Our History
In 2005, what started as an informal weekly playgroup born out of a Berkeley Parents' Network ad, slowly evolved into a coop preschool program with a name, a teacher and rotating parent volunteers at the Persian Center in Berkeley. In September of 2008, Golestan Kids moved into its own facilities in West Berkeley.
In April of 2007, Golestan received a small grant from the PARSA Foundation through a fiscal sponsorship from the Persian Center. This award enabled Golestan to bring on a teacher's aide and build its student body with a waiting list, and ultimately move into its own facilities in West Berkeley.
Today, Golestan Kids is growing its program to become an established institution, Golestan Center for Language Immersion and Cultural Education*. Through this expansion, we hope that others may have what we, as founding parents, were not able to find without building it ourselves: A fully immersive environment where children can learn to speak Farsi/Persian within a loving community, guided by a progressive approach to education.
"This is really fantastic! Thank you for letting me be a part of the process. [It is] a wonderful journey and I would love to be part of it. More importantly, I am so thrilled about what it will offer my children. I would be very proud to be able to help create this for them."
Click here to meet Golestan Kid's founding parents who started the program as just a playgroup and dreamed of making it so much more.
*A registered non-profit organization, we are currently in the process of applying for federal tax exemption.
