Monthly Archives: July 2020

Meet the Team: Stephany Subdíaz — Math Instructional Specialist

From time to time, we set posts aside that deal with new classes and schedules and programs and events, and instead focus on the individual instructors and staff members that make up the diverse and unique members of the Eagle Rock community.

This time around, we’re going to learn a little about Stephany Subdiaz, a math instructor who enjoys designing courses that are fun, engaging, growth inducing, and relevant to our students. She uses dice game to teach statistics and multiplying fractions. Students learn order of operations through her loan-related math challenges. And they receive fundamentals in exponents through the latest infection rates associated with COVID-19.

For Stephany, like all Eagle Rock School instructional specialists, the key is to engage students critical thinking and creativity skills. And, because math is all around us, she asks students to think of it as a language.

Prior to Eagle Rock, Stephany worked at Colorado Outward Bound for two summers as an outdoor education instructor. She also worked several semesters at the High Mountain Institute, and before that, the UC Santa Cruz Wilderness Orientation program. In fact, it was at UC Santa Cruz where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Earth Sciences.

What attracted Stephany to Eagle Rock was our mission  of Implementing effective and engaging practices that foster each of our student’s unique potential. Growing up in Lennox, Calif., a poor neighborhood next to Inglewood, Stephany said she knows the impact a school like Eagle Rock could have on the population of students that were her own high school peers. By her own admission, Stephany says she was fortunate to be scooped up by a scholar’s program that sent her to a private school, but she saw how many of her neighborhood friends were left behind. She sees her work at Eagle Rock as a way to help others.

We asked Stephany to let us in on a few details about her job and her life. Here’s what had to share: Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Seeks its Next Program Director for Public Allies

We’re pleased to announce that Eagle Rock is looking for someone to join our community in the position of Program Director for Public Allies, Eagle Rock. This is an exciting time for us, as we are working to fulfill on our commitment — which we asserted in January of this year — to be an antiracist, social justice-focused organization. By the end of this summer, we expect to have a new fulltime program director onboard for our Public Allies Fellowship Program.

The application deadline for this position is Monday, July 27, with final interviews scheduled for Aug. 3 through 7. We’d like our new director to start work on Monday, Aug. 24. However, to ensure we hire the right individual, we can be somewhat flexible with the timeline.

The new director of Public Allies Eagle Rock will take on the task of running all aspects of our fellowship program, bringing an antiracist commitment to mentoring eight to 13 young professionals who are entering the field of education and will be  performing a year of service at Eagle Rock.

What is Public Allies? This 28-year-old national leadership organization has its focus on producing diverse leaders to address the country’s predominant issues through apprenticeships that are currently active in 22 states. It is a national movement with the goal of empowering young educators to in a way that deeply addresses systemic oppression throughout society.

Public Allies’ emerging leaders-in-the making are expected to utilize their talents and interests in order to help create a better future for the communities they call home. Statistically, these diverse agents of change are currently comprised of 80 percent people of color, 60 percent women, with a majority of all participants coming from low- and moderate-income families living within underserved communities. Among the nation’s Public Allies alumni are Grammy Award-winning artists, comedians, elected officials, community organizers, educators, and nonprofit executives.

Eagle Rock’s new Public Allies program director should feel comfortable working at Continue reading…

5 Eagle Rock Employees Departing after a Century of Service

Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is saying goodbye to five of its staff members in the coming months — a group that represents more than 103 years of service to our progressive learning community.

All five of these employees have invested double-digit years at Eagle Rock, with four of them working behind the scenes, and one educator. From supervisor to receptionist, their job titles all had one purpose top of mind: a successful education for high school students and who are interested in taking control of their lives and learning. Each has plans for life after Eagle Rock, ranging from settling down closer to family, to reading books and seeing the country in a new RV.

Below, we honor these five veteran Eagle Rock community members, beginning with the longest-serving employee to the most “recent.” In each case, we asked them to describe their job responsibilities, their education and past professional experiences, their memories of the school, and future plans. Continue reading…

Online Ceremony Marks Celebration for Eagle Rock School’s Newest Grads

As we continue to operate almost entirely online amid COVID-19, we again switched things up — this time for our 81st trimester graduates — with an online Celebration of Graduates.

Those graduating this trimester include Forrest Henninger, Ethan Gallagher, and Daniel Rios. Traditionally, graduation ceremonies take place in the Human Performance Center on our campus in Estes Park, Colo. However, due to the health pandemic, our campus has remained closed to students and visitors since March, and all of our staff and students have remained engaged through remote work and learning.

The 81st trimester Celebration of Graduates was delivered online last week through Zoom, highlighted by a video containing faculty speeches, remembrances, pictures, shout outs, and advice to new and current Eagle Rock School students from the departing graduates themselves.

Although a live pomp and circumstance celebration was not an option again this trimester, Forrest, Ethan, and Daniel have the opportunity to “walk” the next time an in-person graduation can take place on campus.

Below are biographies of each graduate, including information about what they learned, what they achieved, and what their future plans entail: Continue reading…