Rolling Hills Prep School Starts Animal Club

Sarah Ruttenberg never met an animal she didn’t like.

[ClickPress, Mon Nov 12 2007] Rolling Hills Prep School junior Sarah Ruttenberg has loved animals as long as she can remember. In fact her first memory is asking for a dog. This love of animals has manifested itself in the introduction of RHP’s Animal Club. Sarah formed the club at the beginning of this school year.

“I was surprised that my school didn’t have an animal club, and I thought about starting one all summer, particularly after I had begun volunteering at the Harbor Shelter at 735 Battery Street in San Pedro. I thought that, by starting the club, I might get more people interested in helping animals by teaching them about the problems and making them see that they could help,” states Sarah.

The club is overseen by Rolling Hills Prep biology teacher Linda Tang whom Sarah praises for the time and energy she has devoted to the club. Ms. Tang adds, “Sarah’s compassion for and devotion towards animals is lovely to observe. I am happy to encourage her.”

Sarah’s vocation to help animals was ignited the first time she visited an animal shelter after finding a stray dog. Aiesha Ridgeway, the caretaker at Harbor Shelter saw an instant compassion in Sarah’s eyes. A short conversation with Sarah helped Ms. Ridgeway understand that this was a girl on a mission. She offered Sarah a position before she left that first day.
Sarah’s desire to help animals has been enhanced by working at Busch Gardens Wild Animal Park in Tampa, Florida, where she has spent time for last two summers. Sarah experienced working with many species of non-domestic animals at Busch Gardens including her favorite animal, the tiger. There she learned more about animals than anywhere else.

At the moment, the RHP Animal Club has focused on rescuing domestic animals. Sarah does all that she can at the animal shelter to make their time there comfortable and happy until they find a good home. But in her club and in the future, she would like to help more exotic and wild endangered species. She also plans on holding fund raisers for organizations such at the World Wildlife Fund and Defenders of Wildlife, and hopes to travel to different countries to help the wild animals all over the world.
Sarah lives in Rancho Palos Verdes and calls her parents the greatest influence on her life. “They taught me to think for myself, to think about others and to care for those who can’t care for themselves. I have tried to take this teaching one step further by speaking for animals who cannot speak for themselves.”

The goal of the RHP Animal Club is to raise awareness of all problems jeopardizing the safety and survival of animals and to do what it can to help with those problems. Issues that the club will tackle include: raising money to contribute to help fund the organizations working on those problems, and to educate as many people as possible so that they will join the cause and educate others. Sarah believes that the more people who know and the more that they know, the better the chance the RHP Animal Club has at saving as many animals as possible.

About Rolling Hills Preparatory School
Rolling Hills Preparatory School is a 25-year old, independent community school serving grade 6-12 students from 21 South Bay cities ranging from El Segundo to Long Beach. RHP is appropriately called a “community school” as it serves the broader educational interests of the South Bay as a community-based institution serving a broad array of educational constituents. RHP is a traditional college preparatory school whose mission for its college bound students is to develop disciplined minds, sound character, healthy bodies, and creative spirits. RHP is home to the Road to Excellence program which provides a variety of support services to intellectually capable, college bound students with specific, language-based learning differences. Ninety-nine percent of RHP students matriculate to student-appropriate colleges that include the nation’s finest public and private universities, local community colleges, special-focus engineering and arts colleges, and an array of state universities.

While offering a rigorous college prep curriculum, the school employs the latest proven innovative teaching models and learning styles to maximize the performance of individual students. The school encourages collaboration with other programs and non-profits to motivate and provide experiential learning to students. Arts collaborations, robotics, community service projects, and the outdoor education component of the curriculum are examples of RHP’s focus on encouraging its students to be high performers.

RHP relocated to its new campus in San Pedro in February of 2007. The new campus is one of the first privately-held, fully-sustainable, “green” campuses in the Western United States.

RHPS has its accreditation through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS). In addition RHPS is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).

For more information contact Ileana International:

Mike Mena
310 683-6327
mike@ileanainternational.com

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