Blue Valley Northwest High School (BVNW) is a

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Overland Park, Kansas Overland Park ( ) is the largest city in Johnson County, Kansas, United States, and the List of cities in Kansas#Highest population listing, second-most populous city in the state of Kansas. It is one of four principal city, principal cities in ...

, United States. Blue Valley Northwest is one of five high schools operated by

Blue Valley USD 229 Blue Valley USD 229 is a public unified school district headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, United States. It is located in east central and southeast Johnson County, Kansas, and within the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The district in ...

school district. Blue Valley Northwest is a member of the

Kansas State High School Activities Association The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, and spon ...

and offers a variety of sports programs. Athletic teams compete in the 6A division and are known as the "Huskies". Extracurricular activities are also offered in the form of performing arts, school publications, and clubs.

Academics

Thirteen courses, mainly for motivated freshmen and sophomores, are designated as "Honors" classes. In addition, 17 Advanced Placement courses for college credit are offered. Students taking Honors or

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere ...

courses receive weighted

GPA Grading in education is the application of standardized measurements to evaluate different levels of student achievement in a course. Grades can be expressed as letters (usually A to F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), percentages, or as num ...

s. In 2010, Blue Valley Northwest was selected as one of the six finalists for the first annual Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge, sponsored by the Department of Education under the Obama administration. In 2015, Blue Valley Northwest students who attempted the tests achieved an average ACT score of 25.3 out of 36 and an average

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...

score of 1370 on a 1600 scale. The class of 2015 also had seven

National Merit Finalists The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships. The program is managed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded not-for-profit ...

and 20 National Advanced Placement Scholars.

Extracurricular activities

The Huskies compete in the Eastern Kansas League and are classified as a 6A-5A school according to the

KSHSAA The Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) is the organization which oversees interscholastic competition in the U.S. state of Kansas at the high-school level. It oversees both athletic and non-athletic competition, and spon ...

. Throughout its history, Blue Valley Northwest has won several state championships in various sports. Many graduates have gone on to participate in Division I, Division II, and

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

athletics.

State championships

Orchestra

BVNW's orchestra has received a 1 (the best) ranking every year the school has been open. Students in the orchestra also have auditioned and represented the BVNW in local, state, and national orchestras.

Yearbook and Newspaper

The school's yearbook is called ''Horizon'', the newspaper is called "The Express", the school broadcast news program is called ''Husky Headlines'' and the school's literary magazine is called ''The Muse''. The ''Horizon'' and ''Husky Headlines'' have been nominated for several

Pacemaker A pacemaker, also known as an artificial cardiac pacemaker, is an implanted medical device that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to co ...

awards, and in 2004, the "Horizon" won the Pacemaker Award. The school newspaper, ''The Express'' is a member of the High School National Ad Network. At the April 2007 JEA conference in Denver, "The Express" was voted the number one newsmagazine. At the November 2007 JEA conference in Philadelphia, the newsmagazine was rated sixth. In 2015, The Express was nominated for a Pacemaker, but did not win. It did receive sixth place among the competition that year. On November 12, 2016, in Indianapolis, The Express won a Newspaper Pacemaker Award, the first for the publication.

Notable alumni

* Jason Adam, professional baseball player for the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

Christie Ambrosi Christie Ambrosi (born December 21, 1976) is an American, former collegiate All-American, gold-medal winning Olympian, right-handed softball player and current Head Coach, originally from Overland Park, Kansas. She attended high school at Blu ...

, member of the 2000 USA Olympic softball team, who won the gold medal *

Bol Bol Bol Manute Bol ( ; born November 16, 1999) is a South Sudanese–American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. A son of basketball p ...

, professional basketball player for the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

Christian Braun Christian Nicolas Braun ( ; born April 17, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A Kansas native, Braun won Mr. Kansas Basketball in 2019 and played collegiat ...

, current basketball player for the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...

, former Mr. Kansas Basketball and Kansas

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys baseball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls cross country, boys football, boys and girl ...

. *

Arash Ferdowsi Arash Ferdowsi (, born October 7, 1985) is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Dropbox (service), Dropbox. Early life and education Ferdowsi was born in Overland Park, Kansas, United States on 7 October 1985. He attende ...

, co-founder of

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file hosting service * Lisa Forbes,

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2004 and

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contestant *

Nathaniel Hackett Nathaniel Hackett (born December 19, 1979) is an American football coach in the National Football League (NFL). A former long-time assistant to Doug Marrone, Hackett previously served as the offensive coordinator for the New York Jets, Green Ba ...

, former head coach of the

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Michael McMillian Michael McMillian is an American actor and writer, known for his roles as Henry Gibson on '' What I Like About You'', Steve Newlin on the HBO series ''True Blood'', Owen on ''Hot in Cleveland'' and Tim in '' Crazy Ex-Girlfriend''. McMillian is a ...

(Class of 1997), actor known for his roles as Henry Gibson on '' What I Like About You'' and Steve Newlin on ''

True Blood ''True Blood'' is an American fantasy Horror fiction, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series produced and created by Alan Ball (screenwriter), Alan Ball. It is based on ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'', a series of novels ...

'' *

Dániel Sallói Dániel Sallói (; born 19 July 1996) is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger for Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City and the Hungary national team. Club career Youth Sallói worked his way through ...

, professional soccer player for

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

References

External links

School Website

Blue Valley USD 229 school district
{{Authority control Public high schools in Kansas Educational institutions established in 1993 Education in Overland Park, Kansas Schools in Johnson County, Kansas 1993 establishments in Kansas