The Overlake School
Encyclopedia
The Overlake School is a private
, non-sectarian, co-ed, college preparatory school located in Redmond, Washington
. It serves 500 students in grades 5 through 12. The school was founded in 1967 by Charlie Clarke. It was recently featured in the Seattle Times for its work in Cambodia
.
, Spanish
, French
, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin
from sixth grade onward; at least three years of one language are required to graduate. Students are given the opportunity to travel to the respective country of the language they are taking. Overlake also offers several college-level humanities electives including Race and Ethnicity, Comparative Religion, The Age of Genocide, Constitutional Issues, and many more.
The student-teacher ratio at Overlake is nine to one and the average class size is thirteen. These factors contribute to a general feeling of camaraderie between students, their peers, and their teachers that characterizes the Overlake community.
Overlake has very strong soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball and golf teams. During the 1999-2003 period the team accrued three league MVPs and fifteen cumulative first team all-league recognitions. Led by a dominating 1-2 punch of Matt Nieman and Mark Gudaitis, the men's golf team won the league championships in 2005 and in 2006 (with Matt Nieman winning the individual tournament on the second playoff hole), as well as the state championship in 2006. The men's tennis team won state in both singles and doubles. Overlake has a policy of inclusion in its athletics; everyone who tries out for a sport is given a place on the team.
In 2009, the Overlake boys soccer team went undefeated and placed second in the state tournament.
In 1999, the girls lacrosse team won the State Championship.
's summer festival of chamber music
.
In 2007, The Overlake School submitted their production of the play The Robber Bridegroom
to the 5th Avenue Theatre
High School Musical Awards contest. They received several nominations, as well as two awards for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Scene Design. In addition, student Race Nagley '08 received a Student Achievement award.
In 2009, The Overlake School was again nominated at the 5th Avenue Theatre High School Musical Awards for their production of Once On This Island
, including Best Supporting Actress, awarded to Lauren Ambielli '10. Alice Madden '09 also received an award for Student Achievement. Director Bill Johns was recognized as Best Director. Footage from the 5th Avenue Theatre High School Musical Awards can be found at the TVW website.
, a choir trip to Italy
, and home rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
. Many students feel that Project Week is an essential part of the Overlake experience.
. It was soon relocated to the basement of the Eastside YMCA. In 1972, Dean Palmer moved the school to its current location.
The campus was originally a farm and Overlake retrofitted a barn to facilitate its needs with the help of students. Overlake currently occupies 750 acres (3 km²). In addition to the main school buildings, the school's land also includes the headmaster's home, a parent center (formerly a neighbor's property), several athletic fields, and a ropes course. Limited parking is available near the school itself; therefore, sophomores and juniors are required to park in auxiliary lots. A new humanities
building was recently constructed and was opened for classes in the spring of 2009. Work on a new Technology/Language Center is expected to begin in the summer of 2009.
, Cambodia
. This school serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Beginning in 2003 and continuing every other year, The Overlake School has sent small groups of fifteen to twenty students to Pailin to teach classes and connect with students. The participants in these trips have also installed computers and internet on the campus and constructed a playground.
The Overlake School has also sent students on trips to Ghana
, Dominican Republic
and Uruguay
.
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
, non-sectarian, co-ed, college preparatory school located in Redmond, Washington
Redmond, Washington
Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 54,144 at the 2010 census,up from 45,256 in 2000....
. It serves 500 students in grades 5 through 12. The school was founded in 1967 by Charlie Clarke. It was recently featured in the Seattle Times for its work in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
.
Academics
Academics at Overlake are rigorous. The school offers difficult honors tracks in science, math, English, and history. Nearly all students take Advanced Placement courses their junior and senior years. Students can choose to study JapaneseJapanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Mandarin Chinese, and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
from sixth grade onward; at least three years of one language are required to graduate. Students are given the opportunity to travel to the respective country of the language they are taking. Overlake also offers several college-level humanities electives including Race and Ethnicity, Comparative Religion, The Age of Genocide, Constitutional Issues, and many more.
The student-teacher ratio at Overlake is nine to one and the average class size is thirteen. These factors contribute to a general feeling of camaraderie between students, their peers, and their teachers that characterizes the Overlake community.
Athletics
Overlake's athletics philosophy aims to teach values on and off the field by offering a spot on the team to every student who tries out, encouraging sportsmanship, and hiring well-rounded coaches to build well-rounded athletes.Overlake has very strong soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball and golf teams. During the 1999-2003 period the team accrued three league MVPs and fifteen cumulative first team all-league recognitions. Led by a dominating 1-2 punch of Matt Nieman and Mark Gudaitis, the men's golf team won the league championships in 2005 and in 2006 (with Matt Nieman winning the individual tournament on the second playoff hole), as well as the state championship in 2006. The men's tennis team won state in both singles and doubles. Overlake has a policy of inclusion in its athletics; everyone who tries out for a sport is given a place on the team.
In 2009, the Overlake boys soccer team went undefeated and placed second in the state tournament.
In 1999, the girls lacrosse team won the State Championship.
Performing arts
The theater department at The Overlake School has grown substantially since the addition of The Fulton Performing Arts Center in 2004. Since then, the school has put on two to three performances per year. In 2005 the school became host for the August portion of the Seattle Chamber Music SocietySeattle Chamber Music Society
The Seattle Chamber Music Society is an American organization of musicians located in Seattle, Washington that is dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Established in 1982, the presenting organization is currently in its 30th Anniversary Season...
's summer festival of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
.
In 2007, The Overlake School submitted their production of the play The Robber Bridegroom
The Robber Bridegroom (musical)
The Robber Bridegroom is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alfred Uhry and music by Robert Waldman. The story is based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty of the same name, with a Robin Hood-like hero; the adaptation placed it in a late 18th century American setting...
to the 5th Avenue Theatre
5th Avenue Theatre
The 5th Avenue Theatre is a landmark theater building located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It has hosted a variety of theatre productions and motion pictures since it opened in 1926. The building and land is owned by the University of Washington and was once part of the original campus...
High School Musical Awards contest. They received several nominations, as well as two awards for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Scene Design. In addition, student Race Nagley '08 received a Student Achievement award.
In 2009, The Overlake School was again nominated at the 5th Avenue Theatre High School Musical Awards for their production of Once On This Island
Once On This Island
Once on This Island is a one-act musical with a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty. Based on the novel My Love, My Love by Rosa Guy, set in the French Antilles in the Caribbean Sea...
, including Best Supporting Actress, awarded to Lauren Ambielli '10. Alice Madden '09 also received an award for Student Achievement. Director Bill Johns was recognized as Best Director. Footage from the 5th Avenue Theatre High School Musical Awards can be found at the TVW website.
Project Week
Every year in April, Overlake offers a week of required co-curricular educational projects to the students. This is known is Project Week; it is Overlake's distinctive way to help students learn outside of the classroom. In the past, the projects offered have been diverse as a cooking class in Seattle, a forensic science project based on CSICSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
, a choir trip to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and home rebuilding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. Many students feel that Project Week is an essential part of the Overlake experience.
Location
The original campus was located at the Redwood Manor by Marymoor ParkMarymoor Park
Marymoor Park, located on the north end of Lake Sammamish in Redmond, Washington, is King County's largest, oldest, and most popular park, with more than 3 million annual visitors coming to roam its . Among recreational activities available are various sports facilities, rock climbing, a dog park...
. It was soon relocated to the basement of the Eastside YMCA. In 1972, Dean Palmer moved the school to its current location.
The campus was originally a farm and Overlake retrofitted a barn to facilitate its needs with the help of students. Overlake currently occupies 750 acres (3 km²). In addition to the main school buildings, the school's land also includes the headmaster's home, a parent center (formerly a neighbor's property), several athletic fields, and a ropes course. Limited parking is available near the school itself; therefore, sophomores and juniors are required to park in auxiliary lots. A new humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
building was recently constructed and was opened for classes in the spring of 2009. Work on a new Technology/Language Center is expected to begin in the summer of 2009.
Global service programs
In 2002, members of the Overlake community raised the funds to construct an elementary school in rural PailinPailin
Pailin is a province at the northern edge of the Cardamom Mountains, in the west of Cambodia near the border of Thailand. This province is surrounded by Battambang Province, and was officially carved out of Battambang to become a separate administrative division after the surrender of the Ieng...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. This school serves students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Beginning in 2003 and continuing every other year, The Overlake School has sent small groups of fifteen to twenty students to Pailin to teach classes and connect with students. The participants in these trips have also installed computers and internet on the campus and constructed a playground.
The Overlake School has also sent students on trips to Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
.
Notable alumni
- Carrie BrownsteinCarrie BrownsteinCarrie Rachel Brownstein , is an American musician, writer, and actress, best known as a guitarist and vocalist in the now-defunct Portland, Oregon-based band Sleater-Kinney...
('92), singer/guitarist for now-defunct band Sleater-KinneySleater-KinneySleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
, singer/guitarist for Wild FlagWild FlagWild Flag is an American four-piece group based in Portland, Oregon and Washington, D.C.. The group consists of Carrie Brownstein , Mary Timony , Rebecca Cole and Janet Weiss...
, and co-star of IFCIndependent Film ChannelThe Independent Film Channel is an American cable TV network that airs independent film and related programming. IFC programming includes commercially interrupted feature-length films, original documentaries, shorts, animated series, original series, acquired series, and content exclusively for...
sketch series PortlandiaPortlandia (TV series)Portlandia is a television series that debuted on the Independent Film Channel on January 21, 2011. The show, produced by Andrew Singer and Jonathan Krisel, is set and filmed both in and near Portland, Oregon and features Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen as well as Carrie Brownstein, a...
. - Alexis WaiteAlexis WaiteAlexis Waite, is an American professional snowboarder based out of Salt Lake City, Utah. She learned to snowboard when she was 12 years old near her hometown of Seattle.- Career :...
('00), Professional Snowboarder