Notice how miniature our students are [right] behind Tamanawas falls.

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Andres Retteg competing in the U.S. Open.

Arrival Day for the incoming student body of Wy'East Academy marked a new highpoint in our story. With over 60 students filling every available room on our 28 acre campus, the energy was palpable with anticipation for what the year would have in store. Unlike most student bodies, our evolution witnessed the composition of arrivals from both coasts of the US with a dozen in between in addition to students who cleared customs to join us from Japan, New Zealand, Italy, Canada & Mexico. Even before the first day of school, our staff & students began traveling around the world for competitions with Brooke Anderson on the podium in Mountain Biking while four of our other students represented their countries at the Jr World Championships on the South Island of New Zealand.

In addition to the growth in our student population, we have also added new coaches, teachers, cooks, residential staff & administrators to help continue our progression. On the athletic front, we are privileged to have Alejandro Bolio join our mountain biking program from Mexico in addition to an assistant ski & mountain bike coach Shannon Vanderwerken from Aspen, Colorado. Alec Young will be helping the snowboard program with edging techniques & speed control from his years of experience in Virginia combined with his administrative skills to help streamline our IT. Jeremy Jones has come on as our new teacher from over 20 years of teaching at high schools around Oregon before his son moved away for college this fall. Taylor Ramirez is our new Medical Coordinator after she graduated early with acceptance to medical school only to join our team following her tenure as a medic for summer camp. Our final addition to the team has been long overdue with a new Office Administrator, Sabina Williams who has quickly become the hub of our daily operations. There is a lot of runway in front of us for the 23-24 school year & we are off to a great start.

Mike Hanley
Head of School

ACADEMICS

Our newest student body President and Vice President, Ozzie Kroop and Joseph Medley.

As we have reflected on the Week of Welcome, it is clear that Wy’East students are the heart of our organization. They bring the joy, the snacks, and the laughs. It is truly a privilege to join your students as they move forward in their journeys. The path of a Wy’East student is not an easy one– many of our new students are trying to figure out where they fit, what resources are available, and how to learn in a new environment.

All struggles aside, we can confidently say that the Wy’East student population - your beautiful children - are making it work. Families, thank you for all of your efforts. And to the mom who signs off every email with “it takes a village” – yes it does. Yes, it does.

Thank you, and Happy Fall!
- Jeremy & Hannah

STUDENT LIFE

Lily Sanders and Olivia Espenscheid show their excitement for the bungee. The railroad bridge across the valley gives an idea of the jump’s magnitude.

Hello!

We had a stellar September soaking in the remainder of the sun at the Oregon Special Olympics plan pull, a hike to Tamanawas falls, and bungee jumping at the largest in North America. Students also got a taste for the rainy-day activities by testing their talent at the Tualatin Hills high dive and celebrating wins in sports unlike their own at one of the last Timbers Game of the season. The weekend activities have been a huge hit for students, and we are excited for what’s in store!

Students have already started to build a strong identity together through respecting their shared cabin spaces and honing in their cleaning responsibilities and communication skills. It has been great to see the interaction across athletic disciplines, especially during the excitement of dinner. In other exciting news, our student government was elected, and these representatives joined forces to discuss important topics at our first two meetings. After a fun filled and inspiring campaign, the student body elected our new president and vice president, Ozzie Kroop and Joseph Medley, who have established some challenging visions and are already working diligently to put their words into action. We are all excited to see what the student government plans for this year!

Warm regards,
Barbara Edwards

Meet New Medic, Taylor Ramirez
Hello! I have bachelors of science in integrative health and wellness. In addition to my academic training, I worked as an office manager for camp for the last two years so I'm new, but not new to Wy'East. I'm from the Portland Metro Area and super stoked to be here and meet all of you!

CULINARY

Students waiting to get one of Kellen’s famous dinners!

Greetings from the Culinary Team

This past month, we welcomed all the students to campus. It is wonderful to meet the new students and welcome back the returning students. In the cafe this past month, we produced all the students' favorite meals. For dinner, Kellen prepared their favorite Mexican food, bbq beef sandwiches, and mac n cheese. We also prepared Sweet and Sour Chicken, fried rice and stir fry vegetables. For lunch, we are adding more entree to the menus. For example, we made Jamaican crusted pork loin with pineapple salsa, steamed white rice and baby carrots. We are also serving the students favorite lunch menu items like chicken tenders, fish and chips, gyros, and McRib sandwiches. For breakfast, we are going with the basic fare of scramble eggs, hash browns, and bacon. We also have thrown in breakfast sandwiches, build your own burritos and chorizo and eggs.

On the horizon for the Culinary Team is a little break for the team while most of the students will be traveling all over the world for a couple of weeks.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Hello Ski Families!

It was awesome to welcome our new and returning freeski students to campus with the Week of Welcome! WOW was a huge success allowing each kid to work and train next to all of their fellow students, along with everyone on our coaching staff. This really helped everyone get to know each other and established a great sense of community right out of the gate!

After Week of Welcome we jumped right into our fitness testing for US Ski and Snowboard. It was great to see our ski athletes stepping up and giving their all for this testing. After our fitness testing was done we were able to jump into our normal schedule for ski training. We introduced a good structured ski workout plan for the athletes this fall, fully utilizing our on campus’ gym. In addition to our gym workouts everyday for training we are able to use trampolines, rail-jib line and our airbag to get some tricks dialed for the upcoming Austria trip, and get our bodies ready for ski season. We are stoked to have everyone on board and training hard for this trip!

-Brian, Topher, and Shannon

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Brooke Anderson on the Podium at the U.S. Open

September on two wheels! It was very busy and exciting! We started the semester in Killington for the US Open, the national downhill & enduro race. Brooke got second place in dual slalom! We had a lot of great moments riding with world champions and had lots of fun training in a beautiful bike park. We took a quick plane back home before packing up again to go to Ashland for the California Enduro Series. We had some great training and an amazing race, even if it was a little chilly in the mornings. The freeride team travelled to Highland to show off their best tricks at one of the best freeride bike parks in the world. The adventure and training continues!

-Asa and Bolio

SNOWBOARD

Hello Snowboard Families!

We have had an awesome start to the fall semester here on campus. Everyone seems to be settling in nicely and finding the “new normal” of their everyday lives. The snowboard team has been putting in work and getting prepared for our first and only international trip as a team over to Austria! To do that, our typical training day is built around two hours of training on our dry slope facilities and two hours in BOB, our indoor skatepark, gym, and trampoline facility. As of today, the team has already logged a total of 17 days on their snowboards, along with trampoline sessions, strength training, and time on their skateboards to get ready for the trip.

We started implementing our “Friday Performance Review” weekly which has gotten some awesome results and great participation from all the athletes. The “Friday Performance Review” has three different stops. Stop one is the rails course. Athletes have 10 drops to land as many tricks as possible. With there being two different features in a line, the goal to hit is 20 different tricks. We haven't had anyone do all 20 yet, so now it's a race to see who can do it first. The next stop is the boardercross course. Rules are simple: the fastest person to go from top to bottom wins. Our fastest time right now is 3.78 seconds! Our third and final stop is the airbag. Each athlete has 3 drops, they need one frontside rotation, one backside rotation, and their third drop is a trick of their choice.

To change up the routine a little we loaded up the vans and took the kids off campus to connect with nature for a couple hours. Right up the road is a beautiful hike called “Castle Canyon” which consists of a short steep hike (it’s a perfect leg workout, but don’t tell them) and brings you to a breathtaking view. The kids got to experience a little bit more of the Mt. Hood area while catching views, connecting with teammates, and getting the blood pumping. This is something we like to do if we have had really productive days of training and feel the kids deserve a little reward or need to get off campus for part of the morning.

The Austria trip is approaching fast, in fact, by the time you get the next newsletter we will have gone and come back! We are expecting an amazing trip! Last year was our first time going with the entire Ski & Snowboard program, so this year we know exactly what to expect and already have a lay of the land. We know everyone will benefit tremendously from getting on snow this early in the season, with the added bonus of training at the best landing bag facility in the world. October is going to be a HUGE month of progression for the snowboard team.

Until next time, be well and pray for snow!
-Brandon, Stewart, and Alec

SKATEBOARD

Hi Families,

The first month of the fall semester has flown by! The skate crew is getting along well and they have a great dynamic during athletics. Everyone has been pushing themselves hard to progress and get ready for our first trip to SF. We will be in San Francisco Oct.13th-20th meeting industry connections, skating the city, and visiting colleges.

A big focus for the skate program outside of just skating, is learning how the industry works and how those concepts apply to the outside world. One way we do that is through the skateshop exercise. Each of the skate students are working on a year long project of starting a skate shop. They have given their shops names, not just city locations but neighborhood locations, identified target audiences, looked at other shops in the area (or if there are any), guessed on cost to start, and ideal brands to carry. Our next step on this project will be for each student to find a building/space for their store and start the cost breakdown.

We have been able to get off campus a few times to skate some of the parks in Portland and had a few rainy days in Bob. I hope your student has been sending you updates and clips of them skating. We are looking forward to some more sunny weather and good times for the month of October.

-Brian Johnson