Seattle Academy Open House Lookbook 2021

@SeattleAcademy seattleacademy.org

This is SAAS.

WHY I’M HEAD OF SCHOOL AT SEATTLE ACADEMY. This is my 30th year at SAAS and my 4th year as Head of School. I’m frequently asked, “Why SAAS and why stay that long?”

Simply put, SAAS believes that all kids have immense and varied talents and potential, and that unshakeable belief creates a sense of optimism that kids need, and frankly the world needs. It’s an optimism that is rooted in what we’ve seen time and time again over the years — that kids can surprise themselves, and us, in all of the best ways — if we let them. That belief and the SAAS track record stands in stark contrast to the educational institutions that believe some kids are talented and others aren’t, or that the path to realizing their potential is best captured in standardized curriculums and standardized tests.

Students deserve an education that nurtures their creativity, cultivates connections, and encourages resolve. That’s what we care about at SAAS, that’s what we do, why I feel so fortunate to have been here to be a part of the community these past 30 years, and why every year I’m grateful to be able to see our students surprise themselves and us again, in all of the best ways.

Rob Phillips Head of School

MISSION AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES At Seattle Academy, mission statements and principles are not words that sit on a page. They are the lenses through which we build our community and evaluate our programs. They anchor our decisions, discussions, and development.

They are tested and lived every day.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT Seattle Academy nurtures empathetic connections between people with different life experiences. We are committed to recognizing and addressing the causes and effects of bias and discrimination, as well as the historic and ongoing relationship between privilege and power. We strive to see, hear, and value all members of the community and work to build a strong foundation for meaningful dialogue, informed advocacy, and effective action.

75+

Student clubs

1,090

Total enrollment: 390 Middle School 700 Upper School

18

Average class size

FAST FACTS

39%

Students of color

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

COLLEGE AND LIFE

Our culture, curriculum, teaching styles, and programs are grounded in the guiding principles found on the following pages.

CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY KNOW THE KID

30+

59

Languages spoken at home

Zip codes

24%

5

Students awarded financial aid

Weeks in Senior Internship

65+

19+

Athletics teams, 10 sports offered

12

Visual art and performance events each year

Student affinity groups

90+

Electives per trimester

COLLEGE AND LIFE SAAS prepares students for College and Life; we value curiosity and innovation, participation and excellence, and exploration and resolve.

At SAAS, the thing we believe most deeply in is celebrating a broad range of human talent and potential.

So with every new teacher who joins us, what we’re asking them to do is cultivate potential, not unlock it, but really tend to it, to nurture it, to challenge it, and to help it expand. When our faculty are designing learning experiences for students, the four mission verbs — Question, Imagine, Create, Contribute — are inherent in the design expectation. Teaching and learning at SAAS is student-centered and inquiry-based.

Our teachers are thinking about the essential questions that are really going to stretch our students, helping them not only to understand the material, but also themselves as learners, and to think about what the real-world application of those skills and thinking looks like. Ultimately what this mission allows students to do is develop trust in themselves, and a trust in their ability to navigate complex questions and situations. They are able to show up anywhere and everywhere and say — I know who I am, and I know what I’m about, and I’m ready for it.

— Giselle Furlonge, Assistant Head of Academics

FOR MORE SAAS COURSE DETAILS:

WHERE DOES LIFE TAKE STUDENTS AFTER SAAS?

SPOTLIGHT ON: The Innovations Program The Innovations Program is a skills-based curriculum that addresses topics not often included in a traditional education. The World Economic Forum lists the most important skill categories that young people will need to succeed in the workforce in 2025 as problem-solving, self-management, working with people, and technology use and development.

Our curriculum is designed to give our students these future-focused tools in order to prepare them for life beyond the classroom – these skills are built in the required classes of entrepreneurship, design, computational thinking, and financial literacy.

—Lysie Taylor, Dean of Innovations

CULTURE OF PERFORMANCE Our Culture of Performance fosters the integration of skills and knowledge, the ability to collaborate and take risks, and the capacity to confidently navigate change and ambiguity.

We ask students to transfer what they’re learning into authentic performances. That’s where the Culture of Performance comes in. It’s one thing to ask students to learn something in a static environment. It’s another thing to actually put them in front of an audience and ask them to think on their feet and to be able to, in that moment of action, demonstrate what they know and also demonstrate flexible and adaptive thinking. If we teach them how to do that, and we create the circumstances in which they are asked to do that, they’re flexing that imaginative muscle, and that’s going to make them prepared for the future.

— Alison Ray, Dean of Teaching and Learning

“The SAAS experience nurtured in me the most crucial ‘soft skills’: clear written and spoken communication, critical thinking, leadership, stepping outside my comfort zone, and the confidence to go after what I want. I attribute so much of my journey as an adult to these skills because I see how difficult it is to learn these things later in life and I see how crucial they are in taking risks and going after big dreams.”

— Alum Nithya Menon ’12, Graduate of Harvey Mudd College, Head of Product Development in Cambodia for Okra Solar

NITHYA WAS INITIALLY ONE OF ONLY TWO OKRA EMPLOYEES WHO MOVED TO CAMBODIA TO UTILIZE HER DEGREE IN ENGINEERING TO BRING ELECTRICITY TO MARGINALIZED AND DEVELOPING COMMUNITIES THERE.

INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY We believe that an Inclusive Community embraces cultural agility, civic action, and a broad definition of human potential. This way of thinking — of constantly challenging ourselves to hear others — leads our students and alumni to participate in a myriad of social conversations, where they learn to listen to others while finding their own voice within a community.

TEACHING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING Social-emotional learning (SEL) focuses on the relationship with, and awareness of, self and others.

Teaching and practicing these skills — self-management, responsible decision-making, empathy, and social awareness — helps students create and understand their personal values, set boundaries, reflect, and connect with others. Learning and practicing these skills in a community like SAAS creates a safer and more understanding space for students. It is so important that kids feel safe, comfortable, and that they belong.

Students are able to show up and truly be themselves.

— Achijah Berry ’10, Middle School Dean, 6th & 7th Grade

HOW DOES INCLUSIVE COMMUNITY EXTEND BEYOND SAAS? South Park Collaboration In 2019, Seattle Academy entered into an innovative public-private partnership with the City of Seattle and Seattle Parks and Recreation to renovate and upgrade the South Park Community Center site in South Seattle. This collaboration aligns with SAAS’s mission to expand our community engagement beyond Capitol Hill and provide a dedicated practice and playfield. As a project partner, SAAS has committed to raising $4 million to the construction of the new full-size, multisport field, and $1 million earmarked for 10 years of dedicated funding for the South Park community. SAAS is spearheading a minimum of 50 hours of programming annually, including organizing and leading 4 weeks of summer programs and sports camps for neighborhood youth.

Seattle Challenge While all students will engage in community service in a variety of ways, one of our capstone programs is the 8th-Grade Seattle Challenge. The Seattle Challenge, which was started over 25 years ago, is an urban overnight experience that explores the realities of people who experience poverty and homelessness in the city of Seattle.

Over a 3-day period, the 8th grade is split into small groups that end up, collectively, volunteering with over 50 different agencies.

Senior Project For five weeks each spring, seniors venture out into the professional workplace for their Senior Projects. Senior Projects prepare students for life by exposing them to real-world settings that require risk-taking, resilience and empathy. From Amazon to WSU’s Bread Lab, 5th Avenue Theatre to Seattle Children’s Hospital, we placed 139 students at 88 unique project sites this past 2020-2021 school year.

“SAAS taught me to advocate for myself, how to write and communicate efficiently, how to take accountability for my actions, how to not be afraid to step up and lead, and how to make room for others whose voices may not be heard.”

—Alum Aliya Schenck ’18, Student-athlete at Washington University in St. Louis

ALIYA RECENTLY HELPED WRITE A PETITION WHICH PROMPTED THE NCAA TO RESPOND TO THE 144+ BILLS SEEKING TO BAN TRANSGENDER ATHLETES IN WOMENS SPORTS. THE PETITION, SIGNED BY 550 STUDENT-ATHLETES, MADE IT INTO THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

KNOW THE KID Our commitment to Know the Kid establishes the foundation for healthy relationships and nurtures a mutual respect for each individual’s strengths, challenges, and unique story.

The function of “knowing the kid” is to understand how to support students, challenge students, and open the door to relationships that broaden experience. It is important to understand that this “knowing” is dynamic. Kids are always growing and changing.

It is important to have people in students’ lives that observe them in many settings and engage with that student over time in a relationship in which the student feels safe to express themselves. At SAAS, every student engages with not only teachers but advisors, grade-level coordinators, outdoor trip leaders, coaches, and arts program teachers. This drives SAAS’ broad definition of “knowing the kid” — we want to understand them academically, developmentally, socially, and emotionally.

— Mike Haykin, Division Leadership, Options Program

“I love SAAS quite simply because it changed my life. It allowed me to kind of become the person that I am today.

When I started here, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I didn’t really know who I was.

And I came out knowing how to learn, knowing a lot about myself, and I think it really prepared me for what I went on to do after that. I think it’s a great place to learn because there’s an environment where you can take risks and you’re supported, but you’re also pushed to be your best self.”

—Alum Adam Schoenfeld ’01, 3x Startup Founder, Host of Built In Seattle Podcast

NOTES: @SeattleAcademy seattleacademy.org Middle School 1137 13th Avenue Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 323-6600 Upper School 1201 E. Union Seattle, WA 98122 (206) 323-6600 Office of Admissions admissions@seattleacademy.org (206) 324-7227 Office of Development development@seattleacademy.org (206) 676-6874

@SeattleAcademy seattleacademy.org

This is SAAS.