Sophomore Joe Velick’s first visit to Olney Friends School came nearly seven years ago. His connection to the school, however, dates back further.
“My mom went to Olney for a year in the late 1970s, but I never really thought that I would go here. My family took a trip to Shenandoah National Park in 2009 and we stopped at Olney on the way back. It was over the summer and there weren’t many people on campus, but we stopped in and peeked around. I don’t really remember much, but I do remember looking at all the class photos in the main hallway.”
It wasn’t until several years later that he would consider Olney as a high school option.
“After that first visit, I really wanted to go to a boarding school for middle school. I didn’t. I went to public school, but in 8th grade, when it was time for me to decide on a high school, I had several options. There was the local lottery school in town, and the other choice was an even smaller school held at the local community college. Around mid-April of 2014, we decided it would be OK for me to take a Friday off from class and come down to Olney as a prospective student. I remember sitting in on Emily (Carton’s) freshman humanities class and we did some cool stuff. I also visited Jamie (Zavitz’s) Quakerism classes and sat next to Amihan (Tindongan ’15) and it was really fun. We had hamburgers for lunch that day.”
After visiting as a prospective student, Joe felt that Olney was the right school for him.
“I was pretty positive this is where I wanted to be. I was happy, and it looked like everybody had fun here. It seemed like people were doing really well. I thought that it might be a good idea for me to at least try it out for my freshman year and I ended up really liking it.”
Joe felt the community aspect at Olney has provided him with a better overall experience than he would have received at his local public school.
“At a public school, I probably wouldn’t have fit in as well. I would have still had my friends at home, but now I have friends here and at home,” he said. “I’m learning to love the community and enjoy being a part of it. I don’t think I would have spent any extra time doing this at my local school.”
In addition to the social benefits he has experienced at Olney, Joe also has enjoyed our 350 acre organic campus. “I like being on the farm and donating time with the goats,” he said. “I spend a lot of time just getting to know the campus — walking around, exploring. It’s fun.”
While the farm and community have contributed considerably to Joe’s experience, he also believes the curriculum is a major benefit to life at Olney. “[The academic system] has great potential. You get to create your own path more so than in a traditional system and you get to work at your own pace to some extent.” Joe has particularly enjoyed an elective titled Under the Skin of Black Lives Matter. “I think I’ve developed a much better understanding of what racism is than I had before,” he said.
Joe has a couple years left before graduation, but he already given some thought to his post-Olney plans. His top college choice is the University of California, Berkeley, where he would like to study business or enroll in a pre-med program. He has also looked at smaller liberal arts schools like Earlham and Hiram. After college, he would like to open a small, relaxing tea shop in his hometown of Ann Arbor.
Some of Joe’s favorite Olney experiences came during our seasonal outings. “Fall outing was probably one of my favorites. We went to Pittsburgh and visited the National Aviary. We took a tour around the aviary and got to see all the birds. Then we got a couple hours to go out and explore downtown Pittsburgh and a big group of my friends went to this obscure restaurant called Pho Van. Later, we stopped at a little Chinese market and bought one of the more popular sauces at Olney called Lao Gan Ma. It’s like a chili and soybean oil that the students like to put on their rice — it really goes on anything.”
Joe credits the diverse, international community at Olney for adding a rich cultural element to his experience. “Well, for one, I wouldn’t know what Lao Gan Ma was. I found out about it from some of the international students last year who would give me some to put on my rice at lunch. Now, when you go to the dining room and look on the shelf where people put their personal condiments, it’s everywhere. Last time I looked, I think I counted twelve jars.”
The culture sharing extends far beyond the dining room, though, as it extends to the classroom, the dorms, and all across campus. “I get more of an idea of what life is like living in China or South Korea where beforehand I didn’t have nearly as much exposure to these cultures,” Joe said. He also believes the experience for international students at a boarding school like Olney will allow them to acclimate better to American culture than if they were to attend larger day schools.
“I think international students generally have a better experience here than they would at a public school,” he said. “Those students are going home to their families where they speak their native language, which isn’t a bad thing, but I’ve noticed such rapid growth with international students here learning English so fast because they are put in situations where they have to speak the language. I’ve also noticed domestic students making an effort to learn expressions in other languages.”
Photos of Joe’s Olney experience can be found below. Also, be sure to read some of our other Student Spotlights.
