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PK Penguins Perform

Posted on February 11, 2020 //

What’s cuter than a penguin family? LOTS of penguin families! Our pre-kindergarten class taught us all about the lives of their South Pole pals at Tuesday’s All School meeting. Taking the stage before a packed house in the Greenberg Activities Center at the Lower Campus, these 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds taught us how penguin parents trade off babysitting so the other one can go “fishing,” how penguins feed their babies, how they keep warm in icy weather, and how they have unique calls for each other.
And, of course, they taught us how penguins walk.

Click here to see photos from the penguin performance!

Boys Soccer Plays Hard in CIF

Posted on February 10, 2020 //

The team huddles after the game – their first playing in CIF. Photo by senior Megan Manion

By Olivia Brown

The OVS boys soccer squad showed a lot of heart Wednesday in its CIF playoff game against Vasquez High, losing 2-0 in a hard-fought contest on the road.

The match — the first-ever CIF playoff game for an OVS boys soccer team — showcased strong defensive efforts from juniors Gabe Weisiger (L17) and Andrew Thacher (L17), as well as seniors Sebastian Wayman-Dalo (L16) and Corbin Muller.

Junior goalie and co-captain Adam Pepper-Macias (L17) had several great saves and was working hard for the entirety of the game, displaying his best performance of the season. In fact, the game was 1-0 late into the contest, with Vasquez scoring a second security goal in the final minutes.

For seniors Corbin and Sebastian, this was their last soccer game of their high school careers. But for the rest of the team, they are ready to get back on the field next year.

“This year, we are a great team but we are young and squirrelly,” said Adam. “With another year of practice under our belts, we will see a very strong squad next year. I am very excited to see our progress next season.”

Read more in a news story by senior Olivia Brown (L16) on the student journalism website, On The Hill.

Freshman Logan Wallace (left) and senior captain Sebastian Wayman-Dalo (right) after the game. Photo by senior Megan Manion

Robotics Winners

Posted on January 29, 2020 //

Team Spudnick. Photos by Chris Westcott.

By Misty Hall

It’s official! Team Spudnik is going to Regionals for the second year in a row! The OVS robotics team advances to the Los Angeles Regional Championship on Saturday, March 7, where they will face off against 47 other teams from across Southern California.

The Spudnik squad is comprised of senior Gary Zhou, juniors Ethan Gao (L17) and Mark Pindur, sophomore Jack Lai (L18) and Grace Huber, a student at Thacher School who was invited to join the OVS team. Spudnik earned its qualifying position following last weekend’s Interleague Tournament in Palmdale, placing 7th out of 31 teams.

OVS’s other two teams, Spudbot (high school) and Savagebot (middle school), did not advance to regionals, but did well in the competition. If Spudnik does well at Regionals, the team could advance to the world finals, held in Houston, Texas, in April to compete against 600 other robotics teams from across the nation.

“This year I think we have a robot that is quite competitive,” said OVS Robotics coach Chris Westcott. “Being paired up with the right teams, we could do well.”

Gary Zhou, Jack Lai, Grace Huber, Mark Pindur, and Ethan Gao.

Winter Sports

Posted on January 29, 2020 //

January 30 – Winter sports continued this week. Here’s the run-down, with contributions from Upper Campus sports writer Olivia Brown (L16):

Girls and Boys Basketball

This week has been jam-packed with basketball games for both the girls and the boys teams. Last Wednesday, both teams played against Besant Hill. Unfortunately, the girls lost. But the boys swept the win with a final score of 54-28. Junior Bob Chen (L17) and senior Aaron Wolf (L16) played a great game with multiple shots and impressive assists.

Last Friday, Thacher hosted the OVS teams in the evening for non-league games. With roaring crowds and excitement in the air, both teams displayed excellent skills and ended up winning their matches. The boys team took the win with a 34-32 final score. The players all worked well together with great assists and good defensive plays. Freshman Ethan Nash took the game-winning shot resulting in a two-point lead. Following the boys, the girls had an exciting game, leading to their first win of the season. The game displayed exceptional performances from junior Kanna Terumuna and a season-high from senior Stephany Nostrant (L16), scoring 17 points.

On Saturday, the teams were excited to host Dunn for final matchups of the season against the school. The girls team had a nail-biting performance and took the win in the final quarter with a 30-27 sweep. Despite not ending up with a win, the boys also displayed impressive skills.

Yesterday, both teams traveled to Midland School to play in the afternoon. The girls continued their winning streak, earning their third win. With a final score of 37-17, the girls had a great game with remarkable defense from sophomore Kyla Pinchassi and a career-high of 16 points from sophomore Eva Gueguen.

The boys swept the win against Midland with a 48-8 defeat. Aaron Wolf scored the most with 12 points, including a beautiful slam dunk. The team worked together, playing tough defense and having impressive assists.

The basketball season ends in two weeks but the schedule remains full. The next game for the girls is against Garden Street Academy this Friday at 7 p.m. while the boys will be hosted by Thacher once again at 5 p.m.

Girls and Boys Soccer

The girls team took a 7-1 win over Oak Grove last week with goals from freshman Piper Snowber, junior Zela Henderson, senior Margo Eramova (L16) and senior Claire Alexander as well as a hat trick from senior Avery Colborn (L16). From start to finish, the girls worked hard together and showed great teamwork. Senior Caspian Ellis (L16) had great passes and sophomore Catie Jo Larkin (L18) displayed great defensive work, with the team having one of its best showings of the season. Last week, the girls played down a player in an away game also at Oak Grove and pulled out an impressive 5-0 win. The girls lost 0-2 on Saturday against Thacher at the Upper Campus Dok Smith Field.

The boys soccer team also played at Oak Grove and triumphed with a 16-2 win. With multiple first-time goals from many of the players, the boys worked together and displayed great teamwork. Senior Sebastian Wayman-Dalo (L16) scored his first goal of the season after receiving an admirable pass from freshman Eiki Fukuyama. The boys won their game against Midland on Saturday.

Class Hikes

Posted on January 29, 2020 //

Students in grades PK-8 embarked on Class Hikes on Friday, January 24. Read more about this school tradition in an article written by science teacher Matt Inman, who also serves as the Outdoor Education Coordinator at Lower Campus.

Click here to see pictures from the 2020 Class Hikes.

By Matt Inman

The history of class hikes at Ojai Valley School is a long and storied one. Beginning more than 40 years ago, early Spuds at the Upper Campus were charged with traveling out of the valley from their newly constructed campus, over the mountains near the shoulder of Hines Peak, hiking throughout the night by flashlight, to arrive at the Middle Lions campground just as the sun was rising. Amazed hikers arrived to find a massive breakfast feast staged by their teachers awaiting them. This bonding experience was a memorable challenge called the “Topa Topper.” It was a legendary event that fostered the students’ sense of unity, and caused them to coalesce into one interdependent team.

Gradually, throughout the years, the Lower Campus absorbed and built on this tradition. First came a spring hike for the eighth graders, with an annual route up to Nordhoff Peak, where a fire lookout tower used to exist. Students back on campus wished their departing role models well, and then trained the school telescope at the peak where they would eventually see their mentors and peers waving at them with excitement.

In the early 1990’s, the value of this experience was recognized and expanded into younger grades. Class by class, additional destinations were added that were unique to each group. After several years of exploration, the seventh graders settled on a hike up Howard Creek to the ridge overlooking town, and down the Gridley Trail. With the help of science and woodshop teacher Ryan Lang, sixth graders established a class hike near the confluence of the two Matilija Creek forks that was integrated into their Watershed Program.

With a middle school program firmly in place, fifth graders began walking downstream from the decommissioned Beaver Camp on the Middle Sespe Trail, arriving at the old Lions camp/Piedra Blanca trailhead. Fourth graders now visit a favorite destination of former school president Mike Hermes (L54) known as Turtle Pond, while the third graders get their first look at the legendary OVS swimming spot known as the 10’ Hole. Second graders now hike a short distance to the famous White Rocks formations where they have lunch and scramble on the Chief, Big Elephant and Little Elephant formations.

In recent years, Kindergarten and First grade students joined together to tour the Ventura River Preserve, a local trail system managed by the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. Even our youngest students in the Pre-K have jumped in to explore the Ojai Meadow Preserve just several blocks from school!

One of the biggest changes throughout the years was the formation of an iconic All-School Class Hikes Day. This his much-loved event is the culminating day of our first semester. Students arrive at school in their outdoor gear, make their own sack lunch at the Wallace Burr Pergola, and join the logistical migration of loading into buses and vans for transport to their trailhead. It’s an exciting way to end the semester, and one that symbolizes the strength and unity of all that OVS has to offer.

Early College Acceptances

Posted on January 29, 2020 //

By Fred Alvarez
College Counselor

The offers have rolled in at a record clip.

By the time first-semester classes ended last week, members of the Class of 2020 at Ojai Valley School had received 30 offers of admission from colleges and universities across the country. Another 20 more came in the weeks that followed.

That’s more than anyone can remember, at least in recent memory, this early in the admission process.

Two-thirds of this year’s seniors had received at least one offer of admission by mid-December, and a couple of seniors are now done with the college application process, having received early offers from their first-choice schools.

Impressive, to be sure. But at this time of year, it’s important too.

We hope these early admissions will serve as a source of comfort for our seniors, many of whom are stressed and struggling to balance their schoolwork, sports commitments, and co-curricular obligations with the daunting, seemingly endless task of applying to college.

You wouldn’t believe the number of times I have had seniors in my office seriously questioning whether any college will want them. And no matter how much I try reassuring them, there’s no better cure for the “I’ll-never-get-into-college” blues than that first college acceptance.

But more to the point, this high volume of early acceptances points up the increasing emphasis on early applications and admissions on the college side.

A growing number of colleges and universities are now filling more than half their incoming classes through early application programs, most of which carry Nov. 1 to Nov. 15 deadlines. This year alone, the University of Virginia and Boston College added Early Decision options by which students agree to attend if admitted (one of our seniors was admitted Early Decision to Boston College and will attend next fall).

Twenty one of our 25 seniors applied Early Decision and/or Early Action this year, each with deadlines of Nov. 15 or earlier. Every one of our seniors had applied to multiple schools by Nov. 30, the deadline for the University of California and Cal State University systems.

There’s plenty of debate about whether such early programs are equitable or, in the end, in the best interest of stressed-out seniors trying to make one of the biggest decisions of their young lives.

While the debate rages on, what’s clear at the Upper Campus is the growing need to make sure our students are well prepared, as early as is reasonable, to take on the college application process, and this year’s high number of early acceptances proves that the Class of 2020 was up to the task.

However, what’s best about these early offers is that they represent our mission to help students select and apply to their best-fit colleges.

So, the early offers have come to our students from small private liberal arts colleges and from large public universities, both in California and beyond. They include offers from schools with outstanding programs in robotics, aeronautics, computer science, engineering, forestry, and the arts – all of which are fields our students intend to pursue.

What’s also true is that this early list represents a small fraction of the college offers that will pour in to the Upper Campus in coming months, leading to the May 1 National College Decision Day, the deadline for seniors to pick their colleges.

We will celebrate each acceptance from now until then, and remind those students who are denied admission that those decisions don’t define who they are, what they have contributed and where their college explorations will take them. And then we will celebrate again in late May, when our head of school announces the college choice of each of our seniors as we gather at graduation to launch them into the next phase of their lives.

Summer Camp

Posted on January 28, 2020 //

Summer Camp registration is open!

Join us June 28 to August 8 as OVS will once again offer summer programs in academics, equestrian, fine arts, robotics, and ESL. Additionally, this year Performing Arts Coordinator Andy Street will offer a two-week performing arts camp for students ages 8-15. Learn more about OVS Summer Camp at summer.ovs.org.

Next week, we will wear our camp colors and celebrate all that is great about camp at our Lower Campus All-School Assembly on Tuesday, February 4!

Alumni Return to Support Robotics

Posted on January 24, 2020 //

Chris Westcott, Ivy Sun (U19), Leo Liang (L15, U19) and Micah Sittig at robotics competition at OVS Lower Campus.

By Aaron Wolf (L16)

After years of helping build the robotics program from scratch, OVS alum Leo Liang (L15, U19) is returning to take part in Saturday’s inter-league robotics tournament in Palmdale, where 25 teams will vie for the opportunity to compete in the state regional meet.

But this time he’s not building the robots, he’s judging them.

After joining a robotics network for alumni of the competitions he took part in during high school, Leo received his refereeing credentials and accepted an invitation from OVS computer science teacher Christopher Westcott to take part in the first robotics meet of the season.

But he didn’t stop there. Leo will once again don the striped referee jersey on Saturday, flying in from the University of Michigan — where he is earning a computer science degree — just to help judge the inter-league competition.

“I wanted to give back to OVS as well as the FIRST robotics program, which has shaped me so much,” Leo said.

When Leo came from Lower Campus to high school, his genius was already the subject of much excitement among the Upper faculty.

His mastery of multiple programming languages, an undying respect for the jetliner, and the artful aeronautical engineering that allowed Leo to spend countless hours simulating and piloting numerous flight plans on his beloved flight simulator, gave Leo the basic skills he needed to help him thrive in the robotics lab.

But above all, the thing that stood out most about Leo was his knowledge of devices as simple as a motor and as complex as the processor in his surface pro, the same laptop he used to write tens of thousands of lines of code during his high school tenure.

What few people knew about Leo, however, was his lack of experience in robotics going into his freshman year, where he immediately took on an important role as programmer and robot builder.

The robotics program at Upper follows the guidelines of the First Tech Challenge, which is the third of four First robotics levels of competition. First Tech Challenge, or FTC, currently oversees 6,509 official teams in the 2019-2020 season, where OVS teams are working hard in the first year without their founding members, who include Leo and alum Ivy Sun (L15, U19), who is studying at UCLA.

“When I first joined robotics, I knew nothing about it, except some programming skills,” Leo said. “I could understand the software aspect of robotics, but I knew nothing about the hardware and the electrical aspect. I gradually learned from Mr. Westcott, who has mentored FTC teams before, how electrically the robot works.”

This interest, although originating with a message from his former mentor Mr. Westcott, now spans far beyond being a referee for OVS robotics competitions.

Leo now wants to expand further into the area of STEM, which is one of the reasons he received his training certificate and is now a registered referee.

As a leader within the robotics program, Leo made incredible contributions to the robotics team during his four years and Mr. Westcott is excited to see those contributions continue.

‘It just warms my heart to see him come back and volunteer to be a part of the [inter-league tournament],” Mr. Westcott said. “He’s been a great part of our program.”

But perhaps his greatest contribution, even more than rebuilding an entire robot in a week after the devastating Thomas fire destroyed the robotics lab, was his suggestion to strategize the division of team members into the two teams that OVS had.

“In my junior year, I suggested to reorganize the two teams, one for veteran members (Spudnik) and one for new members (Spudbot), instead of mixing veteran members and new members together into two [equal] teams,” Leo explained. “For example, when the game is released, Spudnik would start designing, building, and programming the robot immediately, while Spudbot would build a training robot to gain familiarity with the robots, before actually building a robot for competition. Spudbot, this way, has a better learning opportunity from the mentors and Spudnik members. If I could go back, I would suggest this idea earlier in the four years.”

Not only did this change allow the Spudbot team members to spend more time honing their abilities and interests in the realm of robotics, it also improved the overall performance of the Spudnik team.

In Leo’s first year, the Spudnik team placed somewhere around 30th of nearly 40 teams within the league. In Leo’s senior year, a year after this change, Spudnik placed 2nd overall in the league.

Although losing Leo was difficult, seeing him go on to pursue these passions at the University of Michigan has been incredibly rewarding to his mentors in the robotics program.

At the University of Michigan, Leo is taking computer science courses relating to robotics, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, to further his understanding of the field he is so passionate about.

“Now that I have experienced robotics, I am more eager to take these challenging courses to expand my (computer science) skills,” Leo said.

Rebuilding in Progress

Posted on January 22, 2020 //

By Craig Floyd, Upper Campus Head of School

January 22 – Last week, our high school faculty took a walking tour of the construction site at Upper Campus and heard an update on plans to replace the buildings destroyed by the Thomas Fire, as well as the addition of the new Student Commons. Grading is underway, and the site is beginning to take shape.

As we stood on top of the hill, with dark rain clouds approaching, we could envision the monumental changes to come in the months ahead, and the tremendous benefit they will bring for the future growth of the school.

For our teachers, the rebuild will mean moving into spacious, modern classrooms and science laboratories equipped with the best technology available. The new Aramont Science and Technology Center, perched on the hill overlooking Burr Hall, will offer expansive views, natural light, and environmental sustainable features that will meet the standards of LEED Gold certification.

Inside the tech center, the Digital Media Lab will meet the needs of our award-winning journalism program and allow us to expand our academic course offerings. Next year we will add a new class in videography, supported by Hollywood-grade editing hardware and software. We will also bring back Music Theory and Composition, giving our aspiring music students the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and experience.

Across the hallway from the Media lab, the impressive Makerspace and adjacent Physics Lab will meet the needs of our growing robotics program, allowing students to develop their engineering skills while working with hands-on projects. These spaces will encourage students to experiment, design, build and program at a collegiate level using professional-grade resources.

With student input, the design of the rebuilt Grace Hobson Smith girls dorm will offer stunning west-facing views of the Ojai Valley. It will feature a beautifully landscaped central courtyard and more dorm rooms to accommodate more students in the years ahead.

In the two-story Student Commons, our entire community will soon be able to gather under one roof to enjoy meals together. Our current cramped dining hall will then be converted to a student kitchen and boy’s dorm lounge. The Commons will also provide a spacious library with views of the Ojai Valley, bigger meeting rooms for College Counseling and the Learning Center, a dedicated Student Store, and a long-awaited Mezzanine Lounge for all our students to relax, study, and socialize.

We have always been a college-prep school, but the rebuild is finally allowing us to provide students with modern facilities that feel like a small college campus without abandoning our character or connection to the outdoors.

We are eager to see it come to life and move into the new buildings during the 2020-2021 school year. I encourage you to see renderings of the buildings, which are posted on our website. We will certainly update you on our progress in the months ahead.

Community Service

Posted on January 20, 2020 //

Thank you to the students at Lower Campus for their generous donation of $258.01 to the Humane Society of Ventura County! After hearing about a recent cat burglary at the Ojai shelter, the student council helped by putting on a bake sale and donating the proceeds to the Humane Society. The students presented a check to the shelter on Friday, January 17.

Students at both campuses support the the Humane Society as part of their community service. This year, 18 high school students at the Upper Campus have completed training and made a one-year commitment to the program. They work at the shelter every Tuesday afternoon.
Thank you for your generosity!