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Clairbourn School Incorporates Appreciation for Nature in Teaching

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 15 September 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

In an area like the Pasadena market which is replete with outstanding schools, setting itself apart from all the rest is a remarkable feat. However, Clairbourn School, a junior pre-K to 8th grade independent learning institution in San Gabriel, succeeds in standing out.

Headmaster, Dr. Robert Nafie, leads dedicated administrators and teachers who work tirelessly to build a strong instructional program balanced with meaningful elective courses, extra-curricular activities and after-school classes. He ensures that each student gets the best education, using all the tools available, in a caring and nurturing atmosphere.     

That children need to be children was uppermost in the mind of former head of school, Gloria Stahmer, when in 2009 she asked then 5th grade teacher, Jonathan Barner, “Don’t you think our kids need to be out in the dirt, gardening … or something?”  

“As an avid backyard gardener, I thought it was a fabulous idea,” Barner relates. “Thus began our vegetable propagation – we bought three pre-made plant beds which our maintenance crew installed and integrated with an irrigation system in the 4th and 5th grade area. They also made beds along the fence in the parking lot.

“The project was a collaboration with the other 5th grade teacher, Laurie Corwin, who taught social studies. I suggested we recreate the American Colonial period and grow corn, pumpkin and cotton – all the crops that were important to the survival of early colonists and the native Americans. Through this colonial garden students learned how early settlers struggled in the new world. 

“We planted in the spring and let it grew through the summer while the students were on their break. When they came back in the Fall, the 5th graders were learning about the Colonial period, which was so timely as we had an abundance of harvest from our spring plantings. We did some pretty cool things – we took the corn off the husk, we dried, and then ground it. A couple of times we made corn and pumpkin bread. By eating what they might have survived on, we bridged a connection with the colonists. 

“With the cotton plants, we made students separate seeds from the bolls. When they used their fingers to pull out the seed, which were actually the size of pencil erasers, they discovered it wasn’t easy. It was a perfect teaching opportunity to discuss Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton engine (gin) in 1793, that mechanized separating the seeds from the fiber.

“While students weren’t studying the physiology of plants in science, gardening became a component of our daily class. It was simply more meaningful for kids to have the hands-on experience planting seedling, watching plants grow, learning about soil quality, and fertilizing.  A couple of times we tried composting but we realized it was just too much for us to take on, on top of the gardening, much less the actual school curriculum.

“The greenhouse, which was originally put in in November 2001 by a previous science teacher, had not been used much after he left. It was upgraded in 2013 to make it usable for a class – we put in a flat area made of decomposed granite, we brought in three round picnic tables as work areas, we installed a sink with water, and we fenced it in for security. Teachers used it as a learning center.

“In 2012, a generous lady by the name of Betty Barker heard about our gardens and offered to fund the project. We used the grant to purchase two steel benches, and a couple of round picnic benches where kids could sit and write notes while other students were planting. She also gave money for the greenhouse upgrade in 2013, and made a follow-up donation in 2015,” Barner adds.

When Barner retired in 2015, Nancy Ward, Director of Communications, took on the mantle.  An enthusiastic gardener like him, she knew that an important component for success is finding partners who share her vision and help realize it.                                                      

In the spring of 2016 Ward resurrected Clairbourn School’s gardens with assistance from Farmscape, a local company that maintains vegetable gardens and home orchards. She pronounces, “I’m a big supporter of gardens because it teaches us important lessons in growing up and having successful lives. Every planting season is an expectation of good things to come – from the seed that’s buried in the ground, vegetables emanate. Then we have to devise a way to cook them, and how to put up the surplus – from dehydrating, to canning or preserving – to feed us through the winter months. We also need to learn long-term planning because if we want pumpkins for Halloween, we need to plant seeds in the summer. 

East Hall walkway at Clairbourn School | Photo courtesy of Clairbourn School

“I want gardening to be personal for the kids. When they study American history, I want them to see the crops Native Americans grew – corn, bean, and squash – three sisters planting, they’re called. There’s a symbiotic relationship where these three crops thrive at one time; the beans are supported by corn stalks and squash grow underneath, to shade its roots and keep moisture in. When students learn about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin, they can see first-hand what that plant looks like and how difficult it is to handle it.

“There are multiple areas on campus where students can go to at designated times of the school day to enjoy the flower and vegetable gardens. There is a raised bed for vegetables and a butterfly garden near the kindergarten classrooms for small students. Behind the 4th and 5th grade classrooms, there are three raised vegetable beds; plantings of cotton, corn and wheat along the walkway; and a passion fruit vine snaking up the trellis at the entrance to the garden. A greenhouse is in the middle school ‘jungle,’” Ward explains.         

Farmscape’s horticulturist, Melissa Rodriguez, teaches the after-school gardening program twice a week. Tuesday’s entry level class is composed of pre-K, kindergarten, and first grade students. They learn about the life cycle of plants and insects; plant organic vegetable seeds and seedlings;           

harvest and sample fresh produce from the garden. On Wednesday, she teaches 2nd to 5th graders in the greenhouse. Lessons include: learning about soil health and nutrition; cultivating vegetables, herbs, tropical plants, and orchids; propagating plants from seedlings and cuttings.  Students keep a journal to record plant growth patterns.

What Rodriguez usually encounters when she teaches is that students don’t know where food comes from. She illustrates, “Many kids don’t know what cucumbers, squash and tomatoes look like before they reach the supermarket. I want to build the connection between the plant on the ground to the food they have on their dining table or are served in the restaurant.”

“I introduce them to plants and vegetables that are not what they’re used to – purple and yellow carrots, red yard-long beans. I encourage them to taste the things we’re growing. I noticed that Clairbourn kids aren’t willing to try produce as readily as the other children I teach, which is a bit of a challenge. So now I grow plants with interesting taste like basil and mint, even strawberry,” Rodriguez discloses.                        

The gardens serve as outdoor ‘classrooms’ where students spend a portion of their day. Mary-Kaye Halferty, 4th grade teacher, declares, “The lessons are quite fascinating. In one class my students and I went to, the teacher pulled out all the insects and butterflies in the garden to discuss their role in either helping or hindering the growth of a plant.” 

Whether they’re learning al fresco, or merely enjoying the beautiful scenery, students get some relief from academic stress. Teachers, too, feel the gardens offer a welcome breather during the day. Those who originated the planting program and made horticulture an important component of education have their own personal views of its purpose.               

To Barner, it means valuing quality food over processed fare; an appreciation for farmers and their hard toil to produce vegetables; an opportunity for children to have a new learning environment; and taking on the responsibility to preserve this earth for future generations.     

For Ward, whose stewardship and constant presence in the gardens have inspired the kids to get their hands in the dirt, it denotes planting a seed to spark the inner gardener of every student and to serve as a regular enrichment activity that teaches great life lessons.

In his 2016-2017 mission statement, Nafie states, “The abundant nature with which Clairbourn is blessed is clear evidence of annual renewal. That success in academics, as in life, is not just a momentary event. When students get discouraged or stressed by new concepts, we can help them put down the kind of roots that will feed and sustain their success now and in the future. From the same sturdy plant, many flowers and crops will bloom in cycles of regeneration. So too, with our students, each year has its seeds, its watering, its below the surface, and its above the ground work to do. With teamwork and patient tending, the renewal of success will be assured.”

These gardens assume a significance as varied as the individuals whose lives they touch. But there is one constant  – all the students reap the fruit they have to offer.That is a Clairbourn promise.                    

Crestview Preparatory School in La Canada Offers Individualized Teaching

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 1 September 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

There is a small, quiet, and picturesque community nestled between the San Gabriel Mountains and the Angeles National Forest that not too many people outside of Southern California are familiar with. It’s La Canada-Flintridge (otherwise known as La Canada), which is home to the world-renowned Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Descanso Gardens. 

For the past 30 years, Crestview Preparatory School (Crestview Prep or Crestview), a kindergarten to sixth grade co-ed school, has also called La Canada home. With a total student population of 160, it is dwarfed by three other educational institutions (Flintridge Prep, a seventh to twelfth grade school, La Canada High and St. Francis HS) on this stretch of Foothill Blvd.

Crestview Prep is the only elementary school in this area and will remain so by design. Baudelia Chavez Taylor, who is in her third year as headmaster, declares, “We only have five- to twelve-year-olds on campus. And while it would be financially lucrative to offer a middle school program, we have no aspirations to do so. Our kindergarteners as well as our 6th graders will be read to in the library. We believe strongly that children should be children. This is a foundational time for them and we want to provide a space for their innocence.”

Established by in 1986 by Vicki Dempsey and Marge Hanna, with Dempsey acting as chief financial officer and Hanna serving as head of school until her retirement in 2007, Crestview’s  mission is to provide academic excellence while encouraging students to discover their unique talents as they face challenges with confidence.

Today Crestview exhibits the same beliefs and values its founders imbued the school. As Taylor relates. “We celebrated our 30th anniversary this past school year. It was interesting to reconnect with folks who have a history with the school and find that there were such commonalities in people’s ideals of 30 years ago that attend to the present. Then, as now, it was the sense of community that was most important, and it was the first thing everyone wanted to talk about.

They reminisced about the traditions – tried and true events on campus like the walkathon, where people get up early and convene to have a great time – that parents and students enjoy to this day. They spoke about balancing the academic, social and emotional development of the child.  Hearing that sentiment was validating for me. It was yet another reason that this feels such a good fit.”

Continues Taylor, “My first year at Crestview was lovely but fast-paced and quite overwhelming. There were a lot of things to become familiar with – not just the culture, but the inner workings of the school as well. But I found everybody to be open and helpful; where there were questions I didn’t ask, they filled the gaps.”

“My knowledge of Crestview before I came onboard was just in passing because my training was mostly with West LA schools,” Taylor explains. “While we live in Pasadena, I wasn’t a parent looking in the area when my children were getting ready to go to school. Then my son decided to go to Polytechnic in 7th grade and I wasn’t able to attend any campus event because I was on the West Side. That compelled me to find a job closer to home.” 

Image taken from Crestview Prep’s website

Taylor had only worked at large institutions so this career move to Crestview was a big change. Previous to this post, she spent 14 years at the Center for Early Education in West Hollywood where there were 543 elementary-level students. She taught early childhood education through 3rd grade before being named a division head, a position she held for five years. Prior to that she worked at Bellagio Road Newcomer, an LAUSD specialty school that focused on introducing new immigrants to the American education system before being mainstreamed into the district.  This is the third school she’s worked at, and her first headship.

“Now that my daughter goes to Westridge, I am only ten minutes away from my two children.  As an educator, it’s something I’ve always had to consider – my role as a parent,” explains Taylor. “As a mother, I have always been pulled by my children. Consequently, as head of an elementary school which is foundational in a child’s development and learning, it’s my parent hat that’s front and center. It helps me understand their needs and life experience because I live it.”               

Taylor says about Crestview, “We’d love parents to understand that our focus is on the academic, emotional and social needs of the child at all times. Parents will see that some classrooms will have very traditional teaching; and in the next half hour they will witness exceptionally innovative, hands-on, forward-thinking approach in education. We’re reflective of how we’re teaching and why we’re teaching that way. It is a method or strategy that works and we’ll constantly be providing that. It’s a place of balance – it will ebb and flow into that traditional and progressive space all day, every day, but always with the best interest of students at heart.”

With so many outstanding educational institutions in the Pasadena area, Crestview nevertheless manages to shine. Taylor expounds, “What makes us different is the way we deliver curriculum;  it isn’t stagnant and it’s individualized teaching. We make adjustments, as needed, throughout the year so our curriculum is constantly evolving. We may adopt a different method from one grade level to another, based on the class dynamic. We use a program called balanced math that gives us the flexibility to target students’ need. We employ our ERB scores to look at systematic areas where we need to improve.”

Individualized teaching is the norm at Crestview which has small class sizes – the student-teacher ratio in the classroom is ten to one. Crestview has 12 master teachers, nine specialists, and five teaching assistants. Twelve teachers hold master’s degrees; all the others have bachelor’s degrees; and assistants are currently in credentialing programs. The faculty’s average length of service is 10 to15 years, with four teachers who have been there for over 20 years.

Crestview Prep has a strong program that comprises reading and language arts, math, social studies, and science. It offers a character education curriculum in addition to its robust specialist programs including technology integration, music, art, physical education, library, and Spanish.  Chrome books and iPads are used in all the classrooms to enhance students’ learning experience.

Image taken from Crestview Prep website

The demographic make-up of Crestview’s student body is 40.5 percent predominantly Armenian, 34.3 percent multi-race, 18.5 percent Asian, four-and-a-half percent Latino, and two-and-a-quarter percent African American. Graduates successfully matriculate to highly selective schools like Chandler, Flintridge Prep, Polytechnic, Westridge School for Girls, Campbell Hall, Harvard-Westlake, and Marlborough.

While Crestview Prep occupies a tiny sliver of land that’s leased from the city, it uses the property as efficiently as possible. Reveals Taylor, “We’re getting ready to embark on a very modest capital campaign to expand our facilities. Mindful of strict building codes which limit the height of structures to preserve the views, we have to be creative in how we grow and change, utilizing space laterally. We previously did it with modulars and we will continue to use them; happily, today’s modulars are better looking. We have more choices for improving the facilities that are aesthetically pleasing and that blend with the environment.”

“A recent improvement is the introduction of the science lab which we inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony,” Taylor adds. “Ideally, we would also want to make the library and music areas to be contiguous. Right now our library shares the space with the tech lab. While it works well because they co-teach so there’s no real issue, it would be nice to have a larger dedicated room. We have 10,000 books in our collection and we have been ingenious in how we display them and keep them fresh.”

As Taylor commences her third school year as head of Crestview, she ruminates, “The role of a headmaster 15 years ago was programmatic but shifted because of demographic changes. For economic reasons, heads in the past ten years became more finance-focused. However, what has fallen short is the attention to the program, the families, and students themselves. I think there is a tipping point that will force heads of school to change course. We can’t lose sight of our mission to educate and nurture a child. While we need the skills related to finance and fund-raising, priority needs to be put on families. Where before, meeting with a headmaster would have been a tall feat, now it’s going to be a regular part of everyday activity.”               

That’s the one thing that truly sets Crestview Prep apart from all the excellent schools in the area.  When parents come into the office to get answers to even the simplest of questions, like what forms they need to fill in, they ask the head of school. 

For Crestview parents, Baudelia Chavez Taylor is always their first resource. And she embodies the kind of high-touch headship all caring school administrators ought to model.                        

Arcadia High School Valedictorian Advocates Service to Others

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 28 July 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

When the Arcadia High School class of 2016 bade farewell to their alma mater last month during their graduation ceremony, George Hou, spoke on behalf of his classmates. In his valedictory speech he did not brag about his peers’ academic prowess, instead he lauded their empathy.

“It was our compassion that united us so quickly in solidarity after the recent shooting in Orlando; it was our compassion that brought us all together to help stop the spread of the Ebola outbreak; and it is our compassion – and how we show it – that will dictate our future and the world’s for generations to come,” George declared.

That George has been chosen this year’s valedictorian is evidence that academic excellence isn’t everything Arcadia High School stands for. As he himself confesses, “I was really surprised to be named valedictorian. I am of the opinion that this honor isn’t bestowed to the person with the highest GPA, because if that were the case I wouldn’t have had a chance. I can list ten or 20 students who have higher grades and better minds, and who learn faster than I do. I think I realized that early on when I saw my classmates grasp concepts in an hour when it took me twice as long to understand them.”

There is a message George wants to impart to students who may be like him, “To all students out there who might be struggling, know that you’re not alone. Keep your head up and take a deep breath.  It’s not a matter of who sprints the fastest. Work at your own pace, but never, ever give up. If you fall, get right back up and look at your failure as a stepping stone – a learning experience to see how you can improve. By focusing on what lies at the core of everything – your attitude and work ethic – slowly, yet surely, you will see that your potential has no bounds.”   

In his valedictory address George began by saying, “When I was in first grade, I wanted to become just like my idol, Curious George – charming, curious, cute. But somewhere along the way, I lost the inquisitiveness I always believed I had. At some points during high school I noticed there were times when I was confused about why I was studying. Why did I need to learn the Greek alphabet – alpha, epsilon, pi, sigma – to study math, for instance? I became calculated and grade-driven, singularly focused on getting a certain grade in hopes of attending a better college. I was no longer the Curious George that I once was; I was frustrated that I lacked any and all passion.”

But George knew the adults around him expected him to find his passion, and to meet expectations he went in search of it. He googled ‘how to find your passion’ and took a bunch of quizzes that claimed to provide the answer, consulted his daily horoscope for potential clues, even read fortune cookies. But nothing yielded the result he was looking for.

Image of Harvard University taken from Harvard website

“Even now I don’t think I have figured out what my passion is. But I believe the path to discovering it is an ongoing process and it starts with compassion. For me passion and happiness go hand-in-hand. And happiness to me means a healthy family, an impactful legacy, and a meaningful contribution to society,” George explains.

“That gave me the drive and the purpose to accomplish something of value,” George continues. “In my case, the impetus to find meaning to everything I was studying began with my grandfather who was hearing-impaired. While early on I questioned why I had to learn calculus when I didn’t see its importance in the future, since I didn’t want to be a mathematician, I had a sudden change of heart. I discovered that math could help develop a method to enhance hearing aids; I can improve the quality of hearing aids so people will actually want to wear them. That motivated me to apply my knowledge in the classroom to solve a real-world problem.”

George’s research ‘Separating Mixed Signals in Noise-Polluted Environments Using Global Optimization’ landed him in the final round of the 75th Annual Intel Science Talent Search competition. He was one of 40 finalists chosen from around the country who traveled to Washington D.C. this past spring to present their work. For George, being in the same room with these talented researchers was a tangible validation of his own accomplishment.  

This summer George continues his quest to build an algorithm that will separate sounds and filter out noise in hearing aids in real time. He intends to make it his life’s work to create something that will enrich the lives of the hearing-impaired.

As George heads off to Harvard University next month, he will take with him his deep-seated resolve to be of service to humanity. He may not have been the smartest one in his class, but just as he has proven, when he puts in twice the effort he can achieve whatever he aspires to.           

High Point Academy Imagines a Bright Future

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 28 July 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Carved into the foothills of Pasadena is a Kindergarten to eighth grade independent school that has consistently provided an outstanding education for its students for the past 50 years. High Point Academy (HPA), located on five compact acres on Kinneloa Canyon Road, to this day remains competitive in a market which reputedly boasts some of the most high achieving educational institutions in the state.

HPA was established in October 1965 when three women decided to open a small school for a few children. With Millicent Wilson serving as the first headmaster, it opened on Chester Avenue with 16 pupils; the following year enrollment grew to 50.  In 1967 it had 75 students and eight teachers, and another space had to be leased to accommodate third to ninth graders.      

By 1973 it became clear that their existing site wasn’t big enough for all their students; construction on its present location began. In 1974 the 15 faculty members welcomed 230 students on their first day of school in this brand-new structure that featured a sports field.  School uniforms were also introduced that year; and a $10 donation to the building fund was incorporated into the monthly statements (it continued until 1990).

The HPA library was opened and a junior high (seventh and eighth grades) science department was created in 1976. The decade between 1977 and 1987 saw more classroom and building additions; computers were installed.  When the school observed its 25th anniversary in 1990 it had 312 students, 29 teachers and three administrators. 

In 1993 John Higgins was appointed the sixth headmaster. He served in this office for 21 years and oversaw major expansions of the school’s facilities. He also ushered in the age of technology with the installation of Smartboards in every classroom, the launch of a digital library, and the introduction of laptops in junior high.

Under Higgins’s charge HPA’s enrollment reached its capacity of 350 students. The staff and faculty grew to about 55 (31 teachers, one librarian, one school counselor, one learning specialist, seven aides and student supervisors; with the rest in administrative capacities).  Sixteen teachers hold masters degrees and have an average length of service of ten years. 

Image taken from High Point Academy website

High Point offers a vast array of subjects including: math; science; history/social studies; language arts (reading and writing); world languages (K-3 Spanish; 4-8 French or Spanish); writers’ workshop; technology (coding, robotics, STEAM); visual arts and choral music; instrumental music in grades 4-7; physical education daily; library program twice weekly; and a technology class (computer lab) several times a week.

After-school enrichment courses are offered every day during the schoolyear with Kindercare for kindergartners and Eagle Club for grades 1 to 8.  Some programs include: bricks 4 kids; chess club; dance; mad science; mathnasium; robotics; STEAM; cub scouts and girl scouts. An after-school musical theatre program is likewise available. Most seventh and eighth graders are in athletic teams and play a variety of sports in five different seasons in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF). 

The school holds small class sizes with an average student/teacher ratio of 11 to 1. In K-6, there are approximately 20 students in the classroom with one teacher and an associate teacher who works with smaller groups.

Forty percent of HPA’s student body is of diverse ethnic backgrounds (Asian Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and Middle Eastern) and 60 percent are Caucasians. Most of the students who arrive in kindergarten stay until they graduate in eighth grade.

HPA has a middle school placement program designed to help students and families find the perfect fit for them. Graduates matriculate to some of the most highly selective schools in the Pasadena area including Polytechnic, Flintridge Prep, Mayfield Senior, Westridge School for Girls, La Salle, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Loyola, Saint Francis and Maranatha.       

By the time Higgins retired in 2014, HPA had gained a reputation as one of the best elementary and junior high schools in the area. The sports field was renamed ‘Higgins Field’ to commemorate his enviable legacy.

Timothy Burns was appointed interim headmaster for the 2014-2015 school year. He led HPA through the California Association of Independent School (CAIS) accreditation process where it was awarded the maximum certification of seven years. 

Gary Stern, who in 2015 succeeded Burns as the eighth headmaster, is charged with ensuring the next half century measures up to the success of the first five decades. Several events marked his first year, a milestone for HPA. On the first day of the school year students and parents got to ‘Dive into the 50th with a swim event at Gerrish.

Alumni students and parents came back on campus for the ‘Alumni Wine & Cheese’ affair. On the 50th day of the school year, the entire student body, faculty and staff gathered on Higgins Field to form an ‘HPA 50’ and photographed by a sky lift and drone for posterity. A Golden Gala was held on April 30 to celebrate High Point’s anniversary in style. 

The Earth Day and Green School Showcase in April was the capstone of HPA’s ongoing commitment to lead independent schools in the advancement of environment sustainability. The school was recognized as a flagship ‘green’ school and local dignitaries were on hand to present an award. 

During his first year, Stern hired a curriculum and innovations specialist who will work with teachers to incorporate and integrate technology in their classroom curriculum. This will pave the way for students to keep pace with technology and be able to access its power to prepare them for today’s global society.         

This fall, Stern will unveil HPA’s Strategic Five-Year Plan which outlines what’s ahead. Created in collaboration with the board of trustees, administrators, faculty, staff, parents and students, he says it will provide a clear path forward to allow High Point to remain true to its mission and core values, and successfully grow and evolve.

Stern elaborates, “First and foremost, we focus on academic excellence through awakening the joy of learning in every student. We trust that when learning is a joyful experience all students will rise to their full potential. We also believe in meeting the needs of the whole child, which means emphasizing not only the academic advancement but the social, emotional, and ethical development as well.

“Through our strategic planning process we identified four pillars that support and sustain our mission:  excellence, innovation, responsibility, and community,” Stern expounds. “These, in turn, are the cornerstones of our long-term objectives that focus on: a strong, challenging curriculum; a commitment to fiscal responsibility; fund-raising and friend-raising; campus facilities to optimize student learning; admissions, enrollment, and marketing; and recruiting, retaining, and supporting talented faculty and staff.”  

“Next year, most probably, we will undergo a campus master planning process.  An architect will be consulting with all our constituents to come up with a facilities design that will continue to support our academic program,” Stern reveals.

“Some of the upgrades we’re contemplating include:  remodeling the junior high classrooms; improving the sport court; expanding the Snack Shack; increasing technological enhancements; reconfiguring space to meet our curriculum needs; and adding more drought-tolerant landscaping,” Stern explains further.

HPA’s 50 years of establishment will be memorialized in posterity. Says Stern, “Sometime in the early part of the 2016-2017 school year, we will bury a time capsule to be opened in 2041.  Students have gathered mementos from the five decades that denoted a noteworthy event for the period. Each student included in this time capsule things that represent who we are today and their dreams and aspirations for the future. They also put in their predictions about how life will change over the next 25 years.”                                 

Another 50th anniversary commemorative is a transportable mural hanging on an outdoor wall made up of tiles individually painted by a student. It is a tangible demonstration of the importance of each piece to compose one beautiful whole.

It was indeed quite an auspicious beginning for Stern. That he came on board during this landmark year for High Point must have been predetermined by fate as he himself celebrated his 50th birthday. And just as he is looking forward to the rest of his productive life, he is likewise eager to lead this singular school to achieve greater significance in the San Gabriel Valley.                 

Marc Soong Epitomizes Gifted and Talented Youth

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 7 July 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and
Sierra Madre Weekly

The word ‘gifted’ usually refers to someone who has innate intellectual or artistic abilities that surpass his or her age, while ‘talented’ is often used to describe one who works hard and accomplishes feats exceptionally well. Based on those delineations, a gifted child doesn’t put in any work while a talented kid makes some effort to achieve something spectacular.

Marc Soong, a recently graduated eighth grader from Barnhart, a K-8th grade independent school in Arcadia, is both gifted and talented. Listening to his spirited and rousing rendition of Grand Etude Paganini No. 3 ‘La Campanella’ by Franz Liszt on the piano transports you into another world and time. His amazing fingering also reveals a mastery of technique honed by hours of painstaking practice and a devotion to his craft.

This past June 28, Marc electrified as he performed the finale number at The 65th Annual Redlands Bowl ‘Young Artist Competition Winners’ where he interpreted Chopin, Rossini and Ginzburg. 

Valerie Peister, program director for the Redlands Community Music Association pronounces, “As a winner of the 2016 Redlands Bowl Young Artist Competition, Marc Soong thrilled Tuesday evening’s Redlands Bowl Summer Music Festival audience with a virtuosic recital performance. His technical mastery was matched by a sensitivity and depth of expression well beyond his years, and showcased his remarkable ability to tell a musical story.”    

And again on June 30, Marc impressed at the Isaac Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, where he played Paraphrase of Figaro’s aria from the Barber of Seville by Ginzburg/Rossini. 

Marc’s outstanding musical abilities have earned him awards from the Los Angeles Young Musician International Competition, San Jose International Piano Competition, American Protégé Piano and String Competition, among other others.

Music, specifically, piano, is an important family activity for the Soongs. Marc’s mom, Alice, says “My husband and I attend all of our kids’ concerts, competitions and performances. Both Marc and Melodey, Marc’s older sister, perform at senior homes, and volunteer as ushers for concerts held at the Pasadena Symphony and Pops”.

Love of music came to Marc early on when he was three years old and heard Melodey playing the piano. He remembers that in first grade, he tagged along when his sister visited USC Thornton School of Music to meet with Daniel Pollack, a renowned professor there. When he was in third grade, he became one of Prof. Pollack’s students.

Vladimir Khomyakov, who at age 32 is an accomplished concert pianist himself, is Pollack’s assistant and has been Marc’s piano teacher since he was eight years old. From Khomyakov Marc learns technique as well as general music knowledge – history, the background of each piece, composer, style, and theory. 

“Marc is a brilliant student to teach because once he starts, he’s hungry for more.  He learns a piece on his own, asks a lot of questions, and has great initiative. While he chooses his pieces based on his personal journey, I help him build a balanced repertoire to include various genres, styles, periods, and composers, and develop a solid program as an artist,” Khomyakov states.

“As a musician, Marc is very passionate about his music. He plays from the heart – a rare trait for someone at his age, most kids do it mechanically. He has excellent ears: when he hears a noise he knows what pitch it is; when he hears a computer tone, he can play it. He absorbs all sounds like a sponge. He has what it takes to be a successful concert pianist … although I wouldn’t recommend it. It is a challenging life, with countless hours spent practicing which may turn out to be time wasted on something that might not work. It is usually filled with disappointments and stress, especially at the age of 20 to 25 when one gets into serious competitions,” Khomyakov says.

And Kyomyakov knows whereof he speaks. Like Pollack, he himself has concertized internationally as a pianist, conductor, chamber musician, and a soloist with leading orchestras including Dresden Philharmonic and Houston Symphony. He says he holds 40 to 50 concerts a year and has been all over the world except Africa. In 2009 he was chosen to be the assistant to Prof. Pollack; he teaches weekly master classes to all degree-level students.   

Music is not the only thing that Marc is superior at. According to Tonya Beilstein, associate head of school and director of curriculum and instruction at Barnhart, Marc exhibited talent and creativity for a normal fourth grader. She relates, “I began working with Marc in fourth grade, supporting his social and emotional growth. At the end of his fifth grade here we realized he was also ready for more academic challenges. I thought a solution was for him to go from fifth grade in June to seventh grade that Fall, skipping sixth grade entirely.   

“That decision didn’t come about haphazardly. We first asked his parents to get outside psychological evaluations (because we don’t have the resources on campus to do it). One of the things we do now, that we weren’t doing before, is use a tool called Iowa Acceleration Scale. It provides the rubric to help schools make effectual decisions relating to grade-skips.  Besides psychological evaluation, we look at IQ, academic assessment – capacity and performance.

“We conferred with the whole team in Marc’s life – his parents; past, current, and future teachers; school administrators. The last step we took was talk to Marc himself. He was very excited about the idea – he very much wanted to move ahead,” Beilstein discloses further.

Marc says, “I was a little nervous about being in seventh grade and being with older students but I also wanted a more challenging curriculum. My classmates were very kind to me and I developed deeper and more meaningful friendships in seventh and eighth grade. I found it easy as well as enjoyable.”

As if all these weren’t enough, Marc has been accepted to attend Stanford Online High School (SOHS) in the fall. At 13 years old, he might be the youngest person to gain admission to this highly selective institution.  Offering a distinctly innovative program, SOHS requires students to take core courses in Science, Math, English, and History. For academically advanced students, SOHS has numerous post-AP subjects, including university-level courses that typify most undergraduate programs.

“Stanford Online High School is the perfect fit for Marc,” declares Beilstein. “It’s a good choice for so many reasons – the challenge of the curriculum, the interaction he will have with like-minded students. I think, for the first time, he’s really going to be surrounded by his academic peers which he will find engaging and exciting.

“For students like Marc, who have participated in the summer program at Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, a rigorous curriculum will give them peace and confidence. This model of learning is ideal because he can study at the pace that’s right for him and gives him the time to focus on his piano – it accommodates all his needs. He’s going to be in control of his destiny now,” Beilstein concludes. 

Marc is surrounded by people who support him – from his parents who encourage him to follow his dreams and provide the means for him to do so, to school administrators who find the perfect environment to engage his mind, to his music teachers who dare him to play demanding piano pieces, to friends who supply him with equilibrium as he navigates life. Through it all, Marc has remained sanguine and has retained his inner ‘kid-ness’. He thinks the coolest thing about going to an online high school is that he doesn’t have to eat cafeteria food.                                      

Laura Skandera Trombley Marks First Year at The Huntington

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 23 June 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino is a venerable institution beloved by residents in the San Gabriel Valley, recognized by scholars all over the world, and visited by tourists of every color and stripe.

At the heart of this landmark foundation is Dr. Laura Skandera Trombley, who took over as its eighth president (and the first woman to hold the title) in July of last year. She oversees an organization with so many moving parts that perfectly coalesce to make The Huntington run as smoothly and seamlessly as it is beautiful and breathtaking.

Prior to her current post, Trombley served for 13 years as president of Pitzer, one of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California. Under her tenure the college raised its U.S. News & World Report ranking, and improved its acceptance rate. In 2012 The Chronicle of Higher Education named Pitzer College the top producer of Fullbright Fellows among U.S. colleges.          

Two weeks before commemorating her first full year at The Huntington, Trombley remarks on the past eleven and a half months, “It’s like discovering the wonderful contents of a treasure box – from the people, to the objects, to the gardens. The Huntington has the most amazing way of revealing itself like the petals of a flower. You see that the totality of it is stunning but the real beauty comes in the particulars. I’ve spent the year just looking at it a little more deeply than I have ever had before … and that has been really incredible for me.”

Like most people living in the area, Trombley is no stranger to the place. She remembers that as a child, she walked through the rose garden with her mother and went to tea. Years later she came back to The Huntington as a young scholar researching for her doctoral thesis. 

Image taken from the Los Angeles Times

“I felt this strong connection to it and I thought my experience was atypical. But I soon learned that it’s not. In fact I’ve met families who’ve volunteered at The Huntington for three generations; we have someone who has been actively volunteering for 54 years. That a quarter of a million people have the same robust ties to The Huntington – that this is so widely shared – was something that I could not have anticipated,” Trombley observes.

Trombley has fully immersed herself in the operations of The Huntington. She has worked alongside volunteers to prune and deadhead the roses in the garden, meet school buses as they arrive for tours, and wrap gifts during the holidays. She says, “I don’t want to just sit in my office; part of the fun is engaging with people here.”

The work for Trombley going forward is several-fold. She wants to focus on what goes on inside the buildings – continue to expand The Huntington’s collections, increase funding for art exhibitions. Additionally, she’s thinking of putting on more outdoor art displays, making sure all  staff are well-taken care of, and imagining how to enhance the visitor experience.

As president of Pitzer, Trombley grew its annual endowment from $42 million in 2003 to $133 million in 2014, and raised its national profile. As she is quick to point out, The Huntington is already a world-class organization as well as a global cultural institution and is in an incredibly robust financial position. Her charge is to continue to grow the institution and consider carefully its physical footprint. 

The Blue Boy Installation after the conservation project | Photo courtesy of The Huntington

And as Trombley did in her previous post, she intends to make The Huntington a model of environmental responsibility. She states, “We are moving strategically towards sustainability – analyzing how much water and power we consume and looking at how we can use less of both. 

“In fact, we will be a beta site for cutting-edge drip irrigation systems that are astoundingly sophisticated – they are all computer-controlled and can actually sense when it’s time to water. We’re considering installing low-flow toilets across the board, and maybe generating our own power. 

“These things are options that are important not just because we are a very challenged area when it comes to water and power but also because more and more the state is requiring that people take measures. Beyond that, we are always a teaching institution and we want to exhibit best practice. We want to show a path for how people can become increasingly sustainable in their homes at an affordable way,” Trombley expounds.

Ten months ago, Trombley embarked on a mission to make The Huntington a food destination. She explains, “The thing that’s interesting, and at the same time is complex, is that we have so many constituents when it comes to food. We have children who want grilled cheese sandwiches, tater tots, and mac n’ cheese; adults who want an authentic fine-dining experience with chefs designing their meals; our staff who want organic food and pre-prepared meals they can take home so they won’t have to go to the market and cook dinner from scratch.

The Huntington’s Chinese Garden | Photo by Brianna Chu

“We plan to launch it in September and we hope it will be part of the attraction among the locals and particularly for our members. We want them to come for a nice walk and then enjoy an incredible meal with the best parking in Los Angeles. It would be so satisfying for me if people think of The Huntington when they want to have a world-class meal in an incomparable setting,” Trombley enthuses.

Dovetailing with this project is an expansion of their dining venues to accommodate the sheer number of people who visit. Trombley reveals they are building a second restaurant in the Chinese Garden – the Garden of Flowing Fragrance. The one that currently exists will very likely return to being a dim sum place, or become a real teahouse serving sweets and desserts, while the second restaurant would offer heartier fare. 

Trombley says further, “We have received an enormous number of requests for a place to accommodate large parties for weddings, first birthdays, even dances. Right now we only have our grass area and not everyone wants to be on grass; we also have to build a stage, which adds to the expense. To meet that space requirement, we are on the final phase of fund-raising for a 600-seat venue on the hillside of the Chinese Garden to be used for events. It will be able to support a tent so we can have events at any time of the year. It would have a spectacular view of the Chinese Garden and the two restaurants there can cater the affair.”   

There are several memorable events during Trombley’s first year that stands out in her mind. She describes her favorites, “The Huntington Ball is always lovely … I’d never been to a ball before … that was a lot of fun. It’s a fundraiser we hold every September for our members, guests and corporate sponsors. 

The Huntington’s Rose Garden – Courtesy Photo

One event they had for the first time is the San Marino Day which Trombley initiated. In April The Huntington opened its gates and invited everyone to come free of charge – about 20 percent of San Marino’s population came in that day, reports Trombley. Another favorite is An Evening Among the Roses, held for the LGBT community. She is also looking forward to the completion of the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, a grand celebration slated for 2018.

“There are so many events here … and I’m not even mentioning the fantastic speakers who have all been extraordinary,” Trombley hastens to add. “Except for the San Marino Day which we held with my coming in, these other amazing events have been going on for a long time. But it’s a place that’s very open to new ideas … to creative ideas. I find that to be one of the best parts of The Huntington.”

When asked what vision she wants people to have at the mention of The Huntington, Trombley laughs and protests, “I think it would be almost impossible for me to name just one. We have The Huntington rose, The Blue Boy, Mark Twain’s manuscript of ‘The Prince and the Pauper.’ What I’ve learned is that everyone has a different mental image of it.

But one thing that comes to mind above everything is that it’s a kind and gentle place where people are treated very, very well. And it’s a place where you could just have a sense of spontaneous exhaling and, at the same time, an inhaling of creativity. I think that’s the most special aspect of The Huntington,” Trombley opines. 

The Huntington is an institution that evokes as many different feelings and emotions as the tourists and visitors who come to experience it. And just as Trombley discovered when she came on board a year ago, every single person who steps into this wondrous oasis retains a deep connection to it.                    

While locals happily share The Huntington’s vast treasures with the thousands who come to visit annually, they are fiercely protective as they are intensely proud of this national treasure in their midst. They are also absolutely certain that in Trombley’s accomplished stewardship The Huntington will thrive and flourish for centuries to come.  

Will Harvard’s Report Change College Admissions?

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 16 June 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly and Sierra Madre Weekly

College applications: it’s a rite of passage among teenagers in this country.  High schoolers spend 18 months of their life focused on this singular pursuit – actively padding resumes, accumulating countless hours of community service work, and preparing feverishly to get high scores in standardized tests – with the hope they would be good enough to merit admissions officers’ interest and acceptance to their dream school.

In its present form, the process arguably favors students with the resources to take test-prep classes, hire independent counselors to ‘package’ them, travel to far-flung countries to build houses as part of their community service, and intern for prestigious corporations. All for the purpose of burnishing applicants’ resumes.            

In January of this year, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education released a study purportedly to change the college admissions process which many see as a broken system. Titled “Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good Through College Admissions”, it enumerated recommendations that would change how students are evaluated.

The authors of the report touched on three areas: promoting more meaningful contributions to others, community service and engagement with the public good; assessing students’ ethical engagement and contributions to others in ways that reflect varying types of family and community contributions across race, culture and class; redefining achievement in ways that both level the playing field for economically diverse students and reduce excessive achievement pressure.

Image taken from Blair High School’s website

At Blair High School, in the Pasadena Unified School District, community service activism is a component of its International Baccalaureate program, according to college counselor, Karen Favor. She says, “Students identify a need for the school or the community, develop a plan with other schools, people or community, address that need and complete it in 150 hours. The Harvard study’s second recommendation – collective action that takes on community challenges – validates what we are already doing.

Favor adds, “I also appreciate its recommendation for assessing ethical engagement and contributions to others across race, culture, and class – specifically the one touching on contributions to one’s family. More and more we see students who also are caregivers for the elderly in their family. We had one student who had a grandfather with Alzheimer living at home. She woke him up every morning, fed him breakfast before going to school, then fed him dinner when she got back home. Besides providing care for him, she also had to deal with the mood swings that come with the disease.”

Image taken from Flintridge Prep’s website

At Flintridge Prep, a 7th-12th grade independent school in La Canada, Harvard’s seminal report has been widely circulated. Gloria Diaz Ventura, director of college counseling, reveals, “We know it well, it’s posted outside my office door. I believe in the words and to me it’s two different things. It’s something I will use to promote a balanced and healthy college process. The second issue is whether or not I feel if, in fact, this document will implement change in the college application process.

“Having worked at highly selective institutions, I’m very clear on the institutional standards and how the process works. But I believe in the document because I have to; I have to believe there’s a better way because right now I don’t see how we can keep going at this rate. The extreme selectivity among universities is creating unhealthy behaviors on the high school side.

“While we don’t have a community service requirement, we encourage our students to be part of their community. Our messaging is so clear that life has to be more than test scores and grades. We have a middle class ethos – there is no entitlement and we don’t forget where we come from,” Ventura further expounds.

Prep’s headmaster, Peter Bachmann, pronounces, “We support the values of the Harvard report, which are extremely compatible with Flintridge Prep’s. We sincerely hope that colleges around the country truly embrace them.” 

Image of Mayfield Senior School taken from Mayfield’s website

Among independent schools in Pasadena, community service and doing good for others are already part of their moral ethos. Kate Morin, head of school at Mayfield Senior, says “That’s  our core mission – Action Not Words. It’s really about empowering our students to be leaders in making the world a better place.” 

Morin recounts, “When I met recently with several generations of alums in San Francisco and in New York – some of whom were in their 70s – that’s what they want to talk to us about. They all have continued to serve the community in various ways, an extension or expansion of the work they started back when they were at Mayfield; maybe as part of their experience on Cornelia Connelly Day or Annual Service Day.”

Lori Holtrust, Mayfield college counselor, echoes Morin’s words, “We foster the development of the whole person. I think we’ve found that students are learning because they’re intrigued – they’re diving in. I don’t know that they’re doing it for college admissions. We focus on the journey of development, learning and understanding. And the college piece just happens.”

Sequoyah School, which will welcome its first 9th grade class this fall, has instilled this ‘habit of mind’ even among their elementary and middle school students. Marc Alongi, high school director, says “Our curriculum is designed to prepare students to graduate as experienced, confident and resourceful problem solvers, who know how to apply their knowledge and passion using strategies that can make a difference for their communities and for their own lives. Students will be challenged to think critically and creatively, learn how to work in diverse teams, and communicate ideas successfully.”

“The Harvard study certainly aligns with our values; our high school curriculum is framed along those lines. We aren’t merely preparing our students for college, we’re educating them. We want to inspire curious learners who are passionate and engaged about what they’re doing and connected to their community. 

“Oftentimes the college process distracts students from that; they focus on APs, grades, test scores, extra-curriculars. Again and again you hear in the media about college admissions officers seeing window dressing on students applications, not genuine interest. Are the community service hours being done to merely check off a box or is it for a deeper purpose? Our program for social innovation makes students responsible for their own impact project. It would show genuine interest and commitment; they’d have a real story to tell in their college essay.    

“The question for college admissions officers is how do they sort through the application? Are they using SAT scores as the initial filter? Some of these essays may still not get read; but if they are read, does it make a difference?,” Alongi further queries.

Ventura of Flintridge Prep, voices this same concern.  “In large offices, it’s newly graduated professionals from that school – 22-, 23- or 24-yeard-old grads – reading the file. Not unless the dean or director is telling them this is what they’re going to emphasize, they’ll just be following their marching orders. The deans, in turn, are following what the university president is telling them.

“College admissions officers need to evaluate what they’re valuing and what they’re praising at the end of the day. It’s very political – you have to look at these institutions and how they’re tied to Wall Street and political organizations.  Community service by itself doesn’t get you into Harvard,” Ventura states. 

Another Mayfield college counselor, Abigail Shaw, opines, “I think colleges are honest that  they’re looking holistically. They want students with broader perspectives. A lot of colleges are shifting their priorities – there are schools which are making the testing element optional and it’s building every single year. They are realizing that testing doesn’t necessarily present a true reflection of what a student can provide in their community so they’re taking it to heart. But I think in terms of the full spectrum of colleges making that shift … it’s not going to happen.”   

   

According to the media spokesperson for the Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS), Jodi Sweeney, “The intentions of the report are very noble. From our perspective, we feel that the report meshes well with our programming. Independent schools are preparing citizens of the world; we really work hard to help students find a balance so that they’re selecting courses with an appropriate amount of rigor so that they’re able to engage in the life of the community.

“We encourage our students to challenge themselves, find authentic service opportunities, and have transformative experiences. But we also want them to thrive and get sleep at night. It’s a balancing act and the landscape right now is more is more. And until we see that colleges really are recognizing and valuing a student who engages deeply in two or three activities and rewarding that with an acceptance, we won’t be making great changes to our college application process.

“Often admissions officers talk about the transcript being the most important component of the application – more so than the ACT or SAT. But when you look at the median scores at the schools, you’ll see that ranges are very high. College applications is so complex that it’s a perfect storm; fixing it requires a collective effort.  

“Technology and the ease with which students can apply to more schools, have also increased the competition. While we encourage them to be thoughtful and do intentional searches, students put out 12 to 15 applications because they can.

“We’re waiting to see what impact this report has on admissions selection and their recruitment process.  Right now it’s GPA- and SAT-based. We want to get a sense from college admissions officers how they’re going to tweak their process,” Sweeney says.  

At the core of the Harvard report is a fundamental issue – raising children with a moral compass who will grow up to be upstanding citizens of their community and the world. And that process starts during childhood.

Clairbourn School – Courtesy Photo

Dr. Robert Nafie, headmaster of Clairbourn School, a pre-K to 8th grade school in San Gabriel, offers his insight to support it. “Encouraging young people to take a more ethical path of social responsibility and community service must begin in the home. Additionally, it must be embraced at the individual level or there will be nothing but lip-service to perceived expectations. It is a way of life, not a fulfillment of college admissions criteria.

“The position paper implies students who demonstrate social responsibility and concern for the common good to be more desirable than those who have not exhibited such. However, it is doubtful that these institutions would accept social and ethical engagement in lieu of proven proficiency and knowledge in chosen fields of study. Although it is not clear from reading the study, it is likely that the report is actually arguing for the use of social and ethical engagement as an important secondary consideration, or even at the tertiary level, in the admissions process,” Nafie further opines.

While emphasis on the empathetic record might be highly desirable in a liberal arts college which focuses on the humanities or in education, social services, counseling, even law, Nafie puts forth that this does not hold true in technical areas.

“In the technical fields, content mastery and demonstrated proficiency will continue to be paramount. And the United States must continue to strive for excellence as measured by objective standards instead of anecdotal testimony. In science, medicine, aviation, and mathematics, for example, no amount of  motivation, intention, or concern, will make up for lack of precision or knowledge.

“When content mastery and demonstrated proficiency are substantially equal in college applicants, admissions officers should evaluate important but less critical elements in making their decisions. Without such a strong standard for objective measures of readiness, American colleges will be pulled into accepting good enough instead of reaching for genuine excellence,”  Nafie posits.

American universities are the envy of the world. Students everywhere aspire to gain admission to them. It is incumbent upon these institutions of higher learning to find the students who can balance scholastic ability and ethical responsibility.         

Barnhart School Aims to be the Best

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 9 June 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

Barnhart School was founded in 1959 by Dr. Ethel Barnhart and is affiliated with the non-denominational Santa Anita Church. Students from kindergarten to 8th grade acquire a stellar education based on an ethos of respect and love that encourages independence and self-responsibility.      

Tucked away in eight acres of real estate between Colorado Place and Colorado Blvd. in Arcadia, close to the race tracks, Barnhart can easily by missed by someone driving by.  But if Ethan Williamson, headmaster of five years, were to have his way, it wouldn’t be too long when everyone will know exactly where it is.

“My ultimate goal is for Barnhart to be the premier independent school in the greater Pasadena marketplace – Altadena, Arcadia, Monrovia, Sierra Madre – the surrounding communities where we draw from,” Williamson pronounces. “I think we have an excellent product. We do exceedingly well placing our students into highly selective independent schools. 

“We don’t track them to one particular school. And that’s also what I think is unique about Barnhart. We try to understand the child and make sure a Barnhart education is about stretch, not stress,” Williamson says further.

The 32 8th graders graduating this year were accepted to 23 high schools, including Marlborough, Campbell Hall, Flintridge Prep, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Mayfield Senior, Sequoyah, St. Francis, Westridge, and Stanford Online High School. Seven of them have been awarded merit scholarships. This wide range of institutions to which they applied and were admitted is proof that Barnhart ensures it finds the best fit for them.  

“Academics are essential at Barnhart. The rigor of our program shows in our ERB scores which have been improving over time. But we don’t focus a whole lot on test scores, we focus on education. We recognize that excellent test scores follow excellent education.

“We have been tracking their GPAs and our graduates do better than the average incoming freshman into high schools. We have a really high cohort of students who test as gifted; about 40 percent of our students qualify for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) and participate in its summer program, and it’s still increasing,” Williamson proudly states.
 

Barnhart is also distinctive for its racially diverse student body – 40 percent of its enrollment is Caucasian, 30 percent Asian (Chinese, Japanese or Korean), 20 percent Hispanic, ten percent African-American.  And while students attend 15 minutes of chapel every morning (Monday-Wednesday-Friday for elementary students and Tuesday-Thursday for middle schoolers), a third of them are Catholics, another third are Agnostics or Atheists, and the rest belong to other world religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

Williamson says, “Cultural diversity and cultural competency are very important to our students because their peers are from all over the world. It mirrors what they will be experiencing in the future as society and jobs become ever more global.”

With a total enrollment at 225, a faculty and staff of 50, the average class has about eight students to one teacher; with a maximum of 15. According to Melissa Gersh, Director of Marketing, Barnhart has 25 teachers, representing 336 years of total experience in the classroom.

Gersh adds, “On average, our teachers have a little over six years of experience directly at our school.  Half of our teachers have a master’s degree or higher; the school also requires all teachers to be credentialed.”  

Barnhart’s elementary program schedule incorporates the core content areas into the homeroom classes. A focus on literacy (reading/writing) includes 90-minute teaching blocks each day.  Math instruction occurs daily with a minimum of 60-minute lessons. Social studies and science classes are also built into the daily lessons. Balancing out the academic program is a variety of enrichment classes including: 45 minutes of art and library weekly; 30 minutes of music and Spanish, twice weekly; and 30 minutes of physical education daily.

The middle school program is designed to prepare students for the requirements of Pasadena-area high schools. Students have eight classes each day which include five core academic classes – Algebra/Geometry; English; History; Science; and Spanish – and three opportunities to experience the Barnhart Balance. 

Four exploratory classes rotate each quarter. In 6th grade: art appreciation; music appreciation; public speaking; technology. In 7th grade: human health; life skills; theatre appreciation; woodshop. In 8th grade: art appreciation; music appreciation; woodshop.

Students take one elective class per year: advanced band; studio art club; drama club; outdoor education; science club; screenwriting; and yearbook.

Physical education is a required daily 45 minute class.  

        

Barnhart has made incredible strides in technology. Says Williamson, “Four years ago not every student had individual access to an iPad or a laptop or any sort of tech device; they had to go to the computer lab. But our vision is to make technology as ubiquitous and available to students as pencils. This year we have iPads for every student in K to 2nd as they’re easy for children to use with their small fingers. Third to 5th graders use Chrome Books; we recognize that students enter the world of Google so we have Google Apps for Education and Google Classroom. In middle school it’s ‘bring your own device’ because we know this is the generation that will be device-agnostic. Many students already have both Apple and IBM at home so we intentionally gave them the flexibility to choose the right tool for the job they need to accomplish.

“We thought a lot about making sure our students are ready for the world they will encounter outside of college. We’re not just getting them into their high school or into college; we’re thinking about what their workplace will look like. And that’s especially true around technology where collaboration is key. In grades 3 to 5 our students use Google Doc so if they have a group project, which they might want to work on during the weekend, they can edit simultaneously without being in the same room. 

“Investing in a seamless wireless infrastructure became a priority for me when I first came on board. By spending $7K on a wireless network, we were able to integrate our entire system. Another enhancement we’ve created is a comprehensive student information system database – the instant students apply to Barnhart, we are able to track their progress in the admissions process. Once they’re accepted, we are able to interact with the family, keep all of them updated. Grades, test scores are all available in real time – there’s no hiding as a student,” Williamson laughs.

There’s much yet to be accomplished in the future, as Williamson says. “We’ve made major improvements in our school facilities. While it isn’t exciting to talk about, last summer we pulverized 75,000 sq. ft. of asphalt. But what’s cool about it is that we were able to recycle what we dug up and used it as a foundation for the new asphalt … and we were able to complete the project in 30 days, between summer school and the start of the school year! In the process, we also took down outdated poles, put in brand new basketball hoops, put in a nice white fence.

“Our future goals include updating our facilities to make them inspiring and competitive with our peer schools. We are currently on the planning stage of figuring out our priorities for improvement, how to go about that, what fundraising that entails.

“In terms of our curriculum and staffing, we want to optimize what we’re already doing by making changes every year as warranted. We have something solid, it’s simply a matter of continuing training. On the technology side, we will keep up with students’ needs to get their work done.

“We have a big rollout on a social curriculum this coming schoolyear. We’ll be using a system from a book developed by the Northeast Foundation for Children called ‘Teaching Children to Care – Management in the Responsive Classroom.’ It’s a proactive approach using a social curriculum that involves creating community standards or rules in the classroom. We will have teachers model the expected behaviors. This consistency in conduct means students don’t have to adjust to teachers’ expectations and styles; while personalities differ, the language we use does not. 

“More broadly, it’s a management system for the classroom. Research talks about ‘affect’ – how you feel in a classroom or work environment, for that matter, tremendously affects your performance. If one is scared, that uses up a lot of brain energy and leaves less available for learning. As students feel comfortable, their brains become fully engaged on their activity. So I think an investment in the social curriculum is critical to everything else we do.

 We have adapted the system into our middle school what the Northeast Foundation for Children designed for K-6th grade. But they have now come out with a middle school-specific book for which we have the honor of hosting the training. This summer, from August 8 to 11, an international group of 90 educators will be on our campus to learn it. It’s pretty exciting!” Williamson enthuses. 

Williamson’s infectious passion for learning and social responsibility is pervasive in the entire Barnhart community. Conceivably in the not-too-distant future, this spirit will spread far afield.  

Duarte High School Gears Up for the San Gabriel Valley Special Olympics

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Image taken from the L.A. Times

Originally published on 12 May 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly and Sierra Madre Weekly

Some 300 special education students – from elementary,  middle and high school – will convene and race on Duarte High School’s new football field at this year’s 2016 San Gabriel Valley Duarte Spring Games (Special Olympics Southern California)  which starts at 10:00 on the morning of Friday, May 20. Greg Saris, Duarte Unified School District (DUSD) adapted Physical Education teacher, heads a group of volunteer students, faculty, and parents who will be on hand to assist as well as cheer them on.

“The School Games were established in the San Gabriel Valley region well over ten years ago and in that span we have hosted over 20 school districts in this area,” says Teresa Borunda, Senior Manager of Sports & Programs for Special Olympics Southern California-Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Regions. “However, this is the first year for the 2016 Spring School Games hosted by Duarte High School.”

Saris, who is responsible for coordinating this year’s event along with Tracy Hall, another DUSD special education teacher, explains the district’s involvement, “Duarte has been participating in Special Olympics’ School Games for about six or seven years. In the Fall we go to a soccer tournament in Walnut where we compete against several West San Gabriel Valley school districts for elementary, middle and high school levels. Then in the Spring we compete in track & field. Last year we got left out because there is a cap of 300 participants and by the time we registered for the event they had reached that limit. Tracy and I decided to organize our own event and invited other districts who, like us, were not able to get in.

We had to do everything – from creating Excel spreadsheets for all the races, to finding T-shirts. When it proved to be quite a success we applied to the Special Olympics to put on the event for them in the area. It turned out that they were also looking for another school to host the games, and so here we are,” Saris happily states.

Adds Borunda, “The games were added to our calendar this year because of the popularity of the previous School Games. DUSD will be hosting ten schools from other districts – Alhambra, El Monte, Montebello, Rowland Heights, and Westmoreland Academy (in Pasadena).”

“I think it’s going to be a really fun event,” says Saris. “Jersey Mike’s will cater the food for all the volunteers and student participants. Special Olympics will be providing T-shirts and all the equipment. Duarte special education students will participate in seven races and one relay, but there will be as many as 25 different variations to give them more opportunities to win awards. There will be one volunteer who will run with each participant from the starting point of the races until they get to the awards area.   

“Assistant Superintendent, Miriam Fox, will officially open the games; we’re hoping Superintendent Allan Mucerino will be in attendance as well. Christine Wheeler, a general education senior, will sing the National Anthem. One of our special education students – Eric Little – will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. We’ll have our photographers take pictures and our videographers will create a promo video to send to Special Olympics to show other districts. We’re very excited – we’ve been planning this since last November. And we will soon see the culmination of all our efforts and hard work,” Saris says with unrestrained enthusiasm.

The Special Olympics was created in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver to provide year-round sports training and athletic competitions in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.      

In 1969, Olympic decathlon gold medalist Rafer Johnson founded the Western/California Regional Chapter and the first annual Western Regional Olympics were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Athletes from seven western states competed in track and field and swimming.

The International Special Olympics was held in 1972 for the first time in Southern California at UCLA and Santa Monica College, with more than 2,500 athletes from eight countries attending. Law enforcement officers from the LAPD joined with California Special Olympics in the first Law Enforcement Torch Run in 1986.

To expand its outreach efforts, the California Special Olympics branched out into two chapters – Northern and Southern California – in 1995. Today Special Olympics’ global extent counts 4.4 million athletes participating in over 8,000 events and competitions held annually. Southern California accounts for more than 24,000 athletes.

This Friday, 319 young students from the San Gabriel Valley will participate in a Special Olympics event. They will join an outstanding and remarkable band of athletes, who will discover abilities they didn’t know they possess, to inspire others to achieve greatness.

Seeing the unbridled joy on the faces of the students he has known and taught would be the most significant reward of all for Saris.  

Sequoyah School Welcomes its First Ninth Graders

/ May S Ruiz / Leave a comment

Originally published on 17 March 2016 in the Pasadena Independent, Arcadia Weekly, Monrovia Weekly, and Sierra Madre Weekly

In January this year, the Harvard Graduate School of Education released a seminal document titled Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Others and the Common Good through College Admissions,which has the potential to forever alter the college admissions landscape. 

The result of a joint effort among the nation’s most respected colleges and universities, this two-year campaign hopes to promote ethical engagement among students, reduce excessive achievement pressure, and level the playing field for economically disadvantaged students. If its noble mission were to actually come to pass, Sequoyah School, which will be welcoming its first high schoolers this Fall, will be at the forefront of this sea change.

Established in Pasadena in 1958 by local college professors, ministers, scientists, teachers, doctors, and civil servants, Sequoyah School is a place where children can find joy in learning and make a difference in the world. Its founders’ mission is to provide education that challenges the mind, nurtures the heart and celebrates human dignity. The school values racial and socio-economic diversity in its enrollment, and 30 to 40 percent of its students pay below full tuition. Over half a century later, it hopes to extend this same ethic from the K-8 grades into high school. 

Josh Brady, Sequoyah’s School Director, welcomes the timely conversation sweeping the nation’s institutions of higher learning that emphasizes concern for others over building shiny resumes for students aspiring to gain admission to university. He says, “Colleges want to see students who have demonstrated work over time on a particular area that are of service to others. For a while, only the privileged few can afford to do novel things that look good on a transcript.”

“As a Progressive School, Sequoyah starts with the students’ experience and understanding how they are interacting with the curriculum, what’s motivating them, and what’s challenging them, but also making sure they’re thinking of their life outside school. It isn’t just school for school’s sake; it should be about preparing them to become responsible and caring citizens of the community,” Brody expounds.

“I feel, in a wonderful way, more schools are embracing progressive ideals which are being recognized as good pedagogy. Doing it in a very deep way is challenging for high schools where transcripts, GPAs, and standardized testing results have been used as assessment methods.  While these are measurements of learning, they are also imperfect measurements in the face of grade inflation and resume-padding,” he says further.   

Brody elaborates, “Our high school students will develop initiative and self-direction through college preparatory coursework and field studies emphasizing global perspectives and cultural competency. Independent study and collaborative effort will culminate in a junior-year social impact project and senior-year internship.”

Sequoyah’s first high school director, Marc Alongi, explains how their program lends itself to a progressive approach, “We use performance tasks as a way to assess student learning.  Each one has a project with a real purpose. If you’re in Conceptual Physics and you’re thinking about energy and mechanics, you’ll actually be building something that uses mathematics and all the equations that underlie whatever principle you used to come up with that object. It’s like what goes on in medical school where you demonstrate competency, not just taking an exam.”

“In K-8, students don’t get grades. In high school, we’ll have grades but we’ll continue to value goals that are process-oriented. We’ll include specific objectives relating to collaboration, or communication, or inquiry, as well as content standards. Students have seven modules per year that are five weeks long; they take three 85-minutes courses a day so they can be more focused, plus an elective and a social innovation program. At the end of each mod, they’ll get a report that scores their performance according to their mastery goals for each of the subject areas. What’s different also, is that we have interdisciplinary work within the curriculum. For example, students will be taking a Humanities course that integrates history and English, and some of the big themes and ideas could connect very nicely to the conceptual physics class or to the mathematics program,” Alongi explains. 

“We have adopted a framework for Great Challenges which is a set of goals for making the world a better place,” Alongi illustrates Sequoyah’s program. “Let’s look at energy – where we get it, and how we produce it. The implication is that it contributes to global warming. The challenge then is to change that and mitigate its effects on CO2 emissions. We can embed that in our physics curriculum. At the same time there might be a group in the social innovation program who are out in the community talking about how we use energy in L.A., what innovations are taking place to transform technology or consumer behavior, etc. So we have it from both angles: real world investigating on the community project perspective and studying the subject.”

With progressive education in core courses in English, math, history/social science, laboratory science, foreign language, visual and performing arts, and college-prep elective, Sequoyah will meet the A-G requirements of the University of California. It will also offer athletics and participate in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) as it fields teams in basketball, cross country, fencing, mountain biking, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball.   

More importantly, though, its four-year Social Innovation Program (SIP) will develop students’ empathy and desire to be thoughtful, effective collaborators and changemakers.  

Sequoyah’s educational philosophy is attracting the attention of accomplished proponents as evidenced by the caliber of teachers who have applied, and agreed to come on board. They come from the best colleges and universities, including MIT and Caltech, Columbia and Stanford.  These educators have held jobs and been involved in careers that span the gamut – a journalist for a television network, counseling psychologist at a Quaker School or an artist in residence in New York, fair trade business entrepreneur, scientist and co-founder of a biotech company in Los Angeles. They have varied interests ranging from organic gardening and amateur beekeeping to cooking Greek food or at Lucques.           

Brody himself is an alumnus of Pasadena’s Polytechnic School. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado and later received his Master’s in Education from Harvard.  He has been involved in education and human rights in the U.S. and internationally. As an Echoing Green Fellow from 1999 to 2002, he started a project for education reforms in very remote high mountain areas of Nepal. Its objective was to make education relevant to languages, livelihood, and culture of people living in these remote areas where the nearest road is an eight-day walk.

Alongi, a New Mexico native, completed his BA in religious studies and his MA in Teaching at Brown University, and holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology from USC. He is also co-founder and advisor to Ashram Paryavaran Vidyalaya (APV), a model school and teacher training center dedicated to project-based learning, mindfulness, and music, in Uttarakhand, India. 

This diverse group of civic-minded educators come together at Sequoyah School to use their experience and to impart their knowledge to the first class of high schoolers who share their passion for community service in scholarship. And if Brody is correct in saying this philosophy is being embraced by more schools, then through their combined work, future generations of Americans may yet get a chance at a better world.