Convent of the Sacred Heart High School551

I attend Convent High School and have been very impressed with it. Many of my teachers hold advanced degrees in their fields, and have job offers at top universities, such as Stanford and University of California, Berkeley, and yet they choose to teach here. The small class sizes make learning a very community oriented and involved process. MY smallest classes have four, seven, and eight people in them, respectively. While the school is mostly composed of well-to-do families and famous San Francisco names, such as Shorenstein-Hayes and others, their scholarship program helps to keep their education available to more girls. I myself receive an Academic Scholarship, which generously provides a $5,000 reduction on my tuition. The opportunities available at the school are once in a lifetime, largely due to its important connections. Diane Feinstein, California state Senator, Nancy Pelosi, Democratic party leader in the House, and Angela Alioto, former San Francisco mayo, all attended Convent. As a result of these and other connections, our school is able to regularily attend operas, speakers and lecture series, City Arts and Lectures, ACT and Berkeley Rep performances, and other events throughout the year. The sense of community is strong because of the various activities throughout the year, such as Race for the Cure, in which Convent has regularly had the highest group participation in the race. The facilities at the school are excellent; we have better microscopes than Stanford, a wall-to-wall aquarium and a plethora of chemicals in our science department, a state-of-the-art theater and sound/lighting system, darkroom for photography, and ceramics and fine arts studios; a gym, running track, exercise rooms, and lots of equipment, as well as many other amenities. The all girls environment is conducive to classroom learning, though socially, there is a lot of drama. While there is an all boy's school nearby, there is so much work to do that we oftentimes are swallowed up in it. The curriculum is challenging, and standards are very high, but once again, the small class sizes allows everyone to learn together, not be able to hide in the corner, and get questions answered and comments responded to. If you are an academically driven girl, whether Catholic or not (many students are Jewish and other religions, including Islamic and Wiccan, as well as many sects of Protestantism.), then this school could be a good fit for you. I strongly encourage you to tour the school and get to know it. I have grown immensley during my tenure there, and continue to every day. It is truly a wonderful learning environment, where everyone is welcome.