The Odyssey to Odyssey

Exploring Our “Why” and Experiencing our “How”

As you have no doubt seen from our website, we think a little differently here at OLA when it comes to schooling.

Odyssey Leadership Academy is a school dedicated to being a:

  • Hub of Innovation and Creativity

  • Place of Purpose and Meaning

  • Community of Care and Belonging

  • Hotbed of Advocacy and Activism

We want to be a place where the formation of healthy human beings in their most formative years is top priority. We help students cultivate rootedness in their lives in order to bear the fruit of wisdom, virtue, and compassion. We work hard to cultivate an ecosystem of care wherein each and every student is known, valued, and cherished precisely for the person they are. We give students the opportunity to tell better stories for their own lives and for the communities in which they find themselves. We strive to be a place that shapes the imaginations and affections of our students not to prepare them for the real world, but to help them shape a better world for us all.

We believe that education should not merely serve to inform the mind, but to form the heart; that a proper education should help students rightly order their lives by properly ordering their loves. We are convinced that a vision of education rooted in health begins not with information, but with the in/formation of persons committed to the well-being and flourishing of themselves and their communities.

To that end, we start each and every day with mentor time so that every student knows they have a safe space to process the celebrations and difficulties that come with adolescence. Mentoring is the heart of who we are, and it allows us to place a high level of attention on the needs of each individual student. It is our answer to the cry of students to know that they are heard, and that their stories matter.

We also make a firm commitment that we will never brand any student with a number or letter grade.

Instead, we believe it is of immense importance to help students walk out their own identity as creators of their own learning without the pressure of tests and grades. ​As the research on grading shows​, striving for numbers and letters creates undue stress and anxiety that leads to depression, angst, and self-harm. As a school intent on loving kids well, we vow to promote their fullest health by promoting, instead, joy, creativity, discovery, and voice without the external pressure of grades. We will celebrate their learning, not rank it. We will foster their humanity, not track and sort it.

By getting to know each individual student, we are able to monitor their progress relationally rather than numerically, thereby furthering our commitment to guide each child’s personal journey towards health and wholeness. To that end, we have joined the ranks of schools like​ ​St. Ann's in NYC​  to use a full narrative assessment rather than mere numbers or letters to tell the story of a given student’s academic journey. We are the only school in Oklahoma selected to be a member school of the​ ​Mastery Transcript Consortium​, placing us alongside such well-established schools as Philip's Exeter, The Buckley School, Berkeley Carroll, Seattle Waldorf, Hewitt, Hockaday and many others as part of a growing movement of schools that believe a narrative assessment provides better value to the student, parent, and college admissions community.

At OLA, we put human flourishing at the center of our vision for what education should be.

We take very seriously the latest neuro-cognitive research on brain development that points to the impact a more engaged, robust curriculum has on the formation of a healthy brain. Our curriculum, designed by teachers and students, invites our students to ​become ​mathematicians, artists, authors, scientists, astronomers, chemists, historians, linguists, and scholars in their own rights as they chart their own course of inquiry through Exploration courses like:

  • Architectural Engineering and Design (Mathematics)

  • Financial Literacy (Math)

  • Neuroscience and the Mind (Science)

  • Game Theory (Math)

  • Forensic Science (Science)

  • Tolkien and The Art of Myth-making (English)

  • Astronomy (Math/Science)

  • Racial Reconciliation (Social Studies)

  • Mr. Lincoln’s War (History)

  • The Quest for Happiness: The Pursuit of Adolescent Well-Being (Psychology)

  • Ecology and Infectious Diseases (Science)

  • The Female Voice (Literature)

  • Harry Potter and the Imagined World (Literature)

  • Einstein’s Ethics (Mathematics)

  • Marine Biology (Science)

  • Fixing the Body (Anatomy)

  • The Science of Water (Science)

  • Civics and Dystopia (History/English)

We do writing across the curriculum, meaning students do thesis work in every class, even the math/sciences. Our teachers create their own courses, which allows our students to read primary sources for their own work, thereby giving them the opportunity to create content, rather than merely consume it.

A reading list for a typical OLA student would include such texts as: 

  • ​The Nichomachean Ethics, b​y Aristotle ​

  • Strength to Love, ​by Martin Luther King, Jr. ​

  • Critique of Pure Reason, b​y Immanuel Kant

  • Wonder, by R. J. Palacio

  • Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

  • Man’s Search for Meaning, ​by Viktor Frankl ​

  • City of God, by Augustine

  • The Hobbit, b​y J.R.R. Tolkien

  • Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes

  • The Other Wes Moore, by W​es Moore ​

  • Elements, ​by Euclid

  • The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, by Sean Covey

  • The Memory of Old Jack, b​y Wendell Berry ​

  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan

  • Middlemarch, b​y George Eliot

  • Heart of Flesh, by Sister Joan Chittister

  • Thinking in Numbers, b​y Daniel Tamet

  • Team of Rivals, ​by Doris Kearns Goodwin ​

  • Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling

  • The Odyssey, by Homer

  • The Age of Innocence, ​by Edith Wharton

  • and Eichmann in Jerusalem, ​by Hannah Arendt.

Our 6-12th graders do high-level work studying, researching, writing, and teaching on such topics as: misogyny and hip hop music, a Freudian analysis of the Third Reich, Jungian archetypes in modern advertising, a statistical analysis of debt and divorce, sexual violence in prisons, an Aristotelian study of botany, Euclidean geometry in ​The Elements, ​prostate cancer research, the connection between food deserts and economics, race and violence in education, thermodynamics and gas consumption, and the Eastern influence on shame and moral development.

We have seen incredible fruit in the lives of our students and in the quality of their work. Without grades, students have done serious academic work, created ambitious projects, and found passion in their studies that they never experienced before.

Over the course of an academic career at OLA, a given OLA student might:

  • investigate the idea of dark matter and the physics of quantum mechanics in Math: Quest for Wonder (Mathematics)

  • present on the work UNICEF is doing around the world to defend and empower children in Peacebuilding and Holistic Communities (Social Studies)

  • explore the environmental impact of oil and gas pipelines on natural ecosystems in ​Perspectives on Energy ​(Science)

  • teach out on Carol Dweck's concept of growth mindset in ​Neuroscience and the Mind (​ Science)

  • use their geometry skills to help ​build a tiny house​ from the trailer up in Architectural Engineering and Design (​Geometry)

  • give a speech as Malcolm X while studying his response to the Jim Crow South in Leaders of the Past and Present (Social Studies)

  • research thermodynamics and ecosystem population density in ​Nature's Folklore (Science/English)

  • investigate the impact fatherlessness plays in incarceration in Justice by Math (Statistics)

  • teach out on Euclid’s First Four Axioms in Math: The Universal Language (History of Mathematics)

  • compose an original piece of music in a recording studio with a platinum record singer/songwriter

  • create an original model of a Tesla coil designed to power an electric light bulb for a class project

  • read ​Crime and Punishment​ and study it through its original language (Russian language)

  • interview the local District Attorney for a speech on Adverse Childhood Experiences in ​Debate

  • create a living mural for the Plaza Walls District in Art class

  • do a Voyage apprenticeship with a local graphic design artist or work in a local automotive

    garage learning how to rebuild a car engine

  • write, memorize, and perform original spoken word pieces on propaganda and the female experience in front of over two hundred people at one of our Celebrations of Learning​ events

Our students also have the unique opportunity of using the world as their classroom. At OLA, students have been able to:

  • march the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

  • visit the Art Institute in Chicago

  • live amongst the Cochiti people on one of the nation’s largest Native America pueblos

  • experience the 9/11 Memorial in NYC

  • tour the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

  • hike, river raft, rock climb, and camp in the Colorado Rockies

  • stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

  • walk through living history in Colonial Williamsburg

  • engage the native habitats of alligators in New Orleans

  • explore living ecosystems at the Grand Canyon

As you can see, there really is no way to convert this amount of original scholarly work and active engagement into a grade point average; quite frankly, we do not even try because we do not see our students in any way as average!

In our first eight years, Odyssey Leadership Academy has already earned and accomplished a host of commendations and recognitions, including:

Our work is also featured in Dr Peter Gamwell’s book on innovative schools around the world, Thinker, Learner, Dreamer, Doer.

We are proud to pioneer our quarterly Celebrations of Learning events, showcases where students display their work in the form of art, poetry, spoken word, music, dance, drama, fashion, science experiments, woodworking, and more at community-wide events that draw in over 200 people (Check out one of these events).

I am convinced that what we offer colleges and universities are students who are well-versed in thinking deeply, engaging critically, working collaboratively, expressing creatively, exploring curiously, and leading from a place of service; but we are just as proud of the fact that we offer communities leaders who are walking out the virtues of humility, open-mindedness, gratitude, civic responsibility, attentiveness, compassion, and wisdom.

Our graduates not only go on to the colleges and universities of their choice (many with significant scholarship offers), they go on to tell beautiful stories with their lives.

To date, our graduates have gone beyond Odyssey to:

  • receive acceptances to their top colleges of choice, including: UC Santa Cruz, Penn State, George Washington, Colorado School of Mines, Wheaton, UC San Diego, Lewis and Clark College, Regis, Fisk, Allegheny College, Michigan State University, Brigham Young University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, College of Charleston, University of Colorado at Boulder, Westminster College, DePaul, Colorado College, Savanah College of Art and Design, Kansas City Art Institute, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, University of Arkansas, Academy of Contemporary Music, Southern Nazarene University, Oklahoma Baptist University, University of Central Oklahoma, University of Utah, and Hendrix College

  • receive President’s, Dean’s, Regent’s, Trustee’s, Chancellor’s, Honor’s College, and Academic Excellence scholarships from their universities of choice totaling over $2,000,000 in scholarships offered to date to OLA students—averaging $85,000 in scholarships per college bound graduate!

  • study mechanical engineering, psychiatry, cognitive science, business, marketing, architectural engineering, history, creative writing, videography, philosophy and more!

  • study overseas in Switzerland and Hawaii

  • start their own businesses

  • star in TV and movies

  • take gap years working and serving in places like Jordan, Seattle, the Himalayas, Australia, and South Asia

  • serve our country in the military and armed forces

As you can tell, we are a school committed to reimagining the very fabric of what education can and should be! We invite you to come see for yourself what makes OLA such a special place. We think you will find that within our rhythm of mentoring, highly engaged classes, experiential learning, and commitment to community, there is an alchemy that transforms “information” into the in/​formation ​of genuinely unique, and truly amazing human beings.

Sincerely,

Scott Sig.png

Dr. Scott Martin
Founder and Executive Director Odyssey Leadership Academy