Our Graduates

 

 

Almaden Country Day School alumni are making a difference in the world! Our alumni are thriving in college, giving back to the community and choosing to educate their children at ACDS.

Almaden Country Day School was founded in 1982, which means that our most accomplished alumni are now entering their 40s, while many are still completing their undergraduate and graduate programs.

At Almaden Country Day School, we prepare children to live extraordinary lives; our motivated, engaged, and caring alumni illustrate the wide range of talents and interests we cultivate at ACDS.

ACDS Alumni at College

Our alumni matriculate to colleges and universities across the country and around the world, but the difference they make on their campuses is noteworthy. From academic achievement and sports medals to writing original plays or following their passions, ACDS alumni are well-rounded, avid learners.

 

• Nora Heindel ’11 (University of Mississippi) received first place in the Intermediate Equitation on the Flat class in her first Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) show. A week later, Nora also received first place in the same class at the horse show in Auburn, Alabama.
• Grace Hoffman ’08 graduated with a theater studies major concentrating in playwriting at Emerson College in Boston. For two years she was the Director of New Works for RareWorks Theatre Company, a theatre group on campus specializing in rare and new plays, musicals and performance pieces. She’s the head dramaturge on Woe Be Gone, a humorous new drama set for March on the Emerson main stage. Her own original play, Blood Sun, was chosen as part of a reading series.
• Sean Davis ’08 finished a stellar track season his senior year at UCLA. Sean has been on the PAC12 All Academic First Team for three years and UCLA’s student athlete academic honor roll since 2012.

ACDS Alumni Giving Back

At ACDS, we are a close-knit community; we put a strong emphasis on character education as well as social and emotional learning. We want to help our students recognize the many privileges they enjoy, and discover that with privilege comes the opportunity to give back.

• After attending a public high school and then volunteering at an urban high school serving mostly at-risk, low-income students, Michael Carter observed that many American students lacked any guidance in the college application process. This impacted him so much that while only a freshman at Washington university, he founded Strive for College, a non-profit that pairs college student volunteers with high school students to help them complete their applications and financial aid paperwork. Michael's non-profit now deploys more than a thousand mentors who serve tens of thousands of "Strivers," now able to access Strive's services using a mobile app that Michael helped develop.

• Spencer Pace ’08, a senior at Cal, biked 500 miles from Berkeley to Los Angeles twice while raising nearly $10,000 for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. He also started a support group at the University Health service for students who live with Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, and has volunteered at a summer camp for kids living with CD and UC.

ACDS Alumni Coming Home

ACDS is a multi-generational school; our alumni return to enroll their own children (and four have become members of our faculty!) Alumni parents are our most enthusiastic champions of "the ACDS Experience":

• "More than anything, we wanted a school that focused on educating the whole child and had small classrooms. We knew ACS could deliver that and give both of our children, Jack and Christian, the learning and loving environment that was important to our family." — Jennifer (Sandretto) Hull, Class of 1986
• "ACS is a great school that fosters the creativity and intelligence in every child. There was no decision between sending my children to ACS or another school; my wife and I knew that we would pinch every penny to get our children from K-8 at ACS. As a student, I only attended Almaden Country School for 2 years, 7th and 8th Grade. Going there really helped turn me around. I never thought I could learn as well as I did while I was there. I had great teachers that showed me that I was smart and that I did have the capacity to learn. Sadly, this was not the same approach at my former school. Because of this, I knew there was no other choice in what school to send my own children to." — Aaron Avrech, Class of 1997
• "We wanted our daughter, Madison, to go to a school that would offer her the kind of educational opportunities that would help build a strong foundation for her future. ACS offers the kind of experiences that give her the opportunity to grow all of her gifts and attributes as an individual." — Leah (Wardner) Morter, Class of 1987