If you are interested in reading the speech Chris Maxey delivered at Camden Hills Regional High School’s graduation last weekend, you can read his entire speech here: Camden Grad Speech. To hear even more about his recent trip to Maine, check out a blog post published earlier this week: Maxey’s Trip to Maine.
Congratulations to everyone in the Class of 2013! We can’t wait to hear where your next adventures take you.
City Bridge connects inner city schools to The Island School and gives them the chance to step out into a whole new world. We know that leadership emerges when young people are placed outside of their comfort zone. The Island School has been working with urban partners for more than a decade and attest that even a short, week-long immersion program on Cape Eleuthera can produce life-changing effects. This opportunity to expand horizons and think about how expeditionary education inspires learning is also there for teachers. City Bridge seeks to link The Island School to like-minded inner city charter schools with the goal of helping young people believe that they can make a difference.
This program was born out of The Island School’s dedication to expanding our program’s reach and making it available to anyone who wants to apply. For the upcoming 2013-14 academic year, 23% of The Island School’s entire financial aid budget was dedicated solely to students at one of our City Bridge affiliates. As a result, outreach financial aid has enabled The Island School to enroll 6 Bahamian students through BREEF, and 1 Summer Term student from each of the following partnerships: African Leadership Academy (Africa), College Track (San Francisco), KIPP (Houston), Quest Scholars (NYC). We are excited about adding these new partnerships like College Track, KIPP and Quest Scholars to the City Bridge program, which already includes schools like New York Harbor School, Bronx Lab School, The SEED School of Washington, DC, and Harlem Children’s Zone.
Aside from the commitment The Island School has made for students during the fall, spring, and summer semesters, Continue reading
While students and faculty on Eleuthera were running the half marathon and swimming the Super Swim this past weekend, members of The Island School staff, alumni community, Cape Eleuthera Foundation (CEF) Board, and friends of The Island School participated in their own beast of an athletic event–a Tough Mudder. If you are not familiar with these popular events that are sweeping the nation, a Tough Mudder is a “hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle course designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie” and raises money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
Led by fearless leader, Ernie Parizeau, IS parent (F’03, S’06, S’10, S’14) and CEF board member, Team Sledgehammer took to the Boston Tough Mudder course at Gustock Mountain Resort, NH on Sunday morning. Kate Parizeau (F’03), Doug Parizeau (S’06), Wes Mize (S’06), Will Parizeau, Sally Tyrie, Dan Foran, Mary Assini (S’00, Director of Development), and Cam Powel (F’04, Director of Alumni Relations) made up the rest of Team Sledgehammer.
Nearly 4 hours, 12 miles, and 20 obstacles later, Team Sledgehammer made it through their final obstacle, Electroshock Therapy consisting of a field of live wires carrying up to 10,000 volts of electric shock, and crossed the finish line with smiles on their faces and lots of mud on their bright green team t-shirts.
Congratulations, Team Sledgehammer!
Rounding the corner we hear loud cheer shouting, “Go run-track!” music fills the air and we are given water and Gatorade. Anna, Dale, and I down the water quickly and wave thank you to the amazing swimmers supporting us. Our legs ache but we continue on and encourage each other. Touching the flagpole is like touching gold. All of a sudden there is a massive group of people hugging us and congratulating us. We run as a pack back over the bridge and run in with the others still finishing. The half marathon was an incredible event, it was a day that had been once been intimidating but now it is a memory that we will look back on as inspiring.
Sunday. The swimmers stretch their arms and paint flags on their backs to get ready for the four-mile swim. Run track is ready on the water to support them with signs, food, and water. I stare off into the distance as the swimmers in white caps begin their long swim from Sunset Beach to Chub point. They are fast and do not take too long to reach the turn around point, many with smiles on their faces and full of adrenaline. The groups of two or three are strong and support one another. The two the lead the pack do not leave each other’s side. They make the swim look effortless. The finish line is an amazing sight as students stand on the beach and wait as the swimmers touch the boat so relieved to have finished. There is a celebration on the beach with lots of hugging and high-fives. After both events students were so tired, we had time to relax with others or have Querencia on our own. The weekend was so challenging but ultimately rewarding and unifying. All semester students and faculty have trained for these two events with anticipation and excitement and finally we have done it. I believe that these two events represent the close community and spirit of The Island School. They bring the community closer as people of all ages support one another in accomplishing difficult challenges. Many students have said that they believe that these events are a core part of their The Island School experience, and have set a strong tone for the last days here.
Last week, Chris Maxey challenged himself to try not to use plastic the whole time he traveled from The Island School to New Jersey. Based on this photo he took during one of his flights, it looks like he was doing a pretty good job! Keep this challenge in mind the next time you travel!
by Brady Wheatley, Dean of Students and Histories Department Head
The boxes on the student schedule are deceiving. The schedule looks neat and ordinary, but most of what we do here can’t fit inside a box.
“7:30-8:00: Chores”: I sat down with this week’s Caciques, Megs, Michael M, Liz, Noelle, and Peter Kite, and heard their plans for the community this week. I realized that every week I am less and less necessary in the Cacique meetings. Students have taken charge in the best of ways and I am only a supporting member for their ideas. The biggest change is that the Caciques realize what they are capable of. They don’t hesitate to attend a faculty meeting and discuss community needs or organize an event at 6:30 am on what would be a day to sleep in.
“9:15-12:15: Human Eco”: Noelle, Liz, Megs, Bailey and Sarah Taft told me excitedly that it was time to put the scallops we had caught under the off-shore aquaculture cage. Knowing wind was coming soon in the week we made the last minute decision to move quickly. We figured out the logistics and hopped in the boat, ready to see if we had solved one of the problems of a previous group’s project. Our group this semester chose to continue to work of previous students rather than start a new project from scratch, a slightly less enticing idea, but one that in my opinion has even more value. As students a year ago realized, scallops could potentially be farmed in The Bahamas in an effort to filter nutrients in aquaculture systems, and simultaneously provide an alternative shellfish for conch consumption. These five young women decided that following through on previous work could help kick start an even larger project in the region- now we just have to figure out if it will work.
Bubbles surrounded us as we sank to the bottom of the ocean floor, almost 90 feet under water. Our group worked effortlessly to move the cement blocks back in place from the Scallop group a year ago. We carefully buried the black pen-shell scallops in the sand and watched the large grouper come close, curious of the new creatures in his home. I remembered all too well seeing this same grouper eat the Amber pen-shell scallops we tried to plant last year. As we resurfaced I hoped that these scallop shells, a different species suggested by the previous group, were strong enough to keep predators out.
“2:45-4:15: Fisheries”: Marine Eco and Histories have teamed up for our last unit and we wrote the question “How should marine management decisions be made?” on the white board. Peter and I worked together with students to address the complex social and ecological elements of marine management and gave space for students to begin answering this question in writing for their next Eleutheros essay. I overheard one student say at her table, “this is so complicated! It’s like there isn’t just one answer.”
I love working at a school where students look at me confused and say “but this is really hard.” They are thinking deeply about some of the most important issues in conservation and international development. I love working at a school where students and faculty work together through challenging ideas that matter both inside and out of the classroom. I love working where Literature teachers and dive instructors will suddenly and unexpectedly drop everything that they are doing to come out and support students on a mission. Most of all I love working with students who know that they can change this word. I love working at this school.
Dear Families,
With Parent’s Weekend coming up, we are so excited for you to join our Island School community!
As you probably know, one of the cornerstones of the Island School mission is sustainability. When you visit, you will have the opportunity to see how much we have all learned about reducing and reusing our waste and how as a campus we strive to be as sustainable as possible. And you can join us in this mission. For our Human Ecology final project, we are focusing on the problem of single-use plastic usage here on Eleuthera.
So, please, help support us while you’re here by reducing your plastic waste! Two little things will make a big difference down here:
1. Bring down a reusable bag to use instead of plastic bags for shopping on the island.
2. Bring your own reusable water bottle for re-filling on campus and/or a to-go drinking mug for using when you purchase beverages at local restaurants.
Thanks so much and looking forward to seeing everyone!
- Madeleine, Sarah H, Charlotte, and Julia
Science under Sail (SUS) pioneers innovative marine-scientific research with a unique modern mentorship program to empower a future generation of SEAFARERS by engaging small collaborative teams of students and experts under sail on expeditions worldwide. SUS has a summer employment opportunity that may be of interest to some of our alumni or Island School friends!
Science under Sail Expedition Coordinator –EXU2013
Position Description
The Science under Sail Expedition Coordinator will assist the expedition leaders and students
during a 2-week sailing and science education program. The Expedition Coordinator will play a
key role in student mentorship, logistical planning, risk management, and leadership education
while on board. Responsibilities may include: student orientation to the Bahamian environment
and on-board living arrangements, organizing group logistics for excursions and daily activities,
creating scenarios that facilitate team-building, teaching several classes on leadership, risk
management, and your area of expertise as it relates to the expedition experience, encouraging
good student morale, enforcing rules and responsibilities, monitoring well-being of students and
staff, and generally modeling ideal expedition behavior and fostering a positive environment.
The Expedition Coordinator may also be involved in research and outreach activities.
To see the entire job posting, click here: Science Under Sail Expedition Coordinator. Application deadline is May 30!
During kayak rotations this term, students had the chance to do what we call an ‘Intensive’ for Human Ecology class. Students focused on one project to develop the viable solutions, skills, and knowledge that they need to take home with them. The three intensives included: Plastics and Marine Pollution, Aquaponics, and Sustainable Agriculture.
In Plastics, the students conducted beach plastic surveys to determine how much micro and macro plastic has washed up onshore different beaches of Eleuthera. The Aquaponics team learned more about the system located at CEI and built their own ‘backyard aquaponics’ model. The Sustainable Agriculture group worked on The Island School farm and designed their own grow bed and ‘herb spiral’. Check out a couple of the videos that the students created about their experience and the project they worked on!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVwtNMZq0x4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E5pRIcMSso