Dear Maine Coast Semester community,
It is with a heavy heart that I say farewell to Chewonki Neck this week. It has been a privilege to serve you for the last eight years.
There is much I am proud of from my years as Maine Coast Semester Director, Co-Director, Academic Dean, and before that as an English teacher. I want to take this opportunity to reflect on a few of these moments as I say goodbye.
One of the most significant ways I strived to live Chewonki’s values was through supporting our faculty team as Director these past three years to create a healthy, stable, and joyful professional community together on the heels of a period of frequent staff turnover. During these years, our team has innovated and adapted to maintain the core values and goals that have guided Maine Coast Semester through shifting conditions at Chewonki and in the world at large. We leaned into our value of cultivating in-person community, ensuring that our policies around engagement with digital technology are intentional. Along the way, we respected and honored the fact that we followed in the footsteps of great educators and visionaries who have led Maine Coast Semester since its inception.
It was a great privilege to witness and facilitate the individual and collective growth of hundreds of students and sixteen unique semesters. I am grateful for the relationships I’ve developed with so many of you. Whether we hiked together in the Bigelows, debated energy solutions in EI class, weeded together on a work program, shared laughs and stories over a meal, or navigated a difficult Great Expectations conversation, the connections are genuine and lasting. As a sixteen-year-old semester student, I found my own path in life shaped by the founding faculty who created the principles that have grounded and guided Maine Coast Semester for 38 years, and I am grateful to Chewonki for that gift.
I have also especially loved mentoring and learning from the incredible educators who have come through our teaching fellowship program. After coaching fellows for several years, I worked with Chewonki leaders to partner with Mount Holyoke College and provide a Master’s degree program as part of our fellowship experience. This partnership allowed us to expand our applicant pool, better support these young educators, and add value to the Maine Coast Semester experience for everyone.
As a teacher and administrator, I worked with talented teaching fellows and colleagues to create, coordinate, and teach curriculum for Literature and the Land, Human Ecology Seminar, and Environmental Issues. But it was the students from whom I learned the most on a daily basis.
As I have told students at the conclusion of recent semesters, it brings me peace knowing that you, thoughtful humans with good hearts, strong voices, and the tools to solve difficult problems, will lead in ways the world desperately needs right now.
Keep in touch, I know our paths will cross again; the Chewonki bond is strong. Know that if you are a recent student hoping to ask me for a college recommendation, I am still happy to write on your behalf. I will also continue to serve as a reference for alumni, just ask!
I look forward to our future connections and conversations.
Sarah
srebick@gmail.com
(303) 775-4892
