Semester 34: Prom, Waste Warriors, and the final stretch of classes!

This week marks the final stretch of classes here on campus. In English we finished up our portfolios and are now working on slam poems and short stories. Slam poems are spoken poems about a struggle in society and students will be speaking them in class later this week. For P&P we are starting our final projects which will creatively represent our personal environmental ethic that we have developed over the semester. In science we are looking at the effects that mining has on the local Leadville environment and recently we went to the Arkansas River to measure the water quality of our local water source. Along with the boatload of fun final projects that we are working on, AP exams are taking place in Stuen Hall.

Unorthodox and out of randomness, HMI’s prom was a feeling of majestic and united happiness. Earlier in the week our mischievous apprentices put everyone’s name in a hat and pulled out assigned couples so everyone had a date. Some were chosen to propose to their date in order to maintain prom’s famed tradition of creativity. By the evening of prom we were dressed in Hawaiian clothing and coconut chicken and blueberry lemonade were served for dinner. It later evolved into your typical school dance with the exception of “Shout” by The Isley Brothers, which we thought would never be played.

Today was our last day of Waste Warriors! Waste Warriors is run every Wednesday by HMI’s very own math teacher, PK, during which we go to the local lower school in Leadville and teach the kids from first to sixth grades about climate change, water rights issues, and recycling. During the sixth grade lesson, we played Jeopardy with the kids and taught them what climate change was and how to reduce it through good practices, even though we accidentally threw out some trash in the recycling bin afterwards.

On Sunday, unfortunately, the weather snowed us out of our planned picnic at Buena Vista, even though it’s the beginning of May! However, we were able to go to the Leadville Mining Museum and did a scavenger hunt around the building, searching for facts about the history of the quiet mining town. For example, regular miners were able to pick away rocks and minerals 60 times a minute! Wow!

This week at HMI, the deck behind Who’s Hall is being torn down for further expansion this summer. It’s pretty bittersweet; we’ve had a lot of good memories on that porch, but we know that future semesters will enjoy it. Tom Judge is also in the process of building a boardwalk to Cabin 3. Members of that cabin won’t have to jump from dry patch to dry patch on the way to their cabin anymore – hooray! Sadly, the semester is coming to a close. Andrew and Danny have been working on prepping students on the transition from our home here at HMI to our “home-home.” Danny read us The Giving Tree, hoping to impart the message that we haven’t left yet – stay here while we’re still here. We’re all hoping to make the most of the last couple of weeks of our experience.