Mountain View Los Altos High School District

Dear MVLA Families and Friends,

 

Welcome to a new year, a new decade, and new opportunities for growth, challenge, and rewarding and exciting futures.

 

For our high school seniors, it's a time of excitement as college acceptance letters will be hitting mailboxes soon. For all students, this is a great time to focus on college and career readiness skills, which are invaluable no matter what post-high school plans involve. Our students will leave MVLA with strong, transferable skills that will lead to success as they enter colleges and universities and prepare for future careers. We are continuing to analyze best practices in and outside of the classroom as we support our students toward college admissions.

 

We continue to share with our students the importance of education and its direct link to career earnings. Experts say some of the best strategies for college-readiness provide equal or more benefit from a career-readiness perspective, and can apply to all students. These include:

Take challenging courses: MVLA provides a variety of courses that are built to challenge students. There are opportunities for those who have strengths and passions in a variety of fields. We provide students the ability to take courses that give them an opportunity to perform, share their ideas, and discover new passions. The academic curriculum is specifically designed to encourage creativity as well as complex multi-layered thinking skills. Career technology coursework includes media literacy, computer game creation, or high levels of computer science. I encourage you to check out our course information and catalogs (Los Altos/Mountain View) for additional details on the innovative classes and programs for your students.

Give back to the community: A strong sense of civic pride helps build lasting roots and fosters a positive business environment. Many successful professionals that work in the area they grew up in actively give back to their community, and support the participation of high school students in active community service. The MVLA community supports our young people by providing many avenues for leadership and civic participation, such as Key Club, Interact, Robotics Clubs and more. Students have numerous choices for on-campus organizations that match their interest, or provide venues for new clubs. Service-oriented organizations build communication skills and the ability to lead and work with teams. Our local employers tell us this is the skill that truly distinguishes an employee candidate and determines success in the workplace.

 

Seek Assistance When Needed: MVLA provides College and Career Centers at the campuses with the generous support of our MVLA Foundation. These centers are there to assist your student as they work to discover school opportunities; help with essays; and provide information about a variety of state, national and international colleges as well as other programs that may assist them along the way. Please take advantage of these valuable services early and often. As your student plans for their future, our team is happy to recommend unique small campuses that may be a good fit as well as strong programs within large universities that may match your student's interests.

 

More information is available below. We encourage you to visit our campus, counseling offices, and college and career centers. College and career preparation can be productive, rewarding, and we look forward to supporting your student

 

Thank you!

 

Dr. Nellie Meyer

Superintendent