November Newsletter 2021

The Academy crew hanging at our booth at Snowvana in Portland

Letter from The Head of School

Hanley sharing his wisdom with The Freeskiers

November has been a month full of transitions. We were all excited to see Mount Hood covered in snow & all of our snow athletes made the most of it building jumps & jibs to stack up epic footage. But then we were equally as sad to see it all wash away with nearly a foot of rain. On a brighter note, our seniors began receiving acceptance letters to universities all over the United States with Madison & Lorena both receiving academic scholarships! Congratulations to the students who completed the SAT & PSAT as they are a daunting obstacle to overcome that will help prepare you for the rigors of life ahead. The students’ average GPA’s are balancing out as students head into the end of the semester & our average scores for the PSAT & SAT went up by almost 100 points. Our snow athletes started the month with an intensive Wilderness First Aid Course on campus where we partnered with NOLS to get them all WFA certified. Our mountain bikers went on trips to Bellingham, WA in addition to Virgin, UT while the snow athletes headed north to chase the snow to the Yukon Territory in Canada. We will continue the “Coffee with the Head of School” until student departure on December 18th & all are welcome to attend. Please make sure to get all of your departure information in to Netanya as soon as possible so we can arrange transportation accordingly. Thank you & Happy Holidays!

-Mike Hanley

Academics

We partnered with NOLS and delivered a Wilderness First Aid class for our students.

November has been an exciting month. Each team was able to travel and students did a great job getting ahead in their classes before departing campus.

We are happy to announce that Madison Weisman was accepted into the Nursing Program at George Fox University and Lorena Kelley was accepted to Sierra Nevada University and Western Colorado University. Congratulations Madison and Lorena!

The end of the semester is nearly here. Students have been working hard to complete projects and prepare for their upcoming exams. Classes will close on December 16th and final Report Cards will be sent out to families on December 17th. With the end of the semester approaching, we are encouraging students to revise work and improve their grades. We are also working with students to finalize winter semester coursework plans.

Alexis Buzzell chose Anders Chapman for student of the month for his positive attitude, being ahead in his classes, and asking for help when needed.

Asa Howe chose Lorena Kelley for student of the month for being caught up in her classes and earning a 3.9 GPA for the semester.

-Alexis Buzzell & Asa Howe

Student Life

This past month has been an exciting and busy one here at the Academy. This time of year always feels the longest because everyone is just waiting for the snow to arrive. On the residential side of things we planned out several exciting, action packed, and fun filled weekends. We started off the month with having all the mountain bikers clean their vans from the Bellingham trip, probably one of the most memorable experiences of fall term. Following cabin and van cleaning, students had the opportunity to shop at some local thrift stores in Sandy as well as stock up on snacks from Fred Meyers. The second weekend of November was my personal favorite, we took all the students paint-balling! First game we played, was Zombies, where we split up to staff versus students, where the students guarded an enclosure with a post in the middle, and the goal of the zombies (staff) was to shoot the students to turn them into zombies and make it to the middle of the guarded enclosure and win the game by touching the post. Staff (zombies) won the first game. Since we did a private group for paintball we got to play several other types of paintball games in different outdoor arenas, students and staff had a blast and we will definitely be playing paintball again during winter term. In addition to paintball, we also took the students to the Oregon Zoo which was followed up with thrift store shopping in Portland. Every year right before the snow falls, SNOWVANA happens at the Oregon Convention center and Luke was able to secure tickets for all of the students. The students enjoyed hitting the mini ramp that the Academy had set up at the convention. On the way back to campus from Snowvana as requested by the students, we once again went thrift store shopping in Portland as well as stopping at Fred Meyers in Sandy on the way back. In addition to weekend activities, during the week students have been doing a good job with daily cabin cleaning and student representative meetings have been productive. A huge shoutout to the continued support and communication from all of the Parents, and we are excited about the upcoming weekend activities for December!

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

Mountain Bike

The Mountain Bike Program at Wy'East Academy has carried on the success we had in the previous month. Students are forming strong bonds together and are progressing both on and off the bike. This group has amazing kids that each bring something different to the table and it has been a lot of fun to watch them learn from each other and grow. Best part of all, they are having fun while doing so.

This past month featured a lot of rain with the atmospheric river we were in which was an opportunity for us to get the struggle in. Being wet and uncomfortable has strengthened the team's mental fortitude. If we can endure terrible situations, think of what we can do when conditions are good. Which brings to light our trip to Bellingham which teased the sun but brought a lot of rain. We made the most out of the situation and even had sessions on the different trails up at Galbraith Mountain. The crew was soaked with smiles!

We are happy with the team environment and look forward to the upcoming month.

-Kevin Simpers & Dakoda Osusky

Snowboard

November started out with a very special offering that most of the on-snow crew were able to participate in. NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) came onto our campus to put on a private Wilderness First Aid course over two days to teach the basics for when injuries happen away from immediate care. This class hopefully helped prepare our crew for the inevitable that we will either experience personally, or be a first to respond to.

A week or so after the WFA course we were able to get back on snow to build some jumps, slide some rails, and film some clips. Almost everyone walked away from our two little sessions with some photos and videos to start the season. Even though the snow was short lived, we’ve been able to mix in skating indoors and even outside when weather permits. We ramped up training on the dryslope facilities as well to be ready for Canada!

The Yukon trip couldn’t have come at a better time since everyone had the itch to get on snow, and I’m happy to report that we did just that. It was full-on winter up there with cold temps, white snowy mountains, a rope tow rail park, and an X-games size big air jump. A highlight for everyone was that Olympian, Mark McMorris, and US Olympic prospect, Brock Crouch were up there training on the same rails and jump as our crew. It was very cool to see the interactions happening between some big name professionals and our kids. We certainly put in the reps on the rope tow rails everyday we were there, pushing for new tricks & social media posts. I’m happy to say that Arianna, Alessia, and Ben pushed past their fear of the big jump and were able to get some reps on that under the lights, with private snowmobile laps!

We certainly look forward to getting the season started in Oregon with snow in the near future, fingers crossed that Timberline and Meadows are able to start spinning lifts very soon. Until then, we will be working on the dryslope, the skatepark, and getting these kids set for their final exams.

-Brandon Sorel & Jamie Weller

Freeski

November has been quite the month for the Freeski team! Early on we got some good snow that allowed us to get up on the mountain a handful of times. We hiked up two 10’ PVC tubes and created a handful of unique and interesting set ups to get our ski legs back under us and enjoy some of the first sessions of the season! We have stayed on the grind in the gym, the trampolines, and on the dry slope. Remediating weaknesses, pushing progression, and keeping our focus on our on-snow camp to the Yukon. Our trip up to the great white north was a great white success! Although Mt. Sima came up a bit short on having a jump line ready for us, but that didn't slow us down at all. They're jib set up on the rope tow, and the big air site were world class and proved to be extremely productive with everyone walking away with some new learns! Now that we are back in OR we are all doing our snow dances and hoping that the lifts start turning soon, but in the meantime we are focusing on academics and ending this semester strong!

-Brian McCarthy & Topher Newett