Proud to be in the first class of Tech Valley High
Logan O’Neil says, "It’s more of a privilege than a pressure"

GUILDERLAND — Logan Mercedes O’Neil shatters the stereotype that girls aren’t good at science or don’t like math.

Her favorite subject, ever, was earth science, a high-school course that she took last year as an eighth-grader, and she loves math — especially algebra.
"Mrs. Kelly was the best teacher I’ve ever had," said O’Neil of Carol Kelly who taught about rocks and minerals, weather and astronomy. "When she saw it clicked for us, she was so happy."
O’Neil, an "A" student, got up early to take the course with other accelerated students before the start of Farnsworth Middle School classes. This allowed her to take the regular eighth-grade science course as well.

She wasn’t fazed by the early-morning hour. In typical silver-lining stance, she relished the time spent with her father, who gave her a ride to the class.

Her father, Tim O’Neil, is a special-education teacher in Troy. Logan is looking forward to riding to school with him every weekday morning this year as she is a member of the first class of Tech Valley High School.

A joint venture of two area BOCES, the school is opening on a business campus — Rensselaer Technology Park in Troy — and will draw from school districts in seven counties.

Some Guilderland School Board members had balked early this year at the $18,000 fee for a student to attend, about 60 percent of which will be reimbursed the next year. But other school board members prevailed, saying it was similar to fees for other BOCES programs and, as the first such program in New York, would serve as a model for other schools.

The project has a grant from New Technology Foundation, which wants to replicate the success of New Tech High School in Napa, Calif., opened a decade ago. That school has no textbooks and no library but offers a technology-rich environment.

The new school will feature inquiry-based learning where students pick a topic to study and work together as a team to solve a problem, according to Nancy Andress, a Guilderland administrator on Tech Valley High’s advisory team.

The small school, which will add a grade-level each year, won’t offer the traditional team sports and clubs and social activities of a public high school.
"They have their finger on the employability and skills that are needed in the real world," said Andress. While learning at the school will meet state standards, she said, "This school is hoping to engage students in a different way than stand and deliver."

That’s just fine with Logan O’Neil.

At 14, she has no set career path in mind but is eager to learn new things, to find out what she likes best, she said.

She plans to be at Tech Valley High until she graduates, but she’s not going because she’s unhappy about anything in her earlier schooling. She started in the full-day kindergarten program at Christ the King, then went to Guilderland Elementary through fifth grade before moving on to Farnsworth.
"I’ve always really liked school," said O’Neil. "I love learning new things."

She has learned outside of the classroom as well. O’Neil has taken piano lessons since she was in the first grade and plays everything from classical music to jazz. She took up the violin at school in the fourth grade and has played with the Empire Youth Orchestra String Ensemble.
O’Neil does hip-hop dance, taking lessons at Tynan’s, behind Stuyvesant Plaza. Hip-hop, she explains, "involves some jazz but with loser movements"It looks unchoreographed because it’s so fluid."

She also rows crew. O’Neil started rowing the summer after sixth grade at the Albany Rowing Center and this summer she went to a camp in Annapolis, Maryland, which had girls from across the country and as far away as London.
"They gave a lot of constructive comments that helped with my rowing technique," said O’Neil.
She plans to pursue the sport this spring with a team from Guilderland. "I love being out on the water," she said. "It’s exercise but you don’t realize it because it’s so much fun. I also like working with the other rowers."
O’Neil has always enjoyed the water — she has passed the Level Six Red Cross swimming test — and spent most of this summer at her family’s camp near Schroon Lake. "It’s a little camp with just one bedroom," she said. "I love to go out on the boat and swim." She especially enjoyed swimming in a "really cold" stream near her house.

She also likes playing with Daisy, her family’s yellow Labrador retriever, who turned three on April 30.

New challenges have always piqued O’Neil’s interest.

She heard about the new high school from a friend who went to a Tech Valley summer camp.
"I wanted to apply because it sounded like a great opportunity," she said. "I’d get to work with a bunch of new people. I’m excited about the project-based learning, and having more hands-on activities and working with others."
When she first found out she was admitted, O’Neil said, she had "mixed feelings." She explained, "I didn’t know what it was going to be like. But I was really excited and proud I got in."
She also said, "It will help me find out what I do and don’t like. I really don’t have a career path. I really don’t know what I want to be. This will help me find out."

O’Neil likes the classmates she’s met at the three get-togethers that have been held so far. She has good friends at Guilderland, which she plans to keep although she won’t be going to school with them.
She credits her parents for her self-confidence. "They help me a lot. My dad’s a teacher. And my mom always practices with me when I have to present projects."
She says she feels more excitement than pressure being in the first class of a new school. "I can help other people learn about Tech Valley," she said. "It’s more of a privilege than a pressure."