Upper Campus Admission Viewbook

toward self-directed success

As students travel through their teenage years into young adulthood, they are advancing by leaps and bounds— growing more curious, discerning, and independent by the day.

In the safe space of Sierra Canyon’s Middle and Upper School, we help them grow into strikingly imaginative, proactively compassionate thinkers, citizens, and human beings.

From this galvanizing launch pad, students look forward to creating their own auspicious future— and pay it forward by seeking fresh perspectives and inventing groundbreaking solutions to improve life for everyone.

Here’s how your child learns forward at Sierra Canyon...

Learning forward takes off

Throughout the Middle School years, Sierra Canyon’s Middle School program helps effectively direct inquisitive energy, while helping build the academic, social, and emotional skills to thrive as learners and individuals.

Our Middle School students share our state-of-the-art Upper Campus building with students in grades 9 through 12. Visiting Upper School classrooms, attending celebrations and competitions, and bonding with older role models, your child gets a first-hand glimpse of what lies ahead—yet remains firmly grounded in Middle School classes and community.

Designing an original physics experiment to demonstrate angular momentum, exploring Washington D.C. with teachers and classmates, or launching a fundraiser to buy supplies for a neighborhood school, your child grows as a unique human being and member of a larger society.

By the end of eighth grade, students have become remarkably self-aware, self-advocating young people— primed to step confidently into Upper School.

GRADES 9-12

Learning forward culminates—and commences

Your child’s learning forward trajectory reaches its pinnacle in our inspiring Upper School. Our entrepreneurial, question-driven philosophy fosters both independent thinking and productive collaboration—so your child consistently transforms original ideas into real solutions. From chasing down leads for our award-winning student newspaper to exploring the ruins of the Roman Forum, a Sierra Canyon education is a comprehensively unbounded adventure.

Alongside classmates from many walks of life, your child comes to deeply comprehend and respect their own capabilities—and those of others. They know how to ask for help when needed, and how to move ahead consistently. Students know their endeavors can make a difference for the larger community, so they not only understand what they learn, but why. Equipped with well-earned wisdom, your child confidently determines their own path to college and lifelong success.

COLLEGE PREPARATION

A mindset and a toolset

From our Upper School, students consistently enroll in top colleges and universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Duke, Stanford, USC, and UC Berkeley.

How do we make that happen?

Immersed in our intensive, hands-on curriculum, guided by multitalented teachers, your child builds mastery and curiosity in equal measure —along with an acute awareness of self.

That awareness serves particularly well throughout the college application process. Starting in tenth grade, your child meets regularly with one of our expert college counselors to help make the most beneficial and thoughtful choices for their future.

Accompanying your family through the entire application process, visiting campuses across the nation, and attending carefully to your child’s dreams and capabilities, our counselors ensure applications are both impressive and authentic so each student’s learning home is the best school for them.

Competing, cooperating, creating

It’s no secret that at Sierra Canyon, we love to compete. We’re proud of our champions—not only our renowned athletic teams, but our prize-winning debaters, math team members, filmmakers, and poets.

To us, winning means more than bringing home a trophy. It means extending your possibilities— and your empathy. Sharing strategies with fellow chess club members. Mustering the courage to take up the French horn. Reaching out to pick up a fallen opponent on the soccer field. And—whether it’s your first time on the volleyball court or your hundredth on the stage— doing your best work every time

On our vibrant Upper Campus, overlooking spectacular canyons, your child can explore a dazzling array of sports, arts programs, and clubs, led by accomplished practitioners in their fields. They may rise to the top of their game, or remain an enthusiastic amateur. Either way, your child stretches their imagination, body, and character above and beyond their limits.

Our warm encouraging community cheers them on.

PEAK WEEK

An adventure of a lifetime every single year

Peak Week may be our Upper Campus’s most beloved signature program. Every year, Middle and Upper School students choose from dozens of local and international experiences that take their learning beyond the classroom and into new territory. No matter which journey your child selects, they come back overflowing with fresh ideas, skills, and confidence—propelling them through the rest of the school year and into their future.

Recent week-long adventures include:

Discover New York City

East Coast College Tour

Science Oddities in the Lower Colorado Basin

Documentary Film Production

The Architecture, Art, and Food of Italy

Explore London Theatre

Website Development

L.A. Theatre in the City

The Photographic Spectacle of LA

The Power of Coding and Programming

Behind the Scenes of the Medical Profession

Writing Whirlwind

Controversy in America

Films of the Cold War

LA Horseback Riding and Bull Ranching

Hip-Hop at the Millenium

Automobile Utopia

A Week of Podcasting

Out of the Box: Improvisation and Creative Writing

Art of Boxing

Edible Science: Molecular Gastronomy

Eco Warriors

Presence, Poise, and Public Speaking

Learning the Lifelong Sport of Golf

Parkour: Art and Adventure

Nobody Walks in LA:

The City of Angels by Bike

Urban Leadership Adventure

LA Gallery Hopping

From Little Rock to Birmingham: A Study-Tour of the Civil Rights Movement

COMMUNITY

How the Sierra Canyon journey unites us

At Sierra Canyon, “diversity” isn’t a box to check—it’s a deeply cherished personal value that we all strive to carry out every day. It’s also a central element of our learning forward philosophy. We believe that to make real change in the world, students must investigate, communicate, and embrace a wide range of similarities and differences—so they develop a flexible, sophisticated, empathetic understanding of “the collective good.”

Sierra Canyon’s burgeoning international program welcomes students in grades 7-12 from all over the world, inspiring every member of our community to share perspectives and reflect upon cultures. Our purposeful philosophy also brings families from over 120 different zip codes to our northern Los Angeles campuses because this community and these values mean so much to us.

As part of this exciting, complex, compassionate school family, your child takes on life-changing challenges and uncovers previously unknown capacities—emerging exceptionally well-prepared for college and life beyond.

STRETCHING ACADEMICALLY

Sierra Canyon’s ingenious teachers and intrepid students think and work together to understand the world more deeply—and change it for the better. Our intensively entrepreneurial program fosters genuine confidence, purposeful creativity, and proactive citizenship, ensuring your child can take on any challenge, today and tomorrow.

IMAGINING EXPANSIVELY

In a city renowned for performing and visual artistry, Sierra Canyon cultivates your child’s most insightful self. From Chamber Orchestra to digital media, Shakespeare competitions to the Sierra Canyon film festival, we guide your child to discover, celebrate, and share their own one-of-a-kind perceptions.

COMPETING WHOLEHEARTEDLY

Sierra Canyon’s athletic champions energize our whole community. But we also know that winning takes many forms. By always striving to do better than they did yesterday—as an athlete, student, artist, citizen, and human being—your child lives out our most cherished values, and inspires all of us to do the same.

ENGAGING COMPASSIONATELY

A Sierra Canyon education is more than a personal journey. It’s a mindset and a skillset empowering your child to solve real-world problems. Through intentional character education and abundant service learning opportunities, your child employs their innate empathy and ingenuity to make others’ lives better.

EXPLORING AVIDLY

At every grade level, we offer your child exceptional opportunities to learn outside the classroom. Your child can join a wide range of clubs—or start their own. Peak Week offers life-changing trips across the globe or to a nearby neighborhood. And our vibrant international program brings students from all over the world to Sierra Canyon—expanding everyone’s perspective.

PREPARING CONTINUOUSLY

Sierra Canyon students are invincibly optimistic about their next steps in life. Our complete Pre-K – grade 12 journey fully equips them to rethink the familiar and embrace the unknown. From our Upper School, students consistently enroll in top colleges—including Harvard, Columbia, Brown, NYU, Duke, Stanford, USC, and UC Berkeley—and go on to forge purposeful careers and lives.

Learning forward for life

Since 2005, Sierra Canyon’s Upper Campus has drawn uncommonly creative thinkers, leaders, and learners from all over Los Angeles. Our trailblazing philosophy drives everything we do. At Sierra Canyon, your child gains unstoppable momentum to learn and explore, propelling them toward a lifetime of self-directed success.

We invite you to experience learning forward in person. Schedule a tour at sierracanyonschool.org

Our Mission

Sierra Canyon School is an academically excellent, college preparatory school committed to an empowering environment in which students realize their greatest creative, ethical, intellectual, and physical promise. We are defined by an energized, attentive, and diverse student-teacher culture. Sierra Canyon School is a special place to grow for the challenges of a fast-changing world.

usadmission@sierracanyonschool.org

sierracanyonschool.org