Claremont High School (Claremont, California)
Encyclopedia
Claremont High School is a public
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...

 secondary school (9th through 12th grades) situated in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...

, USA. Part of the Claremont Unified School District
Claremont Unified School District
Claremont Unified School District is a Los Angeles County school district in Claremont, California. It consists of 7 elementary schools, 1 intermediate and 2 high schools, the main one is Claremont High School....

, it is a California Distinguished School
California Distinguished School
A California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately five percent of California schools are awarded this honor each year following a selection...

, a two-time national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence (1986–1987)(1999–2000), and recently a nationally recognized International Baccalaureate (IB) World School.

History

Claremont High School is located in Southern California about 30 miles east of Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. Nestled in the City of Claremont, Claremont High is within walking distance of the consortium of seven Claremont Colleges. Within the Claremont Unified School District, Claremont High is the comprehensive high school, along with seven elementary schools, a school for orthopedically handicapped students, one intermediate school, one continuation high school, one Community Day School, and one Adult School.

Claremont High School serves 2,236 students from a predominantly middle to upper-class college community. The school is proud of its rich diversity, as shown by the fact that its students speak over 20 different languages at home. The student community is 49% White, 26% Hispanic, 15% Asian and Pacific Islander, and 8% African-American. Over 90% are fluent English speakers. Claremont High serves approximately 35 orthopedically handicapped students from this and surrounding districts.

Academics

Claremont is extremely strong in academics, with above-average API scores. Each year, there are about 6-7 National Merit Finalists. There is one valedictorian
Valedictorian
Valedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...

 and salutatorian
Salutatorian
Salutatorian is an academic title given, in the United States and Canada, to the second highest graduate of the entire graduating class of a specific discipline. Only the valedictorian is ranked higher. This honor is traditionally based on grade point average and number of credits taken, but...

; these are Claremont High School’s highest academic honors. Ranking is determined by grade point average, using the University of California formula, which gives extra weight to Advanced Placement, Honors, and UC-transferable college courses. This formula is applied to UC-approved courses taken in the ninth grade through the second triad of the eighth semester of the senior year. In addition, grades in all subject areas must be a “C” or better. The honors of Valedictorian and Salutatorian are not necessarily given to the two students with the highest GPA; instead, the teachers vote out of the top 10 highest ranked students. The honors are subjectively given to the two students who have demonstrated the most dedication, work ethic, and excellence during their four years at CHS, not only with grades, but with extracurricular activities. As a result, the selection can be sometimes controversial.

In December 2008, Claremont High School became an International Baccalaureate World School, offering the IB Diploma Program. The class of 2011 was the first class able to receive their IB Diplomas from Claremont High School.

Clubs and activities

  • Every year the theater puts on approximately ten shows, in the past including Cats
    Cats (musical)
    Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...

    , Oklahoma!
    Oklahoma!
    Oklahoma! is the first musical written by composer Richard Rodgers and librettist Oscar Hammerstein II. The musical is based on Lynn Riggs' 1931 play, Green Grow the Lilacs. Set in Oklahoma Territory outside the town of Claremore in 1906, it tells the story of cowboy Curly McLain and his romance...

    , Beauty and the Beast
    Beauty and the Beast (musical)
    Beauty and the Beast is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and a book by Linda Woolverton, based on the 1991 Disney film of the same name. Seven new songs were written for the stage musical...

    , Hello Dolly
    Hello, Dolly! (musical)
    Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....

    , The Bad Seed
    The Bad Seed (play)
    The Bad Seed was a successful and long-running Broadway play by Maxwell Anderson adapted from the novel of that name by William March, and was in turn adapted by John Lee Mahin into an Academy Award-nominated film of the same name directed by Mervyn Leroy. Staged by Reginald Denham, it opened...

    , Macbeth
    Macbeth
    The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

    , and The Diary of Anne Frank
    The Diary of Anne Frank (play)
    The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...

    . Theater students consistently place in multiple categories at the CA State Thespian Festival.
  • JETS Engineering Competition at USC - 8 member team goes to USC University of Southern California
    University of Southern California
    The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

     to compete in a one-day engineering contest.
  • Speech and Debate - Led by CHS English teacher David Chamberlain, the Speech and Debate team at Claremont High School is one of the strongest in the state, and has won the Citrus Belt Speech Region league title four consecutive years. The team is consistently ranked among the top 50 in the nation.
  • Math/Science Club - A club dedicated to helping students excel in math and science and get involved in various competitions, including the American Mathematics Competition, American Invitational Mathematics Exam (AIME), Pomona - Wisconsin Math Talent Search, and High School Math Modeling Competition.
  • Solar Cup - CHS sends a team to Lake Skinner
    Lake Skinner
    Lake Skinner is a large reservoir in western Riverside County, California, located at the foot of Bachelor Mountain in the Auld Valley, approximately 10 miles northeast of Temecula...

     to compete against other teams of the Inland Empire
    Inland Empire (California)
    The Inland Empire is a region in Southern California. The region sits directly east of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Inland Empire most commonly is used in reference to the U.S. Census Bureau's federally-defined Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, which covers more than...

     in a solar boat competition.
  • Robotics Team- Teams compete against each other with LEGO Mindstorm robots in a district-wide competition.
  • National Honor Society - for qualified seniors only.
  • California Scholarship Federation - A long-lasting club for academically successful students. CSF is the largest club on campus.
  • El Espiritu Yearbook
  • Mock Trial
  • Republican Club
  • Kool Kids Klub (KKK for short)
  • Young Democrats
  • German Club
  • Interact Club - a volunteering/community service club
  • Key Club - Another active club dedicated to community service.
  • Indoor Percussion Ensemble - competes in the Winter Guard International (WGI) and Southern California Percussion Alliance (SCPA) circuits
  • Jazz Band
  • Marching Band - competes in Marching Band Open Series (MBOS) circuit
  • Concert Band
  • Winter Guard
  • Orchestra
  • CODE Club

Athletics

Claremont's sports programs are mostly successful, including Football, Volleyball, Tennis, Soccer, Track and Field, and Cross-Country. The Varsity Football team has won 21 league championships, including 5 CIF titles. The Cross-country team has excelled, with a 4th place finish at the 2009 CIF State Meet and a 3rd place finish at the 2010 CIF State Meet. In 2009 and 2010, the Varsity Tennis team won CIF
California Interscholastic Federation
The California Interscholastic Federation is the governing body for high school sports in the state of California. It mirrors similar governing bodies in other states; however, it differs from some of the others in that it covers most high schools in the state of California, both public and...

 http://www.cusd.claremont.edu/www/clubs/tennis/index.html titles. The Soccer team won Back to Back League Titles in 2001-2002, and was the 1993 CIF Champions. Claremont is part of the Sierra League consisting of Chino Hills High School, Charter Oak High School, Ayala High School, South Hills High School, and Damien High School.

Notable alumni

  • Ben Harper
    Ben Harper
    Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...

    , musician and singer-songwriter
  • Elliot Graham
    Elliot Graham
    Elliot Graham is an American film editor whose work on the film Milk was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing and for the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award....

    , American film editor
  • Hughes brothers
    Hughes Brothers
    Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes , known together professionally as the Hughes brothers, are American film directors, producers and screenwriters...

    , American film directors, producers and screenwriters.
  • Dileep Rao
    Dileep Rao
    Dileep A. Rao is an American actor who has appeared in feature films and television series. He starred in Sam Raimi's horror film Drag Me to Hell , James Cameron's science fiction film Avatar , and Christopher Nolan's thriller Inception .-Life and career:Rao was born in Los Angeles, California to...

    , American actor
  • Alex Hinshaw
    Alex Hinshaw
    Alexander Omar Hinshaw is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball...

    , MLB baseball player for the San Francisco Giants
    San Francisco Giants
    The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....

  • Justin Germano
    Justin Germano
    Justin William Germano is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization.-Early life:...

    , baseball player in the U.S, Japan and Korea
  • Kristin Rossum
    Kristin Rossum
    Kristin Margrethe Rossum , is currently serving a life sentence in California for poisoning her husband Greg deVillers with fentanyl she stole from her job and attempting to pass off his death as a suicide....

    , toxicologist notable for murdering her husband with poison
  • Frank Zappa
    Frank Zappa
    Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

    , composer, guitarist, record and film producer
  • Tony Beltran
    Tony Beltran
    Tony Beltran is an American soccer player who currently plays for Real Salt Lake in Major League Soccer.-Youth and college:...

    , MLS defender for the Real Salt Lake
    Real Salt Lake
    Real Salt Lake is an American professional soccer club based in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The team competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. They currently play their home games at Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake won...

  • Dan McGwire
    Dan McGwire
    Daniel Scott McGwire is a former American football quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks and Miami Dolphins of the National Football League.-Early life:...

    , NFL quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks
    Seattle Seahawks
    The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...

  • Martin Hewitt
    Martin Hewitt (actor)
    Martin Hewitt is an American actor. He is best known for his film debut as David Axelrod in Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love , as Dan in Yellowbeard and his role as Chad Douglas Fairchild in Zalman King's Two Moon Junction...

    , actor
  • Dave Rice
    Dave Rice (basketball)
    Dave Rice is an American college basketball coach and the head men's basketball coach at UNLV. Rice replaced Lon Kruger as head coach of the Rebels on April 10, 2011.-Playing career:...

    , college basketball coach, UNLV
  • Peter Thum
    Peter Thum
    Peter Alan Thum is an American social entrepreneur, business executive, and humanitarian. He is the founder of the social venture Ethos Water and the non-profit organization Giving Water....

    , co-founder of Ethos
    Ethos
    Ethos is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals. Early Greek stories of...

     Water
  • Cameron Munter
    Cameron Munter
    Cameron Phelps Munter is a United States diplomat and career foreign service officer. He is the Ambassador to Pakistan. Earlier, he was an advisor for political and military issues to Christopher R...

    , U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan
    Pakistan
    Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

  • Anastasia Horne
    Anastasia Horne
    Anastasia Horne is an American actress/singer who has appeared on television and in the theater. Her last television role was "Lori" on the MTV series Undressed. She also starred as "Lark Madison-Scanlon" on the daytime soap opera Port Charles from 1997 to 1999...

    , American actress/singer
  • Aundrea Fimbres
    Aundrea Fimbres
    Aundrea Aurora Fimbres is an American singer and dancer. Fimbres is a former member of the pop music group Danity Kane, from 2005 to 2009...

    , American singer and dancer
  • Cameron Morrah
    Cameron Morrah
    Cameron Morrah is a tight end for the Seattle Seahawks. He was drafted in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft, by the Seattle Seahawks. He played collegiately at California, where he led the Golden Bears in touchdown receptions in the 2008-2009 season with 8...

    , NFL tight end for the Seattle Seahawks
    Seattle Seahawks
    The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...

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