Employee Directory

Rachel Olinyk

• Special Subject Teacher, Physical Education; Assistant Volleyball C; Assistant Track and Field Coach
• 718-836-9800
• Email
• Park Slope
• Lower School

“I believe a healthy, active body leads to a healthy, active mind. My mission as an educator is to provide students with the tools for discovering a love for a sport or moving that follows them for a lifetime.”

Lower School physical education teacher Rachel Olinyk is from Southern California but spent five years playing professional volleyball in Germany before being sidelined by an ACL injury. Rachel visited relatives in Rockaway and decided she never wanted to leave, so you may find her there playing beach volleyball. Rachel spent a year teaching at Dalton but found the perfect place for her here at Poly in 2019, joining Matt Durando in the physical education office at Lower School. Rachel knew she wanted to teach and is enjoying working with Kindergarten and Grades 2 and 4 students. A child’s motor skills develop so much between Kindergarten and Grade 4, as children learn to catch a ball or to skip and run, she says. Rachel and Matt stress that even if a child does not love a sport, they hope the child learns to love moving, even if it is as simple as walking through the park with a friend. Rachel enjoys helping people and was accepted into the NYPD last summer but chose to teach at Poly. Rachel says her whole family, many of whom live in Iowa, cycles, and she hopes to cycle across Iowa in the Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa!