Testimonial Archive
Becca Howe '06
Parent Thoughts on City Year
Catherine Wright '06
Jane Henningsen
Emily Guerin '04
SCA (Student Conservation Association)
New Hampshire Conservation Corps
Becca Howe ‘06
I was a little hesitant at first about signing up for a gap year before college, especially if it would involve taking on such a long-term commitment as the SCA (a 10 month program lasting from mid-October to mid-August). But now that I am more than halfway through the program, I have no doubt that I made the correct decision to postpone my college enrollment by a year.
The New Hampshire Conservation Corps is comprised of twenty corps members aged 18-25 hailing from all across the country. We have corps members from Texas, Missouri, Oregon, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Ohio, and Massachusetts just to name a few. There are three staff members who help with program orientation, training, and any general concerns we may have during our ten-month stay. We live in 10,000-acre Bear Brook State Park in New Hampshire, located about halfway between Concord and Manchester. Living situations are rustic to say the least; we live in log cabins, only some of which have electricity, and wood stoves provide our heating.
The ten-month program is divided into roughly three parts: the fall certification and training period, the winter education season, and the spring and summer trail work and conservation season. Some of the skills we gain during the fall include Backcountry Medicine Wilderness First Responder certification, CPR certification, and chainsaw training.
In the winter, after several weeks of education training, we are split into teaching teams (each team is made up of three corps members) and teach environmental education to 4th graders in Manchester public schools over a 12-week period. We plan each of the lessons (with topics ranging from Water Pollution, to Competition and Cooperation, to Habitats) on our own, emphasizing active, hands-on learning techniques to encourage student participation and enthusiasm. After school, we volunteer at the Manchester Salvation Army, tutoring kids aged six to fourteen and organizing clubs (I led the science club!) for post-homework fun.
For the spring and summer conservation season, we embark on 20-day “hitches” throughout the state. A “hitch” can involve building bridges along trails, constructing stone stairways, digging water bars, or even moving a trailhead. During hitch, we set up camp at the site, pitch tents and cook for ourselves on propane stoves, careful to follow the Leave No Trace guidelines for camping in the wilderness.
Living amongst a tight community of individuals with such diverse personalities and opinions has allowed me to expand my interests and offered new avenues of learning for me to pursue when I attend college in the fall. The skills I have obtained with the SCA in a matter of months would often take years of dedication to complete. The New Hampshire Conservation Corps provides the perfect balance of physical and educational work, with just the right amount of structure and freedom.
PARENT TESTIMONIAL FOR CITY YEAR 2006
Six months ago, our son Dan graduated from Andover High School. He did not see a connection between what he was learning in school and what he wanted to do with his life. He had only a slight appreciation for the connection between work and the cost of food and housing. He knew he was not ready for college and decided to give City Year a try (thank you for alerting us to this opportunity!)
Dan was given a choice of several cities and decided to go to Philadelphia where the focus is on education. He found roommates and housing through a website set up by City Year. I must admit that it was a little scary leaving him in an obviously neglected area of Philly. When I called him a week later, he told me of the police doing patrols by helicopter. But he also told me he had been accepted down at the local basketball courts, found some places to get reasonably priced food, and made friends with his roommates.
Now several months later, he has undergone quite a radical transformation. At Christmas he complained that his students didn't realize that they had to work harder and take more math and science if they wanted to become pediatricians. He spoke of the inequities in education and how working at a tough inner city high school made him appreciate just how fortunate he was. He budgeted his money carefully so that he could afford rent and food and found a second job on weekends to help make ends meet. He decided to go to college next year and filled out all the paperwork without any of the parental nagging that was necessary during his senior year in high school. He travels easily between Philly and Andover without any assistance from us and is even hoping to travel to Amsterdam to see a friend from a previous summer job. City Year has given him two precious items - confidence and awareness - that his years in Andover could not. I honestly would recommend this program to any young person!
Part of Dan's assignment is teaching Algebra/Geometry to one student who fell behind the rest of his class. At one point, Dan had a serious conflict with the official teacher for the class who insisted the student earned an F. Dan had to confront the teacher and appeal the case to the math department chair and principal. He was clearly conflicted about the right course of action and later shared that he "asked himself what my Dad would do." Just six months earlier, he would never had asked himself that question! The principal and department chair sided with Dan and had him complete a change-of-grade form. From a parent's perspective, City Year has gone well beyond my most optimistic hopes in helping Dan transition from teen to adult.
CITY YEAR is going pretty well so far. We have finished our month of training and had our official opening day this past Friday. The Seattle/King County Corps consists of 55 members ages 17-24 from all over the US; I can honestly say that I've never had the opportunity to get to know a more diverse group of people, even at Andover! The corps is divided into five teams, each one specializing in a different program. My program is called "Young Heroes". I will be tutoring middle school students during the week and engaging them in community service workshops on Saturdays. Right now we are doing lots of recruitment to get students involved in the Saturday program that will start in January. All in all, things are good. Everyone is very enthusiastic and idealistic and I am glad to have this opportunity to see life from a different perspective before starting college.
Jane Henningsen
This is my senior spring in a nutshell: I waited in the mailroom for many miserable hours. I got into college. I got rejected from college. I got waitlisted by college. I made my decisions, sent my response cards, walked the Promenade, smelled my Abbot Rose and BAM!!! There I was at home with nothing but a class ring and a piece of paper to show for four years of Andover's tough love. I don't want to sound pessimistic or overly dramatic and adolescent, but all I could think at the time was, ìI have to do this again? Four more years, starting in August. Looking ahead, all I saw was more stress, more all-nighters and more brilliant classmates to make me wonder if I used a substandard percentage of brain cells for active thought. Imagining it made me tired. Don't get me wrong, I love the school I'm going to. I remember being thirteen years old, telling my Andover interviewer how badly I wanted to go Virginia. I didn't stop smiling for a week after my spring visit, but I felt like it would be a waste of time and energy to go there right away if I couldn't be mentally focused.
Certain people close to me (thank you, Henningsen family of Andover) suggested taking a year off. I loved the idea. I researched programs, jobs, classes: I built my case, presented it to the parents and somehow, (I sometimes still wonder exactly how) I convinced them that it was the right thing to do.
On August 26th, while my former classmates moved into dorm rooms at their respective universities, I was getting my passport stamped in Santiago, Chile. Two months later, here I am and I know I made the right choice. The program I eventually decided on is called Bridge Year. I am studying Spanish at one of several ECELA language schools in Latin America, and I'll be in the continent until December, at which point I will go back to the US and get a job. Contrary to popular belief, this region of South America is very safe. A lot of people at home seemed convinced that I would be kidnapped by some drug lord's guerrilla foot soldiers the moment I stepped off the airplane. Obviously, no such thing has happened. In fact, sometimes I feel safer in Santiago at night than I would in Boston. Itís a highly developed city with stable politics, a good health system and clean drinking water. You can even find a Starbucks or two if you know where to look.
The school here in Chile is made up of around 100 students of all ages from all over the world. Despite the large number of students, classes are small and personal to ensure that we are learning. By small and personal I mean there are two people in my class, myself included. My Spanish has improved more than I ever imagined it could just in the last two months. I dream in Spanish now. I occasionally find myself trying to use translated Spanish expressions in my English, which can be both embarrassing and hilarious. I can even order pizza in Spanish, which requires more fluency that you might imagine.
The school is always throwing parties and planning excursions, all of which are enthusiastically attended by the student body. With groups from the school, I've been to several smaller Chilean cities and experienced hostels in Argentina. Those, I might add, really are an experience. Recently I have ventured into the Andes to go hiking, horseback riding and paragliding. (Parents, do not ask after the last activity listed. Some things you are happier not knowing.) Next weekend is whitewater rafting, and you know I'll be there.
When I'm not studying languages or hurling myself off cliffs with nothing but a parachute (oops, sorry parents.) I'm hanging out with my host family. I live with a large, friendly Chilean family only a few minutes from the school. My host parents, sisters, nieces and brothers-in-law treat me like a part of the family. Just sitting at the dinner table is a Spanish class in itself. Speaking of the dinner table, the food here is a little too good. The second half of my year off will see me joining a gym.
It should be said that this school is not specifically for young students like myself. We are all treated as independent adults, which can be scary at first for someone who is used to signing in at 10 every night and asking for permission to ride down to the Shawsheen Luncheonette. Obviously, there is no sign-in here to make sure I get enough sleep. There is no cut system to make sure I go to class. I'm legal to drink, so there's no DC system to keep me from overdoing the alcohol. These are all limits I have learned to put on myself and I believe they will serve me well when I finally do go to college.
The original purpose of my year off was to restore two things: a) my enthusiasm for learning. b) my confidence that I did indeed have some kind of talent. I was a pretty average Andover student. I was on one varsity team. I studied endlessly. I didn't sleep all that much and I battled the school's workaholic schedule to have a minute of fun here or there with my friends. My grades were good but I wasn't exactly in line for the Faculty Prize at commencement. What bothered me was that in almost every class I thought I was good at there was someone better waiting. Every Andover student knows that feeling; it's just a part of life. During upper year and the entire college application experience, Andover kids lose sight of the education they're getting and focus on how they're doing in comparison to everyone else. Since I got here I have started to appreciate that feeling average at Andover means nothing. I'm the youngest person in this school and I'm also in the highest-level course offered. That could not have come from anything other than Sr. Mozo's Spanish class, which I did not always have an easy time with. This year off is showing me that I still enjoy learning and that you don't need a 6 on the Andover scale to be pretty damn good at whatever you're doing. It's only October and I already have faith that when I show up on the UVA campus in August I will be mentally fresh and ready to use that Andover education.
NOLS SEMESTER
Emily Guerin '04
Hello from Wyoming! I'm in Lander, where the NOLS headquarters and my temporary residence, the Noble Hotel (operated by NOLS), are located. I'm here for a little under 2weeks getting certified to be a Wilderness First Responder. So 8ish hours of class every day, learning how to stabilize people's spines, wrap ankles, and how to react when you can't call 911 and help is a 2-day hike away. It's pretty interesting so far.
NOLS is awesome. I am ridiculously happy and having a really good time. I've spent about 6 weeks consecutively in the field, with a day or two in between to transition between sections and get new gear. My group started out hiking in the Absaroka Mountains of NW Wyoming. We got snowed on on Sept3, saw HUNDREDS of Grizzly Bear tracks (and fresh bear scat...mmm), purified our own water, waded through mountain streams, cooked gourmet meals (bread, pizza, lasagna) and crossed the Continental Divide. The highest altitude we hiked to was over 11,000 feet. It was so beautiful there--cold and quiet and wild. By the end of our 12 days we were smelly and greasy, our feet had blisters and we were all tan. But damn, we were happy.
The next section was rock climbing at City of Rocks, Idaho. We drove 6hours from Lander to the "city" and spent the next 2 weeks climbing. Climbing camp was really chill--much more relaxing than hiking. We did yoga every morning and then climbed for hours. Our campsite was on the side of a valley over looking the "city" and the mountains far away. One night I slept out on the rocks behind our campsite and fell asleep under the stars—so bright. Climbing scared me more than potentially anything else in my life. Idid this climb called a "multi-pitch" because it's more than one rope length high. So someone climbs up to the first anchor and ties in and then belays you from the top until you're up there too. Then you tie in and you belay them up to the 2nd anchor, or to the top, and then they tie in and belay you. On the climb I did, Lost Arrow Spire, the route was totally exposed. Had I fallen, which I didn't, I would have swung out off the face of the cliff and the back on, like a pendulum. I could look out and see hundreds ofmiles away, and look down and see the ground. There wasn't a ton to hold onto and I was so scared I thought I might cry. But then I finally pulled myself up over the top and hot damn, it felt so good! Afterwards we rappelled down the side and had some chocolate--well needed. Mmm. I liked climbing, but it was scary.
The 3rd section was in Utah on the Green River. We had a white water kayaking/rafting section and a flat water canoeing section. As you might imagine, I LOVED white water kayaking. So exciting!! We went through some big class II and some small class III rapids and sometimes the waves were so big you went through them not over them. I had nose plugs but I often got a mouthful of water. We traveled about 85 miles down Desolation and Gray Canyons, seeing petroglyphs, lizards and scorpions along the way. Then we switched to canoes and floated an additional 60 miles through Labyrinth Canyon. Labyrinth was hot--90 degrees in the afternoon. We paddled from shady spot to shady spot and floated once we got there. In the afternoons we went swimming or hung out under the big cottonwood trees. We also paddled once early in the morning. We started 4 am under the stars and traveled 20miles in 5 hours--we were cruising! It was so cool and quiet; the only noise was our paddles and the water beneath the boats. Very cool.
MORE FROM EMILY:
Into the canyons! Well hello everyone! It was so good to hear from so many people this week. I'm leaving tomorrow morning for Escalante, Utah and the canyon lands. I will be backpacking there for over a month and coming back to Lander and the NOLS base on thanksgiving. My backpack is, as usual, gigantic (60 lbs) and way more than I should be carrying. We're bringing 2 lbs of food per person per day this time--heavy stuff, but I guess they're expecting us to eat a lot. So I passed my Wilderness First Responder course! Very exciting. Now ifI'm over an hour from a road head I can officially brace your spine, administer nitroglycerin and epinephrine, plug your open chest wound and splint your leg. Yeah. On the day of our final exam it snowed and I found myself splinting an arm in wet cold nastiness and I was reminded of all the reasons why I like ambulances, hospitals and civilization. But being out here is so good--
THOUGHTS FROM EMILY'S PARENTS:
Emily's feelings about her NOLS experience need no translation. She adores it.
My view is that a year devoted to an adventure and challenge that is so totally different from the Phillips Academy experience is a year well spent, and an experience not to be missed. She worked very hard here academically for 4 years, and is looking forward to her next challenging academic experience at Bowdoin, but to really enhance the next experience, she needed to energize herself in a completely different context. She has grown tremendously during this adventure, and I know that it will enhance and enrich her college experience. Carol
Carol Israel PhD, Director of Psychological Services, Phillips Academy