This article originally appeared in the spring 2015 Harker Quarterly.

Soccer Coach Named Head Coach of National Team
In January, Harker varsity soccer coach Shaun Tsakiris was named head coach of the Under-16 U.S. Boys National Team, just days before the team headed to Turkey for the 2015 Aegean Cup. The team won its first game against Romania, but dropped the next two games against Norway and Turkey, the latter being decided by a single goal in the 26th minute.

Tsakiris is a longtime coach at the De Anza Force Soccer Club, a member of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. He has been instrumental in the success of the Under-14 and Under-16 teams and nearly all of his players have received college scholarships. He also runs the Harker soccer summer camp.

Upper School LID Director Receives Gold Disk Award from SVCUE

Diane Main, upper school director of learning, innovation and design, was recently selected to receive a Gold Disk Award from Computer Using Educators (CUE), the parent organization of SVCUE, which holds its conferences at Harker’s upper school campus. Main, a passionate technology advocate and educator, will be presented with the award at the CUE 2015 annual conference in Palm Springs, which takes place March 19-21.

Main, a Google certified teacher and education trainer, has given several courses on the use of technology in education at Silicon Valley CUE events and spent much of last summer at conferences in California, Philadelphia and Atlanta, giving talks on the use of Google Maps as an education tool, the learning benefits of Minecraft and more.

Harker Teachers Attend People of Color Conference

In December, three Harker teachers and members of Harker’s Diversity Committee flew to Indianapolis to attend the NAIS People of Color Conference, titled “Pit Stops & Victory Laps: Going the Distance, Driving the Change and Leading the Race toward Equity and Excellence.” At this four-day conference, teachers, administrators, parents and high school students from throughout the country explored issues relating to social justice. Karriem Stinson, lower and middle school assistant athletic director and Harker wrestling coach; Pilar Agüero-Esparza, upper school art teacher; and Patricia Lai Burrows, middle school English teacher were grateful for the opportunity to listen to inspiring keynote speakers. Dr. Michael Eric Dyson addressed the complicated history of race relations in the United States, causing deepened thinking and reflection about the continued relevancy of these issues in today’s society. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who outed himself as an un-documented immigrant in 2011 when The New York Times published his article about this experience, shared his thoughts about current immigration reform. Dr. Derald Wing Sue schooled audiences on the dangerous impacts of daily microaggressions, igniting much reflection on what schools and teachers can do to address and combat them. In addition to keynote speeches, the conference hosted affinity spaces to facilitate rich discussion and reflection, workshops on an array of topics led by independent school teachers and consultants, and regional breakout sessions to help schools network and collaborate with one another. It was an incredible professional development experience, and Stinson, Agüero-Esparza and Burrows are excited to share what they learned with the Harker community.

Library Director Gives Keynote at ProQuest Global Meeting

Susan Smith, library director, was a keynote speaker at ProQuest’s Global Sales Meeting in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 10. Speaking on “Developing Partnerships in Education: Inquiry-Based Learning,” Smith shared the importance of teaching 21st century learners to search, evaluate and synthesize information with the audience of more than 400. ProQuest is a provider of high-quality digital resources for industry, universities and public and private schools. Harker students use ProQuest databases including CultureGrams, SIRS Discoverer, Ebrary and Historical Newspapers on a daily basis. In her talk, Smith suggested that information providers implement a more scaffolded approach to database interface. “It was a great experience,” said Smith. “ProQuest’s managers and sales reps alike said they appreciated hearing the needs of a school library program. Others commented they were ‘inspired’ by the Harker information literacy program.”