We were in science class, and our teacher had just told us that Big Night might be tonight. Big Night is a night near the end of March when a lot of frogs and salamanders migrate to vernal pools to breed. It’s a wet, warm (for Maine) night and supposedly the weather was going to be just right for it to happen. In any other school, in any other place, that would be the end of it. Your science teacher might tell you more about it the day after, but that would be all there was to that lesson. This Read More

About a month before I went to Chewonki, I was having a lot of doubts. Is this actually something that I can do? Will I even feel like I belong there? I thought. I told myself that it would be foolish not to go, especially when I had been given this opportunity in the midst of a global pandemic where I hadn’t learned in person since last March. Even so, I was worried that when I got there, I simply wouldn't have it in me to do what I needed to do: work fast, adapt to a new routine, meet and Read More

Last Saturday was our first-ever outdoor skills training. Every Saturday we learn new outdoor skills in preparation for Chewonki’s three experience peaks; outdoor leadership weekend, solos, and our backcountry expeditions. This year is also very special because at the end of May, we will be going to the heart of Maine’s North Woods to Fourth Debsconeag Lake. During that time, we will explore the woods, hike and canoe, and have a big community celebration at a magical place to celebrate the end Read More

I was having a pleasant Thursday morning on the third day since arriving at Chewonki. Surrounded by six of the new friends I was quarantined with, we conversed about the upcoming day and what it would bring (since the first two days were an adventure, full of exploring Chewonki’s magic). Just then, Sarah, the Associate Dean, arrived at our cabin and invited all of us to visit the farm for a few minutes since she was on her way there. While I jumped at the opportunity, my friends did not share Read More

It was a great pleasure to welcome the new students of Semester 66 to campus this past Sunday. Hailing from 15 different states, students enjoyed bright sunny weather and spent the day settling in and exploring campus, from Salt Marsh Farm down to the estuaries of Montsweag Bay, before regrouping for dinner and a chance to unpack and meet cabin-mates.  Early Monday morning, we had an enthusiastic group descend on the Oxbow waterfront for a quick “Polar Bears” dip in water (a time-honored Read More

I remember first hearing our cabin assignments over Zoom, and finding out I was in Orchard cabin with five other girls. In our first meetings together I thought to myself, can this really work? We were all strangers with life experiences that were so vastly different. I wondered how we would ever go from strangers to friends, as suggested by the promising blog posts I read before coming here. Why on earth did I think it was a good idea to randomly move in with five girls to a cabin that needed Read More

This weekend before Halloween, the whole of our semester gathered. We all sat on Orchard field in the dimming sunlight. We circled together as cabin units, and the faculty formed a circle to hug our own. Theirs was large and loose, while we held a brittle tension among us. I got to look around at the people who have been so present in every day of my life since coming here. It was my last chance before solos. The wind brisked around us and the birds chirped on trees that leaned over the field. Read More

October 26th - a day for the books. It was a cool and sunny day, with scattered showers throughout. It felt as a normal day would, but little did I know I was in for a surprising treat. We had finished our morning classes and were gearing up for our small journey to Spartina point, where the Salt Marsh lies. We were given dark green, full leg-length boots that would crease as we walked and made us all look like fishermen. When we got to Spartina point we sat in the salt marsh hay and took Read More

Classes had finished for the day and I had an hour or so before my chores began. I ran back to my cabin with a friend, eager to break in my overalls. I rifled through my stack of folded t-shirts, hoping to find one to wear underneath. I settled on one and threw on a pair of boots as well. Then, we hurriedly gathered at the farm. At this time, the sun lingered on into the evening, bringing its warmth along with it. Though that was only a few weeks ago, the environment has changed since: the Read More

In the days before welcoming Semester 65, Julie Barnes, our Dean of Students, sent out a message which resonated deeply with our learning community and has been on our minds ever since. Julie spoke of a passage from the book The Great Tide Rising by Kathleen Dean Moore. This excerpt was about the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in 1980 and how scientists believed that all life would be wiped out from the mountain, and that it would not return for centuries. The author comments: "What the Read More