School meeting recap 3/24/22: Diana Nichols’ birthday, Hoscars and support for Haiti

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Katelyn Zhao

Publicity committee members Daniel Lin (10) and Sasvath Ramachandran (12) announce the upcoming Hoscars show tomorrow. Dressed as security, sophomores Adi Jain, Om Tandon and Veyd Patil accompanied the two presenters.

by Katelyn Zhao, Co-Asst. Sports Editor

Associated Student Body (ASB) president Dawson Chen (12) started the school meeting by welcoming everyone back to in-person meetings in the Zhang athletics center on Thursday.

A video about the surplus of supplies from the middle school played, featuring upper school biology teacher Jeff Sutton.

After the Harker middle school moved from the Blackford campus to the smaller Union campus, a surplus of supplies including filing cabinets, computers, lab desks and two school buses remained. In an effort to repurpose responsibly, freshmen participated in a service day, organizing everything into three shipping containers, which arrived in Haiti in December, 2021

Founders of the Caiman Christian Community University (UCCC) and a teaching hospital Jean-Jean Mompremier and Kristin Kay de Boer Mompremier thanked Harker for its donation, as students from the preschool to university level now have access to transportation and other equipment.

“You had the lab tables and equipment [for] teaching science in the middle school, we will be actually using them in a teaching hospital because we don’t have those things,” Mompremier said in the video. “You can’t imagine how much this is upcycling and reusing these things, they are blessing others in need.”  

With the first “Drowsy Chaperone” show last Thursday, the performing arts department played a promotion video for the spring musicals return to live, onstage theater. Cast member Richie Amarillas (12) took the stage, announced that tickets were still available for purchase at tiny.cc/drowsy22 for the Friday and Saturday shows and mentioned the highlights of the show, which included roller skating, tap dancing and monkeys.

CareerConnect officers Sara Wan (11) and Carey Chang (10) announced a workshop focused on helping students create LinkedIn profiles and writing resumes in preparation for internship applications. In addition to resume building, students took headshots at the workshop held at 12:50 p.m. in the innovation center.

Director of Performing Arts Laura Lang-Ree and upper school English teacher Nicholas Manjoine presented on former board chair Diana Nichols’ behalf, whose March 25 birthday is celebrated every year.

“She had an incredible reach,” Manjoine said. “She was small in stature [but] very large in persona and personality. We just wanted to take a moment to celebrate her and have an appreciation for this amazing person.” 

Admired for her vision and philosophy regarding Harker, Diana Nichols inspired many of the faculty and staff at Harker.

“I got to learn on my very first day when I was being interviewed what a passionate advocate she was for the arts,” Lang-Ree said during the meeting. “She told me that it was pivotal as an administrator that [the arts] were a part of a Harker student’s life from kindergarten and on. She loved sweets, so tomorrow we all get to have cannolis in honor of her birthday. Happy Birthday Diana!”

Publicity committee members Daniel Lin (10) and Sasvath Ramachandran (12) announced the upcoming Hoscars show. Harker’s annual talent show will take place on tomorrow in the Rothschild Performing Arts Center (RPAC) during the lunch period and split into two sections for underclassmen and upperclassmen. Promotional posters around campus will showcase the performers.

Ending remarks from Dawson Chen included special thanks to Art Club for its work with the almost complete mural and to students who participated in various fundraising efforts for Ukraine.