Palos Verdes Peninsula High School is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

in Rolling Hills Estates, Los Angeles County,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States, in the

Los Angeles metropolitan area Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, ...

. As of 2023, it is a top-ranked school in the Los Angeles, CA Metro Area (#16) and California (#42), according to US News & World Report.

History

The school was formed in 1991 when Miraleste High School,

Palos Verdes High School Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) is one of three public high schools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, Southern California, USA (the others being Palos Verdes Peninsula High School (formerly Rolling Hills High School) and Rancho ...

, and Rolling Hills High School were merged into a single high school. The former Rolling Hills High School campus (opened 1964) had the highest capacity and was used for the combined school. When overcrowding became a problem after 1999, the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District elected to re-open Palos Verdes High School in 2002.

Demographics

In the 2023–24 year, there were 2,175 students enrolled in Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. Enrollment by race/ethnicity was 39.40% Asian, 32.55% White, 15.26% Hispanic, 2.21% Black, and 10.30% other. Enrollment by gender was 50.71% male and 49.01% female.

Athletics

In 2014, as a senior, future major leaguer Eli Morgan had a 10–2 win–loss record with a 1.23

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. He was named Bay League Co-Pitcher of the Year and All-

California Interscholastic Federation The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is the governing body for high school sports in the U.S. state of California. CIF membership includes both public and private high schools. Unlike most other state organizations, it does not have s ...

First Team.

Extracurricular Activities and Programs

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School offers a large variety of extracurricular activities including, but not limited to, Model United Nations, Speech & Debate, Mock Trial, CyberPatriots, FRC Robotics, Science Research, and Academic Decathlon. Its Speech & Debate and Model United Nations programs are nationally ranked. In October 2022, the school's Model United Nations program, together with Rotary Club of Palos Verdes Sunset and Rotary E-Club of District 2750 Tokyo Yoneyama, hosted the 1st Rotary Peace Conference with speakers such as Best Delegate CEO, Kevin Chan, and Ihor Kukhlevsky, a Ukrainian refugee. It was dedicated to bringing awareness to the atomic bombings in 1945 and nuclear weapons. A tree from Heiwa (Hiroshima Survivor Trees) was planted by California Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi afterwards.

Notable alumni

Academics and writers

Julie Otsuka Julie Otsuka (born May 15, 1962) is a Japanese-American author. She is known for drawing from her personal life to write autoethnographical historical novels about the life of Japanese Americans. In 2002 she published her first novel, ''When the ...

, author * Julie Reuben, historian *

Peter Salovey Peter Salovey (; born February 21, 1958) is an American social psychologist and former academic administrator. He served as the 23rd president of Yale University from 2013 to 2024. He previously served as provost of Yale University from 2008 ...

, psychologist & 23rd president of Yale * Lauren Williams, mathematician

Business

* Geoffrey Woo, entrepreneur and venture capitalist

Entertainment and media

* Steven Appleton, visual artist and ecological activist * Duane Chase, actor * Duane Davis, actor * Denzel Whitaker, actor * Vince DiFiore, jazz trumpeter *

Liz Gateley Liz Gateley is an American television producer. She currently serves as head of programming at Lifetime Television. She is also a founding partner and co-owner, along with Tony DiSanto, of DiGa, a studio and production company hybrid. In what G ...

, TV producer * Stephanie Hsu, actress *

Joe Inoue is a Japanese rock musician signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Ki/oon Records label. Background and career He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, to two Japanese immigrants. It was not until middle school that he became in ...

, singer-songwriter, music producer, YouTuber * Lauren Iungerich, TV producer * Jon Jafari, YouTuber * Jirard Khalil, YouTuber * Kellen Goff, voice actor * Araksya Karapetyan, Television News Anchor * Van Ling, special effects coordinator for motion pictures * Tom Martin, TV writer * Petros Papadakis, radio/television personality * Debbi Peterson, member of

The Bangles The Bangles are an American all-female band, all-female pop rock band formed in Los Angeles, in 1981. They are known for hit singles during the 1980s that made them one of the most successful pop rock groups of the decade. The band’s biggest ...

Vicki Peterson Victoria Anne Theresa Peterson Cowsill (born January 11, 1958) is an American rock musician and songwriter. She has been the lead guitarist for the Bangles since their founding in 1981. After their first disbandment in 1989, she has returned ...

, member of The Bangles *

Lee Ritenour Lee Mack Ritenour ( ; born January 11, 1952) is an American jazz guitarist who has been active since the late 1960s. Biography Ritenour was born in 1952, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he started playing guitar and four years l ...

, jazz guitarist * Yoko Yazawa, Japanese singer-songwriter

Sportspeople

* Bill Auberlen, professional race car driver *

Tracy Austin Tracy Ann Austin Holt (born December 12, 1962) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Austin won 30 WTA Tour-level singles tit ...

, professional tennis player * Jay Bilas, ESPN commentator * Dave Butler, NBA basketball player * Greg Butler, NBA basketball player * Whitney Engen, professional soccer player * Nick Frasso, professional baseball player * Clark Haggans, NFL football player *

Kevin Hartman Kevin Eugene Hartman (born May 25, 1974) is an American former soccer player who played 17 seasons in Major League Soccer, being on the field for a record 37,260 minutes. Nicknamed ''El Gato'' (Spanish for "the cat") because of his agility, refl ...

, professional soccer player * John Hennigan, WWE professional wrestler * Scott Jackson, NFL football player * Robin Leamy, 1984 Olympic gold medalist in swimming * Erik Lorig (born 1986), NFL football player * Kevin Moen, University California Berkeley, football player famous for "The Play" * Eli Morgan (born 1996), MLB pitcher (

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. Since , the team ...

) *

Merrill Moses Merrill M. Moses (born August 13, 1977) is a United States Olympic silver medalist, three-time Olympian, and three-time Pan American Games gold medalist water polo goalkeeper. He played college water polo for Pepperdine University, where he wa ...

(born 1977), Olympic water polo player * Don Slaught (born 1958), MLB catcher * Craig Stevens, NFL player * Eric Stevens, NFL player * Steve Sharp, professional soccer player *

Ena Shibahara is an American-born Japanese professional tennis player who specializes in doubles. She reached her career-high rankings of world No. 4 in doubles and No. 119 in singles. Shibahara has won eleven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including two W ...

, professional tennis player * Shawn Weinstein (born 1985), Filipino-American professional basketball player * John Welbourn, NFL football player

References

External links

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1964 Public high schools in Los Angeles County, California Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District 1964 establishments in California