Meredith Howe and Emily Jenkins from the Summer 2014 semester returned home to their sending schools with a goal to reduce the daily amount of plastic that they consumed. This goal led to the creation of a group called the Broken Bottle Project with the help of a third friend, Meghan Vonck. The catch is that each of the three friends attended a different school in the same district. Meredith is a senior at Forrest Hills Northern, Emily is from Forrest Hills Central and Meghan is from Forrest Hills Eastern. The three of them banded together to reduce plastic water bottle usage across their entire district. We caught up with Meredith and Emily to learn just how they are accomplishing that goal and what they have planned next.

After returning home from The Island School, both Meredith and Emily enthusiastically rejoined their high school communities. Meredith jumped into the Forrest Hills student government and was elected as President of the 90-person committee leading the school. In addition to her work with the Broken Bottle Project, Meredith is currently “in the midst of planning a community outreach day where our entire school will be going out into the community to serve at nonprofit organization on April 21.” Recently, Meredith found out that she will be attending Ohio University this fall and playing on their volleyball team. Emily also recently found out that she will be attending Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, CA, where she intends to study Environmental Studies and Sustainability. This past winter Emily was also an integral part of her school’s varsity ski team which “made it to the state championship!! Whoopee!!!!”

For Meredith and Emily, the Broken Bottle Project “started with a passion for the environment and a passion to make a difference.” For Emily in particular, her passion for bettering the health of our planet stemmed from what she learned at the Island School. Inspiration came in the form of a teacher from Forrest Hills’ Gone Boarding class (a senior-only class where students design and build their own surfboard, longboard or snowboard and create a business partnership with snowboarding giant Burton) who prompted Meredith to think about what she could do to “get our district more informed and excited about the environment.” That same teacher then put Meredith in contact with Emily and Meghan who, after several months of planning, launched the Broken Bottle Project. Together they had “noticed the numerous people in our high schools drinking from single-use plastic water bottles, and we decided we wanted to change this.” Together, the three of them set out to initiate change throughout their entire school district.

The Island School strives to be a “zero waste” campus and a model of sustainability for the region. While here, this caught the attention of Emily and Meredith. Emily found herself pondering while on a dive “I wonder where this plastic goes?” after witnessing some of it drifting through the reef she was at. Fortunately at The Island School, we answered that question for her and that answer prompted Emily to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic she uses in her day-to-day life at home. She even carries this with her to events where large amounts of plastic bottles are being used, such as “last night at my ski team banquet. I noticed the large amount of plastic water bottles being used and I went out of my way to create a recycle bin. I took all the bottles home and recycled them myself.” For Meredith, her sea-change moment came when she realized the scale of the problem. One plastic bottle will not do much harm, but, what about 1,000? Or 1,000,000 bottles floating in the ocean? It adds up quickly. So too does the effect when people use fewer plastic bottles or recycle them properly.

The solution is simple: reusable water bottles and filling stations around the campuses of the school district to keep those bottles full. Emily, Meredith and Meghan made a connection with MIZU who they agreed would be their ideal supplier for these water bottles. They then agreed on a design that would grace the side of the bottle. Now they are raising money, implementing their water bottle filling stations, and taking care of all the logistics. The goal is to raise about $12,000 which will allow them to meet the wholesale price of the water bottles before they distribute them to the school district. The process of reaching out to sponsors and coordinating a multi-school campaign has taught Emily, Meredith and Meghan a lot. Currently, with graduation on the horizon they are investigating options for how to pass the program off to a new group of student leaders. They expect the project to really take off towards the end of April.

Emily Jenkins (left) and Meredith Howe (right) pose with two of their water bottles

Both Emily and Meredith had some memories and shout outs that they wanted to share:

Meredith wrote-
My favorite memory during my time at IS Su ’14 is searching for the Banyan Tree with Kate, Evie, Annie Gray, and of course Pibl. Also, the first night when the girl’s cabin played “ice breaker” games.
Emily wrote-
From the Island School, I would like to thank all my fellow peers who helped me become the person I am today! At IS, I really grew as a leader and learned so so so much about myself. I am thankful for pals like Clay Starr and the many others who graduated with me!!! My favorite memory from IS is definitely the down island day where we jumped in the ocean hole, explored Hatchet Bay Caves, and camped (in a rain storm) at Club Med!! Honestly one of the best days of my life.

From everyone at The Island School, best of luck to you, Meredith and Emily! You are well on your way to success and we can’t wait to hear more about the awesome things you accomplish!

Catherine Argyrople from the Spring 2014 semester has recently exceeded all of her expectations when it comes to creating a business from scratch. We caught up with her to learn about Catherine Argyrople Photography and how DECA is pushing her to reach new achievements in its competitions.

From a young age, Catherine has always risen to any challenges in front of her. She is a survivor of childhood Neuroblastoma, and if Catherine could beat cancer as a child, she is now well on her way to achieving anything she sets her mind to. Catherine attended the Island School as a sophomore after hearing about it from a family friend while in the sixth grade. Even at such a young age, Catherine had “always been interested in marine conservation and sustainability, so I immediately fell in love with the program and was determined to go when I was old enough!” Catherine had a fantastic time during her semester and completed the half-marathon successfully despite knowing it was going to be a huge challenge for her. After returning home, she chose to continue running long distances, including another half-marathon. The race was in October of 2014 for Dana Farber, a cancer institution in Boston. Catherine has dedicated much of her free time to community service work in support of various cancer organizations like Dana Farber, The Jimmy Fund, and Relay For Life. This continues to be a priority for her because, as a survivor, “I am extremely connected to these local cancer institutions because I was treated there. I also love doing service work in general, and fundraising for Relay For Life allowed me to give back to an organization that did so much for me when I was a cancer patient.”

Another large chunk of Catherine’s time back home has been spent creating her freelance photography business, which has been met with enormous success. Catherine has “worked with over 85 clients in 2015 alone, not only in my hometown of Weston, Massachusetts, but communities over 25 miles away as well.” To say that she is in-demand is a significant understatement! The inspiration for her photography business stemmed from her desire to go on a gap year before attending college. She figured she could use her skills in media and photography, which she had been developing in classes since middle school, to help fund it. So in the fall of 2014, Catherine began her freelance photography and never looked back.

After Catherine’s photography business flourished in the fall, “I decided I wanted to make a business plan to further grow and expand the business.” To follow through on this, she joined her school’s DECA club. DECA is a business competition for high school students in over 3,500 school communities to compete on district, state, and international levels. Each competition features many different categories of events but they all fall under five career clusters. These clusters are: business management/administration, finance, entrepreneurship, hospitality/tourism, and marketing. As Catherine was looking to build a business plan for her photography work, she joined an event in the entrepreneurship category called Business Growth Plan. In her prep for the event, Catherine wrote a 30-page business plan that analyzed her work in Catherine Argyrople Photography and projected how to grow the business over the next five years. In addition to the 30-page report, Catherine crafted a presentation to give at the competition.  Catherine holds herself to high standards with her work and labored for a long time over her business plan. She set a goal for herself of finishing in the top four of the statewide competition, which was the requirement for making it to the international level.  Catherine was thrilled when she surpassed her goal and achieved first place in the category! Her next step is the International Competition held in Nashville in April. Over 15,000 student competitors will be in attendance, which is a huge jump from the 2,500 at the state event in Massachusetts. Her new goal is to finish in the top 10 out of 100+ competitors in the Business Growth category. She is “not sure how feasible this goal is but I am certainly willing to try!”

The competitions can be a huge and daunting task, but Catherine felt “more confident in my project and was really in my element while presenting my business plan in front of the judge. I put my all into this project, so seeing my hard work pay off was so surreal.” In her photography work, Catherine particularly enjoyed getting to know each of her clients during her photoshoots with them. It kept Catherine very busy; to the point where she felt like a “40 year old working mom, but I totally loved the whole experience.” She was busiest on the weekends, when she had 4-5 photoshoots each day. In addition to that, after school on weekdays was usually fully booked as well!

In regards to her future, Catherine has a few goals and dreams. She is still planning on taking her gap year to travel and explore. She will be hearing back from the colleges she applied to soon and will be attending one of them in the fall of 2017 after her gap year is complete. Her career projections for herself include “two media related dream jobs: to be a movie producer like Steven Spielberg or Brian Grazer, or to be an environmental/ anthropogenic documentary producer for National Geographic. When I was at The Island School, I really discovered my interest for environmental advocacy media and can totally envision myself dedicating the rest of my life to this career… The Hollywood movie producer fantasy is just an aspiration I’ve always dreamed of.” Given her track record of reaching goals, it seems like Catherine is well on her way!

When asked what Catherine’s favorite moment from her semester was, Catherine replied with a well thought-out answer which is printed in its entirety below: “My favorite moment of my semester definitely had to be finishing the half marathon. Even though I had trained for the past three months with my best friend and running buddy, Greta, it never totally sank in that I could actually run a half marathon. The half marathon symbolized a seemingly unattainable goal, due to my health complications from having cancer at a young age. On our long exercise days before the half marathon, I just remember running on the bridge from CEI to the center of campus and feeling like I was flying. I had never felt so confident in myself before that moment, and I was just in total euphoria. When I finished the real half marathon, I felt the same way… It was a feeling I had never experienced before, something so foreign to me but so special at the same time. From that day on, I have learned to have confidence in myself and my abilities. While that sounds pretty cliche, it is 100% true. Beating cancer made me a survivor, but emotionally hindered my confidence until I went to The Island School. Participating in DECA and winning states made me feel that same euphoria and sense of pride in my achievements as the half marathon did, and I really hope to experience many future moments like these.”

Catherine, best of luck to you as you hear back from colleges and compete in the DECA international competition. All of us at The Island School are rooting for you and hoping to hear about more of your successes!

The Island School recently had a chance to catch up with Anna Carrol from the Spring 2009 semester. She has moved out west to join a Military Veterans rehabilitation program called Heroes and Horses, as their Administrative Director. We wanted to know the story of how she got there, so we asked! Like most alumni who return from The Island School, Anna spent her “senior year of high school missing the Island School, applying to colleges, and dreaming of run swims.”  Anna was accepted into Middlebury which has a strong community of Island School alumni and began to create a “family away from family” during her years there while studying as an English and Creative Writing major along with the pre-reqs for veterinary school. While attending Middlebury, Anna took a semester off to work in Morocco at a free, large animal veterinary clinic called the American Fondouk. The American Fondouk provides free care to thousands of animals each year in Morocco, and as Anna had spent a large amount of time working with and writing about horses at Middlebury, the work there resonated with her. Once Anna was home again, she was inspired to move out west to follow through on her dreams. Upon graduation she said goodbye to her friends and family and moved out west to Bozeman, Montana to work at Heroes and Horses “living in paradise at Good Dog Farm, with my wolf dog Shota, two horses, and three best buds.”

Many teenagers go through a period of their lives when they feel as if they are at a crossroads. For Anna, that crossroads occurred during her time at The Island School when she “was on the cusp of trying to live my dreams, but was definitely scared out of my mind and letting that hesitance hold me back.” The Island School and the Spring 2009 semester made her “a brave person at a time when I really needed bravery.” At one point during the semester, Chris Maxey talked “about returning from Eleuthera and becoming ‘Island School Heroes.’ Whether it was in our personal or professional lives, he was always inspiring us to change the world for the better and to never give up the fight.” Better still, it was not just Chris Maxey supporting Anna to follow her dreams, but the entire community of the school which “made it feel like anything was possible, each day.” If you believe it, it becomes true.

Anna has always had a love for horses, so it was no surprise that when she interviewed Micah Fink, the Executive Director of Heroes and Horses, for a feature article that she was working on as a writer, the two of them would begin a lasting friendship. They quickly discovered that each one shared “a lot of core values about how horses and wilderness heal the body and the mind.” So when Micah asked Anna to join the team, it was a natural fit. For Anna, this was a dream come true as she “couldn’t believe that a job like that would be possible.” When asked about a typical day in the office at Heroes and Horses, Anna’s easy answer was, “basically…there is no typical day, which I love!” Heroes and Horses is a small organization so everyone multi-tasks constantly between work in the office and work outside with the horses and veterans. Just like at The Island School, unexpected events can and do happen all the time. Anna could be “writing an email to a volunteer group but then I get a call that Julia the mule busted out of the pasture fence. The computer closes, and we grab our boots to go take care of the herd.” The work and the program as a whole is heavily experiential as exhibited by what happens when you call the office on a Friday:

“You will get a voicemail reminding you that we are at the ranch because that’s the day we ride and train. We also have off-season and trip season. May-September, I will be running 10-day long pack trips with the veteran participants every two weeks. The horses and I will go a lot of miles in the mountains. In the off-season, we are fundraising, developing programs, and strategizing about how to serve better.”

For Anna, being hired at Heroes and Horses was a major moment. In her words, “the trajectory of my outlook on life completely changed.” Suddenly, Anna had transitioned from the life of a college student to a job where “I got to help people, ride in the mountains, and share with others in need the power of horses to heal and challenge the human spirit–all things I had dreamed of spending my days doing, but never dared to hope that it might become reality.” Similar to at The Island School where everyone is on the island because they want to be here and love what they do, Anna loves “that I work with people who love what they do every day. It fires me up.” Anna now spends her days in a situation she believes is “the best of both worlds” where she is working and communicating with the people who love what they do and the other is working and communicating with the animals that she has spent her entire life loving.

If Anna’s work is inspiring to you, or if you have further questions for her, Anna can be reached at: anna@heroesandhorses.com

To wrap up The Island School’s conversation with Anna, she had a shout out to the entire Spring 2009 semester:

“Spring 09, I hope you still take the time to play “She’s Royal” whenever you just feel like cranking the tunes. I also hope everybody still rocks their Island School SWEATER. I know I do. Love to all, and nothing but the best wishes for everybody. Thanks for being such a life changing crew. “

From left to right: David Green, Greg Henkes and Chris Maxey at a Board meeting in the Hamill residence

We recently had a chance to catch up with Greg Henkes, an alum from the Spring 2003 semester, from our office on campus. We asked to hear his story of how he came to be at The Island School as a student and where he has been since. Greg was one of the first students from Maine to attend the Island School and hails from the town of Yarmouth. He originally heard of The Island School while in a meeting with his Guidance Counselor at Yarmouth High School. The counselor recommended to Greg that he go see “this random guy give a talk about a semester program they had started in the Bahamas”. That “random guy” turned out to be our very own Christian Henry who obviously sold Greg on the idea of attending The Island School. As things would turn out, Greg explains, “Christian is my neighbor now. I live in Cambridge, Massachusetts with my wife, our daughter Charlie, and two dogs”. Greg is now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science, and he studies “the physical and chemical evolution of our Earth’s oceans on geological timescales”. Student-driven research was and is a large component of the semester experience. Greg’s current work reflects what he was inspired to study as a student. In addition to his work at Harvard, Greg also holds a positon on the Board of Directors of the Island School where he works to constantly improve the school for future generations of students.

In a way, Greg and many other alumni never completely left The Island School after they boarded the plane home at the end of their term. Instead, they became driven to find meaningful and personal ways of giving back to the program that came to mean so much to them. For Greg he “made alumni giving a personal priority, but I wanted to go deeper than that”. With his well-earned Ph.D. in hand, Greg decided that he was in a unique position with his skillset to benefit The Island School, so he applied to and was subsequently accepted into the ranks of our Board of Directors. Since joining, he has leveraged his scientific and personal interests to further the development of  “the integrity and quality of research done by Island Schoolers and CEIS/CSD scientists and engineers, safety and student culture and attracting quality students.” As a scientist, Greg loves to learn, and being an active member of our board has afforded Greg the chance to continually learn as he interacts with his fellow members.

The Island School inevitably has different effects on everyone who attends the semester program. Greg looks back on his time at The Island School as a “period of tremendous growth.” He was transformed physically and mentally from a “crew cut high school hockey jock from Maine” to a “passionate young adult, albeit over-tanned and with shaggy hair, but also ready for college and the next adventure.” For Greg, the experience “laid down the framework for a career in the Earth sciences.” Greg’s new career goals were highlighted by the time he spent at The Island School compelling him “to be outdoors more often and having a sharpened intellectual curiosity.” When Greg attended Bates College, he found himself drawn towards studying Earth Sciences and attributes it to the fact that it is “hard to imagine SCUBA diving nearly every day or having math class on a boat not push someone towards studying the Earth.” While at Bates, Greg connected with future faculty member David Miller. They became good friends in college and even started a Student SCUBA Club at Bates. “We bought equipment and ran open water classes. It was a hoot! We did some really cold Maine dives together too!” When it came time for David to apply for a job at The Island School, Greg gave him the official “Henkes stamp of approval” with a recommendation to Chris Maxey. David spent three years teaching literature and SCUBA on The Island School campus and was the Dean of Students for a year. While at The Island School, David brought with him a metric ton of energy, a passion to change the lives of all of his students and the ability to make anyone laugh. All of this happened because Greg happened to meet David at Bates!

As an alum of the Spring 2003 semester, Greg has had the chance to watch the entire Cape Eleuthera Foundation and Island School grow and evolve for the past 13 years. He humbly states as “a notable addition” that “CEI was a twinkle in the eyes of Maxey, Christian Henry, the Danylchucks, etc. when I was a student, and now it’s a full blown, Caribbean-leading research institute with amazing programs studying a diversity of ecosystems”. He describes the physical changes to campus as “emblematic of the strategic and visionary decisions that have accumulated over the years. Those of us who’ve stayed connected and who’ve had the longest observational ‘datasets’ of the Island School know that the place is a living, evolving, institution.” Many alumni will agree, however, that there is a key part of The Island School that has not changed over the years, and that in fact may be more important than everything that has. This key part is the heart, the soul, the pervasive culture within the community that every student, researcher, and staff member is welcomed into with open arms. Greg states that the rock of The Island School is the “student experience. It’s my impression and belief that the whole place rotates around a core that is the student experience and its transformative impacts.”

From forward to back: Greg, former Head of School Ben Freeman and Chris Maxey gather during Parents Weekend

When asked about his favorite memories from his semester, Greg replied with a thoughtful answer: he does not have one stand-out favorite memory but rather a favorite concept. All of his fondest memories were “of faculty or staff making the extra effort to include me in extracurricular things” and the “lifelong friendships” that they forged because of that extra effort. Some of the highlights that Greg mentioned included working with David Orgain and Jack Kenworthy on the “sand bag” building that now houses biodiesel operations. “I did this during my free time when I could’ve been off working on my suntan or watching a movie. I was asked to join Maxey, Andy Danylchuck, and Daniel Benetti to scout a location for the shark cage one evening after class. And I spent some real quality time hanging with the kitchen staff, Mooch, Becca, Tiff, Sheryl, getting to know them, Bahamian culture, and food traditions.” The result was that everyone in the community’s “openness and honesty (early on) to me as a student was probably not in their job description, but made a huge impact on me personally.”

Greg, thank you for all that you have done and continue to do for The Island School! We look forward to having you on island once again this April for the board meeting.

Recently, Francesca Forrestal of the F’99 semester became part of a very select group of Island School Alumni because she graduated from the University of Miami with a Ph.D. from the Marine Biology and Fisheries department studying the “Impacts of the tropical tuna purse seine fishery on the surrounding ecosystem structure and function.” Here at The Island School, we were curious to learn about Francesca’s journey from one of our students to a full-fledged Post-Doc; so we asked her!

Francesca attended the Nightingale-Bamford school in New York City. She had just returned from a semester abroad in Australia and was “having trouble getting back into city living” when she heard that a fellow student had just returned from The Island School’s first semester that spring. She learned that a friend of hers, Suzy Newbury, was applying for the Sp’00 semester so Francesca took a chance and successfully applied to join the F’99 semester.

Even before attending The Island School Francesca knew she wanted to study Marine Biology but she was not sure which aspect to focus on. She joined the aquaculture research group which “sparked my interest in sustainable fisheries”. While out on her 8-day kayak expedition Francesca spent time talking to a faculty member about her time at UC Santa Cruz “which is where I eventually attended and received my bachelors in marine biology”. Once Francesca had returned home from The Island School, she took on an independent study in her senior year of high school. Her project revolved around the concept of how much of an “impact SCUBA divers can have on the coral reefs they visit”. As part of this course, Francesca obtained her PADI Dive Master and Instructor training which she used to teach diving both in “Manhattan and then throughout the Caribbean after graduation (including at the Island School!)”.

After graduating from UC Santa Cruz, Francesca attended the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami for both her Masters and Doctorate degrees. Unlike her Ph.D. project, Francesca received her “master’s from the Marine Affairs and Policy department” studying the effects “of Bluefin tuna farming on an ecosystem in the Mediterranean”. When asked about what advice she would recommend to other Island School alumni looking to pursue their Ph.D, Francesca’s initial joking response was “run away!!” Monty Python style. On a more serious note, she has some very good advice for our alumni:

“It’s really only up to you if you finish your degree. This is of course true for any degree but is magnified in graduate school. There are not many clear milestones to mark your progress and unless you have a very involved advisor, it takes an incredible amount of self-discipline and faith in yourself to keep going. More concretely, a good way to be successful in a PhD program is to have a good idea of the lab and the advisor you’ll be working with before you begin. You also need to have a pretty clear idea of what your research project will be (even though your final dissertation will only vaguely resemble your proposal).”

Clearly the road to a Ph.D. is full of challenges but with dedication and a good advisor, it can be done! Now that Francesca has completed her degree, she is working “as a Post-doctoral Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Science in Miami”. She very much enjoys the opportunity to work with highly migratory species “as there are so many interesting aspects to their biology and ecology”. Francesca hopes to continue working in this field for the foreseeable future.

In addition to studying for her degree’s Francesca was the first ever alum to join the Island School’s board and she has served continuously for 10 years. She has had an incredible journey from student, faculty member and now board member. Joining the Island School’s board was a first for Francesca and has given her “an incredible learning experience”. Each board member “brings such a unique perspective and set of skills. Its very enlightening to watch how everyone approaches the same challenge given his or her background and training”.  Incidentally, the board is looking for new membership at the moment. Check out this post if you are interested in applying!

When asked about a favorite memory from her semester at The Island School, Francesca says that her most vivid memory “is coming back to Eleuthera after we had evacuated to Florida for 5 days because of Hurricane Floyd. We had been on the island for less than a week before we had to leave and it already felt like a homecoming when we flew back into the Rock Sound airport”.

Nicole McCallum (back row, second from the right) is from the Fall 2012 semester at The Island School and she has recently returned from a service trip to Tamale, Ghana. Nicole worked with a group called Saha Global whose mission is to provide developing countries with access to clean water and electricity. Saha scouts the locations prior to the arrival of volunteers like Nicole. In her case, her group “traveled around 45 minutes to the border of Tamale to a little village called Naha. When we first arrived we set up a meeting with the chief and some of the elders in the community.” This is done because “Saha values working closely with each village in order to make the business as successful as possible. During the customary chief meeting we explained that we were there to create a business to provide them with fresh water, we described that the “dugouts” that they were taking their water from were unsafe to drink due to the massive amounts of E.coli and how we would set up the business. We made it abundantly clear that we wanted to work with them and that they would be part of the process.” From here, Nicole and her group built the water infrastructure from the ground up and visited all 44 households that it would serve in order to inform the residents on how to keep their water safe and to deliver to them Safe Storage Containers (SSC). This served the dual purpose of also forming beneficial relationships between Saha Global and the residents of Naha. The result was that “Every single household we visited was so happy with how everything turned out, was ecstatic for the sustainability of the business and could tell that it was going to make a positive impact on their family’s lives. I initially wanted to start this business solely because I was able to provide people with fresh water but through this process it became so much more. Saha Global is so successful because of its incorporation and appreciation of the Ghanaian culture and people with a special highlight on the monitoring process after the field reps leave to assure success.”

Nicole compared her time in Ghana to The Island School by saying that both were life changing experiences. She also found similarities in the people who she described as “inspiringly positive about life”. For Nicole, the best part of the trip was the people. She “learned so much about the Ghanaian culture through talking to my translator, Nestor, and the other translators we got close to along the trip. They showed us their homes, their families, where they like to have fun and really shared their lives with us. We ate all the best with them and experienced local food such as baku, T-Z, eggs and bread, Guinea fowl eggs and lots of rice and chicken”.

The entire reason why Nicole is involving herself in projects like Saha Global is because of her interest in sustainable development. Her time at The Island School inspired this in her and “it is because of The Island School that I am so passionate about what I study” which is a double major in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Development. Nicole fell in love with her program because “it allowed me to peruse a major that wasn’t just cut and dry. One that allowed me to work hands on, take classes other than just engineering and especially that would encourage me to study abroad. The Island School was a lot like my program because it wasn’t the classic school education, it has flare and allows a student to really delve into what one would be doing in the work place and to look more holistically”.

Nicole has several goals for her project: that it will be successful, “for it to provide the village of Naha with fresh drinking water and for it to stay sustainable and successful for many many years to come”. She has faith in the women that her group trained and in the village as a whole that by the time she makes it back in the future, everything will be “running like a well-oiled machine”.

Nicole with villagers from Naha and other volunteers

Lastly, Nicole wants to give a shout out to: “Kelly McCarthy because I miss her and haven’t seen her in so long.”

Spencer Elliot (pictured right) has been busy since he attended the Spring 2009 semester of The Island School. Spencer enrolled at Michigan State University and played football there through the end of his sophomore year. After sustaining an injury, he went abroad to Cape Town during the fall of his junior year and interned with a non-profit organization called Sporting Chance. The goal of Sporting Chance was to “provide an opportunity for impoverished youth to have an option to play sports. They also hosted coaching clinics in more affluent areas, but their work in the Townships (or “shanty towns” as my high school text book referred to them) was the cornerstone of their mission”. Spencer is an advertising major so, he spent his time with Sporting Chance crisscrossing all over Cape Town documenting “everything I saw. I went to everything from coaching clinics, to charity events, to school gym classes. I would then turn my footage into promotional videos that Sporting Chance could use to show their sponsors what they were doing. My internship experience allowed me to see Cape Town in its entirety. I saw the beautiful, white beaches with pent house apartments, I saw the tin shacks families live in with no running water and everything in between”. As time passed Spencer realized that there was a true homelessness epidemic in Cape Town, particularly among the youth. After just one month on the job in Cape Town, “I sent a Facebook message to my mom telling her that I couldn’t come home for my spring semester, I had fallen in love with Cape Town and felt like there was more I was supposed to do while I was there. She told me that she supported my decision, but it was up to me to find a way to put a roof over my head and work. I started researching non-profits in the Cape Town area, but it didn’t take me long to decide I wanted to do to something with street children. I found The Homestead, contacted Paul and the rest is history. Bwatts and I stayed in a 1 bedroom studio apartment smaller than a dorm room and payed $200 dollars per month”.

Bwatts (pictured left above) and Spencer first met in the 8^th grade as they played on the same football team together. Their relationship was cordial but certainly never a formal friendship until their senior year in high school. Spencer says he will never forget the moment their friendship began, he was “walking outside of our school and I heard someone digging around in a dumpster. All of a sudden Bwatts stuck his head up and I was shocked. I asked him what he was doing and he told me he was searching for bottle caps for coke rewards. Gosh…I’ll never forget it. A couple weeks later, we had the first day of our Media Broadcasting class. The class which aired the school news every day. Our teacher Mrs. Hamersma told us we had to pick a partner to work with throughout the class. I didn’t really know why, but as soon as she said that I knew I wanted this kid who was searching for coke rewards in a dumpster to be my partner. I asked him and he was kinda caught off guard. I was too I guess. The whole thing came from left field really. But luckily he said yes and the rest is history. We’ve been working together ever since” but working for The Homestead is by far the largest project they have ever done together as a team. For a behind the scenes clip covering this moment, look here

In Spencer’s eyes, what makes Cape Town’s current situation so alarming is the number of homeless children on the streets. The Homestead is a non-profit organization based within the greater Cape Town area that provides a chance for homeless kids to receive an education, a team of supportive adults and most importantly a home to boys that would otherwise be homeless. Spencer and his friend Bwatts are currently attempting to raise $50,000 for the benefit of The Homestead. They arrived at that goal after “talking with Paul Hooper, the director of the Homestead. He told us that it cost them on average $1,000 dollars to support one kid for one year. That’s including their tuition fees, housing, food, everything”. They arrived at that number because it would provide total at The Homestead for 50 kids that were previously on the street. To raise this money, Spence and Bwatts have created a feature length documentary which launched yesterday here.  The documentary they have created “dives into the world of what life at the homestead is like, the work they are doing, the boys stories, the staff members and we tried to integrate some things that will allow people to get a feel for what it was like for two 20 year old best friends to be in Cape Town chasing a dream. We put a priority on trying to make the Documentary as upbeat and interactive as possible. We want the viewer to feel like they are standing there next to us experiencing The Homestead for themselves”.

Spencer’s decision to work in Cape Town was influenced by his time at The Island School back in 2009. It was his first time away from home for an extended period, and his first time experiencing the wonders of a completely different world. Immersing himself “in a new community where I didn’t know a soul at such a young age has helped form me into the man I am today”. As a future advertising major, Spencer loved “interviewing locals and hearing their perspectives. Island School remains a turning point in my life where I made a decision about the person I wanted to consciously try to be”.

To conclude, Spencer has a couple shout outs that he would like to make sure are heard. The first goes out to “my entire semester first off. I think about Spring ’09 and the legendary faculty we had regularly. I have the glass window tattooed on my left arm for a reason. Because Island School Spring 09 changed my life and I’m forever grateful”. More specifically, he would like to thank former faculty member Andrew “Fieldy” Fields and fellow student Latario “Tario” Moxey. Fieldy was inspirational to Spencer, he describes there as simply being “a goodness about him that was infectious. I trusted him and that was a big deal for me”. Then, Spencer refers to Tario as “one of the most important people I’ve met in my entire life. We had more important talks than I’ve probably had with anyone and I will always be thankful that we were able to meet”.

All of us at The Island School wish Spencer nothing but the best in his efforts to raise money for The Homestead. For additional information on what Spencer and Bwatts are up to, check out their Crowdrise campaign page here.

A first for the Alumni Spotlight column, Phoebe Colvin-Oehmig recently returned home after attending the Fall 2015 Gap Year program at The Island School. She graduated from Waynflete in Portland, Maine and had been inspired to study plastics since she first read an inscribed copy of Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns at the age of 13. Her interests were only furthered during her studies at Waynflete and so when given the chance to study plastics during her nine weeks at The Island School, Phoebe jumped at the opportunity. Inspired by what she experienced and learned during her time on campus at The Island School, Phoebe returned home and wrote the following about what she has accomplished at home and what she will be up to in the near future:

With my new knowledge, I knew I needed to do something. I returned home to Maine with a mission to eliminate Styrofoam and plastic bags in Brunswick. I joined “Bring Your Own Bag Midcoast,” a local grassroots environmental advocacy group whose mission is to promote reusable bags and containers in Midcoast Maine. In an effort to raise awareness and to educate the public, I began writing letters to newspaper editors in which I highlighted the equally hazardous environmental effects of both paper and plastic bags, as well as the health risks involved with plastic. Not only are plastics harmful to Maine’s seafood industry by causing premature deaths of marine animals by clogging their digestive systems, they also poison our seafood. Plastics act like sponges, soaking up toxins in the ocean. These, toxins, called Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), enter marine animals when they ingest micro plastics. These toxins, including DDT, dioxins and other pesticides, reside in their tissues. When a fish swallows plastics, and a lobster eats that fish, and a lobster-man catches the lobster, and we consume the lobster, we eat not just the meat of the lobster, but all the toxins residing in the lobster’s tissue from the plastic the fish ate.

Plastics picked up after a trawl

While people seem to better understand the hazards of plastic bags, paper bags seem environmentally benign. However, the reality is paper bags are just as environmentally damaging. Over its lifetime, one paper bag produces 70% more greenhouse gas emissions and 50 times more water pollutants than a plastic bag, increasing atmospheric acidification and ozone depletion. Paper bags also leave a greater carbon footprint than plastic; it takes the same amount of fuel to ship eight plastic bags as one paper bag. As a local grocery chain stated, “It takes us six deliveries of paper to bring the same number of bags to stores as when we use plastic, with all the fuel use and emissions that go along with that. The production of paper had 4 times the energy and global warming implications of plastic.”Microplastics in a sieve

At a December Brunswick Town Council meeting, our group, Bring Your Own Bag Midcoast, proposed an ordinance to ban Styrofoam. The council room was overflowing with supporters for a Styrofoam ban as we presented the environmental and health issues caused by Styrofoam and showed the minimal cost difference between Styrofoam products and other alternatives. After several testimonies, the members of the Town Council unanimously voted to begin the process of banning Styrofoam. Next on our agenda is to implement a five-cent fee on paper and plastic bags in stores with greater than two percent food sales in order to encourage shoppers to bring reusable bags. This plan would copy other bag ordinances, which have been deemed successful. However, with publicity come detractors. I have had to rebut press written in opposition to my efforts. But I was also contacted by the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), which offered to fund our mission—further evidence that ripples spread. In addition to writing newspaper articles and blog pieces for my high school and NRCM, I have filmed a public service announcement promoting reusable bags, which will soon air on a local television channel. I plan to major in environmental studies and continue advocacy as I continue my education.

Phoebe speaking at her local town council meeting

I will be returning this spring to the Cape Eleuthera Institute as an intern for the Flats Conservation and Ecology team to continue researching marine plastics. I stepped away from comfort this year, from my familiar lifestyle and the expected path from high school into college. I learned to consider outside myself, to live sustainably for the future, to look globally but also to know that action at the local level can bring about real change.