Castilleja school | Reimagining The Circle

CASTILLEJA SCHOOL 1310 Bryant Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 T 650.328.3160 F 650.326.8036 www.castilleja.org

REIMAGINING THE CIRCLE WOMEN LEARNING | WOMEN LEADING

our mission Castilleja School educates motivated young women to become confident thinkers and compassionate leaders with a sense of purpose to effect change in the world.

A Legacy of Progress: Building for the Future At the turn of the 20th century – before American women had won the right to vote; before a woman was elected to the House or the Senate – a recent Stanford graduate named Mary Lockey had the commanding vision to open an all-girls college preparatory school in Palo Alto. Founded in 1907 with the support and mentorship of Stanford’s then-president David Starr Jordan, Castilleja School remains to this day the only non-sectarian all-girls middle and high school in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While Mary Lockey strove to prepare girls for higher education, today Castilleja School aims to prepare girls for the world beyond college. 109 years after Castilleja’s founding, women nationally pursue higher education and graduate work in greater numbers than men – but are still underrepresented in leadership roles. Women hold just 4.8% of Fortune 500 CEO positions; less than seven percent of venture capital firms invest in businesses with female CEOs. In Silicon Valley, women

hold less than 25% of all tech positions at the world’s largest tech companies. By equipping young women with the knowledge, courage, and confidence they need to shape our world, Castilleja can play a critical role in remedying this global gender disparity.

Standing in the way of Castilleja’s ability to offer the education and the future it promises are two chief obstacles: Aging facilities that hinder learning opportunities and an outdated enrollment limit that forces the school to turn away hundreds of qualified applicants. Castilleja already offers a 21stcentury education, fully integrated with local and global real-life experiences; intellectual curiosity is cultivated through breadth and depth, and Castilleja graduates leave the Circle inspired and prepared for a lifetime of learning, leading, and doing. The time has come for Castilleja’s young women to have a campus worthy of their founder ’s vision: A revolutionary space for the change-makers of tomorrow.

Reimagining the Circle: Learning Spaces for a New Millennium As Castilleja embarks on its second century, the school has a renewed dedication to its rich history of innovation. The 2013 Strategic Plan calls upon the community to “develop the institutional resources to ensure Castilleja’s strength for the future,” a goal that includes a commitment to “complete and launch a master facilities plan to address changing space, facility, and technology needs to support our evolving program.”

Advances a 21st-Century Pedagogy The Master Plan envisions new Middle and Upper School buildings with dedicated spaces to foster divisional identity and flexible classrooms to promote greater collaborative, and experiential teaching and learning. A new building dedicated to integrating Science, Technology, and Engineering, with Art and Design will cultivate in every student the ability to create and innovate, in preparation for the global challenges they will face in the future.

Transparent walls will break down silos and promote interdisciplinary thinking. A new Student Center and Dining Commons will expand opportunities for community building and personal growth.

Prioritizes Co-Curricular Programming The Master Plan includes provisions for improved performance and arts spaces as well as plans for a full-size pool and an expanded soccer field. These investments underscore the school’s understanding of students’ ever-growing need to pursue intellectual and creative passion, the development of leadership skills, and the cultivation of selfconfidence.

Supports the Continued Health of its Neighborhood Castilleja is committed to acknowledging neighbor feedback on our aspirations, and plans for zero additional impact on traffic and parking. The Master Plan includes expanded onsite parking for students and employees in the form of a subterranean parking garage (located under Spieker Field); furthermore, Castilleja’s new campus will improve neighborhood aesthetics with architectural features that complement the nearby historic homes.

Emphasizes Sustainability As we strive to educate global citizens, Castilleja must model environmentally conscious decisionmaking. To that end, the new campus design reflects architecture and landscape design that minimizes the school’s environmental footprint.

Revolutionary Spaces for Tomorrow’s Demands

INTEGRATED • Updated technology integration, recording, and videoconferencing • Multi-media equipped production and presentation spaces

STATE-OF-THE-ART • 3-D Studio • Black Box Theater • Digital Learning Lab • Science Labs

FLEXIBLE • Enhanced opportunities for whole-grade instruction • Improved circumstances for student presentations

HANDSON • Breakout maker spaces • Expanded art spaces

COLLABORATIVE • Strengthened sense of collegiality • Greater opportunities for interdisciplinary learning • Community spaces

“Open and flexible learning spaces allow girls to make decisions about how they collaborate and create; about how they engage with technology.

Making choices based on knowledge, skills, and experience is the best preparation for confident thinking and compassionate leading.�

- Nanci Kauffman, Head of School

CONTACT: CASTILLEJA SCHOOL 1310 Bryant Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 T 650.328.3160 F 650.326.8036 www.castilleja.org tpoe@castilleja.org