The End-of-Year Program begins! 5.21.12

 It's that time of year for trips to depart. I took these pictures at 7am today as Dave Worden, Guillermo, and CFS alum Elsa Hoffman prepared to leave for the Adirondacks with 10 students. As you can see, they are packed to the gills. They will be hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and camping in the beautiful northland. Meanwhile, the West trip met at the airport at 5am this morning for a 6:50am flight to Las Vegas. Their first stop is the Havasupai Reservation. Then, off to the Grand Canyon for a few days before their canoe trip on the Green River through Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons. The Galapagos trip left yesterday for their amazing, over-the-top experience in the Galapagos Islands. The Nicaragua group leaves tomorrow for Las Salinas de Nahualapa at Finca Equilibrio for service projects. (Look it up. It looks like a lovely place to stay.) Trinidad takes off on Wednesday morning (with me in tow!) where we will be working for Habitat for Humanity and at an orphanage. The freshmen will be on campus Wednesday-Friday of this week. They leave for Newton Grove on Sunday. As you can imagine, this is a very exciting and important time of year for the Upper School community. So many life-changing experiences. After I return from Trinidad, I hope to share information about our students who have designed their own internships.

 Here is a picture of the wood working mini-session. Thank you, Bob Winstead!

 Thanks also to Angela Burr who taught felting. This 2-day project resulted in some beautiful designs.

 I just knew you would want to see this exciting shot of CFS staff members learning to use our new Veracross database and registration program. That empty chair is mine. This new program will offer many important opportunities to the US staff that will aid in everything from registering advisees for classes, to keeping attendance, getting lesson plans online, and generally simplifying many of our processes. Yay!

As I mentioned, I am off to Trinidad. I will return on June 1st, ahead of the group. Other return dates are as follows: Adirondacks on June 2, Trinidad on June 4, all other trips on June 5. Safe travels, everyone!