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Meet the Team — Mike Dunn, Dean of College & Career Counseling

Who better to advise students on their future after high school than Mike Dunn, Eagle Rock’s new Dean of College & Career Counseling? For one thing, this Michigan-born school administrator joins us after 11 years as a history teacher, coach, and director of college counseling at a small independent school called AIM Academy outside of Philadelphia.

Previous to that, Mike was on the founding team of a Big Picture high school in Philadelphia where he helped students re-engage in their high school experience and pursue diplomas that were meaningful to them. And even before that, he was a Service Learning fellow right here at Eagle Rock.

More important, Mike has plenty of experience when it comes to applying to and attending schools of higher learning. In fact, he has received degrees and certifications from four different institutions of higher learning, beginning at Michigan State University where he earned a degree in history. After that, Mike attended and earned a graduate degree in teaching from Wayne State University in Detroit. He later earned a College Counseling Certificate from UCLA, and just this last spring, he completed his Doctorate in Education from Northeastern University.

We asked Eagle Rock’s newest administrator to tell us a little more about his background and experience, and he agreed. Here’s Mike Dunn, in his own words:

Eagle Rock School: Why did you choose to apply to Eagle Rock?

Mike Dunn: Since I began teaching in 2007, I have been searching for a school that is the most authentic place for students and teachers to be. A school that does things because it knows they are right. A place where student voices are heard, and where young people can actually thrive. I believe Eagle Rock is that place.

There is learning that happens at Eagle Rock School that could never be captured on a test or packaged and sold. The relationships built, the confidence instilled, and the skills gained are remarkable. An Eagle Rock grad is an absolutely inspiring person. Eagle Rock is a real institution of learning for all who dare to be here. This sense of authenticity compelled me to apply to my current role at Eagle Rock School.

Eagle Rock: What exactly do you do at Eagle Rock?

Mike: I help students figure out what they want to do after they graduate, and then help them design a path to reach their goals. My work is Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Cory Bradnax, Professional Development Associate

Meet Cory Bradnax, our new Professional Development team member. Cory is tasked with facilitating change processes and professional learning for our staff members, and working with external partners to accomplish the same. In addition, he facilitates our school’s Presentations of Learning program and Student Ambassador program.

Cory said he knew Eagle Rock was a special place back in 2011 when he visited our campus as part of an information-gathering effort for Harlem Children’s Zone. He said he found everything from our students to the staff to the campus environment to be in line with his values. He returned four years later, in the fall of 2015, to teach an Explore Week class on gemstones and crystals.

Cory was formerly the college coordinator for Promise Academy I High School in Harlem, New York, where he was responsible for college and career readiness for grades 9 through 12, in addition to guiding students through the college application and financial aid process. Prior to that, he was the assistant director of the College Success Office at Harlem Children’s Zone — a program designed to support the school’s students during their journey to and through college to graduation. Before holding that position, he was a coordinator for that same office.

Cory received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and a master’s degree in Africana studies from Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind.

We asked Cory to answer a few questions we had about his personal life, and here’s what he had to share: Continue reading…

Opportunities to Join our Team

As we emerge from the global COVID health pandemic and continue to align with our commitment to be an antiracist, social justice organization, we are thrilled to announce several open positions at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, including:

Associate Head of School
Dean of Admissions
Dean of Restorative Practices
Health and Wellness Counselor
Communications Associate
Life After Eagle Rock Counselor

We’re looking to build the best team in the country, a staff worthy of our courageous, brilliant students. We ask our students to continuously engage in personal and academic growth, and we ask the same of our staff. If you have a deep love of high school students and a desire to be part of a small school with a big impact, Eagle Rock might be right for you – while we are nestled in the Rocky Mountains, we are also deeply committed to partnering with other educators, students, and communities to make a positive impact across the country. We are all part of a values-driven organization where we strive to embody our values while living in an imperfect human-centric community. If you feel called to work in a tight-knit community rather than work a 9-5, please check out the open positions.

All positions at Eagle Rock require experience working with, and loving commitment to, diverse populations, including students and families from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, LGBTQ+ students and families, and students and families from low-income backgrounds.

Eagle Rock is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and does not tolerate any form of unlawful discrimination. All employment decisions at Eagle Rock are based on merit and to the principle of equal employment opportunity. In keeping with both the letter and spirit of this policy, Eagle Rock will continue to recruit, hire, train, and promote into all job levels the most qualified persons without regard to race, color, religion, genetic information, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic. Members of racial/ethnic minorities and other protected classes are encouraged to apply.

Feel free to visit our website to learn more about who we are, the work we do, and the students we serve: www.EagleRockSchool.org.

Associate Head of School

The Associate Head of School reports to and works in concert with our Head of School to hold and advance Eagle Rock’s mission and vision, achieve operational and educational goals and objectives, and embody our commitment to antiracism and social justice. The winning candidate will have direct supervision of our student pipeline, including admissions, wilderness orientation, and college and career planning and readiness. In addition, the Associate Head of School will partner across our organization to support school philosophy, organizational culture, strategic planning, and logistics that support delivering on our mission and vision.

For a full list of qualifications and responsibilities in the areas of school administration; staff culture, recruitment, schedules, growth and development; student support, and school-wide involvement, please visit the Associate Head of School job listing on our website. Continue reading…

Not-so-New Eagle Rockers Embarking on Wilderness Course

After a year of virtual learning and a long-awaited return to the Eagle Rock campus, this trimester is rapidly coming to a close. In the next two weeks, our two newest student cohorts will complete their classes and begin preparation to venture into the Lost Creek Wilderness for their Wilderness Orientation Course.

For decades, our wilderness orientation course has been an introduction and a rite of passage for new students at Eagle Rock. However, for the past three trimesters, the health pandemic put a halt to this tradition. In March of 2020, we sent all of our students home and shifted to virtual classes until it was safe to bring everyone back to campus this March.

Lost Creek Wilderness. Image © Hogs555 via Wikimedia Commons

As a result, and unlike any wilderness orientation before, students embarking in this trimester’s course have already been members of the Eagle Rock community for three to six months, albeit some of it from their own homes. Wilderness participants this time around include two incoming cohorts of students — those in the 82nd and 83rd trimester of our school’s history (ER 82 and 83).

And because those students are currently enrolled in on-campus classes before their wilderness course, they have the opportunity to participate in more prep work prior to the trip. Our wilderness instructors are Continue reading…

Meet the Team – HaeJohn Medley, Art Instructional Specialist

HaeJohn Frederick Medley first arrived at Eagle Rock in the early 2000s as a student teacher from Hastings College in Nebraska. He returned the next year — our 37th trimester or ER 37 — as a Public Allies Fellow focusing on Art, and now joins us in ER 83 as our fulltime Art Instructional Specialist.

If you ask, HaeJohn will share that his first job at Eagle Rock helped form who he would become as a teacher and created a standard to which he held other education institutions.

Now, HaeJohn is guiding our students through the world of art and its many applications and uses. He is helping students explore new mediums, tackle challenging projects, materialize ideas, and empower imagination, creativity, and problem solving.

We asked our HaeJohn to tell us a little about his career and personal life, and this is what he shared: Continue reading…

Now Recruiting Public Allies Fellows to Start in August 2021

Here at Eagle Rock, we believe leadership is not a position to be held, but an action that all young people are capable of taking. And Public Allies — a national organization committed to creating a just and equitable society by engaging and activating the leadership of all young people — is one of our partners in advancing that cause experientially.

Specifically, we’re talking about the Public Allies Eagle Rock Fellowship, which in 2021/2022 will offer eight individuals the opportunity to work with us in our efforts to re-engage high school students in their education, which for our next cohort of fellows is accomplished through a year-long service and leadership development experience here in Estes Park, as well as online if and when health and safety protocols dictate.

Recent cohort of Public Allies Fellows at Eagle Rock.

The Public Allies Fellowship here at Eagle Rock — which will celebrate its 20th anniversary when the next fellow cohort joins us in late-August of 2021 — is a residential, community-based opportunity for future teachers and educational leaders who are passionate about alternative approaches to learning, social justice, and youth development and empowerment.

As such, we are actively seeking applications for the selection of eight young adults to work with us and our students as either Educator Fellows or Health and Wellness Fellows. The application deadline for these fellowships which run from Aug. 27, 2021 to July 1, 2022), is March 15, 2021.

Educator fellows will earn their teaching license here at Eagle Rock, becoming leaders through training, mentorship, developing curriculum, creating student activities and events, and designing and implementing in-house team service projects. Additional responsibilities include classroom instruction, participating in residential life programming, providing academic and personal support for individuals within our diverse student body — acknowledging that learning happens everywhere, both for students and instructors.

Our Health and Wellness fellows play a crucial role in supporting student social-emotional needs and encouraging their growth and healthy development. This includes participating in Continue reading…

Individual Learning Plans Drive Eagle Rock School’s Latest Class Offerings

As we enter the 83rd trimester since our school’s founding in the early 1990s (ER 83), we’d like to introduce you to five classes available to our diverse student body during the first half of the new trimester.

You might notice that each of these classes references a Distribution Requirement and, in fact, all Eagle Rock School classes feature a Distribution Requirement. But an explanation is in order. At Eagle Rock, each student has their own Individual Learning Plan (ILP) that is made up of three sections: These include Power Standards, Required Experiences, and Distribution Requirements.

For Distribution Requirements, students must meet proficiency standards for at least 24 credits. Those include two credits for each of our Five Expectations. The remaining 14 credits can be earned across the expectations, with lots of student choice in how they are earned. For more details on these requirements, please read Distribution Requirements Play a Big Role in This Trimester’s Latest Class Offerings.

Here then are the five classes we’re highlighting for this trimester:

La Resolana: Villagers in northern New Mexico refer to the south-facing side of a wall as la resolana, meaning “the place where the sun shines.” Every culture has a resolana, a place where the resolaneros — the villagers — gather, dialogue, and reflect on society, culture, and politics. In this class, taught by Josán Perales, Eagle Rock’s World Languages Instructional Specialist, students are becoming “resolaneros,” exploring the stories of their identities and sharing them in community with others. Through daily writings and becoming an expert in their own stories, students enrolled in this class are finding a story worth telling a public audience. Successful completion of this class qualifies students for Engaged Global Citizen Distribution Requirement in English.

By the Numbers: Policing and Wages: Taught by Steph Subdiaz, our Math Instructional Specialist; and Mitaali Taskar, a 2020/2021 Public Allies Fellow, students are learning the importance of Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Mackendy Blanc – Program Director of Public Allies at Eagle Rock

Mackendy Blanc, Eagle Rock’s Program Director of Public Allies, was drawn to our school by its progressive curriculum that he says enables fellows to “oscillate between in-classroom instruction and real-world experience” through our Professional Development Center.

The Director of Public Allies at Eagle Rock position allows Mackendy to level the playing field for young professionals by creating an environment where they can take a leap of faith, find their voice, and develop and hone their skills based on passion and ability. Mackendy calls that a jumpstart for their professional journey.

Before coming to work at Eagle Rock, Mackendy launched Katalyst Konbit — a training ground for Haiti’s next-generation of entrepreneurs. Under Mackendy’s leadership, Katalyst Konbit has become a go-to organization for aspiring entrepreneurs on the Pearl of the Antilles to catalyze their entrepreneurial journey while learning how to innovate at scale.

We asked this purpose-driven leader, who now leads the successful Public Allies program here at Eagle Rock, to share a bit about his career — and his personal life. Here’s what he had to say: Continue reading…

Meet the Team: Karla Vargas-Ochs, Health Care Coordinator

Karla Vargas-Ochs, who is our health care coordinator, comes to our Colorado campus with a boatload of experience, highlighted by 14 years as a combat medic in the United States Navy. In addition to her career in the Navy, Karla considers herself a mother first, a daughter, a niece, a feminist, and a college-educated registered nurse with a specialty in medical case management.

She is a 2019 graduate of Davenport University in Grand Rapids, Mich., where she majored in Nursing and Medical Case Management. Before that, Karla studied Biology and African American Studies at Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Va., and Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Prior to joining us at Eagle Rock, Karla chalked up more than two decades of medical experience, including work as a private nurse in the home health sector. While in the Navy, she worked in primary care, emergency room, public health, surgical services, and ancillary services. In 1999, Karla deployed to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba; worked at a field hospital unit in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2009; and in 2011, worked aboard the United States Naval Ship Comfort in support of a global humanitarian mission that provided assistance to 11 countries in Central and South America, as well as throughout the Caribbean.

We asked Karla to take a few minutes to answer some more questions about her career, her life, and what she does in her free hours, and here’s what she told us:

Eagle Rock School: What attracted you to Eagle Rock?

Karla Vargas-Ochs: I struggled as a teen, eventually dropping out of high school. I would have benefitted so much from the experiences Eagle Rock provides its students. Joining the military is really what saved me. It showed me I was stronger than I ever thought I could be, taught me discipline, and gave me a jumping off place. I see those same values here at Eagle Rock — only wrapped in a different package. Our students have to opportunity to build on all of that, while receiving the nurturing and guidance every teenager deserves to have. After I was discharged from the military, I missed the camaraderie of being a part of something bigger than myself. Eagle Rock gives me an opportunity to experience that again, and I feel very privileged to be a part of this community.

ER: When you’re not working, what do you like to do in your spare time? Continue reading…

Eagle Rock is Scouting for an Outdoor Education Course Manager

If leading a group of incoming students on a multi-week wilderness orientation program at one of the nation’s most progressive high schools sounds like an exciting and rewarding opportunity, then you may be interested in our full-time Outdoor Education Course Manager opening.

Backing up for a moment, numerous studies have shown the benefits of wilderness orientation programs. From metrics associated with fostering a sense of place to those related to social benefit, you don’t have to look very far to understand why curriculum-based outdoor and experiential programming — including a multi-week orientation program like ours — offers tremendous efficacy with respect to student engagement and growth.

Eagle Rock School students participating in a recent Wilderness Orientation Program.

Here at Eagle Rock, our new outdoor education course manager will serve as part of our Student Service Team within our Human Performance and Outdoor Education (HPOE) department. If hired, you will support field-based courses and contribute to residential life on our Estes Park, Colo. campus. Located on the border of Rocky Mountain National Park, this position offers unmatched opportunities for foster rich relationships with students and peers, with the great outdoors serving as your classroom.

Required qualifications and essential tasks of the position include: Continue reading…