A native of Chile, Ollie Strand grew up in Los Angeles after fleeing the political upheaval in his native land with a stop in Alaska along the way.
Recruited by Andover at his middle school, Ollie arrived in the fall of 1986, originally in the Class of '89, and moved into Foxcroft South.
Honest to a fault, Ollie describes a year of hazing, bullying, and abuse at the hands of his dorm-mates, yet, he survived and returned the next year.
Reclassifying into the Class of '90, Ollie took time away from Andover his first go-round of Senior year, coming back to our class in the fall of 1989.
Finding his way took some time, but he found his people, affectionately calling them The Island of Misfit Toys.
From a fellow classmate’s unexpected generosity, to a mis-captioned photo the day of President Bush’s visit back to campus, to landing in sea planes on the East River in New York, Ollie’s is a tale of those two great Andover qualities: curiosity and confidence.
