Rafting on the American River
Both middle school and high school students begin each school year with an outdoor bonding trip. The middle school goes camping and the high school goes river rafting. Teachers and students get to know each other in an informal setting before they enter their classrooms.
Volleyball
Mount Madonna School is known statewide for its competitive volleyball program despite the small school size. Positive character development is emphasized through teamwork, accountability and the ‘hard work’ ethic of reaching goals. Volleyball also brings the community together through regular attendance at games throughout the year.
Buddy Program
Throughout the grades, beginning in preschool, there are buddy classes that meet regularly to collaborate and share learning. These programs help to strengthen our school community relationships and provide for inter-age learning.
Dedication of the Gym Site
The entire school community, including students, parents, staff, faculty and outside community supporters, gathered for a ground-breaking celebration on the concrete slab foundation of our future gym site.
Outdoor Celebrations
Our exquisite mountaintop location provides a rich setting for outdoor education, as well as a lovely place to hike the trails with our families. The Pre/K mothers are gathered here for their annual celebration at school. We recently inaugurated an annual “Parents’ Day” Celebration in an effort to respect and honor a broader family diversity.
Summit For The Planet
Every spring we host our annual major fundraiser, which is a schoolwide effort. This event reflects our values of outdoor stewardship. It also connects the school community to one another and to the beautiful mountain trails surrounding our school. Included in the event are student and staff performers and booths from local ecology organizations.
India Travel
Both eleventh and twelfth grade students have a travel component included in their ‘Values in World Thought’ curriculum. Here students are pictured with world spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet. Mount Madonna high school students collaborated with two other international schools in creating the student guide to the Dalai Lama’s book, ‘Ethics for the New Millennium.” This is a study generated by Project Happiness, which is associated with the Dalai Lama’s teachings. During their trip to India, students visited Dharamsala where they had a private audience with the Dalai Lama.
South Africa Travel
The Values trips also include service components. Eleventh and twelfth grade students gather donations of clothing, school and medical supplies to take to service organizations in the places they visit. They engage in meaningful interactions with students of their own age, sharing music and culture. Our students say they are meaningfully impacted by their experience. They express a deeper respect and appreciation for both the struggles, challenges and richness of their global family.
High School Graduation
Beginning in the preschool and kindergarten and at every level of MMS, we honor the milestones of our students’ education in formal ceremonies. We have a Pre/K Moving On Ceremony, a fifth grade graduation, a middle school graduation and a high school graduation. At both our middle and high school graduations, each student offers either a song, speech or art depiction representing their school experience.
Ramayana
Our stellar performing arts program culminates the year with an annual production of the Indian epic, Ramayana! . June, 2016 will be our 38th year of this nationally acclaimed performance. Our production is the longest-running performance of Ramayana in the western hemisphere. With participation of our whole school, it truly takes an entire village to create a successful community and public event of this quality and magnitude. Our families sell concessions and merchandise, apply make-up, create costumes, assemble sets, support backstage, supervise students and more. Ramayana! is one of our major end-of-year celebrations bringing students and their families, preschool through high school, together.
