Student Admissions Committee Blog

by Andrés B (’11)

As I head in to my last few weeks of summer vacation, I can’t help but be amazed by the fact that I will soon be starting my last year here at Urban. It certainly does not feel like three years ago that I anxiously awaited my first day of high school. As I hesitantly stepped out of the car to walk into school on the first day of my freshman year, I had absolutely no idea what the next few years had in store for me. Each day of school has brought with it excitement and adventure. At the same time, after a particularly eventful junior year, I was ready for a nice summer vacation.

I started off the summer with a family camping trip to Clear Lake State Park. My family has gone camping there every year for as long as I can remember. These days in Clear Lake are a nice opportunity to live life at a much slower pace. We spent much of the daytime lying in hammocks, reading books as we hid from the relentless heat of the summer sun. In the afternoons, as the sun began to set we would head off on our daily hike through the forest.

As any soccer fan will tell you, this summer was quite thrilling. As always, the FIFA World Cup hosted in South Africa brought along the usual rush of excitement and emotions. Since it is hosted only once every four years, I had been eagerly awaiting the beginning of the tournament. I spent many mornings (because of the time difference, many of the games were on in the early morning) enjoying a soccer match with family and friends. After a month of watching soccer matches, I was sad to see the World Cup come to an end.

Another big activity for me was working at a Spanish-language summer camp. This was my third year working as a counselor at the camp, so I had been looking forward to returning this year. As always, I enjoyed spending time with the kids, playing games and leading activities to teach them Spanish. On any given day we might be playing lotería (bingo) to practice vocabulary or reading children’s picture books. In a way, it is like getting to be a child again.

Now, as this all comes to a close, I am preparing for my senior year. Yesterday, my books for the first trimester of classes arrived in the mail. This means that the start of school is just around the corner, and I am really looking forward to it. As I opened the box, I gazed expectantly at the stack of books before me. I pulled out the books for my American Romanticism class, a class that proves to be both fun and challenging. Casually, I skimmed the first few pages, eager to begin reading them. But for now, as I enjoy what is left of summer, the books lay in a pile on my desk, waiting for the first day of school.

by Lizzy H (’12)

After a rather stressful spring term, I was super excited for a nice and relaxing summer. The first six weeks of summer, I was enrolled in an online creative writing course. It was a really good experience – I absolutely love creative writing. The lectures were actually fun to read, and I think the feedback system definitely helped me improve. I also met a few people from the East Coast with whom I still chat and sometimes compare writing samples. I never knew that California was considered the “crazy” state before, but they assure me it is. Well, I suppose I can't argue with that!

For the week of 4th of July, my parents, sister and I met our cousins up at Spirit Lake, Idaho, at a place where my family has been going every summer ever since my grandparents were little kids. It's a completely different world up there. “Downtown" is basically one block of old western style stores, a movie/ice cream/fudge store, one restaurant and the general store. The lake is lovely, though, and it has always been the place I can forget about everything else and just be me.

I also found out something important there this summer. I had been starting to worry about college, after my cousins set the wonderful example of going to Brown and Stanford. And though I stressed about it for a little while during the school year, being by the lake helped me realize that I could be happy wherever I choose to go, and that I'm just now going into my junior year. There is plenty of time to worry later, and that Ivy Leagues aren't the only amazing colleges out there.

I took an acting course at ACT, which was something completely new for me. I am actually kind of afraid of acting – I have never really done it before – and this was totally pushing my comfort zone. I ended up having a ton of fun and meeting some really great people. At the end, we put on a staged reading of an adaptation of The Odyssey, and I somehow got cast as one of the main villains, the obnoxious suitor Antinous. It was...well, a very different role for me to play.

Later this summer, I fly out again to Spirit Lake for a week to celebrate the 100th birthday of our cabin (although we haven't had it for 100 years yet). All of my dad's side of the family – uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins – are going to be up there and I can't wait to see them all. In a couple days, a close friend of mine who moved away for high school is going to fly up and join us, which I am super excited about.

Even though summer is getting close to the end, I'm not too worried about starting my junior year. I've had plenty of down time and have almost fully relaxed after last spring. I am signed up for a bunch of difficult classes this year, but they are all classes that I am actually really interested in and excited to take. So, it may be a tough year, but I am looking forward to it. Though, of course, I am glad for these last couple weeks of summer and I hope to make the best of them!

By Sean J-B (’11)

Wow, I can’t believe I’m already a term into my junior year of high school. It feels like only a short time ago I was in the middle of the high school application process. Ever since school got out last summer, time has begun to fly. Before I knew it, summer was over and I was back in classes, working hard. 

However, this year, I’ve noticed that my experience at Urban has changed I feel that I’ve settled into my niche in our community and am now enjoying life as a student more than ever. Until this year, I never realized how much of a privilege it is to go to a school like Urban. When comparing my classes to those of my peers attending other schools, I was shocked to find that they weren’t able to take advantage of a wide variety of elective classes like Urban has to offer, and so far these classes are what have made my year so special.

As this term draws to a close, so is my cross-country season. This season was a great success in many ways, especially for our men’s team.  After winning a variety of league and invitational meets, we finished in second place overall in the BCL West, qualifying for the NCS (North Coast Section) tournament. For the first time in Urban history, our men’s team is ranked 3rd in the NCS and if we end up placing well, we will qualify for the state championships. As a captain, this is more than I could have hoped for this year. On top of all our success in competition, we have also bonded as a group. I’m very proud of each of my runners, men and women, and I can’t wait for them to keep up their great work.

I’ve had a great start to my junior year. Although it will be quite challenging, I’m looking forward to the rest of it!

By Clara H (’12)


As of now, I am well into my sophomore year at Urban. Heading into the final days of the first term, I am looking forward to finishing up what has been a great fall and relaxing with my family over the long Thanksgiving break. Although these final weeks will be a challenge, it is comforting to know my teachers will help along the way as I study for tests and work on various projects. I think my advanced Spanish final will be the most rigorous as I work to incorporate vocabulary and grammar into a final "party" where we will each represent characters from the novel we just finished, La Casa en Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.

So far, this year has reminded me of how much I love the Urban community and all the opportunities I am presented with as an Urban student. Just a couple of weeks ago, I sang the national anthem at the Giants game with the Urban Singers choir, listened to a guest speaker at an all-school meeting talk about her journey as an adoptive child finding her racial roots, enjoyed listening to faculty members talk about sexism and gender in their lives in a panel discussion, ran in the cross crountry league championships, and performed with my school jazz combo at the public library's Haight branch celebration.

Though this year has been extremely busy, I have found ways to manage my time by communicating with my teachers and asking for extra help outside the classroom. I often visit math café, a place during lunch where math teachers and students work out problem sets and difficult homework questions. I cannot wait for the rest of my classes to start in the winter term, as I will begin the Civil War history course, a renowned Urban class! But for now, I am looking forward to the yummy food I will get to eat in a couple of weeks!

by Manny G. (’10)

Well, it’s my senior year at Urban, and I'm loving every minute of it. The college process is a little hard, but I am getting a lot of help from the Urban college counseling office. They are guiding me through every part of the process, and it’s really making life easier for me.

In addition to working on what I will be doing next year, I am still very involved with the school. I am in the school's Jazz and Funk bands, as well as SAC (Student Admission’s Committee).

My Urban experience has been whatever I made it to be. There are just so many great aspects of the school, some of which I am just discovering after three years as an Urban student. I highly encourage all of you reading this to visit the school and find out for yourself how exciting and diverse this school really is!

by Natasha W (’11)

My junior year began only a few weeks ago, but already I have a notion that this point in my life is a pivotal one. As an upperclassman, I am experiencing Urban in a completely new way. I feel like this place is more my home than just a learning facility, and that teachers are mentors as well as educators. I am experiencing an unfamiliar sense of responsibility to the school -- a desire to be active and participate.  To soak up valuable information and share it with others.

This past summer I spent a month backpacking through Alaska's Talkeetna Mountains with NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School. That experience impacted me so much more than I imagined it would, and I have returned to school with a new curiosity and passion for learning.

This trimester I am taking AP Chemistry, Spanish 4, Advanced Math Applications and Drawing/Mixed Media. I signed up for AP Chemistry looking for a challenge, as I am more of a humanities person than anything else; science does not come particularly easily to me. I think it is safe to say that I am the slowest with the material out of all the kids in the class, but I have found that the class is a sort of chemistry-related support group! We are all figuring out the difficult material together and readily helping each other. Surprisingly, this is probably my favorite class.

Outside of school, I have begun taking Japanese language lessons with the Japan Society. My entire life I have been somewhat unable to communicate with my grandfather, who speaks very limited English. This has always left me feeling guilty and, more than anything, curious about his life and beliefs. This summer I finally took initiative and began learning the language of my mother's family. I am by far the youngest in my class, which is attended by mostly people in their 30s and 40s, but I feel very comfortable with the group.
   
I feel grateful to be at a school that inspires me to push myself both as a learner and as an evolving person, and I am excited for what this year will bring me!

Zoe W. ('10)

School let out weeks ago, and I am really excited for the summer! This summer I am working at Aim High, which is a summer program for kids in middle school. This is going to be my third year working here and I'm super excited to do it again. The program happens on the Urban campus, which is pretty cool because I get to see the school in a whole new way and I get to work with some other Urban kids (and go into the staff lounge!)

Also this summer I am going to Santa Cruz with my friends for a couple days to hang out. We are just going to go swimming and go to the boardwalk. It will be good to relax and go somewhere with sun, where it actually feels like summer, because we all know that San Francisco summers are cool and foggy. In addition, I am going on a week -long camping trip in Yellowstone with my family. Yellowstone is so pretty and I am glad to be able to get out of the city and experience something different.

Even though I am excited for the summer I am going to miss junior year. This past year was very challenging but really fun for me. I had difficult classes that were really interesting and made the effort worthwhile. The Junior class trip to Joshua Tree was definitely a highlight of my year.

In J-Tree we did a really intense rock scramble called The Chasm of Doom. I like to think of the chasm as a metaphor for my year. At first I was really scared about it but I decided to go. When we got there I was even more nervous but I pushed myself to do it. There were parts along the way where I was unsure and scared but I always made it through. I felt so good when I finished; my being nervous at first enhanced that, because I proved myself wrong. It was really rewarding.

Next year I will be a senior, and I have already started to look at colleges. I am really excited and scared of this process, too, but I know that it will be rewarding for me in the end, much like the high school admissions process was. It will take time and effort, but I am excited to start a new phase of my life, much like you 8th graders will be doing soon. I hope you remember that it is all about finding the school that works best for you, and I wish you all luck doing that! Have a great summer and 8th grade year!

Zoë

Oliver K. (’11)

Here I was, preparing for my final exams this past spring, and all I can think about is summer! For me, summer is a chance to live life at a different pace. It’s a time characterized by country music, road trips and good food. It’s a chance for me to see a little bit more of the world.

I had an amazing opportunity to see the world last summer, when my brother and I interned at an elephant research camp in Samburu, Kenya. It was one of those experiences, where as hard as I try to explain my trip to friends or extended family, they never really understand what that summer meant to me.

It was a summer of great learning. I was pushed to my limits, in a place remote and utterly different from home. I was working with locals, and attempting to bridge some communication gaps between bad English and my almost non-existent Swahili vocabulary. I learned quite a bit about large mammals, but it did not compare to what I learned about myself.

I learned how to hold up in a foreign environment. Most of all, I learned how much I needed my brother through our trying experiences of bites, wounds and malnourishment.

This summer will be very different. Hopefully it will be more grounding. I am going to spend a large amount of the summer in Wyoming, like I have with most of my childhood summers. Either it’s riding horses, fishing, camping or dirt-biking; it is a thrilling and beautiful way to spend my summers. I will also be doing a NOLS course in horse-packing, where I will learn to lead camping expeditions on horseback. This summer, like every summer, will be a chance for me to live my life at a different pace, and learn things that Urban can’t teach me, and that the city can’t teach me. 

I can’t wait for all the valuable lessons summer will teach me.

Ollie

by Chandler T ('09)

Now that Urban students are well into our fall trimester, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things after a restful summer. This past summer, I participated in California College of Art’s pre-college program and took classes focusing in printmaking and illustration. It was really fun, but I was excited to get back to school. 

Along with the start of school, the fall also brings the start of the volleyball season. This will be my fourth and final year on the team. I can’t believe it! This last weekend, the varsity volleyball team played in a tournament at Branson and made it to the championship game! Unfortunately, we lost to Branson in three games but the whole team is proud that we made it so far.

Similar to you eighth graders out there, I am preparing to embark on a new journey: college. Like the high school admission process, the college process can be both exciting and stressful. As I work on applications, I reminisce about my past years at Urban. Part of me is excited to start this new chapter of my life, but the other half does not want to leave Urban. I’m truly going to miss the whole Urban community – all the amazing teachers, my class (’09!), the rest of the student body, and especially my advising group. I’ve grown quite close to my group. We even have our own slogan: “Lotus take notice!” because we all met on the first day of high school in Urban’s Lotus room. As a freshman, you are put into an advising group of about nine other ninth graders with a faculty advisor. You stay in that group for the next four years and meet regularly.

As a freshman, I always wondered what it would be like to be a senior. And finally here it is. My four years at Urban have gone by so quickly. Sometimes, it feels like just yesterday I was a freshman. As a senior, it’s nice to be fairly familiar with the school; yet, I love seeing the fresh faces of the ninth grade class. Looking back at my past three years at Urban and looking forward to my fourth and final year at Urban, I'm hoping to savor every moment. I want to soak up everything and try to take advantage of all the great, unique opportunities that Urban has to offer. For instance I’m looking forward to take Urban’s California studies class in the spring. Cal Studies is senior seminar that takes place in the last six weeks of school where students get out of the classroom and explore all that California has to offer. 

With the volleyball season to kick off my senior year and the Cal studies class as the grand finale, I know this will be a memorable year. I’m excited for the rest of the school year and I hope that this senior year will top my whole Urban experience.

Thanks for reading and good luck this year!
Chandler
 

by Alex R ('09)

I opened my  “Summertime” by getting that cowboy back in gear with a little KCHES (Kenny Chesney). His concert was on the Sunday we got out of school so it was the perfect transition after finishing all my self-evaluations, final projects and late night instant messaging sessions. Kenny reminded me what its like to be young, free and alive.  I don’t think I’ve ever had more fun in my life. KCHES also played with some of my other favorite singers like Luke Bryan, LeAnn Rimes, and Brooks and Dunn.  I am doubtful that everyone reading this will have heard of these musicians, but hopefully I can bridge a gap with a fellow 8th grade country music enthusiast.

The following Tuesday, I took off to Ashland, OR, with about 20 other fellow Urban compatriots to enjoy some Shakespeare. Needless to say, it was enjoyable, hot, and often hard to understand, however I found that I was able to pick most of the language up. We were fortunate enough to have two teachers along, Cathleen and Tilda, who are so immersed in the scholarly Shakespearean world that they were able to arrange a meeting with the actors that played Iago and Cassio in Othello; a play that I had just read four weeks before and then seen the previous night. The experience allowed us to take Shakespeare’s words off the page and live in the vitality of Shakespeare’s world.

After returning to San Francisco, I spent the next week and a half working at my service learning project, The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. The Housing Rights Committee is a tenant advocacy group. During my service learning period at Urban, I trained to be a housing rights counselor. Essentially, clients who experience conflicts and issues, ranging from eviction to repairs, either come in or call and counselors, like myself, to advise them on the next step they should take toward resolving their issue. Sometimes a counselor makes a referral to another agency and other times they spend two hours writing letters and making telephone calls; it all depends on the nature of the predicament.

This summer, I was also a teaching assistant at Aim High, which is housed at The Urban School. Aim High is an intensive, five-week summer program for underserved middle schoolers. Urban has had a long-standing relationship with Aim High, and this year I was fortunate enough to be taken on as a staff member. While I came home everyday exhausted and genuinely overwhelmed, the experience could not have been more rewarding. The relationships I built with the students and staff were some of the most memorable interactions I have ever had. There was always a new reason for a fresh smile every hour at Aim High, and for that I am truly thankfully to be part of such a wonderful program.

You 8th graders and I have something in common: we are both about to be riding high as the leaders of our respective schools and we share the burden of preparing to embark on that forward odyssey. I hope, for both of us, that the next year will be rewarding, exhilarating and not too stressful – however I feel the latter is inevitable. So for now, I’m just going to grab some shades, put on a ball cap, close my eyes, and enjoy the sweet summertime before the next day starts all over again. See ya’ll in the fall!
   
Alex R ('09)