Among the interesting people on campus last week for the Wilderness First Responders recertification course taught by Wilderness Medical Associates (WMA) was our own Stephanie Schmiege, a 2005 alumna of Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki. Schmiege (Semester 34) currently lives in New York City, but her work, studies, and adventuresome spirit often take her to remote…
Latest News
Slapshot
For those of us who love gliding across a frozen pond, Maine winters deliver a special treat. The best conditions come from black ice, the ultra-clear, dense, satiny ice that forms in very cold weather before snow arrives. It’s the crème de la crème for amoureux de la glace, magical stuff that’s been rare in recent years….
Nancy Kennedy Joins Wiscasset Chamber of Commerce
As a major employer and an educational partner with local public schools, Chewonki has significant economic and cultural impact on midcoast Maine. Nancy Kennedy, Vice President for Camp Chewonki, recognizes the implications of that power and plans to use it creatively as a new member of the Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors….
Hannah Marshall Named Lead Educator
Hannah Marshall, a Chewonki Outdoor Classroom leader in 2017 and 2018 who has also led our Central Quebec Canoe Trip, Allagash Canoe Adventure, and 10-day program for Camp Chewonki for Girls, has been named the Outdoor Classroom’s lead educator for 2019. Along with her program experience, Marshall has led a training expedition for Chewonki Wilderness…
Looking for a Couple of Real Heroes
With snow on the trees and ice on Monsweag Bay, Boys Camp Assistant Director Henry Heyburn and Wilderness Trips Coordinator Jen Adams are visiting colleges and universities across the Northeast to meet young adults who might be outstanding camp counselors or wilderness trip leaders. “We want them to know about the great place Chewonki is…
Art and the Natural World
Floating is one of the first things art teacher Sue West asked her students to do when they arrived for Maine Coast Semester 61 at Chewonki. On a late-summer afternoon, they splashed into Montsweag Brook’s salty water and then drifted, letting the tide carry them. “I asked them, Why float on the tide?” she says,…
Ya Wanna Wanigan?
Standing at the head of his portable sawmill, stationed in front of the Whitehouse, Mike Reed, a sawyer from Nobleboro, Maine, is sawing boards from white pines harvested on Chewonki Neck, transforming tree trunks into 2”- and ½”-lumber that Camp Chewonki boys will use next summer to make miniature wanigans*, toy boats, birdhouses, and other…
A Grove of Mouse-ear Hawkweed
“Put away that umbrella,” chides Kary. “We don’t need umbrellas here!” The students laugh. “It was hard in the beginning,” one admits, “but now we’re used to it. We love it.” On this afternoon they are learning about succession, how lichen on granite can give way to moss, then leafy plants, then grasses, then…
Globicephala Algebra
Globicephala Algebra -or- Precalculus Is A Whale of a Good Time! -or- Cetacean Creation Yields Curve Verve Maine Coast Semester at Chewonki students recently noticed Science Fellow Kyle Wonser helping some visiting Outdoor Classroom students assemble a pilot whale skeleton. “Why can’t we do that?” they asked. Math teacher Katie Curtis heard them. “I thought…
ACCEPTISSI SITIS AD CENAM ROMANAM!
Each semester, there are typically a small handful of Latin students at Maine Coast Semester. What they lack in numbers, they make up for in die-hard fanaticism. This week, Latin teacher Steven Farrand’s Semester 61 students decided to concoct a Roman feast for the semester community, and their enthusiasm was palpable in the kitchen as…
