Student Life

Pursuing Passions

We encourage our students to develop passions both inside and outside the classroom. They’re more than just learners: they’re artists, athletes, musicians, teammates, leaders.

Student Government

Each year, 12 exceptional students are elected into our Student Government. Elected representatives learn what it means to lead by advocating for the needs of their peers. They also plan our school rituals, like Spirit Week, and other social events that bring our students and faculty together in community.

Pictured: James Robinson (President), Dyonis Diaz (Vice President), Assiatou Diallo (10th Grade Rep), Delilah Rodriguez (9th Grade Rep), Erika Fernandez (12th Grade Rep), Jane Arroyo (12th Grade Rep), Michael Jones (9th Grade Rep), Na-Jaya Dunlap (10th Grade Rep), Tanzila Erika (11th Grade Rep), Ashley Wu (11th Grade Rep).

Activities

We offer a variety of extracurricular activities for our students to participate in and lead. Alongside our students, we also co-create new clubs and teams to nurture their emerging interests.

Boys’ and Girls’ Volleyball, Boys’ Soccer
Airplanes, Rockets, and Robots; Art Club; Boxing; Drama Club; Dungeons and Dragons; Financial Instruments; Gender and Sexuality Alliance; Photography Club; Studio Band; Strength and Fitness

Music Department

Our students play in two musical ensembles: concert band and studio/jazz band. Both groups focus on developing our students’ musicianship, musical literacy, and performance skills, and expose them to a diverse range of genres and styles. Concert band is an arts credit; studio/jazz band is an extracurricular activity.

Supporting Students

Henry Street Settlement

The Henry Street Settlement Community School program provides individual, group, family and community support to students and faculty at our school. Our social-emotional care helps students achieve academic success and graduate. Our approach is strengths-based, holistic, compassionate, and solutions-focused. Additional support is offered through other Henry Street Settlement programs, as well as our school-based mental health team.

Pictured: Chete Enunwa (left), our School Social worker, and Joelle Diaz (right), our Community School Director.

Visual Art

Courses

All of OCA's art courses are hands-on, project based, and designed to not only build student skill and technique, but to also grow creative expression. Available courses include Fundamentals of Drawing, Mixed Media Design, and Studio Art. Throughout these courses, students explore and use a variety of mediums and materials -- oil pastel, charcoal, ink pen, watercolor, paint, collage, fiberwork, recycled materials, paper mache, and more. Students utilize the elements of art and design to take projects all the way from planning to presentation.

Art Club

OCA offers a weekly after school art club where students can come together and work on independently-led art projects of all kinds -- whether that be a canvas painting, a poster for a school sports game, pieces for a portfolio, or artistic experiments with new materials. Here, students also work on projects and decorations for events like the annual spring arts festival.