Alumni
The Berkwood Hedge School alumni community remain deeply engaged in learning long after graduation. They are the ones who raise their hands, the generous collaborators who operate with empathy, the original thinkers who seek and solve hard problems.
Regardless of when in the school’s nearly 80-year history they were students, our alumni always offer fond recollections of their time at Berkwood Hedge School. It is not uncommon for our local alumni to return to us when it is time to find a school for their children.
Berkwood Hedge alumni are cherished members of our extended school community, and we love to learn about and share their unique paths and adventures. The things our alumni go on to contribute to the world never cease to amaze. The relationships students—and parents—form at our school are the kind of supportive, healthy ties that persist, and many alumni classes remain deeply connected.
If you’re a Berkwood Hedge alumni, welcome!
Be sure to let us know where you are and what you have been up to so we can include your news in the next issue of our school publication, Behind the Hedge. We also want to be sure to keep you informed about the many wonderful happenings at Berkwood Hedge School!
Alumni News
Berkwood Hedge School alumni have gone on to be citizen-leaders and change-makers in a variety of areas, including the arts, medicine, science, activism, and politics. One such changemaker is Vice President, Kamala Harris. We are honored that Vice President Harris’ mother chose our school to start her daughters’ educational journey. With our commitment to critical thinking, collaborative problem solving, academic excellence, and social responsibility, our students leave our school well-prepared to go anywhere—even the White House!
In August 2024, at the Democratic National Convention, a fellow alumni and long-time friend of Vice President Harris, Stacey Johnson-Batiste, shared a story from their time at Berkwood Hedge School about a then five-year-old Harris standing up to a bully in art class. We were delighted to be mentioned as a learning environment that nurtures up-standers! We were equally delighted when a current student, and daughter of an alumni, had the unique opportunity to lead the Pledge of Allegiance on the last night of the DNC in Chicago!
Alumni Spotlight
Ben Kolligs, Class of 2007
We caught up with Berkwood Hedge School alum, Ben Kolligs, to talk about life, robotics, and his favorite Berkwood Hedge memories!
Read More
Beyond Berkwood Hedge School
With a solid academic and social emotional foundation, our graduates move through the world with confidence and self-awareness and are prepared for whatever the future holds. Our students successfully move on to a variety of independent and public high schools, including Maybeck High School, College Preparatory School, Bishop O'Dowd, The Athenian School (Upper School), Bentley School (Upper School), Head Royce School (Upper School), Berkeley High School, Albany High School, El Cerrito High School, St. Mary's College High School, Lick-Wilmerding, and Salesian College Prep.
Berkwood Hedge alumni also go on to attend a wide array of colleges from large, traditional, universities to smaller liberal arts colleges to HBCUs and international universities. In the last 5 years our graduates have attended: Smith College, NYU, Vassar College, Yale University, MIT, Occidental College, Brown University, Bates College, Morehouse College, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Maritime, Howard University, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, Wellesley College, UCLA, Georgetown University, Whitman College, Laney College, Swarthmore College, St. Andrews University (Scotland), Mount Holyoke College, Pomona College, Carnegie Mellon University, Chicago Art Institute, and many others.
