Harker Magazine Winter 2017

A PUBLICATION OF THE HARKER SCHOOL l FALL/WINTER 2017

M A G A Z I N E

THE

NEXT

LEVEL

T E C H N O LO G Y, PA R T 2

H A R K E R AT I T S ‘ B E S T ’

New athletic center opens and has immediate impact l p. 8

WORLD WISE

M A G A Z I N E

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FAL L/W I NTER 2017 I V O LU ME 9, N U MB E R 1 Pam Dickinson Office of Communication Director William Cracraft Managing Editor Catherine Snider Production Editor Mark Kocina Photographer Jennifer Maragoni Copy Editor Zach Jones Rebecca McCartney Staff Contributors Blue Heron Design Design Have an idea?

Contact us: news@harker.org 408.345.9273 Or write: Harker Magazine 500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose, CA 95129 Harker is a Bay Area Green Certified Business of Santa Clara County. As part of our many sustainability efforts, Harker Magazine is printed on 100% recycled paper.

On the cover: Upper school athletic center On this page: Upper school football team On the back: Middle school’s Kindness Rocks All photographs by Mark Kocina

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39 CONTENTS The Next Level New athletic center opens and has immediate impact.

Innovations with Technology, Part 2

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The conclusion of our technology series focuses on how our computer science program prepares students to be innovators.

Harker at its BEST Lower and middle after-school programs become cornerstones of student life.

Sophomores Speak!

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Alumni from the Class of 2016 share thoughts about their first year of college.

World Wise

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Travel opportunities allow students to gain independence, insight and empathy.

Headlines Head of School Brian Yager reflects on community and Harker’s commitment to its mission.

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Top Stories: A summary of the most-read articles from

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Harker News.

Passion & Impact: Alumni making a difference in the world and following their dreams.

12, 32, 46

Gallery: Photo highlights from the past semester – community, performing arts, sports, art.

14, 24, 48, 58

Face Time: Up close and personal with teachers and staff.

23, 34, 38, 60

Staff Kudos: What is happening in the professional lives of our faculty and staff.

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Class Notes: Alumni news.

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Brian’s

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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.

headlines

About Harker

Giving Back, WORDS BY BRIAN YAGER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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 Marcom platinum 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, collegeprep school serving preschool through grade 12.

Preschool: 4525 Union Ave., San Jose, CA 95124 K-Grade 5: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose, CA 95130 Grades 6-8: 3800 Blackford Ave., San Jose, CA 95117 Grades 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 Produced by the Harker Office of Communication 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 communications@harker.org · 408.345.9273 NEXT ISSUE: SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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ow will Harker’s students make the world a better place? This question especially occupies our thoughts as we reflect on Harker’s mission and future, and prepare to celebrate our 125th year.

We recognize that for our families and our students, the primary benefit of a Harker education is the preparation it gives to each student.

The first line of our mission statement reflects this clearly: “Our mission is to educate students for success at college and beyond.” By any measure, Harker’s teachers, programs and culture bring out the best in our students to a remarkable degree. The successes of our students in their endeavors after Harker – “at college and beyond” – are equally phenomenal and reflect just how effective the school has been in meeting this important component of its mission.

Additionally, our mission concludes with the promise that we seek to prepare our charges “to take their place as global citizens,” a mission directive that is germane to my opening question. Indeed, it is this promise that seems to hold the most power to motivate and shape our continued evolution in the future.

To be sure, there are always things that we can and will do to optimize the experience for each individual student. However, our collective impact – and the potential of it – is especially exciting at this moment, as we find our school at the nexus of Silicon Valley innovations and exciting crossroads in education, technology, finance and government. We see the impact of our efforts in many of the things our students do, from the classroom to the stage, from the field to the laboratory.

Sometimes, though, it is small acts – or little details – that both inspire and reflect our larger purpose. The Harker community’s response to the fires in the

Looking Forward:

Fire Relief Effort Highlights Commitment to Our Mission

Photo by Paulina Wegrowicz

By any measure, Harker’s teachers, programs and culture bring out the best in our students to a remarkable degree.

North Bay provides a recent example.

As the fires broke out, our attention focused on the needs of our school community: how would they impact our planned middle school trips, our daily routines and activities, and even our classes? However, in the same moment, we began to look beyond ourselves: who was impacted besides us and how could we help? One of our first realizations was that Camp Newman, the destination of our grade 6 trip, was in the vicinity of the fire and that we wouldn’t be able to take our students there. Yet, rather than dwell on our own disappointment, a number of teachers’ and parents’ first questions were: “Is it possible for us to go up there and help them clean up?” Unfortunately, the fire destroyed the camp completely, rendering any direct clean-up assistance sadly unnecessary. Nevertheless, the sentiment expressed, and the speed and energy with which it unfolded, reflects a remarkable collective ethos of citizenship and caring.

As the smoke and particulate matter from the fires settled over the Bay Area, we understood that the Family & Alumni Picnic could be affected.

Despite a favorable forecast for the planned day of the picnic, we realized that the preparations themselves would necessitate asking our staff and community members to spend time in the unhealthy conditions. So, with great disappointment and not a little trepidation, we made the decision to cancel the picnic. The responses from our community reflected yet again an outward–focused perspective that was, in the simplest terms, kind. “Why don’t we shift our efforts to those who need it?” a chorus of Eagles asked, so the Harker advancement office and our volunteer network refocused to collecting funds and donations for those impacted by the fire. And the school made the decision to direct the funds from any unreturned ticket sales to the relief effort.

In his work studying the factors that motivate human behavior, Harvard professor Michael Sandel has examined what drives our enthusiasm for certain actions. His book, “What Money Cannot Buy,” describes fascinating circumstances in which entire communities have been motivated to enhance the lives of other communities, even when they themselves have no direct ties to that community. It is our inherent desire to make the world around us better that motivates us to serve others. We saw this in our community’s response to the North Bay fires. And, it is this pillar – this inherent desire to make the world around us better – upon which we focus our efforts, both current and future, as we prepare our students “to take their place as global citizens.”

Brian Yager Head of School H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2017

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

top stories

Top Stories

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Recent stories reprinted from Harker News online.

Update: Harker senior named 2017 Presidential Scholar May 5, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-89s Congratulations to senior Meilan Steimle, who has been named a 2017 Presidential Scholar of the Arts! As one of just 161 scholars nationwide, she is now eligible to attend an expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., in June, where this year’s scholars will be honored.

Scholars who attend this event will have the chance to meet with leading educators, scientists and authors, as well make new friends among their peers.

April 21, 2017: Earlier this week, seniors Manan Shah and Meilan Steimle were named semifinalists in the 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Their applications will be reviewed by the Commission on Presidential Scholars to determine this year’s Presidential Scholars.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced this year’s candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, and 19 Harker seniors were among them.

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Photo by Jenny Achten

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Photo provided by Meilan Steimle ‘17

Harker News publishes stories online about our students and faculty, highlighting accomplishments and celebrating successes. This Top Stories feature reprints the most widely read Harker News stories since the last issue of Harker Magazine (June 2017). Visit news.harker.org to see full stories and hundreds more articles noting the truly remarkable efforts of our Harker students and faculty.

Alumnus Swaminathan wins David Mumford Undergraduate Mathematics Prize from Harvard May 9, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8kP Ashvin Swaminathan ’13 was recently awarded Harvard’s David Mumford Undergraduate Mathematics Prize, which is given to the “most promising” outstanding seniors who have chosen mathematics as a concentration, according to the Harvard University website.

Swaminathan will graduate from Harvard this month with degrees in mathematics and physics. Last month he was awarded a Soros Fellowship for New Americans, earning additional funding for his graduate studies in mathematics, which he plans to begin in the fall at Princeton.

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Middle school speech and debate team racks up great results at Tournament of Champions May 23, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8mA Harker’s middle school speech and debate team, coached

by Christopher Thiele, had a successful trip to the Middle School Tournament of Champions in Lexington, Ky., this past weekend.

Harker students earned numerous awards at the event, in which 33 schools representing 145 of the best middle school debate/speech entries across 15 states participated.

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Update: National Econ Challenge team takes fourth place overall in country May 23, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8fF At the National Economics Challenge finals in New York City, Harker’s team took fourth place overall in the Adam Smith division, narrowly missing the top two and a chance to appear on CNBC. Nevertheless, the

Photo by Sam Lepler MS’96

Assessment of Tumor Proliferation in Histopathological Images for Categorical and Molecular Breast Cancer Severity Diagnosis.”

and placed in the top 10 for both prepared presentation and best in nation. The team finished fourth overall nationally. The team members, who took second in the state finals, are all rising sophomores: Jackie Yang (team captain), Eileen Li, Sachin Shah, Emily Liu, Allison Jia, Cynthia Chen and Vani Mohindra.

Kyle Li did not travel to Orlando, but was part of the team that took second in the state.

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2017 Synopsys Championship results

Update May 1, 2017: Harker’s National Economics Challenge team received word on Friday that it had qualified for the 2017 National Finals, set to take place in New York City May 20-22. The team – made up of Arindam Ghosh, Sumer Kohli, Adriano Hernandez and Praveen Batra, all grade 11 – previously won the state-level competition, placing it among the top four teams in the country. More than 10,500 students participate in the competition each year.

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Two students receive Second Awards at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 24, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8nx Two Harker students won awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held last week in Los Angeles.

Junior Amy Jin’s project, titled “Deep Learning-Based Automated Tool Detection and Analysis of Surgical Videos to Assess Operative Skill,” won her a Second Award in the robotics and intelligent machines category. She also won a First Geno Award, which included a $1,000 cash prize, from the Samvid Education Foundation.

Recent graduate Manan Shah ’17 won a Second Award in the computational biology and bioinformatics category for his project, titled “Deep Learning

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Rising sophomores take second place at Cupertino Hackathon June 13, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8qa In April, rising sophomores Catherine Zhao, Ronit Gagneja, Jeffrey Yang and Michelle Kwan took second place at the Cupertino Hackathon, held at the city’s Quinlan Community Center. During the event, they created an app that helps students organize bike rides, carpools and meetups. Their work was presented to the Cupertino City Council, with the top five teams receiving awards from Cupertino mayor Savita Vaidhyanathan.

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Grades 9-10 TEAMS crew takes fourth in U.S. June 30, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8tC Harker students had great success at the national TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science) finals in Orlando, Fla., in late June, where they won the grades 9/10 division firstplace trophy in problem-solving,

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Photo by Chris Thiele

students performed admirably to place in the top four nationwide.

Congratulations!

May 26, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8nI Harker students had another stellar year at the Synopsys Science & Technology Championship, which took place in late March. Two students – junior Amy Jin and recent graduate Manan Shah ‘17 – were grand prize winners, earning them trips to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. The Synopsys Championship website includes the full list of middle and upper school winners.

Harker US and MS teams shine at National Speech & Debate Association Tournament July 12, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8ug Both the upper and middle school speech and debate teams did incredibly well recently at one of the three major national speech and debate tournaments.

The National Speech & Debate Association Tournament was held in Birmingham, Ala., June 18-23.

Thousands of students compete at the massive event.

Four upper school students qualified to attend the tournament, and each had impressive results.

The middle school team also did extremely well in its division, with 157 middle schools from 33 states represented. Harker won the School of Excellence Debate Award, given to the school with the strongest overall record in the debate events across the entire field. Coach Chris Thiele was honored to accept the award on behalf of the whole team.

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top stories

Ten Harker graduates named 2017 National Merit scholarship winners

networking with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, startups and investors.

July 21, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8wU Harker 2017 graduates Steven Cao, Divya Rajasekharan, Sandip Nirmel, Angela Kim, Andrew Rule, Kai-Siang Ang, David Zhu, Anuva Mittal, Amrita Singh and Albert Xu were named 2017 National Merit Scholarship Winners. Cao, Rajasekharan, Nirmel, Kim, Rule, Ang and Zhu were awarded National Merit $2,500 Scholarships, a onetime prize that can be put toward their studies at any accredited U.S. college or university. Mittal, Singh and Xu received college-sponsored Merit Scholarships, which provide an annual amount of between $500 and $2,000 for up to four years.

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Harker Incubator helps create innovative entrepreneurs Aug. 11, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8xM Harker’s business and entrepreneurship department this summer introduced the Harker Incubator Program, one of the first high school incubator programs in the country. As a result, not only are two Harker student entrepreneurs well-positioned to take their business dreams to the next level, one has found a backer ready to help him get there. The five other members of the program took on various leadership roles that helped them become familiar with the entrepreneurial process.

The incubator is an intensive, student-led and communitysupported program in which student entrepreneurs receive a seed grant, mentorship, academic curriculum and internal support from a student leadership team to help them develop and grow their startup companies while 6

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New athletic center opens, hundreds attend celebration Aug. 18, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8yf More than 600 Harker community members attended the opening celebration of Harker’s athletic center on Friday evening. The celebration included heartfelt thanks from Harker faculty and administrators to all who made possible the construction of the new building, as well a special dedication to longtime head of school Howard Nichols, for whom the court in the facility’s 12,000-squarefoot gym is named.

See the original article for a slide show and video of construction and the unveiling.

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16,000 – or just 1 percent – became semifinalists.

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Grade 7 student named to top 300 in Broadcom MASTERS competition Sept. 15, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8C8 Last week, Nidhya Shivakumar, grade 7, was named one of the top 300 students nationwide from the 2,499 middle school students nominated for this year’s Broadcom MASTERS science competition. Her project, titled “Halophytes: A Potential Solution for the Remediation of Soil in Saline Wastelands,” was selected by a panel of science and engineering professionals, who evaluated projects based on originality, creativity, analysis of data and other criteria.

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Forty-six seniors named semifinalists in 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program Sept. 13, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8Bw The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced today that 46 Harker seniors, about 25 percent of the Class of 2017, were named semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program. Of the 1.6 million high school students who entered the program last year by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, about

Surbhi Sarna ‘03 awarded 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award Sept. 25, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8Ct Surbhi Sarna ’03 was named the recipient of the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award by Harker’s Office of

Alumni Relations and was honored at Homecoming halftime Sept. 23 on Davis Field.

Sarna has dedicated her career to using STEM research to improve health care for women. Her personal medical challenges in her early teen years left her determined to create better conditions in the field of female health.

She studied molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a clinical scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. After graduating from Berkeley in 2007, she worked as an engineer for medical-device companies Abbott Vascular and BioCardia. In 2009, only six years out of Harker, she founded venturebacked nVision Medical, a company dedicated to developing technology to help gynecologists more quickly detect ovarian cancer. Following a successful clinical trial, the company received FDA approval for its device in November 2015.

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

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Middle school division head to retire at end of school year Sept. 28, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8Ef After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.

Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the

school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.

about $10,000 in donations that went to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund. The Salvation Army received $2,800 in gift cards and the Redwood Empire Food Bank was the glad recipient of 150 bags and boxes of non-perishable food and pet food.

See our Q&A with Ellis on page 23.

Nov. 6, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8GB Swapnil Garg, grade 12, and Katherine Tian, grade 11, are off to the Siemens Competition national finals! Their project – titled “Automated Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma Grade Classification with Prognostic Significance” – was selected as one of six team projects that will be considered for top honors at the final stage of the competition, held Dec. 4-5 in Washington, D.C. There, the two students will be eligible to win up to $100,000 in scholarship prizes, split evenly between them. As finalists, the pair are guaranteed a minimum $25,000 prize.

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Photo provided by Kristina Alaniz

Packed with care and sent with love: Canceled picnic prompts community fire relief effort Oct 24, 2017 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-8Hr The Harker community pulled together last week to help those affected by the fires in the North Bay, and had the surprise help of an alumna working in disaster relief.

Following the cancellation of the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic in mid-October, the school decided to donate picnic ticket sales receipts to relief efforts in Sonoma County.

It was a welcome surprise to find that one of the organizers helping direct donations, Carol Beattie ’65, is a Harker Day School alumna.

Once the decision was made to donate picnic receipts, the community stepped up the program and mounted a full-on effort to collect needed supplies for the stricken area. Along with $8,500 in picnic receipts, community members chipped in another $1,500 in cash to total

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Update: Harker team headed to Siemens Competition national finals

Oct. 18, 2017: Congratulations to senior Swapnil Garg and junior Katherine Tian, who were just named two of the 101 regional finalists in this year’s Siemens Competition! They each will receive a $1,000 scholarship prize and are eligible to compete at the regional finals for the opportunity to advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C. Best of luck!

Oct. 17, 2017: Today, the Siemens Foundation named 10 Harker students regional semifinalists in the 2017 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, the most from any California school.

Each year, individual and team research projects from six regions are selected to be semifinalists.

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feature

Eagles’ new nest looks to up Harker’s game

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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

BY MARK KOCINA

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feature

“

THE NEXT LEVEL

The ‘wow factor’ is huge!

—Theresa “Smitty” Smith, lower and middle school athletic director

”

n Aug. 18, 2017, Harker history was made as the new athletic center opened its doors to the public. The 33,000-square-foot facility boasts a 12,000-square-foot gym floor that allows two games to be played side-by-side simultaneously. The court, named after former school president Howard Nichols, will host volleyball and basketball games, as well as meetings and other school events. The facility seats 900 spectators, which is the required minimum to host a Division 4 CCS event, and also is big enough to hold the entire upper school student body.

When asked what the most impressive aspect of the new building is, Mike Bassoni, facilities director, stated, “The ease and flexibility of gym usage. The bleachers can be retracted completely or be extended just enough to meet the needs of a smaller competition. The volleyball and basketball standards that drop from the ceiling make for quick transition from student meetings to competitive matches. Very well thought out.” Dan Molin, upper school athletic director, concurred, and added, “What I’m most excited about is the increased sense of community.”

Overlooking the gym floor is a 1,400-square-foot multipurpose room, which gives the cheer team a much-needed practice space, but also allows an area for other clubs and teams to work out. The sliding barn door mirror also allows for a unique view of the action below.

The athletic teams now have state-of-the-art locker rooms complete with name placards for varsity athletes, customized Harker benches and projectors for film review. It’s a far cry from the bathrooms and old storage shed the teams had been using. “My favorite part of the building is the team locker room,” said volleyball player Lauren Napier, grade 12. “Being able to take showers after practice is really nice and our varsity lockers have so much space for everything we need.”

The hidden jewel of the new athletic center might be the training room. In addition to brand new Harker-emblazoned equipment, the training room boasts a HydroWorx 300 underwater treadmill, normally used by NFL teams and orthopedic hospitals; it is a first at any high school in the country. Athletes can also use the Grimm Scientific cryotherm pool to help heal injuries.

The athletic center definitely has made a positive impact on those in and out of the Harker community. Parents, visiting teams and admission open house attendees have delighted in the beauty of our new building. “There has not been a single person who has walked into the athletic center thus far who hasn’t been completely amazed,” exclaimed Theresa “Smitty” Smith, varsity volleyball coach, and lower and middle school athletic director. “The ‘wow factor’ is huge!”

Molin noted, “We recently had an alumni basketball game, and some of the players haven’t been on campus since they graduated in 2006. They were absolutely blown away by our athletic transformation.”

The girls volleyball team broke in the new facility with a scrimmage against St. Francis High School early on Aug. 18, before the community grand opening.

Since then, the center has become a welcome part of the Saratoga campus landscape. “Even though it is brand new, it was awesome to already fill the new facility with so many memories,” said Napier.

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passion

Work Hard.

Be Nice.

Make a Difference.

Alumna focuses on gratitude as superintendent of KIPP Houston Public Schools WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY KIPP HOUSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK

E

PHOTOGRAPHS BY

very night Sehba Ali ’90 and her family – her husband, three children and two parents – go around the dinner table and share how they helped someone or how someone helped them that day. The importance of giving back and helping others is etched in their family story.

So she taught in the classroom, earned her master’s degree from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and founded KIPP Heartwood Academy in San Jose.

When Ali was founding KIPP Heartwood Academy, she tried to incorporate the best aspects of her experience at Harker and Castilleja School.

This passion can be seen well beyond the dinner table, as Ali is the CEO and superintendent of KIPP Houston Public Schools, a “She was a wonderful young lady who worked hard and was always network of high-performing public charter positive,” said Howard Saltzman, one of Ali’s schools located in educationally underserved “I often imagine the elementary school teachers. “It doesn’t surprise communities. impact that Harker me that she has gone on to have such success in “It’s such an honor and privilege to work with our families and KIPPsters,” she said. “I get way more than I give, and I’m definitely a better person because I get to be around these students who have such persistence and grit.”

students could make in the world, and I hope they challenge themselves to think about what they can do to build a better tomorrow.”

her career.”

Ali attended Harker from kindergarten through eighth grade and then went to Castilleja for high school. (Harker did not have its upper school yet.)

“I credit Harker with setting me up for success Her path to KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) in life with a phenomenal education and great began after she graduated from the University teachers who helped me love learning,” Ali said.

– Sehba Ali ’90 of California, Berkeley and decided to apply to “I often imagine the impact that Harker students Teach for America. She walked into the career could make in the world, and I hope they challenge themselves to office and saw the vision statement: “One day all children will have think about what they can do to build a better tomorrow.” the opportunity to have an excellent education.”

Ali said Harker truly made a difference in her family’s life. When “This really stood out and resonated with me,” she remembered. “I her father lost his job and they couldn’t pay the tuition, Harker knew that’s exactly what I wanted to do.” president Howard Nichols and his wife, current board chair 12

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Diana Nichols, met with her parents and worked out a plan to keep Ali and her brother at Harker.

“It was incredibly pivotal for me to watch Harker step up and help our family in our moment of need,” Ali remembered. “This kindness followed by community service when I was at Castilleja truly inspired me to help all students from every background.”

And that is what she does each day when she goes to work representing 28 KIPP schools that serve about 14,500 students in Houston. College graduation among KIPPsters is nearly 50 percent compared to 10 percent of students in the communities they serve.

KIPP teaches its students that both academic and character skills are necessary to thrive in college and lead choice-filled lives. KIPP students achieve their dreams by following two important rules: Work hard. Be nice.

This philosophy is infused in KIPP, from the youngest student to the most hard-working superintendent.

As we were preparing our story on Sehba Ali, Hurricane Harvey caused devastating floods in the Houston area. Ali said that KIPP is providing aid directly to the 1,400-plus KIPP families impacted by the floods. Those who would like to help may donate at www.kipphouston.org/donate (“family emergency fund”).

When John Holt left his job as a communications assistant with the Houston Spurs to work for KIPP nearly a year ago, he wrote an insightful blog post titled “From the Spurs to KIPP.” He talked about a message given by Ali on his first day.

“Her words were warming to hear, especially as she closed by encouraging each of us to reach out to our families and let them know how much we love them,” he wrote. “When I walked toward my car and prepared to head home following [Ali’s] words, I took a few seconds to reflect on the overall day. No matter how I tried to view or portray it, the day’s entirety circled back to a common theme of family.”

Ali’s love of family, whether her KIPP family or her immediate family, is what leads her to work hard, be nice and make a difference.

Contributor Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.

Ali partnered with Mark DiBella, the CEO of YES Prep Public Schools, and Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP, to pen an editorial for the Houston Chronicle, which was published on Sept. 27, 2017: “After Harvey, we shouldn’t expect any less of our schools ” http://bit.ly/2jrmqdq

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, KAREN JIMENEZ, KRISTINA ALANIZ AND THE ADVANCEMENT OFFICE

community

The 2017 Harker Homecoming was a huge success on and off the field. The Eagles defeated visiting Rio Vista High School 33-13 in front of hundreds of raucous spectators. The crowd was entertained by performances from the grade 2 Eaglets dancers, the lower and upper school cheerleaders, and the Varsity Dance Troupe, as well as choral singers from every division singing The Harker School Song and the national anthem. Also, the seniors won the tug of war, and Peter Connors and Eleanor Xiao, both grade 12, were crowned Homecoming king and queen. It was surely a night to remember.

With the unprecedented cancellation of the 67th annual Family & Alumni Picnic because of the poor air quality caused by the North Bay fires, the Harker community rallied together to “Stuff the Bus� with items to help those affected by the devastation. Picnic ticket sales receipts totaling $8,500 and an additional $1,500 in cash were donated to the Sonoma County Resilience Fund. In addition, the Harker community donated $2,800 in gift cards to the Salvation Army and another 150 bags and boxes of food to the Redwood Empire Food Bank. Thank you to all who chipped in to help!

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Creating Tomorrow’s Innovators Harker Inspires with Deep Computer Science Offerings WORDS BY JOÃO-PIERRE S. RUTH PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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Editor’s note: This is the final story in our two-part series on the depth of technology use at Harker. ecently, a computer science instructor at Stanford asked students in an auditorium to raise their hands if they could program in four specific programming languages. Only two students knew all four – and both were Harker grads. This is not surprising to those familiar with Harker’s broad range of technology offerings, which start in kindergarten and drive students to increasingly challenge themselves.

This early inclusion of technology at Harker is part of an academic strategy that prepares students to use what they learn in computer science and programming outside of the classroom. The intensive instruction is designed as a marathon, rather than a sprint, and aims to teach students critical-thinking skills and how to continually use technology as a tool.

Liz Brumbaugh, Harker’s director of learning, innovation and design (LID) for preschool-grade 12, said by being device and platform agnostic, Harker is unique, as schools typically provide just one or two types of devices or platforms to teach technology. Harker’s approach gives students more comprehensive exposure when dealing with computer sciences. Learning to solve problems through programming, or even with Minecraft as the vehicle, is a useful tool. “You walk into any job and you have to be prepared to work with any type of device and use any type of program,” she said.

A comprehensive training regimen at Harker’s lower, middle and upper schools is designed to weave computer science seamlessly into the students’ everyday academic experience.

Getting Started at the Lower School Students throughout the lower school use mobile devices: iPads for K-3 and Chromebooks from the third through fifth grades. “At every grade level, students are using technology as tools for learning activities,” said Lisa Diffenderfer, computer science department chair and K-5 LID director. This includes research, presentations and practicing specific skills taught in their core classes, she said.

Kindergartners attend computer science and skills courses starting the very first week of school. “They have a 42-minute computer science class once a week for the entire school year where they are introduced to and practice tech literacy skills, such as typing and creating digital artwork,” Diffenderfer said. Midway through the school year, she said, they begin to learn programming fundamentals such as sequencing, logic and problem-solving through an iPad app called Osmo Coding and its corresponding coding blocks.

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In first grade, computer science classes are held three times per week in the third trimester of the year. This includes working with an iPad app to practice using algorithmic thinking. The frequency of computer curriculum increases at the lower school so that when students reach grade 5, they take computer science classes twice per week in the first trimester and five days per week in the third trimester. In the first half of that grade 5 course, Diffenderfer said, students use robotics as a path to practice programming concepts.

Students use visual programming and Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots to work out solutions to different challenges such as how to program self-driving cars.

Building Up the Skill Set Sam Linton, a computer science teacher at the middle school, said there are recurring themes throughout the required courses, such as design process and systems thinking presented in a variety of contexts. “In the middle school, we try to expose the students to a wide range of computer science topics, not just programming, in a fun and accessible way,” he said.

For students who intend to continue on in computer science at the upper school, the goal is to lay the conceptual groundwork to better prepare them, Linton said. “To this end, we give them exposure to computer programming languages ranging from Scratch to Python to Java, as well as concepts such as flowcharting.”

There is also an elective Java course, which is a good introduction to and preparation for the more demanding approach at the upper school, he said.

Sharmila Misra, also a computer science teacher, said students in all three grade levels are required to take semester-long computer science classes; semester-long electives also are available for all grades.

“The required computer science classes curriculum helps every student, both in STEM and STEAM, acquire the computer science concepts required before they leave for the upper school,” she said. In the required computer science class, students are taught the design thinking process, which is similar to the software development life cycle. The process comprises user empathy, planning and design, making a prototype, taking feedback, improvising and testing to attain user satisfaction.

These classes are not always focused on syntax-based coding languages, Misra said; computer programming is a small subset of computer science.

One reason for the ongoing focus on computer science concepts is that if the knowledge is not used after the semester, it may be

“At every grade level, students are using technology as tools for learning activities.�

- Lisa Diffenderfer, computer science department chair and K-5 LID director

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feature forgotten, she said. However, if students are taught logical and analytical skills through systems thinking, computer architecture and flowcharts, they can continue to benefit from the curriculum.

Scott Kley Contini, grade 6-8 LID director, said the programs at the middle school include Gamestar Mechanic, a platform that allows students to create online video games. This design class lets students develop games that can be exchanged with students in other countries.

By using the online platform Pythonroom, students also can learn the fundamentals of computer programming and coding. Students then run their programs through online servers that allow for fast, personalized learning opportunities.

Putting the Knowledge to Work Brumbaugh said that scaling up the challenges for students is important for helping them develop the logic-based, problemsolving skill set that is unique to programming. “At the upper school, we have three different tracks in an introductory sense that

CREATING TOMORROW’S INNOVATORS

students could take, plus there is a computer science graduation requirement,” she said.

Upper school students put their accumulated knowledge to the test as they work with more applied aspects of computer science, said Eric Nelson, upper school computer science department chair.

“Once they get past preparing for the AP exam, they can take the advanced topics courses, which paradoxically tend to get back to the more fundamental aspects of things,” he said.

This includes working with Java, a very high-level computing language full of protections and abstractions that insulate the programmer from the hardware. “Understanding what is under the hood is the difference between being a driver and being a mechanic,” Nelson said. Java teaches students how to drive when it comes to programming. The advanced topics offerings help them learn to be mechanics. There is also a neural networks course in which students spend the semester creating a basic multilayer perceptron, a type of algorithm, which is the basis for all deep-

“Understanding what is under the hood is the difference between being a driver and being a mechanic.”

– Eric Nelson, upper school computer science department chair

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learning systems. “The differences are in how they are wired, but the principles don’t change,” Nelson said. Through the curriculum, students get a deep understanding of how pattern classifiers work at the lowest levels rather than see them just as black boxes (a computing term for an object with mysterious workings).

Another course in artificial intelligence explores expert systems, which is something the public encounters any time they use a kiosk that asks questions about their preferences. This is a specialized technology, Nelson said, and professionals who build expert systems are pretty scarce. “Learning about and implementing the expert system life cycle will give them a potential edge if they encounter it,” he said.

Getting into the digital nitty-gritty, students in the computer architecture course learn to build a computer from the ground up, starting with NAND logic gates, which is the base element for all logic systems. “There is a local startup that is building educational tools for colleges and universities that teach just these concepts,” Nelson said.

Taking the lessons to the next level starts to bring the components together. In the compilers course, Nelson said, students get a full understanding of what happens to their code as it gets transformed into machine-readable form, what optimization really means and the traps it hides. The programming languages course introduces them to language paradigms other than Java. This requires them to think differently as they move from one language to another.

Two of the languages the students work with are Fortran and C, which Nelson said students are likely to encounter in industry or research. Upper school students also work with LabVIEW, which is the systems engineering software used to control the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire – the European organization for nuclear research).

The numerical methods course introduces students to what is happening behind the scenes in tools such as MATLAB and Mathematica, as well as many of the libraries they use as black boxes in Java and Python. “All of this exposure is superimposed on a

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requirement to develop good coding practices and a ‘keen grasp of the obvious’ in terms of user interface design and functionality,” Nelson said.

Through Harker’s intensive program, students can gain experience with computer science far earlier than their peers at other schools, said Nelson. This naturally helps them stand out in their university courses and first employment opportunities in computer science, he added, relaying the Stanford University anecdote. When the computer science instructor asked who could program in Java, JavaScript, Python and Fortran, only the two Harker alumni knew all four.

“Both students were in my programming languages course last year,” Nelson said. The Stanford instructor went on to state that Fortran was a trick question, since freshmen were not expected

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to know Fortran. “Our students now stand out amongst a room full of the best and the brightest at Stanford,” Nelson said.

Even if a Harker student does not intend to pursue a career in programming, the problem-solving and logic skills learned here “could be useful to solve any work-related challenge or challenges related to fixing bugs; troubleshooting itself is a detailed process that adults rely upon daily,” said Brumbaugh.

If students want to explore computer sciences outside of the curriculum tracks they are on, they also can join extracurricular activities, such as the robotics team, Brumbaugh added. “Our students are going to be the ones who create what the next programming language is – the systems that make currently existing processes better.”

Contributor João-Pierre S. Ruth is based in the New York City area.

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indy Ellis has devoted 40 years to Harker, first as a math teacher, then department chair and middle school head. Ellis, who will be retiring at the end of this school year, will leave a lasting legacy of students, colleagues and parents who deeply appreciate her contributions. A native of Watsonville, she and her husband love road trips and the outdoors; they also enjoy their 105-pound mastiff, Roscoe (who’s “mostly drool”). She moves through her job with equal parts sangfroid and gratitude, and she shares some of her philosophy with Harker Magazine.

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

I would wish for people to be more empathetic and respectful to each other.

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

Always see yourself as part of the bigger picture. Your words and actions have an impact.

What is something you would happily fail at?

I don’t believe in fail – I believe in resilience and moving on to the next idea.

Experiences are not “good” or “bad,” they fine-tune our moral compass and deepen our understanding of the world and the people in it.

What is your most treasured memory?

I spent a great deal of time with my great-grandmother as a child. She recounted so many stories about growing up in San Francisco in the late 19th century. The richness of that time with her is something I could never replace.

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

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I have always wanted to be a great singer.

Unfortunately, I am one of those people who can’t carry a tune in a bucket!

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA, KAREN JIMENEZ AND MARIA GONG, PARENT

performing arts

The performing arts season is underway and the shows have been awesome! The upper school fall play,“Comedy of Errors,” and the middle school fall plays,“The Hunting of the Snark” (grade 6) and “Alice in Wonderland,” were audience pleasers; the annual Santana Row Tree Lighting performances wowed crowds and showed off Harker’s talented students; and though the Family & Alumni Picnic was canceled due to the Napa fires, performers put on their acts for campus audiences. There are a number of performances taking place as Harker Magazine goes to press, so watch the portal for galleries from those events!

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Harker at its

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hile Harker’s academics may garner the most

attention from students and parents, the school has significantly bolstered its after-school offerings in the past few years. The lower and

middle school BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team and Blackford Enrichment and Supervision Team, respectively) programs have become an integral part of the school’s mission.

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Lower and middle after-school programs become cornerstones of student life

What eventually became the BEST program has existed at Harker in one form or another for nearly three decades. “[Howard] Nichols wanted to do just a little extra

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

after-school program for those students who couldn’t get picked up right after school,” recalled Kim Cali, Harker’s lower school BEST director and the program’s founder. When Cali started working at Harker in 1987, she and four staff members formed what was then known as the recreation department.

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HARKER AT ITS BEST

The recreation department was very different from the program that exists today. “We had maybe four or five activities when I first started, and now we have 25 activities just at the lower school,” said Cali. She said she began speaking with former head of school Chris Nikoloff as early as 2003 about restructuring and rebranding the growing department.

“We were still running the program with the assumption that we could do it with a director and five or six staff, and it was just too much for me to handle,” she remembered. Recognizing her dedication, Nikoloff asked her to put together a proposal.

Cali’s vision was to see the recreation department transformed from an assortment of after-school activities into an expansive program where students could explore a wide variety of interests. “I’ve always wanted children to be given the opportunity to explore different things,” she said, “so that by the time they get to fourth or fifth grade or by middle school, they really know where their true passion lies besides the classroom.”

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expansive array of interests, thanks largely to outside vendors who specialize in specific areas and methods of instruction.

Activities included in tuition and available to all children until 6 p.m. include Legos, basketball and a host of other unstructured activities, and many children take advantage of those free hours. Both the lower and middle BEST programs also include dropin activities where students can experiment with art, computers and sports at their leisure. Learning workshops allow students to delve into more specific areas, such as web design, robotics and storytelling. Individual and group instruction are offered in a diverse selection of specialty classes, including martial arts, music, cooking, foreign languages and more.

Cali. The lower school’s BEST program is a big hit with parents, for whom it is a one-stop spot for extracurricular activities without the inconvenience of having to take their children to another location, she added.

BEST has been very popular among lower school families eager to enrich their children’s education. “We always have waitlists, especially at the beginning of the school year,” Cali said. “Parents are very eager to get their children into as many activities as possible.”

In addition to deepening their education, students at the middle school also use the BEST program as a way to relax. Activity Avenue, where many students meet after school, offers simple social activities, such as watching movies, playing board games or making crafts. Upon starting as middle school BEST director in 2008, Lorena Martinez introduced Fun Fridays, a weekly event similar in

Performing arts classes, such as dance and instrumental music, are perennial favorites, as are STEM classes, such as engineering and robotics, according to

“I’ve had a lot of parents over the course of the years that I’ve been here … who have said, ‘It was between Harker and such and such a school, and it was the extracurricular program that sold me,’” Cali said.

Jenny Cu Tully ’92, whose children, Kira, grade 2, and Brandon, grade 4, are both enrolled in BEST classes, said, “They both love staying after school, and it is so hard to get them to leave the campus. I think that speaks volumes about how much fun they are having in the BEST program.”

Tully said the program’s flexibility is a key feature. “I love that my kids can try a new activity each quarter to find their passion, or stick with the same ones if they know what they love already,” she said.

“We hope that we can help every child discover that they are capable, creative and kind in character.”

– Annie Kallbrier, BEST kindergarten coordinator

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atmosphere to a carnival, with outdoor activities and music at the middle school campus amphitheater.

“The students work so hard, they study so hard,” Martinez said, “that I wanted them to know that at the end of the week, they could relax, they could have fun.”

Many popular activities at the lower

“A lot of children are here for a good part of their day, so this becomes their neighborhood.”

–Kim Cali, lower school BEST director

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school BEST program are already found in the middle school’s curriculum and extracurricular offerings, including athletics and performing arts. Martinez therefore designed the middle school BEST program to contain some less structured activities, and be a place for students to cut loose in a friendly environment.

Martinez also created the teen center, where the middle school’s older students socialize and de-stress. In addition, Martinez said, it has provided another way for teachers to get to know more about their students by participating in activities with them in

a no-pressure environment.

“I enjoy their Fun Fridays, as they work extremely hard the whole week to make it fun for the middle schoolers,” said Saumi Mehta, grade 8. “I really think that the BEST program has made me enjoy Harker more and made me less stressed out because of the fun things that they put on for us.”

Middle school BEST staffers also have been keen to listen to student feedback, which Martinez said has been very useful in keeping the program robust and interesting to students. Martinez also advises the

middle school’s student government, and has used submissions to their suggestion box to open up discussions about more activities.

“I kind of work with them to also get the heartbeat of what’s going on,” she said.

Much of BEST’s success as a program is owed to its dedicated staff, who Cali calls “the front line to the school,” because they are frequently the first and last people to interact with the students over the course of the day. In addition to running after-school programs, BEST staffers – many of them college-aged and seeking careers in education – also supervise during recess and other outdoor activities. Annie Kallbrier, a 10-year veteran of the BEST program who is now the kindergarten coordinator and a classroom aide, said that “engaging with students outside the classroom gives you a unique understanding of the personality and interests of each student. Watching them explore nature, and helping them to navigate through new social situations every day, is hugely gratifying for me.”

In addition to supervising and helping during various activities, BEST staff members also act as educators. “We seek to help students develop into people of good character as they grow. On the playground, BEST staff are able to teach students how to communicate and problem-solve with their peers,” said Kallbrier. “We hope

that we can help every child discover that they are capable, creative and kind in character.”

Cali is highly appreciative of the BEST staff’s ability to work with children, as they must find a balance between the structure of the classroom and the level of freedom that BEST offers.

“I think one of our bigger challenges is … sometimes [kids] just want some freedom to play,” she said. “But also, I find that some children like to be directed.

“We look at ourselves as social teachers,” Cali said. “We might not be in a classroom, but we really do have a huge responsibility to these children in helping them develop as good citizens and helping them learn how to work through conflicts and make good choices.”

Not surprisingly, BEST has provided a path to a teaching career for many current and former Harker teachers.

“Many of my staff also are aiding in the classroom now,” said Cali, who estimated that more than half of BEST staff members go on to become teachers. “My passion and one of my goals has been to help young adults become teachers, and they’re getting all the experience that they need right here while they’re going to college.”

education. Cali sees BEST as not just an area for students to play and learn, but also as a place that offers a sense of community for students who hail from many different parts of the Bay Area. “I always refer to our department as the ‘neighborhood’ for the children,” she said. “We come from all different areas.

Some people come from Pacifica, Los Altos Hills, Fremont, wherever. And a lot of children are here for a good part of their day, so this becomes their neighborhood.”

Martinez, meanwhile, hopes that middle school students will continue to view BEST as a source of fun and socialization as important to the Harker experience as the education they receive in the classroom. “I just want the kids to have a good experience here at Harker,” said Martinez. “And I know they’re having a great experience with education, that’s a given. So I just want to make it come full circle. Outside the classroom, it should be just as amazing as it is inside.”

“As a Harker alum myself, some of my best friends, memories and skills were made after school,” said Tully. “The wide range of options is amazing, and I wish I could sign myself up for many of them!”

Overall, BEST leaders at both the lower and middle school campuses hope to provide experiences and opportunities that the students will continue to remember as they further their

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impact

Superhero Be Your Own

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK

PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY JESSICA DICKINSON GOODMAN ‘07

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fter Charlottesville, Va., erupted in violence during a white supremacist rally in August, Jessica Dickinson Goodman ’07 donned her Captain America shirt, made a sign that read “You Lost in 1865, You Lost in 1945, You Will Lose in 2017” and attended a solidarity event at San Jose City Hall.

“It’s heartbreaking, because there are people whose bodies and minds are damaged by racist violence in Charlottesville today,” Dickinson Goodman told Univision when she was interviewed for a story. “Being American means always trying to do better – acknowledging the abuses without celebrating abusers, understanding the worst parts of our history and doing everything we can to avoid repeating them. Always trying to do better.”

Dickinson Goodman has a thing for superheroes, in fiction and in real life. Her own superpower is passion, which she puts to work every day.

“She is irrepressible, well-reasoned, and always addressing inequality and injustice!” raved Susan Nace, a music teacher at Harker. “She is willing to put in the work necessary to foment positive change.”

Dickinson Goodman took classes with Nace and was a member of Cantilena, Harker’s classical women’s choir, which sang songs in different languages.

“She let me put other languages in my mouth and I learned how much I enjoyed this,” remembered Dickinson Goodman, who speaks Arabic and Spanish, and claims that her ethnicity is “geek.”

While at Harker, Dickinson Goodman was also captain of the wrestling team, secretary/treasurer of the Gay Straight Alliance and a participant in National Junior Classical League. She met her husband, Matthew Holmes ’07, at Harker and the 32

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Jessica Dickinson Goodman ’07 found her superpower and plans to change the world two have been together since.

to youth and women.

After Harker, Dickinson Goodman moved to Pennsylvania to attend Carnegie Mellon University, while Holmes trekked to Virginia to study at William & Mary.

Her Instagram feed is teeming with striking images and philosophical musings about her trip, including, “Sierra Leone is one of the most religiously welcoming countries I’ve ever been to – we bought bowls yesterday at a storefront sandwiched between ‘Christ In Me Enterprise’ and ‘Allah is Great Enterprise.’”

While at Carnegie Mellon, Dickinson Goodman studied abroad in Doha, Qatar, participated in the Taekwondo and ShitoRyu Karate Do Club, and earned a minor in vocal performance. She was invited to participate in the college’s prestigious Fifth Year Scholar program, which allows distinguished students to continue their studies for an additional year tuition-free.

She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in ethics, history and public policy.

Armed with an education and a passion for learning, Dickinson Goodman launched her career by working in the nonprofit sector and politics, in Washington, D.C., Washington state, and back home in California for Attorney General Kamala Harris.

“Though Jessica is extremely brilliant and hard-working, it is her genuine selflessness and desire to help others grow that sets her apart,” said Brady Dempsey, who worked with Dickinson Goodman at Washington, D.C.-based Polaris, which fights human trafficking.

Her ability to approach life with an open heart and a strong mind has led her to present workshops around the globe, from “How to Get Involved Politically” in the Bay Area to “Technology 101” in the Middle East.

Dickinson Goodman has helped with a U.S. State Department program called TechWomen that brings women from the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia to Silicon Valley for month-long internships.

She’s traveled on a delegation with them to Jordan and this year she is the impact coach for a cohort of Palestinian women.

She is also the outreach and marketing coordinator for Child Advocates of Silicon Valley where she recruits volunteer mentors for more than 1,000 foster youth in Silicon Valley.

Although she doesn’t earn a living in politics anymore, she’s still passionate about being involved in the political process and is constantly advocating for people to work on a campaign.

“There’s nothing better than helping someone get elected,” said Dickinson Goodman, who has canvassed multiple neighborhoods for more than one candidate. “When you get involved, you are not just a volunteer but a change agent, and there’s incredible energy from serving your community.”

“She relates to everyone and that ability is not limited to language, geographical, political, and socio-economic or other boundaries,” said Nace. “She is always able to find common ground!”

She has a passion for life – one that’s filled with action, hope and belief that we can all be change agents.

Last summer Dickinson Goodman and her mom/role model, Katy, went to Sierra Leone to teach web design and internet research

Contributor Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.

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isconsin native Chris Spenner never spent more than three years in one place as a kid, growing up in Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas and North Carolina.

But he’s put down roots at Harker, teaching upper school science and advising the Harker Research Club, Harker Horizon and the Open Lab program. Spenner is enthusiastic about lots of things: family (he’s married to former Harker teacher Erin Redfern), the outdoors and some interesting hobbies, which he shared with Harker Magazine.

What do you like to do when you have a block of free time?

I enjoy hiking and exploring new places with my wife. When I have free time on my own, I go on road trips to play disc golf courses by day and do astrophotography at night.

Brag about something.

[Harker colleague] Kate Schafer and I developed a Human Ecology class, which we taught for the first time last summer. It incorporates our ideal pedagogical visions, including interdisciplinary approaches to big, messy problems like climate change; the involvement of many non-teacher experts; storytelling; direct student experience through travel; and teachers learning alongside students. It went better than I had dared to hope, proving to be the most important and effective class I have ever taught.

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

I am most grateful for my immediate family: my parents, my brother and my wife. They are as much a part of me as any organ or belief. Everything that I consider to be good about myself, I can trace to them.

For what are you most proud of yourself?

I have been commuting to school by bicycle for the past seven years, every day, rain or shine.

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

I am distantly related to Evel Knievel.

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Harker’s Turning The 2018-19 school year will mark the completion of our historic 125th year (that’s the quasquicentennial, if you were wondering), and we’re ramping up the festivities already!

Harker was founded in 1893, and the journey from Manzanita Hall to The Harker School has been a momentous one. The 125th anniversary’s theme is “Reflect | Inspire | Achieve,” a triptych designed to honor the school’s past, present and future. Watch for details, including a 125th anniversary-themed Family & Alumni Picnic and Alumni Home for the Holidays, and a gala to celebrate our past, present and future.

Call for Memories!

We want to hear your favorite memories and anecdotes from your Harker days. Whether you are an alumnus/a, alumni parent or former employee, we’d love to hear from you! Visit this page to share memories and learn details: www.harker. org/about/history/harkers-125th. Do you have photos or video of Harker’s early days? We are searching for photos and videos we can incorporate into our anniversary celebrations.

Email your photos to photos@harker.org. Or, you may deliver thumb drives or actual photos/videos to The Harker School, Office of Communication, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. Please be sure all photos and photo files are clearly labeled with your name and class year.

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staff kudos

WORDS BY ZACH JONES

staff kudos

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Photo by John A. Rayl

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

In July, upper school golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng was named NorCal Boys Golf Coach of the Year by the California Coaches Association. During the 2016-17 school year, the boys team was the WBAL league champion, the WBAL tournament champ, the CCS regional champ, the CIF NorCal champ and finished fifth at the state finals. It was quite an amazing year for the program, which Cheng took over in 2011. “I am super fortunate to have such incredible, dedicated and selfless golfers come through the program,” Cheng said. “It really is all about the student athletes buying into the team concept and believing in achieving something bigger than oneself.”

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Upper school science teacher Kate Schafer spent two weeks in late September and early October doing a survey in the Gulf of Mexico with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s Teacher at Sea program.

She and the other scientists spent their time aboard the NOAA ship Oregon II as they studied the gulf’s shark and red snapper populations.

Of the nearly 250 teachers who applied for the Teacher at Sea program, 30 were selected. Schafer chronicled her work in a blog set up for her by the program, which can be viewed at: http://teacheratsea. noaa.gov/#/2017/ Katherine*Schafer/blogs.

Upper school librarian Lauri Vaughan accepted the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the nation’s best reading program for teens at the American Library Association’s conference in Chicago on June 26. ReCreate Reading, Harker’s summer reading program, celebrates reading for pleasure and offers students in grades 10 to 12 a choice of about 70 titles sponsored by as many teachers. Teachers declare and students select their titles each spring and then meet to discuss the books in August.

Since the program’s inception in 2009, numerous book discussions have featured author participants, including luminaries Matt Richtel, David Quammen, Andrew Smith, Mariko Tamaki and Dave Cullen, among others.

Robyn Stone, preschool STEM specialist, recently had her hands-on workshop “Mathematize This!” accepted for two upcoming conferences on early childhood education. The workshop offers educators a number of ways to get the most out of teaching math in the classroom “through mindful moments, manipulatives and muchloved stories,” Stone said. She will present the workshop at the California Kindergarten Association PK1 Conference, to be held Jan. 13-14 in Santa Clara, and the CalTech Early Childhood Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (ECSTEM) Conference in Pasadena, to be held Feb. 2-3. Also participating in the Santa Clara conference will be Mara Beckerman, the preschool’s music and

Workshop attendees will learn principles such as the “Brain Dance,” a warmup exercise that increases focus, and how both students and teachers can broaden their movement capabilities using songs, rhymes and books.

In October, Sam Lepler MS’96, upper school economics teacher, received the Bob Hahn California Teacher of the Year Award from the California Association of School Economics Teachers (CASET), which he accepted while attending CASET’s annual conference at the Federal Reserve in San Francisco. He also was awarded a State of California Certificate of Recognition from Sen. Jim Beall of California’s 15th district, and was further recognized by California State Assemblymember Evan Low, who wrote, “Your dedication to your students is evident not only in their test scores, but also in their enthusiasm for continued learning.”

Harker’s Office of Communication (also known as the creators of this magazine) received two platinum awards and two honorable mentions in the 2017 MarCom Awards.

The summer 2017 issue of Harker Magazine and the e-newsletters that covered the construction of the upper school athletic center earned the platinum awards, while Harker’s Facebook page and the Howard Nichols cookie tin – tins of chocolate chip cookies given as special school gifts – received honorable mentions. The MarCom Awards are administered by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals.

Eric Montany, middle school science teacher and Chess Club advisor, has published a book on chess strategy. The book was released in Europe first and then in the U.S.

staff kudos

movement specialist. She will present a workshop called “Using Music and Movement to Educate the Whole Child.”

At an October faculty meeting, several upper school teachers received awards and recognition for their achievements as educators.

Most of the recognition came in the form of certificates issued by universities currently attended by Harker alumni, who nominated the teachers for the honor. Computer science chair Eric Nelson received a certificate of appreciation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after being named by 2017 graduates David Zhu, Sarah Gonzalez and Manan Shah. History teacher Damon Halback was nominated by Nikhil Manglik ’17 for an Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago.

In addition, four Harker alumni now at Stanford University nominated their former Harker teachers for exceptional teaching.

Music teacher Susan Nace was recognized on the recommendation of Tiffany Zhu ’17, while Alexander Lam ’17 recommended Latin teacher Clifford Hull. Kai-Siang Ang ’17 arranged to have a certificate awarded to science teacher Chris Spenner, and mathematics teacher Anthony Silk also received an award courtesy of Shah.

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race Wallace ’95, a grade 1 teacher, radiates happiness. Her love for family is paramount – she craves her mom’s lasagna, her late father is still her role model, and she is happiest when with her husband. Born and raised in Fremont (where she still lives), Wallace and her brother, Joe Sabeh Jr. ’93, attended Harker. She told Harker Magazine about her three dogs (“If I could, I would have more!”) and some of her other favorite things.

Why do you do what you do?

I am so blessed to be doing what I do. I have been given the opportunity to mold these young children into inquisitive thinkers, who can apply what they have learned into real life experiences.

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

I am always donating to homeless pet charities and I wish I could rescue all of these furry babies that need a place to live.

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

If it is on your bucket list, you need to try it.

You only have one life to live and you do not want to look back and have any regrets.

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

Arabic was the first language I spoke at home. My dad was from Lebanon and my grandmother lived with us for 12 years.

What is your best technique for making someone smile?

Giving them a hug.

What are you obsessed with?

Three things: If I could go to Bikram yoga every day, I would. I love all coffee, but my favorite coffee stop is Philz. One of my favorite times of year is baseball season. If we are not going to a San Francisco Giants game, my husband and I are watching it at a restaurant or at home.

Grace Wallace

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feature Compiled by William Cracraft

Sophomores Speak!

Photographs provided by alumni

Alumni share thoughts about their first year of college

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We asked Harker grads now in their second year of college a few questions about their freshman year to give our 2017 alumni – and those who will follow – some perspective on that first year away. Read on!

How tough were the academic requirements the first year of college compared with your senior year at Harker?

Comments ranged from “pretty hard” and “slightly more difficult” to “insanely easy; I couldn’t believe it.”

Others responded in more detail: “I thought that the academic rigor was as much as my senior year load at Harker. Granted, I took five AP classes, but I truly felt overprepared for managing my time and making sure I finished all my assignments, successfully completed projects and adequately studied for midterms.”

“The structure of the material and assignments were different, but the difficulty and challenges were very similar; the transition was easy, and I felt I had the confidence to tackle my courses head-on.”

“College is definitely significantly harder than any year at Harker. You have to be a lot more self-sufficient, and the material is much harder.”

“Harder. Mainly because much more personal motivation was required.”

“A little less. Less homework and assignments, but a lot of difficult exams.”

What was easier to figure out or adjust to than you expected?

Answers included such things as “moving” and “my schedule.” Some respondents elaborated: “Living an independent lifestyle and scheduling … for the most part.”

“Living without parents seemed like it would be tough, but it can also be a lot of fun!”

“I was very worried about adjusting to college life and balancing everything, but I didn’t even have to think how to adjust to academics. Harker prepares you perfectly.”

“Adjusting to the academic lifestyle of college was much easier than for some of my peers. Pacing my work and setting priorities was a breeze. And knowing to use stress productively for finals and midterms made those periods much easier.”

“Living away from my parents was not as bad as I thought it would be.”

What was the best piece of advice your parents gave you about college that turned out to be helpful?

Answers ranged from the frank, “I honestly can’t recall,” to “Time is incredibly valuable; don’t waste it.”

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Other responses included “join clubs” and “stay on top of your work. Honestly, it feels so good to be ahead of your homework schedule.”

Others shared similar sentiments: “It’s not as hard as people make it out to be,” said one, while another said, “College is much more relaxed and less stressful.”

“Have fun and don’t forget to focus on your studies.

Although not entirely helpful, it was incredibly reassuring to know that my parents were encouraging of my college life. When I began to slack off, I would remind myself why I came in the first place.”

We received plenty of practical feedback, too! “How easy it was to stay alone in my room. Honestly, go out and meet people. You don’t realize how valuable friendships can be when it comes to college. The people you meet will carry you through everything (academically and socially). It’s great.”

“They told me that it was essential to reach out to others (professors, fellow students) to get the most out of the college experience. Usually, people would be more than happy to help or have a conversation, and everyone benefits from it.”

“Take it one step at a time. It’s not a race, it’s a marathon – only take on what you are passionate about and can handle.”

“Work hard, but relax sometimes and try not to stress out too much or overwork yourself.”

Some cited very practical advice, including “always demand money from your friends” – presumably when on group outings and money is being spent! Also, “Don’t leave your laundry in the machines overnight (clothes get wrinkly, thrown outside because someone else wants to use the machine, or stolen).”

Did anything really catch you by surprise?

We were happy to see this response! “The ease of the classes I took, but that won’t stand true for everyone.

However, Harker does prepare you for the workload, which helps.”

“The academics. The social environment. The fact that I could slack off and have no repercussions … except, you know, the fact that I’d have to eventually catch up.”

What was the hardest thing about dorm life?

Getting used to sharing space was tough for some.

“The most annoying thing for me was showering in communal showers” or, as another said, “Living with other people! They are all on different schedules, have different priorities and are not use to the academic rigor from their high school that you are used to.”

“Meeting people you like or setting ground rules that people actually follow. Also, there are a lot of people who don’t know how to live by themselves.

If they stress you out, take the time to teach them. Most importantly, though, I can’t stress how important it is to be empathetic to the fact that everyone comes from a different background. If you take the time to appreciate the differences between you guys, then you’ll have an awesome time at college.” In plain and simple language: “Your roommate will either be a hit or miss. If you have a great roommate, dorm life is a breeze. If not, you will most likely be miserable.”

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And, finally, there is the unfortunate: “I hated my roommate and had to live with him. Also communal bathrooms were kinda annoying. My room was next to the common room, and we could NOT sleep, ever.”

What did you like best about dorm life?

In short, most graduates like the freedom and independence of living away from home! One respondent was frank: “The freedom to plan out and live my life as I please instead of at the behest of others (cough, parents).” Added another, “It’s your own place.

Your dorm is your home away from home, and you can keep it however you would like. You can choose when to socialize versus when to study, you can leave to the library or classroom building whenever you like.”

Others enjoy the social side of dorms: “Roommates.”

“I got to meet a lot of bright and interesting students around my age, and made many close friends.”

“Finding friends. I loved all the friends I made. The people on my floor became my closest friends, and they still are. We had a really tight community.”

And finally, the right to stay up all night: “Being able to game all night long, without anyone judging me.”

What was your routine for managing homework and extracurricular activities while maintaining a social life?

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There are those who handle the dichotomy of academics and socializing with aplomb: “Eh, just play it by ear and things will work out. Don’t take a ridiculously hard schedule.” Others, meanwhile, set up a system that gives them structure: “I made a schedule for the week, prioritized what I had to complete by a certain day and made sure I took one day off from work per week.”

One alumni summed it up nicely: “Setting priorities, but being flexible enough to push one out for the other; college is about experiences, not accomplishment.”

Finally, “You can’t have the best of both worlds, unless you love being sleep deprived and stressed all the time.”

Did you have a surprisingly good or surprisingly bad class? If bad, how did you cope?

The good news: “I had some surprisingly good classes but not really any surprisingly bad ones.”

Added another, “My freshman writing seminar was a surprisingly wonderful class, and I’m friends with everyone from that class even today.”

The practical advice: “I coped by forming study groups, getting to know other students, etc. The best friendships are made through mutual suffering.”

“There will always be that one class per semester that ends up being incredibly painful to sit though.

Make at least one good friend in that class to help you through it. You can rant and study together if you have a friend.”

“My econ class second semester was surprisingly

horrible. I could not get through one session without wanting to fall asleep from the professor’s droning. But I coped by reading the textbook, going to mentor sessions for help on the problem sets and approaching the professor directly during office hours to ask for clarifications on topics I couldn’t understand (or tuned out) during class.”

The wonderful: “Many of my freshman fall classes, while difficult, were really good! In particular, one of the statistics classes I took was amazing. It was very different from AP stat and it opened my eyes to the realm of possibilities within stats.”

Do you have any good advice for socializing in your first few months at college?

Some solid opinions on this question! “You have to reach out and make an effort!! You can’t just expect new friends to walk up and knock on your door because they’ve heard about how great you are. Get out there and be social and interesting!”

Great practical advice: “Be free to get out of your comfort zone a little; talk to people about your interests and hopefully it will work out. That being said, don’t let people peer pressure you into doing things you know you don’t want to do.”

Less easy to endorse: “Do something crazy! Others will admire you for it, and you’ll have some great inside jokes for the rest of the year.”

Is the climate significantly different at your university than in the Bay Area?

If so, what is your most memorable experience with the new climate?

Most respondents are in temperate zones, but we did hear from a couple of alumni on the East Coast: “Yep! Ithaca, N.Y., is one of the coldest places ever.

California is one of the warmest places ever. I am the only person from California in my friend group, yet I bonded with my best friends through knowing nothing about the snow. We took a walk around campus on the first snow, we went sledding down the ‘slope’ when we had a snow day – and these were some of the most fun moments in my freshman year.”

“Blizzards were fantastic, but hurricanes were awful.

Seventy mile per hour winds and we still had class.

Also it got down to 10 below zero and that was darn freaking cold, but we still had class.”

How long did it take to adjust to being away from home?

Apparently, practice makes perfect (see World Wise, page 50) and Harker grads adapt pretty quickly to being away: “Not very long. I had taken week-long camps where I was away from home for the past five H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2017

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less (even in the winter) and practically everyone is a liberal. I find it borders on a kind of tribalism, ironically, but most people still work to be accepting of everything.” years, so I knew how to adjust.”

“It honestly took until mid-October at least. Even when I went back for Thanksgiving break, it took a while to adjust going back to school for finals. It will take however long you need it to, and you honestly bond with people at college about being away from home as well! If you are going through it, odds are someone else is too.”

“Not long. I had attended debate camps throughout high school, so the experience was very similar. A month or less.”

“Not long. I missed my family the first couple of days, but soon orientation and then classes quickly picked up, so I was preoccupied with a lot of things and didn’t have time to think about home.”

Is the culture where you now live significantly different than in Northern California? If so, how, and how would you recommend new freshmen approach the differences?

Ah, the voyage of discovery: “People wear a lot

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Another added this bit of practical advice: “The Silicon Valley and the West Coast are way different than everywhere else. Don’t take offense when a New Englander doesn’t want to be friends. It’s not you personally, it’s just the culture.

Know that you probably won’t be able to find Indian food outside of a big city.”

This respondent offered some wise words: “You will meet people who come from vastly different socioeconomic, cultural and family backgrounds from you. Everyone should take the time to reflect on their privilege in coming from a school like Harker and take the time to genuinely listen and understand other people’s stories. Make the point of meeting people who aren’t the same as you because those people are the ones who will push you to grow the most.

“As you are making friends in your first year, choose people who are positive and supportive.

Also be conscious of the kind of friend you are – constantly repeating how tired and/or stressed you are doesn’t help anyone’s mood. Don’t be afraid to open up and be vulnerable because that’s how casual friendships grow deeper.

Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Know the counseling and psychological services available to you, and never hesitate to use them when you need it. Don’t let stigma or pride or fear keep you from getting support that everyone needs at some point in their lives.”

Did you take advantage of office hours? If so, did going help?

Both sides weigh in: “Nope. Probably went like once,” said one respondent, but another countered, “Yes! They do [help]. I didn’t for the first semester, but second semester I did and they truly help 100 percent.”

And the ambiguous: “Yes and no. I didn’t go to most office hours but that was mostly because I was lazy.

I did go whenever I had questions or just wanted to go over the material, which helped most of the time.

Definitely go if you’re struggling to keep up.”

Less ambiguously: “Yes!! Please, please take advantage of office hours. Especially for liberal arts colleges, professors are there for you, and they want to help. They won’t think you’re dumb if you don’t understand something; most professors will try earnestly to explain things in different ways so you can understand. Professors are not out to get you, they want you to do well!”

Food for thought: “Yes, but most classes had TAs during office hours and not the professors themselves.”

“My professors had useless office hours and were never there so no, not really.”

What are some tips for meeting and getting along with your roommate and/ or the people on your hall?

One respondent just said, “Hang out in common areas,” but others were more forthcoming: “Get out there and be weirdly social,” said one, while another advised, “Disclose all your weird stuff up front – then there are no surprises.”

Solid advice: “Just introduce yourself and talk normally. No need to feel awkward. Everyone is nervous; it’s their first time living away from home.

I introduced myself to one of my neighbors, and asked a question. We ended up spending 30 minutes figuring out the answer … and now she’s my best friend and we’re living together this year. You never know when you’ll meet someone who will be in your life for a very long time!”

“Setting ground rules is a must. Especially when it comes to personal space and cleanliness. Make sure to clean up after yourself and your friends who visit!”

“Getting along with your roommate; make accommodations. Don’t be that person who refuses to turn off the main light in your room if your roommate wants to sleep. Living with a roommate means that you have to cooperate and compromise, and if you don’t learn to do that, problems will inevitably arise. You’d be surprised at the little amount it takes for people to start laughing and having fun in college. We were all eating snacks in the hall one time, and one of my friends starts stuffing as many grapes as she could in her mouth. It soon turned into a weird game of Chubby Bunny, but the laughter from that night remains one of the most memorable moments in my hall from freshman year.”

Many thanks to those in the Class of 2016 who responded to our survey! Those who included their names: Eesha Chona, Zarek Drozda, Cynthia Hao, Alex Henshall, Philip Krause, Chandler Nelson, Rajiv Sancheti, Ameek Singh, MC Smitherman, Alice Wu, Tong Wu, Richard Yi and Michael Zhao.

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An

About

Face

Alumnus accepted his need for structure, discipline and went from rebellious teen to passionate police officer WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK PHOTOGRAPHS PROVIDED BY WILL COURCHESNE ‘07

T

oday, William Courchesne ’07 is a police officer with the Charleston Police Department, a cum laude graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and a married man.

But if you knew Courchesne when he was a student at Harker (2003-07), that might surprise you.

“He was a wild child,” said Tony Silk, mathematics department chair and Courchesne’s freshman Algebra II teacher. “I remember Will very well as he was a unique student who brought so much to the classroom.”

Courchesne’s rebellious side was complemented by a sly sense of humor, which came out in a variety of ways, including addressing Silk by his first name.

“I would be walking across campus and hear Will yelling ‘Tony!’,” remembered Silk with a smile. “I would remind him to address me as Mr. Silk, but I also understood that this is who he was.”

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Silk, a former military man, found Courchesne’s antics amusing rather than frustrating and, as long as it didn’t disrupt the classroom, he was willing to allow him his freedom.

It was this understanding and acceptance that connected Courchesne to Silk. “I kept coming back to him for advice,” recalls Courchesne. “He is a lot of the reason I went into the military.”

At Harker, Courchesne was on the yearbook staff, ran track and field, and participated in the Junior State of America. These activities helped Courchesne stay busy and focused. He remembers that he “wasn’t the greatest kid,” but he had an epiphany his junior year.

He accepted that his academic record may not get him into a top-tier school, and realized that military school, in particular The Citadel, was a good option for him since he needed structure and discipline.

When he strode in to Silk’s office to ask for a recommendation, he was greeted with shock.

Silk said he never would have connected Courchesne with the military. But then Courchesne explained that if there are strict rules and firm boundaries, he would commit to those rules.

“The summer before Will’s senior year, I visited a friend at The Citadel and realized that this would be a great fit for Will,” remembered Silk. “After he started college, we talked on the phone and he asked if he should refer to me as Commander Silk and I told him, ‘At this point, you can actually call me Tony.’”

The two stayed in touch and Courchesne even invited Silk to attend his graduation from The Citadel. Silk couldn’t make it, but Courchesne’s identical twin, Steven ’07, and his parents were there cheering him on.

After graduation, Courchesne returned to California to pursue a career in business, which he had studied in school. The economic downturn made job offers sparse, but a friend from The Citadel told Courchesne that the Charleston Police Department was always looking for strong candidates.

Courchesne certainly qualified with his Citadel credentials plus his work in the California National Guard as a military police platoon leader, which is where he met his wife, Kristyne.

The two decided to start fresh in the South and have found a wonderful community. They got married in June 2017 just after Kristyne finished her undergraduate degree.

It’s been a busy time for the newlyweds, but Courchesne is committed to his career in the police force.

“Police work is an underrated profession,” he said. “My goal every day is to go work, keep the public safe and never have to use my gun.”

He recently went on a call to help a woman who was threatening to commit suicide. When the police arrived on the scene, she was clearly distraught and had multiple weapons. Courchesne and his partner calmly communicated with her and ultimately saved her life.

This is the police work that rarely gets reported but is what being a police officer is all about for him.

“I want to help people and my career allows me do that every day,” said Courchesne.

Contributor Vikki Bowes-Mok is also the executive director of the community nonprofit Compass Collective.

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

sports

The fall athletic season showcased 24 teams in eight sports on three campuses. Among the accomplishments: Katherine Zhu, grade 12, became the first golfer in the history of the WBAL to win four consecutive league individual titles; freshman Anna Weirich ran in the state cross country championships; and the football team turned in its best season in Harker’s history.

The middle school gave us the fourth straight WBAL tournament golf team, with Claire Chen, grade 7, winning the individual title. And the lower school’s JVA softball team took home a league title for the second straight year. Great job to all the talented student athletes. Go, Eagles!

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The Transformative Power of Travel 50

HAR K E R MAGA Z I NE l FA L L/W I N T E R 2017

Photo by Edwin Su, grade 11

WORDS BY ERIN PETERSON

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WORLD WISE Photo by Chris Spenner

Photo by Kate Schafer

Photo by Edwin Su, grade 11

aris Hosseini, grade 11, knew Alaska was a photographer’s dream long before he arrived in Juneau, but seeing the stunning landscapes and incredible wildlife up close made him realize at a more visceral level how amazing it is. “I’ll always remember being on the top floor of a boat, staring at a hulking glacier with chunks of ice falling right in front of me,” he said. “I know that environmental activism will play a role in my life, no matter what career I choose.”

At Harker, developing students into global citizens is a goal that is brought to life through more than a dozen schoolsponsored trips, starting in fourth grade. Carefully curated activities, genuine interactions with student host “buddies” and deep reflection help students become confident and curious travelers.

Grade 4 and 5 students travel for a few days and middle schoolers travel for a week on all-class trips. Middle and upper school students also have a number of student exchanges and school-sponsored summer trips from which to choose, while performing arts, speech and debate, and other academic departments lead excursions to far-flung locations including London, Nigeria, Costa Rica, Switzerland, China and Japan. “Our programs grow with the students,” explained Jennifer Walrod, director of global education, noting such trips prepare students to succeed in college and beyond. In fact, the school’s mission statement contains those very words – “success at college and beyond” – and that sentiment, along with the pledge to “embrace diversity … preparing students to take their place as global citizens” 52

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Photo by Kate Schafer

are never far from the mind of those who support these excursions.

The joy of travel for students goes beyond exploring a new place or a different culture, explained Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs. It also helps them develop skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime, like resilience and cultural sensitivity. “You can see students coming back from these trips feeling so empowered as individuals,” she said. “They realize that they are capable of so much more than they knew.”

Getting Started: Coloma and the Marin Headlands Harker students begin their travels in fourth grade with an all-class trip to Coloma, followed in grade 5 by a trip to the Marin Headlands.

Harker’s fourth grade students spend two nights and three days living like gold miners at the Coloma Outdoor Discovery School, a few hours northeast of San Jose, where they learn to pan for gold and build a lean-to, as well as attend a hoedown with a live string band. But the highlight for many is a different activity, says Kristin Giammona, elementary division head. “One night, students make cornbread over the fire, and it’s a big deal,” she said. “Many of them have never really cooked before, but the cornbread is something they make with their own hands, cook over a fire and eat while it’s still warm.” Later, they learn to do dishes – complete with checkered aprons – and delight in the opportunity to work together to clean up with their friends.

In fifth grade, the big trip is to the Marin Headlands in Sausalito, where students visit the Marine Mammal Center and the ocean, and do miles of hiking. Students stay in old army barracks. Giammona said she delights in seeing the growth in students in just one year. “The anxiety almost disappears, because kids have already [gone on a school trip] once before,” she says. “I can see the confidence and independence grow.”

Seasoned Travelers on Grand Adventures Each fall, Harker sixth graders take a multiday trip to explore California.

Through the years, sixth graders have learned about the great outdoors by hiking, kayaking and studying nature with their teachers in places including Mount Cross in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Yosemite National Park. Then in grade 7, students fly to Arizona, from which they set out to explore several national parks.

Photos provided by Academic Expeditions

Students learn history through a presentation from a Native American storyteller and environmental studies during hikes. They also learn to take real responsibility for themselves. They make their beds, pack up their suitcases and learn to go to sleep at “lights out.”

Long before she boarded the plane for Harker’s annual grade 7 national parks trip, Yejin Song, now grade 8, said she had been dreaming about it. “I remember counting off the days until the trip multiple weeks in advance,” she said. “School trips are one of the main highlights of my year.”

The trip didn’t disappoint. From the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon to Zion, Song says she was awestruck by the scenery of the national parks.

“There was always a beautiful view at the end of every hike that made the effort and the sweat worth it,” she said.

Indeed, the trip is carefully structured to inspire exactly that sense of wonder, said Alana Butler, trip leader and middle school dean of students.

For their Grand Canyon experience, for example, trip leaders blindfolded kids for a short hike; students held on to a guide rope as they carefully made their way to a lookout point and counted to three before removing their blindfolds. “They see the Grand Canyon for the first time, and you get all sorts of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ and ‘whoas,’” Butler said. It’s an immersive experience that no postcard or video can match, and just one of countless memorable moments on the six-day trip.

One of the best parts, said Song, was that students spent time getting to know one another. “I spent time not only with my close friends, but also with another student who I ended up bonding with throughout the trip,” she said.

Students also learned to follow key rules to stay safe and travel efficiently as a group, learning to handle curfews, call times and bathroom breaks, among other things.

Photo by Monica Colvin

The 150 or so students on the trip also visit a family ranch, where they learn about traditional Navajo customs, including weaving and cooking fry bread. In Bryce Canyon, they peer at the stars through telescopes while a ranger leads an astronomy lesson. And throughout the week, they get lessons in ecology, wildlife and geology.

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WORLD WISE

Photo provided by Pauline Paskali

“Within a span of only 10 days, I experienced so much: awe, gratitude, inspiration, confusion, discomfort, adaptation and growth.”

—Aryana Far, grade 11 Photo provided by Alana Butler

“It was great to enjoy and revel in the beauty of the places we visited,” said Song. “Taking pictures is helpful to keep memories, but I always tried to remember to take a moment to put my phone down to really experience and appreciate it.”

The Big One In grade 8, students travel to the land of our county’s birth, visiting Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg and Civil War battlefields in Virginia and surrounding areas. They then head to Washington, D.C., where they visit the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court. The group also learns about the more somber side of our country’s history, visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Iwo Jima U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.

Middle School Options As one of the several exchanges available to Harker students, about two dozen middle school students each year head to Tokyo to learn alongside students at Tamagawa Academy, with whom they have nurtured relationships since kindergarten through letters and video conferences.

Harker has had a relationship with the Tamagawa Academy since 1993, making it the longest-lasting international program in Harker’s history. A group of students also travels to Shanghai, where they visit students from their sister school, the World Foreign Language Middle School. Each year, a group of middle schoolers travels to Costa Rica to visit

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with sister school students and immerse themselves in the Spanish language. In spring 2018, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to visit Greece to learn more about Greek history and archeology. Finally, there is a middle school backpacking trip where students explore California’s hinterland.

Upper School Options Upper school students have a range of opportunities to pursue specific interests in unique locations. Students take an annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and, every four years, Harker Conservatory students have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The orchestra traveled to London for the New Year’s Day Parade in 2012 and, last spring, to New York to perform at Carnegie Hall. In 2012, the Harker Conservatory’s women’s classical ensemble, Cantilena, toured Italy and sang at the Academy of Music in Florence.

Other trips come up as teachers and students find subjects they want to further explore. For example, this past summer, Hosseini traveled to locations near and far for 23 days as one of 10 students enrolled in a special summer-only course, Human Ecology, led by upper school science teachers Chris Spenner and Kate Schafer. The question that drove the class was deceptively simple: How do humans connect with nature?

For weeks, the group studied the issue through a range of local lenses, researching everything from agriculture to fisheries to energy. The class visited the Bodega Marine

Photos by Maycol Rojas Fotografia

“Travel helps students better understand the world, better understand others and better understand themselves.”

– Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs

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feature

WORLD WISE

Laboratory in Sonoma County, and also learned about organic agriculture management practices at farms just 20 miles outside of San Jose.

The class concluded with a transformative 10-day trip to Alaska, where the students looked at how the issues they studied in Northern California play out nearly 3,000 miles north. The contrasts were both striking and valuable, said Spenner. “The class allowed them to see not only what was going on in their immediate area, but to have a dramatic comparison point with things in Alaska,” he said.

The class visited hydropower plants in Juneau and the small community of Gustavus. They met with local commercial fishermen and went on hikes while discussing climate change.

While on the islands, students collected materials and ideas that they developed into projects shared at an evening showcase upon their return. Alex Shing, grade 10, for example, focused on Tlingit mythology, writing a story based on the tales he heard on the trip. “Before this trip, I had never taken a class that let me focus on what I was specifically interested in,” he said. “That enticed me.”

Hosseini, meanwhile, teamed up with Haley Keller, grade 12, to photograph and interview more than 60 people they encountered during the trip. “We created a ‘Humans of New York ’-style book of photographs and interview snippets,” he said. “It helps us remember the stories we’d otherwise forget.”

Photo by Galina Tchourilova

They also got to appreciate Alaska in what some might say is its purest form: They spent four days tent camping on the Inian Islands and spoke with an indigenous elder from the Tlingit tribe.

Students were required to spend time journaling about their activities and reflecting on the lessons of each day, which Spenner said often shifted students’ priorities in meaningful ways. “By the end of it, students were saying things like ‘I need to make small changes in my life, like biking more and driving less. I need to think about taking classes that I’m really interested in, not just ones that contribute to a good GPA, because it’s experiences like these that I’ll actually remember forever,’” he said. “It really opened their minds.”

Overseas Experiences Harker has had an exchange with the Collège de Gambach, a secondary school in Switzerland near an important economic and cultural border, since 2005. Swiss students spend 10 days with Harker students in San Jose in the spring, then Harker students visit Switzerland in summer.

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As part of the Swiss exchange trip last June, Joanna Lin, grade 12, sampled treats from the Cailler chocolate factory, toured the capital city of Bern and saw the Large Hadron Collider, a powerful particle accelerator. But her favorite part of the 10-day stay happened the night she arrived and met her exchange “buddy,” 18-year-old Marie Galley.

“We drove up to a solitary farm in the mountains for a birthday party,” recalled Lin, “and I learned it was built in the 16th century. It had a field of cows just beyond the backyard, where there was a barbecue.” As she chatted with the Swiss teenagers there, she couldn’t help but notice the contrasts between her own hard-charging and future-focused mentality – “a Silicon Valley mindset” – and that of her Swiss counterparts, who went out to enjoy relaxed time with friends most nights.

During her stay, Lin challenged herself to speak only French, to talk to other international students at the school she attended and to learn Kin-Ball, a game that

uses a ball that’s four feet in diameter.

out and getting close with my buddy.”

You wouldn’t see these ground-level activities on a typical tour of Switzerland – and that’s exactly the point, said Galina Tchourilova, trip leader and French teacher. “It’s not a tourist trip,” she said. “It’s a deeper experience.” For example, students are strongly encouraged to try the local dishes and to fully embed themselves with the families that host them during their stay, she noted.

For many students, the two trips are the beginning of what they hope will be a lifelong connection. “Many of them consider [their exchange buddies] friends, and they’ve made plans for them to come back to the United States so they can do more together,” said Tchourilova.

Tiny moments made big impressions. Aryana Far, grade 11, recalled visiting an open-air fruit stand that didn’t have a vendor present, just a box to insert the money. “My host mom picked a few tomatoes and lettuce and slid the money into the box,” Far recalled with astonishment. “She said this was common, and explained that Swiss culture strives to manifest a level of universally understood trust.”

For Kismet Singh, grade 10, even the simplest experiences were joyful. “One of the most fun things I did with my buddy was go paddle boarding on a lake,” she said. “I loved hanging

Mallory Millard, grade 12, went on all the lower and middle school trips, except the grade 7 trip to the Grand Canyon. This summer, she was among the group that traveled to Alaska.

“I definitely do feel more comfortable with being away from home after my experiences on Harker trips,” she said.

“The independence that the trips gave me was not only refreshing, but vital in order to make me more comfortable with living without the presence of my parents. From all of these trips, I have gained unforgettable memories, learned more than I could have imagined and cultivated the motivation to step out of my comfort zone.”

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gallery artgallery

A

B

C

E

D

A. Annabelle Luo Transitional Kindergarten “Two Dinosaurs Falling in Love”

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B. Atlas Ertem Preschool Feather Cottage Pumpkins from Observation

HAR K E R MAGA Z I NE l FA L L/W I N T E R 2017

C. Michelle Xiong Kindergarten Kandinsky Fall Tree

D. Samantha Teachworth Grade 2 Paul Klee Cat

E. Gary Jin Grade 5 Van Gogh Sunflowers

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

art H

F

Harker’s visual arts program spans every grade level, helping students discover their creative gifts through academic

G

electives and after-school activities. Each year students create dozens of visual art

pieces in a variety of media, including drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures. Many of these pieces are showcased throughout the school year via special events and displays at Harker campuses, and this gallery highlights just a few pieces from the impressive body of work.

I

F. Alyssa Tomberg Grade 8 “Hat Pot”

G. Mike Sullivan Grade 7 Watercolor Still Life and Newspaper Collage

H. Deb Chatterjee Grade 12 “Ice Mage”

I. Mason Menaker Grade 12 “Medley”

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face time

J

ocelyn Poplack is no stranger to adventure. She uprooted five years ago when she moved from Texas to California to become a Harker Preschool lead teacher, she takes full advantage of the nature and culture of the Bay Area, and she loves escaping to wild places like Jackson, Wyo. Family is paramount, and she’s a proud aunt to a niece who lives in the Bay Area, and a nephew and niece in Texas. Spending quality time with them and enjoying her mom’s amazing home cooking in Houston are just two things that make her tick.

Read on to learn a few more!

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Reading children’s books! I love being able to share some of my favorite childhood books with my students and also being exposed to the newer children’s literature.

Brag about something.

When I was 7 years old, I won the Massachusetts Saltwater Fishing Derby for the biggest fluke caught that year.

What are you doing when you feel most alive?

There is nothing that makes me feel more alive than being surrounded by the ocean. I love to snorkel, fish, sail and take boat rides!

What is your most treasured object and why?

My family cookbook. When I was a child, I started writing down recipes that my mom, grandmothers and other family members used, as I wanted to be able to recreate the recipes myself and keep the family traditions alive. To this day, I am still adding recipes to the book!

What is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

Honestly, I believe this hasn’t happened yet! I look at each day as another chance to accomplish more and more.

Jocelyn Poplack 60

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class notes

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. For unlisted classes, we invite you to email alumni@harker.org if you are interested in becoming a class agent or would like to nominate a classmate. All photos submitted by the subject unless noted.

1990 Chris Yamashita, founder of the locally famed Brown Chicken Brown Cow in Campbell, was awarded The San Jose Mercury News’ 2017 Best Burger in the Bay title.

1996

Duong, Ben Hu, Sameep Lad, Akhsar Kharebov and Joe Rosenthal , executive director of advancement.

2003

Photo by Mark Kocina

Sam Lepler, middle school graduate and current Harker upper school teacher, received the Teacher of the Year award from the California Association of School Economics Teachers (CASET). Read more on this story in our student publication, Harker Aquila: https://harkeraquila. com/38875/news/economics-teacher-samuel-lepler-receives-california-teacher-of-the-year-award-from-caset/

2002 The upper school’s inaugural graduating class celebrated its 15-year reunion in style at the Anchor Brewing Distillery in San Francisco. In attendance were Isabella Liu, Paul Picazo, Heather Browning, Vijay Nayak, Tiffany

Kari [Saltzman] Snell and her husband, Jason, welcomed twins, Dextor and Maddox Snell. They join big sister Kiora.

Surbhi Sarna was presented with Harker’s 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award for her dedication and work in the use of STEM research to improve health care for women. Read more on this story at http:// news.harker.org/surbhi-sarna-03-awarded2017-outstanding-alumni-award/.

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class notes 2004

Alan Malek and Yuanyuan Pao ‘07 were married March 25 at the Cornerstone Sonoma, an event venue at the junction of Napa and Sonoma counties.

Deepa Mathew and her husband, Nishant Goyal, welcomed their first child, Kian Mathew Goyal, born Aug. 22, 2017.

Vivek Saraswat was married to Neha Vyas in August at the Vintners Inn in Sonoma County. They met at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where they bonded over their mutual love of singing, and received their MBAs in 2014. They are now living in San Francisco and working at tech startups.

2005 On Nov. 11, Shikha Mittal married Jameel Khalfan, almost exactly six years after the day they met. They were introduced by Shikha’s Harker classmate Suhaas Prasad at the birthday party of yet another Harker classmate – and Shikha’s best friend – Ruchi Jhaveri. Jameel proposed to Shikha in an elaborate treasure hunt that started in San Francisco and ended in Los Angeles, atop the SLS Hotel’s rooftop pool, the venue of their six-month anniversary. The wedding occurred in Palm Springs and started 62

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2006

Photo by ProPhotoSTL.com

with a Coachella/Burning Man-themed sangeet. Pictured standing left to right are Karun Amar, Jhaveri, Khalfan, Mittal, Arjun Naskar, Arjun’s date; on the ground are Prasad and Bharat Reddy.

After playing Cordelia in “King Lear” at The Guthrie earlier this year, Kimberley Wong is currently working at The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, where she just closed a successful run of “Hamlet” in her dream role, Ophelia. She is about to open their Christmas production, “Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley.” She was also seen this fall on HBO’s “The Deuce” as a recurring character, a bartender named Suzi.

Meghana Dhar was included on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Meghana is responsible for opening 700 stores for B8ta by 2018.

The company launches brick and mortar stores for trendy tech products and provides them with customer engagement and interaction data.

class notes tional work supporting women’s empowerment, including teaching classes to bridge the digital divide in Sierra Leone, the West Bank and Gaza; and my commitment to resisting the many ways the current administration is attacking the social fabric of our country, specifically fighting back against their initiatives targeting DACA recipients, giving succor to white supremacists and wrecking the ACA.” See our profile on Jessica on page 32.

Chef Iso Pastry (chefiso.com), created by Justin Iso, is a website all about pastry art. It recently won Editor’s Choice for best baking and sweets out of 30,000 nominations in Saveur Magazine’s 2017 annual Blog Awards. Justin launched the website in 2015 to showcase the art and science of haute pâtisserie.

Photo by Leo Yu

2007

David Linder and his wife, Dena, were married in downtown Chicago surrounded by family and friends. His passion for web analytics and e-commerce led him to a new role as product manager of Yield Optimization at Prodege LLC.

Jessica Dickinson Goodman has been accepted as a Fellow with the New Leaders Council for 2018, a program that trains and supports the next generation of progressive leaders. ”My application focused on my experiences working in government as a scheduler for now-U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris and staffing the chair of the Washington State Appropriations Committee during a constitutional budget crisis; my interna-

2009

Kevin Kim has had an eclectic mix of career opportunities since graduating from Cornell University. In 2016, Kevin transitioned into software engineering to work in the field of custom data analytics development and visualization. After living and working for four years in Washington, D.C., Kevin decided to chase the love of his life to New York City when she started law school at Columbia. They got engaged this past October in New York.

Photo by Hok Leung

Jenny Ma and Andrew Fandrianto were married on July 7, 2017 in Oahu, Hawaii.

“We’ve been best friends since middle school and would often spend most of our lunches and after-school hours playing handball.” In attendance were (all Class of 2007 unless otherwise noted) Alex Fandrianto ’08, Anthony Fandrianto ’11, Michael Ma ’14, Alex Wu, Jay Han, Michael Chaykin, Alexander Hansen and Tiffany Lin.

2011

Brianna Tran got engaged to Chris Miller in September on top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. The 14-mile, 4,800-foot hike took them 12 hours, but it was well worth it! They met at a rock climbing gym, have been together for more than three years, and plan to marry on Sept. 29, 2018.

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class notes 2012

animal behavior. She is currently enjoying the English culture while learning further research skills in her field, and plans to pursue a Ph.D. following completion of the course. She is also teaching a judo class on the weekends, an activity that she has enjoyed since early childhood.

After completing a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Poland, Bridget Nixon is piloting a children’s choir at a new private school in Warsaw. She is very happy to be singing again, and is looking forward to coordinating the school’s Christmas production.

2013

Photos by Stefan Armijo

Multi-Class Meet-Ups

The first alumni basketball game in the new athletic facility took place on Nov. 25.

Parents, friends and fans reunited in the stands to cheer on 35 players from the classes of 2006-17. This year’s recipient of the Alumni Basketball Championship trophy was Team Evens.

Team Odds: Coach Butch Keller, Lucas Motro ’07, Howard Lio ’11, Nirjhar Mundkur ’11, Nilesh Murali ’11, Zach Mank ’11, Gautam Krishnamurthi ’11, Nikhil Panu ’13, Kevin Cali ’13, Kevin Susai ’13, Spenser Quash ’13, Nick Nguyen ’15, Justin Yen ’15, Nathan Dalal ’15, Rohith Kuditipudi ’15, Ashin Mehta ’15, Dylan Patel ’15 and Jordan Goheen ’17.

Katherine Woodruff graduated from Pacific University in Oregon with B.S. in environmental biology, and is now attending the University of Exeter in England to receive her master’s degree in

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Team Evens: Coach Alfredo Alves, Bernie Lee ’06, Charlie Fang ’08, Alan Wong ’08, Andy Fang ’10, Kevin Fu ’10, Ryan Fan ’10, Rohan Chopra ’10, Lung-Ying Yu ’10, Stephen Hughes ’12, Sean Pan ’14, Wei Wei Buchsteiner ’14, Nick Navarro ’14, John Hughes ’14, Huck Vaughan ’14, Dhanush

Madabusi ’16, Raghav Jain ’16, Rohan Jiro Desikan ’16 and Evan Lohn ’16.

Glenn Reddy ’15, Adarsh Battu ’14, Haley Tran ’17 and Lucas Wang’17 video conferenced in as guest panelists in Juston Glass’ DECA class. The alumni talked about their experiences in DECA and how the networking skills they acquired here at Harker have helped them in their current lives as college students.

Nikhil Panu ’13, Sean Pan ’14, Sheridan Tobin ’15 and Haley Tran ’17 came back to Harker as guest speakers for a senior class L.I.F.E. assembly. They covered such topics as the pitfalls they encountered as they entered college, things they have learned about the college process and things they wish they had known as seniors at Harker.

Read more on this story at: http://news. harker.org/seniors-learn-about-college-lifefrom-harker-alumni-at-assembly/.

And for more college insights from alumni, see the story on page 39.

SAVE THE DATE!

FRIDAY, FEB. 2, 2018

You’re invited to the Rothschild Performing Arts Center opening celebration!

Keep an eye out for more details, coming soon.

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500 Saratoga Ave. San Jose , CA 95129

final frame

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