Blog & Resources for Parents

The Westridge campus came alive as students, families, and employees gathered during Convocation to celebrate the start of the 2024-2025 school year on August 28. Convocation, held on Herrick Quad, included remarks from ASB President Kayla A. '25 and Ms. Kassar and introductions of new faculty and staff joining our community this fall. Ms. Kassar discussed Westridge's focus on deep listening—to and from both students and faculty—and how it shows caring, encourages a culture of participation, and affirms our humanity.

Westridge alumna Zandie Brockett 张桂才 ’05 is a curator and the creative director and executive producer of West of Here, a creative agency she founded to work with vanguard artists, realize perspective-shifting live experiences and original content, and provide cultural advisory to brands between Asia and the West. She was formerly the director of community and culture at NeueHouse, a private social and work space for creators, innovators, and thought leaders. She has spent her entire career building bridges between creatives and the general public, referring to herself as a ‘cultural infrastructure builder.’ She also currently sits on the DEIJ (diversity, equity, inclusion, justice) committee of the Westridge Alumnae Board and is a member of the alumnae Asian American affinity group.

We are proud to share Zandie’s Q&A this Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Read on for a peek at her experience as a Westridge student and her career trajectory building on her identity as a third culture kid.

And at Westridge—from 4th grade robot dance parties, to 10th grade “History and Pizza” discussions of important historical moments, to high-level conversations about key motifs in Beloved in junior/senior Perspectives class (a class I got to teach last week)—what are all these things if not intellectual adventure in action all the time? Ideas pinging around, the space and time to practice verbal expression, the satisfying (and maybe even essential) mix of silliness with profound learning, the trust to let go and dance with robots, the trust to munch on pizza while travelling intellectually to places far and wide. This is the opposite of perfection(ism). This is adventure. And in my heart and mind, this is what girls’ schools are at their best, at their core, at their reason-for-being level.