Harker's first graduates get unique high school experience
'Guinea pigs' started own teams, clubs, publications and classes
By Rebecca Ray
Georgia Manry's high school experience was unique.
The senior, who otherwise would have attended Saratoga High School, graduated last week as part of The Harker School's first high school class. As such, she helped start Harker's drama program and Gay-Straight Alliance club, participated in the school's first senior prank and helped organize the school's first overnight freshman retreat and senior trip.
"It was an intriguing idea to build a high school out of almost nothing," Manry said, adding that her high school experience was one she could tell her future grandchildren about.
The Harker School, which operates out of San Jose, graduated the 89-member class of 2002 on May 25. The school, previously K-8, added the high school program in 1988 with one freshman class.
Local Harker seniors say that being part of the first Harker high school class was a positive experience. The school's mascot may be the eagle, but the seniors' class T-shirts say, "Guinea Pig Pride."
The class started the yearbook, newspaper and spirit club, as well as the performing arts group and sports teams. At first, some students complained about not having a normal high school experience, says senior Alan Liu of Cupertino. However, Sunnyvale senior Anna Basevich points out few freshmen can say they were team captains or that they founded a club.
As freshmen on the original debate team, Liu and Alex Janofsky of Sunnyvale competed in national tournaments that consisted of mostly juniors and seniors.
Los Gatos senior Ben Combs says he doesn't know if he would have made the junior varsity and varsity football teams at other schools. Until Comb's senior year, his teams "took knocks" playing against more established teams, he says. In 2000, his varsity team lost all its games.
But the team grew from the experience. In 2001, it went 4-4-1.
Because there were so few students doing extracurricular activities the first year, Irene Altman of Campbell says she didn't feel pressured to commit to them without trying them first.
During the class of 2002's freshman year, there were no seniors to dump freshmen in garbage cans, says Alex Combs, Ben's twin brother, so the freshmen "had the run of the school."
"I think we got a rare opportunity to be ourselves," Altman says.
At such a small school, students got to know each other on a "real personal level," Alex says, so he felt like he could hang out with anyone.
Basevich adds that Harker is a great place for students who want to have an impact on their community.
Altman can't say enough about the faculty. Many teachers were popular, Alex says, because they'd talk with students, not at them. Also, he adds, the teachers' enthusiasm for their subjects transferred to the students.
Alex says the teachers helped acquire funds for activities the students wanted to start and that some of them sometimes worked until 11 p.m.
With the small class sizes--all classes were capped at 18 students--students feel like they received a lot of personal attention.
They have similar praise for the Harker administration, which, according to Alex, was "super-flexible." At the class of 2002's request, the administration created a psychology class. There has also been a multi-variable calculus class of three or four students.
Alex says he never fought "tooth and nail" to take the classes he wanted, because if a class was full, the administration would open another one.
In addition to being able to essentially start a high school, members of the class of 2002 applied to Harker because it had a reputation as being academically challenging. Nearly one-third of the graduates were recognized in the National Merit program, with 16 named as finalists. All the graduates were accepted at multiple colleges, including Harvard, Princeton, Duke and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alex says he feels that the Harker "upper school" has prepared him better for college than any other high school would have.
This year Altman was one of among 14 students to graduate from the school's two-year-old conservatory program, similar to a college theater program. In the program, students can focus on theater, musical theater, dance or tech work. Altman took two acting classes and a scene study class and directed a play.
In his computer science class, Alex worked with other students to create a program--which he says is more challenging than creating a program by oneself. He says he was struck by how useful the assignment will be in the real world.
Harker President Howard Nichols says that Harker officials added an upper school because they weren't satisfied with the comprehensiveness of the curricula of South Bay independent schools. Also, as parochial high schools place more emphasis on applicants' religious affiliations, Harker officials saw an increasing need for a non-sectarian private high school.
"Overall, I'm very happy that I went to this school," Altman said.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
