The Pinewood Scholars Program (PSP) is our signature initiative for juniors and seniors. By inviting our students to engage in design thinking, project-based learning, and community partnerships, PSP empowers students to become changemakers in their world.
Over the course of their junior year, PSP students work in groups to create a mission-inspired project. In the process, they research social issues by watching documentaries, listening to podcasts, and exploring local non-profits. During senior year, students build upon what they learned during junior year and create their own socially-minded endeavors, educate others, and lead efforts toward making real change.
Today, we are pleased to share what PSP has been up to over the summer and in the first weeks of the 2022-23 school year. Learn about our Summer of Leadership and Discovery, field trips to local changemaking organizations, our seniors' reflections on their mission-driven projects, and much more. We hope you will be inspired by our adventures and endeavors!
Summer of Leadership and Discovery
The summer PSP component takes place just before school starts. This week-long program aims to give our students an in-depth understanding of different mission-driven organizations in the Bay Area and to bond as a class. PSP did a special Instagram takeover covering the week's adventures for Pinewood's official account. Watch it here!
Tuesday, August 9th
Urban Plunge: San Francisco Exploration
What an inspirational and educational adventure we had in San Francisco’s Tenderloin and at the Ferry Building! Our journey began at Code Tenderloin where we met with Del Seymore, the founder of this organization and Tenderloin Tours. He shared his story of addiction and recovery with the students before heading out onto the streets to learn more about this vibrant community. Then, we grabbed some COVID supplies, Code Tenderloin fliers, and t-shirts, handing them out to potential community members. The goal of this outreach program is to inspire the unhoused and people suffering with drug addiction to learn more about how they can change their lives by taking coding classes and job skills at Code Tenderloin. While nervous at first, the students did an amazing job selling the neighbors on the mission of Code Tenderloin and spreading the word to these potential clients.
After our sales pitches, we headed on a bus to the Ferry Building where we had lunch. Later, we met with Jane Connors who taught us about how the Ferry Building supports ethnic diversity, traditional farming, production techniques, and artisanal entrepreneurs. The class also learned how the Foodwise Program at the Ferry Building helps students in San Francisco bring fresh produce and recipes to families.
Wednesday, August 10th
The Magical Path
Students and parents of the PSP class welcomed the morning by enjoying a yogurt buffet and DIY boba on Mrs. Gannon’s deck. Everyone received a wooden bookmark to write their intentions for the day. After hanging up the decorated bookmarks on a tree in the fairy garden, we drifted silently between the branches to read everyone's intentions. Danette, Mrs. G’s fabulous yoga teacher, met us down the Magical Path (backyard) on the field for some grounding yoga. After yoga, the class circled up in the Enchanted Fairy Meadow to debrief our Urban Plunge experience from the prior day. To capture some of our emotions and experiences, the students spent time writing in their journals before brainstorming goals for their future. Once finished, they gathered images from magazines to create vision boards to capture their hopes and plans for the future. After some much-needed snacks, the students worked in teams to create fabulous meals for their classmates with mystery ingredients (inspired by the TV show Chopped). The dishes were spectacular! A jump in the pool to cool off on this hot summer day finished out the fun!
Thursday, August 11th - Friday, August 12th
Santa Cruz County Discovery and Campout
The last part of our adventure began surrounded by dirt piles with a highly-informative discussion with Peter Disney of Hard Core Compost to learn about the importance of composting, as well as the nuts and bolts of how to run a worker-owned business. It was also fascinating to learn how he chose this field based on his experience in college where he majored in Critical Race and Ethnic Studies with a minor in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz.
Popping right next door, we met with Brian, the coordinator of the Homeless Garden Project, to learn more about how this organization gives the unhoused a leg up in building their resumes for their future careers.
With tummies rumbling, we headed to graffiti-filled Shark Fin Cove, where we discussed the implications of changing the landscape to suit our definitions of beauty and how we might make lasting changes in this hidden cove. After playing in the sand and frigid water for a bit, we came back to the circle to brainstorm our project ideas in our Inspiration Tracker notebooks and discuss our ideas with the group.
On our way to our camping site, we stopped in for some pie, old-fashioned games, and berry picking at Swanton Berry Farm. We read about this organic farm’s fair practices and profit-sharing elements there.
The last day of our Summer of Leadership and Discovery was spent touring Pie Ranch, where we met with an intern who talked to us about her unusual major at UC Santa Cruz, Community Systems, and her interest in fair farm practices and sustainable food processes. Then, we learned more about Pie Ranch’s commitment to sharing their land with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Learn more about the programs Pie Ranch does for the community here.
Recent Trips
Venturing into the community for short field trips is a significant component of the PSP program. Students gain inspiration for their senior year PSP projects by meeting changemakers in our neighborhood. Experiences outside of the classroom help the students understand first-hand how local mission-driven organizations approach community issues.
So far this fall, the PSP class has explored two local art-focused organizations to learn about how these institutions are addressing issues such as funding, grant writing, access for all, and marketing with limited budgets.
August 26th
Montalvo Arts Center
The historic site of Montalvo Arts Center serves as a hub for art and culture in the community, with a mission to enrich people’s lives, spark necessary conversations, and inspire creativity. On our field trip to Montalvo, students enjoyed an hour-long guided outdoor tour through the sculpture-filled grounds and gardens, a visit to Lucas Artist Residency program, and a casual meeting with the managing director to learn about the operations of a thriving non-profit arts organization in the Bay Area.
With the goals of PSP in mind, the managing director of Montavalo gave the students an overview of Montalvo’s diversity, equity, and inclusion plan. Their goal is to ensure that, as an institution, they are examining, reflecting, and planning on how Montalvo can be accessible to all. The administration is researching, developing, and executing plans to create a sense of belonging to both current and new audiences.
September 8th
New Museum of Los Gatos
This inquiry-based tour encouraged students to reflect deeply on the messages conveyed by exhibiting artists and the role of museums in preserving and sharing art and history. The current exhibitions explore topics in social entrepreneurship such as the untold stories of our communities, the human impact on our delicate ecosystem, and the hypocrisy and patriarchy of the art world. The tour offered a behind-the-scenes look at museum work and allowed students to ask questions about a career in museums and the arts. Students learned how NUMU fosters mission-driven endeavors in the community.
Junior Year Reflection Videos
Over the course of their junior year, PSP students work in groups to create mission-driven projects. The students use these projects to dig deeply into issues and explore how to use agency to become changemakers in their community. The intention of the junior year program is for the students to discover the interests they will explore in their senior year passion projects. Over the summer, our rising seniors had time to reflect on their junior-year projects and analyze what elements worked well and what did not. They spent time writing about their junior-year journeys at the start of senior year and created summary videos to capture these observations to share with the Pinewood community, inspire future PSP students, and post on their LinkedIn pages.
Artruistic
Ellis Aspinall, Myles Fox, Oscar Barnes
Dedicated to murals for change through revolutionary QR code technology, Artruistic is an organization devoted to combining the Arts and Social Entrepreneurship to push forward critical social causes. The team worked extensively with the juvenile justice organization, Fresh Lifelines for Youth (FLY), a prominent Bay Area non-profit organization dedicated to the prevention of juvenile crime and incarceration through education, mentoring, leadership training, and more. By scanning a QR code embedded within their mural, viewers can donate to FLY directly. In August, Pinewood custodial staff hung the mural above the Snack Shack at Pinewood for parents, administrators, visitors, and students to enjoy and inspire them to donate to this cause.
Check out the article written by FLY wrote about their experience working with Artruistic.
Learn more about Fresh Lifelines for Youth here and check out the featured sketches.
Beginning Books
Audrey Nelson, Ayana Jassal, Niki Taradash
Beginning Books is an educational non-profit that creates books about social issues so that children can learn about their world. By sharing these stories, we hope to help kids develop a love for reading while learning about complex topics such as sugar addiction. This semester, the Beginning Books team drafted multiple stories, created their first book, designed a curriculum, and posted all of their materials for free on Teachers Pay Teachers to share with parents and teachers. Beginning Books aims to give caregivers and educators fun and creative resources to approach the topic of sugar addiction with children. Take a look at photos and videos here!
Bond Box
Rathi Kolappa, Ashton Riches, Devan Reynard
Bond Box is an organization that focuses on connecting and bonding between children and their parents. The team put baskets together, which included fun activities and educational games, to inspire families to interact with each other. They partnered with Help One Child, which helps foster care families, to distribute our boxes to families in need. Learn more about Bond Box.
Unbox a Memory
Peyton Meinhardt, Carolyn Steeg, Rachel Farhoudi
Unbox A Memory is a non-profit endeavor that provides craft kits to families in temporary residential homes who are still in quarantine. The team partnered with LifeMoves, an organization that provides housing and supports homeless families and individuals, allowing them to return to stable housing. Additionally, the team also partnered with Fisher House Foundation, where military and veteran families can stay while their loved ones are in the hospital at no charge. Paper Source sponsored Unbox a Memory by providing paper and boxes so the team could create the kits to support these families.
Newsworthy
PSP Receives Congressional Recognition
Our PSP class received congressional recognition! Congresswoman Anna Eshoo was impressed by this article that she read in the Los Altos Crier about the amazing and impactful projects that our PSP students created last year and rewarded Pinewood with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition.
The Town Crier article mentioned above was written by Pinewood's own Kathleen Xie, a current sophomore who is actively involved in her internship at the news outlet.