June 2018 - Eagle Rock Blog

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center

Today, we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center.

We established Eagle Rock in 1993 after two years of research and study of existing educational options throughout America. The goal? To find new ways to reach and educate high school students who, for whatever reason, needed a new approach in their education. We started from scratch – constructing this tuition free, residential high school at the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, Colorado.

From the beginning, our interest has not been simply in making successful students, but fostering engaged citizens who are willing and able to make a difference in the world. We determined to take a holistic approach, believing that intellectual growth is advanced through physical, mental, spiritual and social growth. This includes leveraging the Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Students Are Halfway through Another Educational Explore Week

Regular classes have been set aside for the week as Eagle Rock students turn their attention to physical and mental explorations that range from touring Labyrinth Canyon via canoe, to a tour of nearly a dozen colleges and universities in Southern California for those seeking a higher education when they graduate from Eagle Rock School.

It’s all part of Explore Week, with unique course offerings that fall well outside the realm of formal education and more into the category of leaping feet first in to real-life experiences. Students are currently halfway through this — one of three Explore Weeks held each year— and below is a listing and brief description of the six course offerings in which they are participating:

25th Anniversary Prep Crew: For this course, 10 students have volunteered to stay on campus to help us produce this weekend’s 25th anniversary celebration of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center’s founding back in the early 1990s. (Learn more about this weekend’s celebrations by visiting our 25th Anniversary section of our website.)

Several of these students are learning about event management and organization, while others are getting an education in property maintenance and management. In addition to picking up a fistful of service hours, these students will play a vital role in making sure that everything is in place for a successful anniversary celebration this coming weekend.

There are also fun evening activities underway throughout the week, giving students the chance to Continue reading…

Student Stories Document Our Path in 25th Anniversary Magazine

As a part of our 25th Anniversary celebration on June 30 here in Estes Park, Colo., a number of students are writing news articles about what shaped our school’s quarter century of successfully bringing non-traditional education to underserved, but deserving youngsters — resulting in reengaging youth in their own education.

The writing is being created as a part of a class called All Who Dared, in which students are using the techniques of journalism to discover and uncover the history of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center. Through interviews with our founding administrators and educators, and by digging through archival-quality documents, students in this class are collecting and presenting stories that illustrate what it was that made Eagle Rock what it is today. These researched reminisces and news stories are being compiled into a digital magazine that will be distributed later this summer.

Below, we have taken excerpts from three of these writings that will appear in the online magazine. These short outtakes illustrate the work being completed by some of our students as they attempt to document their take on Eagle Rock’s history — in writing.

First off is an article titled Inception by Eagle Rock student Emiliano M. Vivanco: Continue reading…

Eagle Rock School Seeks Human Performance and Outdoor Education Instructional Specialist

The official job title for the position we’re seeking to fill here at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is for a Human Performance Instructional Specialist, which is synonymous for Physical Education, Health, & Outdoor Education Teacher. That search entails finding a candidate who can empower each of our high school students to start a lifelong appreciation for fitness, initially set against the pristine backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

Human Performance Center at Eagle Rock School — Human Performance Center

if you care deeply about supporting lifelong health and you love to work with young adults, this job will prove to be attractive. And if living fulltime on a mountainside campus — where Wilderness serves as your part of your classroom — sounds appealing, now would be the time to submit an application.

About Eagle Rock School

For the past quarter of a century, Eagle Rock School has operated as a non-traditional boarding school that supports students of all races and genders for the purpose of allowing them to examine their lives and the world in a deep and critical fashion. Our next Human Performance Instructional Specialist will work with diverse teens, teaching them how they can engage confidently in physical pursuits.

At Eagle Rock, our instructors are fully committed to our students and to contributing to progressive secondary school reform efforts. You may want to check out our website (www.eaglerockschool.org) to get a better feel for our mission, our school and the important role our Professional Development Center plays here on our own campus and for schools and communities all across the United States.

The Human Performance Instructional Specialist in-depth

Reporting directly to our director of curriculum, our new hire will — among other tasks — lead a full Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Brett Youngerman, Literature and Literacy Instructional Specialist

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Brett Youngerman, our Literature and Literacy Instructional Specialist. Brett joined us for two terms (2015/16 & 2016/17) as our Literature and Literacy Fellow before becoming that area’s fulltime instructional specialist in the fall of 2017.

For the past three years, Brett has taught a variety of classes within the humanities, ranging from creative and academic writing to literary and historical analysis. We asked him to tell us a little about Brett — without referring to himself in the third person.

Here’s what he had to say:

Eagle Rock (ER): What did you do for work before arriving at Eagle Rock School?

Brett Youngerman: I worked at Genesee Valley Outdoor Learning Center in Parkton, Maryland. It was there that I discovered I wanted my career to focus on working with young people. I designed and facilitated daylong team-building experiences for both children and adults. This was also where I first heard about Eagle Rock. I have also worked a few retail jobs, selling shoes. One of my favorite parts of that job was educating people on how to choose running or hiking shoes that would best suit their needs. Continue reading…

Help Us Celebrate Eagle Rock’s First 25 Years

The registration deadline is Saturday, June 16, for those who want to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center. The day-long celebration takes place on Saturday, June 30, on our mountainside campus in Estes Park, Colo.

As you’d expect of a Silver Anniversary, ours affords the Eagle Rock community with a rare opportunity — a dedicated time for current and former students, instructional and facility staff, administrators, friends and supporters of Eagle Rock to celebrate 25 years — that’s 75 trimesters — of reengaging youth in their own education.

So far, nearly 450 members of the Eagle Rock community have signed up for the June 30 event, with attendees coming all the way from Hawaii, as well as one guest from Wiscasset, Maine. Want to see who’s coming? Check out the list of attendees here.

Plans are nearly firmed up for the day, with activities scheduled from 8 in the morning until 7:30 that night. And since school is in session, attendees are welcome to participate in organized tours of classes. And of course, the event offers a perfect opportunity for Eagle Rock School alumni to see one another again, as well as meet current staff and instructors.

The schedule of events thus far includes: Continue reading…