University School of Nashville is an independent,

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compar ...

located in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

History

Referred to colloquially as USN, the school was founded in 1888 by the Peabody Board of Trustees. The school was first founded as Winthrop Model School; in 1915, it became Peabody Demonstration School (PDS), a part of

Peabody College Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development (also known as Vanderbilt Peabody College, Peabody College, or simply Peabody) is the education school of Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ...

intended to demonstrate the operation of a school. The school was founded by

Richard Thomas Alexander Richard Thomas Alexander (1887-1971) was an American educator and education theorist. An early proponent of the progressive education movement of John Dewey, Alexander was the driving force behind the creation of the New College, Teachers College, ...

. While it was Peabody Demonstration School, it became the second high school in Nashville to be

desegregated Desegregation is the process of ending the separation of two groups, usually referring to races. Desegregation is typically measured by the index of dissimilarity, allowing researchers to determine whether desegregation efforts are having impact o ...

, following

Father Ryan High School Father Ryan High School is a private Catholic coeducational high school in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1925 as Nashville Catholic High School for Boys, Father Ryan is located in the Diocese of Nashville. It was the first racially integrated h ...

, and the first one to be fully

, meaning that extra-curricular activities were desegregated in addition to academics. The demonstration school was closed in 1974, several years before Peabody merged with adjacent

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

. The students' parents bought the school; by a student vote, the school was established as University School of Nashville. Historically, USN has been recognized by the

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

. In the Class of 2011, with 91 students, there were 12 semifinalists and 13 commended students recognized by the program. In 2010, both

Presidential Scholars The United States Presidential Scholars Program is a program of the United States Department of Education. It is described as "one of the Nation's highest honors for students" in the United States, United States of America and the globe. The pr ...

for

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

were USN students. USN also produced a

Presidential Scholar The United States Presidential Scholars Program is a program of the United States Department of Education. It is described as "one of the Nation's highest honors for students" in the United States of America and the globe. The program was estab ...

in 2012 and in 2017.

Facilities and campuses

Perhaps the largest addition to the school in its history came in 1998, when an external campus was purchased for the purpose of housing athletic facilities. The River Campus currently houses a baseball field, a softball field, a full-sized track, and 5 multi-purpose fields that are rotated between men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

, and

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *''The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilatio ...

frisbee. Construction has recently finished on tennis courts. In addition, this site originally had a sum of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

, situated on the

Cumberland River The Cumberland River is a major waterway of the Southern United States. The U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 8, 2011 river drains almost of southern Kentucky and ...

and Whites Creek. The original wetland was filled in for athletic fields and a new one of equivalent size was excavated and filled with water. In 2003, USN opened the Christine Slayden Tibbott Center for the Visual Arts. The center also included a fitness center. The next year, the school opened the Hassenfeld Library. This addition now houses 25,000 books, 2,400 educational videos, and 147 periodicals. In 2012, USN revamped the cafeteria and dining area. In 2015, as part of its 100-year anniversary celebration, the school revamped a large part of the 19th avenue entrance.

Notable alumni

Jad Abumrad Jad Nicholas Abumrad ( ar, جاد نيكولاس أبومراد; born April 18, 1973) is an American radio host, composer, and producer. He is the founder and former host of the syndicated public radio program ''Radiolab'' with Latif Nasser and ...

, radio host, composer, and producer *

, educator and education theorist *

Jenny Boucek Jennifer Dawn Boucek (born December 20, 1973) is an assistant basketball coach for the Indiana Pacers, a former basketball player, and former head coach of the Seattle Storm. She was hired by the Storm on January 20, 2015, but terminated on August ...

, WNBA coach and player,

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

coach (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2013Alumni Association, NABV, & Distinguished Alumni
/ref>) * Lucius E. Burch Jr., attorney, civil rights activist, and conservationist (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1984) * Ned Davis, financial analyst and company founder (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1999) *

Gabe Dixon Gabe Dixon (born December 7, 1977) is an American musician. Dixon began his career in the Nashville-based country band, Six Shooter. Between 1998 and 2010, he was the lead singer of The Gabe Dixon Band. Since the band's break-up, Dixon has worke ...

, musician * John Early, comedian *

Phil Everly The Everly Brothers were an American rock music, rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (Januar ...

, singer * Russ Freeman, jazz guitarist, founder of

The Rippingtons The Rippingtons are an American contemporary jazz group, mainly relating to the genres smooth jazz, jazz fusion, jazz pop, and crossover jazz. Formed in 1985 by guitarist and band leader Russ Freeman, their career has spanned more than three de ...

(Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1995) * Rosalind S. Helderman, journalist *

Bruce Henderson Bruce Doolin Henderson (April 30, 1915 – July 20, 1992) was an American businessman and management expert. He founded Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts and headed the firm as the president and CEO until 1980. He c ...

, founder of

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

, television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, voice artist (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2002) *

Akiko Ichikawa Akiko Ichikawa (市川明子, ''Ichikawa Akiko,'' or アキーコー・イーチカーワ, ''Akiko Ichikawa'') is a Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary artist, editor, and writer-activist based in New York City. She has written on contempora ...

, New York City-based multidisciplinary artist and art writer *

Shooter Jennings Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings (born May 19, 1979) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He is the only son of country singers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter. In a career spanning over two decades, Shooter Jenni ...

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

singer *

Mark Levine Mark Andrew LeVine is an American historian, musician, writer, and professor. He is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. Education LeVine received his B.A. in comparative religion and biblical studies from Hunter ...

, former broadcast journalist and host of the nationally syndicated radio/television show ''Inside Scoop on Washington''; member of the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

Robert K. Massie Robert Kinloch Massie III (January 5, 1929 – December 2, 2019) was an American journalist and historian. He devoted much of his career to studying and writing about the House of Romanov, Russia's imperial family from 1613 to 1917. Massie was ...

, author, historian, winner of the 1981

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

(Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1983) * Stanford Moore, chemist and winner of the 1972

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

(Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1979) * John Wilkinson Taylor, former president of the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

(Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1990) * William Tyler, folk musician and guitarist * David Vise, journalist and author, winner of the 1990

(Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1992) *

Susan Yeagley Susan Melinda Yeagley is an American actress. Early life and education Yeagley was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California. Career She portrayed Jessica Wicks in nine epis ...

, actress Susan Yeagley ′89 Skypes with High School
/ref> *

Gideon Yu Gideon Lee Yu (born May 14, 1971) is a Korean-American technology, media and sports investor, executive and advisor. Yu is currently a co-owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team. He was previously the team president. In 2012, Yu became the ...

, sports executive and high tech investor and advisor (Distinguished Alumnus Award, 2011)

References

External links

official websiteThe homepage for USN News & PublicationsThe USN Wetland website
{{DEFAULTSORT:University School Of Nashville Former university-affiliated schools in the United States Preparatory schools in Tennessee Private K-12 schools in Tennessee Schools in Nashville, Tennessee