Drew School 2023-2024 Viewbook

WHAT HIGH SCHOOL SHOULD BE.

VIEWBOOK 2023-24

HOW DO YOU IMAGINE THE NEXT FOUR YEARS?

Do you believe that high school should be where teenagers are trusted, challenged, and known?

Do you believe that a teenager’s capacity for creativity, curiosity, and leadership are boundless? Drew School believes in teenagers. We believe that our teachers, our academic program, and our community’s dynamic culture offer limitless opportunities to ensure that graduates emerge with the ability to use what they learn in their life in impactful and fulfilling ways and the confidence to chart the course of their future wherever it takes them. If you can see yourself leading, learning, and questioning, then you can see yourself at Drew.

Enlightening

“I’ve learned so much in such a short time. I feel like I’m really finding the energy that Drew sets and how inclusive it is.”

Challenging

“Drew pushed me to step out of my comfort zone. My teachers supported me throughout that process. Everyone in the community is pushing each other to be better and holding each other accountable.”

Open

“The community does a great job of listening to students and their needs.”

Engaging

“Over the course of four years, especially over the challenge of Covid, Drew did an incredible job creating time to socialize to continue growing and connecting. We were able to engage in the experience of high school in a deeper capacity.”

Hands-on

TO DESCRIBE DREW... ONE WORD

“My classes are super active and I get to work on projects that aren’t just about memorizing information…like, for example, I have to ask questions and do research about what and why the material matters and how it relates to the real world.”

Transformational

“My experience at Drew has been bigger than any one class, club, or event. In four years, I’ve been able to explore a whole range of interests and activities in a way that has helped me evolve as a person as well as a student.”

Dear Families,

Welcome to Drew. I hope this viewbook gives you an authentic sense of our dynamic, supportive, and ambitious community. Drew School believes deeply in the passions and ideas of teenagers. Accordingly, the experiences and reflections of Drew’s students are at the core of this book. There simply are no better ambassadors for Drew than the students who have made this community a true second home.

On the previous page, several Drew students offered one word to reflect their Drew experience. I appreciate their thoughtful choices and wish to add my own to the mix: “Relationships.” Amidst powerful learning and personal growth, Drew students forge relationships and connections, between each other and with our outstanding faculty, that form the foundation of their lives as adults. Drew is far more than a beautiful campus in Pacific Heights in San Francisco. It is a network of unique individuals who have inspired, shaped, and transformed each other through the relationships they made here. We learn with each other and from each other.

There is no average Drew student. Our community is intentionally diverse in our backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives. Our robust culture of learning, questioning, and acceptance ensures that Drew is a place where all students can thrive.

Each of the students you will meet on the following pages was once in your shoes; searching for a high school that would be challenging, inspiring, and supportive. They only found these qualities in the Drew community and are now part of making it a dynamic and fulfilling community. They are the best possible guides for helping you learn about Drew.

I hope you see yourself (or your teenager) at Drew, and I look forward to seeing you on campus during the admissions process and beyond!

Warmly,

David Frankenberg Head of School

BELONGING AND CONNECTION MATTER AT DREW.

You will be ready for challenging academics and immense personal growth when you feel connected, supported, and known in the Drew community. We believe that students are most successful when they feel like they can show up as the most authentic version of themselves. The first year at Drew is all about knowing yourself and feeling welcomed within a diverse and caring community. Once you feel like you belong at Drew, there are no limits to what you can explore and accomplish. At Drew, you will find yourself and your people.

Theo joined the Drew class of 2026 from the Creative Arts Charter School. He lives with his family and walks three miles to school every day. Theo quickly came to feel at home in the Drew community:

“I’ve really found who I am hereI can be who I am, and it’s a place to really find your voice. I try to bring positivity - and school brings it out.”

For Theo, part of “being himself” is playing guitar in the instrumental ensemble. At Drew, arts are part of the core curriculum which means Theo was in his instrumental ensemble class just as much as he was in his English class. When he wasn’t putting on a show in the Drew theater, Theo’s first year also gave him some pleasant academic surprises: “I love biologyI find it fascinating and love the teacher...” Drew is a place where you can find yourself as both a musician and a biologist.

Isa found a supportive community among many diverse perspectives at Drew during his 9th-grade year. At Drew, the focus is on true understanding. “In history, it was fun to role-play the historical figures we studied...” When you embody a historical figure and act out history through debates, you are sure to not only understand what happened but be able to take that understanding with you. Drew’s history and social science programs value interdisciplinary opportunities that put the student at the center of their learning. In addition to taking on historical roles, Isa also played important roles on Drew’s varsity soccer and basketball teams: “For me, athletics is the main way I get to connect with people in different grades.” Isa joined Drew from the Burlingame Intermediate School and gets to Drew via a shuttle arranged by Drew parents. He felt so connected at Drew during his first year, that he even volunteered to represent Drew at admissions events. (Thanks, Isa!) “From my first visit, Drew has felt like a true second home.”

“For me, athletics is the main way I get to connect with people in different grades.”

10th

HIGH SCHOOL SHOULD BE…

A PLACE WHERE YOU CONNECT YOUR LEARNING TO THE REAL WORLD.

Your passions matter at Drew. When combined with a rich and diverse academic curriculum, individual passions drive the learning process. Through classes that boldly examine critical global topics, experiential projects that challenge you to apply your understanding to different contexts, and events like DEALL week and experiential learning, you will be asked to make choices and decisions that chart a course for your high school experience. You will begin to see that your skills and passions have an impact on the future of our local, national, and global communities. At Drew, you will connect your learning to the real world.

Vanessa says there is “always something going on at Drew.” As a sophomore who came to Drew from Mission Preparatory School and gets to Drew via public transportation, she has often found herself in the middle of one of Drew’s many events. Vanessa’s DEALL experience ¡Hagámoslo! which was “a feast where I created a workshop where my group made flautas which is a very well-known Mexican food. This allowed people to learn more about my culture and the beautiful traditions and costumes I was able to bring to Drew.” When she’s not cooking for her classmates as part of a project in French class, you may find Vanessa in Associated Student Body (A.S.B., Drew’s student government), playing soccer, or helping with admissions events. Drew’s environment has been a great fit for her spirit and intellectual curiosity: “I try to bring my positivity and kindness. Drew is open-minded and made me reflect a lot on how I view people, and how to find a voice and a leadership role.”

“If you have an idea, you have so much liberty to make your ideas possible.”

Lena Is passionate about many things: women in leadership, connecting with others, and being part of a community that is rich in personalities and perspectives. “I have brought my ideas and been a strong advocate for my ideas. Drew has taught me to get to know a person. This combats the assumptions that you make about people.” Lena came to Drew from Live Oak School and gets to Drew by carpooling with friends and Muni. She brings her open mind to a variety of activities, including the A.S.B., varsity soccer, and sports photography club. For her final independent lab in chemistry class, she created elephant toothpaste to test how the different amounts of potassium iodide effect the temperature and height of the reaction. “If you have an idea, you have so much liberty to make your ideas possible. In A.S.B., we are able to do so many things with a bunch of new ideas. In our classes, there’s a lot of freedom and choice to cater to what interests us.” In addition to Drew’s core science curriculum, students also have opportunities to explore scientific questions in courses such as Anatomy and Physiology, Marine Biology, and Engineering.

“I’ve been to multiple schools and I’ve never found a school where I feel so comfortable being a part of the community,” remarks Jordan, a sophomore who came to Drew most recently from San Francisco Day School and gets a lift to and from school, or carpools, or takes public transit. Among the places you’ll find Jordan is in theater, vocal ensemble, honor council, Gender and Sexuality Awareness (GSA), and karaoke club. Jordan is as comfortable in clubs and activities as she is with her teachers in the classroom. “The teachers are super responsive and receptive. It’s an extremely welcoming environment. Drew is a safe place to push people out of their comfort zones and help them explore their interests without fear of judgment.” Jordan takes American Sign Language. She and her classmates put their skills into practice at assemblies and community events.

where I feel so comfortable being a part of the community,”

HIGH SCHOOL SHOULD BE… A PLACE FOR INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGE AND INSPIRING MENTORSHIP.

Relationships matter at Drew. Educators at Drew are more than teachers, they are mentors, guides, and partners in your learning. They will motivate you to dig into your own intellectual curiosity and accept new challenges. Deep learning never happens alone. It always occurs in the presence of caring passionate teachers. Drew teachers create safe learning spaces that encourage you to push yourself and take appropriate risks. At Drew, you will find a place for intellectual challenge and inspiring mentorship.

11thGRADE

Jordan has learned how to seize leadership opportunities at Drew. “I want to get the most out of my Drew experience. I came here to do more than learn.” A junior who joined Drew from the Alta Vista School, Jordan had a powerful experience in her Race & Gender Literature Class. “It was a discussion-based section. We got to hear a wide range of passions. We all wanted to be there and share our thoughts. Everyone was super respectful and shared their own experience.” In English classes at Drew, students are challenged to expand their worldview by appreciating voices from different literary traditions and to reflect on and communicate their own experiences and opinions. In addition to participating in a range of activities, including Mock Trial club, volleyball, and track, Jordan is also the leader of the Black Student Union and a member of the Shanti Alliance. Jordan was able to attend conferences around the country where she met with student leaders from other schools. “I shared my experience as it relates to race. It created awareness.”

Drew currently offers seven different affinity spaces for students that provide space to explore and share issues of identity.

Nhu, a junior who came to Drew from the Creative Arts Charter School, sees her teachers as partners. “Teachers want the best for you. It’s a place where teachers want you to succeed beyond grades. Drew is about learning for your own sake.” These relationships helped her tackle formidable academic challenges. “Physics honors was the class that I’ve struggled in, but then it felt like a huge accomplishment. Not a specific test - just the process of learning. I took huge pride in my hard work paying off. A challenging project for me was our first lab, which I didn’t do well on. In the next lab, our Rolling Ball Lab, I got a perfect score and it felt so rewarding to incorporate the feedback into my work. My teacher said I was the best scientific writer by the end of the semester, and I was so proud to see my growth.” Nhu is also a member of A.S.B., co-Captain of the tennis team, and founder of the K-Pop club. “Drew is a place for exploring new ideas and challenging stereotypes.” In addition, during her senior year Nhu will be student body president.

Nick describes Drew as a place that “has provided an environment to experiment to pursue things that I enjoy. Now, as I give more back to the school, the school gives more back to me.” Nick, who came to Drew from Brandeis School of San Francisco and travels to school by bus, recalled this kind of giveand-take while building a robot in his engineering class, “It was rewarding to see the group work. We used our combined experience learning about mechanical engineering to create the final product.” Engineering classes at Drew happen in the Makerspace. Students helped shape the course alongside the teacher and truly customize it for the best experience. Nick plans on majoring in civil engineering or architecture and this class helped him dive deeper into that subject. From here, students also have the option to be a part of the Robotics Team and compete at the FIRST Robotics Silicon Valley Regional Competition. Whether leading Drew’s Jew Crew affinity group for Jewish students to co-leading the Dungeons and Dragons club or prepping for the next Model UN conference, Nick has seized every opportunity to learn and lead, “Drew has been a blank slate for me to learn about myself, learn how to be a better person, and the community empowered me to connect with the world.”

Gianni is a person who appreciates the big picture. “From college counseling to mental health support to academics, I’ve been given an amazing opportunity to connect with people.” As a student contributor to Drew’s Strategic Plan, he provided important insight into the student experience and academic program. Gianni came to Drew from Thomas R. Pollicita Middle School and gets to school via Bart and a bus. He finds much about the Drew experience to be unique. “I have never experienced so much cross-grade collaboration, in class and in sports. We have leadership roles in a non-traditional sense. I get to experience myself in a role that I didn’t necessarily choose.” Gianni is literally a rock star as a lead bassist in one of the student bands at Drew. In the music ensemble or his 1945-Present history class, Gianni feels that Drew has given him “the chance to grow as a person, not just as a student.”

12th HIGH SCHOOL SHOULD BE… A PLACE FOR LEADERSHIP AND TRANSFORMATION.

Leadership and personal agency matter at Drew. Whether you are spearheading a club, guiding a community service effort, influencing a performance, or inspiring an athletic team, your choices, ideas, and leadership will set the tone for the entire Drew community. You will be able to look back and reflect upon how the Drew experience has shaped and changed you over your high school experience. As you begin to look beyond the Drew community, you will also engage in a highly personalized college process that will aim to help you find the best fit for your unique qualities. Each year, Drew students are accepted at and attend over forty highly competitive and diverse colleges and universities. At Drew, you will lead and be transformed.

After four years at Drew, Xiara has a remarkable sense of herself. “I have learned how to take owner ship and leadership in my creative ventures and my education. I also have been taught to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to me. I have left an impact by co-creating a lasting art piece and forever leaving my mark on the school.” Xiara’s Senior Capstone project was co-creating a mural that is a beautiful work of art and permanent installation in the student lounge. Some of the other opportunities came in the form of the volleyball team, the Shanti Alliance, and the Black Student Union. Xiara notes that she “wants to make sure that the future Drew community can feel as included in the community as I did.” Xiara, who came to Drew from Synergy School now draws inspiration from her classmates:

Honors calculus did not come easily for Anaiya. “It was the first class that I struggled in. Honors math was a completely new territory. The teacher sat with me and really personalized things for me. I felt the change in myself and in my confidence.” For Anaiya, a senior from the Singapore American School who gets to Drew on public transportation, being guided by a talented and enthusiastic teacher was not a new experience at Drew. “My first year, a teacher helped me find my voice in the classroom. That enabled me to move beyond that classroom. I saw how my own identity and personal values could be an asset in the community.” While at Drew, Anaiya participated in welcoming new 9th graders by developing an orientation program and a mixed grade house system in order to build a stronger community. She also played tennis, volunteered for admissions, and participated in the service coalition. “Non-traditional leadership roles played such a big part in my experience. By having these opportunities, I am better prepared for the future and creating my own path.”

“Drew students are creative, ambitious, and excited to be involved in the community in and outside of the school.”

Alex loves “being in a community which makes me want to speak and share and also be heard.” Alex came to Drew from San Francisco Day School and gets a lift to and from school, carpools, or takes public transit. He feels that he has not only connected deeply with his teachers but that “I can confidently say that my teachers feel comfortable coming to me with questions.” Even though he thinks of himself as a “natural leader,” he credits Drew with “facilitating my selfadvocacy” and “giving me an environment to explore my passions.” During senior year, Alex was part of the leadership team of Gender and Sexuality Awareness. Alex’s passion for the LGBTQIA+ community led Alex to create a senior year project hand making crafts that were sold to benefit LYRIC - an organization that supports un-housed queer youth in the Bay Area. “I feel that my time at Drew not only provided me with the tools to represent myself, but also to advocate on behalf of others.”

Dear Families,

As you might imagine, a substantial part of my role as Drew’s Director of Admissions is to convince you that a Drew education is unique and transformational. Somehow, I have to impress upon you that, once you become a part of the Drew community, you will build lifelong relationships and push yourself further than you could have imagined in ways that will enrich your life well beyond the moment you cross the stage at your graduation.

Fortunately, I do not find it challenging to make this argument because I have experienced it for myself. As a member of the Drew Class of 2006, the task of helping to find future Drew graduates is both deeply personal and endlessly exciting. As our students shared so beautifully in the previous pages, Drew is defined by its students. They are truly co-creators and co-writers of this special community and culture. While I cherish the experience I had as a student at Drew, I am also thrilled by the way Drew has grown. Thanks to the voices and ambitions of our students, we offer classes, clubs, and opportunities that empower students to apply their learning to the real world in ways that my classmates and I could not have foreseen. This is what brought me back to Drew. I knew it was the school in the city bold enough to evolve from the antiquated model of education we still see out there today that no longer serves or prepares students to tackle the challenges of the future.

Moreover, students now come to Drew from over 50 schools in the Bay Area and around the world. As our population has grown, Drew’s core values of intellectual curiosity, personal integrity, and service to others have remained consistent even as we continually adapt to the world around us. With each new class, it is the students who continually define “what makes Drew, Drew.”

In the Admissions Department, we try to be a microcosm of the overall Drew experience. Throughout the process, we work hard to build a relationship with you and your family in the same way that Drew’s incredible faculty members come to know and inspire their students. We hope we are the first of many positive relationships you will have in your Drew experience.

As you have seen in this book, many of our students have offered single words to capture their Drew experience. (Words I very much agree with, by the way!) In that spirit, I will offer you one word that I hope will inspire you to begin your Drew journey: “Apply!”

Sincerely,

Joanna Lovett ’06 Director of Admissions

SCAN TO APPLY

We believe that Drew is “what high school should be.” This means that at Drew you’ll learn by doing, collaborating, and searching. Not simply for answers, but for how to use what you learn in your life and in the world. Creating a culture in which students are willing to be challenged, accept leadership roles, and consider school to be a second home community is truly what “makes Drew, Drew.”