Altadenablog welcomes its new sponsor, The Peace & Justice Academy
by Nora Lee
The Peace & Justice Academy
Hardly any topic gets Altadena bloggers and their followers heated up faster than the topic of education. As a community, we have never been shy about sharing our opinions on public education, charter schools, private schools and home schooling. Altadenans are blessed with many choices in every category. Now, there is a new option: The Peace & Justice Academy. And in some very important ways, it overlaps categories.
The Peace & Justice Academy is a small middle and high school which makes it an excellent choice for those parents who have homeschooled through the elementary grades, but are looking for a different experience for their children as they prepare for college. It is a Christian college prep school with a curricular emphasis on social justice issues. The goal is to graduate adults, informed by a Christian world view, ready to serve others working for peace and justice at home and around the world. In the spirit of social justice, no one is turned away based on their beliefs, race, ethnicity, or gender.
For unhappy and stressed public school parents unsure about affordable alternatives in the area, this is a private school that isn’t priced like an Orange Grove mansion. The 2011-12 tuition is $9,000 – lowest of all the private high schools in the greater Pasadena area. The monthly payment is about the same as the payment on a new car! Peace & Justice also offers financial aid, based on family need.
For current private school parents who are concerned about the lack of diversity in their child’s school, The Peace & Justice Academy proudly serves families from many ethnicities and socio-economic groups. In the year that just ended, for example, 27% of the students were African American, 7% were American Indian or Alaskan Native, 27% were Hispanic or Latino and 39% were White. Over half the students qualify for some form of financial aid.
All parents, of course, are interested in strong academics for their children, and Peace & Justice meets that test with rigorous college prep programs in English, math, social studies and science. All of the teaching staff have at least a master’s degree, some even have doctorates. Co-Directors Randy Christopher and Kimberly Medendorp incorporated the school in the fall of 2008 and opened their doors in the fall of 2009. Kimberly is a nationally accredited, award-winning teacher with 15 years experience who wanted more for education than just teaching to the state standards. Randy had worked for many years helping others set up schools, but still felt that something was missing. He envisioned a school that addressed all aspects of teenage life – social, spiritual, physical and academic.
Working together in friendship and mutual admiration, they have created a space where all students are accepted, respected, and valued by the staff and all other students. Classes are set up so that students work in process groups, tirelessly promoting kindness and tolerance. And the results are amazing. When children find themselves in a safe environment – an emotionally as well as physically safe environment – they are free to be who they really are, and they blossom.
It didn’t take long for the school to get their students involved in the community. Last October, students were urged to write poems for the 5th annual International Conflict Resolution Day Southern California Poetry Contest, hosted by the Western Justice Center. Peace and Justice students proved quite passionate on the subject. Pasadenan Dennis Savala won first place in the 6th to 8th-grade division for his poem, Peace and Community – War and Hate. Altadenan John Jones received third-place kudos for his poem The Light and the Dark. For the second year, the Pasadena Martin Luther King Community Coalition opened up its annual Martin Luther King Day essay contest to private schools along with the public schools. The students wrote keenly about what advice King would give to today’s leaders. Students William Mason and Grace Rosema won first place and third place, respectively, in the High School Division. The Academy has also sponsored opportunities for area students to meet and hear world-renowned peacemakers like Eddie Daniels, who shared a cell with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, and James Loney, who was captured by Iraqi insurgents and held hostage for 118 days.
Two years in, co-director Randy Christopher is pleased. “The Peace & Justice Academy is everything I hoped it would be. We can see the results in the kids – not in a day or a week, but over a semester or a year. We see amazing progress in academics, but also in areas of social interactions and leadership. It’s great to watch them become more comfortable with who they are, because changing the world isn’t easy.”Anyone interested in learning more about the school is urged to go to the website www.thepeaceacademy.org or call 626-345-0504 to arrange a tour.
