 For the past ten years, the Children's Health Council (CHC) has sponsored the EdRev Expo at Oracle (formerly AT&T) Park—an annual event designed for parents, educators, and other professionals who work with students with learning and attention issues. EdRev offers a unique focus on the one-in-five students living with learning and attention differences, and features workshops and resources for students and parents, as well as live music, interactive exhibits, and fun at the ballpark. This year's EdRev Expo will be held on Saturday, May 4, and Stanbridge will once again have a table in the exhibit hall with a number of our faculty and administrative staff on-hand—stop by and say hello! We encourage all Stanbridge families to come and spend part of your morning or afternoon at this unique and informative event. Registration is free; click here for more information.
 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 latest episode starts on a high note with highlights from our April "Spring Sing" concert. In addition to clips from the show, the news team follows up with an in-depth interview from one of our student performers who talks about his experience of playing keyboard on stage in front of a standing-room-only crowd. Also in this episode: An interview with one of our Bulldog athletes who was selected to be part of the CalHeat Junior Elite Handball Team; pictures from the junior high experiential trip to the San Francisco Film Festival's international teen short films screening at the Castro Theatre; and snapshots from the elementary division's overnight experiential trip to Coloma. All that, plus the latest deadlines and datelines from Stanbridge Academy's most trusted news source!
The "On My Mind" series is back from Washington, D.C. and our Spring Break hiatus! Authored by Stanbridge 12th-grader Alix as part of the High School Bridges/Transitions class in-house marketing internship program, we invite you to check back regularly for new posts.
From March 31 to April 5, Stanbridge juniors and seniors traveled together to participate in "CloseUp,” a program that teaches young adults about the U.S. government and how it works. This was the sixth time Stanbridge took part in this trip. Beginning in 2009, juniors and seniors at Stanbridge have been given the option to go to Washington, D. C. for the CloseUp program every other year for the Spring experiential. On the early morning of Sunday, March 31, students learned how to deal with the unexpected on a plane, such as layovers due to passengers needing medical attention or flight delays due to bad weather. After a long day on the plane, students were happy to check into the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, and get into comfortable, warm beds. [Stanbridge students roomed with their fellow classmates.] Throughout the week, students visited historic monuments, participated in workshops, and interacted with other students in the Close-Up program – many who were from other states. On Capitol Hill Day, students met Congresswoman Jackie Speier, and got to take a photo with her. Students also went to the U.S. Capitol, where we observed the Senate in debate up in the galleries. Following Capitol Hill Day, students had dinner at the food court in D.C.’s historic Union Station before enjoying a performance of “Into the Woods” at the Ford Theater. Although we have a few suggestions for future trips, this trip was an overall hit. Participants encourage all Freshmen and Sophomores to attend the trip when Stanbridge offers it again in 2021!  Today is Earth Day and we hope you are outside celebrating nature on this beautiful Monday in the Bay Area. Today's observance gives us a chance to cheer the efforts of our Stanbridge students—particularly those involved with last year's student government. Over the course of last school year, student government sponsored a number of bake sales which helped raise funds for an eco-friendly water fountain/water bottle filling station (pictured). Installed last spring, the station has helped eliminate waste from more than 13,600 disposable plastic bottles so far! You can help save even more by using your reusable S'well Stanbridge Academy water bottle to fill up at our Hayden Hall water station. Didn't get your bottle yet? No problem! Annual Fund donors can pick up their bottle at the main office any time. And if you haven't made your Annual Fund donation yet this year, click here to give online or stop by the office to drop off a check and pick up your bottle all at once!
 For nearly 40 years, Stanbridge Academy has been providing students a whole-school experience that includes individualized academics, social/emotional support, and a full complement of arts, athletics, enrichment, and leadership opportunities. See for yourself why families say that "Stanbridge has been life-changing" at our Junior High and High School Open House on Tuesday, April 23 from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m.
This event will feature presentations from key staff and faculty members, plus Q&A with teachers from our junior high and high school divisions, as well as our Head of School, Principal, and Director of Counseling. Our Director of College Counseling & Transitions will also be available to discuss the transitions planning that takes place during high school for students and their families, and the variety of postsecondary paths that Stanbridge graduates have pursued. The event will include a guided tour of our campus and classrooms where you will get to see our students and teachers in action, and a number of current Stanbridge parents will also be on hand to answer any questions you might have. This is a great opportunity to learn more about our junior high and high school programs and discuss your child's individual needs and goals with our teachers, counselors, and administrative staff. The Open House is a free event and we encourage interested guests to RSVP in advance by completing this short online form. If you are unable to attend this Open House, please note that we have a group tour scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, and you can always schedule a personalized tour of our campus by completing our online form. See our Visit Stanbridge page for more details.  Posing with Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. Snapping a selfie with Barack Obama in the National Portrait Gallery. Watching the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery. These are just a few of the activities Stanbridge juniors and seniors got to experience during their trip to Washington, D.C. earlier this month. Partnering with CloseUp for our fourth biennial trip to the nation's capital, this year's 11th- and 12th-graders had a packed itinerary that included the above activities plus much, much more. From visiting memorials and landmarks, to meeting with congresswoman Jackie Speier, to celebrating the D.C. experience with students from across the country, our staff chaperones captured the manifold highlights. See for yourself in the exclusive video that has been posted to our website's Parent Portal—Stanbridge families can access by using their portal password. Additional trip photos and highlights can also be seen on our social media pages, so be sure to check out the Stanbridge Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds, too!
 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:
 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. We are feeling the love in this episode, which is full of Valentine's Day highlights, including the junior high field trip to Bel Mateo Bowl; cookie decorating on campus; plus pizza, cupcakes, and the traditional exchange of Valentines. Beyond the February 14th holiday, our elementary students took an experiential field trip to Point Reyes to learn more about Native Americans and the local habitat—the SSN Team has exclusive pictures from their excursion. Finally, discover why Hayden Hall was decked-out in coats of arms earlier this month. A community-building activity, each high school advisory spent the past few weeks designing a coat of arms that represents their group. See the photos of each group's original design, and find out which advisory's entry was named Best of Show in the class vote. All that, plus an update on upcoming events and deadlines. We're back from break, so stay up-to-date with Stanbridge Academy's most trusted news source!
 Stanbridge Academy is hosting a group tour next Wednesday, March 6, 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 this year or next, or if you simply want to know more about our school. Click here for more details and to RSVP—we look forward to seeing you!
 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. In this episode, the reviews are in—literally. The News Team talks with Lynsey's Upper Elementary class; they have started to write individual reviews for each of the experiential field trips they take throughout the year. In addition to being a practical writing exercise, the student reviews also offer a thoughtful way for each trip participant to express their personal highlights and feedback about the experience. Hear what the class had to say about their recent experiential excursion to the California Academy of Sciences (highlights: birds, butterflies, fish, and sharks; lowlights: long lines). Plus, an exclusive look at this year's student-drawn yearbook cover finalists and the winning entry; an FYI segment on President's Day; and the latest important dates and announcements. Stay up to date on the Bulldog Beat with Stanbridge Academy's most trusted news source!
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