Pomp and Parchments Presented This Week to 4 Eagle Rock School Grads

With as much fanfare as such occasions warrant, the four members of this trimester’s graduating class will be honored beginning at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the Human Performance Center here at the Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center in Estes Park, Colo..

Graduates include Javon Banks, part of ER 65 (the 65th incoming group of students to arrive at Eagle Rock since its founding in the early 1990s). Others include Stacy Escobar, Alysha Dan and Katie-Lynn DeRaps, all members of ER 64.

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This quartet of Eagle Rock School grads has completed the requirements for graduation and has participated in a number of magnificent activities during their time here that most high school graduates can’t even imagine. And as a community, we can’t wait to see what great achievements await them in the future.

If you can’t make it to campus tomorrow afternoon, the graduation ceremony will be broadcast live on our Ustream channel. To view the event, visit:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/eagle-rock-school-graduation.

We asked each of our four new grads to offer up a short note about their time spent at Eagle Rock, some sage advice for incoming students, and what the future holds for them. Here are their responses: Continue reading…

Introducing Eagle Rock School’s Latest Graduates

Springtime graduations are among our favorite times of year at Eagle Rock School. It’s an event that coincides with mother birds nudging their young offspring out of the nest, and no, the irony does not escape those of us who educationally nurture these young folks.

In the case of our latest grads — who take the stage starting at 4pm MT on Friday, April 10, 2015 — we’re celebrating the successful completion of the Eagle Rock experience for four inspiring high school graduates, including Song Candea, Sonja Stolmar, Maya West, and Hunter Gantz.

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Below is a little background on each, and even a piece of advice from these veteran Eagle Rockers:

Song Candea joined us in ER 57 (the 57th trimester of Eagle Rock) and has been an active member in the Eagle Rock community ever since. He hails from Niwot, Colorado, and resided in Aspen House throughout his three years here.

Song has been described as an incredibly strong leader who leads by example, taking every opportunity given to him to grow as an individual. Because of this mentality, he was recently selected as the Student Wilderness Instructor for the incoming students of ER 64.

His success in his roles with the Outdoor Education department is paving the way for future student involvement. And with this passion for the outdoors he is seeking to major in Outdoor Education while attending Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat Springs, beginning this fall. Song also showed his talents as an active member of the musical improvisation ensemble, choir, as well as acting in the play In the Blood.

Song’s advice for all the educators reading this: “Teach students what they want to learn and they will learn it.”

Hunter Gantz is another Colorado native — from Boulder — who also joined us in ER 57. Hunter was immediately drawn to the multitude of music and performance opportunities on campus — from musicals to choir and a cappella, and poetry slams.

Hunter was in the Eagle Rock theater productions of Continue reading…