The Athenian School
Encyclopedia
The Athenian School is a college preparatory school located in Danville
, California
. Athenian educates students in grades 6-12 on a 75 acres (303,514.5 m²) campus at the base of Mt. Diablo, located near San Francisco in Northern California
. Athenian was founded by Dyke Brown
(1915–2006) in 1965.
Athenian is composed of roughly 150 students in the middle school (grades 6-8) and 300 students in the high school (9-12). Approximately 40 students and 18 teachers live on campus full-time. The average class size is 16.
conceived of the idea of a mission-driven boarding school during his tenure as Vice President of the Ford Foundation, influenced by his Foundation work in youth development and the prevention of juvenile delinquency, and by his own children's educational experiences.
Athenian is a member of Round Square
, an international organization of schools whose philosophy is influenced by the German educator Kurt Hahn
.
In 1962, Brown left the Ford Foundation to begin to raise money for the school he had in mind. Inspired by the Oxford
system of individual colleges sharing common resources, his original plan was a series of four campuses sharing a library, science classrooms, athletic facilities, a performing-arts complex, and other facilities. He found 80+ acres of land in what was then rural Contra Costa county, a portion of what was then the Blackhawk Ranch
, bordering on Mount Diablo State Park.
Construction began in 1963, and the founding head, W. Robert Usellis, began recruiting the pioneer classes in the fall of 1964. Brown's vision was startling at the time: he planned for both integration
and coeducation
. In the early 1960s, very few private schools were recruiting students of color. The value of integration for private schools was seen by a very few visionaries, including the founders of A Better Chance. The norm for boarding schools at the time was single-sex; a coeducational boarding program was unusual. In September 1965, the school opened with approximately sixty students, in ninth and tenth grades. In 1968, the founding class graduated, with a full enrollment of about 120 students, of whom only about six were day students.
In the 1970s, Athenian weathered local, national, and international changes. Locally, the surrounding area was transformed from cattle ranches to upscale developments. Athenian's neighbor, Blackhawk Ranch
, was sold to land developer Ken Behring
, and by 1979 2,500 upscale homes were built. The population boom in the area meant that there was an increased demand for day student places at the school.
Nationally, at least two forces were at work. First, the stagflation
of the 1970s meant that parents had less discretionary income, thus weakening the pool of prospective boarding students. Second, other demographic changes, such as the increase in divorce, affected the pool of prospective boarding students.
In 1979, there was sufficient interest in the surrounding community for Athenian to open a day-school only middle school, serving students in grades 6-8. The majority of the Middle School students continued on to finish high school at Athenian.
. The school colors are terra cotta
and earth
; the sports teams wear orange and black. The athletics program has steadily improved over the past few years. Athenian has made the North Coast Section
in men's soccer for five straight years. The women's basketball
team made it to NCS in 2005, the men's basketball
team made NCS in 2006, for the first time in eight years, and the men's baseball team made it to the 2006 NCS Championship, finishing runner-up. Athenian's Golf team has won the league title for four consecutive years, and seven of the last eight. Led by coach Dani Oswood, the women's basketball team became league champions on February 8, 2008, a first for Athenian women's basketball. A handful of swimmers, wrestlers, and track/cross-country runners will also qualify for the North Coast Section
in a given year. Flag football is also offered at the Athenian school and is purposed for middle school to get a start in athletics. The full list of sports offered includes wrestling, soccer, flag football, ultimate frisbee, tennis, dance, golf, swimming, track & field, cross country, basketball, baseball, badminton; and a variety of other non-team athletics, including hiking, fencing, yoga, outdoor adventure, and weight training.
, was influenced by Kurt Hahn
, a wilderness expedition was not originally required in the curriculum. In the summer of 1968, two female members of the class of 1969 participated in the only program available for girls in the Boundary Waters
Park. Upon their return to school, they impressed upon Brown and other school leaders the importance of having such an experience part of the Athenian experience.
Originally, Athenian students went on courses provided by the Sierra arm of Outward Bound
. After several years, the school devised its own program and hired staff, and made participation in AWE a graduation requirement. Now, Athenian students in their junior year spend three and a half weeks hiking in either the Sierra Nevada (during the summer) or Death Valley (during the spring).
. Over the past few years they have had much success under the tutelage of Eugene Mizusawa, Megan Leich, and Brad Niven, as well as a dedicated group of adult mentors. Athenian has performed very well in its regional competition, competing against schools with many times its own population and resources. The robotics team has placed in the regional competition the last three years, first qualifying for the national tournament in 2004. In 2006, the team placed first in the region and again attended the national tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. On February 28, 2007, ARC participated in outreach by demonstrating the capabilities of one of their robots (Chet V) to students at Pleasant Hill Elementary School, as part of their science night. In 2007, ARC and their robot, Chet VI, took second place at the Silicon Valley Regional and the Davis Sacramento Regional. In addition, the team won the General Motors Industrial Design Award for the second year running. In 2008, Athenian was once again the recipient of the GM Industrial Design Award at the Davis Sacramento Regional.
Danville, California
The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that uses "town" in its name instead of "city". The population was 42,039 in 2010. Danville is one of the wealthiest suburbs of Oakland and San...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Athenian educates students in grades 6-12 on a 75 acres (303,514.5 m²) campus at the base of Mt. Diablo, located near San Francisco in Northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Athenian was founded by Dyke Brown
Dyke Brown
Dyke Brown was best known for founding The Athenian School in Danville, California.-Early life and academic career:Dyke was born Franklin Moore Brown in San Francisco, on April 16, 1915. It is not known how or when "Dyke" became the only first name he was known by. His high school years were...
(1915–2006) in 1965.
Athenian is composed of roughly 150 students in the middle school (grades 6-8) and 300 students in the high school (9-12). Approximately 40 students and 18 teachers live on campus full-time. The average class size is 16.
History
Dyke BrownDyke Brown
Dyke Brown was best known for founding The Athenian School in Danville, California.-Early life and academic career:Dyke was born Franklin Moore Brown in San Francisco, on April 16, 1915. It is not known how or when "Dyke" became the only first name he was known by. His high school years were...
conceived of the idea of a mission-driven boarding school during his tenure as Vice President of the Ford Foundation, influenced by his Foundation work in youth development and the prevention of juvenile delinquency, and by his own children's educational experiences.
Athenian is a member of Round Square
Round Square
The Round Square Conference of Schools is a worldwide association of more than 80 schools that allows students to travel between schools,tour foreign countries, involve themselves in community service and discover cultures along the way.-History:...
, an international organization of schools whose philosophy is influenced by the German educator Kurt Hahn
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...
.
In 1962, Brown left the Ford Foundation to begin to raise money for the school he had in mind. Inspired by the Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
system of individual colleges sharing common resources, his original plan was a series of four campuses sharing a library, science classrooms, athletic facilities, a performing-arts complex, and other facilities. He found 80+ acres of land in what was then rural Contra Costa county, a portion of what was then the Blackhawk Ranch
Blackhawk, California
Blackhawk is an unincorporated master planned community and census-designated place located in Contra Costa County, California, east of Danville and Oakland. The ZIP Code is 94506. The community is inside area code 925.-Blackhawk Ranch, 1917 to 1979:...
, bordering on Mount Diablo State Park.
Construction began in 1963, and the founding head, W. Robert Usellis, began recruiting the pioneer classes in the fall of 1964. Brown's vision was startling at the time: he planned for both integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
and coeducation
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
. In the early 1960s, very few private schools were recruiting students of color. The value of integration for private schools was seen by a very few visionaries, including the founders of A Better Chance. The norm for boarding schools at the time was single-sex; a coeducational boarding program was unusual. In September 1965, the school opened with approximately sixty students, in ninth and tenth grades. In 1968, the founding class graduated, with a full enrollment of about 120 students, of whom only about six were day students.
In the 1970s, Athenian weathered local, national, and international changes. Locally, the surrounding area was transformed from cattle ranches to upscale developments. Athenian's neighbor, Blackhawk Ranch
Blackhawk, California
Blackhawk is an unincorporated master planned community and census-designated place located in Contra Costa County, California, east of Danville and Oakland. The ZIP Code is 94506. The community is inside area code 925.-Blackhawk Ranch, 1917 to 1979:...
, was sold to land developer Ken Behring
Ken Behring
Kenneth Eugene Behring is a real-estate developer, former owner of the Seattle Seahawks football team, and philanthropist.-Early years:...
, and by 1979 2,500 upscale homes were built. The population boom in the area meant that there was an increased demand for day student places at the school.
Nationally, at least two forces were at work. First, the stagflation
Stagflation
In economics, stagflation is a situation in which the inflation rate is high and the economic growth rate slows down and unemployment remains steadily high...
of the 1970s meant that parents had less discretionary income, thus weakening the pool of prospective boarding students. Second, other demographic changes, such as the increase in divorce, affected the pool of prospective boarding students.
In 1979, there was sufficient interest in the surrounding community for Athenian to open a day-school only middle school, serving students in grades 6-8. The majority of the Middle School students continued on to finish high school at Athenian.
Athletics
Athenian is one of ten schools in the Bay Counties League - EastBay Counties League - East
The Bay Counties League – East is a school athletic conference located in the East Bay Area. The league is a member of the North Coast Section, one of ten sections that comprise the California Interscholastic Federation. There are seven current member schools...
. The school colors are terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
and earth
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
; the sports teams wear orange and black. The athletics program has steadily improved over the past few years. Athenian has made the North Coast Section
North Coast Section
The North Coast Section is a part of the California Interscholastic Federation, governing the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, up along the northern coast of the state of California, from Fremont in the south to Crescent City in the north. It also governs the private schools in the...
in men's soccer for five straight years. The women's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team made it to NCS in 2005, the men's basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team made NCS in 2006, for the first time in eight years, and the men's baseball team made it to the 2006 NCS Championship, finishing runner-up. Athenian's Golf team has won the league title for four consecutive years, and seven of the last eight. Led by coach Dani Oswood, the women's basketball team became league champions on February 8, 2008, a first for Athenian women's basketball. A handful of swimmers, wrestlers, and track/cross-country runners will also qualify for the North Coast Section
North Coast Section
The North Coast Section is a part of the California Interscholastic Federation, governing the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area, up along the northern coast of the state of California, from Fremont in the south to Crescent City in the north. It also governs the private schools in the...
in a given year. Flag football is also offered at the Athenian school and is purposed for middle school to get a start in athletics. The full list of sports offered includes wrestling, soccer, flag football, ultimate frisbee, tennis, dance, golf, swimming, track & field, cross country, basketball, baseball, badminton; and a variety of other non-team athletics, including hiking, fencing, yoga, outdoor adventure, and weight training.
Athenian Wilderness Experience (AWE)
While Athenian's founder, Dyke BrownDyke Brown
Dyke Brown was best known for founding The Athenian School in Danville, California.-Early life and academic career:Dyke was born Franklin Moore Brown in San Francisco, on April 16, 1915. It is not known how or when "Dyke" became the only first name he was known by. His high school years were...
, was influenced by Kurt Hahn
Kurt Hahn
Kurt Martin Hahn was a German educator whose philosophies are considered internationally influential.-Biography:...
, a wilderness expedition was not originally required in the curriculum. In the summer of 1968, two female members of the class of 1969 participated in the only program available for girls in the Boundary Waters
Boundary Waters
The Boundary Waters — also called the Quetico-Superior country — is a region of wilderness straddling the Canada–United States border between Ontario and Minnesota, in the region just west of Lake Superior. This region is part of the Superior National Forest in northeastern Minnesota, and in Canada...
Park. Upon their return to school, they impressed upon Brown and other school leaders the importance of having such an experience part of the Athenian experience.
Originally, Athenian students went on courses provided by the Sierra arm of Outward Bound
Outward Bound
Outward Bound is an international, non-profit, independent, outdoor educationorganization with approximately 40 schools around the world and 200,000 participants per year...
. After several years, the school devised its own program and hired staff, and made participation in AWE a graduation requirement. Now, Athenian students in their junior year spend three and a half weeks hiking in either the Sierra Nevada (during the summer) or Death Valley (during the spring).
Clubs
Student activity clubs include: Asian Club, Democrats Club, Feminist Club, Outdoor Adventure Club, Meditation Club, Debate, Interweave (Gay-Straight Alliance), Jew Crew, Latino Club, Black Student Union, Vegetarian Club, Model UN Club, Christian Club, Interfaith Dialogue Club, and Mixed Race Club.Robotics
The Athenian Robotics Collective (ARC) competes regularly in the FIRST Robotics CompetitionFIRST Robotics Competition
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...
. Over the past few years they have had much success under the tutelage of Eugene Mizusawa, Megan Leich, and Brad Niven, as well as a dedicated group of adult mentors. Athenian has performed very well in its regional competition, competing against schools with many times its own population and resources. The robotics team has placed in the regional competition the last three years, first qualifying for the national tournament in 2004. In 2006, the team placed first in the region and again attended the national tournament in Atlanta, Georgia. On February 28, 2007, ARC participated in outreach by demonstrating the capabilities of one of their robots (Chet V) to students at Pleasant Hill Elementary School, as part of their science night. In 2007, ARC and their robot, Chet VI, took second place at the Silicon Valley Regional and the Davis Sacramento Regional. In addition, the team won the General Motors Industrial Design Award for the second year running. In 2008, Athenian was once again the recipient of the GM Industrial Design Award at the Davis Sacramento Regional.
Notable alumni
- Jackie Thomas (1982) - Nike executive, former Athenian School Trustee
- Joseph Stanley Williams (1960) - American rock singer and film score composer best known commercially for his work in the prog/rock/pop band TotoToto (band)Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
, and son of famous composer John WilliamsJohn WilliamsJohn Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
Heads of School
- 1966-1968 W. Robert Usellis
- 1969-1972 John Streitz
- 1973-1977 David Murray
- 1978-1992 Steven Davenport
- 1992-2009 Eleanor Dase
- 2009–present Eric Niles