New Student & Community Center

New Student & Community Center

The third and final project in our campaign, a new 8,000-square-foot Student & Community Center, will be a home for discovery for everyone in our community — a place for deeper engagement for students, families, faculty, staff, and alumni alike, and a place for prospective families and guests to connect with and learn more about us. 

The highlight of the Center will be a modern, flexible, multipurpose space that can accommodate 250 people. As we have seen first-hand with the Idea Lab in the Whitten Math & Sciences Center, dedicated spaces and places lead to new enriching programs and learning opportunities that spark innovation, support well-being, and help students learn new skills that profoundly impact their approach to life. 

With the opening of the Whitten Math & Sciences Center in 2021, Overlake has the dedicated academic spaces needed to support the hard skills. The New Student & Community Center will further the soft skills to ensure that our graduates are well-rounded and equipped to thrive in the team-based environments they will encounter in college and throughout their careers. Furthermore, with this new 8,000-square-foot-building, learning will extend beyond the classroom and foster collaboration, critical thinking, communication, and creativity to prepare students for any path they choose. 

The multipurpose space can be configured in numerous ways to allow for maximum flexibility of programming and purpose. Examples of how the facility will be utilized include:

1. Student collaboration, including study groups and cocurricular projects and activities.

2. Programs, presentations, and celebrations for all members of our community that are not currently possible without displacing teaching and learning.

Additionally, the Center will include administrative offices and a conference room, so that our professional staff can serve parents and students at the highest level.

As one of the first buildings you see when you wind your way up our driveway, the Student & Community Center will be a place to project who we are upon arrival, and leave a lasting impression. Ultimately, this will be our center for community building and life at Overlake.

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Key Features

The new Student & Community Center will be our new home for:

A place to congregate 

• Grade-level meetings, Associated Student Body (ASB) meetings, and other student gatherings
• Gatherings for the entire Middle School
• Testings (standardized SATs and APs and course finals)
• Senior Project and student presentations
• Student orientations
• Book fairs
• College Counseling presentations and college admission visits
• Guest speakers
• parentNet, Overlake Friends of the Arts (OFTA), and Overlake Athletic Club (OAC) sessions; Faculty Staff Appreciation events
• Parent Guardian Association (PGA) meetings and events
• Upper School and Middle School parent/guardian and administrator gatherings
• Parent/guardian coffees and grade-level meetings
• Admissions programs, interview, and Parent Ambassador sessions

A place to collaborate

• Student collaborations and group projects
• Student clubs and advisories
• Student study sessions
• Student academic teams presentations and competitions (e.g., Speech & Debate, DECA, Quiz Bowl)
• Faculty and staff collaborations and meetings
• Departmental meetings

A place to celebrate

• Student dances and events
• Student co-curricular events
• Senior celebrations
• Parent/guardian socials
• Family celebrations around performing arts, athletic events, and more
• Alumni reunions, events, and programs
• Alumni parent/guardian gatherings

and much more!