Last week, Fall 2006 alumnus, Smith Marks, graced The Island School campus with his presence. Smith, who graduated from University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, is now studying architectural technology at Cape Fear Community College. While in school, he is working with green developer Mark Maynard to build a low impact boutique hotel on Stocking Island, just off of Great Exuma. The hotel is also interested in developing a strong educational component for its guests. Smith, who visited with his father Dr. Hank Marks and his mother Sandy, had some time to catch up with Maxey and spend some time on campus.
Marcus Spallek met Chris Maxey as a student at The Lawrenceville School when Marcus joined the wrestling team as a sophomore in 1997. Marcus was one of the 21 pioneer students in the first Island School class from the Spring of 1999. The students of that pioneer semester helped literally lay the groundwork for The Island School, building paths, and even assembling the bunk beds for their first night.
Marcus graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2004 with a BE in Biomedical Engineering and minors in Mathematics and Philosophy. Marcus returned to The Island School in the Fall 0f 2005. He helped build the infrastructure for the Cape Eleuthera Institute, worked as a dive master, helped design and build the first aquaponics system at the Island School, and generally helped out the community. This period coincided with Marcus being in between gigs piloting research submarines with Deep Ocean Expeditions.
When the global economy crashed in 2007-08 and the funding dried up for the global deep ocean submarine piloting gig, Marcus returned home to Hawaii to start his own project. The last five years, Marcus has been developing Aloha Mahi’ai, Hawaii’s soon to be premiere AgriCultural Lodge and Natural Farming Educational Center. They are 90% done with Phase 1 construction. For more information on Aloha Mahi’ai, visit their website: www.alohamahiai.com
This summer, we are excited to welcome back 5 Island School alumni who are working at either The Island School or Cape Eleuthera Institute: Liam Donovan (F’10), George Giannos (F’10), Griffin Hunt (F’11), Nick Lanza (S’10), Grace Lucas (S’08), and Whitney Powel (S’09). Read a short description of each of their roles this summer and what it’s like to be back at The Island School.
Grace Lucas (S’08), Liam Donovan (F’10), George Giannos (F’10), Griffin Hunt (F’11), Nick Lanza (S’10), Whitney Powel (S’09)
Liam Donovan is working as a resources and facilities intern. So far they have been helping out with odd jobs such as building and constructing the new animal shelter in the back of the farm. Their main focus this summer will be working on the bottle walls on the bottom level of the new resources building. He plans to use the bottles to make the recycling symbol in one wall, the CEI logo in one, and the IS logo in the other. Liam says he is “simply ecstatic to be back on the island since I left 3 years ago. As for most alumni, my semester here was such a pivotal point in my life where I was able to learn about my self while also exploring the sustainable concepts that are practiced here, in which i hope to further pursue in the future. One of the biggest reasons for coming back was just to live the island lifestyle again, it just feels great to be back on campus again.”
This summer George Giannos is working as the resource/facilities intern at the Island School. George and his classmate, Liam Donovan had always dreamed of coming back together to work at The Island School and are extremely happy that they were able to accomplish that dream. George says “I love the work that I have been doing around campus and cannot wait to see the final product of the bottle wall. It is incredible to see how the school and institute has grown in the three years that I have been gone and hopefully I can help it grow a little more through this summer internship.”
Ever since Griffin Hunt graduated from The Island School, he has been searching for ways to give back to this community, the people and place, that helped define who he is today. Now, a year and a half after leaving IS, he has happily returned as a Communications Intern. “My job is Continue reading →
Fall 2011 alumna, Tessa Tracy, returned to her high school, Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, after her semester and needed a way to channel her Island School energy before she started to lose it. Therefore, she started the school’s Marine Conservation Club. In no time, the club had 40 members and was meeting on a weekly basis, under the supervision of faculty member, and IS Teacher Conference participant Paul McGuinness, who directs the Marine Science program at CRLS. Their focus for the 2012-13 school year was on the North Atlantic Right Whales whose population has dwindled to less than 500. To raise money for the endangered species, Tessa, as the Marine Conservation Club’s President led the group in organizing fundraisers, holding a dinner hosted by a club member’s family, wrapping christmas presents at a toy store, selling snacks during classes, and setting up potluck lunch sales. In the end, they raised $1,300 dollars and donated all of it to the New England Aquarium Right Whale Research Program. More donations to this program can be made here. As a result of all of their hard work, the Marine Conservation Club was nominated and selected for a 2013 New England Aquarium Ocean Stewardship Award. Below is a photo from when the club donated the money to the New England Aquarium:
Outside of fundraising the club has done a lot of advocacy work including making a video, getting signatures for a petition to regulate boat paths in Right Whale habitats, and writing letters to senators. Something they were especially proud of was organizing “whale week” where they set up activities in homeroom everyday for a week, like jeopardy or a video. They also organized an event each day like a food sale or “whale a capella”. In the future, they hope to do outreach in Cambridge’s middle schools.
In addition to leading the club, Tessa’s role as president Continue reading →
On Friday April 5th, Fall 2012 alumna Cate Ellison participated in “Get on the Bus”, an event organized by Amnesty International. She travelled from Boston to New York City to protest human rights issues with a group of twenty students, and two faculty members from Noble & Greenough School. Total, there were about 200 people from Massachusetts who “got on the bus”. Throughout the day, they were protesting and learning about different human rights issues in Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tibet, and Birma. They protested to end arbitrary detention in Sri Lanka, protected the rights and safety of civilians and people who have been internally displaced in Sudan, fought for the freedom of Tibetan film-maker, Dhondup Wangchen, and freedom for prisoners of conscience in Burma. In the morning, when Cate and her classmates first arrived to New York City, they listened to speakers talk about their experiences in these countries, and how they were directly affected by the lack of human rights in their countries. While all the stories were powerful, one that really stood out to Cate was the story of a man’s experience with arbitrary detention in Sri Lanka. Arbitrary detention is when a person is arrested, despite the fact that there is no hard evidence against them, there was no process of law, like we have here in the United States. He told the crowd of the horrors of jail that he faced, how the guards treated him like an animal, and many more terrible things, despite the fact that he did nothing. After hearing this story, it made Cate feel grateful for the rights that we have here in the US, and made her even more excited to protest the human rights of others. In the afternoon, they went out to four different locations, and protested this issues. They had different posters and chants for each one of the issues, and signed many different petitions, hoping to end the injustices that are happening globally. Cate says about the experience, “I am so glad that I decided to go to this event, and the experience made me appreciate the value of the rights that everyone in our country are given.”
Island School alumnus of Fall 2005, Justin Drazin, recently published his first children’s book called “Albert and the Amazing Pillow Monsters”.
On why he wanted to begin writing children’s books, Justin said that, “many nights growing up, I would lay awake in my bed, scared of the prospect of a dark room and the unknowns that came with an irrational, yet very real fear. The sounds and shadows that appeared when the lights went out were enough to completely eliminate the usual comforts of home. One night, I was introduced to a story that talked about imagination and the endless possibilities that occur in dreams. Since then, I have been passionate about creative writing and helping children work through their own fear of the dark. “Albert and the Amazing Pillow Monsters” is my way of passing on the idea that ‘Imagination is the brightest nightlight’ and that bedtime should not be a time of fear, but rather a time of fun.”
His first children’s book can be found in eBook at both Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Congratulations, Justin! We look forward to your future publications!
Island School alumna, Mina Bartovics (S’01) recently began a 6-month adventure in India! As she travels around, she will be teaching science to women and children, as well as working in a labor and delivery hospital. Instead of sending out mass, impersonal emails to her friends and family, she decided to keep a blog. The Island School has enjoyed following Mina’s first month of adventures and travels on the blog, as well as admiring the beautiful photos. If you are interested to see what Mina has been up to, check out the blog here: http://rowanandmina.wordpress.com/. Safe travels, Mina!
Fall 2010 alum Will Overman recently conquered a huge feat. He hiked the entire, 2,200-mile Appalachian Trial, which runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine. Will and his father have been hiking together ever since Will was little and they have always wanted to hike the AT together. After Will graduated from high school, he deferred his first semester of college at University of Vermont to hike the AT. He figured that this was the best time to do it “before life got in the way.” Unfortunately life did get in the way for his father who couldn’t take all 5 months off from work, but Will’s dad did join him for the 100 Mile Wilderness and other various legs of the trip. We caught up with Will after he returned and he shared a few highlights of his journey:
Will and his dad
As for highlights, like my semester at IS, it’s really hard to pin down just one thing I loved more than others. My favorite part of the trail was meeting so many amazing people, and the abundance of kindness those people offered to me, a complete stranger. As for areas, the Whites of New Hampshire were like nothing I had ever seen. Maine was a pristine gem. Vermont lived up to it’s reputation as the Green State. But I have to say that Virginia was my favorite state, although, I am a bit biased because I’m a native. I summited Clingman’s Dome, the highest peak on the trail, the day Sandy hit, and that was pretty wild. She dropped so much snow in the Smokies that I couldn’t walk. The drifts were 4 to six feet. So that was a crazy time on the trail.
The AT was without a doubt one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and probably will ever do, but every step was worth it, all 5,000,000 of them. So many wonderful people, places, and experiences. A lot of laughs, tears, breakdowns, breakthroughs, and a solidified faith in people. I’m not sure I’ll ever figure out exactly what I got from hiking the trail, I never even really figured out why I did it, but I loved the hell out of, no matter how much it sucked sometimes, and I’m so glad I did it, and so glad to be home.
Congratulations, Will! And welcome home! If any other Island School alumni opted to defer their college acceptances for a semester or a year, let us know what you’re up to by emailing alumni@islandschool.org and you may get featured in our next alumni spotlight!
We love hearing from our alumni, especially when they fill us in on all the interesting things they are doing in their lives post-Island School! Dominique Keefe, alumna of Spring 2007, began working at a clean energy investment start-up in Montreal in July 2012 called Inerjys. As soon as the company’s current fundraising phase is complete, they will be investing in two asset classes–growth equity in clean energy technology companies, and project finance in infrastructure projects that actually use those technologies, globally. Dominique explains that the basic idea behind it is that “cleantech investing has been pretty fraught with poor returns and bankruptcies in the last decade, and so we’re taking a new approach that we hope will really facilitate the movement of renewable energy into the mainstream market. The purpose of the two asset classes is to give our growth equity portfolio companies revenues and references when they sell their product to a project we are investing in. This helps “de-risk” the technology and makes other investors comfortable with it, leading the way to more projects and deployments, etc.”
Although Dominique graduated from Barnard College with a degree in biology Continue reading →
Alumni Jake Koetsier (F’08) and Liz Marinaro (F’06) both attend Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL. Last Saturday, they ran a booth for Eckerd’s natural science collegium at the St. Petersburg FL science festival. The natural sciences collegium is composed of the marine science, biology, physics, and chemistry department at Eckerd College. Their collegium got to help kids learn how to use microscopes, as well as teach them some marine biology and geology by showing them ocean core samples and having a horseshoe crab touch tank. Eckerd prides itself on being green and raising awareness about our oceans and environment. The annual St. Petersburg science festival at the University of South Florida gathers local scientists and students to teach families about a variety science subjects and to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning. Way to keep The Island School spirit alive!
