Alumni

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Alumni/ae are invited to stay connected or re-connect through our Alums Facebook Group.

Adia, Class of 1997

I am a wildlife biologist and, currently, a graduate research assistant at the University of Florida. After graduating from Odyssey Day School in 6th grade in 1997 I attended Woburn public schools for the remainder of middle and high school years. I moved on to study Environmental Science at the University of Massachusetts, joining their honors program and traveling to Africa to study elephants as an undergraduate. Over the next five years I travelled the globe working on various research projects including; seals in Antarctica, mountain goats in Alaska, California condors in the Grand Canyon, and wolves in Montana. Currently, I am a graduate student leading a project investigating the impacts of Burmese pythons on mammals in the Everglades. I regularly visit Odyssey to share my current research activities and interact with students interested in ecology and the environment.

As a student at Odyssey I developed the skills and confidence that put me on my current track. Odyssey equipped me with the necessary skills to be a self-sufficient, confident, lifelong-learner. Odyssey Day School provided a safe and encouraging environment where my interest in science and nature was allowed to bloom. Specifically, as a young child struggling with dyslexia Odyssey’s unique, individualized curriculum allowed me to remain with my social peer group while receiving the necessary early intervention to address my learning difference. As a result of this early attention and integration I was able to keep up with my peers in science, social studies, and math and transfer into traditional public school honors curriculum with little support. Odyssey’s focus on individual learning styles and lack of emphasis on test scores allowed me to develop a passion for science and become a confident problem solver; traits I rely heavily on in my current line of work.

Owen, Class of 2006

After Graduating from Odyssey, I attended Essex Agricultural and Technical High School, on the recommendation of – and thanks too – my 7th and 8th grade teacher Kimm. At The Aggie, I majored in Environmental Science and Technology. After Graduation from high school, I moved to Columbus Ohio, to attend Ohio State University. Here, I am majoring in Agricultural Engineering, with a specialization in Machinery Systems. I joined the crew team at OSU, all because of the rowing machine that we used in gym class, my 8th grade year at Odyssey. I ultimately want to own a successful mechanical engineering business.

My experiences with, and things that I learned at Odyssey still prove relevant and of worth in my life today.

At Odyssey, students gain so much more than simply learning what is taught in their classes. Students are exposed to different points of view, and see people from all walks of life working together. That teaches so much more than a book report ever could. At Odyssey, I benefited from individual attention where I needed it, and was allowed to function more autonomously when that was what I needed.

As 7th and 8th graders, we had reading buddies- younger students that we would read books to each week. My peers and I really got attached to our little buddies, and would talk to them whenever we saw them at lunch or during a school-wide event. Sometimes during a class, I would stand during a lesson. Others took notes while sitting on a couch, or the floor.

Odyssey is not just a conveyor belt that spits out an 8th grader. I see it as a world unto itself that allows individuals to learn and personalities to be expressed and grow. Odyssey is so much more than the sum of its parts.

It is really hard for me to condense into words what I gained from Odyssey, I just wish to convey from the bottom of my heart how much I esteem my time spent there.