January 28th, 2022

RAMPING UP IMPACT

Aloha all,

Happy Friday! It has been an exciting and eventful couple of weeks for the Office of Experiential Education, as all of the elements of our Impact programs have been ramping up. After the official catalog for this year’s high school I-Term was released last week, students prepared excellent applications to submit as soon as registration opened. As of today, we are thrilled to announce that course registration has closed, all students have been allocated to an I-Term course, and final rosters have been set and released. If you are a member of our high school community, please take a moment to review the rosters as relevant; they have been distributed to students and faculty via email. As a reminder, I-Term 2022 falls prior to spring break, on the week of March 7–11, though select courses extend beyond this range. For those unfamiliar with I-Term (short for “Impact Term”), I-Term is a week of experiential learning for our middle and high school students that occurs outside the classroom, beyond the scope of traditional content. Whether learning new life skills, experiencing other cultures, or exploring the natural world (or all three!), I-Term is an extraordinary opportunity for students to bond across grade levels in the pursuit of extracurricular knowledge.

High school students have also received updated B-Block allocations based on personal preference and current academic standing. Among our incredible offerings of projects, classes, and academic support groups are two new options: (1) a debate elective, led by LJA’s very own resident lawyer, high school principal Alex Ramsvig, and (2) a photography course led by Community Impact Program Coordinator Avery Filer. Both are amazing offerings with dedicated mentors, and we can’t wait to see students thrive in these B-Block courses throughout this semester.

Lastly, as a brief update to our last newsletter (in which we detailed the “Wild Packs” our high schoolers crafted for the lower school), we have been delighted by the wealth of positive responses we have received from lower school families this past week. We are thankful for the opportunities provided by our Impact programs to have made such an interdivisional effort possible, and we look forward to many more collaborations in the future.

For inquiries about I-Term, B-Blocks, or any other component(s) of our Impact programs, please contact our Dean of Experiential Education and Community Partnerships, Christina Hoe, at christina.hoe@lejardinacademy.org. Please excuse some delay in response, as the Office of Experiential Education is currently experiencing a high volume of messages and activity.

Mahalo for your support as we ready ourselves for an exciting spring of Impact!

David Hays, Experiential Education Intern, Class of 2022

KAWAINUI CORNER / Featured Impact Project:

HĀMĀKUA MARSH WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

In our last newsletter, we briefly mentioned our long-standing partnership with State Rep. Lisa Marten and her nonprofit, Healthy Climate Communities (HCC), at Hāmākua Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary. This week, we take a closer look at LJA students’ efforts at this Impact worksite, following them for one of their Wednesday work days. A group of roughly ten high schoolers visits Hāmākua every week, and many have been involved with the site for multiple years.

LJA students survey the Hāmākua Marsh worksite after arriving after school. A habitat for several endemic birds, it is not uncommon to see critically endangered species in the wetlands at the site.

Students take a short walk to the rear portion of the wildlife sanctuary, heading to the irrigation dam tarps where they will be working for the day.

Students arrive at the area of the worksite where they will be conducting conservation work.

Seniors Sasha Zagorski, Juliana Rhee, and Aya Lewis take a break to perform synchronized handstands.

Sasha (c/o 2022) works to remove invasive plant species from the irrigation tarps. Sasha is part of the regular team that visits Hāmākua each week.

“I’ve worked at Hāmākua every Wednesday for almost a year now, and I’ve really been able to form a connection with this place and develop a personal interest in protecting it.”

STUDENT LEAD SPOTLIGHT: JULIANA RHEE & AYA LEWIS

Both seniors in the class of 2022, Juliana Rhee and Aya Lewis serve as our dedicated student leads for our stewardship of Hāmākua, having worked with Rep. Marten at the protected marsh since LJA began its official partnership with HCC in 2020.

The primary student lead, Juliana is also a member of the Wild Kids Stewardship Council. She has been involved with Wild Kids and Hāmākua site since her junior year, when she first came to LJA. Juliana started by visiting the marsh twice a week with Rep. Marten herself, learning about native plants and contributing to the first irrigation tarping projects. She now mentors others in the offshoots of these early projects, maintaining the tarps to protect precious topsoil and defending native fauna from invasive competitors. Juliana sees Hāmākua as an incredibly valuable resource to LJA, a “space where kids can go to experience, appreciate, and care for nature in their own community.” She also sees how the cultural values propagated at Hāmākua develop the international-mindedness of her marsh team. After graduating, Juliana plans to go to college on the U.S. mainland and study environmental science. She hopes to be able to use her passion and newfound knowledge to pursue a law degree focused in environmental law. This would allow her to take substantive action to help protect places like Hāmākua.

A fellow nature enthusiast, Aya co-leads at Hāmākua with a smile each week. “I love Hāmākua so much. Our partnership there is such an amazing opportunity for us to immerse ourselves in nature, and to learn from experts like Rep. Marten is a huge privilege that I’m always grateful for. Being able to work together across grade levels has really allowed our cohort to grow and bond together, and it’s such a gift. We get closer to nature, we get closer to each other, and we get closer to our community as a whole. And it’s important work!”

As for post-high school plans, Aya is excited to head to Colorado this fall, where she has been accepted to highly-competitive Colorado College. She plans to major in a discipline of the environmental sciences, as that’s what she’s most passionate about and feels is an important, pressing issue. With unparalleled access to nature in Colorado Springs, you’ll be likely to find her snowboarding or backpacking at Pikes Peak in her free time.