News From the Rock Archives - Page 2 of 5

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 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…

Lessons Learned from 25 Years of Reengaging Youth in Their Education

It seems fitting that our 25^th anniversary should serve as an opportunity for those of us who work at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center to unveil our keenest insights from the past quarter of a century, neatly packaged and available to anyone who is interested by way of a new downloadable eBooklet.

That eBooklet — Sharing Our Experience: Lessons From 25 Years — is the result of our experience with engaging students in their own education on our Colorado campus, as well as our well-recognized efforts through our Professional Development Center of providing hands-on support and facilitation of planning sessions for schools throughout the country interested in attaining the same for their students.

Indeed, these lessons — shared in detail below — are relevant to our supporters, followers and observers. But they also hold significant relevancy for anyone interested in the nationwide effort to help young people to actively participate in their own education.

Here then are the most essential lessons we’ve learned during our quarter century of engagement with students on our campus, and through supporting schools around the country. First up are lessons learned from working directly with students here at Eagle Rock School: Continue reading…

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…

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…

Sarah Bertucci Named Eagle Rock’s Director of Curriculum

Editor’s Note: You might recall earlier this year that we announced Eagle Rock was actively seeking a new Director of Curriculum to replace Jen Frickey. Following months of reviewing cover letters and resumes, as well as a lengthy interview process, we arrived at a candidate who shined throughout the entire process: our own Professional Development Associate Sarah Bertucci. Sarah begins in her new role work this summer — just in time for our 75th trimester (ER 75). Below is some information on Jen and Sarah, as well as an in-depth Q&A with both of these Eagle Rock veterans.

So, let’s start with Jen:

Jen Frickey began her Eagle Rock career as an intern in our Human Performance Center (HPC) during our 25th trimester (ER 25) back in 2001. She was quickly promoted to the Instructional Staff (assigned to the HPC) and became a Lodgepole houseparent the following year, leaving in 2008 to raise two kids in Canada. She returned in 2012 as Director of Curriculum and is and is now returning to Canada to focus on spending more time with her kids.

Eagle Rock: What were your proudest accomplishments in curriculum?

Jen: When I came into the role I took over a strong instructional team based on the work of Jeff Liddle and Michael Soguero, continuing the curriculum in the direction they had taken it with the previous Individualized Learning Plans update. During my time, I worked on getting our practices more aligned, dialed, high-quality, and consistent across the entire instructional team. 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…

Eagle Rock Celebrates 25 Years Creatively

This summer marks the 25th anniversary of Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, and as might be expected, an academic challenge is among the many events planned for this celebration of 25 years of reengaging youth in their own education.

But first, a word about the festivities planned for Saturday, June 30, here on our mountainside campus in Estes Park. While specific events for the day are still being firmed up, you can count on lunch, tours of many of the 26 buildings (including engaging activities with many of the spaces within the development zone of our 640-acre campus), the opportunity to reunite with alumni and meet current students and new and veteran staff members.

And speaking of games and activities, we’re asking current and past students and staff and friends in the Eagle Rock community to submit a six-word story that best describes their experience with Eagle Rock. Why only a half-dozen words? How can anyone define an experience in six words? By Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Teacher Lauded for His Impact on Student

If we’re fortunate in this lifetime, many of us can point to one individual who made a huge difference in our lives, whether that person gently steered us in an unexplored direction, or presented us with life-changing options that corrected the course in which we were headed.

Here at Eagle Rock — an alternative high school designed to engage high school students who haven’t had success in a traditional educational setting — one such role model has been recognized for effecting change in his students by means of a unique style of teaching that is anchored on building meaningful relationships with each of his young charges.

Jon Anderson, a 16-year veteran instructor here at Eagle Rock School, is being recognized this month by Honored — a national nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to keeping great teachers in the classroom and inspiring a new generation of talent to pursue teaching.

It was while focusing on a teaching degree at the University of Northern California that Jon recalls being approached by one of his professors who suggested he might check out a nontraditional school up in Estes Park called Eagle Rock.

Jon did just that, and was hired as a student teacher in 1998, followed by an internship the following year. And after a stint teaching in nearby Denver, he became a fulltime Eagle Rock instructional specialist in 2002.

If you ask Jon, he will tell you he was attracted to Eagle Rock’s focus on students as individuals, which enabled him to not only build trust with each student, but work with them on issues specific to their future successes in life.

But what most impressed Jon was our Continue reading…