It’s 6:00am. Usually, we sleep until 6:20, but this morning is different. Today we are playing The Hunger Games for morning exercise. Girls Dorm is filled with palpable energy as everyone scrambles to find their costumes and prepare for the ultimate morning. The 53 of us arrive early to 6:30 circle, eager to commence.  We have prepared extensively for this day—mastermind planning, strategizing, making alliances, enemies…

The words “may the odds be ever in your favor” are spoken and before I have time to react to what is going on, everyone around me sprints to the cornucopia filled with precious weapons consisting of wet socks and water guns. This is where the weak are killed off and the remaining are left to find shelter…

Never take your eyes off the playing field. Do you play offense and attack? Or defense and hide? You are never safe. Be aggressive, but don’t make yourself too vulnerable. Trust your allies, but never take your eyes off of them—never give them your weapons. This is a selfish game…. don’t forget that. Ever.

When the final round comes around and there are only a few teams left, you know it is time to attack. If you are going to die, you need to go down fighting your hardest. Leave everything on the playing field and, may the odds be ever in your favor…

-Ali Boutros

After morning exercise, attendees had the opportunity to catch up with familiar faces and meet new friends before settling down with lunch to hear from our guest speakers. Cape Eleuthera Institute’s Edd Brooks spoke about his PhD shark research and his partnership with the New England Aquarium’s John Mandelman, PhD.

John focuses on the conservation physiology of marine fishes, predominantly elasmobranchs (the sharks, rays and skates) and their lethal and sublethal blood chemical responses to anthropogenic stressors – such as fishing capture and handling, and acoustic stress – in marine fishes. He is currently partnering up with Edd Brooks and CEI’s Shark Research & Conservation Program. Together they delivered a very interesting presentation that gave alumni an update on the type of research going on at CEI, and also how CEI is moving forward and partnering up with other successful organizations with the New England Aquarium. After Edd and John’s presentation, everyone had a chance to catch up some more, visit the Aquarium, and visit some of the aquarium’s scientists’ wet labs. At the end of the day, alumni left the Marriott and split into their respective semesters for dinner and other evening plans.

Thank you all who came to the reunion and made it such a success! We can’t wait to get everyone back together again! To see more photos from Saturday, see our Flickr album here.

Miss out on this reunion? Make sure you update us with your contact information so that you don’t miss out again! Email alumni@islandschool.org.