Westridge School

Upper School Science Teacher Edye Udell and English Department Chair Tarra Stevenson recently led breakout sessions on two hot topics in education as part of the International Coalition of Girls' Schools conference!

Udell's presentation - "Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment in STEM: Active/Flipped Learning" - explored how the active-flipped learning model develops nurturing relationships, leadership skills, and perseverance for difficult problem solving.

Stevenson's session - "The Human in the Humanities—How the Writing Center is addressing AI" - focused on our Writing Center's approach to AI and the role of face-to-face interaction in the writing process.

See you next summer, Partnership for Success! ☀️ As always, it was a pleasure to host 5th and 6th grade girls for five engaging weeks of learning and fun (including the classroom activities, spirit days, and field trips pictured here!).

Huge shout-out to the inspiring scholars, interns, and teachers who make this program such a joy.

Director of Upper School Melanie Arias is officially on campus and settling into her new home in the Upper School office! Join us in giving Dr. Arias a warm Tiger welcome 🐾 and make sure to stop by to say hello in the fall!

5th and 6th grade Partnership for Success scholars are getting hands-on with coding and design during our site's newest class: robotics! 🤖 Students are building their very own robots and applying the engineering design process to develop and code a robot dance routine.

It's officially summer and Partnership for Success (PFS) is in full swing at Westridge! ☀️🫶 During this five-week summer enrichment program, we host girls in grades 5 and 6 from Pasadena Unified School District. Our PFS scholars take classes (including English, math, robotics, and woodworking), head off campus for field trips, and have special themed spirit days!

🫶 We are going to miss you dearly, Class of 2024, but we are even more eager to see where life takes you next. Congratulations!

An extra special cheers to those who shared words of wisdom (and a few laughs, of course): Salutatorian Eliza Walpert, Valedictorian Anna Kleindorfer, Class President Julia Hughes, and our insightful commencement speaker (and Westridge alumna!), Vicki von Holzhausen ’90 💚

IT'S OFFICIAL! 🎓🎉 Congratulations to our newest graduates, the Westridge Class of 2024!

Next up: Upper School! 🎓✨ Congratulations to all our 8th graders for your perseverance, bravery, and growth in Middle School - we are so excited for your journey ahead to 9th grade!

💐 Click here to watch a video from 8th Grade Recognition: www.instagram.com/reel/C75NymlPDQO

6th grade is movin’ on up to Middle School! 💐 Congratulations to the Class of 2030 on your 6th Grade Recognition! We’re so proud of you and are excited to see you continue to grow in years to come.

💚 Click here to watch a video from the event: www.instagram.com/reel/C7z9LJJS0U2

It's for the Class of 2024! Congratulations to you, seniors, on your college commitments. We are so proud!

🖼️ View more photos at www.westridge.org/photos
📽️ Or view a video of Chalk Day in action: www.instagram.com/reel/C7pZdzdyuZz

That senior-award-winning feeling! 👏

Yesterday, seniors were recognized for their hard work and personal development during their time at Westridge. Whether they spent their Tiger years conducting research in the lab, immersing themselves in world languages, publishing insightful written works, excelling in varsity sports, creating imaginative art, serving as leaders in the community, or any of the infinite other ways students carve their own paths, each award was well-deserved.

Another successful season for Westridge Speech and Debate (culminating in their annual "Debanquet" year-end celebration!) 💬🏆 After many wins in local and state competitions, 14 teams of Upper School students qualified to the State Championship and 6 teams will compete in the National Speech and Debate Tournament in June. The Westridge team placed first in their division at qualifiers, and Coaches Nicole Dalton and Maggie Woodward won coach and assistant coach of the year!

As for our Middle School debaters, two teams placed first in their respective events and 12 teams advanced to elimination rounds at the Middle School State Championships! 👏

We are so proud of you!

Shedding happy tears for the Class of 2025, who received their rings during the Junior Ring Ceremony this morning! 💚💍 This tradition - which dates back all the way to 1936 - celebrates the transition into senior year and the start of a final chapter at Westridge.

Class president Kayla A. summed up the sentiment best in her speech, reminding us to focus on enjoying our friendships and soaking up the present moment. Cheers to you, juniors!

The latest issue of Surgere magazine is out now! Read about student leadership both on and off the stage in Westridge Theatre, one senior’s years-long mission to fight food insecurity, and so much more.

📖 Keep reading at https://bit.ly/Surgere-S24

Tour de Tigre! 🚲🐯 Students are off to the races (and learning how to ride safely with others) around their special campus loop on bikes, scooters, and skates during the annual Lower and Middle School P.E. wheels unit.

We're "talking trash" all across campus! Students have engaged in a variety of activities focused on sustainability and waste reduction recently, including:

🗺️ Going on a trash safari (or "trafari") in Lower School STEM class, during which 4th grade students surveyed campus to determine the best location for a landfill, considering how it would impact the community

🗑️ An Upper School lunchtime demonstration about trash sorting, where students taught their peers about properly using the compost, recycling, and landfill bins across campus

🖼️ Art class by the Koi Pond, where 5th graders worked together to create "happy trash" art projects using pounds of discarded paper, plastic, packaging, and more, giving trash a second life!

♻️ A plastic film drive organized by environmental club Green Guerrillas in partnership with recycling service company Ridwell, which is collecting bubble wrap, plastic shipping mailers, sandwich bags, and other plastic film (which can't be recycled in a regular blue bin!) throughout the month of May

Let the countdown to Commencement begin! As they look toward their next adventure (and their last day of school this Friday! 🤸‍♀️) the Class of 2024 shared some tidbits of advice with their fellow students at Town Meeting this morning:

🐯 always dress up for spirit days
💚 try and find the goodness and keep it up
📆 appreciate your free periods, you make the best memories
✅ say yes to everything
💤 set a bedtime for yourself
🚙 get your driver’s license
🕺 you’re not too cool to go to dances, they’re fun—go
🧠 learn to set boundaries
⚽ attend sports games
🎭 join theatre
🫶 appreciate your time with your friends
and most of all: enjoy it, it goes by really fast 🎓

Happy signing day to Emery F. '24! 🎉🏐 Join us in congratulating Emery on her commitment to play volleyball at Dickinson College in the fall!

Time for the final SLIME! ✅🪣👀 Mr. Baldwin took a bucket of green goo over the head today, wrapping up our administrator slimings in recognition of a successful inaugural Tiger Giving Days. A huge thank you to our community for making this silliness possible, and to Ivy A. '24 for braving the big bucket drop! 💚

5th graders are turning their passions into action! 🧠💚🌎 Yesterday, students presented their Think, Care, Act Projects (a student-led service experience) to the community, showcasing their hard work around censorship, animal welfare, poverty, pollution, and many other issues close to their hearts.

Beyond volunteering, creating posters, writing letters, and leading workshops, many students also joined forces with their peers to host drives and fundraisers benefiting multiple causes, understanding that sometimes we make a bigger impact when working together! 🤝

T-minus 19 days 'til Petridge and we can hardly wait to see some on campus during this beloved tradition! 🐶 Who are you bringing to Petridge this year? Comment your furry friend's name below ⬇️

👏 Kudos to Kanon and Manon I. '26, who, with some assistance from the Teens4Disarmament Club, organized their first Peace Forum: part of the pair's Global Initiative Study project which looks at how the creation, testing, and usage of nuclear weapons impact the world in political, societal, and environmental ways.

Aiming to “educate and discuss the complex issues of nuclear weapons and their intersectionality with many social issues," the event featured an address and Q&A with Masako Toki, senior project manager and research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute in Monterey, whose work focuses on youth education. “Young people are the ultimate force for change—we don’t have a short-term solution, so it will take your generation to continue this work,” Toki said.

Such a joy welcoming Lower School families to campus during yesterday's Learning Showcase, Art Show, and Spring Concert! 💚 From exploring the intersection of art and math in the classroom to hearing our musicians perform everything from the Peppa Pig theme song to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," it was truly a treat for students to show their nearest and dearest what they've been working on all year. 🎨🎻📚

A stellar season for Westridge Swimming, culminating in the CIF Championships! 🏆🏊 Relay superstars Aliena S. '25, MG N. '25, Devanie A. '26, and Jessica S. '26 advanced to the Championship Finals (and earned a PR!) for the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay and placed 2nd in the Medley Relay Consolation Finals!

Congratulations to all our Tiger swimmers for making a splash this season, and an extra special shoutout to Aliena, who swam in 4 Finals events - an epic feat! 🌟

A chance to see student work in public: this striking 100-foot-long tapestry installation created by Middle School Art Teacher Jenny Yurshansky, which includes drawings by our very own 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students, was unveiled this week at the Beverly Hills Public Library! The quilted art - titled "Unfolded Narratives" - contains 500 drawings based on individual family origin stories collected during community workshops.

Want to see it in person? The installation is on display through the end of May.

🚀🔬🌱🛠️🧪 Sandhya R. '25 and the STEM Club recently hosted their annual STEM Fair, which featured a discussion with three panelists—Caltech Professor Julia Kornfield, Caltech Postdoc Dr. Aisulu Aitbekova, and UC Berkeley Ph.D. student and Westridge alum Iyla Rossi ‘19—about their experiences as women in STEM and a display of student projects (including rockets, crochet and clay cell models, wheelchair-accessible rollercoasters, dancing robots, and mycelium plastic substitutes!)

"To me, STEM is all about exploration, curiosity, and collaboration," said Sandhya. "Through the fair, I wanted to foster an environment for showcasing creativity and a shared interest. It was amazing to see the school come together (for the second time!) because of STEM."

Last weekend, our 5th grade mathletes took home bronze at LA County Math Field Day! 🥉 100 teams and 400+ students (including 3 teams of Westridge students in grades 4, 5, and 6) competed in problem solving, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency during the event. Judging included metrics for team collaboration, which aligns with the Westridge Math Department’s mission of developing collaborative problem solvers.

Congratulations to all the Tigers who competed! 💚

Creativity on display! Kudos to our Upper School artists, who exhibited 150+ works in various mediums (including print photos, 3D models, film, ceramics, textiles, drawing and painting, and many more!) during this year's spring art show.

"All there needs to be said is right there in the amazing artwork! I’m very impressed with the students and my colleagues for the diversity of work, and with my community for all the support," said Art Department Chair Lorri Deyer.

Cheers to all the students who showcased their imaginative and enticing art, and to our incredible art department! 👏

Join us in welcoming our new Director of Upper School, Dr. Melanie Arias! We are excited to announce that she will join the Westridge community in July, bringing nearly 20 years of teaching and school leadership experience, most recently as Associate Director of the Prep Division at Windward School. Click to read more.

Westridge Names Next Director of Upper School: Dr. Melanie Arias The Westridge School has named its next Director of Upper School, Dr. Melanie Arias. She will join Westridge in July 2024, bringing 19 years of teaching and school leadership experience.

⛳🏆🐯 Three cheers for our Lower & Middle School golf athletes who were named champions at the Middle School Independent League Tournament! In addition to playing strong games individually, their combined score helped secure the championship for Westridge - a first in recent school history!

Special shout-out to Margot M. '30 for achieving a personal record, Alexis K. '30 for earning 4th place overall, and Honor Z. '32 for making the all-tournament team as a 4th grader! 👏