The Cortes Island Academy’s third year starts on Tuesday September 3, 2024. Executive Director Manda Aufochs Gillespie explained that there are a number of innovative new programs this semester as well as popular facilitators from previous years. The Mother Tree Network, Hakai Intitute, Hollyhock and Power of Hope are all contributing partners. For the first time ever, there are also still some last minute spots available for new students.
Manda Aufochs Gillespie: “For those of you who do not know what the Cortes Island Academy is, it’s an accredited experiential place-based high school program that happens right here on Cortes Island and is in partnerships with the school district, the Cortes Island School, the Cortes Island Community Foundation and pretty much every other organization and person on Cortes, because boy, does it take a lot of heart and help to make it happen.”
“This is our third year, and we’ve decided to change all sorts of things up in order to keep it fresh.”
“We’ll start on September 3rd with a meet and greet. Please, please come and be part of it. Meet the students, some of the facilitators and get behind the scenes a little earlier on.”
“That Labor Day weekend you will start seeing teenagers arrive back on the island.”
“We still have some spots for this year. So if you have a special young person in your life who would be a great addition to this kind of experiential project based learning, send them our way.”
“This year we have lower enrolment from Cortes students because there are very few local kids going into grade 10. That’s both a little bit sad and also something that we knew would come. There are just years on Cortes where there are less kids or where the kids have already had to leave in that hard effort of trying to find schooling that works for them. For the first time, we don’t have foreign exchange students, but it looks like we already have two signed up for next year.”
“As we have in years past, we have students coming from other communities, most especially other rural islands – so Sonora, Read, and some from as further out afield as Pender.”
“We’re doing a couple of things that we’re pretty excited about.”
“We have partnered with the Mother Tree Network and Hollyhock Leadership Institute and are doing a leadership intensive at Hollyhock October 20th through 25th. This gathering uses the creative facilitation model, which has really been popularized through Power of Hope, and is based on exploring the interface of ecology, the arts and experiential education. We have room for 30 students in a week long intensive with Dr. Suzanne Simard, other leaders from the Mother Tree Network, the Juno nominated musician Ruby Singh, a team of other local facilitators and knowledge holders, and some of the best known facilitators from the Power of Hope camps. Khari Wendell McClelland, who’s perhaps the best known and most beloved of all Power of Hope facilitators is the main facilitator for that week. They’re all going to be having a camp experience at Hollyhock.”
“This case leadership intensive is for the Cortes Island Academy students and other students may join. There are still some spaces for this. We’re prioritizing local and Indigenous youth, but there are still spaces for any kids and there are some scholarships available for this workshop.
“Cortes Island Academy students are also going to be joining with some other students at Hakai again for a climate intensive, to see what the current science is around all things related to climate and the ecological impacts of our changing ecosystems. They spend a week at the incredible state of the art science facilities on Quadra Island.”
“The themes this year are climate and art. We have a couple of new facilitators joining this year. We have Tianna Barton Hope, who’s a local artist, coming in to help lead the students through an exploration of these times through art. Rex Weyler, who’s been involved with the Cortes Island Academy from the beginning, is doing a deep dive with them through the semester on science and the deep ecology of our time in this place.”
“The students will be sharing a lot of what they are up to this year.”
“We will be again doing Folk U Fridays with the students, every Friday at 1 o’clock and those will usually be at the school, but sometimes there might be field trips. So stay tuned to get the details.”
“This year they’re not doing podcasts and films. It’s going to be really different. They’re going to be presenting their art and they’re working on written pieces, books etc.”
“The final showcase for this semester of the Cortes Island Academy is going to be on Thursday, January 23, 2025,. There will be a big presentation to the community of some of the things that the students have worked on. It will probably be at Manson’s Hall again, but that’s pretty far in the future.”
“Keep your eyes peeled to Tideline for more details and as always, go to cortesislandacademy.ca. We have a great website where we continue to post the newest things happening. We have a newsletter that you can sign up for.”
To request more information about the Cortes Island Academy, specific workshops, or enrollment, email: admin@cortesislandacademy.ca
Links of Interest:
- The Cortes Island Academy website
- Cortes Island Academy Facebook page
- Articles about, or mentioning, the Cortes Island Academy on Cortes Currents & Folk U
Top image credit: View from the Hakai Institute on Quadra Island – Courtesy Cortes Island Academy
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