The Overlaker Magazine - Summer 2022

SU M M E R 2022

ALUMNI AND SCHOOL NEWS FOR THE ENTIRE OVERLAKE COMMUNITY

Our Journey of Self-Exploration A progress report on Overlake’s strategic plan – Coming Together PAGE 8

SU M M E R 2022

CONTENTS ARTS 2 Spring Arts Season ACADEMICS 5 More than the Sum of their Parts 6 New Student Schedule 7 Meet Flavia Vidal, Director of Teaching & Learning DEVELOPMENT 16 Doors to Discovery Campaign ALUMNI NEWS 19 Class Notes

Our Journey of Self-Exploration 8

Coming Together

A progress report on Overlake’s strategic plan

14 Measuring Success

Using dashboards to show progress

THE OVERLAKER EDITOR: Susan Messier, Director of Communications & Marketing smessier@overlake.org ASST. EDITOR: Tara Mounsey, Communications Associate tmounsey@overlake.org ALUMNI NEWS: Christian Fulghum (’77), Director of Alumni Engagement cfulghum@overlake.org

COVER PHOTO: Tina Proctor, Social Studies teacher, took this picture on a rainy November day.

ATHLETICS 21 Spring Sports Wrap-Up 25 Winter Season Wrap-Up

Dear Overlake Community, With the school year having ended, our campus is quiet (for a few days). The squirrels and crows, which often feast on student lunches left untended outside, are wondering where their ample food supply went. Soon summer program kids arrive, and the sandwiches return!

So much more returned this year, and in many ways 2021–22 felt pre-pandemic familiar with typical routines and daily life back on campus — onboarding new employees, welcoming new students and their families, hosting commencement in the gym, weather-related closures — the usual.

That said, this year was far from typical. The ever-present virus continued to require weekly testing, new protocols for fans at athletic events, new ways to hold live performances, masks, and more. Yet the program remained robust, our campus was alive with people everywhere, and we all were grateful to be back together (at least most of the time).

While ensuring everyone’s health and well-being, we accomplished some critical work aimed directly at the long-term health and well-being of the school: we created a new mission and vision. Shared in this issue of The Overlaker are the new documents and the process that enabled their creation.

Our new mission captures who we are and what we believe. It will guide our decision making given what it promises our students: we ensure students “graduate with a passion for learning, ready for any path that contributes to a better world.” The vision captures our aspirations, rooted in what learning should be and defining success in several ways. Both our mission and vision come from Overlake’s values, which are at the heart of our foundation: Compassion; Curiosity; Integrity; Inclusion & Equity; and Mutual Respect.

I am eager for everyone in our extensive community to spend time with our mission and vision and explore our process, one that leaned on all constituencies including, most significantly, our students. I want to thank Greg Bamford (’92), a member of the Board of Trustees and former faculty member, and Susan Messier, Overlake’s director of communications and marketing, who shepherded us through this work with care and passion.

We also share here many moments where you will see our mission being lived, whether in our athletic or arts programs, our strategic plan, or the many updates on our wonderful Overlake alums. These and other stories capture what has been true about the school since its founding in 1967: a community of learners who care for each other and the work they do.

Here’s to a glorious summer!

Warmly,

MATT HORVAT, HEAD OF SCHOOL

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ARTS

Spring Arts Season It was a busy spring in the arts department with three different musicals, the return of ArtsFest, and an array of music concerts.

The Spitfire Grill In March, the Upper School drama students presented The Spitfire Grill as the first musical in almost two years.

The show follows a recently released convict as she attempts to rebuild her life in a small town and encounters the challenges of her painful past and small-town gossip.

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ARTS

Honk Jr. The seventh and eight graders presented the delightful show Honk Jr., a heartwarming retelling of the story of the Ugly Duckling.

Dear Edwina Jr. Due to covid considerations, the fifth and sixth grade students presented their own musical, Dear Edwina Jr. The show is a tale of the joys and struggles of growing up.

Our youngest owls pushed themselves out of their comfort zones to present this uplifting show.

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ArtsFest Returning in full force, ArtsFest was a delightful event with art displayed all over campus, the jazz band riffing in the campus center, and the always comical drawing contest during Middle and Upper School lunch.

Choir and Band Concerts All of our ensembles presented beautiful performances this spring. The opportunity to perform live music on stage was heartily embraced and greatly missed during the past couple of years. Upper School Choirs, Upper School Orchestra and Band, 5th Grade Music Night, and MS Bands and Strings were all able to share performances.

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ACADEMICS

More than the Sum of their Parts

INFORMATION LITERACY & TECHNOLOGY D E V E LO P I N G M U LT I - L I T E R AT E , A DA P TA B L E L E A R N E R S

Change is in the wind for the library and technology departments. Starting next year, the two departments will be joining forces into a single department.

“It will enable us to work together in a more official capacity.

I think we will mutually improve because of it,” says Kelly Vikstrom-Hoyt, Director of Library Services.

Over the last several years, the Instructional Coaches for Technology laid the groundwork for this collaboration through their curricular work. Jay Heath, Director of Technology, was on the hiring committee for Vikstrom-Hoyt and knew that she had the necessary skills to foster this partnership in a way that was already happening, so it was an easy ask.

“Over time it became clear that we had one person, in Kelly, who could do this well and it might be more effective,” Heath says.

“I came from schools where tech and library were one. In library, the idea of collaborating with academic tech has been evolving.

It’s a very natural progression,” says Vikstrom-Hoyt.

The new department will be known as the Information Literacy and Technology (ILT) Department. Their new combined mission is to provide leadership, resources, and structures to develop multi-literate, adaptable learners.

In 2019, the departments began in earnest to design and hone what has become the Technology, Research, Information, and Media Literacy (TRIM Literacy) curriculum. The goal of the TRIM Literacy curriculum is to help Overlake community members learn to become better digital citizens and be in command of their technology. Whether through knowing how to identify a credible news source, access information in print or online, understanding online etiquette, or even learning how to identify a phishing email, the curriculum has crossed the paths of both departments. As the teams have worked on their scope and sequence, it became clear that more could be accomplished together as a single team focused on information literacy.

“It’s the curriculum. If there’s anything that should be leading the department in a school, it’s the curriculum. That’s what we’re trying to double down on,” says Heath.

While this partnership has been on Heath’s mind for a while, online learning further illustrated the ways the departments overlap. Both the library and technology departments are home to a plethora of resources for learning and teaching, but their knowledge goes beyond a simple place to gather tools, both departments’ core missions center around tapping into learning and literacy using said resources.

What might this look like on a day-to-day basis? Books are not going away, and the library is not turning into a computer lab.

The goal is to build something even better together. This might look like streamlining the way students and adults get help with harnessing technology like laptops, printers, or polycams, or accessing resources like Canvas and other instructional databases.

One thing Vikstrom-Hoyt is excited about is the chance to help serve more departments effectively. “I’m really excited to have a ‘way in’ to some departments that think the library doesn’t apply to them. But maybe, as someone who can help with Canvas or an instructional technology tool, then I will see a connection to a resource and can call it to their attention,” she says.

“The most important part of what we do is teaching people to be able to navigate the world by building competencies within them so they’re resourceful and resilient,” Heath says.

It’s the curriculum. If there’s anything that should be leading the department in a school, it’s the curriculum. That’s what we’re trying to double down on.”

JAY HEATH, DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY

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ACADEMICS

New Student Schedule There’s a lot that happens in a week at Overlake; math class, language class, club time, DEJI time, homeroom, and special events. And that’s just scratching the surface. The ever-present challenge is how does it all fit into a school day?

SINCE MARCH 2020, there have been five different student

schedules to accommodate online learning, hybrid learning, and a return to full-time in-person classes, and at times it’s been a little confusing. Prior to March 2020, the schedule had been the same for more than ten years. With the growth of co-curricular programming and all the priorities of faculty and students, it was clear that it was time for an update.

To tackle this goal, a committee was formed that spanned many departments and both school divisions. They accepted the task of designing a schedule that met the needs of everyone. The purpose was to take time to assess the desires and priorities of all affected parties and then use those findings to design a schedule that works to accomplish those goals.

They asked for feedback from faculty on their priorities in a schedule, students from the Design Thinking class solicited feedback from their peers, and co-curricular leaders all gave input on what they wanted from a schedule and how much time each month they required.

“I think that what made this successful was really getting information from teachers. The people who are actually going to be implementing this schedule,” says Lisa Orenstein, Interim Director of Teaching and Learning. “By using the design thinking approach, we started by gathering data and understanding the needs and then designing a solution based on the needs.”

The schedule gives a nod to the pre-pandemic schedule, returning to a seven-day rotation. The days are named by the colors of the rainbow while blocks are still named with letters, eliminating the confusion of letters being used to describe both (as in our former 8-day rotation schedule). A key difference is that all blocks will now be the same length, a departure from a schedule that had both long and short blocks on a given day. All classes will be an hour in length with four blocks in a day, meaning not all blocks will meet each day of the seven-day rotation. By building days in between class times, this will cut down on the amount of homework students have since they won’t have to work on homework for every class every night.

“It allows for homework to be more meaningful because they’re not zipping through it because they only had four classes, and three of those four won’t even meet the next day,” Orenstein notes.

Standardizing the class length and lessening the number of blocks also eliminates the number of transitions students and faculty experience, making a more predictable rhythm.

The new schedule gives a nod to the pre-pandemic schedule, returning to a seven-day rotation. The days are named by the colors of the rainbow while blocks are still named with letters.

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ACADEMICS

“Teachers and students thrive when they know what’s happening,” says Orenstein.

An exciting new part to the schedule is the addition of adult collaboration time. Every Wednesday, faculty will arrive on campus at 8:15 and spend the first portion of the day working together with people inside and outside their department to improve and ideate on curriculum strategies and partnerships.

This translates to a late start for students, allowing a mid-week break from the early morning start time, and a chance for students to sleep in and have a slower start to their day.

To accommodate the evolving co-curricular activities, a portion of time called ‘flex time’ has been added into the schedule.

Activities during this time might include (but are not limited to) DEJI time, clubs, or SEL activities. This time will also help accommodate special events that fall outside the seven-day rotation. Activities like Make a Life Day, the MLK assembly, or play previews.

The predictability of the schedule and addition of a late start for students’ mid-week aligns with the well-being pillar of the strategic plan recently approved by the Board of Trustees.

(To learn more about the well-being work, turn to page 12.)

The plan is to use this schedule with minimal modification for many years to come. “I think it worked out well, and I’m excited about it,” Orenstein says.

Meet Flavia Vidal

Director of Teaching and Learning This fall, Overlake is excited to welcome Flavia Vidal as the new Director of Teaching and Learning.

Vidal joins Overlake from the East Coast having spent 20 years in Andover, Massachusetts at Phillips Academy, an independent high school. Her most recent position at Phillips was serving as the Director of the Brace Center for Gender Studies.

However, for the past year, Vidal has spent time working on a project at Brown University in Rhode Island as a guest scholar. Her work as the gender studies director sparked her interest in learning how different schools around the country and world are teaching gender studies in a variety of settings beyond the classroom including co-curricular programs, residential, athletics, and the experience of the faculty and staff. Vidal wanted to make sure her research utilized the most recent scholarship, and being a part of the Pembroke Center at Brown, which is dedicated to the study of gender, gave her access to the best real time scholarly work.

Vidal is looking forward to getting to know Overlake’s culture and working with all departments and constituents. “The mission and guiding principles really spoke powerfully to me. I’m truly looking forward to developing a collaborative relationship across the whole school and to try to think about how we can together improve on what is already a strong program and community,” Vidal says.

While Vidal brings many years of experience working with high school students, she is excited to expand her scope to Middle School students to help create a more cohesive curriculum with the younger students. “It’s a privilege to start earlier when building a curriculum. More time to build competencies and develop skills is new and exciting for me,” she says.

Vidal is excited to get to know the students and lean into Overlake’s practice of putting the student first and listening to student’s input. “I absolutely loved that there was a slot on my interview day that was dedicated to meeting with a group of students. I always get excited when I see students getting excited about their learning process,” says Vidal.

Vidal will be moving to the PNW this summer so say hello to her as you see her around campus.

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We are one year into Overlake’s strategic plan, Coming Together, and progress is well underway. The following pages are highlights from each of the plan’s four pillars:

INSTITUTIONAL IDENTITY

WELL-BEING

ATTRACT AND RETAIN

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

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Overlake’s Mission & Vision The DNA of what we do and why

This coming school year Overlake will celebrate 55 years of existence. It is fitting the school chose now to clarify what is essentially the school’s DNA — its mission and vision. As part of Overlake’s strategic plan, Coming Together, the Institutional Identity pillar focuses on clarifying the school’s mission statement and developing a first-ever vision statement.

For the 1999–2000 school year the Board of Trustees adopted a new mission statement, which is the current statement of the school — Inspire excellence, Develop intellectual curiosity, Teach responsibility, Embrace diversity and Foster a compassionate community.

Then in 2019, the school community adopted a set of values – Compassion, Curiosity, Inclusion & Equity, Integrity, and Mutual Respect. During the year-long process that involved students, faculty and staff, it became clear the current mission statement was essentially a list of values that could be seen at times to be in conflict with the mission.

“It was clear during the school’s work of creating our values that we needed to go back and readjust our mission statement in order for it not to feel like another set of values in our community,” explains Susan Messier, Director of Communications & Marketing at Overlake and co-chair of the Mission/Vision Committee. “So, when the strategic plan was developed, the Board of Trustees gave clear direction to the school to begin the work of clarifying the school’s identity by creating a new mission statement and developing the school’s first vision statement.”

But creating a new mission and vision requires input from the campus community first in order to set a baseline understanding of Overlake’s culture and history. Below is a timeline of events that occurred in the creation of the new statements.

Oct. ’21 – The Board of Trustees and school administrators holds a one-day retreat to begin brainstorming on mission and vision themes and statements (using recent survey data and parent focus group data).

During Winter & Spring – The Mission/Vision Committee is formed with representation from alumni, trustees, administrators, faculty, and staff.

The committee meets to gather input from on-campus constituencies in order to draft statements for review by the community.

Feb. ’22 – Gallery walks are held for faculty and staff to gather themes and feedback to generate content for draft statements. continued next page >

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Feb. ‘22 – Employee survey is opened and has several questions to provide additional content for draft statement development.

March ’22 – The Mission/Vision Committee develops first draft statements.

April ’22 – Students and employees provide feedback on draft statements.

May ’22 – The committee provides final draft statement options to the Board of Trustees to vote on and adopt.

“During our year-long process of engagement the committee was able to highlight common themes that were heard repeatedly throughout the community,” explains Messier. “For our mission statement development, the themes we consistently heard from people about Overlake were — a human approach to learning, and inclusive community with authentic relationships, and a life-long love of learning while making a positive impact in the world.”

The themes for the first-ever vision statement that echoed through the community were – Increasing accessibility to more families, a balance of student health and high performance, and a flexible, real-world approach to student work.

“Taking those themes and using them as our main framework for each statement was extremely helpful to the committee and allowed us to stay true to the voice of the community when creating each draft,” explains Messier.

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COMING TOGETHER: OVERLAKE’S STRATEGIC PLAN

Our mission statement is a concise explanation of Overlake’s reason for existence. It describes our purpose and our overall intention.

Our vision statement is our forward-looking ideal state that we want to achieve in the next 10 to 15 years.

Our values are the core principles that guide and direct the community at Overlake and our culture.

Through multiple rounds of drafts and generative feedback from our employees, students, board, and alumni leadership, the following mission and vision statements have been adopted by the Board of Trustees: MISSION

The Overlake School champions students and their vast potential through engaging educational experiences in a diverse and inclusive community. Students are valued as multifaceted individuals and graduate with a passion for learning, ready for any path that contributes to a better world.

VISION

The Overlake School will exemplify a student-centered education and a collaborative learning environment that connects to the broader world. We will cultivate a community rooted in equity and mutual respect with our diverse population of families, and we will be known for a definition of human success that includes learning, relationships, well-being, and purpose.

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One of the pillars in the strategic plan addresses the Well-Being of our students and employees. Ensuring that the school remains a healthy learning environment for our students and a healthy working environment for our employees is interconnected. Research shows greater student success occurs with higher educator well-being. Likewise, higher employee well-being equates to better employee loyalty and commitment to the mission.

And while we can agree that achieving well-being is a desirable goal for any organization, each community has its own sense of well-being. That is why one of the first goals within the well-being strategic plan pillar is to define well-being for Overlake and its community of students and adults.

“Until we can define what well-being should look like here, we will be unable to see if we are indeed making strides to improve it,” explains Susan Essex, Director of Student Support. That is why an entire day was dedicated this school year to think deeply about well-being, from both an internal focus and what it means to each employee individually, but also to what well-being looks like for our students.

Employees gathered in the Campus Center during a May professional development day and spent considerable time thinking about ways well-being shows up in everyday work. The faculty and staff reflected on moments when they felt they were thriving at work, as well as moments they saw students thrive.

“It was a powerful day to allow ourselves the freedom to self-reflect and then share with our colleagues these moments of success and joy we experience from doing our work,” explains Mike Davidson, Middle School Head and administrative lead in the well-being pillar work.

“By reflecting on these moments, we were then able to start seeing some themes emerge from the group. Those themes will begin to point us to a definition of what well-being is at Overlake,” explains Davidson.

Davidson and others tasked with moving the goals forward in the well-being pillar will begin to craft some definitions so that by the time the 2022–23 school year begins, Overlake will have a good idea of what exactly well-being means on campus.

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One major outcome of work that focuses on student well-being is the creation of a new student schedule for the 2022–23 school year. (For more on this year-long process, go to page 6.)

People are at the core of any school culture and exceptional people create a vibrant and exceptional school. The goal for the Attract and Retain pillar in the strategic plan is to identify, develop, and foster positive culture and engagement practices for Overlake that lead to higher employee retention and greater employee engagement.

First order of business for the team leading this work was to develop an official human relations position at the school to better facilitate employee engagement measures, such as conducting stay and exit interviews for employees staying at Overlake and those leaving, as well as be involved in assisting hiring managers during the onboarding process of new employees.

“Given the increasing challenges in the labor market, particularly in education, it has been great to move forward with these initiatives in the areas of hiring and retention,” explains Sean Clark, Controller and Interim Director of HR. “Capitalizing on how to find and keep quality faculty and staff will only help the school continue to provide the best quality education.”

Another area of work in this pillar focuses on compensation and benefits review. Work began this spring with an outside consultant to look at both current salary strategies, such as the faculty pay scale, as well as benefits, to determine how each is positioned relative to the competitive marketplace.

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Lastly, work is underway to synthesize the data collected from the spring employee survey to understand where the school is doing well regarding employee satisfaction and engagement, and where there remains work to be done.

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Living and learning in a diverse school environment is good for all. That’s the premise of the work in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion pillar of the strategic plan. The work in this pillar focuses on growing Overlake’s employees’ and students’ cultural competency through intentional professional development and curricula. The work also focuses on retaining and supporting a diverse student body and family community through equitable and inclusive admission processes.

This school year the student curriculum was themed “Knowledge, Volition and Action Make Y(OUR) Mark” and consisted of a year-long series of presentations, workshops and programs designed to spark learning and engagement in cultural competency work.

One place this work was carried out was in one of the 14 affinity programs at Overlake. “Our students in affinity space have led incredible events, such as our South Asian Affinity space which hosted a Diwali celebration on campus for the community, and our Muslim Affinity space lead a Ramadan celebration for the community,” explains Mahtab Mahmoodzadeh, Director of Diversity & Inclusion.

Students also grew their cultural competency skills through participation in a variety of presentations this year that included topics such as anti-racist leadership, indigenous rights, and everyday activism.

For the adults on our campus, building cultural competencies has occurred through the development of culturally responsive teaching practices spearheaded by the Director of Teaching and Learning, with assistance from the Diversity and Inclusion office. Currently the two offices are curating a list of standards to adopt for social justice programming throughout the grades and integrating those standards into the curriculum.

Parents and guardians at Overlake have had more opportunities to grow in their cultural competencies as well. This school year a new PGA (Parent Guardian Association) officer was appointed to serve as a DEI liasion. “This role will be working with parent groups towards building collective capacity around issues of equity and inclusion,” explains Mahmoodzadeh.”We are exploring some onboarding training for all parent/guardian volunteers on cultural competence.”

Lastly, the work in this pillar also focuses on Overlake’s hiring efforts.

This school year senior leadership participated in two professional development sessions related to bias in hiring. In addition, dashboards have been created that will collect data from the school’s employee engagement survey to discern where the school is in relation to bringing educators of color and culturally competent educators to work at Overlake. (For more information on the dashboards, please go to page 14.)

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Measuring Success Using dashboards to show progress

“Do you value what you measure, or do you measure what you value?” asks Jay Heath, Director of Technology at Overlake. It’s a prompt Heath read once that continues to stick with him now as he undertakes helping the school measure results in regard to its strategic plan. “That was really eye-opening and has led us to try and be intentional about defining the problem we are trying to solve with data before we start coming up with solutions.” For example, Overlake has long maintained grades, GPAs, SAT scores, class enrollments, and more. “What are other things we value that we should be measuring?” wonders Heath.

Heath and team will partner with administrative leads within each of the four pillars in Overlake’s strategic plan to measure success among the pillar’s various goals.

“To do this, we are embarking on ambitious initiatives to define how data is used at Overlake, or put another way, establishing our aspirational ‘data culture,’” explains Heath. “In this work, we are seeking the right balance of data literacy, accessibility, transparency, and privacy to answer the questions, ‘Are we making progress in our goals? How do we know?’”

This spring the team unveiled a prototype dashboard that it hopes to use to measure various data and trends across the strategic plan. The first dashboard tracks data involving the school’s employees to assist the Attract & Retain strategic plan pillar. “It allows us to look at modern and historical employee retention and tenure trends with up-to-the-day accuracy.” The dashboard also incorporates key demographics to look for trends among different groups including race, generation, travel distance from school, and more.

The team, with input from Administration and data leaders throughout the school, has developed categories that when measured will point to trends among the data. “We call these categories ‘dimensions’, such as job satisfaction, engagement, well-being, growth, and more. Combining both school and constituent-supplied data, which is obtained through surveys, these dimensions give us overall scores that serve as a proxy for how we are doing in a given area,” explains Heath. “Then we work to continue to gather the data over time to give us points of comparison to look for the delta, or hopefully, improvement.” In addition to using school-supplied data, they also need to collect constituent-supplied data. The 2021–22 school year included engagement surveys for employees, parents/guardians, and students to help measure a variety of dimensions across these constituencies.

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Beyond retention, the team is tackling a Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion dashboard to look at demographic trends in Overlake’s employee and student populations over time across race, ethnicity, gender, and more. And beyond that, Heath envisions student success, well-being, and admission dashboards to allow for improved decision making backed by accurate, timely, and accessible information.

But just having data dashboards doesn’t mean the school’s work in collecting and analyzing data is complete. Heath and his team want to instill a culture of data literacy that ensures that transparency is upheld throughout the data collection and reporting process. “Given that data is defined as, ‘facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis,’ we have to be aware of all the data we keep and have a clear reason why we keep it and how we are going to use it,” explains Heath. Part of this work is also ensuring they are clearly emphasizing privacy, transparency, and access. “Ideally we’re mapping out an intentional strategy to offer transparency and access into Overlake data so everyone can do their work better as a result of having access to these dashboards.”

And while Heath and his team are positioned as the main collection point of the school’s data, the culture around what is done once the data is collected is for the entire community to embrace.

“In our technology and information programs we have the 30,000-foot view of all our systems, including where data lives and how it flows, so we can use that knowledge to seamlessly supply data for analysis as needed,” explains Heath. “And just as we all have a responsibility to care for our students, so does every employee have a responsibility to help us measure and be accountable to our strategic plan.”

Overlake has long maintained grades, GPAs, SAT scores, class enrollments, and more. “What are other things we value that we should be measuring?

COMING TOGETHER: OVERLAKE’S STRATEGIC PLAN

This is a working example of what the dashboard structure will look like. When complete it will be in color and dynamically change as data is inputted.

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Overlake’s Doors to Discovery campaign is a multi-year $35 million fundraising effort to transform the educational experience for every student, broaden access to our increasingly diverse student body, and foster a greater sense of community.

“This campaign is not just about building Doors to Discovery, it is about opening them as well. We feel all children deserve to reach their full potential. For some that means benefiting from an environment enriched through economic diversity.

For others that means having an educational experience they would otherwise be shut out from. A fully funded financial aid endowment is the vehicle that will empower The Overlake School to open new Doors so all of its students reach their full potential.”

LEE & SHANEY RUDOLPH NIA (’16), TREY (’19) & SYDNEY (’22)

PHASE 1

Whitten Math & Sciences Center Unlocking the full potential of every Overlake student and teacher in math, science, computer science, and more. $19 million goal; project complete

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our community, the Whitten Math & Sciences Center opened in Spring 2021. It is providing new and expanded opportunities and class offerings for both Middle School and Upper School students, including new programming in the stunning Idea Lab, a home for the competitive Robotics Team, collaborative spaces for group projects, and much more.

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PHASE 2

Financial Aid Endowment Opening doors to a life-changing education.

CURRENT C A M PA I G N PHASE

$9 million goal; $3.5 million raised to date

“We believe in the financial aid program because making Overlake’s great education accessible to others is the right thing to do. Education is an investment in the future…and our hope for the future includes the broadest educational reach possible regardless of income, ethnicity, or whether you’re the first person in your family to go to college. Everybody benefits from being part of a diverse community.”

ED & CECILIA WHATLEY MATEO (’23) & SOPHIA (’24)

An Overlake education is life-changing. Dedicated faculty support and inspire students to be critical thinkers, creative problem solvers, and compassionate citizens, equipped with the skills to thrive and succeed in college and beyond. Financial aid is missioncritical to providing the best possible education for all our students and developing the leaders of tomorrow.

To ensure every student who qualifies for an Overlake education can receive it regardless of their financial circumstances, we’ve committed to increasing our endowment by $9 million. Once this goal is reached, every family who requires a financial boost will receive 100% of the assistance they need. This assistance includes costs of attendance beyond tuition, such as textbooks, technology, trips, and transportation.

Achieving this goal will further our commitment to greater socioeconomic diversity, accessibility, and inclusivity, and will help Overlake more closely mirror the global society our students will someday lead, one that will require the ability to work with people of different cultures, values, viewpoints, and societal backgrounds. Increasing socioeconomic diversity among our student population will kindle critical thinking and deepen discussions in the classroom, strengthening the education for all our Owls.

“If it weren’t for financial aid, I would not have been able to attend Overlake. I am thankful every day that I had that level of education for high school at Overlake, as well as the community, the engagement, and particularly the deep relationships with teachers. It’s transformative.

I would not have the life I have today if I had gone to another school.”

What is an Endowment?

An endowment is like a large investment account, carefully managed to maximize return, for eternity. A portion of interest earnings from those investments becomes an annual revenue stream, and the remainder of the money in the account itself (also known as the “corpus”) is reinvested. As the corpus grows, so do the interest earnings, generating an ever-increasing revenue stream.

But to think of endowment only as a financial instrument is to miss the larger point.

Endowment is like a steady, life-giving breath that, over time, only gets stronger, its impact more profound, in shaping the lives of all it touches.

L AUREN NKURGANA (’05)

Yale University Board President, American Chamber of Commerce in Rwanda

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PHASE 3

Welcome & Discovery Center The new home for our community. $7 million goal; groundbreaking planned for 2024

The Welcome & Discovery Center will be a place for all members of the Overlake community to come together and celebrate all that Overlake has to offer outside of the classroom. It will transform our campus’ entry and feature a 250-seat multipurpose space for gatherings, meetings, events, and functions, such as admission events for prospective families, parent/guardian meetings, socials, guest speakers, college counseling programs, memorable student events, alumni reunions, and so much more. It will also include new collaborative spaces and administrative offices so that our professional staff can serve students at the highest level.

Donors are welcome to support our financial aid endowment or contribute to the Welcome & Discovery Center now!

WAYS TO GIVE If you are interested in supporting financial aid endowment or the Welcome & Discovery Center, please contact Director of Development Brisen Brady at bbrady@overlake.org or 425-868-1000.

To learn more about the Doors to Discovery campaign, please visit overlake.org/discovery.

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Naming Opportunities Every gift to Doors to Discovery is deeply appreciated and help move us closer to our goal. All donors, at every level, will be included on our donor recognition wall. Below are opportunities to have a gift named in honor of the donor or in honor/memory of a family member or loved one.

FINANCIAL AID ENDOWMENT

• Named endowment scholarship fund: $100,000 and above • For a list of our current named endowment funds, please visit overlake.org/endowment WELCOME & DISCOVERY CENTER

• Welcome & Discovery Center facility: $5 million • Discovery Hall: $3 million • Entry & Lobby: $1 million • Admin Wing: $1 million • Conference Rooms (2): $500,000

ALUMNI NEWS

CLASS NOTES 1970s David Vineberg (’73) recently sat for a two-part interview about his era at Overlake.

An article will be coming out in the alumni e-newsletter. He is also in the early stages of helping to plan the class’ 50th reunion!

Michael Ko (’76) helped Bill and Anna Armstrong find a new home after decades of semi-rural living in Duvall. Bill is ready for a smaller lawn to mow! A celebratory dinner was had with the Armstrongs and classmate Barbara Stanton.

Tom McNutt’s (’77) son Finnegan is spending the summer living with his godparents Joe Shaw (’78) and his wife Mo (Maureen). Finn will be working with Mo at a winery in Woodinville.

John Hadac (’77) and Christian Fulghum (’77) are helping to plan the 45th reunion of the Class of 1977.

David d’Heilly (’79) and his family will be visiting Seattle this summer, and bringing their son Sai to the Overlake campus for his first visit.

1980s Congratulations to Alison Rogers Kirk (’80) on the birth of twin grandchildren!

Thanks to Rear Admiral Hugh (Denny) Wetherald (Ret.) (’80) for bringing his lived experience and fascinating career to our fourth annual Making a Life Day in April.

Alex Smith (’81) is organizing a pandemicdelayed 1981 reunion.

Congratulations to Gavin Morrison (’82) on his recent engagement!

Thanks to Johnny Sangster (’82) for participating in Making a Life Day ’22 and talking about his life path as a recording engineer, musician, producer, and co-owner of the studio Crackle & Pop. Thanks to Chris Peterson (’85) for finishing out his term as Alumni Board President, which he did ably during the challenges of the past two years.

1990s Chris Ohta (’93) shared his life path that led him to starting his own photography studio and working as a Real Estate Advisor with Engel and Völkers during Making a Life Day ’22.

Thanks to Jess Gigot (’97) for presenting at Making a Life Day ’22. She brought both her experience as an expert in sustainable agriculture and award-winning published poet to her talk with Upper School students!

2000s Congratulations to BJ Kuula (’00) for being named to the 2021 GlobeSt.com Fifty Under Forty list of the top leaders in real estate.

Thanks to Sahar Fathi (’01) for presenting at Making a Life Day ’22. Sahar is currently an attorney in the office of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

We would be remiss if we did not thank Dr. Samantha Chan Hillyer (’01) for her excellent work as Overlake’s Health Director during the pandemic. Despite the challenges, Sam has done an amazing job keeping the Overlake community safe.

Brett Rawson (’03) presented at Making a Life Day ’22, sharing his experience as a digital storyteller. Brett is the Director of Programs for The Seventh Wave, a residency-based magazine that was a finalist for the 2021 Firecracker Awards, and the Digital Strategist at the Washington State Wine Commission.

Many thanks to Sarah Tompkins (’05), Patient & Advocate for Rare Diseases, for sharing her life experiences during Making a Life Day ’22. Sarah is also a member of our Alumni Board.

Sean McBeath (’06) has a new startup he cofounded called Dunbar. You can try it out and learn more at dnbr.to/new.

Thank to you Sean for also participating in Making a Life Day ’22.

Thank you to Eric Fulton (’07), who came to campus and spoke with Middle School students in the Computer Science Foundations course. Eric is the co-founder of Short Sleeve Studio and is about to launch his first game, Voodoo Detective, which is a ‘90’s-style point-and-click adventure/ mystery game originated from a short story he wrote. The students beta tested the game as part of their class too!

The Speaker Series Club hosted Dr. Megan Halbrook (’07), via Zoom, to share her background and research in risk behaviors that impact disease transmission and vaccine-preventable diseases in lowresource settings.

Aliya Marder (’07) is co-founder of Ridwell, a rapidly growing company with a new approach to recycling. Their focus is on making it easy to sustainably reuse and recycle items most recyclers don’t pick up.

Thanks to Elizabeth de Regt (’07) for participating in Making a Life Day ’22 and sharing about her career as an architect and now Senior Planner at the City of Bellevue.

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ALUMNI NEWS

CLASS NOTES Jessica Pang (’08) also participated in Making a Life Day ’22 and talked about her journey to becoming Director of User Experience at Pixel Canvas.

Rae Parks (’08) shared her background and experience as the current Program Operations Manager at the Seattle nonprofit Young Women Empowered during Making a Life Day ’22.

2010s Louise Chouinard (’12) participated in Making a Life Day ’22 and shared her background in sports media. She is now a producer for Bleacher Report.

Jack Roberts (’13) is an MBA candidate at the University of Oregon Center for Sustainable Business Practices. He has also recently joined the Overlake Alumni Board.

Rich Chavez (’15) shared at Making a Life Day ’22 his experience graduating from college during the pandemic and joining a new startup, Bison Ranch, as their Director of Sales and Business Development.

(continued)

Institute of Technology. Andrea also serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for SASE, the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers, and she recently joined the Overlake Alumni Board!

Catherine Yeh (’18) was recently accepted into the Computer Science PhD program at Harvard University.

She is finishing up her undergraduate studies at Williams.

Congratulations, Catherine!

Faculty & Staff We regret to share that Dot Boyack passed away in February. Dot was a beloved teacher in the Overlake community for over a decade, 2006–2017. Our heartfelt condolences go out to her family.

Maygha Puri (’16) participated in Making a Life Day ’22 and shared her background leading to her current position as a Product Designer at Uber.

Thank to you to Rio Wilson (’16), who taught French at Overlake during this past semester while a teacher was on family leave. Merci!

Congratulations to Neal Sivadas (’17) on being selected to Top Voices: Next Gen, a collection of 10 must-follow creators named

by LinkedIn. Andrea Wynn (’18) was recently accepted into the Computer Science master’s degree program at Princeton University. She is finishing her undergraduate work at Rose-Hulman

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Bob Bristol has moved to Vermont to be closer to family. But don’t worry, he will be back on the Overlake campus for our all-alumni reunion July 23rd!

Congratulations to Erin Gabriel, who has been awarded the sabbatical for next year. She will spend the fall semester investigating programs in musical theater and performing arts, spending time in New York City.

We regret to share that Jeanne Kapsi, who taught French at Overlake for a decade spanning the late 1970s to mid ’80s, passed away earlier this year. We send our deepest sympathies to her family.

Congratulations to our Librarian Assistant Andrea McCandlish on the birth of her baby son, Leif!

Congratulations to Kevin McKenna, honored with the University of Chicago’s Outstanding Educator Award, thanks to the nomination of an Overlake alum! This honor is bestowed on faculty who have made a difference to freshmen now at the University of Chicago.

Keep those stories coming; we love to hear from you!

If you have an update you would like to share, please email alumni@overlake.org.

ATHLETICS

Spring Sports Wrap-Up BOYS’ BASEBALL

Coach Mike Davidson

Varsity baseball is back at the ball park The Overlake and Bear Creek Growls Baseball Team was excited to seize the opportunity for a full season after a cancelled season in 2020 and a shortened season in 2021. While the majority of this year’s team was new to playing at the varsity level, they were ready to step up to the challenge. They had a very successful s eason and had a good run to the State tournament — ending the season 8th in the state!

And Corbett Mathewson ‘23 earned a spot on the All Emerald Sound Conference 1st team!

The Growls are happy to have time with teammates again. “Athletics is this unique forum for building the brotherhood of teammates across grade levels, and in the case of our program across schools,” shared Coach Mike Davidson. “Winning and losing is one part of it, but the way these guys get to the ballpark early and stay late just to hang out with each other is a big part of what makes it special.”

Even amidst the cold and rainy days, the games went on as scheduled and the Growls made the most of each opportunity to play.

“My highlight so far this season is the return of non-conference games, especially the opportunity to travel and play some of the public-school teams from smaller towns that are in our classification from around the state, like Montesano and Blaine,” said Davidson. “Driving up to the border to play a doubleheader at Blaine on a beautiful dirt and grass field on a sunny April day has been a highlight of the regular season.”

Though the team may be new to the varsity level, the juniors and sophomores now have a full season behind them and will surely find even more success in 2023.

For complete season results, go to overlakeowls.com.

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ATHLETICS

BOYS’ SOCCER

Coach Scott Lane

GIRLS’ GOLF

Coaches Shawn Farmer-Sese and Erin Menath

Boys’ soccer is rising to the challenge

Girls’ golf builds teamwork on the course

Through a challenging year, Coach Scott Lane focused on managing expectations and keeping the standards unique to Boys’ Soccer. The program transformed over the course of the year, with a new crop of freshmen and sophomores making up the majority of the team.

The Girls’ Varsity Golf team relished the opportunity to transition back to a traditional season. They were able to play all seven scheduled tournaments. The team worked very hard to balance their schoolwork and tournament schedules. Coach Shawn Farmer-Sese shared “We hope to keep growing and learning as a team, and that with each year we continue to build a fun, challenging, and supportive team environment.”

The experienced players did a great job modeling standards for the younger players. The players’ biggest takeaway from this season is how passion for the sport and a positive team culture leads to success. Boys’ Soccer was lucky to see some very talented young athletes this year, and the team focused on cooperation.

Lane said, “We are continuously reinforcing the concept of being present and living in the moment. We are taking it one game at a time and looking to improve and learn with every game, every half, and every play. The players are starting to live for the smaller moments instead of trying to focus on the result at the end.”

The season offered several exciting games, particularly the hard-fought wins against SAAS and South Whidbey. These opportunities gave the team a chance to demonstrate their lessons in working together.

2022 Emerald Sound Conference All League Team Honors: Zane Likosky '22 – 1st team; Sawyer Sarcot, '25 – 2nd team; Will Case ‘24 – Honorable mention.

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While the weather this spring was often temperamental, the golf team managed to make some good memories. “Our biggest highlight of the season was senior night, when the team scored their best team score of the season and almost beat their rival Bear Creek,” said Farmer-Sese. “But the best part was seeing how encouraging they were to each other and their opponents!”

With six players returning for their next season, the team will continue to build a fun, challenging, and supportive environment going forward. Looking ahead, Farmer-Sese stated. “I hope their main takeaway is having learned some new skills in golf but most importantly learning to come together as a team. Golf will always be there to challenge you, but the time spent with their friends and being a part of a team is what’s most valuable.”

The season ended on a high note as Sophia Samji went to the WIAA State Golf Tournament and earned 9th place in state!

ATHLETICS

BOYS’ LACROSSE

Coach Lou Sabino

GIRLS’ LACROSSE

Coach Nicole Rockwell

Boys’ lacrosse celebrates teamwork

Girls’ lacrosse enjoys winning season

With another spirited season behind them, Boys Varsity Lacrosse has grown individually and as a team. The team’s hard work paid off in some wonderful lacrosse games. The sweeping victories against Lakeside were a highlight for Coach Lou Sabino. The team had a very successful post-season and earned a trip to the State Semi-Finals!

The Girls’ Lacrosse team enjoyed a 5-game winning streak leading to a winning season record of 6–5. The team also boasted the largest team Overlake has had in four years, with 19 players — 5 seniors, 2 juniors, 5 sophomores and 7 freshmen.

While the team has grown, the fundamentals remain — having a ton of fun and maintaining a competitive environment. The senior players had an impressive year, with two selected to be on the WIAA All Conference Team — Olivia Okomoto ’22 for midfield and Katy Simpson ’22 for attack.

The team also had fantastic leadership. The captains did a great job of helping hold the team accountable and setting a high standard of what commitment looks like. This ethos translated to success on the field. The team also saw two last minute victories where they came from behind. This made for some pretty thrilling games and established a “never give up” mentality. This team is willing to fight until the very end!

Another season highlight was senior night. The senior ‘knights’ were honored to leave their mark on the team as they graduate and become alumni. Looking ahead to next year, Assistant Coach Marshall McCurties shared, “There is a clear blueprint for personal and team success that has been laid out this season.

Now it is up to each player to commit to doing all they can to build on the success of this season.” The team left with great memories of this year, like singing their way to Bellingham, and plan to make next season even more memorable.

There were many memorable games this season. “A highlight for me was our away game in Bellingham. We had a long two-hour bus ride where we were able to do some team bonding and learn some fun facts about each team member, including facts about teeth, syrup, and a Seahawks promo video,” Coach Nicole Rockwell shared. “During the first half of our game we did not have the best start, but once we regrouped at half-time, we put together a great second half and came out with the win. The best part of our win was that it was a full team effort with every team member contributing to the win, a well-deserved team success.”

This year’s team learned the lessons of working together to find success on the field. Each player did their part to contribute to the overall success of the team.

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ATHLETICS

GIRLS’ ULTIMATE

Coach Mindy McGrath

GIRLS’ TENNIS

Coach Jeff Loranger

Girls’ varsity ultimate wins big in final game of season

Girls’ varsity tennis enjoys an undefeated season

Coach Mindy McGrath’s first year coaching Girls’ Ultimate has been a formative year, which made the team’s 10–5 win in their final game all the more memorable. McGrath said “We are hopeful that the players gain confidence and a love of the game so that they return and help this program thrive. An example of team growth was from Ilinca Hagiu (’22) at one of our games when we learned the other team would play a zone defense against us. We had to learn the zone offense in just five minutes before starting the game. Our team came together under pressure and we were able to successfully use it to score points.”

Flexibility and teamwork allowed the Varsity Girl’s Tennis team to overcome this spring’s weather challenges. Another challenge was the small number of players, so some of the JV members were called up to Varsity and worked hard to succeed at this new level. The varsity team ended their regular season undefeated with a 5–0 win at home against Granite Falls High School and earned the title Conference Champions! Special acknowledgement to Taya Hansen and Sadie Wickham for their successes making in the State Tournament where they won 3rd in state!

Sophie Steedly (’22) shared, “We had a lot of new players this year, even pulling up four eighth graders, so we had to do a lot of learning. It was very exciting that by the end of the season our game was really coming together, and we were able to be much more successful — especially when, during our last game, we had a point that was entirely scored by the eighth graders on the team!”

While they may not have had a winning record, the team had many valuable experiences. The players were consistently supportive of each other during practices and games. Next year, with three returning captains, they will enjoy a great base of leadership. McGrath sees a bright future on the horizon for the team going forward. “We have had some big breakthroughs in understanding the rhythm of an ultimate game, “shared McGrath. “We are hopeful that the players gain confidence and a love of the game so they can return and help this program thrive.”

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Coach Jeff Loranger proudly looks back at this year’s team. “I think being flexible and resilient have been two areas (the team has) taken away this season... the weather hasn’t been very good or consistent this year, so they have needed to be flexible in venue changes, scoring changes, and role changes within the team. I think the girls have been very resilient as we haven’t had our full roster all the time and we have had many players shifting in our lineup to fill the holes.”

Looking ahead to next season, Loranger says “This season will help remind and show why each player needs to bring their very best to every practice, so they can push each other to be better every day and to help bring the team level up. Injuries, illnesses, and life stuff happens and the better prepared every player is from top of the lineup to the bottom of the lineup will help bring the confidence to each individual and to the team when they step onto the court.”

ATHLETICS

Winter Season Wrap-Up

Boys’ varsity basketball has winning season

Girls’ varsity basketball advanced to state tournament

Coach David Bigelow

Coach Mike Davidson

Despite falling just short of going to the State Championship in Yakima, the Boys Varsity Team had a meaningful and memorable season. The team had not one, but two double-overtime victories at the buzzer! Freshman Brandon Douvia hit a half-court heave at home to beat Seattle Academy, and Jack Wiley had a tip-in on the road at Cedar Park to complete an epic comeback.

The Girls Basketball team went undefeated for the first 8 games of the season! Playing before their cheering fans was a thrill for the team this season. The players grew to be close friends as well as teammates working together to achieve success.

Off the court, the team took an overnight trip to the San Juans early in the season, attended the December Cactus Jam tournament, and volunteered as a team at Mary’s Place in Bellevue.

These are just a few of this busy season’s highlights.

Coach David Bigelow shared, “The Cactus Jam trip was definitely one of the best memories from our season. The team represented Overlake well both on and off the court. We took 3rd place in our division and played really good basketball. Equally as important, we spent quality time as a team in Tempe hiking, exploring, and going to a Suns game!”

The team also enjoyed great leadership from their experienced players. Bigelow wanted to be sure to call out the graduating players, “We will miss our seniors! Corin, Jimmy, Stefan, Jack, Josh, and Sanjay were all hugely important to our program over these last four years.”

Coach Mike Davidson shared a meaningful memory from the season “was going on the road to Bush on February 17 in a loser-out, winner to state playoff game and coming out of there with a 44–43 win to punch our ticket to the State tournament.

After all we had been through, with big injuries and Covid quarantines, making State was such a highlight.” The team’s State run ended early with a loss, but the accomplishments of the season will long be remembered by every team member.

A special appreciation this year for Coach Davidson, who will step away from coaching the Girls Basketball team after 2 years at the helm. Thanks to him for all the wonderful leadership and team building over the years. We’re sure to still see him at many games, cheering on the team from the stands.

2022 Emerald Sound All Conference Basketball Team Honors: Rachel Sapirstein ’22 – 1st Team All-Conference; Addie Sapirstein ’22 – 2nd Team All-Conference

2022 Emerald Sound All Conference Basketball Team Honors: Jake Shuey – 1st Team All-Conference; Jack Wiley – 2nd Team All-Conference; Alec Odell – 2nd Team All-Conference

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A Look Back at Owls Night Out March 12, 2022 • Dean Palmer Fieldhouse

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