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challenged, and connected”: the story of horizons
“Where Youth Feel Cared For, Challenged, and Connected”: The Story of Horizons
This fall we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of San Francisco Friends School—but there’s another major milestone to celebrate in 2022, as well: 10 years ago, the idea of bringing the Horizons Program to SFFS first came to be, and this community began to plan for a partnership that has lasted nearly a decade and seen tremendous growth and accomplishment, including the recent middle school graduation of the first class of Horizons @ SFFS students.
It all began (perhaps unexpectedly) in Seattle, where longtime SFFS Director of Community Engagement, Guybe Slangen, was attending a conference entitled “Private Schools with a Public Purpose.” While there, he attended a session facilitated by Horizons National CEO Lorna Smith and Vice-President Jose Oromi, and he was inspired by what he learned, sensing a vital opportunity for Friends and our community. Guybe returned to San Francisco energized to strengthen our school’s commitment to the Mission, and he began to dream of a partnership with Horizons National that would put this commitment into action. Horizons was already an established national program with many thriving sites in cities ranging from Philadelphia to Atlanta. It aimed to help underserved students avoid falling behind during the summer months through engaging summer academic and enrichment opportunities. Guybe notes: “... Their model was replicable with a proven track record; they had successfully started programs at a variety of independent schools along with colleges and universities up and down the East Coast and throughout the Midwest.” Though Friends was still a burgeoning young school, fostering community relationships was essential to its mission from the beginning; and while it would be a challenge to host Horizons as SFFS itself was still strengthening its own foundations, the families and administration of SFFS were committed—and they knew they had a strong ally in Horizons National. “[They] helped guide and support us throughout the process, ensuring that we were well-positioned to launch our program,” says Guybe.
Rallying behind Guybe’s dream of making San Francisco the next site of a Horizons program was Founding Head of School Cathy Hunter and numerous SFFS parents and trustees, who were compelled by the Horizons model that emphasized community and relationships—between students, teachers, neighbors, and families—at the center. “Having a program like [Horizons] on campus grew out of the desire to deepen the school’s engagement with the local community. Friends was really committed to this aspect of the school’s mission from day one, as evidenced by the creation of Guybe’s position and the Board’s very active commu-
nity engagement committee.“So, when Cathy brought up the idea of sharing the school’s facilities during the summer with the Horizons program, that really resonated with [us] and seemed like a perfect way to further the mission and the community- and service-oriented culture of the school,” says Sophie Ziegler, a founding SFFS parent and trustee who championed the Horizons program from the early days. “It goes way beyond providing simple academic instruction— [Horizons offers] arts enrichment, swimming instruction, opportunities to access the amazing cultural and natural treasures of the Bay Area, and year-round support for both students and their families.”
Horizons @ SFFS Founding Executive Director Abby Rovner remembers that in the first year, while she had Horizons National to act as a guidepost and the strong support of the SFFS community, she was largely building from the ground up—and that was part of the thrill. “We had to develop relationships with local schools, families, city agencies and community-based organizations, design and plan what the summer program would look like, build the board, hire staff, create new organizational and operational systems and policies, get the word out to the community and raise money from scratch to fund the program,” said Rovner. “It was a lot, but it was a really exciting time. Founding Head of School Cathy Hunter had a deep passion for and commitment to bringing Horizons to SFFS so I felt really supported by her—as well as by Guybe and the program’s founding families, funders, board members, partners and supporters—while getting Horizons off the ground.”
As they built up the program, forged relationships with neighboring schools (Marshall Elementary, Mission Prep, and Caesar Chavez Elementary were among the first to send students to Horizons @ SFFS), hired summer teachers, and raised funds, the group at Valencia Street was continually guided and bolstered by the team at Horizons National, including Lorna and Jose. Lorna and Jose are quick to note that they’ve been deeply impressed with the way that the team of Horizons @ SFFS, led first by Abby before current ED Laura Medina Quintanar arrived in 2020, have fostered and grown the program through the years. “Under Abby and now Laura’s leadership, Horizons @ SFFS has been an ongoing source of innovative practice and thought partnership for the national Horizons network.” Specifically, they cite Horizons @ SFFS’s use of public contracts and a blended funding model, “cafécitos” (online
community chats held during the pandemic), and “community-centric fundraising” as strong models for Horizons sites across the country. They also applaud Horizons @ SFFS’s groundbreaking advocacy on behalf of monolingual families or families whose first language is not English, underscoring the program’s focus on student equity and access. Lorna and Jose emphasize how generously Abby, Laura, and the Horizons @ SFFS Board have shared their discoveries and victories with the rest of the national Horizons network: “We so appreciate how forthcoming and ready to share their work Horizons @ SFFS is, for the benefit of others.”
Today, Horizons @ SFFS serves 153 students from local public schools in grades K–8 for six weeks every summer, building on what students have learned throughout the school year and getting them ready for the fall. But Horizons extends beyond so much more than academic curriculum—the program creates and strengthens community; exposes kids to inspiring (and fun!) field trips to local gems like the Academy of Sciences and seasonal enrichment opportunities like swimming lessons; and provides year-round support to both students and their families. The students and faculty of Horizons breathe new life into 250 Valencia each June and July, and at SFFS, we are so grateful that this invaluable partnership continues to thrive.
As for the future? Across the board, there are hopes of an ever-deepening partnership and ever-greater impact. “I hope that SFFS families will continue to feel connected to and enriched by this amazing program,” says Sophie. “To me it is such an important part of SFFS’s mission to engage with the community in an authentic and productive way. I also hope that [more] students will have the opportunity to volunteer with the program, as both of our sons did. It was both great fun and an invaluable learning experience for them!”
The program also hopes to ramp up its year-round wrap-around supports, including parent academic support workshops, virtual 1:1 and small group tutoring, extracurricular resource fairs and subsidized enrichment opportunities, and mentorships with college students. Additionally, Horizons plans to expand into the high school grades and to launch additional sites in the Bay Area in the years to come.
And the need for programs like Horizons will not be going away anytime soon—if anything, the opportunities Horizons provides are needed now more than ever, as Abby points out: “There’s so much research showing that equitable access to high quality expanded learning programs, including summer learning opportunities, are critical for young people’s development and wellbeing. Particularly in the wake of the pandemic, programs like Horizons that combine academic, enrichment, and recreational opportunities are important because they address unfinished learning, build on students’ strengths and interests, and provide joyful out of school time environments where youth feel cared for, challenged, and connected.” •
To learn more about Horizons @ SFFS, you can visit: www.horizonsatsffs.org
You can also follow them on Instagram: @horizons_sffs
