Project Week 2.0

For decades Project Week has been a springtime staple at Overlake. Each year students could count on an unordinary week of school. Last year, COVID-19 struck right when Project Week was to begin forcing the unique decision to cancel. This year, despite living through a global pandemic, Overlake was determined to hold this traditional week in an untraditional year.

“The challenge with this year is we are going to be either online or on campus,” explains Project Week Director, Joey Pauley. “Our goal with every project during the design phase was to get at least one day on campus to be able to connect and see different groups of people.”

But Pauley acknowledges the challenges of working with Green and Gold cohorts among each school division and ensuring that the logistics of being on campus are done in a safe manner. And knowing that students have spent a lot of time staring at a screen this school year, projects with minimum critical screen time have been discussed at length. He also says this year’s projects have the additional consideration of what the impact they might have at home for the families. Take for example a cooking project.

“With our cooking project the student is going to be using the stove at home and depending on the student they may be adept at using the stove cooking a meal for the family once a week, or we may have students who have never used their family’s stove and they may need an extra hand from a family member.”

Which makes this year’s Project Week more of a family experience with not only the student experiencing something that might be outside their comfort zone, but that families may be stretched a little too. “This year, families will be a little more a part of the project because they will have a component at home and when families are finalizing their student’s selections, they should talk about how much support may or may not be available to them at home during the project.”

Transforming Learning Spaces

“It’s a challenge to transform campus into something that is different than what the students are used to,” explains Pauley who says there are additional challenges to consider this year too as project leaders look to transform the online learning for one week. “We are working to make the spaces feel different, more experiential. And the faculty have done an amazing job this year in offering projects that are learning opportunities, but that don’t feel like the regular school day and transforming the online spaces as well.”

Finding the “Aha” moments

When reimagining Project Week Pauley had certain metrics of success he hopes to measure in the end. One success is that connections are built a little stronger between faculty and students. “I find that Project Week gets faculty a little outside their comfort zone too and when students see their faculty and leaders going through that same challenge it connects them in a different way than in the classroom and it makes us all feel a little more human.”

And how will that success be measured? By seeing students connect with new friends, with faculty, with people outside of their normal network. “It’s what makes our campus culture great and connects people for years and years to come.”

“I hope that students and participants, whoever that may be, step up to that challenge and be able to say ‘hey, this isn’t my ideal Project Week, AND let me get the most out of it that I can’”.

Project selections due by Midnight Friday, Feb 5th.