We love Disneyland, and we absolutely encourage families traveling from out of town to build it into their LA stay if it’s on your list. That said, Disneyland is really an all-day (and often all-weekend) experience, and we already have wonderful OHS families in the community who organize Disneyland meetups.

More importantly, we designed this weekend around community building. We want students to actually meet, connect, wander the pier together, play silly games, laugh on roller coasters, share late-night snacks, and make the kinds of memories that turn online classmates into real friends. In many ways, smaller shared experiences create more interaction than a massive theme park where groups naturally spread out all day.

And on that note: parents, we encourage you—when appropriate and within your comfort level—to let students spend time exploring with their peers throughout the weekend. While this is certainly a family-friendly event, one of the greatest opportunities here is for students to discover one another’s personalities, build independence, and create their own connections within the OHS community.

We seriously considered Universal Studios—and we know many students love it—but ultimately Magic Mountain felt like the better fit for this particular meetup. Universal is significantly more expensive, especially once you factor in the VIP experience needed to make the day run smoothly and minimize long waits. Throughout the weekend, we’ve intentionally prioritized express-style access and efficient group logistics so students spend more time connecting and less time standing in lines.

We also wanted to be mindful of accessibility and comfort. Universal relies heavily on 3D/4D media, motion simulation, immersive projection mapping, and screen-based attractions, which can be overwhelming or uncomfortable for students with sensory sensitivities or motion issues. By contrast, Magic Mountain offers a more open-air, physically active experience centered around classic thrill rides, nighttime atmosphere, group energy, and just plain fun.

And honestly? There’s something uniquely memorable about racing through the warm night air on a roller coaster with your friends, laughing over churros afterward, and wandering through glowing lights and music together. For this weekend’s goals—community building, shared experiences, and student connection—Magic Mountain ultimately won out.

Trust us—we tried. We’re fortunate to know people connected to SpaceX and explored the possibility seriously, but tours are extremely limited, highly controlled, and generally not available for large student community groups, especially those involving minors. Access depends on constantly shifting schedules, security protocols, operational priorities, and internal approvals that are difficult to coordinate at scale.

That said, we’ve worked hard to build a weekend that still captures the spirit of innovation, exploration, and STEM discovery through experiences like JPL, Griffith Observatory, UCLA, the California Science Center, and other uniquely Los Angeles opportunities. Our goal is to give students meaningful exposure to the people, places, and ideas shaping the future—even if we can’t quite launch everyone into orbit this year.

We actually love The Groundlings and considered it as an option. However, many of their shows are 16+, and in the spirit of community building, we wanted to prioritize activities where the entire OHS meetup group could participate together rather than splitting students by age.

A big goal of the weekend is shared experience—creating opportunities for students across grades to interact, laugh, explore, and make memories together. Whenever possible, we’ve tried to design programming that keeps the broader community connected rather than fragmented into separate tracks.

We considered both Dodgers and Lakers games, but ultimately decided against building the weekend around professional sports schedules. In Los Angeles, game logistics can quickly turn into long travel times, heavy traffic, late nights, and a significant amount of time spent simply getting people in and out of venues—something we worked hard to minimize throughout the meetup planning process.

There’s also a practical challenge: schedules, playoff scenarios, and exact game timing often aren’t finalized far enough in advance for us to reliably plan around. Instead, we chose activities that maximize time together, create more opportunities for interaction, and allow for a smoother overall experience for students and families.

We actually love the Getty Center—but in the interest of honesty, we worried it might not be the most engaging fit for the energy and style of this particular meetup weekend. We were aiming for experiences that are highly interactive, social, fast-moving, and memorable for a broad range of students.

Also, there is already an OHS meetup being organized around the Getty Center, and we wanted to complement—not duplicate—the amazing events other families are putting together. One of the strengths of the OHS community is the variety of experiences families create, and we’re excited for students to have multiple ways to explore Los Angeles depending on their interests.

We actually think film and screenwriting sessions would be an amazing addition to a future meetup—especially in Los Angeles. This year, however, we had to make difficult choices around time, transportation, logistics, age ranges, and keeping the weekend cohesive for a broad group of students and families.

Our focus for this meetup was building a balance of STEM, adventure, community, and quintessential LA experiences while keeping students actively interacting with one another. That said, we absolutely love the idea and could easily imagine a future OHS meetup centered around storytelling, filmmaking, entertainment, and the creative industries.

We explored a number of arts and performance options, including programming at Disney Concert Hall. Ultimately, with the size of our group and the logistical complexity of coordinating transportation, timing, seating blocks, and varying family interests, we decided not to organize an official concert outing this year.

We also found that the available programming during the meetup weekend—including Swan Lake and a Liszt program with Yefim Bronfman—catered to more specific audiences and did not align as well with our broader goal of fostering community interaction and group engagement across students and families.

That said, Los Angeles offers incredible arts and cultural programming, and families are absolutely welcome to explore concerts, theater, museums, or performances independently before or after meetup activities.

Yes! One of the things we’d love to facilitate is helping families and students connect with others traveling from the same region for flights, rideshares, hotel coordination, or simply meeting people ahead of the weekend. Please use this spreadsheet to share your plans. Access is monitored and limited to OHS families, so rest assured, your privacy is preserved.

Honestly, that’s a huge percentage of OHS students—and one of the reasons we care so much about creating this weekend. OHS is filled with incredibly bright, interesting, creative kids who don’t always fit neatly into traditional social environments. Many students arrive nervous, uncertain, or convinced everyone else already have established friend groups. In our experience, that feeling fades surprisingly quickly once students start sharing experiences together.

We’re a family of seven with five children ages 7 through 16, so we deeply understand the wide range of personalities, comfort levels, and social dynamics that come with kids and teens. More than anything, we’re here to help facilitate conversations, introductions, and connections throughout the weekend so students feel welcomed and included.

We’ve intentionally designed the meetup around interactive, low-pressure activities that naturally create conversation and connection: walking the pier at night, riding roller coasters together, sharing meals, exploring museums, laughing during group moments, and simply spending time alongside other curious students. Some friendships will form instantly; others will start quietly and grow over the course of the weekend. Both are completely normal.

And parents: if your instinct is to “help” by staying closely attached the entire time, we gently encourage you—when appropriate—to give students a little room to find one another. Sometimes the best connections happen when kids are given the space to step slightly outside their comfort zone together.

Great question. This meetup is not hosted by Stanford OHS itself—it’s organized by a private OHS family. That means there will absolutely be some similarities to traditional school events, but also many intentional differences.

Because we’re operating independently, we have the flexibility to build an itinerary directly around the feedback, interests, and ideas students and families have shared with us. We can move a little faster, experiment a little more, and create a weekend that blends STEM, adventure, community building, and classic LA experiences in a unique way.

We also have the privilege of subsidizing portions of what we hope will be an exceptional experience for students and families (not that official school events aren’t exceptional too!). At the end of the day, our goal is simple: create a memorable, welcoming, high-energy environment where OHS students can genuinely connect with one another in real life.

We would genuinely love the help. This meetup is being organized by a single OHS family, and while we’ve put an enormous amount of thought and planning into the weekend, community events like this are always stronger when parents contribute their own energy, expertise, and ideas.

Beyond serving as chaperones, parents can help with things like informal student hosting and introductions, transportation coordination, photography, check-in logistics, activity support, meal coordination, helping shy students feel included, or simply being a warm and welcoming presence throughout the weekend. We also love hearing from parents who have professional connections, interesting backgrounds, or creative ideas that could contribute to future OHS meetups in LA, Tahoe, or beyond.

Most importantly, parents can help by supporting the spirit of the weekend: encouraging independence, fostering connection, and helping create an environment where students feel comfortable stepping outside their usual social circles and building new friendships.

We actually spent a lot of time debating location. Early on, we seriously considered Pasadena because it would have placed us closer to JPL, Caltech, Griffith Observatory, and Mount Wilson Observatory. But in the end, the draw of the beach—and the atmosphere that comes with it—was just too strong to pass up.

Santa Monica offers a unique combination of energy and ease: space to relax and connect, walkability, beautiful weather, easy proximity to LAX, and the kind of casual environment where students naturally gather and spend time together outside of scheduled events. It felt like the right balance of adventure, accessibility, and community for this particular weekend.

That said, we’re absolutely not ruling out future meetups centered around other parts of Los Angeles. Pasadena, DTLA, Hollywood, and beyond all offer incredible possibilities for future OHS adventures.