February 20, 2012 — Santa Barbara, Calif.

Academy Award-winning film director and Anacapa parent Joe Johnston will be at Anacapa School at 7:50 a.m. on Thursday, March 1 as part of Anacapa’s First Thursday Open Breakfast Club speaker series.

Johnston is best known for his directing work on such effects-driven hits as “Jumanji,” “Jurassic Park III,” and “Captain America: The First Avenger” as well as the critically acclaimed drama “October Sky.”

“Anacapa has produced many talented alumni who have gone on to careers in film and television,” said Anacapa’s headmaster Gordon Sichi. “I’m sure our current crop of artistically inclined students and families will find Joe’s stories to be fascinating.”

Johnston attended California State University, Long Beach. While in school there, he answered a bulletin board advertisement seeking artists, designers and model builders for a science fiction film. The ad had been posted by George Lucas and the film was “Star Wars.”

After Johnston worked at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light and Magic as a sequence designer and conceptual artist for ten years, Lucas encouraged him to attend USC’s School of Cinema-Television, which eventually led to his directing career.

“What I love about film is how it can tell us stories and entertain us in ways unique among art forms,” said Johnston. “No matter how many films we make in the course of our careers, every film is like the first day of school, waiting to teach us something new and exciting about the world, our audience and ourselves.”

Anacapa School hosts dozens of expert guest presenters each year. Each month, the school opens its doors to the wider community to honor a special guest lecturer as part of its First Thursday Open Breakfast Club speaker series. Prospective parents who are interested in Anacapa School for their students are welcome to attend to see a Breakfast Club in action. After the presentation, guests are invited to join a conversation with the speaker.

Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12. Founded in 1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.

Media Contact:
Levi C. Maaia
805-604-5384 • levi@anacapaschool.org
www.anacapaschool.org • facebook.com/anacapaschool

Make your reservation now!

Jennifer, Carissa and Larisa, representatives from UCSB’s chapter of the World Healers Organization, discussed opportunities for young people in Santa Barbara to get involved with global issues. Their local chapter, called the Global Awareness Club, organizes and conducts seminars in local elementary and middle schools to help raise awareness about global issues. High school students can also be involved in mentorships that allow them to conduct their own seminars on issues about which they are passionate.

Anacapa will host a Shadow Day for prospective students on Friday, February 17^th (a holiday for many schools). Visiting students will sit in on academic classes and then have lunch on campus with their Anacapa student hosts. The event will begin at 7:45 a.m. and end at 1:15 p.m.  Prospective students who are interested in Anacapa’s 7^th-12^th grade program are invited to join us. Call 805-965-0228 today to reserve your student’s place.

Click here for all Open House dates.

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Renowned Italian physicist Matteo Cantiello gave a thrilling First Thursday Breakfast Club presentation entitled “Stars: Life, death and the origin of elements” before an audience of Anacapa students, faculty and guests. His talk was aimed at breaking down the cosmic scale of the universe and relating it to our own existence and life on Earth.

During his talk, gasps could be heard from the audience as stunning visuals of our cosmic neighbors swirled on the screen behind him.  Both students and parents were stunned by the paradoxically simultaneous importance and unimportance of our own existence in the our universe and perhaps our universe’s place in a yet undiscovered multi-dimensional multiverse.  In less than one hour, Dr. Cantiello touched on subjects ranging from the physics of galaxies and nuclear fusion to the intersections between science and philosophy.  After his main presentation,  Dr. Cantiello entertained rapid-fire questions from a small, eager group in the Rochin Adobe.

Matteo Cantiello was born and raised in Tuscany. He attended the Liceo Scientifico Leonardo da Vinci and Liceo Scientifico Enrico Fermi for high school. He obtained a bachelor degree in physics and a master degree in astrophysics from the University of Pisa. His master’s thesis was on the Dynamics of Interstellar Medium. For his PhD, he studied in Holland at Utrecht University. His PhD dissertation was titled Observational Consequences of Unstable Stellar Interiors, which can be found at http://bit.ly/wLJ3S5. He was part of an international team of scientists that recently discovered the fastest-rotating massive star ever recorded.  In September 2011, he moved to Santa Barbara, where he works as an associate specialist at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (UCSB).

February Calendar

Below you can download an official letter to give to prospective donors when you are soliciting donations as well as a donation record / receipt.   Just complete the top portion and return it to school with the donation and then give the bottom portion to the donor.  It’s as easy as that!  If an item is too large for you to bring in, a committee member will be happy to pick it up from you or the donor.

• Donor Letter
• Donor Record & Receipt

Please bring donations to campus as you receive them so that we can start cataloging and pricing them.  We’d love to have as many as possible BEFORE the February break, but please have all items delivered to the school NO LATER THAN Thursday, March 1. 

Thanks for your support and enthusiasm.  With all of us working together, each doing our part, the auction will be a big success—and our wonderful Anacapa students will be the winners!

An artist's concept of VFTS 102, the fastest-rotating massive star found to date

January 26, 2012  —  Santa Barbara, Calif.

Astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello, a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Barbara’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics will be at Anacapa School at 7:50 a.m. on Thursday morning, February 2 as part of Anacapa’s First Thursday Breakfast Club speaker series.  Dr. Cantiello was part of an international team of scientists that recently discovered the fastest-rotating massive star ever recorded.  His First Thursday presentation entitled “Stars: Life, death and the origin of elements” will focus on stars and their essential role in life as we know it.

“Talking about stars, I will also try to give a feeling of the amazing scales of distance and size involved in stellar astrophysics,” Cantiello said about his presentation.  “This will be an interactive talk, so the more questions the students ask, the more they — and I — will learn.”

Dr. Cantiello’s ground-breaking research followed his doctoral work studying the life cycle of our interstellar neighbors.  He theorizes that life on Earth is possible because stars have produced, and continue to synthesize, all of the elements of which all living things are composed.

“I am thrilled to have Dr. Cantiello share his work with our school community” said Anacapa Headmaster Gordon Sichi.  “His passion and determination are apparent, and I am certain his presentation will inspire the bright young minds at Anacapa.”

Anacapa School hosts dozens of expert guest presenters each year.  Each month, the school opens its doors to the wider community to honor a special guest lecturer as part of its First Thursday Breakfast Club series.  Prospective parents who are interested in Anacapa School for their students are welcome to attend to see a Breakfast Club in action.

Matteo Cantiello was born and raised in Tuscany. He attended the Liceo Scientifico Leonardo da Vinci and Liceo Scientifico Enrico Fermi for high school. He obtained a bachelor degree in physics and a master degree in astrophysics from the University of Pisa. His master’s thesis was on the Dynamics of Interstellar Medium. For his PhD, he studied in Holland at Utrecht University. His PhD dissertation was titled Observational Consequences of Unstable Stellar Interiors, which can be found at http://bit.ly/wLJ3S5. In September 2011, he moved to Santa Barbara, where he works as an associate specialist at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (UCSB).

Anacapa School is an independent, co-educational, WASC–accredited, college preparatory day school for students in grades 7-12.  Founded in 1981 by Headmaster Gordon Sichi, Anacapa enjoys the best student-teacher ratio of any school, public or private, in Santa Barbara at its historic campus located in the heart of the Santa Barbara civic center.

Media Contact:
Levi C. Maaia
805-604-5384  •  levi@anacapaschool.org
www.anacapaschool.org • facebook.com/anacapaschool

Ben Bycel, lawyer extraordinaire, visited Breakfast Club to introduce a new afternoon elective to Anacapa, “Law and Society.” Ben’s class will cover law in Santa Barbara, with hopes of drafting new local legislation. Ben hopes for active students eager to participate in the world around them.