When COVID-19 descended on Maine last spring, Chewonki, like all educational institutions, came to a near standstill. Maine Coast Semester 64 and Chewonki Elementary School students went home. School programs were suddenly wiped off the calendar. Summer programs? What summer programs? Boys Camp, Girls Camp, and Leadership Expeditions were scratched from the docket. An eerie stillness hung over Chewonki Neck. Not everything stopped, however. An effort to upgrade Chewonki’s healthcare facilities Read More

Our entire staff recently participated in an anti-racism training facilitated by Martha Haakmat of Haakmat Consulting and Alissa Schwartz of Solid Fire Consulting. The consulting team specializes in organizational development within a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) framework. They will be working with us over a multi-year period. During the workshop, faculty and staff learned how to identify and intervene in common microaggressions that participants and staff might experience on campus. Read More

Olivia Woollam, an alumna of Semester 38, is using her class privilege to support the redistribution of power and resources in her hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Woollam’s passion for social justice work is buoyed by a firm grasp of her personal values and the ability to build authentic relationships - both of which she learned about at Chewonki.  “High school semester programs can allow you to experiment with a new adult-ish version of yourself with people who haven’t already decided who Read More

We are grateful for the courage and clarity of thought expressed by many individuals who have recently chosen to share their experiences of racism at Chewonki on the BIPOC at Chewonki Instagram feed. We have not done enough to fight racism within our organization. For that, we are profoundly sorry. We hear that our role in this moment is to actively and respectfully listen, and not to intrude into a space created to amplify BIPOC voices. However, we welcome the opportunity to connect with Read More

The abrupt, nationwide shift to remote learning this spring was more than unexpected, it was stunning. But perhaps we shouldn’t be shocked by what came next: Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki, a program designed around experiential, place-based pedagogy and deeply connected to the physical location of Chewonki Neck, successfully adapted to a remote academic environment. “Learning continued,” says Pete Sniffen, dean of academics. “Students challenged themselves. [They] fell behind and then made Read More

High schoolers who attend Maine Coast Semester are adventurous, hard-working, and community-oriented, and we are often inspired by their work beyond Chewonki. When the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the last few months of his senior year, Callum Becvarik, (an alumnus of Maine Coast Semester 61 and Camp Chewonki) put these traits to work in service of others. He signed up for the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a national volunteer network that responds to natural disasters and public health Read More

The death of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer, recorded for nearly nine horrifying minutes, opened a floodgate of pain for so many over the past week. The outrage grows inside each of us as this sickening event builds on so many others to further expose racism in our society and in ourselves.  We are speaking up today, as white leaders of a predominantly white institution, in solidarity with black and indigenous communities, as well as other communities of color, to join Read More