Harker Magazine Fall/Winter 2016

A PUBLICATION OF THE HARKER SCHOOL l FALL/WINTER 2016

M A G A Z I N E

ance!

Vibrant program focuses on fun, creative expression

COLLEGE COUNSELING

TEACHER PROFILES

LIBRARY DATABASES

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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M A G A Z I N E

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FAL L/W I NTER 2016 I V O LU ME 8, N U MB E R 1 Pam Dickinson Office of Communication Director William Cracraft Managing Editor

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Catherine Snider Production Editor Mark Kocina Photographer Jennifer Maragoni Copy Editor Zach Jones Rebecca McCartney Staff Contributors Blue Heron Design Design Published two times a year, Harker Magazine showcases some of the top news, leading programs, inspiring people and visionary projects of the greater Harker community.

Have an idea?

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

On the cover: Hazal Gurcan, grade 12 On this page: Niki Iyer, grade 12 On the back: Cheerleaders at Homecoming All photographs by Mark Kocina

HAR KE R MAGA Z I N E l FA L L/W I N T E R 2016

H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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CONTENTS Self-Reflection and Guidance Characterize the College Counseling Process Casey Near ‘06 shines a light on Harker’s college counseling services.

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Singing Ceramic Balls Ramps Preschool STEM, art and music specialists collaborate on a harmonious project.

Let’s Dance!

Students reflect on the pleasures and benefits of dancing.

Students Merit Top-Notch Library Databases

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Researchers benefit from our impressive library staff and resources.

Play Sports!

A look at why playing sports is a win-win for camaraderie, fitness and careers.

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Headlines: Head of School Chris Nikoloff on government,

civility and why we need to engage in both..........................................2

Top Stories: A summary of recent articles from Harker News

online...............................................................................................................................4

Gallery: A look at the past semester in our community,

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performing arts, art and sports................................. 8, 26, 36, 44

Face Time: Up close and personal with four teachers.

.................................................................................................... 13, 19, 35, 43

Impact: Alumni and students making a difference in the world. ............................................................................................................................ 28, 46

Passion: Two stories about alumni following their dreams.

............................................................................................................................ 30, 48

Student Work: Each issue we highlight a story or art by

students................................................................................................................... 50

Staff Kudos: What’s happening in the professional lives of our

faculty and staff.................................................................................................... 56

Archives: The beginnings of The Harker School.......................... 57 Class Notes: Alumni news......................................................................... 58 H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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From its early beginnings in 1893 — when Stanford University leaders assisted in its establishment — to its reputation today as a leading preparatory school with graduates attending prestigious universities worldwide, Harker’s mission has remained constant: to create an environment that promotes academic excellence, inspires intellectual curiosity, expects personal accountability and forever instills a genuine passion for learning. Whether striving for academic achievement, raising funds for global concerns, performing on stage or scoring a goal, Harker students encourage and support one another and celebrate each other’s efforts and successes, at Harker and beyond. Harker is a dynamic, supportive, fun and nurturing community where kids and their families make friends for life.

INAUGURAL HARKER MAGAZINE This is the first issue of the semiannual Harker Magazine, the offspring of Harker Quarterly, winner of CASE silver and bronze awards, and two Marcom platinum awards. Look for more in-depth features, fun profiles and great photos in our new magazine!

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

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The Harker School is an independent, coed, collegeprep school serving preschool through grade 12.

Preschool: 4525 Union Ave., San Jose, CA 95124 K-Grade 5: 4300 Bucknall Rd., San Jose, CA 95130 Grades 6-8: 3800 Blackford Ave., San Jose, CA 95117 Grades 9-12: 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 Produced by the Harker Office of Communication 500 Saratoga Ave., San Jose, CA 95129 communications@harker.org · 408.345.9273 NEXT EDITION: SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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headlines

About Harker

WORDS BY CHRISTOPHER NIKOLOFF PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK KOCINA

On Government, Civility and Exercising Our Rights to Both

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inston Churchill is often credited with saying that “Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others.”

While this quote expresses little esteem for democracy, it shows even less esteem for government in general. Governments are composed of humans; therefore, they are, almost by definition, imperfect. Thomas Jefferson held a similar distrust of governments as expressed by his famous, “That government is best which governs least.”

The country is currently divided, edgy, anxious and cantankerous. In recent years there has been a rise of divisive offense taken on college campuses. Various media are reporting a rise in hate crimes and speech.

There is a need to demonstrate that all lives matter. Nations are turning inward. Globalization is on its heels. There are eerie parallels to the early 20th century.

How much of this is predetermined by government? One of the best quotes about government’s impact on the day-to-day activities of the heart comes from the 18th century poet and polymath Samuel Johnson: How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.

The couplet asserts that there is a rich panorama of daily life, relationships, work, solitude, community and family that remain untouched by the laws of the land; one can say that these arenas are governed by the laws of life, not man.

Laws or kings do not dictate how kind we are within our communities, or command whether or not we show respect to someone with whom we disagree. Laws or kings do not prevent us from listening a little harder to a perspective with which we disagree, or keep us from showing tolerance to a culture or way of life that is not our own. Laws or kings do not compel us to judge that which is different from us.

And laws or kings do not have a final say on whether or not we choose to use hateful, stereotypical, insensitive speech among friends and acquaintances or to strangers.

The greatest moment during the 2016 election, I believe, was when an elderly man stood up to show his support for Donald Trump during a rally for Hillary Clinton in North Carolina that featured President Obama. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, Obama’s response was deeply admirable. I mean this completely apolitically.

President Obama asked, no he ordered, his own supporters, who were heckling the Trump supporter, to “Hold up. Everyone sit down and be quiet for a second.” He then added with vehemence (by Obama’s standards), and rather ungrammatically, “You got an older gentleman who is supporting his candidate. He’s not doing nothing.

You don’t have to worry about him.”

Obama continued: “First of all, we live in a country that respects free speech.

So, second of all, it looks like maybe he might have served in our military and we ought to respect that.

Third of all, he was elderly and we’ve got to respect our elders. And fourth of all, don’t boo, vote.”

Tolerance, from the Latin tolerantia, means endure or bear, which takes effort not provided by laws or kings but by our own willpower.

I am not saying that governments have zero influence on the civility and respect shown among their citizens. I am saying that regardless of the general culture surrounding us and our children on the Internet, in the news or even in our neighborhoods, how we treat each other largely remains our choice.

We have what the philosophers of free will call “agency” in the areas of civility and respect.

How we treat each other largely remains our choice.

Obama assumes not only knowledge of the first amendment to the Constitution but a conscious decision to honor it. Laws or kings do not compel us to honor the right to free speech in any given moment – we do. We are not forced to respect our elders or military service, or to show tolerance to a dissenting opinion, as Obama was clearly enjoining his audience to do – but we can choose to.

Alexis de Tocqueville, an astute 19th century observer of American democracy, wrote, “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

Laws or kings do not decide for us whether we are good or not good. We decide, each and every day, with a thousand small acts, thoughts, words.

Therefore, each and every day, we also decide whether or not we will be great.

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top stories

Top Stories Recent stories reprinted from Harker News online.

Harker News publishes stories online about our students and faculty, highlighting accomplishments and celebrating successes. This Top Stories feature reprints the most widely read Harker News stories since the last issue of Harker Quarterly (June 2016). Visit news.harker.org to see full stories and hundreds more articles noting the truly remarkable efforts of our Harker students and faculty.

Upper school student qualified to International Math Olympiad

Science and Engineering Fair, held May 8-13 in Phoenix, and four came home with significant awards.

May 16, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7AF

Jonathan Ma, grade 12, an Intel Science Talent Search finalist this year, received a First Award of $1,500 from the American Statistical Association at Intel ISEF for his project, “GenomicsBased Cancer Drug Response Prediction Through the Adaptive Elastic Net.”

In May, as a top scorer in the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), Swapnil Garg, grade 10, was invited to participate in the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program at Carnegie Mellon University.

Harker takes historic first step at groundbreaking ceremony May 3, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7zE In May, Harker took a historic step toward building the new athletic and performing arts centers as students, faculty, staff, donors and the board of trustees broke ground at a special afternoon ceremony on Rosenthal Field, site of the new facilities.

Head of School Chris Nikoloff made some opening remarks to the crowd before introducing Diana Nichols, board chair and former head of school.

Several groups were then given the honor of breaking ground with gold-painted shovels. This ceremony opened the latest in a series of campus-altering efforts that included moving three large trees to a space outside Nichols Hall.

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Garg is one of several Harker students who qualified to take part in the USAMO and the USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) based on their performance in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) and American Invitational Mathematics Examination.

Other USAMO qualifiers were senior Richard Yi, junior Kai Ang and junior David Zhu. Sophomore Jimmy Lin, and freshmen Katherine Tian and Michael Wang qualified for the USAJMO. More than 200,000 students took the AMC 10 (grades 10 and below) and AMC 12 (grades 12 and below) exams.

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Four awarded prizes at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 17, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7BL Harker sent a number of budding scientists to the Intel International

Amy Dunphy, grade 10, was awarded $1,200 by the China Association for Science and Technology for her project, “Preventing Urushiol (Poison Oak) Induced Dermatitis by Deactivating the Allergen.”

The team of Rishab Gargeya and Manan Shah, both grade 11, won a Third Award of $1,000 for their project, “Automated Diagnosis of Diabetic Retinopathy Severity in Color Fundus Images Using a Novel Synthesis of Biological and Data Driven Approaches.”

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Class of 2016 graduates at momentous ceremony.

Chan: “You are too good to be forgotten” May 20, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Cf The Class of 2016 received a grand send-off at commencement exercises, held at the beautiful Mountain Winery in Saratoga.

Graduates, students, parents and faculty came together one last time

for a special evening of inspiring words and lifelong memories.

Valedictorian Anika Mohindra remarked, “I’m going to remember the things I loved doing and the people I loved spending time with – you. I hope you do too.”

Keynote speaker Priscilla Chan, co-chair of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, said, “Focus yourself on the change that you want to see in the world. Take on what’s most interesting to you. Take lots of risks.

Ask for help. Believe in yourself and ask others to take a bet on you.”

.Student wins gold medal in U.S. Physics Olympiad, five others finish strong May 31, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Dh Swapnil Garg, grade 10, won a gold medal in this year’s U.S. Physics Olympiad, sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). Although he did not make the team that will participate in this year’s International Physics Olympiad, Garg was one of only 35 students (out of about 400 who qualified to take the USA Physics Olympiad Exam) to earn a gold medal.

Peter Wu and David Zhu, both grade 11, received silver medals in the contest, while sophomore Jimmy Lin and seniors Jonathan Ma and Michael Zhao received honorable mentions.

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13 Harker seniors receive National Merit scholarships June 9, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7AU

Head of School Chris Nikoloff encouraged the graduates to “drop any concept you have about who you should be in the future,” and to make plans and set goals, “but just don’t get too attached to them. Use them, but do not let them use you.”

Nikoloff added that students’ contributions to the world will be revealed to them as they continue their journey through life. “You are taking and making your life as you go, and who knows what ripples throughout eternity you will create?” he said.

Harker had 13 winners of $2,500 National Merit scholarships in 2016 out of more than 15,000 finalists nationwide. Winners, all 2016 graduates, were Vivek Bharadwaj, Jonathan Dai, Victoria Ding, Stephanie Huang, Joshua Hung, Vineet Kosaraju, Evan Lohn, Anika Mohindra, Emily Pan, Karen Qi, Allison Wang, Esther Wang and Michael Zhao.

More than 1.5 million high school students were entered into this year’s National Merit Scholarship Program after taking Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Tests. Fewer than 1 percent of these students went on to the semifinal round of the competition, and only 15,000 of those were named finalists.

Senior named regional finalist in Google Science Fair for eye diagnostic app Aug. 11, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7HK Senior Rishab Gargeya was named a regional finalist in the international Google Science Fair 2016. Thousands of participants from more than 100 countries entered their projects in the competition. Gargeya’s project is one of only 100 finalists selected from around the globe. It is currently one of the top 50 projects in the 1618 age category identified as having the potential to change the world.

The project summary notes, “This study develops a novel smartphonebased diagnostic tool that can automatically detect any retinal abnormality within seconds. Through the use of a low-cost external ophthalmic lens attachment, individuals can diagnose themselves with their smartphones at any time, allowing them to seek medical attention accordingly to prevent any potential vision complications.”

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top stories 2016 grad wins gold medal at International Informatics Olympiad Sept. 2, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Kz In August, Lawrence Li ’16 received a gold medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), an international programming competition held this year in the Russian city of Kazan. Li’s medal was one of three gold medals won by the United States team, which tied for first place with China and Russia. The event consisted of six problems, each worth up to 100 points. A minimum of 416 points was necessary to earn a gold medal.

One of five international science Olympiads (along with those in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology), the IOI was started in 1989 to foster student interest in computer science. This year, 308 contestants from 80 countries participated in the competition.

The selection process was rigorous, said Cindi Timmons, team manager and coach for the National Speech & Debate Association, “from hundreds of applicants that began … to the final 20 who participated in an online interview process with a nationwide panel.”

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Alumni take on presidential campaign roles Sept. 14, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7MF Three alumni deferred personal lives to work for 2016 presidential campaigns. Isabella Liu ’02 went to Florida to work on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Liu, a field organizer, first got involved in January and played a key role in San Francisco during the California primary.

Felix Wu ’15 took a full-time position with the Iowa Democratic Party.

During an Aug. 10 rally in the Iowa state capitol of Des Moines, Wu gave a speech to the large crowd that had assembled for an appearance by Clinton.

Shannon Hong ’16 worked in New York on the Clinton campaign.

“This summer, I was given the opportunity to represent my personal role model in Philly, and now, I am elated to be able to help again in Brooklyn,” she said.

Harker senior one of nine in U.S. named to national debate team Sept. 6, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Lg Harker senior Aditya Dhar was one of only nine students nationwide named to Debate Team USA! The U.S. team will compete in a series of global debate competitions with teams from six continents, and will finish up at the world championship in August.

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Harker team wins best in nation at TEAMS competition Sept. 14, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Mt In June, Michael Kwan, Jimmy Lin, Sahana Srinivasan, Justin Xie, Shaya Zarkesh, Randy Zhao and Jerry Chen, now all grade 11, were named the best team in the country at the Test of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics and Science (TEAMS)

national conference in Nashville.

Their essay covered the field of optogenetics (controlling cells in living tissue through the use of light).

TEAMS is a STEM-based competition in which high school students apply their knowledge to solve current and upcoming challenges.

“Our whole team learned a lot through working together on the group events, and it was definitely exciting to see our hard work pay off when we ultimately came out on top,” Lin told the Winged Post.

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Harker student named BROADCOM finalist, travels to Washington in October Sept. 15, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7MS The Society for Science & the Public named freshmen Cynthia Chen, Aarzu Gupta and Maya Shukla semifinalists in this year’s Broadcom MASTERS competition.

Chen went on to earn second place in the science division. She received a $2,500 award for her project aimed to alleviate drought problems by creating a capsule that houses seeds surrounded by water crystals, allowing them to grow with just a third of the water usage.

The Mercury News published a nice article about her: http://bayareane. ws/2geYaeE. Gupta and Shukla were semifinalists in the competition and the Los Altos

Town Crier recently published a story about their project, “A Test of the Mutagenic and Carcinogenic Potential of Nicotine-Free Electronic Cigarette Additives.” http://bit.ly/2foFDeI

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Nearly 60% of Harker seniors recognized by National Merit Sept. 16, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7MU Forty-five Harker seniors, 24 percent of the class of 190, were named semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program on Sept. 14. They are among 16,000 semifinalists out of 1.6 million students who took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) in their junior year. National Merit semifinalists represent less than 1 percent of U.S. high school students.

Additionally, Harker had 65 students who placed in the top 3 percent of test takers nationwide, whom the NMSC has recognized as Commended Students. This number, combined with the number of semifinalists, brings the number of Harker seniors recognized by National Merit to 110, or 58 percent of the Class of 2017.

Winners of National Merit scholarships will be notified in spring 2017.

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Harker National Honor Society inducts a record 50 new members Oct. 20, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7Qa The Harker chapter of the National Honor Society inducted a record 50 new members on Oct. 6 during a ceremony held in the Nichols Hall auditorium.

“We believe that these (and all) NHS members represent the highest ideals of Harker – avid scholarship, impeccable character, strong leadership and a proven dedication to serving others,” said biology teacher Mike Pistacchi, who serves as Harker’s NHS moderator.

enjoyed the atmosphere and community at yet another great Harker Homecoming! Go Eagles!

Founded in 1921, the National Honor Society recognizes high school students who demonstrate excellence in a variety of areas, including scholarship, student leadership and service.

Nov. 7, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7SX

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Harker community packs the bleachers for Homecoming, makes NCS playoffs Nov. 5, 2016 http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7W3 Throngs of Harker community members headed to the upper school campus on the clear autumn night of Nov. 5 for the 2016 Homecoming celebration, during which the Harker Eagles faced off against the Stellar Prep Thunder.

Though they lost, Harker had a good season and competed in the NCS playoffs.

Attendees enjoyed food from Mrs. Carley’s Café and circulated between the tailgating and recreation areas. Visiting alumni reunited with old friends and teachers at the special alumni area, a yearly tradition. There was plenty of action on the field before the game and at halftime with routines by the Varsity Dance Troupe and varsity cheerleaders, and the class tugs of war. The Pep Band played from the bleachers and the combined Harker choirs sang the national anthem.

The weather was great, with just a nip in the air by the end of the game, and it was clear the crowd

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Harker has 20 semifinalists and one national finalist in 2016 Siemens Competition

In mid-October, 19 Harker students were named Siemens Science Competition semifinalists, the most of any school in California. More than 1,600 projects were submitted for the 2016 competition, and 498 students were named semifinalists. Harker’s semifinalists make up 3.8 percent of the total.

A few days later, senior Manan Shah and juniors Randy Zhao and Rajiv Movva were named regional finalists. They competed in November for a chance to move on to the final stage of the competition in Washington, D.C. In early November Shah was named a national finalist for his project, a computational model designed to speed up and increase the accuracy of assessing the severity and growth of breast cancer tumors. Along with the honors comes a $3,000 scholarship.

Shah now moves on to the final stage of the competition in Washington, D.C., which will take place after press time. See Harker News for Shah’s final placement.

A total of $500,000 in scholarships will be distributed to winners, and two contestants will be awarded the top prize of $100,000.

Visit news.harker.org H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA AND STEFAN ARMIJO

community

Our community came together many times this fall to share great moments, especially at the Family & Alumni Picnic and Homecoming.

Celebrating the school’s spirit in a big way, both events were filled with generations of Harker families and alumni gathering for fun, food, family and friends, and to cheer on our athletes, cheerleaders, musicians, singers and dancers.

Thank you to all who participate in these and other community events, and contribute to making Harker such a special place!

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Self-Reflection and Guidance

Characterize the College Counseling Process WORDS BY CASEY NEAR ‘06 PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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now yourself, know the colleges, know the process. That threepronged approach has been the foundation of Harker’s college counseling process since the department formed nearly 15 years ago when the upper school was opened.

At the department’s inception, Harker hired counselors with solid college admissions experience and, as the student body expanded during the first four years, filled out a team of counselors with a range of university counseling backgrounds.

The college counseling office is now run by Nicole Burrell, who started with the office when the upper school opened. During the past 15 years, the department has successfully guided students into higher education around the world, from the University of California system to universities in the United Kingdom and Asia.

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Counselors help with the minutia that occupies students as they fill out forms and scrutinize university curricula, but ultimately the counseling job is about teaching a process that will help students make good decisions – and that process, at its best, is rooted in a student’s self-reflection.

Know Yourself Burrell and her team begin working with students in their junior year, a full calendar year before college application deadlines. Their efforts aim to ensure that, in the yearlong process, students will reflect deeply on what they want in a university education. “This is not something you just check off the list,” cautioned Burrell.

When students walk through their doors, the counselors urge them to not let high school and the college application process just happen to them. At this time, in particular, students must take ownership of their education, Burrell noted.

Ideally, the student drives the learning process, while the parents serve as the guardrail, explained Martin Walsh, one of the four counselors on the team.

Know the Colleges As senior year approaches, counselors guide students to finalize their lists of colleges and universities where they feel they may thrive. Andrew Quinn, another counselor, said this is his favorite part of the process – introducing students to “possibilities beyond the schools they’ve heard of that could be a good fit.” Burrell said the students’ visions become reality as they expand their lists and, due to the reflection that takes place in the process, the students begin to develop their unique voices, which they share in their applications.

Know the Process Starting in their junior year, students attend a weekly college counseling class, an original and comprehensive cornerstone of Harker’s college counseling program. Seniors then have regular meetings with their counselor, and the counselors have drop-in hours for all seniors. In addition, throughout the fall, college representatives come to campus to speak to students to help them make decisions. This year, nearly 75 colleges visited Harker, giving students a chance to better understand the broad range of college options available to them.

“This [counseling process] is the stuff that’s on the dream list of 99 percent of the high school college counselors I talk with,” said Walsh. With a caseload of fewer than 50 students per counselor, Harker’s ratio is well below most private schools; coupled with the availability of counselors, a college counseling class built into seniors’ schedules, and the carefully developed process, the program is built for student success. The Harker college counseling program is “the gold standard,” said Lauren Collins, a former Harker college counselor who has worked in college admissions and at many independent schools.

“The counselors take time to analyze both local and national historical data, meet with families with great care and patience, and maintain important relationships with college admission colleagues – all while keeping the individual student at the front of this layered, dynamic and complicated process,” Collins added.

The counselors hope students will walk into their offices knowing this is a more organic process than H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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COLLEGE COUNSELING

“Your acceptance letters are not your net worth.”

—Sarah Payne ’09

they may have thought when they were freshmen - that it’s more about introspection than playing a perceived admission game.

Padding accomplishments and joining clubs won’t guarantee an attractive application. Because each student’s goals are unique, the process will look different for each one, and counselors hope students will learn to follow their deepest interests, digging into what they really want and how they learn best.

Counselors’ Roles “We’re college counselors, but we really are guides,” said Kevin Lum Lung, a 12-year veteran of the counseling office. “The expectation of a guide is that they’re going to help you, but not do the work for you.” A counselor’s role is to show students all the roads ahead, but students need to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. Parents also must stay engaged in the process through college parent nights or by attending a counseling meeting with their child to check in.

The process can become stressful when students don’t assume prime ownership of the process, Burrell said. A huge part of senior year is managing the calendar and showing up to college counseling sessions, she added. For the most successful students, the process includes a heavy dose of selfreflection.

“Problems arise when you have a college list that makes no sense – too many [schools], or too many ‘reach’ schools,” said Martin, referring to schools that deny a vast majority of their applicants.

Many students and families can rely too heavily on various rankings, so the counseling team encourages students to supplement their research with big questions to encourage reflection about how and in what kinds of communities they learn best, he noted.

Success Defined With more than 2,000 colleges and universities in

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this country, what precisely does success look like to Harker’s college counseling department? For Lum Lung, it all comes back to helping students manage the process. “If a student goes through the process with less anxiety than they would have without my help,” that’s success, he said.

Plus, in an ideal world, students will learn something about themselves during the journey, added Walsh.

Burrell agreed, noting she hopes students can look back on the final outcome knowing they did everything in their power to choose well, and they don’t look back with any regrets.

Sarah Payne ’09 had a particularly fulfilling experience in the college application process. She said that once she realized that the competitive admission process didn’t reflect on her value as a person, she “was able to focus on the qualities of a university that matched my expectations for a positive college experience.” And when it came time for her younger brother Dwight ’12 to approach the college process, she counseled him “to open his horizons outside of [the] traditional lists during his college application process.” Sarah ended up at the University of Southern California, while her brother chose University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, choices they likely wouldn’t have made without the nudging and reflection encouraged by the counseling department.

Each spring, Lum Lung reminds seniors that they are not defined by their admissions decisions. As Sarah Payne wisely reflected, “Your acceptance letters are not your net worth.” And, when counselors finally send students off to college, Lum Lung said, their best moments occur when they hear how enthusiastic and happy their students are in their new college homes – the truest sign of a job well done.

Following graduation from Scripps College, Casey Near ’06 was an admissions counselor at Mills College and a director at Collegewise, which provides one-on-one counseling for high school students.

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obyn Stone is the STEM specialist at Harker Preschool. The tireless Stone represents the preschool on Harker’s Green Committee, co-chairs the three buddy programs – STEM Buddies, Math Buddies and Eco Buddies – is on the preschool/kindergarten academic committee, and is the preschool’s math coordinator. Her community participation isn’t confined to Harker, though; she volunteers with Second Harvest Food Bank, the Center for Food Safety and the Pesticide Action Network. A native of Illinois who lives in Los Gatos with her husband and son, Stone reflects on a few interesting topics for Harker Magazine.

face time

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK KOCINA

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

I would eliminate pollution from all of Earth’s water, land and air.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Eating ice cream.

What are you obsessed with?

Farmers markets! I am a regular at the Los Gatos Farmers’ Market. Whenever I travel, I seek out the farmers markets to find local, seasonal produce. The best market is in Nice, France.

What are you doing when you feel most alive?

I feel most alive hiking on top of a mountain, sitting under a canopy of trees or swimming in the sea.

What is your most treasured memory?

My most treasured memory, so far, is of snorkeling in Hanauma Bay with my son.

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

During my tenure as the editor of the Old Pueblo Trolley newsletter, I also became a certified streetcar motorman and conductor in Tucson, Ariz.

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Singing Ceramic Ball Ramps: Preschool STEM, Art and Music Collaborate on Harmonious Project WORDS BY MARA BECKERMAN, ALEXANDRIA KEREKEZ & ROBYN STONE PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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Editor’s Note: This project took place in the 2015-16 school year; students are identified by the ages they were at the time.

F

or several weeks, Alex Micchelli, a 5-year-old transitional kindergarten student at Harker Preschool, kept returning to the clay table, engrossed in making ball ramps. One day Alexandria Kerekez, the preschool’s visual arts specialist, sat down next to him and asked him what his goal was in making the clay ramps.

As Alex gingerly held his tiny clay ball, he explained in one of those magic moments teachers love to have, “I want the ball to roll down the sculpture like at STEM lab.” Art had met science and it was good!

Along with plenty of indoor and outdoor play time, Harker Preschool has three specialized areas of development: STEM, visual arts, and music & movement. These specialty

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CERAMIC BALL RAMPS

classes are rich with activity centers and educational materials, offering a balance between child-directed exploratory learning and teacherdirected activities.

Alex had been captivated by the physics of things that roll since starting at Harker Preschool as a 3-year-old. He worked with ramps and balls – measuring the slope of ramps and the distance the balls traveled – and wanted to build a permanent pathway that he could take home and share with his family.

He ended up creating a project that engrossed many other preschoolers, noted Robyn Stone, STEM specialist.

During a subsequent art session, children excitedly experimented with Alex’s ball ramp design. A variety of prototypes began to emerge, noted Kerekez. Teams of children collaborated on different strategies to form the ball ramps. The young students debated whether ramps should have a “flat slab” base or a “single coil” base, each a method of stabilizing an object with an irregular bottom, noted Kerekez. As the projects progressed, the effort drew the class together, with groups of students joining forces to create a communal twisting, turning ball ramp.

To extend the interest in the ball ramp project, Kerekez, Stone, and

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music & movement specialist Mara Beckerman joined together to invite the transitional kindergarten students to create a larger musical ball ramp system out of clay for the Farm, the outdoor area of the preschool dedicated to plants and animals.

Students shaped ramp sections, which were glazed and fired, then fastened piece by piece to a fence in the Farm to create the full ramp. The children were entranced when they discovered that glass marbles created a symphony of tones as they ricocheted down the ceramic tracks. “Listen! It makes music!” exclaimed Nathan Zhang, age 3. That was just the beginning.

The tinkling of the balls down the ramp was a revelation to the children, and they immediately wanted to enhance the sound. “Let’s put a violin on it!” suggested Sophie Crosswhite, age 4, reaching for the sky. Realizing that mounting a violin above the ramp was impractical, the children began experimenting with smaller objects.

During their music & movement sessions, the children tested nails and washers as music makers, suspending them over the ramp so the rolling ball tapped them as it passed. The children noted the items were too heavy, preventing the balls from continuing

“

Exploring various materials in a self-directed way enables a child to discover the properties of objects and the physics of motion.

—Robyn Stone, STEM specialist

down the ramp, and they lacked musical tone. “I can’t hear anything” was the general, disappointed response, when asked to listen to the ball hitting the bits of hardware.

However, Beckerman was ready with little jingle bells from a craft store. These produced a highly satisfactory sound as the balls tapped them in passing.

With the ramp complete, and a ball poised at the top to make a trial run, 3-year-old Jacob Shimelfarb’s eyes widened and he released the ball. Zipping down the ramp, the ball rolled under a bridge, ringing bells along the way.

The ball passed through a tunnel and leaped off the curved end of the ramp into a basket. “Wow!” exclaimed Jacob.

Other students were equally impressed.

“It’s like little fairies in the farm!” said Emmabelle White, age 4, when she heard the bells ting-a-ling. The musical results prompted the preschool kids and staff to refer to this project as “singing” ball ramps.

In the STEM lab, all Harker preschoolers have the opportunity to freely conduct experiments in the physical sciences, noted Stone. “Exploring various materials in a self-directed way enables a child to discover the properties of objects and the physics of motion,” she added. Stone supports the children’s explorations by

”

asking questions to engage them and help them become familiar with the academic language that describes the phenomena observed.

The mechanics of setting up the track was one of the challenges transitional kindergarten students faced, and a number of skills were acquired as the project developed, Kerekez noted. The children chose the glazes and learned about the firing process, then had to make the segments work together.

Students hung the segments along the fence and suspended the noisemakers above the ramp, just close enough to be hit by the rolling ball. These were all fairly complex efforts for 5-year-olds.

At every stage of this project, noted Kerekez, one constant was the enthusiasm for sharing ideas and problem-solving as a group. Before installing the ramps on the fence, the students built prototypes in the art studio to test their ideas. They folded paper ramps into varying slopes to test how the balls would roll. The students agreed the ramps would have to be installed one at a time, at different angles, for the project to be successful.

Constructing the ramp was a very collaborative effort, Kerekez observed.

The enhancements added another interesting dimension. To suspend the bells at just the right points above the

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CERAMIC BALL RAMPS

The ball rolls ’cause the air pushes it.

If there is a lot of air, the ball will roll fast.

”

—Srikrishna Kataru, age 5

ramp, “the children learned to wrap wire with their fingers and needle-nose pliers,” said Beckerman. “Once attached, the children ran tests to make sure each bell was positioned in the correct spot for the ball to tap it and keep rolling.”

Finally, after observing the completed, “singing” ball ramp in action, it was time for some theorizing. Like true physicists, they made observations and shared their findings.

Srikrishna Kataru, age 5, observed that the ball “rolls ’cause the air pushes it. If there is a lot of air, the ball will roll fast.”

Overhearing the discussion, Hemansh Gupta, age 5, noted, “It is the slide that makes it go, like when I bike down a hill, and it goes very fast.”

Thinking beyond ceramic balls, Cynthia Zhang, age 5, noted, “This ball track is for a roly poly [pill bug] to slide on it on the Farm.”

Ethan Yu, age 5, added, “Yes, but you have to make a rectangle slab and bend it here at the bottom, or else the bug will fall out.”

Returning to the STEM lab each week, year after year, children repeat investigations to deepen their understanding of how objects move.

They are encouraged to wonder about the physical causes and effects at play –

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momentum, friction, force, acceleration and much more. They make observations that then inspire new questions and experiments, which sometimes lead to innovation, noted Stone.

For example, transitional kindergarten student Benjamin Kim grasped the essential element of gravity at work.

He explained to his peers, “Ball tracks are like a waterfall and the balls are the water and they can fall down.”

The ball ramp project, driven by science, created using art and enhanced with music, is a great example of how the three specialty teachers joined forces to enhance learning through exploration. The ramps are aesthetically beautiful, make harmonious sounds, and engage students in a truly unique STEM experience.

The project is now in place at the preschool, and visitors delight in rolling balls down this student-made, musical, whimsically glazed ceramic ball ramp.

Future generations of Harker Preschool students have the 2015-16 transitional kindergarten class to thank for the beautiful project, which surely will bring joy to the community for years to come.

Mara Beckerman, Alexandria Kerekez & Robyn Stone are the music, art and STEM specialists at Harker Preschool.

face time

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ric Nelson has the distinction of teaching nine different courses at the upper school, seven on a regular basis. He is the computer science department chair, runs the robotics program, and teaches a variety of science classes, including astronomy and physics. Though born and (mostly) raised in the Southern California town of Downey, Nelson spent his middle and high school years in the Los Gatos mountains (and attended Los Gatos High School), and he keeps those roots alive by living in Boulder Creek. He and his wife, Kathleen, have five children between them, including Chandler, who graduated from Harker last year, and two grandchildren. His pithy answers to our questions illustrate his humor and directness.

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Disneyland.

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

A professor, Dr. Michael Zeilik, said, “Be simple and direct.”

What are you doing when you feel most alive?

Standing quietly in the forest and just listening. Walking on an isolated beach, and again, just listening. Being able to focus on all the sensations, sights, smells and sounds where most people would simply find silence.

In what way are you above average?

I was an astrophysicist. What else do I need?

What is something that you pretend to understand when you really don’t?

Women.

Why do you do what you do?

Because I enjoy it. Life is too short to do something every day that you don’t enjoy doing.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK KOCINA

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’ S T E L

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ance!

WORDS BY ZACH JONES PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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“

henever there are extended periods of time when I am not dancing, I feel incomplete,” remarked Jacqui Villarreal ’15, who danced during her entire K-12 career at Harker and now performs with the Santa Clara University Dance Team. “As dramatic as that sounds, it’s true.”

Her fervor does not appear to be uncommon. Every year, hundreds of students perform in Harker’s four major dance shows. Last year’s upper school dance production featured a cast of 140 students. That number could very well be eclipsed with this year’s show come January.

clockwise from upper left: Brooklyn Cicero, grade 7; Shray Alag, grade 8; Karina Chen, grade 8; Tamlyn Doll, grade 12; Shayla He, grade 5; David Zhu, grade 12; Liana Wang, grade 11; Maya Affaki, grade 4; Kuga Pence, grade 5

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LET’S DANCE!

This past fall semester, “we had the most students audition for the upper school dance show that we ever had,” noted Laura Lang-Ree, Harker’s K-12 performing arts chair. “We’ve done nothing different. No new publicity, no emails.”

Harker students have been dancing for a very long time. Dance instruction was offered to students at Miss Harker’s School as early as 1903, and was introduced into the regular curriculum by the 1920s. In subsequent decades, dance instruction expanded to include Miss Harker’s kindergartners and became part of the summer programs after the school’s merger with the Palo Alto Military Academy.

Dance teacher Laura Rae further developed the dance program at Harker Academy after joining the school in the 1980s, directing routines for the spring musical and leading the after-school dance program, which started in 1983. “[Howard and Diana] Nichols were … very passionate about performing arts overall, and Diana had a special love for dance,” said LangRee, who joined Harker in 1995. The addition of the upper school brought further growth to the dance program, including some academic dance courses. Now, students K-12 can learn a wide range of styles, from ballet to jazz to hip-hop. Currently, the program boasts six audition-only dance groups across grades 4-12, each of which attracts dozens of students to auditions every year. Students dance for live audiences as early as kindergarten, and dance is one of six disciplines of focus included in the upper school Conservatory’s certificate program. these two pages, clockwise from lower left: Ava Chen, grade 2; Tamlyn Doll, grade 12; Yejin Song, grade 7; Hazal Gurcan, grade 12; Chris Gong, grade 10; Brandon Labio, grade 2; Isabella Ribeiro, grade 5; Jacqueline Soraire, grade 5; Sabrina Zhu, grade 6; Sally Zhu, grade 6 22

A familiar refrain among dance students and alumni is how dance classes initially just seemed like a fun activity to do with their friends. “I was new to the school in fifth grade,” recalled senior Tamlyn Doll. “I asked [my friends], ‘What are you doing after

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school?’ and they said, ‘Oh, I have dance.’” She opted to try it herself and “fell in love with it pretty fast,” she said.

“It seemed like a fun after-school activity and a lot of my friends were doing it,” added Villarreal. “Over the years, some people trickled out of the program, but I stayed because of how amazing the teachers are and how passionate everyone is about dancing.”

This social element has not gone unnoticed by dance faculty. “I think it’s very rewarding for them to be with their friends,” said K-8 dance teacher Gail Palmer. “They really support each other.”

Many students also discovered that dance offers a unique form of expression through movement. “I love expression in the form of physicality,” said Emre Ezer, grade 12, a performer in Harker dance shows since seventh grade. “I love pretty much every form of expression, but it’s especially fun using your own body.”

Junior Liana Wang, a member of the upper school’s Varsity Dance Troupe, said that dance is “my freedom and my expression of the soul. I find that the freedom of being able to express anything motivates me to continue the art form. I feel less restricted and bound to the expectations of the world.”

Those expectations can often be a source of stress, something students have found can be alleviated through dance. “It’s an emotional outlet,” said Hazal Gurcan, grade 12. “I feel like when I dance, my brain is kind of able to figure out what’s stressing me out.”

“Dance is the way I relieve any sort of stress, so being in college, it is a must for me to continue with it!” exclaimed Noel Banerjee ’15, a dance minor at Loyola Marymount University, where she is also a member of the dance team.

Apart from the uniquely fun and expressive nature of the art form, Harker’s support of the dance program and its faculty have played a large part in keeping students interested.

Wang, who has performed with several companies and studios outside Harker, said that the Harker program’s distinct lack of competitiveness has enabled her and many other

“

I feel like when

I dance, my brain is kind of able to figure out what’s stressing me out.”

– Hazal Gurcan, grade 12

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LET’S DANCE!

“

I feel less restricted and bound to

the expectations of the world.”

– Liana Wang, grade 11

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students to discover dance without feeling the pressure to impress. “From the teachers to the students, all strongly believe in helping one another for the benefit of the whole rather than for personal interests,” she said. “This has made my experience in dance much better and allowed myself to open up to the people around me.”

“One of my goals has always been to keep dance a fun and enjoyable aspect of [the students’] Harker careers,” said Karl Kuehn, upper school dance teacher. “I want dance to be a kind of creative outlet for them.”

For Doll, the nurturing and communal aspect of Harker’s dance program made all the difference. “I don’t think I would have danced at all if I hadn’t come to Harker,” she said. Having tried and disliked ballet at a very young age, she recalled doubting she would ever try dancing again. “But then when I tried it again at Harker, something about the teachers and the environment made it a lot of fun, and it’s definitely not just like any dance class.”

Other students and alumni agree.

“Harker was extremely supportive with me pursuing dance in middle school, but also with my time in high school while I was in the certificate program,” said Helena Dworak ’16, now a student at Northeastern University, where she dances with the university’s audition group. “I had wonderful mentors, Karl Kuehn and [upper school dance teacher] Rachelle Haun, who completely shaped my experience in the upper school dance program.”

Another key to making Harker’s dance program welcoming is the relatively low level of commitment required. Students can commit to dancing as little as once a week and still be able to participate in a show. “It’s fun because it’s a high production value, but not necessarily a high-level commitment,” said Lang-Ree. “You can dance once a week, and fully commit to that once a week and be a part of something special as a dance show family member. And I think that’s really appealing to some kids.”

“You can just try it without having to necessarily be fully committed to it,” said Gurcan, who plans to double major in dance and psychology in college. “If the elementary school dance show had been [audition-based] then I would never have started dancing.”

The dance program also teaches its students

how to make a good impression at auditions. “I think in general what we hear from our students who’ve left the Conservatory but who got their start in kindergarten, is that they know what to do when they walk into any room,” said LangRee. “So they know how to handle themselves at auditions, they know how to behave in rehearsal, they know what the protocol is for being a team member in a way that not all high school students do know.”

Although technique is important, Lang-Ree stressed that how one carries oneself also gets noticed. “You want to be the nicest person in the room, who happens to be talented,” she said.

“And I think that’s something that they bring to the table because they hear it from all of us from a very young age, and in the Conservatory program they hear it constantly.”

Students have noticed other benefits as well.

For Wang, dance has been a way to unlock her self-confidence. “When I was younger, I use to be afraid of sharing my ideas and presenting myself in front of others since I felt like I would disappoint them and make mistakes,” she said.

But through dancing and meeting choreographers and other dancers, “I was able to gain more confidence.”

Like Wang, many Harker dancers say the program gave them skills that they use in other areas of their lives.

“I have grown so much from leadership opportunities that I was given within the dance department at Harker,” said Villarreal, “and being involved in so much dance made me really good at time management.”

“It’s taught me focus, perseverance, the importance of health and wellness, and self-awareness,” said Dworak. “I am grateful that I received the support to pursue dance, as I never would have been the same person without it.”

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA AND JACQUELINE ORRELL RAMSEYER

performing arts

Each year hundreds of students take part in the many performing arts opportunities offered at Harker. Audiences delighted at the impressive talents on display in the first months of this school year.

Performers enacted Jules Verne and Washington Irving stories, sang traditional folk songs and rang in the holiday season with song and dance.

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impact

Standing in Her

Truth

WORDS BY VIKKI BOWES-MOK

Maheen Kaleem has found passion, meaning in her work advocating for young girls

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hen Maheen Kaleem ’03 went to Harker’s head of school to advocate on behalf of a fellow student who was in trouble, she didn’t have any idea that her life’s work would be standing up for people who need a voice.

Her road from Harker, where she started in kindergarten, to staff attorney at Rights4Girls makes sense in retrospect, but she didn’t have a clear vision at every step of the journey.

“I loved my time at Harker,” said Kaleem, from her Washington, D.C., office. “It was an excellent education, but you also felt cared for by your teachers who created a sense of family.”

“Maheen Kaleem is an extraordinary person,” said Diana Nichols, a Harker teacher during Kaleem’s time and now chair of Harker’s board of trustees. “While at Harker, she displayed that very special combination of talent in both academic areas and extracurriculars. Maheen has always had a strong sense of responsibility and was always willing to go the extra mile to make positive changes in the school.”

Kaleem was focused on school but also engaged in performing arts and debate. She grappled with which career path to take: the arts or human rights and social justice.

It was a pivotal moment when Harker’s college counselor suggested she look at Georgetown University (see college counseling article on page 10). Kaleem fell in love with the university on paper and when she walked on campus, she just knew that it was the right school for her. At the time, she knew she was passionate about human rights, although she didn’t know exactly where that passion would lead.

During her undergraduate years at Georgetown, Kaleem was a policy intern at Campaign for Youth Justice. “As an intern, I learned how to bring global human rights issues to kids locally and got very involved in the conversation,” she said. “Harker gave me the confidence to try new things and the initiative to take advantage of every opportunity.”

That confidence and initiative has carried her a long way. After graduating from Georgetown with a B.S. in international politics and human rights, Kaleem was at a turning point. She considered joining the Peace Corps, working abroad or heading back to the Bay Area.

Kaleem became an advocate for the Sexually Abused and Commercially Exploited Youth/Safe Place

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Photo courtesy of the National Juvenile Justice Network

Photo provided by Maheen Kaleem ‘03

“Harker gave me the confidence to try new things and the initiative to take advantage of every opportunity.”

– Maheen Kaleem ’03

Photo courtesy of the National Juvenile Justice Network

Alternative in Oakland. This job opened her eyes in an astonishing way and she said she connected with the children on a very real level.

problem with it, go to law school,” she recalled. “I said, fine. I’m going to law school then,” she said. Soon, she was back at Georgetown – in law school.

“You see a kid who is system-involved and you see all these issues, and it feels hard right away,” she remembered.

“But at the end of the day, children are children, and you’re just talking to another person. It’s important to remember your responsibility as a human and always have respect.”

After gaining her legal degree, Kaleem became a Stoneleigh Foundation Emerging Leader Fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, where she worked to address the needs of greater Philadelphia’s most vulnerable youth through policy analysis, research and advocacy.

Institutional lack of respect for those she was helping and frustration with the legal system would launch Kaleem toward law school. While working in Oakland at a lengthy restitution hearing, she raised her hand and said, “Your Honor, this just feels wrong. This feels unjust.” He looked at her and said, “Well that’s not the law. If you have a

After Stoneleigh, she went to work for Rights4Girls, a human rights organization working to end sex trafficking and gender-based violence in the United States.

She also co-founded Pennsylvania Lawyers for Youth, a nonprofit

that works to effect meaningful, community-responsive changes in the Pennsylvania juvenile justice system through direct service and policy initiatives.

Kaleem is young, passionate and working to the change the world, but she also shows wisdom beyond her years. “If I’ve learned anything, it’s always to stand in your truth,” she said.

“Maheen has been an inspiration in her passionate pursuit of justice for young women,” said Chris Nikoloff, head of school. “She’s making a difference in the world, and we couldn’t be more proud of her.”

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

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Food & Fun

passion

WORDS BY WILLIAM CRACRAFT PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

‘In a Nutshell’ Alumnae pursue academic dreams while keeping a foot firmly rooted in the kitchen

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wo Class of 2015 alumnae have taken their passion for food and journalism to new levels with In a Nutshell Food, a YouTube channel they created. Fred Chang and Priscilla Pan have been making how-to videos of delicious foods while pursuing their academic dreams in California and abroad.

Pan attends the University of Southern California, where she is studying biomedical engineering with a mechanical emphasis.

“I’m also planning to minor either in entrepreneurship or computer science, two subjects that I think will greatly complement my engineering background,” she said.

Chang is attending Yale-NUS in Singapore.

She is considering a politics, philosophy and economics major with concentrations in philosophy and economics. “On top of that, I’m a computer science minor – strictly speaking, a mathematical, computational and statistical sciences minor with a focus in computer science,” she said.

“At the core of it all, we started making food videos because as journalism students, we really enjoyed writing, photographing and taking videos of our niche, which was food.”

– Priscilla Pan ‘15

Before graduating from Harker, the friends began making fun food videos under the name In a Nutshell Food – and then opportunity knocked.

“Our journalism teacher, Ms. [Ellen] Austin, was always a huge supporter of In a Nutshell Food,” said Pan, “and when the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) award season rolled around, she encouraged basically everyone to submit their work – articles, videos, photos, etc.”

The pair earned a first-place prize for their video, giving momentum to what was already a fun project. Chang was surprised when she heard the results. “I had no words.

It was really nice to have the affirmation that we were indeed doing a good job, especially because it was mostly just for fun,” she said.

The duo had posted 29 videos as of midOctober, and the effort to keep the pipeline full while in college has been a labor of love.

In a Nutshell Food: https://www.youtube.com/user/inanutshellfood Vlog: https://www.youtube.com/user/peznfred Earl Grey Macaron: http://bit.ly/2dlHAZX

“We knew we’d always want to continue making videos,” said Pan. “Especially the summer after our junior year, when many others were attending summer internships and research positions, we were in the kitchen filming and cooking.”

Though Pan and Chang opted to monetize their YouTube channel by allowing ads, they continue to be motivated by the purest desires – good journalism and good food.

“At the core of it all,” said Pan, “we started making food videos because as journalism students, we really enjoyed writing, photographing and taking videos of our niche, which was food. I especially love feeding my creativity by coming up with unique ways to film our videos.”

Chang agreed the payoff is in doing something they love. “I don’t know how else to say it: food is my life’s passion,” she said. “Food videography for me is the most wholesome format of sharing my love for food online. If I had enough money to survive on for the rest of my life, I’d just spend my time engaging with food media and eating and cooking. All of the improvement and self-learning is indeed great, but I don’t need any extrinsic motivation because this is how I would spend my time anyway.”

This summer’s videos covered a variety of foods, based on season, upcoming holidays and food trends. “We have a lot of current food trends (like smoothie bowls),” said Pan, “our favorite baked goods, easy back-to-school meals, drinks, etc. We want to keep some stuff a secret!”

“Subscribe to our channel to find out!”

Chang said.

What’s next for In a Nutshell Food? “We’re definitely going to continue producing biweekly cooking videos along with vlog channel videos through the end of 2016 and most likely through our sophomore year of college,” said Pan. “But our future plans might still change.”

Chang is also hopeful but practical. “For now it’s really more of a let’s-try-to-make-ithappen thing, but there isn’t much of a longterm plan beyond the semester.”

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High-Performing Students Merit Top-Notch

Library Databases WORDS BY JARED SCOTT TESLER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

R

esearch is at the core of many academic efforts, and to ensure Harker students have access to the information they need, Harker librarians have curated a world-class collection of databases.

“We teach children as young as 6 to use age-appropriate databases to find information for beginning research projects,” said Sue Smith, Harker’s library director, citing the recent example of first graders accessing reference articles in a database to research animal habitats. Previously Harker’s archivist and upper school librarian, Smith currently manages the library programs at all four campuses, each grounded in information literacy, pleasure reading, robust resources and curricular collaboration.

With upward of 90 subscription databases from premier publishers like Gale, EBSCO and ProQuest at their fingertips, including ScienceDirect, Project MUSE, ARTstor and Drama Online, upper school students are able to complete elaborate English, science and social studies assignments with greater ease; and to help, they have 24/7 remote access, thanks to EZProxy and Qi Huang, the school’s electronic resources librarian. At the touch of a button, they can use Summon, the school’s web-scale discovery service, nicknamed “Power On” by students, to access the library’s digital collections and electronic resources for credible, citable content.

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“While it’s impossible to quantify where our database collection ranks among other schools, we know from talking to colleagues that our offerings exceed those at most secondary schools,” said Smith, who notes the variety of Harker’s information literacy curriculum is just as important as the quality and quantity of its offerings.

Debbie Abilock, a San Francisco Bay Area educational consultant and founding editor of Knowledge Quest, the journal of the American Association of School Librarians, noted, “In terms of collection size and age, compared to the School Library Program Standards set forth in library standards adopted by the California State Board of Education in 2010, Harker’s collection is on a par with a college collection. Indeed, most independent schools have less than half of these resources – and, more importantly, even fewer subscribe to college-level databases like Project MUSE or ScienceDirect.”

Abilock recently published an open educational resources module for pre-service educators that points to Harker’s “American Decades: 1970s” eighth grade project guide as a prime example of a curation tool.

With more than 30 years of experience as a school administrator, curriculum coordinator, teaching librarian and information specialist, Abilock is something of an expert in database curation.

“One could have wonderful resources,” Abilock said, “but without the guides [Harker] created, and the instruction and services they provide, the library resources would simply remain a lovely, inert warehouse. Harker’s librarians are outstanding curators who add value by carefully selecting specific resources and tools for particular projects. It’s an outstanding collection, curated by educators with clearly articulated learning and teaching goals, which creates the unique ‘chemistry’ that results in powerful student learning.”

All of this means students have tremendous resources to call on for their studies. Those taking the College Board’s Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition class tap into JSTOR and Project MUSE as they pen research papers on Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” and James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.” clockwise from left: Tiffany Zhu, grade 12; Zarek Drozda ‘16; librarian Meredith Cranston; Natalie Simonian ‘16; next page: librarian Lauri Vaughan

Meanwhile, students in Chris Spenner’s Research Methods and Advanced Research classes are conducting college-level science projects on a broad range of scientific disciplines, such as agricultural science, virus geometry, marine biology, microbiology, astrophysics, analytical chemistry, materials science and machine learning, most often turning to ScienceDirect and Nature.

“They need access to peer-reviewed science literature to inform their own procedures and to situate their own work in the larger scientific context,” said Spenner. “I’m a little jealous; I used to spend hours in the science library doing what they can now do much more thoroughly in a matter of minutes.”

Throughout his upper school years, Kai-Siang Ang, grade 12, president of the Math Club and a Stanford University early admission candidate, said he has consulted an abundance of databases for extensive projects on a variety of topics, including Catherine the Great, the Black Death, and the Supreme Court cases of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, among others.

Ang noted he has benefited from Harker’s robust information literacy instruction as a participant in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Program for Research in Mathematics, Engineering and Science for High School Students (MIT PRIMES).

Now, Ang has begun paying back into the databases. He co-authored a paper for MIT PRIMES with Laura Schaposnik, an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, titled, “On the Geometry of Regular Icosahedral Capsids Containing Disymmetrons,” and the paper has been H AR KE R MAG A Z INE l FALL/WIN TER 2016

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feature uploaded to the arXiv, a repository for physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance and statistics documents, as well as having been submitted to the Siemens Science Competition and sent to the Journal of Structural Biology.

“We teach children as young as 6 to use age-appropriate databases to find information for beginning research projects.”

—Sue Smith, library director

BLANKET OF WHITE, Cont.

ishes his ability to retrieve the full texts of every issue of the country’s leading literary magazines since their foundings, while Zhu has stumbled upon the full texts of economics papers quoted in The New York Times as well as population studies of Kiev, Ukraine.

Alumni recognize the value of Harker’s database collection. Zarek Drozda ’16, former John Near Excellence in History Endowment scholar, and Natalie Simonian ’16, former Mitra Family Endowment scholar, know firsthand just how valuable these sophisticated databases can be when pursuing research priorities of the highest caliber. Following a rigorous application process, each conducted yearlong, grant-funded independent research and produced a scholarly paper on a topic of interest to them – the Panic of 1873 for Drozda, and the Russian Revolution for Simonian.

Among this year’s Near and Mitra research topics are artistic innovations during the AIDS epidemic; the lasting repercussions of the Second Chechen War; and Rule’s primary focus, 1970s Native American literature.

“I feel prepared not only for any assigned research projects but my B.A./B.S. thesis as well,” said Drozda, an economics and public policy studies double major at the University of Chicago, who arrived on that campus this fall with plenty of AP credit and a certificate in technical theater from the Harker Conservatory.

“The yearlong project teaches the research process on a level not usually available to high school students, and the librarians, their mentorship and their resources made it possible.”

Rule noted the databases are, of course, available to all students seeking information for any reason. “Even better, the databases run from general reference (ABC-CLIO) to in-depth scholarship (ProQuest Research Library), so I’ve been given a stepladder up to college-level resources to prepare me for more advanced research incrementally,” he said.

Simonian, a bioengineering major at the University of California, Berkeley (her team finished second in last year’s Berkeley Bioengineering Honor Society High School Competition), said Harker offers many of the same databases that her college does.

“We had a small literature search due for my bioengineering class, and knowing ahead of time which databases I could use to find scientific journals, and that databases that consolidated peer-reviewed journals actually existed, was extremely helpful in making that search much easier and faster,” she noted.

Two of this year’s 10 Near and Mitra scholars are seniors Andrew Rule, co-editor-in-chief of Harker’s Eclectic Literary Magazine and a frequent contributor to the upper school’s library book blog, and Tiffany Zhu, co-assistant conductor of women’s chamber choral ensemble Cantilena. Both have excelled in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards; he won three National Silver Medals (Short Story) and she received two Honorable Mentions (Dramatic Script and Flash Fiction).

Both have used Harker’s databases for more than just coursework and extracurricular research. Rule rel34

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“Harker’s databases, especially JSTOR and ebrary, give Near and Mitra scholars access to materials in the country’s best academic journals and university presses,” said Rule. “Just like in college, lack of access to information is never an obstacle we face with all of this scholarship at our fingertips.”

A Russian culture, history, language, literature and music enthusiast, Zhu has elected to examine Russian and Soviet writer, dramatist and political activist Maxim Gorky’s role in shaping socialist realism literature. Central to her research, she said, have been JSTOR’s resources dating back to the 1950s and ’60s and those on literary theory and philosophy. Through ebrary, an online library of more than 140,000 nonfiction e-books, she has accessed more contemporary English language secondary sources, “a challenge since the majority of scholarship on my topic is in Russian,” she added.

“I know that in college, my Mitra paper, which feels so special now, is likely to become a regular endeavor and will effectively happen again in my senior year of college,” Zhu said. “I love that I can get the process of learning to search databases, figuring out which databases specialize in which fields and so on, out of the way while I’m still in high school. That way, in college, I can dive straight into the actual research and, right off the bat, start asking the important questions, like which articles and books might further or change the direction of my investigations as opposed to how I can find them.”

For Smith, who has been a member of the Harker community since 2002, these and other student and alumni testimonials – she has heard more than a few over the years – serve as the ultimate form of evidence. “It’s a satisfying message that never grows old.”

ate Shanahan is the K-5 English department chair. A self-described “New England girl,” Shanahan was born in Middletown, Conn., and grew up in Connecticut and New Hampshire. She lives in downtown San Jose with her husband and two sons, and the family may be growing soon with the addition of a dog! She’ll be participating in the Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School teacher exchange this year. Shanahan shares some fun insights with Harker Magazine about life, good advice and having great vision.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK KOCINA

What are you obsessed with?

Good grammar. It’s a blessing and curse. Most days I can’t read a simple Starbucks menu without double-checking the spelling of each individual drink.

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

A college professor once told me that “good teachers leave their backpacks at the door.” It took me a while to understand the power of his statement, but now it’s clear: Don’t bring my baggage into the classroom. Leave it at the door and be present for my students.

Brag about something.

I have 20/15 vision. Once I was getting a routine eye exam, and the nurse called the doctor over just to watch me read the eye chart.

What is something that you pretend to understand when you really don’t?

When I was a kid, my family rented the movie “Wall Street.” My dad paused the movie and spent over 30 minutes explaining the stock market to my sister and me. I still don’t totally get it.

What is the biggest risk you have ever taken in your life?

I moved to California by myself at 24. I left my family and friends behind and came to work at Harker. That first year wasn’t easy, but my inspiring students and friendships with faculty made me realize that this was where I wanted to be.

Where in the world are you the happiest?

Although traveling has its perks, I am a total homebody. I love the comfort of my home and hubby, chatting with my neighbors, hearing my kids play outside, and sitting on my front porch watching the world go by.

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gallery artgallery A

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A. Emmabelle White Preschool “Wind catcher moving lives”

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B. Danya Arun Lower School “Kandinsky Trees”

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C. Lucas Zheng Lower School “Pop-Up Sunflowers”

D. Jaymes Liu Preschool “Wind catcher moving lives”

E. Ashley Mo Lower School “Autumnal Line Leaf”

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H Harker’s visual arts program spans every grade level, helping students discover their creative gifts through academic electives and after-school activities. Each year students create dozens of visual art pieces in a variety of media, including drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures. Many of these pieces are showcased throughout the school year via special events and displays at Harker campuses, and this gallery highlights just a few pieces from the impressive body of work.

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F. Jackie Hu Middle School “Surrealism Project”

G. Arben Gutierrez-Bujari Upper School “Organic/Constructive”

H. Alexa Gross Upper School “Onset”

I. Sasvath Ramachandran Middle School “Surrealism Project”

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Play It’s a win-win for camaraderie, fitness and careers

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WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA

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bout 21.5 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 play team sports, according to a 2011 survey by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. Nearly 40 percent of those are between the ages of 13 and 16. At Harker, nearly 70 percent of students in grades 4-12 participate in the school’s sports program. So, what attracts students to athletics?

We Are Family A popular acronym in the sports world states: Together Everyone Achieves More.

Sports aren’t just about making yourself better or boosting your own stats; they are about putting the team first. As upper school boys and girls golf coach Ie-Chen Cheng stated, “The most successful teams we’ve had are always the ones with team members who understand the importance of team goals.” This unity can be very meaningful to student athletes. “The bond between teammates is something very unique and special,” stated volleyball and lacrosse player Taylor Iantosca, grade 12. “We go through a lot together: the wins, the losses, the victories, the tragedies, everything. I enjoy being able to contribute to something greater than myself while representing my school.”

Sharing these experiences and spending a lot of time together creates a deep sense of camaraderie and friendship. “Sure, we all like to compete and win,” stated middle and upper school coach Mike Delfino, “but as the years go on, the game results tend to fade a bit from memory. But the friendships made and the overall experience of being part of a team and competing last forever.” Isabella Spradlin, grade 11, said, “My teammates on the volleyball team know me better than anyone else, because we are required to have such a deep understanding of each other’s personalities and abilities. Throughout the season, we spend so much time practicing and getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses so that we can get the best possible outcome in any match or situation.”

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“I enjoy being able to contribute to something greater than myself while representing my school.”

—Taylor Iantosca, grade 12

PLAY SPORTS!

If teammates are like a family, then the coaches are like the parents. Harker prides itself on selecting the best possible leaders for every sport. When asked how Harker went from being a new high school in the late 1990s with little success in athletics, to a school that produces numerous WBAL, CCS and state competitors each year, Dan Molin, upper school athletic director, was quick to give praise to one group of people.

“It really has to do with our coaches,” he said. “Kids recognize quality and it’s proven with our coaching staff. [The students] buy in and the coach shows them the way.”

The quality of the programs and coaches resulted in a 2015-16 season in which 13 of the upper school’s 20 varsity sports sent teams or individuals to the CCS or NCS playoffs, with one individual advancing to NorCals, and three individuals and one team making it all the way to state. This emphasis on top-notch coaching also has produced success at the middle and lower schools, with nine league championship teams during the 2015-16 season.

But the Harker athletic experience isn’t only about the victories. “We don’t talk about winning, although of course we try to win, but that’s not the ultimate barometer,” said Molin. However, when individuals unite for a common goal, like a family, “it increases their chance of succeeding because they learn to have each other’s backs,” stated Karriem Stinson, lower and middle school assistant athletic director.

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Have Some Fun “First off, we want to make sure the kids are having fun,” stated Molin, regarding the mission of Harker’s athletic department. Athletics allows students to escape the books and classrooms for a short time; it gives their minds a break from academics and allows them to concentrate on a completely different area. “In an academic environment like Harker, [sports] is the break that a lot of them need in the day,” stated Brighid Wood, a middle school coach and assistant to the athletic directors.

“Basketball is my outlet,” said Jordan Thompson, grade 12. “I can forget all my responsibilities and just focus on the game.” Soccer and volleyball player Aria Wong, grade 8, agrees. “Having something to do after school lets me forget about tests and homework and lose myself on the field,” she said. Rosh Roy, grade 8, who plays flag football, basketball, soccer and runs track, added, “I like sports because it lets me be free and also lets me share memories with my friends.”

While some students simply want to have fun, others find great satisfaction in succeeding in sports.

“My favorite aspect of sports was simply the opportunity to accomplish something unique,” stated Shrish Dwivedi ’15, an accomplished golfer at Harker who now plays at Duke University. “Academic pursuits afford a self-satisfaction that is extremely fulfilling; however, athletic accomplishments provide an incomparable feeling that I find highly enjoyable.”

Growing from the Inside Perhaps the most important benefit of competing in sports is the personal growth each athlete experiences.

“Athletics help children understand a lot about themselves. You’re looking well beyond the Xs and Os,” said Wood. “You’re looking at the actual child. You’re helping them grow as a human being.”

When a coach can lift up a child like that, everyone wins.

Competing in sports also gives students the opportunity to learn how to fail, as well as how to deal with not being the best at an activity.

Anthony Contreras, grade 11, explained that sports can help athletes grow in the face of adversity and use this growth in other areas: “Sports has shown me how to handle difficult situations and to how to properly learn from my mistakes. Everything that I have learned from sports carries on to my personal and student life.”

“Many of the traits needed to succeed in sports are similar to those needed to succeed in business, including goalsetting, confidence, discipline and leadership skills.”

—Rachel Gary, ONE World Sports In a recent article for Observer.com, titled “How Playing Sports, Even Poorly, Can Make You More Successful in Business,” author Judy Mandell cited psychologist Robert Troutwine: “To persevere when one is not good at something shows a great deal of character. To continue to strive under conditions of failure shows determination, the ability to handle frustration and resiliency.”

This personal growth isn’t just a handy trait that helps someone be a good person – it can be useful in the professional world as well. Mandell continued in her article citing Rachel Gary, director of media strategies and communications at ONE World Sports: “Many of the traits needed to succeed in sports are similar to those needed to succeed in business, including goal-setting, confidence, discipline

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PLAY SPORTS!

“ Athletics help children understand a lot about themselves. You’re looking well beyond the Xs and Os.” —Brighid Wood, middle school coach

and leadership skills.”

These skills, along with others, have helped Kristina Bither ’09 in her medical career. “Now working in the emergency department, I am able to stay calm and focused when situations get stressful,” she said. “I know the importance of coming together to work as a team and stepping up to be a leader when it is needed.”

Theresa “Smitty” Smith, lower and middle school athletic director, summed up what it’s like being part of the Harker athletic department: “There are little victories every day.”

Whether it’s seeing the athletes growing as a family, growing as individuals or just having some fun, the victories on and off the field, court or pool show why teens continue to flock to sports.

“Now working in the emergency department, I am able to stay calm and focused when situations get stressful. I know the importance of coming together to work as a team and stepping up to be a leader when it is needed.”

— Kristina Bither ’09 42

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eith Hirota is Harker’s middle school history department chair, as well as co-principal of the middle school summer program. He counts running an 8-mile race in 52 minutes and earning his B.A. in history and his M.Ed. among his greatest accomplishments, and, along with his wife and son, enjoys his adorable rescue dog, Buddy, who they think is a terrier/corgi mix. Hirota was born in Pennsylvania, but had the good fortune to grow up in Hawaii, an experience that clearly contributes to who he is today. He reflects on what Hawaii means to him and some great advice he’s always tried to follow.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK KOCINA

What makes you feel like a kid again?

Visiting Hilo and doing the activities with my son that I did when I was a child, like body surfing and boogie boarding at Hapuna Beach, dining at the local hole-in-thewall restaurants and jumping into freshwater ponds from a 10-foot waterfall.

What do you love most about your life?

Living each day surrounded by positive, kind and thoughtful students and colleagues.

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

My first job was in high school, bagging groceries at the market. My uncle told me, “Remember, there’s always something to do. If you’re not bagging groceries, pick up a broom or straighten out some shelves … always find something to do.”

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

Having been raised by my grandmother, aunts and uncles.

What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up?

My judo and wrestling coaches instilled in us that quitting is the “easy” way out.

When did you first really feel like an adult?

Surrounded by middle schoolers, I have yet to cross that road.

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sports

It was another successful fall season for Harker athletics; 20 teams brought the Eagle community some exciting moments! Among them, the varsity boys water polo team earned its first league title and CCS berth, and four middle school swimmers took first place in their respective events at the WBAL finals. But it was about more than just wins for our Harker athletes; check out page 38 to see why students love to play sports.

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impact

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Operation arker students sent cards to more than 100 service members this year via Operation Gratitude, and many more in uniform enjoyed treats courtesy of Halloween candy donations. Grade 3 students have been sending cards to those serving in the military for years, and this year the effort included grade 6 students.

According to its website, Operation Gratitude sends 200,000-plus care packages to veterans, first responders, recruits, wounded heroes, care givers and overseas U.S. service members every year.

Elise Robichaud, grade 3 English teacher, pioneered the outreach effort to honor those in the military. Each year, she gathers the names of relatives of Harker students, faculty and staff who are serving and arranges for third graders to make cards for them.

One Saturday afternoon in September, in a parent-driven effort, sixth graders gathered at school to make cards for Operation Gratitude. About two dozen students produced about 40 cards. That was just the opening volley in this year’s efforts to fill packages and bring smiles to the faces of those deployed overseas.

Then in early October, Robichaud started her third grade classes working on cards for military personnel.

This year, they sent cards to 70 Harker relations, as well as a batch of cards to Operation Gratitude for that organization to distribute.

Harker students also contributed Halloween candy to Operation: Care and Comfort, a Bay Area organization that sends goodies to adopted units overseas. “This year I collaborated with my former room parent Robin Feinman-Marino,” Robichaud said. “I had her daughter, Sofie

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“[The soldiers] were asking for extra Halloween candy, so we happily stepped up.”

— Elise Robichaud, grade 3 teacher

Gratitude

WORDS BY WILLIAM CRACRAFT PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARK KOCINA AND ELISE ROBICHAUD

(grade 4), in my homeroom last year, and her cousin is currently serving. They were asking for extra Halloween candy, so we happily stepped up. The children in third grade, and some from grades 4 and 5, filled up three giant tubs with Halloween candy.”

Veterans Visits Each year Robichaud recruits speakers to come talk to the students about how much it means to get cards and other items from students. “Last year we had former Harker teacher and retired colonel Ray Fowler visit (he was a submarine-hunting pilot during the Cold War) and Col. Patrick Shea (a doctor in the U.S. Air Force), brother of chef Matt Shea, visit,” said Robichaud. “This year I organized another visit from the colonel. He came on Nov. 8, right before Veterans Day, to discuss the importance of veterans and to thank the children for their cards.”

Robichaud noted that the recent contentious election left students with questions about basic freedoms and the outreach helped drive home some basic democratic ideals. The project “helped to explain to the children that we live in this great country where everyone can have different opinions and where people vote on their leaders,” Robichaud said. “However, we would not have that freedom unless we had these amazing people who were willing to serve in our military and defend our country. I told them that not everyone in the world can enjoy these freedoms, but we can because of our amazing military and their sacrifices.”

Robichaud said the response to the student efforts has been overwhelming. “This year,” she noted, “we had a special video message sent from Commander Mike Kent, uncle to one of my students.” And San Francisco 49er tight end Garrett Celek, a 49ers service award winner, signed a football and sent a personalized video message for the students to keep up the good work.

“I have incredible stories from parents who told me that this was the first time they have connected with a [serving] relative,” added Robichaud. “A co-worker told me that the children’s cards brought her Marine husband and his tough buddies to tears.”

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passion

Colin Dickey,

Hauntingly Poignant Author Alumnus frights and delights with real-life ghost stories

WORDS BY JARED SCOTT TESLER PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN MICHAEL KILBANE

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ince he was a little boy, Colin Dickey MS ’91 had always dreamed of becoming an architect. But while at Harker’s middle school – inspired by highly respected and beloved English teachers, including the late Sylvia Harp – he had a change of heart.

“Harker nurtured a kind of creative rigor that I appreciate – not just memorizing and repeating information but getting us to think critically and to go beyond received truths,” Dickey said. “At some point, I realized that one could easier build things out of words than out of bricks and wood.”

And so, at 12 years old, while most boys his age were playing sports or video games, he spent his after-school hours reading books and writing stories on his mother’s word processor. With the nearby labyrinth-like Winchester Mystery House – designed and built

by Sarah Winchester, widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester, and said to be haunted by ghosts – serving as his muse, his early interest in architecture would creep its way into his latest and greatest passion.

Images provided by Viking/Penguin Press

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Fast-forward 25 years. Dickey holds a Master of Fine Arts in critical studies, as well as a doctorate in comparative literature, and is an associate professor of creative writing at National University. He is the co-editor of “The Morbid Anatomy Anthology” and author of three supernatural nonfiction books, including his most recent, “Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places,” which The New York Times Book Review called “a lively assemblage and smart analysis of dozens of haunting stories … absorbing … [and] intellectually intriguing.” The book also was lauded by the Los Angeles Times, Men’s Journal, Publishers Weekly, The Seattle Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Dickey also has received positive feedback from readers.

“Some random person on the Internet told me the other day that my latest book was helping her get through a difficult time, and I was honored and humbled to have had that kind of impact,” he said.

In writing “Ghostland,” which is “not overtly pro or anti any belief in the supernatural,” Dickey said his focus was on uncovering the answers to a series of questions: “Why do certain buildings come to be seen as haunted?

Is there something architecturally about these spaces that may lend them an aura of the ghostly? Why do we tell some ghost stories and not others?

Is there something to be learned about the way we tell ghost stories, something that reflects deeper anxieties, hopes and fears?” While some may be skeptical or even afraid of this particular genre, the author hopes everyone will be a part of the conversation.

Between books, Dickey carves out time as a guest speaker, and is a frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books and Lapham’s Quarterly. In his post at National University, he is primarily tasked with “sculpting and guiding a new generation of voices” – a privilege and a duty he takes very seriously.

“Most of my students come to me with a great deal of raw talent. My job is to act as a sounding board, giving them the space to adapt and refine those voices,” Dickey said.

“One of the main pieces of advice I find myself giving is to simply write – and read.

Students, even writers, don’t read as much or as widely as they should.”

For information on Dickey’s books, upcoming appearances and more, visit colindickey. com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @colindickey.

Contributor Jared Scott Tesler is based in Rochester, N.Y.

“Some random person on the Internet told me the other day that my latest book was helping her get through a difficult time, and I was honored and humbled to have had that kind of impact.”

– Colin Dickey MS ’91

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student work pictured: Mike Bassoni, facilities manager

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Blossoms to Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Wingspan, a Harker student magazine, on Jan. 28, 2015.

WORDS BY ALYSSA AMICK ’15 AND PRISCILLA PAN ’15 PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAY LARI-HOSAIN ’16

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blanket of white enveloped the valley, which extended for miles as far as her eyes could see. It was summer in the Valley of Heart’s Delight, which would later be better known as the Silicon Valley, where endless blossoms marked the transition from spring into the beginning of a season when she would excitedly pick cherries.

Ten-year-old Kristin Giammona ’81, now Harker’s elementary division head, frequently rode her bike down the lanes of cherry orchards in her Willow Glen, San Jose neighborhood in the 1970s. Year after year, though, she noticed more and more houses replacing the fruit trees, usurping the green, empty vastness of the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

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In 1919, fruit trees were planted in approximately 12 percent of Silicon Valley’s (then the Santa Clara Valley’s) 839,680 acres, according to the County of Santa Clara’s database. Vineyards made up an additional 2,850 acres, says the History of Santa Clara County.

Also, with 18 canneries, this region, with abundant job opportunities and fertile land, was one of the largest centers for American food production until the 1960s.

Socially and economically, Silicon Valley revolved around its agrarian roots. Growing up, Giammona relished in watching the seasons change through several different fruits and vegetables. A San Jose native, Giammona hails from a long line of Silicon Valley food workers; her father was both a broker between farms and grocery stores as well as a canner, while her mother was one of many who tinned tomatoes at a cannery.

In the summer, Giammona was surrounded by families who sold cherries grown in their yards. Several small stands, run by cash businesses, worked around the timing of the seasons throughout the popular hubs in San Jose.

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BLANKET OF WHITE, Cont.

Our family has a deep-rooted history in the Santa Clara Valley because of our ranch, and there is definitely a sense of feeling connected to the past and looking towards the future.

— Frannie Thompson ‘05

“If you wanted corn, you knew to go to Almaden Expressway,” Giammona said.

“There were different areas you knew. In Los Gatos, there was a dairy farm, and I remember driving up this dirt road and we’d get fresh eggs.”

In 2014, though, picking fresh produce is a rarity in Silicon Valley, as the majority of arable land has been taken over by city developers and technology companies.

Nevertheless, traces of the valley’s agricultural past linger in residents’ memories and protected expanses of land, such as recreational orchard gardens scattered throughout the area.

Giammona’s mother, Dorothy Scarpace, recalls spending her childhood summers cutting and drying apricots with her sister. “It was really a very wonderful area because everybody got to work in the canneries, and you only had to be 14 years old to work in them,” Scarpace said.

“We could work in the summertime and then save our money for school to buy our own clothes and such.”

It didn’t end there, though. Giammona’s maternal grandfather worked for a trucking company, where he hauled tomatoes for the brand Contadina.

Like Scarpace, fellow San Jose native Mike Bassoni was raised during Silicon Valley’s agricultural times. Bassoni, Harker’s facilities manager, grew up in San Jose before urbanization.

“The houses across the street from me were the end of developed San Jose [in 1947],” he said. “From that point you could run through the orchards – prune orchards and apricot orchards primarily – all the way to Blossom Hill Road.”

The early 20th century had ushered in opportunities for fruit stand workers and food brokers. The canning industry was particularly prominent after the can manufacturing process became viable during World War I. Specifically, this procedural efficiency followed the creation of the assembly line and mechanization of factories. Tin cans filled with fruit grown in Silicon

Valley soil lined supermarket shelves. People even immigrated both nationally and internationally to California to find jobs in the canning industry and to be farmers.

In 1905, Bassoni’s grandfather opened a grocery store four blocks from Japantown in downtown San Jose.

“Probably 12 or 14 of my family members all worked in the canneries,” he said. “My father drove the trucks, and his brother fixed the trucks. Many of my aunts worked on the assembly line. You had to hand-process the fruit. You literally would have an army of people watching fruit go by and see if it was bruised, or maybe had a worm in it. There was no other quality control.”

According to Bassoni, the canning industry is what made San Jose originally, so much so that the Bay Area’s economy was driven by it.

That is, until the technology revolution, which led Silicon Valley to what we know it as today, dawned.

In 1938, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began work on a product that would eventually lead to the birth of HewlettPackard, the company behind the wellknown HP computers. With this invention, they ignited a new tech age. Soon after came the hoard of renowned tech companies that now characterize Silicon Valley – Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, to name a few.

In addition, the population of San Jose swelled from below 100,000 during Bassoni’s childhood to over a million.

“In my lifetime, I’ve seen the population of San Jose double tenfold,” Bassoni said. “I used to be able to get on my bicycle and within about four, six pedal strokes, I could be out in the country; I could be out in orchards.

You can’t do that anymore. It’s hard to escape what your generation views as just norm. If you get to a high point and you look across the valley, you see structures.”

As business offices and homes went up, the orchards came down.

The technology industry also displaced the valley’s food-based industries such as canneries, dislodging jobs that people had relied on. According to Giammona, families were unable to keep up with the times, as canning was the only life they knew.

In my lifetime, I’ve seen the population of San Jose double tenfold. I used to be able to get on my bicycle and within about four, six pedal strokes, I could be out in the country; I could be out in orchards. You can’t do that anymore. It’s hard to escape what your generation views as just norm.

— Mike Bassoni, facilities manager

“Because the food industry was such a big part of my family, it was sad to see my dad’s business kind of drop off,” Giammona said. “The images of big [and] open trucks carrying tomatoes that [we’d] see all the

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student work time in the summer, just gone.”

With the disappearance of canneries, Scarpace believed that her children missed out on firsthand insight into their roots.

Giammona also felt that a distinct, natural beauty was replaced in the valley when its vast land was supplanted by big companies, urbanization, and other industries that placed buildings in their stead.

“I think in some ways it’s kind of sad because the valley was so green and so beautiful, and all these buildings

BLOSSOMS TO BUILDINGS

have been built upon soil that’s very fertile,” Giammona said. “I think we’ve really lost an agricultural area that was really important to California, and now you have to import things that you could have grown here.

“It’s just so overbuilt, and when you visit other areas like Italy and even other states, you see that they’ve preserved those areas, and we just really haven’t.

You’re wasting all this beautiful soil on building buildings on top instead of putting the housing farther out or in different areas. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t thought out; how do you do both?”

An increasing resistance to the urbanization has recently gained

momentum by local farmers and ranchers, many of whose families have stayed in Silicon Valley for generations in an attempt to revive the old agrarian culture of San Jose.

The family of Harker alumna Franny Thompson ’05 owns a cattle ranch, Rancho Yerba Buena, in Evergreen, San Jose. The property has belonged to the family for four generations, since 1910. Although originally a dairy, the family gradually added an orchard with apricots, prunes and walnuts. Today, it focuses on beef cattle.

“We feel proud that we get to help carry on the legacy of our family’s ranch,” Thompson said. “Our family has a deep-rooted history in the Santa Clara Valley because of our ranch, and there is definitely a sense of feeling connected to the past and looking towards the future, which is both interesting and exciting during this ever changing time in the area.”

Despite interest from developers for their land, the Thompson family chooses to keep the property. It remains as one of the few surviving ranches in the area.

Similarly, the Corn Palace, located in Sunnyvale, has been a landmark to locals since 1926.

The 20-acre food stand co-owned by brothers Ben and Joe Francia is

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The images of big [and] open trucks carrying tomatoes that [we’d] see all the time in the summer, just gone.

— Kristin Giammona ‘81, elementary division head frequently used by their children and grandchildren to grow corn, among other produce. Despite several multimillion dollar offers to buy the land and not to mention the townhouses and condominiums encroaching on their property, the brothers refuse to part with their family’s land.

Farmers and ranchers who do not sell their Silicon Valley land cultivate it through a distinct market niche of fruit stands, grocery store produce sections and weekly farmer’s markets.

The Old Olson Cherry Orchard, located off Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale, continues to produce cherries to this day.

For four generations, the Olson family has worked in the orchards growing cherries, and for a short while apricots and prunes.

Though their fruit stand sits in the same location it did in 1899, it now shares the same parking lot space with a nearby Chipotle, Starbucks, and a new Trader Joe’s less than 100 yards away.

Some farmers, however, have taken advantage of the urbanization. Andy Mariani, owner of Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill, for instance, benefited from

the recent trend to consume whole and artisanal foods by easing his orchard’s transition into the technological era.

“When you have agriculture near an urban area, [you have] a different outlook,” Mariani said in a phone interview. “[I grow fruit] that you can demand a higher price for instead of just growing commodities. I’m trying to grow fruit like my parents did, but I have the advantage that this whole [food] trend has come about.”

Several towns have also set aside parks and preserves to capture the beauty of what was nearly 100 years ago, and cities have started to preserve or replant orchards. The Los Altos library sits next to apricot trees, and Sunnyvale has a Cherry Orchard Park.

Furthermore, programs urging citizens to return to growing some of their own produce, including Silicon Valley Grows, have sprung up. Silicon Valley Grows is a group started by six local libraries to “lend” seeds to members. They plant and grow the crop, collect the seeds after harvest, and return them to the library for others to use.

In an announcement of the program, the group elaborated on the

organization’s goals.

“By growing and saving heirloom seeds, home gardeners can help maintain diversity in the food supply, preserve our cultural heritage, and generate seeds for seed libraries,” wrote Silicon Valley Grows on the Santa Clara County Library website.

The cultivation of the memory of Silicon Valley’s agricultural days is manifested on the Harker campus as well. The Class of 2014 recently gifted an orchard of apricot, apple and citrus trees to the school in honor of Jason Berry, an upper school English teacher who passed away in 2013.

“The class gifted the Orchard Garden in honor of the South Bay’s agricultural roots,” said Christopher Nikoloff, head of school, in a schoolwide email. Now, students have the opportunity to sit on benches and enjoy the beauty that once filled almost all of the valley.

Although the technology incubator of the Silicon Valley continues to expand, those who grew up from a different legacy remember a distinct connection to the land. “I grow fruit,” Mariani said.

“To me that’s an art — orchestrat[ing] the sun and the soil, [watching] people bite into it and say, ‘That’s the best fruit I’ve ever tasted.’ Or a little kid tasting [the fruit], and he says, ‘This is better than candy.’ That’s very satisfying.”

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staff kudos

staff kudos

Professional accomplishments of our faculty and staff.

Performing Arts Director Cast in Local Production of ‘The Music Man’ In mid-October, K-12 director of performing arts Laura Lang-Ree was a cast member in Lyric Theatre’s production of “The Music Man.” She played Alma Hix, one of the four gossipy Pick-a-Little Ladies. “I have been missing creating a character from scratch,” said Lang-Ree, who spent several years as a singer with the Los Gatos/Saratoga Big Band. “It was time to go back to my musical theater roots.”

Sports Coaches Lend Expertise to Goals for Girls This summer Theresa Smith, lower and middle school athletic director, and Brighid Wood, assistant to the athletic directors, helped host the Goals for Girls soccer clinic at Santa Clara University. Smith and Wood were joined by former U.S. Women’s National Team players Cindy Parlow Cone and Brandi Chastain, as well as Rebecca Crabb, a two-time national champion

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at the University of North Carolina. In 2007, Cone started Goals for Girls, which “connects girls from different countries and backgrounds with their peers around the world in a forum that addresses social and health challenges through cultural exchange and soccer,” stated Wood.

Upper School LID Director Named to CUE Board of Directors This summer Diane Main, upper school director of learning, innovation and design, was named to the board of directors of Computer Using Educators.

Founded in 1978, CUE is a nonprofit organization that seeks to inspire students via the use of technology in the classroom. The organization holds conferences each year where teachers can attend a wide variety of workshops designed to help them develop innovative teaching methods.

Science Department Chair Speaks at Anatomage Conference In July Anita Chetty, upper school science chair, spoke at a users group meeting hosted

by Anatomage, a 3-D medical imaging technology company. Its products include the Anatomage Table, which is currently being used

by Harker science students.

Science Teacher Named to Woods Hole President’s Council In late October, upper school science teacher Kate Schafer was invited to be a member of the President’s Council at the Woods Hole Research Center. The center, which helps develop policies to combat climate change, formed the council to advise its president and staff on strategy and management.

Upper School Head and Journalism Teacher Honored Butch Keller, upper school division head, and Ellen Austin, upper school journalism teacher, were both honored at the Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Indianapolis on Nov. 12. Keller was selected by The Journalism Education Association as its administrator of the year, an honor presented annually to school administrators who demonstrate outstanding

support of school journalism programs. Austin was named one of this year’s Pioneer Award winners by the National Scholastic Press Association.

Considered the NSPA’s highest honor awarded to journalism educators, the Pioneer Award recognizes “individuals who make substantial contributions to high school publications and journalism programs outside of their primary employment,” according to the NSPA website. To read more, search “journalism” at news. harker.org.

archives

our history

Each issue we bring you a story from our school archives.

The 2018-19 school year will mark the 125th anniversary of Harker’s founding, and we’re so excited to look back at our history. It seems appropriate to start at the beginning; enjoy this primer of Harker’s roots!

The union of two schools, the Palo Alto Military Academy and The Harker Day School, formed what is today The Harker School.

Although these schools began independently, David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, inspired both.

In 1893 President Jordan, concerned for the university’s need for superior incoming students, encouraged Frank Cramer, a pioneer educator and civic leader, to begin Manzanita Hall, a college preparatory school for boys. The program was dedicated to the premise that the successful future citizen and student of higher education is one who has a broad foundation not only in his classroom pursuits, but also in nonacademic areas. The development of high moral character and leadership qualities was emphasized.

Catherine Harker, a Vassar graduate and a professor of Greek and Latin at Mills College, recognized the need for a girls’ preparatory school near Stanford and founded Miss Harker’s School in 1902, which also emphasized superior scholarship, character and leadership.

In 1919 Cramer’s original school, Manzanita Hall, became Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA), a school for boys of elementary age under the direction of Richard P. Kelly. In 1955 Miss Harker’s School was reorganized to become a coeducational day school and brochures indicate that the name of the school was changed to The Harker Day School during the reorganization. Donald L. Nichols assumed leadership of PAMA in 1950 and The Harker Day School in 1959, merged the two schools under the name Harker Academy and moved to the present location at 500

Saratoga Ave. in San Jose in 1972. Howard E. Nichols assumed leadership of the school in 1973, dropping the military program and expanding academics and other program offerings.

In 1992, the school name was changed to The Harker School to more clearly reflect the character and diversity of the school.

Howard Nichols was named president and Diana Nichols was named head of school.

To fill the growing need for

exceptional non-religious high school education in the Bay Area, Howard and Diana Nichols planned and implemented the founding of the upper school and Harker expanded in 1998 to begin including grades 9-12. Fully enrolled since its inception, the upper school quickly earned a reputation for excellence. In 2002, Harker graduated the first class of seniors, and graduates continue matriculating to prestigious universities throughout the world. Christopher Nikoloff assumed leadership of the school in 2005 following Nichols’ retirement at the end of the 2004-05 school year.

Today The Harker School still retains the consistent core philosophy of the original schools, and has become a worldrenowned academic institution that is eager to continue making a difference in the world.

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class notes

class notes

Keep up to date on the lives of your classmates.

Alumni from all classes through 1997 are listed under the years they would have completed grade 8 at The Harker School, Harker Academy, Harker Day School or Palo Alto Military Academy (PAMA). For all classes after the Class of 1997, alumni are listed under the class years they would have graduated form high school, regardless of whether they completed high school studies at Harker. For unlisted classes, we invite you to email alumni@harker.org if you are interested in becoming a class agent or would like to nominate a classmate.

All photos submitted by the subject unless noted.

Dana Lurie married her best friend of 10 years, Dalila Vargas, on Oct. 22. Janean Mariani and Michele Magboo, along with their husbands, helped Dana and Dalila celebrate the day. In 2015 the couple spent two months driving around the country in a camper van, visiting as many national parks as possible. Dana is looking forward to the 35th reunion and seeing as many classmates as possible! Pictured with Dana and Dalila is Janean.

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City/Dolphin Adventure shore excursion in Grand Cayman already booked! I am also the webmaster for the California Groundwater Association.”

inisce with Joe Rosenthal during their honeymoon trip to the Bay Area.

1997 Photo by Mark Kocina

1982

Liz Robertson reports that she and her husband, Keil Albert, are active supporters of their son’s parent participation school, Stevenson PACT in Mountain View. Keil works with the parent education committee and Liz with the garden committee. In past years Keil also has taught science. Keil is a volunteer golf coach at First Tee of Silicon Valley and is celebrating his 22nd year at Geoconsultants in San Jose, locating water well sites and designing production wells. Liz is celebrating her 12th year at SciGene in Sunnyvale, applying her marketing skills and running the company, which manufactures instruments and reagents for genetic testing, for the president/owner, who lives in Pasadena. “Our new ‘favorite’ vacation destination is Austin, Texas, which we visit twice a year since my parents and brother relocated there about 10 years ago,” Liz reports. “We love to swim, golf, go to waterparks and attend concerts in my parents’ new home city of Georgetown, an Austin suburb, which has the ‘Most Beautiful Town Square’ in Texas. We are all looking forward to a Christmas cruise with my folks and my brother’s family (10 in all) to the Caribbean. We have our Stingray

1995 Jamil Valliani was promoted to partner at Microsoft, where he leads product teams in the U.S. and China working on Microsoft’s search team. He is most known as the product leader for Bing image search, video search and home page.

These products touch more than 100 million users and serve billions of searches every month. Jamil enjoys traveling around the world and is an active volunteer in the Seattle community. Jamil is in touch with Iliya Pesic (now chairman of Silvaco).

1996 Yong Joon Yoo and his new wife dropped by Harker to tour the campus and rem-

Edward Hong and his wife, Jenny Chung, attended the Harker Family & Alumni Picnic, caught up with Joe Rosenthal, and then returned to the Saratoga Avenue campus so Eddie could take a tour with Karri Baker ’84, alumni director, and reminisce about his years spent in the Harker dorms. Eddie said, “Harker will always be a special place for me. You guys nurtured and parented me in the most evil ages of adolescence. How can I forget about it? You really made me who I am now.”

2002 Isabella Liu worked on the Hillary Clinton campaign as a field organizer in Florida. She first got involved in January and played a key role in San Francisco during the California

2005

primary. Though she had the option to organize in the Bay Area and battleground states like Virginia, she chose Florida, which was the biggest, most influential swing state.

2003

We are sad to report that Sparsh Bhargava passed away on Oct. 28 of natural causes while on a business trip to Germany, just four days after his 31st birthday. Sparsh left Harker after grade 5, when his family moved to Boston. Also attending Harker at that time were his brother, Samarth ’06 and cousin, Shivani Bhargava ’06. His obituary states, “His name means ‘touch,’ and he lived every day with a mission to enrich people’s lives: family, friends and the less fortunate.

We are better people and the world is a better place because of him.” A memorial fund has been established, geared toward touching children’s lives: https://www.youcaring.com/ childrenseducation-683341#.

For the full obituary: http://joycefuneralhome.tributes.com/ obituary/show/Sparsh-Bhargava-104105361

Hillary Brooks married Andrew Lawrence on Aug. 27 at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. The couple met while studying abroad in China.

The wedding was a mini reunion for Harker classmates.

According to Joan Brooks, mother of the bride, “Though miles have often separated the group with their college choices and careers since their 2005 Harker graduation, it’s so wonderful that they have worked at remaining very good friends.” Heartiest congratulations to the happy couple! Pictured left to right (all ’05 unless noted): Eric Gavarre, Katie (Ball) O’Leary, Mariama Eghan, Yagmur Ilgen, Hillary, Andrew, Erika Gudmundson, Genna Erlikhman ’09, Estelle Charlu and Boris Fedorov.

The band toured across the country until Nov. 9 promoting its new album, “Worth the Pain.” Letters From The Fire started at Harker as the band Park Lane, which was a regular contestant in Harker’s annual Battle of the Bands.

Pictured left to right (all ’07 unless noted): Anna Huang, Siobhan Stevenson, bassist Clayton Wages, Mike, Jessica Lee, Gwynne Davis ’08 and Chanelle Kasik.

Jason Martin is the new owner of Sal’s Pizza in Campbell, and he’d love to have Harker alumni and current families stop by to eat. Alumni parent Tina Najibi said, “My family has been ordering pizza from Sal’s ever since I first ate a slice at a Harker event when my kids (now both graduated) were in the lower school. It is, in my opinion, the best pizza in the Bay Area! Their calzones are the best that I’ve tried anywhere.”

2009

2007

Harker alumni based in New York City stopped by Webster Hall on Oct. 24 to support the band Letters From The Fire, featuring Mike Keller.

Ryan Tam married Stephanie Wang in a beautiful ceremony in Palo Alto in August. Ryan and Stephanie met at USC and are now living in the Bay Area. According to class agent Stephanie Guo, “It was a beautiful occasion and a wonderful reunion.” Ryan added, “It

was great celebrating the big day with old friends, K-Life!”

Pictured left to right (all ’09 unless noted): Nate Kwok, Andy Yee ’08, Jonathan Liu ’09, Andrew Chin, Marcus Wong, Ryan, Stephanie, Kyle Hall, Stephanie Guo, Winny Huang and Khwaab Dave.

Jia Jun recently graduated from the University of Washington with her M.S. in bioengineering, and has moved back to the Bay Area. She took a job at Gilead Sciences as a senior research associate.

Jia said, “I have been missing all the reunions since I’ve been away (since graduation, actually), and I’ve been finding so many Harker connections recently! My boyfriend started his MBA program at Stanford, and another member of my ’09 class is his classmate, and I unexpectedly found out that my boyfriend’s sister’s college classmate went to Harker as well (Class of ’03). Small world!”

D.J. Blickenstaff’s Hollywood career is on fire! He was cast as “Arman” in Netflix’s “Dear White People,” a 10-episode show based on the 2014 movie of the same name.

The show follows a diverse group of students as they attend an Ivy League college where racial tensions are often hidden. The show will air in 2017 and D.J., originally cast for episodes two and eight, was recalled for the finale, episode 10.

A few 2009ers are in graduate school in Boston and managed to get together.

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class notes

Pictured left to right are Sarah Payne, Kristina Bither, Beckie Yanovsky and Neha Sabharwal.

2010

Vinay Kumar celebrated his 25th birthday in New York City with Harker friends. Pictured are classmates Manasa Reddy and Veronica Hsieh (first row); Vin, Valerie Hwa, Jackie Ho, Sean Morgan and Lung-Ying Yu (second row); Andy Fang, Arjun Mody and Sachin Mitra (back row).1

Sanjana Baldwa is working with a fascinating startup, Go Jane Go, to develop an application that will connect female road warriors in real-time. The company’s motto is, “Business women embracing the experience of #TravelingWhileFemale.” Via in-app messaging, women can “connect with each other for activities to make solo business travel a lot more safe, fun and easy.” Sanjana, who graduated this year from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied psychology, human-computer interaction and communication design, will be concentrating on her forte, user experience.

The website ( http://www. gojanego.com) already has garnered some great blog posts by traveling women.

Vlad Sepetov was interviewed

by Huck Magazine on his iconic and iconoclastic album covers.

He is clearly a serious force in album design! http://www. huckmagazine.com/art-andculture/vlad-sepetov-designsalbum-art-worlds-greatest-hiphop-artists/ Michael Prutton just finished his master’s degree in medical device and diagnostic engineering at USC.

2012 60

Pavitra Rengarajan was part of a group of engineering interns who had dinner with Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan at their Palo Alto home in early October. Zuckerberg posted this image on his Facebook page.

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2013

Nikhil Panu and his app, Squadz, were among just 10 teams selected to participate in the Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures Social Innovation Lab! “In addition to being promising solutions to pressing social issues in the areas of health, education and community development, these ventures and their leaders represent the strength and diversity of Baltimore’s social innovation and entrepreneurship community,” said Darius Graham, SIL director, in the university’s news story.

The report noted, “Squadz is a social activity and venue booking platform that connects the community to play pickup sports, while generating revenue for community centers and recreation facilities.”

And in sports news, Nikhil was featured on a Johns Hopkins basketball promotion. Nikhil graduated from Johns Hopkins in three years and is now a post-grad student there.

2014 Mary Liu received the Distinguished Cadet Award at West Point, the United States Military Academy, and was selected for the Omar Bradley Research Fellowship.

She ultimately elected to leave the academy to go on a mission trip. Mary is now teaching high school physics, economics and statistics at a school in Weihai, China, and working with the Catholic church as a bible study leader. She promises to keep us posted on her next adventure!

2016 While staffing Hillary Clinton’s national headquarters in Brooklyn, Shannon Hong called in to answer student questions during Cyrus Merrill’s history class. “She is my youngest guest speaker/ former student ever!” said Merrill.

We love to get updates from our alumni!

If you have news and updates about yourself or a classmate, contact alumni@harker.org or visit http://www. harker.org/alumni to log into the alumni portal and see the list of class agents.

COMING IN

2017!

To learn more about our new gym and theater project, and to donate, please visit our capital campaign page at http://www.harker.org/giving/capital-giving.

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