Written by Jack D., Walter, Stewart, Avery, Estela, Chloe, & Cate
Academics: Despite the rapidly approaching end of the semester, academics have not yet begun to slow down. In P&P (Practices & Principles), we have been working on our Personal Environmental Ethic Project. Successful projects have included: video documentaries on the way we consume material goods in America, parodies of popular songs with lyrics about colonial cosmology, posters on equity and inclusion in the outdoors, and much more. In science, we have begun our final unit on watersheds and mining. On Thursday, we went on a field trip to Turquoise Lake to learn about the way in which glacial deposits have helped to shape the geological nature of this region. Last Saturday, we visited superfund mining sites in Leadville to study the broader ecological impacts of acid mine drainage. In English, we have just finished the novel, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. History is concluding with a conversation on the American prison system and its role in our society. Finally, my math class has started a unit on graphing rational functions. And it all wraps up in a few days!
Weekend Activities: This weekend, we had two main events: a student “wedding” and a square dance. The wedding that we had was entirely student led, and we started organizing it last Monday. Sydney, a student in our semester, spearheaded the project and got all the supplies that we needed to make this wedding as hilariously realistic as possible. I officiated the wedding using a license that I made on Google Slides, and I gave a sermon from the book that all students have been reading in English class, Ceremony. All in all, our Saturday night wedding activity was a ball. On Sunday, we spent an hour and a half square dancing before dinner. Two lovely people came up from Buena Vista to lead us in the square dance. Almost everybody put in a little effort to have a costume going, whether it was overalls or just cowboy boots and jeans. In reality, square dancing was only a small part of it. We did a wide variety of dancing, but it all fit the western vibe. It was one really fun mesh of line dancing and square dancing and more. Overall, a great weekend!
Soup Club & Advisory Dinners: HMI is a school that prides itself on student, teacher relationships. The biggest examples of the many ways that HMI fosters these relationships are the “Soup Clubs with Danny,” our Head of School, and Advisory Dinners with our faculty advisors. Soup Club is a time when roughly eight students walk to Danny’s house and have a delicious meal with him and his family. I had a fantastic time dining with their family and learning more about my Head of School. Advisory dinners are another time when students really get to know a staff member. Usually, groups of students are invited to the home of their faculty advisor for dinner. Spending time with your advisory is always so much fun, especially when you get a break from the everyday routine of HMI and get to eat restaurant or home-cooked food! Both of these traditions make HMI students feel more at home within their environment and give us the chance to connect with the amazing adults around them.
Tuesday Activity Blocks: Every Tuesday afternoon while our teachers are in faculty meetings, our lovely apprentices lead us in activities! We are able to choose from various options that are athletic, art-related, or just fun. Highlights of this semester have included origami and Harry Potter trivia, although my favorite activities have been drawing and painting based. I will always remember the first week of activities when I painted the view of Mt. Elbert from the window of Who’s Hall and bonded with some of my closest friends. As the semester has progressed, like most parts of on-campus life, activities have become more and more student led. This past Tuesday, students led a trail running activity, an embroidery and water coloring activity, and a “time with the many campus dogs” activity. At first, activities were a great way to get to know my fellow students, but now, I love taking this time to recharge and hang out with my friends.
Project Day: With the semester ending so soon, it’s only natural that we should give back to the community that we’ve bonded with so much over these four months. This process of giving back is called Project Day, a day where every student picks two tasks to do throughout the day, ultimately helping HMI for semesters to come. I chose to help with “fading to nature,” a landscaping task near the faculty housing. I also helped clean the grease trap, which is a staple of Project Day. My first task involved collecting fallen and sawed down Lodgepole Pine trees to bring into the wood-chipper. Then, we spread wood-chips, along with ash and wildflower seeds, in the yards of faculty homes. Hopefully, it will all grow into a flourishing garden! It was hard work, often taking multiple students to drag a tree to the wood-chipper, but it paid off when we spread the fragrant wood chips with rakes and listened to music, throwing handfuls of flower seeds into the newly created garden. We also made snow angels out of wood chips and visited HMI’s chicken coop to feed the hens! For my second project, I cleaned the grease trap, which included the prepping process of making and wearing a trash bag dress and putting tampons up my nose. We descended the stairs to the crawl space and began to clean the semester’s worth of grease buildup in the kitchen basement. There is no positive way to describe the process. My group and I scooped watery chunks of grease into a bucket, dragged it upstairs to the dumpster, and then repeated the process multiple times. It was gross, but we laughed our way through it with jokes, music, and Jacob, our English teacher’s, help. Plus, the satisfaction of taking a hot shower and knowing we helped HMI made it all worth it!
Apprentice Think Tanks: Throughout the semester, students have gotten the privilege to get to know our apprentices as not only our teachers’ assistants, but also as our friends. And today, we got to know our apprentices even better through their Think Tanks. The apprentices get to make a presentation on anything they feel passionate about, and the only rule is that it is not allowed to be on the subject they help teach. This allows the apprentices to share their passions with students, and hearing their Think Tanks was one of the highlights of my semester. We have a very passionate group of apprentices this semester, and they used their creativity to come up with engaging topics. We started off the morning with our math apprentice, Sam K, putting on an incredible production of the play called Tainted Love. Before the presentation, he discussed the relationship between math and the theatrical world. This speech was followed by an incredible performance put on by 11 students. He did a beautiful job directing this production, and it was amazing to see one of my math teachers exploring another one of his passions. Next, our wilderness apprentice, Lia, did a presentation on Zebra Finches and Neuroscience. She gave a fascinating presentation discussing the similarities between these finches and humans and how COVID-19 and isolation affects the two species similarly. Sam H followed Lia and did a personal presentation discussing his love for baseball and farming and how these two activities are the epitome of “American Life.” Both the good sides of baseball and farming, and the bad sides. Our English apprentice, Margaret, talked about queer theory in rural and urban America. Her presentation was fascinating, as it used the hit television show Schitt’s Creek to demonstrate the idea that it is not always the urban elites who know the most about queer identities. Our country is founded on many ideas about what queerness looks like and where it is found, but Margaret connected with us students through the comical TV show and showed us that those ideas are not always true. Amanda, one of our two science apprentices, gave a presentation on her love of languages. She focused on French and Turkish and how knowing languages can open opportunities for students. Languages can create connections between people of many different cultures and backgrounds, and Amanda told us some amazing stories of how knowing those languages bettered her life. Our last presentation was very hands-on and it was given by our Spanish apprentice, Amos. He gave a presentation on his favorite form of entertainment, panel television shows. Amos has an incredible sense of humor, and through his presentation, we were able to see part of where he got that humor. The Think Tank was such a great opportunity to both learn more about the apprentices that we have been connecting with all semester and to celebrate them. They worked just as hard as students this semester, if not harder, and the Think Tank was an outstanding way for the community to celebrate them and their hard work.
Fun Run & Prom: On the morning of the Fun Run, we woke up to a new slate of snow, ready to embark on a classic HMI adventure. After preparing for two months with morning AMX, it was time to finally run the HMI Fun Run. Fun might be a little bit of a stretch considering the whole semester ran 10 miles in 35 degree weather, but we managed to make the most of it. Danny, our Head of School, said it was the coldest weather he has ever run in, and Jacob, our English teacher, ran his fastest Fun Run time ever. We made sure the faculty experienced the Fun Run with us. Semester 48 is known for its running—the first time I met someone outside of my First Expedition group, it was the second day on campus, and I had the pleasure to run with Hazel and Rosie. Overall, running is important to us for many reasons, but especially for the chance it gives us to connect with our peers. On the way to the start line of the Fun Run, we were worried but excited. The bus ride gave us time to get hyped, listen to dancing queen, and get ready to go. On the first mile of the run, we started ambitiously, running a bit too fast. Then, we ran to the aid station to ditch our layers. Three miles later, we were in familiar terrain, running part of the notorious six mile loop. By mile eight, the last aid station, I was ready to be done, but we kept going, pushing through the next mile of hills. As we finished, we were greeted by voices screaming us on. The best part of it all was cheering on everyone as they finished and seeing their smiles at the end. Everyone who could finish, finished and everyone finished well, showing the strength of our semester.
