Stevenson School - Review #11

The Stevenson community: since the school's student body consist of a roughly equivalent percentage of both day and boarding school students, I was amazed at their hospitality over the weekends, and the extent to which they - as much as the teachers on and off campus - cared about you having a 'family' away from home. In an area so breathtakingly beautiful, it was lovely to be able to leave on weekends and explore close and distant areas with my classmates.

There are a few magical and prodigious things I can say about Stevenson: Happiness cannot be attributed to a certain time in your life, it is the ability to pause and reflect, and be grateful for what you have and the people that surround you, your Stevenson family. Best thing that happened to me in boarding school was my roommate, Cory: having grown up in Germany and Sweden, she continues to signify a lot of what this country means to me. She was so inspiring and wonderful to be around, albeit that we could not have been more opposite.

Go when you are ready and eager to go. Do not go because anyone forces you to go. You make the most out of the experience, if you are intellectually and socially curious to immerse yourself in other people's lives and cultures.

My AP English class continues to remind me to find the "marvelous in the mundane." People at Stevenson also had the amazing capability to turn their gratitude for being able to be passionate about what they are doing into unbroken generosity towards others.

"The more you know, the more you know." by John Senuta, my BC Calculus teacher Time cannot be replaced.

Women and the (natural) sciences: Before I came to Stevenson, Women and the (natural) sciences: Before I came to Stevenson, I excelled in Math and related analytical subject matter. I had performed basic scientific experiments in my prior school - yet what threw me off was the extent to which all teachers (in my previous school) equated boys with being more adapt at physics, chemistry, and biology. At Stevenson, I was able to discover my love to learn anything and everything about the natural sciences. The extent to which all teachers cared about their students - especially the girls, which were sometimes thinly represented in Advanced Placement science classes - truly honed my confidence and abilities in this area. Lest it be said, I completed an engineering degree at Stanford in only three years, and was able to furthermore complete a Master's degree in engineering during my senior year in college.Environment: I came to Stevenson because I felt a bit reserved about the aura of competitiveness pervading a lot of the prestigious boarding schools I visited on the East Coast. Stevenson was about giving and receiving help, at any time. Professors loved the subjects they taught, and I learned a terrific amount each time that I sat down and explained a concept to a fellow classmate. It will sure depict whether you actually command thorough expertise in the subject. I had found an all-star team in all my classrooms - and those that did not share the school's ubiquitous desire to learn in the classroom and beyond, have - to my knowledge - not been as happy and successful as they could have been in college and beyond.

Quite simply: the people. The outings. The cheers. I will never forget all the late night bus rides I shared with so many girls coming home, back to the forest, after some exacting tennis, soccer, and lacrosse matches, no matter if we won or lost. Absolutely lovely.

The school commands a tremendous commitment to the visual and performing arts. My roommate is what the arts at Stevenson mean to me: she was so passionate about acting and singing, and there were no boundaries for her to perform throughout the school year. She breathed the artistic life that has fashioned some of the most memorable moments I experienced at our school. She represented arts at Stevenson, and she shared her passion to the extent that upon her departure, she had already fashioned her successors in her place.

Because Stevenson has such a diverse set of extracurricular opportunities available, students are able to follow a variety of passions. Those that they bring to the school, and that are new to others, always find an open ear and soon develop into a new club. I developed some of my passions at Stevenson, such as my love for literature and poetry - albeit that I am an engineer now - rather easily as other students were very welcoming and eager to share their interest in a variety of things. People at Stevenson love to share their breadth of knowledge and are happiest if you come along to view one of their performances, join their club, or attest to the leadership that they have developed in a certain field.

Dorm life at Stevenson was - in three words - warm, welcoming, familiar. It was rather hard not to be able to hang out and bounce off thoughts with my dorm neighbors during quiet hours. But once those were over, I always had a blast in the common room, which was sure to feature milk&cookies or other goodies at some point throughout the night. On another note, one of my most favorable memories was the formal Monday night dinner, followed by vespers in the church in the forest. Hearing the faculty and other students speak in the church always made you catch your breath and reflect upon the way you viewed life and all its hidden complexities.A little but important thing: the dorm rooms have amazing windows, some have vast skylights. I loved to come back to my room - can you imagine being able to see the sun go down between the Monterey Pines from your dorm room each night?

Formal Monday night dinners were one of my favorite gatherings, right after assembly. The food was surprisingly good for a boarding school, and suggestions were always welcome.

Pebble Beach, Carmel, and Monterrey?Breathtaking, stunningly beautiful. There are no words that can describe the magnificence of nature on the Monterey Peninsula.

The Stevenson community: since the school's student body consist of a roughly equivalent percentage of both day and boarding school students, I was amazed at their hospitality over the weekends, and the extent to which they - as much as the teachers on and off campus - cared about you having a 'family' away from home.