

When advising tech startups on everything from identifying target markets to building competitive strategies, her ability to translate between technical, legal and business perspectives positioned her as a strategic integrator, enabling teams to move faster, avoid costly missteps and deliver smarter solutions.

She eventually launched a venture of her own.

“I intentionally chose something I knew nothing about because I wanted a real challenge,” she said. “So I landed on artisanal confections. I spent months iterating recipes, engaging with customers and vendors, and learning the industry before getting it right.”

That mix of business acumen, engineering precision and creative energy provided the perfect recipe. Tsao focused on handcrafted mahjong tile candy, inspired by childhood games with her grandmother. She was so small that her grandmother would gently lift her onto the table, her little legs dangling as the ivory-colored tiles clacked beneath her fingers. Though they didn’t share a language (her grandmother spoke Chinese and Tsao spoke English), they built a world of their own across the worn wooden table and through laughter and playful gestures.

By combining this heartfelt story with a beautifully crafted product and savvy marketing, her business – Vivi + Livy – scaled quickly, earning coverage in major media outlets. She leveraged social media to drive sales, securing partnerships with high-end restaurants, including a Michelin Guide restaurant. The business is on hiatus now, but Tsao is grateful that her handcrafted mahjong candies sparked reconnection.

“Many customers shared that the candy brought their families together to play mahjong and share laughter after years apart,” Tsao said. “Knowing my product helped create special memories means the world to me.”

While creating her business, Tsao reflected

more deeply on her identity as both Asian and American, yet never fully belonging to either world. In the wake of rising anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic, she turned to art to bridge cultures by creating spaces for cultural appreciation, connection and respect.

Inspired by San Francisco’s public art, she pitched a proposal to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and was commissioned to design a sculpture to celebrate the year of the ox, which was displayed at San Francisco International Airport. The work was so well received that she’s been invited back yearly to create new sculptures.

“The most meaningful part of creating art is hearing how it sparks joy, touches hearts and helps people feel understood,” she said. “Knowing my work inspires connection and healing makes all the effort worthwhile.”

As an artist, she creates experiences that resonate while continuing to serve her mission as a cultural connector. Her latest piece, the Warrior Serpent, sponsored by the Golden State Warriors, honors both the team’s legacy and Chinese culture.

Taken together, Tsao’s experiences reveal how different disciplines combine to create realworld impact. Law sharpened analytical and communication skills, engineering fostered rigor and iterative problem-solving, entrepreneurship developed adaptability and resilience, and art cultivated creativity and intuition. Each path strengthens the others: law provides structure, engineering adds logic, business drives innovation and art brings insight into people.

For Tsao, the unifying thread is impact.

“You don’t have to choose just one path. It’s about creating something meaningful, whether it’s art, a software application, a business solution, or a memory with my kids. Stay passionate and flexible and you can pursue multiple interests without giving up on your dreams.”

Vikki Bowes-Mok is a freelance writer and editor.

New Year sculptures created by Stephanie Tsao

Classroom In the Grade 3 Math

I created a word problem activity on Flint AI. Students were asked to complete the word problem and explain their thinking. It was fascinating to see how they not only solved the problem but also articulated their problem-solving process using AI. The activity gave great insight into their mathematical reasoning and allowed them to engage with technology in a meaningful way.

Shilpa Khetrapal teaches grade 2-3 math and grade 2 language arts and is a grade 3 homeroom teacher. She’s also parent to two Harker alums, Mehul ’16 and Meona ’21. Teaching runs in the family; her mom was a teacher. She says her happy place is at home with her husband and kids, and she also enjoys holding Bollywood dance workshops during the school’s Culture Week. She supports Narika, an organization that provides free, confidential support to survivors of domestic violence in the Bay Area.

What is the one thing in the world you would fix if you could wave a magic wand?

I would have there be no borders. Everyone should be able to go where their heart desires with freedom and respect.

What are you obsessed with?

Being tidy and organized. Everything needs to go back where it belongs. A cluttered room is a cluttered mind.

If you had $100 million in the bank, what would your day look like?

I would still be rushing to school with coffee in hand in the morning and spending the evening with my family and friends planning our next weekend getaway!

What gives you a reason to smile?

The wonders of nature: wildlife, the Northern lights, snowfall, rain!

What do you love most about your life?

I do what I love: teach.

What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up?

Long walks, a good cup of coffee with biscuits, and talking to my friends help me plow through tough times.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?

Travel light, in luggage, grudges and expectations.

Shilpa Khetrapal

staff kudos

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

In September, middle school academic counselor

Melinda Gonzales and Patricia Burrows, Harker’s DEI director, along with psychologist Caroline Lee, facilitated a fishbowl conversation at the 1990 Institute’s Youth Symposium, “Roots and Wings: Celebrating Asian American Youth with the Power of Community.” The event aims to help Asian American and Pacific Islander high school students find opportunities for growth through talks with important figures in various fields. Gonzales and Lee’s talk was described in the program as one that would “bridge gaps between generations and roles to imagine a future where Asian American youth are fully seen, supported and celebrated.”

Upper school English teacher Eric Hengstebeck was published in the spring 2025 issue of Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. His essay, “Does Writing Have a Future in the Age of AI?” contemplates the role of writing in an era where use of large language models (LLMs) have risen exponentially in popularity, singling out improbability as “an essential literary category” and concluding that writing is “an act of creative intelligence that is rooted in sensory experience, collective accountability, and the incalculable potential of reimagining the world that is at the core of being human.”

Upper school French teachers Agnès Pommier and Galina Tchourilova were recognized by the founders of Flint, an artificial intelligence-driven learning platform, for helping them secure more funding by being beta testers and offering testimonials on how they used it in their classes. Pommier’s students use Flint as a personal assistant available 24/7 to strengthen their writing skills with remediation exercises for test corrections, for example, and to receive feedback on the handwritten drafts of their blog posts. Tchourilova encourages her students to research and explore in depth Francophone cultures through interviews of virtual peers or famous historical figures. Flint included both of them in a special video thanking all educators who provided feedback and testimonials.

Over the summer, upper school biology teacher

Thomas

Artiss, one of this year’s Vegesna Teacher Excellence Program grant recipients, spent three days at the Smithsonian Museum of National History working with worldrenowned ant expert Ted Schultz to develop an insect collection project for his students. “It was a true full-circle moment as Ted was one of my mentors in graduate school,” Artiss said. He also headed to the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History to formulate new activities with the museum’s educational outreach team, adapting middle school lessons to a high school program. “I’m genuinely excited about their potential in the classroom,” he exclaimed.

Jennifer Siraganian, upper school English teacher, was one of 50 poets selected to be featured in the Best New Poets 2025 anthology, along with senior Lindsay Li. Each was chosen after entering the open competition, which had more than 2,000 submissions. Poems for the collection are also selected through nominations from literary magazines and graduate-level writing programs. The anthology has been published by University of Virginia Press since 2005, and this year’s collection was edited by poet Cecily Parks, an associate professor at Texas State University and winner of the 2016 Pushcart Prize.

Photo by Sophie Ormond

Photo by Maria Gong

alumni weekend

Harker’s third-annual alumni weekend brought out alums from the classes of 1985, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 to reminisce and create new memories with their classmates. Reunion dinners for 2010, 2015 and 2020 graduates were held at Maggiano’s at San Jose’s Santana Row on Oct. 3. Meanwhile, the Class of 2005 enjoyed cocktails at Hotel Valencia followed by a special dinner and party. During Harker Day, 1985 graduates celebrated their 40-year reunion with an off-campus meet and greet, followed by a tour of the upper school campus and a visit to the alumni barbecue. On Sunday, all of the visiting alums met once again at Hotel Valencia for the annual breakfast with the head of school.

Photo by Maria Gong

In the

Classroom

I took a semester-long class I used to teach at the college level and condensed it into a helpful 45-minute lecture for my Harker class … on how to be an effective public speaker!

Greg Achten has a lot to be proud of. The upper school competitive speech and debate program he and his wife, Jenny Achten, have nurtured and grown allows him to experience again and again the things he loves most about teaching his subject: working with great colleagues; coaching thoughtful, hard-working and respectful students; watching those students grow and thrive in competition; and traveling far and wide during much of the year. A Kansas native, Acten lived on a family farm until he was 5; three of his siblings are still in Kansas, and one is in Texas. A job at Pepperdine prompted his move West, where “I fell in love with California and cannot imagine living anywhere else.”

What is your favorite book and why?

“House of Leaves” by Mark Danielewski. It is truly impressive because of the complexity of the storytelling, which weaves multiple different elements into the book, and it is also visually stunning.

What are two things you like to do when you finally have a block of free time?

Jenny and I really enjoy seeing and doing new things. We love going to different places all over the world, as well as visiting our family in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas and Texas.

What do you love that everyone else dislikes?

I have been a Kansas City Chiefs fan for basically my whole life. I try my best to watch all their games, even when I am traveling.

What is something interesting about you that almost no one knows?

Family lore says that during World War I my family Americanized the pronunciation of our name so that people would not think we were German sympathizers.

Where in the world are you the happiest?

Paris is my favorite city in the world and probably the city I have visited the most often outside of work travel. I love the food, the art, the people.

What do you love most about your life?

I love the life that Jenny and I have built both at Harker and in San Jose surrounded by friends.

Greg Achten

class notes

Keep up to date on the lives of your classmates.

Alumni from all classes through 1997 are listed under the years they would have completed grade 8 at The Harker School, Harker Academy, Harker Day School or Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA). For all classes after the Class of 1997, alumni are listed under the class years they would have graduated from high school, regardless of whether they completed high school studies at Harker. All photos submitted by the subject unless noted.

If you’re interested in submitting a class note or getting in touch with your class representative, please email alumni@harker.org.

1983

Warren Nishikawa is now the North America director of sales at Canadian Solar. He recently visited Japan to seek out his ancestors’ story; they immigrated to the United States from Fukuoka, Japan, over four generations ago.

1985

Michael Olsen was an airline pilot at FedEx for nine years. Before that, he served for 21 years in the Air Force as an F-15E pilot and retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2016. He lives with his wife, Melanie Ann Olsen, in Idaho.

1989

Shyam Panchal and his wife, Rohini, welcomed a baby girl, Aaradhya, in July 2025.

1995

Kathi Zee has moved back to the United States after living in Shanghai, China, for 16 years. She is joined by her spouse, David Jiang, and two young children.

2005

Sherwin Jiang and his wife, Rui, had their second daughter in December 2024.

Shaun Mohan has a 2-year-old child.

Ruchi Jhaveri has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and works at Apple as a senior sourcing manager. She and her husband of three years, Pramod Dabir, live in the Bay Area.

Abhiram Varadarajan is a senior director of product at Sharecare in San Francisco.

Alexander David Tearse-Doyle, nicknamed “TD,” passed away on June 29, of a sudden, unexpected and thankfully non-painful condition. Alex is survived by his parents, J. Ken Doyle and Marilyn Tearse, an older brother, Brian Doyle, and Brian’s family. After Harker, Alex went to the University of California, Irvine, where he earned a computer science degree. He then worked at a gaming company, Blizzard (World of Warcraft) and also built his own games, which can be found at TDsGames.com. Donations in Alex’s name may be made to the Humane Society Silicon Valley.

2007

Kit Schimandle married Michael Villalpando on May 24, in Forest House Lodge in Foresthill. The wedding was officiated by Brian Larsen, Harker’s production manager. Attendees pictured are Larsen, former Harker box office manager Michelle Larsen, Miranda Larsen ’18, former Harker faculty Susan Bass and Daniel Hudkins, Cordelia Larsen ’16 and Cordelia’s friend, Jackson Paddock.

Please send your updates to your class representative or email them to alumni@harker.org.

Jonathan Charlu and his wife, Abigail, welcomed a son, Nathaniel, in April 2025. They moved back to the Bay Area from St. Louis this summer. Since September he has been working as a primary care physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Milpitas clinic.

2008

Tiffany M. Liou, a reporter at WFAA in Dallas, won two Lone Star Sports Emmys. The first was for a solo piece on a 4-yearold fan of basketball player Luka Doncic. The second was for a segment about local support for Kerr County flood victims. She now has eight Emmys in her collection.

Whitney Huang, who teaches journalism at Harker, is engaged to Eric Lee, who is a familiar face at the upper school campus as the assistant to Kelly Horan, the assistant upper school division head.

2009

Angeli (Agrawal) Carranza had a baby girl, Indira, on April 1. Anjeli relocated to Chicago in 2019 to attend business school at Northwestern, where she met her husband. She lives in Lincoln Park and runs

corporate strategy and business operations for Nirvana Insurance, a commercial trucking insurance startup. She would love to reconnect with any Harker alums in the Chicagoland area!

2 010

Sumeet Sharma has moved back to the Bay Area and works at Google as a software engineer.

Ryan Cali runs his own fitness enterprise, Cali Fitness Coaching LLC, and recently got engaged to his girlfriend, Olivia.

Arthi Padmanabhan was elected to Harker’s Athletic Hall of Fame! See page 24 for details.

2011

Anisha (Agarwal) Thomas is a mom to a girl and boy. She also was named one of Deel’s 100 top HR and payroll leaders who are shaping the future of global hiring and culture, for which she was featured on a billboard in Times Square.

2013

Tara Rezvani married Alec Flowers in May in Lugano, Switzerland. Wedding guests spent the week in Lugano enjoying boat rides on the lake, panoramic Alpine views,

delicious Swiss-Italian cuisine and meaningful time reconnecting with friends. Pictured here with Tara and her maid of honor are (all Class of ’13 unless noted) Ava (Rezvani) Lannin ’11, Molly Wolfe, Patricia Huang, Emily Wang, Amie Chien, Nicholas Chuang, Curran Shah and Riya Kothari ’11.

2015

Anni Ankola was awarded the title of Mr. California and was a finalist at the Mr. America Global 2025 pageant held on Aug. 23 in Washington, D.C., a pageant focused on raising awareness for men’s wellness and mental health. He was also named Mister Friendship USA 2025. He currently runs Spyra Beauty, a company that focuses on using artificial intelligence to help consumers find skincare products.

Nikash Shankar is a physician at the University of North Carolina. He lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., with his wife, Kacey Lentz.

Please send your updates to your class representative or email them to alumni@harker.org.

Erika Olsen is an investment associate at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in San Francisco.

Ashwini Iyer recently co-founded Pamastay, a company that builds financial operations tools for health care risk. She has found the journey of growing a company from idea to product to be an exciting one.

Shrish Dwivedi and Shreya Dixit were elected to Harker’s Athletic Hall of Fame! See page 24 for details.

2016

Shannon Hong recently completed an MBA from the University of Oxford and a research fellowship at the Center of Governance of AI (GovAI). She resides in the United Kingdom.

Sophia Luo is a partner at Greylock, investing in early-stage AI-native infrastructure and applications.

2017

Tina Li works at Google as software engineer in the YouTube Gen AI team.

2018

Kaitlyn Nguyen was a member of the visual development team for “Smurfs,” her first feature film. In this role, Kaitlyn helped create the visual style of the film.

2019

Chris Gong, who was the first captain of Kinetic Crew, made the Warriors hip-hop team in August. He’s shown front row, third from right..

Kelsey Wu was featured in Eater SF for the mini documentaries she makes outside of work. In these, Kelsey highlights small-business owners in San Francisco by showcasing their craft and journeys. So far, she has featured Turtle Wayne, Muttville and Baklavastory, to name a few. See more of her videos at the Tik Tok account @Wuminations.

2020

Emily Chen is working at Ernest & Young as a member of the assurance staff.

Ethan Hu was elected to Harker’s Athletic Hall of Fame! See page 24 for details.

2022

Ashley Ma is a junior at UCLA, majoring in labor relations.

2023

Kunal Jain graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne with a degree in computer engineering and has since moved to the Bay Area.

Emily Novikov was named MVP for Georgetown University’s women’s tennis team for two years in a row. She also received All Big-East Conference second team both years in a row and was named Big East Women’s Tennis Freshman of the Year, shown above.

Kyra Hawk achieved Smith College’s single season points record in lacrosse; she scored 61 goals and 25 assists in 18 games. She also reached 100 career points! https://hrkr.to/3XAuTyr

Thomas Wisdom was named to the 2024-25 CSC Academic All-District AtLarge Team, which recognizes the nation’s top student-athletes for outstanding achievement both in athletic competition and in the classroom. Thomas is majoring in economics at Santa Clara University and is in the starting lineup on the water polo team.

Rachel Ning has transferred colleges. She moved from Chapman in California to the Big Apple, where she’s now a sophomore at NYU.

John Cracraft published his first op-ed in The Minnesota Daily titled, “We are losing our love for learning and AI is to blame” in August. https://hrkr.to/44aDsUj

2024

Nathan Liu has transferred to USC Marshall School of Business as a sophomore.

In Memoriam

Rita Stone, a lower school teacher from 1998–2016, passed away in September after a brief illness. Education was her life’s passion and she found great joy and purpose in inspiring young learners at Harker. Her warmth, humor and love of learning left an enduring imprint on a generation of students. She is survived by her very first student – her daughter, Rachel. In memory of Mrs. Stone, donations may be made in her honor to the literacy organization Room to Read at http://bit.ly/48oYbXs. Her family would be deeply touched to hear any memories or stories you’d like to share about Mrs. Stone; you are invited to reach out at rachel.ej.stone@ gmail.com.

Class representatives serve five-year terms coinciding with reunion cycles. If you’re interested in learning more about the role or volunteering to represent your class, please email alumni@harker.org.

2002 Yasmin Ali

2003 Jess Killips

2004 Karan Lodha

2005 Shikha Mittal

2006 Meghana Dhar

2007 Lucas Motro

Joanna Xu

2008 Senan Ebrahim

2009 Stephanie J. Guo

2010 Niki Agrawal

2011 Hassaan Ebrahim

2012 Will Chang

Kristi Sun

2013 Katz Sundarraj

2014 Connie Li

2015 Allison Kiang

Nitya Mani

2016 Stephanie Huang

2017 David Zhu

2018 Dolan Dworak

Gloria Guo

Melissa Kwan

2019 Olivia Esparza

Riya Gupta

Mahi Gurram

Matthew Hajjar

Kelsey Wu

2020 Lauren Beede

Bennett Liu

Anika Tiwari

2021 Olivia Guo

Kristin Tong

Helen Zhu

2022 Gigi Chan

Alexa Lowe

Irene Yuan

2023 Annmaria Antony

Dhruv Aron

John Cracraft

Zain Vakath

Please send your updates to your class representative or email them to alumni@harker.org.

Fri., Feb. 27, 7 p.m.

Founded by trumpet soloist Mary Elizabeth Bowden, with a mission to showcase the excellence of women brass players.

Speaker Series Free Admission – RSVP Requested

The Harker School

San Jose , CA 95129

Harker Magazine - Fall/Winter 2025

HISTORIC HOMECOMING

About Harker

A Year for Self-Reflection:

Future Path

Top Stories

Community Celebrates HARKER DAY

Our 75th Picnic and Historic Homecoming

en pointe Dreams

Sam Linton

gallery visual arts

Hall of Fame Inductees

Noted for Dedication,

Leadership

from the archives

1979 Sports Awards Night

Stanford football legends speak at Harker athletic event

Tperforming arts

Sculpting a life without limits

Classroom In the Grade 3 Math

Shilpa Khetrapal

staff kudos

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

alumni weekend

Greg Achten

class notes

1989

1995

2005

2007

2008

2009

2 010

2011

2013

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2022

2023

2024

In Memoriam

final frame