Innovative Partnerships

St. Margaret’s Episcopal School values expertise from outside the schoolhouse and seeks community connections and partnerships that support academic excellence, growth and innovation for our students’ teaching and learning and for advancement of education and pedagogy. We are honored by and committed to the important relationships we have formed with leading educational and community institutions, think tanks and subject-area specialists across the nation.

St. Margaret’s has been in partnership with the University of California, Irvine Henry Samueli School of Engineering since 2005. The School of Engineering offers a unique summer research internship opportunity exclusively for St. Margaret’s Upper School students. After an extensive application process, up to 10 St. Margaret’s students are accepted for the program, matched with UCI engineering professors and graduate students in their area of interest for six weeks of intense, hands-on lab work and research. At the conclusion, students give a capstone presentation of their work and findings, and receive one unit of college credit.

 

Additionally, St. Margaret’s partners with the School of Engineering to run a one-of-a-kind, hands-on engineering, fabrication and application camp for middle school students--FABcamp. UCI engineers inspire imaginations with the opportunity to design, build and create projects from start to finish. Campers use critical-thinking and problem-solving skills to “FAB”ricate their inventions. The very popular camp is designed to expose students to the exciting and innovative world of engineering, including the use of sophisticated 3D modeling technology, and focuses on the different type of engineering from chemical and electrical, to systems and civil.

The St. Margaret’s musical partnership with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra provides students studying an orchestra or concert band instrument the opportunity to interact with and learn from professional musicians on the instrument that they study. Instrumental music classes in all divisions participate in an annual, month-long, on-campus residency with the musicians of the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. From chamber ensemble coaching and section rehearsals to side-by-side performances, our students receive dedicated interactions with renowned, professional musicians. They provide mentoring, strategies for practicing and performance, and reinforce technique and musicianship skills.

Breakthrough San Juan Capistrano is a transformational educational enrichment program for high-potential, underserved students in the local community to help them on a college path upon their high school graduation. For most Breakthrough SJC students, who join the program in sixth grade and continue through high school graduation, they will be the first in their families to attend college. The program was founded at St. Margaret’s in 2006, and since has been hosted and sponsored by the school in partnership with Breakthrough Collaborative, the national arm of Breakthrough, Capistrano Unified School District, and the Boys and Girls Club of Capistrano Valley. Many local community businesses and organizations support Breakthrough SJC including, the City of San Juan Capistrano, AmeriCorps Vista, San Diego Gas and Electric, The Gas Company, Orange County Community Foundation, Rancho Mission Viejo Community Development, and the San Juan Capistrano Rotary.

St. Margaret’s was selected by edX, a global online learning community founded by Harvard and MIT, as a partner institution for its high school initiative to offer college-prep and college-level courses to high school students around the world. St. Margaret’s offers three courses through edX:  Introduction to Psychology, taught by Dr. Jeneen Graham with Jeremy Dailey, Advanced Spanish Language and Culture, taught by Marta Austin, and The Road to Selective College Admissions, taught by Roland Allen and Amy Warren. St. Margaret’s also uses the edX online classroom platform to deliver its teacher growth and support program, RBTx, to St. Margaret’s faculty.