This past Saturday morning, recent Hillbrook alums – Alex Nickel ‘16 and Liam Strand ‘16 – were honored as Los Gatos Youth Citizens of the Year. They join a growing list of Hillbrook alums – Isabel Perez ’15, Courtney Mathisen ’14, Olivia Borenstein Lawee ’14, JT Belshe ’13, Cole Hammers ’13, Molly Ball ’12, and Jo Sanford ’11 – who have received this high honor, an award that recognizes students who have made a significant contribution to the Los Gatos/Monte Sereno community and are role models for other young people.
Their recognition highlights how members of the Hillbrook community are being noticed for our commitment to reaching beyond themselves to make a difference in the world. Last Spring, for example, Hillbrook was by far the largest team entered in theGreat Race. With more than 65 runners, we earned prize money that was then utilized to sponsor the recent Stop Hunger Nowproject that was part of the Week of Service. In just a little over a week, the school is receiving the 2016 Compassion in Action Award from the African Library Project, a recognition for the 15 libraries created by the school in Malawi and Swaziland since 2009. Over the past five years, we have been consistently recognized byBreakthrough Silicon Valley as one of their strongest and most valued partners, a partnership that has made both of our organizations stronger.
Of course, as a school we are not performing a wide variety of service project in an effort to be recognized. Instead, we are striving to live out a core piece of our vision “to reach beyond ourselves to make a difference in the world.” The recognition simply affirms that what we are doing is making a difference and, we hope, inspires others to join us in seeking out their own way to make the world a better place.
Even more importantly, we are continually seeking ways to integrate our service projects into the curriculum. Last Friday, for example, our Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten students met a visitor from the West Valley Waste Management team who taught them about the importance of the 3 Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle as they launch their yearlong study of garbage and the impact we have on the environment. This coming Friday, the 3rd grade will be launching their study of disabilities, with the DisAbility Awareness Presentation, a hands-on presentation that helps students gain insight into the reality of those with disabilities by having them experience different types of challenges that people can face. Students then develop a pen pal relationship with local children and, later in the year, meet and play with the children.
HSPC Service Learning Parent Coordinator Elan Nguyen has recently completed a beautiful, inspiring, and accessible exhibit in the library that ties together children’s literature, a wide-array of grade-level service projects, and big questions about how children can make a difference in the world. The exhibit will help teachers, students, and families extend the work we are doing as part of our curriculum and consider how we can push in new and interesting ways to make things better both on campus and beyond 300 Marchmont Drive. I encourage parents when they are next on campus to swing by the exhibit and check it out.
This coming week, we will be donating 100 iPads to Treasures 4 Teens, an organization that provides holiday gifts to under-resourced teenagers. Founded by a group of Los Gatos high school students back in 2010, the organization is currently led by several students, including their vice-chairperson and Hillbrook alumnae Sophie Mortaz ‘13. Youth Citizen of the Year recipient Alex Nickel and Aleksy Coughlin ‘13 also were active members of the organization last year. Sophie’s commitment to service connected Hillbrook with this worthwhile cause, and enabled us to make a gift that will positively impact a number of teenagers this December. Sophie’s leadership and initiative, traits we know were nurtured during her time at Hillbrook, and her recognition that Hillbrook is committed to giving back to our community enabled this positive outcome.
Vision 2020 calls on us to “deepen and extend the work of our Service Learning program, creating opportunities to partner with a broad range of organizations throughout Silicon Valley in order to engage the Hillbrook community in meaningful service projects both on and off campus.” Clearly we are already doing much of this. I can’t wait to see where we take this program in the next four years and beyond.