Walt Whitman High School is a public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which ...

, United States. It is named in honor of American poet

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. The school serves grades 9-12 for the Montgomery County Public Schools.

History

The school opened in the fall of 1962 with 1,418 students. Designed by local architectural firm McLeod, Ferrara & Ensign, it was built on 17 levels, with a center courtyard and a

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic do ...

for its gymnasium. A

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

grant underwrote the design and construction of the dome. In 1981, a 1,176-seat

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, communit ...

was added to the school. In 1992, the geodesic dome and all other buildings except for the auditorium were demolished and construction began on a new school building, which opened in fall 1993. In 2021, an addition of was completed which added 18 new classrooms to the school, which opened in the fall of 2021.

Academics

In 2022, Whitman was the top-ranked high school in Maryland and #104 nationwide by the '' U.S. News & World Report''.

Athletics

Whitman fields sports teams in the fall, winter, and spring. The school competes as the Vikings and is part of Montgomery County public school sports. The football field is named after long time principal Jerome Marco. The school has won 11 soccer state championships, including two back-to-back in 2018-2019. In 2021, the girls' soccer team won the state championship. The girls' basketball team won the state title in 2016, their second overall. The boys' team went on a miracle run in 2006 and defeated Eleanor Roosevelt 39-38 to capture the school's only state title. That season, Whitman leading scorer Michael Gruner was named co-gazette player of the year alongside NBA superstar

Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant ( ; born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball f ...

. The boys' tennis team has also won state titles in 2009, 2014, and 2019.

Student activities

The ''Black & White'' is a student-run newspaper. The paper was inducted into the

National Scholastic Press Association The National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1921 for high school and secondary school publications in the United States. The association is membership-based and annually hosts high school journalism conv ...

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or muse ...

in 1991. Whitman is also notable for having the country's only student-run psychology journal. It is distributed to over 1,000 psych teachers around the country. The school has an active

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

team.

Notable alumni

* Yasmeen Abutaleb, journalist and ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' best-selling author * Chris Anderson, journalist *

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, juggler/comedian * Andrea Carroll, operatic soprano * Alex Chappell, journalist * Kahane Cooperman, filmmaker * Anthony Dilweg,

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL)

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Am ...

* David Dobkin, director * Michael Dunn, NFL

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numb ...

* Susan Dynner, filmmaker *

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, biologist *

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, journalist * Debra Granik, filmmaker * Mark Halperin, journalist * Pamela Harris, federal judge *

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, filmmaker *

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, law professor *

Ryan Kuehl Ryan Philip Kuehl (born January 18, 1972) is a former American football long snapper in the National Football League (NFL). Early years Kuehl attended Walt Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland), Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland, ...

, NFL

defensive tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the l ...

Brooke Lierman Brooke Elizabeth Lierman (born February 14, 1979) is an American civil rights attorney and politician who is the 34th Comptroller of Maryland. She was first elected in 2022, becoming the first female Comptroller of the state and the first woman e ...

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, television executive * David Moon, Maryland House of Delegates *

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, member of the

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* David Nevins, television producer *

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, journalist *

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, actor *

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* Mitchell Rales, entrepreneur * Steven M. Rales, entrepreneur *

Giuliana Rancic Giuliana Rancic (; ; born August 17, 1974) is an Italian-American entertainment reporter and television personality. She is a co-anchor of ''E! News'' and resides in Chicago and Los Angeles. Early life Rancic was born in Naples, Italy and immig ...

, television personality *

Alexandra Robbins Alexandra Robbins is a journalist, lecturer, and author. Her books focus on young adults, education, and modern college life. Five of her books have been New York Times Bestsellers. Biography She graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Beth ...

, author * Kate Seelye, reporter * Dan Shanoff, sports journalist * Eric Steinberg, actor

References

External links

Walt Whitman High School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitman High School (Bethesda, Maryland) Schools in Bethesda, Maryland Public high schools in Montgomery County, Maryland Educational institutions established in 1962 1962 establishments in Maryland