by Caciques Aldis and Eliza

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Friday nights often see our community dressing in their best for dinner to celebrate the coming weekend. Yesterday was no exception, yet on June 3^rd Dorm Mom and Dad decided to draw on our children’s extensive creativity. Each state or country chose a theme that they were drawn to: Michigander Lax Bros, Massachusetts Mariners, Jersey Shore “guidos,” Mainers came out of The Wild, Fairfield County Connecticut preps, North and South Carolina “hicks,” Texas cowboys, West coast hipsters, and Florida sweats. While we would love to describe the costumes in detail, we feel that the pictures speak for themselves. Please enjoy them…  Continue reading →

by Caciques JP Ferro and Mia Thomas

With our Human Ecology presentations taking place today, every student took part in a group whose purpose was to change issues around Eleuthera. JP  and his group members (Jack, James, True, and Nathan) took part in a Lionfish project called, “Licensed to Lionfish”. Lionfish are invasive species that are taking over the Atlantic; they originate from the Indo-Pacific and they have no predators in the Atlantic. In this project, the group started creating a market for lionfish by connecting local fisherman with restaurants in order to help control lionfish

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by Caciques Aidan and Lizzie

We are all beginning to realize that at this time next week we will be on a plane home. So many memories, experiences, and friendships have been made in the past few months it is crazy to think that in one week we will be saying goodbye to each other. It seems like only a few days ago that we were doing our first run-swim, getting assigned our first chores, and writing our first I-Search paper. Continue reading →

by Caciques Adam and Caroline

Watch as “sharks” Justin Symington and Lucky go in for their underwater attack during the water polo challenge during Pirate Morning Exercise.

ARRRRRRRRRRRR pirates!!! Today, we started off the morning with a pirate workout.  You may be wondering what a pirate workout is, and to be honest, we were all wondering the same thing when we started our count off at exactly 6:30, like we do every morning.   However, this day was not like any other morning, when suddenly all the faculty raided the circle dressed in pirate uniform and yelling pirate lingo.  Continue reading →

by Caciques Emma and J-wow (Jessica)

Today was a day of completion and celebration.  This morning was the last day of swim or run track.  Swim track did a final timed swim assessment around Triangle Cut to see how they have improved since the beginning of the semester.  All swimmers successfully beat their original time, and most even improved their times from mid-semester.  Run track did yoga to stretch and recover from the half marathon they completed the day before.  Then, we had our last Literature of the Sea class and Histories of The Bahamas class.  It is a bittersweet feeling Continue reading →

by Caciques Elizabeth and Alec

We slept in this morning and then had our circle at eight so that all of the swim track would be well rested for the Super Swim, and the run track would be ready to support. Swimmers ate an energizing breakfast and finished some organization before their event while all the runners made some last minute preparations before they headed off on boat and shore to cheer on the swimmers.  Three! Two! One! The air-horn blew at around 9:15 signaling the start of the four-mile Super Swim.  Swimmers splashed past sunset beach with determination and enthusiasm.  Runners cheered along the shore while boat support dove in the water to capture action footage of the swimmers.

The first place finisher, Math teacher Dave Burnham, completed the swim in 1 hour and 33 minutes. Then, the first place student, Caroline “RO” Vanacore, finished strong with a time of 1 hour and 37 minutes. The community came together to support the swim. Once all the swimmers were safely onshore, we headed back for campus for a recovery day.  It was a successful day which ended with a mellow activity to help run track get ready for their half marathon! Congratulations swimmers!

by Caciques True and Christie

This morning under the dark sky the entire Island School community convened at the flag pole at 5 am in preparation for the Half Marathon. Everyone was very excited and anticipating the run, whether they were actually running or just on support.  No one seemed to mind the early wake up time. After all of the support crews drove to their designated areas along the course, the sound of the air horn coming from the girls dorm deck set the runners out to a bolting start. Continue reading →

by Caciques Caroline and Marco

As we walked back from our challenging morning exercise, Chris Maxey expressed the need for a rain dance at some point during the day. We couldn’t have agreed more. Our cisterns were running very low, the crops on neighboring farms were in desperate need of water, and all the students wanted rain so they could run outside in the middle of class to enjoy a shower. We planned for a rain dance during dinner circle. We started off the morning with a delicious breakfast of bagels and oatmeal, which gave us energy for our three-hour block of Human Ecology class. We spent our class time working on our group projects and preparing for our presentations next week. In the afternoon, students either went diving or had Literature and Math class.  While preparing our final portfolios in the library, we suddenly heard the sound of rain crashing, splattering, and falling down on the rooftops. Continue reading →

by Caciques Brett McQuaide and Katie Johnson

While writing our applications, many of us knew that we would be kayaking in the scorching sun for eight days. We had heard that we would be shaken out of bed by a Navy Seal to take part in grueling morning exercise, whether it be swimming with sharks or dodging traffic on the road to Deep Creek.  One thing we had not expected, however, was the rare opportunity to see where our meat comes from. After morning circle, every student had the option of participating in the harvesting of two of the school raised pigs. After establishing a respectful tone, Continue reading →