Congrats to Scott Aland (S05) and Mary Assini (S00) for running in the Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half Marathon! The two IS alums ran hard and finished strong with times well under 2 hours.
Good work!
-The Island School
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Cacique Update September 16, 2011
by Caciques Jamie Perritt and Hallie Coon
Today started out with run and swim tracks. Split in half, 24 of us had the fortune of being able to run the four mile loop; starting and ending at the flag pole in the center of campus. Classes resumed as usual with math and histories followed by our first 5 hour research block. All of the research groups set off into the field to collect data for numerous experiments being conducted by the students. We battled through strong currents to collect water samples, we took out boats in hopes of finding conch, and we dove in search of invasive lion fish. The long hours were spent sweating in the sun over expansive creeks and sitting in wet labs organizing tedious data in hopes to reach conclusions on the filtration of the water surrounding the mangroves. Continue reading
Cacique Update September 15, 2011
by Cacique Annie Blanc
Rolling backwards off my SCUBA boat, watching my world turn upside down and fill with bubbles, I thought again about what I would be doing had I been at home right at that moment. Probably sitting in math class, being talked at by a teacher who still doesn’t know my name. I begin my descent into the underwater world, buddy by my side, still finding it difficult to realize that I’m in class right now. My Island School experience has been a series of challenges, like gathering the courage to jump off of High Rock, or go SCUBA diving for the first time. When I think about my two and a half weeks all together, I find it hard to pick out particular moments. There are too many moments to choose from – they all just form together to make a journey that I’ve only just begun, but can already tell will be one of the most important journeys of my life. I haven’t even been here for three weeks, and I already feel as if this community has been eating lunch, doing dishes, and having Harkness discussions together for three years. My Island School experience so far has been one of new beginnings, perfect blue skies, and more laughter than I ever could have imagined. It’s been one of bugs, warm water, sand (EVERYWHERE), and extreme heat…and I wouldn’t change a single second of it.
Lville Office Going for Gold!
Hello Hello!
As many of you know, there is an Island School gem located in NJ called The Island School Lawrenceville Office (aka “The Lville Office”). It’s a small but lively place that has been there since the beginning of the IS journey in 1999. These days we are growing and there are 4 awesome employees that make the Lville Office tick: Pam Maxey (co-founder), Mary Assini (S00), Hannah Mauck (F04) and Scott Aland (S05). You may or may not notice that alumni are slowly taking over…
But lets get to the important business of this post–The Lville Office (plus Chris Maxey and Christian Henry) are doing a sprint triathlon for charity on October 2nd and we want you to join us!!!! You can run, swim, bike, do all three, or just cheer! Us office mates will be completing the full event but you can find some pals and do it as a relay group. The event is called the Treasure Island Sprint Triathlon and you can read more about it and register by clicking here.
So dust off those half-marathon shoes, pump up your tires, and find your good ole pair of IS board shorts and meet us on the Jersey Shore on October 2nd! And don’t worry, this is just the first of a number of Lville Office events so if you can’t make it this time, there will be another.
Hope to see you there and don’t be stranger and drop by the office some time!
–The Island School Lville Office Team
p.s. Also, if anyone is doing the Philadelphia Rock n Roll Half Marathon on Sunday September 18th, let us know! Both Scott and Mary are summoning their IS experience and training, and giving 13.1 another shot and would love to meet up with you!
Use GoodSearch.com to Support The Cape Eleuthera Foundation!
Want to make a big difference in small way? It’s easy, especially with GoodSearch.com! Instead of using Google or other search engines, you can use GoodSearch and with each search, a penny is donated to your charity of choice. The Cape Eleuthera Foundation is lucky to be one of those charities, so each time you search you can help us out down on the Cape. It’s amazing how fast the pennies can add up! Have a good weekend and happy searching!
Cacique Update September 14, 2011
By Caciques Brendan and Marius
Today was a particularly important day at The Island School. It was the first time showers were turned off and strong restrictions were placed on water. We were starting to run out of it! In an effort to be more sustainable, the school collects rainwater run-off from the roofs and stores it in large underground cisterns for future use. Since our semester takes place during the rainy season, we usually don’t have to strongly conserve water. But something happened a few days ago. There was a leak. Over the weekend, toilets in the library ran; the school lost 15% of the water supply. Sea showers are now enforced; we have to bring biodegradable soap and shampoo into the ocean with us and bath there instead of our indoor or outdoor showers. As lovely as it is to wake up in the morning and then go bathing in the sea, my peers and I quickly realized that the salt stays on. All day. I learned a lesson today; every resource here is valued.
350.org Event and T-Shirt Design
On September 24, The Cape Eleuthera Foundation will be participating in 350.org‘s Moving Planet Day event to think of ways we can move beyond fossil fuels. 350ppm is the safe limit of carbon in our atmosphere, and we’re currently at 394 (and rising!). We want to make sure our IS students, as well as the greater community of IS parents, alumni, and CEF supporters know this number and can teach others about it and how daily actions can contribute to or reduce greenhouse gases.
Since we’re already primarily human-powered or driven by renewable energy here at The Island School, we can take it a step further and look at local solutions to carbon sequestration (reducing that 394 number). Therefore, we have chosen to have a teach-in on September 24 where students, IS faculty, and CEI researchers will discuss this number and its significance and then actually DO something about it by planting 350 propagules (baby mangroves) on campus in the wetland that connects The Island School and CEI campuses.
Cacique Update September 13, 2011
by Caciques Tori and Eliott
Today we woke up early for our 6:30circle and second round of run swims. By 8:00 am the final half of students and faculty had successfully completed their run swims and headed off to chores and then breakfast. For the second day of official classes we split into our groups and rotated through Literature, Math, and Histories of the Bahamas. For Literature we broke into our sections and started harkness discussions surrounding the difficult plot of the epic poem Omeros. Similarly, in History we discussed a background reading on the History of Eleuthera as well as talked about how important it is to reflect on perspective and various points of views while writing history papers. Continue reading
Timed Run-Swim Time!
Check out these moments from our very first round of an Island School tradition: the timed run-swim…
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A Little Elbow Grease to Start Off the Morning!
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Although this morning was a sleep-in, and therefore a break from morning exercise for The Island School, a few students still participated in a form of morning exercise! Grace, Sam, and Jack all used some elbow grease to help lower the campus wind turbine, which the facilities team had to bring down in order to perform maintenance. It takes hundreds of cranks for the wind turbine to come all the way down, so their contributions were greatly appreciated. Check out this video of Grace and Sam cranking away!