Yearly Archives: 2012
Student Update October 8, 2012
After yet another exciting weekend I find myself writing to you all on the dining hall deck. This weekend was exciting for a variety of reasons. On Saturday, we had morning classes and then midterm meeting after lunch. For a period of 5 hours students were streaming in and out of the dining hall area checking in with each teacher for 15 minutes each. The meetings were a great chance to individually talk to your teachers about not only how you’re doing in terms of grades in their class, but what they feel are your strengths, as well as what they think you need to work on. Students also used the feedback they received from their teachers to write a reflective midterm report letters to their parents; one I’m sure most of you will be receiving soon. After the very last letter was “Drop-boxed” onto the server, we could begin our Saturday night festivities! Our weekly Cacique (Harrison, Connor, Chris, Remington, and Cate) planned an optional night snorkel off of boy’s dorm beach with a bonfire too. Continue reading
Admissions Reception in Dallas Tonight!
Learning About The Island School Cisterns in Math Class
By Cate Ellison
In our math classes this past week, we have been learning about the cisterns around campus that store our water. We learned about the five cisterns underneath buildings that we are currently using as well as a cistern underneath a building under construction on campus that will shortly be put into use. Water is a resource that we use everyday at The Island School, and it is really interesting to learn how the cisterns work, and how our individual water use affects the entire water supply.
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At first, the idea of measuring our useable water based on the amount of rain, capacity of cisterns, and surface areas of roofs was a whole new concept to me, something that I had never thought of before. In our math classes, we talked about how daily rainfall multiplied by the surface area of the roofs that drain into the cisterns is the total volume of the cistern, but not the total useable water in the cisterns because we aren’t actually able to use all of the water in a cistern. Continue reading
Student Update October 5, 2012
It’s looking like another breezy and beautiful day here in Eleuthera. The vibe on campus is refreshing and energetic after a morning run-swim. There’s something inspiring about exercising as the sun rises. Every time I took a breath while swimming this morning, my head was greeted by a gradual glowing sun. We started the run-swim in the gray-blue dark sky, and by time we got out of our final cut, the sun was at a pleasant height, casting it’s bright glow across the ocean.
As you all have probably learned, research takes up the entire afternoon on Thursdays. Because we have so much time with our research groups, Thursdays are almost always field days. However instead of entirely field work, some of yesterday’s class was spent preparing for our Project Introduction Presentations. Today, every research group is presenting their projects to their fellow students, faculty, and some scientists at CEI. It’s a chance to inform everyone of what we have been spending so much time and effort on. After much preparation today is this big day, and I cannot wait to learn about every ones projects. Continue reading
GAP Program Update #4
By Philip Beardsley
After a week of exploring, camping, and simply being at one with nature, we are finally back to civilization – or so it seems. Kayak trip…what an experience.
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On Monday of last week, 5 members of the Island School community embarked on a journey that will never be forgotten. After much anticipation, preparation, and thought, it was finally time to leave. Not a single ripple on the water or cloud in the sky – what better conditions could we have asked for? After a long day of kayaking, sunshine, and positive vibes, we finally reached our first camping spot for the trip, Plum Creek. It was Continue reading
Alumni Spotlight: Liza Morse (F’09)
Fall 2009 alumna and Grinnell College sophomore, Liza Morse, has been a leader affecting change both in classes as a biology and Spanish major, and in her extra-curricular activities. As a first year at Grinnell last year year she received a stipend for being the on-campus advocate for the organization Food & Water Watch. She also was elected Chairperson of the Student Environmental Committee for this year. In addition, this past summer she worked for the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, DC.
As part of Food and Water Watch, Liza acted as the Campus Coordinator for their Take Back the Tap Campaign, which aims to eliminate bottled water from campuses and encourage reusable water bottles, as well as to educate the student body regarding water issues (water privatization, fracking, etc.). You can read more about the campaign here!
As the Chair of the Student Environmental Committee this year, Liza has been running weekly meetings where the committee plans on-campus events for students and Continue reading
Week 3 of Community Outreach
On Monday September 24th the entire student body of DCMS eagerly ran to the vans parked outside, in excitement for their weekly buddy visit with The Island School students. Together, The Island School students and DCMS students work on a service project for the community. The grade 8 DCMS class and their buddies are focusing on supporting a health initiative by local non-profit One Eleuthera. They are helping One Eleuthera design and conduct educational outreach for the organizations healthy eating and health gardens initiative. This week the group learned about compost so that they could serve as the experts in later outreach events.
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Experts at The Island School were interviewed by the students and provided excellent insight into each projects focus. The grade 8’s started by working with Joseph, who brought students to “compost land” Continue reading
Student Update October 2, 2012
I’m a big fan of Mondays. From sunrise to sunset they’re full of productive, exciting, adventurous, inspiring memories. At my sending school, Mondays would be full of groans and complaints because it was no longer the weekend; not here. Yesterday we started out with a choice between yoga and soccer for morning exercise. Feeling very tight and slightly stressed because I had zero clue what was going on in Omeros, I chose yoga. It was so refreshing and I felt 100% better afterwards. I remember looking around the room yesterday while we were all trying our hardest to a seemingly impossible position called “crow,” laughing with each other, encouraging each other, and realizing how close we have got over the past month. Continue reading
Love is in the Air!
This past weekend, two couples near and dear to The Island School’s heart tied the knot! Francesca Forrestal, a Fall 1999 alumna and member of the Cape Eleuthera Foundation Board, married Ian Enochs in Newport, RI. They are living in Miami, Florida where Francesca is completing her Ph.D. in marine biology and Ian is working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Also married last weekend were former Island School faculty member, Kristin Sinclair, to Andy Robertson. The two got married at Camp Wing in Duxbury, MA, a camp that “inspires at-risk youth to develop their innate potential to become members of the next generation of diverse young leaders in Boston and Massachusetts, breaking the cycle of poverty and under-achievement and yielding systemic change in the communities where they live”. Their wedding venue expenses helped to support these programs and provide scholarships for kids. Kristin and Andy were able to tie a little bit of Island School into their ceremony by decorating with shells and seaglass from Eleuthera and sand from Lighthouse Beach.
Congratulations Francesca & Ian and Kristin & Andy!
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