Long-time member of The Island School’s kitchen staff, and perhaps one of the most recognizable faces on campus, Tiffany McKinney welcomed her new baby boy, Thomas Benjamin Pinder earlier this winter on February 17th. Congratulations, Tiff!
The Island School has been so great, but the term is already halfway over. It feels like yesterday I was prepping to set out on my 3-day kayak expedition with K2, and I’m now about to start getting ready for 8-day with K4. It’s crazy to think that I’m not going to see some people for 3 weeks, and by then we’ll only have another month left. I still have to look at this optimistically. Even though it feels like the term is almost over because of kayak, Parents’ Weekend and final academic weeks, I still have half the term and it’s going to be great. Up to this point, I’ve learned and grown so much, and I still have the best parts to look forward to. I’m really looking forward to 8-day kayak and the solo, the Down Island Trip, Parents’ Weekend and the Research Symposium. After a stressful 5 weeks of academics including an insanely stressful midterm week, I’m ready to lose those stresses. Kayak and Down Island will be great. I’ll be spending a lot of time with a small group of people and I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of them so well. At the beginning of the term I dreaded solo, but my peers have gotten me really excited for that. Academics afterwards will be great, as I will be carrying out my Human Eco project and learning about environmental issues in the ocean in Marine Eco, which I really care about. In research I’ll be finishing my presentation and practicing it, as well as having fun field days to catch yellow rays at patch reefs. And as far as Parents’ Weekend goes, I’m super excited for it and just can’t wait to spend time with my family here. I know they’ll love it. Even though I’m sad that I’ll be leaving everyone I’ve made friendships with here in about 50 days, I’m really looking forward to those 50 days and making the most out of them.
Peter Aronson
The past few weeks here have been challenging, confusing and exciting. It has been a big adjustment to go from seeing my family and friends every day to being almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. So far, I am enjoying this experience and becoming better acquainted with the place in which I live. Speaking of that, dorm life has been a big adjustment. Boys dorm is divided into two sides, North and South, with a common room in between. Our beds are all in the same room and spaced about two feet apart from each other in rows. Living all together in a confined space gives us the need to share responsibilities for keeping the dorm clean and free of pests. Recently one of my dorm mates “disposed” of a rat, named Despereux, that had been terrorizing our dorm for a while. It was a day of joy for the dorm but one of sadness for the loss of his young life. In his honor we hung the dustpan he was killed with in the common room as a memorial. Yesterday, we had a deep clean due to someone having the need to eat muffins in bed. We were very productive and finished with enough time to go on exploration. Throughout these last weeks our dorm has bonded and learned to live with each other. This will change as we leave for kayak and break off into separate groups. This will be a great change to our normal routine and we will get to know some people better than we do now. I am very excited for the second half of my Island School experience and I am prepared for the hardships and joys ahead of us.
Bridger Royce
The place seems to glow. This is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen so far on my trip here. The church has a stained wood ceiling with golden fans. A stage with beautiful pink and blue ribbons wrapped around the banisters. The chairs are wide, soft and cream colored; their appearance plays off the beautiful designs on the carpeted floor. The music is even more beautiful than the colors of the building. It speaks to the soul, that music, flowing in and out of harmony with the surrounding earth. Making my connection with God more and more physical. I go to church all the time at home. Coming here without my church family was a big step for me. I know I need a connection with God while I am away and I found it here. The service starts as we all come together in prayer, bowing our heads I realize that there is only one God and that He connects us all. We start to sing. The songs are out of a hymn book written in the 1920’s so it took me a while to get used to all the songs. We sing and we recognize how God has moved in our lives this week. Then the pastor speaks a message that is always exactly what I need to hear. God is good and He has shown me a new way to be closer to Him even though I’m not with my friends at home.
Lizzie Diehl
8 o’clock never felt so good. Day Four was our first sleep-in of the term, although tons of students opted to run and continue to physically stretch themselves. As the sun grew hotter, K1 and K2 prepared to SCUBA dive and K3 and K4 were off on their down-island and kayak adventures. The five veteran divers were quick to get ready and were eager to embark on yet another thrill ride in the Saddle, while the rest of the novice divers worked diligently on their open-water skills, pushing towards their certification.
After another great day, a delicious dinner and dish-crew a capella, our first Natural History of Marine Ecology class rolled around. The classroom structure was unique and quickly began to teach us the importance of one of the three pillars of the Island School: Developing a Sense of Place. As soon as class commenced, the central theme of asking questions became evident, as Peter hysterically disagreed with all of our answers to his question, “Why do we teach you to breath underwater?” This encouraged us to keep thinking and come to a conclusion as a whole.
Each day continues to help us grow academically and physically, as we learn new and different techniques to enhance our learning experiences. We keep pushing our limits and impressing ourselves everyday by overcoming all of the challenging but compelling obstacles down here on South Eluethera. #FUNINTHESUN
-Evie and Nate
You cannot forget the first time you look up from the ocean floor and see your bubbles rising quickly to meet the surface. Even though waves and currents affect the surface seen from land, from below, it is a humongous mass of water, which is unhindered by anything but its own ebb and flow. It is surely frightening to be so far removed from the air you are accustomed to breathing, but after a few deep breaths through your tank, you can calm down and start to realize how incredible it is that you are thirty feet underwater.
Today was the first day that we really focused on developing our sense of place here on Eleuthera. One of the “three pillars” here at the Island School is sense of place, and this week during orientation we are focusing on establishing that. Students were divided into K1, K2, K3, and K4 groups that would determine their schedules during orientation week, and throughout the whole week the final goal was to establish sense of place through land, sea surface, and under water. Each day, each group embarks on a different journey in hopes that they will familiarize themselves with the land and the people.
K1 and K2 would spend the next two days focusing solely on scuba diving certification, which aimed to familiarize the students with the ocean and the different species we will study in the coming weeks. To those who have never dived before, it is an incredible experience to view an entirely different world, to forget what land feels like, and to be able to stay underwater longer than you can hold your breath. All of the students, from those who have been already been certified, to those who have spend little time in water, let alone under it, have taken the challenges in stride and have had a great time getting to explore an unfamiliar place.
K3 embarked on their first down-island trip to visit different spots on South Eleuthera, stopping at different settlements to learn about each one along the way. On their journey, they visited a beach in Deep Creek where they snorkeled and saw a lot of fish and even a few sting rays, they walked through caves that were the home to hundreds of bats, they shopped at a local market, they jumped into “Ocean Hole” in Rock Sound, and they finished off their journey with a local favorite “Papaya cups” that was a delicious popsicle like treat made from fresh local papayas.
K4 set out on a journey to get to know the water from the surface, on a kayaking trip. They went all around Eleuthera, stopping at different beaches, and practicing new skills they would need for their longer kayaking trips in the future. One of the guides, Nick, helped the students build a fire on the beach and rumor has it some students managed to make quesadillas with the fire. All of the students are looking forward to the days to come during orientation.
Your caciques of the day,
Kate Grossman and Will Ryan
Pushing off the sandy ground into the water for the first time, many different emotions raced through my mind. Having grown up in Tanzania, this is my first time in the ocean—and one of the most door-opening experiences I have had so far on my journey here at Island School. With the help of the faculty and the encouragement of all my new friends, I am feeling much more comfortable in the water. My goal is to join everyone else in the run-swims in two weeks, and, even now, I can begin to see that dream come true. Everyone else was able to complete their swimming test, and had their first real taste of what the run-swims will be like. We are all excited to see how far we come on this journey together as a team.
Apart from the swim test, we had our first exploration time. Most of the students biked to the Saddle—a dredged section of the old marina—and got to snorkel around with their buddies for the first time. Looking out into the distance, several students pointed out a spotted eagle ray to each other. As the days continue, we hope to see many more fascinating organisms. There are so many other places to explore, like High Rock and Fourth Hole Beach, and we simply cannot wait to get out there and experience them for ourselves. Island School is already becoming a part of us.
-Emily and Loth
This weekend, the entire Spring 2014 semester will be reunited back on campus for the first time since beginning their 3-week block of academic, kayak, and down island trip rotations. This photo slideshow is a compilation of photos of each kayak group on the first day of their expeditions!
Professional fashion and beauty photographer, host of TV’s The Face, and judge on America’s Next Top Model recently toured the campus’ of The Island School and The Cape Eleuthera Institute while vacationing with his family. Mr. Barker was impressed with our commitment to sustainability and variety of programs offered by the organization.
The Island School is excited to announce the launch of Island School Street View! You can now take virtual tours of The Island School, Cape Eleuthera Insitute, and Center for Sustainable Design campuses, as well as iconic locations around the Cape as if you were there! To move througout the tours, pan around the “photosphere” and click on the hovering arrows or circles located on the screen.
As defined in our first Literature reading assignment of the semester, The Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez, querencia “refers to a place on the ground where one feels secure, a place from which one’s strength of character is drawn – a place in which we know exactly who we are.” Its importance is such that “our search for querencia is both a response to threat and a desire to find out who we are. And the discovery of querencia hinges on the perfection of a sense of place.”
The Island School strongly emphasizes the importance of having a sense of place for a specific area and having time to reflect on our personal doings and think about the meaning within the beautiful place we are living for these three months. By this idea we are encouraged to find our own querencia or place where we feel most at home. Island School students got their first exposure to what querencia really means when we chose our personal spots this past Thursday. We were given three hours for our first querencia time to find our spot and reflect upon three writing prompts exemplifying our natural history, personal narrative and descriptive writing.
Many of us were able to find our querencia spots rather quickly, but I on the other hand, had trouble finding the perfect place that I wanted to be connected to. I tried three spots before finally settling on a place on the white sand of No-Name Harbor where I was able to feel completely alone. I had never explored much of the island before, so when finding my spot, I tried to lose myself in the overgrown back-roads eventually leading me to the beach. After having ample time to decompress and reflect upon the past busy week, I started my journey back to campus which I found to be much more difficult than my bike ride there. I attempted taking a different route thinking that it would get me home quicker but got lost multiple times. Thankfully I eventually found myself at the entrance of campus again. After much thought, I realized the virtue of my spot being so remote; although I was lost in the woods, I could confide in the fact that my querencia spot was far away from anyone else where I could truly reflect by myself and work on my “perfection of a sense of place.”
By, Mackenzie Howe
The Island School is celebrating its 15 year anniversary this year and a few weeks ago, we asked for your help in choosing the design for our commemorative 15 year celebration t-shirts. Thanks to your votes, and collaboration with Fall 1999 alumni Thatcher Spring and Barrett Summerlin, the t-shirts are now available for purchase online!
The t-shirts are being sold through Thatcher and Barrett’s startup, GearLaunch, which lets individuals and organizations design and sell custom apparel to their audiences with no upfront costs or distribution challenges. The shirts are from Recover Brands, the same company that prints and distributes our uniform t-shirts. All of their apparel is created from 100% recycled materials.
The shirts are only being sold for one month so act fast and help us celebrate 15 years of The Island School by rocking one of these limited edition t-shirts!