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By building awareness of cultural influences on individual behavior and world events, students are better equipped to become good citizens of their local and broader communities. The world is more interconnected and interdependent than ever, and our curriculum, activities, and programming provide students with a myriad of avenues for building global perspective.
Francis Parker School emphasizes the development of the whole child, encouraging students to be active agents in their education and contributing citizens in their community. Arden Pala, Class of 2027, and Vivi Yun, Class of 2026, have gone above and beyond in their community outreach efforts.
At Parker, the advisory period curriculum is built to foster an inclusive community, promote character education, and build healthy relationships through meaningful activities and engaging discussions. This school year, Parker expanded the presence of the CASEL framework in advisory programming to further support the student as a whole by transitioning to a stronger focus on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). This change benefits students in their current developmental stages and prepares them with life skills for their future beyond Parker.
Parker sends out the NAIS College-Age Survey to alumni each year to learn more about how alumni’s time at Parker influenced their success in college. Focusing on data from the past two years, the survey captures both quantitative trends and personal reflections from alumni. The following infographic is representative of responses from the Classes of 2022 and 2023.
With her impressive career halfway around the globe, Alumni Sara Linssen ‘11 is a true testament to Parker’s Global Perspective value. Having spent the last five years in Uganda and Ethiopia, she now serves as the Director of Digital Strategy at Hatch Africa.
Lancers have been exploring their creative passions in the studio, on stage, in the woodshop, and in other places on campus since the start of the school year. Enjoy a few highlights from this season’s arts and design courses.
The Francis Parker School’s fall sports season has come to a close, with several teams making it into post-season CIF playoffs and many of our Parker Athletes getting recognized for their performance.* Please join us in sharing hearty congratulations to all Lancer athletes for their participation, hard work, and completion of a competitive fall season
Each year, Parker seniors make the important choice about where their next step will take them. Over the last three years, a strong commitment to academic excellence, athletics, extracurriculars, and other worthy endeavors has helped our graduating students earn admittance to over 340 colleges and universities.
To celebrate our students' hard work and passions outside of their time on campus, we have created the Parker in the News landing page. Periodically, the page will be updated, and the round-up of stories and links will be shared with the community.
Julie (Jester) Newman ’10 is an aerospace engineer, author, and STEM outreach champion. Put simply, Julie is literally having a blast in her career. Since graduating from Parker and studying Electrical Engineering at Caltech, she has worked on a wide range of space programs, including rockets, satellites, and even a mission to Jupiter. On top of that, she was recently recognized with the “20 under 35” award for her industry.
Few siblings have the opportunity—or the desire—to work with each other day in and day out. For Parker alumni Matt Rubin ’02 and Andrew Rubin ’05, their partnership has built a business that shapes careers and ultimately changes lives.
Francis Parker School teacher Laurence Darmalingom-Hoover, known as Madame Darma to her students, teaches a mindfulness class for Grade 6 students at Parker. This course promotes wellness in the busy lives of our students
Now in its eleventh year, the Day of Giving is a school-wide, one-day campaign to reward, retain, and recruit the people who create the Parker experience: our teachers. Since 2014, your donations to the Day of Giving have allowed Parker to invest an additional five million dollars in the areas that enhance the experience for our teachers: faculty professional development, competitive salaries, and robust benefits.
Parker programs, curriculum, and activities create a community where everyone feels valued, included, and respected. We take special care to ensure that transitions between divisions and campuses run smoothly and new students easily settle into their life at Parker.
Over the past year and a half, visitors to the Linda Vista Campus have witnessed the evolution of the Parker Forward project from demolition to completion. The project began with the School’s commitment to Healthy Minds and Healthy Bodies and a strong vision for a campus hub that supported that initiative. Parker’s Athletic Director Mahina Hannemann-Gago wanted the project to stay true to the Parker value of Students First—emphasizing the need for a strong student voice to be visible throughout the new spaces. To accomplish this, Mahina called on the Student Athletic Advisory Council (SAAC) a representative body of interscholastic athletic and club programs comprised of over 30 active student-athletes.
Please bear with us as archival content is migrated from our old Parker News website through December 2025.