The 2023-2024 school year was a milestone for our community as the school celebrated our first student to complete our high school program. After piloting the high school program over the last four years and completing our WASC accreditation and University of CA curriculum approval, St. Helena Montessori conferred its first high school diploma to Paul Heil at the conclusion of the 2023-24 school year.

Paul has been a driving force in the creation of the high school and was the right person at the right time to guide the nascent community of high schoolers and blaze the path that they will follow in the years to come — not simply because his parents are the directors of the program or that his grandmother started the school — but because he has developed the self-assurance to provide honest and insightful feedback that adults can listen to and take seriously. Our work as adults in this school is to guide students towards a life fulfilled, and the conversation  is evidence of the maturity he gained through his time at St. Helena Montessori and the preparation it offers any student as an “aid to life”.

Allowing students to develop their voice — to become articulate, to be an advocate for their community and place —is an outcome towards which we strive at our school and lie at the heart of Montessori pedagogy and philosophy.

As this past summer came to a close, Paul had a chance to archive some of his thoughts and reflections on his time here and to share his mindset for the next big step he has taken to begin at Hillsdale College.

There are a number of things that are to be found impressive in the conversation, but much of what stands out is his deep sense of gratitude for what he has been offered here and in his life, and his outlook on what education has meant for him and how that will serve him in his future. In reflecting about the principles of what his education has offered him, Paul offered: “It’s more about first understanding the principles and the higher truth, the deeper things that are behind the information, because the information is always going to be there. I think the ability to distinguish the truth, the ability to know justice, recognize beauty, and to understand faith…those are just a few.”

To hear the full conversation use the link below: