Harker Quarterly Spring 2015

Wingspan’s “The Gender Gap”

Lower School Movie Makers Hone Skills S P R I N G 2 015

Summer Camps Ideal for Fun and Learning Student Directed Showcase Brings Students’ Visions to the Stage

VOLUM E 6 · NUM B E R 3

Cover Photo

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hen a group of students decided they wanted to make videos, Heather Rus-

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sell, lower school English teacher, volun-

Pam Dickinson Director

teered to act as their advisor and brought structure to

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the plan. In our cover photo Russell is consulting with Max Blennemann, grade 4, on editing footage. Kyle

Catherine Snider Jenn Maragoni Copy Editors

Cavallaro, our staff photographer, caught this great moment during one of the group’s working sessions.

Kyle Cavallaro Photo Editor

Passionate and dedicated faculty are the building blocks of our educational process and we honor them

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daily for their commitment to inspiring our students.

See page 22 for the full story!

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About Harker

Stefan Armijo Steven Boyle ‘06 Robert Boucher Debbie Cohen Nicole DeVelbiss Kacey Fang, grade 12 Jessica Ferguson Juston Glass Carol Green John Ho Zach Jones Alexandria Kerekez Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11 Mary Mortlock Devin Nguyen ‘12 Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell Heather Russell Elisabeth Siegel, grade 11 Theresa Smith Robyn Stone Diane Villadsen ‘11 Contributors

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a real difference and we celebrate this achievement and what the future will bring for all.

NEXT EDITION: JUNE 2015 2

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inside

14 SPRING 2015

features

Wingspan’s The Gender Gap

8

Summer Camps Ideal for Fun and Learning 14

Lower School Movie Makers Hone Skills 22

Student Directed Showcase Brings Students’ Visions to the Stage 28

Something to Talk About: Harker Speech and Debate 36

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22

8

departments Preschool 6 Eagle Report

19

Greater Good

25

19

Business & Entrepreneurship/DECA 26 Performing Arts

32

Advancement

40

Harker Concert Series

42

Global Education 43 Milestones 44

26 36

Alumni 45 Looking Ahead

54 6

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Headlines

By Christopher Nikoloff Head of School

What’s the Students Make a Difference in the World by Thinking Big

A

parent was recently talking to me about the big idea behind organizations. It was his contention that when an organization is founded on a big idea, like ending poverty or stopping global warming, people follow that organization more readily. The big idea can be quite simple, but it has to be big.

The parent then asked me what Harker’s big idea was. I immediately thought that Harker students are taking their academic knowledge and applying it to real-world problems to make a difference in the world.

Yes, most independent schools say something like this. And yes, this sounds a little like a parody of a sentiment from the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley,” when the founder of the fictional company Goolybib says, “But most importantly we’re making the world a better place. Through constructing elegant hierarchies for maximum code reuse and extensibility.”

So we too are guilty of dreaming big. We have students doing award-winning research in tumor detection and climate modeling. We have a second grader who wrote the White House about her concerns about smoking.

We have journalists who wrote about the gender gap in technology in the student-run magazine Wingspan. We have students from preschool through senior year making beauty in the world through visual and performing arts.

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The difference students make in the world as children and young adults does not have to be large in scale.

Headlines Most schools fortunate enough to have students and teachers like ours can highlight similar efforts. The point is that students today want to learn deeply in academic and extracurricular domains and apply their learning to the world around them. Learning and doing to make a difference. (Hey, that sounds like a motto.)

It is inspiring to watch. It is even more inspiring to inspire, as our teachers have the opportunity to do.

The difference students make in the world as children and young adults does not have to be large in scale.

Ralph Waldo Emerson defines success like this: “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” Now that is a big idea.

So what’s the big idea? When I was in high school, my biggest preoccupations were getting a date to the prom and joining a rock band. Teens still have some of those concerns these days – and thank goodness they do. But I am optimistic about today’s youth precisely because of their propensity to learn and do to make a difference. Will they make the world a better place?

That is a tall order for any generation, but I think this generation already has.

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

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Teens and Preschoolers Bond Over STEM Learning in Unique Buddies Program

Photos by Robyn

Stone

By Debbie Cohen

Photo by Alexandria Kere

kez

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

TEM Buddies days at Harker Preschool are always special, with students proudly donning buddy badges and taking turns filing excitedly into the science lab. There they have the unique opportunity to visit and interact with upper school pals, who have come to share their love of all things STEM. Passing along the joy of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is the goal behind Harker’s innovative STEM Buddies program, which teams the school’s littlest learners with upper school students from the WiSTEM Club for fun, interactive learning through a series of themed workshops. At their first visit more than a year ago, club members presented each preschool student with a special button to wear during their time together.

Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair, and Robyn Stone, Harker Preschool’s STEM specialist, came up with the win-win idea to pair members of Harker’s WiSTEM (Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) with the preschool children to meet regularly for hands-on STEM exploration.

Since then, the STEM Buddies workshops, held several times throughout the year for the 4- and 5-year-olds, have been a huge hit. Each activity is focused around a particular topic or strand of STEM. The younger students are excited to have their big buddies come by, while the teens are gaining confidence about sharing and teaching complicated knowledge in ways that are simple to understand.

“This collaborative opportunity is aligned with WiSTEM’s mission to spread the love of STEM,” reported Chetty.

According to Stone, the workshops have proven to be the perfect fit for the preschool’s STEM specialty class, offering a balance between child-directed exploratory learning and WiSTEM-directed activities.

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Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

Pho

rekez

ria Ke

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Ale to by

“This collaborative opportunity is aligned with WiSTEM’s mission to spread the love of STEM.” —Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair and WiSTEM advisor

WiSTEM’s stated mission is to foster female students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, to provide role models and mentors in those fields, and to educate the community about gender issues in the sciences. The club, which Chetty advises, sponsors guest lecturers, holds technical workshops for the Harker community led by female scientists, and creates a network of female mentors – including Harker alumnae – working in STEM fields.

On an afternoon in early December, seven members of WiSTEM (juniors Grace Cao, Alyssa Crawford, Shreya Mathur and Chandini Thakur; and seniors Allison Kiang, Daniela Lee and Nitya Mani) traveled to the preschool campus to work with students on a series of STEM activities related to life science and the human body.

“Today we are going to learn all about the human body,” Chetty informed the youngsters, welcoming them to the science lab and explaining that the WiSTEM Club members had planned various stations for their visit.

The first station covered the integumentary system, allowing the preschoolers to use a proscope (digital microscope) to examine

things like hair, skin and freckles. The second station was on the skeletal system, where the youngsters met “Mr. Skelly” and participated in a “bone dance.” The third station, on the muscular system, allowed them to use a sensor to squeeze a muscle and determine how much force it exerted, as well as examine the muscles of a chicken wing.

For station four, on the cardiovascular system, the children used a stethoscope to hear how their heart sounds before and after jumping, and were also able to view a dissected pig heart. Station five, on the digestive system, provided useful nutrition information as well as coloring pages of the digestive tract. The respiratory system was covered in station six, allowing students to work with a sensor and graph to determine their lung volume. And finally, station seven on the senses was all about optical illusions and refractions.

Wearing a white WiSTEM T-shirt, club member Cao was working in the muscle station, measuring and graphing her younger buddies’ grip strength. She said she found the STEM Buddies event to be very enjoyable and the children to be outgoing and active participants. “I feel that the program is going really well. Teaching and interacting with preschoolers is a fun experience!” she added.

Lending a helping hand was parent volunteer Tiffany Tuell. Her daughter, 4-year-old Lexington, said her favorite station was “the breathing one.” The preschooler especially enjoyed being able to use the lung volume sensor and spending time with “the big kids.”

Coming up in April, the next STEM Buddies event is slated to revolve around chemistry.

Other prospective programs might cover such topics as environmental science, space science, explorations in light/dark, human physiology, anatomy and mathematics.

Previously, the WiSTEM Club put on a short musical for the preschool students about composting using worms (to reduce waste on the preschool campus). They also made posters about what worms eat. The children had the opportunity to hold and explore worms together during the session. Other stations included making recycled newspaper pots, planting pumpkin seeds, petting the rabbits in the Farm, and making corn husk dolls. Since that lesson, Stone and her students have been diverting food scraps to the worms, and even have a small worm “condo” in the STEM lab.

“The buddies program is such a clever idea,” said parent Tuell. “It makes STEM learning fun!”

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THE

All photos by Shay Lari-Hosain, grade 11

By Kacey Fang, grade 12, and Elisabeth Siegel, grade 11

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the inaugural issue of the journalism program’s magazine Wingspan in January 2015.

Wingspan will publish four times a year, with in-depth news, features and design done by students. Harker Quarterly is proud to reprint this article on the Silicon Valley gender gap, which further explores the topic of women in technology (see also the winter 2014 HQ, page 6, “Inspiring Girls Who Code”).

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GENDER GAP

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he sits down in the last open seat of the Neural Networks computer science class in Nichols Hall – middle table, last row. The two tables adjacent her and the three in front each have two to three of her male classmates clustered around them, immersed in code. The male teacher walks around, answering occasional questions.

These 11 boys had been junior Anika Mohindra’s companions in the advanced topics course she took in the first semester of her junior year. A post-AP class, Neural Networks introduces students to artificial neural network technology and its applications.

THE GENDER GAP

email. “[This] semester a third of the class (out of 18) is girls. Each girl handles the situation differently. Some work alone, and others are highly interactive with the other members of the class.”

how women become dissuaded from pursuing technology fields. Women are lost bit by bit through a pipeline that constricts as they move from early education through the subsequent years to employment age.

AP CS teacher Susan King similarly encourages students to find work partners on their own. In her observation, students tend to favor working with members of the same gender.

Harker positions itself as a “world-class institution” in the heart of Silicon Valley, the tech capital of the U.S. With 64 percent of last year’s female graduates selfreporting a plan to major in a STEM field, according to survey responses collected for The Winged Post’s college map, many already encounter or will go on to face gender disparities within these fields as they move along the pipeline.

“We work in partners a lot, and I want people to be comfortable with their partners,” King said. “Have I observed females particularly getting isolated by a bunch of males? Yes, I have. I’ve observed it in a number of schools. It hasn’t happened in a class of mine at Harker.”

King received her Bachelor of Science degree in CS from Montana State University in 1975, at a time when 19.8 percent of such degrees were conferred to females, according to the National Center for Education (NCES).

“I remember when I walked in on the first day, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m the only girl in this class,’ and that made me a little nervous,” Mohindra said. “I know gender disparity is a problem, so letting it affect me makes me feel a little deficient.”

Computer science (CS) department chair Dr. Eric Nelson taught the class the last time it was offered six years ago. With two degrees in physics, he has previously worked in corporate research environments and at astronomical observatories. He said that the students’ choice of seating is voluntary, as he has no seating chart, and noted the strong gender discrepancy is not typical in Harker’s CS classes. “[Last] semester was unusual, [with] only one [girl] in each section,” he wrote in an

“I certainly know what [being isolated] is like,” she said. “I was often the only female in math classes or CS classes.”

Senior Nitya Mani’s interest in STEM began at a young age, when her parents read her Richard Dawkins’ books on evolution. Love for math especially was a consistent part of her childhood. Since her years at Joaquin Miller Middle School in San Jose, she has done math research, taken a slew of advanced math and CS courses, and competed in math contests.

As Mani puts it, she “grew up on the math team.”

That was 40 years ago, but the disparity continues. Mohindra’s experience as the minority gender reflects a broader downward trend of gender equity in technology.

As increasing numbers of women earn degrees in business, biology and physical sciences, the number of CS degrees received by women today is less than a third of what it was 30 years ago. In 2011, 18.2 percent of bachelor’s degrees in CS were given to women, compared to 37.1 percent in 1980, according to the NCES 2013 Digest of Education Statistics.

The term “pipeline” has become used throughout the industry with regard to

Taking it to the next level

For the past semester, Mani, like Mohindra, had been the only female out of 13 in her advanced topics course in CS, Numerical Methods.

While most of the upper school’s classes have balanced gender ratios, there is a male majority in advanced CS courses like the ones Mani and Mohindra took.

According to Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academics, enrollment in the upper school’s science departments such as biology and chemistry are relatively equal, but the courses following AP CS are 60 to 70 percent male.

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THE GENDER GAP

[Rinearson’s] experience as a 21-year-old female in the tech world has led her to describe the industry’s culture of microaggressions as “death by a thousand papercuts.”

Nationwide, The College Board has noticed a disparity between the genders in AP CS exams and a less severe one in AP Calculus BC exams. In 2013, 18.7 percent of AP CS test-takers and 40.5 percent of AP Calculus BC test-takers were female, according to the organization’s annual report.

“Historically there have been a disproportionate number of males taking AP exams in CS A,” said Amy Wilkins, The College Board’s social justice consultant, in an email interview. “Last year alone nearly 300,000 students with the potential to succeed in an AP course did not take one.”

Parental views can hinder young girls from STEM classes based on preconceived biases about whether girls can participate in the field.

Having grown up with a now 20-yearold brother, a 15-year-old brother and a 10-year-old sister, Chandini Thakur, grade 10

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11, sees a different emphasis on STEM interests of males and females in her family. She plans on becoming a medical doctor, and her older brother studies computer engineering in college.

“My dad has already started working on getting my younger brother connected to people in engineering and not as much on my future career in the medical field,” she said. “It’s interesting to see that, because my sister’s already expressing an interest in engineering, and he’s not paying attention to that as much as he should be.”

As a teacher, science department chair and former AP teacher Anita Chetty has learned to pay attention to classroom dynamics.

She recalls differences in reactions to girls’ and boys’ classroom participation in her years as a student.

“If boys made a mistake, people laughed it off,” she said. “If you were a female, you

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felt as though if you made a mistake it was not going to be funny. It was like, ‘You’re dumb.’”

Chetty’s interest in STEM led her to earn a B.S. in biology from the University of Calgary in Canada and two degrees in STEM education: a Bachelor of Engineering in education leadership at the University of Lethridge and a Master of Engineering in secondary science at the University of Portland.

As in Chetty’s observations, differences in attitudes towards disappointment divide students along gender lines. Her comments are rooted in research discussed in Dr. Diana Kastelic’s dissertation for the University of Denver, “Adolescent Girls’ Support for Voice in Education.”

In her paper, Dr. Kastelic writes, “When boys fail, blame is placed on external factors, while success is attributable to ability. Surprisingly, girls’ achievement

THE GENDER GAP

is attributed to luck and hard work, and failure is blamed on lack of ability.”

Mani refers to these and other subtle barriers against women pursuing STEM as “implicit discouragements.” She mentioned comments she received last summer from a Yale University professor alongside a male classmate. “[The Yale professor] told the guy about the opportunities, and then he told me that I should look at the pre-med department, because that would be a better place for me,” Mani said. While the professor’s motive was anyone’s guess, Mani said that hearing similar comments was commonplace and often disheartening.

“There’s a lot of things that people do to

implicitly discourage you. Now, it’s not so much [from pursuing] STEM, but to discourage women from pursuing pure STEM fields.”

For women and other minorities entering STEM, microaggressions, such as the one Mani faced, often result from unconscious bias.

From high school to college After graduating from high school and beginning a major in STEM fields at campuses across the country, demographics in classrooms grow increasingly worse for females as they proceed along the pipeline to college.

Biology major Samantha Hoffman ’13 walks into the seminar room for her Computational and Mathematical Engineering (CME) class at Stanford University. What strikes her as odd is the composition of teaching assistants for the class.

“For both my CME classes, 100 percent of the TAs were male,” she said.

Hoffman, who plans to add a subconcentration in neurobiology and a minor in creative writing, views the TA imbalance as an important issue to fix, due to female mentorship’s importance in encouraging female participation in STEM fields.

“The biggest problem is getting mentors, because without mentors, you can’t really

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THE GENDER GAP

get your advice. You can’t really get those connections to help you move forward in the industry,” Hoffman said.

As former upper school math department chair and middle school division head, as well as a math teacher at other public and private schools, Gargano stresses the importance of teachers as role models and guides. Throughout her study of math education during college, she was encouraged by professors who assumed she would go on to earn a master’s degree, even before she had planned to.

in advancing space exploration, discusses and promotes science through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s the teachers who really have so much power in terms of turning students onto a course that they thought they may not have interest in, or keep them loving a subject, too,” she said. “I think it’s all about the teachers.”

But finding a mentor for women in the worlds of academia can prove challenging on campuses like Stanford, where only three out of 54 of the CS department’s full-time faculty members are women, as Wingspan discovered by counting the department’s faculty on its website directory.

College and beyond: moving to the big league Females who earn STEM degrees are faced with job placement as the next, and often most difficult, hurdle. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2011 Executive Summary of Women in STEM, females held only 24 percent of all working positions in STEM fields, even though females hold 48 percent of all jobs.

The disparity leads to disparagement, according to Tess Rinearson, a software engineer at blogging platform Medium in San Francisco and an attendee at Battle of the Hacks 2014 at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a programming invitational representative of over 50 events promoting innovation for college students.

“It’s something that people don’t want to talk about. It’s kind of the elephant in the room,” Rinearson said as one of five females out of 27 hackathon attendees in the room. “I’ve had lots of miscellaneous

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“When you’re on the Internet and you’re a female, you know it,” she said in a Skype interview. “It makes a difference. You get creepy comments. Initially I blew them all off, and over time it starts to get heavier and heavier, and you just don’t want to deal with them anymore.”

experiences where [I think,] ‘God, I wish there were more women in tech, because this behavior is unacceptable.’”

A Seattle native, Rinearson graduated from Lakeside High School and took classes at the University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon before leaving college after a year to pursue a job at Medium.

Her experience as a 21-year-old female in the tech world has led her to describe the industry’s culture of microaggressions as “death by a thousand papercuts.”

Writer and former physics student Eileen Pollack said combatting microaggressions that females bear while in a maledominated field will help increase the number of women in tech. Pollack, who in 1978 became one of the first two women to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Yale, published “Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?” in The New York Times Magazine in 2013. Later this year, she will publish her memoir, “The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club.”

“I was supposed to be judging this hackathon. I talked to this team one-onone, and I was really enthusiastic about this team’s hack,” she said. “As I walked away I heard one of them say, ‘She wants the d—,’ which is totally inappropriate.”

“There are studies that say that women leave voluntarily because they want ‘people fields,’ and to this, I say, ‘There are no people in engineering?’” she said in a phone interview. “Engineers and chemists and computer scientists work in teams. There’s an idea that women walk away from the fields voluntarily, and that’s nonsense. [They are] already struggling under so many burdens every day where they feel they don’t belong.”

For women in careers that require an online presence, microaggressions often occur in the form of Internet harassment. Planetary geologist Emily Lakdawalla, who currently works as an editor and evangelist for The Planetary Society, an organization involved

Females leaving or being unable to enter tech positions is not just an issue of social fairness but also an issue that impacts earning potential over a lifetime. According to Forbes, the highest paying jobs for college graduates are in engineering,

Sometimes, the sexism can be much more direct. Last year, Rinearson experienced a more in-your-face example.

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THE GENDER GAP

As the pipeline limiting women from tech fields shrinks, the gender gap widens. with a median starting pay of $53,400.

Even in the workplace, females earn less than their male counterparts; a 2012 American Association of University Women report stated that on average, a female in engineering makes 88 percent of what a male does when both are one year out of college.

devoting their time to building solutions.

The emphasis should be on action.”

Valuations of startup companies are at an all-time high, according to Forbes, with nearly 40 startups worth more than $1 billion in 2013. However, according to a 2013 report from Pitchbook, a data provider for venture capitalist markets, only 13 percent of venture capital deals had at least one female co-founder.

“I think that the only way to break the gender gap is to get in when you’re the minority gender,” Mani said. “I feel fine, because there are going to be enough women around me. By the time that I get a Ph.D., there will be a lot of women with me, because I think it’s changing.”

Seed accelerators like Y Combinator in Mountain View provide seed funding in exchange for an equity share in a prospective startup. Company partner Kat Manalac said Y Combinator received 5,000 applications last year, but only around one in four of the companies had a female founder. In response, Y Combinator launched its first Female Founders Conference last March with 450 attendees, involving a host of female founders sharing their stories. Another was slated for February.

“The big focus should be on how to get more women and people of color hired and in leadership positions at tech companies,” Manalac said in an email interview. “I’m encouraged because I’ve started to see a lot of smart people

Steps ahead Mani and Mohindra both see themselves moving forward in the male-dominated field, confident that things will change by the time they are in graduate school.

As a senior next year, Mohindra plans to take Harker’s CS advanced topics courses Expert Systems and Computer Architecture, as well as the advanced mathematics topics courses Differential Equations 2 and Signals and Systems.

“I think within a decade, we’ll definitely have a lot more women in higher positions in STEM, and having those leaders as examples will provide yet another push for women to enter the fields,” she said.

Female alumnae have gone on to success in STEM fields. Forbes’ 2014 “30 Under 30” list in science and health care featured Surbhi Sarna ’03, who founded nVision Medical, a technology intended to improve ovarian cancer detection.

Currently, several of the most prominent Bay Area tech companies are led by

female chief executive officers such as Susan Wojcicki of YouTube, Marissa Mayer of Yahoo! and Meg Whitman of HewlettPackard. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, and Mayer declined an interview with Wingspan.

At Harker, Gargano says she has explored some of the existing opportunities or initiative organizations that the upper school currently has in order to improve any imbalance, including WiSTEM (Women in STEM). Improvement, according to her, is still on the agenda moving forward.

“I think we have a lot of really accomplished females in those areas. Why wouldn’t we want to push forward those efforts?” Gargano said. “We can do better, and we should do better.”

Females already in the industry see hope for the future. Ruchi Sanghvi, who became the first female engineer at Facebook in 2005, helped develop the Newsfeed and Facebook Platform. She offers advice for females planning to enter tech fields to stand their ground but be ready for challenges.

“Don’t be afraid to voice your opinion.

Don’t be afraid to ask for opportunities – raise your hand and ask for those opportunities,” she said. “When you’re offered a seat on a rocketship, don’t ask which one, just take it.”

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Harkeerr Programs Summ

earning

un and L F r fo w o N r te is g e R

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uyen ‘12

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a rock band and workshops.

songwriting

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knowledge of a specific subject will find opportunities in math, science, writing and more through the Summer Institute’s enrichment courses.

by Dia ne Vil Photo

For student athletes,

ladsen ‘11

Harker’s world-renowned English Language Institute (ELI) brings top-level English instruction to international students every year. ELI is tailored to many skill levels and is designed to offer a nurturing environment to students looking to improve their language skills or prepare for admission to American boarding schools and English-speaking international schools.

Small class sizes and experienced teachers help students develop speaking, reading and writing skills to ensure their readiness.

Harker’s sports camps (page 17) are a great way to learn a new sport, prepare for an upcoming season or simply have fun on the field or in the gym. Harker’s experienced coaches will conduct camps for basketball, soccer, volleyball, water polo, wrestling and TRX training in a fun and positive environment. This year, The Harker School will also host a weeklong San Francisco Giants Baseball Camp at the middle school campus.

to advanced competitive swimming techniques, all at the beautiful Singh Aquatic Center on Harker’s upper school campus.

For more information about Harker’s summer programs, including schedules and pricing, visit http://summer.harker.org.

Finally, the Harker Swim School helps participants fully enjoy one of summer’s quintessential activities.

Available to swimmers of virtually every age and skill level, the swim school teaches everything from basic strokes

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Photos by Devin Nguyen ‘12

Photos by Diane Villadsen ‘11

Photos by Devin Nguyen ‘12

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Summer Sports: Acti ve Fun, Basketball

A Harker summer mainstay, the bask etball camp will introduce and reinforce fundamental bask etball skills and co ncepts to coed students in grades 4-8, and boys in grades 6-9.

Skills emphasized include ball handlin g, shooting and rebounding. Camp ers will also play team games co ached by Harker varsity bask etball players.

The basketball camp will be run by John “Sarge” Siers, a ve teran basketball trainer of 30 years who ha s coached in two NC AA Final Fours and trained 32 players who we nt on to earn Divis ion 1 scholarships.

Soccer

Harker’s elite summ er soccer camp, on e of the most popular summer sports pr og rams, prov ides a compre hensive, fun and supportive environ ment for soccer pl ayers of all skill levels .

Enthusiasts in gr ad es 2-12 w ill engage in daily activ ities that include Futsa l, psycho-motor training and fulland half-court games, in additio n to stations that emphasize key soccer skills.

Supportive Environm ent the camp with Bran don Zimmerman, a four-time AllWCC midfielder at Santa Clara Universi ty.

Wrestling

Following two succ essful years, Harker ’s wrestling summer camp is back, offer ing toplevel coaching and instruction on one of the world’s oldest sports. Novice wres tlers will be trained on the fundamental skills necessary for competition, and experienced co mpetitors will be challenged to reac h the next level. In addition to wrestlin g skills, the camp also will integrate TRX suspension training , goal setting and we ight management.

Returning for anoth er appearance at th is year’s camp is 2011 NCAA National Ch ampion Anthony Robles, wh o was also the winn er of an Espy Award for Best Male Athlete with a Disability and the Jimmy V Award.

Longtime Harker ath letics coach Karriem “Coach K” Stinson will again direct the camp wi th three-time CC S place winner Shawn Henebry, a first-place winner at the Veter ans National Cham pionships.

Stinson has coache d three wrestlers wh o went on to become members of the California na tio na l wrestling team, as well as se veral CC S placers.

Volleyball

Photos by Stefan

Whether they’re Harker varsity socc new to er coach and twothe sport or tim experienced comp e UC LA MVP awardee Shaun Ts etitors, akiris will Ha rker’s vo lle yb al l ca m p is a gr ea head up t opportunity for players to learn new skills or hone the ones they have already acqu ired. Coached by ve ter an Harker coach Vonda Reid – whose teams ha ve qualified for the USA Youth National Championships – this camp will feature a variety of drills and statio ns designed to bu ild key volleyball skills, including pa ssing, setting, hittin g and serving.

Campers will also explore volleyball str ategy and play team games. To he lp foster their abilit ies , campers will receive valuable feedback during ev aluations as both individuals an d team members.

Armijo

TRX

Now in its third ye ar, the TRX training camp offers students in grades 6-12 the opportunit y to train

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Armijo

This camp will be directed by Harker athletics co ach Karriem Stinson, a certified TRX group instructor and wres tling coach, who also runs Hark er’s summer wrestling camp.

Photos by Stefan

for better fitness or prepare for an upcoming athl etic season .

The TRX suspensio n training system utilizes th e user’s body weight to grant th em access to a w ide variety of exercises that can strengthen co re, improve endurance and in crease overall athletic performan ce. Users can also easily adjust resistance to best suit their fitne ss goals .

who w ish to join the summer water polo camp must be able to sw im 25 yards.

Water Polo

The summer water polo camp is geared toward gr ade 4-8 students interested in learn Harker water polo ing the sport. coaches Allie Campers w ill learn Lamb and Ted Ujifus water polo a will direct the rules and terminolo camp. Lamb has pla gy, eggbeater ye d for some kicking, shooting, of water polo’s mo passing and st dis tinguished ball handling. Pla coaches, including yers w ill Ri ch Corso participate in scrim and Ricardo Azeved mages and o, an d was game play and lea team captain of th rn how to e 20 09 Santa condition for the Clara University wa water. Students ter polo team.

A water polo veter an of more than 50 years, Ted Ujifusa was a member of the Un iversity of California at Berkele y water polo team that wo n its first championship in 19 74.

Swim School

The Harker swim school, which caters to a stunning variety of skill levels and ages, is a great choice for anyone

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who enjoys this su mmertime activity. Half-hour swim lessons will be given to sw immers in 10 different skill levels , from those who are not yet co mfortable in the water to advanc ed swimmers.

Grade 3-8 student s interested in learning more abou t competitive swimming can join the Junior Swim Team. Participants will learn the principles and skills of competitive swimming in a no n-competitive setting. Those wh o wish to join the Junior Swim Team must be able to swim 25 yards unassisted and demonstrate know ledge of the four competitive swimmi ng strokes.

EagleReport

By Steven Boyle ’06

UPPER SCHOOL SPORTS

Basketball Teams Leave Their Mark; Wrestlers Qualify; Boys Tennis Kicks off Season with a Big Win rebounds against Woodside Priory and then followed that performance up with 28 points against Crystal Springs. Senior Lekha Chirala led team with 53 assists.

Wrestling Basketball

losing in the first round. They also had a Senior Night for the ages; when Crystal Springs forfeited, the girls played an intrasquad scrimmage in which Team Green defeated Team White!

Holt racked up 315 points and 162 rebounds, averaging a team-high 17.5 points per game. Irrinki, meanwhile, led the team with 330 points, averaging 13.2 points and a team-high nine rebounds per game. He also was named the San Jose Mercury News’ Santa Clara County Boys Athlete of the Week earlier in the year for his 35-point performance against King’s Academy, which included eight 3-pointers and a perfect record from the free-throw line. Senior Dylan Patel led the team with 80 assists, while junior Elijah Edgehill averaged 10.1 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.

The girls also reached the CCS playoffs after finishing with a 12-12 record,

Photos by Stefan Armijo

The gents went 16-10 this year, finishing in fourth place in the league, winning a CCS academic championship and reaching the CCS quarterfinals.

Their biggest win of the year, a 7138 crushing of Del Mar High School at home in front of a raucous crowd in the second round of the CCS championships was punctuated by senior Sriv Irrinki’s 20 points and senior Eric Holt’s breakaway dunk!

For the second year in a row, Davis Howard, grade 10, qualified for CCS after finishing in fifth place at the league wrestling championships. He represented Harker with two tough loss against talented opponents.

Anthony Contreras, grade 9, finished in eight place at the league wrestling championships and was named a second alternate for CCS. Contreras is only the fourth freshman in Harker history to place at the varsity level in league finals. Senior Ryan Palmer had one of the most memorable weeks of the year, going 2-0 by winning by pin against Homestead on his Senior Night and then winning again by pin against Lynbrook on their Senior Night.

Jordan Thompson, grade 10, led the team with 451 points, 20.5 points per game, seven rebounds per game and a free-throw percentage of 66. She also was honored by the San Jose Mercury News after she scored 38 points with 11 H A R K E R Q U A R T E R LY

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EagleReport Photos by Stefan Armijo

and then three again versus Crystal Springs. Kailee Gifford, grade 10, scored 14 goals and led the team with 13 assists this year.

Soccer The girls just missed qualifying for the playoffs after finishing 7-8-1 overall. Sophomore Joelle Anderson had an amazing season, racking up 31 goals with 12 assists. She was recognized in the San Jose Mercury News twice: once for scoring five goals with two assists in an 8-3 win over Priory, and once for scoring three goals against Mercy-Burlingame

For just the second time in school history, the boys soccer team defeated Menlo this season, beating them 3-1 on Harker’s Senior Day. They finished with a 10-4-2 record. Overall, junior Omar Hamade led the team with 15 goals. Senior Jeremiah Anderson had seven goals and seven assists, while senior Alan Guo tied for the team lead with seven assists.

Volleyball This winter, senior Shreya Dixit was named to the All-Mercury News second volleyball team for her performance in the fall. This recognition honors her as one of the best players in the section.

Tennis Harker’s varsity boys tennis team went an amazing 5-0 (6-0, 5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 5-1) to earn the Division 4 championship at the California Tennis Classic. It is “the most prestigious preseason tennis tournament in the state,” according to Dan Molin, upper school athletic director.

Photo provided by Eileen Schick

LOWER and MIDDLE SCHOOL SPORTS Varsity A (grades 7-8) girls basketball, coached by Richard Amarillas and Angelo Parangat, finished the season with a league record of 1-5 and have the WBAL tournament remaining on the schedule. Team awards went to Jennifer Hayashi (MVP), Lilly Wancewicz (Eagle), and Prameela Kottapalli (Coaches), all grade 8.

Varsity B (grade 7) girls basketball, coached by Allison Burzio and Kelcie Lai, is currently 3-3 with one game and the WBAL tournament remaining.

Team awards went to Cassandra Ruedy (MVP), Adhya Hoskote (Eagle) and Radhika Jain (Coaches).

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and Jon Cvitanich, finished the league season with a 7-0 record and are league champs! The girls will also participate in the WBAL tournament.

Team awards went to Courtni Thompson (MVP), Hunter Hernandez (Eagle) and Reina Joseph (Coaches).

Photo by Stefan Armijo

Girls Basketball

Middle school (grades 6-8) intramural basketball, coached by Chrissy Chang and Vince Salinas, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of basketball and playing intersquad scrimmages.

Team awards went to Vaishnavi Murari and Shreya Srinivasan (Eagle) and Aditi Vinod (Coaches).

Junior Varsity B (grade 5) girls basketball, coached by Dan Pringle and Vanessa Rios, finished the league season with a 6-0 record and are league champs! The girls also

participated in the WBAL tournament and finished in second place. They finished with an overall record of 8-1.

Team awards went to Brooklyn Cicero and Jacqueline Hu (MVP), Angela Jia and Ashley Barth (Eagle), and Gianna Chan and Anishka Raina (Coaches).

Junior Varsity C (grade 4) girls basketball, coached by Christina Mendoza and Tim Hopkins, finished their season with a league record of 3-3. Team awards went to Athena Wu (MVP), Brooke Baker (Eagle) and Jia Parikh (Coaches).

Lower school (grades 4-5) intramural basketball, coached by Therese

Wunnenberg and Sean Leeper, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of basketball and playing intersquad scrimmages. Team awards went to Syna Gogte, grade 5 (MVP), Aria Jain, grade 4 (Eagle) and Kavita Murthy, grade 5 (Coaches).

Photos by Stefan Armijo

EagleReport

Wrestling Middle school (grades 6-8) wrestling, coached by Karriem Stinson, Charlie Ward, Jason Mendel and Jeff Paull, worked tirelessly to learn the fundamentals of wrestling. They will compete in two upcoming tournaments. Team awards went to Kobe Howard, grade 8 (MVP), Devin Keller, grade 7 (Eagle), and Eric Fang, grade 7 and Anish Kilaru, grade 6 (Coaches).

Boys Soccer

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arsity A (grade 8) boys soccer, coached by Matt Arensberg, is currently 3-1-1 with two matches remaining in the season. Team awards went to Jared Anderson (MVP),

Champions!

Harker’s JVA (grade 6) girls basketball team won the championship in mid-March, 44-38. Congratulations!

Edwin Su (Eagle), and Aleksander Erk and Logan Frank (Coaches).

Varsity B (grade 7) boys soccer, coached

by Emily Oliver, finished the season with a league record of 2-2-1. Team awards went to Andrew Cheplyansky (MVP), Henry Wiese (Eagle) and Griffin Crook (Coaches).

Varsity B2 (grades 6-7) boys soccer, coached by Cyrus Merrill, is currently 0-6 with one match remaining in the season.

Junior Varsity A (grade 6) boys soccer, coached by Brighid Wood, is currently 3-1 with one match remaining in the season.

Team awards went to Ryan Tobin (MVP), Tuhin Chatterjee (Eagle), and Arjun Virmani and Rosh Roy (Coaches).

Junior Varsity B (grade 5) boys soccer, coached by Jared Ramsey and Tobias Wade, is currently 1-3 with two matches remaining in the season.

Team awards went to Raj Patel (MVP), Aaditya Gulati (Eagle) and Bailey Castle (Coaches).

Lower school (grade 4) intramural soccer, coached by Jim McGovern and Kristian Tiopo, enjoyed working on the fundamental skills of soccer and playing intersquad matches. Team awards went to Rigo Gonzales (Eagle), and Pranav Mullappalli and Michael Pflaging (Coaches).

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

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Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Lower School Students Become Filmmakers in Exciting After-School Classes

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By Debbie Cohen To view the awesome video made by these students, type this URL into your browser! https://youtu.be/iWF2_Yu-FUE

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wo afternoons a week, the lower school’s room 509 gets transformed into a movie and broadcast video production studio, thanks to two popular BEST (Bucknall Enrichment and Supervision Team) after-school offerings.

“

LOWER SCHOOL FILMMAKERS

The end r e student-m sult is a wonder f captures ade production t ul hat lots of m moments inside an emorable d outside the clas sroom. of

”

– Heather Rus sell, Harker St udent Produc tions

teacher

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro sell

Photo by Heather Rus

Photo by Heather Russell

At the end of the regular school day on Tuesdays, students in grades 4-5 become producers in the new Harker Student Productions (HSP) class, where they hone their video broadcasting skills. Then, on Thursdays, it’s “lights, camera, action” for grade 3 students enrolled in the Movie Makers class, now in its second year. In that class, students work to create part of the third grade video yearbook.

Following on the heels of last year’s

Photo by

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Kyle Cava

successful Movie Makers class, BEST launched the HSP course at the start of this school year. Sixteen students are enrolled in HSP, working in teams to plan, film, edit and prepare footage about school events, service projects and classroom happenings to be shared at the end of the class with the entire Harker community. HSP students learn how to use iMovie on iPads and can also apply to become volunteer mentors to the Movie Makers class.

In the Movie Makers class, students capture, import, edit and bring images to life, also via the iMovie app for iPads. The 14 students now enrolled work in teams and cover such topics as field trips, classroom events, playground fun, parties, service projects, sprit events and Eagle Buddies gatherings.

These shorter clips are then put together at the end of the year to serve as a video yearbook at the grade 3 party (a link is shared with parents as well).

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LOWER SCHOOL FILMMAKERS

Max Blennemann, grade 4, participated in last year’s Movie Makers class and is now enrolled in the HSP class. He also volunteers as a mentor to students in this year’s Movie Makers class. Taking his newly acquired filmmaking skills a step further, he recently made a short documentary, titled “Day in the Life of a Fourth Grader,” which was shared at an event for grade 4 parents.

on the idea of a grade-level video and also provide a vehicle for students to cover schoolwide topics.

The HSP broadcast is a student-directed, student-created, organic celebration of happenings at the lower school, Russell

made available from donations to Harker’s annual giving campaign – a gift for which grade 3 student Ceren Erdogan is especially grateful.

“I appreciate that we get to use electronics, because most schools don’t,” said Erdogan.

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

“My dream was for students to have a positive experience in the Movie Makers class and then want to give back as a mentor in the HSP class,” noted lower school teacher Heather Russell, who launched both the HSP and Movie Makers classes. “Max is an example of that dream becoming a reality.”

Photo by Heather Russell

“We have fun making videos and playing on the iPad. This is my favorite class at Harker.

Someday I want to be a movie director because of it,” said Blennemann.

The first video put out by HSP was a 14-minute-long labor of love for class participants and is available for viewing at http://youtu.be/eaYbJ4x1ca0. “The end result is a wonderful student-made production that captures lots of memorable moments inside and outside of the classroom,” reported Russell.

The HSP class evolved out of a Harkersponsored technology project grant Russell received after being inspired as an exchange teacher in Japan last year. After seeing a similar student-led video broadcast at Harker’s sister school in Tamagawa, Russell led Harker’s Movie Makers class in a collaborative video yearbook to show to the Japanese students. She wanted to expand

explained. The production includes concerns the students feel should be constructively expressed, reinforcement of the theme of the year and The Toolbox Project, and allows the students to be creative in communicating important issues and events at the lower school.

The iPads being used by students in both the Movie Makers and HSP classes were

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

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By Debbie Cohen

GreaterGood

Photos by Heather Russell

Students Bond Over Grade 3 Service Project families were invited to participate by dropping off items in the gym’s lobby.

Prior to the assembly, Ken Allen, lower school dean of students, urged parents to encourage their children to bring a pair of never-worn pajamas or a new book to donate to the program, noting that each “small donation will go a long way for someone who is less fortunate.”

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he much-anticipated Jan. 16 arrival of grade 10 students to the lower school campus signaled the start of two beloved annual Harker happenings: the schoolwide Pajama Day assembly and grade 3 Eagle Buddies gettogether.

The sophomore students participated in the assembly as part of the Eagle Buddies program. Held in the gym, the event celebrated a grade 3 service project in which students collected items to donate to the Pajama Program (www.pajamaprogram.org), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing new sleepwear and books to kids waiting to be adopted.

For the past eight years, to make life a bit better for children living in local shelters, the lower school has donated countless pairs of pajamas and boxes of books to the program. Over the years, Harker has contributed thousands of new items, according to representatives of the Pajama Program’s local chapter.

Although the drive was primarily a grade 3 effort, all elementary school

The assembly occurred on a special dress pajama day, when all the students and faculty were encouraged to wear their favorite jammies to school.

The program got underway with Butch Keller, upper school head, reading from the book “The Most Magnificent Thing” by award-winning author and illustrator Ashley Spires. Students enjoyed hearing the story, and seemed equally enthralled with seeing Keller donning a comfy robe and slippers, seated in a rocking chair on the stage.

of lower school students through this program,” said Kshithija Mulam, grade 10.

Mulam’s grade 3 pal, Alisha Jain, said “I like hanging out with my buddies.

I really liked doing the relay races together. That was a lot of fun.”

Jain’s other buddy, sophomore Vienna Wang, observed that “being an Eagle Buddy is a great stress reliever. You get to act like a kid again!”

Keller created the Eagle Buddies program to help bridge the upper and lower school campus divide.

The buddies stay together for three years, until the sophomores graduate and the third graders matriculate into middle school.

“Each small donation will go a long way for someone who is less fortunate.”

- Ken Allen, lower school dean of students

“Raise your hand if you brought a book for your Eagle Buddy to read,” said Keller, after he finished the story. A bunch of eager hands went up. Shortly after, the third grade students had the opportunity to read with their upper school Eagle Buddies, who had also been encouraged to bring items to donate to the Pajama Program.

Wearing a colorful assortment of robes, pajamas, slippers and snuggly knit hats, the grade 3 students and their big buddies then headed outdoors for a pizza lunch, socializing and field games.

“I have a little sister at home, so I am used to being around younger kids. However, it is always the same group of younger kids – her friends – so I really liked getting to know a totally new group

To read more Greater Good stories, please see our outreach link at Harker News, http://news.harker.org/category/upperschool/?tag=outreach, where you’ll find: Harker Advisory Makes Poetic Valentines for Fremont Shut-Ins Senior Creates Website to Raise Money for African Orphans Upper School Japanese Students Raise Money for Tohoku Relief GSA Club Shows Support of LGBT Community Lower Schools Annual Jump Rope for Heart Raises Money for American Heart Association

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Business & Entrepreneurship

By William Cracraft

Business & Entrepreneurship/DECA Students Achieve Notable Successes and Get Help with Career Choices DECA. Welcome to our family,” added Joshi.

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Along with competitions, students attended workshops, competed in role play and written events, had fun at Great America and sang karaoke. They also attended a formal dance, and the mini and grand awards ceremonies.

Advocacy Video Competition

First off, Harker DECA president Savi Joshi, grade 12 and advisor Juston Glass were named student of the year and advisor of the year, respectively.

The winners were chosen by nomination and no chapter has ever had both a student and advisor named in the same year. Joshi was chosen from more than 5,000 student members in California, and Glass was chosen out of more than 100 advisors in California.

State DECA Conference

Attending the state conference “was [not just] my final competition prior to the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) last April,” said Joshi, who took home a fourth-place award for her community service project. “It meant seeing my family in its element. That’s what DECA has become for me: a family. It’s the place and people I can go to when I need help, comfort or a challenge.

“ICDC is definitely a bittersweet event, as it signifies the end of a life-changing four year journey. I am DECA. We are Harker

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In late February and early March, 98 students from Harker’s DECA chapter traveled to the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara to attend California’s State Career Development Conference.

This four-day business conference and competition included workshops with renowned speakers, events with tough opponents and experiences for a lifetime.

“Our students did very well in competitions,” said junior Shannon Hong, Harker DECA director of communications and executive vice president of Silicon Valley DECA. The group took home three first-place awards, two third-place awards and 21 other top 10 awards.

Gla ss

Harker’s DECA program hit on all cylinders this winter, achieving new milestones!

DECA’s “I am DECA” theme is the cornerstone of its 2014-15 marketing and membership campaign, and the video by Ankur Karwal, grade 11, and Alexis Gauba, grade 10, was named one of the top three in the DECA Advocacy Video Challenge.

DECA challenged its members to produce a short video during Career and Technical Education Month that expressed their own stories and shared how career and technical education has impacted their high school experience so far.

More than 30 videos were submitted from high school and collegiate DECA members.

Business & Entrepreneurship Finish Line Finalists

“I felt that the spirit, camaraderie and mutual support reached an all-time high this year.

Personally, I think DECA taught me what it means to be a leader.”

—Jonathan Lee, grade 12, Harker DECA vice president of operations

network. We are now launching our second year of mentorship, a program that pairs students with professionals in their specific fields of interest so they can learn more about that specific niche and even shadow their mentors at their workplaces.”

Lead On

CareerConnect CareerConnect is Harker’s mentorship, career panel and professionalism program, featuring speakers from across a spectrum of professions.

Recent CareerConnect guests have included Jag Kapoor, president of Golden State Restaurants Inc.; Cammie Dunaway, CEO of KidZania United States; Gigi Kelly, adjunct professor at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia; and Gary Gauba, president of Cognilytics-CenturyLink.

“CareerConnect’s panels were a great success in their second year,” said Shannon Hong. “Many students came out to hear from professionals in the fields of medicine, law, computer science, engineering and business.

The panels provide a platform for students to learn from these professionals to gain an idea of a potential career path and build their

Photos provided by Juston Glass

Glenn Reddy, grade 12, and Logan Drazovich, grade 11, traveled to Indianapolis as one of three finalist teams nationwide competing in the DECA Finish Line Challenge.

The teams advised Finish Line Inc. executives on how the company can best utilize and improve upon its omni-channel retailing strategy and company branding. Reddy and Drazovich submitted a video as part of the competition, and they received the winning accolades, coming in ahead of the other two finalist teams.

More than 30 girls attended the Lead On Silicon Valley Conference for Women, along with more than 5,000 women from various industries, including technology, business, entrepreneurship and more. CareerConnect, part of Harker’s business and entrepreneurship program, sponsored the event with the help of Riverbed Technology Inc., which funded the entire Harker contingent to the event. Many, but not all, of the Harker attendees were from the B.E./DECA program.

Stock Market Game Harker DECA won its region with a final amount of $179,387.65. The next highest winner in the Western region scored $150,333.92; those were also the two highest scores nationwide.

Team members Safia Khouja and David Lin, both seniors, are eligible to travel to Orlando, Fla., in April to participate in the Stock Market Game at the 2015 DECA International Career Development Conference. At

that event, they will defend their investment decisions for a chance to be recognized at the ICDC Grand Awards Session.

The year isn’t over, but seniors are beginning to look back on their time with DECA with nostalgia and appreciation. “Of all my years of participating in Harker DECA, this year has certainly been the most enjoyable and rewarding,” said Jonathan Lee, grade 12, Harker DECA vice president of operations. “I felt that the spirit, camaraderie and mutual support reached an all-time high this year.

Personally, I think DECA taught me what it means to be a leader. It means that I have to put my team and my chapter before myself whenever I make a decision. Of course this lesson of leadership, loyalty and commitment has extended into every aspect of my life.”

Harker DECA is an international competitive business organization that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in four fields of business: marketing, finance, hospitality and management. The chapter integrates classroom instruction, applies learning, connects to business, and promotes competition so the next generation will be academically prepared, community oriented, professionally responsible and experienced leaders.

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All photos by John Ho

By Zach Jones

Student Directed Showcase Brings Students’ Visions to the Stage

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n January, Student Directed Showcase put on its 14th show, further cementing its status as one of the Harker Conservatory’s key programs.

The class, available to students who are selected after a thorough review process, puts students in the director’s chair and charges them with handling all aspects of putting on a show, including casting, blocking (positioning and movement of the actors on stage), visual elements, promotion and everything in between.

“The college counselors tell me it’s up there with one or two APs in terms of the load that a student will have when they choose to direct,” said performing arts department chair Laura Lang-Ree, who runs the class.

“If a student chooses to direct, 28

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they often will know [of their interest by] seventh or eighth grade. They’ve been coming to SDS or they’ve heard about SDS and they have this passion for leading something, though they may not really know what it is.”

in colleges too, the focus is on one area. Usually it’s performance, and there isn’t a whole lot of attention given to all of the other many, many areas of art that you can not only fall in love with but have a career in,” she said.

Lang-Ree got the idea for SDS while in graduate school. “I’ve always had a passion for all different types of performing, from dance to instrumental to theater, but when I took [a] directing class, all the light bulbs went on,” she recalled.

Like Lang-Ree, many Harker students have discovered their interest in directing through acting. “I remember my freshman year experience in SDS so clearly,” said senior Caroline Howells, who directed “Almost, Maine” at this year’s SDS and was one of four directors in the class.

“I have such fond memories of it, and I’ve done it every year since, and when it came time to apply to be a director I said, ‘Sure, let’s do this.’”

After earning a master’s in acting with an emphasis in directing, Lang-Ree began teaching performing arts at the upper school, where she set the wheels in motion for the first Student Directed Showcase. “Too often, in schools and S P R I N G 2 015

“I loved my directors, I loved the shows and I loved my characters,” said Zoe Woehrmann, grade 12, director of “Exit” at the most recent SDS. “All of my [fellow] directors ended up becoming huge role models for me.”

The process of selecting directors begins early in the spring semester, when LangRee finds students who are interested in directing a play. “Around

STUDENT DIRECTED SHOWCASE

“I truly believe that you can draw a straight line from SDS to my extensive college theater experience to my current career.”

– Grace Hudkins ’08

March or April, I’ll send them a series of questions to answer in written form and they’ll come and meet with me and we just talk,” she said. After taking a close look at every candidate’s work in the Conservatory, as well as “all the classes that they’ve taken here, leadership that they’ve

done inside and outside of Harker,” she receives feedback from school administrators and selects the following year’s directors.

Once the students accept their role as directors, they are given the summer to choose a play, which can be a lengthy but extremely important process.

“When you’re going to work on something that intensely and that deeply every single day and you literally can’t stop thinking about it, you’ve got to love it,” said Lang-Ree. “It really has to speak to them.”

Selecting a play proved timeconsuming for Howells, who looked at about 50 plays before settling on “Almost, Maine,” a romantic urban fairy tale set in a fictional town. “I read the first scene, the prologue scene, which is very iconic for the show, and I just knew I had to do it,” she said.

“I didn’t actually know what

I wanted, but I knew what I didn’t want,” Woehrmann said.

“I realized I wanted a heavy ensemble show. I didn’t want one protagonist.” “Exit,” which examines five characters who awaken to find themselves in a theater with no memory of how they arrived, was a perfect fit.

Once the plays are chosen, Lang-Ree meets with the directors to analyze and dissect their plays, which helps them discover what they will be looking for when choosing cast members.

“I think the lion’s share of the academic work is taking these scripts and breaking them apart into the specific acting unit,” said Lang-Ree. “What’s the point of attack? What is the

protagonist’s goal? Where is the climax for the production?

How does it arc?”

Directors also read one anothers’ plays and offer their own insights. The thorough analysis process gives students “plenty of room to play with their casts and get their interpretation and their feedback,” Lang-Ree said.

About 50 students audition for each play, and the directors work with one another and Lang-Ree to decide who will appear in each production. The entire process takes place in a single evening. “We discuss who is going to be in which production and why, what’s best for the student who’s auditioning, what’s best for the production, and because we know each other so well, usually it’s a pretty collaborative night,” said Lang-Ree. For some students, the transition from acting to directing can be daunting at times. “It was completely weird for me,” said Woehrmann. “Honestly, when I walked into the first rehearsal and I was the only

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STUDENT DIRECTED SHOWCASE

This wasn’t the only thing that I was doing after school.”

one there and I was setting everything up and sitting in the director’s chair, I was like, ‘What am I going to say to them?’”

“I always knew that it took a lot to put on a play, but I never realized how much thought

and planning goes into every moment. Every scene, every blocking choice, every rehearsal is carefully thought out,” said Grace Hudkins ’08, who directed “The Importance of Being Earnest” in the 2008 production. “You never know what an actor is going to need and you have to be prepared with a ton of tools in your back pocket ready to support whatever gets thrown at you.”

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Not surprisingly, the nature of each director’s play results in different directing styles, which can include taking some creative risks. When Woehrmann revealed “Exit’s” surprise ending to cast members after keeping it from them for a period of time, she was relieved that they liked it.

After callbacks with her cast, Howells replaced an entire scene with another one from the play she was directing, which led to some worry about how her actors would handle it. “The first rehearsal I had with them, I actually breathed such a sigh of relief because they actually had pretty good chemistry on stage,” she said. The changes didn’t end there. “If you look at the script of my show, it has very, very specific stage S P R I N G 2 015

directions, and I pretty much ignored most of them.”

The first-time directors also experienced other challenges that directors face on a project.

“With some people in my cast, I wasn’t always quite sure how to communicate with them,” said Howells. “Like, what does this person need in order to get them to the point that I want them to be at? And so definitely with some people it took me longer to find that point, but they all got there in the end.”

Scheduling was another issue.

“When you have 10 different people who all have different days where they’re not available, it’s very hard to find time,” Howells said.

“And we have our own lives too.

Because Woehrmann’s “Exit” did not utilize any scenery, she had to get creative with blocking to keep the action from looking too static. “I kind of didn’t want them to be walking aimlessly,” she said. “Because I wanted them to focus on the important parts, but I didn’t want them to be standing still in the middle of the stage not doing anything.”

Moreover, the live setting of a theater production always presents uncertainty. “I was terrified that they were going to forget a line, or that a costume was going to go missing or that a cue wasn’t going to happen. All of these things

STUDENT DIRECTED SHOWCASE

probably my favorite thing I did at Harker, and one of my proudest accomplishments.”

were constantly going through my head,” Woehrmann said.

“One of the most challenging things about SDS is that you’re not just the director; you’re the stage manager, the set designer, the costume designer, the publicist, the entire production team,” said Hudkins.

Thankfully, the actors’ growth during rehearsals and the confidence they had in the directors were a constant source of inspiration. “When you see people place their trust in you, it makes you care in such a different way than I ever have doing a show,” said Howells.

“Having them place so much trust in you, it made make me work harder for them. They’re all my best friends now.”

During discussions with her cast, Woehrmann was pleased

to discover that they had thrown themselves fully into their roles and had spotted aspects of their characters’ development that she hadn’t noticed.

Despite the challenges that come with directing a show, the directors find the experience to be highly rewarding. “The Thursday before we had an audience, when we ran through the whole show, I started crying,” Woehrmann said. “Because after it ended, it was just such a relief and we were so proud of our casts and that everything had come together.”

“Being a student director was challenging, it was exhausting, and it pushed me to my breaking point and beyond,” said Hudkins. “But it was also

SDS also develops skills that extend far beyond the theater and into a wide range of careers. “Of course it’s a highly artistic process,” said Lang-Ree, “but everything that they’re doing, they’re literally going to use from now on: how to plan a meeting, how

to handle a hard conversation, how to organize advertising for your event and make it successful, how to build a team that respects and likes you, how to make phone calls, how to put in receipts, how to go shopping for things.”

“It makes me more confident going forward in college and if I want to do auditions during college, then I’ll be able to handle all of that,” said Woehrmann.

Howells felt similarly. “In the

college program I’m going to, I know I’m going to have a lot of different opportunities to act and sing and direct and other things like that, and so I hope that this is just the first show of many,” she said.

Hudkins, who graduated from Mount Holyoke College and now teaches drama at an international school in South Korea, attributes her trajectory

since graduation to her time as an SDS director. “When I got to Mount Holyoke, I was already poised in my first year to take on major roles in production teams in our student theater organization, and I became involved practically by accident,” she recalled. Upon graduation, she became an intern at the school where she now works.

“I truly believe that you can draw a straight line from SDS to my extensive college theater experience to my current career,” she said.

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PerformingArts

By Zach Jones

“United Voices,” Harker’s annual celebration of vocal music, returned to the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater in early February. The concert featured a wide range of vocal groups from the lower, middle and upper schools, performing classical pieces, renditions of modern pop songs, selections from musicals, traditional songs from various cultures and much more. The Bucknall Choir greeted the evening audience with its rendition of the enduring hymn “Ubi Caritas” before making way for the middle school choirs to perform the Zambian traditional “Bonse Aba.” The middle school groups then performed individually. Other highlights included the upper school women’s group Cantilena singing Franz Biebl’s “Ave Maria,” show choir Downbeat’s rollicking version of the Brian Setzer hit “Rock This Town” and the evening’s finale, in which all performers gathered on stage to sing “Circle of Life,” from the classic Disney film “The Lion King.”

Lower School Singers Greet the Holiday Season A huge cast of performers from grades 2 and 3 took the stage at the Bucknall Theater on Dec. 18 for the annual Holiday Show. Dozens of students, directed by music teacher Carena Montany, sang a variety of songs to celebrate the holiday season, from classics “Jolly Old St. Nicholas,” “O Chanukah, O Chanukah” and “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” to newer fare including “Let It Go,” from the hit film “Frozen.”

The show ran smoothly thanks to the hard work of technical director Danny Dunn and her grade 5 technical theater class, as well as deck manager Ken Boswell and stage manager Stephanie Woolsey. Choreography was done by Kimberly Teodoro, and Melissa Lin and Toni Woodruff provided accompaniment on piano and violin, respectively.

Photo by John Ho

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Photos by Stefan Armijo

United Voices

Annual Grade 1 Show Celebrates the Spirit of the Holidays Days before the start of winter break, the homeroom students of Imelda Kusuma, Cindy Proctor, Larissa Weaver and Rita Stone gathered for the holiday show, titled “My Favorite Time of Year.” Directed by Carena Montany, the concert featured students singing holiday favorites such as “Frosty the Snow Man,” “Jingle Bells” and “Spin a Little Dreidl,” with students doing narration between songs. The performance of “Little Saint Nick” featured several dancers, with choreography by Jessalyn Espiritu.

Instrumental accompaniment was provided by pianist Melissa Lin and violinist Toni Woodruff. Danny Dunn and her grade 5 technical theater class served as the technical director and crew, respectively.

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PerformingArts

Photos by Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell

‘Wild’ Upper School Show Features 130 Dancers “Welcome to the Jungle,” the title of this year’s upper school dance production, took audiences into the wild for a jungle-themed romp that featured a cast of more than 130 dancers performing in sync to songs by artists including Guns N’ Roses, Phil Collins, Bjork and Lil Jon. The production was a showcase for student choreographers as well as dancers, with seniors Jacqui Villarreal, Sindhu Ravuri, Ryan Pachauri, Darby Millard, Erika Olsen, Andrew Zhang, Noel Banerjee and Ashir Bansal, and juniors Emily Pan, Ankita Sharma, Helena Dworak and Allison Wang choreographing routines.

Singers Perform with State and National Honor Choirs Five Upper School singers successfully auditioned for the California American Choral Directors Association’s All-State Honor Choir.

Ishanya Anthapur, grade 12, was named to the mixed choir; Madhu Karra and Sahana Narayanan, both grade 11, earned spots in the women’s choir; and Ashwin Rao, grade 10, and Gurutam Thockchom, grade 11, will join the men’s choir. Earlier this year, Anthapur and Narayanan were named to ACDA’s Regional Honor Choir. Rehearsals began in March for a special performance at the First United Methodist Church of Pasadena on March 28.

At the American Choral Directors Association’s national conference in late February, Karli Sharp, grade 8, performed with the Middle School National Girls Honor Choir, conducted by Elena Sharkova, chorus master of Symphony Silicon Valley and an expert on the choral music of Russia.

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PerformingArts Photos by John Ho

Winter Concert Showcases Middle and Upper School Musicians

2015

Middle and upper school music groups gave their first concert of the new year on Jan. 16 at the 2015 Winter Concert at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater. Performers included the two middle school jazz bands, the Grade 6 Orchestra, the Grades 7-8 Orchestra, The Harker School Jazz Band and The Harker School Orchestra. Among the many highlights was a special appearance by the middle school chamber groups, which performed both modern and classical pieces, including works by Bach and Green Day. The Harker Lab Band also made an appearance, playing a series of jazz selections by Duke Ellington, Fred Sturm and more. The Harker School Orchestra closed the evening, playing the entirety of Dvorák’s “Symphony No. 9” (popularly known ˇ as the “New World Symphony”) and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Overture to La Forza del Destino.”

Fifth Graders Bring Pinocchio to Life This year’s grade 5 show, held Jan. 29-30 at the Bucknall Theater, brought together a huge cast of 130 students for “No Strings Attached,” an updated musical adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio.”

Directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, the production followed the familiar tale of a wooden puppet’s quest to become a

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real boy and the challenges he encounters along the way, teaching him the value of friendship and honesty. The massive task of directing so many students could not have been undertaken without the help of a skilled and dedicated crew, which included Danny Dunn and her lower school technical theater class, costumer Carol Clever, stage manager Ken Boswell, deck managers Jordan Wong and Daniel Clark ’10, scenic artist Whitney Pintello, microphone managers Randy LeGris and Oanhna Ly and choreographer Jessalyn Espiritu.

PerformingArts Photo provided by Chris Florio

Senior Earns Place in National Orchestra – Again

Orchestra Takes First in Portland Festival The Harker Orchestra took top honors at the Northwest Orchestra Festival held near Portland, Ore., March 6 and 7! The musicians performed so well that “judges decided that a final round was not necessary to determine the winner, despite us competing as the smallest school in our division!” said Chris Florio, orchestra director. The annual middle and high school event is held at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, adjacent to Portland.

Harker competed in Division IVF (full orchestra). “We were actually supposed to be in Division IIIF (schools with 1,300 students or fewer), but I

was advised to compete in Division IV (1,301 students or more) since it’s more competitive.”

Florio thinks it likely Harker received the highest score of any group at the festival. “There were around 40 or more groups there,” he noted. “One judge gave us a perfect score. The orchestra director from the University of Portland was one of our judges, and he half jokingly offered our entire orchestra admission to his school.”

All in all, it was tremendous experience. “As a last minute honor, the festival director asked us to perform a command performance for the entire group of attendees,” said Florio. “He felt we were so exceptional that it would be a great experience for the other groups and judges to hear us.”

Dancers Perform at London New Year’s Day Parade Seniors Darby Millard and Noel Banerjee headed to London in late December to perform in the London New Year’s Day parade. “The two dancers earned an invitation this past summer while at the United Spirit Association Dance Camp, for their exceptional technique and performance skills,” said Karl Kuehn, upper school dance teacher. Aside from their performance in the parade, the students also went sightseeing around The Big Smoke and caught a performance of the musical “Wicked.”

Helen Wu, grade 12, has landed a spot on the National Youth Orchestra for the second consecutive year. “This group has quickly become the country’s premier honor for high school orchestral musicians,” said Chris Florio, upper school music teacher and orchestra director. The orchestra will embark on a tour of China over the summer, performing with famed Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit and pianist Yundi Li and premiering a new work by composer Tan Dun, the Grammy- and Academy Awardwinning composer of the score for “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Harker Instrumentalists Named to All-State Honor Bands In January, several Harker students were named to the California Band Directors Association All-State honor ensembles. Trumpeter Jack Farnham, grade 10, and clarinetists Kristen Park and Cynthia Hao, both grade 11, successfully auditioned for spots in the high school band, while clarinetists Nishka Ayyar, grade 8, and Jenny Shaw, grade 7, were named to the junior high school concert band. The students performed with their respective ensembles at the California Music Educators Association Conference in Fresno, held Feb. 19-22, rehearsing with students and performing for music educators from across California.

Photo provided by Karl Kuehn

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SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT:

Harker Speech and Debate

By Zach Jones Photo by Carol Green

Photo by Mary Mortlock

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or nearly a decade, Harker’s speech and debate program has given students the invaluable skills they need to present and persuade. In the past five years, Harker students have won multiple national championships in nearly every speech and debate event they have entered. The department’s profile has continued to grow as more people realize the critical importance of clear, persuasive communication.

The judges’ expertise in the chosen topics means students must demonstrate considerable knowledge of the subject area when arguing their sides.

Before department chair Carol Green joined Harker in 2006, the speech and debate program consisted of only a few dozen students at the upper school. “Now I myself teach about 70,” Green said. She attributes the heavy growth over the past several years in part to the program’s expansion into more types of events.

“Citizen judges are anyone off the street – lawyers, doctors, moms, dads. People you’re going to have to persuade in everyday life,” Green explained. “So you’re looking at a different type of persuasion, because they don’t know necessarily the most technical jargon, but you’re still looking at the human elements of persuasion.”

“When I first got here, the only two events we did were policy debate – which is a very technical two-person debate – and Lincoln-Douglas debate, which is a very technical one-person debate,” Green recalled.

In addition to public forum, the department added individual speech events and congressional debate, which fit better with the schedules of most Harker students. “So if a child takes a month off to go do robotics, they don’t lose out on a competitive edge because they just skip,” Green said.

“And so when we introduced these other activities that still taught oral communication skills, taught research skills, but maybe weren’t as intense, we had a greater retention level.”

These events have students debating a single topic yearround, requiring intensive research. They are judged by experts in the chosen topic who are keenly aware of how nuances of speech can affect how a message is received.

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In her second year at Harker, Green added public forum debate to the program. In contrast to the more research-heavy debate events, public forum changes topics every month, and is evaluated by citizen judges.

HARKER SPEECH AND DEBATE

Once more students began entering these events, “the students became successful and success breeds success,” Green explained. The program’s growing profile and the reputation it developed for building strong communication and presentation skills attracted more students to the program.

Senior Nikhil Kishore, who in the fall semester earned a trip to the National Speech & Debate Association’s Tournament of Champions, found that he enjoyed debate because it gave him more control over how far he progressed in comparison to other competitive events, such as sports.

“It’s a lot more student driven,” he said. “If you actually do more work yourself, that’s a lot. It really dictates how well you do, how much research you’ve done, how much prep you’ve done.”

Photo by Carol Green

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He has also found the environment highly collaborative, which has been key to his success. “It’s really good because you can bounce ideas off of [peers] and you’re working with some of the smartest people, which helps you create all these good ideas and things that you can work with in a debate.”

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These events have students debating a single topic year-round, requiring intensive research.

“If you get eliminated [from a tournament], you immediately turn around and become a member of the coaching staff and continue to help until Harker is eliminated as a whole,” Green said. “Because even though you’re an individual competitor, you’re still part of a team.”

In summer 2010, Harker’s middle school debate squad traveled to the National Junior Forensic League’s national Photo by Mary Mortlock

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HARKER SPEECH AND DEBATE

championship, where it took both first and second place in public forum. The addition of Karina Momary to the faculty later that year bolstered the middle school debate program.

Momary quickly sought to expand the middle school program by adding more events.

Having come from a larger debate program in her previous job, Momary wanted to enhance the middle school program by offering more than public forum, which focuses on current events. “Not everyone likes talking about current events. Some people want to talk about moral values and some people want to talk about policy issues,” she said.

“Being on the team is an amazing experience; the support I have received from the parents, coaches and peers has really helped me work hard toward improving.”

– Cindy Wang, grade 8

Since then, the middle school program has won at the national level in every debate event it has entered. “A lot of parents ask me which style of debate are we better at, and we are just as good at all of them,” Momary said. “Part of the reason is we encourage students to find their passion and to research something that interests them, and with that comes the passion to excel.”

When she joined Harker, there was a scarcity of local middle school debate competitions, which made preparation for national tournaments a challenge. Momary took the bold step to start entering her students into high school-level tournaments, which drew criticism from some in the debate community. “And then our kids started beating the high school kids,” Momary said. “And now all the middle school programs out here do the same thing.”

Photo by Carol Green

Green attributes much of Harker debate’s success to the resources available to students. “Honestly, I think the Harker community’s a large part,” she said. In a recent example, upper school debate teacher Greg Achten’s students were to debate on environmental issues, which prompted Achten to invite science teacher Kate Schafer to speak with his students on the topic. “Being able to draw from the rest of the Harker resources and the Harker community really allows our students to take it outside of the text,” Green said.

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Photo by Jenny Alme

Green added that students also learn how to argue from both sides of the debate, “forcing students to question their own beliefs, to understand and build stronger foundations in their beliefs, because they know what the opposition’s going to say and they know how build a response to that.”

Middle school students also get help from upper school debaters, who offer support and guidance at after-school practice sessions and workshops. Momary noted that middle school team captains are in near-constant contact with upper school captains to coordinate and prepare arguments. When middle and upper school students travel to tournaments together, they are set up as buddies. “Everyone supports each other and really works as a team,” she said.

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HARKER SPEECH AND DEBATE

“Harker debate is really like a huge family,” said Cindy Wang, grade 8. “The shared love of debate connects all of us and we help each other in difficult or stressful situations. Being on the team is an amazing experience; the support I have received from the parents, coaches and peers has really helped me work hard toward improving.”

A large part of debate’s popularity with Harker students can be attributed to the skills its students develop, which can be applied to many disciplines, including academics or future careers. “They’re learning how to construct an argument, which is really helpful when they’re doing things like writing persuasive essays or writing research papers and things like that, for social sciences and for STEM,” said Green.

“There’s nothing that would prepare them for the boardroom better than being able to stand up and deliver their ideas,” said Momary. “A few of the parents have come back and told me they watched their students talk to VCs in a boardroom and couldn’t believe that they had the ability to do that.”

“We focus a lot on current events. So it encourages you to keep up with the world and see what’s going on, which is pretty interesting because often you learn a lot of things that you wouldn’t have otherwise known,” Kishore said.

Photo by Mary Mortlock

As students frequently travel to tournaments, time management also becomes an important tool of the trade, which Wang found especially important. “I’ve learned to do my homework faster and more efficiently so I can leave time for debate, and I can apply this skill everywhere to do as much as possible in a given timeframe.”

At a recent speech and debate tournament held at University of

A large part of debate’s popularity with Harker students can be attributed to the skills its students develop, which can be applied to many disciplines.

California Berkeley, Sidra Xu, grade 6, reunited with her Eagle Buddy Claudia Tischler ’14, who now attends Cal. In addition to showing her support, Tischler brought gifts for Xu. She even brought along a ceramic owl that Xu had made for her as a good luck charm!

Photo provided by Karina Momary

Debate also gives students the opportunity to perform extensive research on a wide variety of topics. While researching a debate topic, students may immerse themselves in global economics, environmental sciences, current events or even the nature of debate tournaments themselves.

Photo by Carol Green

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Advancement

By Debbie Cohen

Harker Supporters Thanked at Head of School’s Circle Celebration At the end of February, hundreds of donors and members of the Parent Development Council (PDC) gathered on the upper school campus for the annual Head of School’s Circle Celebration.

“This year we decided to mix things up. Instead of having students come to parents for a presentation as in years past, we had the parents visit them!”

The evening event, held in the Nichols Hall atrium, took on a new, interactive format and was held earlier in the year than usual. (Previously, the celebration was held toward the end of the school year.)

– Allison Vaughan, Harker’s director of stewardship

The event served to thank annual giving donors, capital campaign donors, and planned giving and endowment donors for their continued commitment to Harker and its mission.

It also recognized the generosity of the Rothschild family and donors who contributed to the school’s historic $10 million Rothschild Matching Gift Challenge, as well as the Paramitas Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

Foundation for their generous support of the school and particularly the business and entrepreneurship department.

“This year we decided to mix things up. Instead of having students come to parents for a presentation as in years past, we had the parents visit them!” explained Allison Vaughan, Harker’s director of stewardship.

After mingling and enjoying appetizers – followed by welcoming remarks from Chris Nikoloff, head of school – parents had the opportunity to visit student activity showcases. Vaughan said she was excited that many students and teachers were on hand to discuss what they are working on and passionate about, giving donors a sense of the direct impact their gifts make at the school.

There were seven different showcases, with interests grouped from all divisions where applicable. Each showcase began with a short presentation and was repeated several times,

giving parents (who had been given a program and map) the opportunity to visit the showcases that most interested them.

The showcases were set up on the first and second floors of Nichols Hall.

On the first floor, there was “The Art of Communication” (English, history, journalism), “It’s Showtime!” (voice, dance, instrumentals), “Understanding by Design” (making, mathematics, computer science, robotics), “Learn

by Doing” (speech & debate, business & entrepreneurship) and “We are Team Harker!” (athletics). On the second floor, there was “Creativity Comes Alive” (visual arts) and “Science and Research: Hands-On Discovery” (science, research); in addition, the school’s new anatomy table was on display.

Many parents said they appreciated the chance to participate in the Head of School’s Circle Celebration in such a meaningful way, by observing what their children are learning.

Current Harker parent and PDC member Satish Dharmaraj (Nila, grade 3; Nikhil, grade 8), whose son was a presenter at the speech and debate showcase, said, “The new format was

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Advancement really refreshing and educational. It’s as good as it gets in seeing your money in action. Many parents loved to see the breadth of activities that students are passionate about that the school fosters. A great evening overall.”

Program. Through the generosity of the Raju & Bala Vegesna Foundation, Harker has the unique opportunity to support transformational professional development opportunities for a few faculty members each year.

Before the evening came to a close, Nikoloff made an exciting announcement about a new program for teachers called the Raju & Balu Vegesna Foundation Teacher Excellence

Faculty members who wanted to be considered for the program submitted applications on March 6. (Look for an update on this program in the Harker Quarterly summer issue!)

Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

Photo by Maria Gong, parent

Save the Date: ‘Wild West’ is the Theme of this Year’s Grandparents’ Day, Slated for May 8!

Grandparents’ Day events will be held on May 8 at both Harker Preschool and the lower school. A long-standing Harker tradition, the day gives students on both campuses the opportunity to invite their grandparents or special adult friends to the school for a memorable afternoon in their honor.

This year’s theme will be “Wild West,” which promises to make for a fun-filled afternoon. New

this year, tickets will be emailed to parents who have registered their children’s honored grandguests. The tickets must be printed in advance and brought to the event in order to attend.

If you have questions, please email Teré Aceves at tere.aceves@harker.org for further information.

Registration closes on April 24.

MAKE GIFTS BY MAY 31!

Please make gifts and pledge payments by May 31, 2015 to be included in this fiscal year. Gifts may be made online at www.harker. org/onlinegiving or mailed to the Harker Advancement Office, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. For questions, please contact Melinda Gonzales at melinda. gonzales@harker.org.

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By Zach Jones

T

The Harker Concert Series brought back one of its heavy hitters on Jan. 28, and for good reason. Playing to a sold-out audience, the Taylor Eigsti Trio proved again why it deserves to be a big draw in the modern jazz landscape.

This band is comfortable. Bassist Harish Raghavan and drummer Eric Harland were still twisting knobs and turning pages as Eigsti began setting the mood for the show opener, “Speaking Song,” with deep chords and flitting notes.

Eigsti then shifted gears to give his bandmates room to shine, as Raghavan drifted into an airy bass solo, with effective note choice, catching fire as Harland picked up steam for an effortlessly musical drum solo.

Eigsti’s taste for texture served him well in the opening of Brubeck’s “Strange Meadlowlark,” sprinkling scale runs atop a layer of chords before casually strolling into a more subdued version of Brubeck’s often-overlooked 4/4 swing.

Following “Meadowlark” and the afternoon-walk-after-heavyrainfall quality of the trio’s version of Leonard Bernstein’s “Some Other Time,” the Eigsti original “Play with Me” felt like a splash of ice cold water.

Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

Eigsti’s taste for texture served him well in the opening of Brubeck’s “Strange Meadlowlark,” sprinkling scale runs atop a layer of chords before casually strolling into a more subdued version of Brubeck’s oftenoverlooked 4/4 swing.

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During the intermission, attendees commented on the concert and the accompanying spread in the Nichols Hall atrium.

“We’ve had a great time because we arrived in time for some wine and hors d’oeuvres and then we went into the auditorium, which is lovely,” said Anna Ranieri. “We’re really enjoying the program, the wonderful ensemble.”

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“I think it’s an excellent venue,” said Judy Busch, who had seen Eigsti’s previous Harker Concert Series performances. “It’s just small enough to be intimate and yet the sound and everything is exceptional.”

In the second set, Eigsti kicked things off with a pair of standards, one of which transitioned from a marvelous Raghavan bass solo to an irresistible groove, heralded by Harland’s rattling snare.

For the final two pieces, Eigsti invited his longtime friend Dave Hart, Harker middle school music teacher, to sit in on trumpet. Performing as a duet on “Body and Soul,” Eigsti and Hart beautifully captured the hope and heartache of the jazz classic, with Hart showing that his neither his improvisational chops nor his interplay with Eigsti have waned since the two began pursuing different careers.

The band got back together for the closing number, a rendition of “Caravan” that riffed on Duke Ellington’s standard with time changes, wild syncopation and rhythms slightly reminiscent of Latin jazz. After a dazzling intro from Eigsti, they careened into the mix as Hart capably took the lead, showing no sign of being overwhelmed by the act he had to follow. Meanwhile, Eigsti continue to show his gift for finding beauty in nearly any sound, flirting with atonality and what others might even call noise.

As the end approached, Harland was due. Taking the cue from Eigsti, the Grammy-nominated drummer launched into the final solo of the evening, which included an extended drumroll that showcased Harland’s astonishing endurance and control.

This review has been edited for space. To read the full review, go to news.harker.org and search “Eigsti.”

GlobalEducation Upper School Swiss Student Exchange Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary

By Debbie Cohen Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education, can hardly believe a decade has gone by since the upper school launched its exchange program with students from the Collège de Gambach in Fribourg, Switzerland.

“The first one occurred in the school year 2004-05!” enthused Walrod.

Mid-February heralded the beginning of this year’s program, with the arrival of 11 Swiss exchange students and their two chaperones.

“New friendships formed quickly between the grades 10 and 11 Harker students and the Swiss buddies they hosted,” recalled Walrod.

The Collège de Gambach is a secondary school under the authority of Switzerland’s department of public education and cultural affairs. The school is located near an important economic and cultural border between German and French Switzerland.

While visiting here, the Swiss students lived in homestays with their Harker hosts and their families, allowing them to become fully immersed in American life. They enjoyed observing various classes, as well as exploring sights locally and beyond the Bay Area.

After going on a tour of the upper school with their Harker pals, the exchange students observed and participated in such classes as dance, debate, art, chemistry, drama, poetry and American history. They also made Native American dream catchers with Photos provided by Jennifer Walrod

Keith Hirota, middle school social studies teacher and K-8 department chair.

Another highlight for the Swiss students was taking an American cuisine cooking class at Cucina Bambini, a local hands-on cooking school.

Grade 11 Harker student and program participant Daphne Yang shared that it was the little things that she remembers most fondly about time spent with her Swiss buddy. Things like hanging out at the mall and talking over coffee at Starbucks.

“The Swiss visit was really a learning experience. I got to interact with people from a different background and culture than I am used to, and I had fun picking up bits and pieces of their lifestyles as they were immersed in mine. It made me realize how much I enjoy learning not only other languages but the culture that comes with it, and with all the fun we’ve had, I can’t wait to visit Switzerland in the summer to learn more!” said Yang.

One thing that really interested Yang was that the Swiss buddies had never seen a school bus before. She found it “very cute” that they were awed by the yellowness of the vehicle and took pictures and selfies in front of it.

At the end of their special time together, Harker students and their new Swiss buddies said their goodbyes over a farewell party in the campus bistro.

Come June, they will be reunited, this time in Switzerland, with the same buddies paired up once again. The upcoming adventure will afford the Harker contingent the opportunity to immerse themselves in Swiss culture, brush up on their language skills and explore the country’s vast natural beauty.

Ken Barber, an upper school substitute teacher who assisted Walrod dur-

ing the Swiss visit, said the best thing about watching the interactions between the Harker and Swiss students was the development of close relationships.“Their interactions seemed to be warm and genuine,” he recalled.

Diana Moss, upper school Spanish teacher and Class of 2015 dean, “loved hosting the Swiss chaperones, Cyril and Ole. They were enthusiastic about experiencing every aspect of American culture, including vinyl records, old cars, motorcycles and country music. They were particularly excited to see my husband’s ‘man

“I had fun picking up bits and pieces of their lifestyles as they were immersed in mine. It made me realize how much I enjoy learning not only other languages but the culture that comes with it.”

– Daphne Yang, grade 11 space’ garage packed full of tools and choice gadgets, saying it was exactly the image they had of a typical American home. We engaged in long and lively discussions about culture, language and schools, and our home felt very quiet after they’d left. I know we’ve established a friendship that will endure – exactly the goal of a cultural exchange!” said Moss.

To read more Global Education stories, please visit our Harker News page at http://news.harker. org/tag/global-education/. Among the most recent stories there are: WFLMS Students Visit to Harker a Memorable Experience Upper School Communication Studies Teacher to Visit WFLMS on Exchange Program Middle School Students Head to China to Visit WFLMS Buddies

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Milestones Soccer Coach Named Head Coach of National Team In January, Harker varsity soccer coach Shaun Tsakiris was named head coach of the Under-16 U.S. Boys National Team, just days before the team headed to Turkey for the 2015 Aegean Cup. The team won its first game against Romania, but dropped the next two games against Norway and Turkey, the latter being decided by a single goal in the 26th minute.

Tsakiris is a longtime coach at the De Anza Force Soccer Club, a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. He has been instrumental in the success of the Under-14 and Under-16 teams and nearly all of his players have received college scholarships. He also runs the Harker soccer summer camp.

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Upper School LID Director Receives Gold Disk Award from SVCUE Diane Main, upper school director of learning, innovation and design, was recently selected to receive a Gold Disk Award from Computer Using Educators (CUE), the parent organization of SVCUE, which holds its conferences at Harker’s upper school campus.

Main, a passionate technology advocate and educator, will be presented with the award at the CUE 2015 annual conference in Palm Springs, which takes place March 19-21.

Main, a Google certified teacher and education trainer, has given several courses on the use of technology in education at Silicon Valley CUE events 44

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By Zach Jones

and spent much of last summer at conferences in California, Philadelphia and Atlanta, giving talks on the use of Google Maps as an education tool, the learning benefits of Minecraft and more.

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Harker Teachers Attend People of Color Conference In December, three Harker teachers and members of Harker’s Diversity Committee flew to Indianapolis to attend the NAIS People of Color Conference, titled “Pit Stops & Victory Laps: Going the Distance, Driving the Change and Leading the Race toward Equity and Excellence.” At this fourday conference, teachers, administrators, parents and high school students from throughout the country explored issues relating to social justice. Karriem Stinson, lower and middle school assistant athletic director and Harker wrestling coach; Pilar Agüero-Esparza, upper school art teacher; and Patricia Lai Burrows, middle school English teacher were grateful for the opportunity to listen to inspiring keynote speakers. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson addressed the complicated history of race relations in the United States, causing deepened thinking and reflection about the continued relevancy of these issues in today’s society. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in 2011 when The New York Times published his article about this experience, shared his thoughts about current immigration reform. Dr. Derald Wing Sue schooled audiences on the dangerous impacts of daily microaggressions, igniting much reflection on what schools and teachers can do to address and combat them. In addition to keynote speeches, the conference hosted affinity spaces

to facilitate rich discussion and reflection, workshops on an array of topics led by independent school teachers and consultants, and regional breakout sessions to help schools network and collaborate with one another. It was an incredible professional development experience, and Stinson, AgüeroEsparza and Burrows are excited to share what they learned with the Harker community.

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Library Director Gives Keynote at ProQuest Global Meeting Susan Smith, library director, was a keynote speaker at ProQuest’s Global Sales Meeting in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 10. Speaking on “Developing Partnerships in Education: Inquiry-Based Learning,” Smith shared the importance of teaching 21st century learners to search, evaluate and synthesize information with the audience of more than 400. ProQuest is a provider of high-quality digital resources for industry, universities and public and private schools. Harker students use ProQuest databases including CultureGrams, SIRS Discoverer, Ebrary and Historical Newspapers on a daily basis. In her talk, Smith suggested that information providers implement a more scaffolded approach to database interface. “It was a great experience,” said Smith. “ProQuest’s managers and sales reps alike said they appreciated hearing the needs of a school library program. Others commented they were ‘inspired’ by the Harker information literacy program.”

By Debbie Cohen

AlumniNews

Harker Welcomes Alumni Home for the Holidays Sixty alumni from Harker’s classes of 2011 through 2014 returned to campus for the annual Home for the Holidays event held in early January. The casual afternoon of refreshments and

socializing took place on the upper school campus in the festively decorated Nichols Hall atrium.

Upper school faculty and staff were invited to join in the fun, welcoming back and reminiscing with the college-age alumni, who were in town during their winter breaks.

Eric Zhang ’13 noted that it felt strange to be walking around the campus as a visitor and not as a student. “It’s odd to be here with no obligations,” he said.

Standing next to him, pal J.T. Cho ’13 agreed, adding, “It’s a new chapter in our lives.”

Zhang and Cho had already spent time hanging out over the break, and said they would continue to stay in touch with one another, the school and their peers.

Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

According to Karri Baker ’84, director of alumni relations, alumni needn’t wait for the Home for the Holidays gathering to pop by and say “hi.” “We love to see them any time of the year!” she enthused.

Recent Harker Graduates Publish Articles in Prestigious Academic Journals

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Thanks to their exceptional research, writing and critical-analysis skills, several recent Harker graduates have published articles on topics related to STEM, the social sciences and history.

Vikram Sundar ’14, Jenny Chen ’13, Kevin Duraiswamy ’14 and Sarah Howells ’12 all had papers printed in highly regarded academic journals.

In February, the Harvard Political Review (HPR) published Sundar’s article, titled “Harvard Should Fix Its Gender Gap,” which focuses on the lack of women in STEM fields on campus.

Written and published entirely by Harvard undergradu-

ates, the HPR was launched in 1969 and remains America’s preeminent student journal of politics, policy and culture.

Sundar said he first became interested in writing the piece after noticing that very few of Harvard’s female students were pursuing STEM at a high level.

That discovery, he explained, led him to try to determine what causes the gender gap at a high-level institution like Harvard and how the university could help fix the problem.

“The reaction (to the article) has been uniformly positive both from female students with STEM interests at Harvard and from their professors,” he reported.

In his article he asserts that it is easy to attribute the gender gap in technical fields to factors outside of Harvard’s control, and allows that this is largely true. He goes on to say, however, that

there are simple steps Harvard can take to help reduce these discouraging factors. “After all, the existence of the gender gap means that we are losing around one-half of all highly capable STEM students because of cultural entrenchment,” he writes at the paper’s conclusion.

While doing research for his paper, Sundar spoke to fellow Harvard student and Harker alumna Ramya Rangan ’12, who is also making strides to level the field for women in STEM. Rangan is the current president of Harvard’s Women in Computer Science Society.

“This article shows that two of our graduates [now] at Harvard are dedicated to the issue of equity in STEM classes. A proud moment for us,” said Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs.

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AlumniNews social sciences department at Harker’s upper school, noted that two alumnae also have been involved with the HPR: Olivia Zhu ’11 is the publication’s digital editor and Emily Wang ’13 has published a number of articles in the journal.

Meanwhile, Chen, a Stanford sophomore, submitted a paper she originally wrote as a Harker senior for Damon Halback’s course “International Issues in Public Policy” (now offered as “Modern International Affairs”) to the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal (SURJ).

Photo provided by Jenny Chen ‘13

Her paper, “Employing a Vaccine-Centered Maximalist Policy to Mitigate the Cholera Crisis in Haiti” was published in the journal’s spring 2014 issue. According to Sue Smith, Harker’s library director who co-taught the research portion of Halback’s class, Chen was one of only two freshmen included in that issue of SURJ. “In her bio for the journal, Chen says she was first introduced to public health policy (now her major, along with human biology) in Mr. Halback’s class, and that it inspired her to pursue research in epidemiology,” said Smith.

“I wrote my paper on cholera in Haiti in Damon Halback and Susan Smith’s International Issues in Public Policy class,” recalled Chen. “We were given a lot of freedom when choosing our paper topics, but I knew from the get-go that I wanted to write about global health and infectious disease. At the time Haiti was still reeling from the 7.0 earthquake in 2010, so I did more research on the issue and ended up writing my policy proposal for the class on the cholera epidemic that had developed in the aftermath of the earthquake.”

For the SURJ version of her article, Chen added an abstract and some final revisions. “The journal has been circulated

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among various research symposiums on campus, and to my surprise, I have even been approached by classmates and faculty who have read the article,” she said.

research grants for students to write on their chosen topic in U.S. history. The Mitra Family Endowment, established in 2011, provides research grants for students writing on humanities subjects, including literature, art, music and the social sciences.

Kevin Duraiswamy ’14, now at Princeton University, was recently published by the well-respected Concord Like Duraiswamy, Howells Review. His paper, which attends Princeton Univerhe wrote for one of Harker’s sity and found success two humanities endowments with a paper that began programs, is titled “Ancients as a project funded by a Alive: The Influence of the Mitra grant. Howells was Roman Republic on James the first Mitra scholar, Photo provided by Madison’s Conception of the Sen- Kevin Duraiswamy ‘14 and her paper, “Winston ate and the Resulting Impact on the Churchill’s Efforts to Unify Britain from American Constitution.”

1940-1941,” brought her first place in the 2012 inaugural Churchill Research The Concord Review: A Quarterly Paper Competition sponsored by the Review of Essays by Students of HisUniversity of Minnesota’s Churchill tory is the only academic journal in the Center. “I was pretty surprised,” Howells said of winning the Churchill prize.

“I learned so much not “Since this was the first year of the only about what I was competition, I was not sure what the expectations were.” researching but also about

the process of writing a longer research paper, and that has left me well prepared for college. I am deeply grateful to Harker for giving me the opportunity to do such a project and to The Concord Review for recognizing the work I had done.”

- Kevin Duraiswamy ’14 world to publish the research papers of high school students. More than 1,000 history research papers have been published in The Concord Review, featuring authors from around the globe.

Duraiswamy received his grant from The John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund, founded in 2009, which annually sponsors

The Near and Mitra endowments have become symbols of the Harker community’s dedication to helping students pursue a broad array of interests. The endowments have funded 21 meticulously researched historical analyses to date.

Duraiswamy, when asked about his reaction to being published in The Concord Review, noted: “The experience of writing the Near paper was wonderful. I really enjoyed being able to pick a topic that interested me, explore it at a deep level and produce original work on the subject. I learned so much not only about what I was researching but also about the process of writing a longer research paper, and that has left me well prepared for college. I am deeply grateful to Harker for giving me the opportunity to do such a project and to The Concord Review for recognizing the work I had done.”

AlumniNews

Save the Date for the 2015 Golf Classic on April 13 The annual Harker Golf Classic, presented this year by the Harker Alumni Association, will be Monday, April 13. Held at the beautiful Stanford University Golf Course, the event is open to Harker alumni, parents, alumni parents and their friends. Alumni volunteers and honorary marshals Pat Walsh and Howard Saltzman will help make the day memorable along with refreshments, special awards and prizes.

Capping off the day will be a 19th hole reception on the clubhouse patio for golfers, as well as non-golfers wishing to join in on the fun. For more information and registration: http://www.harker.org/golfclassic.

Photos by Kyle Cavallaro

Santa’s Winter Wonderland Attracts Record Number of Alumni Families Once again, Santa’s Winter Wonderland brought the Harker community together, this year attracting a record showing of more than 130 people.

The annual holiday celebration was held in early December on the lower school campus for Harker alumni, faculty, staff and their families and friends. A highlight of the beloved pre-Christmas event was watching children take turns sitting on Santa’s lap and having pictures taken with him, which were then printed out for them to keep. The children also had fun playing games, doing arts and crafts, and decorating gingerbread cookies, which they then took home in decorative holiday boxes.

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AlumniNews Alumnus Makes Forbes’ Prestigious ‘30 Under 30’ List! major metropolitan areas.

A leading source for reliable business news and financial information, Forbes is well known for its annual lists and rankings. The “30 Under 30” list (http://www.forbes. com/30under30/#/) prides itself on predicting the brightest and most ambitious young adults to watch in the coming year.

The 2015 categories include venture capital, enterprise technology, consumer technology, sports, social entrepreneurs, science, retail, music, media, marketing, manufacturing, law, entertainment, health care, games, food, finance, energy, education and art. More than 600 millennials were featured on the lists, with Silicon Valley at the forefront of startup culture.

DoorDash (www.doordash.com) hires its own drivers to offer home delivery from restaurants unable to provide such service. In just two years, 22-year-old Fang, a Stanford graduate with a degree in computer science, and business partner Stanley Tang have “I’m grateful for my raised an impressive $19.7 million in startup friends and family for funding. DoorDash now helping me get serves five

Fang, a former Harker Quarterly cover boy (having been featured in a to this point and graduation photo in the summer glad to have 2010 edition), said the support he is honored to have been selectof the Harker ed. “I’m grateful community!” for my friends and – Andy Fang ’10 family for helping me get to this point and glad to have the support of the Harker community!”

Last year three Harker alumni were included on the Forbes list. To read about them: http://news.harker.org/ harker-alumni-make-forbes-coveted30-under-30-lists-of-rising-youngstars/.

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If readers know of other Harker alumni who made the Forbes list, please bring them to our attention by writing news@harker.org.

Photos provided by Andy Fang ‘10

Andy Fang ’10, cofounder of the Palo Alto-based, on-demand food delivery startup DoorDash, was included on Forbes magazine’s prestigious “30 Under 30” list of young movers and shakers in the consumer tech category.

AlumniNews

Photos provided by Pam Dickinson

Harker Holds Alumni & Family Reunion in Taipei, Taiwan On March 7, 50 alumni families gathered for a Harker family reunion in Taipei, Taiwan! At the event, alumni, their spouses, parents, children and grandparents joined Harker administration members Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancement (accompanied by his wife, Blanca), and Pam Dickinson, director of the Office of Communication and former weekend boarding program director (aka “housemama”) to reminisce about their time at Harker and hear about current school happenings.

The enjoyable evening included a special tribute to Harriet Skapinsky, who established Harker’s world-renowned English as a Second Language program.

In addition, a Distinguished International Alumnus Award was presented to Laurence Kao ’89, former boarding student, international patent lawyer and law professor in Taiwan.

The event also included a visit from a magician, who kept the kids enthralled.

Stay Connected Connect with alumni through Facebook and LinkedIn as your new social and professional lives ramp up! We’d love to hear from you! http://www.linkedin.com/groups/HarkerAlumni-166447 (or just go to LinkedIn and search for Harker alumni) https://www.facebook.com/ HarkerAlumniAssociation (or – you guessed it! – search for Harker Alumni Association while logged in to your Facebook account) We have partnered with EverTrue, an app that puts Harker’s alumni network right at your fingertips! Discover what your classmates are up to, find jobs and reconnect with old friends.

Download the new app, available for iPhone and Android, at http://web.evertrue.com/network/harker.

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ClassNotes

Submitted by Class Agents

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.

1972 Class Agent: Stephen Worsley (saworsley@hotmail.com)

1973 Class Agent: Alan Stevens (getalan@gmail.com)

1976 Class Agents: Joy Aliason Younes (joycyounes@yahoo.com); Cindy Cottrell DeAngelo (cldeangelo@yahoo.com) Cindy Cottrell-DeAngelo reports that Michael Menzel got married this past summer. He recently joined Facebook and looks forward to reconnecting with his former classmates.

1977 Class Agent: Mike Pons (michael.pons@gmail.com)

1978 Class Agent: Silvia Malaccorto (smalaccorto@contoural.com)

1979 Class Agent: Chip Zecher (chipzecher@hotmail.com)

1980 Class Agents: Greg Argendeli (slackmaster@gmail.com); Lisa Sharon Morel (lisa.morel@gmail.com)

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Photo provided by Kristin Giammona ‘81

1981

Class Agent: Kristin (Scarpace) Giammona (kristing@harker.org) Class agent Kristin (Scarpace) Giammona, Harker’s elementary division head, recently met up with Ashley Skipwith ’98. “She was in my grade 5 homeroom in 1993-94. She is currently a housing coordinator at Harvard University and lives in Boston. While I was in the Boston area for the NAIS conference, we reconnected. We had not seen each other in 20 years, so it was great fun.

We keep in touch via Facebook,” recalled Giammona.

1982 Class Agents: Tina (Johnson) Murray (tinammurray@earthlink.net); Pauline (de Vos) Aasen (thedutchfox@gmail.com); Keil Albert (kaalbert@geo-consultants.com) Dana Lurie has enjoyed keeping in touch with some fellow Eagles this past year through various informal get-togethers.

She and her partner recently sold their business, Green Turtle Travel, but will continue

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to travel back and forth to Ecuador/Galapagos a few times a year to visit family. Dana and classmate Michelle Magboo hope to co-host a class gettogether in April.

own business called Chico Back and Neck Pain Center.

“I am married to my high school sweetheart and have two girls, Dylan, 14 and Josie, 10,” he added.

Tina (Johnson) Murray lives in Los Gatos with her husband, 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son. Tina continues fundraising for her daughter’s local public school, and most recently joined the board of directors of the Skylar Hadden Foundation to ensure program funding for her son’s school program for children with Asperger’s and ADHD.

1985

1983 Class Agent: Jeff Joseph (jeff.joseph@nothingbundtcakes.com)

1984 Class Agents: Karri Baker (karribaker@me.com); Jeff Rogers (jeff@viviansdad.com); Kristin Quintin (kristinq1030@yahoo.com) Matt McCowan (MS ’84) shared that he attended Bellarmine College Prep for high school before going onto Cal State Chico and the University of Hawaii, Manoa, for college. He was then off to the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic and has been in private practice since 1998, running his

Class Agents: Nik Stojanovic (nikolai_02@yahoo.com); Loren Due (voodue2@hotmail.com)

1986 Class Agents: Kevin Sakai (kevin@kasfinancial.com); Tiffany Kitamura (tkitamura@aol.com)

1987 Class Agent: Michelle Nguyen (Kernsting@yahoo.com)

1988 Class Agents: Eric Xanthopoulos (erdomail@gmail.com); Aileen Eveleth (a_eveleth@yahoo.com)

1989 Class Agent: Katie Wilson (mkate_wilson@yahoo.com)

1990 Class Agents: Jennifer Cady Logan (skinbyjennifer@gmail.com); Chris Yamashita (iamtheyamo@yahoo.com)

1991 Class Agent: Ashley Anderson (anderbruin@gmail.com)

Class Agent: Amanda Mathias Bonomi (amandambonomi@gmail.com)

1993 Class Agents: Joy Paterson (joypaterson@gmail.com); Tala Banato (tala.banato@gmail.com)

1995 Class Agent: Lisa (Bowman) Gassmann (lisagassmann@gmail.com) Christina Aquila and Katie (Chou) Hollier both had babies. Please see the Celebrations section for details!

1996 Class Agent: Ashley S. Franke (ashley.franke@gmail.com)

1997 Class Agents: Chelsea Gilliland (cgilliland@gmail.com); Lindsey Hochrine (lynn.laka@fireskyresort.com)

2002 Class Agents: Akhsar Kharebov (axarharebate@gmail.com); Yasmin Ali (yasminfali@gmail.com); Isabella Liu (isabella.a.liu@gmail.com)

2003 Class Agents: Julia N. Gitis (juliag@gmail.com); Maheen Kaleem (maheenkaleem@gmail.com) Class agents Maheen Kaleem and Julia Gitis were thrilled to report busy and productive happenings from the Class of 2003!

The agents noted that last

year both Ilya Sukhar and Surbhi Sarna were named to the Forbes “30 under 30” lists for their incredible accomplishments. Ilya is the co-founder and CEO of Parse and Surbhi is the founder of nVision Medical.

The Harker Quarterly covered that story in its spring 2014 issue. (Please see the Alumni News section of this issue for an article about Andy Fang ’10 who was included on a Forbes list this year.)

Misha Nasledov is a lead engineer at if(we), a social and mobile technology company, and is one of only three people who’ve won two Weeble awards.

He spends his free time car racing, sometimes doing nonstop endurance races that last up to 24 hours.

Dav Yendler works as an illustrator in Chicago. His work appeared in the Cards Against Humanity’s Holiday 2014 Campaign.

Cathy Kim is finishing up law school at Columbia and will be returning home to clerk for Magistrate Paul S. Grewal of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

After spending a few years in New York, Shanghai and Beijing, Deborah Tu returned to the Bay Area where she develops urban infill residential and mixeduse projects.

Speaking of coming back home, Peter Noonan’s son is now in kindergarten at Harker, and Julia Gitis is

now the lower school’s admission director. Julia also recently got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details!

2004 Class Agents: Jacinda A. Mein (mjacinda@gmail.com); Jessica C. Liu (jess.c.liu@gmail.com) Jessica Liu sent in a fun photo of a mini-reunion she enjoyed with some former Harker classmates over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. “We are all still very good friends and decided to rent a house in Santa Barbara over the MLK holiday. This photo was taken on the Santa Barbara pier with my GoPro,” she explained. Front row (L to R): Sameer Deen, Aditi Bhattacharyya, Nickisa Hodgson, Jacinda Mein.

Back row (L to R): Courtney Johnson, Prithi Trivedi, Jessica Liu. Photo provided by Jessica Liu ‘04

1992

Having spent the last half of 2014 volunteering in India, Emma Hawley has relocated to the Bay Area for the first time since graduating from Harker and staying in LA after finishing at UCLA. While abroad, she volunteered at the ashram head-

Photo by Hugo Jordan

ClassNotes

quarters of the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in Chennai, an organization devoted to offering free heart-based meditation in more than 100 countries worldwide. She helped in the publications and media departments, including working on a redesign of the quarterly English magazine, various graphic design projects and artistic direction of multimedia.

She’s happy to now be near the local ashram in Fremont where she continues to help in various capacities. She’s part of the open house committee, facilitating introductory meditation sessions around the Bay. She’s thrilled to be back in Santa Clara near her family (Harker’s upper school Latin teacher John Hawley and wife, Claire).

The Class of 2004 had its 10-year reunion the evening of Dec. 23 at the Village Bistro in Santana Row. Upper school faculty and staff were invited to attend as a gesture of gratitude for all the guidance and encouragement they provided the alumni during their special high school years. About 50 people attended and a good time was had by all.

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Class Agent: Erika N. Gudmundson (erika.gudmundson@gmail.com)

2006 Class Agents: Meghana Dhar (meghanadhar@gmail.com); Jeffrey Le (Jeff87@gmail.com); Casey Near (caseylane@gmail.com)

2007 Class Agents: Cassie Kerkhoff (cass.kerkhoff@gmail.com); Audrey Kwong (audmusic@gmail.com)

Upper school math teacher Tony Silk enjoyed getting together for lunch with Evan Maynard back in December. “Evan recently graduated from Purdue with his master’s in aerospace engineering (as did I). He now works in Seattle on spacecraft,” recalled Silk.

Class Agents: Stephanie Syu (ssyu363@yahoo.com); Senan Ebrahim (sebrahim@fas.harvard.edu)

2009 Class Agents: Rachel Wang (rachel.serendipity@gmail.com); Stephanie Guo (stephanie.j.guo@gmail.com); David Kastelman (davidksworld@gmail.com) Back in December, Neelaysh Vukkadala, who is now in medical school at UCSF, returned to Harker to lead a workshop during several afternoon classes of HAPy (Human Photo by Kyle Cavallaro Anatomy and Physiology).

During his visit to the upper school, he showed students how to perform thoracic surgery as well as suturing up the incision.

Photo provided by Sophi Scarnewman ‘09

2008

Sophi Scarnewman (formerly Newman) got married. Please see the Celebrations section for details! In other news, Sophi is a newly minted birth and postpartum doula working in the Bay Area. She is currently building her doula business, Blackberry Babies.

She graduated from Stanford University in 2013 and spent a year as an associate product manager at Google before leaving to pursue a career as a doula. “I spent a year working on Google+, with my biggest project being a complete redesign of

the Android Google+ sharing function. Ultimately, my decision to leave Google has much less to do with any shortcomings of my teams (whom I loved) or Google (a truly great employer) than it does with my own passions and priorities as an individual. Although I certainly studied a lot of disciplines in college, I cared most about and put the most of myself into Stanford’s Sexual Health Peer Resource Center. I worked there for four years and spent my last two years of college at the helm. My work as a doula picks up those threads of reproductive health, running a business, and providing support/counseling. I hope to help mothers and their partners make birth into an empowering, energizing and meaningful experience,” she added.

2010 Class Agents: Kevin Fu (kf800@yahoo.com); Adrienne Wong (adriee@gmail.com)

2011 Class Agents: Rani Mukherjee (rani.mukherjee18@gmail.com); Hassaan Ebrahim (hassaan.e@gmail.com) Karthik Dhore sent in a photo from his fall racing season (he is at the front

Photo by row2k Media

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of the boat) on the crew of Princeton’s rowing team.

“I’m a senior on Princeton’s lightweight rowing team and have been on the team for four years. Our spring racing season starts in a month so we’re getting ready for that right now,” he said.

2012 Class Agents: Will Chang (thewillchang@gmail.com) David Fang (david.fang75@gmail.com) Photo provided by Lauren Pinzás ‘12

2005

Photo provided by Tony Silk

ClassNotes

Conservatory grad Lauren Pinzás, currently a junior studying vocal performance at Southern Methodist University, wrote to performing arts chair Laura Lang-Ree that she is getting serious mileage out of her musical theater certificate training at Harker! She notes she is debuting one of the lead roles in “Wading Home,” an opera based on Rosalyn Story’s novel, centered around the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The show opens in April. “My background in musical theater helped because I may have to dance for it, and I will definitely be acting and singing. Thank you for your input in my process as a singing artist!” she writes.

ClassNotes 2013 Class Agents: Kathir Sundarraj (13KathirS@alumni.harker.org); Nikhil Panu (13NikhilP@alumni.harker.org); Nicholas Chuang (13NicholasC@alumni. harker.org)

Brown University’s all-male choir, “Brown Derbies.” In early January he came out here with the group and put on a great show at the upper school. Rohan is Derbie No. 153; to learn more about the group: http:// brownderbies.com/.

Rohan Chandra is part of

2014

Photo by Kyle Cavallaro

Class Agents: Nithya Vemireddy (nithya.vemireddy@gmail.com); Adith Rengaramchandran (adithram@gmail.com); Connie Li (connieli32@gmail.com) The College Board recently announced that Albert Zhao earned the distinc-

tion of being one of only 15 students who got perfect scores on their AP Microeconomics exams, taken in spring 2014. AP Exams are graded on a scale of one to five, with five being the top score, but Albert went a step further, earning every point possible on the examination, answering every multiple choice question correctly and earning full points on the free-response section of the exam.

Shenel Ekici, a freshman at Barnard College, was selected to be part of a photo shoot for the December issue of the Barnard Bulletin.

Check out the online version at http://issuu.com/barnardbulletin/docs/barnardbulletindec2014. She’s featured on pages 3, 5 and 21 (main section) and is one of the “alternate” front covers. One of the things Shenel loves most about being at Barnard is that she gets to enjoy a small, liberal arts women’s college while attending classes on the same campus at a major ivy-league school (Columbia, with which Barnard is affiliated). Shenel is majoring in neuroscience and is on the pre-med track.

Alumni Celebrations Please join us in congratulating the following alumni: On Feb. 9, Barrett James Kai-shi Hollier was born in a car on the freeway (I-10 in New Orleans) on the way to the hospital, delivered breech by his daddy, Brian Hollier! Mom Katie (Chou) Hollier ’95, daughter of Harker’s upper school history teacher Carol Zink, and baby are doing fine. “My other daughter, also a Harker alum, had her baby on Dec. 23 the more conventional way. Baby Margaret was born at the hospital in Monterey. Mom is Kristine (Chou) Hime ’98, a naval officer and student at the Naval Postgrauate School in Monterey,” said the proud grandmother.

Christina Aquila ’95 and her husband, Marc, welcomed their second daughter, Poppy Erin Aquila, on Dec. 10. “She joins Photo provided by Christina Aquila ‘95

big sister Violet at our home here in Vermont. Coincidentally, Poppy shares the same birthdate as Kate Stober’s [’95] son Alex, who was born Dec. 10 the year before,” shared Christina.

Photo provided by Sophi Scarnewman ‘09

Sophi Scarnewman ’09 (formerly Newman) got married last March and is still riding the newlywed high! “My husband, Bobby, and I are especially excited about how we combined our last names: Newman (me) and Scarduzio (him) into a shared last name,” she said. Here, a group shot from her

wedding features the happy couple with Harker friends. From L to R: Sharon Su ’08, Alix Briggs ’08, Ju-Hyun (Matt) Park ’10, Kendra Moss ’10, Bobby and Sophi, Lexi Ross ’09 and Joe Hospodor ’09.

Julia Gitis ’03 got married on June 8, 2014 at the Presidio in San Francisco.

She met her husband, Max Lipschultz, in Boston while in graduate school at Harvard. “Both my maids of honor, seven out of my nine bridesmaids, one groomsman and many of our guests were Harker alumni!” she said. “One of my bridesmaids, Gabrielle DeMers ’03 was part of the Harker Conservatory and is now an opera singer. She sang during my wedding ceremony,” recalled Julia.

Photo provided by Melanie Alice Photography

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LookingAhead Coming Attractions MS & US Spring Concert

April 10

US Musical “Into the Woods”

April 16-18

Kindergarten Show

April 23-24

In Concert Bucknall Music Concert MS Musical “Honk!”

Senior Showcase Bucknall Dance Concert

April 30 May 7 May 8-9 May 22 May 29-30

Co-Sponsored by the Communication Studies and Business & Entrepreneurship Departments

Into the Amazon:

How One Presentation Changed My Life

Larry Lansburgh Academy Award-nominated documentarian and author of "The Simple Key to Great Presentations"

Thurs., April 9 | 5 p.m.

Nichols Hall Auditorium Admission is Free

www.harker.org The Harker School | 500 Saratoga Ave. | San Jose

SAVE THE DATE!

Research Symposium

2015

10 Years

Sat., April 11 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Nichols Hall | Saratoga Campus

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H A R K E R Q U A R T E R LY

SPRING 2015

LookingAhead Presented by the

Harker Alumni Association

GRADUATION Class of 2015

Mon., April 13

Sat., May 23 | 9 a.m.

The Mountain Winery

Stanford University Golf Course

Senior Families Only by Reservation

19th Hole Reception to Follow at Clubhouse

Sa

THE HARKER SCHOOL GALA

Date! e h t ve

s!

Amazing Academvicities!

Awesome Acti and More!

Math•Language Ar

Sky’s the Limit

ts•Science•Art•

K-Gr. 5

2

REGIS 015 TR N ATION

O OPEW N

Gr. 6-12

For-c redit enrich & ment cours es

ng & ic morni Academ ves. ti c le e on afterno

June 15

-Aug. 7

.7 June 22-Aug

.

Other Programs

Sat., May 9 www.harker.org/gala

•Sport Camps •Swim School

•English Language Institute (International Students)

Visit our website for more details!

summer.harker.org

campinfo@harker.org | San Jose | 408.553.5737

Harker Quarterly (USPS 023-761) is published four times per year (September, December, March and June) by The Harker School, Office of Communication, 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Jose, CA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Harker Quarterly, 500 Saratoga Avenue, San Jose, CA 95129.

H A R K E R Q U A R T E R LY

SPRING 2015

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1976

Harker Academy

Photo courtesy of the Harker Archives

I

t would be easy to draw analogies between the sandboxes of yesteryear and the sandbox of innovation that Silicon Valley has become, but Harker’s lower school sandboxes still look much like this one: a healthy bunch of kids grubbing in the sand, creating miniature worlds that overlap, connect and are wiped out in a flash to be built anew — using nothing more than a few buckets and cupcake forms.

This photo was taken in 1976 at the original kindergarten on the Saratoga campus — the only campus at the time — in what is now the dance studio. A new kindergarten space was constructed in 1992. The teacher pictured is Evelyn Kamas, according to Harker archivist Terry Walsh.

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