At the School of Los Angeles, bringing together an uncommonly diverse community has always been about cultivating lifelong—and life-changing—relationships. Everything we do, ultimately, is in service of the student experience. A more connected community—of students, parents and caregivers, faculty and staff, alumni, and benefactors—provides both a more nurturing and a more dynamic environment for intellectual, social, and spiritual formation. 

The people who make SLA what it is—those who participate directly in its daily life, and those in our broader community who continue to make that life possible—come from all walks and from all corners of our sprawling city. The role of our School, then, is to make unlikely connections and transformative relationships more and more possible every day, to hold open the time and the space that strong communities require—through celebration, stewardship, and collective study.

Curricular innovation has always been at the bedrock of our project, as well. The School began as a series of tuition-free afterschool programs, embracing many of the most forward-thinking pedagogical practices in experiential and project-based learning. In 2012 we opened our doors full time with a group of 28 students in grades six through eight, and that small middle school program has grown into one of the most dynamic secondary academic programs in the city, graduating students to some of the most exceptional colleges and universities across the country and the globe.

We have dramatically expanded our visual and performing arts offerings, including myriad curricular and cocurricular options in theatre and studio art, as well as our unique, small-band, project-based music curriculum. We have rolled out advanced and elective options in the STEM fields, including courses in some of the most essential fields for our young students, like ecology and computer science. Perhaps most strikingly, we have redefined what an Upper School core humanities curriculum can accomplish. Each semester, our students in grades 10–12 select a pairing of literature and history courses from a broad array of disciplines, including Black Studies, Environmental Studies, Latinx Studies, Asian Studies, Class Studies, Queer Studies, and European Studies. This provides students substantive choice in their trajectory through Upper School. Moreover, it affirms our commitment to a breadth of study that reflects our student body, our faculty, our city, and our world—as well as our commitment to a truly rigorous college-preparatory education. 

We have always embraced the city of Los Angeles as our classroom and our community, and we invite you to discover yourself on our campus and through our programming.

Sincerely,
Dr. Kenneth Rodgers, Jr.
President and Head of School