Upper school Latin students attended the California Junior Classical League Convention in late March and took top spots in many of the convention’s events.
In the high school level 1 events, Serena Wang, grade 9, took first place in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes, second in reading comprehension and third in grammar. Tyler Yeats, grade 11, placed first in both reading comprehension and vocabulary.
At level 2 of the high school competitions, Annirudh Ankola, grade 9, placed second for boys costume, and William Bloomquist, also grade 9, finished second and third respectively in vocabulary and sight Latin reading. Richard Gu, grade 9, had first place finishes in both reading comprehension and vocabulary, and Mary Liu, grade 10, placed second in English oratory.
Harker had seven high placements at high school level 3, all from grade 9 students, with Maya Nandakumar taking second in history and third mythology, Aadyot Bhatnagar placing second in vocabulary and earning an honorable mention in reading comprehension, Sahana Rangarajan receiving an honorable mention in derivatives and Sophia Shatas taking third in dramatic interpretation.
The high school advanced level was Harker’s most successful category, with 12 students earning high placements. Sarika Bajaj, grade 10, took first in computer photography, second in multimedia and received an honorable mention in daily life. Nik Datuashvili, grade 11, had dual first-place finishes in ancient geography and derivatives. Sophomore Kevin Duraiswamy finished first in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes, second in grammar, third in reading comprehension and received in an honorable mention in sight Latin reading. Richard Fan, grade 11, placed second in ancient geography and received an honorable mention in history. Fellow junior Pranav Sharma placed third in vocabulary and received an honorable mention in mottoes, abbreviations and quotes. Another junior, Shannon Su, tied for third in sight Latin reading and received honorable mentions in both derivatives and vocabulary. Ashvin Swaminathan, grade 11, placed high in four events, earning first place in pentathlon, second place in both vocabulary and Latin oratory and third in grammar. Other students who placed well were grade 10’s Helena Huang, who took third in mythology, Zina Jawadi, also grade 10, taking second in sight Latin reading, recent graduate Jessica Lin winning first place in daily life, sophomore Brian Tuan earning an honorable mention in reading comprehension and Eric Zhang, grade 11, finishing third in ancient geography.
Harker Certamen (quiz bowl) competitors also performed well, with the team of Nik Datuashvili, Kevin Duraiswamy, Richard Fan and Jessica Lin taking second place in the high school advanced category. Serena Wang’s open certamen team took second in the high school level 1 open certamen contest, and Pranav Sharma’s high school advanced open certamen team finished second.
Harker was the number one high school overall in the medium-sized high schools category.