Community

Student Life

Student Life

At Milken Community School, student life is vibrant and dynamic, reflecting our commitment to Jewish values and traditions while fostering a deep sense of community. Whether it's kehillah time, Friday oneg, holiday celebrations, or exploring diverse forms of prayer and reflection, students actively live the values they learn. From Torah study to innovation in the arts, sports, music, and drama, Milken offers a holistic environment where students explore their identity, connect mind, body, and soul, and define what it means to live Jewishly.

Our students embrace tradition while engaging with modern practices, whether participating in the Tiferet Israel Fellowship in Grade 10 or joining time-honored events like class trips, the Annual Shabbaton, and Senior Year milestones. The bonds formed on these occasions create lasting memories, often the most cherished aspects of their Milken experience. Our traditions run deep, with many of them dating back to Milken's early years in the 1990s, and continue to grow, enriching the lives of students year after year.

List of 7 items.

  • 2.Oneg

    Every Friday, Milken students create an experience called 2.0neg. A beloved part of the Milken experience, 2.0neg provides students a time to relate, talk, play and hang as regular human beings. 2.0negs are often themed to various school and religious parts of the year including celebrations of Purim, Tu B’Shvat and the Persian new year, Nowruz.
  • Experiential Learning

    At Milken, experiential learning is essential, and therefore Tiyulim (trips) are a component of our curriculum that students look forward to. Some learning can only happen outside the classroom--the kind of learning that is absolutely essential in developing students who think well, belong to something greater than themselves and take positive action.
  • Holidays

    Jewish holidays at Milken are a celebration of culture, community, identity, learning and leadership. They allow us to explore core Jewish values and enable us to live in dual realms of Jewish and American time. In educational language, the holidays are the spiral curriculum of the Jewish people.

    Each holiday has a past, a present and a future. Learning to find meaning in our moment – to reinterpret a holiday, teasing out its relevance to our modern age – can be both challenge and opportunity. Our students grapple with the challenge and grow together, forging unshakeable connections to holiday observance and Jewish communal life.
  • Homecoming

    Every fall, Milken parent volunteers and staff organize a lively Homecoming event featuring carnival games, delicious food, activities and, most importantly, a football game featuring our Milken Wildcats! This annual tradition draws more than 700 students, parents, alumni, staff and supporters.
  • Purim

    Hijinks are the order of the day as students learn – through traditional and comedic means – the origins and importance of the festive Purim holiday. Highlights of Purim include costume parades, delicious hamantashen, and a senior class Purim shpiel video premiere for the rest of the school.
  • Senior Year

    Senior year at Milken is designed to give students time to refine and reflect on the work they have accomplished as they prepare for the transition to college. While completing the college application process and maintaining their high academic standards, our seniors also enjoy a series of events that help them mark this exceptional moment in their lives: the Senior Shabbaton, Senior Mystery Night, special Senior Treats, Senior Prom, a celebration of learning during the Senior Siyyum, and a meaningful Graduation ceremony with parents, friends and family.
  • Shabbatonim (Retreats)

    Spirited worship, deep discussions, meaningful reflection – these are just a few of the things Milken students experience at the Shabbaton, a tradition since the school began in the early 1990's. An overnight experience at a local Jewish camp where students have an opportunity to bond and have fun away from the everyday life of school, the Shabbaton allows students to get out into nature and celebrate with friends. It is a cornerstone of school community-building and creates memories to last a lifetime.

Where Do Nigunim (Melodies) Come From?

Yom Haatzmaut & Yom Hazikaron

Carine Carmy '04, Co-Founder & CEO, Origin

“Milken gave me the language to know how to cultivate my own Jewish identity over time.”
At Milken Community School, we think education is more than what you know. Our School, founded on Jewish values, is about who our children can become and how they can help others become who they might be. Because the world our children will create tomorrow is born in the School we build today, our mission is to educate our children so they can surpass us.
Non-discrimination Policy: Milken Community School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national and ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, athletic, and other school-administered programs.