This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.

On the day before graduation and immediately following the baccalaureate ceremony, 35 “lifers” – students who attended Harker from kindergarten through their senior year – gathered at the home of Head of School Chris Nikoloff for the annual Lifer Dinner. Upon arriving at the home by bus, the students enjoyed a sumptuous dinner and dessert, the latter of which came in the form of a cake with an edible photo of the lifers on it. The seniors had a lively discussion about their Harker experiences and even broke into an impromptu rendition of “The Harker School Song” to cap things off.

This year’s lifers are: Aashika Balaji, Akshay Battu, Caitlin Benge, Rishabh Chandra, Jonathan Dai, Marita Del Alto, Alexandra Dellar, Emma Doherty, Kaitlyn Gee, Eliot Gruzman, Grace Guan, Suraj Jagadeesh, John Nicolas Jerney, Maya Jeyendran, Kevin Ke, Abhinav Ketineni, Janet Lee, Natasha Mayor, Mary Najibi, Rishi Narain, Selin Ozcelik, Kristen Park, Nikita Ramoji, Shannon Richardson, Kurt Schwartz, Ankita Sharma, Elisabeth Siegel, Natalie Simonian, Gurutam Thockchom, Madison Tomihiro, Allison Wang, Kevin Wang, Helen Woodruff, Aparna Yellapragada and Jonathan Yiu.