Here, you'll find news, insights, and observations from progressive sources
in education; profiles of Eagle Rock students and staff; information
on the effort to reengage youth in their own education; resources
and recommendations; and more. Read a post or two and
comment on anything that strikes a chord.
The story of nine incoming students at nationally-
acclaimed Eagle Rock School, and how 24 days in
the Colorado wilderness changed them forever.
Here, you'll find news from our Professional Development Center, insights and observations from trusted sources in education, profiles of Eagle Rock staffers, information about innovations in the effort to reengage youth in their own education, updates from Eagle Rockers across the globe, resources and recommendations of note, updates from our school, and more. Read a post or two and comment on anything that strikes a chord.
After a couple of years of virtual duck races, this year, the ducks are back in the Big Thompson River. The Estes Park Duck Race — a benefit event that helps to raise funds for, among other things, our Graduate Higher Education Fund will be held on Saturday, May 7. Now known as the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, the daylong event maintains its tradition — dating back 30 years — in which participants launch thousands of little yellow duckies downstream in hopes of winning from among hundreds of prizes. Continue reading…
by Taileigh Hull and Benjamin Kin, Eagle Rock Students
Last month, the Student Ambassador Program from Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center collaborated with The Inspiration Project to co-host a virtual “Field Trip” related to “How Eagle Rock learns from and with the natural world.”
The Student Ambassador program is a student & educator partnership that undertakes educational initiatives to improve Eagle Rock as well as schools around the country. Continue reading…
For the 2022-23 program year, the Public Allies Eagle Rock Fellowship will provide eight individuals with an advanced year-long service and leadership development experience at the nationally recognized Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, located in Estes Park, Colorado. Public Allies is a national movement committed to advancing social justice and equity by engaging and activating the leadership of young people. Eagle Rock is a full-scholarship residential high school, serving students between the age of 15 and 21, from diverse backgrounds and neighborhoods around the country, for whom having voice and agency in their education is the pathway to success. We also support schools nationally to implement effective and engaging practices to equitably serve all students. Eagle Rock is proud to be an antiracist, social justice organization.
The Public Allies Fellowship at Eagle Rock is a residential, community-based opportunity for aspiring educators & youth workers who are passionate about alternative learning strategies, social justice, youth development and empowerment, and re-engaging high-school students in their education. Continue reading…
Who better to advise students on their future after high school than Mike Dunn, Eagle Rock’s new Dean of College & Career Counseling? For one thing, this Michigan-born school administrator joins us after 11 years as a history teacher, coach, and director of college counseling at a small independent school called AIM Academy outside of Philadelphia.
Previous to that, Mike was on the founding team of a Big Picture high school in Philadelphia where he helped students re-engage in their high school experience and pursue diplomas that were meaningful to them. And even before that, he was a Service Learning fellow right here at Eagle Rock.
More important, Mike has plenty of experience when it comes to applying to and attending schools of higher learning. In fact, he has received degrees and certifications from four different institutions of higher learning, beginning at Michigan State University where he earned a degree in history. After that, Mike attended and earned a graduate degree in teaching from Wayne State University in Detroit. He later earned a College Counseling Certificate from UCLA, and just this last spring, he completed his Doctorate in Education from Northeastern University.
We asked Eagle Rock’s newest administrator to tell us a little more about his background and experience, and he agreed. Here’s Mike Dunn, in his own words:
Eagle Rock School: Why did you choose to apply to Eagle Rock?
Mike Dunn: Since I began teaching in 2007, I have been searching for a school that is the most authentic place for students and teachers to be. A school that does things because it knows they are right. A place where student voices are heard, and where young people can actually thrive. I believe Eagle Rock is that place.
There is learning that happens at Eagle Rock School that could never be captured on a test or packaged and sold. The relationships built, the confidence instilled, and the skills gained are remarkable. An Eagle Rock grad is an absolutely inspiring person. Eagle Rock is a real institution of learning for all who dare to be here. This sense of authenticity compelled me to apply to my current role at Eagle Rock School.
Eagle Rock: What exactly do you do at Eagle Rock?
Mike: I help students figure out what they want to do after they graduate, and then help them design a path to reach their goals. My work is Continue reading…
Meet Cory Bradnax, our new Professional Development team member. Cory is tasked with facilitating change processes and professional learning for our staff members, and working with external partners to accomplish the same. In addition, he facilitates our school’s Presentations of Learning program and Student Ambassador program.
Cory said he knew Eagle Rock was a special place back in 2011 when he visited our campus as part of an information-gathering effort for Harlem Children’s Zone. He said he found everything from our students to the staff to the campus environment to be in line with his values. He returned four years later, in the fall of 2015, to teach an Explore Week class on gemstones and crystals.
Cory was formerly the college coordinator for Promise Academy I High School in Harlem, New York, where he was responsible for college and career readiness for grades 9 through 12, in addition to guiding students through the college application and financial aid process. Prior to that, he was the assistant director of the College Success Office at Harlem Children’s Zone — a program designed to support the school’s students during their journey to and through college to graduation. Before holding that position, he was a coordinator for that same office.
Cory received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and a master’s degree in Africana studies from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.
We asked Cory to answer a few questions we had about his personal life, and here’s what he had to share: Continue reading…
As we emerge from the global COVID health pandemic and continue to align with our commitment to be an antiracist, social justice organization, we are thrilled to announce several open positions at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, including:
We’re looking to build the best team in the country, a staff worthy of our courageous, brilliant students. We ask our students to continuously engage in personal and academic growth, and we ask the same of our staff. If you have a deep love of high school students and a desire to be part of a small school with a big impact, Eagle Rock might be right for you – while we are nestled in the Rocky Mountains, we are also deeply committed to partnering with other educators, students, and communities to make a positive impact across the country. We are all part of a values-driven organization where we strive to embody our values while living in an imperfect human-centric community. If you feel called to work in a tight-knit community rather than work a 9-5, please check out the open positions.
All positions at Eagle Rock require experience working with, and loving commitment to, diverse populations, including students and families from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, LGBTQ+ students and families, and students and families from low-income backgrounds.
Eagle Rock is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and does not tolerate any form of unlawful discrimination. All employment decisions at Eagle Rock are based on merit and to the principle of equal employment opportunity. In keeping with both the letter and spirit of this policy, Eagle Rock will continue to recruit, hire, train, and promote into all job levels the most qualified persons without regard to race, color, religion, genetic information, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic. Members of racial/ethnic minorities and other protected classes are encouraged to apply.
Feel free to visit our website to learn more about who we are, the work we do, and the students we serve: www.EagleRockSchool.org.
Associate Head of School
The Associate Head of School reports to and works in concert with our Head of School to hold and advance Eagle Rock’s mission and vision, achieve operational and educational goals and objectives, and embody our commitment to antiracism and social justice. The winning candidate will have direct supervision of our student pipeline, including admissions, wilderness orientation, and college and career planning and readiness. In addition, the Associate Head of School will partner across our organization to support school philosophy, organizational culture, strategic planning, and logistics that support delivering on our mission and vision.
For a full list of qualifications and responsibilities in the areas of school administration; staff culture, recruitment, schedules, growth and development; student support, and school-wide involvement, please visit the Associate Head of School job listing on our website. Continue reading…
After a year of virtual learning and a long-awaited return to the Eagle Rock campus, this trimester is rapidly coming to a close. In the next two weeks, our two newest student cohorts will complete their classes and begin preparation to venture into the Lost Creek Wilderness for their Wilderness Orientation Course.
For decades, our wilderness orientation course has been an introduction and a rite of passage for new students at Eagle Rock. However, for the past three trimesters, the health pandemic put a halt to this tradition. In March of 2020, we sent all of our students home and shifted to virtual classes until it was safe to bring everyone back to campus this March.
As a result, and unlike any wilderness orientation before, students embarking in this trimester’s course have already been members of the Eagle Rock community for three to six months, albeit some of it from their own homes. Wilderness participants this time around include two incoming cohorts of students — those in the 82nd and 83rd trimester of our school’s history (ER 82 and 83).
And because those students are currently enrolled in on-campus classes before their wilderness course, they have the opportunity to participate in more prep work prior to the trip. Our wilderness instructors are Continue reading…
HaeJohn Frederick Medley first arrived at Eagle Rock in the early 2000s as a student teacher from Hastings College in Nebraska. He returned the next year — our 37th trimester or ER 37 — as a Public Allies Fellow focusing on Art, and now joins us in ER 83 as our fulltime Art Instructional Specialist.
If you ask, HaeJohn will share that his first job at Eagle Rock helped form who he would become as a teacher and created a standard to which he held other education institutions.
Now, HaeJohn is guiding our students through the world of art and its many applications and uses. He is helping students explore new mediums, tackle challenging projects, materialize ideas, and empower imagination, creativity, and problem solving.
We asked our HaeJohn to tell us a little about his career and personal life, and this is what he shared: Continue reading…
Here at Eagle Rock, we believe leadership is not a position to be held, but an action that all young people are capable of taking. And Public Allies — a national organization committed to creating a just and equitable society by engaging and activating the leadership of all young people — is one of our partners in advancing that cause experientially.
Specifically, we’re talking about the Public Allies Eagle Rock Fellowship, which in 2021/2022 will offer eight individuals the opportunity to work with us in our efforts to re-engage high school students in their education, which for our next cohort of fellows is accomplished through a year-long service and leadership development experience here in Estes Park, as well as online if and when health and safety protocols dictate.
The Public Allies Fellowship here at Eagle Rock — which will celebrate its 20th anniversary when the next fellow cohort joins us in late-August of 2021 — is a residential, community-based opportunity for future teachers and educational leaders who are passionate about alternative approaches to learning, social justice, and youth development and empowerment.
As such, we are actively seeking applications for the selection of eight young adults to work with us and our students as either Educator Fellows or Health and Wellness Fellows. The application deadline for these fellowships which run from Aug. 27, 2021 to July 1, 2022), is March 15, 2021.
Educator fellows will earn their teaching license here at Eagle Rock, becoming leaders through training, mentorship, developing curriculum, creating student activities and events, and designing and implementing in-house team service projects. Additional responsibilities include classroom instruction, participating in residential life programming, providing academic and personal support for individuals within our diverse student body — acknowledging that learning happens everywhere, both for students and instructors.
Our Health and Wellness fellows play a crucial role in supporting student social-emotional needs and encouraging their growth and healthy development. This includes participating in Continue reading…
As we enter the 83rd trimester since our school’s founding in the early 1990s (ER 83), we’d like to introduce you to five classes available to our diverse student body during the first half of the new trimester.
You might notice that each of these classes references a Distribution Requirement and, in fact, all Eagle Rock School classes feature a Distribution Requirement. But an explanation is in order. At Eagle Rock, each student has their own Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that is made up of three sections: These include Power Standards, Required Experiences, and Distribution Requirements.
For Distribution Requirements, students must meet proficiency standards for at least 24 credits. Those include two credits for each of our Five Expectations. The remaining 14 credits can be earned across the expectations, with lots of student choice in how they are earned. For more details on these requirements, please read Distribution Requirements Play a Big Role in This Trimester’s Latest Class Offerings.
Here then are the five classes we’re highlighting for this trimester:
La Resolana: Villagers in northern New Mexico refer to the south-facing side of a wall as la resolana, meaning “the place where the sun shines.” Every culture has a resolana, a place where the resolaneros — the villagers — gather, dialogue, and reflect on society, culture, and politics. In this class, taught by Josán Perales, Eagle Rock’s World Languages Instructional Specialist, students are becoming “resolaneros,” exploring the stories of their identities and sharing them in community with others. Through daily writings and becoming an expert in their own stories, students enrolled in this class are finding a story worth telling a public audience. Successful completion of this class qualifies students for Engaged Global Citizen Distribution Requirement in English.
By the Numbers: Policing and Wages: Taught by Steph Subdiaz, our Math Instructional Specialist; and Mitaali Taskar, a 2020/2021 Public Allies Fellow, students are learning the importance of Continue reading…
