Good evening from Burlington, Vermont! Your Island School roadtrippers have had a busy yet successful first two days on the move and wanted to update you!
We set out from Boston, Massachusetts on the most gorgeous fall day yesterday morning. First on our list of stops was Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. This sending school has sent a few students to us in the recent years (Chelsea Frost, SP’09; TJ Thran, SP’11) and we had the opportunity to meet a few prospective students, including Read Frost (brother of Chelsea Frost, SP’09) who will be joining us on Eleuthera in the spring! Although it was difficult to leave the beautiful coastal campus of RHS, we had another appointment at The Wheeler School in downtown Providence, RI! At Wheeler, it was great to meet up with alum Kyle Titsworth (SP’12) who recruited his younger brother and another fellow student, Bella, to come to our informational session.
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We hopped back in the car, dutifully following the directions of our sometimes not-so-trusty GPS, endearingly named Tabitha, as she led us on picturesque backroads through small towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont along with all the other “leaf-peepers” traveling in New England at this time of year. When we pulled in to Middlebury, Vermont, we were famished and walked down Main Street and into Two Brothers Tavern. As we looked about and took in the cozy decor, our gaze traveled upwards and quickly scanned the ceiling scattered with signed dollar bills from patrons of the tavern’s past and what did we see right above our table?
It must be fate!! We were so excited to see The Island School represented in the town of Middlebury! After a hearty feast, we returned to our hotel to rest up for another busy day.
In the morning, as Hannah and Sharon on team admissions spoke with Middlebury’s d
ean of admissions, Cam on the alumni relations team went to the Wilson Cafe in Middlebury College’s library to meet up with Island School alumni enrolled at the school. Despite it being midterms and a generally busy time on campus, many alumni made the time to come see us and offer up some words of advice, written on postcards, to the current Fall 2012 students. Above are photos of Leslie Panella (F’08) and Brandon Gell (F’10) with his teacher, Hannah Mauck! We also met the mother of a current Island School student (Emily Robinson, F’12) who works at Middlbury College!
On our way out of Middlebury, we stopped at Middlebury Union High School to speak with prospective students (and also met the cutest 7-week old black lab puppy, Olive…). After another scenic drive through Vermont, we arrived at University of Vermont’s campus to meet with their admissions officer and grab lunch with some Island School alumni. The 2+ hours we spent in the Skinny Pancake in Burlington, VT with Alex Perkins (SP’09) and Cooper Van Vranken (SP’08) felt like 2 minutes as we all shared stories from our experiences and updated them on all the exciting happenings at the Cape.
That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more adventures as we continue to head north!