April 2018 - Eagle Rock Blog

Meet the Team: Student Services Program Manager, Nia Dawson

As our Student Services Program Manager, Nia Dawson develops and supports non-academic activities within the Eagle Rock community. As a member of the student support team, she works closely with students and staff to develop sustainable opportunities for partnership.

Nia grew up in Los Angeles and began her career working in youth services with the YMCA. She received a bachelor’s degree in social work from Syracuse University in New York with a concentration on youth development.

And over the past two decades and prior to joining our team in January of this year, Nia developed and managed programs on both coasts for the Urban League, the Boys and Girls Club, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) — New York chapter, and most recently the Harlem Children’s Zone — a pioneering nonprofit organization committed to ending generational poverty in Central Harlem, New York.

We posed a few professional and personal questions to Nia and here’s what she had to say: Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Seeks a Seasoned Professional Development Associate

We’ve been going through the process of filling several positions recently here at Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center (PDC), and this time around we’re looking for an experienced facilitator of adult professional development with classroom experience and know-how in progressive education reform models.

The Professional Development Center Associate we seek will serve on our renowned Professional Development Center team, joining fellow associates in crisscrossing the nation to visit high schools, school districts and other organizations seeking to institute progressive approaches to engaging young people in their own education.

Our objective in the area of professional development is to accelerate change in public education through an asset-based approach with partners in education nationwide who continually ask us to return in order to facilitate the design and change processes at their schools and organizations.

Qualifications for this position include Continue reading…

Trimester Break is Underway — Classes Start Again May 21

Here at the Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center, we began our trimester break late last week, highlighted by the graduation of four students last Friday afternoon, followed a community meeting Saturday and a staff meeting that concluded earlier today.

And while the staff break begins in earnest tomorrow (Wednesday), a number of our instructors, Professional Development Center staff, and other campus staff will be hard at work throughout the trimester breather. Many of our instructors will spend time planning classes for Eagle Rock School’s upcoming 75th trimester (ER-75), and the school’s Leadership Team is heading off to a meeting of the American Honda Education Corporation board of directors on May 3.

Two days later— on Saturday, May 5 — many Eagle Rock volunteers and staff will be in Estes Park, supporting the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race that benefits dozens of local charities and organizations each year — including, of course, our Graduate Higher Education Fund.

For our Professional Development team, there is no real break to speak of, with a schedule packed with program deliveries, meetings, and retreats throughout the country, including: Continue reading…

A Quartet of Eagle Rock School Grads Pick Up Diplomas this Friday

Because Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center operates on a trimester system, we have the opportunity to enjoy three graduation ceremonies each year instead of just one.

And this Friday, April 13, we are proud to announce that four of our students (Cha’Asia Rucker, Brianna Campbell, Jefer Gomes, and Carolina Avalos) will be so honored as they stand atop the Human Performance Center stage in front of their school friends, families, and staff to receive their high school diplomas — signaling a tremendous achievement for students once considered disengaged in their own education and growth.

Technically speaking, each of this trimester’s grads has worked through all of the requirements necessary to earn a high school diploma from this progressive high school of ours that has been successfully graduating young adults with a promising future for the past quarter of a century.

Friday’s celebration will be broadcast live at 4 p.m. Mountain Time on through our Facebook Page.

As we customarily do, we asked each of our newest graduates to submit a short biography, explaining their involvement at Eagle Rock, their short- and long-term goals, and a bit of advice for current and incoming students. Here’s what they had to say: Continue reading…

Outdoor Education Adjunct Instructor Sought for Eagle Rock School

Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is seeking an experienced outdoor educator who is not only comfortable guiding experiential educational programs in remote backcountry environments for weeks at a time, but who can transfer the confidence and enjoyment gleaned from such experiences to novice teens — many of whom will be experiencing life outside their hometown for the first time in their young lives.

The job title is Outdoor Education Adjunct Instructor, and we’ll tell you up front that one of the most important aspects of this position is helping coordinate our three-times-a-year New Student Wilderness Program that sees incoming students participate in and successfully complete a 24-day wilderness course at the beginning of each trimester.

For that program, the Outdoor Education Adjunct Instructor will facilitate outdoor and on-the-trail instruction to our students, supporting experiences that contribute to their personal and academic growth.

In addition to playing a pivotal role for the New Student Wilderness Program, the adjunct instructor wears many hats back on campus. Among the responsibilities our new staff member will take on are Continue reading…

Buying a Flock of Rubber Ducks Supports Eagle Rock School Scholarships

Just as the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano each year, the rubber duckies return to Estes Park — this year on Saturday, May 5 — continuing a three-decade tradition that has seen more than $2.4 million returned to our mountainside community as a result of Duck Race Festival purchases and disbursements to local organizations like Eagle Rock.

Dozens of area charities and organizations — including the Graduate Higher Education Fund here at Eagle Rock School — are recipients of nearly 100 percent of the proceeds from the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, which starts at Nicky’s Resort alongside the Fall River in downtown Estes Park, Colo.

The excitement mounts as race participants line the river to see thousands of adopted rubber duckies released into the waterway, floating downstream to the finish line on the Big Thompson River near Rockwell Street. Each duck is a potential winner to its adopted owner, with hundreds of prizes available to Continue reading…