Flintridge Preparatory School has, since its founding in 1933, been a close-knit community, and the proof is in the number of community-centered initiatives in which students and faculty participate.

One of several initiatives supported by a Ford Foundation Leadership Grant in 2012 is the Student Community Action Council (SCAC), a student-run organization with a mission to reinforce service as an integral part of school culture, and support students as they create positive and measurable impact in our community.

The SCAC program starts in middle school, with community service days, and becomes more involved as students continue in high school. The SCAC hosted its second annual community service fair in September and has had a hand in countless community impact projects the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys. In October, the school’s Athletic Council for Leadership hosted Special Olympics on campus.

Flintridge Prep headmaster Peter Bachmann described the essential strategic importance of the school’s initiatives, which are student led, describing them as encouraging a sense of “creative daring.”

“Of course we prepare students for college,” Bachmann said at a recent Parents Association meeting, “but it is more important to prepare them for life.”

And that sense of community impact continues with parents and alumni, as well. An online searchable community called PrepExchange is another one of the programs the school launched after receiving the Ford Foundation grant. PrepExchange is a rich online venue that helps students, alumni and parents connect to explore colleges and careers. Each May, every junior at Prep is matched with a parent or alumni sponsor to explore, for a day, careers as diverse as surgery and television production. The school’s Fathers Club is so committed to giving back that it has expanded the program to offer summer internships to college-age alumni.