The Why Not You Academy

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, good morning, and welcometo the public Affair show of your favorite
iHeartRadio station. Right here in Seattle, there is a school in South Seattle
I want you to know about.It's called the Why Not You Academy,
and they concentrate very much on helpingall students and offering inclusion for BIPOC students

(00:20):
and kids from all around the country, bringing worldwide diversity to the classroom.
I'm so thrilled to talk about this. It's the why Not You Academy.
And on the phone, I havethe CEO, Abbey O'Neill. Hey,
Abbey, Hello, Hello, youjust started the school a couple of years
ago, am I right? Yes, that's correct. We actually open our

(00:42):
doors in the fall twenty twenty one, so going into our third school year
now, oh, that's so exciting. You started it with a couple of
very famous people. How did thathappen? And I guess who are they?
First? Yes, so our cofounders are actually Russell and Sierra Wilson.
So they found it, you knowwhen they were still here in Seattle

(01:02):
and are still supporting our academy together. And it really just started because we
shared that vision. So we hadall of our co founders met and had
a vision for an academy that wasgoing to support students to learn the skills
that they need to be successful incollege and career and civic life. That

(01:23):
focuses on getting students internships and shadowdays and getting them to really learn outside
of the school building. And theyopened up the school. That is so
cool because you know, in highschool, I was clueless as to what
I wanted to do. I kindof had an inkling, but really not
and no real experience on being inthat process of figuring out or really talking

(01:45):
to anybody outside of the school aboutwhat I could do for a living.
The Why Not You Academy starts isninth grade through graduation. Correct, Yes,
that's correct. Okay, So whatdoes it look like for a student
to start figuring out how do youall help him or her or them figure
out what they want to do fora living? Yes, so starting in

(02:06):
freshman year and every year really,our students are always they start their career
here at NAU Academy thinking about purposeand their purpose statements in life that puts
together their interests, their passions andjust fields of interest that they may already
know. And that's the purpose statementthat they actually go back to all the

(02:27):
time to figure out if that's stillit, if that's still what they're interested
in. But over the years,they take interest surveys, and they reach
out to people in the community,and they do research to really figure out
if those fields are something they're interestedin. After finding those mentors and adults
in the community, they do interviews, they do shadow days, and then

(02:50):
they do eight week long internships wheresometimes students who learn that the field is
something they're not interested in anymore,or they realize that that's really what they
want to do, and then theycontinue to explore it further. How are
they motivated? Me as a freshmanwent, I don't know. I don't
have a clue what my purpose statementis. Are they reading or they what
are they learning about other people inthe world. Maybe get inspired by people

(03:15):
doing other things in the world.Yeah, because of our Leaving to Learn
program, we actually have adults andmentors from the community coming into the school
all the time presenting their passions,presenting their work so that students can and
our students that will predominantly be thefirst ones in their family to go to
college, that they see what thoseinterests and those fields are and what careers

(03:38):
exist out there, because sometimes theyjust haven't had access to here and meet
someone that is doing that work.So that is something that we have seen
really motivate students throughout our curriculum.Right, all of our students will take
every class that they need to graduatefrom high school. They're also learning from
a project based learning styles, sothere's objects and they're constantly learning about issues

(04:02):
that may be happening in the communityor in the world, and we use
the skills and the learnings that theyare doing to figure out how would they
make change and how would they createa better world. Everybody on the phone
the why not you Academy Chief executiveOfficer Abigail O'Neil. Abby O'Neill, tell

(04:24):
me about the ins and outs ofhow a school comes to be in the
Greater Seattle area. Yes, sowe are a public school. We're a
charter public school, so it's completelyfree to attend. There is just a
simple and quick application process, right, So we're more of a choice school.
So we actually have students coming fromfifty different middle schools from North Seattle,

(04:47):
Seattle, West Seattle, Quit,Renton, Bellevue. Last year we
even had a student coming from Bremerton, right, Federaway, Tacoma, etc.
Students come from anywhere and you don'thave to live nearby in order to
attend. You just have to beable to attend every day. So that
really brings in a lot of diversityand brings in just students from all over

(05:10):
who are interested and families who areinterested in in getting this additional or focused
school that is all about preparing studentsfor college and career. Located in Des
Moines, so it's completely free,but public school. So there's just an
application all right on a charter school, a public school, and it's the

(05:31):
why not You Academy w in yacademy dot org. Can you give us
a little bit more about I mean, I know it's very career oriented,
which is very cool and or collegeoriented doesn't have to be the same thing,
correct, Yes, that's correct.Are you hoping kids go to college

(05:53):
or you really maybe they're the careerthey pick doesn't require that. Yeah.
One hundred percent of our students willbe a fine to college and our goal
obviously is that they all get accepted. But we support our students to decide
what pathway they want to take becausethere are also in Seattle. It's really
amazing. But there's so many apprenticeshipprograms and other fields and careers programs that

(06:17):
exist that can also help our studentsbe successful. So our real goal is
that they just have the skills thatthey need to be successful in any career.
And some careers require you to goto college and some don't, so
we support our students to make thosedecisions. And even if some of our
students choose to go the career routeright after high school, they may decide

(06:39):
in a year or two right thatthey want to go back to college,
so we want them to make sure. We want to make sure they still
have those skills to be ready tobe successful in college too. Right on,
do you want to touch on thediversity that you make possible there at
the Why Not You Academy? Yes? Yes, yeah, Our school is
really diverse, it's really beautiful.We have about seventeen languages that are spoken

(07:03):
in our school building. So oftentimeswhen we have para meetings, we have
four to five interpreters Somali, Amaric, American Sign Language, Spanish and Vietnamese
for and as well as English,so that our families can really access the
communication, right. We about twentypercent of our students are multilingual learners,

(07:27):
and almost every student speaks more thanone language, so it's it's really diverse
in that way. Aside from that, or in addition to that, that's
also what our teachers look like.About eighty seven percent of our teachers are
a global majority. The leadership teamis one hundred percent global majority black and
brown, and then our even ourboard of directors is also eighty percent global

(07:53):
majority. So we're really building acommunity that is welcome to all. Now,
do you also teach languages there?Yes, all students in the state
of Washington actually have to take twoyears of a language to graduate, so
they actually the language that we officiallyteach us Spanish, but we have a
world competency tests so that students canalso learn other languages and then you know,

(08:18):
show their competency and graduate with abiliteracy feel on their their transcripts and
graduation. Wow, I wish I'dgone to a school like that. The
only thing they taught me how todo outside of you know, the basics,
was how to make jewelry. AndI didn't care and I and you
were not going to see me goto auto shop. That was not my

(08:39):
bag. So this is very exciting. What do kids want to do these
days? Yes, I think alot. Well they're so cool and everybody's
so different. But we have agroup of students that are really focused on
computer science. So they love technology, they love coding, their coding art,
their coding commercials, and really learnin computer science. Yeah, but

(09:01):
we also have students who are interestedin being you know, hairdressers, or
being fashion designers, or being teachersand just everything that you could possibly think
of. We have a student herethat's that's focused on learning more about that.
Yeah, and you need training aftercollege, I mean after high school
for all of those things, eithercollege or vocational. So very cool.

(09:24):
Do you have a public school startsSeptember five? Did charter school start early?
Yes? We are starting and welcomingstudents on August twenty eight, Okay,
and there are still some spaces available, that is correct. We have
about fifteen spots class in our freshmanclass, and then less than ten spots
in the sophomore class, and maybejust two spots in the eleventh grade class.

(09:48):
But after that there's a waiting list, so it is really just first
come, first serve check it outat w n Y Academy dot org.
The class sizes are very small.That might make a parent think that this
is another great reason, So howdo you do that? Yes, so
we are a small school, sowe only have the total will never be

(10:09):
bigger than four hundred students, soit's very small. This year will have
ninth, tenth, and eleventh gradebecause we're still in our opening years.
So we just are very intentional abouthow we split up our staff and split
up the building to make sure thatstudents are getting at one on one attention
and small group instruction. We believethat classes need to be smaller in order

(10:33):
to really support students to learn,So our class sizes are from fourteen students
to about twenty twenty five. AbbyO'Neill, chief executive officer for the Why
Not You Academy, is on thephone with me. Just a couple of
more questions. Sorry for not knowinghow this works. But are you funded
the same way that public schools inthe Seattle District? Are? Yes?

(10:58):
And no? So yes because westill receive public school funds, you know,
from the state because we are apublic school and open to any student.
But no, because we actually charterschools in the state of Washington do
not have access to levy funds thatmost public schools do, so we are
actually underfunded in the states. Sowe have to be very creative and we

(11:22):
work in community to work together tobuild our school. So oftentimes we're looking
for grants, we're looking for donationsof funds, but also as materials of
books, of computers and things thatwe need to really take our school to
that next level that that we're dreamingof for our students. Right on,

(11:43):
do Russell and Sierra pitching a littlebit, Yes, of course. Russell
Sierra and the Why Not You Foundationis our major funder and supporter. Okay,
good, good to hear. Butdonations are always accepted, am I
right? Yes, that is correct. We are always looking for just more
opportunities, more fund more funds andresources for our community. Yeah, this

(12:09):
is a great vision and it's actuallya vision that is happening and in place.
And there's still a couple of slotsopen for kids. It's down in
Des Moines. It's open to kidsfrom all over Washington State. Just have
to be able to get yourself thereand there's an application process and you just
go to w in y academy dotorg, as in why not You Academy

(12:33):
dot org. Hey, is thereanything we've left out that you want to
get across to our friends out therelistening. No, I will just say
that, you know, we wouldbe happy and welcome anybody and anyone that
is looking for a small school fortheir students to really focus on gaining the
skills that they need to be successfulin college and career. Right on.
Hey, as chief executive officer ofa school, does that mean you're the

(12:56):
principal. Yes, that means anyprinciple. And then I also have other
administrators on the team, so youknow, I'm the CEO and I have
three directors that are running the schoolalongside me. That's great, Abby O'Neill.
I want to thank you so muchfor your time and for telling me
about how charter schools work and abouthow great though why not you Academy is

(13:18):
I appreciate it. Thank you somuch. Thank you