 On Friday, April 12, Stanbridge will celebrate the start of Spring Break with an afternoon of activities for students, parents, guardians, and extended family members. We are excited to once again host our schoolwide "Special Person Day" celebration. Each student is invited to bring one or two special people to join them at school for the afternoon.
These special people can be grandparents, aunts and uncles, or other extended family members, or family friends. While we recognize that many people could qualify as a "special person" in the eyes of our students, we request that all invited guests for this occasion be adults only (sorry, no siblings or young cousins). Of course, Stanbridge parents are special people too, and are invited to join their student and guests. The festivities with light refreshments will begin at noon, when we will hold a reception for visitors in Hayden Hall, after which guests will be officially welcomed before they join their students in a classroom. At 1:30, everyone will assemble in the Marilyn Center for the annual Spring Sing concert. A special end-of-day ceremony will take place outside during Resource, prior to dismissal to begin Spring Break. Click here to RSVP by April 9. If you have any questions regarding Special Person Day or the Spring Sing Concert, please contact the main office at 650.375.5860. This is a wonderful way to sing our way into Spring Break with the extended Stanbridge Community—we hope a guest can join each student!  The "On My Mind" student-written series is authored by Senior Alix as part of an in-house marketing internship through the High School Bridges class. Check back regularly for new posts, including coverage of the Washington, D.C. experiential, which begins Sunday, March 31.
On Tuesday, March 5, I visited the College of San Mateo campus for a presentation from the Disability Resource Center (DRC). The DRC is a college office where a student may apply for any necessary accommodations one might need to succeed at this educational level. Different institutions may call it different names, such as Learning Support Services, Student Disability Services, or Student Accessibility and Accommodations. Some of these accommodations that you might ask for could include extended time on tests, a separate room to take tests, audiobooks, notetakers, tutoring sessions, and more. One cool technology device they showed us was an echo smart pen from Dragon Naturally Speaking that can record everything that you hear in the classroom, and even help with note taking! Requesting accommodations in college is different from how you receive them in high school, where the school identifies the needs of the student. In college, on the other hand, they expect the student to identify their own special needs. Yes, the students themselves are responsible for requesting their own accommodations. To request these special arrangements at a college, you should meet with the Head of the DRC, or an accommodations counselor that works within the department, to personally discuss any assistance that you might need in college. If you are looking into requesting housing accommodations, the housing office must have the DRC pre-approve your request. To increase the chances of any college accommodations being approved, you should bring your IEP or Psych-Ed Evaluation that lists the recommended accommodations for you. In short, getting the help you need to achieve success in college takes time and effort, but many people are available to help you along the way!  Stanbridge Academy is hosting a group tour on Wednesday, April 3, from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. This free event is open to the public, and will feature an opportunity to talk with current Stanbridge families; meet with our Admissions Director, Head of School, and Principal; and tour our campus to see teachers and students in action. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the Stanbridge program whether you are thinking of enrolling your student or if you simply want to know more about our school. Click here for more details and to RSVP.
FYI: If you are considering Stanbridge Academy for junior high (7th–8th grades) or high school enrollment next year, visit us for our Junior High & High School Open House on April 23; click here for more information and to RSVP.  A new episode of Stanbridge Student News has been posted to our website's Parent Portal—Stanbridge families can access by using their portal password. The SSN Team has orchestrated another episode full of the latest news of note—or notes, in this case, as this edition leads with a story about the elementary division's recent trip to the San Francisco Symphony. In addition to highlights from that experiential trip, we also have features on the recent Student Talent Show, robotics assembly, and the annual Students vs. Staff Basketball Game where the students prevailed 35-29. But wait, there's more! With baseball season about to begin and the playoff season coming up for professional basketball and hockey, be sure to catch the SSN Team's bonus sports coverage to keep tabs on your favorite teams. It may be March Madness out there, but you can always rely on Stanbridge Academy's most trusted news source!
 Spring has sprung, but we already have summer on our minds. Stanbridge is proud to once again offer a wide variety of classes, courses, and clubs during this year's Summer School session (June 17 through July 26). Astronomy, D&D, gardening, basketball, ceramics, science, field trips, cooking and more—there are offerings for all ages and interests.
Unfortunately, not all of this year's Summer School classes being offered now will make the final cut. You can help ensure that the classes you want will stay on the schedule by completing our early enrollment now.* Visit the Summer School page of our website to view the preliminary schedule, read course descriptions, and download an enrollment form. The first enrollment deadline is Friday, April 12, just before Spring Break begins. Summer School classes that do not have at least three students enrolled by April 12 will be dropped from the schedule. Help ensure that the classes you want remain open—complete your enrollment form today! If you have any questions about this year's Stanbridge Summer School program, please contact Enrichment Program Manager, Linda Bargas. *Please note that Summer School at Stanbridge is open only to current and incoming students, as well as alumni in good standing.  Alluded to in our last post of the "On My Mind" student-written series, this fourth installment was also written by Senior Alix as part of her in-house marketing internship through the High School Bridges class. Check back regularly for new posts!
Social Media is a great way to express yourself and connect with people from far away. However, use caution whenever you use Social Media since you could also be in contact with some strangers. Here are a few Social Media Dos and Don’ts:
The Bridges class has worked on making a LinkedIn profile. Students have learned in-depth how this outlet works, and how to use it, since it works differently from most Social Media outlets. LinkedIn is a more professional type of social media that one can use when they’re trying to get a job. Because of this, you should behave more seriously on it – don’t post any silly photos of yourself or include your personal life on it. There are plenty of other Social Media outlets to do that kind of stuff!
Once a month, select Juniors and Seniors attend the Neurodiversity Mentoring Program held at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park. The program was at the software company SAP last year. The corporate coordinator left SAP over the summer for Facebook, and brought the program with her. The program’s intention is for those with neurodiversity to get some experience in an office and see different job opportunities post-graduation. Generally, help prepare us for life. In our February meeting, we learned about Social Media Dos and Don’ts. We learned how LinkedIn is different from most Social Media outlets, and even made our own LinkedIn profile on paper. On a scale from 1 to 5, most students rated the February meeting between 3 and 5. The Bridges class had also worked on LinkedIn profiles in the classroom, so students felt prepared for the activity. Some of our favorite activities in the program include team building activities, meeting new people, and working with students from outside Stanbridge. Probably the most popular part is the lunch, where we eat the cafeteria food. Some of our favorites include pizza, salad, pasta, and Indian food. Most of us would recommend the program to all sophomores and juniors who are not attending the program this year, and we encourage them to attend next year.  The Common Ground Speaker Series concludes the 2018–2019 season next week, with Dr. Michael Rich and Manoush Zomorodi presenting "Screensmart: Best Practices for Healthy Families" on Tuesday and Wednesday at three different venues in the Peninsula/South Bay area. The two will facilitate conversations about digital media and its impact, both positive and negative, on children and teens. They will offer research-based answers to questions about media use in the home and its impact on family health and child development. Rich, widely known as "The Mediatrician," is one of the nation’s top experts on children and media. Rich is the Founder and Director of the Center on Media and Child Health as well as a pediatrician, researcher, father and media aficionado. Zomorodi is co-founder of Stable Genius Productions, a media company with a mission to help people navigate personal and global change. Investigating how technology is transforming humanity is Zomorodi’s passion and expertise. Their presentation next week is the final installment of this year's Common Ground Speaker Series. Click here for more details on times and locations of next week's presentation, and for the full roster of this year's Common Ground speakers.
Stanbridge Academy is proud to be associated with the Common Ground Speaker Series. Each school year, the series presents distinguished speakers in education, parenting, and health at venues across the San Francisco Peninsula. Parents, faculty and staff of member schools attend Common Ground events free of charge. Guests not affiliated with a member school may attend for a $20 fee at the door.  A new episode of Stanbridge Student News has been posted to our website's Parent Portal—Stanbridge families can access by using their portal password. The play's the thing in this edition of our webcast, as the SSN Team takes us behind the scenes of CalShakes recent visit to campus. See what these actors have to say about what Shakespeare can teach today's students and how performing can be both entertaining and therapeutic for those on stage as well as the members of the audience. Also, the SSN crew goes in-depth on the topic of the Spring Equinox; watch their new FYI segment to learn more about what makes the start of spring such an important occasion. And finally, March Madness has arrived. Not the NCAA tournament—the annual Students vs. Staff Basketball Game! It's the finale to another hardcourt season for our Bulldog hoopsters. See what Coach Kelley and the team have to say about this season and the upcoming big game in our SSN exclusive interview. All that, plus the latest dates and deadlines. From The Bard to the backboards, though this be madness, there is method in it; see for yourself in the latest from Stanbridge Academy's most trusted news source!
 The second installment of the recurring student-written blog series "On My Mind" was conceived and written by Grace. As part of the in-house marketing internship through their High School Bridges class, Seniors Alix and Grace write about things that are on the minds of Stanbridge students and post them on our website's blog. Be sure to check back regularly for new posts!
Nobody has just three emotions, like, sad, angry, and happy. We all have different types of emotions – simple ones, such as jealousy, and more complicated ones, like feeling down or depressed. Everyone has emotions, or reactions, depending on the situation. Some people lash out with their response on others when they can’t handle the situation that they’re currently in. Others may cope better with their emotions, and not blame other people. Today, I sat down to interview James Warren, one of the Stanbridge counselors, who gave me some advice about how people can regulate their emotions when they feel frustrated. Here’s a brief recap of my interview with James, in my own words: Q: How do you regulate your emotions? When should you ask for help?
I would like to continue the tips from the interview, but I think you all got the main idea. Thanks to JW for letting me interview him today. Make it a good day or not, the choice is up to you! The Stanbridge Academy Spring Gala is coming up this Saturday, March 9, and we expect a full house--tickets for the event are sold out! If you purchased a ticket/tickets, look for an email confirming your reservation, which also includes information on directions to the venue, parking, check-in, and other night-of details. If you have any questions regarding your reservation, contact our Director of Advancement, Chris Myers, at 650.375.5860, ext. 607.
If you can't make the party, missed out on tickets, or simply want to support our students and program, you can still give as a gala donor. And if you're already excited about next year's gala, save the date for March 7, 2020. More details on that in due time...for now, we're excited for this Saturday night:
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