The Latest News From the Rock — December 2014

Having just wrapped up our 64th trimester, a blanket of quiet has settled over our campus. And looking back, it proved to be a busy and productive trimester for all of us here at Eagle Rock.

We kicked ER 64 off by welcoming eight new full-time Eagle Rock staff members, 10 new Eagle Rock Public Allies fellows, and one wilderness intern — Jack Bresnahan — to our mountainside community. Add it up and that’s just about 40 percent of our staff. Considering all the newness, we’ve done pretty well.

As expected, our students continued to deepen their understanding of our five expectations — making healthy life choices, communicating effectively, practicing leadership for justice, being an engaged global citizen and developing an expanding knowledge base. Much of this was absorbed through engaging classroom discussion.

And, of course we’re proud to have sent our three newest Eagle Rock School graduates — Gigi Hagopian, Isaac Holmes and Cat Leger — out into the world.

In addition to classroom activities, we’ve been working hard to improve the quality of student life elsewhere at Eagle Rock, and this trimester we had a lot going on, thanks to a large extent to The Magnificent 7 — an elite group of veteran students who help out with evening duty.

This trimester, the M7 put on an exciting house versus house Olympics, and when the dust settled, Aspen and Lodgepole were tied for first place. To break the tie, student Ziyad Johnstone, representing Aspen, and Isiah Gonzales, representing Lodgepole, played a nail-biting game of egg roulette for the tiebreaker.

If you’ve never seen it, egg roulette has each person work back and forth through a Continue reading…

3 Eagle Rock Students Join the Ranks of ER Grads

In terms of size, the graduating class of ER 64 didn’t produce a large congregation of students, but what the group lacks in mass, it more than makes up for in talent and potential.

Gigi Hagopian, Isaac Holmes and Cat Leger are all heading out into the world after today’s graduation ceremony here in Estes Park, Colo. — each having experienced enough personal growth and development opportunities to last most people their age a lifetime. If you’d like to watch the graduation ceremony live online, simply click Eagle Rock School Graduation starting at around 6pm Eastern Time / 3pm Pacific Time.

Eagle Rock School Trimester 64 Graduates Gigi Hagopian, Issac Holmes and Cat Leger
Eagle Rock School Trimester 64 Graduates Gigi Hagopian, Isaac Holmes and Cat Leger

In the meantime, here’s a rundown of this trimester’s graduates:

Gigi Hagopian joined us in ER 56 (the 56th trimester in the history of our school). She lived in the Spruce House here on campus, and immediately immersed herself deeply in our music and theater department. She performed in annual musicals and participated in our musical improv group, and even picked up some tips on playing drums and became particularly talented at “bucket drumming.” In fact, for the past few years, you might have seen Gigi on the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder or on the downtown streets in Milwaukee displaying her talents during breaks from school.

Gigi is returning to Wisconsin after this week and plans to continue her theater studies in college.

Also from ER 56 is Isaac Holmes, a native New Yorker who became a resident of Ponderosa House, and who also displayed a passion for music. In fact, during his tenure at Eagle Rock, Isaac could often be found in the Continue reading…