I graduated from Saint Mary's in 2006. Wow how time flies. With each passing year, I realize how…read moremagnificently special that school was. I danced, played softball, tennis, basketball and volleyball. I loved AP US History and struggled mightily with Calculus (followed in my older brother's footsteps). I also went surf camping in San Diego, and skiing and snowboarding in Tahoe while staying in a cabin my teacher made by hand. There was so much opportunity and goodness all around. Saint Mary's is diverse, loving and inclusive in all the best possible ways. I treasure my time there. The teachers especially stood out to me; they cared so much for all of us. I'm grateful I had the opportunity to spread my wings amongst that true forward-thinking, open-minded, open-hearted community. This school epitomizes the magic of the Bay Area to me. It is so real and so aware. How very lucky I am to have called it my school.

Saint Mary's College High School came into being as part of St. Mary's College in Moraga, It was…read morefounded in 1863 by the Catholic Church, and put under the auspices of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in 1868. Saint Mary's is Albany's other High School, although the main entrance is on the other side of Codonices Creek in Berkeley. None of my kids went to school here, although I have been on their pretty, green, and 7 building campus several times. My most notable experience involved Leo, a now departed orange tabby cat that decided to run away from home, and take up residence at St. Mary's. In fact, when I found him, he was hanging out under a tree and holding court with a few students. After I took him back home, the school called to make sure that he was OK and to tell me that the kids really missed him! He was a great cat.

I recently just got hired through the AUSD for the aquatic department, but I am in love with how…read morewell kept Albany's schools are. They are very active and community based so that families can interact with the kids ALOT! They are pretty good at getting your needs met or a response to a request!

I couldn't be happier with AUSD. Our children attend school here and we are so confident in the…read moreadministration and teachers we've encountered so far. I'm not crazy about the new standards, but feel the school does the very best with what they are forced to work with. The kids get outside so much and learn through hands on activities, which is rare these days! Great schools.

My son attended this school for 4 years and my daughter now been there for 3 years. What a…read morewonderful community of students and families. The environment fostered at School of the Madeleine is incomparable to any school that I've ever visited before. Any kid will thrive anywhere if they are destined, but for a parent to thrive as well is a dream! There are many activities for students to make wonderful friends and build great memories. The teachers work from the heart and the principal and staff are welcoming and supportive. I highly recommend this school for families looking to give their child a well-rounded education!

School mean to me. Spanish teacher target us boys. Racist comments and no action from principalread more

Our dear friend was raised Catholic...and lived a few blocks away. So it was fitting his funeral…read morewas at this charming church. It is small...almost chapel like, and it's Spanish style architecture fits it very well. The pews however, are excruciating.... literally made for child sized people. The service was what I have come to expect, traditional. It was wonderful to share the experience with his family, and our long time friends. We had a short reception downstairs...and again it was small and convenient.

Visted the parish where we got married. I miss the Dominican friars, but I am relieved the parish…read moreis still here. The love that Latin is used here throughout the mass and wish I knew the responses better. Lots of familiar faces still around. Still a beautiful church.

I was a member here, and its church plant, for over 10 years from my senior year in college to…read moreseveral years afterward, from 2005-2016. What immediately strikes you is the seriousness of the attitudes of the members here -- they are not here to play and they take the Bible very seriously. Within this church body a strong view of Lordship salvation -- which is church-speak for honoring Jesus as your Lord and Master, not just your "homeboy" or Savior, or genie in a bottle -- quite refreshing. I think the outcomes of this church are a mix of the individual, the church teaching, and the culture and influence of members of this church. My current view is that salvation (justification, sanctification, and future glorification) is completely the work of God, and not of man. I have seen Christians of all shapes and sizes come through this ministry and become essentially more of what they were, previously. e.g. Big-hearted Christians became even bigger-hearted; immature Christians became slightly less immature individuals with their problems masked by changed behaviors, but unchanged hearts. Pros: - Biblical teaching, expositional preaching, good doctrine, high view of God's word, conservative views - "Truth"-heavy - A lot of equipping. An inside joke, when the church was still called "Eastbay Baptist/Bible Church of Berkeley," was "The Eastbay Seminary." The Sunday school and equipping classes I've taken: Evangelism Training 1, Evangelism Training 2 (Apologetics), Biblical Hermeneutics, Old Testament Survey Cons: - More could be done to help build up well-rounded Christians. - Culture is too "inward" focused -- members tend to neglect relationships with family, non-Christian friends, coworkers, etc. - Can be "hyper-fundamental" at times. Things that are not explicitly sins in the Bible are viewed and treated as if they were actual sins. - Where is the grace? Tendency to be big-headed, small-hearted. - Lack of cultural diversity - Lack of age diversity - Tendency to produce behavior change (through peer pressure), rather than heart change (only possible by work of Holy Spirit) On the positive side, most of the members of this church body have a genuine desire to pursue holiness and Christ-likeness -- "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). However, because of the overall youthfulness and immaturity of certain individuals, and the proclivity for group-think, there is a tendency of a version of stoicism and monasticism (denying oneself of worldly pleasures) to be erroneously praised as a virtue among its members in their good-intentioned pursuit of holiness--which is still missing the mark. I would encourage all to be Bereans and study Scripture for themselves. I received a lot of great teaching from this church and learned the tools to help study the Bible for myself. However, there were certain experiences that I went through during my time here that were also heart-wrenching. While I have been encouraged greatly and grew tremendously as a Christian during my time here, I also experienced a lot of deeply painful experiences that are still with me today, and on some days, those painful memories are more vivid than the positive ones. I think Revelation 2:1-7 is a very good, spot-on description of this church when I was a member there: "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'" In a culture where the prevailing attitude is anti-God and overwhelmingly secular, this church is a God-send and refuge from the storm. For conservative believers, it feels like the members of this body are the "7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him" (1 Kings 19:18). However, I would exhort this church to excel still more, and to try and find ways to have a refreshing and positive impact to its surrounding and greater community. Remember the two greatest commandments: 1. Love the LORD your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. (No, not just your fellow church member.)

This church started out as a ministry in Oakland, CA…read more Pastor John came up as a guest speaker in the winter of 97, moved the ministry to Berkeley in 2002, where it resides to this date. I have been in this ministry since the very beginning, even before Pastor John came up to the Bay Area, from SoCal. For 17 years, I have been under this man's tootilage and teaching, even knowing how he had treated members and warning him to stop his madness. It came to a crashing end in November of 2014, when through several meetings that occurred in October of 2014, Pastor John revealed that the leadership actually planned a conspiracy against me, and brought false allegations to remove me from where I was serving in, although none of the emails that lead up to our meeting on October 15th indicated any of this was occurring. Moreso, he lied regarding the allegations and gave several versions of it to the church, some of, but were not limited to: He is stepping down. He is taking a break. He needs spiritual counseling. My final straw, after attempting to reconcile with him, that first I needed to be stripped of my character, and built back up to serve correctly, for Evangel. That's funny, because he has known me for over 16 years prior, and didn't have prior issues. It felt like a cult, and then I realized, that PJ might be trying to brainwash me. Prior to this, he had told me to remove my belongings (sound equipment, since I serve as his AV director), and leave. He also had them reprogram my door card to no access. I was gone! But it didn't end there. The ministry's tone changed on me in the upcoming months, in going from sentimental to an outright plea to repent. It was apparent that the ministry had heard vague accounts of what happened between the pastor and myself. After having enough of the phone calls, voice mails, and emails, I finally wrote a letter to the members explaining why I left to begin with. The backlash? 31 members came after me, either through email, yahoo mail, gmail, facebook, texting, all avenues, basically telling me to give in and submit to PJ, or else I was going to face great punishment and be excommunicated........................ And this is what is wrong with the ministry. Anyone who has a voice to stick up with what is going on, is put under the microscope of needing biblical counseling. Anyone who addresses a concern at or towards the leadership as to how they are conducting themselves, it is gossip. Unfortunately, legalism and dogmatic theology have taken over this ministry, and the way the members treat anyone who disagrees. Moreover, reconciliation is deemed church discipline if it is against the pastor. If you are a guest, coming to visit, the church from a distance seems like a piece of cake to visit and learn from. And I will say this: you will learn a lot! As an outsider, you will be amazed and astonished by the truth and words that are preached. As a member, it will bring stress, heartache, emotional trauma, physical and spiritual abuse. And this clarifies when I refer to legalism. Your social media is even monitored as to whom you associate with: if a woman associates with a brother, she is often urged to stop and block the brother. Over the years, he has also developed low views on women, single people, and the homelessness. This is the tip of the iceberg: Even people who have written on yelp have had their reviews taken down, because the church has flagged and reported that, "the facts are not true", and then another member just writes a review, just to give it a high rating. The rating for Evangel would be much much lower, than the 4.5. But because of the blocks, the rating is higher. My biggest concern, and why I post this is, in still resolving the issue in 2014, in my 17 years in the ministry, there have been at least 60 members who have left, solely, due to PJ's treatment of them. The greatest flaw in the leadership structure is that the deacons and elders, whom he personally picks, all answer to him. The current elder was a reinstated elder, who stepped down several years prior, due to his heart issues in serving in the role, to begin with. Pastor John has no accountability, and the current staff isn't keeping him accountable. The men just do whatever he asks of them. Since there isn't really any accountability, everything being done is deemed correct. Moreso, since the original elders departed from this church as the elder board, there have been increases of paranormal activity at the church. For example, I have seen, along with my family, shadows running around and even came home with three distinct scratches either on my face, arms, chest or legs, on several occasions. Pastor John does need a lot of help, repentance, even to the point of stepping down. There are plenty of decent churches out there. You can visit, but proceed with caution.

As someone who moved to the Bay Area about a decade ago, I've often missed the sense of Persian…read morecommunity I grew up with, attending "mehmoonis" (parties), hearing Iranian music fill our home, and being surrounded by our rich, beautiful culture. When it came time to find a preschool for my son, I dreamed of a place that could offer him that same warmth and connection, and Golestan has given us exactly that and more. The first time I stepped into Golestan's "hayaat" (yard), I was instantly transported to my grandpa's garden in Iran. The laughter, the trees, the care woven into every detail. It's such a lively, loving, and vibrant space where my son learns, plays, makes friends, and creates lasting memories. The teachers are absolute angels, deeply nurturing, creative, and so attuned to each child. From the thoughtfully designed classrooms to the fresh, nourishing food (with ingredients straight from their learning garden!), every aspect of Golestan reflects an intentional, heartful approach to education and community. I feel truly honored for my son to spend his days in such a magical and enriching environment, surrounded by love, culture, and curiosity, and I'm already dreaming of the day my daughter can join. Regardless of your background or heritage, Golestan is a place worth experiencing. I'm sure they'll woo you at "Salaam" :)

It is an AMAZING school. They have created magic at the school and it has become an extension of…read moreour home. The teachers love being there and always have a smile. The happy environment is very accepting of kids and loving towards them. The environment is very conducive to learning and building self confidence for the kids. The Director is probably the most passionate person I have met about education and every detail in the school show it.

Hanabi Judo has been a fantastic experience for our family. We moved from abroad and Hanabi…read morewelcomed us in with open arms, working with my son to feel comfortable and confident. Dan Sensie is accomodating, always available to give families and kids the individual support and attention they need, and runs a dojo that is warm and community-centric while still maintaining the highest level of discipline and professionalism. We have watched my son grow stronger and improve his skills and practice, while working hard and enjoying himself!

Great experience talking to the owner about conditioning my older body, safety and learning how to…read morefall. Obviously his focus on children is important for the future, but he has great wisdom for us older folks as well.and a special session Tuesday nights for the more mature.