23 students in PBL’s Class of ’23

In 2019, Santa Monica High School founded a small program called Project Based Learning (PBL) Pathway, focusing on the creativity and social impact of students at the program. It was originally stationed at The Obama Campus on Ocean Park and Lincoln, but it was moved to the campus of Santa Monica College in 2022 to accommodate the needs of the Santa Monica Alternative Schoolhouse, whose campus underwent reconstruction. This June, PBL will be celebrating the 23 students that will make up the first graduating class in the program’s history. Their teaching method has helped students such as Isis Perez-Figueroa (’23), who will be starting her general education classes at SMC in the fall. 

“I think I’ve had a very engaging learning experience at PBL,” Perez-Figueroa said. “I find it very hard to focus when I’m sitting and listening to a lecture and this style of learning is really engaging for me and it also gives me a sense of freedom.” 

One of PBL’s core values is learning both in and out of the classroom. These actions are personified with the Leave 2 Learn initiative, allowing prospective students to seek internships in the Los Angeles area that caters to the students’ future job interests. Some examples of L2L internships include Heal the Bay at the Santa Monica Aquarium and Sony Studios in Culver City. While the structure of the initiative has changed over time, the life changing experiences that are offered to PBL students remain the same. 

“In my freshman year, our class split up into different groups for Leave 2 Learn experiences under the guidance of a teacher,” Perez-Figuerora said. “But nowadays, those experiences have become individual, which lets me go off on my own and into the rest of the world.” 

The Leave 2 Learn initiative takes place only on Wednesdays, when PBL students in lower grades spend almost the entire day in Advisory. For the seniors, having all of that time on Wednesdays has helped their projects and internships thrive, including Owen Purcell (’23), who is planning to study steadicam and drone operation at Depaul University in the fall. 

“My classes have allowed me to learn how to connect with professionals in the field I am passionate about, which is film, and go out on Wednesdays to meet with those people to learn about their experiences,” Purcell said. “I recently completed two documentary shoots, one with a major studio and one with a private director.” 

Like many schools across the country, the Covid-19 pandemic had a big effect on the PBL Class of 2023. Most of the 2020/21 school year was spent on Zoom and in the spring of 2021, PBL reopened for students to spend half of their school day at the Obama Campus before Periods 5/6. Throughout PBL, virtual learning left the Class of 2023 with mixed opinions on navigating working from home, with the opinions varying because of each student’s career goals.

“I liked virtual learning because I was able to spend more time working on my art,” PBL student Roland Knowlton (’23) said. “If I was given the opportunity, I might’ve continued to do virtual learning so I could effectively space out my school day.”

As the year comes to a close, the seniors of PBL will be leaving for colleges across the country, with some staying close to home for two years at SMC. Alongside their academic accomplishments, PBL’s Class of ’23 will also bring the learning experiences they accumulated along the way, including life lessons that will serve them well moving forward. 

The development of PBL’s seniors wouldn’t have been possible without the stalwart teachers of the program. One of the classes that PBL seniors are required to take is called Senior Thesis, which ties into the Leave 2 Learn initiative while preparing students for getting jobs in the future by learning how to make effective resumes and creating slideshows detailing the internship of a student. PBL teacher Tyler Parsons, who’s in charge of the Senior Thesis class, has enjoyed watching these students grow and mature as young adults and is very excited for what the future holds in store for the seniors after high school. 

“My favorite part about teaching this class at PBL has been watching students develop and pursue their interests,” Parsons said. “Most students I worked with at other schools didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives, and our seniors have a very strong sense of what they want to do in life and have developed a plan for their future.”