Upper Division Student Life

• Community Forum enlists carefully selected and trained seniors to help ninth graders make a safe and healthy transition to high school through on-going peer-to-peer discussions. Topics for consideration in small groups include managing stress, asking for help, drugs and alcohol, health and wellbeing, identity, and transcending social differences. Community Forum begins with the Wendy Ann Hayward ’86 New Student Orientation, which includes Convocation and the Freshman Retreat.
• Accompanied by faculty and the seniors who help facilitate Community Forum, each fall the freshman class travels to Camp Koinonia in the Santa Cruz mountains. Once there, they hike, participate in a challenge course, and share evening activities before returning to campus the next day. An important class bonding event, Grade 9 Retreat provides time for these new students to practice teamwork, patience, and collaboration, explore what it means to be a good friend, and step outside of their comfort zone to perform under the stars in a talent show that takes place in a redwood amphitheater.

• The Sophomore Wilderness Expedition is an 11-day backpacking trip undertaken during spring break. Described by many alumni as one of their best Stevenson experiences, the Sophomore Wilderness Expedition is as rewarding as it is challenging.
• It affords students fundamentally safe physical and mental challenges in a relatively unfamiliar environment. Each small group is led by two adult instructors and two student co-leaders. Adult instructors include faculty members and external outdoor professionals who the School hires to help support the expedition. Student co-leaders are juniors and seniors selected by a rigorous evaluation process and then trained over the course of the year. All leaders receive certification as Wilderness First Responders.
• Participants form uniquely strong bonds, develop field skills, kindle a lifelong love for life outdoors, and return to campus with through-the-roof confidence (and a keen desire to shower!).

• KSPB 91.9 FM—at 1000 watts, it’s the nation’s most powerful high school radio station—has been broadcasting commercial-free programming from Stevenson’s Pebble Beach campus since the 1970s. Students manage and staff the entire operation. Before applying for a live show on the air, students are required to take a class to learn how to operate the equipment, and must also demonstrate that they understand applicable Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations.
• KSPB can be heard by listeners in four counties (Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, and San Benito) with a potential total audience of more than 1.5 million people. KSPB also livestreams its broadcasts, and so is available worldwide.
• Programming varies includes alternative rock, hip-hop, international music, and talk-oriented shows addressing news, politics, and sports. KSPB also broadcasts BBC programs.

Our performing artists find ample opportunities to share their talents in Keck Auditorium, the Little Theater, the Treasure Room, and on Rosen Stage. The School annually mounts three main stage theater productions (including one musical), a spring dance recital, two music concerts, “coffee houses” (“open mic” events), and the annual student music festival, Keckstock.