Los Angeles High School of the Arts—LAHSA is on the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus, on Wilshire Boulevard in the Koreatown district of Central Los Angeles, California. The public specialty high school is within the Los Angeles Unified School District It was formerly known as the BAPA, small learning community established in 1998 by the LAUSD. As was, LAHSA continues BAPA's mission, preparing its students for enrollment and success in four-year university programs, with an emphasis placed on the performing arts: drama, singing, and dancing. Students take classes in set design, sound production, and lighting design. They are also experience other aspects of theater production, by writing, casting, and directing their own plays.
History
Formerly located at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, between Catalina Street and Mariposa Avenue in present-day Koreatown, the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles was built as part of the Ambassador Hotels System. At the time the hotel opened in January 1921, the chain consisted of the Ambassador Los Angeles, the Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles, the Ambassador Santa Barbara, the Ambassador Atlantic City and the Ambassador New York. The Santa Barbara property burned down soon after on April 13, 1921, and the Alexandria left the chain in 1925, while the Ambassador Palm Beach joined in 1929. The Schine Family owned the Ambassador from its opening in 1921 until 1971; it was set back from Wilshire Boulevard on 24 acres, which included the main hotel, a garage and several detached bungalows. The Ambassador Hotel was frequented by celebrities, some of whom, such as Pola Negri, resided there. From 1930 to 1943, six Academy Awards ceremonies were hosted at the hotel. Perhaps as many as seven U.S. presidents stayed at the Ambassador, from Hoover to Nixon, along with chiefs of state from around the world. For decades, the hotel's famed Cocoanut Grove nightclub hosted well-known entertainers, such as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Nancy Wilson, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Liza Minnelli, Martin and Lewis, The Supremes, Merv Griffin, Dorothy Dandridge, Vikki Carr, Evelyn Knight, Vivian Vance, Dick Haymes, Sergio Franchi, Perry Como, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Sammy Davis Jr., Little Richard, Liberace, Natalie Cole, Richard Pryor and Shirley Bassey. On June 5, 1968, the winner of the CaliforniaDemocratic presidential primary election, United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy, was addressing a speech at the Ambassador Hotel to an excited crowd of hopeful supporters. After the brief victory speech in the Embassy Room, Kennedy was shot three times along with five other people in the pantry area of the hotel’s main kitchen soon after midnight. Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan was arrested at the scene and later convicted of the murder. Kennedy died the following day due to his injuries, while the other victims survived from their wounds. During the demolition of the Ambassador Hotel in late 2005 and early 2006, portions of the area where the 1968 shooting occurred were eliminated from the site. The section of Wilshire Boulevard in front of the hotel has been signed the "Robert F. Kennedy Parkway".
The LAHSA Senior Defense is an end of the year cumulative assessment of an individual's journey through education, life, and adversity. Satisfactory completion of the defense is often the final requisite a LAHSA Senior clears to allow them to walk the stage for graduation. Seniors begin preparation for the defense at the end of the Fall semester, following the application period for CalState and UC schools. Students receive an assignment rubric with clear grading guidelines and instructions, and are free to construct their arguments to best reflect their growth and personal narrative. They must include three pieces of work to best reflect their change over time, one of which must be drawn from their Performing Arts concentration: Design or Performance. The defense is delivered to a panel of three adults, and may include guests selected by the student. We invite students to ask their parents, loved ones, and friends to be in attendance to provide support and encouragement.https://www.lahsa.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=865876&type=d&pREC_ID=1225505
Linked Learning
Linked Learning is a way to tie classes together so that they truly cross over. While teachers already implement aligned thematic units in their classrooms, Linked Learning projects take those units one step further. Students focus on individual components of a greater whole in their day-to-day work. By the time the project is completed and ready to be presented, students can look back to see how each piece, and each class, relates to the finished product.
