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Staying Calm as Irene Approaches

Friends and Families,

We wanted to reach out and give you and update on Hurricane Irene from our perspective on the island.  We are expecting Irene  (http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201109.html ) to pass over Eleuthera as a category 3 hurricane, with winds and rain starting to affect the campus tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. For the 8,000 local residents of Eleuthera, it’s a ritual to buy plywood, batteries, bottled water and bleach, and fuel up their electric generators. For the Island School, Deep Creek Middle School, and Cape Eleuthera Institute, we are cleaning up campus, securing the building project sites, and taking boats out of the water. The Island School and DCMS students have not yet arrived for the start of school, but research at the Institute will be interrupted for several days with the packing and unpacking of electronics, with all of us anticipating some leaks and puddles inside as the rains and wind arrive.

We anticipate losing phones and internet service during and after the storm for up to a few days because of likely interruptions in electricity supply to transmission equipment elsewhere on the island. We are positioning people and resources to be able to help in the community afterwards - often the biggest issues are downed trees and road flooding, and we bring tools and lots of willing neighborly help to the scene.

We don’t expect that people on the island will need extraordinary support after this storm. As always, we stand ready to respond to local requests for medical assistance, and with a full complement of Wilderness First Responders of staff coming off of a 9 day training earlier this month, we have resources to offer in that direction.

We appreciate your concerns and will continue to provide updates when possible via our blog.  We are still VERY excited to welcome our 26th semester of Island School students to the Cape on Monday August 29th!

–The Island School

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Geoff Walton in the News!

Geoff Walton, Director of Facilities and Systems at the Cape Eleuthera Institute, received some press on the website www.workboat.com.  The article highlights the process and hard work Geoff went through to get all of the school’s dive boats to run off our homemade biodiesel.  Check out the article here!

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Scholarship at COA for Island School Alumni

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College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine is proud to offer scholarships to alumni of The Island School.  Any incoming student who has attended The Island School and is admitted to College of the Atlantic (COA) will receive a scholarship of $10,000 per year for up to four years.  Apply for admission to COA and include a letter of recommendation from a teacher at The Island School.  If admitted, you will automatically receive this scholarship for your first year at COA; an additional $10,000 scholarship is available for each of the next three years of enrollment if satisfactory academic progress is maintained.  This scholarship is available to incoming first-year and transfer students. In addition, you may qualify for need-based financial aid.

This is an amazing opportunity for our alumni applying for college to consider.  If you have any further questions, contact us at alumni@islandschool.org.

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CEI Internships

CEI has a vibrant intern program designed to award individuals the opportunity to learn and contribute to all aspects of operating a remote research and education facility.   We provide an intellectually rigorous atmosphere that allows new and returning members of our community to gain a deeper understanding of research projects, visiting educational programs, or systems at CEI. Continue reading →

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The End of an Era

Yesterday marked an end of an era at The Island School with the departure of the one and only David Miller.  David came to The Island School three years ago with a ton of energy, some quirky expressions and a passion to change young people’s lives.  There is no doubt that every student of David Miller has at least one (if not 20) story that brings a smile and recalls how he helped make their time at Island School invaluable.  David, we cannot thank you enough for all your hard work and dedication over the years and we are sad to see you go!  We wish you the best of luck and expect you to stay in touch and continue to make us all smile and do good work!

–The Island School

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Alumni Spotlight: Hannah Leeman F10!

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September 15, 2011 UPDATE:

[slideshow]

We last heard from Hannah before she left for China to study Chinese for 6 weeks through the NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) a program run by the US State Department. Now that she has returned to the United States, she has sent along these pictures and this reflection:

“I truly had an amazing experience there, and I had the opportunity to try new things and push my boundaries just like at Island School but in a slightly different way. Even while in China Island School was still in my heart. I wanted to send along 2 pictures of me that I thought may be nice for the Island School Blog. The first is of me on the Great Wall sporting an Island School t-shirt (I am small in the picture but I think you can still see the mutton snapper). The second is a picture of me in the Beijing Hanban Center which is an organization committed to making the Chinese language and culture teaching resources and services available to the world. There I am standing next to the beautiful Bahamian Flag.”

Continue reading →

Apprentice Programme

Bahamian Apprentice Spotlight: Perry Forbes

Perry Forbes is from Wemyss Bight and is a student at St. John’s University in Minnesota. His major is environmental management, and he is back at CEI this year to participate in the Apprentice Programme. He shares his thoughts on working at the Cape Eleuthera Island School below:

My name is Perry Forbes and I am currently in the summer apprenticeship at the Island School. I am working in the boat house under Jessie Pearce who runs the boat house. In the three short weeks of working with him I have learned how to perform basic of maintenance on boats, how to inspect and repair SCUBA equipment, as well as how to drive boats the correctly.

In addition to working in the boat house I also work with the educational programmes at the school. When working in this department I would usually give tours to parents and their children, supervise and be an active part of summer camps, as well as informing children about their environmental responsibilities.

Apprentice Programme

Welcoming Nicoya!

Nikoya Taylor working in the kitchen

Nicoya Taylor, who is currently at Episcopal High School in VA and is a DCMS alum,  joins The Island School community as an apprentice, working to help ‘The Ladies’ in the kitchen. She shares her initial impressions below:

My first week working in the kitchen has definitely been a great experience. I’ve learned to appreciate so much by working with Sheryl, Tiffany, Mrs. Becca, and Ms. Mooch, such as the hard work the kitchen staff at my school put in during a regular school week. Although it may seem easy making dinner for an enormous number of staff and students everyday, isn’t as easy as many may think. I’ve learned so much from each of these intelligent ladies and I hope that this experience continues to be amazing throughout the remaining seven weeks.