Oakcrest Then and Now

Since 2010, ninety-seven (97) international students have enrolled for either a semester or year-long immersion program at Oakcrest School. Oakcrest has welcomed students from Argentina, Chile, China, Guatemala, Korea, Mexico, Peru, The Philippines, Poland, and Spain. International students take the same courses as all Oakcrest students and live with host families whose daughters currently attend Oakcrest. Director of International Programs Mrs. Sara Bendeck says that, “When the time comes to say goodbye, (our exchange students) do feel like Oakies.” 

“Our girls love hosting the international students, they welcome them and make sure that they feel part of the school in just a short time,” she continues. “It’s hard for the students to say goodbye and they take Oakcrest in their hearts for the years to come. It truly impacts their life.” 

Oakcrest also welcomes our sister schools from Peru, Costa Rica, and Argentina for day visits throughout the year 

For the 2024-2025 school year, four students will attend Oakcrest from Spain, China, and Peru. Three students will stay for the whole year and one student will stay for the fall semester. 

To learn more about the Oakcrest international program, visit our website. 

Just as St. Josemaria, the founder of Opus Dei, enjoyed celebrating birthdays, it is only fitting that a school established under his inspiration also enjoys celebrating birthdays. With gratitude for each life and the gift that each person is to our Oakcrest community, Oakcrest loves each birthday! Each year, it is the job of the seventh grade to host a birthday party for the Head of School. They invite the whole school, prepare special party decorations and a class gift, and even provide celebratory treats for each student. Oakcrest celebrates the birthday of each girl with birthday buddies who decorate the birthday girl’s locker and bring in a treat to share with the class. From what began as a school-wide song of "Happy Birthday" in Walsh Hall, still continues today in the form of singing loudly as a class most often during class break. The birthday girl also receives a jeans day to celebrate her special day! We send birthday cards to all our alumnae, and as a faculty and staff, celebrate birthdays each month with celebratory treats. 

Throughout the 47 years of Oakcrest School, thousands of girls have walked through our doors on the first day of school eager to begin a new year. Whether at the Yuma Campus or in McLean, they were greeted by smiling faces as they walked through a doorway with the name of “Oakcrest” written above them. Now in our home in Vienna, our students, with enrollment over 300 this 2023-2024 school year, still experience the same, entering through a doorway adorned with Oakcrest School and our crest at the top of the building as they are greeted by faculty and staff. While each of our campuses had her own character, what happened inside the doors remained the same - to fulfill the Oakcrest mission of educating young women and forming them to be leaders. 

Graduation at Oakcrest is a special time to recognize the senior class and continue the many traditions that make Oakcrest commencement beautiful.

Our graduates continue to wear beautiful white graduation caps and gowns and hold a bouquet of red roses on the day of commencement. They hear from their class valedictorian and salutatorian, as well as welcome a commencement speaker who delivers an address to the class and their families. Many Oakcrest graduations have been held outside over the years, especially at the Yuma and Vienna campuses, until now when the very first graduation was held in the McGowan Family Athletic Center for the Class of 2023. 

Graduation events take place over a series of days, beginning with the Senior Dinner. An intimate evening with parents, faculty and staff, and of course the graduating class, traditionally the seniors deliver thoughtful tributes to each faculty, noting the special gifts that the faculty bestowed upon the graduates over the years. 

The school community also comes together for the Baccalaureate Mass, which has been a longstanding element of graduation week, followed by Awards day, where the special graduation honors are announced, including the class Acorns, Valedictorian, Salutatorian, Athletic and Arts awards, Leadership Awards, and the Edwina Maksym Senior Thesis Award.

At Oakcrest, we love celebrating each of our students and their successes; recognizing those that go above and beyond with special awards is one of our favorite traditions. For many decades, an award ceremony at the end of the school year would recognize athletic awardees, academic award and honor recipients, as well as awards in fine arts. 

During the early days of Oakcrest at the Yuma campus, gym classes were held in a carpeted multipurpose room in the basement - ball games had to be played sitting down. At the Vienna campus, gym classes took place throughout the school - in the second floor “shell” before it was completed, outside, in Walsh Hall, and sometimes even in the lobby. But with the opening of the McGowan Family Athletic Center, a beautiful gym space will bring Oakcrest PE classes to a new level. Basketball and volleyball courts and a fitness room with top-notch equipment will allow for Oakcrest to provide a variety of athletic training for students. Sports teams currently use rented courts from local gyms in the area, which requires the transport of students for daily practices, but the space will also allow for Oakcrest to host home games and practices for our volleyball and basketball teams. The athletic facility, which is welcomed with open arms by the growing Oakcrest School community, also features a concession stand, five new classrooms as well as offices and common spaces. The project is set to be completed in the spring of 2023. 

Christ is at the heart of Oakcrest School, and has been since its founding. At each of the school’s campuses, a dedicated chapel with the Blessed Sacrament has grounded the school by allowing the students, faculty, and visitors to make frequent visits to Our Lord. At the Yuma Campus, in a niche behind the altar stood Our Lady of Oakcrest. The statue was found in the late 70s, and was restored by a friend of Oakcrest. This statue has held a special place in each of the Oakcrest chapels, and stands today in the chapel of the Vienna campus. In the McLean campus, daily Mass was usually celebrated  in the auditorium, but the intimate chapel was home to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady of Oakcrest. During these years  funds were raised for the Vienna campus, which would have a beautiful chapel large enough for school Masses. A key idea in the design of the Vienna campus is that the chapel would be a “central anchor of the school, and off it would radiate the two wings,” Victoria Bigliano, Interior Designer of the Vienna campus and visual arts teacher, explained. Many thoughtful and beautiful details went into designing and building the chapel - the flooring was sourced from the Holy Land; the Stations of the Cross were designed and the backings were built by the father of an Oakcrest alumna, Peter Neville (Katherine ’18); and the beautiful painting of the Holy Family was commissioned by local artist Henry Wingate. But the chapel is not yet finished, Ms. Bigliano said there are additions and adjustments that will be made in the years to come which will continue to enhance this sacred space. 

Graduation
Oakcrest Commencement is a special time, full of timeless traditions that serve to honor the senior class and their accomplishments as they leave Oakcrest and bring their light to the rest of the world. 

Graduation events are spread out over a series of days. Festivities begin with the Senior Dinner, when parents, faculty, staff and seniors  gather to kickoff the beginning of the celebratory weekend. A highlight of the evening is when the seniors deliver tributes to the faculty, expressing gratitude for their mentorship over the years. 

The whole school comes together for Baccalaureate Mass, the last Mass of the school year and the last Mass for the senior class as students, giving thanks to God for the blessing of another school year. The Mass is followed by Awards Day, when senior awards are announced, including the class Acorns (students who have attended Oakcrest from sixth through twelfth grade), Valedictorian, Salutatorian, Athletic Awards, and Edwina Maksym Senior Thesis Award winners.

On commencement day, just like at some of the very first Oakcrest graduations years ago, graduates are dressed in white caps and gowns and are given a bouquet of red roses. The ceremony features an invocation from the school chaplain, Head of School remarks, a Commencement speaker, reflections and remarks delivered by the Valedictorian and Salutatorian.

Senior Year
Senior year at Oakcrest is the culmination of the education and personal development that each girl encounters throughout her time in school. By the time an Oakcrest girl is about to graduate, her relationships have been strengthened not only with her classmates but with the faculty and staff as well. The seniors are relied upon to be leaders within the school and communicate what it means to be an Oakcrest student to the younger students. 

The great responsibility of passing along the Oakcrest legacy comes today with many senior year privileges. Whereas many years ago, seniors only had the opportunity to sign out for lunch, seniors can also enjoy our outdoor grounds as well as their sun-lit Senior Loft, a special corner of campus that the seniors can place their mark on with decorations and spend time with one another and with faculty. Seniors may use their own laptop during their free periods to complete school or college-related work.  While they are not allowed to use cell phones in the Senior Loft, Seniors may receive access to the school Wifi during the second semester in order to facilitate work on their thesis, the capstone of their Oakcrest education. 

And at the end of the year, while the rest of the students are studying diligently for finals, the seniors are enriched with Lead days.  Senior Lead days include a series of speakers imparting the class with life lessons in areas such as personal finance, self defense, and even a car workshop. The girls also take a trip to Kings Dominion Amusement Park before graduation. 

Choir
Oakcrest School's official music program was started by Mrs. Anne Miller in 2002. She began in her first year by establishing an Upper School choir class. The following year, Middle School choirs were added. Today, Oakcrest has a Concert Chorus, a Liturgical Choir (which sings at Mass every Friday, as well as at special occasions such as Baccalaureate Mass), and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade choirs.

Our Concert Chorus has been able to participate in many amazing performance opportunities over the years. Students have sung with the McLean Orchestra, at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, and in various churches throughout Italy. During its most recent pilgrimage to Italy, the Chorus sang with the Sistine Chapel Choir in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for the Feast of Mary, the Mother of God. Its most recent special project was collaborating with The Smithsonian Center for Folk Life & Cultural Heritage on a video to promote America’s rich cultural heritage of folk music among young people. 

Spirit Week has always been a time for the whole school community to come together to celebrate Oakcrest through friendly competition and fun! Some things have remained the same throughout the years: students dress up according to a theme each day of the week, there’s the Class Cheer competition, and Field Day.

Oakcrest now has two spirit weeks, one in the fall and one in the spring. Spirit Week in the fall includes an All-School Service Day and a school-wide game of capture the flag. In the spring, we have the Oakcrest Talent Show, and—for the first time ever this year—a carnival to raise money for Oakcrest’s school charity. During the 2004-2005 school year, Oakcrest’s mascot, Charlie the Charger, came into existence! Charlie has helped promote school spirit at pep rallies and other events. Our first Charlie was Grace (Cynkar ‘05) Hearn. 

Service is an important part of character formation at Oakcrest, and Oakies have always been eager to help those in need in their surrounding community. In the 80s, Oakcrest had a Service Club. Members would help others in a variety of ways, from setting up for school assemblies to visiting the elderly at the Washington Home. Today, service at Oakcrest has grown to include All-School Service Day, the Service Initiatives Program, and a recent international mission trip. On All-School Service Day, the entire school community takes a morning to volunteer at organizations in the Northern Virginia/DC area. The Service Initiatives Program is comprised of student service coordinators who organize and manage different monthly service projects. In 2019, Oakcrest sent its first ever mission trip team to Kingston, Jamaica, to work with Mustard Seed Communities, an organization serving 400 children, young adults, and families who belong to the most vulnerable groups in Jamaican society. Additionally, every student completes a number of service hours each semester either within her family or the local community. Our alumnae community continues the Oakcrest tradition of service during Alumnae Week—last year Oakies came together for the first Alumnae Day of Service, helping to put together layette sets and bundle items for

A Woman’s Choice in Herndon, Virginia.

Since its founding, Oakcrest has had a total of 27 alumnae return to serve as faculty and staff members. The very first alumnae to serve on Oakcrest's faculty/staff were Lisa Coyne ‘80 and Eileen (Schnabel '89) Byler in 1992. While at Oakcrest, Lisa served as Director of Admissions and Eileen taught 8th and 9th grade history. Today, we are proud to have seven Oakies serving on our faculty and staff: Anna Cipollone '17 (English), Anna Diederich ‘17 (Mathematics), Kathleen Ouyang ‘07 (History), Meghan Hadley ‘06 (Dean of Students, History), Nancy (Williams '98) Miggins (School Nurse), Maritere (Gramatges '91) Crum (Alumnae Relations Coordinator), and Caroline Heeter '97 (Upper School Athletic Director).

College Counseling at Oakcrest started out small and was initially called  "Guidance Counseling." Over the years, this department has expanded so much and offers students so many wonderful resources. Our College Counseling Director provides services such as: 

- Individually advising seniors and their families as they move through the college research, application, and selection process
- Meeting individually with Juniors & their parents in December, Sophomores & their parents in March, and Freshmen in groups in February. 
- Hosting college admissions representatives throughout the fall
- Conducting counselor calls in fall and spring to advocate for our students and also answer any questions about Oakcrest the college may have
- Organizing and implementing Junior College Day in April and Senior College Application day in October
- Organize Fall & Spring Parents' College Night