{"id":987,"date":"2011-06-01T10:33:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T18:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/?p=987"},"modified":"2020-04-07T13:10:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T21:10:30","slug":"inaugural-grant-winners-complete-first-cycle-new-winners-and-a-new-grant-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/01\/inaugural-grant-winners-complete-first-cycle-new-winners-and-a-new-grant-named\/","title":{"rendered":"Inaugural Grant Winners Complete First Cycle; New Winners and a New Grant Named"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article originally appeared in the summer 2011 Harker Quarterly<\/a> and was reprinted in Harker News Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inaugural John Near Scholar Grant cycle is complete, and\nthe first three reports were filed this spring for public access in the John\nNear Resource Center. Four new Near Grant winners were named in May, and a new\nendowment has been established by the Mitra family; the first grant winner from\nthat endowment has also been named.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harker parents Samir and Sundari Mitra (Shivani, grade 10)\nhave established \u2028The\nMitra Family Endowment for the Humanities, which will match gifts for the\nAnnual Giving Campaign up to a total of $100,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe subject matters taught under humanities such as\nhistory, languages, communications and philosophy are critical skills and\nknowledge that develop well-rounded Harker students,\u201d said Samir Mitra.\n\u201cHumanities is the bedrock of a superior education and will enable our students\nto stand out as recognized contributors in their future professions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Mitra family\u2019s endowment offer, and every matching gift\nfrom others, will benefit our students every year, for years and years to\ncome,\u201d said Melinda Gonzales, director of development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justine Liu, Tyler Koteskey and\u2028 Olivia Zhu, all 2011 graduates, were celebrated\nin the Near Center in Shah Hall by mentors, administrators, parents, history\ndepartment members, Samir and Sundari Mitra and by Near\u2019s wife, Pam Dickinson,\ndirector of the Office of Communication. The center reflects the late teacher\u2019s\nlove of American history. Near taught at Harker\u2019s middle and upper schools for\n31 years prior to his passing in 2009, and his legacy includes many hundreds of\nstudents left with a love of learning and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The John Near U.S. History Endowment, established by Near\u2019s\nparents, Jim and Pat Near, was the first of its kind at Harker and funds grants\nto students or teachers each year for research on history projects and\nhistory-related databases for the school, as Near wished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu first got interested in her topic, \u201cThe China Card\nversus the China Trade: Sino-American Economic Relations, 1972-1989,\u201d covering\nthe relationship between China and the U.S. from President Richard Nixon\u2019s 1972\nvisit to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, while reading about it in\nclass. In a different class Liu was writing a paper on the currency devaluation\nin modern China and mentally began tracing the historical line between the two\nevents, focusing on the economic aspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I was really interested in was why Nixon thought that\nit was in the interest of U.S. foreign policy for Kissinger to make a secret\nvisit to China,\u201d said Liu. \u201cI was interested in the economic background of that\ndecision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liu, who will attend Harvard in the fall, used grant funds\nto go to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif. \u201cI was able to go into the\narchives room to read and handle the original documents, letters and memos\nrelating and leading up to his 1972 trip to the PRC,\u201d she said. \u201cI think\nwithout the grant I would not have had the incentive to go out there and really\nwrite a comprehensive paper. That was the first time I got to be that close to\ndocuments that were that important to history, so that is something that I\nreally valued that I couldn\u2019t have done without the grant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Koteskey\u2019s project, \u2028\u201cHigh Water Mark: \u2028Discussing\nthe Impacts of \u2028National\nPower on Confederate \u2028Military\nStrategy through the Lens of \u2028the\nGettysburg Campaign,\u201d analyzes the elements of\nnational power as they applied to the Confederate States of America in 1863.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was the middle of the Civil War, and a crucial moment\nfor the South,\u201d Koteskey said. \u201cThey could reinforce the western half of the\ncountry,\u201d but decided to make an offensive move against the North instead to\ntry to force a call for peace. Koteskey used his grant to travel to the\nGettysburg region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I think was most valuable to me in this project was\ngoing to Pennsylvania last summer to do the research,\u201d Koteskey said. \u201cI was\nable to visit Harper\u2019s Ferry and the Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields\nwhich, apart from being really awesome for a history buff, helped me form a\nbetter appreciation of some of the geographical factors constraining Civil War\ngenerals in their campaign planning,\u201d said Koteskey, noting that he probably\nwouldn\u2019t have done the research without the grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy most defining memory, though, was probably my interview\nwith Dr. Richard J. Sommers, the senior historian at the U.S.\u2028 Army Military Heritage and\nEducation\u2028Center in\nCarlisle. He embraced his time\u2028with\nme, turning our \u2018interview\u2019 into a Socratic\ndiscussion on Civil War strategy;\u2028it\ncompletely changed my mind, and the ultimate course of my paper, on many of the\npreconceived notions I had about General Lee\u2019s\nbest strategic option in the summer of 1863.\u201d\nKoteskey, who will attend UCLA in the fall, noted the whole package, winning\nthe grant and doing the research, \u201cwas really a rewarding experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zhu\u2019s paper, \u201cThe UCMJ and Insubordination: Suitability of\nMilitary Judicial Responses during the Vietnam War,\u201d was perhaps an outgrowth\nof her work on the school\u2019s honor council but grew to explore the history of\nmilitary justice. \u201cI decided, ultimately, to settle on insubordination during\nthe Vietnam War and how the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) addressed\ninsubordination among soldiers,\u201d Zhu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really enjoyed this entire research process \u2013 it\u2019s been\nso much fun,\u201d she added. \u201cI\u2028think\nthe most important part of this grant was coming to realize that all my\nteachers helped me so much. It was just very much a community effort going into\nthis paper.\u201d Zhu, who will also attend Harvard in the fall, noted, \u201cWithout the\ngrant there is not that impetus to pursue (a topic), and there is not the\nsupport system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five more students will walk the path of discovery next\nyear. Sarah Howells, grade 11, is the first Mitra Family Scholar and will join\nthe four Near Grant recipients, Max Isenberg, Cole Manaster, Dwight Payne and\nLaura Yau, also all rising seniors, in pursuing a chosen historical topic they\nare passionate about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had 11 applicants this year, and it was not an easy\ndecision to choose from them \u2014 we were so impressed with the quality and\nvariety of applications,\u201d said Donna Gilbert, chair of the history and social\nscience department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the ceremony wrapped up at the Near Center reception, the\nstudents received resounding applause for their presentations. \u201cYou three \u2013 and\nyour work \u2013 perfectly embody what Mr. Near intended with this grant,\u201d commented\nDickinson. \u201cHe would be so incredibly proud of all of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full story of the Near Grant reception at\nnews.harker.org. Search on \u201cNear Grant.\u201d Those interested in contributing to\neither endowment can contact Melinda Gonzales, director of development, at\nmelindag@harker.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in the summer 2011 Harker Quarterly and was reprinted in Harker News Online. The inaugural John Near Scholar Grant cycle is complete, and the first three reports were filed this spring for public access in the John Near Resource Center. Four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":988,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fnsreporting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}