Tag Archives: Kai Harvey

A new semester begins at the Cortes Island Academy

The Cortes Island Academy kicked off its second year with a ‘meet and greet’ barbeque on Tuesday, September 5. Students and homestay parents met with some of the people working behind the scenes. School started the following day.

“Right now, the students are just going back into the classroom after being in Carrington for the last four days on a camping trip that started on the weekend and went into the week.  They are still in the  outdoor education fundamentals getting to know each other part of the semester,” explained Manda Aufochs Gillespie, the Academy’s principal Board member.

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Cortes Island Academy: Looking back to lessons learned and forward to 2023/2024

“It’s such a different experience from normal school. I think really just connecting with people, and having a class where you can be friends with everyone in it.” 

 “It regains my faith in humanity a little bit, seeing everyone be so supportive.”

“A lesson that I’ll be taking with me, is that I can learn from everybody who I meet.”

Those were some of the student comments from the Cortes Island Academy website. The 2022/2023 semester is now over and the academy is preparing for a Forest Ecology Semester in 2023/2024.

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Raising $10,000 for the Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island, two reasons why  

‘Giving Tuesday’ is just five days away. The Forest Trust for the Children of Cortes Island Society (FTCCIS) is trying to raise $10,000 for the valuation and assessment which will hopefully lead to their purchasing two parcels of forest. There are actually several components to this story. This morning we are going to talk to two young women involved with the new Children’s Forest Video made for this fund raising drive. 

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The New Children’s Forest Video

The Cortes Children’s Forest Trust has just released an incredible video, as part of fundraiser that will end of Tuesday November 29, 2022.  As the audio is strong enough to stand on its’ own, I am playing it in today’s program.

If you live on Cortes, you may recognise a few of the voices:  Al Huuskonen, Andy Ellingsen, Bruce Ellingsen, Christine Robinson, Daniel Tucker, Emma Mathieu, Kai Harvey, Kiera Tsaknoas, Paul Stamets, Tosh Harvey, Tzeporah Berman, or Zyla Schmidt.

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Students, instructors enthusiastic about early stages of Cortes Island Academy pilot program

By Greg Osoba, CKTZ News, through an LJI grant from Canada-info.ca

Students and instructors are happy with the first semester of a pilot program for senior high school students on Cortes Island. The Cortes Island Academy is the brainchild of parents on the island, where teenagers in grades 10, 11 and 12 had to either be homeschooled or leave to complete their high school education prior to this school year.

The Academy launched this past September. The school year is based on a semester system consisting of four blocks, each lasting four to five weeks: Outdoor Adventure & Leadership; Marine Ecology; Creative Tools For Truth Telling; and Film Making.

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