The Island School worked with our nonprofit, The Quest for Excellence NYC Award, to send a NYC high school student to their summer term this past year. This student is high-achieving, but comes from a family with very little money and parents who speak little English. He was motivated and excited about the experience, and the Island School supported him, and our organization, in every way possible. Their generous scholarship allowed us to pay his additional costs, including transportation and supplies, so that he did not have to come out of pocket. He was gone for a month over the summer, and came back with a wealth of experiences otherwise out of his reach.
Here is some of what our student had to say: "To tell the truth, I didn't know what to expect when I was on my flight there....Two days after I settled in, all of my worries were gone. The staff there are all extremely fun and interesting, they are always around whenever I needed anything. The students are also very cool; some of them were also on scholarships, while many others are from boarding and private schools, so interacting and hanging out with them was something new for me (I learned a lot from them). The classes there are just spectacular; there are seldom any classes that just happen inside a tiny rectangular classroom....During marine ecology week, we scuba dived 35 feet under water to observe patch reefs!! That was super fascinating and exciting, and that was definitely the most wide-awakened I have ever been during class. Once again, if it isn't for you guys, I would have never even dare to dream about such a revolutionary and life changing experience. This opportunity is absolutely one of its kind."
What a wonderful organization that supports students from all backgrounds, and encourages conservation as well!
The urgent nature of climate change can overwhelm even the most conscientious citizens. The Cape Eleuthera Foundation emerges as an organization that is remarkably successful at penetrating this paralysis by directly empowering students, educators and scientists to become agents for positive change. From the leadership to the residential staff and visiting students, every member of the community is actively engaged in asking tough questions and making personal sacrifices in order to live well with less. I am so proud to serve as the Director of Admission for The Island School and every day experience how ripples of hope from Eleuthera spread and gain momentum. I believe that the Cape Eleuthera Foundation is perfectly poised to take on even more of a leadership role within the environmental education movement.
My first involvement with the Cape Eleuthera Foundation came in January 2004 when I visited Eleuthera as a 14 year-old prospective student. I applied, was accepted, and spent a semester as a student there in 2005. Without a doubt, the time I spent at the Island School - one of three nonprofit educational institutions under the Cape Eleuthera Foundation - was an incredible formative experience. In three months I not only gained a new perspective on the world but also physical and emotional self-confidence and relationships that are still close almost a decade later. Since I left the Island School in the summer of 2005 I have been involved in alumni relations/advising and currently serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Cape Eleuthera Foundation, overseeing the Island School, Cape Eleuthera Institute, and the Deep Creek Middle School. I am constantly humbled by the professionalism and caliber of everyone associated with CEF and the important mission of the organization to inculcate a sense of community and connectivity (with a focus on environmental sustainability and individual leadership) in a world that is trending away from these critical pillars.
The Cape Eleuthera Foundation is aimed at the big picture: sustainable life on our planet for humans and the rest of Earth's creatures, how to solve the problems that are facing us now, and how to share the solutions to those problems with other communities. Education is, of course, the key, and the semester program we support, The Island School, is life changing for the special students drawn from all over the world who are lucky enough to be chosen to attend, and for the communities they return to and support throughout their lives.
The Cape Eleuthera Foundation is among the most profoundly important nonprofit organizations I have ever had the privilege of being involved with. The Foundation supports education, scientific research, community leadership and sustainable technologies. Programs in these areas offer life-changing experiences for primary to graduate level students, and provide the knowledge, insight, skills and wisdom to live well and sustainably in our physical and social environments.