December 2020 Newsletter
December Newsletter
Head of School
As our fall semester comes to a close, we are all focused on ending 2020 on a high note. Our seniors have now begun receiving acceptance letters & scholarship offers to universities all over America while the underclassmen are pushing the average GPA higher than it has ever been. More athletic competitions are returning by the day & our coaches have been registering athletes & booking accommodations. Covid vaccines are now being given to front line health care professionals in Oregon with Child Care Agencies being targeted for vaccinations in the spring of 2021. The upcoming winter semester will have the largest group of staff & students in the history of Wy’East Academy & we are looking forward to hosting six cohorts here in January. We are now looking at a waitlist of students for several programs with applications now coming in for the summer & fall semesters, so please make sure to follow up with Dan Tattersfield to reserve your spot for next year. We thank you all for your continued support & wish you a happy & healthy holiday season.
-Mike Hanley
Academics
December was the month of improving GPAs, preparing for and taking finals, and snowboarding with students and teachers. We both had tons of fun spending time up the mountain with our students.
As we wrap up the end of the year, we've reflected on the gratitude we have for our students, this school, and this season. May everyone have happy holidays with family and friends. Courses will start on January 11th, but they are available January 1st if anyone would like to get a head start. We hope next semester students will all be able to maintain and stay ahead of pace.
Jaime Vincent's student of the month is Alessia Vergani for being proactive, improving her GPA, and creating tunes to play in the background of her snowboard edits.
Kayla Hokanson's student of the month is Brooke Anderson for her willingness to go above and beyond, her diligence and hard work in getting exceptional grades, and her helpfulness towards her peers.
- Jaime Vincent & Kayla Hokanson
Residential
Our Students wrapped up the semester with a trip to a Paintball Course
We are so proud of how far our students have come from the beginning of the semester to the end. This year has not been easy on anyone but they were able to shine the light on things to make it a great semester. We wrapped up the semester with a few fun activities. The students enjoyed some classic snow tubing up at Ski Bowl. Everyone got to experience snow on campus, we even had a few snowball fights break out! We ended the semester strong with some team building activities at Splat Action to play a couple rounds of paintball. The Skiers played against The Snowboarders and The Mountain Bikers faces off against Skaters. Everyone had a blast in the mud. We hope everyone has a great holiday season and spends some quality time with their family. We look forward to seeing everyone in January!
-Phil Geyselears. Alissa Hetzel, Nick Garcia, Clayton Greenburg, Natalia Thorenson & Aaron Reynolds
Zoe hopping on for a ride while tubing
Freeski
First and foremost as a ski staff we would like to wholeheartedly thank all of you for being a part of an amazing semester! We faced our fair share of challenges along the way, in an ever changing landscape that we knew was going to be unknown, but we managed to stay the course and make the most of the opportunities we were given. We appreciate you all trusting in us to make the right decisions, and your continued support throughout the first semester. We spent a great deal of time and effort into preparing for the upcoming competition season, and as a staff we feel prepared, and all agree that this semester was a great success! We are excited to hit the ground running and take on whatever second semester has in store!
We hope everyone enjoys a happy, healthy holiday break!
-Brian McCarthy, Topher Newett & Griffin Dunne
Luka put in work on The Dry Slope™ this past semester
Mountain Bike
Happy Holidays Mountain Bike Families!
Thank you all for a great first semester of this program. We are excited for the program to grow and to see the students continuing to improve and reach their goals. We are excited to welcome some new students and staff for the second semester. We only have a few more spots available so if you know anyone that is interested please make sure to jump on the opportunity before it is too late.
Since it is the Holiday season we thought it would be good to give some gift ideas that your students would benefit from next semester. First: warm and waterproof riding gear, including multiple riding pants, jacket, gloves, socks and base layers.Second: boot dryer. We plan to ride no matter the weather.
Hope everyone has a great Holiday Season and we look forward to seeing you all back here very soon,
-Wynn Berns
Snowboard
Well, it happened sooner than expected. Holiday break is upon us and the Fall Semester has come to conclusion. December was jam packed with sunny park laps in the beginning followed by some more traditional Oregon weather that, as we like to say, builds grit! The team got into a routine of waking up, warming up, and training hard followed by afternoon hours focused on academics where that same work ethic expectation has been set. We are incredibly proud of these young adults for what they have accomplished both on and off the hill, all with a sense of lighthearted laughter in everything they do. To say we are excited for next semester is an understatement! But until then, we hope you all are enjoying the time you have together as families celebrating the holiday. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Years and all that! See you back on campus in January.
-Elijah Teter, Brandon Sorel & Luke Giacopelli
Skateboard
Greetings skate families!
I hope the kids are off to a fantastic Holiday break and I want to wish each of you Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year! I cannot believe the semester is already over with, but It’s been very fun to watch all the kids accomplishing their goals and I’m very excited to see what next semester has in store for us. It’s currently looking like we will have 3 new students joining our program and a new assistant coach as well!
This has been a year of so many new challenges and I just want to thank all of the students and parents for understanding that we can only control the controllables. In a non-Covid world we would have traveled, competed and filmed so much more. I’m very hopeful that once the vaccine becomes more readily available, we can all get back to business as usual.
While we are on break, please remember to have lots of fun and enjoy as much time as possible with your kids! I cannot wait to hear all about their holiday adventures! Stay safe, stay healthy!
All the best,
Jamie Weller
