WY'EAST ACADEMY FEBRUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER

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

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: NICK GOEPPER

2012 Wy’East Academy Graduate Nick Goepper places third in the halfpipe event at Toyota U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain in jeans!

Sabina WilliamsFebruary 13, 2024

WY'EAST ACADEMY JANUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER

JANUARY 2024 EDITION

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

While the month of December always marks the end of a year, December of 2023 came & went with an ease that resonated with a comforting stability. All of the students completed their coursework on time with the athletic travel scattering around the globe. While we did not receive the amount of snowfall that we would have hoped for, living in the Pacific Northwest has taught us all to appreciate whatever gifts we are given ie sunshine, rain or snow. We got the opportunity to more fully utilize our new A Team, B Team, C Team structure with some of the students heading up to the Yukon while others went to Southern California. The synergy between departments continued to exceed expectations with residential staff members joining the coaches on the road as the academic team held it down back on campus. With the continued eb & flow of the seasons, our island in the woods has continued to grow & we all look forward to the largest arrival day we have ever had in the history of Wy'East Academy this January.

-Mike Hanley, Head of School

ACADEMICS

December was an incredible month for our student athletes! Our snow and skate students took full accountability for their studies and ALL ATHLETES met accelerated pacing metrics that allowed them to travel the last two weeks of term without pressure to work on their courses. What a win!

It is clear our Wy’East students are prepared to move into peak travel and competition season. The determination to manage time effectively and take ownership of learning that many students strengthened this fall will serve them well as our schedules become more dynamic this winter.

Once students began finishing their courses, teachers assisted with end of term housekeeping and facilitated games, puzzles, and more social activities for the students. It was a lovely, slow, end of term. We hope you have enjoyed having your kiddos home for a few weeks!

Hannah and Adam

STUDENT OF THE MONTH: ETHAN VUONG

Ethan's drive to succeed is unmatched! He’s been crushing on the athletic side of things grinding tons of new rail tricks! His new passion for filming has been great to watch unfold!
-Topher, Coach

Ethan is an incredible student and it is wonderful to have him as a leader on our campus! One of my favorite things about Ethan is his commitment to gratitude. Each time we speak, he ends the conversation with, "Thank you, Hannah." I am always reminded of the power of a thank you and am inspired to share thanks more broadly. Thank you Ethan! We are lucky to have you :)
-Hannah, Teacher

Ethan Vuong has gone out of his way to distinguish himself as a student going back to his arrival at Wy'East Academy. While many youth look to others to find opportunities to improve, Vuong chose to take it upon himself to deliver consistent digital media resources that push the capabilities of professional departments. Not to mention the fact that around the clock there is always a smile on his face that brightens up every room he enters. His presence is going to be sincerely missed next year, but we all know that he is going to go on to even more success!
-Mike Hanley, Head of School

STUDENT LIFE

New Assistant Medical Coordinator, Brandon Blynn

The short two weeks of December were filled with travel for many of our students. Those who were on campus filled the weekends ice skating and attending a Winterhawks professional ice hockey game. Many new and exciting activities are on the horizon for the Winter 2024 semester.

Student government worked diligently during December to plan a welcome assembly for the beginning of Winter Term, and are looking forward to another semester of projects and improvements to our campus.

Campus hung tight and quiet while students traveled home to be with family for the holidays, and Mt. Hood finally decided winter was in order; the snow has begun to fall and doesn’t appear to stop soon.

Here is to the new year of 2024.
Barbara

Meet new Assistant Medical Coordinator, Brandon Blynn

I’m Brandon Blynn, I come to Wy'east academy with the urge to inspire others to embrace adventure, explore the outdoors, and discover their full potential. Being an avid skater and snowboarder, the opportunity to work with students with the same passions as me is a dream come true. My experience as wilderness first responder and excitement for risk management is what I’m excited to bring to the academy.

CULINARY

The month of December was a great time to wrap up a great year for the Culinary Department. While we did have teams traveling in the few last weeks, it was a good time to start reflecting on the year. Being able to have a little fun with the food we provided. In the last few weeks of the Fall Term, we were doing an omelet bar in the morning. The students that were here loved it and I will be continuing to do it throughout the Winter Term. For lunches and dinners, we created their favorites to send them off into the holiday season on the right foot.

For the upcoming Winter Term, we will be trying some new things. The first thing we will be doing is a broth bar. We will be having 3 different broths with toppings so that students can come in and make
themselves their own bowl of soup and take it to go. We also have some other items in the works that I will keep you updated on.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and this next year is amazing one for everyone.

Travis and team

FREESKI

Ski team warming up with some yoga in B.O.B.

Greetings Freeski Families,

As we embark on 2024, we want to highlight the last of our training for 2023! December was an action packed month on the freeski team, with only a few weeks of training before winter break, and mother nature not cooperating as we wished she would, we successfully looked for snow elsewhere!

SKI A & B headed north, wayyyy North! Mt. Sima in the Yukon Territories provided just what we needed for some pre-season competition training. They were equipped with a slopestyle specific training venue that had a big air site, large jumps, and jibs for our crew to push progression and prepare for the upcoming competition season. During our weekdays training there instead of running the lifts they provided us with snowmobile operators to tow us around the mountain, and we were the only ones there! A truly superior training experience! Everyone came home with some clips, and at least one new learn.

SKI C opted to go south to Mammoth Mountain Resort, where they were greeted with a great early season park offering! Mammoth had 2 parks equipt with a few jumps, jibs and a bit of something for everyone! Outside of the park provided some more “Industrial” terrain up towards the top, that our skiers took advantage of, working on edging in substandard conditions.

Just as we hope everyone enjoyed having their student athletes home over winter break, we are excited to have them back to kick off our winter semester! Mother Nature has finally woken up and the forecast is looking cold and snowy!

All the best,

Breeze, Toph & Shannon

SNOWBOARD

Welcome Snowboard families to the start of our Winter term!

We hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday break full of quality time spent as a family! We are very excited for what we have in store this semester as we continue to build on the progress made over the Fall term. First, a quick recap of the final few weeks of school last month as the team hit the road between two different destinations. Most of the B & C team headed south to Mammoth where they scored some time in the park, making use of Mammoth’s early season offering of many different rail features and a medium sized jump. The trip went according to plan of maximizing time on snow, trick progression in preparation for the upcoming competitions, and social media content creation to build your athlete’s digital portfolios. A huge thank you to Stewart, Alec, and Will Stephens for spearheading that offering while I took a small group up North to Mt. Sima.

The A team took full advantage of the private Big Air jump and slopestyle training venue for 5 straight days on snow, logging some focused sessions on both to dial in their competition runs and progressing into new tricks for the upcoming season. We really focused on the whole package of training hard, taking care of our bodies, eating well and finding that healthy cycle that allows for high level performance. This is something everyone will need to refine as they continue to expect great things in the world of action sports.

We hope that during your time together over the holidays each athlete was able to share with you all their highs and lows, showed some of the content that is filmed on a daily basis, and opened up about their goals for the season. As we prepare for a busy winter season, please be on the lookout for communications around trips and competitions, but as always, please don’t hesitate to reach out with specific questions. Thank you all for your continued support in your athletes journey!

-Brandon, Stew, & Alec.

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Lucio clearing ice off the airbag one chilly morning

The last 2 weeks of the semester for our MTB students was full of gym time, skills work in the skatepark, and indoor airbag training. We saw gains in the gym as well as big improvements with the everyday use of the indoor airbag. We had structured time for every student to progress in the airbag no matter the skill level, and we are able to confidently say every kid was able to learn a new trick or two. Now we are off to Chile!

Asa and Bolio

SKATEBOARD

Skate team celebrity sighting in San Diego

Hi Families,

Welcome to the winter/spring semester! I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break and we are excited to get this semester started. A quick recap: December was a short month on campus but it was action packed. Skate was in Southern California soaking up sunny weather until the last week of the semester. We made our way all over Southern California from the San Fernando Valley to San Diego. A couple highlights from the trip would be visiting San Diego State University (which Thomas was accepted to during the break), Having dinner at Cam’s house (Thank you Nicole and Tim), Spending a rest day at the San Diego Zoo, and getting a quick skate session with alumni Josh Herman. Thomas hit his first (of many) big street rails, Boardsliding and Feebeling a 12 stair rail in LA! Cam casually put down a 1 minute run through Linda Vista skatepark as a warm up when we got there which is no easy task! We were lucky enough to also meet up with Justin Hughs from Seager clothing company: Robert Blazek from 2 risers, Palace, and Frog skateboards: and Jimmy Rehman who’s possibly the best mini ramp skater on the planet.

Looking at this new semester we will be non stop until graduation. Our projected trips will be Southern California, Phoenix Az for the PHX Am, and to end the semester with New York City. Our campus will play host once a month to the Seek Skate Camp Contest Series. These events are open to the public and more information can be found at SEEK YOUTH CONTEST Series 2024 or https://seekskatecamp.com/contest. The skate program would also like to welcome Cash Hancock who is joining the program as a junior from Oklahoma.

Please reach out with any questions and I am excited to get this semester started.

Brian Johnson

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

My name is Eddie Gildea. I grew up in Boston and began slopestyle skiing competitively at 14. I was nominated for the US Ski Team at 17. After a series of knee injuries brought my short ski career to an end I went to Northeastern University and studied Mathematics and Psychology. I commissioned as an officer in the US Army through their ROTC program.

Guest UserJanuary 23, 2024

WY'EAST ACADEMY DECEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

december 2023 edition

Boden Whittick training on campus trails

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Academy postcard abroad the Portland Spirit

The holiday season is upon us again so now that the snow is flying on the mountain everyone is working hard to wrap up another big semester. College acceptance letters have been flooding in for our seniors as the scholarship applications have been close behind. With the winter semester capacity being so limited we are now taking applications for the summer & fall of 2024 so make sure to contact Dan Tattersfield to reserve your spot. All of our teams are looking forward to heavy seasons of travel & competition from Chile to Switzerland & lots of stops in between. None of this would be possible without the support of all of the families of Wy'East Academy. It has been an amazing process creating a true parent partnership with the staff to help raise these amazing young adults. The levels of accountability resonate across the board as we watch these amazing students develop into the future leaders of the action sports industry and beyond.

Mike Hanley
Head of School

ACADEMICS

Our seniors have dedicated an immense amount of time this term applying to four year universities, tech schools, and community colleges. At Wy’East, our hope is to equip our students with the tools necessary to plan for life after highschool.

We are happy to report that ALL of the seventeen seniors on campus this term have submitted applications! They have applied to 34 different institutions and while most eagerly await responses, the following students have received one or more acceptance letters!

Brooke Anderson - OSU Cascades & Western Washington University

Joey Killeen - Montana State University & University of Arizona

Ethan Vuong - Montana State University

Joseph Cromwell - Oregon Institute of Technology

Joe Medley - Metropolitan State University of Denver

Charles Ryder – Montana State University & University of Arizona

Lucas Richer - Montana State University

In the coming weeks our seniors will continue to receive news and begin to make more firm plans for the future. It is a wonderful time and the academic team is thrilled to help in this process.

Hannah and Adam

student of the month

Student of the Month: LJ Parra

LJ is always doing what he is supposed to be doing in class and his GPA reflects how hard he works. He has also done a great job helping other students if they have something they need help with. He always brings a great attitude to class.
-Adam, Teacher

LJ is very motivated and sure of himself as a rider. He is a team leader and always follows through on his actions. He is very respectful, clean and does everything with intent.
-Asa, Coach

Even though he is one of the youngest students on campus, LJ Parra is a driving force in student life as well as academically & athletically. He carries himself like a 30 year old & represents the Academy to the highest possible standards on a daily basis
-Mike Hanley, Head of School

STUDENT LIFE

Ryan Buttars stands atop the podium at K1 Speed; life coach, Will Stephens shows the kids how it’s done; and 8th grade student, Quinn Murray, rounds out the top three.

Mountain bike traveled to Virgin, UT once again, while most the other teams were stationed on campus for most of November. Students have been working diligently and dedicating extra time during our study hall sessions to get ahead for their final big trips of the semester! The weekends were filled with so many of the students’ favorite activities. We began the month with a trip to the annual Snowvana expo where students perused gear and had the chance to watch some newly released ski movies to spark inspiration for the season. Other popular activities included more racing at K1 speed and bowling at Big Al’s during a Seattle Seahawks game. Prior to students departing for their Thanksgiving celebration, upperclassmen cheered on the athletes at the Oregon Special Olympics Fall Games.

One of the best highlights of the month was our academy vacation to Seattle, where eight students had a holiday brunch on the Portland Spirit and had the chance to enjoy downtown Portland while cruising the Willamette River. Afterwards, they made their way to Seattle for a relaxing weekend in the city. To complete their trip, the students hopped aboard the Puget Sound Express and spent a long afternoon chasing pods of Orcas. We are so thankful we could give this opportunity to students who stayed with us over Thanksgiving!

Barb Edwards
Dean of Students

CULINARY

The month of November has come and gone. The Culinary Team once again has produced some great food for the students. This month most of the student-athletes stayed on campus except the Mountain Bike students, so they missed out on some great food that we produced. Kellen has done a tremendous job at dinner time producing some real good meals. One meal the students asked for was Baby Back Ribs and let me tell you Kellen knocked it out of the park. I was hoping there would be a couple ribs left for me to try but when I got in the next day there was none left. All the students loved them! For breakfast, we have been producing the regular items like hash browns, eggs, bacon and once or twice a week I have been making Pancakes just to give the kids a different option. For lunch, we made teriyaki chicken and rice, McRib sandwiches, grilled cheese and tomato soup and of course the kids' favorites like chicken tenders and fish sticks. While most of the students went home for Thanksgiving, the Culinary Team was able to take some well needed extra days off. We look forward to this next month as we will continue doing what we love and also get ready for some time off with our families.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Greetings Freeski Families,

November has been a productive month for us on the Freeski side of things! Coming back from Austria we had some much needed time to reflect and debrief the trip, as well as come together to re-evaluate goals, take a first dive into our IQP (Individualized Quad Plans), and reset some more short term goals for the rest of the semester. Our training has mainly been on campus utilizing the facilities here. Focused trampoline sessions, taking advantage of the super tramp to work on rotations past the level that are planned for on snow. The idea here is that if you move the needle on what is hard, it makes the tricks our athletes are planning to do on snow seem “easier”. Coming off the heels of our time at Banger Park, our athletes have gained some new perspective of our airbag, with many of them maxing out its potential, working on both left and right forward tricks, as well as both left and right switch tricks! As always the Jib line has stayed hot all month long with continued progress across the board. We have been pushing everyone out of their comfort zone and are encouraging them to utilize the entire jib line, exploring all of the feature and line options!

Although we were not blessed with enough snow to have lifts spin, we have been getting a few inches here and there. Enough where we have been able to drag some of our PVC features up onto the mountain to make creative and productive set ups that we can both train and film on. Mother nature is the one thing we can never plan on, but we have been making the most with what we've been given so far.

Everyone has been spending lots of time and energy getting physically, mentally, and academically for our on-snow camps in the beginning of December, so we are excited to get back on the road, back on snow, and see what comes of it!

Brian, Topher, and Shannon

mountain bike

Hello Mountain Bike Families!

We had quite an epic trip down to Southern Utah! We've never experienced such a perfect weather window during our Utah academy trips with everyday being sunny, no wind, and 70 degrees. We as a team were able to ride about 6-8 hours a day. The kids behaved great with no big disciplinary issues and represented Wy'East academy professionally. We saw huge progression with our heavy hitting seniors, and our younger freshmen with tech ridgelines, big mountain lines, jumps, drops, and tricks. With the amount of good ride days on this trip, we were able to really spend time gaining confidence with exposed lines, drops, and other technical features most kids mentally struggle with. We had 6 kids clear the infamous King Kong trail, known for being a shuttleable rampage line that the best in the world come to test their mental and physical skills on. Wy'East MTB team alumni Aiden Parish, Harper Simon, Josh Hagen, and Curran Lawrence played a huge role with our students' successes with coaching tips, mental strategies, and leading by example how to ride and hit these high risk features and trails. All and all it was a great trip and please be on the lookout for the kids' Instagram posts for all the media they will be dropping!

Asa and Bolio

SNOWBOARD

Alessia Vergani and Brando twinning at practice

Hello snowboard team families!

Even though the semester is coming to a close, there is still plenty going on here for the snowboarders of Wy’East Academy. Everyone has been working hard to finish up their classwork in preparation for our team trips to Mammoth and Mt. Sima. Stew and Alec are super excited about bringing their crew down to California where Mammoth has built an awesome early season park. Meanwhile, Brandon will be taking a smaller group of athletes to Mt.Sima in Canada for some big air focused training.

I have to say that we have had an absolute blast this semester working with all of the snowboarders to set the foundation for the competitive season that lays ahead. Hopefully everyone has adjusted to balancing both athletics and academics so that next semester they can really thrive. Thank you all for your continued support and help in making these kids dreams come true.

Wishing you all the best,

Brandon, Stew, & Alec

SKATEBOARD

Skate team practicing hard at an off campus park

Hello Families,

The semester is moving along quickly. November has had some surprisingly nice weather for us so we have been able to take advantage of that and skate outside a lot. Our luck with the dry weather is taking a turn but with colder/wet weather on the way it's nice to have B.O.B. and a trip to Southern CA at the end of the month.

A big focus in November was the digital contest runs each student made. They had one week to plan and film a 1 minute line in B.O.B. I stayed completely out of the process. It was up to them to plan out what the run would look like and get someone to film it. Each run was judged on Filming, Speed, Flow/Use of park, Trick Selection, and Execution of Tricks. I then sent each students run out to be judged by Wy’East staff and friends of mine in the skate industry (Team Managers, Riders, Contest Judges, Ect). I compiled all the feedback for each student's run and we went through it. It is not easy to skate like that and not easy to get a classmate to spend a lot of time filming the same run over and over until you get it. The students did an amazing job overall on it and have them posted their instagrams.

This last month we jumped back into our skate shop project where over the school year each student will have gone through the steps of starting a skate shop. In November we looked at retail spaces. The students' task was to find the space for their shop. We used the cafe as a guide for how to measure and visualize square feet for their shops. Then looking at the city's/neighborhoods they had previously chosen they hit real estate websites looking for retails spots to lease. The end goal for this month was a location and cost per month for the spot. The next part of the project will focus on getting products and how to open an account with the distribution companies.

With the end of the semester coming up quickly, expect an email from me outlining the spring semester plans for travel and contests soon. December is going to be a quick month on campus as we are traveling for the first part of it and return to campus with only a few days left in the semester. Please reach out with any questions!

Brian J.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

I’m Michael Mawn and I’m a professional big mountain snowboarder representing the United States on the Freeride World Tour. I attended Wy’East Academy while pursuing competitive halfpipe riding in high school. Since then, I’ve made the switch to Freeride snowboarding and I am entering my fourth consecutive season on the World Tour.

Outside of snowboarding, I'm the Founder and CEO of a software company that I started in high school (Posted Software). My team and I manage a gig work platform with several thousand users across four states. I manage the business remotely while traveling the world to compete!

“My time at Wy’East Academy led to a strong foundation and instilled in me a strong work ethic. At Wy’East, I learned how to balance academic and athletic pursuits to achieve my goals. My experiences at Wy’East are invaluable and I’m so thankful for the opportunities I had there!"

Guest UserDecember 5, 2023

WY'EAST ACADEMY NOVEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

November 2023 Edition

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Tucker Beck, Devin Lindenmeyr, Hugh MacMenamin, Ryan Buttars, Joey Killeen, and Luka Kuharic sightseeing in Austria.

As Halloween came to a close, it was a reminder that somehow October had come & gone. In addition to a stretch of great weather on campus as the leaves all began to change colors, we had our most successful Parents Weekend combined with our annual in-person Board of Trustees Meeting & fundraiser Good in the Woods. Thank you very much to everyone who was able to help participate this year as we were able to raise over $50,000 for our tuition assistance program. No sooner had we cleaned up the festivities of the fundraiser at Nemo Design in Portland, that our ski & snowboard programs were in the air en route to Austria. College applications have been going out for our 19 seniors as all of the programs hit the road, the campus went quiet for a couple days. By the end of the month it was great to see the snow teams return from Europe as the skaters came back tanned from the California sun & the Mountain Bikers were ready for a nap after a strike mission up to Canada. Parents weekend offered an amazing opportunity for the staff & student body to explain what their goals were in addition to displaying their skills before everyone made their way down to Good in the Woods. Thank you very much to all of you who donated & supported us with your bidding, none of this would be possible without you!

Mike Hanley

ACADEMICS

Students taking advantage of a nice afternoon

Meet New Teacher, Adam Moreschi
I am from Portland, Oregon. I got my BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Western Oregon University with focus areas in Business, Computer Science and Health/Physical Education. In my years of coaching and working in various school districts, I have always enjoyed getting to know the students and developing ways to keep them engaged and performing to the very best of their abilities. Helping each student maximize their learning potential and utilize their life skills is why I am excited to be here at Wy'East.

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

SEPTEMBER STUDENT OF THE MONTH: CAM HICKEY

Cam is a dedicated, hard worker who carries himself with confidence and excellence. He has his mind set on some big long term goals which is huge for a 9th grader. His Starbucks order is a double-Smoked Bacon Cheddar & Egg Sandwich, Strawberry Acai Lemonade (Light Ice), and a coffee cake.
-Brian, Coach

Although Cam is small in stature, he carries himself with the weight of an NFL lineman. We are all going to be telling people "we knew him when" for years to come!
-Mike, Head of School

Cam leads naturally with the instilled virtues of diligence, kindness, and courage. In the classroom, Cam models the traits of an eager learner through his curious mind and focused attention. In more formal conversations and in casual encounters around campus, his joyful countenance and refined civility make him an engaging conversationalist who always has something positive and meaningful to share. Cam is simply a gifted leader:)
-Jeremy, Teacher

STUDENT LIFE

Cam Hickey posing at Scaregrounds Haunted Houses

It’s crazy to think we begun October with Parents Weekend, and it seems so much time has gone by since then. We had over 60 students, family members, and staff join us for the bluebird day at Splat Action Paintball. It was our largest Parents Weekend yet, and we are so happy to have shared the beautiful weather with you all. Shortly thereafter, more than 2/3 of our students departed for Europe on a two-week training trip. While home, the mountain bike team spent a productive weekend volunteering at a trail maintenance and development day at Post Canyon in Hood River, just on the other side of Mt. Hood. Other activities the mountain bike and skate teams enjoyed included a race day at K1 Speed, and watching one of the last Timbers games of the season. Upon the arrival of all of our students back on campus, we celebrated Halloween at the Scaregrounds haunted houses. Our student government is working diligently on a cold plunge and sauna reward system project, and we are excited to see this become a part of the student lifestyle next month.

Barbara Edwards

CULINARY

The month of October has come and gone. It was busy and not so busy for the Culinary Department. First off, I want to thank all the Parents who made it out to Parents Weekend. It was awesome to see everyone and touch base with some parents regarding the food on campus. I hope everyone enjoyed the food that we provided on Campus and at Goods in the Woods. As for the month as a whole, the Culinary Department had some great meals for the students. One evening, Kellen made Smoked Lamb for the students before they left for Austria. We also made their favorite lunch meals and breakfast meals. Half the month, most of the students were on trips around the world. So, we were able to have some down time for the crew, which we needed. This coming month, we will see a reduction in students on campus around the Thanksgiving holiday.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Ski team touring The College of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck

Hello Families!

Whoowee, what a great action packed month we had on the freeski team. We spent the first couple weeks honing in on everyone's goals for Austria for both rails and jumps. The days were filled by rotating groups from the gym to the trampolines as well as the outdoor dry slopes. Comradery and drive has been on the up throughout the team.

It was nice to see a lot of you here at the annual Parents weekend and get some face time, catching up on how your student athlete is doing. It’s always a great opportunity for you to get to check out what student life is like here with our demo’s on the facilities.

Our pre-season Training Camp to Austria proved to be productive for everyone. Traveling with roughly 50 people between us and the Snowboard team our journey across the world went incredibly smooth. All bags arrived on time and like a round of Tetris we were able to fit the countless ski/board bags and everyone safely into the 6 vehicles. Slightly jet lagged but filled with excitement we woke up the next day and headed up to the Hintertux Glacier. There we enjoyed a nice reentry back to snow and everyone began to get their feet back under them familiarizing themselves with the park. We spent the next couple days at the main attraction of the trip “Banger Park”. Banger hosts a world class airbag training facility with three different sized jumps for any and all abilities. Brian, Shannon and I would divide and conquer and each be set in a different zone to help cater to each athlete. Progression, progression, progression! It was clear to see the benefit from the bag sessions, watching each kid finish their sessions having learned something new whether it was big or small. Conditions on the glacier proved to be challenging but we maximized our weather windows when given and had some great hiking sessions on the rails when visibility was less than ideal.

When not on snow we filled our time with trips to Innsbruck to soak up some culture checking out museums, old churches and certainly dining on plenty of pizza and wiener schnitzel. We also got the chance to tour The College of Architecture at the University of Innsbruck. We were guided around by a current student who was a friend of a Wy’East Academy Alumni. He gave us a thorough tour through lecture halls, 3D model rooms and other various zones where students were working on current projects. We got to meet a few other active students who spoke about their senior projects and involvement with working on designs for city parks, apartment buildings and local businesses.

To sum it all up, October was certainly a month to remember. Keep an eye out for our weekly emails to stay up to date on all things freeski. Let it snow!!!

-Topher, Shannon & Brian

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Hello Mountain Bike Families!

October was a good month to be a mountain biker on campus! We saw some of the best conditions while home in Oregon with just enough rain and sun to create some hero dirt conditions. October also featured two action packed trips, the slopestyle/freeride trip to Highland MTB park and a team wide trip up north to Coast Gravity park.

Highland- The team was blown away with the amount of trails, features, and jumps that highland had to offer. We were able to make great use out of their indoor facility as well with students learning new things with their flatdrop to foam setup. This is a dream setup for a free rider as flat drop tricks are very intimidating to try without having a foam pit to train in. The rest of the park was great as well, with a jump every 50 feet across the entire hill. Some of the kids were intimidated by the big jumps and we took a few days of riding and thinking to get them through the main slopestyle line. We initially traveled out to highland for the slopestyle contest they were hosting, but unfortunately the comp was rained out and we had to improvise. Instead of the comp, we spent the rainy day inside of their state of the art indoor training facility. The rest of the trip was relatively smooth with lots of ride time in the park. We saw lots of progression with the kids who went, especially mentally, and I am super stoked we were able to make this trip happen. On our way back to the Boston airport, we stopped by MIT for a quick peek of a world much different than ours. The kids got to listen in on some passing tours being given, as well as stand in front of "The Great Dome". All and all it was a success.

Coast Gravity Park- Our team training camp up at the legendary Coast Gravity Park was also an epic trip. We stayed in Halfmoon Bay, British Columbia right on a bluff overlooking the bay, with islands in the distance. We had some pretty awesome sunrises and sunsets while at home. The team also enjoyed the hot tub in between school sessions once we were back from the park. While at the park, we were able to ride all together on most laps because of the small size of the park, and the fact that everyone was on the same shuttle every lap. This led to quality coaching time, great group riding, and plenty of student videos. The conditions up there were world class as well. We saw 3 sunny (but chilly) days with wet, grippy dirt. I've personally been up here about 5 or so times and have never seen it this good! The kids had a blast, and the progression was unreal. We had students work on getting through the big jump line for 3 days, and finally on the last day they were able to clear the entire line! This is a tough task not just because of the jumps but the corners as well. In order to clear the jumps, the rider must perfectly execute the exit speed of the corner to get the speed for them.

Stoked for what November brings!

Asa Howe and Alejandro Bolio

SNOWBOARD

Hello Snowboard Families!

The Austria trip has come and gone! Between the many ups and downs of the trip, the kids had an absolute blast, and were able to get on snow for the first time this semester. With a healthy mix of riding the park at Hintertuxx and the world class landing bags at Banger Park, there has been a tremendous amount of progress, creating a baseline for the coaches to work with for the semester. They persevered through inclement weather, making the most of each day, with the biggest highlights coming from our time at Banger Park. Hopefully you all have been hearing stories and seeing photos/videos from our time over there!

Since coming back from Austria, many of the students have been taking academic “double days” in order to catch up on any school work they fell behind on during the trip. But for those that were able to balance both class work, travel, and training, they’ve been taking full advantage of our training blocks! It’s our goal to start getting the students ahead on their classes, as training will only increase as we get closer and closer to the competition season. With competitions ranging from local USASA, IFSA Big Mountain events, Futures & Rev tours, all three teams will have an incredibly busy schedule. Depending on the cooperation of the weather, we will start taking the kids up to the mountain to get them more time on the snow, but until then, we will be getting back into the routine we set prior to our international trip.

Until next time, with warm regards and a hope for cold weather,

Brandon, Stew, and Alec

skateboard

Hi Families!
October has been an absolutely amazing month for the skate program! The students have been putting in a lot of work and progressing a ton.The weather has been holding out for us so we have been able to take advantage of it and skate the jungle and some of the parks in the greater Portland area. We also snuck away to the coast and got a surf/skate day in Pacific City.

The big event for skate was our trip to San Francisco. The trip was amazing! We had great weather, lots of great food, met up with some cool people, and skated some epic spots. We got a full tour of the city and would spend all day out exploring. Leaving the airbnb at 8am and usually not making it back until 8pm. We visited the University of San Francisco, University of California Santa Cruz, California College of the Arts, and stayed next to San Francisco State but never actually made it onto that campus. On our rest morning we took the ferry through the fog into the bay to explore Alcatraz which we all really enjoyed. Santa Cruz gave us the opportunity to hope in the water and surf for a couple hours. So we watched a high school surf contest at The Lane before renting boarding and hoping in at Cowells. It was fun surfing with everyone at a spot that is so special to me and everyone caught waves! A highlight of the trip was our stop at Deluxe Distribution. DLX is called the heart of skateboarding and runs some of the most successful brands out there (Spitfire, Real, Anti Hero, Venture, Thunder, Krooked, Unity, and Their). The art room crew gave us a tour of the facility giving the students a behind the scenes look at everything they do. I truly mean everything, nothing was off limits: graphics, timelines, distribution, RandD, Sales, Team Management, anything if the students had questions they answered. We met up with the Venture Team/Brand Manager Zach who used to go by “Ducky”. Zach talked about his journey as a pro skateboarder skating X games, having his name on a board, skating the heaviest rails ever done, all while getting his degree from UC Irvin. While the parks in SF are really good we spent most of our time skating in the streets. San Francisco is a mecca for skating but it's also considered one of the toughest places to skate, so it put the students to the test and they all got a few clips in the streets.

November is often a cold wet month on campus, so we are very lucky to have a heated indoor park on campus. Our focus will be on our skate shop projects and preparing for our next trip to Southern California at the end of the month.

Brian Johnson

Guest UserNovember 6, 2023

WY'EAST ACADEMY OCTOBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

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

Guest UserOctober 24, 2023

WY'EAST ACADEMY SEPTEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

Mountain bike team on their Whistler trip in August.

A Letter from the head of school

The summer of 2023 was very pleasant. With all of the stories of heat waves around the world we enjoyed sunny days in the mid 70's from May through August. We all had the opportunity to get out & make the most of the amazing beauty of the Pacific Northwest on the mountains, lakes & beaches seven days a week. We had four of our students asked to represent their countries in the Junior World Championships in New Zealand later this month & we wish them all the best of luck. Everyone pushed their trick repertoire in the FTC at Timberline with several students putting down double cork 1440's to get ready for the busy competition season to come. Our mountain bikers got down to Mexico & up to Whistler to stack up their skills against the best in the world in addition to finding new students who will be joining us this fall. For the first time in the history of the Academy we have programs where there are no seats left in the vans. We have brought on new coaches, new cooks, new teachers & new residential staff who went through an exhaustive interview process to join our team so we look forward to the best year ever!

Mike Hanley
Head of School

Meet New Office Admin, Sabina Williams
Hello! I am the new office administrator. I've lived in Utah for the past 5 years, spending winter in Salt Lake City skiing and going to school (but mostly skiing) and summer in Moab river guiding. When I'm not on the mountain or river, I really enjoy climbing and mountain biking. I'm excited to be here at Wy'East!

New office administrator Sabina Williams

ACADEMICS

It’s been a lovely summer here on campus. And while our academic pace slows down a bit, the students have worked diligently to keep the vibe up. It’s been wonderful to see how a lightened load, some extra recreation, and plenty of good sleep has benefited our Summer Academy students. Friendships have blossomed this summer, and we welcomed diverse perspectives into the group as we were joined by former students, graduates from the class of 2023, and athletes from other programs and countries into our cohort. The students have willingly participated in a soft-launch of upcoming changes to our academic program and provided valuable feedback that will aid our team greatly as we prepare for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year. Watch your inbox later this week for our Fall Welcome Letter which will include a supply list, important dates, and policy updates for this school year. See you in September!

Hannah Eagle
Lead Teacher

Meet New Teacher, Jeremy Jones
I have always loved tall evergreens. The only problem is that I grew up in Dallas, Texas where it's pretty much exclusively deciduous trees and nothing grows taller than 100 feet. So when the time was right, my wife, son and I moved to Portland in 2009. It still feels a little bit like being on vacation! After our son went off to college in Michigan this Fall, my wife and I moved out to the Hoodland area just a few miles from Wy'East and after a couple of serendipitous minor miracles, I landed my dream job of being in the woods, around young people excited to live life fully, with colleagues who care deeply about the flourishing of all of these wonderful kids. It's truly a pleasure and honor to support the intellectual life of your child through a prism of dignity, hope, and agency.

STUDENT LIFE

Olivia Espenschied bungee jumping for a weekend activity.

Dear Wy’East Academy Families,

As the sun sets on another incredible summer, we want to take a moment to reflect on the whirlwind of excitement, learning, and growth that students experienced during their time with us this past month. From heart-pounding activities to serene nature escapes, this past month has been nothing short of extraordinary. Our weekends were a rollercoaster of emotions and adrenaline as students embraced adventure like never before. From the heart-stopping bungee jumping to the exhilarating white-water rafting trip, the fearless cliff jumping to mastering the art of wakeboarding, and the pure joy of tubing on the glistening waters of Lake Billy Chinook – students embraced every challenge with determination and courage. Amidst the pulse-pounding activities, we ensured that students had the chance to connect with the natural world around them. Our hiking excursions led them to hidden treasures of the local landscape, while the peaceful Trillium Lake evenings allowed them to reflect and rejuvenate in the company of their newfound friends. Our staff's dedication to making every moment memorable extended to the dining table, where they prepared daily delicious breakfasts to fuel the day's adventures, whether it was on hill training or weekend activities. Time on campus was filled with dodgeball matches with campers and trampoline sessions which fostered camaraderie and a healthy, active lifestyle. We are immensely grateful for the trust you placed in us to provide a safe and enriching environment for your students. Witnessing their growth, resilience, and the genuine friendships formed has been an honor for our dedicated staff. As the Summer Academy comes to a close, know that the memories made here will continue to inspire and shape your students' lives. We hope they return home with a sense of accomplishment, newfound confidence, and a passion for adventure that will stay with them forever.

Thank you for being a part of this remarkable journey. We can't wait to see everyone in September for the start of Fall Term.

Warm regards,
Barbara Edwards

CULINARY

Greetings from the Culinary Department-

This past Summer was a busy one for us. Before we get into summer, I would like to send out a BIG shout out to the PTO and Parents that helped out with this year’s Graduation. It was a special evening for the Graduating Seniors.

Now let's dive into summer time for the Culinary Department. In the beginning of June, we had the pleasure of providing food to a group of Skaters from all over the world. It was nice to have them use our campus as their backdrop. The Culinary Department also did a late evening plated dinner for them on one of the evenings. While this event was going on, we hosted our first wedding on campus. It was a small intimate wedding party of 30. The Bride and Groom were happy about everything. Then, the Culinary Department was off working on Camps. Every week we would have a different group of campers come through the cafe and enjoy the food that we provided. During the first three sessions, I would do a private three course dinner for the Adult campers and guest Pro’s that was held in the Clampland area.

Coming into the new school year, the Culinary Team is retaining two employees that we hired for summer time. First, we have Ace, who will be working the morning shift cooking up the eggs and lunches for the student athletes. He grew up in the San Diego area and has been living in Oregon for a while now. He will be a great addition to the team. Then, we have another Weller on campus! Ethan Weller, nephew of Jamie Weller has joined the Culinary team and has made a big impact for us. He will be working the dinner shift.

With the upcoming school year, the Culinary Team will be making some tweaks to the menus. One big change is that at lunch, we are going to provide a better nutritional hot lunch for the student athletes. As well as, we will have flavored water out all time. You will have to wait and see what else is on the horizon from the Culinary Department!

Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all in a month!!

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

New assistant ski coach Shannon VanDerwerken

This Summer was one for the books on the Freeski Team. We started our days with a well rounded, healthy breakfast in government camp accompanied with completing the daily Wordle, packing a lunch and then making our way up the Volcano. Each morning in the lodge we would run a group stretch session and talk about the daily plan to progress before we hopped on the lift up to the Freestyle Training Center (FTC).

The FTC had three parks with something for everyone this year from beginner style jumps and rails to a jump suitable for larger double rotations and everything in between. Our freeski coaches would work together or often divide and conquer to be in place for all the athletes to progress throughout the three parks in the FTC. The combination of the FTC and your student athletes willingness to put the work in, we can honestly say that everyone finished their stay with us this summer having learned a ton and polished their skills in preparation for the season ahead!

We are starting to look forward to the upcoming semester and we will be sending a welcome letter with the latest on the 23/24 school year! We can’t thank you enough for entrusting us with your student athlete, and helping us create a summer for the books!

All the best,

Topher & Brian

Meet New Coach, Shannon VanDerwerken
Hello! I am from Aspen, Colorado. I've been coaching freeski for 10 years and mountain biking for 5 years. I'm very excited to be part of Wy'East and work with these talented athletes. I look forward to meeting everyone.

SNOWBOARD

Greetings Snowboard Families!

With the start of Fall semester quickly approaching, I’d like to outline a few exciting plans that the program will be doing. Time always seems to fly by once we get rolling so don’t be surprised when December sneaks up on you and it’s time for the holidays. The first few weeks of the semester will be spent building campus wide dynamics between all the students, regardless of sport so that we continue to work together as the tight knit community we are. We have our Week of Welcome, then moving into our trial period where our program will narrow focus into A, B, and C sectors depending on objective & subjective criteria. We’ll be spending time with your athlete to create their Quad Plans, season goals, contest map, and travel schedule. The trial period will conclude after our team trip to Austria where we will be training both on snow and on world class Air Bags. More details about that specific trip will be coming down the pipeline so stay tuned.

The month of November will be spent sharpening the competitive mindset of each athlete, identifying and working on areas of weakness to build progression, and strength and conditioning to allow for a full winter season of healthy riding. On average, our typical Monday - Friday training plans are designed around spending two and a half hours each day on the dry slope facilities and trampolines, 45 minutes of strength and conditioning, and 45 minutes of cross training to accomplish those goals. We like to mix in days off campus to experience what Oregon has to offer and break up the routine with surf days, skate days, and hikes.

We’ll be doing a Pre-Competition Camp in early December before the semester ends to spend 6 days on snow preparing for the events to come starting in January. The objective here is to continue the progress made in Austria while dialing in top-to-bottom runs with features that each athlete will expect to see in either Future Tours, Rev Tours, Nor-ams, and beyond. The location of this camp is TBD and we’ll make that decision in November. We are all excited to get this season underway and thank you all for the support as we work to change the lives of these young athletes.

Cheers!

-Brandon, Stewart, & Alec

Meet New Coach, Alec Young
Hello! My name is Alec, and I am one of the assistant snowboard coaches for Wy'East Academy. I'm 23 years old, have been snowboarding for 13 seasons, and was a competitive snowboarder in boardercross, slalom, and giant slalom for 10 seasons, and have coached both privately and for a competitive team over the past 5 years. I look forward to getting to know and work with all of the athletes at Wy'East.

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Students mountain biking in Whistler in August

Our MTB program headed up to Whistler BC, Canada for the month of August for 2 training camps that focused on rider progression on and off the bike. While up there, we were able to ride the famous bike park 5 days a week, and also local spots around the area that are great for mtb skill building. Riding was not the only thing we focused on while up there. We also taught the kids how to work on their own bikes, talked with pros and bike shop owners, went on hikes, and made many team building memories. All and all, our Whistler training camps were a huge success, and I couldn’t be more stoked to get into the school year.

Asa Howe

Meet New Coach, Alex Bolio
Hello! I'm Alejandro. If I need to present myself with 3 words, they would be values, passion, and progress.The reason I'm here is to help people to believe in their dreams and show them that with hard work and a plan, everything is possible. I'm excited to be a part of Wy'East.

New assistant snowboard coach Alejandro Bolio

SKATEBOARD

Hey Families,

I hope everyone is having a great summer back home. This summer has been non stop for skateboarding on campus. It has been amazing to get warm sunny weather and lots of new faces on campus all summer long. We just wrapped up the Northwest Open on campus which was a massive undertaking and I’m very thankful to everyone who helped with it. Despite smokey skies from a nearby fire we saw at least 1,000 people on campus Friday-Sunday. Friday was the Pro Invitational contest in the jungle with competitors like Louie Lopez, Jake Yanko, Silas Baxter-Neal, Sebo Walker, Elijah Akerley, and Simon Bannerot. Friday ended with a best trick contest on a 35 foot rail going down the hill in front of the bowl into the jungle. Academy student Tag walked away with some cash from the best trick contest getting a feeble and a smith down it. Saturday and Sunday were our public competition days where we ran 4 jams each day handing out $1,000 cash in each jam. Saturday ended with a Pro only jam on a giant repurposed snowboard feature at the bottom of the asphalt hill. I will attach the recap videos and write up to future newsletters when they are finished. In the meantime if you want to see what the event was like please check out the Seek Skate Camp and Tactics Instagram accounts.

A couple notes on fall. The first phase of our new street plaza is completed and located down by the dodgeball court. This first phase is a simple design focusing on flat ground, rails, and ledges. The students this year will help me with planning out and designing the second phase of the park. We will focus on utilizing the PNW and all it has to offer while the weather remains nice and our first trip will be mid Oct to San Francisco.

I am looking forward to the start of the fall semester here in just a few days!

Brian Johnson

Guest UserOctober 23, 2023

WE ARE BREAKING GROUND ON WORLD-CLASS DRY SLOPE AIRBAG, SUMMER 2024!

WY’EAST MOUNTAIN ACADEMY TO BREAK GROUND ON WORLD-CLASS DRY SLOPE AIRBAG, SUMMER 2023 AS $500,000 MAGIC CARPET FUND RAISING LAUNCHES.

Wy’East Mountain Academy is thrilled to announce it has successfully raised the $3.5million needed to begin the first phase of construction for its new world-class dry slope airbag. The consulting design team consisted of US Ski and Snowboard Team coaches, Wy’East’s own former Olympic coaches, Mamal, Inc. (ramp designer for Travis Pastrana), along with countless engineers but the final shape and bag were designed and produced by BangerBags of Austria, considered the world’s best. This monumental jump will serve as a testament to Wy’East’s culture of high-performance and as a critical tool in helping to develop the next generation of Olympic skiers and snowboarders while simultaneously providing access to miles of mountain bike trails and features on Wy’East’s 28-acre Campus at the base of Mt. Hood, Oregon.

FUNDRAISING CONTINUES

While the Wy’East students and staff celebrate this momentous occasion, the $500,000 phase 2 fundraising campaign is launching now, and they need your help. The academy is seeking donations of small and substantial amounts to complete fundraising for the project’s Magic Carpet. With this uphill transportation mechanism, student athletes and visiting pros and Olympians will be rapidly returned to the top of the jump, allowing them to focus energy on progression instead of burning out their legs hiking back to the top.

Donations of $500 and up include exclusive first-ride access to the bag once completed and with coaching, lodging, and food included for up to 30 people at the $5,000 donation level. To contribute, learn more about the project and all the giving levels offered by Wy’East, please visit https://wyeastacademy.com/dryslope-landing-bag.

ABOUT WY’EAST MOUNTAIN ACADEMY

Wy'East Mountain Academy (formerly Windells Academy) is a world-class outdoor-oriented, action sports academy designed to develop driven and talented students in the classroom as well as in the outdoors. Wy’East enrolls students ages 12 to 19 who want to combine a rigorous academic setting with skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, mountain biking and other outdoor recreation sports. To this end, we offer sport-specific coaching that facilitates athletic progression at all levels, from just starting out to competing professionally. We enable students to learn, train and participate in sports year-round while attaining high school or college credits that are transferable in or out of any US accredited school, national or international.

LEARN MORE™

If you have questions, ideas, or would just like to talk about this project, please contact:

Kevin English, President

Bobby MeeksMay 2, 2023Wy'East Mountain Acaedmy

WY'EAST ACADEMY APRIL 2023 NEWSLETTER

Anthony Jones competing in the USASA 2023 National Championships

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

The Mountain Bike Team touring the University of Tennessee

We are in the final stretch of the school year with less than a month to go & the snow has continued to fly. All of our different programs have continued to progress in their sports as well as the classroom with a new school record on the SAT's as well as podium finishes across all of the disciplines. Our juniors have been taking extra time to visit different college campuses around the country to begin the process of narrowing down their selections for next year while our seniors are taking their final steps towards moving on to the next phase in life. With all of the action going on away from our little island in the woods, it has been hard to ignore the meters of snow that continue to pile up on the mountain which currently has us on track to break a 200 inch base this April! Our snow teams are wrapping up their year at the National Championships in Colorado before the top performers head over to Europe to compete against the world's best. The mountain bikers have been busy stacking up more podiums coast to coast from Tennessee to Washington as the skate crew has dominated the local event series before finishing the year in New York City. There are still spots left for the summer semester, but the 2023-2024 school year is almost full so please make sure to confirm your space with Dan Tattersfield prior to departure day.

Mike Hanley
Head of School

ACADEMICS

The March Students of the Month: Joseph Cromwell and Jack Morris

Greetings Wy'East Families,

During the month of March we hosted the SAT on campus and also transported students to a nearby school for the SAT. This spring, one of our students earned the highest SAT score for Wy'East yet. We will be administering the SAT again next fall, so this summer is an excellent time to prepare by taking an SAT prep class. Please reach out if you have not done so already about summer courses. Students who are on campus for at least four weeks this summer have the opportunity to earn Elite PE credit as well.

Throughout the month of March seniors continued to get more and more college acceptance letters. For the third year in a row, 100% of our seniors have been accepted to four-year universities! We are so proud of our Class of 2023 and are excited to send them off with options. Students are currently concentrated on finishing their courses with the best grades possible, as the last day to work on courses is April 26th.

Lastly, congratulations to our Students of the Month for the month of March: Joseph Cromwell and Jack Morris!

Kayla Hokanson
Academic Director

Joe Cromwell is a stellar student and embodies many of the qualities of a Wy’East athlete. He is responsible, reliable, and receptive. Joe shows up, on time, and owns his decisions. When he says he’s going to do something, he does it. When the occasion for feedback or correction arises, Joe listens carefully, asks questions, and moves forward with the new information. Joe has consistently maintained a high level of performance – both academically and in his sport throughout the term. Joe manages the ever-conflicting dance between training, travel, academics, and being a teenager with a grace that is both inspiring and intimidating. Thank you, Joe! You are a force on this campus and we are lucky to have you with us.
-Hannah Eagle

Jack Morris is an amazing athlete and student! His academic performance is above average and he sets the bar high for the expectations of the students on campus. Jack is also a determined and resilient athlete as he continues to become a stronger skier. We are very proud of Jack’s accomplishments in skiing and his outstanding grades and progress in academics. No matter what path Jack chooses after his time at Wy’East, we know he will continue to be successful and reach new heights. Great job, Jack!
-Loren Terry

STUDENT LIFE

Raf, Jack, and Taylor with their winnings—20lbs of candy!

Greetings Wy’East Families,

The month of March was one of our busiest yet. We started the month off with attending Monster Jam at the Moda Center. Students got to see the famous monster truck Gravedigger do some crazy stunts including a backflip! Generally, the way we have weekends set up, students have a rest/campus day and then on Sundays we do an activity. One of the goals of Student Government this year was to give back to our community. For winter term we signed up for the Special Olympics polar plunge and 5k. It was exciting seeing the stoke that student brought to this fundraiser. We are looking forward to future community involvement. In addition, student government has been working closely with administrative staff in planning weekend activities. This past month we took students bouldering at a local rock climbing gym, went to a nickel arcade, played laser tag, went to the movies, mountain biking on some local trails, got lunch at the Portland food carts, and went to the OMSI (science museum). Some weekend activity highlights included making paper airplanes at the science museum, winning over 20lbs of candy at the arcade, and sampling the local cuisine in Portland. When we aren’t doing activities off campus, students utilize the on campus training facilities to further progress in their sport. On weekends, we have set up the airbag for snowboarders and skiers to practice their tricks on and the best part is when the mountain bikers and skaters throw some skis on and hit the dry slope. The culture we currently have on campus is the best yet and we can’t wait for summer term!

Netanya Beard
Dean of Students

CULINARY

The month of March for the Culinary Department was a bit slower for us. Most of the student/athletes were traveling around the country. It was nice to take care of only 5 students for a few days while everyone else was out training and going to tournaments. It was a nice break for us as we tended to some housekeeping items that needed to be done. We kept the food going with breakfast made to order during this time. And with the few students that we had on campus, I treated them to Dairy Queen for lunch one day. With students returning, we ramp up our food production once again and start making the students favorite meals. With Teriyaki Chicken, Steak and Mash Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese to name a few. At lunch, we have our favorites of McRib Sandwiches, Chicken Tenders (students favorite), Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches. For Breakfast, Eggs Benedict is becoming more of a popular dish. So, I have started to make it weekly for the students. As we head into the final month of Winter Term, I can not wait to showcase the Culinary Department’s finer side of food with our Graduation menu! Hopefully, I will be able to say hello to all that comes.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Dax Watter enjoying a bluebird day of skiing

The Freeski team had a great March that was full of tons of snow and bottomless turns! In Tahoe students competed in the Futures Tour with our very own Hugh MacMenamin taking the top spot! In addition to the excellent performances at Futures, students skied some insane powder in Tahoe. Coming from Tahoe the snow followed us back to Hood where it just didn’t want to stop snowing! We’ve had some unforgettable powder days this month as well as still being able to get some training days in. As we approach the end of the term we are heavily focused on preparing for nationals. Specifically, we have been supporting students with focusing on their competitive mindset as well as dialing in potential comp runs. In addition to preparing for competitions, students have enjoyed many days as well as some night skiing at Skibowl. What makes skibowl special is that their rope tow paired with one of the most creative parks on Mt. Hood. Students were able to utilize the park at Skibowl to learn new tricks, create edits for social media and get a million laps in a 3-4hr pieces. Looking into this next month we are excited for Nationals and starting to plan and ramp up for a great summer term with all this snow!

-Brian, Topher, and Cameron

SNOWBOARD

Brady Campbell competing in the USASA 2023 National Championships

Hello Snowboard Team Families!

We’ve had another awesome month of riding, training, and traveling to new places. Just like the rest of the west coast, the Pacific Northwest has been getting pounded with snow, bringing some epic pow days at both Meadows and Timberline. The team has been taking full advantage of the new snow, working on a more freeride aspect of snowboarding which has been super fun for everyone. Even with all the snow we were still able to make it in the park for those competing to start getting dialed for their USASA National Championships at Copper Mountain in Colorado. The rest of the squad also spent their time training in the park as well with bigger features becoming smaller with the rising snow level.

Mid March we packed up the vans and made the 14 hour drive to Mammoth, California to ride their world class parks and for a couple of our athletes to compete in a REV tour. Unfortunately, Mammoth also is having a record snow year, burying the course and forcing them to cancel the event. Staying true to our beliefs, we turned that obstacle into an opportunity and shifted focus of the trip to “content creation” and preparation for nationals. It took a lot of hard work by Mammoth’s terrain park staff but by day 3 there were three perfect jumps in the medium park, three jumps in the small park, and loads of features throughout the mountain which made something for everyone. We were blessed with 3 blue bird days which brought some awesome content and some defined goggle tans. Another “mammoth” sized storm was supposed to roll in the night before we left, causing us to make the decision to drive part way back home and stay a night in Reno before continuing the journey back to campus.

We came home to some perfect weather and an amazing park set up at Timberline and Meadows. Timberline built a line of decent sized jumps, allowing the ones that wanted to push their limits the resources to do so. We were able to get a few nice weather days at both resorts before, in typical Oregon fashion, it started dumping snow again bringing some of the deepest pow turns and a whole lot of laughs & smiles ripping around Meadows just before nationals competitors departed for Colorado.

We took 7 riders to Nationals to compete against the top riders in the country while the rest of the squad trained with Elijah, and from what it seems, it still hasn’t stopped snowing! The main focus at this point is getting everyone finished up with their classes and ending the semester strong! We wish you all the best and hope you have heard great things from your kids about how the winter semester has played out.

-Stewart and Brandon

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Joseph Cromwell doing a bar spin during the Tennessee National Competition

We had a good March despite being in the full swing of winter in the PNW. The students that had passes went up on the hill and were able to take advantage of the snow. Those that don’t have passes, we spent time in the gym working out and getting ready for the upcoming trip to Windrock, TN for the Tennessee National.

Our trip to Tennessee is one of our personal favorites and this last trip is high on the list for favorite trip of the semester. We were welcomed with warm weather and clear skies. The team took full advantage of the opportunity we had to ride our bikes. There were trials and tribulations at the beginning of the trip with difficult conditions during the Enduro Race and early injuries on the team. Even though we had a tough start to the trip, the students were able to push through those tough times and we had a lot of success on the trip. During the Freestyle Jam, our students were shining in the crowd of participants during the event. Harper ended up winning best trick during the jam and Barb won for the women’s category. That success was carried over to the downhill race with Harper finishing 3rd in cat2/3 15-18 men with Boden coming in 1st in that category. Etan came in 4th in a stacked junior expert category. We hope to carry this success through the rest of the semester and end on a high note.

-Kevin and Asa

SKATEBOARD

Brazen, Miky, and Tag sharing a laugh during training on campus

Hello Skate Families,

I hope everyone has been enjoying their summers and getting lots of skating in. We had a blast with a very busy summer of skate camp. I’ve been working hard to get skate trips planned out for the upcoming school year. The big trips are looking like San Francisco CA in October, Southern CA in November, and Phoenix AZ in December. Each of these trips we will be meeting with industry heads, visiting schools, doing some sightseeing, and skating a ton of stuff. These locations have so much to offer, our exact itinerary will be based on the students' individual goals. I am looking forward to working with the students to help them develop and achieve their long term and short term goals.

Please feel free to reach out with any questions you might have. We will be having a parents zoom call to discuss the year in more detail and address any questions here soon. I have no doubt that this school year is going to be epic and can not wait to start skating with everyone!

Brian Johnson

Guest UserApril 1, 2023

WY'EAST ACADEMY MARCH 2023 ACADEMY

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

The Snowboard Team visiting Westminster College

Winter has fully arrived with record breaking snow dumping all around the United States. Our ski & snowboard teams hit the road to chase the snow in Utah, Idaho & California while our Mountain Bikers made the most of red rock country in Southern Utah. The skate crew escaped to Southern California & all of the students had the chance to visit universities & action sports brands while keeping up with their sports & academics. Much like the snow, the word is out about the amazing accomplishments of all of the students so new applications have been coming into our admissions department faster than Dan can keep up with. At this point there is more interest than there are beds available so if you are planning to attend the Academy this summer or fall please make sure to get your paperwork in prior to April 1 in order to lock in last year's rate.

Mike Hanley
Head of School

ACADEMICS

February Students of the Month Mike Nilan and Ryan Buttars

Greetings Wy'East Families,

February was a transitional month on the academic front. After two weeks of training, Hannah and Loren took over the classrooms. Midterms were sent out in February, followed by Parent Teacher Conferences. The transition has been so smooth, and we are so grateful for all of the support!

We continue to get more and more college acceptance letters from all over the country and some internationally as well. We are so proud of our seniors and look forward to celebrating them this April.

Yearbooks are available to order now. The yearbooks are hardcover with 68 colored pages. The yearbooks are $36.50 and will be shipped to campus during the last week of school. The deadline to order yearbooks is March 30th. The link to purchase the yearbook is below:
https://www.treering.com/purchase?PassCode=1016450563251701

Lastly, congratulations to our February Students of the Month: Mike Nilan and Ryan Buttars!

Kayla Hokanson
Academic Director

Mike Nilan is an amazing student! He sets the example for his peers with his work ethic, maturity, and great grades. Every day, Mike comes into class with a great attitude and works hard at his studies and is constantly improving his GPA. Additionally, he has been staying ahead in his classes. Mike is able to manage multiple tasks including his leadership role in student government and having exceptional skiing skills. No matter what path he takes after his time at Wy'East Academy, I know he will be successful. Mike has set the bar high for his peers!
-Loren Terry

Ryan Buttars is an excellent nominee for February’s Student of the Month! Buttars is an incredibly diligent and self-directed young man. Buttars arrives early to class each day with a focused plan of action. He is personable and kind, but doesn’t let distractions deter him in the classroom. Occasionally, Buttars makes the choice to work through a break in order to make time for other activities. Despite his relatively young age, Buttars is a leader on campus. He maintains positive composure in stressful situations, and responds to feedback with enthusiasm. Buttars, thank you so much for your example of determination.
-Hannah Eagle

STUDENT LIFE

The students posting up in front of a monster truck

Greetings,

This past month went by even faster than January. The month was filled with competitions, rail jams, weekend activities, snow on campus and working hard in school. On the residential side of things, we started the month of with going to the Oregon Zoo and then grabbing dinner at one of Portland’s oldest family-friendly diners that opened in 1935. The following weekend due to a busy schedule of competitions students had the option to go get manicures and pedicures and I would say the best part was the foot massages. For Super Bowl Sunday the Student Government helped plan a party in the cafe with the new big screen TV that we just got installed. Students helped staff move couches into the cafe and assisted the culinary department in creating a delicious menu for the Super Bowl party. Of most importance the Student Government led by Joseph Medley completed their first fundraising project for getting a cable machine for the gym. I am incredibly proud of the dedication and hard work the Student Government put into this project and we can’t wait for the new cable machine to arrive on campus! Furthermore, the Student Government helped plan a weekend activity where we rented out Common Ground Wellness which is a cooperative healing center with a soaking pool, sauna and cold shower. Looking into this upcoming month we are excited for more trips, night skiing at Skibowl and memorable weekend activities.

Netanya Beard
Dean of Students

CULINARY

Greeting from the Culinary Department,

The month of February has been a good one for the Culinary Department. We have seen all the students to a few students come in and eat in the café this past month. It is good to see everyone come in and enjoy the food that is provided for them. A few things that happened this month are, we hosted a Super Bowl Party for the students to come in and watch the big game on the big screen TV. We have finally got our industrial toaster up and running. Thanks to the hard work of Archer and Jim for taking the time to get the toaster up and running.

On the food side of things, Kellen has done a good job of switching up the dinner menu each night to provide the students with a wide range of entrees. He has made Teriyaki Chicken to Shepard’s Pie for the students, which they have all enjoyed! While Jacob has started to branch out on his own over the weekends. Where he has started to make Chicken Alfredo, to Burritos and other student favorites. While breakfast and lunch have been the usual causal fair of items. One morning, we did Eggs Benedicts for the students, which they all liked.

For the upcoming month, most of the teams will be traveling around the US. So, we will see an influx of students coming to the café for food.

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

FREESKI

Charlie, Charles, and Will getting ready to compete

Greetings Freeski Fam!
Wow what a epic last month for our ski team!

Starting it off with Futures at Woodward Park City where we got to ride a amazing park and compete on a amazing course with blue bird weather all week!

The big mountain competitors went on a week long trip up to Washington to compete in the IFSA Big Mountain Series. First at Steven’s Pass tackling a great venue then off to The Summit at Snowqualmi. We got blessed with fresh snow for both venues which is a rare occasion and the kids had a blast and put down some solid runs on some very intense terrain.

Meanwhile back on Mt Hood the rest of the team enjoyed 24 inches of fresh snow with a temp of 5 degrees which was the coldest driest snow Mt. Hood has seen in a decade. We smashed runs at Meadows for two days and skied till our legs were jello.

Following the endless snow storm the whole team ventured to Tahoe, arriving with epic timing to get a storm that started Sunday and ended Tuesday night with a total of 86 inches of powder! Wednesday was a blue bird day with so much snow it was literally crazy. Half the squad competed in the Futures Tour event at North Star while the other half trained/skied at Squaw Valley. Our second day there it literally snow so much all roads and resorts were closed and we wasted no time building some jumps at our lakeside condo. As the storm cleared and the event had been postponed the entire team enjoyed an 86” deep day at Squaw Valley where we truly skied the deepest snow they had seen there in 10 years. Finishing up that trip we scored a couple podium spots, countless face shots and all left with glowing memories and foggy goggles.

We will back at campus this week training focusing on training harder than we compete as we prepare to depart for Mammoth next week. The team collectively has unmatched comradery making for the ultimate positive learning experience.

-Brian, Topher, & Cameron

SNOWBOARD

Hello Snowboard Team Families!

We’re back for another Newsletter recap of what the team has been up to and I’m happy to say that February was full of awesome progression on-hill, lots of different terrain parks, and plenty of pow! When the team returned from the Midwest trip, we were greeted with a big storm cycle filling in the areas of the resorts that needed it the most and offered up some deep days at both Timberline and Meadows. Between the storms, the team was busy. We had two slopestyle contests at Meadows, and a quick trip down to Mt. Bachelor, followed by two more slopestyle contests before taking off for Idaho and Utah.

On the contest side, all USASA competitors basically swept the podiums putting on a great show of the tricks that they’ve been working on, and dialing in their competitive mindset for when the stakes become higher at bigger events. It’s looking like everyone has qualified for Nationals in slopestyle, though we are waiting to get confirmation once invitations start to go out. We are super proud of the group that pushed themselves into these competitions, and are looking forward to seeing how they do on the big stage at Copper. I’ll be keeping you all in the loop about Nationals once the invites start to be sent out.

Mt. Bachelor was an epic two day trip for everyone to experience a new resort with different features not too far from home. We caught some incredible weather day 1 with blue skies & sunshine met with both fresh pow and a groomed park. Day 2 was a bit more “Oregon like” with the weather but the parks were riding so good.

To wrap up the month, the team loaded up the vans to drive East on HWY 84 to Idaho and then onto Salt Lake City. The main objectives of this trip was to create social content at new places, learn new tricks and get the reps in on larger features, and learn about the colleges of that area for the future. Our first stop was at Bogus Basin to ride some of their park features that became notable in the High Cascade parks in the past. Then we continued onto Salt Lake where we showed up to a massive storm cycle giving the team some of the deepest days with the best snow quality at Brighton Resort. Then the weather switched to sunny, warm and calm for our park days at Woodward Park City where the team crushed it by filming clips and getting in the reps on bigger features. Utah was kind enough to bless us with one final deep pow day at Brighton before loading back up and driving West to campus.

All and all, February was a big success for the team, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone is pushing themselves to ride harder, faster, and with more confidence. We’re gearing up for our next team trip down to Lake Tahoe and Mammoth--so there’s a big academic push for all the kids to get ahead and be prepared for another 8 days on the road. California has been having a record snow year, so things should be good! As always, thank you for your support this season, and we wish you all the best.

-Brandon & Stew

MOUNTAIN BIKE

Superman, AKA, Aiden Parish in Virgin, UT

We had an amazing February! Our time on campus for the first two weeks gave us warmer weather with little to no rain allowing us to make the most of our training time prior to our trip to Utah. There were a lot of airbag sessions and a lot of time spent in the backyard, building on skills and dialing in tricks. We continued with our workouts in the gym, adding the strength needed to remain healthy and stronger riders. The clear skies allowed us to get back to our scheduled shuttle days which was nice to get back on that program.

The second half of February took us to the Freeride wonderland that is Virgin, Utah. It feels like every time we go to Utah, the current trip out shines the previous one and the same goes for this one. Despite the weather that we had to deal with, the crew made the most out of their trip, getting in plenty of riding and pushing their limits. This trip allowed the students, the future talent of the sport, to spend time with professional riders, the current talent in the sport. It was awesome to see the students be able to mix it up with the pros and learn from them while they were on the trip.

We are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the semester holds for the team!

-Kevin & Asa

SKATEBOARD

Hi Families,

February has been an eventful month for the skate program. We have had a mix of nice sunny weather and blankets of snow. On the nice days we took full advantage of skating the jungle and features scattered all over campus. We hosted the second event of the Seek Contest series on the 12th. This event was a game of S.K.A.T.E. on new curbs in Bob. Tag took 2nd place in the event and is in 1st place in points for the series. The next event will be a Jam in Bob on March 12th.

Our trip to Southern California was a success despite getting hit with some heavy rain and snow warnings. It was very cool to be in downtown LA and see the San Gabriel Mountains in the background covered in snow. We took advantage of the dry days skating and checking out spots from Glendale to San Diego. The students put in a lot of work every time we got out of the car to get the most out of the time we had. On rainy days we visited UCSD and SDSU campus. We also got a tour of Seager clothing, talking to them about what it takes to start a clothing company and grow it from garage to multilevel office/warehouse in San Clemente. We spent about 3 hours at the Palace store in West Hollywood seeing what life is like working in a high end boutique skate shop. Palace started in London in 2009 and is considered the top of the top in high end fashion that originated in skateboarding. Needless to say, it was a very cool experience.

Looking forward to March being another eventful month!

-Brian Johnson

CABLE MACHINE ADDITION

I would like to commend the student government, especially Joseph Medley with fundraising to get the academy a new Cable Machine for our gym. These guys requested something, I got back to them with 8 bullet points of what would need to happen for this to be considered and they delivered it in our next meeting together. From there they lined everything up and made it easy for us to continue to say yes. They set a vision around something they believed in and then did what is necessary to get it done. Thank you guys for this, it’s going to be such a great addition to making this facility even more world class!

Elijah Teter
Athletic Director

Guest UserMarch 1, 2023

WY'EAST ACADEMY FEBRUARY 2023 NEWSLETTER

Students hiking Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge

A LETTER FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Mountain Bike team visiting YT Industries

Another year has come & gone with a new year passing to bring us into 2023. Once again, we have had another record-breaking arrival day for our largest student body in the history of Wy'East Academy. All of our programs have been making the most of the new year hitting the road & taking advantage of the sunshine in Oregon. Everyone has managed to get some time up on the mountain to enjoy all of our snow matched by the green grass back on campus. Competition results have been flooding in from the mountain bikers as well as the ski & snowboard programs. Everyone has been staying busy hitting the road to California, Nevada, Vermont, Canada, Italy, Utah & Colorado to get shots & stack up podiums in addition to our local USASA Mount Hood Series. 13 of our 15 seniors have now been accepted to four year universities with our final two waiting to hear back any day now. Even our senior leadership team get the chance to hit the road to attend a conference focused on development working with the Murdock Trust so it has been a period of growth on many different levels. Our PTO has continued to raise the bar of expectations proving to be invaluable advocates for the Academy & we cannot thank them enough for all of their help through good times as well as those that challenge us to improve. If you have not attended a PTO meeting, we are always looking for more voices at the table in addition to our weekly "Coffee with Hanley" every Tuesday at 11:15am. Thank you very much for your continued support & input.

Mike Hanley
Head of School

ACADEMICS

The students of the month for January: Will Baker and Ole Hubbard

Greetings Wy'East Families,

January has been a busy month on the academic front! We appreciate all the support as we make the teacher transition. I'm so grateful for the way Hannah and Peter helped improve lives at Wy'East--they will be missed. I'm also so excited to welcome our new teachers Hannah Eagle and Loren Terry. Students will remain in their current classroom settings, and we plan to make a seamless transition. Thank you again for all of your support! Meet the new teachers during the Parent Teacher Virtual Conferences on February 23rd & 24th. Look out for sign up link in the progress report this week. Midterm Report Cards will be sent out on February 22nd.

Parents of seniors, please send me baby pictures, portraits, action shots, and a congratulatory paragraph for your students if you have not done so already. Those are due for the yearbook by February 28th. Yearbooks will be shipped to the school during the last week of school. The yearbook is hardcover, 68 colored pages, and $36.50. The last day to purchase the yearbook is March 31st. Here is the link to purchase the yearbook: https://www.treering.com/purchase?PassCode=1016450563251701

Graduation is also right around the corner. Everyone is invited to Graduation on April 27th. Each senior gets two complimentary tickets, all other tickets are $20 each. The luncheon and dinner is provided. Please reach out if you did not receive the itinerary pdf. Please RSVP using this form by March 1st.

Lastly please reach out if your student will be taking the SAT on campus, March 1st. It's also not too late to sign up for the SAT on March 11th. The late registration deadline is February 28th. Please select the Parkrose Sr High School when registering. Contact me if you have any questions.

Congratulations to our January Students of the Month: Will Baker and Ole Hubbard!

Kayla Hokanson
Academic Director

I have chosen Will Baker for January student of the month. Will has aimed for nothing less than perfection since day one of this semester--he has been striving to get a stellar 100% in each class. So far, his efforts have earned him an amazing 4.12 GPA, all while working ahead of pace in his classes. Will has been proactive about asking for help and tackles missed questions right away so that the content is still fresh in his brain-- an awesome strategy. Will is one of the first students to arrive to class each day and always has a positive attitude that keeps classroom vibes high. Keep up the inspiring work, Will!
-Hannah Green

For January, my student of choice has got to be Ole. Based on his productivity and grades, it would be almost impossible to tell that this was his first month here. Ole has a fantastic work ethic, and was able to transition to our system swiftly and efficiently. Right from the beginning Ole was turning in stellar work, and that's been the norm from him since then. That is why I am awarding him with Student of the Month for January.
-Peter Ellis

STUDENT LIFE

Greetings,

With the first month of winter term in the books we can’t begin to say how stoked we are on how things are going. We currently have the most students on campus that we have ever had. During the week students have been busy with athletics, school, cabin cleaning, spending the evenings in BOB, hitting the gym, polar plunging in the backyard, dry sloping, and once a week we have also been taking them night skiing. Night skiing at SkiBowl is a fan favorite among the students. In addition, Student Government has been meeting once a week and working closely with administrative staff to create the best campus experience for every student. Most notably, Student Government has been fundraising for a new cable machine in the gym. Furthermore, Student Government has been collaborating with staff on planning weekend activities. We started off the first weekend of winter term going to Top Golf and the students had a blast. The next weekend we went and explored some waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge as well as going and checking out McMinville Waterpark. The students' favorite waterslide was the toilet bowl slide. The following weekend students had the option to go see Avatar in 3D or go to the Oregon Zoo. Even though Avatar 2 was over three hours long, students enjoyed the movie and can’t wait for Avatar 3 to come out! This last weekend on Saturday we took the students to Portland for the day where we hit up the local skate shops, food carts and some thrift stores. We had a relaxing day on Sunday where students had the option to go into town for manicures and pedicures. This past month has been a blur and we are looking forward to the rest of the term!

Netanya Beard
Dean of Students

culinary

Greetings All,

Hopefully everyone had a great New Year and the first month of 2023 has treated you guys well!

For the Culinary Department, it has been good for us!

First, we have upgraded all our plate wares from plastic to ceramic. This is a start to help elevate the experience in the cafe. We are in the process of getting our toaster up and running in the next few weeks.

Overall, the month of January was mellow for us, with teams traveling. Though, we did bring our “A” game this first month with the food that we provided. The students are been liking Kellen’s dinners at night. Along with the desserts that he has been whipping up! For lunch, the students have been hitting the hot food items that we have been providing. A good example is we served some “Old School” Open Face Beef Sandwiches, mashed potatoes and gravy. As well as, students favorites chicken tenders and fish sticks. And for breakfast, we have been doing the normal options with other treats like Biscuits and Gravy! The oatmeal with cinnamon apples have been a hit as well.

This coming month, we will be providing Teriyaki Chicken and Stir Fry Vegetables, Burritos, BBQ night and a Korean Night. To name a few menu options. As well as getting our house made muffins and cinnamon rolls out in the morning time. With a few other items up our sleeves!

That is it for now and Thank You All!!

Travis Gibson
Culinary Director

freeski

Hugh, Luka, and Anders getting ready to drop in for their runs at the Calgary Nor-Am Slopestyle

Greeting Freeski Families,

Where has January gone! We have been grinding both figuratively and literally out here in Oregon making the most of all the Volcano has to offer. With 7 new students joining us for the second semester the energy on the team is at an alltime high! With Timberline and Mt Hood Meadows both offering up good training venues for the squad. We have had the pleasure of having both Head of School, Mike Hanley and Athletic Director, Elijah Teter jumping in and helping us out on the hill. Both bring insane coaching experience to the table and it has been awesome watching them pass their knowledge down to the team. We have seen a lot of progression so far and a lot of “firsts'' have gone down. We really look forward to keeping this train moving and bringing that energy into the months to come! Although some travel has been going on for contests, most of the team travel will be in March and April, so we are looking forward to getting everyone on the road and exploring some of the resorts the west coast has to offer!

-Toph, Cam & Breeze

snowboard

Hello Snowboard Families!

What an awesome start to the winter semester we’ve had! The snowboard team just returned from our Midwest rope tow trip, swept another local USASA contest and are planning for our trip to Utah coming up in the near future.

Our Midwest trip was jam packed with 6 days of riding at 5 different “mountains” (hills) and got a total of 10 sessions. We started day 1 with a small session at Wild Mountain where kids were able to get comfortable on the snow as well as riding the rope, to ease into what the week was going to look like. We then cruised over one of the most popular rope tow parks, Trollhaugen, where kids were able to find some airtime and be around the Midwest culture that seems to produce some of the best snowboarders in the country.

The next two days took place at Buck Hill where we met their marketing coordinator to trade social media content for tickets! The team got to get a glimpse at what most professional snowboarders do when traveling to new resorts and get complimentary tickets. With 3 different ropes, 3 different park setups, a half pipe, and a full slopestyle course that some of the crew was competing on the next day, there was something for everyone. That Saturday was the USASA contest and I will say, Brando and I enjoyed watching the kids compete and push themselves against kids who live on the ropes of the Midwest. As well as comparing who had more ice on their eyelashes at any time during the contest.

Sunday we decided to have half a rest day, starting the day checking out Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) where they let us check out their main gallery where students and professors displayed some of their biggest projects and studies from over the years. From there we went to the University of Minnesota, toured around the campus and got to experience walking over the Mississippi River. The temperature may have been in the single digits and the kids were itching to get back in the van, but we were able to find a museum on the way back where we checked out more art and were able to warm up before making the final trek back to the van. Later that day we were able to squeeze in another rope session at Elm Creek; another resort with 3 ropes and 3 parks built on a 80 vertical feet hill that actually ended up being a favorite for a couple kids on the team. The amount of laps and repetition of tricks you can get at these places is unmatched!

The rest of the week we got two sessions at Hyland Hills, which had more rails and jumps set up than the rest of the mountains combined, made a trip back to Wild and Troll in Wisconsin, and also made a trip back to Elm Creek to finish off the trip. Our focus over the week was getting clips of each other, making edits, and learning how to market oneself and promote the academy with the use of social media. So I hope you at least saw a video or two of your kid ripping in the Midwest!

The snowboard team is preparing for a trip to Utah where we’ll get to check out a couple of the most popular snowboard schools in the west, the University of Utah and Westminster College. We’ll also get to experience working with the park crew at Woodward Park City, and riding one of the most popular resorts in the snowboard scene, Brighton. Until then, training at Meadows and Timberline, and getting caught up in the classroom is the main focus! Can't wait to see what the team brings in the month of February!

-Stewart & Brando

mountain bike

We had a good start to the semester with our trip to San Clemente and Bootleg Canyon. After a long and grueling drive down to San Clemente from Wy’East Academy, we were welcomed with the California sunshine. The students had the option of going to the skatepark in San Clemente or go surfing at T-Street in San Clemente. After the skatepark, the students joined the crew on the beach and created some amazing Slopestyle courses out of the sand and worked on their parkour skills. In true fashion, we managed to bring the rain with us to southern California and made the most out of those rainy days by visiting UC Irvine and shuttling in San Diego. There was a good mix of rain and sunshine during this trip and on our sunny days we made sure to take full advantage of that with shuttling in Laguna, riding Clairemont skatepark in San Diego, with the highlights of visiting YT and riding with Dylan Stark.

A big thanks to Asa for putting together our tour with YT and giving the students the opportunity to ride with Dylan Stark at his trails in Lake Elsinore. Dylan is one of the most creative riders in the mountain bike world and a good role model for the students to look up to as he puts in so much effort to building trails, riding as much as possible and maintaining a good relationship with his community and the future generations of the sport. Asa was able to get Harper and Aiden on the same program that he is on with YT, where they are going to receive a loaner bike for the year. This is a great opportunity for those two to build a relationship with the brand with the hopes of leading to a future sponsorship. Lastly, we at Wy’East Academy now have a partnership with YT Industries where the students that attend can get 20% off all bikes in the YT lineup.

Our second leg of the journey brought us to Bootleg Canyon in Nevada for the Southwest Regional Championship. On this trip, Asa and Barb took the students to Anthem Skatepark in Las Vegas, we shuttled Bootleg Canyon the day before the event began, and the students who didn’t race had a skatepark/street day in Boulder City, NV. We had a great time at Bootleg and were able to come away with some medals from the racing with Curran- 2nd in dual slalom, Rodrigo- 2nd in Cat 3 15-18 men, and Etan- 2nd in Cat 1 17-18 men.

While on campus we have been blessed with little to no rain, allowing us to spend time in the backyard riding the trails and airbag. During this time we have also continued our workouts in the gym and on the spin bikes to maintain and increase the levels of fitness for the students. Elijah has also been taking the students that want to go snowboarding up on the hill in the morning. Since being on campus we have had a healthy mix of activities that has kept morale high and the students stoked.

-Kevin Simpers and Asa McGill-Howe

skateboard

Hi Families,

January has been a great month for us up on campus! It has been cold but fairly dry so we have been able to skate the jungle and get off campus a lot. Getting off campus we have been able to spend a few days doing double athletics, going to Portland and Eugene. Everyone is pretty excited to snowboard right now as well so we are trying to go up on hill once a week for some cross training. In the gym we have been spending a lot of time working on stretching (pre and post skating) and ankle/core strengthening. The first Seek Game of S.K.A.T.E. on flatground was won by our very own Miky! Miky beat out Tag in the finals to take the win and the cash! Looking forward to heading down to Southern California with the students here soon in February for some warm sunny weather, college tours, and lots of skating!

-Brian Johnson

time to say goodbye

Hannah Green and Peter Ellis’ last day is February 10th.

As my time at Wy'East comes to a close, I wanted to express my deepest appreciation to all of the staff, parents, and most of all, students who have made my time here so special and memorable. I knew from my first day on campus, even before I met the students, that I was about to meet a special group of young adults, and yet they still managed to surpass my expectations in so many ways. Each one of them has inspired me and made me laugh, and taught me so much in a short period of time. In all my time working with youth, I don't think I've ever met a group of young people so driven and passionate about their interests who are also so humble, kind, and joyful.

I had the privilege of watching Ski and Snowboard's USASA competition at Meadows this weekend, and seeing them practice their sport in person for the first time, it truly hit home how much these students accomplish in their daily lives. To not only go through the daily rigors of high school but at the same time pursue their passion with full force is incredible, and I'll be inspired by their joie-de-vivre for long after my time here is done. I'll miss the students greatly, but hope to stay in touch and hear about their many accomplishments to come. Thank you all again for helping to shape such wonderful young adults, and for all the support during my time at Wy'East. Enjoy the rest of the Winter Term!

-Hannah Green

I have met a lot of interesting and amazing staff members while working at Wy'East. From Olympic level coaches, to phenomenal photographers, to incredible chefs; everyone at Wy'East has an interesting back story. Having such a diverse group of people is a great way to help support these students to follow whatever interests they might be leaning towards. I will definitely miss that diversity on campus as I move into the next stage of my life, and the lessons I learned from them will stay with me.

The students at Wy'East have definitely been the highlight of my time at Wy'East. They are hard working, determined, resourceful, and on top of that they are really really funny. There was never a dull day while in the classroom, and the students definitely kept me on my toes. I don't think I have been in a classroom with as much energy and humor as I have her at Wy'East, and that liveliness is what I will miss most. So thank you all for the intriguing conversations, continue to pursue the things that interest you, and I hope to see you at the skatepark someday.

-Peter Ellis

now introducing our new teachers

My name is Hannah Eagle, and I arrived at Wy'East by way of Salt Lake City, Utah, where I taught sixth grade in the general education classroom for the last four years. Prior to classroom teaching, I taught in an outdoor education program in the Tetons, and am excited to work with outdoor athletes at Wy'East. I have a BA of Humanities with an emphasis in English Literature and Outdoor Leadership from BYU-I and am currently pursuing a Masters of Education with an emphasis in English Pedagogy from WGU. During my free time, I enjoy rock climbing, fly fishing, and skiing with my dog Baldwin.
-Hannah Eagle

Hello! My name is Loren Terry. I am originally from Mason, OH--just 30 minutes north of Cincinnati. I finished high-school in 2013 and went on to study Political Science at the University of Cincinnati. I received my Bachelors in 2017. I grew up snowboarding and instructing at Perfect North Slopes, Indiana. After college, I moved abroad to be an English Teacher. I taught English in Uttaradit, Thailand and in Harbin, China. After returning to the states, I worked in Manhattan, NY for the International Rescue Committee’s Refugee Youth Summer Academy. Here I helped students with their English, transitioning to an American lifestyle, and taught American sports. After this, I spent 4 years serving as a Lieutenant in the Marines where I spent most of my time in Okinawa, Japan. I had the privileges of leading and training Marines and then helping them transition out of the military and apply for colleges or look for jobs. Health & fitness is another one of my passions. I received a Master’s of Science in Sports and Health Sciences in 2022 and became a certified personal trainer and nutritionist. I am very thankful to have the opportunity to be a teacher at Wy’East Academy and I am looking forward to getting to know everyone!
-Loren Terry

Guest UserFebruary 1, 2023