People of Overlake

Meet Our Students!

This year has been, well, strange is an understatement. And one thing we from the Weekly Hoot feel has been missing the most is seeing old friends on campus and making new ones. Our courageous writers have gone out and interviewed some members of the Overlake community. Please enjoy our light-hearted interviews with students below! Be sure to check out our faculty and staff interviews in this article.

Students

Fiona Li: 9th Grade

Interviewed by Tessa Dunagan

Tessa: How would you describe yourself to our audience?

Fiona: I would describe myself as a 9th grader at the Overlake School who enjoys hanging out with her friends and has really cool friends like Tessa Dunagan, who is interviewing me.

Tessa: If you were a tree, what would you be? It can be specific, or like a type, or a vibe.

Fiona: I think I would be a plum tree.

Tessa: In the same vein, if you were a bird, what bird would you be?

Fiona: I would be a seagull, since I take food.

Tessa: Well, seagulls are also a very prolific bird.

Fiona: I’m very proud of being a seagull. It’s my calling.

Tessa: What project week did you do?

Fiona: Oh, I did Theatre Set Design with Bill Johns.

Tessa: How was that experience, Fiona?

Fiona: It was extremely fun, especially to go in person for some of it and have Bill help me design something that isn’t terribly ugly.

Tessa: Did you learn any important experiential education life knowledge from it?

Fiona: Yeah, I learned how not to burn myself with a hot glue gun. Because the last time I did, I burned myself. But I also learned how theatres work.

Tessa: Nice, nice. What were the main pros and cons in your project week experience?

Fiona: The pros were that everyone in it was very cool and fun. Bill is very cool. We got to design a lot of stuff and be really creative, which was fun. The con I guess is that during the online parts some of it is awkward when you can’t see anyone.

Tessa: Do you have any amazing life advice for younger people? Since that’s what we tell people in interviews.

Fiona: My amazing life advice for younger people is that you should always drink a lot of water since it can help you stay hydrated.

Tessa: What is a highlight of your quarantine experience?

Fiona: I played a lot of games and discovered what Mario Kart is.

Tessa: Okay, so the next one is more school related. Do you have a favorite extracurricular and why?

Fiona: Yes. I’m so glad you asked, Tessa. As per the cult speech and debate, I would like to say speech and debate is the greatest extracurricular and everyone should join it!

Tessa: Fiona, I see that you feel very passionately about speech and debate. Would you like to elaborate on your experience with it?

Fiona: I’ve become friends with many other speech and debaters from other schools, because we make really bad jokes that no one really likes. The team is fine; we’re fine.

Tessa: Sounds great. Do you have a favorite dog? This can be a specific dog or a kind of dog.

Fiona: I like Pomeranians because they remind me of half of my friendship population, because they are tiny and bark a lot.

Tessa: What’s your favorite color, Fiona?

Fiona: My favorite color is light blue.

Tessa: That’s nice. Do you have any special reasons for that?

Fiona: No, I think it’s just nice and calm.

Tessa: Cool, cool. Name one hope you have for the world, like humanity.

Fiona: I hope that humanity can be less divided on basic things.

Tessa: Yeah. The last question is, name one goal you have for summer.

Fiona: My one goal is, get out of the house and actually do something productive.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

Elizabeth Gallop: 9th Grade

Interviewed by Sarah Guralnick

Sarah: Elizabeth, if you could travel anywhere right now, where would it be and why?

Elizabeth: I would probably go to Rhode Island to go to Brown university so I can go to some of the summer programs and learn from different university instructors and professors because I haven’t had the chance to. Or I would go to Toronto to visit my family.

Sarah: If you could star in a movie, what movie would it be and why?

Elizabeth: Something in the Marvel universe or Star Wars universe because I am kind of a Star Wars nerd and Marvel nerd, and I could be best friends with baby Groot. That would be a really cool experience and I would also get to see the different types of dictatorships and sorts of monarchies throughout the different systems.

Sarah: If you could have any superhero power, what would you have and why?

Elizabeth: Probably the ability to turn something matterless, so I can make it go at light speed. Or to be able to fix quantum entanglement so I can make teleportation an actual thing at light speed. Because this would be very, very fun to do to scare people. I could also do the Pacer test really well.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

Yuchen Yang: 10th Grade

Interviewed by Ava Min

Ava: If you had a choice of having only three things to bring with you on a deserted island, what would you bring?

Yuchen: I think that depends if I think I’ll die on there or if I think I’m going to try and escape. How- How big is the thing? Can I just bring- bring a whole boat?

Ava: Bring whatever you want

Yuchen: Well, I’d bring a whole boat. A crew, and just have them drive me out of there. I’d really rather not be deserted.

Ava: How long have you been at Overlake?

Yuchen: I only joined this year. And before, I went to UPS.

Ava: Are you in hybrid or online this year?

Yuchen: Well, I was online before but I think I’ll go to hybrid after project week, and I did go hybrid for project week so that was interesting, but I haven’t seen hybrid so far.

Ava: Are you excited to go back to in-person school?

Yuchen: I think so, yeah. I mean obviously, I want to wait till it’s safe to do so. But when it is safe to do so, yeah, I am excited. It’d be nice to actually meet everyone rather than meeting through zoom only. But I think sometimes it is kind of fun to have some anonymity since I don’t know anybody and most people haven’t seen me in person. It’s actually pretty interesting to see how that goes. Not going to lie.

Ava: Have you met your fellow classmates in person because of project week?

Yuchen: Yeah. I’ve met a few people. It’s kind of fun.

Ava: Are their heights very different from what you expected?

Yuchen: I mean… I’m pretty short, right? So, I assume people are taller than me. But one of my friends thought I was 6 foot, and I do think that’s really funny. Because I’m 5’2 so I’m obviously not 6 foot 2 so.. that was funny. And she still talks about it all the time.

Ava: Do you go to any clubs or after-school sports?

Yuchen: I’m in tennis right now. Girls’ tennis season just started. I’m also in the D&D club and in the math club. I’m also in yearbook. Oh, advertisement! Please send in all your photos. Because we need photos and please join yearbook because we need people. Especially the staff!

Ava: And that’s it. Thank you for letting me interview you!

Yuchen: No problem.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

Tor Johnston: 9th Grade

Interviewed by Parie Kumar

Parie: What is your favorite thing about Overlake?

Tor: Compared to my old school, it’s a lot bigger so it’s nice to be able to meet more kids and as a new student everyone was nice to me and welcoming.

Parie: What is your favorite holiday?

Tor: Christmas because the vibes are just cozy and it’s good.

Parie: If you could have any superpower what would it be?

Tor: Super speed because you could get things done a lot quicker like homework and you don’t need a car you can just run all around and it would be very useful.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -

Rida Idris: 6th Grade

Interviewed by Anhar Idris

Anhar: Hi, my name is Anhar and I am going to be interviewing you for The Weekly Hoot. Could you please start off by introducing yourself?

Rida: Hi my name is Rida Idris and I am a sixth grader at The Overlake school.

Anhar: What is your favorite thing about Overlake right now?

Rida: My most favorite thing would have to be the new hybrid schedule because now sixth graders can choose whether to go online or go on campus.

Anhar: Which would you prefer? Staying at home, or going to school in person?

Rida: Staying at home would be my best option because now it is much easier to get to classes.

Anhar: What is your favorite memory that you have made at Overlake this year?

Rida: My most favorite memory would have to be the Washington State geography quiz because I felt very confident about it.

Anhar: So you took this quiz in your social studies class, correct?

Rida: Yes.

Anhar: What’s your favorite thing that you’ve learned in your social studies class this year?

Rida: My favorite thing would have to be discussing the Nez Perce people and learning about them and researching about it, as well as the whole unit.

Anhar: It seems like you really enjoy being at Overlake. Thank you for speaking with me today.

Rida: It’s been a pleasure.