Morning exercise is the only way to start your day. Just ask Cape Eleuthera Foundation employees Mary Assini and Cam Powel and Island School parents Ernie & Kim Parizeau (Kate F’03, Doug S’06, Molly S’10, Sam S’14) and Sally Tyrie (Baylor S’14)! Last week, IS parent and Crossfit One Nation owner, JC del Real (Caroline, Su’13), held a special Island School work out for this crew at his gym. Although they were missing the warm weather of Eleuthera–and the rocks and sand digging into their backs while doing their sit ups–it was a great morning exercise nonetheless!
Ernie Parizeau, JC del Real, Mary Assini, Kim Parizeau, Cam Powel, Sally Tyrie
Once the weather warms up, we are planning to have an Island School event at JC’s crossfit gym for Boston-area alumni, parents and friends–stay tuned for details!
Rachel Miller beside the Jekyll Island Convention Center where the Sea Turtle conference was held.
Earlier in February, Rachel Miller, the Research Assistant for the Sea Turtle Conservation Program, attended the Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting in Jekyll Island, GA, a five-day conference that focused on the newest sea turtle research from the Southeast United States. In addition to learning about the newest sea turtle research, Rachel had the opportunity to meet with top scientists, upcoming scientists, and Island School alumni. At the conference, Rachel met IS alumna Sarah Kollar (S’07) who is working with the Trash Free Seas division of the Ocean Conservancy in Washington, DC. It’s awesome to see where Island School has reached! You can find out more about SERST here.
We sent out the winter edition of our bi-annual alumni newsletter today. Click on the image below to read about the impressive accomplishments of some of our alumni and get excited for the Fall 2015 on-island alumni reunion September 25-27!
Email alumni@islandschool.org to get in touch with our alumni relations department.
Last week, 15 students from Deep Creek Middle School and 34 students from Preston H. Albury High School attend a joint Eco-Club event last night at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve in Governors Harbour. With a whopping 49 students, we made about half of the audience for the lecture by John Mylroie on Caves & Blue Holes in the Bahamas.
Before the lecture students had an hour to check out the preserve and practice some of their terrestrial plant identification with a contest on who can ID the most plants. The freshwater wetland area with turtles was, of course, a huge hit for students. Hiking through bromeliad filled coppice was also especially exciting just as the sun was setting.
Mr. Mylroie, an incredible geologist, may have used some big science-y words but students were exposed to information on how geologic formations formed with change in sea level, extracting fresh water from wells, and ways to preserve these precious formations found all over The Bahamas.
This past Saturday, the Deep Creek Middle School Early Act and Eco Club teamed up with Preston Albury High School’s newly formed Eco-club to sort plastics 1, 2, and 5. It wasn’t the prettiest job sorting plastic bottles, food containers, and removing bottle caps from a few hundred bottles, but we made it fun with a competition between 3 groups to see who could sort the most!
All plastics will be sent to Cans for Kids in Nassau and then sent to the States for recycling. Cans for Kids is a Bahamian non profit that recycles cans, and now plastics as well, to raise money for schools and youth organizations. This event was an effort to spruce up the recycle center at the South Eleuthera Emergency Partners, SEEP, in Tarpum Bay to implement a One Eleuthera grant funded recycle program in schools in South Eleuthera in the next few months.
We had 22 students from both schools and 9 adults from One Eleuthera, Cape Eleuthera Institute, Deep Creek Middle School, Rotaract Club of Eleuthera, and the Rotary Club of Eleuthera.
“Just over three years ago I was rumbling along in a van on my way from Rock Sound to The Island School, clutching my backpack tightly and wondering what I had gotten myself into. I had no idea that the next three and a half months would be the most challenging, rewarding and enlightening time of my life.
I attended The Island School as a student in the fall of my junior year in 2011 and I’m lucky to be back this spring as an intern with the Sea Turtle Research and Conservation team. It’s truly amazing to be back at a place that had such an impact on my education and overall growth as an individual. No matter where I walk on campus I’m flooded with memorable experiences, lessons I learned, and friends I made while at The Island School. The reason my Island School experience was so memorable is the same reason I found myself applying to be an intern for this spring. The unique nature of this place fosters an exceptional learning and professional environment that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the world. Not to mention the ability to learn and experience rich Bahamian culture through the organization’s efforts to connect with the greater community. It was especially cool to arrive on campus and see how the organization has already grown over the past few years to include Hallig House, CSD, and the new intern housing under construction. I’m excited to see what the next several months will bring.” -James Murray
This year, Deep Creek Middle School students chose to tackle a bigger issue when planning their Junkanoo theme. Graduating students in grade 9 brainstormed a number of creative and colourful ideas, but finally settled on the title, “Save our Seas.” The idea was inspired by Grade 9 Destinee Outten’s up-cycled fashion design: a plastic bag skirt fastened by a colourful band of Capri Sun juice bags. We decided to run with the idea by combining traditional Junkanoo materials like crepe paper, glue, cardboard, wire and glitter with reusable materials, like beach plastic, plastic bags and Capri Sun containers. Ultimately, the students would be wearing an environmental awareness campaign.
The grade 7 girls evolved into Plastic Pollution Princesses, adorned with plastic tutus, hot pink sashes and purple crowns. The grade 8 and 9 girls transformed into Bahamian sea species: turtles, sharks, jellies, sea stars and eagle rays. The drummers wore the nation’s colors of gold, blue and black, as Bahamian sea kings.
Our free dancers wore costumes that were meant to raise awareness of overfishing practices. One of our dancers wore a “Responsible Fishing” shoulder piece, with images of spiny-tailed lobsters and closed fishing dates. One free dancer wore a massive conch costume; another wore a spectacular invasive lion fish piece.
Overall, the night was a huge success. The kids invested an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm into their performance!
In November 2014, the Biodiesel program at The Island School began an upgrade to the biodiesel manufacturing equipment. The update, which was recently completed, drastically improved the speed at which fuel is produced and also improves the quality of the end product. The upgrade included the installation of a drywash tower, a methanol recovery unit, and reconfigured the entire facility with new plumbing, pumps, flow meters, and electrical controls.
Biodiesel Lab Technician Samuel Dorsent got up close and personal with CSD’s biodiesel manufacturing equipment as it was cleaned in preparation of the upgrade. Sam has been working with the biodiesel program since May 2014.
The Drywash Tower replaces the previous method of cleaning processed fuel, which used water. The dry wash tower shortens the production time to process 150 gallons of biodiesel to two days, as opposed to 10-12 days as previously experienced. This has increased our production capacity to well over 30,000 gallons per year, nearly 4 times our previous capacity, and well above our current fuel demand. On a yearly basis, the drywash tower saves the school nearly 20,000 gallons of water, over 750 man-hours of labor costs, and drastically reduced production costs.
Corey Broderick and Mike Cortina (F’02) stand next to the new SpringPro T76 Drywash Tower.
A secondary piece of new equipment installed is a Methanol Recovery unit. As the name would lend you to believe, the methanol recovery unit enables the recovery of excess methanol from the glycerol waste stream of the biodiesel reaction. The recovered methanol can be reused back into the production cycle and offset a portion of the methanol the program needs to purchase and import from the US. The methanol recovery unit has the potential to reduce the cost of biodiesel production by over $0.20 per gallon; and since methanol is the most expensive of the three chemical ingredients that make biodiesel, financial savings are felt on a very short time scale.
Sam performs a titration on a sample of oil prior to reacting a batch of biodiesel.
The biodiesel program at Island School began as a student run research project in the fall semester of 2002. Currently, the Organization uses biodiesel in vans, surfs, trucks and backup generators. We will soon begin testing biodiesel in boats, which has the potential to save the organization significantly in fuel expenditures. B100 (100% biodiesel) burns much cleaner and more completely than diesel fuel from other sources, such as fossil fuels. On average, a reduction of 60% in particulate matter, 60% in carbon monoxide, 70% in unburnt hydrocarbons, and 100% in sulfur dioxide can be expected. Moreover, the main chemical ingredient in biodiesel is used cooking oil; a perfect example of a renewable source of fuel.
If you have any further questions, or care to learn more about the biodiesel program at The Island School, please email biodiesel@islandschool.org.
Francis Joyce attended The Island School in Fall 2007 and went on to continue his studies at Bowdoin College, graduating in May 2013. Since then, he has been working in Doug McCauley’s lab at UC Santa Barbara. Part of his work has entailed helping with and co-authoring this paper on marine defaunation, which is animal loss in the world’s oceans. It was published in Science Magazine a few days ago and was also featured in a popular New York Times article. This paper has even stimulated international news regarding concern over significant degradation of the oceans.
It is incredible to see our alumni like Francis making a difference world-wide, beyond the shores of Eleuthera. Congratulations, Francis! We can’t wait to hear about the work you do next!
Spring 2008 started the New Year off right by getting together for a reunion in New York City last weekend. Although almost 7 years out from their semester, S’08ers drove in from all over the East Coast and some even flew in from Chicago and Michigan just to see one another! It’s amazing to see the strong bond among Island School alumni years after their 100-day semester.
Matt McCalpin, Phoebe Hyde, Kit Norris, Tom McDonough, Jimmy Gerrity, Ryan DeVos, Grace Lucas, and Spencer Wild
If you got together with your semester over the holidays, send us a pic to alumni@islandschool.org so that we can share it on our blog!
