Tag archives: Kalyan Balaven

Dunn School
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 14, 2023

Dunn School’s Kalyan Balaven, head of school for the private co-ed college prep boarding and day school in Los Olivos, had no idea of the floodgates that would open when he decided to find a way to help a student from the Ukraine who early last year was initially only seeking a few extra days […]

The Locals Helping Ukraine
By Zach Rosen   |   May 31, 2022

While Ukraine can seem very far away and hard to help from here, these are some stories of local organizations and people that are helping Ukrainians both close by and afar.  ShelterBox USA For years ShelterBox USA has been helping communities in crisis around the world, even being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in […]

A Collaborative Mission
By Montecito Journal   |   May 24, 2022

On Saturday, May 7, Old Mission Santa Barbara and True Vine Bible Fellowship, Lompoc’s predominantly Black Baptist church, came together for an event at Old Mission in the name of unity. These two seemingly opposite churches have created a partnership that works to break down racial, gender, and class barriers and instead focus on emphasizing […]

Everything That Happens Everywhere Also Happens in Santa Barbara
By Gwyn Lurie   |   March 8, 2022

When I arrived at the Montecito Journal in 2019, my partner, Tim Buckley, said to me: “This might surprise you, but everything that happens everywhere else, also happens in here.”   Tim’s apocryphal and prescient message, however, made it no less shocking for me when I learned that on Wednesday, February 16, smack in the […]

EYC 2.0: Endowment for Youth Committee Looks Beyond Money to Provide Long-Term Opportunity
By Steven Libowitz   |   June 17, 2021

The Endowment for Youth Committee is one of the oldest nonprofits serving the needs of African American students and the greater Black community on the Central Coast, with a history that dates back 35 years. But before Guy R. Walker stepped in as executive director in 2015, the EYC had struggled to continue as a […]

New Dunn School Leader Reinvisions Santa Barbara County as Inclusion Lab
By Nick Masuda   |   June 3, 2021

Kalyan Balaven isn’t slated to start his job as Head of School at Dunn until July 1 — but it feels like he has been around for months. That’s because he has. He’s not only utilizing this time to acclimate his wife and two children to the area, but also establish a rapport with the […]

Developing Inclusivity and Community Go Hand-in-Hand
By Kalyan Balaven   |   May 6, 2021

Inclusion is not a special interest; it is a human right.  For the educator in me, this is a mantra that safeguards the term inclusion from how it trends currently in our discourse. In the rhetoric of our time, it has lost both its efficacy and meaning. It has become threadbare in its overuse and […]