School meeting recap 10/9/18

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Kathy Fang

Raphael Sanche (12), GSA president, gives a speech about his experience coming out as transgender in honor of National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11.

by Eric Fang and Ryan Guan

Juniors from the girls water polo team presented a video advertising their joint senior night with the boys water polo team on Thursday. The boys will be playing Cupertino High School at 4 p.m., with senior recognition at 3:45. The girls will play at 6:15 p.m. with recognition around 6. The junior varsity water polo team will play in between the two varsity games at 5:15 p.m.

Girls golf also featured a video to promote their senior night this Friday. Their senior ceremony begins at 6 p.m., and they will play against King’s Academy at Los Lagos Golf Course. The cheer team’s senior night will be on Friday as well.

CareerConnect announced Constellation’s 2018 Connected Enterprise Conference on Oct. 23 at the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton, a conference that will include speeches and workshops relating to blockchain and computational technologies. Ten upper school students can attend.

Harker JSA co-presidents Ayush Vyas (12) and Jai Bahri (11) announced that their first club meeting would take place during lunch this Thursday in English teacher Nikolai Slivka’s room. They encouraged their members to sign up for the Fall State Conference during the weekend of Nov. 17 to 18. The sign-up deadline is Oct. 23.

A new student showcase gallery, which will display works from Honors Directed Portfolio students over the next months, is opening in Shah, under the staircase near art teacher Joshua Martinez’s room. The reception took place on Tuesday, with an exhibition by Raymond Banke (12).

Avi Gulati (11) performed a “magic trick” to urge students to attend Quadchella, the upper school talent showcase, on Nov. 8 during long lunch. Photos of last year’s Quadchella by Harker’s communications department were projected behind Avi. Students can enter their acts at tiny.cc/quadchella.

Seniors Sophia Angus and Kelsey Wu introduced the LIFE mentorship program, which pairs underclassmen with upperclassmen in an effort to create lasting friendships and to spread advice. Freshmen and sophomores can sign up for the program at tiny.cc/lifementees. Juniors and Seniors can sign up at tiny.cc/lifementors. The deadlines for applications are Oct. 24 for underclassmen and Oct. 17 for upperclassmen.

Green Team president Anvi Banga (11) reminded students not to throw away their metal utensils but instead put them in utensil bins, which Green Team has placed near several trash cans around campus. The utensil bins are not to be used for plates and bowls.

Nikhil Dharmaraj (12) announced the Youth Climate Action Summit on Nov. 10 at the Tech Museum in San Jose, an event that will feature the likes of keynotes and presentations about virtual reality. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at techclimatesummit.org.

Harker TEDx played a video based upon Vogue’s 73 questions for celebrities, titling their video 15 questions with TEDx. In the video, Ishaan Chandra (11) asks Aditi Ghalasi (11) and Shania Wang (12) various questions regarding the upcoming TEDx event, themed “Dare to Differentiate” and held in Nichols on Oct. 20 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. TEDx officers Nicole Chen (12) and Taylor Lam (12) encouraged students to come to the TEDx event, as there will be many speakers in addition to extra credit for certain classes. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at tedx.harker.org or using flyers around campus.

Abhinav Joshi (12) and Charlotte Blanc (11) announced Make a Birthday Wish’s upcoming club week. The club throws birthday parties for children who would not usually have them, and its first meeting is on Friday at 12:50 in Bradley Stoll’s room.

Performing arts representatives announced that 14 students from the upper school were named to the Regional Honor Choir.

Julia Amick (12), the business manager of TALON, the upper school yearbook, reminded the audience to purchase their yearbooks. Students who turn in their yearbook order forms before Nov. 9 will receive a discount. Yearbook forms can be obtained from TALON members or the journalism room.

GSA president Raphael Sanche (12) gave a speech about his journey coming out as transgender in honor of National Coming Out Day on Thursday. He invited students to wear red and get rainbow stickers outside Manzanita during lunch on Thursday in order to show their support for the LGBT+ community.

Lastly, science department chair Anita Chetty spoke briefly about Howard Nichols, Harker’s former president. Every October on his birthday, students in all campuses celebrate his life and contribution to the campus by enjoying chocolate chip cookies, which he always kept in his office.