October 2021 Newsletter

parents weekend high school — Parents Weekend 2021 was a success!

Letter from The Headmaster

Oregon Boarding School — Hanley hanging out with The Freeskiers

It is hard to believe that October has already come & gone. The mountains are starting to turn white all around the world & our students have been making the most of the changing seasons with trips to California, Washington & Canada. Students hit the books hard to prepare for both the PSAT & SAT while the older students have been sending out college applications all around the world. Many of our students had the opportunity to begin campus tours at two of the most prestigious universities in North America at McGill in Quebec, Canada & the University of Southern California. Even I hit the road again to attend a training camp in Austria to stay in the mix with the best skiers & snowboarders in the world working towards the upcoming Winter Olympics. Our student body has continued to grow with the recent addition of several new students with many more expected for the winter semester. It was a highlight for all of us to get the parents out here on campus for parents weekend & the bar has been set higher than ever before for next year. We are all looking forward to the upcoming winter season & thank you for your continued support.

-Mike Hanley

Academics

October has been quite a busy month for Wy’East Academy, starting with trips across all sports to 3 different locations in North America. Mountain bike drove down to Laguna Seca, California to race at the Sea Otter Classic, while Snowboard flew to southern California to enjoy the great skateparks and some surfing. Ski flew to Canada to train on a world class airbag where the kids were able to land all sorts of new tricks. Even with all of the intense traveling, students were able to stay on track academically and keep their grades up! This has proved tough to do in the past and it is great to see everyone getting used to doing school on the road/skies. Since then, we have proctored PSAT and SAT tests and scores will be back come middle of November. We have also helped our seniors and juniors apply to colleges they are interested in attending and should be hearing back from these institutions soon!

Asa Howe chose Joseph Mantis for student of the month because of his determination to get caught up and his huge grade improvements over the month of October.

Alexis Buzzell chose Aidan Parish for student of the month because he uses class time wisely and was able to get his grades up before his quarter ended.

-Asa Howe & Alexis Buzzell

Student Life

Students hanging with Academy Alumni & Professional Skiier Nick Geopper

This past month has been an exciting one! We started the month off with mountain bikers at the Sea Otter Classic, skaters and snowboarders went down to California and the skiers traveled all the way to Canada to train big air tricks on a landing bag. During this time on campus residential staff supported students with packing, unpacking, cleaning and worked closely with academics to plan study halls in the evenings to help students keep up with school.

Following these exciting trips, Parents weekend was a blast! It was great to meet parents and families and share with everyone a day in the life of an Wy’East Academy student. Other weekend activities this month have included several trips to local thrift stores, Fredy Meyer runs, Sandy Food Carts, and even going to the local cinema to catch a movie. In addition, this past weekend on Saturday we went to a haunted house called “Stalls of Terror,” everyone had an amazing time. The following day we went to a pumpkin patch with the idea of picking out pumpkins to carve back on campus, however all the students were more interested in the Dark Maze and the apple launcher slingshot. It was extremely entertaining watching the students work together to see how far they could launch apples and trying to hit the targets. The students had so much fun with the apple launcher that the staff at the farm allowed the students to have extra apples to launch.

On the topic of cleanliness, all the students have been working hard with keeping their cabins clean and are expected to clean their cabins every day prior to evening activities. Staff has been incredibly helpful with supporting students with cleaning as well as teaching them effective ways to keep their cabin clean. Watching all the students build healthy habits such as getting up on time each morning, picking up their cabins and recycling has been great to watch. Furthermore, the student representatives have been consistently showing up to weekly meetings with ideas and solutions. As staff we have been working closely with the student representatives to have a group hang out area with games and activities. So far, we have a ping pong table, couches and a TV with plenty of movies to choose from. In the evenings afters cabin cleaning and study hall, students have been enjoying playing ball tag in BOB.

The Residential staff would like to thank all the parents for their continued open communication, feedback and support. Thank you! We are looking forward to another exciting month as well as the beginning of the arrivals of several of our winter students.

-Netanya Beard, Luke Giacopelli, Will Stephens & Levi Thompson

Freeski

What a nice month of training we have had on the Freeski team! First off we want to say thank you to all the parents that made it out for Parents Weekend. It was great to get some face time with you and let you get a glimpse into the world your kids are now living in! Winter has been showing its face a bit already allowing us to get some time on snow. Every student was able to wipe off some dust and get a couple tricks under their belt on the features we made collectively as a school on Mt Hood. With more snow in the future we have our fingers crossed that the lifts will start spinning soon! Throughout our daily sessions we have been ramping up the intensity with our sights set to our upcoming on-snow camp at Mt. Sima. We have created simulated competitions on the trampolines and dry slope features and have seen a success with everyone being being in that "competition" mind set. They say competition creates quality, and we believe that translates beyond skiing and into everyday life! We hope everyone had a great Halloween, and we look forward to connecting with everyone soon!

-Brian McCarthy & Topher Newett

Mountain Bike

A very successful trip to Sea Otter! We had all Students landed in the Top half of the competition field at Sea Otter, JT, Etan, Erin, Brooke all hit podiums. While at Sea Otter all students used the opportunity to talk to sponsors and network within the community. The presence that was carried at this event was amazing to be part of as we felt like we had one of the most recognizable teams there. The dirt was challenging but our students rose to the occasion and made opportunity out of obstacles.

We are most proud that we really have a unified team with everyone hanging out and supporting one another. Turning weaknesses into strengths, showing up on time, finding stride in the rhythm of living on your own which has been so great watch everyone grow daily with their own accountability. Some students have gone through the process to start using the Gym on their own which they are very excited to have access on their own time.

We ventured over into Capital Forrest this month and found that it is a great double day trip opportunity for us. The Lumberyard as well is a good rainy day in door option to get out & off campus. We are in a reflection faze of training so we have been using time at campus to stay on top of or get ahead in school work and working on our weaknesses. Everyone is excited about the Bellingham trip coming up!

Thank you,
Kevin Simpers & Dakoda Osusky

Snowboard

It’s hard to believe that less than a month ago we were down in sunny Southern California posted up in Newport Beach in the midst of an oil spill. As eerie as it was to see the beaches completely empty of patrons but full of clean up crews outfitted in hazmat suits, we made the absolute best of it. We did a college visit, two different industry tours, surfed a day in La Jolla shores, skated seven different parks, and genuinely got a taste of what Southern California can offer our crew. A huge thank you goes out to the US Sales Manager at Volcom for rolling out the red carpet for our squad with all the product he generously gave everyone. We then got the open invitation to skate our hearts out in their private indoor park. I feel like the bar was raised each day we were there, going from a good start, to a great trip, to an unforgettable experience. Another big thank you goes out to the Kelley’s for taking the kids out on a sunset boat cruise and hosting us on our last day for brunch and a swim!

Once we got back on campus and into our training routine for the month, we were only here for 5 days before the first snow fell on Mt. Hood, allowing us to get up there to take full advantage of the real stuff! The crew was so excited to get on snow and get creative with what we had to work with setting up a few different rails and a concrete block feature. So far we’ve been up three times and are very much looking forward to when we are consistently able to be up there. Currently, we have our sights set on training for the Yukon by utilizing the dry slope to dial in the rail game along with the airbag jump to prepare to be on real jumps in just a few weeks. To keep things from getting too repetitive, Jamie and I have been able to get the kids out skating at a few different local parks here in Oregon between the rain storms.

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

Good In The Woods: A Fundraising Celebration

A fundraising celebration hosted by the Wy'East Mountain Academy
Come join us FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17TH, 2021 in Portland, Oregon for our first annual Good in the Woods, fundraising celebration.

Our goal is to bring families and supporters together for an incredible evening to celebrate our new 501c3 not-for-profit status and to raise $50,000 in scholarship funds so we may extend the incredible Wy’East Mountain Academy experience to more students. To help reach our goal, we have a Penny for Penny match on all proceeds raised enabling YOU to double your positive impact!

Hosted by Nemo Design, the evening will feature:
-Unique silent bid items, including; snowboarding & skiing gear, IKON pass, photography by Kevin Zacher, signed skateboard deck by Tony Hawk, airline tickets, and much more…Music & local craft beers and wines
-Art show
-Fun activities
-Meet renowned action sports athletes & industry moguls
-And much more…
7PM - CLOSE Party, Raffles, & Silent Auctions
Your $20.00 ticket includes 1 adult beverage and 1 raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets can be purchased upon entry.
Please help support our mission of Life Improvement Through People, Place, and Passion.
Ways you can contribute:
-Buy tickets
-Donate auction items
-Volunteering
-Event sponsorships

Please email luke@wyeastacademy.com if you are interested in donating, volunteering, or becoming a sponsor for the event.