Our 100 day intensive Fall and Spring semesters are challenging immersions into place-based learning, real-world research and problem solving, sustainable living practices, intentional community building, and a sense of what is possible. Instead of learning history from a textbook, you will converse with local Bahamians and understand how to study the histories of a place in small class groups of twelve. Instead of creating artistic work about the world outside your school’s walls, you will let the outside world shape your artistic expression. You will not just learn to identify marine species from land, but you will discover ecosystem as you look up through the surface of the water. Alumni frequently tell us that at The Island School they “learned how to learn.” You will not be doing work in traditional high school labs; you will walk across a footbridge to the Cape Eleuthera Institute, a world class research facility, and conduct scientific research alongside scientists and graduate students. You will not just discuss what it means to live on a campus with solar and wind power, biodiesel production, and water catchment systems, you will have the opportunity to make The Island School more sustainable by designing projects that help us live better in a place.

The Island School mission for creating a better world through education is both bold and tangible- and the effort they are exerting is creating clear results. A School can be a model of what we want to do in the world. It is a at a scale small enough to get our mind around, yet big enough to be significant.

Dr. David Orr, Professor of Environmental Studies, Oberlin College

Spring 2013 Semester Calendar

March 4: Students Arrive

April 22: Interim Reports Mailed

May 22 – 25: Parents Weekend

June 8: Research Symposium

June 13: Students Depart

Fall 2013 Semester Calendar

August 26: Students Arrive

October 16: Interim Reports Mailed

November 13- 16: Parents Weekend

November 30: Research Symposium

December 5: Students Depart

Spring 2014 Semester Calendar

March 3: Students Arrive

April 23: Interim Reports Mailed

May 21 – 24: Parents Weekend

June 7: Research Symposium

June 12: Students Depart

While The Island School community is one in which you will live closely with your peers and faculty without the distractions of internet and cell phones, The Island School is just a small subset of the home you will be embracing. Through work with students at the Deep Creek Middle School, and daily engagement with residents of the local communities, you will realize that may have arrived feeling like a tourist, but you will leave with South Eleuthera embedded in yourself.

We find that the students who attend The Island School return to us with increased environmental awareness and enhanced problem solving skills. For many, the experience seems nothing short of transformational.
Robert P. Henderson, Head of Noble and Greenough

The most tangible aspect of The Island School program lies in the physical challenge of training for a half marathon or 4-mile open ocean swim, the 8-day kayak expedition, and the 48 hour solo experience. However, your greatest accomplishments will come in the intellectual challenge of leaping the hurdles of your own perceptions of your limits.