It’s not just our students who have to come up with a plan for “Life After Eagle Rock.” Consider the plight of our Public Allies fellows, who must face this challenge each and every summer as their year-long commitment to Eagle Rock comes to a close.
Which brings us to a trio of our fellows who have discovered different ways of extending their work in education next fall.
Clay Elkin, our current Math Fellow, came to Eagle Rock with experience in a variety of educational settings. By the end of last summer, Clay had served as a high school lacrosse coach, a raft guide at a Boy Scout camp, and a classroom assistant at High Tech High — a renowned project-based learning school in San Diego, California. He spent this past year teaching math at Eagle Rock, with topics ranging from “Feeling Lucky” to “The Physics of Mountain Biking.”
Next year, Clay will continue his work in experiential education as a 9th-12th grade math teacher and “crew leader” at Rocky Mountain School for Expeditionary Learning in Denver.
Clay was attracted to the Denver offer because it provides him with another opportunity to teach in a nontraditional setting and interact with students outside of a “regular classroom. It also allows Clay to continue teaching the Interactive Math Program® (IMP).
Rebecca Fenn has also spent time at Eagle Rock teaching math through her “Life Skills” course. As a Life After Eagle Rock Fellow, Rebecca has split her time between teaching and individual student counseling. As a former senior admissions counselor at the University of Chicago, she read applications for the Midwest and was responsible for office management systems.
Next year, in an attempt to step back and look at the overall system that contributes to educational deficits in high schools and inequalities in higher education, she will look at the bigger picture of public education and college access as she gets her masters degree in education policy and management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Eagle Rock challenged Rebecca to think broadly about education, and made her even more curious about why so many high school students are disengaged from education.
Mary Reid Munford, our current Professional Development Center (PDC) Fellow, will be taking a teaching position at The Traveling School, the only school that takes high school girls overseas for an academic semester to let them experience the world. She will be teaching math and literature as she and her students travel around southern Africa this fall.
Before Eagle Rock, Mary Reid taught upper elementary reading at charter schools in New Orleans. This year she has worked with the PDC, hosting educators, giving tours and assisting with Eagle Rock’s nationwide education reform work.
Mary’s immediate goal is to gain more teaching experience and help students think deeply and process the environment around them as they travel from place to place.
Like Eagle Rock, The Traveling School practices experiential education, using projects and real-life experiences to enhance and cement student learning.
August 15 marks the last day for this group of Eagle Rock Fellows. You can read our introduction of these fledgling Fellows to the Eagle Rock community last September here… Introducing Eagle Rocks 2013/2014 Public Allies Fellows.
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