During the month of May, Americans across the US celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, which provides an opportunity to acknowledge the generations of AAPI people who have contributed to the nation’s culture and success. At Stevenson, students, faculty, and community members are honoring AAPI Month in a variety of ways. Stevenson’s AAPI Student Affinity Group was at the helm of organizing the month’s events. They launched their celebration with a kickoff email, explaining, “Especially in light of the recent rises in anti-Asian hate speech, microaggressions, slurs, and violence, it is more important than ever for us to educate ourselves and learn more about what it means to be AAPI.” Throughout the month, the group has sent weekly email newsletters entitled “Celebration and Education,” which have highlighted various AAPI-related topics and included things like AAPI poetry and curated AAPI Heritage Month playlists. In addition to their [...]

Each year, a committee of alumni representing the Alumni Association selects a member of the Junior Class to receive the Robert U. Ricklefs Scholar Award—the highest non-academic award an 11th grader can receive. This year, the committee chose to give the award to junior Clea Caddell. The Ricklefs Scholar Award recognizes a student who has distinguished his or herself in important ways. Candidates are considered on the basis of: academic standing, interest in leadership at the School or local community, and involvement in extracurricular activities. Finalists for the award are first selected based on a vote taken by the junior class and RLS faculty. Then, the chosen finalists are asked to submit a resume, transcript, and an essay on a topic chosen by the selection committee, and also to participate in an interview in the spring. Clea was chosen for the Award based on her academic and extracurricular excellence. [...]

Congratulations to Audrey Yip ’21, who recently received  RLS’ annual Nathan Krissoff Award. The Award, named in honor of Nathan Krissoff ’99—a Stevenson alum who was killed in Iraq while serving as a counterintelligence officer in the Marines—honors a member of the senior class who “best exemplifies Nathan in spirit and deed.” The characteristics embodied by a Krissoff Award winner include loyalty and caring, curiosity and intuitiveness, humor, vitality, and bravery. Audrey, who received the award for modeling leadership and pluck at Stevenson, currently serves as the School’s student body president and a head prefect. She is also a choir TA and a member of the Chamber Choir. When asked to describe Audrey, Upper Division Choral Director Willow Manspeaker explains, “Audrey is a natural and empathetic leader. As a TA in choir this year, she worked to thoughtfully build and develop a sense of community within the group, even [...]

Late on April 20, we learned that California’s Statewide MyTurn system, which allows people to register for vaccine clinics, was having technical difficulties. As a result, Community Hospital offered the School the opportunity for qualified students (16+ and with parental permission) to receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Marina on Wednesday. Though some of our students have already been able to source vaccinations locally, this circumstance allowed us to secure appointments for all qualified students, both boarding and day, and thus greatly accelerate the process of fully vaccinating our School community. With no time to spare, the School’s chief information officer, Nathan Gault, quickly devised a process by which students could express interest and instantly secure their parents’ or guardians’ electronic permission. More than fifty students took advantage of this unique and unanticipated opportunity, and the School provided a caravan of buses to transport boarding students [...]

Dean of Student Life and Parent Outreach, Lower and Middle Divisions And just like that, our third week of on-campus and remote learning is in the books! I want to celebrate the students, faculty, and staff who made these last few weeks so successful. The students remain exceptionally devoted to physical distancing, wearing masks, and hygiene. We are proud of their determination and care, and impressed by their optimism and resilience. Hearing the sounds of music class booming from the amphitheater or gleeful chatter and laughter of children working together in the garden are just some of the truly joyful moments that have brought both the Mission and Dolores campuses to life. The faculty and staff are working continually to improve both campus instruction and remote learning for our students, guided in part by the feedback families shared with us in our most recent survey. We are working diligently [...]

Upper Division Dean of Students The last week and a half have seen a whirlwind of activity on campus as we welcomed over three hundred students back to campus instruction, and celebrated their excitement at once again being in one another’s company. We took lots of time to welcome our seniors and then orient students in grades nine through eleven to protocols and procedures both old and new. While we understand students have experienced a range of emotions, the overwhelming feeling on campus has been one of relief, gratitude, and joy. I want to acknowledge and appreciate our leaders in the senior class who have worked so hard in helping us to both welcome returning students and to help orient new students to our community. They are doing an outstanding job to pass on the culture and values that make Stevenson special. Meanwhile, we are keeping those students [...]

Being a part of the RLS community rarely ends at a Pirate’s graduation. Many alumni remain engaged in the School community long after they’ve departed Pebble Beach. One of the newest and most exciting of these opportunities is an alumni choir, headed by Willow Manspeaker, upper division director of music. Ms. Manspeaker came up with the idea for the choir as a way to keep alumni connected to the School, and to foster more interest in the performing arts in the extended Stevenson community. The choir is being directed by Ms. Manspeaker and longtime former Stevenson music teacher, Rob Klevan. Dr. Klevan was ecstatic about the chance to reconnect with former students and to become involved in the musical program at RLS once again. He explained, “For me, the best part of participating with the choir was seeing many of my former musicians—even if it was done virtually—and to [...]