From temple classrooms to the ULab, from senior lounges to senior pranks, from Winter Opportunities to Global Link, UPrep grew and evolved in many ways over the past 50 years.
Since September 1976, UPrep has offered an alternative to public school education for youth across the Seattle area. On Feb. 28, UPrep celebrated its 50th anniversary of when it was officially founded, highlighting founders and alumni who worked to make the school special.
“The quality of the students really stood out,” alumnus Evan Davis (‘86) said. “Many of my classmates went on to incredible things. That really speaks to the intellectual environment that existed even back then.”
Davis said teachers’ commitment defined the experience.
“Many of them were founders or had taken a real risk by coming to such a young school,” Davis said. “The education was not lacking at all.”
For Madeline Pennington ‘01, the strength of the community stood out most.
“Our class was incredibly close,” Pennington said. “We were small, just over 40 students, but the connections we made with teachers, coaches and administrators are ones I still have today.”
School spirit was central to that sense of connection, particularly through athletics and student-led events.
“The Puma pride really started early,” Pennington said. “We all went to games, cheered each other on and showed up for one another.”
Pennington recalled Winter Opportunities, similar to the current intensives, a two-week program that offered academics, hands-on learning and travel.
“You could be learning glass bead making, going on museum trips, or traveling abroad,” Pennington said. “I went to Costa Rica, and it was part language immersion, part cultural experience. It was a break from traditional academics, but it taught us so much.”
UPrep trips weren’t the only way students bonded with one another. Erika Perkins-Jasper (‘97) fondly remembers the emphasis and excitement around senior pranks.
“Even when I arrived as a seventh grader, I knew about it, and it was fairly elaborate,” Perkins-Jasper said. “I do remember a class getting the keys to all the Puma vans and parking them at a gentleman’s club that was in Lake City at the time.”
Despite changes in technology, campus size and pop culture, alumni agree that UPrep’s culture of acceptance has endured.
“These students were never cookie-cutter,” Davis said. “People were free-spirited and smart, and that was accepted. That hasn’t changed.”
After visiting UPrep as an alumnus, Pennington finds that the school’s priorities have not shifted.
“Academics and relationships are still at the center of everything,” Pennington said. “That’s what sets UPrep apart.”
