Pacifica endeavors to be a liberal arts high school that teaches students to think and live well by integrating faith, virtue, and learning.
OUR MISSION
Pacifica Christian High School is a liberal arts high school devoted to teaching young men and women from all neighborhoods to think critically and wisely, instilling heartfelt joy and interest in learning, while encouraging lives of faith, character, and service to the glory of God.
“Pacifica Christian is…”
Pacifica is an independent Christian high school in the heart of Santa Monica, California. We were founded in 2005 and our first class of students graduated in 2008.
“...a liberal arts high school…”
We believe that Pacifica provides a truly distinct version of a classical liberal arts education, incorporating arts and sciences, language, philosophy, and theology into our core graduation requirements. Pacifica is a college preparatory experience that is designed to teach students how to think, not what to think.
“...devoted to teaching young men and women…”
Pacifica is intentionally a coeducational experience, as young men and women learn together in a community of scholars, athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, scientists, and philosophers. A distinction of our student body is that they love to come to school, and we would have it no other way.
“...from all neighborhoods…”
Our campus is unlike any other private high school in Los Angeles, integrating families from over 50 different zip codes into a close-knit, supportive community. Pacifica is a welcoming environment for people of all walks of life and all faiths (or no faith at all) and dedicated to Christian precepts and values in all we do. Financial aid is crucial to ensuring our community is accessible for all families and has bridged the gap for hundreds of students since the school’s inception.
“...to think critically and wisely…”
Students are faced with a new problem in their education: not a lack of resources, but an infinite number of uncurated sources that can have a profound influence at a critical time in their intellectual development. Pacifica students learn to discern what is true, what is right, and what is good from teachers who pursue integrity and wisdom in their own lives and who are committed to providing mentorship and quality instruction.
“...instilling heartfelt joy in learning…”
High school should not be a competitive proving ground, but unfortunately, the college landscape has impacted the virtue of learning for learning’s sake. Pacifica students are encouraged to find a balance between rigor and relaxation—a practice intentionally implemented throughout the class schedule, homework load, and coursework itself.
“...while encouraging lives of faith, character, and service to the glory of God.”
As a Christian school, Pacifica students learn from faculty who live out their faith. In the classroom and through other experiences, students are encouraged to examine their own relationship with God by exploring life’s most important questions, contemplating meaning and purpose, and pursuing goodness and truth in their day to day lives. As a community, we daily strive to love God with hearts, souls, and minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).
STUDENT OUTCOMES
The following student outcomes guide and inform all that we do at Pacifica. Our goal is to facilitate, cultivate, and encourage each of these characteristics in our students throughout their time here and to make their high school journey one of purpose, meaning, and intentional growth. We believe these qualities will serve our students well in every area of their lives no matter what path they take after high school.
academic professionals
Academic professionals take ownership of their academic development that is manifested in their speech, comportment, preparation, and execution of scholarly endeavors. They adapt to new circumstances, are self-motivated and produce quality work. Academic professionals are hospitable to the ideas of others seeking to engage, listen and understand rather than dismiss or attack.
Excellent Scholars
Excellent scholars display critical thinking across academic disciplines, have completed a rigorous four-year college preparatory curriculum, persevere when faced with rigor and unexpected challenges, and create time to reflect on and internalize what they have they have learned so that learning will have a transformative impact on their lives.
Effective Communicators
Effective communicators will speak and write with clarity, purpose, authenticity and civility. Their actions will align with their words, thus promoting authenticity and not merely style or polish. They are able to interconnect with others in a variety of ways while retaining their authentic voice and perspective. They will learn to confidently express their thoughts and opinions in their writing and speech. They will communicate with respect toward others and themselves. Students will also traffic in a multitude of technological platforms rife for creative expression with a consistent focus on what is an appropriate balance between the private and the public. The variety of communication will enhance their traditional academic pursuits, stimulate effective problem-solving, and foster originality.
Joyful Learners
Joyful learners find joy, not only in the results of their academic engagement, but in the process of learning as well. Scholarship is recognized as both an end in itself and a means to a deeper understanding of the individual, their purpose in the world and the world itself. Joyful learners possess self-knowledge. They are aware of strengths, areas of growth, gifts, abilities and the relationship of those gifts and areas of growth to God and the community. Because they are self-aware, they graduate with a sense of direction, meaning and purpose.
Virtuous and Courageous Men & Women
Virtuous and courageous men and women hold themselves to high moral standards, pursuing what is good, beautiful, and true. They grow in their own Christian faith or in the understanding of Christian faith taking on the virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, courage, faithfulness, hope and love. They exercise the moral courage necessary to live boldly with meaning and purpose impacting their own lives and the lives of others.
Responsible Citizens
Students learn to value community in their own lives. They seek to build authentic relationships, seeking their own good as well as the good of others. They understand the value of positive critique and creative opposition in their own lives and lives of others. Students are globally aware, understanding important economic, political, religious, and social forces that impact their lives.
Directed Graduates
A student graduates with direction when he or she proactively approaches the post-high school transition by making intentional decisions to strategically reach realistic and informed professional, personal, and existential goals. A student who graduates with direction will likely conceptualize graduation as a transition to somewhere not from somewhere.
Integration of Faith and Learning
The Pursuit of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness
Commitment to The Great Conversation of Western Civilization
Commitment to Inquiry, Rhetoric, and Problem Solving
Joy In Learning
Authentic Relational Community That Pursues Grace and Truth
Student Formation
The navy blue of our crest symbolizes peace, stability, harmony, and loyalty. For the ancient Hebrews the color represented holiness, and in Christianity it points to the hope of heaven and the pursuit of truth.
The Bible is the living Word of God and our source of wisdom, and the cross reminds us of the great price Jesus paid for our salvation.
The laurel wreath reminds us of our commitment to excellence and has its origins in antiquity where it was associated with triumph, specifically athletic victory.
The lion is known for its dauntless courage, endurance, and strength. In Christianity, Christ is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
The fleur-de-lis has long been held as a symbol of purity and light. This symbol reminds us of our commitment to Christian values and a life devoted to God.
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