Josie B. '25 discusses the intense pressure high school seniors feel to write college essays about traumatic events in this piece originally published in the San Mateo Daily Journal.

On Friday, September 20, the entire Middle School went off-campus for Adventure Day. It’s a day of bonding as well as practicing the skills of traveling together as a group—behaving responsibly when off campus, taking care of your things, and listening to instructions—all in preparation for the May Trips.

From the Pacific Northwest to Argentina, Upper School students are engaging in hands-on, experiential learning on deeply enriching trips this week. Hear from a few students on what their experience has been like so far.

Students in first through fourth grade had exciting overnight adventures with their classmates and teachers! From nature journaling to hiking, pitching a tent and cleaning up after a camping meal, Lower School students took their learning and community building outdoors.

It’s May, which means it’s trips season at Nueva! School trips at Nueva, from nearby California wilderness to countries around the world, offer some of the most memorable immersive and inspiring learning experiences for our students.

This week, the Middle School students have set off to Monterey (5th grade), Washington, D.C. (6th grade), Los Angeles (7th grade) domestically, and Spain, Japan, and Singapore (8th grade) internationally. Read these travel dispatches from a few fifth, sixth, and seventh graders, and keep an eye out for next week’s dispatch, where eighth graders will share a little bit of their homestay experiences.

The theme of the Lower School CSL program this year is “abilities awareness,” with a goal of inspiring inclusion and respect for people with differing abilities.  A number of events and opportunities have taken place over the course of the year. We invite you to read more about in-school CSL programs and weekend family volunteer opportunities.

This year marked the return of a milestone Nueva Middle School experience: the eighth-grade trips around the world included language-based homestays.

Our Japanese, Spanish, and Mandarin students each spent a week living with a host student and their family, practicing their conversation skills and taking in daily life as a teenager in a different country and culture.

Read about their experiences and see photos from their daytime activities with their classmates.