developing leaders empowering girls to learn, to lead, and to effect positive change
At Castilleja, we believe that socially conscious experiential learning broadens students’ horizons and promotes the development of leadership skills. To that end, our ACE Center, which embodies Awareness, Compassion, and Engagement: • encourages students to engage meaningfully with our community partners and in our robust global program • collaborates with teachers on innovative classroom projects • provides students and alumnae with networking and internship opportunities
COMMUNITY ACTION global investigations • leadership INTERNSHIPS • HANDS-ON WORKSHOPS
diversity and inclusion • mentoring
SOCIAL EQUITY AND JUSTICE SUSTAINABILITY • SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MAKING A DIFFERENCE PARTNERSHIPS • INNOVATION castilleja.org/ace
learning to lead Philosophy
casti is‌ going beyond your own circle!
The ACE Center partners with Castilleja faculty to develop student leaders. Our leadership program seamlessly integrates knowledge and skills learned in the classroom with behaviors and mindsets cultivated through local and global experiences ranging from internships, to mentoring programs, to local and global community engagement opportunities. Our aim is to graduate students who are courageous, visionary leaders in whatever ventures they choose to pursue.
The photos shown depict just some of the work done by students through the ACE Center: a junior weaving in Guatemala, an Advanced Topics Physics class sharing projects with Brentwood students, seventh graders gardening with their Brentwood Buddies, big sisters bonding with their Halford little sisters, juniors at the Taj Mahal, and students registering for clubs. The range of hands-on opportunities are amazing. Can you imagine what you will experience here?
“Our students graduate knowing that they have the skills and knowledge necessary to effect change in the world courageously and respectfully.” —Stacey Kertsman, ACE Center Director
Community Engagement
Global Program
Castilleja is committed to developing community action programs that partner with various local organizations. As a result, we do not ask students to count hours; rather, we ask each of them to deepen their awareness of a local need, cultivate a sense of compassion and understanding, and then develop a plan for effective engagement.
Global Week, which occurs annually in January, provides students with a unique opportunity to dive deeply into a particular issue through classroom work, workshops, projects, and in-depth engagement with speakers. Annual themes encompass pressing global issues, e.g., Water: Commodity or Human Right (2012), Social Change: Standing Up and Speaking Out (2013), Global Movements: Artists with a Cause (2014), The City: Fortification to Imagination (2015), Climate Change (2016), and Migration: Living in a World on the Move (2017).
• In Middle School, students participate in grade-level partnerships with local nonprofit organizations that enhance the lives of community members and the environment. They are also offered the opportunity to work in community action electives that they imagine, design, and implement under the guidance of the ACE Center.
• In Upper School, students join studentled ACE Organizations, develop a charter and commit to an annual plan for local or global action, and assess the efficacy of their programming with the support of the ACE Center. Additionally, the ACE Center works closely with Student Government, Athletics, the Bourn Idea Lab/Robotics, and Grade-level Deans to support their on-going community engagement efforts.
The endowed Global Investigator Trip ensures that all juniors have the opportunity to collaborate with students around the globe. Juniors travel to China, the Dominican Republic, or India.
“At Castilleja, I’ve learned that the most powerful form of leadership is not when you tell people what to do, but when you create relationships with those whom you are leading and inspire them to fully engage. Castilleja has taught me so much about myself and about how to lead and for that I am eternally grateful.”
—Meg ‘16
Internships and Networking
Environmental Sustainability
The ACE Center supports student and alumnae engagement through internships both during the school year and in the summer. These internships engage students in a meaningful way by pairing them with a mentor in an industry that interests them. The ACE Center identifies and prepares students and mentors to engage collaboratively, to hone leadership skills, and to deepen their knowledge through experience.
Castilleja’s environmental and garden education program supports learning in the areas of environmental stewardship, community development and engagement, science education, nutrition and food sourcing, and entrepreneurship. The garden offers multiple opportunities for experiential learning and the development of leadership skills by partnering with local schools and organizations.
Mentoring
Diversity and Inclusion
Castilleja supports several formal programs that offer students the opportunity to learn how to be good leaders, mentors, and mentees. Through the Halford Young Women Leaders Program and the Peninsula Bridge Program, Castilleja Upper School students mentor girls from under-resourced local communities. Additionally, peer tutoring, student coaching, and assistant teaching within Castilleja give students the opportunity to mentor one another in a productive learning environment.
The ACE Center works with students, faculty, staff, and families to create an inclusive learning community at Castilleja. An integral aspect of Castilleja leadership programming supports students as they develop and run workshops dedicated to breaking down stereotypes and assumptions, fostering cross-cultural understanding, and identity formation. This work is supported by a myriad of curricular connections that explore important diversity and inclusion topics in the classroom and formal social and emotional skillbuilding. We work with local and global partners as geographically disparate as East Palo Alto, New Delhi, India, and rural Kenya. Additionally, we collaborate with external experts including NAIS’ Student Diversity Leadership Program/People of Color in Independent Schools Conference and Silicon Valley’s Camp Everytown/FACES project.
castilleja.org/ace
“Women are born twice: once when they are actually born, and a second time when they realize why.”
—Alexandra Fuller, author and Castilleja speaker, 2013
leadership in action All students engage locally and globally during their years at Castilleja. As students learn through an arc of assigned and opt-in experiential opportunities, they develop skills and competencies that inform their practice daily as women leading and women learning. In Middle School, with support from teachers and ACE advisors, students learn the skills and gain the confidence necessary to participate in ACE endeavors. By the time they’re upperclasswomen, Castilleja students have the leadership skills to envision and initiate their own opportunities.
Community and Global Engagement Grade Level 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Focal Experience Foundations of Partnerships Brentwood Academy Partnership Palo Alto Veterans’ Administration Partnership Vision and Voice Program Social Entrepreneurship Training: Communities in Transition Program Global Investigator Program Senior Seminars
upper school clubs Casti is… opportunities galore! Castilleja Upper School students have dozens of clubs and co-curricular activities from which to choose. Through these clubs, students learn, engage, have fun, and develop leadership skills. Many girls have started organizations that engage their peers in community action and raise global awareness. Students also lead academic and arts clubs that travel to compete or perform. Castilleja’s schedule has a FLEX period designated for these studentinitiated learning and leading opportunities. The list below is a sampling of some of these organizations. Most are consistent year-to-year, and new ones arise based on student interest and initiative.
ACE Organizations
Academic Clubs
Ada’s Café American Cancer Society Brentwood Health & Nutrition CAIE - Community Allegiance for Diversity Castaruni Girls Learn International Green Team Halford Let’s Club Music for the Community Outdoor Education Experience Pursuit of Excellence Rosener House Seton STEMx Team HBV Turn it Around
Between The Blurred Lines Casti Coders Challenge Success Cre8 Debate Club Gatorbotics (FIRST® Robotics Team) Mock Trial Model UN Sound Sisters Glee Club
Publications Counterpoint Monthly Caledonia Magazine Yearbook “Radical” - Intersectional Feminist Journal
Fun & Common Interest Clubs Bollywood Club CEO (Castilleja Entrepreneur Organization) Community Action Club Current Events Circle Friends of Millard Fillmore (FOMF) Gallery Leadership Hue Crew IT Girls (Tech Club) Math Circle MUSE (Middle Upper School Ensemble) Peer Tutoring Quiz Bowl Red Key (Admission tour guides) Spoken Word Poetry Club Unplugged