School meeting recap 11/2/18

Spirit+club+officers+Arjun+Kilaru+%2812%29+and+Zachary+Hoffman+%2812%29+announce+the+results+of+the+costume+contests+from+Wednesday.+Each+winner+received+prizes+as+well+as+spirit+points+for+their+class.

Kathy Fang

Spirit club officers Arjun Kilaru (12) and Zachary Hoffman (12) announce the results of the costume contests from Wednesday. Each winner received prizes as well as spirit points for their class.

by Ryan Guan, Executive News Editor

Eagle Update presenters announced that the girls volleyball team made the CCS finals, and girls water polo won their league finals and will play their first CCS game tomorrow. Boys water polo and boys cross-country are state academic champions, while girls golf placed second in CCS.

The cross-country team played a video announcing that their senior night is today at the Crystal Springs cross-country course at 4:30 p.m.

LIFE self-defense classes will start on Nov. 7 from 3:10 to 3:50 p.m. Students who sign up on Schoology are required to attend all eight weeks of the class. The Upper School Students Schoology group has the dates of all LIFE sessions.

The boys basketball team needs a team manager. The team manager will receive sports credit. Interested students should contact Gene Wang (12) or Jack Connors (11) at [email protected] and [email protected].

Orchestra performed live music accompanying a movie screening in the auxiliary gym today at 12:15 p.m.

WiSTEM’s club week will be next week. They will sell boba, cookies and old Research Symposium water bottles and T-shirts after school from Monday to Thursday and sell popcorn at Quadchella on Thursday. Proceeds will benefit WISER, an organization that helps girls access education in rural Kenya. WiSTEM will screen “CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap,” a movie describing the low number of women and minorities in the engineering field, in Nichols Auditorium after school on Wednesday. They will also host a panel featuring female Harker alumni in science and technology, “Beyond Harker: Successful Women in STEM”, on Wednesday.

To participate in the F=ma Physics Olympiad screening exam in January, email [email protected] with the subject “F=ma”.

The Student Council Appreciation Committee will hold the first Thanksgiving grams, free stickers and cards available to send to other students next Wednesday and Friday. Student Council members will deliver the cards the week before Thanksgiving break.

Representatives from performing arts announced that Kelsey Wu (12) was accepted to Jazz in the Neighborhood’s Emerging Artist Program, which will pair her with an experienced jazz musician.

Spirit held this year’s Halloween costume contest on Wednesday. Office of Communications, Development, Alumni and Events, who dressed after different decades in honor of Harker’s 125th anniversary, won the faculty and staff first place. The best duo/group were Chris Leafstrand (12) and Abhinav Joshi (12), who dressed as an angel and demon, respectively. The funniest costume award went to Trevor Thompson (12), who dressed as Napoleon Dynamite. Sarah Raymond (10), whose costume was themed after “Little Shop of Horrors,” won the most creative costume. The best solo costume was Sian Smith (12), who dressed as the Morton Salt Girl. Alissa Gao (10) won scariest costume with a Day of the Dead-themed costume.

Kaushik Shivakumar (12) and Shaunak Maruvada (12) faced off in this year’s ping pong championship finals game. Shaunak won 11-8.

Assistant Head of Student Affairs Greg Lawson discussed the upper school’s emergency response protocol, with a “Run, Hide, Defend” strategy, in preparation for a lockdown drill during sixth period today. If outside, students should run away from the danger and either attempt to exit the campus or find external cover, such as cars in the parking lot. If inside, students were advised to stay inside and lock down in a classroom, where a teacher would make the decision to evacuate.

To lock down, people should close window blinds and and lock doors, turn off lights, stay quiet and build multiple barricades to block entry and visibility. Even behind a barricade, they should avoid sheltering directly in front of doors or windows. If the room is breached, students can “defend” by using any accessible implements against the attacker. In the event of a real emergency, students should follow the directions of police officers and first responders after they arrive. Lawson also advised students to contact an adult if they become aware of a threat and to respond quickly to emergency alarms.

This year’s Quadchella talent show will take place next Thursday during lunch. Students interested in submitting acts should do so by tonight at tiny.cc/quadchella.