News from the Mesa
January 24, 2025
MLK Day at Cate: Breaking Bread in Community
In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Cate community explored the power of food as a unifying tool and a means to address systemic inequities through the theme Breaking Bread in Community. Monday’s celebration highlighted the intersection of food insecurity and civil rights, reflecting Dr. King’s vision of a world where everyone has …
January 24, 2025
Cate Students Organize Fundraiser for LA Wildfire Relief
A group of Cate students organized a successful fundraiser last Saturday, raising more than $1,000 in less than two hours to support those affected by the recent wildfires in Los Angeles. The event, held at the Carpinteria Arts Center, featured live performances in a benefit concert coordinated and performed entirely by Cate students. Quinn Vanasco …
January 23, 2025
Cate Delegates Travel to New York for Columbia Model UN
By Pari Malik ’27 It takes three sugar cane to make one piece of paper. Confused? I was too. That was until I experienced the first trading session at the Minecraft Village Council meeting during Columbia’s Model United National Conference and Exposition (CMUNCE). Columbia University has one of the top Model United Nations programs in …
December 20, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook: Service in Spirit
As we head into the final days of the year where giving and receiving gifts is central to many cultural practices, I find myself reflecting on the adage, “It is better to give than receive.” Here at Cate, our ethos of Servons codifies our shared belief that life is made meaningful through regular and generous …
November 22, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
Happy Fall Break! Today, our students are in various stages of travel on their way to their loved ones. We can already feel their absence here, yet we know how excited they are for this break and for the chance to reconnect with the people and places they know and love. As we all prepare …
October 25, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
Fall Family Weekend is an important milestone marking the halfway point between the start of school and Winter Break. Like the start to a story, this first chapter of the year holds clues and emerging themes that foreshadow what we might expect in the months to come. From my perspective, the level of engagement, high …
October 25, 2024
This Week in Athletics
This week sees the start of the postseason for varsity volleyball while other programs have made their reservations for the playoffs! In the pool, boys water polo sealed their third straight playoff appearance with a resounding victory over Foothill Tech on Tuesday. Fletcher Prince ’28 led all scorers with a ridiculous seven-goal tally. The Rams …
October 11, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
During my visits to 9th grade Humanities classes this week, I saw students simultaneously at ease and engaged as they wrestled to make meaning of a passage from Oedipus. Every time I get the opportunity to spend time in classrooms, I see the power of our inquiry method on display as students lean more into …
October 11, 2024
Round Square International Conference: Colombia
At the end of September, Cate School sent six students and two faculty members to the 56th Round Square International Conference (RSIC) in Bogotá, Colombia. This annual event, designed for students aged 16-18, rotates around the globe, with different schools hosting each year. This year’s conference was hosted by Colegio Anglo Colombiano, Colegio Gran Bretaña, …
September 27, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
As we move into fall, I wanted to share a list of 10 highlights from the start of the year. As is true with life on the Mesa, each day contains moments of collective exuberance often followed by a quiet sliver of solitude – usually outside. I’ve learned to pay attention at every moment to …
September 12, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
I often marvel at the spontaneous moments of magic that characterize life on the Mesa. Such as seeing a senior holding the arm of a younger student on her way to the health center or the happenstance conversation I had at the Amazon Locker Hub with sophomores minutes after their return from Yosemite, packs on …
September 9, 2024
Grading for Equity
History Instructor Clair Dahm and English & Humanities Instructor Michael Szanyi were thrilled to represent Cate at the National Association of Independent Schools’ Equity Design Lab: Grading for Equity held July 10–12, 2024 at the NAIS Headquarters in Washington, DC. Through the support of Elana Stone, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Cate, …
May 10, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook: In Loco Parentis – How are the Kids?
Whenever someone asks me, “How are the kids?” I hesitate and often respond by saying, “Which ones?” I don’t know what this says about me as a mother, but my first instinct is to think about the “kids” at Cate. As we approach Mother’s Day, I’ve been reflecting on what in loco parentis means for …
March 21, 2024
Harvard Model UN Trip
By Tallulah Bates ’25 The Harvard Model United Nations (HMUN) is among the oldest, largest, and one of the most international conferences of its kind, with student participation from over 60 countries at the most recent iteration. The size and international nature of the conference made it an opportunity for learning that extended beyond the …
February 15, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook: Joyful
A few weeks into my arrival at Cate, Frank Griffin left this note on my desk, and it has been pinned to my wall since then. I look at it as a reminder to pause and gauge my own sense of being settled and present to all the magic here. This week has felt especially …
February 2, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook: How Can We Thrive in the Face of Adversity?
My career has been driven by a quest to help our young people feel at home in themselves so they can bring their distinct expression of excellence to serve our changing world. My journey to Cate follows the same trajectory as I’ve heard so many of you express – our yearning for something healthier, more …
January 18, 2024
Head of School’s Notebook
Last year, after accepting the job at Cate, my family and I visited the Mesa during MLK weekend. We attended all of the festivities that day and I remember thinking to myself how powerful and unusual it felt to see a community collectively taking ownership of building a beloved community. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. …
September 15, 2023
Head of School’s Notebook: Beginnings
After the excitement of the start of the year, we are more fully back into the routine of the school and students are settling into the rhythm of their lives on the Mesa. Part of what makes this transition into regularity so seamless is that last week, we all spent time away from Cate in …
April 6, 2023
Cate Students Attend Performance of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
On March 28, students from English 11, Staging Activism, and Theatre Performance classes traveled to the Mark Taper Forum in Downtown LA to attend a performance of Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. Originally performed as a one-woman show by playwright and scholar Anna Deavere Smith, Twilight is a work of verbatim theatre that uses first-person accounts …
February 17, 2022
Keeping it Local: Ocean Ranch Organics and Cate Dining
From Lucky Llama açaí bowls to the aisles of Pacific Health Foods and now Booth Commons, if you have had breakfast in Carpinteria in recent years, chances are you’ve encountered Ocean Ranch Organics granola. A local woman-owned and operated business founded by Kim Redman, Ocean Ranch Organics is dedicated to creating nutritious products with organic and …