August 2018 - Eagle Rock Blog

Meet the Team: Eagle Rock’s 2018/2019 Fellows

Summer break is winding down here at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, and that means we’re getting ready to welcome a new cohort of instructional, professional development, and student services fellows. Our 2018/2018 cohort includes ten new and three returning fellows — a baker’s dozen who are about to begin or continue a year-long commitment to service.

Our 13 fellows will immerse themselves in everything we have to offer in education and professional development — each responsible for supporting alternative and progressive approaches to teaching and learning, with an emphasis on playing an important role in engaging our students in their own education.

Below, we present a brief educational history and biography of each of our new and returning fellows:

Amelia la Plante Horne, 2018/2019 Fellow in Residential Life

Amelia was born and raised in Las Vegas, N.M. After graduating from Eagle Rock School (she arrived in May of 2011, graduated in April of 2014), Amelia attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where she designed and completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Ecological Praxis in Healing — a multidisciplinary degree that explored environmental science, anthropology, philosophy and psychology.

During her college years, Amelia’s non-academic activities included creating a campus Continue reading…

Award-Winning Film AN AMERICAN ASCENT Screened at Eagle Rock

Editor’s Note: Today’s post, which focuses on the recent screening of AN AMERICAN ASCENT — an award-winning documentary film about the first African-American expedition to tackle North America’s highest peak (Denali) — comes to us from outgoing Teaching Fellow in Outdoor Education, Leila Ayad, Leila was one of the many Eagle Rock community members who attended the July 21 screening of the film in our Learning Resource Center’s Amphitheater. Eagle Rock co-hosted the event along with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) — a leading provider of Wilderness-based expeditions for youth and adults. Each year, by way of NOLS’ Gateway Partnership Program, select Eagle Rock School students receive a highly coveted scholarship to participate in a NOLS expedition. Below is Leila’s write-up of the July 21st event here at Eagle Rock.

By Leila Ayad, 2017/2018 Public Allies Teaching Fellow in Outdoor Education

This past trimester, Eagle Rock School and NOLS hosted a screening of the documentary film, “AN AMERICAN ASCENT,” which follows the first-ever all African-American expedition to attempt to ascend Denali, the highest peak in North America.

NOLS representative Amy Mautz arrived on campus, bringing along the film and Stephen Shobe, one of the climbers featured in the film, which was shot in the summer of 2013 in Alaska.

Shobe dined with a group of Eagle Rock students and hosted a Q & A session following a viewing of the film.

Students were able to Continue reading…

Summer Break 2018 at Eagle Rock School

It’s not necessarily a ghost town around campus today as the first week of the summer trimester break gets underway, but with three of our students graduating last Friday and our student body departing for their hometowns the following day, it’s quieter here than normal.

Adding to the lack of frenetic activity is the fact that we recently said goodbye to our 2017/2018 cohort of Public Allies Teaching Fellows, although three of them — Tommy McAree (Literature & Literacy), Felicia Walker (Residence Life) and Micah Saugen (Science) — will be returning as second-year fellows for Eagle Rock School trimesters 76 through 78.

We also bid farewell to a handful of veteran staff members, including Jon Anderson, a Human Performance & Outdoor Education Instructional Specialist and2018 Instructional Coach. John has been named instructional coach at Mapleton Expeditionary Learning School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton, Colo.

(Jon Anderson — top & left — leading his final piece of national work for Eagle Rock ... helping launc Austin’s newest Innovation Academy. Image credit: Michael Soguero.) — (Jon Anderson — top & left — leading his final piece of national work for Eagle Rock … helping launch Austin’s newest Innovation Academy. Image credit: Michael Soguero.)

Jen Frickey headed back to Canada and will be working with Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. Jen began her Eagle Rock career as an intern in our Human Performance Center back in 2001 and served in several capacities before becoming our Director of Curriculum in 2012. Meanwhile, we recently had the opportunity to welcome Professional Development Associate Sarah Bertucci as our new Director of Curriculum.

Other staffers departing include Continue reading…

Eagle Rock School’s Latest Trimester Graduation Features 3 Graduates

A huge event for us this Friday at Eagle Rock School & Professional Development Center is the graduation of three members of our student body. This is the latest of what is nearing 100 trimesters of pomp and circumstance, and it will be broadcast live at 4 p.m. Mountain Time on the Eagle Rock Facebook Page.

Eagle Rock is a unique school, in that we put our full focus on teaching youth through an alternative form of education, with an emphasis on supporting students who come here from a diverse and underserved background.

Our students arrive from all corners of the country to reengage themselves in their own education via a trimester system that culminates in their biggest achievement — graduation. This Friday, we are proud to support our three latest graduates as they walk onstage in our Human Performance Center to receive their diplomas, in full view of fellow students, families, administrators, teachers and staff.

We recently asked these grads-to-be to sit down and write out a short biography about themselves, including their involvement at Eagle Rock School, their short- and long-term goals, and any advice they might want to leave for those who follow.

Here’s what they had to say: Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Students Wax Poetic at National Poetry Slam

A half-dozen of our Eagle Rock School students, along with three staff mentors, have just returned from a national youth poetry festival at the University of Houston in Houston, Tex., and while we didn’t walk away with any major trophies or prizes, the reward came in helping each of our students find and display their own voice.

Called the 2018 Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival, the annual event brings more than 500 young poets — along with their educator mentors — all joining up with some the nation’s leading spoken-word artists and cultural workers to take a deep dive into arts education, artistic expression, and civic engagement.

Brave New Voices is a national youth poetry festival sponsored by Youth Speaks, an organization that has long championed what is becoming a global movement of young people finding safe places to discover, develop, publicly present, and apply their voices as creators of social change.

Participating students do this through the intersection of arts education and youth development practices, civic engagement, and quality artistic presentation.

Dan Hoffman, Eagle Rock’s Societies & Cultures Instructional Specialist — and a Ponderosa House Parent— did most of the heavy lifting at the local level, coordinating the Continue reading…