Know Your High Schools

Arguably the best years of our life, high school is when kids become adults and where lasting memories are made. Choosing the right high school for your child can be daunting, with all the choices available, having to scour each and every available high school can be gargantuan task.

Good thing there’s the High School Information Fair.

On Tuesday, October 1, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, area families with 8th grade students are invited to join the high school night event to be held at Clairbourn School’s Multipurpose Building where 25 to 30 local high schools and boarding schools are represented in one place.

“Clairbourn has been having this event for quite a long time. I’ve been running the fair for the last 18 years as one of my regular events, but the school was hosting it seven years before that. So we’ve been doing it for about 25 years,” says Janna Hawes, Director of Admissions at Clairbourn School.

Around 30 schools are represented each year, with the majority being private schools, independent schools, Catholic schools, and parochial Christian schools within the area.

“They send their admissions directors, sometimes there are students with them. Some of the boarding schools that come from around California and out of California either send their admissions director or associate or an alumni rep,” say Hawes.

“They will bring materials and some of them have fancy displays, some of them have sample displays that they will hand out, anything from a post card, how to inquire to full-blown viewbooks and pencils and all kinds of goodies that they’re giving away,” she adds.

Families with 8th grade students get to roam the building the entire time, to talk to the various schools reps in attendance.

“It gives them an opportunity to talk to a school, consider a different type of school that maybe they hadn’t seen yet that’s right there. So it’s a win-win for everyone,” says Hawes.

From well-known schools, to obscure ones, a whole range of available schools will be present at the event.

“There are a lot of schools, like the boarding schools which aren’t as popular in California, in general. I mean California doesn’t use boarding schools as often as they do back east for example, but we’ve got some really good schools,” says Hawes.

The event requires no RSVP. Contact Janna Hawes at jhawes@clairbourn.org for additional information.

Clairbourn School is located at 8400 Huntington Drive, San Gabriel.