FEBRUARY EDITION

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Mountain Bike team riding during a beautiful sunset in Chile

Yet again, we have managed to continue to push the limits with our largest arrival day this semester. We have new students who have joined us from around the world in all four of our programs to help us start 2024 better than any other year. In order to help with all of these new students we have added a new staff member bringing in an Assistant Medical Coordinator, Brandon Blynn. All four of our programs spent January getting on podiums from professional mountain biking events in Chile to slopestyle World Cup qualification events in Colorado. Our seniors have continued to increase their opportunities after graduation with acceptance letters continuing to flow in from Michigan, Hawaii, Washington, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Utah, Montana, Arizona & Colorado! Our first week of the semester was punctuated with a dramatic wind & ice storm that hit Oregon causing over 200,000 people to be without power. Our team came together to mitigate the risks presented by the elements to try & maintain a state of normalcy for 24 hours until all of the students were taken off campus until the power was restored. While we weathered the storm better than most, the experience made for an adventure & we were able to emerge unscathed to get back to life as normal at Wy'East Academy.
- Mike Hanley

UPCOMING EVENTS

March 30, 2024 - Order 2023-2024 Yearbook here: https://www.treering.com/purchase?PassCode=1016450563251701
April 1, 2024 - Deadline to re-enroll for the 2024-2025 school year
April 26, 2024 - Graduation

ACADEMICS

Senior Luke Festa reacts after being accepted to Westminster University

What a month it has been here at Wy'East. It has been so nice having the students back on campus after their winter break. We really got an opportunity to witness their perseverance when we had the crazy weather shortly after they returned to campus. The academic staff was very pleasantly surprised to see that so many of the students were able to maintain their pacing goals or even advance far ahead of them despite the hurdles that came with the winter storm. Even though they had every opportunity to make excuses as to why they couldn't get their work done, they worked through it and we currently are at 93% who are above the pacing goal.

We have also been having great success with college acceptance letters. I had the great pleasure of being in the class yesterday when Luke Festa opened up his email from Westminster University and found that he had been accepted. He also has applications going out to a few other schools so I look forward to being able to see that reaction a few more times. Being able to share in the joy that Luke felt at that moment is what makes this job at Wy'East so enjoyable. The staff here really get the opportunity to connect with the students on a level much higher than regular teaching jobs at public schools. We get to become really invested in their future because we get to know them so well...both academically and during the moments that aren't spent in the classroom.
- Hannah and Adam

STUDENT LIFE

Students stretching in B.O.B. before breakfast

January was a sudden jolt to the beginning of the winter semester with the biggest blizzard to hit Mt. Hood in over 20 years! The students and residential team hunkered down and the weekend activity quickly turned into a test of strength and patience, with the main adventure being a journey to hotels on the second night to escape the frigid temperatures. The ski team was lucky to be staying next door to the Moda Center, and we walked the snowy path to a Trail Blazers game. The academy campus proved its stability, and students were back to a fully functional schedule in just a matter of days. There was no time at all until the students began competing at local USASA events on the weekends, so they enjoyed the relaxation of local hot tubs as a nice recovery and downtime to celebrate their success. There are many more weekends filled with local events and competitions, and the students are now ramping up for a busy travel schedule. The Wy’East student government representatives hosted a beginning of the term scavenger hunt assembly, and students found great fun in surprise whip cream pie attacks to the Dean of Students and the student body president. Top Golf and a Winterhawks hockey game were other popular outings from the first month; we are ready for the high tide travel season approaching and more entertaining weekends ahead!
- Barbara Edwards and team

CULINARY

The month of January for the department was interesting to say the least. We got to welcome a handful of new students and check in with returning students to see how their break was. After a week or so of making the students favorite meals, a blizzard decided to interrupt our regular program and got us all scrambled. We were able to make the best of the situation and still provided the students with something to eat. The Saturday evening meal that we provided was Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. We continued to provide the students with food options on Sunday morning until they departed campus to go to a hotel. This gave my staff the opportunity the next day to reevaluate what we had on hand due to the weather in our region that put a hamper on the orders. From there, were able to get back on track and provide the students with great food. A well-received meal that we did was Pizza and Wing night on Friday evening. We produced three different types of Chicken Wings and made 4 different types of pizzas. The students were hyped on it. For breakfast and Lunch, we had our usual fares with a highlighted lunch of Teriyaki Chicken and Vegetables with white rice. As we enter February, a lot of teams will be traveling so the Culinary Team will be able to have some fun with the meals.
- Travis Gibson and team

FREESKI

Ansley Hoover (far right) on the podium at IFSA Meadows 2

Greeting Ski Families,
We had a great week of training this month, and although wet at times, the silver lining is that the snow has been soft which has been great for progression! This month started off the first sets of competitions. We had our first sets of USASA competitions at Meadows and Timberline. The events went great and everyone walked away learning something new, whether that be a trick, a lesson about competing, or motivation to take into training!
Shoutout to everyone who hit the podium this month!
- Breeze, Topher, and Shannon

SNOWBOARD

Rita Vergani places 1st in big air and 3rd in slopestyle in Canada

The snowboard has been putting in a lot of work this semester, and have already started to see amazing results at competitions, with multiple first, second, and third place finishes. The team is hard at work, and is showing no signs of stopping. Stew is in Reno with some A team members, Brandon is heading to Futures tour with the rest of A team and the B team athletes, and Alec is taking C team up to Washington to IFSA competitions. It’s turning out to be a stacked month, so wish everyone the best of luck!

Best regards and hope for more powder,

Brandon, Stew, and Alec

MOUNTAIN BIKE

What a wild month. Mountain Bike just returned from a 2 1/2 week trip to Chile. Although the trip started off with a few bumps including 2 grueling nights and 3 days stuck at the airport, everyone maintained a good attitude and worked hard. I am super proud of how the kids handled themselves and were able to keep their heads high for those first few days. Since they were able to keep good spirits, we were rewarded with the best 2 weeks down in the south of the country, and I am so glad we were able to last. We were able to ride the bike park in Nevados de Chilean, ride in a remote region called Colico Lake, compete in jump jams and enduro races, and ride a volcano in Pucon. Thank you parents for trusting Bolio and I on this trip! It was one for the books! We are excited to be back and return to a little bit more of a routine.
- Asa and Bolio

SKATE

Hi Families,

I hope everyone is doing well and have had a great start to the new year! This semester is just flying by on campus. I’m very thankful to have B.O.B. to skate on these wet days, especially through the ice storm we had to start off the semester with. Everyone in the program is pushing themselves hard and progressing a ton. This group of students has been great to work with as they all get along really well and push each other to be better. We have lucked out with a couple days skating outside and even a day of sun and 60 degrees.

We started the SEEK skate contest series in January with Cam taking 1st place along with $100 and Tag taking 2nd. The second event of the series will be held in B.O.B. on Sunday Feb. 11th. These events are open to the public and the crew has been working hard to prepare. The overall series winner will get a free week of camp this summer and 1st place of each event gets $100.

I've been working on getting additional people on campus to skate this semester. Now that winter has hit and the storm has passed I will be reaching out a lot more to get people to come join our sessions. The Tactics shop crew has stopped by a few times and I had the non-profit Skate Like A Girl on campus last week. It was their leadership team along with some of their supporting organizations. I will be off campus in mid February attending a skate conference in Phoenix AZ. This conference is focused on skateboard academics and community building. I'll have a full debrief with the students here and send you all a debrief as well.

Looking forward to an amazing February on campus!

Brian Johnson