As the sun rose on a mild spring day in the DC area, fifteen Burgundy Middle School students and their three chaperones were already up and snorkeling around an old shipwreck near Eleuthera Island of the Bahamas. Or were running a mile before swimming upcurrent in a marina cut and watching yellow stingrays slide beneath us along the bottom. Or facing the dare to jump off a 20 foot cliff into the water.
It was all Doug Fishman’s fault that we were having such vigorous pre-breakfast exercises. During his coursework at the Lawrenceville School he had met a few folks associated with the Cape Eleuthera Institute and was inspired to organize an exchange between our middle school and the Deep Creek Middle School on Eleuthera.
We spent spring break learning about ocean ecology, sustainable living practices, how to snorkel, SCUBA and paddle a sea kayak…as well as how to take Navy showers (30 secs of water use) and that lateness to circle can mean a lot of pushups and situps. We toured the labs where they study fish, and learned how they re-use the little fresh water they have, treat sewage (in a garden right outside the dining hall!), heat water and gain electricity through solar power, make bio-diesel from cruise ships’ cooking oil, compost everything including paper, and live together in mutual respect as a community. Along the way we each faced and overcame personal challenges.
From nighttime guest lectures on SCUBA and undersea exploration of the Titanic to a cook out on the beach, there was never a dull moment. We look forward to hosting the Bahamian students in Alexandria and at the Cove in just a few weeks and hope to make their trip as memorable as ours was.
In exchange, Burgundy will host a group of Bahamian middle school students for a week in April.
The Island School was started in 1998 as a semester program for high school students to study marine conservation and resource management, sustainability and Bahamian culture. The Island School’s vision statement closely parallels Burgundy’s philosophy, especially in the area of personal and global responsibility, hands-on learning, and ecological sustainability. The school, which has sustainability as one of its founding tenets, connects student learning with the culture and place of the Bahamas. Environmental science, global education, and cultural diversity are strong components. To learn more about the Island School, visit their website at http://www.ceibahamas.org/index.html.
Recently, the Island School also started the Cape Eleuthera Institute for middle and high school students to visit for shorter stays. Several years ago, the Island School opened Deep Creek Middle School for Bahamian children, where Island School students now teach as part of their semester experience. It is students from Deep Creek Middle School who will be coming to Burgundy in the spring. They will spend several days at our Alexandria main campus, and also 3 or 4 days at Cooper’s Cove.
Led by chaperones Doug Fishman, Josh Goodstein and Vini Schoene, the week at the Cape Eleuthera Institute included scientific and cultural discovery, as well as swimming, snorkeling, sea kayaking, and morning exercise! Filled with fun, sun, and adventure, the students' primary focus was an in-depth exposure to scientific fieldwork.
Fifteen seventh and eighth grade students were accepted based on application essays as well as their demonstrated maturity and interest in scientific inquiry.
While this is a fun and exciting opportunity, it also opens our doors to global education as directly as we could imagine. Travel abroad, exposure to another culture and an immersion in education for sustainability are all experiences that will surely make a lasting impression on our students.
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As the sun rose on a mild spring day in the DC area, fifteen Burgundy Middle School students and their three chaperones were already up and snorkeling around an old shipwreck near Eleuthera Island of the Bahamas. Or were running a mile before swimming upcurrent in a marina cut and watching yellow stingrays slide beneath us along the bottom. Or facing the dare to jump off a 20 foot cliff into the water.