| Cate School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Carpinteria, CA, USA | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, Boarding |
| Motto | Servons (Let Us Serve) |
| Established | 1910 |
| Head teacher | Benjamin D. Williams IV |
| Enrollment | 265 |
| Color(s) | Blue/White |
| Athletics | Condor League |
| Mascot | Rams |
| Website | http://www.cate.org |
The Cate School, established in 1910 by Curtis Wolsey Cate, is a four-year, coeducational, college-preparatory boarding school in Carpinteria, California, United States.[1]
Cate School is nationally recognized for its academic excellence and is located outside Santa Barbara, California. Cate's student body of 265 (83% boarders) participates in a highly rigorous academic curriculum, featuring a combined of 101 offerings with 19 AP courses. All students are involved in an extracurricular program that includes athletics, drama, music, dance, community service and an extensive outdoor program. The boarding experience is further enhanced by a diverse student body-41% students of color, and 22 states and 16 foreign countries represented.
The school is associated with Round Square, an internationally-recognized organization of schools which follows the ideals of Kurt Hahn. The program encourages and helps coordinate (through its member schools) exchange programs and service trips around the world. In 2001, Cate School was recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the Outstanding Boarding Schools in America. In 2008, The Princeton Review ranked Cate School #14 of the best boarding schools in America.
A not-for-profit organization, Cate School is directed by a board of trustees, including two faculty advisory trustees, and four ex officio members. Cate is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and is affiliated with the National Association of Independent Schools, the California Association of Independent Schools, the Western Boarding Schools Association, the Cum Laude Society, the California Interscholastic Federation, A Better Chance, and the Secondary School Admission Test Board.
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Cate's is located just outside of Santa Barbara in Carpinteria, California. The Cate campus occupies approximately 150 acres (0.61 km2) of land atop a "mesa". The campus includes, among other things, 9 student dormitories, classroom facilities, a library, theater, various art buildings, and athletic facilities including 2 gyms, 2 full-size playing fields, a track, an aquatics center with two pools, a baseball diamond, softball diamond, rock wall, tennis and squash courts.
Cate's student body participates in a highly rigorous academic curriculum, featuring a combined 101 offerings with 19 AP courses. The average class size is 11 with a 5:1 student-faculty ratio. There are numerous opportunities to craft independent study projects through the directed studies program and science research courses.
As freshmen and sophomores, students build and reinforce fundamental skills, taking courses in English, history, art, math and science as well as in foreign language and human development. Juniors and seniors then choose from more than 35 elective courses such as Oceanography, Comparative Government, or Film Studies in order to both pursue greater mastery of a topic and explore their own personal interests.
The College Board recognized Cate's Environmental Science program as the best in the nation.
All students are accepted to four-year colleges. The most popular college selections of Cate graduates over the past 5 years are University of Southern California , University of California Berkeley, New York University, Columbia University, Stanford University, and University of Pennsylvania.
All students are involved in an extracurricular program that includes athletics, drama, music, dance, community service and an extensive outdoor program which allows students to engage in many activities such as taking students surfing, kayaking, rock climbing, backpacking, mountain biking, and rafting.
Interscholastic athletic teams compete in soccer, cross country, volleyball, water polo, football, basketball, lacrosse, squash, tennis, track, baseball, and softball. Intramurals include surfing, ultimate frisbee, weight training, Tae Kwan Do, dance and others. Cate School has outdoor programs that include sea kayaking, hiking etc.
In addition to the usual clubs and activities (the newspaper, El Batidor, is a twenty-four page publication; the drama society produces several productions each year; the literary magazine, The Cate Review, sponsors an annual writing contest; numerous musical groups perform in concert and in "coffee house" presentations), the Black Student Union (BSU) sponsors a number of cultural activities and the annual three-on-three basketball tournament; the International Club promotes awareness of international issues; and the Gay-Straight Alliance promotes tolerance through a variety of programs and activities. Other clubs include: Mock Trial, the Pirate Club (ARRR), the Fencing Club, the Martial Arts Club, Blue Crew, and the Film Society. One of Cate School's proudest traditions is the Student-Faculty Senate. The only legislative body on campus, the Student-Faculty Senate is composed of both elected senators and appointed officials and deals with legislation concerning all aspects of community life. The senate is chaired by the Student Body President, the only official elected by a community-wide vote. Two others systems the school has in place are the Prefect and Teaching Assistant (T.A.) programs. Prefects are elected at the end of their junior year by students and faculty and serve as leaders, role-models, and "big brothers and sisters" in the dorms. T.A.s work with the Human Development department in their Sophomore and Freshman seminars.
Students are also very involved in service projects in the community. Students help tutor local schoolchildren, visit with the elderly and disabled, and work on local environmental improvement projects. Faculty and students also travel regularly to northern Mexico to work on community construction projects and help with children and their families in the Los Niños program, a Cate tradition for more than 30 years. Through Round Square students also have an opportunity to travel abroad for community service, work projects and exchange programs.
Cate enjoys a heated athletic rivalry with The Thacher School, and often considers a victory over Thacher (The "Toads") the most important goal in any sport. The Cate-Thacher lacrosse game is the oldest lacrosse rivalry in the west. In 2007, two Cate students formed a cheering squad for athletics called The Blue Crew. The team distributes rally towels, teaches old and new cheers to spectators, and brings an incredible amount of energy to each game.
The roots of Cate School are actually linked to Thacher. Curtis Cate, a graduate of Roxbury Latin School and Harvard College, travelled to California in 1908 with plans to start a boarding school that "combined the academic excellence of the best East Coast prep schools with the can-do, adventurous spirit of the West". Upon his arrival in California, Mr. Cate was hired by Sherman Thacher to teach English "at his famous school in Ojai Valley". He spent a happy year teaching at Thacher before moving to Santa Barbara in 1910 to start his own school (Cate School was originally called the Santa Barbara School). In the 1960s, the student gossip was that Mr. Cate (who was still alive, and revered) had left Thacher because they had stopped using silver butter plates.
Even though Curtis Cate developed his own unique teaching philosophy, Sherman Thacher was a positive influence upon him.
Notable people who have attended Cate School include:
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