Dustin-Fall 2004

Since his time as a member of Island School’s F04 semester, Dustin has been busy with several alternative energy projects and other exciting adventures. Dustin’s Island School experience inspired him to take action at his home high school, where he worked to get solar panels installed on his school’s buildings. Although he has yet to see this project come into fruition due to lack of funds, he is confident that it will eventually be completed. As Dustin told us, “I didn’t write up a 17-page report for nothing!”

Now in his Junior year at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Dustin continues to remain active in the world of sustainable and alternative energy. He is the youngest employee at the Boulder-based Solar installation company called Namaste Solar. Dustin is currently studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is learning Spanish and all about Argentinean culture. He hopes that his experiences in South America will allow him to take the alternative energy company he plans on owning one day all over the world. He will be in South America until December 30, traveling to the southern tip of Ushuaia and through Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.

After all his abroad adventures are over, Dustin will be back at UC Boulder to complete his Math and Environmental Studies majors and work for Namaste Solar. Dustin’s involvement in alternative energies has been an inspiration for us down here on the Cape as we continue to discover new ways to live more sustainably.

Elizabeth (Lizzie)-Spring 2004

Lizzie attended The Island School in spring 2004 as a sophomore from Hathaway Brown School (HBS) in Ohio. When Lizzie returned to HBS she realized her newfound interest in environmental studies could not be fulfilled because there were no courses at her school. She took the initiative and spent her last two years at HBS working on an independent study with fellow IS alum, Elizabeth Koury, SP '04, to form a curriculum for an Environmental Studies class based on what they learned at The Island School. They altered the curriculum so it catered to the environment and climate of Cleveland. It was a place-based curriculum that covered everything from biodiesel (and implementing it into their school) to composting and water conservation. The class is still currently being taught at HBS.

After high school, Lizzie went to Middlebury College knowing she wanted to focus on environmental studies. She joined the Sunday Night Group, Middlebury's Environmental Club and has been an active member ever since. This year Lizzie declared her major as "Architecture and the Environment," or environmental studies with a focus on architecture and sustainable design. This summer, she is working at HOK, an architecture firm in NYC, as an intern under the sustainable designer. This fall, Lizzie is going to Tanzania to study Wildlife Ecology and Conservation with the School of International Training (SIT).

When Lizzie applied to The Island School she was not as interested in the environmental curriculum as much as the opportunity to do something new and different. She never could have predicted the impact The Island School would have on her and how many lifelong friends she would make during her semester. As Lizzie said, "Almost every aspect of my life right now, whether directly or indirectly, comes back to what I learned at The Island School. My interests, my hobbies and actions, are all reflections of my experience four years ago, and I would be a very different person without it."