Head-Royce School in Oakland Not Just a

CENTER FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT’S MISSION:

Offering both local and global opportunities, the CCE positively demonstrates how essentia l it is to create a hands-on civic engagement program immersed in real-world issues by deeply studying those issues and considering how they make the world more equitable and inclusive. And that extends to global programs as well. When the CCE organizes an opportunity to travel abroad—for example with a trip to Prague and Berlin to study the global challenge of housing—they start at “home” by learning how that same issue has an impact on the city of Oakland and surrounding Bay Area.

Steeped in the value of mentorship, developing informed and passionate leaders is another key tenet of the program. Feidelman recently created a Community Engagement Board, comprised of juniors and seniors who help run the CCE’s programming. These students are placed as CCE representatives in the 34 different advisory groups to nurture, explore and encourage student interests. The student leaders also host projects and run a program—Looking Forward, Looking Backward—where HRS seniors connect with and read to our kindergartners.

Ask someone to tell you about Head-Royce and depending on whether they are a student, parent, professional community member, alumni, community partner or neighbor, you are likely to get a different description every time. On certain points, most people would agree: great K-12 education, beautiful campus, wonderful teachers. Some might even say the location in Oakland. If you probed more deeply, they might tell you that the Center for Community Engagement and Heads Up programs showcase how Head-Royce is a school with deep roots in the greater community.

The Cente R For Community Engagement

The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) is a K-12 initiative that was ideated in 2016-17 and launched in 2018 to promote the value of responsible and engaged citizenship at all levels in the community. As one of our three core values, citizenship has always been embedded in a Head-Royce education. But over the past five years—under the leadership of the indefatigable Nancy Feidelman—the program has become broader, better coordinated across divisions and more deeply rooted in a student’s experience throughout their entire Head-Royce journey. With a crossdivisional commitment to instill self-awareness, compassion, equity, sustainability and purpose-driven action in our students, the CCE helps demonstrate how our three core values—scholarship, diversity and citizenship—are interwoven and unable to exist alone. Says Head of School, Rachel E. Skiffer, “It is impossible to have scholarship without diversity and citizenship. And the CCE exists as the ‘happy interplay’ between the three.”

There is no real metric for the intangibles: the leadership skills our students of all ages develop; the passion that is ignited when someone deeply connects with a program or volunteer; the difference one project makes for a family... or a community...or a corner of the world.

Putting together programs for students spanning all grades requires a thoughtful approach. Take the Middle School’s first Community Engagement Day organized by Middle School Assistant Head Kristen Goggin and Feidelman. Within their advisory groups, the entire Middle School worked with one of 18 unique community partners. Each grade level focused on a different theme with 6th graders addressing food justice and sustainability, 7th graders working with partners on human connections and community care and 8th graders concentrating on the United Nations’ global goals of sustainable development with an emphasis on two in particular, life below water and life on land. With a broad list of community partners, the students were able to participate in programs that reflect the diversity of this area rooted in themes— such as urban farming and food security—that could be contextualized and tied back to the curriculum. Having such an immersive experience brought joy and connectivity to everyone involved in the program.

And the work continues throughout the year. During the holiday season, all three divisions collaborated to make a significant difference for our various community partners. Our Lower School assembled and delivered backpacks filled with useful items, including pajamas, art supplies and student-written messages of hope and joy for K-5 students at two of our partner schools in the Oakland Unified School District—Encompass Academy and Achieve Academy, where alumnus Monica Valerian ’04 teaches kindergarten (see alumni profile for more on Monica). The Middle School’s Holiday Drive supported Achieve Academy with classroom donations—including art supplies, books, puzzles, dry erase boards and magnetic letters—as well as playground items, such as balls, chalk, sand, sensory tables, wooden blocks and more. Meanwhile, the Upper School helped fulfill holiday wish lists for 40 children and their parents living in transitional housing with our long-standing community partner, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS).

The impact of the CCE is hard to measure. While the service hours can be tracked (5,000+ by Upper School students in the first semester alone), there is no real metric for the intangibles: the leadership skills our students of all ages develop; the passion that is ignited when someone deeply connects with a program or volunteer; the difference one project makes for a family…or a community…or a corner of the world.

But one thing is certain, the CCE plays a central role in the School’s mission to…inspire in our students a lifelong love of learning and pursuit of academic excellence, to promote understanding of and respect for the diversity that makes our society strong and to encourage constructive and responsible global citizenship.

Heads Up

The marquis example of community engagement and impact at Head-Royce is Heads Up, a public school/private school partnership that for many years—35 as of the fall of 2022— has been making a difference in the lives of Oakland youth. Since 1987, Heads Up has provided over 1,150 first-generation college bound students of color from Oakland public schools with academically challenging and enriching tuition-free programming through an immersive summer program, year-round Saturday Leadership Academy and Workforce Development Program. Under the leadership of Mikki Frazier, the program has blossomed and become more intentional and aligned with Head-Royce School’s core values.

Although most of the Heads Up students come from several “partner schools” in Oakland—Montera Middle School, Edna Brewer, Lazear Charter School, Life Academy and Madison Park Academy—the program enrolls 6th graders from public schools throughout Oakland who participate for nearly four years until they “graduate” during the summer before 10th grade. The timing—which coincides with the sometimes awkward but always formative middle school years—is incredibly impactful as it provides opportunities for students to develop more confidence and leadership skills.

Aligned with Head-Royce School’s core tenets of scholarship, diversity and citizenship, the mission of Heads Up is to provide first-generation college-bound students of color from Oakland public schools with challenging and enriching programming to cultivate socially responsible leaders.

The capstone to the experience is the summer program, a four-week annual intensive during which students take academic classes—including math, science and humanities— to prevent the “summer slide” by solidifying content students learned throughout the past academic year and preparing them for the material the next one will bring. The fourth strand of the curricular approach is “Success is Now,” a class that explicitly teaches developmentally appropriate study skills and learning strategies—ranging from executive functioning to financial planning—to ensure that students are able to connect the work they are doing in class with the work they need to put in to become successful outside a school environment. The academic curriculum is supplemented with enrichment opportunities. From hip hop to crafting, tennis to theater, coding to fashion design, there is something for everyone. The summer program is supported by technology—students are required to produce, edit and store their summer work using Google applications.

Last summer, Heads Up launched the Workforce Development Program (WDP). Designed for rising 10th graders, the WDP supplements in-class leadership and skills training with hands-on work experience. Twelve students were placed in departments across the Head-Royce campus and—for about 90 minutes per day—were given projects ranging from organizing files (or even rooms) to writing social media posts to developing content needed for updated collateral pieces, and everything in between.

HEADS UP MISSION:

Aligned with Head-Royce School’s core tenets of scholarship, diversity and citizenship, the mission of Heads Up is to provide firstgeneration college-bound students of color from Oakland public schools with challenging and enriching programming to cultivate socially responsible leaders .

With professional mentors and tangible work experience, the Heads Up students were able to develop skills and acquire references that can be transferred to real-world opportunities. The WDP also provides students with workshops on college readiness and ACT/SAT preparation.

The Summer Program is supplemented throughout the school year with the quarterly Saturday Leadership Academy (SLA), which brings all Heads Up students together for relationship building, community engagement and service, leadership development and experiential learning. Two of the four Saturdays offer conferencestyle events, where students rotate between workshops taught by local educators, artists or program partners or participate in hands-on learning. The other two Saturdays are intentionally designed to help students become engaged global citizens through service projects and field trips. Further, the SLAs help students deepen their relationships with other students in their cohort—a

110 83% are from low-income households students enrolled across all grades each year critical factor in ongoing participation and engagement.

Heads Up alumni are immediately eligible to apply for paid counselor positions in the Head-Royce Summer Program, where they continue to receive extensive job training and access to a rich employment pipeline. Many Heads Up alum go on to apply for full-time positions within the HRS community.

In fact, Head-Royce currently employs eight people who were one-time Heads Up students, including Ariyana Mosley, who graduated from the Heads Up program in ’14 and currently serves as a Head-Royce After School Program (ASP) counselor as well as a Heads Up lead counselor. Mosley describes Heads Up as “a place for young minds to become more well-rounded” and mentioned the importance of community, mentoring and long-term friendships. “Heads Up pushed me outside my comfort zone and instilled confidence and leadership skills in me,” said Mosley. “I found my purpose here.” 91% 79% of enrolled students report that their academics improved after joining the program of students believe the program has given them an advantage over their (non-Heads Up) classmates

In interviews with Heads Up students, faculty and staff, the theme of relationships and connection emerged again and again. “Community,” said one student (using a program nickname of “Gummy”) in response to what makes Heads Up so impactful. “The people here make you feel safe—and we have fun, even though we are learning.”

Ian Walters, a Head-Royce Middle School faculty member that has taught in the Heads Up program since 2011 said, “Every summer, it [Heads Up] reaffirms for me as a middle school teacher, how important connections, relationships and trust are before anything else—and they are the lifeblood of the program.” Frazier added, “It is the strength of the people. Relationships are central to the mission.” How to get students to feel “seen, valued and heard” is only possible if they feel safe in the environment, which requires trust and connectivity. People often look at our Heads Up program and reflect on the difference it is making in the lives of public school students who may not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in such a challenging and well-rounded program. The often unspoken truth though—evident in the comments above—is that it is not one-sided. Every person who touches this program walks away feeling transformed. Walters closed with this sentiment, “The simple answer to how this [Heads Up] program has changed me is that this is the program that made me want to be a teacher in the first place. I was not quite sold until I taught these kids.”

With meaningful, long term partnerships and transformational experiences, the CCE and Heads Up programs are extraordinary examples of our intentionality in being a school not just in but of Oakland.