Laguna Hills High School


Laguna Hills High School is a public high school located in Laguna Hills, California, which serves the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. Of the district’s four high schools, LHHS is geographically the smallest campus with student enrollment at approximately 1,600 students. The mascot for Laguna Hills is the Hawk, and the official colors are black, brown, and gold. 220 credits are required to graduate from Laguna Hills High School. 89% of LHHS graduates are accepted at 2- or 4-year colleges.
The innovative programs include the Golden-Bell Award-Winning Two-Way Language Immersion Program; AVID ; a four-year Model United Nations program; an interdisciplinary senior humanities program; the renowned International Baccalaurate program; and a two-period Virtual Enterprise business program.
Recent renovations to the school have brought a new football stadium and second gym, and new science building, a redone theater and library, a new multipurpose room in the center of the campus, a new food services building, expansion of the ceramics and arts room, a new video productions class, and a massive weight room. Upcoming projects will focus on the locker rooms and the remaining classrooms.

Awards and recognition

International Baccalaureate

Competitive and successful Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs have a tradition of engaging honors students in curriculum designed to help them succeed in these rigorous exams.

Advanced Placement and Honors courses

Model United Nations

Model United Nations is an extra curricular activity which simulates the United Nations. Students participate in conferences held throughout the year at various high schools and colleges. At each conference, students represent a UN member nation and discuss various topics depending on the committee they choose. The activity teaches the students about international relations, diplomacy, public speaking, and research. The LHHSMUN program is headed by campus MUN advisor, Carri Geiger. The LHHSMUN conference is held every February and is orchestrated by the students. The MUN program is campus-wide, as students are permitted to join MUN as part of a class. In 9th grade, students take MUN as part of a global connect class. In 10th grade, students taker MUN as part of AP World History. During 11th and 12th grade, MUN is taken as an honors history elective. Students in 11th and 12th grade can be a part of Secretariat, which has the responsibility of coordinating the conference each year.

Two-Way Language Immersion Program

Established in 1991, the multi-award winning SVUSD Two-Way Language Immersion Program is designed to provide English-speaking and Spanish-Speaking students an exciting, enriching, and challenging educational opportunity to learn, collaborate, communicate, and think critically in all academic content areas in both Spanish and English. By the end of twelfth grade, students will have obtained the bilingual skills and multi-cultural competencies needed to succeed in our global society and economy.

Activities

Key Club

Under the supervision of Greg Roberts, Laguna Hills Key Club is one of the largest and the most active clubs on campus. As of November 2009, there are over 100 active and participating members. Members regularly meet in the Theater every Tuesday at lunch.

True North Christian Club

True North Christian Club is an organization affiliated with Compass Bible Church, and is a club on campus led by students, who want to see Orange County be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There has been some debate among pupils and parents as to whether it is appropriate for a public school to be promoting a specific religion to its student body, however, no legal action has yet been taken by the county of Orange, the state of California or the Federal Government.

Arts

Drama

ComedySportz

ComedySportz has become an integral part of the school's drama department as well as student activities. In only its second year, the troupe placed 2nd at the Fullerton Drama Festival under Theater Games.

https://lhhsmusic.org Instrumental Music

Program offerings include Marching Band, Color Guard, Drumline, Winter Guard, Jazz Band, Orchestra, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble.

Athletics

Each student must have completed four semesters of physical education to graduate.

Wrestling

Both the boys and girls team won Pacific Coast League titles on all 3 levels. In 1990, The boys advanced and won the CIF Southern Section Finals defeating Orange High School. The boys have also advanced to the CIF quarterfinal and the girls to the CIF semifinals in 2008. In 2010 the boys advanced to the CIF semifinals while girls made it to the quarterfinals. In 2015 the girls team advanced to the CIF Division 1 Finals.

Boys' swimming

Recent alums Brittany Lastrapes and Rosey Neill played in the NCAA tournament. Elisa Victa made it to Super Regionals. Brittany for the University of Arizona, Rosey for Stanford, and Elisa for North Dakota State. In 2008 the girls repeated as Pacific Coast League champions and made it to the semifinals of CIF In 2009 a third straight title was won, and in 2010 the team won it again to make it four in a row.

Notable alumni