Pacifica Stories

I was having coffee with a new family recently. It’s always a pleasure to spend time with good people who share a common purpose: the flourishing of kids and the building of a stronger community in West Los Angeles. These are people with strong values, vision, and purpose, people who make an impact. What a blessing it is for me. Each coffee, dinner, conversation, and event that Sue and I attend is a joy. It makes us better. We pinch ourselves every day because of the work we get to do and the community we get to serve.

At this particular coffee, the family shared how pleased they’ve been with Pacifica, the education, the opportunities, and the staff. Then came a comment that stopped me: “Whatever the magic is, you should bottle it.” I smiled. I wish I could.

Of course, Pacifica has good programs, a clear mission that is active and alive, strong college placement with students attending top universities across the country, excellent academics, varied opportunities, and an extraordinary faculty. These things have been built over more than 20 years of hard work, and they are bearing fruit. But what makes it all come alive, the glue, the magic, is our culture.

Pacifica’s culture is what makes kids want to come to school. It is a culture built on God, infused with virtue, purpose, courage, and vision. It is a culture that seeks what is good, true, and beautiful, that values purpose over possession, and that encourages students to develop vision and the courage to enact it. It is dynamic and life-giving, summed up in the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Our culture isn’t simply about self, though it includes what is good for each person. It isn’t about materialism, though it affirms the goodness of the material world that God created. It isn’t merely about “getting through” to the next step; it’s about finding joy in the step you’re in. It is fully invested in the here and now, while looking eternally toward something more. It’s about becoming more human and treating others more humanely, with mercy, justice, truth, charity, humility, and kindness.

I spend much of my time helping to shape this culture. It has been my joy for 37 years in education, 22 of them at Pacifica. There is nothing I would rather do. So when you have a great experience in the STEM program, on the soccer field, reading Shakespeare, or simply laughing with friends at lunch, know that it is more than the thing itself. It is about a group of people—students, faculty, and families—creating, living in, and passing on a culture of goodness that makes all the difference.

That’s the magic.