“The First Run-Track”

by Caciques Damian and Elizabeth

The sun had just risen and more than half of the students were participating in the dynamic warm up that involved strenuous lunges, rapid leg lifts, and constant laps around the campus. This morning would be the first of our vigorous training that would soon lead to a half-marathon run at the end of the semester. After a quick jog over to the marina, our buddy sprint relay began. Still half asleep, the first group of buddies slowly but surely lined up on the “Big” bridge ready to sprint to the “Little” bridge and back. The first group took off! Continue reading →

“Good Morning!”

By Caciques Eliza Hazen and Tony VanGessel

Waking up this morning was one of the hardest things I have done as a student here at The Island School. As Cacique I had to wake up at 6:15, which is ten minutes earlier than usual; we typically have to arrive at morning circle at 630, but this morning, I had to raise the flag at 6:20. As you can tell, there is not a lot of preparation that goes into arriving at morning circle, especially in the boys dorm. Eight different alarms go off at around 6:20, someone inevitably yells “shut that thing off”, and no one gets out of bed until 5 minutes after that. Then they rush out of bed, throw some shorts and a shirt on and run out to circle to avoid doing pushups.

Now I did not want to get up this morning, the wind was blowing incredibly hard, and it was extremely cold (65 degrees). Continue reading →

by Caciques JP Ferro and Annie Morris

Whether it was reflecting on our lives at sunset beach, snorkeling at 4^th hole, or simply picking tropical fruit in the inner loop, this Sunday was a personal and relaxing day off for all of the Island School students. Sleeping in was a great way to recover from our daily exercises and busy schedule. The boys started the day off with a bowl of granola followed by a deep clean of their dorm. The girls started off their day with the same breakfast and a couple hours of productive studies before circling up for brunch. Following brunch, a majority of the students left campus to explore. We, Annie and JP, both enjoyed soaking up the sun at sunset beach surrounded by our peers; this was a moment that I felt that everyone had connected with each other. Continue reading →

By Caciques Hannah and Nic

Anticipation rushed through all 48 students as we jumped off of the bus in Tarpum Bay for our very first “Settlement Day” an essential kind of field trip that we will have throughout the semester for our Histories class. No one knew what to expect as we headed into a day full of Bahamian people and food, as well as new experiences. The sun was high in the sky as we descended upon the farmers market, a smell of freshly fried chicken and conch fritters in the air. Continue reading →

“Stress-Busters and Birthdays”

By Caciques Haley McCalpin and Arben Ukperaj

The final match: Lindsey versus Damian, cheers erupting on either side, Lindsey throws the winning hand. Tonight at our dinner circle, we decided to do a “stress-buster” in attempt to relieve stress from the students and bring our community closer together. Each person went around the circle playing different people in a two out of three rock-paper-scissors game with the losing person cheering the winner on. By the end, half of the community supported Lindsey while the other supported Damian. We found this was a great way to incorporate a fun activity into our circle while taking the students’ minds off of their workload. Continue reading →

By Caciques James and Lindsay

We woke up at 6:15. No sleep in today; rather we had a demanding morning exercise. The South Dorms swam the triangle cut while the North Dorms ran 4 miles around the loop. Later, we completed our chores and were then off to breakfast.  As always, the exercise made our morning meal taste that much better.

Some students had marine ecology, where class today was a 35 minute dive at Tunnel Rock. Continue reading →

by Caciques Teddy Lamont and Sam Essig

“Ahhh!!!” screamed the entire Island School at 6pm dinner circle. After yet another jam-packed day on the gorgeous island of Eleuthra, the two of us were definitely feeling the stress of the day setting in, and we thought everyone else might be too. We, as caciques, decided to organize a collective “exertion of voices” in order to relieve their mixed emotions: excitement, eagerness, exhaustion, or any of the thousands of other emotions Island School students experience ever day. After everyone yelled, wiggled, and pranced there stress away, we took a few moments to reflect on the events of our stimulating day. Continue reading →

by Caciques Kelly and Nathan

This morning we woke up to an early run-swim, in which all the south dorms were timed. The north dorms worked together to cheer them on, as they, in the previous morning, had completed the run-swim themselves. This was a great activity because of how it brought us all together. As we begin to move into classes and start our research projects, support from the community in every aspect is crucial in order to succeed in academics and leadership. We saw leadership taking place during the run-swim today.  Leadership is part of our vision and what we, The Island School, believe in accomplishing. Today, we were introduced to our History, Math, Human Ecology, and Art classes. Continue reading →

“A Day Full of Firsts”

by Caciques Caroline V. and Alec

For all the students at The Island School, today was an extremely busy day, filled with firsts.  We started off the morning by raising the flag in the dark because of daylight savings, but by the time the sun rose, half of the students were ready to start their first timed run-swim. We swam through girls dorm cut with a sense of urgency, scrambled up the wall as fast as we could, and flew off the cliff with speed, all for the very first time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhS0zSY7Lqs Following breakfast, we started our first day of class rotations.   Continue reading →

by Caciques Aidan and Bronte

Today could be considered our first day of freedom after completing orientation and fully dedicating ourselves to the oncoming semester.  We were rewarded with a sleep-in and a day to ourselves to explore. Many students celebrated their day of independence with a nap, a game of Frisbee, or a trip to the local coffee shop at The Cape. Surrounded by friends, sitting on the deck of the coffee shop and starring out over the ocean, we had time to reflect on what was ahead of us. Quickly the realization of the long journey we had all committed ourselves to began to sink in. Continue reading →